An apologie of the povver and prouidence of God in the gouernment of the world. Or An examination and censure of the common errour touching natures perpetuall and vniuersall decay diuided into foure bookes: whereof the first treates of this pretended decay in generall, together with some preparatiues thereunto. The second of the pretended decay of the heauens and elements, together with that of the elementary bodies, man only excepted. The third of the pretended decay of mankinde in regard of age and duration, of strength and stature, of arts and wits. The fourth of this pretended decay in matter of manners, together with a large proofe of the future consummation of the world from the testimony of the gentiles, and the vses which we are to draw from the consideration thereof. By G.H. D.D.

LIB. II. Of the pretended decay of the Heauens and Elements, and Elementary Bo∣dies, Man onely ex∣cepted. (Book 2)

CAP. 1. Touching the pretended decay of the Heauenly Bodies.

SECT. 1. First of their working vpon this inferiour World.

SUch and so great is the wisdome, the bounty, and the power which Almighty God hath expressed in the frame of the Heauens, that the Psalmist might justly say, The Heauens de∣clare the glory of God; the Sun, & the Moone, & the Stars ser∣ving * 1.1 as so many silver & golden Characters, embroidered vpon azure for the daylie preaching and publishing thereof to the World. And surely if he haue made the floore of this great House of the World so beautifull, and garnished it with such wonderfull variety of beasts, of trees, of hearbes, of flowres, we neede wonder the lesse at the magnificence of the roofe, which is the highest part of the World, and the neerest to the Mansion House of Saints and Angels. Now as the ex∣cellencie of these Bodies appeares in their situation, their matter, their magnitudes, and their Sphericall or Circular figure: so specially in their great vse and efficacy, not onely that they are for signes and seasons, and for dayes & yeares, but in that by their motion, their light, their warmth, & * 1.2 influence, they guide and gouerne, nay cherish and maintaine, nay breed & beget these inferiour bodies, euen of man himselfe, for whose sake the Heauens were made. It is truly said by the Prince of Philosophers, Sol & homo generant hominem, the Sunne and man beget man, man concur∣ring in the generation of man as an immediate, and the Sunne as a remote cause. And in another place he doubts not to affirme of this inferiour World in generall, Necesse est mundum inferiorem superioribus lationibus continuari, ut omnis inde virtus derivetur: it is requisite, that these in∣feriour parts of the World should bee conjoyned to the motions of the higher Bodies, that so all their vertue and vigour from thence might be derived. There is no question but that the Heauens haue a marvailous great stroake vpon the aire, the water, the earth, the plants, the mettalls, the beasts, nay vpon Man himselfe, at leastwise in regard of his body and na∣turall faculties: so that if there can be found any decay in the Heauens, it will in the course of Nature, and discourse of reason consequently follow, that there must of necessity ensue a decay in all those which depend v∣pon the Heauens: as likewise on the other side, if there be found no decay

in the Heauens, the presumption will be strong, that there is no such decay (as is supposed) in these Subcaelestiall Bodies, because of the great sympa∣thy and correspondence which is knowne to be betweene them by ma∣ny and notable experiments. For to let passe the quailing and withering of all things, by the recesse and their reviving and resurrection (as it were) by the reaccesse, of the Sunne; I am of opinion, that the sap in trees so precisely followes the motion of the Sunne, that it neuer rests, but is in continuall agitation as the Sun it selfe: which no sooner arriues at the Tropick, but he instantly returnes, and euen at that very instant (as I con∣ceiue, and I thinke it may be demonstrated by experimentall conclusi∣ons) the sappe which by degrees descended with the declination of the Sun, begins to remount at the approach thereof by the same steps that it descended: and as the approach of the Sunne, is scarce sensible at his first returne, but afterward the day increases more in one weeke, then before in two, in like manner also fares it with the sap in plants, which at first ascends insensibly and slowly, but within a while much more swiftly and apparantly. It is certaine, that the Tulypp, Marigold, and Sun-flowre open with the rising, and shut with the setting of the Sunne; So that though the Sunne appeare not, a man may more infallibly know when it is high noone by their full spreading, then by the Index of a Clock or Watch. The hop in its growing winding it selfe about the pole, alwayes followes the course of the Sunne from East to West, and can by no meanes bee drawne to the contrary, choosing rather to breake then yeeld.

It is obserued by those that sayle betweene the Tropicks, that there is a constant set winde, blowing from the East to the West, saylers call it the Breeze, which rises and falls with the Sunne, and is alwayes highest at noone, and is commonly so strong, partly by its owne blowing, and partly by ouer-ruling the Currant, that they who saile to Peru, cannot well returne home the same way they came forth. And generally, Mar∣riners obserue, that caeter is paribus they sayle with more speed from the East to the West, then backe againe from the West to the East, in the same compasse of time. All which should argue a wheeling about of the aire, and waters by the diurnall motion of the Heauens, and specially by the motion of the Sunne. Whereunto may be added, that the high Seasprings of the yeare are alwayes neere about the two Aequinoctials and Solsti∣ces, and the Cock as a trusty Watchman, both at midnight and breake of day giues notice of the Sunnes approach.

These be the strange and secret effects of the Sunne, vpon the inferi∣our Bodies, whence by the Gentiles hee was held the visible God of the World, and tearmed the Eye thereof, which alone saw all things in the World, and by which the World saw all things in it selfe.

Omma qui videt, & per quem videt omnia mundus.

And most notablely is he described by the Psalmist, in them hath he set a * 1.3 Tabernacle for the Sun, which is as a bridegroome comming out of his chamber, & rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the Heauen, and his circuite vnto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

Now as the effects of the Sun, the head-spring of light and warmth,

are vpon these inferiour Bodies more actiue: so those of the Moone, (as being Vltima coelo, Citima terris, neerer the Earth, and hol∣ding a greater resemblance therewith) are no lesse manifest. And there∣fore the husbandman in sowing & setting, graffing and planting, lopping of trees, & felling of timber, and the like, vpon good reason obserues the waxing & waning of the Moone. which the learned Zanchius well allows of, commending Hesiod for his rules therein. Quod Hesiodus ex Lune de∣crementis * 1.4 & incrementis totius agricolationis signa notet, quis improbet? who can mislike it; that Hesiod sets downe the signes, in the whole course of husbandry, from the waxing and waning of the Moone? The tydes and ebbes of the Sea follow the course of it, so exactly, as the Sea-man will tell you the age of the Moone onely vpon the sight of the tide, as cer∣tainly, as if he saw it in the water. It is the observation of Aristotle & of Pliny out of him, that oysters, and mussels, and cockles. and lobsters, & * 1.5 crabbs, and generally all shell-fish grow fuller in the waxing of the Moon, but emptier in the waning thereof. Such a strong predominancie it hath euen vpon the braine of Man, that Lunatikes borrow their very name from it, as also doth the stone Selenites, whose property, as S. Augustine and Georgius Agricola record it, is to increase and decrease in light * 1.6 with the Moone, carrying alwayes the resemblance thereof in it selfe. Neither can it reasonably be imagined that the other Planets, and starrs, and parts of Heauen, are without their forcible operations, vpon these lower Bodies, specially considering that the very plants and hearbes of the Earth, which we tread vpon, haue their seueral vertues, as well single by themselues, as in composition with other ingredients. The Physitian in opening a veine, hath euer an eye to the signe then raigning. The Cani∣cular star specially in those hotter Climates, was by the Ancients al∣wayes held a dangerous enemy to the practise of Physick, and all kind of Evacuations. Nay Galen himselfe, the Oracle of that profession, advi∣seth * 1.7 practitioners in that Art, in all their Cures to haue a speciall regard to the reigning Constellations & Coniunctions of the Planets. But the most admirable mystery of Nature, in my mind, is the turning of yron touched with the loadstone, toward the North-pole, of which I shall haue farther occasion to intreate, more largely in the Chapter touching the Compa∣rison of the wits & inventions of these times with those of former ages. Neither were it hard to add much more, to that which hath beene said, to shew the dependance of these Elementary Bodies vpon the heauenly. Almighty God hauing ordained, that the higher should serue as interme∣diate Agents, or secondary Causes, betweene himselfe and the lower: And as they are linked together in a chaine of order, so are they likewise chai∣ned together in the order of Causes, but so as in the wheeles of a Clocke, though the failing in the superior, cannot but cause a failing in the inferi∣our, yet the failing of the inferiour, may well argue though it cannot cause a failing in the superiour. We haue great reason then, as I conceiue, to begin with the Examination of the state of Coelestiall bodies, in as much as vpon it the conditionof the subcoelestiall wholly de-pends. Wherein fiue things offer themselues to our consideration, Their substance, their motion, their light, their warmth, and their influence.

SECT. 2. Touching the pretended decay in the substance of the Heavens.

TO finde out whether the substance of the heavenly bodies bee de∣cayed or no, it will not be amisse a little to inquire into the nature of the matter and forme, of which that substance consists, that so it may appeare whether or no in a naturall course they be capable of such a supposed decay. That the Heavens are endued with some kinde of matter, (though some Philosophers in their jangling humour, haue made a doubt of it,) yet I thinke no sober and wise Christian will deny it: But whether the matter of it, bee the same with that of these inferi∣our bodies, adhuc sub Iudice lis est; it hath beene, and still is a great que∣stion among Diuines. The ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Primi∣tiue Church, for the most part, following, Plato, hold that it agrees with the matter of the Elementary bodies, yet so as it is compounded of the finest flower, and choisest delicacy of the Elements: But the Schoole∣men on the other side, following Aristotle, adhere to his Quintessence, and by no meanes, will bee beaten from it, since, say they, if the Ele∣ments * 1.8 and the heauens should agree in the same matter, it should con∣sequently follow, that there should bee a mutuall traffique and com∣merce, a reciprocall action, and passion betweene them, which would soone draw on a change, and by degrees, a ruine vpon those glorious bodies. Now though this point will neuer (I thinke) bee fully and fi∣nally determined, till wee come to be Inhabitants of that place, where∣of wee dispute, (for hardly doe wee guesse aright at things that are vpon earth, and with labour doe wee find the things that are at hand, but the things * 1.9 which are in heaven, who hath searched out?) Yet for the present, I should state it thus, that they agree in the same originall mater, and surely Mo∣ses, mee thinkes, seemes to favour this opinion, making but one matter, (as farre as I can gather from the text) out of which all bodily substances were created.

Vnus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe.

So as the heavens, though they bee not compounded of the Elements, * 1.10 yet are they made of the same matter, that the Elements are compoun∣ded of. They are not subject to the qualities of heat, or cold, or drought, or moisture, nor yet to weight, or lightnes, which arise from those qua∣lities, but haue a forme giuen them, which differeth from the formes of all corruptible bodies, so as it suffereth not, nor can it suffer from any of them, being so excellent and perfect in it selfe, as it wholy satiateth the appetite of the matter it informeth. The Coelestiall bodies then, meet∣ing with so noble a forme to actuate them are not, nor cannot, in the course of nature, bee lyable, to any generation or corruption, in regard of their substance, to any augmentation or diminution in regard of their quan∣tity, no nor to any destructiue alteration in respect of their qualities.

I am not ignorant that the controversies, touching this forme what it should bee, is no lesse then that touching the matter; Some holding it to bee a liuing and quickning spirit, nay a sensitiue and reasonable soule,

which opinion is stiffely maintained by many great & learned Clarks, both Iewes, and Gentiles, & Christians, supposing it vnreasonable that the heavens which impart life to other bodies, should themselues bee de∣stitute of life: But this errour is notablely discovered and confuted by Claudius Espencaeus, a famous Doctor of the Sorbone, in a Treatise which hee purposely composed on this point; In as much as what is denied * 1.11 those bodies in life, in sense, in reason, is abundantly supplied in their constant & vnchangeable duration, arising from that inviolable knot, & indissoluble marriage, betwixt the matter & the forme, which can never suffer any divorce, but from that hand which first joyned them. And howbeit it cannot be denied, that not only the reasonable soule of man, but the sensitiue of the least gnat that flies in the aire, and the Vegetatiue of the basest plant that springs out of the earth, are (in that they are in∣dued with life) more divine and neerer approaching to the fountaine of life, then the formes of the heavenly bodies; yet as the Apostle spea∣king of Faith, Hope, and Charity, concludes Charity to bee the greatest; (though by faith wee apprehend and apply the merits of Christ) because it is more vniversall in operation, and lasting in duration; so though the formes of the Creatures endued with life doe in that regard, come a step neerer to the Deity, then the formes of the heavenly bodies, which are without life, yet if wee regard their purity, their beauty, their efficacy, their indeficiencie in moving, their Vniversallity and independencie in working, there is no question, but the heavens may in that respect bee preferred, euen before man himselfe, for whose sake they were made; Man being indeed immortall in regard of his soule, but the heavens in regard of their bodies, as being made of an incorruptible stuffe.

Which cannot well stand with their opinion, who held them to bee composed of fire, or that the waters which in the first of Genesis, are said to bee aboue the firmament, and in the hundred fortie eight Psalme, aboue the heavens, are aboue the heavens wee now treate of, for the tempering and qualifying of their heat, as did S. Ambrose, and S. Augustine, and * 1.12 many others, venerable for their antiquity, learning, and piety. Touching the former of which opinions, wee shall haue fitter oportunity to dis∣cusse it at large, when we come to treate of the warmth caused by the heavens. But touching the second, it seemes to haue beene grounded vpon a mistake of the word Firmament, which by the Ancients, was commonly appropriated to the eight sphere, in which are seated the fixed starres, whereas the originall Hebrew (which properly signifies Extention, or Expansion) is in the first of Genesis, not onely applied to the spheres in which the Sunne and Moone are planted, but to the lowest re∣gion of the aire, in which the birds flie, and so doe I with Pareus & Pe∣rerius * 1.13 take it to bee vnderstood in this controversie. This region of the aire being, as S. Augustine somewhere speakes, Terminus intransgres∣sibilis, a firme and immoveable wall of separation betwixt the waters that are bred in the bowels of the earth, and those of the Cloudes: and for the word heaven, which is vsed in the hundred forty and eight Psalme, it is likewise applyed to the middle region of the aire by the Pro∣phet Ieremy, which may serue for a Glosse vpon that text, alleaged out * 1.14

of the Psalme. When hee vttereth his voice, there is a noise of waters in the hea∣vens, and hee causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth.

Now the Schoolemen finding that the placing of waters aboue the starry heavens, was both vnnaturall and vnvsefull, and yet being not well acquainted with the propriety of the Hebrew word, to salue the matter, tell vs of a Christalline or glassie heaven, aboue the eight sphere, which, say they, is vndoubtedly the waters aboue the firmament mentio∣ned by Moses; which exposition of theirs, though it doe not inferre a decay in the heavenly bodies, yet doth it crosse the course of Moses his historicall narration, his purpose being, as it seemes, only to write the history of things which were visible and sensible, as appeares in part by his omitting the Creation of Angells, whereas the Christalline heaven they speake of, is not only invisible and insensible, but was not at all discouered to be, till the dayes of Hipparchus or Ptolomy. Since then the heavens in regard of their substance, are altogether free (for any thing yet appeares,) from any mixture or tincture of the Elements, being made of an incorruptible and inalterable quintessence, which neither hath any conflict in it selfe, nor with any other thing without it, from thence may wee safely collect that it neither is, nor can be subiect to any such decay as is imagined.

SECT. 3. An objection drawne from Iob, answered.

HOwbeit the deserved curse of God, deprived the earth of her fer∣tility, in bringing forth without the sweat of Adam, and his of∣spring, yet I finde not that it stretched to the Starres, or that a∣ny thing aboue the Moone was altered or changed, in respect of Adams fault, from their first perfection. True indeed it is which Eliphaz teach∣eth, * 1.15 that the heavens, & Bildad, that the starres are not cleane in Gods sight: it may bee, because of the fall of Angels, the inhabitants of heaven, whom therefore he charged with folly: Which exposition, Iunius so farre favours, as insteed of Coelum, hee puts Coelites, into the very body of the * 1.16 text: But in my judgement it would better haue sorted with the Mar∣gin, in as much as by Coelites, wee may vnderstand either Saints or An∣gells, both Citizens of heaven, either in actuall possession, or in certaine hope and expectation; in possession, as Angels and Saints departed, in expectation, as the Saints heere in warfaire on the earth: And of these doth Gregory in his Moralls on Iob, expound the place, hoc coelorum no∣mine repetijt quod Sanctorum prius appellatione signavit, saith hee: Iob re∣peates * 1.17 that by the name of heaven, which before hee expressed vnder the name of Saints. And thus both hee and S. Augustine expound that of the nineteene Psalme, The heavens declare the glory of God. And with them most of the Ancients, that petition of the Lords Prayer, Thy will bee done on earth as it is in heaven. But what neede wee flie to allegories, & figuratiue senses, when the letter of the text will well enough stand with the analogie of faith, the texts of other Scriptures, and the rule of sound reason. The very materiall heavens then, may not vntruly or vnproperly

bee said, to bee vncleane in Gods sight. First, Quia habent aliquid potenti∣alitatis admixtum, as Lyra speakes, they haue some kinde of potentia∣lity, (I know not how otherwise to render his word) mixed with them, hee meanes in regard of their motion, and the illumination of the moone and starres from the Sunne. But chiefely, as I take it, they are said to be vncleane, not considered in themselues, but in comparison of the Creator, who is Actus purissimus & simplicissimus; all Act, and that most pure, not only from staine and pollution, but all kinde of impotency, imperfe∣ction, or Composition whatsoever, And in this sense the very blessed & glorious Angels themselues, which are of a substance farre purer then the Sunne it selfe, may bee said to be vncleane in his sight, in which re∣gard the very Seraphins are said, to couer their faces and feete with their * 1.18 winges. But to grant that the heavens are become vncleane, either by the fall of man or Angells, yet doth it not follow (as I conceiue) that this vncleannes doth daily increase vpon them, or which is in trueth the point in controversie, that they feele any impairing by reason of this vn∣cleannes, it being rather imputatiue, as I may earne it, then reall and in∣herent. Nonne vides coelum hoc, saith Chrysostome, vt pulchrum, vt ingens, vt astrorum choreis varium, quantum temporis viguit, quin{que} aut plus anno∣rum * 1.19 millia processerunt, & haec annorum multitudo ei non adduxit senium; Sed vt corpus novum ac vegetum floridae virentis{que} juventae viget aetate: Sic coelum, quam habuit à principio pulchrit•…•…dinem semper eadem permansit, nec quicquam tempus eam debilitavit. Dost not thou see the heavens, how faire, how spacious they are, how bee-spangled with diverse constella∣tions? how long now haue they lasted? fiue thousand yeares or more are past, and yet this long duration of time hath brought no old age vpon them; But as a body new and fresh, flourisheth in youth: So the heavens still retaine their beauty, which at first they had, neither hath time any thing abated it. Some errour or mistake doubtlesse there is in Chrisostomes computation in as much as he lived aboue 1200 yeares since, & yet tels vs that the world had then lasted aboue 5000 yeares, but for the trueth of the matter he is therein seconded by all the schoole divines, and among those of the reformed churches none hath written in this point more clearely and fully then Alstedius in his pre∣face to his naturall divinity. Tanta est hujus palatij diuturnitas at{que} fir∣mitas vt ad hodiernum vs{que} diem supra annos quinquies mille & sexcentos ita perstet vt in eo nihil immutatum dimin•…•…tum aut vetustate & diuturnitate temporis vitiatum conspiciamus. Such, saith hee, and so lasting is the du∣ration and immoveable stability of this palace, that being created a∣boue 5600 yeares agoe, yet it so continues to this day, that wee can es∣pie nothing in it changed, or wasted, or disordered by age, and tract of time.

SECT. 4. Another obiection taken from Psalme the 102 answered.

ANother text is commmonly and hotly vrged by the Adverse part, to like purpose as the former, and is in truth the onely argu∣ment of weight, drawne from Scripture in this present question, touching the heavens decay in regard of their Substance. In which consi∣deration wee shall bee inforced to examine it somewhat the more ful∣ly. Taken it is from the hundred and second Psalme, and the wordes of the Prophet are these. Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, & * 1.20 the heavens are the worke of thine handes. They shall perish, but thou shalt en∣dure: yea all of them shall waxe old as doth a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy yeares shall haue no end. To which very place vndoubtedly, the Apostle al∣ludes in the first to the Hebrewes, where he thus renders it, Thou Lord in * 1.21 the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the workes of thine hands: They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they shall wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them vp, and they shall be changed: But thou art the same, and thy yeares shall not faile. In which passages the words which are most stood vpon and pressed, are those of the growing old of the heavens like a garment, which by degrees growes bare till it bee torne in peeces and brought to ragges. S. Augustine in his Enarration vpon this Psame according to his wont, betakes him to an Allegoricall Exposition, interpreting the heavens to bee the Saints, and their bodies to bee their garments wherewith the soule is cloathed. And these garments of theirs, saith hee, waxe old and perish, but shall be changed in the resurrection, and made comformable to the glorious bo∣dy of Iesus Christ. Which exposition of his, is pious I confesse, but sure∣ly not proper, since the Prophet speakes of the heavens, which had their beginning together with the earth, and were both principall peeces in the great worke of the Creation. Neither can the regions of the aire, be here well vnderstood, (though in some other places they bee stiled by the name of the heavens) since they are subiect to continuall variation and change, and our Prophets meaning was, as it should seeme, to com∣pare the Almighties vnchangeable eternity, with that which of all the visible Creatures was most stable and stedfast. And besides, though the aire bee indeed the worke of Gods hands, as are all the other Creatures, yet that phrase is in a speciall manner applied to the starry heavens, as * 1.22 being indeed the most exquisite and excellent peece of workemanship that ever his hands fram'd. It remaines then, that by heavens heere, wee vnderstand the lights of heaven, thought by Philosophers to bee the thicker parts of the spheres, together with the spheres them∣selues, in which those lights are fixed and wheeled about. For that such spheres and orbes there are I take it as granted, neither will I dis∣pute it, though I am not ignorant, that some latter writers thinke other∣wise, and those, neither few in number, nor for their knowledge vn∣learned. But for the true sense of the place alleadged, wee are to know

that the word there vsed to wax old, both in Hebrew, Greeke & Latin doth not necessarily imply a decay or impairing in the subject so waxing old, but somtimes doth only signifie a farther step & accesse to a finall period in regard of duration. Wee haue read of some who being well striken in yeares haue renewed their teeth and changed the white colour of their haire, and so growne yong againe. Of such it might truly be sayd that they grew elder in regard of their neerer approch to the determi∣nate end of their race, though they were yonger in regard of their con∣stitution and state of their bodies. And thus do I take the Apostle to be vnderstood, that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away; * 1.23 where hee speakes of the Ceremoniall law, which did not grow old by de∣grees, at least before the incarnation of Christ, but stood in its full force and vigour vntill it was by him abrogated and disanulled. To which purpose Aquinas hath not vnfitly observed vpon the place, Quod dici∣tur vetus significat quod sit prope cessationem, the tearming of a thing old, implies that it hastens to an end. This then as I take it may truly be affir∣med of the signification of the word in generall and at large, and may justly seeme to haue been the Prophets meaning in as much as he addeth But thou art the same and thine yeares shall haue no end. From whence may be collected, that as God cannot grow old because his yeares shall haue no end: so the heavens because they shall haue an end may be therefore sayd to grow old. But whereas it is added, not only by the Psalmist but by the Apostle in precise tearmes, They shall wax old as doth a garment, and a∣gaine as a Vesture shalt thou change them, the doubt still remaines whether by that addition, the sense of the word bee not restrained to a graduall and sensible decay. I know it may be sayd, that a garment waxing old, not only looses his freshnesse, but part of his quantitie and weight, it is not only soyled; but wasted either in lying or wearing, & so in continuance of time becomes vtterly vnserviceable, which no man I think will as∣cribe to the heavens, I meane that their quantity is any way diminished. All agree then that the Similitude may be strained too farre, as the wringing of the nose bringeth forth bloud and the wresting of a string too high marres the musick: but yet the question still remaines, how it is to be vnderstood and how farre we me may safely extend it. For to say that waxing old in that passage is only to be vnderstood of a nearer approch to an alteration, or an abolishment, seemes to be too cold an interpretation, in as much as then needed not the Prophet to haue added for a clearer explication of his mind, in the manner of their wax∣ing old, as doth a garment: it rests then to be shewed as I conceiue where∣in the similitude stands, which the interpreters I haue met with do not sufficiently vnfold, and those that vndertake the vnfolding of it, runne vpon the rocks by publishing harsh and vnwarrantable positions; Mee thinkes the Psalmist himselfe giues some light vnto it, Thou coverest thy selfe, sayth hee, with light as with a garment, and stretchest out the heauens * 1.24 like a Curtaine: his meaning then in my judgment may be this, that the Heavens which for their expansion may well be campared to a Curtaine or garment shall wax old, the comparison standing betweene the heavens and a garment, not in regard of their deficiencie, but their spreading, the

heavens covèring this inferiour world, as a garment doth the bodie it is spread over. Or if the comparison stand in their deficiencie, which seemes, I confesse, the more kindly exposition, to my seeme∣ing, Aquinas in few wordes looseth the knot, sicut uestimentum sayth hee, quod sumitur ad vsum, & cessante vsu deponitur. The heavens then shall wax old as doth a garment in that their vse shall cease together with man, as doth the vse of a garment with him that vseth it. Which expo∣sition hee seemes to haue borrowed from Dydimus blind in his bodily eyes, but in his mind sharpe sighted, quod canit Psaltes, veterescent & mu∣tabuntur, designat eorum vsum abijsse & defecisse, Vt enim indumentum vbi officio functum fuerit obvoluitur: sic coelum ac terrae functae munerihus suis abibunt. In that the Psalmist professeth, They shall waxe old and be changed, his meaning is when there shall be no further vse of them. For as a garment hauing performed that vse to which it was ordained, is fol∣ded vp and layd aside: so the heaven and the earth having finished those services, for which they were created, shall vanish and passe away. And vpon this Comment of Dydimus, Eugubinus thus commeth. Hoc autem * 1.25 summus docet Theologus primum mundum antiquandum, vetustate & senio interiutrum, sed non'eo senio quo res mortales corrumpuntur atque abolentur, in coelo tale senium nullum est, sed alium quoddam cujus similitudo ex vestibus os∣tenditur, cum deponimus eas vbi nobis esse vsui desijssent, tanquam invtiles eas exuimus atque obuoluimus, sic mundus, id est coelum, non eo delebitur quod eadem vetustate atque omnia animalia & arbores, aliquando sit defectu∣rus, sed quia cessabit vsus ejus quo rerum tantos ordines peragebat. The purpose of this greate Divine was to teach, that the heavens should wax old and consume with age, but not with such an old age, as that by which things mortall suffer corruption and dissolusion. In heaven there is no such waxing old to be found, but another kind there is, the resemblance whereof is taken from garments, when we put them off, as hauing no further vse of them, laying them aside and folding them vp: in like manner the heaven shall not therefore be disolued, because it shall at any time suffer defect thorow that old age, which beastes and plantes feele, but because the vse of it shall cease, by which it kept these inferiour bodies in due order. And perchance the Apostle himselfe, rendring the words of the Psalmist, intends as much, As a vesture shalt thou fold them vp: as the curtaines and carpets and hangings are folded * 1.26 vp, and layd aside when the family remoues. Which seemes likewise, to haue been foretold by the Prophet Isayah, the heavens shall be rouled to∣gether * 1.27 as a scrole, and they shall passe away with with a noyce sayth S. Peter, like the hissing of parchment, riueled vp with heat, for so signifies the origi∣nall * 1.28 word in that place. Howsoever, they shall not wax old by the course of nature, but by the mightie power of the God of Nature, he that created them shall dissolue them, and nothing else; which the Prophet seemes to point at in this very passage, Tu mutabis & mutabuntur, thou shalt change them, not Nature, but thou shalt change and they shall be changed. And as for that fresh lustre and brightnesse wherwith (as is commonly thought) the heauens shall be renewed at the last day, as a garment by turning is changed, and by changing refreshed, it may well be by ma∣king

them more resplendent then now they are, or euer at any time were since their first creation, Not by scowring off of contracted rust, but adding a new glosse and augmentation of glory. And whereas some Di∣vines haue not doubted to make the spots and shadowes appearing in the face of the Moone to be vndoubted arguments of that contracted rust, if those spots had not beene originall and natiue of equall date with the Moone her selfe, but had beene contracted by age and continuance of time, as wrinkles are in the most beautifull faces, they had said some∣what, but that there they were aboue fifteene hundred yeares agone, ap∣peares by Plutarchs discourse De maculis in facie Lunae, & that they haue since any whit increased, it cannot be sufficiently prooued. Perchance by the helpe of the new devised perspectiue glasses, they haue beene of late more cleerely & distinctly discerned thē in former ages, but that prooues no more that they were not there before, then that the Sydera Medcaea lately discouered by vertue of the same instruments, were not before in being, which the Discoverers themselues knew well e∣nough, they could not with any colour of reason affirme. * 1.29

SECT. 5. A third objection taken from the apparition of new starres answered.

HOwbeit it cannot be denied but that new starres haue at times ap∣peared in the firmament, as some thinke, that was at our Saviours birth, yet in as much at it pointed out the very House in which he was borne by standing ouer it, and was not (for ought we finde) ob∣serued by the Mathematicians of those times, I should rather thinke it to haue beene a blazing light created in the Region of the Aire, carry∣ing the resemblance of a starre, then a new and true created starre, seated in the firmament.

As for that which appeared in Cassiopaea in the yeare one thousand fiue hundred seventy two, (the very yeare of the great Massacre in France) I thinke it cannot well be gainsaid, to have beene a true starre, it being ob∣serued by the most skilfull and famous Astronomers of that time to hold the same aspect in all places of Christendome, to runne the same course, to keepe the same proportion, distance and situation, euery-where, & in euery point, with the fixed starres by the space of two whole yeares: but this I take to haue beene not the effect of Nature, but the supernaturall & miraculous worke of Almighty God, the first Author and free disposer of Nature; and the like may be said of all such Comets which haue at any time evidently appeared, (if any such evidence may be giuen) to be a∣boue the Globe of the Moone, from whence it can no more be inferred that the heauens are composed of a matter corruptible, naturally subject to impairing and fading, then that their motion is irregular, or that it is in the power of mortall man to dispose of the course of those immortall Creatures, because by a speciall priviledge at the prayer of Iosuah, both * 1.30 the Sun and Moone were stayed in their wonted courses, and the shadow went backe ten degrees in the Dyall of Ahaz, for the assurance of the

truth of the Prophet Isaiahs message sent to King Hezekiah. * 1.31

The same answere may not be vnfitly shaped, to that wonder which S. Augustine reports out of Varroes booke, intituled de Gente Populi Ro∣mani, * 1.32 and he out of Castor touching the Planet Venus, which to adde the greater weight and credit to the relation, being somewhat strange and rare, I will set it downe in the very words of Varro, as I finde them quo∣ted by S. Augustine. In coelo mirabile extitit portentum, nam in stella Ve∣ner is nobilissima, quam Plautus Vesperruginem, Homerus Hesperon appellat, pulcherrimam dicens, Castor scribit tantum portentum extitisse, ut mutaret colorem, magnitudinem, figuram, cursum, quod factum ita neque antea, neque postea sit, hoc factum Ogyge Rege dicebant Adrastus, Cyzicenus, & Dyon Neapolites Mathematici nobiles. In Heauen, saith he, appeared a maruai∣lous great wonder, the most noted starre called Venus, which Plautus tearmes Vesperrugo, and Homer Hesperus the faire, as Castor hath left it v∣pon record, changed both colour, and bignes, and figure, and motion, which accident was neuer seene before, nor since that time, the renowned Ma∣thematicians Adrastus and Dyon averring, that this fell out during the raigne of King Ogyges. Which wonder neither Varro nor Augustine a∣scribe to the changeable matter of the Heauens, but to the vnchange∣able will of the Creator. And therefore the one cals it as we see Mirabi∣le portentum, and the other makes this Comment vpon it, that it hap∣ned, quia ille voluit qui summo regit imperio ac potestate quod condidit, be∣cause he would haue it so, who gouernes all things that he hath made with a Soueraigne and independing power. So that two speciall reasons may be yeelded for these extraordinary vnvsuall apparitions in heauen, the one that they may declare to the world that they haue a Creator & Com∣mander, who can alter or destroy their natures, restraine or suspend their operations at his pleasure, which should keepe men from worshipping them as Gods, since they cannot keepe themselues from alteration. The other to portend and foreshew his Iudgements, as did that new starre in Cassiopoea, a most vnnaturall inundation of blood in France; and this change in Venus, such a deluge in Achaia, as it ouerflowed and so wa∣sted the whole Countrey, that for the space of two hundred yeares follow∣ing it was not inhabited.

SECT. 6. The last obiection drawne from the Eclipses of the Sunne and Moone answered.

THe last doubt touching the passibility of the matter of the Heauens, is drawne from the Eclipses of the Sun and Moone, in which they are commonly thought to suffer, and to bee as it were in travell during that time. Which if it were so, it must of necessity by degrees consume the vigour and beauty of those glorious bodies, and finally the bodies themselues. To this purpose is alleadged that of the Poet, where he cals these Eclypses, * 1.33

Defectus Solis varios Lunaeque labores. Defects and trauels of the Sunne and Moone.

As also the manner of the ancient Romans while such Eclypses lasted, to * 1.34 lift vp many burning torches toward Heauen, and withall to beate pans of brasse and basons, as we doe in following a swarme of bees.

Commovet Gentes publicus error, Lassantque crebris pulsibus aera. * 1.35 A common errour through the World doth passe, And many a stroake they lay on pans of brasse

Saith Boetius and Manilius, speaking of the appearance of the Moones Eclipse by degrees in diverse parts of the Earth.

Seraque in extremis quatiuntur gentibus aera, * 1.36 Th' vtmost coasts doe beat their brasse pans last.

And the Satyrist wittily describing a tatling Gossip,

Vna laboranti poterit succurrere Lunae. Shee onely were enough to helpe * 1.37 The labours of the Moone.

They thought thereby they did the Moone great ease, and helped her in her labour, as Plutarch in the life of Aemilius obserueth. Nay Aemi∣lius himselfe a wise man, as the same Author there witnesseth, congratu∣lated the Moones deliuery from an Eclipse, with a solemne sacrifice, as∣soone as shee shone out bright againe, which action of his that prudent Philosopher and sage Historian not relateth only, but approoueth & com∣mendeth as a signe of godlinesse and devotion, yea this Heathenish and sottish custome of releeuing the Moone in this case by noise & outcries, the Christians it seemes borrowed from the Gentiles, as appeares by S. Ambrose in his eighty and third Sermon, where he most sharply checks his Auditors for their rude and vncivill, nay prophane and irreligious * 1.38 carriage in this very point: And because his discourse there is not only smart and piercing, but marvailous punctuall and pertinent in regard of the question in hand, I hope it will not be thought time or paper mis∣spent, if I set it downe as there I find it. Who would not grieue at it that you should so far forget your soules health, as you should not blush to call Heauen as a witnesse to your sinne. For when I lately preached vnto you touching your co∣vetousnesse, euen the same day at Evening there was so great a shouting of the people, that your prophanenesse pierced the Heauens. I inquired what the meaning of that noise might bee: it was told me that with your out-cryes you relieued the Moone, being then in travell, and succoured her faintings with your shouting: which when I heard, in truth I could not choose but laugh and wonder at your vanity, that like devoute Christians you thought to bring aide to God, for it seemes you cryed, least by meanes of your silence hee might perchance loose one of his noblest Creatures; or as if being weake and impotent he could not maintaine those lights himselfe had created, but by the assistance of your voyces. And surely ye doe very well in that you succour the Deity, that by your helpe he may gouerne heauen. But would ye doe it to purpose indeed, then must ye watch euery night & all night. For how often trow ye is the moon eclypsed while you sleep, & yet she falls not from heaven: Or is shee alwayes eclypsed in the night, & not likewise in the day time? But then only it seemes is the moone eclypsed with you, when your bellies are well stuffed with a full supper, & your braines steeled with full pots; then only the Moone labours in heaven, when the wine labours in your

heads; then is her circle troubled with charmes, when your sight is dazled with over much qua•…•…ing. How canst thou then discerne what befals the Moone in heaven, when thou canst not discerne what is done neere thee on earth, heerein is that plainely verified which holy Solomon foretold, a foole cha•…•…geth as the Moone: Thou changest like the Moone, when beeing ignorant of the * 1.39 motion thereof, thou who werst a Christian before, now beginnest to be sacrile∣gious; for sacrilege thou committest against thy Creator, when thou imputest such impotency to the Creature: Thou then changest like the moone, when thou who before shinedst in the devotion of faith, now fallest away thorow the weakenes of vnbeleefe: thou changest like the moone, when thy braine is as voide of wit, as the moone is of light, and I could wish thou diddest indeed change as the moone for shee quickely returnes againe to her fulnes, but thou by leasure to the vse of thy wits; shee soone recovers her light, but thou slow∣ly the faith which thou hast denyed. Thy change then is worse then that of the moone; shee suffers an Eclipse of her light, but thou of thy soules health. But willsome man say, is not the moone in labour then? yes indeed shee labours, it cannot bee denyed: but shee labours with the other creaturess, as the Apostle * 1.40 speakes, wee know that the whole Creature groaneth and travelleth in paine vntill now; and againe, the Creature it selfe shall also bee deliuered from the bondage of Corruption. It shall bee freed from bondage. You see then that the moone doth not labour with charmes, but with dutifull observances, not with dangers, but with vsefull offices, not to perish, but to serue. For the Creature is made subiect to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subie∣cted the same, So that the Moone is not willingly changed from her condition, but thou wittingly and willingly robbest thy selfe of thine owne reason. Shee by the condition of her nature suffers an Eclipse, thou by consent of thine owne will, art drawne into mischiefe. Bee not then as the moone when shee is eclyp∣sed, but as when shee fils her circle with light. For of the righteous man it is written, Hee shall bee established for ever as the moone, & as the faithfull wit∣nesse * 1.41 in heaven.

By which witty discourse of S. Ambrose, it plainely appeares that in his judgement, the moone suffered nothing by her Eclypse, which opini∣on of his is confirmed not only by the testimony of Aristotle, in the eight of the Metaphysickes, but by the evidence of reason, it being cau∣sed by the shadow of the earth, interposed betweene the Sunne and the Moone, as in exchange or revenge thereof, (as Pliny speaketh,) the E∣clypse of the Sun is caused by the interposition of the moone, betwixt the * 1.42 earth and it. The moone so depriuing the earth, and againe the earth the moone of the beames of the Sunne: Which is the true cause that in the course of nature, the Moone is never eclypsed but when shee is full, the Sunne and shee being then in opposition; nor the Sunne, but when it is new-moone; those two Planets being then in conjunction: I say, in the course of Nature, for the Eclypse at our Sauiours passion, was vndoub∣tedly supernaturall: Quam Solis obscurationem non ex canonico Syderum cur∣su accidisse satis ostenditur quod tunc erat Pascha Iudaeorum. Nam plena Lu∣na solenniter agitur, saith S. Augustine. It is evident that that Eclipse of the Sunne happened not by the ordinary & orderly course of the stars, * 1.43 it being then the Passover of the Iewes, which was solemnized at the full

moone; And this was it, that gaue occasion, as is commonly belecued, to that memorable exclamation of Dennys the Areopagite, being then in Egypt: Aut Deus Naturae patitur, aut machina mundi dissolvetur, either the God of Nature suffers, or the frame of Nature will bee dissolved. And heerevpon too, as it is thought by some, was erected that Altar at A∣thens, Ignoto Deo, To the vnknowne God: Though others thinke that E∣clypse was confined within the borders of Iudea; howsoever it cannot * 1.44 be denyed, but that it was certainely beside and aboue the course of Nature. Neither ought it seeme strange, that the Sunne in the firma∣ment of heaven, should appeare to suffer, when the Sunne of Righteousnes indeed suffered vpon earth.

But for other Eclypses, though their Causes bee now commonly knowne, yet the ignorance of them was it, which caused so much super∣stition in former ages, and left that impression in mens mindes, as euen at this day wise men can hardly bee perswaded, but that those Planets suffer in their Eclypses, which in the Sunne is most childish and ridicu∣lous to imagine, since in it selfe, it is not so much as depriued of any light, nor in trueth can bee: it being the fountaine of light, from which all the other starres borrow their light, but pay nothing backe againe to it, by way of retribution. Which was well expressed by Pericles, as Plu∣tarch in his life reports it, For there happening an Eclypse of the Sun, at the very instant, when his Navy was now ready to lanch forth, & him∣selfe was imbarked, his followers began to bee much apald at it, but specially the Master of his owne gally, which Pericles perceiuing, takes his cloake & with it hoodwinkes the Masters eyes, & then demaunds of him what danger was in that, hee answering none, neither saith Peri∣cles is there in this Eclypse, there being no difference betwixt my cloake and that Vaile, with which the Sun is covered, but only in bignes. And the truth is that the Sun then suffered no more by the intervening of the Moone, then from Pericles his cloake, or daily doth from the cloudes in the aire which hinder the sight of it, or by the interposition of the Planet Mercury, which hath sometimes appeared as a spot in it; But whether these Eclypses either cause or presage any change in these inferi∣our * 1.45 bodies, I shall haue fitter occasion to examine heareafter, and so passe from the consideration of the substance, to the motion of the hea∣venly bodies.

CAP. 2. Touching the pretended decay of the heavenly bodies in regard of their motions.

SECT. 1. The first reason, that there is no decay in the motions of the heavenly bodies, drawne from the causes thereof

MOtion is so vniversall and innate a property, and so proper an affe∣ction to all naturall bodies, that the Great Philosopher knew not better how to define Nature, then by making her the Enginer

and Principle of Motion: And therefore as other obiects, are onely discer∣nable by one sense, as colours by seeing, and sounds by hearing, motion is discernable by both, nay and by feeling too, which is a third sense re∣ally distinguished from them both. That there is in the heavenly bo∣dies no motion of Generation or Corruption, of augmentation, or diminution, or of alteration, I haue already shewed. There are also who by reason of the incredible swiftnes of the first Mouer, and some other such rea∣sons, dare deny that there is in them any Lation or Locall motion, heere∣in * 1.46 flatly opposing in my judgement both Scripture and Reason, & Sense; But to take it as graunted, without any dispute, that a Locall motion there is, which is the measure of time, as time againe is the measure of mo∣tion, the line of motion and the threed of time, beeing both spun out to∣gether: Some doubt there is touching the moouer of these heavenly bo∣dies, what or who it should bee, some ascribing it to their matter, some to their forme, some to their figure, and many to the Angells, or Intelli∣gences, as they call them, which they suppose to bee set over them. For mine owne part, I should thinke that all these and euery of them might not vnjustly challenge a part in that motion: The matter as beeing nei∣ther light nor heavy, the forme aswell agreeing with such a matter, the figure as being Sphericall or Circular, the Intelligence as an assistant: In the matter is a disposition; For whereas light bodies naturally moue vp∣ward, and heavy downeward, that which is neither light nor heavy is rather disposed to a Circular motion, which is neither vpward nor downeward. In the figure is an inclination to that motion, as in a wheele to bee carried round, from the forme an inchoation or onsett, and lastly from the Intelligence a continuance or perpetuation thereof, as a great Di∣vine of our owne both age and Nation hath well expressed it, Gods owne * 1.47 aeternity,) saith hee) is the hand which leadeth Angells in the course of their perpetuity, their perpetuity the hand that draweth out Celestiall motion, that as the Elementary substances are governed by the heavenly: so might the heauenly by the Angellicall. As the corruptible by the incorruptible, so the materiall by the immateriall, and all finits by one infinite. It is the joynt consent of the Platoniks, Peripatetiks, and Stoikes, and of all the noted sects of Philosophers; who acknowledged the Divine Providence, with whom agree the greatest part of our most learned & Christian Doctors, that the Heavens are moued by Angells, neither is there in truth any suf∣ficient meanes beside it to discover the beeing of such Creatures by discourse of Reason. Which to mee is a strong argument, that the Hea∣uens can by no meanes erre, or faile in their motions, beeing managed by the subordinate ministery of such indefatigable and vnerring guides, whose power is euery way proportionable to their knowledge, and their constancy to both.

SECT. 2. The Second reason taken from the Certainty of demonstrations vpon the Coe∣lestiall globe: The Third, from a particular view of the proper motions of the Planets, which are observed to bee the same at this day, as in former ages without any variation: The Fourth, from the infallible and exact praediction of their Oppositions, Conjunctions, and Eclypses for many ages to come: The Fifth, from the testimony of sundry graue Authours, auerring perpetuall Constancy and im∣mutability of their motions.

THe most signall motions of the heavens (beside their retrogradations, trepidations, librations, and I know not what, which Astronomers haue devised to reconcile the diversitie of their observations) are the diurnall motion of all the fixed starres and Planets, and all the Coelestiall spheres from East to West in the compasse of every foure and twenty houres, and the proper motion of them all from the West to the East a∣gaine. These motions whether they performe, by themselues, without the helpe of orbes, as fishes in the water, or birds in the aire; or fastned to their spheres, as a gemme in a ring, or a nayle or knot in a Cart-wheele, I cannot easily determine: howbeit I confesse wee cannot well imagine how one and the same body should bee carried with opposite motions, but by the helpe of somewhat in which it is carried, As the Marriner may be carried by the motion of his shippe from the East to the West, and yet himselfe may walke from the West to the East in the same ship: Or a flie may be carried from the North to the South vpon a Cart-wheele, and yet may goe from the South to the North vpon the same wheele: But howsoever it bee, it is evident that their motions are most even and regular, without the least jarre or discord, variation or vncer∣tainety, languishing or defect, that may bee. Which were it not so, there could bee no certaine demonstrations made vpon the Globe or materi∣all Sphere: Which notwithstanding by the testimony of Claudian are most infallible, as appeares by those his elegant verses vpon Archyme∣des admirable invention thereof.

Iuppiter in parvo cum cerneret aether a vitro, Risit, & ad superos, talia dicta dedit: Huccine mortalis progressa potentia curae? Iam meus infragili luditur orbe labor Iura poli, rerum{que} fidem leges{que} Deorum Ecce Syracusius transtulit arte senex. Inclusus varijs famulatur Spiritus astris Et vivum certis motibus vrget opus Percurrit proprium mentirus signifer annum Et simulata nouo Cynthia mense redit. Iam{que} suum volvens audax industria Mundum Gaudet & humana sydera mense regit.

When Ioue within a little glasse survaid

The Heavens, hee smil'd, and to the Gods thus sayd: Can strength of Mortall wit proceed thus farre? Loe in a fraile orbe my workes mated are. Hither the Syracusians art translates Heavens forme, the course of things, and humane fates. Th'included spirit serving the star-deck signes, The liuing worke in constant motions windes Th'adulterate Zodiaque runnes a naturall yeare, And Cynthiaes forg'd hornes monthly new light beare, Viewing her owne world, now bold industry Triumphes and rules with humane power the skye.

The Gentiles sayth Iulian, (as S. Cyrill in his third booke against him, re∣ports it) videntes nihil eorū quae circa Coelū minui vel augeri neque vlla susti∣nere deordinatam affectionē, sed congruam illius motionem ac bene op•…•…atū ordi∣nem, definitas quoque leges Lunae, definitos ortus & occasus Solis, statutis semper temporibus, merito Deum & Dei solium suspicabantur: seeing no part of hea∣ven to deminished or decreased, to suffer no irregular affection, but the motion thereof to be as duly and orderly performed as could be desi∣red, the waxing and waning of the moone, the rising and setting of thee sunne to bee setled and constant at fixed and certaine times, they deser∣uedly admired it as God, or as the throne of God. The order and regu∣laritie of which motions wee shall easily perceiue by taking a particular view of them. I will touch only those of the Plannets. The proper mo∣tion of Saturne was by the Ancients obserued, and is now likewise found, by our moderne Astronomers, to be accomplished within the space of thirtie yeares, that of Iupiter in twelue, that of Mars in two, that of the Sunne in three hundred sixty fiue dayes and allmost six ho∣wers, that of Venus and Mercury in very neere the same space of time, that of the Moone in twentie seven dayes and all most eight howres: Neither do we find that they haue either quickned or any way slackned these their courses, but that in the same space of time they allwayes run the same races which being ended, they begin them againe as freshly as the first instant they set forth; Cum per certa annorum spacia or∣bes suos * 1.48 explicuerint iterum ibunt per quae venerant, sayth Seneca: when in certaine tearmes of years they shall haue accomplished their courses, they shall againe runne the same races they haue passed. These then be the boundes and limits, to which these glorious bodies are perpetu∣ally tyed, in regard of their motion, these be the vnchangeable lawes like those of the Medes and Persians whereof the Psalmist speakes, Hee hath * 1.49 giuen them a law which shall not be broken: which Seneca in his booke of the Diuine Providence, well expresses in other wordes, Aeternae legis imperio procedunt, they mooue by the appointment of an eternall law, that is, a law both invariable & inviolable. That which Tully hath delivered of one of them is vndoubtedly true of all: Saturni stella in suo cursu multa mira∣biliter * 1.50 efficiens, tum ante•…•…edendo, tum retardando, tum vespertinis temporibus delitescendo, tum matutinis rursum se aperiendo, nihil tamen immutat sempe∣ternis soeculorum aetatibus, quin eadem ijsdem temporibus efficiat: The plan∣net Saturne doth make many strange and wonderfull passages in his

motion, sometimes going before, and sometimes comming after, some∣times withdrawing himselfe in the evening, and sometimes againe shewing himselfe in the morning, and yet changeth nothing in the con∣tinuall duration of all ages, but still at the same season worketh the same effects. And in truth, were it not so, both in that Plannet and in all the other starres, it is altogether impossible they should supply that vse which Almighty God in their Creation ordained them vnto, that is, to serue for signes and seasons, for dayes and for yeares, to the worlds end. And * 1.51 much more impossible it were that the yeare, the moneth, the day, the hower, the minute of the Oppositions, Conjuctions and Eclypses of the Plannets, should be as exactly calculated and foretold one hundreth yeares before they fall out, as at what howre the Snnne will rise to mor∣row morning. Which perpetuall aequability & cōstant vniformity in the Celestiall motions, is both truly observed & eloquētly descibedby Boetius.

Si vis celsi jura Tonantis Pura solers cernere mente, * 1.52 Aspice summi culmina Coeli; Illic justo foedere rerum Veterem servant syder a pacem. Non sol rutilo concitus igne Gelidum Phebes impedit axem. Nec quae summo vertice mundi Flectit rapidos vrsa meatus Vnquam occiduo lota profundo Caetera cernens syder a mergi Cupit Oceano tingere flammas. Semper vicibus temporis aequis Vesper ser as nunciat vmbras Revehitque diem Lucifer almum. Sic alternos reficit cursus Alternus amor, sic astrigeris Bellum discors exulat or is.

If thou with pure and prudent minde The lawes of God wouldst see Looke vp to heaven and thou shalt finde How all things there agree. In peace the starres their courses runne Nor is the Moones cold sphere Impeached by the scorching Sunne, Nor doth the Northerne beare Which swift about the Pole doth moue Though other starres he see Drencht in the Westerne Ocean, loue His flames there quenched bee. Nights late approch by courses due The evening starre doth show And morning starre with motion true Before the day doth goe: Thus still their turnes renewed are

By enterchanging loue: And warre and discord banisht farre From starry skies aboue,

And no lesse wittily by Manilius, * 1.53

Nec quicquam in tanta magis est mirabile mole Quam ratio; & certis quod legibus omnia parent, Nusquam turba nocet, nihil vllis partibus errat. There is not ought that's to be seene in such a wondrous masse, More wonderful and strange then this that Reason brings to passe: That all obey their certaine lawes which they doe still preferre, No tumult hurteth them, nor ought in any parr doth erre.

Wherewith the Divine Plato accords, Nec errant, nec praeter antiquum or∣dinem * 1.54 revolvuntur, neither doe they runne randome, nor are they rolled beside their ancient order. And Aristotle breaketh out into this passio∣nate * 1.55 admiration thereof, Quid unquam poterit aequari coelesti ordini, & vo∣lubilitati, cùm syder a convertantur exactissima norma de alio in aliud secu∣lum: What can ever be compared to the order of the Heauens, and to the motion of the Starres in their seuerall revolutions, which moue most exactly as it were by a rule and square, by line and leuell from one generation to another.

There were among the Ancients not a few, nor they vnlearned, who by a strong fancie conceiued to themselues an excellent melody made vp by the motion of the Coelestiall Spheares. It was broached by a 1.56 Pythagoras, entertained by b 1.57 Plato, stiffely maintained by c 1.58 Macrobius and some Christians, as d 1.59 Beda, e 1.60 Boetius, and f 1.61 Anselmus Archbishop of Canterbury: but Aristotle puts it off with a jest, as being Lepidè & musicè dictum, fa∣ctu autem impossibile, a pleasant and musicall conceit, but in effect impos∣sible, inasmuch as those Bodies in their motions make no kinde of noise at all. Howsoeuer it may well bee that this conceit of theirs was groun∣ded vpon a certaine truth, which is the Harmonicall and proportionable motion of those Bodies in their just order, and set courses, as if they were euer dauncing the rounds or the measures. In which regard the Psalmist tels vs that the Sun knoweth his going downe, he appointed the Moone for seasons, and the Sunne knoweth his going downe. Which wordes of his may not be taken in a proper, but in a figuratiue sense; The Prophet there∣by * 1.62 implying, that the Sunne obserueth his prescribed motion so precisely to a point, that in the least jot he neuer erreth from it: And therefore is he said to doe the same vpon knowledge and vnderstanding, Non quòd a∣nimatus sit aut ratione vtatur, saith Basill vpon the place, sed quòd juxta ter∣minum divinitùs praescriptum ingrediens, semper eundem cursum servat, ac mensur as suas custodit: Not that the Sun hath any soule, or vse of vnder∣standing, but because it keepeth his courses and measures exactly accor∣ding to Gods prescription.

SECT. 3. The same truth farther prooued from the testimony of Lactantius and Plutarch.

LActantius from hence gathereth two notable Conclusions, the one, * 1.63 that the Starres are not Gods as the Gentiles commonly imagined, the other, that they are governed by God, which the Epicurians de∣nyed: for the former of those, saith he, argumentum illud quo colligunt v∣niversa coelestia Deos esse in contrarium valet. Nam si Deos esse idcircò opinan∣tur, quia certos & rationabiles cursus habent, errant: Ex hoc enim apparet Deos non esse quod exorbitare illis apraestitutis itineribus non licet; caeterùm si Dij essent huc atque illuc passim sine vlla necessitate ferrentur, sicut animantes in terra, quorum quia liberae sunt voluntates, huc atque illuc vagantur vt li∣bet, & quocunque mens duxerit eo feruntur. That argument from whence the Heathen doe collect that the Starres must needes be Gods, doth most plainly prooue the contrary: For if they take them to be Gods, because of the certainty of their courses, they be therein much deceiued: for this plainely prooveth, that indeed they be no Gods, because they be not able to depart from their set courses. Whereas if they were Gods, they would mooue both this way and that way in the Heauens, as freely as liuing Creatures doe vpon the earth, who because they haue the liber∣ty and freedome of their will they wander vp and downe whither they themselues please. And for the latter, tanta rerum magnitudo, saith hee, tanta dispositio, tanta in servandis ordinibus, temporibusque constantia, non po∣tuit aut olim sine provido Artifice oriri, aut constare tot seculis sine incola po∣tente, aut in perpetuū gubernari sine perito & sciente rectore, quod ratio ipsa de∣clarat. Such a greatnes in their creation, such a comelinesse in their or∣der, such a constancie in observing both their courses and their sea∣sons, could neuer either at first haue beene framed without a cunning hand, or so long haue beene preserued without a powerfull inhabitant, or so wisely haue beene governed without a skilfull Regent, as euen reason it selfe maketh it plaine and evident. And Plurarch affirmeth ge∣nerally of all men, that the very first motiue that lead them vnto God was that orderly motion whereby the starres are carried. Homines caeperunt * 1.64 Deum agnoscere cùm viderent stellas tantam concinnitatem efficere, ac dies, noctesque aetate ac hyeme, suos servare statos ortus atque obitus. Men beganne first to acknowledge a God when they considered the starres to main∣taine such a comelinesse, and both day and night in summer and win∣ter to obserue their designed risings and settings.

SECT. 4. An objection of Du Moulins touching the motion of the Polar Starre answered.

ANd thus I hope the Heauens are sufficiently discharged from a∣ny imputation of Decay in regard of their motion, the constant regularity whereof, we finde to haue beene obserued and admi∣red by the most learned of all ages: It remaines now that I should pro∣ceede to the examination of the other qualities thereof, which before I attempt, it shall not be amisse to remoue a rub cast in our way by Du Moulin a famous French Divine, in his Booke intituled, The accomplish∣ment of Divine Prophesies, touching the motion of the Polar starre, his * 1.65 words are these, or to this purpose. Astrologie also doth lend vs some light in this matter; For in the yeare of the World three thousand six hundred sixty fiue, Ptolomaeus Philadelphus raigning in Egypt some foure hundred sixty nine yeares after the building of Rome, there lived one Hipparchus a famous Astrologer, who reports that in his time the starre commonly called the Polar starre, which is in the taile of the lesser Beare, was 12 degrees & two fifths di∣stant from the Pole of the Aequator. This star from age to age hath insensibly still crept neerer to the Pole, so that at this present it is not past three degrees di∣stant from the Pole of the Aequator. When this star then shall come to touch the Pole, there being no farther space left for it to goe forward) which may well enough come to passe within fiue or six hundredth yeares) it is likely that then there shall be a great change of things, and that this time is the period which God hath presixed to Nature. A bold coniecture of a man so well versed in holy Scriptures and in other matters so modest; as if God had written in the Heavens the period of times, or had so written it as any mortall eye could discerne it, his beloued Son professing, that it is not for vs to know * 1.66 the times and seasons, which the Father hath put in his owne power. And as the Conjecture is bold, so is it built vpon as sandy a foundation which is, that the Pole-star shall draw so neere the Pole as to touch it, or shall euer be brought to those straits, as it shall finde no passage to goe forward, whereas it is certaine, it shall euer remaine in some certaine distance from the Pole, twenty sixe or twenty seuen minutes at the least. True in∣deed it is, that about fiue hundred yeares hence, if the World last so long, it shall then approach the nearest, but then shall it with-draw it selfe again by degrees to as remote a distance as it euer was before; As it heretofore hath beene the most Southerly star in that Asterisme, and is now become the most Northerly: so in processe of time it may become the most Southerly againe: But from hence to inferre that the Poles of the Aequator are moueable, is inconsequent, and incompatible with the most receiued and best approued grounds of Astronomy. Besides, other fixed stars haue their times of accesse and recesse, to and frōthe Pole, aswell as this: so that the motion of this can no more point out the period of Nature, then of those: All which Du Moulin himselfe either by his owne observation or advertisement from others well perceiuing, in a

latter Edition of that booke printed at Sedane in the yeare one thousand six hundred thenty one, hath well mended the matter, by changing some words. For insteed of this in the first edition; From hence it appea∣reth that the Poles of the Equatour are moueable, in the second, he hath thus changed it: It being certaine, and observed by long experience, that the fixed stars moue from the West to the East in a motion paralell to the Eclyptique. In his first edition, he sayes: When this starre shall come to touch the Pole, there beeing no further space left for it to goe forward, but in his second hee changeth it thus, when this starre shall approach the Pole as neere as it can: Againe in his first thus, which may well come to passe within these fiue or six hundred yeares, in his second thus, which may well come to passe within siue hundred yeares: Lastly in his first thus, it seemes that this time is the period which God hath prefixed to Nature, in his second thus, it seemes that some no∣table period shall then expire. And surely I cannot but as much commend his modesty in this second change, as I found it wanting in his first conie∣cture, and I am of opinion that S. Augustine never purchased more true honour by any booke that ever hee writ, then that of his Retractations, the shame is not so much to erre, as to persevere in it being discouered. Specially if it be an errour taken vp & entertained, by following those, whom for their great gifts wee highly esteeme and admire, as it seemes Du Moulin tooke his errour at leastwise touching the moueablenes of the Poles of the Equatour, from Ioseph Scaliger: But the motion of the heavens puts mee in minde of passing from it to the light thereof.

CAP. 3. Touching the pretended decay in the light of the heavenly bodies.

SECT. 1. The first reason that it decayes not, taken from the nature of that light, and those things wherevnto it is resembled.

AS the waters were first spread over the face of the earth: so was the light dispersed thorow the firmament: and as the waters were gathered into one heape, so was the light knit vp, and vnited into one body: As the gathering of the waters was called the Sea, so, that of the light was called the Sunne. As the rivers come from the sea▪ so is all the light of the starres derived from the Sun: And lastly, as the Sea is no whit leassened though it furnish the Earth with abundance of fresh rivers: So though the Sunne haue since the Creation, both furnished, & garnished the world with light, neither is the store of it thereby dimini∣shed, nor the beauty of it any way stayned. What the light is, whether a substance or an Accident, whether of a Corporall or incorporall nature, it is not easy to determine. Philosophers dispute it, but cannot well resolue it. Such is our ignorance, that euen that by which wee see all things, we cannot discerne what it selfe is. But whatsoeuer it bee, wee are sure that of all visible Creatures, it was the first that was made, and comes neerest the nature of a Spirit, in as much as it moues in an instant from

the East to the West, and piercing thorow all transparent bodies, still remaines in it selfe, vnmixed and vndivided; it chaseth away sadde and mellancholy thoughts, which the darkenesse both begets and maine∣taines; it lifts vp our mindes in meditation to him who is the true light, that lightneth every man that commeth into the world, himselfe dwelling in light vnaccessible, and cloathing himselfe with light as with a garment. And if wee may behold in any Creature any one sparke of that eternall fire, or any farre off dawning of Gods glorious brightnes, the same in the beau∣ty, motion, and vertue of this light may best be discerned. Quid pulchri∣us luce, saith Hugo de sancto Victore, quae cum in se colorem non habeat, om∣nium tamen rerum colores ipsa quodammodo colorat. What is more beau∣tifull then the light, which hauing no colour in it selfe, yet sets a luster vpon all colours. And S. Ambrose, vnde vox Dei in Scriptura debuit inch o∣are nisi à lumine? Vnde mundi ornatus nisi à luce exordium sumere! frustra e∣nim esset si non •…•…ideretur. From whence should the voice of God in holy Scripture begin, but from the light? From whence should the ornament of the world begin, but likewise from the same light? For in vaine it were, were it not seene.

O Father of the light, of wisedome fountaine, Out of the bulke of that confused mountaine * 1.67 What should, what could issue before the light Without which, Beauty were no Beauty hight.

SECT. 2. The second, for that it hath nothing contrary vnto it, and heere Pareus and Mollerus are censured for holding that the light of heaven is impaired.

S. Augustine in diverse places of his workes is of opinion, that by the first created light were vnderstood the Angells, and heerein is hee followed by Beda, Eucherius, Rupertus & diverse others. Which opinion of his though it bee questionlesse vnsound, in as much as wee are taught that that light, sprang out of darkenesse, which of the Angells can in no sort bee verified, yet it shewes the * 1.68 lightsome nature of Angells, so likewise the Angelicall nature of light, still flourishing in youth, & no more subject to decay or old age, then the Angells are. Since then in the properties thereof, it comes so neere the nature of Spirits, of Angels, of God, mee thinkes they who dare accuse the heavens, as being guilty of decay and corruption in other res∣pects, should yet haue spared the light thereof. The more I wonder that men reverenced for their learning, & reputed lights of the Church, should by their writings goe about to quench or blemish this light. Vi∣dentur haud parum elanguisse minus{que} nitidi esse quam fuerant initio, saith * 1.69 one speaking of the heavenly bodies. They seeme to hame suffered not a little defect, and to haue lost of that brightnes, in which they were at first created. And another: Non est nunc illa claritas luminis, nec sunt illae stellarum vires quae fuerunt. There is not now that brightnes * 1.70 of the light, nor those vertues of the starres that haue beene. Ventu∣rous

assertions, and such I beleeue, as would haue pusled the Authours of them to haue made them good, specially considering that as there is nothing contrary to the Quintessentiall matter, and circular figure of the Heavens: So neither is there to the light thereof. Fire may bee quen∣ched with water, but there is nothing able to quench the light of Hea∣uen, saue the power of him that made it. Againe fire may bee extin∣guished by withdrawing or withholding the fewell vpon which it feedes: But the light of heaven hauing no matter by which it is nouri∣shed; there is no feare of the failing thereof thorow any such defect & for the matter of the Coelestiall spheres and starres, in which it is planted, it hath already sufficiently appeared, that it neither is, nor in the course of Nature can be subject to any impairing alteration: And so much Pare∣us himselfe hath vpon the matter confessed in two severall places in his Commentaries vpon the first of Genesis, whereof the first is this, * 1.71 speakeing of the firmament and the Epithetes of iron and brasse, given it in holy Scriptures, and by prophane Authours, Haec Epitheta, saith hee, Metaphoricè notant Coeli firmitatem, quia tot millibus annorum immutabili lege circumvoluitur, nec tamen atteritur motu aut absumitur, quia à Deo sic est firmatum initio. These Epithetes metaphorically signifie the firme∣nes & stablenes of heaven, because by an vnchangeable law it hath now wheeled about so many thousand yeares, and yet is it not wasted or worne by the motion thereof, because it is established by God. And againe within a while after, hee vseth almost the same wordes, firma∣mentum non dicitur de duritie aut soliditate, impermeabili, sed de firmitate quâ perpetuo motu circumactum coelum non atteritur, nec absumitur, sed ma∣net quale à Deo initio fuit firmatum. Nay a little before that last passage, diuiding the whole firmament or Expansum, containing all the Coele∣stiall Spheres and regions of the aire, into two parts; The higher, saith hee, (thereby intending the heavenly bodies) is purissima, & incorrup∣tibilis, & inalterabilis; most pure, incorruptible, and inalterable. Now if it should bee demaunded, how the Heaveus may bee said to languish, and to haue lost of their natiue brightnes, and yet still to remaine incor∣ruptible & inalterable, for mine owne part, I must professe, I cannot vn∣derstand it, nor know which way to reconcile it. A number of the like passages may bee observed in the writings of our latter Diuines: but I sparetheir names for the reverence I beare their gifts, and places, and persons, and so proceed.

SECT. 3. Heerevnto some other reasons are added, and the testimonie of Eugubinus vouched.

I Remember M^r. Camden reports, that at the demolition of our * 1.72 Monasteries, there was found in the supposed monument of Constan∣tius Chlorus, father to the Great Constantine, a burning Lampe which was thought to haue burnt there euer since his buriall, about three hun∣dredth yeares after Christ, and withall hee addes out of Lazius, that the ancient Romans vsed in that manner to preserue lights in their Se∣pulchres

a long time by the oylelinesse of Gold, resolved by Art into a liquid substance. Which if it bee so, how much more easie is it for the Father of lights to preserue those naturall lights of Heaven, which himselfe hath made without any diminution. In artificiall lights wee see, that if a thousand Candles bee all lighted from one, yet the light of the first is not thereby any whit abated, and why should wee then conceiue that the Sun by imparting his light so many thousand yeares, should loose any part thereof. They who mainetaine that the soule of man is derived ex traduce, hold withall that the Father in begetting the sonnes soule looses none of his owne, it being tanquam lumen de lumine, as one light from another, nay more then so, it is the very resemblance that the Nicene Fathers thought not vnmeete to expresse the vnexpressa∣ble generation of the second person in Trinity from the first, who is therefore tearmed by the Apostle, the brighnes of his glory. As then the Father by communicating his substance to his sonne, looses none of his * 1.73 owne, so the Sunne by communicating his light to the world, looses no part nor degree thereof. Some things there are of that nature, as they may bee both given and kept, as knowledge, and vertue, and happinesse, and light, which in holy Scripture is figuratiuely taken for them all. whether the same individuall light bee still resident in the body of the sunne, which was planted in it at the first Creation, or whether it conti∣nually empty and spend it selfe, and so like a riuer bee continually re∣paired with fresh supplies; for mine owne part I cannot certainely af∣firme, though I must confesse, I rather incline to the former: But this I verily beleeue, that as the body of the Sunne is no whit lessened in ex∣tention: So neither is the light thereof in intention: Men being now no more able to fixe their eyes vpon it, when it shines forth in its full strength, then they were at the first Creation thereof. I will conclude this chapter with that of Eugubinus in his tenth booke de Perenni Philo∣sophia. Futuri interitus, ac senescentiae aliqua jam indicia praecessissent, non constaret idem Sol, non eadem fulgoris esset plenitudo, idem radiorum vigor, haec igitur Senectus nusquam est. Had there beene in the heavens any such decay or waxing old, as is supposed, wee should haue seene some fore∣running tokens thereof: The Sunne would not haue beene like him∣selfe, hee would not haue retained the same fullnesse of brightnes, nor the same vigour in his beames: This old age then is no where to bee found. Where hee takes it as graunted, that none would bee so vnrea∣sonable, as to affirme that the strength and cleerenes of the light of hea∣ven is any way abated. Now what hath beene spoken of the light, may no lesse truely bee verified of the warmth and influence thereof, which spring therefrom, and now succeed in their order to bee examined.

CAP. 4. Touching the pretended decay in the warmth of the heavenly bodies.

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 * 1.74 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, * 1.75 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 * 1.76 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.

Neither were there wanting some among the ancient Philoso∣phers who maintained the same opinion, as Plato and Plyny, and general∣ly * 1.77 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 * 1.78 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 * 1.79 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

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 * 1.80 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 * 1.81 & 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

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 * 1.82 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.

It is the generall opinion of Moderne Astronomers, that the Sun in our time goeth not so far Southernly from vs in Winter, as it did in the time of Ptolomy and Hipparchus, neither in Summer commeth so much

Northernly towards vs, as then.

For Ptolemy (aboue ann. Christ. 140) observed the greatest declinati∣on of the Sunne from the Aequinoctiall towards either Pole 23. 51. 20. agreeable to the observations of Hipparchus 130 yeares before Christ, and of Eratosthenes before Hipparchus. Wherevpon Ptolemy thought the Sunnes greatest declination immutable.

But succeeding Ages haue observed a difference; for about Anno Christi 830. many learned Arabians obserued the greatest declinati∣on of the Sunne to bee 23. 35. to whom agreeth Albategnius, a Syri∣an, about an. Christ. 880. Yet did not Albategnius from hence con∣clude any mutation in the greatest declination of the Sunne; for so small a difference might well happen by errour of observations.

Afterwards about ann. Christ. 1070. Arzachel a Moore of Spaine, observed the greatest declination of the Sunne, 23. 33. 30. who to salue these different observations invented a new Hypothesis, which yet was not received by Astronomers of after times, who for many ages followed the greatest declination of Arzachel without any alteration till the times of Regiomontanus and Copernicus, for Copernicus by his ob∣servations some yeares before, and after ann. Christi 1520. affirmed, the greatest declination of the Sunne, to bee no more then 23. 28. 24. agreeable to the observations of Regiomontanus, and Peurbachius some yeares before him. Copernicus collating his observations with those of former ages, renewed the Hypothesis of Arzachel; that the Sunnes greatest declination was mutable; yet so that it was never greater then 23. 52. nor lesse then 23. 28. The difference being only 24. And that in 1717 yeares it decreaseth from the former to the latter; and in o∣ther 1717 yeares encreaseth from this to that againe.

According to which Hypothesis of Copernicus, aboue 65 yeares be∣fore Christ, the greatest declination of the Sunne was 23. 52. From which time accounting backewards, it was lesse and lesse; so that a∣bout 1782 yeares before Christ, the greatest declination of the Sunne, was but 23. 28. from which time accounting still backewards, it was more and more; till about 3499 yeares before Christ, it was againe 23. 52.

So after Christ, about the yeare 1652, the greatest declination of the Sunne by this Hypothesis shall bee but 23. 28. and from thence againe encrease till it become 23. 52. about the yeare 3369, after Christ. This opinion of Copernicus is received by most of this time, some following him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, others somewhat varying in the difference of the grea∣test declination, making it when it is least (as in our time) not lesse then 23, 30, and in the Periodicall restitution thereof.

But to speake freely, I cannot so easily bee drawne into this opini∣on, but rather thinke the greatest declination of the Sunne, to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, immutable, and for ever the same; For the little difference of a few minutes betwixt vs, and Ptolomy may very well arise (as I for∣merly said) from the errour of observations by the Ancients. The greatest declination of the Sunne from the Aequinoctiall towards either Pole, being alwaies the same; the Sunne cannot goe more Southernely

from vs, nor come more Northernly towards vs, in this, then in former ages.

But supposing a mutability in the Sunnes greatest declination, accor∣ding to the former Periods; it followeth that as the Sunne about 65 yeares before the Epoche of Christ went from our verticall point more Southernly then now it doth; So, many Ages before Christ, it went no more Southernly, then now it doth; and that many ages after our time, it shall goe as farre Southernly, as at the Epoche of Christ.

Secondly, when the greatest declination was most. As then in Winter the Sun went more Southernly from vs then now, so in Sum∣mer it came more Northernly and neerer vs, then now.

Againe, when the greatest declination is least, (as in our Age) it go∣eth not so farre Southernly from vs in Winter, as formerly, neither in Summer comes so farre Northernly.

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

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.

CAP. 5. Touching the pretended decay of the heavenly bodies, in regard of their Iufluences.

SECT. 1. Of the first kinde of influence, from the highest im∣moueable Heaven, called by Divines Coelum Empyraeum.

HOwbeit Aristotle thorow those workes of his, which are come to our hands, to my remembrance, hath not once vouchafed so much as to take notice of such qualities, which wee call Influen∣ences, and though among the Ancients Auerroes and Auicenne, and among those of fresher date Picus Mirandula, and Georgius Agricola * 1.83 seeke to disproue them: Yet both Scripture, and Reason, and the weigh∣ty authority of many great schollers aswell Christians as Ethnickes, haue fully resolved mee that such there are. They are by Philosophers distin∣guished into two rankes, the first is that influence which is derived from the Empyreall immoueable heaven, the pallace and Mansion house of Glorified Saints and Angells, which is gathered from the diversity of Effects, aswell in regard of Plants, as beasts, and other commodities vn∣der the same Climate, within the same Tract and latitude, equally di∣stant from both the Poles, which wee cannot well referre originally to the inbred nature of the soile, since the Authour of Nature, hath so or∣dained, that the temper of the inferiour bodies should ordinarily depēd vpon the superiour, nor yet to the Aspect of the moueable spheres and stars, since every part of the same Climate, successiuely, but equally injoyes the same aspect: It remaines then that these effects bee finally reduced to some superiour immoueable cause, which can be none other then that Em∣pyreall heaven; neither can it produce these effects by meanes of the light alone, which is vniformely dispersed thorow the whole, But by some secret quality, which is diversified according to the diverse parts thereof; and without this, wee should not onely finde wanting that connexion, and vnity of order, in the parts of the world, which make it so comely, but withall, should bee forced, to make one of the worthi∣est peeces thereof voyde of action, the chiefe end of euery created being. Neither can this action misbeseeme the worthinesse of so glori∣ous a peece, since both the Creator thereof, is still busied in the workes of Providence, and the Inhabitants in the workes of ministration. * 1.84

SECT. 2. Of the second kind, derived from the Planets and fixed starres.

THe other kind is that which is derived from the starres, the as∣pect of severall constellations, the opposition and conjunction of the Planets, & the like. These wee haue warranted by the mouth of God himselfe, in the thirty eight of Iob, according to our last, and * 1.85 most exact Translation; Canst thou binde the sweete influences of the Pleia∣des, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzoreth in his season? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sonnes? Knowest thou the or∣dinances of heaven? Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? where∣by the ordinances of heaven, it may well bee thought is meant the course and order of these hidden qualities, which without divine and supernatu∣rall revelation, can neuer perfectly bee knowne to any mortall crea∣ture.

Besides, as a wise man of late memory hath well and truly observed, it cannot bee doubted, but the starres are instruments of farre greater * 1.86 vse, then to giue an obscure light, and for men to gaze on after sunne set, it being manifest that the diuersity of seasons, the Winters & Sum∣mers, more hot or cold, more dry or wet, are not so vncertained by the Sunne and Moone alone, who alway keepe one & the same course, but that the stars haue also their working therein, as also in producing severall kindes of mettalls, and mineralls in the bowels of the earth, where neither light nor heat can pierce. For as heat peirces where light cannot, so the influence pierces where the heat cannot.

Moreouer if wee cannot deny, but that God hath given vertues to springs and fountaines, to cold earth, to plants, and stones, and mine∣ralls, nay to the very excrementall parts of the basest liuing creatures, why should wee robbe the beautifull starres, of their working powers? For seeing they are many in number, and of eminent beauty and magni∣tude, wee may not thinke that in the treasury of his wisedome, who is infinite, there can be wanting, euen for euery starre a peculiar vertue and operation: As euery hearbe, plant, fruite, and flower, adorning the face of the earth, hath the like. As then these were not created to beautifie the earth alone, or to couer and shadow her dusty face, but otherwise, for the vse of man and beast, to feede them and cure them: so were not those incomparablely glorious bodies set in the sirmament, to none o∣ther end then to adorne it, but for instruments and organs of his divine prouidence so farre as it hath pleased his just will to determine.

I'le ne'r beleeue that the Arch-Architect With all these fires the Heav'nly Arches deckt Onely for shew, and with these glistring shields T' amaze poore sheepheards watching in the fields. * 1.87 I'le ne'r beleeue that the least flower that pranks Our garden borders, or the common banks, And the least stone that in her warming lap

Our kind nurse Earth doth covetously wrap, Hath some peculiar vertue of it owne; And that the glorious Starres of Heau'n haue none: But shine in vaine, and haue no charge precise, But to be walking in Heau'ns Galleries, And through that Palace vp and downe to clamber, As golden Guls about a Princes Chamber.

But how farre it hath pleased the Divine Providence to determine of these influences, it is hard I confesse, to be determined by any humane wisedome.

SECT. 3. That the particular and vttermost efficacie of these in∣fluences cannot be fully comprehended by vs.

IF in the true and vttermost vertues of hearbs and plants, which our∣selues sow and set, and which grow vnder our feet, and wee dayly apply to our severall vses, we are notwithstanding in effect ignorant, much more in the powers and working of coelestiall bodies. For (as was sayd before) hardly do wee guesse aright, at things that are vpon the earth, and * 1.88 with labour do wee find the things that are before vs: but the things which are in heauen who hath searched out? It cannot well be denyed, but that they are not signes only, but at leastwise concurrent causes, of immoderate cold or heat, drought or moysture, lightning, thunder, raging winds, inundations, earthquakes and consequently of famine and pestilence, yet such crosse ac∣cidents, may and often do fall out, in the matter vpon which they worke, that the prognostication of these casuall events, euen by the most skilfull Astronomers is very vncertaine. And for the common Almanackes a man by observation shall easily find that the contrary to their predicti∣on is commonly truest.

Now for the things which rest in the liberty of mans will, the Starres haue doubtlesse no power over them, except it be lead by the sensitiue appetite, and that againe stirred vp by the constitution and complexion of the body, as too often it is, specially where the humours of the body are strong to assault, and the vertues of the minde weake to resist. If they haue dominion over Beastes, what should we judge of Men, who dif∣fer litle from Beasts, I cannot tell, but sure I am, that though the Starres incline a man to this or that course of life they do but incline, inforce they cannot: Education and reason, and most of all Religion, may alter and o∣ver-master that inclination, as they shall produce a cleane contrary ef∣fect. It was to this purpose a good and memorable speech of Cardinall Poole, who being certified, by one of his acquaintance, who professed * 1.89 knowledge of these secret favours of the starres, that he should be raysed and advanced to great calling in the world, made answer, that whatso∣ever was portended by the figure of his birth, •…•…or naturall generation, was cancelled and altered, by the grace of his second birth, or regeneration in the bloud of his Redemer.

Againe we may not forget that Almighty God created the starres, as he did the rest of the Vniversall, whose secret influences may be cal∣led his reserved and vnwritten Lawes, which by his Prerogatiue Royall he may either put in execution or dispence with at his owne pleasure. For were the strength of the Sarres such as God had quitted vnto them, all dominion over his Creatures, that petition of the Lords Prayer, Lead vs not into temptation, but deliver vs from evill, had been none other but a vaine expence of words and time. Nay be he Pagane or Christian that so beleeueth, the only true God of the one and the imaginary Gods of the other, would thereby be dispoyled, of all worship and reuerence and respect. As therefore I do not consent with them who would make those glorious Creatures of God vertulesse: so I think that we de∣rogate from his eternall and absolute power and providence to ascribe to them the same dominion over our immortall soules which they haue over our bodily substances, and perishable natures. For the soules of men louing and fearing God, receiue influence from that divine light it selfe, whereof the Suns clarity and that of the Sarres is by Plato called but a shadow, Lumen est vmbra Dei, & Deus est lumen luminis, Light is the shadow of Gods brightnesse, who is the light of light.

SECT. 4 That neither of these kindes of influences is decayed in ther benigne and favorable effects, but that curious inqui∣sition into them is to be forborne.

NOw then since the Immoveable Heaven by the confession of all that acknowledg it; is altogether inalterable, since the aspect of the fixed constellations, the conjunction and opposition of the Plannets, in the course of their revolutions, is still the same, and constant to it selfe; since for their number their quantity, their distance, their sub∣stance, th•…•…is motion, their light, and warmth, they are no whit impaired, why should wee make any doubt but that their influence is now likewise as sweet (as God in his conference with Iob teameth it,) as benigne, as * 1.90 gratious, as favorable, as ever in regard of the Elements, thee Plants, the beasts and man himselfe: and why should we not beleeue that education, reason and eeligion, are now as powerfull, as ever to correct and qualifie their vnlucky and maligne aspects, that the hand of God is no way shart∣ned, but that he is now as able as ever to controle and check his crea∣tures, and make them worke together for the best, to them that loue him: As * 1.91 he did sometime in this very case, for his chosen people: they fought from heaven, the starres in their courses fought against Sisera. Hee that set the Sun * 1.92 and Moone, at a stand in their walks, and commanded the shadow to re∣tire in the dyall of Ahaz, he that made a dry path through the red sea, musled the mouthes of thee Lyons, and restrained the violence of the fire, so as for a season it could not burne; hath he bound himselfe to the influetce of a Starre, that he cannot bind it vp or divert it, or alter it at his pleasure, and vpon the humble supplication of his servants? no,

no, Sanctus dominabitur astris: if according to Ptolomy the great Master of Iudiciary Astrology, wisedome and fore-sight ouer-rule the starres, then surely much more devotion and piety. If the Saints by their prayers commaund the Divels, and both shut and open Heauen for raine and drought, as did Elias, then may they aswell by vertue of the same pray∣er * 1.93 stoppe the influences of the starres, the instrumentall causes of drought & raine. Bee not dismaide then at the signes of heauen, for the Hea∣then be dismaide at them. And surely they in whom corrupt Nature * 1.94 swayes & raignes, haue much more reason to be dismaide at them, then others in whom Grace and the sence of Godlines prevailes. And whiles they feare many times they know not what, by meanes of their very feare they fall into that which they stand in feare of: feare being the be∣trayer of those succours which reason affords. Much noise there is at this pre∣sent, touching the late great Conjunction of Saturne & Iupiter, & many * 1.95 ominous conjectures are cast abroad vpon it, which if perchance they proue true, I should rather ascribe it to our sinnes then the starres, wee need not search the cause so far off, in the Booke of Heauen, we may find it written neerer at home in our own bosomes: And for the starres, I may say as our Saviour in the Gospell doth of the Sabboth, the stars were made for men, and not men for the starres. they were not created to governe, but to serue him; if he serue & be governed by his Creator; and if God be on our side, and we on his, Iupiter & Saturne shal neuer hurt vs; But whatsoeuer the force of the starrs be, vpon the persons of private men, or the states of weale-publiques, I should rather advise a modest ignorance therein, then a curious inquisition thereinto, following the witty & pithy counsel of Phavorinus the Philosopher in Gellius, where he thus speakes. Aut * 1.96 adversa eventura dicunt, aut prospera, si dicunt prospera & fallunt, miser fies frustrà expectando, si adversa dicunt & mentiuntur, miser fies frustrà timendo, si vera respondent, eaque sunt non prospera, jam indè ex animo miser fies ante∣quam è fato fias, si falicia promittunt eaque eventura sunt, tum planè duo e∣runt incommoea, & expectatio te spe suspensum fatigabit, & futurum gaudij fructum spes tibi defloraverit. Either they portend then bad or good luck, if good & they deceiue, thou wilt become miserable by a vaine expe∣ctation, if bad & they lye, thou wilt be miserable by a vaine feare; if they tell thee true, but vnfortunate events, thou wilt be miserable in mind before thou art by destiny; if they promise fortunate successe, which shall indeed come to passe, these two inconveniences will fol∣low therevpon, both expectation by hope will hold thee in suspence, & hope will deflowre & devoure the fruit of thy Content. His conclusion is, which is also mine both for this point, and this Chapter, & this dis∣course touching the Heavenly Bodies; Nullo igitur pacto vtendum est isti∣usmodi hominibus res futuras praesagientibus: we ought in no case to haue recourse to those kinde of men which vndertake the fore-telling of ca∣suall events, And so I passe from the consideration of the coelestiall bo∣dies to the subcoelestial, which by Gods ordinance depend vpon them, and are made subordinate vnto them; touching which & the coelestiall bodies both together, comparing each with other the Divine Bartas, thus sweetly and truly sings;

Things that consist of th'Elements vniting, Are euer tost with an intestiue fighting, * 1.97 Whence springs (in time) their life and their deceasing, Their diverse change, their waxing and decreasing: So that, of all that is, or may be seene With mortall eyes, vnder Nights horned Queene, Nothing reteineth the same forme and face, Hardly the halfe of halfe an houres space. But the Heau'ns feele not fates impartiall rigour, Yeares adde not to their stature nor their vigour: Vse weares them not; but their greene-euer age, Is all in all still like their pupillage.

CAP. 6. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in generall.

SECT. 1. That the Elements are still in number foure, and still retaine the ancient places and properties.

HAuing thus prooued at large, in the former Chapters touching the Heauens, that there neither is, nor in the course of Nature can be, any decay either in regard of their matter, their motion, their light, their warmth or influence, but that they all continue as they were euen to this day by Gods ordinance., it remaines that I now proceed to the con∣sideration * 1.98 of the sublunary bodies, that is, such as God & Nature hath pla∣ced vnder the Moone. Now the state of these inferiour, being guided and governed by the superiour, if the superiour be vnimpaireable, as hath beene shewed, it is a strong presumption, that the inferiour are likewise vnimpaired. For as in the wheeles of a Watch or clock, if the first be out of order, so are the second & third, & the rest that are moued by it: so if the higher bodies were impaired, it cannot bee but the lower depen∣ding vpon them, should tast thereof, as on the other side the one being not impaired, it is more then probable that the other partake with them in the same condition. Which dependance is well expressed by Boeshius, where hauing spoken of the constant regularity of the heauen∣ly bodies. he thus goes on.

Haec concordia temperat aequis Elementa modis, vt pugnantia * 1.99 Vicibus cedant humida siccis, Iungant{que} fidem frigora flammis, Pendulus ignis surgat in altum, Terraeque graves pondere sidant Iisdem causis vere tepenti Spirat florifer annus odores, Aestas Cererem fervida siccat,

Remeat pomis gravis autumnus, Hyemem defluus irrigat imber, Haec temperies alit & profert, Quicquid vitam spirat in orbe Eadem rapiens condit & aufert Obitu me•…•…gens orta supremo,

The concord tempers equally Contrary Elements, That moist things yeeld vnto the dry, And heat with cold consents; Hence fire to highest place doth flie, And Earth doth downward bend, And flowrie Spring perpetually Sweet odours forth doth send, Hote Summer harvest giues, and store Of fruit Autumnus yeelds, And showres which down from Heau'n doe powre, Each Winter drowne the fields: What euer in the world doth breath, This temper forth hath brought, And nourished: the same by death Againe it brings to nought.

Among the subcoelestiall bodies following Natures methode, I will first begin with the consideration of the Elements, the most simple and vni∣versall of them all, as being the Ingredients of all mixt bodies, either in whole or in part, and into which the mixt are finally resolued again, & are again by turnes remade of them, the common matter of them all still abiding the same.

Heere's nothing constant, nothing still doth stay; * 1.100 For birth and death haue still successiue sway: Here one thing springs not till another dye Onely the matter liues immortally. Th'Almightie's table, body of this All, (Of changefull chances common Arcenall, All like it selfe, all in it selfe contained, Which by times flight hath neither lost nor gained) Changelesse in essence, changeable in face, Much more then Proteus or the subtill race Of roving Polypes, who (to rob the more) Transforme them hourely on the wauing shore: Much like the French, (or like our selues their apes) Who with strange habit doe disguise their shapes. Who louing novels full of affectation, Receiue the manners of each other Nation.

By consent of Antiquity they are in number foure, the Fire, the Aire, the Water, and the Earth.

Quatuor aeternus genitalia corpora mundus Continet: ex illis duo sunt onerosa, suoque

Pondere in inferius tellus, atque vnda feruntur: Et totidem gravitate carent: nulloque premente Alta petunt aer, atque aere purior ignis. Quae quamquam spatio distant; tamen omnia fiunt Et ipsis, & in ipsa cadunt.

Foure bodies primitiue the world still containes Of which, two downeward bend the earth and watery plaines, As many weight doe want and nothing forcing, higher They mount, th' aire and purer streames of fire Which though they distant bee, yet all things from them take Their birth, and into them their last returnes doe make.

Three of them shew themselues manifestly in mixt, the butter beeing the Aieriall part thereof, the whey the watery, and the cheese the earth∣ly: but all foure in the burning of greene wood, the flame being fire; the smoke, the aire; the liquor distilling at the ends, the water; and the ashes, the earth. Philosophy likewise by reason, teaches and proues the same, from their motion vpward and downeward, from their second qua∣lities, of lightnes and heauines, and from their first qualities, either a∣ctiue, as heat and cold, or passiue, as dry and moist. For as their motion proceeds from their second qualities, so doe their second from the first, & their first from the heauenly bodies, next to which, as being the noblest of them all, as well in puritie as activity, is seated the Element of the fire, (though many of the Ancients, and some latter writers, as namely Cardane, among the rest seeme to make a doubt of it)

Ignis ad aethereas volucer se sustulit aur as * 1.101 Summaque complexus stellantis culmina Coeli, Flammarum vallo naturae moenia fecit.

The fire eftsoones vp towards heaven did stie, And compassing the starrie world, advanced A wall of flames, to safeguard nature by.

Next the fire, is seated the aire, divided into three regions, next the aire the water, and next the water the earth.

Who so (sometime) hath seene rich Ingots tride, When forc't by fire their treasure they devide (How faire and softly gold to gold doth passe, * 1.102 Silver seekes silver, brasse consorts with brasse; And the whole lumpe, of parts vnequall, severs It selfe apart, in white, red, yellow rivers) May vnderstand how, when the mouth divine Op'ned (to each his proper place t'assigne) Fire flew to fire, water to water slid, Aire clung to aire, and earth with earth abid.

The vaile both of the Tabernacle and Temple, were made of blew, and * 1.103 purple, and scarlet, or crimson, and fine twisted linnen: by which foure, as Iosephus noteth, were represented the foure elements; his wordes are these: Velum hoc erat Babylonium variegatum, ex hya•…•…intho, & bysso, cocco∣que & purpura, mirabiliter elaboratum, non indignam contemplatione mate∣riae commistionem habens, sed velut omnium imaginem praeferens; Cocco enim

videbatur ignem imitari, & bysso terram, & hyacintho aerem, ac mare pur∣pura, partim quidem coloribus, bysso autem & purpura origine, bysso quidem quia de terra, mare autem purpuram gignit, The vaile was Babylonish worke, most artificially imbrodered, with blue, and fine linnen, and scarlet, and purple, hauing in it a mixture of things, not vnworthy our consideration, but carrying a kinde of resemblance of the Vniver∣sall; for by the scarlet, seemed the fire to be represented; by the linnen, the earth; by the blew, the aire; and by the purple, the sea, partly by rea∣son of the colours of scarlet and blue, and partly by reason of the ori∣ginall of linnen and purple, the one comming from the earth, the other from the sea. And S. Hierome in his epistle to Fabiola, hath the very * 1.104 same conceite, borrowed, as it seemes, from Iosephus, or from Philo, who hath much to like purpose, in his third booke of the life of Moses: or it may be from that in the eighteenth of the booke of Wisedome, In the * 1.105 long robe was the whole world: As not only the vulgar lattin, and Arias Montanus, but out of them and the Greeke originall, our last English Translation reades it.

The fire is dry and hot, the aire hot and moist, the water moist and cold, the earth cold and dry: thus are they linked, and thus embrace they one another with their symbolizing qualities, the earth being lin∣ked to the water by coldnes, the water to the aire by moistnes, the aire to the fire by warmth, the fire to the earth by drought: which are all the combinations of the qualities that possiblely can bee; hot & cold, as also dry and moist, in the highest degrees, beeing altogether incompa∣tible in the same subject: And though the earth & the fire bee most opposite in distance, in substance, & in activity; yet they agree in one qua∣lity, the two middle being therein directly contrary to the two ex∣treames, aire to earth, and water to fire.

Water, as arm'd with moisture and with cold, The cold-dry earth with her one hand doth hold; With th' other th' aire: The aire as moist and warme, Holds fire with one; water with th' other arme: * 1.106 As countrie-maidens, in the moneth of May, Merrily sporting on a holy-day And lusty dancing of a liuely round About the May-pole, by the Bag-pipes sound; Hold hand in hand, so that the first is fast (By meanes of those betweene) vnto the last. But all the linkes of th' holy chaine which tethers The many members of the world togethers, Are such, as none but onely hee can breake them Who at the first did (of meere nothing) make them.

SECT. 2. That the Elements still hold the same propor∣tions each to other, and by mutuall ex∣change the same dimensions in themselues.

THese foure then, as they were from the beginning, so still they remaine the radicall and fundamentall principles of all subcoe∣lestiall bodies, distinguished by their severall and ancient Situa∣tions, properties, actions, and effects, and howsoeuer after their old wont they fight and combate together, beeing single; yet in composition they still accord marueilous well.

Tu numeris elementa ligas; vt frigora flammis, Arida conveniant liquidis, ne purior ignis Euolet, aut mersas deducant pondera terras. * 1.107

To numbers thou the elements doest tie That cold with heat may symbolize, and drie With moist, least purer fire should sore too high, And earth through too much weight too low should lie.

The Creator of them, hath bound them, as it were, to their good beha∣viour, and made them in euery mixt body to stoope and obey one pre-dominant, whose sway and conduct they willingly follow. The aire being predominant in some, as in oyle, which alwaies swimmes on the toppe of all other liquors; and the earth in others, which alwaies ga∣ther as neere the Center as possiblely they can. And as in these, they vary not a jot from their natiue and wonted properties, so neither doe they in their other conditions. It is still true of them, that nec gravi∣tant nec levitant in suis locis, there is no sense of their weight or lightnes in their proper places, as appeares by this, that a man lying in the bot∣tome of the deepest Ocean, he feeles no burden from the weight there∣of: The fire still serues to warme vs as it did, the aire to maintaine our breathing, the water to clense and refresh vs, the earth to feede and sup∣port vs, and which of them is most necessary for our vse is hard to de∣termine: Likewise they still hold the same proportion one toward a∣nother, as formerly they haue done: For howbeit the Peripatetikes, pretending heerein the Authority of their M^r Aristotle, tell vs that as * 1.108 they rise one aboue another in situation, so they exceede one another, proportione decupla, by a tenne-fold proportion, yet is this doubtles a foule errour, or at least-wise a grosse mistake, whether wee regard their entire bodies, or their parts; If their entire bodies, it is certaine that the earth exceedes both the water and the aire by many degrees: The depth of the waters, not exceeding two or three miles, & for the most part not aboue halfe a mile, as Marriners finde by their line and plum∣met, whereas the diameter of the earth, as Mathematicians demonstrate, exceedes seven thousand miles. And for the aire, taking the height of * 1.109 it from the place of the ordinary Comets, it containes by estimation about fiftie two miles, as Nonius, Vitellio, and Allhazen shew by Geo∣metricall

proofes. Whence it plainly appeares that there cannot be that proportion betwixt the intire Bodies of the Elements which is pteten∣ded, nor at any time was since their Creation. And for their parts, 'tis as cleare by experience, that out of a few drops of water may be made so much aire as shall exceed them fiuehundred or a thousand times atleast

But whatsoeuer their proportion be, it is certain that notwithstanding their continuall transmutation, or transelementation, as I may so call it, of one into another, yet by a mutuall retribution it still remaines the same that in former ages it hath beene, as I haue already shewed more at large in a former Chapter: & Philo most elegantly expresseth, Egregia * 1.110 quidem est in elementis quaternarum virium compensatio, aequalibus, justisque regulis ac terminis vices suas dispensantium: sicut enim anni circulus quater∣nis vicibus distinguitur, alijs partibus post alias succedentibus, & per ambitus eosdem vsque recurrente tempore: pari modo & elementa mundi vicissim sibi succedentia mutantur, & quod diceres incridibile, dum mori videntur, reddun∣tur immortalia, iterum atque iterum metiendo idem stadium, & sursum atque deorsum per eandem viam cursitando continuè, à terra enim acclivis via inci∣pit, quae liquescens in aquam mutatur, aquaporrò evaperat in aerem, aer in ig∣nem extenuatur, ac declivis altera deorsum tendit à Capite, igne per extinctio∣nem subsidente in aerem, aere verò in aquam se densante, aquae verò liquore in terram crassescente. There is in the Elements a notable compensation of their fourefold qualities, dispencing themselues by euen turnes and just measures. For as the circle of the yeare is distinguished by foure quar∣ters, one succeeding another, the time running about by equall distan∣ces: in like manner the foure Elements of the World by a reciprocall vicissitude succeed one another: & which a man would thinke incredi∣ble, while they seeme to dye, they become immortall running the same race, and incessantly travailing vp and downe by the same path. From the Earth the way riseth vpward, it dissolving into water, the water va∣pors forth into aire, the aire is rarified into fire; again they descēd down ward the same way, the fire by quēching being turnedinto aire, the aire thickned into water, & the water into earth. Hitherto Philo, wherein af∣ter his vsuall wont he Platonizes, the same being in effect to be found in Platoes Timaeus, as also in Aristotles booke de Mundo, if it be his, in Damas∣cene, * 1.111 and Gregory Nyssen. And most elegantly the wittiest of Poets.

—resolutaque tellus In liquidas rarescit aquas tenuatur in auras, Aeraque humor habet dempto quoque pondere rursus In superos aer tenuissimus emicat ignes. Inde retrò redeunt: idemque retexitur ordo Ignis enim densum spissatus in aera transit Hinc in aquas tellus glomeratâ cogitur vndâ.

The Earth resolu'd is turned into streames, Water to aire, the purer aire to flames: From thence they back returne, the fiery flakes Are turn'd to aire, the aire thickned, takes The liquid forme of water, & that earth makes.

The foure Elements herein resembling an instrument of Musicke with

foure strings, which may bee tuned diverse wayes, and yet the harmony still remaines sweet, and so are they compared in the booke of Wisdome, * 1.112 The Elements agreed among themselues in this change, as when one tune is changed vpon an instrument of Musick, and the melody still remaineth.

Sith then the knot of sacred marriage, Which joynes the Elements, from age to age * 1.113 Brings forth the worlds babes: sith their enmities, With fel divorce, kill whatsoeuer dies: And sith but changing their degree and place, They frame the various formes, wherewith the face Of this faire world is so imbellished, As six sweet notes, curiously varied In skilfull musick, make a hundred kindes Of heau'nly sounds, that ravish hardest mindes; And with division (of a choice device) The Hearers soules out at their eares entice: Or as of twice-twelue letters thus transpos'd, This world of words is variously compos'd, And of these words, in diverse order sowen, This sacred volume that you read is growen. Who so hath seene, how one warme lump of waxe (Without increasing or decreasing) takes A hundred figures, well may judge of all Th'incessant changes of this neather ball: Yet thinke not that this changing oft remises Ought into nought: it but the forme disguises In hundred fashions, and the substances Inly, or outly, neither win nor leese. For all that's made, is made of the first matter Which in th'old nothing made the All-Creator. All that dissolues, resolues into the same, Since first the Lord, of nothing made this frame: Nought's made of nought, and nothing turnes to nothing, Things birth or death change but their formall clothing: Their formes doe vanish, but their bodies bide, Now thick, now thin, now round, now short, now side▪

Vtque novis facilis signatur Cera figuris, Nec manet vt fuerat, nec formam servat eandem, Sed tamen ipsa eadem est.

They be the verses of Ovid in the 15 of the Met. but may well be ren∣dred by those of Bartas touching seuerall prints stamped vpon the same lumpe of waxe.

SECT. 3. An objection drawne from the continuall mix∣ture of the Elements each with other answered.

THus then we see that the Elements are stil the same, no way impai∣red in regard of their portions or proportions: neither doe I find any objection against this of any moment or worthy our notice: Let vs now examine whether or no they be impaired in their qualities, for which I haue often heard it alleadged, that their frequent interchange, their continuall blending and mixing together now for the space of so many thousand yeares, cannot in reason but much haue altered their inbred vigour and originall constitution, as Ilanders, & in them specially their maritine parts are thought by Aristotle, & cōmonly by experience are found to be most tainted in their manners, by reason that lying o∣pen to trade, they draw on the commerce & intercourse of sundry for∣raine Nations, who by long conversation, debauch them in regard of their Customes, their language, their habite & naturall disposition. But this allegation is in truth a bare and naked supposition. For though it bee true that such a continuall traffique and inter-change there is betwixt the Elements, yet doth it not therefore follow that their qualities should thereby degenerate, or become more impure, inasmuch as that impuri∣ty which by intercourse they haue contracted, by perpetuall agitati∣on they purge out againe, and by continuall generation each out of o∣ther renew their parts, and so by degrees returne to their former estate and purity, Againe, for the fire, if we consider it in it's own spheare, (though as the rest of the Elements, it be indeed subject to a successiue generation & corruption, in regard of the parts thereof) yet is it alwaies most pure, which is the reason that it neither can be seene, as fiery Mete∣ors are, neither can any creature either breed or liue in it. And as for the Aire, Water, and Earth, if they were pure, it is certaine they could not be so serviceable as they are. If the Aire were pure, neither men, nor birds, nor beasts could breath in it, as S. Augustin reports of the hill Olym∣pus, Perhibetur in Olympi vertice aer esse tam tenuis vt neque sustentare alites * 1.114 possit, neque ipsos qui fortè ascenderint homines, crassioris aurae spiritu alere si∣cut in isto aere consueverunt: It is said that vpon the top of the hill Olym∣pus, the aire is so thin & pure, that it can neither beare vp the birds that offer to flye in it, nor be vsefull for the breathing of men, if any come thither, being vsed to thicker ayre. Neither could any Meteors, did it still continue pure, be bred in it: as raine & snow & dewes and frosts and the like, which notwithstanding are many wayes commodious and profi∣table for the vse of all liuing creatures, so as they could not liue without them. And for the water if it were pure, it could neither feed the fishes nor beare vp vessels of burden. As likewise if the earth were pure, it would be altogether Barren, and fruitlesse, like sand or ashes, not able to nourish the plants that hang vpon the breasts of it. The Elements then being ordeined for the ornament of the world, but cheifely to serue

the mixt bodies, there is nothing lost, but much gained to the whole, by the losse of their purity, nay the restitution and recovery thereof (if so they were created) would vndoubtedly proue the vtter vndoing of the whole, as the vntainted virginity of either sexe would of the race of mankind; yet for farther satisfaction, it shall not be amisse to consider these three asunder, in reference to the mixt bodies, the ayer I meane, the water and the earth, that so it may appeare whether the ayre be decayed in it's temper, the water in it's goodnesse and vertue, the earth in it's fatnesse and fruitfullnesse.

CAP. 7. Touching the pretended decay of the ayre, in regard of the temper thereof.

SECT. 1. Of excessiue drought and cold in former ages and that in forraine Countreyes

THat the ayre is not distempered, more then in former ages, will as I conceiue appeare by this, that vnseasonable weather, for exces∣siue heate and cold, or immoderate drought and raine, thunder and lightning, frost and snow, haile & windes, yea & contagious sicknesses, pestilenti∣all, Epidemicall diseases, arising from the infection of the ayre, by noysome mistes and vapoures, to which we may adde, earthquakes, burning in the bowels of the earth, blazing Comets, & the like, were as frequent, if not more, in former ages, then in latter times, as will easily appeare to such who please to looke either into the Generall history of the world at large, or the severall Cronicles of particular nations. Such burning like that of Phaeton, such floods like that of Ogyges and Deucalion recorded by Orosius, Pliny, S. Augustine, & Varro, the world hath not felt or knowne since those times. To like purpose I remember Iustus Lypsius a man rather partiall for Antiquity then for the present age, hath written an Epistle vpon occasion of a great drought which happened in the yeare * 1.115 one thousand six hundred and one, and lasted by the space of aboue foure moneths, to which he makes his entrance, Non tamen nimis insolens aut nova, et si nobis sic visa. It is no new or vnusall thing, though to vs so it seeme: wherevpon he produceth sundry instances for excessiue heate and drought in former ages aswell from the Romaine history, as the Germaine Annales. Among which the most remarkable, are that in the yeare one thousand two hundred twenty eight, the heate was such, that their harvest was fully ended before Midsommer, or to speake in his words, before the Festivall of S. Iohn the Baptist, which we commonly call Midsomer day. And againe two yeares after, in the moneths of Iuly, & August, it continued so fervently hot that men rosted egges in the sand.

And least wee should think that their immoderate cold, was not answe∣rable

to their heate, he goes on and tels vs that in the reigne of Lewis son to Charlemaigne, in the yeare eight hundred twenty one, the winter was so long and sharpe that not only small brookes and streames, but the Rheine, Danubius, Albis, the Seene, and generally all the great rivers both of France and Germany were so hard frozen that for the space of thirty dayes or more, Loaden Carts passed over them, as it had beene vpon Bridges.

Vndaque jam tergo ferratos sustinet orbes, * 1.116 Puppibus illa prius, patulis nunc hospita plaustris. The river on it's backe now iron wheeles sustaines, And what did ships ere while, now Wagons entertaines.

But in the yeare one thousand eighty six, the winter continued so bitter that from S. Martyns day, which is the Eleventh of November, to the first of Aprill, the Rheine was passible on foote. And for vnseasonable cold, in regard of the time of the yeare, hee reports out of Hermannus Contractus, that in the yeare one thousand sixty three, in the midst of A∣prill for the space of fower dayes the weather was so cruell with raging windes and abundance of snow that it kild their Cattle and birds and de∣stroyed their vines and trees. And lastly he vouches out of Robertus de Monte that in the yeare one thousand one hundred twenty fiue, it was so sore and byting a winter, that innumerable Eeles by reason of the long continuance of the Ice, came creeping out of the ditches & hiding them∣selues in the meddowes, were there found dead, and rotten by the the wonderfull excesse of Cold, & vpon the trees scarce appeared there any leaues till the moneth of May: his Conclusion is, Quorsum ego ista? vt opinio illa novitatis eximatur, quae malè in omni dolore aut querela blandi∣tur, nunquam tale, nemini tantum: nugae et plebeii sermones, quos historiae refu∣tent & seriò lectae, hunc quoque Constantiae fructum in animo gignant. But now to what end are these examples alleadged by me? Surely to no o∣ther purpose but to worke out of mens mindes that opinion of novelty and strangenesse, wherewith we vsually flatter our selues in our griefe and complaintes, never was the like, no age ever saw or felt it, in such a measure: Trifling speeches, beseeming the vulgar, but confuted by hi∣story, which being accuratly read, may serue to arme vs with constancy against these and the like accidents.

I thinke wee shall hardly reade or heare of a sharper frost in latter a∣ges, then that which Ovid mentions, in the place whither hee was ba∣nished, at his beeing there.

Nudaque consistunt formam servantia testae Vina, nec hausta meri sed data frusta bibunt. * 1.117 Bare wines still keeping forme of Caske stand fast, Not gulpes, but gobbets of their wine they tast.

Agreeable wherevnto is that of Virgill,

Caedunt{que} securibus humida vina, * 1.118 And liquid wines with axes doe they cleaue.

Serres in the life of Francis the first reports, that at the siege of Luxen∣buge, in the yeare 1543, the weather was so cold, that the provant wine ordained for the armie being frozen, was divided with hatches, and

by the souldiers carried away in baskets. And Tacitus speaking of the * 1.119 Romanes warre in Armenia, tells vs that the winter was so sharpe, and the earth so long couered with yce, that they could not pitch their tents, vnlesse they had first digged the ground; many of their limmes grew starke with extremitie of cold, and many died in keeping the watch, and there was a souldier noted carrying a fagot, whose hands were so stiffe frozen, that sticking to his burthen, they fell from him as though they had beene cut from his armes.

SECT. 2. Of excessiue draugh & cold and raine in for∣mer ages heere at home, and of the com mon complaint of vnseasonable weather in all ages, together with the reason thereof.

ANd if wee looke neerer home, wee shall find that in the yeare one thousand one hundred & fourteene, in the fourteenth yeare of King Henry the first, the riuer of Thames was dryed vp, & such * 1.120 want of water there, that betweene the Tower of London & the bridge, and vnder the bridge it selfe, that not onely horse, but a great number of men women and children, did daily wade ouer on foote. And for excessiue and vnseasonable frosts, raine, snow, haile, windes & the like our stories are full, specially Stowes Chronicles: & many of them were so im∣moderate, as wee haue had none of latter times comparable there∣vnto.

Is is true indeede that in generall, all Ilands, and ours I beeleeue, a∣boue any other in the world, is subject to such vncertainety of weather, that many times wee can hardly distinguish Christmas from Mid-sum∣mer, but onely by the length of daies: So warme it is at Christmas, & a∣gaine so stormy & cold at Mid-summer. And for raine, thorow the yeare, I thinke, wee haue more then any where vpon the Continent: So that I may justly call our Iland Matulam Planetarum, the Vrinall of the Planets. I will giue one instance for all: In the two and twentieth yeare of Edward the third, from Midsummer to Christmasse, for the more part, * 1.121 it continually rain'd: so that there was not one day and night dry toge∣ther. But this I take to bee, specially for that it is environed by the Sea, & withall stands so farre to the Northwest. Since then it is still si∣tuate where it was, it is likely that the aire was heere for the most part, tempered or distempered in former ages, as now it is: Yet I know the complaint is common, that our summers by reason of cold and moist, are not so kindely as they haue beene:

Sternuntur segetes & deplorata colonis Votajacent, longique perit labor irritus anni:

The corne lies down, the plow-man doth complaine, His hopes are voide, & toiling all the yeare, Hee onely hath his labour for his paine.

Neither will I altogether deny it, it may bee God hath a quarrell to vs for our sinnes, or seekes by this chastisement to draw vs neerer to him∣selfe: But what is this to the vniversall decay of Nature? doubtlesse the same complaint hath still beene in the times of our Fathers, & Grand∣fathers, and Great Grandfathers, and so vpward in regard of the Genera∣tions before them. Nonne quotidie hoc murmuratis, & hoc dicitis, quam * 1.122 diu ista patimur! quotidie peiora & peiora: apud parentes nostros fuerunt dies laetiores, fuerunt dies meliores. O si interrogares ipsos parentes tuos, similiter tibi de diebus suis murmurarent: Fuerunt beati Patres nostri, nos miseri su∣mus; malos dies habemus; Doe you not daily murmurre and thus say, how long shall wee suffer these things! All things grow worse & worse; Our Fathers saw better & merrier dayes: But I wish thou would'st aske the question of thy Fathers, & thou shalt finde them murmurre likewise in regard of their daies: saying, Oh our Fathers were happy, wee miserable: wee see nothing but badde dayes. But had this com∣plaint beene as true as ancient, as just as vsuall in all ages, wee had not beene left at this day to renue it: wee should by this time haue had no weather to ripen our corne or fruites, in any tollerable manner. For my selfe then, mine opinion is, that men for the most part, being most affe∣cted with the present, more sensible of punishments then of blessings, & growing in worldly cares, & consequently in discontent, as they grow in yeares and experience, they are thereby more apt to appre∣hend crosses then comforts, to repine & murmurre for the one, then to returne thankes for the other. Whence it comes to passe that vnsea∣sonable weather, & the like crosse accidents, are printed in our memo∣ries, as it were with red letters in an Almanacke: but for seasonable & faire, there stands nothing but a blanke: the one graven in is brasse, the other written in water.

SECT. 3. Of contagious diseases, and specially the plague, both heere at home and a∣broad, in former ages.

NOW for contagious diseases, & specially the plague it selfe, it is well known, that this land hath now by Gods favour been in a man∣nerall together * 1.123 free from it since the first yeare of his Majesties raigne: whereas heretofore it hath commonly every seaven or eight yeares at farthest spread it selfe through the greatest part of the land, and swept away many thousands in the yeare one thousand three hun∣dred forty eight, it was so hot in Wallingford a Towne of Barkeshire, that in a manner it dispeopled the Towne, reducing their twelue Churches to one or two which they now only retaine. In Lon∣don * 1.124 it had so sharpe and quick an edge, and mowed downe such multi∣tudes that within the space of twelue moneths, there were buried in one Churchyard commonly called the Cistersians, or Charterhouse, aboue * 1.125 fifty thousand. They writ further, that through the kingdome it made such a ravage, as it tooke away more then halfe of men, Church-yards * 1.126

could not suffice to burie the dead, new grounds are purchased for that purpose: And it is noted, that there died, onely in London betweene the first of Ianuary and the first of Iuly 57374. Other Citties and townes suffering the like, according to their portions: The earth being every where filled with graues, and the aire with cries. In the tenth yeare likewise of Edward the second, there was so great a pestilence, and ge∣nerall sickenesse of the common sort, caused by the ill nutriment they * 1.127 receiued, as the liuing scaree sufficed to bury the dead.

Now if wee cast our eyes abroad vnder the Emperours Vibius Gallus, & Volutianus his son, about two hundred & fiftie yeares after Christ, * 1.128 there arose a plague in Ethiopia, which by degrees spread it selfe into all the provinces of the Romane Empire, and lasted by the space of fit∣teene yeares together, without any intermission; and so great was the mortallity, that in Alexandria, as Dyonisius himselfe, at that very time Bi∣shop of that sea reports it, there was not one house of the whole citty * 1.129 free, & the whole remainder of the inhabitants did not equall the number of old men in former times: By meanes whereof S. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, who liued in the same age, tooke occasion to write, that his excellent Treatise de Mortalitate: And Lypsius his censure of this pestilence is, Non alia vnquam maior lues mihi lecta, spatio temporum * 1.130 siue terrarum: I neuer read of a more greivous contagion, whether wee regard the long lasting or the large spreading thereof: Yet was that certainely for the time more impetuous and outragious vnder Iustinian, the fiercenes whereof was such that onely in Constantinople and the pla∣ces neere adjoyning therevnto, it cut off at least fiue thousand, & some∣times tenne thousand persons in one day: Which my selfe should hard∣ly bee drawne, either to report or to beleeue, but that I finde it recor∣ded by faithfull Historiographers of those times. Neither lesse won∣derfull * 1.131 was that pestilence in Africa, which snatcht away onely in Nu∣midia, Octingenta hominum millia, saith Orosius, eight hundred thousand men. Or that vnder Michael Duca in Greece, which was so sharpe and violent, Vt viui prorsus pares non essent mortais sepeliendis, they bee the words of Zonaras, the liuing were no way sufficient to burie the dead. But that which scourged Italy in Petrarches time, in the yeare one thou∣sand * 1.132 three hundred fiftie nine, as himselfe relates it, in my minde ex∣ceedes all hitherto spoken of, there being scarely left aliue tenne ofa thousand thorow the whole countrey. Whereby the way I cannot let passe, that vnder David, though by most Diuines held to bee superna∣turall * 1.133 and miraculous, in which there died of the people seuenty thou∣sand men within the space of three dayes.

Now for other infectious •…•…idemicall diseases in former ages, Pasquier assignes a whole chapter to them, which hee thus intitles, Des maladies qui ont seulement vnifois Cours par La disposition de L' air. Of those disea∣ses * 1.134 which haue but once had their course through the distemper of the aire. Heere with vs, wee haue not heard of late dayes of any such dis∣eases, as the shaking of the sheetes, or the sweating sickenesse, touching which, it is very memorable that M^r Camdem hath deliuered in his des∣cription of Shrewesbury; as for the cause thereof, saith hee, let others

search it out, for my own part I haue obserued, that this malady hath run through England thrise in the ages afore-going, & yet I doubt not but long before also it did the like, although it were not recorded in wri∣ting. First in the yeare of our Lord 1485, in which King Henry the se∣venth first began his raigne, a little after the great Coniunction of the su∣periour Planets in Scorpio. A second time yet more mildly, although the Plague accompanied it in the 33^d yeare after, Anno 1518, vpon a great opposition of the same Planets in Scorpio & Taurus, at which time it pla∣gued the Netherlands and high Almany also. Last of all 33 yeares after that againe in the yeare 1551, when another Coniunction of those Pla∣nets in Scorpio tooke their effects: so that by Gods goodnes for the space now of these last seuenty three yeares wee haue not felt that disease. Twise thirty three yeares & more, and the same Coniunction and opposi∣tion of the Planets haue passed ouer, & yet it hath not touched vs. In the 31 yeare of King Henry the first, a terrible murraine of cattell spred through the whole kingdome, in so much as whole sties of hogs, and whole stalls of oxen were euery-where suddenly emptied, & it conti∣nued so long, vt nulla omninò huius regni villa huius miscriae immunis alte∣rius incommoda ridere posset, (saith Malmesburiensis) so as no one village was so free from this misery that it could laugh at the mishap of o∣thers. * 1.135

Now adayes we heare not of so frequent, of such fowle & fretting kindes of Leprosies any-where in the World as were anciently among the Iewes, they had the Leprosie of the skin, of the fl•…•…sh, of the scab, of the * 1.136 running sore, of the haire, of the head, and beard: their garments both lin∣nen & wollen were infected with it, so as sometimes it increased and spread it selfe in the very garment, though separared from the body of * 1.137 the diseased. Nay which is more strange, the wals of their houses were not free from it: it tainted the very stones & the morter with greenish & reddish spots, so as they were forced sometimes to plucke downe a part of the House, sometimes the whole, when no other meanes was found * 1.138 to cleanse it. Now their great multitudes of Lepers appeares in this, that they had so many, and so solemne lawes for their tryall; for their clean∣sing, & for the shutting of them vp without the campe. And though we may well conceiue that some of them were stricken with this disease immediatly by the finger of God, as a 1.139 Myriam, Moses sister for her mur∣muring, b 1.140 Gehazi for his bribery, c 1.141 Azariah for his backwardnes in re∣formation of Religion, d 1.142 Vzziah for his presumptuous forwardnes in ta∣king vpon him the Priests office, yet those foure that sate together expe∣cting the charity of Passengers at the gate of e 1.143 Samaria, & those ten that our f 1.144 Saviour healed at once, shew that the number of their ordinary Le∣pers was very great.

Lastly, none can be ignorant, that the sicknesse which wee call the French disease, they the Neapolitane, and the Neapolitanes the Indian, (be∣cause we borrowed it from the French, they from the Spaniards at Na∣ples, and they againe from the Indians) is neither so catching, nor so vi∣rulent, not so contagious, nor so dangerous, as in former times it hath beene.

SECT. 4. Of earthquakes in former ages, and their terrible effects liuely descri∣bed by Seneca.

TO the pestilences and other contagious diseases of former ages may be added the Earthquakes arising likewise from the distem∣per of the aire, though in another kind. Of these we haue heard little in these latter times, or at leastwise they haue beene nothing so frequent & fearefull as in the dayes of our more ancient predecessors, in so much as they chiefly gaue occasion to the composing of that Le∣tany, and therein to the petition against suddaine death, which by pub∣lique authority is vsed through the Christian Church at this day by the force of Earthquakes contrary to the Proverbe, Mountaines haue met; * 1.145 The Citty of Antioch where the Disciples of Christ were first called Christians, with a great part of Asia bordering vpon it, was in Traianes time swallowed vp with an Earthquake, as writeth Dion, reporting very * 1.146 marvailous things thereof. By the same meanes at one time were twelue * 1.147 famous Citties of Asia ouer-turned vnder the reigne of Tiberius. And at an other time as many townes of Campania vnder Constantine. And of the dreadfulnes of this accident, aboue the pestilence or any other inci∣dent to mankind, Seneca excellcntly discourses in the sixth book of his * 1.148 Naturall questions: Hostem muro repellam, saith hee, praeruptae altitudinis. Ca∣stella, vel magnos exercitus, difficultate aditus morabuntur, à tempestate nos vindicant portus, nimborum vim effusam & sine fine cadentes aquas tecta pro∣pellunt, fugientes non sequitur incendium, adversus tonitrua & minas Coeli subterraneae domus & defossi iu altum specus remedia sunt, ignis ille coelestis non transverberat terram, sed exiguo ejus objectu retunditur, in pestilentia mu∣tare sedes licet, nullum malum sine effugio est, nunquam fulmina populos percus∣serunt, pestilens coelum exhausit vrbes non abstulit; hoc malum latissimè patet, inevitabile, avidum, publicè noxium, non enim domus solùm & familias, aut vrbes singulas haurit, sed gentes totas regionesque subvertit, & modò ruinis o∣perit, modò in altam voraginem condit, ac ne id quidem relinquit ex quo appa∣reat quòd non est saltem fuisse, sed supra nobilissimas vrbes sine vllo vestigio prioris habitus solum extenditur. A wall will repell an enemy, rampiers raised to a great height by the difficulty of their accesse will keepe out powerfull armies, An Hauen shelters vs from a tempest, & the couering of our Houses from the violence of stormes & lasting raines, the fire doth not follow vs, if we fly from it, against thunder & the threats of Heauen, vaults vnder ground & deep caues are remedies, those blastings & flashes from aboue, doe not pierce the earth, but are blunted by a little peece of it oppofed against them; In the time of pestilence a man may change dwellings, there is no mischiefe but may be shunned, the lightning neuer stroke a whole Nation, a pestilential ayre hath emptied Cities, not ouer-turned them: but this mischiefe is large in spreading, vnavoydable, greedy of destruction, generally dangerous. For it doth not onely depopulate Houses, & Families, & townes, but layes waste &

makes desolate whole Regions and countreyes: sometimes covering them with their own ruines, and sometimes ouer-whelming them, and burying them in deepe gulphes, leauing nothing whereby it may so much as appeare to posterity, that that which is not, sometimes was, but the Earth is levelled ouer most famous Citties, without any marke of their former existence.

SECT. 5. Of dreadfull burnings in the bowels of Aetna, and Vesuvius, and the rising of a new Iland out of the Sea with hide∣ous roaring neere Put∣zol in Italy.

AS the quakings of the earth were more terrible in former ages, so were the burnings in the bowels thereof no lesse dreadfull, the one being as it were the cold & the other the hot fits thereof. The mountaine Aetna in Sicilie hath flamed in time past so abundantly that by reason of thick smoake and vapours arising therefrom, the Inhabi∣tants thereabout could not see one another (if wee may giue credite to Cicero) for two dayes together. And in the yeare of the world 3982, it * 1.149 raged so violently, that Africa was thereof an astonished witnesse. But Virgils admirable description thereof may serue for all.

—Horrificis tonat Aetna ruinis Interdumque atram prorumpit ad aethera nubem; Turbine fumantem piceo, & candente favilla, Attollitque globos flammarum & sydera lambit, Interdum scopulos, avulsaque viscera montis Erigit eructans, liquefactaque saxa sub aur as Cum gemitu glomerat, fundoque exaestuatimo.

Aetna here thunders with a horride noise, Sometimes black clouds evaporeth to skies, Fuming with pitchie curles and sparkling fires, Tosseth vp globes of flames, to starres aspires: Now belching rocks, the mountaines entrals torne, And groaning, hurles out liquid stones there borne Thorow the aire in showres.

But rightly did another Poet diuine of this mountaine and the bur∣nings therein,

Nec quae sulphurijs ardet fornacibus Aetna * 1.150 Ignea semper erit, neque enim fuit ignea semper. Aetna which flames of sulphure now doth raise. Shall not still burne, nor hath it burnt alwayes.

The like may be said of Vesuvius in the kingdome of Naples, it flamed with the greatest horrour in the first, or as some say in the third yeere of the Emperour Titus: where besides beasts, fishes and fowle, it de∣stroyed two adjoyning Citties Herculanum and Pompeios with the peo∣ple sitting in the Theater, Pliny the naturall Historian, then Admirall of

the Romane Navy desirous to discover the reason was suffocated with the smoake thereof, as witnesseth his Nephew in an epistle of his to Cornelius Tacitus.

—Sensit procul Africa tellus, Tunc expuluerijs geminata incendia nimbis, Sensit et Aegyptus Memphisque & Nilus atrocem Tempestatem illam, Campano è littore missam, Nec caruisse ferunt Asiam Syriamque tremenda Peste, nec exstantes Neptunj è fluctibus arces Cyprumque Cretamque & Cycladas ordine nullo Per pontum sparsas nec doctam Palladis vrbem Tantus inexhaustis erupit faucibus ardor Ac vapor.

They be the verses of Hieronymus Borgius touching the horrible roaring and thundring of this mountaine, and may thus be englished.

Then remote Africke suffer'd the direfull heate Of twofold rage with showers of dust repleate Scorcht Egipt, memphis, Nilus felt amaz'd, The woofull tempest in Campania rais'd, Not Asia, Syria, nor the towers that stand In Neptunes surges, Cyprus, Creet, Ioues land The scattered Cyclades, nor the Muses seate Minervaes towne that vast plague scapt such heate Such vapours brake forth from full jawes—

Marcellinus farther obserues that the ashes thereof transported in the ayre obscured all Europe, and that the Constantinopolitanes being won∣derfully affrighted therewith (in so much as the Emperour Leo forsooke the Citty) in memoriall of the same did yearely celebrate the twelfth of November. Who in these latter ages hath euer heard or read of such a fire issuing out of the earth as Tacitus in the 13 of his Annals and al∣most the last words describes. The citty of the Inhonians in Germanie confederate with vs (sayth he) was afflicted with a sudden disaster, for fires issuing out of the earth burned towns, feilds, villages every where, and spred even to the wals of a colony newly built, and could not be extinguished neither by raine nor river water, nor any other liquor that could be imployed vntill for want of remedie, and anger of such a de∣struction, certaine pesants cast stones a farre of into it; then the flame somewhat •…•…laking, drawing neare they put it out with blowes of clubs and otherlike, as if it had been a wild beast, last of all they threw in clo∣thes from their backes which the more worne and fowler, the berrer they quenched the fires.

But the most memorable both Earthquake and burning is that which M^r. George Sands in the forth booke of his Travels reports to haue hapē∣ed neare Puttzoll in the kingdome of Naples likewise, in the yeare of our Lord 1538, and on the 29^th of September, when for certaine daies fore∣going the countrey thereabout was so vexed with perpetuall Earth∣quakes, as no one house was left so intire, as not to expect an immediate ruine, after that the sea had retired two hundred pases from the shore,

(leauing abundance of fresh water rising in the bottome (there visiblely ascended a mountaine about the second hower of the night with hide∣ous roaring, horriblely vomiting stones, and such store of Cinders as overwhelmed all the buildings therabout, and the salubrious Bathes of Tripergula, for so many ages celebrated, consumed the vines to ashes, killing birds and beastes; the fearefull inhabitants of Puttzoll flying through the darke with their wiues and children naked, defiled, crying out and detesting their Calamities; manifold mischiefes had they suffe∣red, yet none like this which nature inflicted: yet was not this the first Iland that thus by the force of Earthquakes haue risen out of the sea, the * 1.151 like is reported both of Delos and Rhodos, and some others.

SECT. 6. Of the nature of Comets and the vncertaintie of praedictions from them, as also that the number of those which haue appeared of late yeares, is lesse then hath vsually beene observed in former ages, and of other fiery and watry pro∣digious meteors.

IT remaines that in the next place I should speake somewhat of Co∣mets or Blazing starres, whether in latter times more haue appeared, or more disastrous effectes haue followed vpon their appearance, then in former ages. Some tooke the Comet to haue beene a starre, or∣dained and created from the first beginning of the world: but appea∣ring only by times and by turnes, of this mind was Seneca. Cardan, like∣wise * 1.152 in latter times harps much, if not vpon the same, yet the like string. But Aristotle (whose weighty reasons and deepe judgment I much reve∣rence) conceiueth the matter of the Comet, to be a passing hot and dry exhalation, which being lifted vp, by the force & vertue of the Sun, in∣to the highest region of the ayre is there inflamed, partly by the Ele∣ment of fire, vpon which it bordereth, and partly by the motion of the heavens which hurleth it about; so as there is the same matter of an Earthquake, the wind, the lightning, and a Comet, if it be imprisoned in the bowels of the earth, it causeth an Earthquake; if it ascend to the middle region of the ayre, and be from thence beating back, wind, if it enter that region and be there invironed with a thick cloud, lightning; if it passe that region a Comet, or some other fiery Meteor, in case the matter be not sufficiently capable thereof.

The common opinion hath beene, that Comets either as Signes or cau∣ses, or both haue allwayes prognosticated some dreadfull mishaps to the world, as outragious windes, extraordonary drougth, dearth, pestilence, warres, death of Princes and the like.

Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether. * 1.153 Ne're did the Heavens with idle blazes flame:

But the late Lord Privy Seale Earle of Northampton, in his Defensatiue against the poyson of supposed prophesies, hath so strongly incountred this o∣pinion, * 1.154 that for mine owne part I must professe, he hath perswaded mee,

there is no certainty in those praedictions, in asmuch as Comets doe not alwayes forerunne such euents, neither doe such euents alwayes follow vpon the appearing of Comets. Some instances he produceth of Comets, which brought with them such abundance of all things, & abated their prises to so low an ebbe, as stories haue recorded it for monu∣ments, and miracles to posterity: And the like, saith hee, could I say of others, Ann. Dom. 1555. 1556. 1557. 1558. after all which yeares nothing chanced that should driue a man to seeke out any cause aboue the common reach: and therefore I allow the diligence of Gemma-Fri∣sius taking notice of as many good, as badde effects, which haue suc∣ceeded after Comets. Moreouer hee tells vs that Peucer, a great Mathe∣matician of Germany, prognosticated vpon the last Comet, before the writing of his Defensatiue, that mens bodies should bee parched and burned vp with heat: But how fell it out? Forsooth, saith hee, wee had not a more vnkindely summer many yeares, in respect of extraor∣dinary cold: neuer lesse inclination to warre, no Prince diseased in that time, and the plague which had beene somewhat quicke before in Lombardy, as God would haue it, ceased at the rising of the Comet. Besides all this, hee reports of his owne experience, as an eye-witnesse, that when diverse vpon greater scrupulosity, then cause, went about to disswade Queene Elizabeth, lying then at Richmond, from looking on a Comet which then appeared, with a courage answereable to the great∣nesse of her state, shee caused the window to be set open, and cast out this word, jacta est alea; the dice are throwne, thereby shewing that her stedfast hope & confidence, was too firmely planted in the providence of God, to bee blasted or affrighted with those beames, which either had a ground in nature wherevpon to rise, or at least-wise no warrant in Scripture to portend the mishappe of Princes. Neither doe I remem∣ber that any Comet appeared either before her death (as at her entrance * 1.155 there did,) nor that of Prince Henry, nor of Henry the Great of France, the one being a most peerelesse Queene, the other a most incompara∣ble Prince, & the third for prudence & valour, a matchlesse King. And for the last Comet which appeared, it was so farre from bringing any excessiue heate with it, that for a long time there hath not beene known * 1.156 more cold yeares thē three or foure immediatly ensuing it. And though it bee true, that some great Princes died not long after it, yet after that immediatly going before, I cannot call to mind any such effect: but as Seneca truely notes, Naturale est magis nova quam magna mirari, it is na∣turall * 1.157 vnto vs to bee inquisitiue & curious rather about things new and strange, then those which are in their owne nature truely great: Yet e∣uen among the Ancients, Charlemaigne professed, that hee feared not the signe of the blazing starre, but the Great & potent Creator thereof. And Vespasian, as Dyon reports, when the apparition of a Comet was thought to portend his death, replied merrily: No, said hee, this bushy starre notes not mee, but the Parthian King: Ipse enim comatus est, ego verò calvus sum: For hee weares bushy locks, but I am bald Lastly, some Comets haue beene the Messengers of happy & ioyfull tidings, as that at the birth of our Saviour, & another at the death of Nero, Cometes summè

bonus apparuit, qui praenuntius fuit mortis magni illius Tyranni & pestilen∣tissimi hominis, saith Tacitus: There appeared a favourable & auspicious Comet, as an Herauld to proclaime the death of that great Tyrant and most pestilent man.

The praediction then, & successe of mischievous & vnfortunate ac∣cidents from the appearance of Comets, appearing to bee thus vncer∣taine; it followes in the second place to be considered, whether more haue appeared in these latter times, then in former ages. For mine owne part I remember but two, for the space of these last thirty yeares, and during his late Majesties reigne but one, whereas my Lord of North∣ampton, (as wee haue heard before,) speakes of foure within the com∣passe of foure yeares. Before the death of Iulius Caesar, Virgill witnes∣seth. * 1.158

Non alias coelo ceciderunt plura sereno Fulgura, nec diri toties arsere Cometae. Ne're in cleare skymore lightnings did appeare, And direfull comets never rifer were.

Beda & Paulus Aemilius mention two, which by the space of fourteene dayes appeared together, in the reigne of Charles Martell, father to Charlemaigne, the one in the morning going before the Sunne, & the others in the euening following after it. The like wherevnto I doe not remember wee any where read of. Now that which hath beene said of Comets may likewise bee applied to other fierie & watery Meteors, as streamings, swords, flying dragons, fighting armies, gapings, two or three Sunnes & Moones, & the like appearing in the aire many times to the great terrour & astonishment of the beholders: of all which & many more of that kinde, hee that desires to reade more, I referre him to Vi∣comercatus, Garzaeus, Pontanus, & Lycosthenes, de Prodigijs & Portentis ab * 1.159 orbe condito, vsque ad annum 1557. Of strange & prodigious accidents from the beginning of the world, to the yeare of our Lord 1557. But the strangest apparition in the aire in this kinde that ever I heard, or read of, was that which I finde reported by M^r Fox, whiles the Spa∣nish match with Queene Many was in the heat of treating, & neere vp∣on * 1.160 the eoncluding, There appeared in London on the fifteenth of Febru∣ary 1554, a Rainebow reuersed, the bow turning downeward, & the two ends standing vpward: a prodigious & supernaturall signe indeed of those miserable & bloudy times which quickely followed after.

SECT. 7. Of strange and impetuous winds and lighnings, in for∣mer ages, aboue those of the present.

IN the last place wee may adde the impetuous thunders & lightnings, together with outragious windes in former times, such as latter ages haue scarce beene acquainted with. And because the latter of these haue of late plaid their parts more fiercely both by sea & land, it shall not be amisse to remember, that euen in the Phophet Davids time, * 1.161 when in likeliehood they lanched not forth into the maine, but coa∣sted

along by the shore, they were notwithstanding by the violence of tempests, lifted vp to heaven, and carried downe againe to the depths: which * 1.162 the Poet hath in a manner translated word for word.

Tollitur in coelum, sublato gurgite et ijdem Voluimur in barathrum. With surging waues to heaven wee lifted are, And in a trice to helward downe we fare.

It was a terrible storme, & seldome heard of which encountred S. Paul & his company in their voyage towards Rome, though they sayled in sight of land, raysed by a tempestuous winde called Euroclydon, inso∣much as beside their imminent daunger neither Sunne nor Starres, which should haue beene their, guides in many dayes appeared vnto * 1.163 them. The concurrence & combating of contrary windes, which is now a dayes not often observed to happen, & I thinke in course of Nature & discourse of Reason can hardly bee, yet Virgill mentions it more then once,

Vnà Eurusque Nothusque ruunt creberque procellis Affricus & vastos voluunt ad littora fluctus. * 1.164

Th'Eastwinde, the West, the Southwest and by West. Rush forth together, and with boistrous stormes Huge waues to shoreward roll—

And againe,

Omnia ventorum concurrere praelia vidi, * 1.165 I saw the windes all combating together.

Such a winde it seemes was that, which smote at once all the foure cor∣ners of the house of Iobs eldest sonne.

Let any who is desirous to inquire into, and compare things of this * 1.166 nature, but reade what is recorded in the Turkish history of two won∣derfull great stormes, the one by land in Sultania, set downe in the en∣trance of Solymans life; the other at Algiers, not farre from the mi'dst of the same life. at Charles the 5^th his comming thither, as also at his par∣ting from thence; and I presume hee will admire nothing in this kinde, that hath falne out in these latter times.

Vidi ego, saith Bellarmine, quòd nisi vidissem non crederem, à vehemen∣tissimo vento effossam, ingentem terrae molem, eamque delatam super pagum * 1.167 quendam, vt fovea altissima conspiceretur, vnde terra eruta fuerat, & pagus totus coopertus, & quasi sepultus manserit ad quem terra illa deuenerat. I my selfe haue seene, which if I had not seene, I should not haue beleeued, a very great quantity of earth, digged out and taken vp by the force of a strong winde, and carried vpon a village thereby, so that there re∣mained to be seene a great empty hollownes, in the place from whence it was lifted, and the village vpon which it lighted, was in a manner all couered ouer & buried in it. This example I confess•…•…, could not be long since, since, Bellarmine professes that himselfe saw it, Yet it might well be some skores of yeares before our last great windes, which not∣withstanding by some, for want of reading and experience are thought to bee vnmatchable: And I know not whether that outragious winde which happened in London in the yeare 1096. during the reigne of * 1.168

William Rufus, might not well bee thought to paralell, at least, this re∣corded by Bellarmine: It bore downe in that City alone, six hundred houses, & blew off the roofe of Bow Church, which with the beames were borne into the aire a great heigth, six whereof being 27 foote long, with their fall were driuen 23 foote deepe into the ground, the streetes of the citty lying then vnpaued. And in the fourth yeare of the same King, so vehement a lightning, (which as hath beene said, is of the same matter with the winde) pierced the steeple of the Abbay of Winscomb in Glostershire, that it rent the beames of the roofe, cast downe the Crucisixe, brake off his right legge, and withall ouerthrew the image of our Lady standing hard by, leauing such a stench in the Church, that neither incense, holy-water, nor the singing of the Monkes could allay it: But it is now more then time I should descend a steppe lower, from the aire to the water.

CAP. 8. Touching the pretended decay of the waters and the fish, the inhabiters thereof

SECT. 1. That the sea, and riuers, and bathes are the same at this present, as they were for many ages past, or what they loose in one place or time, they reco∣uer in another.

THough the Psalmist tell vs, that the Lord hath founded the earth vp∣on the Seas, and established it vpon the flouds, because for the more * 1.169 commodious liuing of man and beasts, hee hath made a part of it higher then the seas, or at least-wise restrained them from incursion vpon it, so as now they make but one intire Globe; yet because the wa∣ters in the first Creation couered the face of the earth, I will first begin with them. The mother of waters, the great deepe hath vndoubtedly lost nothing of her ancient bounds or depth, but what is impaired in * 1.170 one place, is againe restored to her in another. The riuers which the Earth sucked from her by secret veines, it renders backe againe with full mouth, & the vapours which the Sunne drawes vp, empty them∣selues againe into her bosome.

The purest humour in the Sea, the Sun Exhales in th'Aire: which there resolu'd, anon Returnes to water, & descends againe, * 1.171 By sundry wayes into his mother maine.

Her motions of ebbing & flowing, of high springs and dead Neapes, are still as certaine & constant, as the changes of the Moone and course of the Sunne: Her natiue saltnes & by reason thereof her strength, for the better supporting of navigable vessells, is still the same: And as the Sea the mother of waters, so likewise the rivers the daughters thereof, •…•…ither hold on their wonted courses and currents, or what they haue

diminished in one age or place, they haue againe recompenced and re∣payed in another, as Sr•…•…bo hath well expressed it, both of the sea and ri∣vers, * 1.172 Quoniam omnia moventur & transmutantur, (aliter talia ac tanta ad∣ministrari non possent) existimandum est, nec terram ita semper permanere, vt semper tanta sit nec quicquam sibi addatur aut adimatur, sed nec aquam, nec candem sedem semper ab istis obtineri, presertim cum transmutatio ejus, cogna∣ta sit ac naruralis, quini•…•…ò terrae multum in aquam convertitur, & aquae mul∣tum in terram transmutatur. Quare minime mirandum est si eas terrae par∣tes quae nunc habitantur, olim mare occupabat, & quae pelagus sunt prius habi∣tabantur. Quemadmodum de fontibus alios deficere contingit, alios relaxari; item & flumina & lacus. Because thnigs moue and are changed (with∣out which such and so great matters could not well be disposed) we are to thinke that the earth doth not remaine alwayes in the same state, without addition or diminution, neither yet the water, as if they were alwayes bounded within the same lists, specially seeing their mutuall chang is naturall & kindly but rather that much earth is turned into wa∣ter, & cōtrarywise no lesse water in to earth it is not thē to be wondered at, if that part of the earth which is now habitable was formerly over∣flowed with water, and that againe which now is sea, was sometimes habitable; as among fountaines some are dried vp and some spring forth afresh, which may also be verified of rivers and lakes. wherewith accordes that of the Poet.

Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum; vidi factas ex aequore terras. Et procul à pelago Chonchae jacuere marinae, * 1.173 Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis: Quodque fuit campus, vallem decursus aquarum Fecit; & eluvie mons est deductus in aequor. Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis Quaeque sitim tulerant stagnata paludibus hument. Hic fontes natura nouos emisit, et illic Clausit, & antiquis tam multa tremoribus orbis Flumina prosiliunt, aut exsiccata residunt.

What was firme land sometimes that haue I seen Made sea, and what was sea made land againe, On mountaine tops old anchours found haue been, And sea fish shells to lie farre from the maine, Plaines turne to vales by water falls, the downe By overflowes is chang'd to champaine land, Dry ground erewhile, now moorish fen doth drowne, And fens againe are turn'd to thirsty sand, Here fountaines new hath nature opened, There shut vp springs which earst did flow amaine, By earthquakes rivers oft haue issued, Or dryed vp they haue sunke downe againe.

The Poet there bringes instances in both these: And to like purpose is that of Pontanus.

Sed nec perpetuae sedes sunt fontibus vllae * 1.174

Aeterni aut manant cursus, mutantur in aeuum▪ Singula, & inceptum alternat natura tenorem, Quodque dies antiqua tulit, post auferet ipsa

Fountaines spring not eternally Nor in one place perpetually do tary, All things in every age for evermore do vary, And nature changeth still the course she once begun, And will herselfe vndoe what she of old hath done.

which though it be true in many, yet those great ones as Indus and Gan∣ges, and Danubius, and the Rhene, & Nilus are little or nothing varied from the same courses and currents which they held thousands of yeares since; as appeares in their descriptions by the ancient Geogra∣phers; But aboue all meethinkes the constant rising of Nilus continued for so many ages, is one of the greatest wonders in the world, which is so precise in regard of time, that if you take of the earth adjoyning to the river and preserue it carefully, that it come neither to be wet nor wasted, and weigh it dayly, you shall finde it neither more nor lesse heavy till the seventeenth of Iune, at which day it begineth to groweth * 1.175 more ponderous and augmenteth with the augmentation of the river, whereby they haue an infallible knowledge of the state of the deluge.

Now for the Medicinall properties of Fountaine or Bathes no man I thinke makes any doubt, but that they are both as many and as effica∣cious as ever. some it may be haue, lost their vertue and are growne out of vse: but others againe haue in stead thereof beene discovered in o∣ther places, of no lesse vse and vertue, as both Baccius & Blanchellus in their bookes de Thermis haue observed. And for those hot ones at the citty of Bath I make no question but Nechams verses may as justly be verified of their goodnesse at this present, as they were fower hun∣dred yeares since, about which time he is sayd to haue written them.

Bathoniae Tharmas vix prefero Virgilianas Confecto prosunt Balnea nostra seni. Prosunt attritis, collisis, invalidisque, Et quorum morbis frigida causa subest.

Our Baines at Bath with Virgills to compare For their effects I dare almost be bold: For feeble folke, and crazie good they are, For brus'd, consum'd, farre spent, and very old For those likewise whose sicknesse comes of cold.

SECT. 2. That the fishes are not decayed in regard of there store, dimensions, or duration.

BUt it is sayd, that though the waters decay not, yet the fish, the in∣habitants thereof, at leastwise in regard of their number are much decayed, so as wee may take vp that of the Poet.

—Omne peractum est, * 1.176 Et iam defecit nostrum mare—

All our Seas at length are spent and faile.

The Seas being growne fruitlesse and barren as is pretended in regard of former ages, & that so it appeares vpon record in our Hauen townes: But if such a thing be, (which I can neither affirme nor deny, hauing not searched into it my selfe) themselues who make the objection, shape a sufficient answere therevnto, by telling vs that it may so be by an ex∣traordinary judgment of God, (as he dealt with the Egyptians) in the death of our fish for the abuse of our flesh-pots, or by the intrusion of the Hollander, who carries from our coast such store as we might much better loade our selues with: and if we should a little enlarge our view, & cast our eyes abroad, comparing one part of the world with another, we shall easily discerne, that though our Coast faile in that abundance, which formerly it had by ouer-laying it, yet others still abound in a most plentifull manner, as is by experience found vpon the Coast of Virginia at this present. And no doubt, but were our Coasts spared for some space of yeares, it would againe afford as great plenty as euer. Fi∣nally, if the store of fish should decay by reason of the decay of the world, it must of necessity follow that likewise the store of plants, of beasts, of birds, and of men should dayly decay by vertue of the same reason. Nay rather, since the curse lighting vpon man extended to plants and beasts, but not to fishes, for any thing I finde expressely regi∣stred in holy Scripture. As neither did the vniversall Deluge hurt, but rather helpe them, by which the rest perished. There are still no doubt euen at this day as at the first Creation, in the Sea to be found

As many fishes of so many features, * 1.177 That in the waters one may see all Creatures: And all that in this All is to be found, As if the World within the deepes were drown'd.

Now as the store of fishes is no way diminished: so neither are they decayed either in their greatnes or goodnes. I will instance in the whale, the King of fishes, or as Iob termes him, the King ouer the children of pride. That which S. Basil in his Hexameron reports, namely that the whales are in bignes equall to the greatest mountaines, and their backes when they * 1.178 shew aboue water are like vnto Ilands, is by a late learned Writer not * 1.179 vndeservedly censured, as intollerably hyperbolicall. Pliny in the ninth booke and third Chap. of his Naturall history tels vs that in the Indian Seas some haue beene taken vp to the length of foure acres, that is, nine hundred and sixty feete; whereas notwithstanding Arrianus in his dis∣course de rebus Indicis assures vs, that Nearchus measuring one cast vpon that shore, found him to be but fifty cubits. The same Pliny in the first Chapter of his 32 booke sets downe a relation of King Iubaes, out of those bookes which he wrote to C. Caesar, son to Augustus the Emperour, touching the History of Arabia, where he affirmes, that in the bay of Arabia, Whales haue beene knowne to be 600 foot long, and 360 foote thick, and yet as it is well known by the soundings of Navigatours, that Sea is not by a great deale 360 foot deep. But to let goe these fancies: and fables and to come to that which is more probable. The dimensi∣ons of the Whale, saith Aelian, is fiue times beyond the largest Ele∣phants: * 1.180

but for the ordinary, saith Rondeletius, hee seldome exceedes 36 cubits in length, and 8 in heighth. Dion a graue Writer reports it as a * 1.181 wonder, that in the reigne of Augustus, a Whale lept to land out of the German Ocean, full 20 foot in bredth, and 60 in length. This I confesse was much, yet to match it with lattet times, Gesner in his Epistle to Poli∣dor * 1.182 Virgill avoucheth it as most true, that in the yeare of our Lord 1532, in the Northerne parts of our own land, not farre from Tinmouth hauen, was a mighty Whale cast on land, found by good measure to be 90 foot in length, arising to 30 English yards, the very bredth of his mouth was sixe yards and an halfe, and the belly so vast in compasse, that one standing on the fish of purpose to cut off a ribbe from him, and slip∣ping into his belly, was very likely there to haue beene drowned with the moisture then remaining, had hee not beene suddenly rescued. From whence we may gather, that Iobs admirable description of this fish vnder the name of Leviathan, is still true, & that in vastnes, since Au∣gustus * 1.183 his time, he is nothing decreased: And yet I well beleeue, that those on the Indian Seas may much exceed ours, which might per∣chance giue occasion to those large relations of Pliny & Iuba. Herevnto may be added the observation of Macrobius touching the growth of * 1.184 the Mullet. Plinius Secundus saith he, temporibus suis negat facile mullum repertum, qui duas pondo libras excederet, at nunc & majoris passim videmus, & praesentia hac insana nescimus. Plinius Secundus denies that in his time a Mullet was easily to be found which exceeded two pound weight; but now adayes we euery-where see them of greater weight, and yet are not acquainted with those vnreasonable prises which they then payde for them.

I will close vp this chapter with a relation of Gesners in his Epistle to the Emperour Ferdinand prefixed before his bookes De Piscibus, touching the long life of a Pike which was cast into a pond or poole neere Hailebrune in Swevia, with this inscription ingraven vpon a collar of brasse fastned about his necke. Ego sum ille piscis huic stagno omnium primus impositus per mundi Rectoris Frederici Secundi manus, 5 Octobris, an∣no 1230. I am that fish which was first of all cast into this poole by the hand of Frederick the second governour of the World. 5 of Octob. in the yeare 1230. He was again taken vp in the yeare 1497, & by the in∣scription it appeared hee had then liued there 267 yeares: so as it seemes, that as fishes are not diminished in regard of their store or growth: so neither in respect of their age and duration. But I leaue flo∣ting on the Waters, and betake mee to the more stable Element the Earth.

CAP. 9. Touching the pretended decay of the Earth, together with the Plants, and beasts, and minerals.

SECT. 1. The divine meditations of Seneca and Pliny vpon the globe of the Earth. An objection out of Ae∣lian touching the decrease of mountaines answered. That all things which spring from the earth returne thi∣ther againe, & consequently it cannot decay in regard of the fruitfulnesse in the whole. Other ob∣jections of lesse consequence answered.

BOth Seneca and Pliny haue most divine meditations vpon this con∣sideration, that the Globe of the Earth in regard of the higher E∣lements and the Heauens wheeling about it, is by the Mathematici∣ans compared to a prick or point.

These so many peeces of Earth (saith Pliny) or rather, as most haue * 1.185 written, this little prick of the World, (for surely the Earth is nothing else in comparison of the whole) is the only matter of our glory; this I say, is the very seat thereof: here we seeke for honours and dignities, heere we exercise our rule and authority, here wee covet wealth and riches, here all mankind is set vpon stirs and troubles, here we raise ci∣vill warres still one after another, and with mutuall massacres & mur∣thers we make more roome therein: And to let passe the publique fu∣rie of Nations abroad, this is it wherein wee chace and driue out our neighbour Borderers, and by stealth dig turfth from our Neigh∣bours soyle to put into our owne: And when a man hath extended his lands, and gotten whole countreyes to himselfe farre and neere, what a goodly deale of earth enjoyeth he? and say, that he set out his bounds to the full measure of his covetous desire, what a great portion there∣of shall he hold, when he is once dead, and his head layed.

Thus Pliny, with whom Seneca sweetly accords. Hoc est punctum quod inter tot gentes, ferro & igne dividitur, ôquam ridiculi sunt mortalium termi∣ni! * 1.186 Punctum certè est illud in quo navigamus, in quo bellamus, in quo reg∣na disponimus. It is but a point which so many Nations share with fire and sword. Oh how ridiculous are the bounds of mortall men! It is verily but a point inwhich we saile, in which we wage warres, in which we dispose of Kingdomes. But from these sublime speculations,

wee are to descend to the examination of the Earths supposed decay.

Aelian in the eight booke of his history, telleth vs, that not onely * 1.187 the mountaine Aetna, (for thereof might be given some reason, because of the daily wasting and consuming of it by fire,) but Parnassus & Olym∣pus did appeare to be lesse and lesse, to such as sayled at sea, the height thereof sinking as it seemed, and therevpon infers, that men most skil∣full in the secrets of Nature, did affirme that the world it selfe should likewise perish and haue an end. His conclusion I cannot but approue, and most willingly accept of, as a rich testimonie for the confirmation of our Christian doctrine, from the penne of a Gen∣tile: But that he inferres it, from so weake groundes, I cannot but wonder at the stupidity of so wise a man. For to graunt that those mountaines decrease in their magnitude, yet shall I never yeeld a vniuersall decrease in the whole globe of the Earth, since the proportions aswell of the Diameter as Circumference thereof, are by Ge∣ometricall demonstrations found to be the same which they were in for∣mer ages, or at least-wise not to decrease. And for the difference, which is observed betwixt the Calculation of Ancient & Moderne writers; it is certainely to be referred to the difference of miles, or of instru∣ments, or the vnskilfullnesse of the Authours; not to the different di∣mensions of the Earth, which I thinke no Geometrician euer somuch as dreamed of. Notwithstanding which truth, I must, & doe readily subscribe to that of Iob, Surely the mountaine falling commeth to nought, * 1.188 and the rocke is remoued out of his place, but let vs take Iobs reason with vs, which he immediately adds; The waters weare the stones, thow washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth: This diminution then of the Mountaines (as Blaucanus obserues) is caused partly by Raine-water, and partly by Riuers, which by continuall fretting, by little and little wash away & eate out both the tops, and sides, and feete of mountaines; whence the parts thus fretted through, by continuall falling downe, weare out the mountaines, and fill vp the lower places of the valleyes, making the one to increase as the other to decrease; whence it comes to passe that some old houses, heretofore fairely built, be now almost buried vnder ground, and their windowes heretofore set at a reasona∣ble height, now growen euen with the pauement. So some write of the triumphall Arch of Septimius, at the foote of the Capitol mountaine in Rome, now almost couered with earth, in somuch as they are inforced to descend downe into it, by as many staires as formerly they were v∣sed to ascend; whereas contrariwise the Romane Capitoll it selfe seated on the mountaine which hanges ouer it (as witnesseth George Agricola) discouers its foundation plainely aboue ground, which without questi∣on were at the first laying thereof deepe rooted in the earth, whereby it apppeares, that what the mountaine looseth the valley gaines; and consequently that in the whole globe of the earth nothing is lost, but onely remoued from one place to another, so that in processe of time the highest mountaines may be humbled into valleyes, and againe the lowest valleyes exalted into mountaines.

If ought to nought did fall;

All that is felt or seene within this all, Still loosing somewhat of it selfe, at length Would come to nothing: if death's fatall strength Could altogether substances destroy, Things then should vanish euen as soone as die. * 1.189 In time the mighty mountaines tops be bated; But, with their fall, the neighbour vales are fat∣ted And what, when Trent or Avon overflow They reaue one field, they on the next bestow.

And whereas another Poet tels vs that

Eluviemons est diductus in aequor: The mountaine by washings oft * 1.190 into the sea is brought.

It is most certaine, and by experience found to be true, that as the ri∣vers daily carrie much earth with them into the sea, so the sea sends backe againe much slime and sand to the earth, which in some places, and namely in the North part of Deuonshire is found to bee a marvei∣lous great commoditie for the inriching of the soyle.

Now as the Earth is nothing diminished in regard of the dimensions, (the measure thereof from the Surface to the Center being the same, as it was at the first Creation,) So neither is the fatnes & fruitfulnes there∣of, at least-wise since the flood, or in regard of duration alone, any whit impaired; though it haue yeelded such store of increase by the space of so many reuolutions of ages, yet hee that made it, continually re∣neweth the face thereof, as the Psalmist speakes, by turning all things * 1.191 which spring from it into it againe. Saith one,

Cuncta suos ortus repetunt, matremque requirunt:

And another:

E terris orta, terra rursus accipit.

And a third joynes both together,

Quapropter merito maternum nomen adepta est Cedit enim retro, de terra quod fuit ante * 1.192 In terras,

And altogether they may thus not vnfitly be rendred.

All things returne to their originall, And seeke their mother: what from earth doth spring, The same againe into the earth doth fall

Neither doe they heerein dissent from Syracides, with all manner of li∣uing * 1.193 things hath hee couered the face of the earth, and they shall returne into it againe. And that doome which passed vpon the first man after the fall, is as it were ingraven on the foreheads, not onely of his posterity, but of all earthly Creatures made for their sakes; Dust thou art, and vn∣to dust shalt thou returne.

As the Ocean is mainetained by the returne of the rivers, which are drayned & deriued from it: So is the earth by the dissolution and re∣uersion of those bodies, which from it receiue their growth and nou∣rishment. The grasse to feede the beasts, the corne to strengthen, and the wine to cheere the heart of man, either are or might bee both in

regard of the Earth & Heauens, as good and plentifull as euer. That decree of the Almighty, is like the Law of the Medes & Persians irre∣uocable; They shall bee for signes, and for seasons, and for dayes, and for yeares: And againe, Heereafter seed time, and harvest, and cold, and heat, and * 1.194 summer, and winter, and day, and night, shall not cease so long as the Earth remaineth. And were there not a certainety in these reuolutions, so that

—In se sua per vestigia voluitur annus, * 1.195 The yeare in its owne steps into in selfe returnes:

It could not well be, that the Storke and the Turtle, the Crane and the Swallow, and other fowles, should obserue so precisely as they doe the * 1.196 appointed times of their comming and going. And whereas it is com∣monly thought, and beleeued, that the times of the yeare are now more vnseasonable then heeretofore, and thereby the fruites of the Earth neither so faire, nor kindely as they haue beene; To the first I an∣swere, that the same complaint hath beene euer since Salomons time: Hee that observeth the winde shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clowdes * 1.197 shall not reape. By which it seemes, the weather was euen then as vn∣certaine as now; and so was likewise the vncertaine and vnkindely ri∣ping of fruites, as may appeare by the words following in the same place: In the morning sow thy seede, and in the euening let not thy hand rest: * 1.198 for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that, or whether both shall bee alike good: And if sometimes wee haue vnseasonable yeares, by reason of excessiue wet and cold, they are againe paid home by immoderate drought and heate, if not with vs, yet in our neighbour countries, and with vs. I thinke, no man will bee so vnwise, or partiall, as to affirme that there is a constant and perpetuall declination, but that the vnsea∣sonablenes of some yeares, is recompensed by the seasonablenes of o∣thers. It is true that the erroneous computation of the yeare wee now vse, may cause some seeming alteration in the seasons thereof, & in pro∣cesse of time, must needes cause a greater if it bee not rectified: but let that errour be reformed, and I am perswaded that communibus annis, we shall finde no difference from the seasons of former ages: at leastwise in regard of the ordinary course of nature: For of Gods extraordinary judgements, we now dispute not, who sometimes for our sinnes emp∣tieth the botles of heaven incessantly vpon vs: and againe at other times makes the heavens as brasse ouer our heads and the earth as yron vnder our feete.

SECT. 2. Another obiectiòn, to uching the decay of the fruit∣fulnes of the holy land, fully answered.

WHen I consider the narrow bounds of the land of Canaan, (it being by S. Hieromes account, who liued long there, but 160 * 1.199 miles in length, from Dan to Bersheba, and in bredth but 40, from Ioppa to Bethleem,) and withall the multitude incredible (were it not recorded in holy Scripture) both of men & cattell which it fedde,

there meeting in one battle betweene Iudah & Israel twelue hundred * 1.200 thousand chosen men: Nay the very sword-men, beside the Levites and Benjamites were vpon strict inquirie found to be fifteene hundred and * 1.201 seuentie thousand, whereof the youngest was twenty yeares old, there being none by the Law to bee mustered vnder that age: and which is more strange, the very guards of Iehosaphars person amounted to almost * 1.202 an eleuen hundred thousand. And for the number of Cattell, there were slaine in one sacrifice at the dedication of Salomons temple, two * 1.203 and twenty thousand bullocks, and an hundred & twenty thousand sheepe. When I say, I compare these multitudes of men & cattell with the narrow bounds of that countrey; I am forced to beleeue that it was indeed a most fruitfull soile, flowing with milke and hony, & richly a∣bounding in all kinde of commodities: Yet the reports of some, who haue taken a survey of it in these latter ages, beare vs in hand, that the fruitfullnes thereof, is now much decayed in regard of those times: From whence they would inferre a generall decay in all soyles, & con∣sequently in the whole course of nature. But it may truely be said that this wonderfull fruitfullnes proceeded from a speciall favour of Al∣mighty God toward this people, as appeares in the 11 of Deuteronomy, this land doth the Lord thy God care for, the eyes of the Lord thy God are alwayes * 1.204 vpon it, from the beginning of the yeare euen to the end of the yeare. And more cleerely in the 26 of Leviticus: If you walke in mine ordinances, and * 1.205 keepe my commaundements, I will send you raine in due season, and the land shall yeeld her increase, and the trees of the field shall giue their fruite, and your threshing shall reach vnto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach vnto the sowing time, and you shall eate your bread in plenteousnes, and dwell in your land safely. But the miraculous prouidence of God shewed it selfe most euidently ouer this land in answering their doubt, what they should * 1.206 eate the seuenth yeare, if they suffered the land to rest, as God had in∣joyned them; the reply is, I will send my blessing vpon you in the sixth yeare, and it shall bring forth fruite for three yeares. Now then as this extraordi∣nary fruitfulnes proceeded from an extraordinary favour: so this favour ceasing, the fruitfulnes might likewise cease without any naturall decay of the soyle: The countrey about Sodome & Gomorrha was for fruitful∣nes as the Paradice, or garden of the Lord, till the curse of God fell vp∣on it, then it became a wast land, and so remaines to this day: Yet can it not be gainesaid but that beside this speciall blessing of God, this soyle of Palestina was naturally▪ very rich in it selfe, in asmuch as it fed * 1.207 one & thirty Idolatrous Kings, with their people, before the entrance of Gods chosen nation into it; one of which alone possessed, as it should seeme threescore citties and the pomegranats, the figs & the grapes, which the spies (sent by Moses to discouer the land) brought backe with them, were marveilous goodly & faire. And as this soyle was thus rich * 1.208 before the entrance of this people, so since the displanting of them from thence, & the Saracens possessing it, it hath not altogether lost its ancient fruitfulnes whatsoeuer is pretended to the contrary, if wee may credit Brocardus, who about three hundred yeares since was him∣selfe an eyewitnesse thereof. His words are these. Non est credendum * 1.209

contrarium nunciantibus, neque enim eam diligenter considerarunt, his oculis vidi quanta fertilitate Terra benedicta fructificat: frumentum enim vix terra exculta sine stercore & simo mirabiliter crescit & multiplicatur. Agrisunt velut horti in quibus feniculum, salvia, ruta, rosa passim crescunt. There is no heed to be given to them who affirme the contrary; For they haue not throughly cōsidered of the matter; with these eyes did I behold the exceeding fertilitie of that blessed land: The Corne with a very little makeing of the earth prospers and multiplies beyond beliefe, the fields are as it were gardens of delight, in which fennell, sage, rue, and roses every where grow; And so having largly described the admirable fruit∣fulnesse thereof in all kinds, at length he concludes: Denique illic exstant omnia mundi bona, & verè terra fluit rivis lactis & mellis. Finally there are to be had all the good things the world can afford, so that it may still be truly tearmed, a land flowing with rivers of milke and honey. And if it be degenerated from it's ancient fertility (which vpon the report of Bredenbachius Adrichomius and others, I rather beleeue) I should rather impute it to the Curse of God vpon that accursed nation which posses∣seth it, or to their ill manuring of the earth, from which the proverbe seemes to haue growne, that where the Grand Signiors horse once treads the grasse never growes afterward) then to any Naturall decay in the goodnes of the soyle.

SECT. 3. The testimonies of Columella and Pliny produced that the earth in it selfe is as fruitfull as in former ages, if it be made and manured.

NOw that which by Brocardus hath beene delivered touching the holy land in particular, is by Columella in his bookes of Husban∣dry with no lesse assurednesse averred touching the nature of the Earth in generall: nay to shew his confidence herein, he makes that asser∣tion, the entrance to his whole worke, thus beginning the very first chapter of his first booke. Saepenumero Civitatis nostrae principes audio culpantes, m•…•…do agrorum infoecunditatem, modo Coeli per multa jam tempora noxiam frugibus intemperiem, quosdam etiam praedictas querimonias velut ra∣tione certa mitigantes, quod existiment vbertate nimi•…•… prioris aevi defatiga∣tum & effoetum solum, •…•…equire pristina benignitate prebere mortalibus alimen∣ta; quas ego causas Publi Sylvini procul à veritate abesse certum habeo, quod neque fas est existimare rerum naturam quam primus ille mundi genitor perpetua foecunditate donavit (quasi quodam morbo) sterilitate affectam, neque prudentis credere tellurem, quae divinam & aeternam juventam sortita commu∣nis omnium parens dicta sit, quia & cuncta peperit & deinceps paritura sit, ve∣lut hominem consenuisse, ne posthaec reor violentia Coeli nobis ista, sed nostro po∣tius accidere vitio, qui rem rusticam pessimo cuique servorum velut carnifici noxae dedimus quam majorum nostrorum optimus quisque & optimè tracta∣uerit. I haue often heard the chiefe of our Citty complaining of the vnfruitfulnesse of the earth, and sometimes againe of the vnkindli∣nesse

of the weather now for a good space hurtfull to the fruites, and some haue I heard with shew of reason qualifying these com∣plaints in that they beleeue the earth being worne out and become barren by the excessiue fruitfulnesse of former ages, not to be able to yeeld nourishment to mankind, according to the proportion of her accustomed bounty; but for mine owne part Publius Sylvinus I am well assured that these pretended causes are farre from truth, it being a peece of impiety so much as once to imagine that nature (which the first founder of the world blessed with perpetuall fruitfullnesse) is af∣fected with barrennesse, as a kind of disease, neither is it the part of a wise man to think that the Earth, (which being indued with a divine and aeternall youth, is deservedly tearmed the Common Parent of all things, in∣asmuch as it both doth and hereafter shall bring all things forth) is now waxen old like a man, so as that which hath befalne vs I should rather im∣pute it to our owne default then to the vnseasonablenesse of the weather, inasmuch as wee commit the charg of our husbandry to the basest of our slaues, as it were to a publique executioner, whereas the very best of our ancestours with most happy successe vnderwent that charge themselues, and performed that worke with their owne hands. Now Sylvinus to whom he dedicated his workes having received and read this resolute assertion by reason he knew it to be against the common tenet, and specially of one Tremellius, vpon whose judgment it seemed he much relyed, made a Quaere thereof, & sent it to Columella, to which in the very first chapter of his second booke he returnes answer with this title title prefixed.

Terram nec senescere nec fatigari, si stercoretur. That the earth is neither wearied nor waxeth old, if it be made.

And then thus goes on. Queris à me Publi Sylvine quod ego sine cun∣ctatione non recuso docere, cur priori libro veterem opinionem fere omnium qui de cultu agrorum loquuti sunt à principio confestim repulerim, falsamque sen∣tentiam repudiaverim censentium longo aevi situ, longique jam temporis exer∣citatione fatigatam & effoetam humum consenuisse. You demaund a que∣stion of mee Sylvinus, which I will endevour to answer without delay, which is, why in my former booke presently in the very entrance, I haue rejected the ancient opiniō almost of all, who haue written of hus∣bandry, & haue cast of their imagination as false, who conceiue that the earth by long tracte of time and much vsage is growne old and fruitles: where he is so farre from recalling his assertion, or making any doubt of the certaine truth thereof: that hee labours farther to strengthen it with new supplies of reasons and at length concludes, Non igitur fatigatione, quemadmodum plurimi crediderunt, nec senio, sed nosta scilicet inertia minus benignè nobis arva respondent: licet enim maiorem fructum percipere, si fre∣quenti & tempestiva & modica stercoratione terra refoveatur. It is not through the tirednesse or age of the earth, as many haue beleeued, but through our owne negligence that it hath not satisfied vs, so bountiful∣ly as it hath done. For we might receiue more profit from it, if it were

cherished with frequent and moderate and seasonable dressing.

And with Columella agrees Pliny in the eighteenth booke of his Na∣turall History, & third Chapter, where discoursing of the great abun∣dance and plenty in fore-going ages, and demaunding the reason there∣of, he therevnto shapes this reply;

Surely, saith he, the cause was this, and nothing else: Great Lords and Generals of the field, as it should seeme, tilled themselues their grounds with their own hands. And the Earth again for her part, taking no small pleasure as it were to be aired and broken vp, Laureato vomere & triumphali aratore, with ploughs lau∣reat, & ploughmē triumphant, strained her self to yeeld increase to the vttermost. Like it is also that these braue men and worthy Personages were as curious in sowing a ground with corne, as in setting a battle in aray; as diligent in disposing and ordering of their lands, as in pitching a field. And commonly euery thing that commeth vnder good hands, the more neat & cleane that the vsage thereof is, and the greater paines that is taken about it, the better it thriueth and prospereth afterwards. And hauing instanced in Attilius Serranus, and Quintius Cincinnatus, he goes on in this maner. But now see how the times be changed: they that doe this businesse in the field, what are they but bond-slaues fette∣red, condemned malefactors, and in a word noted persons, such as are branded and marked in their visage with an hot yron, yet we forsooth marvaile that the labour of these contemptible slaues and abject vil∣laines doth not render the like profit, as that trauell in former ages, of great Captaines and Generals of Armies.

By which it appeares that Columella and Pliny imputed the barrennes of the Earth in regard of for∣mer ages) if any such were) not to any deficiency in the Earth it selfe, but to the vnskilfulnes or negligence of such as manured it. To which purpose Aelian reports a pretty story of one Mises who presented the Great * 1.210 King Artaxerxes, as hee rode through Persia, with a Pomegranate of wonderfull bignesse: which the King admiring, demaunded out of what Paradise he had gotten it, who answered, that he gathered it from his owne garden, the King seemed therewith to bee marvailous well content, & gracing him with royall gifts, swore by the Sunne, this man with like diligence and care might aswell in my judgment of a little Ci∣ty make a great one. Videtur autem hic sermo innuere, saith the Author, omnes res curâ & continuâ sollicitudine, & indefesso labore meliores & prae∣stantiores quàm Natura producat, effici posse. It seemes by this, that all things by labour and industry may bee made better then Nature pro∣duces them. And it is certaine that God so ordained it, that the indu∣stry of man should in all things concurre with the workes of Nature, both for the bringing of them to their perfection, and for the keeping of them therein being brought vnto it. As the Poet speaking of the dege∣nerating of seedes hath truly expressed it.

Vidi lecta diu & multo spectata labore Degenerare tamen, ni vis humana quotannis * 1.211 Maxima quaeque manu legeret.

Oft haue I seene choice seedes, and with much labour tryed, Eftsoones degenerate, vnlesse mans industry,

Yearely by hand did lease the greatest carefully.

And this I take to bee the true reason (as before hath beene touched) why neither so good, nor so great store of wine is at this day made in this kingdome, as by records seemes to haue beene in former ages; the neglect I meane, of planting & dressing our vines as they might be, and at this present are in forraine countreyes, and with vs formerly haue beene, & this neglect hath perchance arisen from hence, that we & the French being often and long at defiance, & all friendly commerce cea∣sing betwixt vs, partly to crosse them in the venting of their commodi∣ties, & partly to inrich themselues, men were either by publique autho∣rity set on worke, or they set themselues on worke, to try the vtmost of their endeavour in the making of wines, but since peace and trade hath beene setled betwixt both kingdomes, that practise hath by degrees growne out of vse, for that men found by experience that both better wines & better cheape might be had from France then could be made heere; and I make no doubt but as tillage with vs, so the planting of Vineyards is increased with them, and for this reason, together with the Causes before alleadged, it seemes to be, that the French wines are bet∣ter with vs at this present then they were in the raigne of Edward the se∣cond, as shall by Gods helpe bee fully manifested in the next Section. And that which hath beene spoken of the making of wines may likewise be vnderstood of the making of Bay sale in this kingdome in former a∣ges, for which (as I am credibly informed) records are likewise to be seene; for to ascribe either the one or the other to the Sunnes going more Southerly from vs in Summer, is in my judgement both vnwar∣rantable and improbable: vnwarrantable as hath already beene shewed in this very booke Cap. 4. Sect, 4. improbable, for that if this plant should decay for this reason, all other plants, & trees, & hearbes, & flowres should consequently partake of the like decay, at leastwise in some proportion, which our best Physitians and Herbalists haue not yet found to be so, nay the contrary is by them avouched; and as our wines are in a manner vtterly decayed here, so their strength in France, in Spaine, in Italy, in Hungary, in Germany, should vpon the same supposition be much abated, which notwithstanding I haue no-where found to be observed,

SECT. 4. An argument drawne from the present state of husbandmen, and another for the many & miserable dearths in former ages together with an obiection taken from the high prizes of victuals answered.

BVt that which farther perswadeth me, that neither the goodnes of the soyle, nor the seasonablenesse of the weather, nor the industry of the husbandman is now inferiour to that of former ages, is this, that both this fyne and rent being raised, his apparell and education of

his children more chargeable, & the rates of publique payments more burdensome, yet he fares better, and layes vp more money in his purse, then vsually in those times he did.

Besides it is certaine, that if we compare time with time, the famines of former ages were more grievous then ours: I omit those of Ierusalem and Samaria, because occasioned by the sieges of those Cities, as also those which either Civill warres, or forraine invasions hath drawne on. Of the rest that of Lypsius. is vndoubtedly true. Iam de fame * 1.212 nihil profectò nos aut aetas nostra vidimus, si videmus antiqua. Now touch∣ing famine verily we and our age haue seene nothing, if wee behold an∣cient records. Vnder the Emperour Honorius, so great was the scarcity & dearth of victuals in Rome it selfe, that in the open market-place this voice was heard, Pone pretium humanae carni, set a price to mans flesh. And long before, euen when L. Minutius was made the first over-seer * 1.213 of the graine, Livy reports, multos è plebe, ne diutinâ fame cruciarentur, ca∣pitibus obvolutis sese in Tyberim praecipitasse. That many of the Commons least they should bee tortured with long famine, covering their faces, cast themselues headlong into Tyber. What a miserable dearth was that in Egypt, held by the Ancients for abundance of Corne, the Granary of * 1.214 the world) when for want of bread their greatest Nobles were forced to sell not only their lands, but themselues, and become bond-slaues to Pharaoh. How vniversall was that fore-told by Agabus, which also came to passe vnder Claudius Caesar, as both Dion and Suetonius beare witnesse to S. Luke. But to come nearer home, few histories, I thinke, ex∣ceed * 1.215 our owne in this point. About the yeare 514, during the raigne of Cissa king of the South-Saxons in his countrey raigned such an extreame * 1.216 famine, that both men and women in great flockes and companies cast themselues from rhe rocks into the Sea, in the yeare 1314, about the beginning of the reigne of Edward the second, the dearth was generally such ouer the land, that purposely for the moderation of the prices of victuals, a Parliamēt was assembled at London: but it increased so vehe∣mently that vpon S. Lawrence Eue, there was scarcely bread to be got∣ten for the sustentation of the Kings owne family. And the yeare fol∣lowing * 1.217 it grew so terrible, that horses & dogges, yea men and children were stollen for food, and which is horrible to thinke, the theeues new∣ly brought into the gaoles, were torne in peeces, and presently eaten halfe aliue by such as had beene longer there. In London it was proclai∣med that no Corne should be converted to Brewers vses, which Act the King (moued with compassion towards his Nation) imitating, caused to be executed through all the kingdome: otherwise saith Walsingham, the greater part of the people had perished with penury of bread. And a∣gaine to conclude this sad discourse, in the yeare 1317, in the tenth yeare of the same King, there was such a murraine of all kinde of cattell; * 1.218 together with a generall fayling of all fruits of the Earth by excessiue raines and vnseasonable weather, as provision could not be had for the Kings house, nor meanes for other great men to maintaine their Tables: Inasmuch as they put away their servants in great numbers, who ha∣uing beene daintily bred, and now not able to worke, skorning to beg,

fell to robbery and spoyle, which added much to the misery of the Kingdome.

It will be said, if the plenty of corne and victuals, be as great as in for∣mer ages, how comes it to passe that their prices are somuch inhanced? But if wee compare our prices with those of the ancient Romanes, wee shall finde that theirs farre exceeded ours. The Romane penny by the consent of the learned, and the judgement of our last Translatours in diverse parts of their Marginall notes, was the eight part of an ounce, ac∣counting fiue shillings to the ounce, so that it was worth of our money seven pence halfe penny. Now by the testimony of Varro and Macrobius, their Peacocks egges (which are now of no reckoning with vs,) were * 1.219 sold with them for fiue Roman pence a peece: and the Peacocks them∣selues for fifty. Thrushes and Ousells or blackebirds were commonly sold for three pence a peece. Nay Varro mentions one L. Axius, a Romane * 1.220 Knight, who would not let goe a paire of doues, minoris quadringentis de∣narijs, * 1.221 for lesse then foure hundred pence. But these insana pretia, as Macrobius calls them, mad, and vnreasonable prices, wee shall haue * 1.222 fitter occasion to speake of, when wee come to treate of the luxury of the Ancients, In the meane time it shall not be amisse to remember what our Saviour tells vs in the Gospell, that two Sparrowes or passerculi, as Beza renders it, were then sold for a farthing, thereby implying * 1.223 their great cheapenes: Yet for the same money, it beeing the tenth part of a Romane penny, and answering in value to halfe penny farthing of our coyne, more may bee had at this day with vs: But I leaue forraine Nations and returne to our owne. If then together with the inhan∣cing of prices, wee likewise take into our consideration the inhancing of Coyne, it will appeare that the prices of things are not so much in∣hanced as is supposed. About three hundred yeares agoe, in the latter part of the reigne of Edward the second, and beginning of Edward the third, an ounce of silver was valued at one shtlling and eight pence, where∣as now it is valued at fiue shillings: so that one hundred pounds then was both in weight and worth fully as much as three hundred pounds are now; and consequently, if they gaue a groat for that which wee now giue a shilling, they gaue just the same price which wee now giue. The price of Claret wine, as appeares vpon record among the statutes of Ed∣ward the second, was at that time twelue pence the gallon, so that by pro∣portion the price should now be three shillings, and looke how much it comes shott of that price, it is certaine that somuch the cheaper it is at this day, then it was in that age. Wherevnto may be added the plenty of coyne and multitude of men, both which are doubtles in re∣gard of those times much increased. For the former of which, though it be true that some great ones heaped vp huge masses of treasure, yet I thinke it will not be denied, but that there are now more rich men then in those times: Some wise men being of opinion that there is now more plate in the land, then there was in Edward the thirds time both money and plate: And for the latter, hee that shall duely consider the daily inlarging of our cities and townes, and the adding of new Iles to the greatest part of our Parish Churches, within these last two or three

hundred yeares, will easily beleeue that the number of our people is not a little increased. Either of which asunder, but much more both together must needs bee a meanes of raising the prices of all things. yet this complaint as it hath beene in all ages, so will it still continue, since * 1.224 wee left to burne incense to the Queene of heaven, and to powre out drinke of∣ferings vnto her, wee haue had scarcenesse of all things, and haue beene consu∣med with the sword and with the famine.

SECT. 5. That there is no decrease in the fruitfulnesse, the quan∣tities or vertues of plants & simples, nor in he store & goodnes of mettalls & minerals, as neither in the bignes or life of beastes, together with an obiection touching the E∣lephant in the first of Mac∣chabes, answered.

NOw if such bee the condition of the Earth it selfe, and the fruites thereof, what reason haue wee to conceiue otherwise of the trees and plants, springing vp and nourished from thence. I cannot finde that either Dioscorides, Theophrastus, or Pliny among the Ancients; or among latter writers, Ruellius, Fuchsius, or our owne Gerard euer obserued any decay, either in the groweth, the vertues or duration of these Vegetables; the Oake and Beetch, rise to as great an higth and big∣nes, spread their branches and rootes as farre, last as long, bring forth as faire mast; as they did a thousand yeare agone. Those vnder-ground trees, whose bulkes are sometimes takē vp intire, in Cheshshire, Lancashire, * 1.225 & other places, & are commonly thought to haue lyen buried there e∣uer since Noahs flood, are not found in length or largenesse to exceed the bodies of ours at this day. In former ages I graunt was greater choyce of good timber, because greater plenty of woods, but those being cut downe, tillage hath succeeded in the place thereof, which in regard of our increase of people, seemed of the two, the more necessary, & for fewell, it is in most places supplied with other kindes which were not then thought vpon.

The like may be said for the vertues of Plants, Issop, Garlike, Hemlocke, and the rest, they are still indued with the same temper, with the same degrees of heat or cold, & are availeable for the same vses, as in former ages; as may easily appeare by comparing Galen de simplicium medica∣mentorum facultatibus, with Wecker a moderne Physitian. The former makes Garlicke hot in the fourth degree, so doth the latter. The former * 1.226 Issop hot in the third degree, and so doth the latter. The former hem∣tocke extreamely cold, so doth the latter. These may suffice for a tast, and thus may wee paralell simples, as for their first, so for their second & third qualities, and application to diseases. The difference of their strength is doubtles very great in regard of the different Clymats they grow in: But that it should by succession of ages be abated in their se∣verall species, and in the same Clymate, is more I thinke then euer any

Herbalist in his writings, or learned Physitian in his practise hath yet ob∣serued.

And if there be no decay found in the Vegetables, very likely it is that the same may likewise be verified of the beasts those at leastwise which make them their food, and are nourished by them. Surely he that shall compare the present proportions of the elephant, the cammell, the horse, the dogge, with the descriptions of Aristotle, as also the present exten∣tion of their liues, with that which both hee, and other Ancients re∣cord of them, will easily finde that there is in them no sensible decrease. Vita equorum, (saith hee) plurimis ad decimum octavum, at{que} etiam vice∣simum annum, sed nonnulli viginti quin{que}, & triginta egerunt: Et si cura * 1.227 diligenter adhibeatur vel ad quinquaginta protrahitur aetas horses commōly liue eighteene or twenty yeares, yet some last fiue & twenty or thirty, & if they bee very well kept, they may come to forty or fifty; which hee makes in a manner their vtmost period. Whereas Albertus tells vs, that himselfe was assured by a souldier, that the horse hee then vsed, was three score yeares old, and yet was serviceable in the warres. And Au∣gustinus Niphus yet latter, that hee was crediblely informed by the horsemen of Ferdinand the first, that there was then in the Kings stable an horse that was seaventy yeares old.

Butaeo, a man much commended for his rare learning by many lear∣ned writers, labouring to demonstrate by Geometricall proportions, that the Arke was capable of so many severall kinde of beasts, as are faid to haue beene in it, as also their provision for one yeare spaces, takes the ground of his demonstration from the present dimensions of their bo∣dies, and their present allowance for foode, proportioning the capaci∣ty of the Arke therevnto, and is therein applauded not onely by Goro∣pius Becanus, but by Pererius and S^r Walter Rawleigh: whereas, were there such a continuall diminution in the quantity of their bodies, and conse∣quently in their foode as is supposed, his ground were falfe, and his demonstration friuolous. Wherevnto may be added that the same al∣lowance of foode, which Cato, and Varro, and Columella, in their bookes of husbandry agreed vpon to be sufficient for an oxe, or a horse, or a sheepe in their times, is now likewise thought to be but competent: And the same proportions of body, which the Ancient Painters & Caruers allowed to horses and dogges, is now likewise by the skilfullest in those Arts found to be most convenient. Indeede in the first booke of Macchabes & sixth chapter, is somewhat a strange relation * 1.228 made of Elephants, which are there described to be so bigge, that each of them carryed a wooden towre on his backe, out of which fought thirty two armed men, besides the Indian which ruled the beast. Whence some haue conceited that the Elephants of those times were farre greater then those of the present age: But doubtles the Authour of that booke speakes of the Indian race, which are farre beyond the Ethiopian, as Iunius in his annotations on that place hath observed out of Pliny. And there are of them, saith Aelian, nine cubits high, which is thirteene foote and an halfe. And those which haue beeene in the great Mogulls countrey assure vs, that at this day they are there farre more

vast and huge then any that wee haue seene in these parts of the world. But leaving the Vegetables and beasts springing and walking vpon the face of the earth, let vs a little search into the bowels thereof, and take a view of the mettalls and mineralls therein bredde. Of the nature, causes, and groweth, whereof Georgius Agricola hath written most exactly, but neither he, nor any man else, I thinke euer yet obserued that by conti∣nuance of time theirveines are wasted & impaired, one treatise he hath expresly composed de veteribus & novis metallis, wherein he shewes that as the old are exhausted, new are discouered.

It is true indeede which * 1.229 Pliny hath observed, that wee descend into the entrailes of the earth, wee goe downe as farre as to the seat and habitation of the infernall spirits, and all to meete with rich treasure, as if shee were not fruit∣full enough, & beneficiall vnto vs in the vpper face thereof, where shee permitteth vs to walke and tread vpon her: Yet notwithstanding by the couetousnesse and toyle of men can her mines neuer be drawn dry, nor her store emptied.

The Earth not onely on her backe doth beare Abundant treasures gliftring every where, But inwardly shee's no lesse fraught with riches, Nay rather more (which more our foules bewitches) * 1.230 Within the deepe folds of her fruitfull lappe, So bound-lesse mines of treasure doth shee wrappe, That th' hungry hands of humane avarice Cannot exhaust with labour or device. For they be more then there be starres in heav'n, Or stormy billowes in the Ocean driv'n, Or eares of corne in Autumne on the fields, Or savage beasts vpon a thousand hils, Or fishes diving in the silver floods, Or scattred leaues in winter in the woods.

I will not dispute it, whether all mineralls were made at the first crea∣tion, or haue since receiued increase by tract of time, which latter I confesse I rather with Quercetan incline vnto, they being somewhat * 1.231 of the nature of stones, which vndoubtedly grow, though not by aug∣mentation or accretion, yet by affimilation or apposition, turning the neighbour earth into their substance, Yet thus much may wee confi∣dently affirme, that the minerals themselues wast not in the ordinary course, but by the insatiable desire of mankind. Nay such is the divine providence, that even there where they are most vexed and wrought vp∣on, yet are they not worne out, or wasted in the whole. Of late within these few yeares Mendip hills yeelded, I thinke, more lead then ever, & at this day I doe not heare that the Iron mines in Sussex, or the Tinne workes in Cornewall are any whit abated, which I confesse to be some∣what strange, considering that little corner furnishes in a manner all the Christian world with that mettall: & for mines of gold & silver, though by some it be thought that they faile in the East Indies in regard of for∣mer ages: Yet most certaine it is that in the West Indies, that supposed defect is abundantly recompensed.

SECT. 6. An obiection taken from the Eclipses of the Planets, answered.

BEfore we conclude this Chapter, there remaines yet one rubbe to be remoued touching the Eclypses of the Sunne and Moone For as some haue beene of opinion, that the bodies of those Planets suffered by them, so many haue thought that these inferiour bodies suffe∣red from them, & consequently that the more Eclypses there are, (which by tract of time must needes increase in number) the more do all things depending vpon those planets decay and degenerate in their vertues & operations. But as the former of these opinions is already proued to be certainely false, so is this latter altogether vncertaine. What effects Eclypses produce, I cannot punctually define. Strange accidents I graunt, aswell in the course of Nature, as in the Ciuill affaires, haue of∣ten followed vpon them, as appeares in Cyprianus Leouicius, who hath purposely composed a Tract of them. And M^r Camden obserues that the towne of Shrewesbery suffered twice most grievous losse by fire within the compasse of fiftie yeares, vpon two severall Eclypses of the Sunne in Aries, but whether those Accidents were to be ascribed to the precedent Eclypses, I cannot certainely affirme. Once wee are sure that the moone is Eclypsed by the interposition of the Earth, as is the Sun by the moone. Since then the night is nothing else but the interpositi∣on of the Earth betweene vs and the Sunne, I see no reason but wee should daily feare as dangerous effects from every night or thicke cloud, as from any Eclypse. But I verily beleeue that the ground of this errour, as also of the former, sprang frō the ignorance of the Causes of Eclypses; Sulpitius Gallus being the first amongst the Romanes, and a∣mongst the Greekes, Thales Milesius, who finding their nature did pro∣gnosticate and forshew them. After them, Hipparchus compiled his E∣phimerides, containing the course and aspects of both these Planets for six hundred yeares ensuing, and that no lesse assuredly, then if hee had beene privy to Natures counsailes.

Great persons and excellent doubt∣les were these, saith Pliny, who aboue the reach of all humane capaci∣ty, found out the reason of the course of so mighty starres, and diuine * 1.232 powers. And whereas the weake minde of man was before to seeke, fearing in these Eclypses of the starres, some great wrong, or violence, or death of the Planets, secured them in that behalfe. In which dread∣full feare stood Stesicorus and Pyndarus the Poets, notwithstanding their lofty stile, and namely at the Eclypse of the Sunce, as may appeare by their Poemes.

In this fearefull fit also of an Eclypse, Nicias the ge∣nerall of the Athenians (as a man ignorant of the cause thereof) feared to set saile with his fleet out of the haven, and so greatly indangered & distressed the state of his countrey: But on the contrary, the forena∣med Sulpitius being a Colonell in the field, the day before that King Perseus was vanquished by Paulus, was brought forth by the Generall into open audience before the whole host, to foretell the Eclipe that

should happen the next morrow, whereby he delivered the army from all pensiuenesse and feare, which might haue troubled them, in the time of battaile, and within a while after he compiled also a booke thereof. Thus far Plyny touching the harmlesse and innocent nature of Eclipses, himselfe in the next chapter reducing their certaine revolutions, and re∣turnes to the space of two hundred twenty two moneths.

I will shut vp all with a memorable story to this purpose taken out of Iohn de Royas in his Epistle to Charles the fifth, prefixed to his Commenta∣ries vpō the plaine Sphere. Colonus the leader of King Ferdinands army, at the Iland of Iamaica, being in great distresse for want of victuals, which he could by no meanes attaine of the Inhabitants, & by his skill foresee∣ing an Eclips of the Moone shortly to ensue, tooke order that it should be declared to the Governours of the Iland, that vnlesse they supplyed him and his with necessaries, imminent danger hanged over their heads, in witnesse wherof they should shortly see the Moone Eclypsed The Bar∣barians at first, refused his demaunds and contemned his threatning: but when at the set time they indeed beheld the Moone by degrees to faile in her light, and vnderstood not the cause thereof, they first gaue credit to his words, and then supply of victuals to his army, casting themselues to his feete and craving pardon for their offence.

Finally to the present objection, if any harmefull malignant effect be for the present or afterward produced by the Eclips in those parts where it is seene, yet no man I thinke will deny it, but to be repairable by by the tract and revolution of time, or if irrepairable, yet this decay in the Creatures, ariseth not from any deficiencie in themselues, from any waxing old or removall from their first originals, (which is the very poynt in question) but from an adventitious and externall cause. And so I passe from the other Creatures to the Consideration of Man the Com∣maunder and Compendium of all the rest, for whose sake both they were first made, and this discourse was first vndertaken.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Psal. 19. 1.
• * 1.2

  Gen. 1. 14.
• * 1.3

  Psal. 19. 4. 5. 6.
• * 1.4

  De operibus Dei.
• * 1.5

  Arist. l. 4. de partibus anima∣lium cap. 5. Plin. lib. 2 c. 41. & 99.
• * 1.6

  De civit. Dei lib. 21. c. 5. De natura Fos∣sil. lib. 5.
• * 1.7

  In 3. de diebus Criticis.
• * 1.8

  Lib. 1. de Coelo, cap. 2.
• * 1.9

  Wisedome, 9. 16.
• * 1.10

  1. Metamorph.
• * 1.11

  De Coelorum a∣nimatione.
• * 1.12

  Hexam. l. 2. c. 3. De Civit. Dei, l. 11. c. vlt.
• * 1.13

  v. 15. v 20.
• * 1.14

  Ierimy. 10. 13.
• * 1.15

  Iob. 15. 15. & 25. 5.
• * 1.16

  Iob. 4 18.
• * 1.17

  Cap. 15. 15.
• * 1.18

  Isay. 6. 2.
• * 1.19

  Apud Augusti∣num Steuchum, l. 10. de Perenni Philosoph•…•…a.
• * 1.20

  v. 25. 26. 27.
• * 1.21

  v. 10. 11. 13
• * 1.22

  Ps. 19. 1. 〈◊〉〈◊〉.
• * 1.23

  Heb. 8. 13.
• * 1.24

  Psal. 104. 2.
• * 1.25

  Lib. 10. De Pe∣renni Philoso∣phia.
• * 1.26

  Heb. 1. 12.
• * 1.27

  34. 4.
• * 1.28

  2. Pet. 3. 10.
• * 1.29

  Galilaeus a Florentine.
• * 1.30

  Cap. 10. v. 12.
• * 1.31

  Isay 38 8.
• * 1.32

  De Civit. Dei 11. 8.
• * 1.33

  Virg. Georg▪ l. 2
• * 1.34

  Tacit. Annal. 1. 7.
• * 1.35

  Boetius lib. 4 m•…•…t. 5.
• * 1.36

  L•…•…b. 1.
• * 1.37

  Iuv, lib. 2. Sat. 6
• * 1.38

  Ser. 83, vel 82. Maximus Tau∣rinensis hath an Homily to the same pur∣pose, and in the same words.
• * 1.39

  Eccles. 27. 11.
• * 1.40

  Rom. 8.
• * 1.41

  Ps. 89. 37.
• * 1.42

  Lib. 2. cap. 10.
• * 1.43

  Lib. 3. de. Civit. Dei, cap. 15.
• * 1.44

  Act. 17. 23.
• * 1.45

  Scalig. Exer. 72.
• * 1.46

  Copernicus.
• * 1.47

  Hooker, Eccles. Policie, 5. 69.
• * 1.48

  De Consol. ad Albiaum. cap. 6.
• * 1.49

  Psal. 148. 6.
• * 1.50

  Lib. 2. denaru∣ra Deorum.
• * 1.51

  Gen. 1. 14.
• * 1.52

  Lib. 4. de consol. Philosophiae. Met. 6.
• * 1.53

  Lib. 1.
• * 1.54

  In Epino•…•….
• * 1.55

  Arist. de Mundo
• a 1.56

  Arist. l. 2. de coelo, cap. 9.
• b 1.57

  Lib. 10. de Rep.
• c 1.58

  In lib. 2. de Somnio Scipio∣nis cap. 3.
• d 1.59

  Lib. de Musica
• e 1.60

  Lib. de Musica cap. 2.
• f 1.61

  Lib. deimag. mundi cap. 24.
• * 1.62

  Psal. 104. 19.
• * 1.63

  Lib. 2. Instit. cap. 5.
• * 1.64

  Lib. 1. De Pla∣citis Philoso∣phorum c. 6.
• * 1.65

  In cap. 5. Apo∣cal parte 5.
• * 1.66

  Act. 1. 7.
• * 1.67

  Bartas.
• * 1.68

  2 Cor 4. 6
• * 1.69

  Pareus in Epi∣stolam ad He∣braeos, c. 1, v. 11.
• * 1.70

  Moll•…•…r, in Psal. 102. v. 27.
• * 1.71

  v. 6.
• * 1.72

  In Yorkeshire
• * 1.73

  Hebr. 13.
• * 1.74

  Psal. 19. 6.
• * 1.75

  De civit. Dei. Lib. 11. c. vlt. Hom. 3. in Ge∣〈◊〉〈◊〉. Hexem. 2. 2.
• * 1.76

  v. 3. 4.
• * 1.77

  In Tim. Nat. Hist. 2. 9.
• * 1.78

  The least 18 times. 167 times.
• * 1.79

  Ecclesiastcus 43. 2.
• * 1.80

  Cap. 2.
• * 1.81

  Method. Hist. cap. 8,
• * 1.82

  Exercit. 99.
• * 1.83

  Lib. 3. contra Astrolag. c. 5. Lib. 4. &. 5. de Causis subter.
• * 1.84

  Iohn. 5. 17. Heb. 1. 14.
• * 1.85

  v. 31.
• * 1.86

  S^r W. R.
• * 1.87

  Bartas.
• * 1.88

  Wisedome. 9. 16.
• * 1.89

  Duditius in vi-ta Poli.
• * 1.90

  Iob. 38. 31.
• * 1.91

  Rom. 8. 28.
• * 1.92

  Iudges. 5. 20.
• * 1.93

  Iam. 5. 17.
• * 1.94

  Ier. 10. 2.
• * 1.95

  Iuly 9. 1623
• * 1.96

  Lib. 14. 6. 1.
• * 1.97

  Bartas 2 Day of the first week.
• * 1.98

  Psal. 109. 91.
• * 1.99

  De Consol. lib. 4 Hec. 6.
• * 1.100

  Bartas.
• * 1.101

  1 de subtil. Manil. 1. Astron•…•…m.
• * 1.102

  Bartas.
• * 1.103

  Exod. 36. 35. 2. Chron. 3. 14. Lib. 6. de Bel. Iudaico, c 6. & l. 15. Antiquit. c. 14.
• * 1.104

  Epist 128.
• * 1.105

  v. 14.
• * 1.106

  Bartas.
• * 1.107

  Boethius, l. 3. Met. 9.
• * 1.108

  2 de Generat. c. 6.
• * 1.109

  Clauius in Sa∣crobosc. c. 1. Lib. de Crepusc. l. 10. propos. 60. 7. Perspect.
• * 1.110

  Lib. de Mundi incorrupcibili∣tate•…•…
• * 1.111

  Lib. 1. de sid. orth. c 3 De operibus sex dicrum. Ovid. Met. 15.
• * 1.112

  Cap. 19, v. 17.
• * 1.113

  Bartas.
• * 1.114

  De Gen, ad li∣teram. lib. 3. c. 2
• * 1.115

  Epist. Select. 47.
• * 1.116

  Virgill Geor∣gicks. 3.
• * 1.117

  Ovid de Trist▪
• * 1.118

  Georgick. 3.
• * 1.119

  Annal, 13. 8.
• * 1.120

  Survey of London. ex l. Bermun.
• * 1.121

  Hollenshed.
• * 1.122

  Augustinus in Psal. 33. in illa verba: Quis est homo qui vult vitam, & diligit di•…•…s videre b•…•…∣nos.
• * 1.123

  This was writ ten in the last yeare of King James.
• * 1.124

  Camden in Barkshire.
• * 1.125

  Reb. Auesbury & Tabian.
• * 1.126

  Sam Daniell, Ann. 22. Eduar∣di, 3.
• * 1.127

  Ann: 1317.
• * 1.128

  Pompon: Let•…•… Zonaras, com. 2.
• * 1.129

  Eusebius, l. 7. c: 17.
• * 1.130

  De Constantia, l. 2. c. 22.
• * 1.131

  Procopius, l: 11: de bello Persico. Agathias, lib. 5. Lib: 5. c. 8
• * 1.132

  Lypsiius, vt su∣pra.
• * 1.133

  2. Sam. 24: 15:
• * 1.134

  Lib: 4: c: 25:
• * 1.135

  Novel. hist. l. 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 1.136

  Levit. 13.
• * 1.137

  Ibid. v. 55.
• * 1.138

  Levit. 14. 33. &c.
• a 1.139

  Num. 12. 10.
• b 1.140

  2. Kings. 5. 27.
• c 1.141

  2 Kings. 15. 5.
• d 1.142

  2 Chron. 16. 19.
• e 1.143

  2 King. 7. 4.
• f 1.144

  Lnke. 17. 12.
• * 1.145

  Plin. 2. 83.
• * 1.146

  Lib. 68.
• * 1.147

  Pliny l. 2. c, 14. Tac. Annal. 2. 10. Lypsius de Con∣stant. l. 1. c. 16.
• * 1.148

  Cap. 1.
• * 1.149

  Sands his Re∣lation, lib. 4.
• * 1.150

  Ovid. Met. Lib. 15.
• * 1.151

  Pliny lib. 2. cap. 85, 86, 87
• * 1.152

  Natur. Quest. Lib. 7. cap. 21. 23.
• * 1.153

  Mani•…•…
• * 1.154

  Cap. 16.
• * 1.155

  Ann: 1558:
• * 1.156

  An: 1618:
• * 1.157

  Natur: Quest: l: 7: c, 1:
• * 1.158

  Georg. l. 1.
• * 1.159

  Garzaeus.
• * 1.160

  Acts & Mon. p. 1637.
• * 1.161

  Ann: 1624.
• * 1.162

  Psal. 107. ver. 26.
• * 1.163

  Acts, 27. 20.
• * 1.164

  Aeneid▪ 1.
• * 1.165

  Georg. 1
• * 1.166

  Iob. 1. 19:
• * 1.167

  De ascen: men∣tis in Deum per Scal. Creat gradu 2
• * 1.168

  ohn Stow.
• * 1.169

  Psal. 24. 2.
• * 1.170

  Sec lib. 1. cap. 3. Sect. 2.
• * 1.171

  Bartas.
• * 1.172

  Lib. 17
• * 1.173

  Metamorp. 15.
• * 1.174

  Lib. 48. Mete•…•…:
• * 1.175

  Reported by M^r. Ge. Sands as a common experiment, affirmed by Alpinus a Phi∣sitiā, Marchi∣tus the French Consull Elia∣nus a Iesuite, and Varrat an Englishma•…•…
• * 1.176

  Iuvenal▪ Sat. 5.
• * 1.177

  Bartas.
• * 1.178

  Lib. 51. c. 25
• * 1.179

  Brier•…•…woods inquir•…•… c. 13.
• * 1.180

  Lib. 16. c 12 Lib. 16. c. 〈◊〉〈◊〉
• * 1.181

  Lib. 54
• * 1.182

  Lib. 4.
• * 1.183

  Iob. 41.
• * 1.184

  Satur. l. 3. c. 16. Nat. hist. 9. 17.
• * 1.185

  Lib. 2. c. 68.
• * 1.186

  Nat. quaest. l. 1. praef.
• * 1.187

  Cap. 11.
• * 1.188

  Cap. 14. v. 18. 19
• * 1.189

  Bartas.
• * 1.190

  Ovid. 15. Met.
• * 1.191

  104: 30.
• * 1.192

  Lucr. l. 2.
• * 1.193

  16. 30.
• * 1.194

  Gen. 8. 22.
• * 1.195

  Virgill.
• * 1.196

  Ier. 8. 7.
• * 1.197

  Eccles. 11. 4.
• * 1.198

  v: 6.
• * 1.199

  Epist. 129. ad Dardanum.
• * 1.200

  1: Chron. 13. 3.
• * 1.201

  2. Chron. 21. 5.
• * 1.202

  2: Chron. 17. 14.
• * 1.203

  2. Chron: 〈◊〉〈◊〉. 5▪
• * 1.204

  v: 12.
• * 1.205

  v: 3.
• * 1.206

  Levit. 25. v. 20▪ 21.
• * 1.207

  Gen. 13. 10. Wisedome, 10 7. Iosua, 12. 24.
• * 1.208

  Numb. 13. 24.
• * 1.209

  De Terra san∣cta, part. 2. c. 1.
• * 1.210

  Lib. 1. c. 33.
• * 1.211

  Virg. in his Georgicks l. 1
• * 1.212

  De Const l. 2. 22
• * 1.213

  Zozimus 6. An∣nal. Lib. 4,
• * 1.214

  Gen 47. 23.
• * 1.215

  Act. 11. 28,
• * 1.216

  Beda. l. 4. c. 13.
• * 1.217

  Thomas de la Moore.
• * 1.218

  Sam. Daniell.
• * 1.219

  De Re Rust. l. 3. c. 6. Sat. l. 3. 13.
• * 1.220

  Varro, l. 3. c. 2,
• * 1.221

  Cap. 7.
• * 1.222

  Cap. 16.
• * 1.223

  Mat. 10. 29.
• * 1.224

  Ier: 44. 18.
• * 1.225

  Camden▪
• * 1.226

  Practic. Gene∣ral. l. 4.
• * 1.227

  Hist. Amnialiū, lib. 12. c. 8.
• * 1.228

  v. 37.
• * 1.229

  lib 33. in Pro∣aem.
• * 1.230

  Bartas 3 day of the 1 weeke.
• * 1.231

  In his epistle to Aubertus de ortu & causis meta•…•…orum.
• * 1.232

  Lib. 2. c. 12.