Observations, naturall and morall with a short treatise of the numbers, weights, and measures used by the Hebrews, with the valuation of them according to the measures of the Greeks and Romans : for the clearing of sundry places of Scripture in which these weights and measures are set downe by way of allusion / by Iohn Weemse ...

CHAP. VI. Whether the Windes have any weight or not?

Iob. 28.25. He maketh the weight for the winds.

GOd by his power restraineth the waters that they over flow not the whole earth, therefore Iob saith that he weigheth them by measure, lest they abounding too much should breake up the fountaines of the deepes as they did in Noahs time, therefore he fitteth the water to the Center of the earth; so Iob addeth, who maketh the weight for the winds: and as hee admired before, why the water overflowed not the whole earth, so he admi∣reth now why the winds ascend not up through the whole earth, but are caried about the earth, and are kept downe by a certaine weight.

Weight and levitie are not the first qualities of things, but they arise from the first qualities: these which are the first qualities are made of no other, and the qualities of all creatures are made of them, and one of them striveth against another & agunt invicem, and two of them are active and two of them passive; active are hot and cold, and passive are humiditie and dry∣nesse

Weight and levitie ought not to bee reckoned a∣mongst the first qualities, because non agunt invicem, one

of them doth not fight against another, as heat and cold doe, they depend upon heat and cold; wee may give a reason why the earth is heavie, because it is cold; but we cannot give a reason why it is cold, but here wee must rest as in the first simple quality.

If levity and weight were qualities in things accor∣ding to certaine degrees as things are hot or cold, then one thing should weigh an ounce, and another a pound; but this is not found in heavie things simplie, but in heavie things compared with other things, and then they are sayd to be light or heavie, and they are not a•• solute qualities but have stil a relation to some o∣ther thing. Things become not sweeter or sowrer chan∣ging them from one place to another, but weight and levitie doe alter according to the midst, and have still re∣lation to some other thing.

That which is heavie or light is considered two man∣ner of wayes, first in respect of the place, secondly, in respect of the midst; in respect of the place, that which is most simple goeth neerest the Center, as water if it be mixed with wine it descendeth farthest downe seeking towards the Center. If ye put water first in the glassē, and then powre wine into it, he that drinketh first shall drinke pure wine, and he who drinketh last, shall drinke onely water; but if wine bee powred first in the glasse and water upon it, then it maketh a small mixture, be∣cause the water seeketh to the owne place descending downeward, and the wine to the owne place ascending upward; and by this we may try another conclusion, to find out the pure wine from the mixed, if ye pierce an hogs head at the uppermost part, if there be both water and wine in it, ye shall draw out the pure wine; but if ye pierce it below, then the water shall come forth first, and next the wine.

Secondly, weight and levitie are considered in re∣spect

of the midst, for they vary much changing the midst; example: take a masse of pure gold, and a masse of that which is mixed gold, and weigh them both first in the ayre with a paire of ballances, and then they are of equall weight, but sinke them both in the ballance halfe a foote deepe in the water, then the mixed gold shall be found much more heavier in the water than it was in the ayre: the reason of this is the porositie, the ballance is onely the judge of the weight of things and reduceth them to one qualitie, but they being suncke in the water, the water judgeth of their qualitie, which is the lighter, and which is the weightier, the water tri∣eth that but by accident onely, by the porositie of the mettall, but the ballance trieth it per se, for the water entring into the impure mettall, because of the porositie of it maketh it descend downeward, and the pure met∣tall having no pores in it retaineth still the same weight which it had in the ayre; and thus the mixture or mixed mettall varieth according to the midst here, the water. The ayre is seene sometimes going up, and sometimes going downe, and wee know not which is the proper Center of it, untill it enter into the hollow places of the earth, and then it bursteth upward, and then wee know that the Center of it is above here, and the earth is the midst or judge to trie this, as the water was to try the pure mettall from the impure. When the pure mettall and the mixed mettall are in the water, to know how much the one is better than the other, adde to the mixed gold in the water a peece of pure gold, and so make the ballance of equall weight in the water, and that addition put to the mixed gold in the water will shew you the difference betwixt the pure gold and the mixed gold, here we see, mutato medio mutatur pon∣dus, the midst being changed, the weight is chan∣ged.

If ye weigh 21 pounds of Lead in the ayre, and so much gold of equall weight, and sincke the ballance in the water, the gold shall bee but seventeene pound weight and the lead shall be one and twentie; the reason of this is the porositie of the lead which sinketh in the water: so weigh thirtie one ounces of silver in the ayre, and thirtie one ounces of gold, and put them in the wa∣ter, the gold shall be thirtie one still, but the silver will be thirtie six.

The winde is an exhalation which is more grosse than the pure and subtile ayre, but more subtile than the grosse exhalations which come out of the earth; there∣fore the winde for the subtilitie of it, ascendeth to the lowest religion of the ayre the clouds, but it is carried downe by the weight of it from the more pure and cleare region of the ayre, yet it cannot descend to the earth, because of the thicke and grosse vapours w^ch arise out of the earth still, for they must bee lowest, and it cannot ascend through the more subtile ayre, for the lightest must alwayes be highest, and having no place to rest in, it is carried about, and carrieth about the clouds with it; therefore the weight which God made to the winde was this, to varie according to the midst, for compare the winde with the grosser exhalations of the earth, then it is light, but compare it againe with the pure and subtile ayre, then it is heavie: so weight and levitie in the winde are onely in comparison. [Conclusion.]

The conclusion of this is, As things change their weight being compared with this or that, so doe things varie before God, and that which is in high request a∣mongst men is abhomination before God. Balthasser for all the honour that he had before men, yet when he was weighed before the Lord hee was found light, Dan. 5.27.

Notes

• The winds are kept downe by a certaine weight.
• Non prime sed ort••e. Weight and levitie are 〈◊〉〈◊〉 not the first qualities.
• Reasons proving that weight and Levitie are not first qualities.
• Weight and levitie doe change according to the midst.
• How the winds are weighed.