vnderstand themselues to bee all as it were kinne and descended from the same originall then which there is no greater means to conciliate and ioyne mens affections for mutuall amitie and conuersation As it is reported of Diomedes and Glaucus and many others who being armed to one anothers ruine and ouerthrow haue beene drawne to breake off their hatred by the meere pretence and shew of consanguinity But these who so arrogantly boast themselues to bee Sonnes of the Earth not beholding to any other countrey for their ofspring striue to breake in sunder the bonds of society betwixt nations which God 's Word and the Law of Nations binds vs to obserue Hence grow those mortall hatreds and heart-burnings betwixt diuerse countreyes as of the Aegyptians against the Hebrewes of the Greekes against the Latines wherein they persecuted one the other extreamly Hence came it to passe that strangers amongst the Romans were called enemies as the name of Welch-men with the Germans signifieth as much as a forrainer wherein they seeme much to degenerate from the ancient hospitality of their Ancestors for which they haue been much praysed Finally from this one root spring those infamous libels cast out of one Nation against another written by such Fire-brands as delight in nothing more then dissention but how much better were it to reconcile all people out of this assured ground of consanguinity sith Religion perswades more to Charity and agreement then to Faction and contentions But this I leaue to the Diuine whom it more properly concernes 2 The first inhabitants of the Earth were planted in Paradise and thence translated to the places neere adioyning For the confirmation of this point we need no farther proofe then the authority of God himselfe speaking in his Word whereon all truth is grounded But of the placâ— of Paradise where we place the first habitation sundry disputes haue been amongst Diuines sufficiently examined of late by a iudicious and worthy Writer in his History of the World Which tract being too tedious to insert wee will contract as farre as concernes our purpose First therefore it would seeme meete that wee examine their opinion which hold this History of Paradise to bee a meere Allegory Of this opinion were Origen Philo Iudaeus Fran. Gregorius with many others who by the foure riuers of Paradise would haue to be vnderstood the foure Cardinall Vertues as by the Tree of knowledge Sapience or Wisdome To which opinion also S. Ambrose Teemes to adhere who would haue that by Paradise should bee meant the Soule or mind by Adam the vnderstanding by Eue the sense by the Serpent delectation by the rest of the Trees the vertues of the mind Against the Fathers themselues I will not inueigh sith some men suppose their conceits to be rather allusions then conclusions But against the opinion it selfe many reasons may bee drawne to proue there was a true locall Paradise Eastward first out of the text it selfe which saith For out of the ground made the Lord God to grow euery tree pleasant to the â—ight and good for meats by the processe of which Story it seemes that God first created man out of the garden as it were in the world at large and then put him in this garden the end whereof is expressed to dresse and manure it Paradise being a garden filled with plants and trees pleasant to behold and good for meate which proueth that Paradise was a terrestriall garden Secondly to expresse it more plainly he averreth that it was watred with a riuer springing out of a Region called Eden being a country neare vnto Canaan in Mesopotania as Ezechiel witnesseth Thirdly Epiphanius and St Hierome vrge to this effect if Paradise were such an Allegory then were there no Riuers no place out of which they sprung no Eue no Adam and so the whole History should be turned into a meere fable or poëticall fiction Fourthly it is proued by continuation of the same Story 1 Because God gaue Adam free-will to eate of euery tree of the garden the foresaid tree excepted besides he left all the beasts of the Earth to be named by him which cannot be meant of imaginary trees and beasts for this were to make the whole Creation aenigmaticall 2ly This name is often vsed in holy Scriptures else-where as in Ezech 10 Genesis 13.19 which would not haue been so if the whole story had bin meerely Allegoricall Paradise an Vtopia sith the Scripture specially the historicall part of them are written in a plaine stile fitting the capacity of vulgar auditors Lastly of this Paradise planted in the East wee may find some footsteps in prophane Poëts as in Homer Orpheus Liâ—us Pindarus Hesiod who often speake of Alcinous garden and the Elisian fields all which deriued their first inuention from this description of Paradise recorded by Moses in Holy Scripture whereof the Heathen themselues had some obscure traditions The second opinion was that Paradise was the whole Earth and the Ocean the fountain of these foure riuers which was defended heretofore by the Manichees Noviomagus Vadianus and Goropius Becanus The reasons which they alleage for their part to proue this assertion were chiefly these 1 Because those things which were in Scripture attributed to Paradise are generally ascribed to the whole world as that place of Genesis Bring forth fruit and multiply fill the earth and subdue it rule ouer euery creature But this argument may easiâ—y be answered for although the world in generall were created for man and all men descended from the same originall to wit the loynes of Adam yet this disproueth nothing the particular garden assigned to Adam to dresse wherein he liued before his transgression for if there had beene no other choyce but that Adam had beene left to the vniuersall as they imagine why should Moses say the garden was East from Eden sith the world can not be East or West but in respect of particular places Also why was the Angell set after Adams expulsion to barre his re entrance if it were not a particular place for according to their opinion Adam should be driuen out of the whole World Their second reason is because it semes impossible that Nilus Ganges and Euphrates by so many portions of the world so farre distant should issue out of the same fountaine To this we answer that by common Interpreters of Scripture being ignorant of Geographie Pison was falsely taken for Ganges Gihon for Nilus Although it can no way be true that Ganges should be taken for a riuer by Haâ—ilah in India and Nilus should runne through Aethiopia as we shall shew hereafter The third opinion is that Paradise is higher then the Moone or higher at least then the Middle Region of the Aire this opinion is cast vpon Beda and â—abanus to which also Rupertus seemes to accord who as it seemes borrowed their opinion from Plato and he from Socrates But these two as it seemes are misinterpreted Because by Paradise they
sort as they imagine For the only withdrawing of that hand and letting goe of that bridle which gaue the water that restraint would haue beene â—ufficient to haue ouerwhelmed the whole Earth The second reason is taken from Ilands in the sea which are nothing else but parts of the land raised vp aboue the water Thirdly we find by experience that a ship carried with the like wind is driuen so swiftly from the port into the open sea as from the sea into the port which could not be done if the sea were higher then the land for it must needs be that a ship if it were to be carried to a higher place should be moued slower then if it came from an higher to a lower Fourthly all Riuers runne into the sea from the inner parts of the land which is a most euident signe that the land is higher then the sea for it is agreeable to the nature of the water to flow alwaies to the lower place whence we gather that the sea shore to which the Water is brought froÌ„ the land must needs be lower otherwise the water in ruÌ„ning thither should not descend but ascend This opinion I hold farr more probable as being backt by reason and the Authority of our best Philosophers yet not altogether exactly true as we shall shew hereafter But Bartholomew KeckermaÌ„ in a late German writer holding these 2 former opposite opinioÌ„s as it were in one equall Ballance labours a reconciliation In a diuerse respect saith he it is true that the sea is higher and that it is lower then the Earth It is higher in respect of the shores and borders to which it so comes that sensibly it swells to a Globe or a circumference and so at length in the middle raiseth vp it selfe and obtaines a greater hight then in those parts where in the middle of the sea it declines towards the shore Of which parts the hight sufferâ— such a decrease that by how much neerer the shore they shall approach by so much the lower they are in respect of the shore in somuch that touching the shore it selfe it is much lower then the Earth For this opinion our Author pretends a demonstration which hee grounds on the 4 chapter of Aristotle de Caelo in his second booke where hee puts downe these two positions which he calls Hypotheses or suppositions First that the Water no lesse concurrs to the making of a Globe or circle then the Earth for it so descends naturally that it doth sensibly gather it selfe together and makes a swelling as wee see in small dropps cast on the ground Secondly the Water makes a circle which hath the same center with the center of the Earth Out of these grounds would our Keckerman conclude the water in some places to bee higher in other places to bee lower then the Earth And hence proceeds he to giue an answer to their reasons who haue affirmed the Earth to bee higher then the sea What to thinke of the proposition or conclusion we will shew hereafter but in the meane space I hold this conclusion not rightly inferred out of these premises For first whereas he sayth that the water by nature is apt to gaher it selfe round into an orbe or spheare I would demaund whether such a roud body hath the same center with the world or a diuerse center he cannot say that it hath a diuerse center from the center of the Earth First because as we haue demonstrated in our first part the Earth and the Water haue but one center and that the Water is concentricall with the Earth Secondly from the second proposition or ground of his out of Aristotle if he meanes such a sphaericity as hath the same center with the center of the Earth I answer first that he contradicts himselfe because he giues an instance in small dropps cast on the ground whose quantity being so small and conuexity sensible can in no mans iudgment be concentrick to the Earth Secondly out of this ground that the Spheare of the water is concentrick to the Earth hee confutes himselfe for according to the principles of Geometry in a Spheare or circle all the lines drawne from the center to the circumference must be equall Then must all places in the circumference or superficies of a sphericall body be of equall hight from the center and by consequence the sea being such a Sphericall body cannot haue that inequality which Keckerman imagines it to haue wherefore some other demonstation must be sought for this conclusion I will goe no further then that I haue spoken in the former chapter concerning the figure of the Water Where I haue probably shewed it to be conicall and out of this may be easily gathered how it may be higher then the land in some places as of the middle of greater seas where the head of the Cone is lifted higher in other lower as in the narrow streits where the increase of the eminencie is also lesse The grounds and principles of which we haue laied before 1 The sea in respect of the Earth is higher in one place then another Besides the naturall conformity of the Water to a conicall figure as we haue fore-shewed whence one part of the superficies must be graunted to be higher then another wee must needs in the sea acknowledge other accidentall causes which produce an inequality in the parts of the sea The chiefest whereoâ— are the Equality of inclination in all parts of the water to motion And the inequality of the channells and shores whence it commeth to passe that the Water of the sea being euery whereof it selfe equally inclined to motion is notwithstanding vnequally receiued into channels so that in some place hauing as it were a large dominion to inuade as in the maine Ocean it falls lower and euener In some other places as streites or narrow seas the water hauing a large entrance from the Ocean but litle or no passage through it must needes swell higher and so one place by accident becomes higher or lower then another Which farther to confirme diuerse instances may be alleaged out of moderne and ancient obseruations For diuerse histories giue testimony that sundry Kings of Aegipt by cutting the Isthmus or narrow neck of land lying betwixt the red sea the Mediterranean laboured to make Africk an Iland open passage from one sea to the other but afterwards they were perswaded to desisâ— from their enterprise Some say because they saw the red sea to bee higher then many parts of Aegipt and hereupon feared a generall inundation of all Aegipt if the pâ—ssage were broken open Others haue deliuered that they feared that if the passage from one vnto another were broke open and the red sea hauing a vent that way the red sea would become so shallow that men might wade ouer it and so insteed of making Africk an Iland it would haue been more ioyned to the Continent then before Both opinions consent in this that the waters
there was any wind to driue and enrage the Waters is very vnlikely because it is said that God caused a wind to passe vpon the Earth and the Waters ceased so that there was no wind till the Waters sanke Lastly wee may argue from a finall cause that this inequality in the superficies of the Earth was before the flood because it is certaine that all things were in as good or better estate then now with vs and that the Earth was adorned with all varieties of creatures as well for profit as delectation Now it is found by experience that all commodities agree not to all places but some are found in the mountaines at all sorts of mettalls mineralls Plants Vegetalls for the most part prosper best in the vallies and plaines Also that the mountaines serue for a shelter to guard the vallies from the rigor of cold and wind both for the better conueniencie of mans life and encrease of fruits for the vse of man Whence we may conclude that it is farre more probable that the great Mountaines were so created in the beginning and not made by the flood yet can wee not deny but that some small Hillockes might be made by the flood and afterward by the industrie of man which haue raised great fortresses and bulworks which afterward decaied were made great heaps of Earth as we see many in this land but this is of small note not worthy consideration in comparison of the great mountaines of the Earth whereof we especially treat 2 The perpendicular height of the highest mountaines seldome exceeds 10 furlong This proposition depends on the authority of Eratosthenes a famous Mathematician who being employed by his King found out by Dioptrick Instruments the height of the highest mountaines not to exceed the quantity aboue specified Cleomedes extends this a little farther and would haue some mountaines to attaine the height of 15 furlongs of which height he would haue an high rock in Bactriana called by Strabo 11 libro Sisimitrae Petra But yet if we credit Pliny on Dicaearchâ—â— who measured the Mountain Pelion accoÌ„pted the highest he found it not to exceed 1250 paces which make 10 furlongs and Solinus relates the mountaines of Thessaly to be higher then else-where are to bee found But this opinion howsoeuer supported by the authority of the ancient and famous Mathematicians hath been called in question as well by moderne as ancient writers Many matters are miraculously or rather fabulously spoken of the Mountaine Athos in Macedonia of Cassius in Syria and another of the same name in Arabia of the mountaine Caucasus and others which Histories notwithstanding are related by no meaner Authors then Aristotle Mela Pliny and Solinus yet it is not hard to imagine that these Authors might bee deceiued in those times either trusting to other mens relations or wanting Mathematicall instruments to search these matters Of the Mountaine Athos it is much wondred at that it should cast a shadow from Macedonia into the market-place of Myrhina a towne of the Iland Lemnos distant from Athos 86 miles But this as our learned Countriman Mr Hues well obserues can bee no great argument of such a miraculous height because the mountaine Athos situate East from Lemnos as may be gathered from Ptolomies Table may without any great wonder cast a very long shadow the Sunne either rising or setting Other matters are related of this mountaine Athos more strange then the former to wit that it should in hight transcend the Region of the raine and wind which they would striue to confirme out of an old tradition that the ashes heaped together on certaine Altars built on the top thereof were nener blowne away but remained in the same manner as they were left to which may be added out of Strabo that they who inhabit the top of this mountaine can see the Sunne 3 houres before those who inhabit neere the sea The like is reported by Aristotle of the Mountaine Caucasus that for the extreame height the top of it enioyes the Sun-beames a third part of the night Litle lesse is spoken by Pliny and Solinus of the mountaine Cassius in Syria and by Pomponius Mela of the mountaine Cassius in Arabia But how fabulous and incredulous these things are Petrus Nonius and other Mathematicians haue sufficiently demonstrated out of the grounds of Geometry more absurd by farre seemes that which Eustathius reports of Hercules pillars celebrated by Dionysius Perieges for their admirable height whereas they are found not to exceed 100 ells making one furlong a height according to Strabo not exceeding the Aegyptian Pyramides and comming short of certaine Indian trees neare the Riuer Hyarotes whose Meridian shadowes reach 5 furlongs These errours in the ancient might seeme veniall had they not bin seconded by latter writers Of the Mountaine Tenariffe in the Canaries Scaliger is bold to report out of other mens relations that it riseth in height aboue 15 leagues which make 60 miles but Petricius more bold then he would haue it 70 miles Litle lesse is spoken of Pico amongst the Azoris Inâ—ulâ— and the Mountaine Andi in Peru But to confute these relatioÌ„s we will vse this argument It is reported by the Spanish writers which haue spoken of this place that the topps of these Mountaines scarce any one or two moneths in the yeare are free from snow Now that snow should bee ingendred aboue 60 or 70 miles aboue the ordinary plaine of the Winter or Earth is against the iudgmeÌ„t of our best Astronomers because as they haue obserued out of Eratosthenes measure the highest vapors seldome reach so farre as 48 miles in height euery way from the Earth This argument may as well serue to confute these ancient opinions before mentioned had they not been so fabulous as scarce to deserue any solide confutation 3 The ordinary height of the Land aboue the Sea in diuerse places is more then the hight of the highest Mountaines aboue the ordinary face of the Earth We haue probably shewed out of former grounds that as the ordinary height of the Earth is answerable to the ordinary depth of the Sea so the hilles and mountaines in proportion answere to the whirle-pooles and extraordinary Gulphes of the Sea but it is to be imagined that the depth of the Sea in the maine Ocean is farre more below the superficies of the Earth then those other whirle-pooles and Holes extend themselues below that depth But to proue this by a more sensible argument we will compare the one with the other so farre forth as Mathematicians by experience haue guessed for it is found by Mathematick Instruments as wee haue proued in the precedent Theoreme that the highest Mountaines seldome or neuer mount vpward aboue ten furlongs which is an English mile and a quarter but the hight of the Land in some places where appeare no such hills is obserued to be much more to proue which assertion we can haue no fitter argument then the fresh Springs
For the other Inuention of letters howsoeuer it were by the Graecians ascribed to Cadmus as the first Inuentour because he was the man that first discouered it to the Graecians it is most certaine that it was as ancient as Seth And that Printing first came to vs from this Easterne part appeares by Iohn Guttemberg who brought it first out of the Easterne world Which art Conradus being instructed in brought the practise thereof to Rome which afterward one Gesnerus a French-man much bettered and perfected For howsoeuer amongst the Europaeans this inuention seemed but newly borne yet the Chinois had it before either the Aegyptians or Phaenicians When the Graecians had neither knowledg nor ciuility which is witnessed aboue a hundred yeares gone by the Spaniards and Portugalls Farther for the magnificence of those nations an argument may bee drawne from the History of Alexander the great who found more stately buildings and Cities in the little kingdome of Porus which lay side by side against the East-Indies then in all his former trauailes for in Alexanders time learning ciuility were not spread so farre west as Rome Neither did he esteeme of Italy any otherwise then of a barbarous and vnciuill place which made him to turne his army rather against Babilon and the east which seemed a farre worthier prize Moreouer Paulus Venetus shewes that letters and discipline was first borrowed from the easterne people without any returne of interest A third reason may bee from the extraordinary strength of those easterne people in most ancient times For it is reported by Diodorus Siculus out of Clesias that Semiramis the wife of Ninus not many discents from Noah brought an army to inuade India of three millions besides horses and waggoners Neither had Staurobates her aduersary smaller multitudes to encounter her which extraordinary strength and multitude of men could not possibly issue out of any Colony sent thither from the westerne parts And therefore it must needs follow that they had their first ofspring and originall in those easterne parts neere India Sundrie other reasons might bee alleaged but these I suppose will suffice to fortifie this assertion Then it is manifest that the first Plantation of nations begunne in the easterne parts of the Earth But where we shall place and define this Easterne part seemes a matter of greater difficulty then the other Sr Walter Rawleigh out of the premised arguments would seeme to proue that this first plantation was farre â—ast as farre as India neere which he would haue the Arke to rest to wit on the mountaine Caucasus lying betwixt India Scythia Notwithstanding the authority of the learned Author I find that the most ancient writers haue drawne the original of all nations soone after the flood from the Caldaeans or at least amongst all made them the first For confirmation of which opinion they vrge many strong arguments In the first place they vrge the testimony of Moses in the 11 of Genesis where speaking of the first assembly of people after the flood he relates that they came from the East into the plains of Shinaar in which place stood Babilon the chiefe seat of the Caldaeans To this they adde the testimony of Metasthenes Herodotus Câ—esias Xenophon which haue afterwards bin seconded by Diogenes Laertius Philo Porphyry in a certaine epistle to Boethus Clemens Alexandrinus in Stromatis Eusebius de Euangelica demonstratione Theodoretus lib 1. de Graecarum affectionum ouratione Rabbi Moyses Maymonis filius lib 3. cap. 30. Perplexorum with almost all the Interpreters of the Hebrewes All which with vniforme consent haue affirmed that Ciuility Arts and sciences deriued their first descent from the Caldaeans Hence they faigne that Prometheus being a Caldaean for that he recalled men from a wilde life to a more ciuill conuersation and taught the regular motion of the starrs and planets before vnknowne stole fire from heauen and animated men formed out of clay with a caelestiall soule But aboue all which may be collected in this kind no small argument may bee drawne from the markes and footesteppes of the Hebrew and Chaldy tongues which in no mixture of tongues or processe of time could euer be abolished For this being the first of all other languages was preserued by Abraham and his posterity And challengeth antiquity before euer the Latin or Graecian tongues had any memory in so much as all the ancient nations of the world are found in most of their originall names of Gods peoples Princes and places to make vse of the Hebrew or Chaldey tongues differing onely in dialect which without manifest wresting and absurdity cannot well be deriued from other latter languages The first father of the people of Europe was Iaphet the sonne of Noah according to the ioynt consent of Hebrewes Graecians and Latines To which alludes the Poet where he saies Audax Iapetigenus This name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Iaphet in Hebrew signifieth asmuch as Dilatation or enlargement Whereas the Greeke Etymologists ridiculously draw it from many other originalls in the like sort Tacitus ignorant of the Hebrew would haue the people of Palestine to be called Iudaei quasi Idaei from the mountaine Ida in Creete from which he dreames they were deriued whereas the word in the Chaldy signifies as much as Praysers In like manner Ion or according to Homer Iaon supposed the first Author of the Iones would the Graecians deriue from a flower whereas the word in Hebrew signifie as much as a deceiuer Whence Daniel prophecied of Alexander the great that the King of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Iaan or Iauan should raigne in Assiria Instances in this kind are infinite as of Danaus drawne from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan which signifies a Iudge whence comes Dardanus which is the seat of Iudges Of Ianus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iaijn signifying wine in which sense hee is by Halicharnisseus called Oenotrius Of Achaeis which signifies Greece Aegipt which is streight or narrow Nimrode Rebellous Ninus a sonne Niniue the house of Ninus Solon quasi Solam a peace-maker So Cadmus supposed to bee the father of letters and learning amongst the Graecians signifies in the originall so much as an Easterne man or an ancient man Should wee runne any further on this point wee should bee thought to write a dictionary for as much as all the ancient names amongst the Graecians spring from the same fountaine Whence that Aegyptian Priest had good reason to obiect to Solon That the Graecians seemed children because they had nothing ancient amongst them But to better purpose a Christian obiected to the Graecians that Moyses the Lawgiuer to the Christians was ancienter then all the Graecian Gods Other reasons are taken from the Religion of the Hebrewes out of which seeme to be deriued all the famous religions of the Earth For to let passe the Christian Iewish Mahometan Religions at this day flourishing all of them challenging great antiquity and taking a great