the iawes of Hell The skarr'd inhabitants of that same floating Cell Who now a peace-offering deuoutly sacrifise And from his Alter make perfumes to Heau'n arise Of purer kinded beasts and therewithall let flie Zele-winged heartie prayers and thus aloud they crie 15. Here yet the damned Crew Before he goe-on he shewes what certaine profane wretches doe obiect who make doubt of this history concerning the Deluge because they cannot conceiue how it is possible that the Arke being but 300. cubits long and 50. broad and 30. high should liue it is the Sea-mans phrase so many moneths in so great a storme of wind raine and violence of waters with so heauy a charge and containe so many creatures together with their competent food and fodder sithence the greatest Gallion vpon the Sea hath hardly stoage for the nourishment of a Horse an Elephant a Cammell a Bull and a Rhinoceros the space of ten moneths The Poet hath diuers answers to this obiection First that the mungrell beasts of what sort soeuer since engendred as Mules Leopards and other like that Nature daily brings forth were not in the Arke And this may be gathered out of the very text of Moses who speaks of the simple and true kindes not the mingled or mungrell sort as all Expositors agree The second is that the Arke because it contained so many cubits geometricall was able to receiue of all the true and simple kinds wylde tame creeping flying both male and female This is briefly said but we will speake thereof a word more Moses hath recorded in the 6. chap. of Gen. ver 14. c. that God hauing a purpose to destroy the world said vnto Noe Make thee an Arke of Gopher-wood which is thought to be a sort of Pine or Cedar Thou shalt make cabins in the Arke and shalt pitch it inside and out with pitch And thus thou shalt make it The length thereof shall be 300 cubits and the breadth 50 cubits and the height 30 cubits a window shalt thou make in the Arke and in a cubit shalt thou finish it abone and thou shalt set a doore in the side thereof And thou shalt make it with a low second and third roome or storie The timber then of the Arke being of such a fast and sad wood not easily rotting was like to hold out and I imagine it was a kinde of Cedar such as Plinie nameth in the 15. chap. of his 13. booke saying Hanc quoque materiam siccatam mari duritie incorrupta spissari nec vllo modo vehementiùs 1. That this kinde of timber dryed with the Sea more then any wayes else growes so sad and hard that it cannot rot But sithence the Commentors vpon this place differ much in the interpretation of this word Gopher which in all the Old Testament is not found but here I leaue the Reader that will be exact and curious to search it out himselfe As for the rest it is not to be doubted but that Noe endowed with a great measure of the holy Spirit and with exquisite wisdome did herein euen to the full conceiue and execute the commandement of God So as the Arke that is the close or couered ship was surely made and finished according to the proportion set downe by Moses and that of choice well seasoned and most durable materials 100 yeare a preparing as may be gathered by comparing the 7. chap. and 6. verse with the 6.10 and the 5.32 of Genesis And for as much as the whole businesse was managed by the expresse ordinance of God who gaue a secret instinct to the beasts both cleane and vncleane to enter after Noe by payres into the Arke I conclude there was roome distinct and sufficient both for them and their prouisions Apelles an auncient Heretike and the disciple of a most vngodly Master called Marcion hauing presumptuously controuled the bookes of Moses gaue occasion to some of the Fathers and chiefly Origen among other points to treat of the capacitie and largenesse of Noes Arke wherein he accounts each cubit Geometricall the Quadrate whereof is as much as six other cubits And this I. Buteo a learned Mathematician of Daulphine very cunningly declares in a treatise purposely written of the Arke of Noe where he proues to the full whatsoeuer may be questioned concerning that admirable peece of Architecture and all the cabins that it had for the creatures and their seuerall prouisions Io. Goropius discourseth likewise hereof and at large in the second booke of his Antiquities entitled Gigantomachia inserting also some part of Buteo But to speake plainly if we take the cubit in common signification for a foot and a halfe and confider the different syze of men of that age from ours together with the length bredth and height of the Arke and three stages whereof the lowest was for the prouision the next for the foure-footed and creeping creatures and the vppermost for the birds with Noe and his familie and ouer all these a couering wee shall finde roome enough to lodge and place all according to the number in generall set downe by Moses to wit male and female of euery sort vncleane and seauen of the cleane male and female The Poet here speaking of the Geometricall cubit means a cubit solid that is in length bredth and height taken together There are that make the cubit two foot long and make difference betwixt the cubit legale as they call it and the cubit of a man glancing at that which is said Deut. 3. of the bed of Og king of Basan Looke what Arias Montanus saith in his Tubal Cain and Noah where he discourses of the measures and Architectures mentioned in holy Scripture and of the Arke These bookes are in the Volume which he calleth Apparatus ioyned to the great Bibles in Hebrue Greeke and Latine and printed at Antwerpe That which hath led these Atheists and profane wretches into errour is that they consider not that Noe and the men of that Age by reason of their higher stature had longer cubits and hard it is to giue a iust proportion of theirs vnto ours When Moses wrote certaine it is that mens bodies were abated of their bignesse yet that which he wrote was easily vnderstood of the Israelites who receiued these things by tradition and knew them as perfectly as if they saw them with their eyes The last argument here vsed by the Poet adoring the wisdome of Almighty God who made all things in number weight and measure is a reason of all reasons and altogether vnreasonable are they that reason to the contrary then beside reason were it to propound reason to them that haue lost the true vse of reason and will conceiue nothing but that which their owne mad and extrauagant reason soundeth in their eares But againe to the Text. Pere port-trident Pricre de Noé à Dieu Roy des vents dompte-mer Voy nous d'vn oeil benin O Dieu vueille calmer Les bouillons de tonire conduire au
betwixt the which runneth Euphrates Arphaxad passing Euphrates staied in Chaldea and for that Astronomy and other excellent arts there chiefly flourished the Poet surnameth him the Learned which appertaineth also vnto him in regard of the true doctrine maintained by his posteritie and after some corruption reformed in the house of Abraham whom the Lord remoued from Vr of the Chaldeans into Syria C ham tire vers le Midi Cham fut fait le Seigneur de la terre bornee Vers l'Autan par les flots de la noire Guinee De Sephal Botongas Gaguametre Benin Et du chaut Concritan trop fertil en venin Vers le Nort de la mer qui naissant pres d'Abile Depart lariche Europe l'Afrique sterile Vers la part ou Tytanle soir noye ses rez De l'onde de Cap-verd de Cap-blanc de Fez. Et vers celle ou Phebus le matin se resueille De l'Ocean d'Aden de la mer Vermeille Et qui plus est encore tout ce qui gist enclos Entre le mont Liban les Arabes slots Habitation des successcuts de Cham. Entre l'onde Erytree le Goulfe Persique Il l'adiouste grand Prince à son sceptre d'Afrique Canan l'vn de ces fils s'amaisonne à l'entour Du Iourdain doux-glissant ou se doit quel que iour Heberger Israel Pheud pouple la Lybie Mizraim fon Egypte Chus l'Ethiopie C ham Lord was of the Land that Southward is beset With blacke Guineas waues and those of Guagamet Of Benin Cefala Botongas Concritan That fruitfull is of drugs to poison beast or man It Northward fronts the sea from Abil pent betweene The barren Affrick shore and Europs fertil greene And on the Westerne coast where Phoebus drownes his light Thrusts-out the Cape of Fesse the green Cape and the white And hath on th' other side whence comes the Sun from sleepe Th'Arabick seas and all the ruddy-sanded deepe Nay all the land betwixt the Liban mountaine spred And Aden waues betwixt the Persick and the Red This mightie Southerne Prince commanding far and wide Vnto the Regiment and scept'r of Affrick tide For Canan one his sonne began to build and dwell By Iordan gentle streame whereas great Israel Was after to be lodg'd Phut peopled Lybia Misraijm Egypt had Chus Ethiopia 8. Cham. The share of Cham was Africke which the Poet boundeth out as followeth It hath on the Southside the Aeâ—hiopicke Ocean or the sea of Guinea the land of Negros the realmes of Caefala which commeth neere the South Tropicke and is right-ouer against Madagascar or as the Spanish call it the Isle of S Laurence Bolongas lower and hard by the Cape of good hope Guagamet about the lake of Zembre from whence the riuer Nile springeth as Daniell Cellarius noteth in his Map of Africke and Benin that Ises aboue th'Equator neere the great bay betwixt Meleget and Mauicongo As for Concritan it is a great wildernesse betweene Cefala and Bolongas which by reason of extreame heare brings forth great store of poisonous things Now the Northbound of Affricke is the Midland-sea and on the West it shooteth out three capes or promontories named in the text all toward the Atlanticke Ocean but the greene cape which is more southward and pointeth more toward the Sea called in respect of the Antatticke pole the North Sea though it lye very neere the Equator on the East of Affricke plaies the Arabian Gulfe and the great red Sea now called the Indicke Ocean and beyond these bounds the Poet saith Cham also possest Arabia which is distinguished into three parts the Happy the Desert and the Stony all enclosed by the Mount Libanus and the Red and Persian Gulfes 9. Canan He setteth downe briefly and in foure verses the seuerall abodes of Chams foure sonnes according as they are named in the tenth chapter of Genesis Chus the eldest brother had Aethiopia which some take for that vnder Aegypt others for the land of Chus which is a part of Arabia the Happy as may be gathered by many places of the old Testament well noted of M. Beroals in the sixt chapter of his fourth booke of Chronicles Mizraim peopled Aegypt that of the Hebrewes was commonly called Mitzraijm and long after Aegypt of the name of King Aegyptus who succeeded Belus in that kingdome and was brother to Danaus who came into Greece and was Author of that name generall to the Grecians which as Saint Augustine thinkes De Ciu. Dei the eighteenth booke and tenth chapter happened about the time of Iosua Phut the third sonne of Cham gaue name saith Iosephus to the Phutaeans after called Lybians of one of the sonnes of Mesren or Mizrain named Lybis He addeth also that in Mauritania there is 〈◊〉 certaine riuer and countrey called Phute Ezechiel 30.5 numbreth Phut among those that were in league with Chus and Lud which the Latine interpreter translateth Ethiopia Lydia and the Lydians so also did the 70. Interpreters This I say to mouâ— the Reader that is so delighted vnto a further and more diligent search I thinke Phut was seated neere Arabia and Aegypt although Arias Montanus and others place him in the coast of Affricke now called Barbary about Tunis Bugie Algeri and the Mountaines of Maroco Now of Canan or Chanaan the fourth sonne of Cham was called that Land of Promise which the twelue Tribes of Israel vnder the conduct of Iosua in due time entered and possessed The bounds thereof are plainly set downe in the booke of Exodus chap 23. verse 31. and elsewhere I neede not here discourse of them except I were to write a long Commentarie Iaphet tirevers le Septentrion l'Occident Iaphet s'estend depuis les eaux de l'Hellespont La Tane flot Euxin iusques au double mont Du fameux Gibaltar l'Ocean qui baigne De son flus reflus le ruiage d'Hespaigne Et depuis ceste mer ou les chars attelez Se promenent au lieu des Gallions ailez Iusqu'au flot Prouençal Tyrrhene Ligustique L'onde de la Morce de la docte Attique Contre le beau terroir de l'Asie mineur Second iardin d'Eden du monde l'honneur Et ce large pays qui gist depuis Amane Iusqu'au source du Rha du bord de la Tanes Habitation des enfans de laphet leurs descendans Des reins de so Gomer se disent descendus Tant de peuple guerriers par la Gaule espandus Et les Germains encor iadis dits Gomerites De tubal ceux d'Hespaigne de Magog les Scythes Mazaca de Mosoch de Madai les Medois Les Thraces de Thyras de Iauan les Gregeois Iaphet to the North and West Now Iaphet spred along from th'Ellesponticke waters Th'Euxine and Tanaies vnto the mount Gibraltars Renowned doubl ' ascent and that sun-setting Maine Which with his ebbe and flow playes on the shore of Spaine And from that higher sea vpon whose
road into Spaine the Greekes into France and the Frenchmen into Greece neither could the Pyrene mountaines hinder the Germans passage ouer wayes vnknowne and vntroad the light-headed people haue caried their wiues and children and ouer-aged parents some after long wandering vp and downe seated themselnes not according to their free choice but where they first might when they waxed weary of trauell some on other mens possessions sâ—ized by force of armes some as they sought vnknown places were drowned in the sea some there sat downe where they first began to want proâ—ision And all for sooke not their countries or sought other for the same causes Many after their cities were destroyed by warre sled from their enemies and so berest of their owne possessions were faine to presse vpon other mens many left their dwellings to auoide the disquiet of ciuill warres and many to emptie Cities of their ouerceasing multitude some by pestilence or the earth 's often gulsing or like vnsufferable faults of a bad soyle were cast forth and some were entâ—sed from home by report of a larger and more fruitfull ground some for one cause some for another c. 19. I doe not speake-of here The Poet hath Scoenites which I translate Arabes because they were a people of Arabia great robbers and harâ—â—ers of Aegypt and the coast of Affricke 〈◊〉 the shopheards Nomades are as I take them the Numidians and Moores or as some thinke a kinde of Scythiant The Hordies are the Tartarians who liue in the field in chariots and tents Now the Poet leauing the vncertaine course of these roguing Nations who haue had no more stay in them then swallowes and other wandring birds intendeth to speake of a more warlike people whereof he alledgeth some notable examples 20. Right such that Lombard was He setteth downe much matter in few ords concerning the Lombards There are diuerse opinions of their pedegree Melancthon and Peucer in the third and fourth booke of Carious Chron hold they dwelt in a Saxonie by the riuer Albis about where now are the Bishopricks of Meidburg and Halberstad and a part of the Marquesse of Brandburg and from thence vnder the conduct of Alboin entred Jtalie and in the time of the Emperour Iustin the second seated themselues betweene the Appenine hils and the Alpes where they began a kingdome They were called Lombards either because of their long Ianelines for thence it seeme are come the names of Halbards and Iauclines de barde or because they dwelt in a countrey flat and fruitfull as the Dutch word Bard may signifie Some otherutho rs count them farre-northerne people yet shew not their ancient aboad Ptolomee in the fourth table of Europe deriues them from the countrey of Swaube as also he noteth in the second booke and 11. chapter of his Geogr. with whom agreeth C. Tacitus in his Histories But Lazius in the 12. booke of his Migrations of the Northerne people Vignier in the first part of his Library page 905. and out Poet here followes the opinion of Paulus Diaconus they differ not much but onely about the time of their stay and place of their first aboad Melancthon and Peucer set them first in Saxonic Paulus Diaconus the Poet and others in Scandinauie or Schonland a great nearelsle of the Sound or Baltike Sea from whence they might come in by the bankes of Albis all or some of them and some by the coast of Mekelborg c. For Paulus Diaconus in his first booke second chapter saith of this people They encreased so fast in their fore-said Country that they were faine to part themselues in to three companies and cast lots which of them should goe seeke another seat This I say to shew the Poets cunning drift that in so few lines hath set downe matter enough for any man to write-on whole volumes of bookes Thus then to follow the Poet the first notable and fast aboad of the Lombards who came from the Goths and Vandals was Schonland whence a part of them dislodging vnder the conduct of Ibor and Agio setled in Scoring which is about the marches of Liuonia and Prussia and after they had there dwelt certaine yeeres were constrained by a dearth to seeke further so as they came to Mauringia and at length to Rugiland and the countries neere adioyning which Paulus Diaconus setteth downe by name There after the death of their leaders they chose Agilmond for their king He had reigned 33. yeeres when the Bulgares a neighbour people assailing them vnawares slue King Agilmond After him was chosen Lamisson for King who to reuenge the death of his predecessour made warre with the Bulgares got and held a dart of Pologne then waxing wearie of that countrey he led his people toward the Rhine to the coast of the Countrie Palatine as Tacitus notes in his second booke of Histories and Velleius Patere in the life of Tiberius About Heidelberg there is a towne called Lamberten which seemes to make somewhat for the Lombards aboad there so saith Lazius But many yeeres after they coasted backe againe and dwelt in Moranie where they warred against the Heruâ—es Sucues and Gepides Then went they vp into Hungarie vnder the safe-conduit of the Emperour Iustinian to whom they paid tribute as Procopius and Diaconus declare at large There had they cruell warre with the Gepides but at length agreed and ioyned with them and vnderstanding by the practise of Narses that Italie was a Countrey much sitting their nature their King Alboin made a road thereinto and got Lombardie before called Insubria there they rested and raigned two hundred yeers vntill Charles the groat vanquisht them as is before laid 21. Such was the Goth. Lazius in the tenth booke of his Migrations hath handled well and largely the Historie of Gothes gathered out of Procopius Iornandes Tacitus Claudianus Olaus Magnus Eutropius and many others I will shut vp all in short and by way of Paraphrase vpon the Poets verse The Goths and Almaine people had for their first assured seat the Isles of the Sound or Baltike Sea and Gothland yet retaines the name of them In Syllaes time they left these Isles and came to dwell in Almaine beside the riuer Vistula now called Wixel After they had warred there against the Frenchmen they bent toward Transsiluania Hangaria and Valachia where they remained vntill the time of Valentinian maintaining themselues by force of armes against the Greekes and Romans Then for many causes alledged by Lazius they went forward into Thrace and there dwelt and became tributaries vnto Valentinian and Valens Eutropius saith all went not thither but a good part of them kept their former place and the cause of their sundring was a civill disagreement about religion the one side retaining Heathenisme vnder Athalaricke their King the other vnder Fridigerne mingling with Christenisme the abhominable heresie of Arrius which taketh quite away the true religion of Christ The Arrians drew toward the West and wore after called
but went to field with 1500. foot and 3000. horse ouercâ—me the Gâ—tes and Triballes and wasted all Macedonie only through negligence as they retired loaden with spoile they were brought to their end Yet they that remained in Gaule sent forth other companies into Asia who passed on as far as Bossen and Dardanie where by reason of a quarrell that fell betweene them they sundred themselues One part of them cast into Thrace and raigned there a long time the other setled about where Sauus and Danubius meet not far from Belgrade These that remained in Dardanie when they heard tell of the fruitfull soile of the lesser Asia went on so far as Hellespont and there because they were three Companies they parted Natolia betweene them into three parts The Trocynes had the coast of Hellespont the Tolystoboges Eolide and Jonie which the Turkes call Quision The Tectosages the country further into the maine land All that part of Asia which lyeth on this side Taurus they made their tributary planting themselues all along the riuer Hâ—lys that parteth Paphlagonia from Syria That Prouince where the Gaules dwelt in Asia from their first arriuall to the height of the Romane Empire retained the name of Gaul-Greâ—ce together with that same language which Saint Ierome six or seuen hundred yeares after saith was like that he heard spoken in Gaule about the quarter of Treues Thus concerning the ancient Gaules no to cleare some few darke words of the Text. The worke of Romulus c. He meaneth Rome builded by Romulus the most warlike Citie of all the world and therefore Mars whom the Painims counted the God of Warre may be thought the founder of it Cold Strymon a riuer parting Macedonie from Thrace as Plinie saith and because Thrace is no very warme country he giueth Strymon the adioint of Cold. The Emathicke fields to wit Macedonie so called of King Emathion Plinie speakes thereof in his fourth booke and tenth chapter thus Macedonie a Comtrie containing an hundred and fiftie Nations sometime renowned for two Kings he meaneth Philip and Alexander and for the Empire of the whole world it was afore-time called Emathia which word the Poets as Virgil and Lucan doe sometime vse for Thessaly a Countrie neare Macedonie Lucan in his very first verse Bella per Emathios plusquam ciuilia Campos And Virgil in the end of his second Georgie Nee fuit indiguum superis his sanguine nostro Emathâ—am latos Aemi pinguescere campos The Pharsalian fields are in Thessaly as Fliny recordeth in his fourth booke and eight Chapter Dindyma A hill in Phrygia The Poet calleth it Dindyme chastré guelt Dindym because the Priests of Cybele called Curetes kept and sacrificed there and were Eunuches atrired like women The Poets meaning is that these Gaules harried also Phrygia and called the country where they dwelt in Asia Gaul-Greece after the name of that from whence they first came and so planted as it were another Gaule in the middest of Asia What became of their successours in the Romanes time because the Poet makes no mention thereof I passe it also 23 Of people most renowà d He sheweth in few words wherefore he thrusteth no further into discourse of the out-roads the people made in old time For though Carion Melancthon Pâ—ucer Lazius Rhenanus Goropius and others of our time haue that way farre ventured and some-while with very good successe yet it cannot be denied but that they leaue many doubts and doe not all-where cleare the matter See then how fitly the Poet addes that followeth Il dit en somme queles trois fils de Noé peuplerent le monde Il me suffira donc de suiure son oree Et pendant attentif de la bourche dorce Du sage fils d'Amram rechanter dans ces vers Que Sem laphet Cham peuplerent l'Vniuers Et que du grand Noé la Fuste vagabonde Pour la seconde fois flott a par tout le Monde Cela ne se fit point tout à coup mais par trait de temps Non que i'enuoye Sem de Babylone auant Tout d'vn vol es terroirs du plus lontain Leuant Du Tartare Chorat boire l'onde argentine Et peupler le Catay le Cambalu la Chine En Espaigne Iapheth le profane Cham Es pays alterez de Medre de Bigam Es champs de Cephala dessus le mont Zambrique Et le Cup d'Esperance angle dernier d'Afrique Car ainsi que l'Hymete Comparaisons bien propres pour monstrer comment les parties du moÌ„de furent peuplees par les ou le mont Hiblean Ne furent tous couuert aâ— Auetes en vn an Ains la moindre ruchee enuoyant chaque prime A leurs slancs à leurs pieds à leur flairant cime Deux ou trois peuplemens cher nourissons du ciel En sin tous leurs rochers se fondirent en miel descendans de Noé asauoir peu à peu comme d'an en an par multiplication de peuple Ou plustost tout ainsi que deux Ormes fecondes Qui croissent au milieu d'vn champ emmuré d'ondes An tour de leur estocs produisent des Ormeaux Ceux-cy d'autres encor tousiours les nouueaux Gaignent pied à pied l'Isle font mesme en ieunesse D'vn grand pré tondu-ras vne forest espesse Tout ainsi les maçons de la superbe Tour S'en vont esparpillez acaser à l'entour De Mesopotamie peu à peu leur race Frayant heureusement sleuue apres sleuue passe Saisit terre apres terre si le Tout-puissant Ne va de l'Vniuers les iours accourcissant Il ne se trouuera contree si sauuage Pourquoy la premiere monarchie se dresse en Assirie Que le tige d'Adam de ses branches wombrage C'est pourquoy les pays au Tygre aboutissans Pendant l'âge premier sont les plus fleurissans Qu'il se parle d'eux seuls qu'ils commencent la guerre Et qu'ils sont la Leçon aureste de la terre Babylone viuant sous la grandeur des Roys Tenoit l'empire en main auant que le Gregeois Logeast en ville close que des murs Dircees Vn luth doux eust meçon les pierres agences Le Latin eust des bourgs des maison les Gaulois Des hutes l'Alemant des tentes l'Anglois Les Hebrieux Chaldeans Egyptiens auoyent la Philosophie super naturelle auant que les Grees sâ—eussâ—t quelque chose Les fils d'Heber auoient commerce auce les Anges Detestoient les autels dressez aux Dieux estranges Conotssoient l'Inconu des yeux de la foy Comtemploient bien heureux leur inuisible Roy. Le Chaldee sçauoit des estoilles le nombre Auoit aulné le ciel comprenoit comme l'ombre De la terre eclipsoit l'Astre au front argenté Et la sienne esteignoit du Soleil la clarté
euen the descendents of Seth also with whom the truth of God remained began to be debauched in following the course of Cainites Howsoeuer most likely it is that Enos and other good seruants of God by all meanes endeauoured to maintaine true righteousnesse and holinesse and so much the rather because they saw that issue of Cain giuen ouer wholly to the world And hence it is that we reade in the sixt Chapter of Genesis that the posteritie of Seth were called the Children of God and there also by the Daughters of Men are meant women descended of Cain 6 See Euoch Moses is briefe but as graue and pithie as may be speaking of the holy Patriarke Enoch Gen. 5.22 Enoch after he begat Methusala walked with God three hundred yeares and begat sonnes and daughters So Enoch walked with God and appeared no more for God tooke him To walke with God is to please God as the Apostle expounds it Hebr. 11. Hereto the Poet affords his learned Paraphrase As that Enoch dying to himselfe and liuing vnto the Lord was exercised daily in meditation of the ioyes of heauen and raised himself as it were aboue the world with the wings of faith fasting prayer As also the Apostle saith By saith Enoch was taken away that he might not see death neither was he found for God had taken him away Saint Iuâ—e in his generall Epistle saith that Enoch the seuenth from Adam prophecied against the wicked saying Behold the Lord commeth with thousands of his Saints to giue Iudgement against all men and to rebuke all the vngodly among them of all the wicked deeds which they haue vngodly committed and of all their cruell speeches which wicked sinners haue spoken against him The Poet holds according to the opinion of many Diuines both old and new that Enoch was taken both soule and body vp into heauen for a manifest witnesse to the former world of euerlasting life For this was no such inuisible departure or disappearance as is of the soule from the body And whereas the Apostle saith hee was not found it shewes that such as then liued in the world laid to heart this miracle and after diligent search made the godly were much comforted thereby as the wicked could not but be much dismayed Moreouer the Chronicles doe reckon but fiftie six yeares betwixt the death of Adam and the taking vp of Enoch and as the death of the one taught all After-commers to thinke on their weaknesse so the life of the other made the godly more assured of life euerlasting and glory of body and soule for euer I desire each Christian Reader to consider well the fift Chapter of Genesis that he may well compare the times of these Patriarkes and marke how long some of them liued with their fore and after-beers whereby they might the better learne of the one and teach the other what was the true seruice of God 7 Men of vnbounded lust Although the first world endured 669. yeares after the Assumption of Enoch yet true is the Poets saying that after this Patriarke was gone all godlinesse holinesse and righteousnesse began to decay howsoeuer Noe and his Father Lamech and his Grand-father Methusala who deceased not many moneths before the Floud but in the same yeare did set themselues mainly against those disorders and shewed themselues euen by way of preaching to be as it were the Heraulds of Iustice Moses shewes plainly the particulars throughout the whole fift Chapter and in the beginning of the sixt what horrible sinnes the descendants of Seth committed by ioyning themselues to those of Cain as first the neglect of Gods word then Tyranny violence oppression iniustice wantonnesse polygamie or hauing more wiues at once than one and all wickednesse growne to a height altogether vncorrigible so as the estate both of Church Kingdome and Family were all turned vpside downe and to be short a deluge of impiety and filth had couered the face of the whole earth 8 Of Gyants God knowes what Moses saith Gen. 6.4 that in those daies were Giants vpon the earth and chiefly after that the sons of God which were the posterity of Seth grew familiar with the young women descended of the line of Cain and had issue by them He saith also that these Giants were mightie men which in old time were of great renowne Some apply the word Giant to the exceeding stature of those men whereby they made all afraid that beheld them Others whom the Poet followes to the Tyranny and violence of such as Irued immediatly before the Deluge among whom some there were who bore all afore them and became a terrour to all others Goropius in his Antiquities handleth at large this point concerning Gyants especially in his second booke entituled Gygantomachia 1. Chassagnon hath answered him in a Latine Treatise where he disputeth of the exceeding height these Gyants c. 9 Then God who saw The causes of the Deluge the fore-tellinâ— and execution thereof are set downe by Moses briefly but sufficiently and hereto may be applied that which our Lord and Saâ—iour saith as touching these latter times which he compareth to the time of Noe Matth. 24. As also that of St. Peter in his first generall Epistle 3.20 and in his second 2.5 Lay also to this prediction of Adam the description of the generall Floud set downe by the Poet at the end of the second Day of his first Weeke All this requires a full Commentary but this may suffice in briefe The end of the second Weekâ—s first Day called Adam The second day is called Noe because the most remarkeable things in all the time of that holy Father and his successors vntill Abraham is there represented in foure Bookes following and thus entitled Th' Arche Babylon Colonies and Columnes or Pillars whereof the first is as it were a briefe Commentary vpon diuers passages of the six seuen eight and ninth Chapters of Genesis But heare the Poet. L'ARCHE The first Booke of Noe called the Arke Auant propos auquel par vne modeste plainte le poëte rend les lecteurs attentifs se fait voye à linuocacion du nom de Dieu SI vous ne coulez plus ainsi que de coustume Et sans peine sans art ô saincts vers de maplume Si le Laurier sacré qui m'ombrageoit le front Esueillé se sletrit si du double Mont Où loin de cest Enfer vostre Vranie habite Ma muse à corps perdu si bas se prceipite Accusez de ce temps l'ingrate cruautè Le soin de mes enfans masoible santè Accusez la douleur de mes pertes nouuelles Accusez mes preces accusez mes tuteles Voila le contrepois qui tire violant En bas les plus beaux soins de mon esprit volant La gresle de mon champ les poignantes espines Qui estoufent en sleur les semences diuines Qui germoient en mon ame O
will sooner mount and light aire downward presse Then how thou'lt aske me come these huge and raging floods That spoile on Riphean hils the Boree-shakeÌ„ woods Drowne Libanus and shew their enuious desires To quench with tost-vp waue the highest heau'nly fires He aske thee Cham how Wolues Panthers from the Wild This refutes all the obiections of Atheists At time by Heau'n design'd before me came so mild How I keepe vnder yoke so many a fierce captiue Restored as I were to th' high prerogatiue From whence fath'r Adam fell how wild foule neuer mand From euery coast of Heau'n came flying to my hand How in these cabins darke so many a gluttonous head Is with so little meat or drinke or stouer fed Nor feares the Partridge here the Falcons beake pounces Nor shuns the light-foot Hare a Tygers looke or Ounces How th' Arch holds-out so long against the wauy shot How th' aire so close the breath and dong it choaks vs not Confused as it is and that we find no roome For life in all the world but as it were in toombe Ther 's not so many planks or boords or nailes i'th'arch As holy myracles and wonders which to marke Astonnes the wit of man God shew'th as well his might By thus preseruing all as bringing all to light O holy Syre appease appease thy wroth and land In hau'n our Sea-beat ship ô knit the waters band That we may sing-of now and ours in after age Thy mercie shew'd on vs as on the rest thy rage Annotations vpon the first Booke of Noe called the Arke 1 DIvine verse He complaines of the miseries of our time of his bodies crasinesse and care of houshold affaires which hinder his bold designes and make his Muse fall as it were from heauen to earth He calls the verse diuine because of the subiect matter which he handleth acknowledging withall that as Ouid saith Carmina proueniunt anime deducta sereno and this serenitie or quietnesse of spirit which is all in all for a Christian Poem is a gift from Heauen And therefore this our Poet In stead of calling vpon his Muse which is but himselfe or helpe of profane inuentions looketh vp rather vnto that power from whence commeth euery good and perfect gift that is the father of light 2 Oh rid me This is a zealous inuocation and well beseeming the Authors intent which also is enriched with a daintie comparison For verily the chiefe grace of a Poem is that the Poet begin not in a straine ouer high to continue and so grow worse and worse to the end but rather that he increase and aduance himselfe by little and little as Virgil among the Latin Poets most happily hath done Horace also willeth a good writer in a long-winded worke ex sumo dare lucem that is to goe-on and finish more happily then he began Who so doth otherwise like is to the blustring wind which the longer it continues growes lesse and lesse by degrees but the wise Poet will follow rather the example of Riuers which from a small spring the farther they run grow on still to more and more streame and greatnesse 3 As our foresire foretold Saint Peter in his 2. chapt of his 2. Ep. calls Noe the Herault or Preacher of righteousnesse and in the eleauenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrewes it is said that Noe being aduertised from God of things not yet seene conceined a reuerent seare and built the Arch for safegard of his familie through the which Arch he condemned the world and was made heire of the righteousnesse which is by saâ—th By these places may be gathered that Noe laying hold on the truth of Gods threats and promises as Moses also sheweth in the sixt of Gen. prepared materials for the Arch and in building the same did as well by worke as word of a Preacher condemne the impiety and wickednesse of men warning them of the iudgement which hung ouer their heads which also was put in execution at the very time appointed by the Almighty 4 When all were once i' th' Arke This historie of the Deluge our Poet had before touched in the end of the second day of his first weeke which passage I the Translator thought good here to insert that the description might be the fuller These verses and the rest to the end of this booke shew vs the fearefull iudgement of God vpon the sinnes of that former world set downe first by Moses in the 6.7 and 8. chapters of Genesis Were I to write a full commentary thereof I should discourse of Noes Arke and diuers questions which present themselues concerning that rare subiect with the precedents consequents and coincidents but I touch lightly these things to draw the Readers care and make still more and more knowne vnto him the great learning and Art shewed in this diuine Poem To see how our Author is his crafts-master let a man conferre this decription with that of Ouid in the first booke of his Metam concerning the Deluge of Deucalion Some of his verses I thought good here to set downe for encouragement of such as haue leysure more neerely to consider and compare the French with the Latine Protinus Aeolijs Aquilonem claudit in antris Et quaecunque fugant inductas flamina nubes Ennttitque Notum madidis Notus euolat alis Terribilem piceá tectus caligine vultum Barba grauts nimbis canis fluit vnda capillis Fronte sedent nobulae rorant pennaeque sinusque Vtqué manu latè pendentia nubila pressit Fit fragor densi sunduntur ab aethere nimbi Then speaking of the land and out-let of Riuers thus Intremuit motuque vias patesecit aquarum Eupatiata ruunt per apertos slumina campos Cwnque satis arbusla trabunt pecudesque virosque Tectaque cumque sais rapiunt penetralia sacris See the rest of Ouid who hath not so exactly described these things as our Poet. 5 Nereus By this word he means the Sea which at the Deluge ouerflowed the whole Earth because it was not then held within the proper bounds thereof by the powerfull goodnesse and prouidence of the Creator Ouid expresseth it thus Omnia pontus erant deerant quoquelittora ponto Virgil thus Spumeus atque imo Nereus ciet aequora sundo Natalis Comes in his Mythologie lib. 8. cap. 6. hath much of Nereus and the Nereides where also he giues a reason why the Poets so call the Sea 6 The Sea-Calues So I translate le Manat for the Veal-like flesh thereof though this be indeed a great Sea-fish described by Rondeletius in the 18. chapter of his sixt booke He is also like a young Bull with a broad backe and a very thicke skin they say he weigheth more then two oxen are well able to draw His flesh as I said before commeth neere the taste of Yeale but it is fatter and not so well relished he will be made as tame as a dog but hath a shrewd remembrance of
refute the allegations of Goropius Especially those that make against the Hebrue which he hath too saucilâ—e disgraced in the second booke of his Hermath Pag. 25.26 c. The second opinion which I hold with the Poet is that the Hebrue tongue inclosed chiefly in the Canonicall bookes of the old Testament which haue beene wonderfully preserued vntill our time is the first speech of the world and the same that Moses meant when he said The whole earth had one mouth or language before the building of Babel The reasons therof are touched in a word by the Poet who doth hereafter treat of them more at large as wee haue also noted in the margent and meane to speake somewhat thereof in the 12. Annotation Now whereas this first language hath at this day no letter nor word but is full of maimes and miseries it may be said of euery tongue since the confusion that it is nothing but corrupt â—angling weake vncertaine and changing euer from time to time as many haue already shewed heretofore The Greeke and Latine tongues haue changed fiue or sixe times and the learned know what wrangling there hath beene about the writing pronouncing and disposing of their termes and phrases Then what is to be said of the Greekish and Latinish tongues those that are but apes of the other What of the barbarous strange and new tongues Or of those whose foolish pronunciation only no man can abide or of others that by vse time and force of people are waxen current But this I leaue to such as list to Comment hereupon at large 10. Long since the Phrygians The Egyptians being euer great braggers vaunted long agoe that they were the most ancient people of the world a certaine King of theirs named Psammetichus attempted to search out the truth and for that end thought meet by some meanes to discouer what was the first language of the world Thus he tooke two new-borne babes and deliuered them vnto shepheards to be nourished commanding they should be brought vp in a secret staule there to sucke the milke of Goats and straitly forbidding that none should come there to pronounce any word before them then after a certaine time when they were of age they should be left alone and made to fast a while Now so soone as they were past three years old their gouernour hauing in all points accomplished the Kings commandement came to open the staule and then the two children began to crie Bec bec the shepheard said not a word they repeat still the words and he let his Master vnderstand thereof who caused the children to be brought secretly vnto him and heard them speake So when the meaning of the word was asked and the Egyptians vnderstood it signified bread in the Phrygian tongue they granted the preheminence of antiquitie vnto the Phrygians Herodotus writeth that the Priests of Vulcan in the Citie of Memphis told him the same tale There are some others that thinke these Babes were brought vp of dumbe nurses howsoeuer it be sure it is that the pride of the Egyptians was by some such deuise daunted Suidas touching the very point saith that babes nourished of a Goat must needs crie somewhat like a Goat and such was the sound of the word Bec a meet reward for his wisdome that made such a triall The Grecians in old time were wont to call an old dotard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word composed of Bec and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Moone the same is turned into a prouerbe which Erasinus expoundeth But Goropius in the fifth and ninth booke of his Origines playeth the subtill Sophister as his manner is and vseth his beake vpon the word Bec concluding since Bec in low Dutch signifies bread and Psammetichus his babes called for Bec that so long agoe they spoke low Dutch whereupon it followeth that his tongue was the most ancient of the world He calleth also his discourses vpon the same Bocceselanea offering the subiect of a Comedie to some new Aristophanes But let vs consider the answers of the Poet to the Phrygians and to Goropius Resonnast à l'entour de trois-fois douze mois Eux conduits au milieu des peuples de Xante Et des Egyptiens d'vne halaine impuissante Crient Bec plusieurs-fois Bec bec est le seul mot Et que leur langue forme que leur bouche esclôt Refutation du iugement de ces enfans Adone les Phrygiens sachans qu'en leur langage Bec veut dire dupain peignent de leur courage Laioye sur le front pour auoir eutant d'heur D'obtenir de Nature arrest en leur faueur Sots qui ne pensoient pas que les bélantes troupes Qui retondoyent les fleurs des plus voisines croupes Leur enseignoit ce terme que les mots Gaulois Memphiens Grecs Hebrieux Troyens Latins Anglois Ne naissent auec nous ains que chasque langage S'aprend par hantise par vn long vsage L'aptitude à parler demeurant seulement Naturelle aux humains comme l'autre ornement Qui richement diuers les rend plus dissemblables Aux stupides troupeaux des bestes miserables RespoÌ„se à l'obiection prinse de la voix confuse des animaux Que si tu mets en ien que le Taureau misgit Le tardif Asne brait le Lyon rugit Ore haut ore bas que partels langages Ils nous semblent diserts descouurir leur courages Ce ne sont point des mots ains des expressions Dubrouillé mouuement de peu de passions Des indices confus de douleur de tristesse Dire de soif de faim d'amour on de liesse Response à la seconde obiection prinse du gazouillis des oiseaux On en peut dire autant de ces chantres ailez Qui sur les verds rameaux des bussons reculez Gringotent le matin Car bien que comme il semble Deux à deux trois à trois ils deuisent ensemble Que leur voix se flechisse en cent mille façons Qu'ils decoupent hardis cent mignardes chansons Qu' Apollo ait esté disciple en leur eschole Cest vn son sans sujet des notes sansparole Vne chanson redite en vniour mille fois Vn discours qui muet se perd dedans les bois Auantage de l'homme doué de rayson pardessus tous autres animaux Mais le seul homme peut discourir d'attrempance De force d'equité d'honneur de prudence De Dieu du ciel de l'eau de la terre des airs Auâ—c termes choisis signisians diuers Desuelopant son coeur non par vn seul langage Ains comme Scaliger merucille de nostre âge Louange de Ioseph Scaliger tres-docte entre les doctes de ce temps Le Soleil des sçauant qui parle cloquemment L'Hebrieu Gregois Romain Hespagnol Alemant François Italien Nubien Arabique Syriaque
his booke De ant quitate linguae Hebraicae there are many such Treatises set forth by diuers learned men whereout and of the bookes aforenamed may be gathered infinite proofes of that which the Poet hath touched in this second reason The third is that there liues no Nation vnder the cope of heauen but keepeth still some words of Hebrew in their speech First the Caldean Syrian Arabian Egyptian Persian Ethiopian and many other as the Gotthicke Troglodyticke Punicke are so deriued thence that they come as neere it as Italian to Latine some more some lesse Secondly the Greeke Latine and those others that are farthest off haue yet here and there some words that we must needes grant are sprong from the same fountaine a man may set downe a many of them but it were too long here to coate the examples Thirdly the roots of many words that are taken to be Greeke or some other tongue are found to be Hebrew as Franciscus Iunius hath plainly shewed in his learned oration Deliuguae Hebraea antiquitate praeslantia The fourth reason is that the doctrine of the old Testament which is the doctrine of the first and most ancient people of the world was not written but in Hebrew No man denieth that the people that came of Sem the sonne of Noe is the most ancient among these remained the Church of God and the Hebrew tongue God spake not but in the Hebrew tongue by the high Priest that wore the sacred Ephod and the breast-plate of iudgement whereon was set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vrim Thummim words signifying lights and perfections which some thinke was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or foure-letered name Iehoua contained within the brest-plate others say it was the rankes of those twelue precious stones there enchased that on them had ingrauen the names of the twelue tribes of Israel as if it were a repetition of that which Moses saith in the 17 18 19 and 20. verses of the 28. chapter of Exodus where he speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vrim Thummim in the 30. verse others hold they were certaine names others are of diuers other opinions Some late writers thinke those words were ingrauen in the breast-plate This is a secret the search whereof whether one dispute of the words or what they meant or what 's become of them c. is very painfull and needlesse for that now sithence the comming of Christ we ought to follow the truth it selfe and not stay vpon shadowes These words doubtlesse gaue to vnderstand that all light and perfection commeth of our Sauiour in whom all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily dwelleth in whom are hid all the treasures of vnderstanding knowledge who is the light of his Church that is made vnto vs of God his father wisedome iustice redemption and holinesse In all iudgements demands oracles and reuelations that were made by Vrim and Thummim as may be gathered out of the 27. chapter of Numbers the first booke of Samuel the 13. and 30. chapters and other places where aduise and counsell was asked of God and answere was made by the mouth of the high Priest there appeared a cleere light a sure truth and perfection all which in Christ is accomplished Now these demands and answers were propounded and rendred in the Hebrew tongue long time before any other language was vsed in the world For so soone after their scattering at Babel they could not well be incorporated into a common wealth and as for religion that was not kept but in the race of Sem as Moses plainly declareth all through the historie of Abraham Concerning the Prophets their dreames and visions God spake not they vnderstood not neither answered or taught they the Church but in the Hebrew that significant vnmingled holy chaste and heauenly tongue whereas others lispe and stammer-out vncertaine sounds and are infinite wayes defiled through the dishonest foolish erronious and vngodly discourses of their inuentours I except the bookes of the new Testament and all writings drawne from the cleere fountaines of holy Scripture besides the which there is nothing but vanitie filth wickednesse and vngodlinesse in the world Moreouer the Lord himselfe setteth downe his law to his people and writing it twise with his owne finger and speaking with his owne mouth to Moses and his other seruants in the Mount vsed the Hebrew tongue So did the Angels and Prophets and Iesus Christ spake the Syriacke a tongue so deriued of the Hebrew that they are very like as their Grammars declare The Apostles spake diuers tongues and wrote also according to the people and persons with whom they had to doe yet for all that in their bookes may be noted an infinite many of phrases borrowed of the Hebrew as the learned interpreters of the new Testament haue exactly shewed The fift and last reason set downe by the Poet is that the Hebrew words especially the proper names some are alledged for example and many other may be added are of great waight and importance for sometimes they lay open vnto vs the chiefe things that doe befall the person so named Nay further if a man would take the paines to change the order of letters hee may sinde in them many goodly mysteries The Greekes haue found the way and followed it in the interpretation of their proper names but they come farre short of the liuelihood and maiestie of the Hebrewes who begun the thing before them many hundred yeeres As for other tongues the most part of their proper names haue no meaning they are deuised at-all-auentures so are they right tokens of barbarisme Some tongues there are more happy and plentious than others in this behalfe but their interpretations are for the most part vncertaine especially if the Root thereof come not from or neere the Hebrew Herehence againe the curious reader may take occasion of a large commentarie I leaue it vnto him 13. Then doe I theesalute It is not without cause that the Poet straight vpon the former discourse vseth these words considering the excellency of the Hebrew tongue and that he setteth out in so few verses her wonderfull perfections each one of them requiring a large treatise and himselfe being vnable to shut vp so great matters in so few words For example sake let vs consider but very briefly those three points that the Poet here toucheth to wit that the two and twenty Hebrew letters are full of hidden sense that the proper names of persons Countries and Cities in this tongue are as much as abridgements of their life and deedes that the names of birds beasts and fishes containe the history of their natures howbeit since the fall of Adam the knowledge thereof is greatly darkened To make the Reader somewhat more desirous to enter mediation hereon I will set him downe some examples Concerning the mysteries of the Hebrew Letter-row Eusebius and S. Ierom in his Epistle ad Paul vrbic which is the 155. expoundeth them as I
frozen alleyes Glide swiftly-teemed carres insted of winged gallies Vnto the Genoan Tyrrhene and prouence Seas With those of learned Greece and of Peoloponese Accoast the goodly shore of Asia the lesse The second paradise th'worlds chiefe happinesse And Tartarie the ground that reacheth from Amane Vnto the springs of Rha and pleasant bankes of Tane All those braue men at armes that France haue ouer-spred Of Gomers fruitfull seed themselues professe are bred And so the Germans are sometime hight Gomerites Of Tubal Spaniards came of Mosoch Moscouites Of Madai sprong the Medes of Magog Scythians Of Iauan rose the Greekes of Thyras Thracians 10. Now Japhet Moses reciting Genesis 9.27 how Noe blessed his two children sets downe two notable points the one concerning the great and many Countries which Iaphet and his posteritie should possesse the other of the fauour that God should shew them by lodging them in the tents of Sem that is by receiuing them at length into his Church which hath beene fulfilled in the calling of the Gentiles For the first point whereas he saith God enlarge Iaphet For so the Hebrew word signifieth although some translate it Persuade it is as much as if he had said Let Iaphet and his race possesse the Countries round about him farre and neere And this hath also beene accomplished in that so infinite a multitude of people hath issued out of the stocke of Iaphet and peopled Europe which though it appeare lesser then the other parts hath alwayes had more inhabitants and fewer void Countries The Poet hath set downe so perfect a description thereof as it needes no further to be opened if the Reader haue neuer so little beheld the Maps On the East it is parted from the greater Asia by the Maior Sea the Meotis Lake called by Ortelius the Zabach sea the Riuer Tane or Deu which voids into the Lake and the Spring-herds of Rha Edel or Volga running by Tartarie into the Caspian Sea and from Asia the lesse sometime the honour of the world exceeding rich as still it hath sufficient it is deuided by the Straight of Gallipoli sometime called Hellespont On the West it hath the Straight of Gibraltar the Spanish and Brittish Oceans on the North the Frozen Sea and on the South the Midland Sea which is diuersly called to wit the Sea of Marseil by the coast of Genes the Adriaticke about Athens and Morea and otherwise according to the places adioyning This goodly part of the world beside the Romaine Empire hath many great kingdomes full of people well set forth by the Card-men Daniell Cellarius accounts it in length from Lisbon to Constantinople about six hundred leagues Almaine and very neere as much in breadth from Scrifinie to Sicily 11 Gomer Moses reckeneth seuen sonnes of Iaphet Gen. 10.2 So doth here the Poet not standing much vpon the order of them to follow the verse of Gomer are come the Gomerites whom the Greekes called Galates and Gaules of them came the people that spoiled Delphos and then sate downe about Troas in Asia and were called Gaule-Greekes or Asian Galates who afterward seized a good part of Phrygia The Lord threatning by Ezechiel 38. Chapter Gog chiefe of the Princes of Mesech and Tubal saith he will destroy him with this Gomer and all his bands and the house of Togarmah of the North-quarters They that expound the Prophesie gather out of this place that the Gomerites were people bordering on the North of Asia and brought by the Kings of Syria and Asia to destroy the Iewes after their returne from Babylon They preased forth of Asia and enlarged their dominions greatly as hath beene said for they were a very warlike Nation Of them the Poet saith are come the Germanes so Melancthon affirmeth vpon Carion so doe others also and chiefly Goropius in his fift booke But there is great diuersitie in these outworne matters betweene the late and ancient Writers A diligent conference of places in the old Testament and the ancient Latine Greeke and Chaldean translations serue best for the purpose next a carefull examining of the best Greeke and Latine Histories but this requires a whole volume whereunto the searches of Goropius being so well handled might afford a man great helpe Concerning Tubal the Poet followes the opinion of Iosephus that he was Author of the Spanish which must be rightly vnderstood that is after a long tract of time For by the 38. and 39. of Ezechiel it seemes that the people issued from Tubal Mosoch which were neighbours dwelt neare Arabia and were gouerned or led to war by the Kings of Asia and Syria And in the 32. chap. where is mention made of the mourning that should be among the Nations for the King of Aegypt there are named among others Ashur Elam Mosoch and Tubal whereby it may be gathered they were of Asia As for their Colonies and outcreases into Spaine they are very darke and hardly proued Vasaeus indeed in his Chronicle of Spaine and Taraphe in his Historie and others that haue written of Spaine in diuers languages following Ioseph and Berose make Tubal first King of Spaine but sithence they declare not what time he came thither I leaue the Reader to consider of and search further into the matter Looke the historicall Library of N. Vignier the first part page 15. where he treateth of the people of Europe Magog as the Poet saith is father of the Scythians his first habitation and Colonie was in Coelesyria as may be gathered out of the fift booke and 23. chapter of Plinie and the 37 38 and 39. chapters of Ezechiel At this time the right Scythians are the Selauonians Moscouites and Tartarians who vaunt of their descent from Iaphet This might haue beene by tract of time but not so soone as the Poet in the sequele Melancthon in his first vpon Carion takes the prophecies against Gog and Magog to be meant especially of the Turkes whom he calleth by the name of Scythians and applieth also vnto them that which is written in the Reuelation And in the end of his second Booke he giues the name to all people that professe Mahomet I thinke my selfe that some while after Noes partition of the lands Magog and his people dwelt in Coelesyria or there abouts and thence by succession of time thrust vp into the higher Countries Now as the ancient people of God were much vexed and outraged by the Kings of Syria and Asia successours of Seleucus Nicanor and signified by the name of Gog who aiding the people of Magog Mosoch and Tubal their subiects greatly annoyed the Iewes then returned from Babylon so hath Satan in these later daies against the holy Citie the Church of God stirred vp againe Gog and Magog many Kings and Princes enemies to the Faith who haue conspired together and made a League to ouerthrow it vtterly but the Almightie in due time and season shall confound them Reade the 20. Chapter of the Reuelation and the 89. Sermon of
Bullinger thereupon As for Mosoch Ioseph saith of him are come the Cappadocians and for proofe thereof alledgeth a certaine Towne of their Country called Mazaca It may be gathered out of the 120. Psalme that Mesech or Mosoch was a neighbour people to Syria and Arabia which place the Chalde Paraphrast expounding vseth words of this import O wretch that I am for I haue beene a stranger among the Asians and dwelt in the Arabian tents The Poet considereth what might haue beene in continuance of time and how farre the mans posterity might haue stretched Madai sure was Author of the name of Medes whose Empire was very great in the higher Asia they destroyed the Chaldean Monarchie as may be noted out of Ierem. 51.11 Dan. 5.18 The Thracians Ioseph saith and the Poet are descended of Thyras Melancthou thinkes that of him are come the Russians but the Scripture speaketh not of his posteritie Plinie makes mention of a Riuer Tyra in the Russian or European Sarmatia Melancthon Goropius and others call it Nester Goropius in his seuenth Booke puts the Getes Daces and Bastarnes among the Thracians as all of one stocke and speaking almost the selfe-same tongue which also as he saith comes very neare the Cimbricke and Brabantish Iauan the fourth sonne of Iaphet gaue names to the Ionians who after with their neighbours were called Greekes and therefore the Latine Interpreter translating the place of Ezech. 27.19 for the Hebrue Iauan hath put Graecia so haue the seuenty put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the name of Greece for the same word As also in the 13. verse of the same Chapter and in the 19. of the 66. of Esay they both haue translated the Hebrue Jeuanim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graeci The Country of Athens hath in old time beene called Ionie as Plutarch saith in the life of Theseus and Strabo in his ninth Booke recites out of Hecataeus that the Ionians came out of Asia into Greece Now the Greekes as they were great discoursers they haue deuised a thousand tales of their first beginning but I let them passe because my notes are already waxen ouer long Ioy si-ie voulois ie ferois vne liste Discrete modestie du Poëte qui ayme mieux se taire que traiter de choses obscures cachees sous le voile de l'Antiquité De tous nos deuanciers marchannt sur la piste D'vn supposé Berose d'antres qui menteurs Abusent du loisir bonté des lecteurs Hardi i'entreprendrois de toutes les prouinces Nommer de pere en sils les plus antiques Princes Chanter de l'Vniuers les diuers peuplemens Et des moindres citez fouiller les fondemens Mais quoy ie ne veux pas abandonner ma voile Au premier vent qui souffle sans la clair estoile Qui luit sur touâ— les cieux temeraire ramer Sur les flos inconus de si lontaine mer Toute pleine d'escueils de Scilles profondes Où ne roulle pas moins de naufrages que d'ondes N'ayant autres Patrons que certains escriuains Forgeurs denoms de Roys autheurs decontes vains Qui sont tout à leur poste conuoiteux de gloire Sur vn pied de Ciron bastissent vne histoire He will not enter into matter farre out of knowledge Here if I were dispos'd vpon the ground to treade Of that suppos'd Berose abusing all that reade As he and others doe well might I let you see Of all our Ancestors a fained pedegree I boldly might assay of all the worlds Prouinces From father vnto sonne to name the former Princes To sing of all the world each peoples diuers lot And of the meanest to wâ—â—es to lay the grunsill-plot But what I meane not I as eu'ry wind shall blow To leaue the former course and rashly assay to row The bright Load-starre vnseene vpon the waues vnknow'n Of such an Ocean sea so full of rockes bestrow'n And Scyllaes glutton gulfes where tumbleth equall store Of shipwracks on the sands and billowes to the shore Not hauing other guide then writers such as faine The names of ancient Kings and romants tell vs vaine Who make all for themselues and gaping after glory On footing of a flie can frame a perfect story 12 Now. The like is seene in many bookes of late times and ancient that treat of the Kingdomes Countries and people of the world for many labour more to come neare Noes Arke and to finde there the foundation of their Townes and names of their first Princes then about other more certaine and sure grounds And they had rather forge names and deuise matter of their owne head than leaue to packe huge volumes full of tales witnessing the strange vanity of mans braine The Poet condemnes this foolish ambition and by good â—â—ght all the matter when it is at the best being very doubtfull and vnprofitâ—ble for man was placed on the earth to thinke rather on the seruice of God than so to trouble his head with curious out-search of his ancestors names 13 Of that suppos'ed Berose Who so desires to know that the Berose late printed is false supposed and cleane contrary to the right Chaldean cited often by Ioseph in his Antiquities against Apion let him reade the fourth booke of Goropius his Origines Antuerpianae And so let him thinke also of Manetho Metasthenes Fabius Pictor Sempronius Myrsilus Lesbius and others packt as they are into one volume by some one that thought to doe great matters by abusing so the Readers and holding them in amuse by false deuises from further search of the truth I will not here set downe the words of Goropius who at large discouers the forgednesse of this new Berose and his followers let it suffice to haue pointed at the place The true Berose was one of the Priests of Bel and at the commandement of Antiochus the third who succeeded Seleucus wrote three bookes of the Chaldean Historie so saith Tatianus Ioseph and Clemens Alexandrinus Some fragments of his we reade in Ioseph against Apion and they make flat against that other Berose published in our time Pourquoy la recerche de l'Antiquité est obscure coÌ„bien sont mal apuyez ceux qui sondent sur les etymologies allusions des mots L'allusion des mots n'est vn seur fondement Poury sur-maçonner vn ferme bastiment Veu que les monts plus hauts les riuieres plus belles Et les plus grandes mers changent bien qu'eternelles De nom à chaque coup que la posterité De celuy quibastit les murs d'vne cité N'en est point heritiere qu'ici nullerace En fief perpetuel ne possede vne place Ains qu'a ferme à louage ou par forme de prest Elle possede vn champ vn mont vne forest Et comme quand l'orage esmeut la mer profonde Migrations diuerses habitations des peuples Le flot chasse
of late from out the tombe of Leath And giu'n it as it were a liuing by a death How was 't inhabited if long agone The first obiection how is' t Nor Persians nor Greeks nor Romans euer wist Or inkling heard thereof whose euer conquering hosts Haue spred abroad so farre and troad so many coasts Or if it were of late The second obiection how could it swarme so thicke In euery towne and haue such workes of stone and bricke As passe the tow'rs of Rome th'antike Egyptian Pyramis The King Mausolus tombe the wals of Queene Semiramis How thinke you then Answer negatiue by an Ironie belike these men fell from the skie All ready-shap'd as doe the srogges rebounding frie That ast'r a sulty day about the sun-set houre Are powred on the meads by some warme Aprill-showre And entertouch themselues and swarme amid the dust All or'e the gaping clists that former drought had brust Or grew of tender slips and were in earthly lap Instead of cradle nurst and had for milke the sap Or as the Musherome the Sowbread and the Blite Among the fatter clods they start vp in a night Or as the Dragons teeth sow'n by the Duke of Thebes They brauely sprong all-arm'd from-out the fertill glebes Indeede this mighty ground The first earnest answer ycleaped Americke Was not enhabited so soone as Affericke Nor as that learned soyle tow'r-bearing louing-right Which after Iupiter his deare-beloued hight Nor as that other part which from cold Bosphers head Doth reach the pearly morne at Titons saffran bed For they much more approach the diaprized ridges And faire-endented bankes of Tegil bursting-bridges From whence our ancestors discamp'd astonished And like to Partridges were all-to-scattered Then doth that newfound world whereto Columbus bore First vnder Ferdinand the Castill armes and lore Generall But there the baildings are so huge and brauely dight So differing the states the wealth so infinite That long agone it seemes some people thither came Although not all atonce nor all by way the same For some by cloudy drift of tempest raging-sore Percase with broken barks were cast vpon the shore Some others much auoid with famine plague and warre Particular Their ancient seats forsooke and sought them new so farre Some by some Captaine led who bare a searching minde With weary ships arriu'd vpon the Westerne Inde Or could not long ere this The second the Quinsay vessels finde A way by th'Anien straight from th' one to th' other Inde As short a cut it is Colonies according to the cond Answer noting by the way certaine meruailes of the countrie as that of Hellespont From Asia to Greece or that where-ore they wont Saile from the Spanish hill vnto the Realme of Fesse Or into Sicilie from out the hau'n of Resse So from the Wastes of Tolme and Quiuer where the kine Bring calues with weathers fleece with Camels bunchie chine And haire as Genets slicke they peopled Azasie Cosse Toua Caliquas Topira Terlichie And Florida the faire Auacal Hochilega The frosen Labour-lands Canada Norumbega They sow'd ath'other side the land of Xalisco Mechuacan Cusule and founded Mexico Like Venice o're a Lake and saw astonished The greenest budding trees become all withered As soone as euer touch'd and eke a mountaine found Vesevus-like enflam'd about Nicargua ground So passing forth along the straight of Panama Vpon the better hand they first Oucanama Then Quito then Cusco then Caxamalca built And in Peruuiland a country thorow-guilt They wondred at the Lake that waters Colochim All vnder-paued salt and fresh about the brim And at the springs of Chinke whose water strongly-good Makes pebble-stones of chalke and sandy stones of mood Then Chili they possest whose riuers cold and bright Run all the day apace and rest them all the night Quinteat Patagonie and all those lower seats Whereon the foamy bracke of Magellanus beats Vpon the left they spread along by Darien side Where Huo them refresh'd then in Vraba spide How Zenu's wealthie waves adowne to Neptune rould As bid as pullets egges the massie graines of gould A mount of Emeralds in Grenad saw they shine But on Cumana banks hoodwinked weare their eyne With shady night of mist so quickly from Cumane They on to Pary went Omagu and Caribane Then by Maragnon dwelt then entred fierce Bresile Then Plata's leauell fields where flowes another Nile Moreouer The third answer one may say that Picne by Grotland The land of Labour was by Brittish Iserland Replenished with men as eke by Terminan By Tombut and Melli the shore of Corican 40 But all this other world This is the first of the foresaid questions how it came to passe that the new world discouered in these latter times could be so replenished with people as the Spaniards who haue thereof written very much did finde it He speaketh of the West India which is called another world or the new world for the hugenesse thereof being more then 9300. leagues about as Gomara saith in his Indian Historie 1. book 12. chap. it is longer then all the other three parts of the world and two or three waies as broad as Asia and Europe laid together This quarter so great and full of kingdomes and people if it haue been long agone inhabited how hap saith our Poet the Perstans Greeks and Remans who vndertooke so many far voyages came neuer there nor once heard thereof For Ptolomee Strabo Mela and other ancient writers make no mention of it and if it were peopled but of late yeares he asketh how came so many people there so many great Cities and stately monuments as Gomara Benzo Cieque Ouiede Cortes and others write of Benzo and Barthelemi de las Casas doe report that in that little the Spaniards haue there gotten within these thirtie or fortie yeares they haue slaine aboue twentie millions of people vndone and brought to great distresse as many or more and wasted and vnpeopled twice as much ground as is contained in Europe and a part of Asia to that Neuerthelesse in many places and euen in Mexico New Spaine and Peru where they haue vsed all the crueltie wickednesse and villanie that mans heart or the deuils rage could imagine there are yet liuing many thousand Indians Concerning the ancient Monuments of this new world I will reckon at this time but one of them taken out of the fourth booke and 194. chapter of Gomara There are saith he in Peru two great high-wayes â—eaching the one thorow the hilles the other ouer the plaines from Quito to Cusco which is aboue fiue hundred leagues out-right a worke so great and chargeable that it is well worthy noting that ouer the plaines is 25. foot broad and walled on either side and hath little brookes running along in it with store of the trees called Molli planted on the bankes The other is of like breadth cutting thorow the rockes and filling vp the lower grounds with stone worke for they
Spaniards haue taken as it were this one graine away but thus much say they pointing to the rest in the vessell thus much and more haue they left behinde them Now the word Viracochie because it comes thus in my way Benzo himselfe in his third booke saith it signifies the froth or scumme of the Sea and that the Peruvians so call the Spaniards for deepe hatred and abomination of them saying also sometimes one to another in their language The wind beares downe houses and trees and the fire burnes them but these Viracochie they doe worse than wind and fire They waste all they eat all they turne the earth and all vpside downe they turne the course of Riuers they are neuer at quiet they neuer cease ranging vp and downe to seeke gold and siluer and all they finde is too little for them When they haue it what doe they They take their pleasure they warre one with another rob one another kill one another they are euer giuen to lying blaspheming and denying the same God whom they professe and these men haue cruelly slame without cause our fathers our children and kinsfolkes taken from vs contrary to all right our goods our libertie and countrie Hauing thus commended the Spaniards they cause the Sea for vomiting on the Earth so cruell and wicked a people and often haue vpbraided the Spaniards themselues with this notorious reproach that Gold was the Christians God O how shall this people in the latter day condemne that euer greedy couetousnesse for which Europe now adaies heareth so ill and is by the selfe-people thereof so wasted and vnpeopled But concerning the diuers gouernments of the West-Indies seeing they are set downe so well at large by Lopes Ouâ—ede Benzo and others it is too great a matter for me to handle in this discourse which is I feare me growne too long already therefore will I draw to an end The Poet at the 413. verse begins to shew some likely opinions how this new-found world was pleopled and first in generall that the people of countries inhabited exercising their ordinary traffick one with another might sometimes be cast by force of tempest vpon the West-Indian shore and so be constrained their ships being broken to remaine still there Others by plague war or famine were driuen to leaue their countries and seeke some quietter dwelling farre off and so haue lighted on these new Countries Or perhaps some great man of authority or cunning Pilot by ventring made a discouery thereof and led the ouer-creases of some people thither As the Poet sheweth more particularly in the verses following 44 Nay could not long agoe He guesseth in speciall and most likely that the inhabitants of the furthest Northeast shore of Asia to wit the men of Quinsay and other places there might haue emptied their ouer-peopled Cities by passing the Anien Straight a part of Sea no broader as he saith then the Phare of Gallipoli Gibraltare or Messine and so from the East Indies might they haue stored first the land of Tolguage which Theues in his map of the new world placeth betwixt the Realmes of Anián Tolm and Quiuir within 15 degrees of the North-pole then the rest as followeth 45 So from the Wastes of Tolm and Quiuir In all this huge Northren part of America few people there are especially toward the coast ouer against Quinsay and the other East countries There are therefore great Waste-lands as the later Card-men haue noted about the kingdomes or countries of Anian Tolguage Quiuir and Tolm about 12000 leagues compasse So then the Poet holds opinion that some of Sems posteritie hauing once passed from the farthest East-point of Asia ouer to the West-Indian Coast thrust their of-spring farther into the land The Countries here named by the Poet are to be found in the Sea-cards and Land-maps betwixt Now-Spaine and Estotilant as if he meant that the North-part of America was first inhabited concerning the properties and particular descriptions of these places reade the third volume of the Spanish Nauigations the second Booke of the generall historie of Lopez de Gomara chap. 37. c. the Historie of Florida Benzo the Reports of Johannes Verazzanus laques Cartier and other French Captaines concerning their discouering of the Land of Labour where the Sea is frozen Baccalos New France Canada Hochilega and other lands thereabouts Reade Thenet also and the later Card men For the French Calienza I haue translated Caliquas according as I finde it writted both in others and in Ortellus who also hath for Mechi Terlichi-mechi and therefore I translate it Terlichi 46 They sow'd at'nother side Xalisco now called Noua Gallicia is described by Gomara in the 21. chapter of his fift booke It is a land very fruitfull and rich in honey waxe and siluer and the people there are Idolaters and Men-eaters Nunnius Gusmannus who seized the country for the King of Spaine in the yeare 1530. hath written a discourse thereof and it is to be read in the third volume of the Spanish Nauigations The Prouince of Mechuacan from whence not far lyeth Cusule is about 40 leagues lower southward then Xalisco that also the said Gusmannus conquered after he had most cruelly and traiterously put to death the Prince and Peeres of the country as Gomara sheweth in his booke and chapter aboue quoted Mexico which some account all one with Themixtetan is the mother-Citie of that kingdome now called Hispania Nona wonderfull rich it is and strong and of high renoume built farre more curiously then Venice vpon a lake salt on the north-side because it is there of a Sea-like breadth and on the south-side fresh because of a Riuer that empties there into it Greater is the Citie thought to be then Seuille in Spaine the streets are passing well set and their channels in such manner cast as cannot be mended Diuers places there are to buy and sell-in the needfull and ordinarie wares but one there is greater then the rest with many walkes and galleries round about it where euery day may be seene aboue threescore thousand Chapmen There is the Iudgement Hall for common Pleas and were also many temples and shrines of Idols before the comming of Ferdinando Cortez who made thereof the first conquest for the king of Spaine exercising most horrible cruelties vpon all both young and old in the Citie as Barthelemi delas Casas a Monke and Bishop of Spaine reports in his historie of the Indies where he stayed a long time Looke the description of Mexico in the third volume of the Spanish Nauigations fol. 300. See also Benzo of Millaine his historie of the new world the second booke and 13. Chapter Now from these parts abouenamed after report of some wonders of many there seene and worthy a larger discourse by themselues the Poet drawes his Colonies downe further towards Peru by the Land-straight of Panama which parts the South-sea from the Ocean and thereabout is hardly 20. leagues in breadth The fiery mountaine
of Nicaragua is by Gomara described in his fist booke chap. 203. so are the other wonders which the Poet here notes in his fourth booke chap. 194. 47 Then Chili they possest Gomara in his fourth booke chap. 131. holds opinion that the men of Chili are the right Antipodes or Counter-walkers vnto Spaine and that the country there is of the same temper with Andaluzie This Chili lyeth on the shore of el Mar Pacisico so also doth Quintete which I haue put for Chinca both neere the Panagones or Giants whose country is full of people and hath certaine riuers that runne by day and stand by night some thinke because of the snowes which in the day time are melted by the Sunne and frozen by the Moone in the night but I take it rather to be some great secret and miracle of nature The cause why here I made exchange of Chinca was first for that the Poet had spoke before of the springs of Chink which I take for the same then because it is so diuerfly placed of the Card-men for Ortelius in his Map of the New World sets it aboue and Theuet beside Chili in either place it stands well to be taken for the Chink aforenamed but Mercator placeth it a great deale lower and on the contarry coast neere the riuer of Plata where indeed is a country called Chica that perhaps hath bred this error Lastly Quintete stands so right in way which the Poet followes from Chili to the Patagones that I thought it not amisse to take the same rather then the doubtfull Chinca By the somie Brack of Magellanus he meanes the Sea and Straight of Magellan close by terra Australis Gomara describeth it well in the beginning of the third booke of his Portugall Historie The Poet hath already shewed how people came first on the North America from the kingdome of Anian ouer the maine land to the Atlantick sea shore then on all the further coasts from Quiuir to the Magellan Straight along the Archipelago de San Lazaro Mar del Zur Pacifico and now hee takes the higher side on the left hand from the Land-Straight of Panama to the riuer of Plata which is not farre from the Magellan noting by the way the most note-worthy places of all this huge reach of ground represented as it is by our late writers in their generall and particular Maps of the New-found world Huo is a great sweat-water streame arising at Quillacingas that lieth vnder the Equator and running athwart the country called Caribage into the Sea at Garra Vraba is the country that lieth betwixt that riuer and Carthagene Concerning Zenu marke what Gomara saith thereof in his second booke and 69. chapter It is the name of a Riuer and Citie both and of a Hauen very large and sure The Citie is some 8. leagues from the Sea There is a great Mart for Salt and Fish Gold the inhabitants gather all about and when they set themselues to get much they lay sine-wrought nets in the riuer of Zenu and others and oftentimes they draw-vp graines of pure gold as big as eggs This country is not farre from the Straight of Darien In the said second booke chap. 72. He describes also Noua Grenada and the Mount of Emeraudes which is very high bare and peeld without any herbe or tree thereon growing and lyeth some fiue degrees on this side the Equator The Indians when they goe-about to get the stones first vse many enchauntments to know where the best veine is The first time the Spaniards came there they drew thence great and little 1800. very faire and of great price but for this commoditie the country is so barren that the people were faine to feed on Pismers till of late the Spanish couetousnesse hath made them know the value of their Mountaine Cumana is described in the foresaid booke chap. 79. in the end whereof Gomara saith the vapours of the riuer Cumana engender a certaine little mist or slime vpon mens eyes so as the people there are very pore-blind Parie is described in the 84 chapter of the said second booke Maragnon a Riuer which as Gomara saith 2 booke 87 chapter is threescore miles ouer It emprieth at the Cape of Alinde three degrees beyond the Aequator but springeth a great way further South by Tarama in Peru thence running Eastward it casteth only an Arme into the Amazon about Picora Which hath caused many the first writers of America to count from that place both but one riuer So also doth our Poet here otherwise he would haue msntioned first how the people passed the Amezon that other great streame now knowne by the name of Orenoque which riseth about Carangui and emptieth as Theuet saith 104. leagues aboue the mouth of Maragnon Bresile which the Spaniard discouered in the yeare 1504. is surnamed fierce because of the Canibales Caribes and other man-eating people there I. de Leri hath written very fully all the historie of his aduenture in part of the country where dwell the people called Toupinamboes The riuer of Plata the Indians call Paranagacuc which word importeth as much as a great water Gomara speaking thereof in the 89. chapter of his second booke saith In this riuer is found siluer pearles and other things of great price It containes in breadth 25. leagues making many Islands and swels like Nilus and about the selfe-same time It springeth first out of the mountaines of Peru and is after increased by the infall of many riuers for the country thereabout is leuell or slat whereof it seemes to haue receiued the name of Plate Thus the Poet guesseth at the manner of this new-found worlds empeopling by the coast of Asia Whereunto I will adde what Arias Mont that learned Spaniard hath written thereof in his booke entituled Phaleg He saith Ioktan the double pety-sonne of Sem that is whose double grandfather Sem was had thirteene sonnes which are named by Moses in the 10. of Genesis and some of them peopled the West Indies from the East That which Moses saith Genesis 10. chap. 30. vers concerning Sephar a mountaine of the East Arias applies to the great hills of Peru which the Spaniards call Andes they reach out further in length then any other in the world and neere them stands an ancient towne called Iuktan Moreouer there lies higher a neere-Isle betwixt Cuba and Mexico called Iukatas which may bee thought to resemble still the name of him that first brought people into the country To Ophir one of the sonnes of Ioktan Arias allots the land of Peru for as much as in the third chapter and six verse of the second booke of Chron. there is mention made of the gold of Paruaim To Iobab the country of Paria which is neere the Straight of Panama very â—iâ—h also in gold and pearle I haue said else-where that Arias Montanus tooke Asia to be all one main-land with America and knew no Anian Straight If that be true sure the
be seene in Syria This doth Iosephus report vpon heare-say which the Poet termes an old Tradition or Cabala Thus Josephus thrusts-in many things among his Antiquities that haue no good ground but are taken vpon trust of the Caballists and Rabbins who neuer considering the maiestie and sufficiencie of holy Scripture thought to helpe out and adorne it with fillets and labels of their owne Many learned men thinke that Noe and his sonnes had the Arts well setled in their mindes and the Arke is a sufficient proofe of Noes skill in Arithmetike and Geometrie but the Reader may if he will ascribe the inuention to Noes predecessors so doth the Poet following the opinion of Iosephus For the rest he giues the whole discourse of Mathematikes to Heber and Phaleg because the earth being in their time diuided it was requisite that these Arts were knowne to be carried euery way for comfort and helpe of Colonies in peopling the world Cylinderwise it lay So I translate that is along the ground like a rouller supposing the waters had ouerthrowne it 3. Seth. Polidore Virgil in his first booke de Inuentoribus rerum chap. 14.17.18 19. speakes of the first finders-out of the liberall Sciences alledging the testimonie of diuers Authors But it came neuer into his minde to deriue all from the spring-head as here the Poet hath done who shewes with great probabilitie that Adam being endowed with excellent knowledge of hidden things concerning both great and little world taught it his sonne and schollar Seth and others that conuersed with him who also conueyed it ouer to their descendants And this was not hard to be done considering the long life of them all So the true Cabala of inheritance left to posteritie was the instruction which they receiued one from other by word of mouth and this might be so continued from father to sonne as it need not be graued in brick or stone But sithence the Poet was content to set-out the opinion of Iosephus rather then his owne I le say no more against it The meanes and order kept by Seths posteritie to continue the knowledge of the Mathematicks was not all of one sort though the Poet propounds but one which was very likely 4. Thus hauing said he went That is Heber Poets missing sometime the certaine truth are wont yet to stand-vpon that is likely wherefore this our Author hauing before spoke-of the pillar of stone which stood still vpright brings-in Heber opening the doore thereof by a sleight and finding therein a burning lampe or candle This secret of burning lamps of some vnquenchable stone or other matter of that nature hath beene vsed in the world long agoe and proued true by diuers ancient sepulchers found vnder the ground Selinus in his 12. chap. saith there is in Arcadia a certaine stone of the colour of Iron which once set a fire cannot be quenched and therefore is called Asbeslos which signifies as much Plutarch in the beginning of his booke De cessatione Oraculorum saith as much of the vnquenchable lampe in the Temple of Jupiter Hammon which was the most ancient and of most renowme among the Chamites who soone fell from the true Religion Plinie in the first chapter of his 19. booke tells also a great maruaile of a kinde of linnen cloth which consumes not in the fire I thinke the immediate successors of Adam and Noe had knowledge of many secrets in Nature which we now would thinke incredible impossible or altogether miraculous if we saw the experience thereof 5. As when a priuate man By an excellent comparison the Poet here describes the affection that Phaleg had to vnderstand these things and so makes way to his discourse of the Mathematike Arts which he faines to be sisters and one much like another because they are all composed as it were of numbers concords and proportions which by Addition Multiplication Substraction and Diuision doe bring forth great varietie of rare and dainty secrets 6. My sonne He shewes in few words the iust commendation of these Liberall Sciences called here Virgins because of their simplicitie and puritie Daughters of Heauen because they are placed in the vnderstanding the principall facultie of our soule which is from Heauen though the vnderstanding adorned with Mathematikes doe many times bring forth effects which depart farther and farther from their spring-head and so by little and little fall among the Mechanicks or Handycrafts He saith also further that these foure Sciences are the fairest which that one Spirit issuing from two that is the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Sonne did euer beget or mans soule conceiue he speaks this only of such gifts as the Holy Ghost hath imparted vnto men for the maintenance of their societie For what were the life of man if it had neither number waight nor measure neither sight nor hearing well gouerned as needs it must be while it wants the Mathematikes whose due praise and profit ensuing with what other Arts depend thereon you may reade at large in the Prefaces before Euclideâ— especially in one of Christopher Clanius and another of our English Iohn Dee 7. She there The learned differ concerning the order and disposition of these foure Arts some set Geometrie in the first place Arithmeticke in the second Musicke in the third and Astronomie last Others cleane contrary Our Author hath followed the most receiued opinion Reade Scaliger against Cardan Exer. 321. The chiefe thing is to consider well the bounds and coherences of these Arts that we neither confound nor seuer them among themselues nor mingle them with others for this doing sometimes hath brought most dangerous errours both into Church and Common-wealth To proceed In this description which the Poet makes of Arithmetikes both habit and gesture we may see what is required to the right vnderstanding that abstract Arte now adayes farre out of the way or soyled with grosse materials 8. Vnitie In fortie verses or thereabouts the Poet hath set downe the grounds of infinite Arithmeticall secrets He that will search what the ancient and late Authors haue written shall finde matter enough for a good thicke booke I speake here but briefly so much as may serue for vnderstanding the text leauing the rest to a larger Commentarie First he calls Vnitie or One the root of all numbers because euery number great and small ariseth from One. Secondly he calls it also the root of Infinitie for the greatest numbers and such as vnto vs are vncountable or infinite what are they but multiplied Vnities Thirdly he tearmes Vnitie True friendships deare delight because the faithfull louer delights in one onely and seeks no more Fourthly The renowme of Harmonie which tends to one sweet consort of diuers voyces Fiftly The seed-plot of all that is because by one spice or kinde of man beast fish fowle c. was filled the whole world Sixtly he calls it the Aime of Polymnie I thinke by this he meanes the intent that all learned men
haue in their discourses by word or writing to tend alwayes to some one certaine point or end as the only marke they aime or leuell-at Let the Reader finde out some better note hereupon for mine owne scarse contents me Seuenthly this Vnitie is said to be no number because a number taken as it is commonly for a name of multitude is composed of many vnities and more then number because it giues a being to all numbers and thus it hath a power to comprehend all numbers and is actually in all Let vs adde a word more to the praise of Vnitie God is one and the Church of many gathered together is but one yea there was but one Creator one world one man for of him was the woman framed one language before the confusion of Babel one Law one Gospell one Baptisme one Supper of the Lord one hope one loue one Paradise one life euerlasting Concerning the diuers significations of one and other numbers in holy Scripture I forbeare to speake because the Poet makes no plaine mention thereof But this I note further that out of these verses so artificially couched together nothing can be drawne which may any way seeme to fauour their vaine speculations who goe about to build vpon numbers the rules of Religion and such as are of force to establish or ouerthrow Common-wealths and least of all hath any support or rellyance for Arithmanticall Cheaters Magicians and other like mischiefes of the world who abusing the passages of holy Scripture where numbers are vsed thinke they haue found therein the way to foretell what is to come or power to raise vp Spirits and in a word to practise many things vnlawfull which the curious and profane haue taught by their bookes published in Print but let their names bee buried in euerlasting silence 9. Twaine The Pythagorians called the number of two or twaine Isis and Diana because as Diana was barren saith Plato in his Thâ—â—teâ—us so Two being the head and beginning of Diuersitie and vnlikenesse hath no such power as other numbers haue It is the father of numbers huen which the Poet calles esseminate because they bring forth nothing but are cause rather of the ruine of Vnitie For to diuide a thing is to destroy it as Aristotle argues very punctually in the eight Booke of his Metaphysickes Plutarch in his Treatise of the Soules creation saith that Zaratas the Master of Pythagoras called Two the mother of Numbers and One the father whereof he yeelds a reason which our Author hath in a word 10. Three Some account Three the first of all numbers for as for Two the Pythagorians doe not vouchsafe it the name of a number but call it a confounding of Vnities which are to speake properly no numbers but the roots and beginnings of numbers I will say nothing here of the praise of Three set downe by Plutarch in his Treatise of Isis and Osiris and elsewhere nor yet what say the Poets whose Chiefe hath this Numero Deus impare gaudet meaning not an odde number whatsoeuer as Fiue or Seuen but only Three which is the first of all the odde numbers and makes in Geometry of three surfaces only the first body that hath length breadth and thicknesse called a Triangle The Pythagoreans call this kinde of Solide Minerua and in their purifications and washings doe vse much the number of Three Virgil also toucheth vpon this secret in the 6. of his Aeneids Thus Idem ter socios purâ circumtulit vndâ and in the first of his Georg. thus Terque nouas circum saelix cat hoslia fruges And Ouid. 2. Fast thus Et digitis tria thura tribus sublimine ponit And in the 6. Protinus arbuteâ postes terin ordine tangit Fronde ter arbuteâ lamina fronde notal Infinite authorities haue we to this purpose to name one Plinie saith in translating I searched out the place Nat. Hist 28.4 Ternâ despuere deprecatione in omni medicinâ mes suit atque ex hec effectus adiuâ—are But for as much as this and the like fauours of superstition and witchcraft I leaue it and for beare also to shew further how curiously some apply this number vnto diuers mysteries of Religion contenting my selfe onely to expound the Poets words First hee saith it is a number proper vnto God and I thinke he meanes it of the holy Trinitie Father Sonne and Holy Ghost which is one true God for of nothing else can it be said that Three are One and One is Three Againe he saith it is the eldest brother of all the Odde numbers but of that wee spoke before Thirdly he saith that in this number Three is No number and Number well met Then he saith further it is a number well beloued of Almightie God I translate it Heau'ns fauour winning and it hath respect either to the sore-alledged place of Virgil or rather to the effects that God worketh in his creatures which would make a large Commentary for the number of three hath beene obserued by some in the Order of Angels sent downe vnto Men in Men themselues in Sciences in Vertues and other things so many as can hardly be numbred Moreouer he saith the number Three hath a Center and two Extremities of equall distance one from another which is easie to be vnderstood for the Center of Three is the second Vnitie which is equally distant from the first and the third and by this reason also is it the first of all number that hath End Middle and Beginning which is also very plaine to conceiue 11 Foure The Cube or perfect Square body in Geometrie hath a piedestall or base of foure corners and is the most perfect of Solide bodies representing stedfastnesse continuance and vertue whereof came the prouerbe of Homo quadratus not square faced like the Chinois Trigault in expedit one Iesuitica but a man disposed and dealing squarely a man sound constant and vertuous Reade Pierius his Exposition of this number with the rest before and after it I haue said much thereof in my Commentaries vpon the Quartaines of le Sieur de Pybrac Expos 39. where he saith that Truth is framed of a perfect Cube Now to the rest of our Poets words Secondly then he ascribes to the number of Foure this property that with his owne contents which are one two three he makes vp I en this is plaine Thirdly he saith it is the number of the name most to be feared that is the name of God For the Hebrues write the name of God with foure letters and say it is vn-vtterable and pronounce euer Adonai for Ichoua which name the Diuines call Tetragramaton Iohn Reuelm hath discoursed largely thereof in his Cabala and in his bookes de Verbo Mirifico Other Nations also haue giuen to God a name of foure letters The Assyrians Adad the Aegyptians Amun the Persians Syre the old Romans Aius the Greekes ΘΕΟΣ the Mahumetans Alla the Goths Thor the Spaniards Dios the Italians Idio the
Germans Gott the French Dieu I passe by the names Adon Adni Iaho Iesu as also what some haue inuented vpon the names of Cain Abel Seth Enos for they haue written herein very much to little purpose The Spirit of God would haue vs rest vpon the substance of things not vpon the number of letters vsed in their names For the fourth commendation of this number he saith it is the number of the Elements to wit the Earth the Water the Aire and the Fire whereof thus Ouid Metam 15. Quatuor â—ternus genitalia corpora Mundus-Continet c. And in his first booke more distinctly Ignea conuexi vis sine pondere coeli Emicuit summaqueâ—â—cum sibi legit in arce Proximus est Aer illi leuitate locoque Densior his Tellus elementaque grandia traxit Et pressa est grauitatesui Circumsluus huâ—â—â— Vltima possedâ—t solidâ—amque coereuit orbem For the fist he saith it represents the foure Seasons of the yeare the Spring Sommer Autumne and Winter For the sixt he compares it to the foure Cardinall Vertues Iustice Fortitude Temperance and Prudence For these seuenth to the Huanours of Mans bodie bloud Coller Phlegme and Melancholy For the eight to the principall Winds East West North and South Let me say moreouer that the Pythagoreans as Maâ—rebius reports had this number in so great esteeme that they were wâ—nâ— to sweare by it 12. Fâ—ue th'Ermaphrodite So called because it is composed of the Femall 〈◊〉 and Masculine Three which is the first Odde number That which followeth how this number multiphed alway shewes it selfe is easie Plutarch de Cessatione Oraculorum and vpon the Title of Et in the Temple at Delphos telleth great wonders of this number of Fiue 13 Th'Analogicke Six Saint Augustine in his fourth booke De Trinitate and in his fourth booke also De Genesi ad literam and Hugode S to Victore in his booke De Sacramentis both say the number of Six is a perfect number because it is composed of his owne proper parts For the Diuisors of Six besides the Vnitie which diuides all numbers by themselues as 1 is in Six six times and so of the rest are 6 3 and 2. Diuide then Six by Six the Quotus is 1 diuide it by 3 the Quotus is 2 diuide it by 2 the Quotus is 3 that is a Sixt part a Third and a Second which 1 2 and 3 being put together make-vp againe the whole Six which preoues it a perfect number Other numbers the most thus examined are found more or lesse than their parts As the Diuisers of 10. are 10.5 and 2. Ten is in ten once Fiue is in Ten twise two is in Ten fiue times so the Quotes of Ten thus diuided are 1.2 and 5. which added make but eight two lesse than the number deuided Wheras the Diuisers of 12. being 6.4.3 1. The Quote of 12 diuided by twelue is 1. by six 2. by foure 3. by three 4. by two 6. and these Quotes 1.2.3.4 and 6. make a Totall of 16. which is foure more than the number diuided Some say then that Six being the first perfect number and answerable to his owne parts therefore it pleased God to create the World in six daies to shew that all was perfect nothing more than need nothing lesse So by good right is this number tearmed Analogicke that is proportionate and answerable in all points to it selfe as hath beene shewed 14 The Criticke Seu'n First the Poet calles Seuen a Criticke number as much to say as Iudging of a matter For that on the seuenth day Physitions are wont to iudge of a disease to life or death though sometimes where a strange and resisting nature is they double the number and awaite the fourteenth day which is as saith Hippocrates in his Aphorismes the tearme of diseases that are simply acute or sharpe If the maladie passe this day it is commonly seene that it continues to the one and twentieth which is a third Seuenth Looke what Galen saith in his bookes De diebus Criticis and what Consorius in his booke De die Natali as also what the Physitians hold concerning euery Seuenth and Climactericall yeare as of the nine and fortieth composed of seuen times seuen and the sixty three of nine times seuen In the second place the Poet calles this number Male and Female because it is made of an Eauen and an Odde three and foure hereof see Scaliger in his 365. Exer. against Cardan In the third and last place he commends it for the number of the Planets and of the holy Rest-day because the Lord rested the seuenth day and hallowed it 15 Eight the double Square The smallest Latus of any Square-number is two which multiplied by it selfe makes foure and the same againe multiplied by the Latus two is eight which is the first Cube and double the first Square Some haue played the subtill Figure-slingers with the Greeke name of our Sauiour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and found it to make 888. to wit eight Vnities eight Tens and eight Hundreds applying also thereto certaine Prophesies of Silylla but I leaue this subtill deuice sithence the Poet giues me no occasion to handle it 16 And sacred Nine So stiled for the number of the Muses though otherwise in Musike this number makes a discord and the Astrologers call it a sinister number and ill-betokening In the Theogonie of â—â—â—lodus and in Virgil where he speakes of the nine turnings of the infernall Riuer Styx some are of opinion that it represents the disagreeing Complexions of Mans bodie See the Hieroglyphikes of Iohn Pierius in his 37. booke 17 Ten. Of this number Ouid in his booke De Fastis speakes very properly Semper adusque decom numero crescente venitur Principium spatijs sumitur inde nonis But to our Poet he saith it containe in it selfe the force and vertue of all numbers either simply or by multiplication as it is plaine in the Text. Againe he saith it is like the Line in Geometrie because it is the first that makes a length for all that goe before it are expressed by single Characters as 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9 and so stand like prickes or points not flowing to a Line but Ten hauing alwaies one other Figure or Cypher ioyned vnto it thrusts-out into length and so makes as it were a Line in Arithmeticke beyond which Line there is no proceeding but by multiplying this Ten againe and so forth to the greatest number that can be giuen which may surmount the waues or sands of the sea Forcadel in his Arithmeticke and others besides those of old haue shewed the manner how But Archimedes wrote thereof long agoe and entituled his worke De numeo arenae And surely by the multiplication of Ten it may be done Let them examine or trie it that haue leisure or rather let vs all leaue this to him that made all things in number weight and measure who onely knowes the the number of the Starres
whereof Euclide and his Expositors haue spoken at large in their sixt booke as they haue also many propositions touching the same before 22. The Globe This is a kind of Geometricall Solide most excellent and perfect aboue all others as all men that haue written thereof doe plainly declare whom the Poet here also followeth Their chiefe reasons are 1. That it hath the same fashion and shape that the world hath 2. That it hath neither beginning mids nor end 3. That it is moueable in place and immoueable out of place That it is concaue and conuex which is as much to say as Inbent and Out-bent or crusye and bulked that it is made of straight lines meaning the diameters and yet crooked round about as is the surface thereof that it mooueth euery way at once vpward downward backward forward rightway leftway that it swayes and mooues with it according to proportion all round bodies next it This we may well perceiue by that heauen called Primum mobile which drawes with it the firmament of fixed starres together with the seauen spheres of Planets That although it stand still as when the sphere is laid on a plaine yet seemes it to be in continuall motion and euery way nods and threatens to fall because the base or foot it stands-on is but a point from whence on euery-side halfe hangs-ouer This may seeme strange then euen where there is a foundation to rest-on Much more in the Earth that hath no foundation to sense but hangs in the Ayre whereof the Poet giues a good reason because it selfe is the resting-place or middle point of all the bodies concentrike and round of it selfe is not by any promontorie or corner forced from abroad More ample reasons hereof shall yee finde in the Commentaries of Clauius Junctinus Schreckensuschius and others vpon the Spheare of Iohn of Hallifax commonly called Iohannes de sacro Bosco and in the Commentarie of Millichius vpon the second booke of Plinie 4. The Sphere is alwaies and euery where throughout like it selfe so are not other bodies Geometricall 5 As houses that are blunt-cornerd receiue more into them then do the straight or sharp-cornerd because these stride not so wide as the other so the Sphere being as it were euery way blunt containes more then any Geometricall bodie of other shape 6. Other Solides are broken oft-times by reason of their beginnings ends plights knobs and ioynts whereas the Sphere is voide of all those and therefore must needs be more perfect and sound as all Astronomers and Geometricians doe proue both by their owne experience and to the view of others 23. The doubling of a Cube and squaring of a Round About these two secrets of Geometrie diuers learned men of our Age haue taken great pains as well in their Commentaries vpon Euclide as in Bookes and Treatises printed apart But because these matters doe require demonstrations with distinct number and figure it was impossible for me to set them downe here and my ayme is at things of more vse and profit He that would be further satisfied herein let him repaire to the learned Mathematicians or to their Bookes set forth in Print Nicolas de Cusa Orontius Cardan in his worke de proportionibus Pelletier Clauius Candales in diuers demonstrations vpon Euclide haue largely discoursed vpon these Secrets and others drawing neere vnto them 24. Keepe faster The Theoremes Problemes and Propositions of Geometrie contained in the books of Euclide are most certaine and out of all controuersie among people endued with reason as the Expositors of this Author doe plainly shew Howbeit the Sceptikes and Pyrrhonians both old and new do oppose them But the Poet simply considers the truth of things reiecting all Sophistrie which deserues not to be disputed withall especially when it denies principles and such as these whereby Geometrie hath filled the whole world and that but a hundred yeares since with an infinite sort of rare and admirable inuentions 25. By her the gentle streame For proofe of that last point he brings in 1. The vse of Wind-mills and Water-mills 2. Artillerie 3. The Saile mast sterne and other furniture of a ship 4. Printing 5. The Crane or wheele deuised to draw or lift-vp great stones to a high building and other Engines to command and beat downe pyles planks and whole trees if need be into the earth vnder water 6. The Crosse-staffe or Iacobs-staffe as we call it to measure the Earth Ayre Heauen and Sea and vnder this may be comprised all other instruments which the Surveyours of Land Camp-masters Geometors Astronomers and other men vse to that purpose or the like 7. All kinde of howre-glasses of sand or water Dyals of all sorts and sounding clocks to marke how the time passes both by day and night 8. Certaine statues and deuises of wood which by meanes of sundry gynnes of motion within them haue beene made to pronounce some words of mans voice whereto may be added the woodden Pigeon of Archytas the Eagle and Flie of Iohn de Montroyall the brasen head of Albertus Magnus the clock-cock of Strausburg 9. The deuise of Daedalus to flie in the ayre which hath beene imitated since by others In the tenth and last place he glaunceth at the vaunt which Archimedes made that he would mooue the Earth out of place if he had but elsewhere to stand These all deserue throughly to be considered but for the present I will content my selfe thus only to haue pointed at them And so come to the third Image which is Astronomie 3. L'Astronomie ne peut estre bien veue que de ceux qui conoissent l'Arithmetique la Germetrie Or d'autant que ces deux nous donnent seure entree Dans le sainct Cabinet où l'Vranie astree Tient sa ceinture d'or ses lumineux pendans Ses Perles ses rubis ses saphirs ardans Qu'homme ne peut monter sur les croupes iumelles Du Parnasse estoillé que guindé sur leurs ailes Que quiconque est priué de l'vn de ces deux yeux Contemple vainement l'artifice des cieux Le sculpteur a dressé pres de l'Arithmetique Et l'Art mesure-champ l'image Astronomique Ornemens de l'Astronomie Elle a pour Diademe vn argentè Croissant Sous qui iusqa'aux talons à iaunes flots descend Vn Comet allumé pour yeux deux Escarboucles Pour robe vn bleu Rideau que deux luisantes boucles Attachent sur l'espaule vn damas azurè D'estoilles d'animaux richement figuré Et pour plumes encor elle porte les ailes De l'oiseau moucheté de brillantes rouëles Now these two Arts because they lead vs onward right Into that sacred tent where Vranie the bright Sits guirt in golden belt with spangles albedight Of carbuncl ' and of pearle of rubye and chrysolite And that a man withou the help of eithers quill May neuer mount the twyns of starrie Pernas hill But whosoeuer wants one of these Eagles eies In vaine
such as hurt him P. Marlyr of Millaine in the 8. booke of his 3. Decade tels great wonders of one that was tamed and made so familiar with a certaine Cassike or Lord of India that he would play and make sport like an Ape and sometimo would carry ten Indians at once on his backe and passe or ferry them in that wise from one side of a great Lake there to the other And for as much as hauing foure feet like a Sea-dog he liued on the land as well as in the water he would now and then wrestle with Indians and take meat at their hand but would in no wise be reconciled vnto the Christians there because one of them whom he knew it seems very strangely by his face and clothes had once strooke him with a lance though hurt him not by reason of his hard and thicke hyde Ouiede in the 13. booke and 10. chap. f his History describes one but not as a creature liuing both at Sea and Land nor yet foure-footed Howbeit he saith the name of Manat is giuen to this fish by the Spaniards because he hath as t' were manus duas two hands neere his head which doe serue him for fynnes to swim withall he tels further many things of singular note and that this Manat or Seabullocke is found about the Isle of Hispaniola As for other fishes here mentioned they shall be handled in another place hereafter but who so desires to know more of the history and nature of them let him reade Gesner Rondeletius Bellon So much out of the second day of the first weeke Now let vs goe on with this booke of the Arke 7 Good Noe. In the history of Moses Gen. 7. there are certaine points worthy noting to proue that the faithfull and holy Patriarck Noes heart failed him not though he saw then the Arke tossed vp and downe the boundlesse waters of this generall Flood though all the fountaines of the great deepe broke forth and the flood-gates of Heauen were opened so as the raine fell amaine and without ceasing vpon the face of the earth forty daies and forty nights together and the water swelled fiftie cubits aboue the highest of all hills The first is that he entred the Arke himselfe with his wife and children and their wiues also at the commandement of God The second is that after all the beasts paire by paire were also come in God himselfe shut the doore vpon them For this shewes that the holy Patriarke with a liuely faith obeyed the voice of God and vpon his only wise prouidence wholly rested And therefore good reason had the Poet to set downe such holy exercises as were likely to be vsed by Noe being now close prisoner as it were for the space of a whole yeare and ten daies as may be gathered by the 11. and 13. verses of the seauenth chapter of Genesis and by the 13. and 14. verses of the chapter following The summe of his discourse is grounded vpon consideration of the great mercy of God who neuer forgetteth his children and such as feare him and rest vpon his goodnesse This goodnesse and mercy well shewed it selfe vnto Noe and his among so many fearefull shapes of death while in the Arke they were so preserued aliue from the Deluge together with the whole seminarie of the world next to ensue The Almighty now held all creatures obedient vnto the Patriarke as he had before disposed them to come and range themselues by couples into the Arke where they were during this imprisonment to be fed and kept cleane Let the Reader duely consider how many wayes the faith patience and constancie of Noe was exercised in so waighty a charge and how needfull it was that God who had shut vp his seruant in this prison of wood should be there also with him from time to time to strengthen and make him rich in faith as hee was whereby he onercame all these dangers God therefore doubtlesse was the Patron of his ship the sterne Load starre Ancor and Hauen of this Arke sloating amid the waters now hurried after a strange manner To this purpose saith a learned Father Noah iactatur procellis nec meigitur serpentibus beslijs sociatur nec terretur ei serae colla submittunt alites famulantur It was the great mercy of God toward Noe that hee gaue him the skill and knowledge how to fit the seuerall places in the Arke for the creatures and their food as also that vnder one man and so few more as were saued with him he held in obedience so many beasts and for the most part one contrary to another that the men were not choâ—ked vp with this close ayre and ill sauour of excrements that amid so many fearefull apprehensions they were able to keepe life and soule together But the blessing of God is the stay and sure hold of all his children 8 But Cham. I will not speake here now of the questions arising about the time when began or how long continued the Flood nor curiously examine the Hebrew words lest these Annotations grow too long And the Poet hath chosen matter of more importance to be considered I haue said else-where that it graceth much a Poem where the certame truth appeares not there to stand vpon likelyhoods C ham shewed himselfe a profane wretch and a scosser straight after the Flood whereupon both he and his posteritie were accursed The Poet therefore with great probabilitie supposeth he could not long conceale and hold-in the poyson whereof his heart was full but began to vent and vomit it euen in the Arke Noe then a man endued with the feare of God was surely not silent the space of a whole yeare and ten dayes and his care was not employed altogether vpon the beast it must needs be therefore that he spent some time in teaching and comforting his familie C ham was certainly gracelesse and had no feeling of the Spirit and fitly then doth the Poet personate in him all that are profane striuers against the iudgements of God For whatsoeuer is here imputed vnto Cham may be gathered for likely by that which he and his posteritie did after the Deluge Noe who liued yet three hundâ—ed and fiftie yeares longer returned it seemes from the Armenian hills where the Arke staid into his own former habitation about Damascus where his fore-fathers were buried It is held for certaine that Sem also came againe thither and that his issue peopled the lands thence reaching toward the East the South Cham drew to the South West Iaphet to the North and West whereof reade yee the 10. chap. of Genesis C ham had one sonne called Cus whose posteritie inhabited a part of Arabia and that of Ethiopia which is vnder Egypt another called Mitsraim of whom came the Egyptians and another called Canaan father of the Cananites He had also Put a fourth sonne but of his posteritie Moses hath not a word Iosephus in the sixt chapter
of his first booke of Antiquities saith he peopled Lybia And it was indeed in the sandie deserts thereof that the children of Cham held the Temple and Oracle of Iupiter Hammon or Chammon For the doctrine of truth by little and little being corrupted and at last quite abolished amongst them as among the Cananites the Scripture shewes Idolaters Magitians and persons euery way debauched and profane these now blind and ignorant of the true God make to themselues a God and giue him a double name one drawne from the name of the true God Ichoua turned into Jupiter and the other from their great Auncestor Cham. After this the Deuill plaid terrible pranks in this Temple and it became the most renowmed among the Gentiles as you may reade in the second booke of Herodotus And it is not vnlikely that Cham euen at the time of the Floud was plotting in his heart for such honours to be done him by his posteritie preiudiciall to the glory of Almighty God As for his obiections here they tend all as all Chamites or Atheists reasons doe first to controll the wise and vnblameable prouidence of the All good and Almighty God Secondly to shake the foundation of deuout humilitie in his Church Thirdly to censure both the mercy and iustice of the Lord. Fourthly to make the order of Nature his buckler to keepe off all apprehension of the vengeance of God whose wayes though the wicked thinke to follow them with naturall reason are all past finding out as witnesseth the Prophet Isay and S. Paul 9. Fie Father I come now to set downe in briefe the reproches and foule speeches vttered here by Cham whereof I need say but little because the Reader may very easily distinguish them sithence there is nothing in the Poets words but easie to be vnderstood The chiefe point is to consider well of Noes answers which I haue one by one obserued as they stand in the Text. 10. By this the father gauld After he hath witnessed his griefe in preface hee bestowes vpon this scoffer such titles as he deserued and then layes open the well-head of Atheisme which is for man to trust ouermuch in himselfe and little regard what is taught by the Spirit of God then foretelling the miserable end of all Atheists he answers the obiections of Cham very punctually enriching and beautifying his discourse with descriptions comparisons inductions and proofes necessarie which well considered afford much instruction and comfort vnto men of an vpright heart The two last answers are very remarkable whereunto the Patriarke most fitly adioynes the calling on the name of God of purpose to shew vnto whom the faithfull ought to flie in all their troubles and tentations I will not adde hereunto what Iosephus hath in the first of his Antiquities because there are many things little to the purpose and such as sort not with the state and maiestie of that sacred historie set downe by Moses Something it is that Philo Iudaeus hath written of Moses and the Deluge in his second booke of the life of Moses toward the end Vpon this historie of the Flood haue the Heathen people forged that fable of Deucalion described by Ouid in the first of his Metamorphosis But in these answers by our Author put vpon Noc the Reader may finde wherewithall to stop the mouth of all Atheists Epicures which are so bold to censure all that the holy Scripture saith as well of the Essence and Nature of God as of his workes whether they concerne the creation and preseruation of the world with the redemption of Mankinde or his iust iudgements vpon the profane and reprobate vnbeleeuers C'est ainsi que Noë sa prison adoucit Enchante sa tristesse Dieu fait cesser le deluge le temps acourcit Nayant espoir qu'en Dieu quiresserrant les veines D'où surgeonnoyent sans fin tant de viues fontaines Arrestant l'eau du ciel faisant que les airs Raffermissent tancez les digues de leurs mers Met les vents en besongne Pour cest effect il cōmande auxvents de faire retirer les caux dessecher la terre O balais de la terre Frais esuentaus du ciel ô des forests la guerre O mes herauts dit-il postes messagers O mes nerfs ô mèsbras vous oiscaux qui legers Parl'air trainé mon char quand ma bouche allumee Ne souffle que brassiers que souffre que sumce Que le foudre est monsceptre que l'effroy le bruit L'horreur roule à trauers l'espesseur d'vne nuict Esueillez-vous courez humez de vos haleines L'eau qui desrobe au ciel les monts les plaines Labrigade des vents à sa voix obeit Fin du deluge arrest de l'arche sur les montagnes d'Ararat L'orgueil plus escumeux de l'eau s'esuanouit La mer fait saretraite la Carraque saincte Prend terre sur vn mont dont les astres ont crainte Qui se perd dans le ciel qui void sourcilleux Presque dessous ses pieds mille monts orgueilleux Noe Le corbeau mis hors l'arche pour descouurir la terre La colombe à la seconde fois apporte au bec vn rameau d'oliuier signe de paix qui ce-pendant a'vn doux espoir s'allete Donne la clef des champs au Corbeau qui volete Antour des monts voisins voyant tout noyé Varetrouuer celuy qui l'auoit enuoyé La Colombe sortant par la fenestre ouuerte Fait quelques iours apres vne autre descouuerte Et coguoissant qu'encore la marine est sans bort Lasse de tant ramer se sauue dans le Fort. Mais sept-fois par le ciel Phebus n'a fait la ronde Qu'elle reprend le vol pour espier le Monde Et rapporte à la fin en son bec vnrameau D'Oliuier palle-gris encore mi-couuert d'eau O bien-heureux presage O plaisante nouuelle O mystere agreable Io la Colombelle Paisible port au bec le paisible rainseau Dieu fait paix auec nous d'au si sacre seau Authorize benin son auguste promesse Qu'au combat on verrasans rage la Tigresse Le Lyon sans audace le Lieure sans peur Plus-tost qu'à nos despens il se monstre trompeur O primice des fruicts ôsacré-saincte Oliue Branche annonce-salut soit que turestes viue Apre's le long degast d'vn Deluge enragé Ie m'esgaye que l'eau n'apoint tout rauagé Soit que baisé le slot ta verdeur rebourgeonne I'admire la bonté du grand Dieu qui redonne L'ame à tant darbres morts dans moins d'vn moment Decore l'Vniuers d'vn nouueau parement Noé parle en la sorte Noé ne vent sortir sans conmandemēt expres de Dieu qui l'auoit enclos en l'arche Or combien que le Monde Monstrast ja la plus part de ses Iles sur l'onde Luy presentant logis qu'enuieilli
are both of them leuell without mounting or descending any hill and straight without stopping at any lake or poole In a word whosoeuer hath seene either of them will say it is a worke farre surpassing all the great buildings and paued causies of the Romanes or the walles of Babylon built by Queene Semyramis or those most wonderfull Pyramides of Aegypt Guaynacapa a certaine King of the Indians who liued about an hundred yeares agoe caused these waies to be repaired and enlarged but he was not the first beginner of them as some would make vs beleeue for he could not haue finished them in all his life-time and the stone-worke semes to be much more ancient There are built vpon them a daies iourney asunder many goodly Pallaces called Tambos wherein the Court and armies of the Princes wont to lodge But Gomara saith our Spanyards haue by their ciuill warres vtterly destroyed these causies and cut them asunder in many places that they might not come one to another yea the Indians themselues haue broke off and seuered their parts in time of warre Now let vs heare the Poets answer 41 What then alas belike His first answer is that the people of the West-Indies fell not out of the ayre as many little frogs doe in a warme shower framed by the vertue of the Sunne of the dust or vapours arising out of the earth nor that they grew not out of the ground like roots or plants nor by any strange or vaine inchantment as of the Serpents teeth sowne by Cadmus the Poets faine grew souldiers in compleat harnesse But these they are men well-featured stout and long-liuing chiefly in the North and South-parts of the Country where both men and women in stature strength and continuance farre excell the people of Europe Asia and Affricke The commodities they haue for health their meat drinke and dwelling their ceremonies ciuill gouernment and other properties duly noted by the Historians make very good proofe of the Poets saying 42 Indeed this mightie ground This new-found world is called America of the name of Americus Vespusius a certaine famous Pilot of Florence one of the first discouerers of the Countrey not much more than an hundred yeares agoe His second answer is that this part of the world could not be so soone inhabited as the other three because it is discoasted further from the plaine of Sennaar for in Asia the plaine it selfe was And Arabia being peopled Affrick was very neare at hand and Europe from the lesser Asia is parted but with a narrow Phare whereas America is farre beyong all these which way soeuer we coast He calleth Europe a learned Soyle tower-bearing louing-right for the number of learned men and cunning Artisans of Kingdomes and States well gouerned and Fortresses that are there That after Iupiter his deare-beloued hight lo wit Europa that was the daughter of Agenor King of Phaenicia For the prophane Poets faine their great god being in loue with her to haue taken the shape of a Bull and on his backe to haue carried her ouer Hellespont and therefore the place where he first landed her was called by her name From this fable seemes to be drawne the name of Besphore which is as much to say as Bull-ferry Perhaps this Iupiter was some notable Pirate or Tyrant there-about raigning who in a Ship called the Bull stole away some young Lady and fled for safetie into Europe These words which from cold Bosphors head Doth reach the pearly dow of Tithons saffron bed set downe the length of Asia that is from the Bosphere of Thrace vnto the East-Ocean The Castile armes and lore that is the Spanish Religion and forces which Christopher Columbus brought first into America and there planted in the name of the Spanish King 43 But there the buildings The third answer is that the stately buildings infinite treasures and diuers gouernments that are there will witnesse that the country hath beene long inhabited although hard it is to learne how I haue already spoke of the great Causeyes of Peru. Now the sumptuousnesse of Themixtetan the great Citie of the Kingdome of Mexico and the Kings Pallaces of Peru such they are described by the Spaniards make further proofe of the Poets saying As for the vncountable wealth of the Indies it plainly appeares that aboue ten thousand millions of gold haue beene brought thence into Europe beside heapes of Rubies Emerauds and Pearle much wracked in the sea and much brought for a yearely tribute into Spaine Whereunto I will adde what Franciscus Lopes de Gomara saith concerning the vnualuable riches of Guainacapa the name signifieth young and rich the father of Antibalippa last King of Peru whom the Spaniards put to death All the furniture of his house table and kitchin saith he in the 120. chapter of his fourth booke were of gold and siluer and the meanest of siluer somewhat embased with copper for the more strength He had in his Wardrop Giant-like Images of gold liuely featured as also all kinde of beasts fowles trees herbes and flowers that the Land there beareth and all kinde of fishes that either the Sea there or any fresh water of his Kingdome breedeth in the said mettals well and proportianably resembled not so much as cords paniers troughes billets and other such implements but were so to conclude there was nothing in his Kingdome whereof he had not the counfeit in gold or siluer It is also said that the Kings of Peru called Ingaes haue a garden in a certaine Isle neare Puna where they delight themselues when they list take the Sea that hath in gold and siluer all herbes slowers and trees and other things whatsoeuer meet for a pleasant garden such a sumptuous deuice as neuer was heard-of or seene elsewhere Besides all this that King last but one had gathered into Cusco huge masses of gold and siluer vnfined which the Indians hid so secretly as the Spaniards could neuer come by it there was also in and about Cusco great store of picture-tables and tombes all of sine siluer worth some thirtie some fiftie some threescore thousand Ducats a peece also dining-tables vessels and Images a great number all of fine gold The Spaniards at the taking of Antibalippa found as good as 252000. pounds of siluer and of gold 1300265. pezoes euery pezo valued at a Ducat and a halse Besides the great golden table of Antibalippa worth nigh 40000. Crownes Now for all this great spoile that the Spaniards got and hauock that they made as well in Peru as other the Prouinces there-about yet the Indians as Benzo reports who stayed there with the Spaniards fourteene yeares and wrote in three bookes worthy reading that whole story they sticke not to say they haue yet more remaining than all that the Spaniards euer had And to make their meaning plainer they will take out of a great vessel ful of wheat one grain betwixt their singers say See you this the Viracochie so they call the
all manner Cors-solids The Cubes Dodechedrons Cylinders Pyramids And wond'r here at the 22. Globe which all doth comprehend So like the world it selfe and hath nor mid nor end The highest point of Art and top of all his kynt A maruaile that containes much counter-maruaile in 't Moouabl ' and immoouabl ' inward-bent and bent-out Composed of a straight yet crooked round about Behold at any time when on a plaine 't is throne It downe and vpward stirs back forward all in one Nor stirs it all alone when cunning force it moues But neighbour moouables proportionally shoues As by the heau'ns appears nay more though still it bide It seemes to threat'n a fall and shake on eu'ry side Because a point is all it hath for standing-place And halfe on eu'ry side hangs o're so small a base And much more wond'r it is how this great earthie ball Whereon we dwell sans-base hangs fast and cannot fall Amids the yeelding ayre it selfe is out of doubt The commyd bodies midst that are not press'd without All bodies other-shap'd into the water cast Make shapes vnlike their owne but alway round do last Th'impressions of a Round because it cannot strike With any diuers part all are vnt'all so like Beside as moe may stand in houses Amblygons Then can in equall-bought of any Oxygons Because the sharpe and right take not so large a stride As corner blunt so doth the Round in cloyster wide More hold then all the rest And other bodies breake With eu'ry knock because they haue both bay and peake Beginning end and ioynts whereas the bodie round Is creastlesse cornerlesse and eu'ry-side-way sound Son summon here thy wits and marke that few haue found 23. The doubling of a Cube and squaring of a Round Such hundred-folded knots such hidden mysteries As shall troubl ' all the schooles of our posterities 24. Keepe faster then in brasse for euer grau'n in minde In faithfull minde these rules which thou shalt proued finde Not by vaine syllogismes or probable arguments But whose vndoubted truth appears eu'n vnto sence An Art of certainties whose euer-fruitfull wombe With wonders new-deuis'd shall fill the world to come 25. By her the gentle streame by her the feeble winde Shall driue the whirling presse and so be taught to grinde The graine of life to meale that with increase it may Vnto the sparing Dames all that is due repay By her the brasen throat shall vomit Iron balles With smoake and roaring noyse vpon besieged walles The force whereof shall rent the hardestrocks asunder And giue more fearefull thumps then any bolt of thunder By her the borrowed wings of some assisting winde Shall beare from out Bresile vnto the rich East-Inde And to the frozen Sea from Affricks boyling flood A iogging towre or eu'n a floating towne of wood Wherein the Pylot set shall with a leauer light Most huge waights easily moue and make all coast aright So shall one Printer worke more learned sheets aday Then eu'n a thousand hands of ready-writers may One Crane shall more auaile then Porters many a score And then a thousand men one Staffe shall profit more To measure-out the fields to part th' earth into lines And all the cope of heau'n in t ' eight and fortie signes So shall the wat'r and sand the Style and clock in towers Most euenly part the day to foure and twentie howers An Image made of wood some voice shall vtter plaine An artificiall globe heau'ns wonders shall containe Men through th'ayres emptinesse their bodies peysing right Shall ouer-mount the Seas with bold-aduentring flight And doubtlesse if the wise Geometer had place To plant his engins on and stand himselfe in case To stirre them aft'r his Art so could he thrust and shoue That like some pettie-god the world he might remoue 19. Geometrie Shee is described as a Nymph that frownes or hath a wrinkled forehead because the studie of this Art is very painfull and makes the student waxe old apace and crookbackt also by reason of their much stooping downward to measure and compasse their plots Shee is sad and looks stedfastly on the ground because all hard works make men pensiue and full of care Geometrie especially which causeth a man to six his eye wholly vpon that he goes about Shee hath a wand or straight rod also in her hand wherewith shee drawes certaine figures and shapes in the dust for that in this Art aboue others must be demonstrations vsed without which the Theoremes and Propositions cannot be vnderstood And for as much as Shee measures the whole Earth the breadth and deepnesse of Riuers high Mountaines low Valleyes and Mines with pleasant Medowes prospects of Seas and Climats from one end of the world to the other therefore hath the Poet her so apparelled as we see in his verse Furthermore She is called the Guide of Artisans because they without her can doe nothing answerable to the expectation of an vnderstanding eye and in this respect also is shee called the mother of Symmetrie or proportion requisite in all Crafts Mechanicall yea the soule or life of all those different instruments which without due measure and proportion would doe more hurt then good as we finde by experience Whereas shee is called The law euen of that law which framed all this All the Poet herein expounds well that saying of Plato That God exerciseth Geometric from day to day This also Moses well signifieth in those words And God saw all that he had made was perfectly good and the Wiseman in those God made all things in number weight and measure as indeed a man shall not finde any creature small or great in heauen earth or Sea that is not made as it were by the rounding-toole weight-beame and squire by the compasse leuell and perpendicular of an infinite wisdome 20. Here 's nothing else First he shewes the tooles and instruments necessarie for the practise of Geometrie then draughts of one dimension as of leggth only to wit Lines straight for Opticks and planting of Ordnance and crooked for mynes wayes vnder ground and Labyrinths as we are taught by the storie of Theseus and Ariadne Thirdly shapes of two dimensions as of length and breadth also to wit Triangles for commanders in warre to range their battailes thereby Quadrangles for building because they are most sound and fast-standing and other figures wreathed bulked longer-one-way-then-other Ovalls Lozenges and Rounds all which are set-downe particularly in the Commentaries of Candales Pellitier Clauius and others vpon Euclide 21. Here measure In the third place hee propounds certaine figures called Bodies solide because they haue both length breadth and thicknesse As the Cube fouresquare euery way like a dye the Dodecacdron of twelue corners or angles the Cylinder long and round like a rouller the Pyramis which hath three or foure corners in base and but one aboue in point These foure together with the Sphere which is round through all dimensions are called the fiue Bodies regular