speede grace and perfection thereof whose names though wee know not yet perchance haue they as well deserued of the common-wealth of learning as hee Sure we are that Manutius Operinus Raphelengius Plantin and both the Stephens the Father the Sonne are not to be forgotten but remembred with honour for the furthering and perfecting of this Art Yet some there are who writing of the affaires of the Indies as Petrus Maffaius Garzias ab Horto Paulus Iovius assure vs that either the Germanes borrowed this Inventiō frō the 1 Chineses or at leastwise the Chineses had the practise vse of it long before them Wherevnto I answer not to question the credit of the Authors though in truth as is well knowne no great friends to the German nation that though it were long since in vse with the Chineses yet for ought appeareth was it neuer nor yet is with them brought to that perfection as it is with vs at this day Si à veteribus tale quiddam excogitatum sit vt nemo debita laude sraudandus fateri quisque debeat omnia minus fuisse exculta nitida subtilia elimata nec tam spectabili literarum varietate exornata atque expolita saith Levinus Lemnius If any such thing were discovered by the Ancients either by the Chineses or otherwhere as they are not to be robbed of their due praise so ought we to confesse that all things are now more exact and perfect and better polished with a faire variety of letters But that the Germans should borrow it from the Chineses as is pretended by the Spanyards is more I thinke then is true I am sure then is yet proued or in likelyhood doth appeare And the Germans themselues will neuer with patience endure such a wrong Germania certè nunquam sibi hanc laudem patietur extorqueri saith Salmuth Germany will neuer suffer the praise of this Invention to bee wrested from her And Beroaldus O Germania muneris repertrix Quo nil vtilius dedit vetustas Libros scribere Quae doces premendo Thou Germany this blessing didst invent Then which the world more vsefull neuer saw To write on bookes thou teachest thus by print And with him accords Laurentius Valla though himselfe an Italian if those verses bee his which are ascribed vnto him in the front of his Workes Abstulerat Latio multos Germania libros Nunc multo plures reddidit ingenio Etquod vix toto quisquam perscriberet anno Munere Germano conficit vna dies Germania drew great store of bookes from Italy But now much more she doth then she receiv'd repay What erewhile in one yeare could scarcely written bee Now by Germania's helpe is finisht in one day SEC 1. Of the vse and invention of Gunnes AS the Invention of Printing is chiefely in vse in time of Peace so is that of Gunnes in time of warre with which the Aries Onagri Catapulta or Balistae Engines of the Ancients which I know not well how to English they being growne for the most part out of vse are no way comparable Nec vlla ex parte huic conferendus est antiquus Aries vires inferiores habebat difficilius admuros adigebatur saith Patricius The Ramme anciently for batterie is in no sort to be compared with this Engine it had lesse strength more difficulty there was in bringing it and applying it to the walls And Bodine to like purpose though herein perchance he jumpe not with Lipsius in his Poliorcetica omitto Catapulta Veterum antiqua belli tormenta quae si cum nostris conferantur sanè puerilia quaedam ludicra videri possint I passe ouer the Engines of the Ancients which being compared with ours are rather childish toyes then instruments for warre And Lipsius himselfe cals it Geniorum non hominum inventum an invention of spirits and not of men Such is the force of these moderne Engines that they not only destroy men but cast downe walls rampiers towres castles citties and shake the tallest shippes into shiuers there being nothing that comes within their reach that can stand against them It was a peece of almost incredible bignesse which by Mahomets commaund was imployed against Constantinople ad quam trahendam adhibebantur septuaginta juga boum bis mille viri as witnesseth Chalcondilas in his eight booke de rebus Turcicis for the drawing of which were imployed seuenty yoke of oxen and two thousand men It is true that there is nothing more mischievous to besieged cities and so is there nothing that helpes them more for the chasing away of the befiegers it being so for the most part in all things which either the Art or wit of man or God Nature hath framed that the more helpefull they are being well vsed the more hurtfull are they being abused then fire and water there is nothing more commodious to the life of man yet is the Proverbe true that when they are once inraged passe their bounds they become merciles The tongue is said by Esope to be both the best and the worst meat that comes to the market for with it we both blesse God curse men saith S. Iames. And yron by Pliny is rightly tearmed optimum pessimumque vitae instrumentum the best worst instrument belonging to man But sure it seemes that God in his providence had reserued this Engine for these times that by the cruell force terrible roaring of it men might the rather be deterred from assaulting one another in hostile and warlike manner And I verily beleeue that since the invention and vse thereof fewer haue beene slaine in the warres then before Neither doth it serue as is commonly objected to make men cowards but rather hardens them For hee that dares present himselfe to the mouth of a Cannon cannot feare the face of death in what shape soeuer it present it selfe Howsoeuer some haue not beene wanting who would beare vs in hand that this Invention is not of latter times but ancient among whom Sir Walter Rawleigh is one who in his History of the World referres not only the Invention of Printing but of Gunnes too and Ordinance of battery to the Indians grounding himselfe heerein vpon the report of the Portugals And hereby saith he we are now made to vnderstand that the place of Philostratus in vita Apollonij Tianei is no fable though exprest in fabulous words when he saith that the wise men which dwell betweene Hyphesis and Ganges vse not themselues to goe forth to battle but that they driue away their enemies with thunder and lightning But hereof I can say nothing choosing with Camerarius potius credere quà m cum molestia experiri rather to beleeue it then to endure the hazard and trouble to make tryall of it Others referre it to Salmoneus as witnesseth Levinus Lemnius induced therevnto by those verses of Virgill Vidi crudeles dantem Salmonea poenas Dum flammas Iovis
AN APOLOGIE OF THE POWER AND PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD OR AN EXAMINATION AND CENSVRE OF THE COMMON ERROVR TOVCHING NATVRES PERPETVALL AND VNIVERSALL DECAY DIVIDED INTO FOVRE BOOKES WHEREOF The first treates of this pretended decay in generall together with some preparatiues thereunto The second of the pretended decay of the Heauens and Elements together with that of the Elementary bodies man only excepted The third of the pretended decay of mankinde in regard of age and duration of strength and stature of arts and wits The fourth of this pretended decay in matter of manners together with a large proofe of the future consummation of the World from the testimony of the Gentiles and the vses which we are to draw from the consideration thereof By G. H. D. D. ECCLESTASTES 7. 10. Say not thou what is the cause that the former dayes were better then these for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this OXFORD Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD and WILLIAM TVRNER Printers to the famous Vniversity Anno Dom. 1627. TO MY VENERABLE MOTHER THE FAMOVS AND FLOVRISHING VNIVERSITIE OF OXFORD WERE I destitute of all other arguments to demonstrate the providence of God in the preservation of the World and to proue that it doth not vniversally and perpetually decline this one mightfully suffice for all that thou my Venerable Mother though thou waxe old in regard of yeares yet in this latter age in regard of strength and beauty waxest young againe Within the compasse of this last Centenarie and lesse thou hast brought forth such a number of worthie Sonnes for piety for learning for wisdome and for buildings hast bin so inlarged and inriched that he who shall compare thee with thy selfe will easily finde that though thou be truly accounted one of the most auncient Vniversities in the World yet so farre art thou from withering and wrinkles that thou art rather become fairer and fresher and in thine issue no lesse happy then heretofore The three last Cardinals that this Nation had were thine if that can adde any thing to thine honour Those thine vnnaturall Sonnes who of late dayes forsooke thee fledde to thine Enemies campe Harding Stapleton Saunders Raynolds Martyn Bristow Campian Parsons euen in their fighting against thee shewed the fruitfulnes of thy wombe and the efficacie of that milke which they drew from thy breasts What one Colledge euer yeelded at one time and from one Countrey three such Divines as Iewell Raynolds and Hooker or two such great wits Heroicall spirits as Sir Thomas Bodley and Sir Henry Sauill How renowned in forraine parts are thy Moore thy Sidney thy Cambden what rare Lights in the Church were Humfreyes Foxe Bilson Field Abbot What pillars those fiue sonnes of thine who at one time lately possessed the fiue principall Sees in the Kingdome So as if I should in this point touching the Worlds pretended decay be cast by the votes of others yet my hope is that by reflecting vpon thy selfe I shall be cleared and acquitted by thine And in confidence heereof I haue to thy censu◅ submitted this ensuing Apologie which perchaunce to the Vulgar may seeme somewhat strange because their eares haue bin so long inured vnto and consequently their fancies fore-stalled with the contrary opinion But to thee I trust who judgest not vpon report but vpon tryall neither art swayed by number and lowdnes of voyces but by weight of argument it will appeare not onely just and reasonable in that it vindicates the glory of the Creator and a trueth as large and wide as the world it selfe but profitable and vsefull for the raising vp of mens mindes to an endeavour of equalling yea and surpassing their noble and worthy Predecessours in knowledge and vertue it being certaine that the best Patternes which wee haue in them both either extant at this present or recorded in monuments of auncienter times had neuer beene had they conceiued that there was alwayes an inevitable declination as well in the Arts as matter of Manners and that it was impossible to surmount those that went before them I doe not beleeue that all Regions of the World or all ages in the same Region afford wits alwayes alike but this I think neither is it my opinion alone but of Scaliger Vives Budaeus Bodine and other great Clearkes that the witts of these latter ages being manured by industry directed by precepts regulated by methode tempered by dyet refreshed by exercise and incouraged by rewardes may bee as capable of deepe speculations and produce as masculine and lasting birthes as any of the ancienter times haue done But if we conceiue thē to be Gyants our selues Dwarfes if we imagine all Sciences already to haue receiued their vtmost perfection so as wee need not but translate and comment vpon that which they haue done if we so admire and dote vpon Antiquitie as wee emulate and envy nay scorne and trample vnder foot whatsoeuer the present age affords if wee spend our best time and thoughts in clyming to honour in gathering of riches in following our pleasures and in turning the edge of our wits one against another surely there is little hope that wee shall euer come neare them much lesse match them The first step to inable a man to the atchieuing of great designes is to be perswaded that by endeavour he is able to atchieue it the next not to bee perswaded that whatsoeuer hath not yet beene done cannot therefore be done Not any one man or nation or age but rather mankinde is it which in latitude of capacity answeres to the vniversality of things to be knowne And truely had our Fathers thought so reverently of their predecessours and withall of themselues so basely that neither any thing of moment was left for them to be done nor in case there had beene were they qualified for the doing thereof wee had wanted many helpes in learning which by their travell wee now injoy By meanes whereof I see not but wee might also advaunce improue and inlarge our patrimony as they left it inlarged to vs And thereunto the Arts of Printing and Navigation the frequency of goodly Libraries and liberality of Benefactours are such inducements furtherances that if wee excell not all ages that haue gone before vs it is only because we are wanting to our selues And as our helpes are more greater for knowledge learning so likewise for goodnes vertue I meane since the beames of Christian Religion displayed themselues to the World which for the rooting out of vice planting of vertue no Christian I hope will deny to be incomparably more effectuall then any other Religion that euer yet was heard of in the World Or if others should chance to make a doubt of the certainty of this truth yet cannot you who preach it publish it to others Doubtlesse being rightly applyed without apish superstition on the one side or peevish singularity on the other it workes vpon the Conscience more
in Heauen as all things vnder the cope of heauen vary and change so doth the militant heere on earth it hath its times and turnes sometimes flowing and againe ebbing with the sea sometimes waxing and againe waning with the Moone which great light it seemes the Almighty therefore set the lowest in the heavens and nearest the Earth that it might dayly put vs in minde of the constancy of the one and inconstancy of the other her selfe in some sort partaking of both though in a different manner of the one in her substance of the other in her visage And if the Moone thus change and all things vnder the Moone why should we wonder at the chaunge of Monarchies and Kingdomes much lesse petty states and private families they rise and fall and rise again and fall againe that no man might either too confidently presume because they are subject to continuall alteration or cast away all hope and fall to despaire because they haue their seasons and appointed times of returning againe Nemo confidat nimium secundis Nemo desperet meliora lapsus Miscet haec illis prohibetque Clotho Stare fortunam Let him that stands take heed lest that he fall Let him that 's falne hope he may rise againe The providence divine that mixeth all Chaines joy to griefe by turnes losse to gaine I must confesse that sometimes looking stedfastly vpon the present face of things both at home and abroad I haue beene often put to a stand and staggered in mine opinion whither I were in the right or no and perchaunce the state of my body and present condition in regard of those faire hopes I sometimes had served as false perspectiue glasses to looke through but when againe I abstracted and raised my thoughts to an higher pitch and as from a vantage ground tooke a larger view comparing time with time and thing with thing and place with place and considered my selfe as a member of the Vniverse and a Citizen of the World I found that what was lost to one part was gained to another and what was lost in one time was to the same part recouered in another and so the ballance by the divine providence over-ruling all kept vpright But comonly it fares with men in this case as with one who lookes onely vpon some libbet or end of a peece of Arras he happily conceiues an hand or head which he sees to be very vnartificially made but vnfolding the whole soone findes that it carries a due and just proportion to the body so qui de pauca respâ—…cit de facili pronuntiat saith Aristotle he that is so narrow eyed as he lockes onely to his owne person or family to his owne corporation or nation or the age wherein himselfe liues will peradventure quickly conceiue and as some pronounce that all things decay and goe backward which makes men murmure and repine against Ged vnder the names of Fortune and Destinie whereas he that as a part of mankinde in generall takes a view of the vniversall compares person with person family with family corporation with corporation nation with nation age with age suspends his judgement and vpon examination clearely findes that all things worke together for the best to them that loue God and that though some members suffer yet the whole is no way thereby indammaged at any time and at other times those same members are againe relieued as the Sunne when it sets to vs it rises to our Antipodes and when it remooues from the Northerne parts of the world it cherishes the Southerne yet stayes not there but returnes againe with his comfortable beames to those very parts which for a time it seemed to haue forsaken O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men or at leastwise cry out in admiration with the Apostle O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of our God how vnsearchable are his pathes and his wayes past finding out Yet the next way in some measure to finde them out so farre as is possible for vs poore wormes heere crawling in a mist vpon the face of the Earth is next the sacred Oracles of supernatutall and revealed Truth to study the great Volume of the Creature and the Histories not onely of our owne but of forraigne Countreyes and those not onely of the present but more auncient times Enquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thy selfe to the search of their Fathers for wee are but of yesterday and know nothing because our dayes vpon earth are but a shadow If then to make my party good and to waite vpon Divinity I haue called in subsidiary aydes from Philosophers Historiographers Mathematitians Grammarians Logicians Poets Oratours Souldiers Travellers Lawyers Physitians and if I haue in imitation of Tertullian Cyprian Eusebius Augustine Lactantius Arnobius Minutius endeavoured to cut the throates of the Paynims with their owne swords and pierced them with their owne quills I hope no learned man or louer of Learning will censure me for this Philosophie and the Arts I must account a part of mine owne profession and for Physicke and the Lawes I haue therein consulted the chiefe as well in this Vniversity as out of it of mine owne acquaintance nay in History the Mathematiques and Divinity it selfe I haue not onely had the approbation of the publique professours therein for the maine points in my booke which concerne their severall professions but some peeces I must acknowledge as receiued from them which I haue made bold to insert into the body of my discourse let no man think then that I maintaine a paradoxe for ostentation of wit or haue written out of spleene to gall any man in particular nor yet to humour the present times the times themselues mine indisposition that way and resolution to sit downe content with my present fortunes if they serue not to giue others satisfaction therein yet doe they fully to cleare mee to my selfe from any such aspersion yet thus much I hope I safely may say without suspition of flattery that by the goodnesse of GOD and our gratious Soveraigne vnder GOD wee yet enjoy many great blessings which former ages did not and were wee thankfull for these as we ought and truely penitent for our excesse in all kinde of monstrous sinnes which aboue all threatens our ruine I nothing doubt but vpon our returne to our God by humiliation and newnesse of life he would soone dissolue the cloud which hangs ouer vs and returne vnto vs with the comfortable beames of his favour and make vs to returne each to other with mutuall imbracements of affection and duety and our Armies and Fleetes to returne with spoyle and victory and reduce againe as golden and happy times as euer wee or our fore-fathers saw but if we still goe on with an high hand and a stiffe necke in our prophanesse our pride
richly conferred whereas I am rather of opinion that as in holy Scripture for the most part he accepted and preferred the younger brother before the elder and as Christ our Sauiour turned the water into wine toward the end of the feast which farre excelled that in the beginning so the gifts and graces of God haue beene more plentifully powred out vpon mankinde in this latter age of the World then euer since the first Creation thereof As was foretold by the Prophet in the old Testament and remembred by the Apostle in the New And it shall come to passe in the last dayes saith God I will powre out of my Spirit vpon all flesh Lastly the reputation of his Power is thereby most of all stained and wounded as if his treasurie could at any time be emptied and drawne dry as if he had but one blessing in store or were forced to say with old Isaak when he had blessed Iacob with corne and wine haue I blessed him what shall I doe now to thee my son No no his arme is not shortned neither is his mighty power any way abated yet they who thus complaine of natures decay what doe they else but implicitly impeach and accuse his Power which in truth is nothing else but Natura Naturans as the Schooles phrase it Actiue Nature and the creature the workmanship therof Natura Naturata Nature Passiue That which the Samaritans ignorantly and blasphemously spake of Symon Magus may properly and truly bee spoken of Nature that it is the Great power of God or the power of the Great God as is divinely observed by the witty Scaliger against Cardan in that exercitation which in its front beares this inscription opposed to Cardanes assertion Non ex fatigatione mundum solutum iri that the world shall not desolue by being tired quasi natura saith hee sit asinus ad molas non autem Dei Opt. Max. potestas quae eodem nutu gubernat infinito quo creavit we may not conceiue that Nature is as an ass wasted and wearied out at the mill but the power of the Mighty God which governes all things with the same infinite coÌ„mand wherewith they were created And with him accords Valesius discoursing of the Worlds end towards the end of his booke de Sacra Philosophia Quae à Deo ipso per se ac sine causa secunda compacta sunt non possunt ab alia causa solui sed solum ab eo ipso à quo sunt coagmentata Those things which are made of God himselfe immediately by himselfe without the concurrence of secoÌ„d causes cannot be vnmade by any inferiour cause but by him alone by whome they were first made And againe Certe ita est virtutem divinam apponi necesse est vt deleatur quod Deus ipse fecit there needes no lesse then a divine power for the abolishing of that which the Diety it selfe hath wrought which he seemes to haue borrowed from Plato in Timoeo where he thus speakes of the world Ita apte cohaeret vt dissolvi nullo modo queat nisi ab eodem à quo est colligatus so proportionably doth each part answer other that it is indissoluble but onely from his hand who first framed it As then Allmighty God created all things of nothing by the power of his word So doth he still vphold them and will till the dissolution of all things in their essenses faculties and operations by the Word of his Power reaching from one end to the other mightily and disposing all things sweetely Indeed with the workes of man it is not so when he hath imployed about them all the cunning and cost and care that may be he can neither preserue them nor himselfe both they and he moulder away and returne to their dust but I know saith the Preacher that whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it Add the sonne of Sirach Hee garnished his works for ever and in his hand are the cheife of them vnto all generations they neither labour nor are weary nor cease from their workes none of them hindreth another and they shall never disobey his word SECTIO 3. The third is for that the contrary opinion quailes the hopes and blunts the edge of vertuous endeavours MY third reason for the penning and publishing of this discourse is that the contrary opinion therevnto seemes not a little to rebate and blunt the edge of mens vertuous endeavours For being once throughly perswaded in themselves that by a fatall kind of necessity and course of times they are cast into those straites that notwithstanding all their striuing and industry it is impossible they should rise to the pitch of their noble and renowned predecessours they begin to yeeld to the times and to necessity being re solued that their endeavours are all in vaine and that they striue against the streame nay the Master himselfe of Morallitie the great Patriarch of Philosophers hath told vs that circa impossibilia non est deliberandum it is no point of wisdome for a man to beat his braines and spend his spirits about things meerely impossible to be atchiued and which are altogether out of our reach The way then to excite men to the imitation of the vertue and the exploits of their famous Ancestours is not as I conceiue to beate downe their hopes of parallelling them and so to clip the wings of their aspiring desires but rather to teach them that there wants nothing thervnto but their owne endeavour and that if they fall short the fault is not in the age but in themselues The spies that were sent by Moses to discover the land of Canaan at their returne told the people that the inhabitants the of were much stronger then themselues that they were Gyants the sonnâ—…s of Anak and themselues but as Grashoppers in comparison of them by meanes of which report the harts of the people melted within them and they were vtterly discouraged from marching forward though the discouerers reported withall that the land from whence they came flowed with milke and honey and the pomegrannats the figgs the wonderfull clusters of grapes brought from thence for a tast and evidence of the goodnesse of the soyle pleased them exceeding well Thus when our Ancestors are painted forth as Gyants not onely in stature and strength but in wit and vertue though the acts wee find recorded of them please vs marveilous well yet wee durst not venture or so much as once thinke vpon the matching of them because we are taught and made to beleeue that wee forsooth are but as pigmies and dwarfes in regard of them and that it were as possible to fit a childs shooe to Hercules foote as for vs any way to come neere them or to trace their stepps Possunt quia posse videntur They can because they seeme they can Certainely the force of imaginatioÌ„ is
main land aboue the water and the whirlepooles extraordinary depths answerable to the hight of mountaines aboue the ordinary hight of the Earth The Promontories and necklands which butt into the Sea what are they but solide creekes and the creekes which thrust forth their armes into the Land but fleeting promontories The Ilands what are they but solide lakes and the lakes againe but fleeting Ilands Nay Ilands sometimes are swallowed vp by the Sea sometimes new rise out of the Sea Sometimes parts of the Continent are recouered out of the Sea as was a place in Egypt called Delta Ammania regio and others nay the greatest part of the Netherlands was so recouered as appeares by their finding innumerable shels of sea-fish almost in euery place where they dig and other parts againe irrecoverably lost by the inundation thereof as it fell out in the same Countreyes about foure hundred yeares since in the raigne of our King Henry the first the steeples and towres which yet appeare aboue the water shewing to Passengers the revenge of that vnmercifull Element vpon a part for the losse of the whole land Helice likewise and Bura citties of Greece were drowned as it seemes in Ogyges sloud of which the Poet Siquaeras Helicen Buram Achaidos Vrbes Invenies sub aquis Bura and Helice on Achayan ground Are sought in vaine but vnder water found And Seneca in the sixth booâ—…e of his Naturall questions thus speakes of these two Citties Helicen Burimque totas mare accepit supra oppida duo navigatur duo autem quae novimus quae in nostram noâ—…iam memoria literis servata perduxit quam multa alia alys locis mersa sunt Helice and Buris the Sea hath wholly swallowed vp so that now wee saile ouer two Townes two I say which are come to our knowledge by the memory of ancient records but how many other trow wee may bee swallowed vp in diuers other places which we neuer heard of Inter insulas nulla iam Delos saith Tertullian in his booke de Pallio among the Ilands there is now no such thing to be found as Delos and againe Acon in Atlantico Lybiam aut Asiam adequans quaeritur nunâ—… Acon in the Atlanticke Sea equalling Africke or Asia is now found wanting The story of K. Arthur and the Knights of the round table is but an idle Booke yet it was not it seemes without cause that he calls the Cornish Tristram Sir Tristram de Lionesse inasmuch as Master Carew of Antony in his Survay of Cornewall witnesseth that the Sea hath ravened from that shire that whole Country of Lionesse and that such a Countrey of Lionesse there was he very sufficiently proueth by many strong reasons Sometimes dry Townes become Hauens and sometimes againe Hauen-townes haue become dry as Hubert Thomas a man of very good parts chiefe Secretary to Frederiâ—…k the third Count Palatine of Rhene and Prince Elector in his description of the Country of Liege affirmeth that the Sea hath in time come vp to the wals of Tongres now well nigh an hundreth English miles from the Sea which among other reasons he proues by the great iron rings there yet to be seene vnto which the ships that there sometimes arriued were fastned Also Forum Iulium a Towne seated in littore Narbonènsi the present estate whereof is described very well as all other things by that excellent Chancellour of France Michael Hospitalis Apparet moles antiqui diruta portus Atque vbi portus erat siccum nunc littus horti The ruines of an ancient hauen appeares to be But where the haven was now gardens may you see In like manner the river Arno now falleth into the sea sixe miles from Pisa whereby it appeareth that the Land hath there gotten much vpon the Sea in this coast for that Strabo in his time reporteth it was but 20 furlongs which is two miles and an halfe distant from the Sea Lastly sometimes Ilands haue beene annexed to the Continent as Samos which as witnesseth Tertullian is become sand and Pharos which in Homers time was an Iland but in Plinyes annexed to the Continent by the slime of Nilus and sometimes againe peeces haue beene cut off from the Continent and made Ilands as Sicily which was separated from the maine of Italy Haec loca vi quondam vasta comvulsa ruina Tantum aevi longinqua valet mutare vetust as Dissiluisse ferunt cùm protinùs utraque tellus Vna foret venit medio vi pontus vndis Hesperium Siâ—…ulo latus absâ—…idit arvaque urbes Littore diductas angusto interluit aestu These places by huge force with ruine violent So great a change in things long tract of time can make Sundred they say which erst were both one Continent Till in betweene the Sea with force impetuous brake And with his mighty waues th' Hesperian did divide From the Sicilian shore and now twixt townes and fields Thus rent asunder ebbes and flowes a narrow tide Sic Hispanias à contextu Africae mare eripuit saith Seneca Thus did the Sea snatch away Spaine from the Continent of Africa And this 〈◊〉 as many imagine was likewise broken off from the Continent of 〈◊〉 grounding themselues partly vpon their priuate reasons and parâ—… 〈◊〉 pon the authorities of Antonius Volscus Dominicus Marius Niger 〈◊〉 Servius Honoratus who seekes to proue it from that of Virgil Et penitùs toto divisos orbe Britannos And Britaines wholly from the World divided And of Claudian in imitation of Virgil Nostro diducta Britannia mundo Britaine from our World seuer'd Of both these as well Ilands annexed to the Continent as peeces of the Continent broken off from it by force of the Sea and made Ilands Pliny hath written at large in the second Booke of his Naturall History cap. 85. 86. 87. And Ovid in the 15 of Met. toucheth them both Fluctibus ambitae fuerant Antissa Pharosque Et Phaenissa Tyros quarum nunc Insula nulla est Antissa Pharos and Phaenissian Tyre Now are not but with Seas surrounded were And on the other side Leucada continuam veteres habuere coloni Nunc freta circumeunt Zancle quoque iuncta fuisse Dicitur Italiae donec confinia pontus Abstulit media tellurem repulit unda Th' old inhabitants of Leucadian Iles Conjoyned to the Continent them found And Zancle joyned was to Italy Which now cut off by Sea the waues surround By reason of which mutuall traffique and interchange the Elements may truly be said to remaine alwayes the same in regard of their intire bodies as Theseus his ship so renowned antiquity was held by the schollers of Athens to be the same though it were renewed in euery part thereof and not a planke or pin remained of the first building Or as a riuer may properly be said to be the same though it vary from it selfe by the accesse of fresh supplies euery moment Rusticus expectat dum
onely discernable by one sense as colours by seeing and sounds by hearing motion is discernable by both nay and by feeling too which is a third sense really distinguished from them both That there is in the heavenly bodies no motion of Generation or Corruption of augmentation or diminution or of alteration I haue already shewed There are also who by reason of the incredible swiftnes of the first Mouer and some other such reasons dare deny that there is in them any Lation or Locall motion heerein flatly opposing in my judgement both Scripture and Reason Sense But to take it as graunted without any dispute that a Locall motion there is which is the measure of time as time againe is the measure of motion the line of motion and the threed of time beeing both spun out together Some doubt there is touching the moouer of these heavenly bodies what or who it should bee some ascribing it to their matter some to their forme some to their figure and many to the Angells or Intelligences as they call them which they suppose to bee set over them For mine owne part I should thinke that all these and euery of them might not vnjustly challenge a part in that motion The matter as beeing neither light nor heavy the forme aswell agreeing with such a matter the figure as being Sphericall or Circular the Intelligence as an assistant In the matter is a disposition For whereas light bodies naturally moue vpward and heavy downeward that which is neither light nor heavy is rather disposed to a Circular motion which is neither vpward nor downeward In the figure is an inclination to that motion as in a wheele to bee carried round from the forme an inchoation or onsett and lastly from the Intelligence a continuance or perpetuation thereof as a great Divine of our owne both age and Nation hath well expressed it Gods owne aeternity saith hee is the hand which leadeth Angells in the course of their perpetuity their perpetuity the hand that draweth out Celestiall motion that as the Elementary substances are governed by the heavenly so might the heauenly by the Angellicall As the corruptible by the incorruptible so the materiall by the immateriall and all finits by one infinite It is the joynt consent of the Platoniks Peripatetiks and Stoikes and of all the noted sects of Philosophers who acknowledged the Divine Providence with whom agree the greatest part of our most learned Christian Doctors that the Heavens are moued by Angells neither is there in truth any sufficient meanes beside it to discover the beeing of such Creatures by discourse of Reason Which to mee is a strong argument that the Heauens can by no meanes erre or faile in their motions beeing managed by the subordinate ministery of such indefatigable and vnerring guides whose power is euery way proportionable to their knowledge and their constancy to both SECT 2. The Second reason taken from the Certainty of demonstrations vpon the Coelestiall globe The Third from a particular view of the proper motions of the Planets which are observed to bee the same at this day as in former ages without any variation The Fourth from the infallible and exact praediction of their Oppositions Conjunctions and Eclypses for many ages to come The Fifth from the testimony of sundry graue Authours auerring perpetuall Constancy and immutability of their motions THe most signall motions of the heavens beside their retrogradations trepidations librations and I know not what which Astronomers haue devised to reconcile the diversitie of their observations are the diurnall motion of all the fixed starres and Planets and all the Coelestiall spheres from East to West in the compasse of every foure and twenty houres and the proper motion of them all from the West to the East againe These motions whether they performe by themselues without the helpe of orbes as fishes in the water or birds in the aire or fastned to their spheres as a gemme in a ring or a nayle or knot in a Cart-wheele I cannot easily determine howbeit I confesse wee cannot well imagine how one and the same body should bee carried with opposite motions but by the helpe of somewhat in which it is carried As the Marriner may be carried by the motion of his shippe from the East to the West and yet himselfe may walke from the West to the East in the same ship Or a flie may be carried from the North to the South vpon a Cart-wheele and yet may goe from the South to the North vpon the same wheele But howsoever it bee it is evident that their motions are most even and regular without the least jarre or discord variation or vncertainety languishing or defect that may bee Which were it not so there could bee no certaine demonstrations made vpon the Globe or materiall Sphere Which notwithstanding by the testimony of Claudian are most infallible as appeares by those his elegant verses vpon Archymedes admirable invention thereof Iuppiter in parvo cum cerneret aether a vitro Risit ad superos talia dicta dedit Huccine mortalis progressa potentia curae Iam meus infragili luditur orbe labor Iura poli rerumque fidem legesque Deorum Ecce Syracusius transtulit arte senex Inclusus varijs famulatur Spiritus astris Et vivum certis motibus vrget opus Percurrit proprium mentirus signifer annum Et simulata nouo Cynthia mense redit Iamque suum volvens audax industria Mundum Gaudet humana sydera mense regit When Ioue within a little glasse survaid The Heavens hee smil'd and to the Gods thus sayd Can strength of Mortall wit proceed thus farre Loe in a fraile orbe my workes mated are Hither the Syracusians art translates Heavens forme the course of things and humane fates Th' included spirit serving the star-deck signes The liuing worke in constant motions windes Th' adulterate Zodiaque runnes a naturall yeare And Cynthiaes forg'd hornes monthly new light beare Viewing her owne world now bold industry Triumphes and rules with humane power the skye The Gentiles sayth Iulian as S. Cyrill in his third booke against him reports it videntes nihil eorū quae circa Coelū minui vel augeri neque vlla sustinere deordinatam affectionē sed congruam illius motionem ac bene op◅atū ordinem definitas quoque leges Lunae definitos ortus occasus Solis statutis semper temporibus merito Deum Dei solium suspicabantur seeing no part of heaven to deminished or decreased to suffer no irregular affection but the motion thereof to be as duly and orderly performed as could be desired the waxing and waning of the moone the rising and setting of thee sunne to bee setled and constant at fixed and certaine times they deseruedly admired it as God or as the throne of God The order and regularitie of which motions wee shall easily perceiue by taking a particular view of them I will touch only those of the
his modesty in this second change as I found it wanting in his first coniecture and I am of opinion that S. Augustine never purchased more true honour by any booke that ever hee writ then that of his Retractations the shame is not so much to erre as to persevere in it being discouered Specially if it be an errour taken vp entertained by following those whom for their great gifts wee highly esteeme and admire as it seemes Du Moulin tooke his errour at leastwise touching the moueablenes of the Poles of the Equatour from Ioseph Scaliger But the motion of the heavens puts mee in minde of passing from it to the light thereof CAP. 3. Touching the pretended decay in the light of the heavenly bodies SECT 1. The first reason that it decayes not taken from the nature of that light and those things wherevnto it is resembled AS the waters were first spread over the face of the earth so was the light dispersed thorow the firmament and as the waters were gathered into one heape so was the light knit vp and vnited into one body As the gathering of the waters was called the Sea so that of the light was called the Sunne As the rivers come from the sea so is all the light of the starres derived from the Sun And lastly as the Sea is no whit leassened though it furnish the Earth with abundance of fresh rivers So though the Sunne haue since the Creation both furnished garnished the world with light neither is the store of it thereby diminished nor the beauty of it any way stayned What the light is whether a substance or an Accident whether of a Corporall or incorporall nature it is not easy to determine Philosophers dispute it but cannot well resolue it Such is our ignorance that euen that by which wee see all things we cannot discerne what it selfe is But whatsoeuer it bee wee are sure that of all visible Creatures it was the first that was made and comes neerest the nature of a Spirit in as much as it moues in an instant from the East to the West and piercing thorow all transparent bodies still remaines in it selfe vnmixed and vndivided it chaseth away sadde and mellancholy thoughts which the darkenesse both begets and mainetaines it lifts vp our mindes in meditation to him who is the true light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world himselfe dwelling in light vnaccessible and cloathing himselfe with light as with a garment And if wee may behold in any Creature any one sparke of that eternall fire or any farre off dawning of Gods glorious brightnes the same in the beauty motion and vertue of this light may best be discerned Quid pulchrius luce saith Hugo de sancto Victore quae cum in se colorem non habeat omnium tamen rerum colores ipsa quodammodo colorat What is more beautifull then the light which hauing no colour in it selfe yet sets a luster vpon all colours And S. Ambrose vnde vox Dei in Scriptura debuit inch oare nisi à lumine Vnde mundi ornatus nisi à luce exordium sumere frustra enim esset si non â—…ideretur From whence should the voice of God in holy Scripture begin but from the light From whence should the ornament of the world begin but likewise from the same light For in vaine it were were it not seene O Father of the light of wisedome fountaine Out of the bulke of that confused mountaine What should what could issue before the light Without which Beauty were no Beauty hight SECT 2. The second for that it hath nothing contrary vnto it and heere Pareus and Mollerus are censured for holding that the light of heaven is impaired S. Augustine in diverse places of his workes is of opinion that by the first created light were vnderstood the Angells and heerein is hee followed by Beda Eucherius Rupertus diverse others Which opinion of his though it bee questionlesse vnsound in as much as wee are taught that that light sprang out of darkenesse which of the Angells can in no sort bee verified yet it shewes the lightsome nature of Angells so likewise the Angelicall nature of light still flourishing in youth no more subject to decay or old age then the Angells are Since then in the properties thereof it comes so neere the nature of Spirits of Angels of God mee thinkes they who dare accuse the heavens as being guilty of decay and corruption in other respects should yet haue spared the light thereof The more I wonder that men reverenced for their learning reputed lights of the Church should by their writings goe about to quench or blemish this light Videntur haud parum elanguisse minusque nitidi esse quam fuerant initio saith one speaking of the heavenly bodies They seeme to hame suffered not a little defect and to haue lost of that brightnes in which they were at first created And another Non est nunc illa claritas luminis nec sunt illae stellarum vires quae fuerunt There is not now that brightnes of the light nor those vertues of the starres that haue beene Venturous assertions and such I beleeue as would haue pusled the Authours of them to haue made them good specially considering that as there is nothing contrary to the Quintessentiall matter and circular figure of the Heavens So neither is there to the light thereof Fire may bee quenched with water but there is nothing able to quench the light of Heauen saue the power of him that made it Againe fire may bee extinguished by withdrawing or withholding the fewell vpon which it feedes But the light of heaven hauing no matter by which it is nourished there is no feare of the failing thereof thorow any such defect for the matter of the Coelestiall spheres and starres in which it is planted it hath already sufficiently appeared that it neither is nor in the course of Nature can be subject to any impairing alteration And so much Pareus himselfe hath vpon the matter confessed in two severall places in his Commentaries vpon the first of Genesis whereof the first is this speakeing of the firmament and the Epithetes of iron and brasse given it in holy Scriptures and by prophane Authours Haec Epitheta saith hee Metaphoricè notant Coeli firmitatem quia tot millibus annorum immutabili lege circumvoluitur nec tamen atteritur motu aut absumitur quia à Deo sic est firmatum initio These Epithetes metaphorically signifie the firmenes stablenes of heaven because by an vnchangeable law it hath now wheeled about so many thousand yeares and yet is it not wasted or worne by the motion thereof because it is established by God And againe within a while after hee vseth almost the same wordes firmamentum non dicitur de duritie aut soliditate impermeabili sed de firmitate quâ perpetuo motu circumactum coelum non atteritur nec
in workes of heate but the sunne burneth the mountaines three tymes more breathing out fiery vapours Neither were there wanting some among the ancient Philosophers who maintained the same opinion as Plato and Plyny and generally the whole sect of Stoicks who held that the Sunne and Starres were fed with watery vapours which they drew vp for their nourishment and that when these vapours should cease and faile the whole world should be in daunger of combustion and many things are alleaged by Balbus in Ciceroes second booke of the nature of the Gods in favour of this opinion of the Stoicks But that the Sunne and Starres are not in truth and in their owne nature fieric and hot appeares by the ground already layd touching the matter of the heavens that it is of a nature incorruptible which cannot bee if it were fiery inasmuch as thereby it should become lyable to alteration and corruption by an opposite and professed enimie Besides all fiery bodies by a naturall inclination mount vpwards so that if the starres were the cause of heat as being hot in themselues it would consequently follow that their circular motion should not bee Naturall but violent Wherevnto I may adde that the noted starres being so many in number namely one thousand twenty and two besides the Planets and in magnitude so greate that every one of those which appeare fixed in the firmament are sayd to bee much bigger then the whole Globe of the water and earth and the Sunne againe so much to exceede both that globe and the biggest of them as it may iustly bee stiled by the sonne of Syrach instrumentum admirabile a wonderfull instrument which being so were they of fyre they would doubtlesse long ere this haue turned the world into ashes there being so infinite a disproportion betweene their flame and the little quantity of matter supposed to bee prepared for their Fewell That therefore they should bee fed with vapours Aristotle deservedly laughs at it as a childish and ridiculous device in as much as the vapours ascend no higher then the middle region of the ayre and from thence distill againe vpon the water and earth from whence they were drawne vp and those vapours being vncertaine the flames likewise feeding vpon them must needes be vncertaine and dayly vary from themselues both in quantity and figure according to the proportion of their fewell SECT 2. That the heate they breed springes from their light and consequently their light being not decayed neither is the warmth arising there from THe absurdity then of this opinion beeing so foule and grosse it remaines that the Sunne and Starres infuse a warmth into these Subcaelestiall bodies not as being hot in themlselues but only as beeing ordeined by God to breed heate in matter capable thereof as they impart life to some creatures and yet themselues remaine voyd of life like the braine which imparts Sense to every member of the body and yet is it selfe vtterly voyd of all Sense But here againe some there are which attribute this effect to the motion others to the light of these glorious bodies And true indeed it is that motion causes heat by the attenuation rarefaction of the ayre But by this reason should the Moone which is neerer the Earth warme more then the Sunne which is many thousand miles farther distant the higher Regions of the Aire should be alway hotter then the lower which notwithstanding if wee compare the second with with the lowest is vndoubtedly false Moreouer the motion of the coelestiall bodies being vniforme so should the heat deriued from them in reason likewise be the motion ceasing the heat should likewise cease yet I shall neuer beleeue that when the Sun stood still at the prayer of Iosua it then ceased to warme these inferiour Bodies And we find by experience that the Sun works more powerfully vpon a body which stands still then when it moues the reason seemes to be the same in the rest or motion of a body warming or warmed that receiueth or imparteth heat The motion being thus excluded from being the cause of this effect the light must of necessitie step in and challenge it to it selfe the light then it is which is vndoubtedly the cause of coelestiall heate in part by a direct beame but more vehemently by a reflexed for which very reason it is that the middle Region of the aire is alwaies colder then the lowest and the lowest hotter in Summer then in Winter and at noone then in the morning and evening the beames being then more perpendicular and consequently in their reflexion more narrowly vnited by which reflexion and vnion they grow sometimes to that fervencie of heate that fire springs out from them as wee see in burning glasses and by this artificiall device it was that Archimedes as Galen reports it in his third booke de Temperamentis set on fire the Enemies Gallyes and Proclus a famous Mathematician practised the like at Constantinople as witnesseth Zonaras in the life of Anastasius the Emperour And very reasonable me thinkes it is that light the most Divine affection of the Coelelestiall Bodies should be the cause of warmth the most noble actiue and excellent quality of the Subcoelestiall These two like Hippocrates twinnes simul oriuntur moriuntur they are borne and dye together they increase and decrease both together the greater the light is the greater the heate and therefore the Sun as much exceedes the other starres in heate as it doth in light To driue the argument home then to our present purpose since the light of the Sun is no way diminished and the heate depends vpon the light the consequence to me seemes marvailous faire and strong which is that neither the heate arising from the light should haue suffered any decay or diminution at all SECT 3. Two obiections answered the one drawne from the present habitablenes of the Torrid Zone the other from a supposed approach of the Sun neerer the earth then in former ages NOtwithstanding the evidence of which trueth some haue not doubted to attribute the present habitablenesse of the Torride Zone to the weaknesse and old age of the Heauens in regard of former ages But they might haue remembred that the Cold Zones should thereby haue become more inhabitable by cold as also that holding as they doe an vniversall decay in all the parts of Nature men according to their opinion decaying in strength as well as the Heauens they should now in reason be as ill able to indure the present heate as the men of former ages were to indure that of the same times wherein they liued the proportion being alike betweene the weaknes as between the strength of the one and the other But this I onely touch in passing hauing a fitter occasion to consider more fully of it hereafter when we come to compare the wits and inventions of the Ancients with those of the present times That which touches
light and warmth they are no whit impaired why should wee make any doubt but that their influence is now likewise as sweet as God in his conference with Iob teameth it as benigne as gratious as favorable as ever in regard of the Elements thee Plants the beasts and man himselfe and why should we not beleeue that education reason and eeligion are now as powerfull as ever to correct and qualifie their vnlucky and maligne aspects that the hand of God is no way shartned but that he is now as able as ever to controle and check his creatures and make them worke together for the best to them that loue him As he did sometime in this very case for his chosen people they fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera Hee that set the Sun and Moone at a stand in their walks and commanded the shadow to retire in the dyall of Ahaz he that made a dry path through the red sea musled the mouthes of thee Lyons and restrained the violence of the fire so as for a season it could not burne hath he bound himselfe to the influetce of a Starre that he cannot bind it vp or divert it or alter it at his pleasure and vpon the humble supplication of his servants no no Sanctus dominabitur astris if according to Ptolomy the great Master of Iudiciary Astrology wisedome and fore-sight ouer-rule the starres then surely much more devotion and piety If the Saints by their prayers commaund the Divels and both shut and open Heauen for raine and drought as did Elias then may they aswell by vertue of the same prayer stoppe the influences of the starres the instrumentall causes of drought raine Bee not dismaide then at the signes of heauen for the Heathen be dismaide at them And surely they in whom corrupt Nature swayes raignes haue much more reason to be dismaide at them then others in whom Grace and the sence of Godlines prevailes And whiles they feare many times they know not what by meanes of their very feare they fall into that which they stand in feare of feare being the betrayer of those succours which reason affords Much noise there is at this present touching the late great Conjunction of Saturne Iupiter many ominous conjectures are cast abroad vpon it which if perchance they proue true I should rather ascribe it to our sinnes then the starres wee need not search the cause so far off in the Booke of Heauen we may find it written neerer at home in our own bosomes And for the starres I may say as our Saviour in the Gospell doth of the Sabboth the stars were made for men and not men for the starres they were not created to governe but to serue him if he serue be governed by his Creator and if God be on our side and we on his Iupiter Saturne shal neuer hurt vs But whatsoeuer the force of the starrs be vpon the persons of private men or the states of weale-publiques I should rather advise a modest ignorance therein then a curious inquisition thereinto following the witty pithy counsel of Phavorinus the Philosopher in Gellius where he thus speakes Aut adversa eventura dicunt aut prospera si dicunt prospera fallunt miser fies frustrà expectando si adversa dicunt mentiuntur miser fies frustrà timendo si vera respondent eaque sunt non prospera jam indè ex animo miser fies antequam è fato fias si falicia promittunt eaque eventura sunt tum planè duo erunt incommoea expectatio te spe suspensum fatigabit futurum gaudij fructum spes tibi defloraverit Either they portend then bad or good luck if good they deceiue thou wilt become miserable by a vaine expectation if bad they lye thou wilt be miserable by a vaine feare if they tell thee true but vnfortunate events thou wilt be miserable in mind before thou art by destiny if they promise fortunate successe which shall indeed come to passe these two inconveniences will follow therevpon both expectation by hope will hold thee in suspence hope will deflowre devoure the fruit of thy Content His conclusion is which is also mine both for this point and this Chapter this discourse touching the Heavenly Bodies Nullo igitur pacto vtendum est istiusmodi hominibus res futuras praesagientibus we ought in no case to haue recourse to those kinde of men which vndertake the fore-telling of casuall events And so I passe from the consideration of the coelestiall bodies to the subcoelestial which by Gods ordinance depend vpon them and are made subordinate vnto them touching which the coelestiall bodies both together comparing each with other the Divine Bartas thus sweetly and truly sings Things that consist of th' Elements vniting Are euer tost with an intestiue fighting Whence springs in time their life and their deceasing Their diverse change their waxing and decreasing So that of all that is or may be seene With mortall eyes vnder Nights horned Queene Nothing reteineth the same forme and face Hardly the halfe of halfe an houres space But the Heau'ns feele not fates impartiall rigour Yeares adde not to their stature nor their vigour Vse weares them not but their greene-euer age Is all in all still like their pupillage CAP. 6. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in generall SECT 1. That the Elements are still in number foure and still retaine the ancient places and properties HAuing thus prooued at large in the former Chapters touching the Heauens that there neither is nor in the course of Nature can be any decay either in regard of their matter their motion their light their warmth or influence but that they all continue as they were euen to this day by Gods ordinance it remaines that I now proceed to the consideration of the sublunary bodies that is such as God Nature hath placed vnder the Moone Now the state of these inferiour being guided and governed by the superiour if the superiour be vnimpaireable as hath beene shewed it is a strong presumption that the inferiour are likewise vnimpaired For as in the wheeles of a Watch or clock if the first be out of order so are the second third the rest that are moued by it so if the higher bodies were impaired it cannot bee but the lower depending vpon them should tast thereof as on the other side the one being not impaired it is more then probable that the other partake with them in the same condition Which dependance is well expressed by Boeshius where hauing spoken of the constant regularity of the heauenly bodies he thus goes on Haec concordia temperat aequis Elementa modis vt pugnantia Vicibus cedant humida siccis Iungantque fidem frigora flammis Pendulus ignis surgat in altum Terraeque graves pondere sidant Iisdem causis vere tepenti
water falls the downe By overflowes is chang'd to champaine land Dry ground erewhile now moorish fen doth drowne And fens againe are turn'd to thirsty sand Here fountaines new hath nature opened There shut vp springs which earst did flow amaine By earthquakes rivers oft haue issued Or dryed vp they haue sunke downe againe The Poet there bringes instances in both these And to like purpose is that of Pontanus Sed nec perpetuae sedes sunt fontibus vllae Aeterni aut manant cursus mutantur in aeuum Singula inceptum alternat natura tenorem Quodque dies antiqua tulit post auferet ipsa Fountaines spring not eternally Nor in one place perpetually do tary All things in every age for evermore do vary And nature changeth still the course she once begun And will herselfe vndoe what she of old hath done which though it be true in many yet those great ones as Indus and Ganges and Danubius and the Rhene Nilus are little or nothing varied from the same courses and currents which they held thousands of yeares since as appeares in their descriptions by the ancient Geographers But aboue all meethinkes the constant rising of Nilus continued for so many ages is one of the greatest wonders in the world which is so precise in regard of time that if you take of the earth adjoyning to the river and preserue it carefully that it come neither to be wet nor wasted and weigh it dayly you shall finde it neither more nor lesse heavy till the seventeenth of Iune at which day it begineth to groweth more ponderous and augmenteth with the augmentation of the river whereby they haue an infallible knowledge of the state of the deluge Now for the Medicinall properties of Fountaine or Bathes no man I thinke makes any doubt but that they are both as many and as efficacious as ever some it may be haue lost their vertue and are growne out of vse but others againe haue in stead thereof beene discovered in other places of no lesse vse and vertue as both Baccius Blanchellus in their bookes de Thermis haue observed And for those hot ones at the citty of Bath I make no question but Nechams verses may as justly be verified of their goodnesse at this present as they were fower hundred yeares since about which time he is sayd to haue written them Bathoniae Tharmas vix prefero Virgilianas Confecto prosunt Balnea nostra seni Prosunt attritis collisis invalidisque Et quorum morbis frigida causa subest Our Baines at Bath with Virgills to compare For their effects I dare almost be bold For feeble folke and crazie good they are For brus'd consum'd farre spent and very old For those likewise whose sicknesse comes of cold SECT 2. That the fishes are not decayed in regard of there store dimensions or duration BUt it is sayd that though the waters decay not yet the fish the inhabitants thereof at leastwise in regard of their number are much decayed so as wee may take vp that of the Poet. Omne peractum est Et iam defecit nostrum mare All our Seas at length are spent and faile The Seas being growne fruitlesse and barren as is pretended in regard of former ages that so it appeares vpon record in our Hauen townes But if such a thing be which I can neither affirme nor deny hauing not searched into it my selfe themselues who make the objection shape a sufficient answere therevnto by telling vs that it may so be by an extraordinary judgment of God as he dealt with the Egyptians in the death of our fish for the abuse of our flesh-pots or by the intrusion of the Hollander who carries from our coast such store as we might much better loade our selues with and if we should a little enlarge our view cast our eyes abroad comparing one part of the world with another we shall easily discerne that though our Coast faile in that abundance which formerly it had by ouer-laying it yet others still abound in a most plentifull manner as is by experience found vpon the Coast of Virginia at this present And no doubt but were our Coasts spared for some space of yeares it would againe afford as great plenty as euer Finally if the store of fish should decay by reason of the decay of the world it must of necessity follow that likewise the store of plants of beasts of birds and of men should dayly decay by vertue of the same reason Nay rather since the curse lighting vpon man extended to plants and beasts but not to fishes for any thing I finde expressely registred in holy Scripture As neither did the vniversall Deluge hurt but rather helpe them by which the rest perished There are still no doubt euen at this day as at the first Creation in the Sea to be found As many fishes of so many features That in the waters one may see all Creatures And all that in this All is to be found As if the World within the deepes were drown'd Now as the store of fishes is no way diminished so neither are they decayed either in their greatnes or goodnes I will instance in the whale the King of fishes or as Iob termes him the King ouer the children of pride That which S. Basil in his Hexameron reports namely that the whales are in bignes equall to the greatest mountaines and their backes when they shew aboue water are like vnto Ilands is by a late learned Writer not vndeservedly censured as intollerably hyperbolicall Pliny in the ninth booke and third Chap. of his Naturall history tels vs that in the Indian Seas some haue beene taken vp to the length of foure acres that is nine hundred and sixty feete whereas notwithstanding Arrianus in his discourse de rebus Indicis assures vs that Nearchus measuring one cast vpon that shore found him to be but fifty cubits The same Pliny in the first Chapter of his 32 booke sets downe a relation of King Iubaes out of those bookes which he wrote to C. Caesar son to Augustus the Emperour touching the History of Arabia where he affirmes that in the bay of Arabia Whales haue beene knowne to be 600 foot long and 360 foote thick and yet as it is well known by the soundings of Navigatours that Sea is not by a great deale 360 foot deep But to let goe these fancies and fables and to come to that which is more probable The dimensions of the Whale saith Aelian is fiue times beyond the largest Elephants but for the ordinary saith Rondeletius hee seldome exceedes 36 cubits in length and 8 in heighth Dion a graue Writer reports it as a wonder that in the reigne of Augustus a Whale lept to land out of the German Ocean full 20 foot in bredth and 60 in length This I confesse was much yet to match it with lattet times Gesner in his Epistle to Polidor Virgill avoucheth it as
which the first founder of the world blessed with perpetuall fruitfullnesse is affected with barrennesse as a kind of disease neither is it the part of a wise man to think that the Earth which being indued with a divine and aeternall youth is deservedly tearmed the Common Parent of all things inasmuch as it both doth and hereafter shall bring all things forth is now waxen old like a man so as that which hath befalne vs I should rather impute it to our owne default then to the vnseasonablenesse of the weather inasmuch as wee commit the charg of our husbandry to the basest of our slaues as it were to a publique executioner whereas the very best of our ancestours with most happy successe vnderwent that charge themselues and performed that worke with their owne hands Now Sylvinus to whom he dedicated his workes having received and read this resolute assertion by reason he knew it to be against the common tenet and specially of one Tremellius vpon whose judgment it seemed he much relyed made a Quaere thereof sent it to Columella to which in the very first chapter of his second booke he returnes answer with this title title prefixed Terram nec senescere nec fatigari si stercoretur That the earth is neither wearied nor waxeth old if it be made And then thus goes on Queris à me Publi Sylvine quod ego sine cunctatione non recuso docere cur priori libro veterem opinionem fere omnium qui de cultu agrorum loquuti sunt à principio confestim repulerim falsamque sententiam repudiaverim censentium longo aevi situ longique jam temporis exercitatione fatigatam effoetam humum consenuisse You demaund a question of mee Sylvinus which I will endevour to answer without delay which is why in my former booke presently in the very entrance I haue rejected the ancient opiniō almost of all who haue written of husbandry haue cast of their imagination as false who conceiue that the earth by long tracte of time and much vsage is growne old and fruitles where he is so farre from recalling his assertion or making any doubt of the certaine truth thereof that hee labours farther to strengthen it with new supplies of reasons and at length concludes Non igitur fatigatione quemadmodum plurimi crediderunt nec senio sed nosta scilicet inertia minus benignè nobis arva respondent licet enim maiorem fructum percipere si frequenti tempestiva modica stercoratione terra refoveatur It is not through the tirednesse or age of the earth as many haue beleeued but through our owne negligence that it hath not satisfied vs so bountifully as it hath done For we might receiue more profit from it if it were cherished with frequent and moderate and seasonable dressing And with Columella agrees Pliny in the eighteenth booke of his Naturall History third Chapter where discoursing of the great abundance and plenty in fore-going ages and demaunding the reason thereof he therevnto shapes this reply Surely saith he the cause was this and nothing else Great Lords and Generals of the field as it should seeme tilled themselues their grounds with their own hands And the Earth again for her part taking no small pleasure as it were to be aired and broken vp Laureato vomere triumphali aratore with ploughs laureat ploughmē triumphant strained her self to yeeld increase to the vttermost Like it is also that these braue men and worthy Personages were as curious in sowing a ground with corne as in setting a battle in aray as diligent in disposing and ordering of their lands as in pitching a field And commonly euery thing that commeth vnder good hands the more neat cleane that the vsage thereof is and the greater paines that is taken about it the better it thriueth and prospereth afterwards And hauing instanced in Attilius Serranus and Quintius Cincinnatus he goes on in this maner But now see how the times be changed they that doe this businesse in the field what are they but bond-slaues fettered condemned malefactors and in a word noted persons such as are branded and marked in their visage with an hot yron yet we forsooth marvaile that the labour of these contemptible slaues and abject villaines doth not render the like profit as that trauell in former ages of great Captaines and Generals of Armies By which it appeares that Columella and Pliny imputed the barrennes of the Earth in regard of former ages if any such were not to any deficiency in the Earth it selfe but to the vnskilfulnes or negligence of such as manured it To which purpose Aelian reports a pretty story of one Mises who presented the Great King Artaxerxes as hee rode through Persia with a Pomegranate of wonderfull bignesse which the King admiring demaunded out of what Paradise he had gotten it who answered that he gathered it from his owne garden the King seemed therewith to bee marvailous well content gracing him with royall gifts swore by the Sunne this man with like diligence and care might aswell in my judgment of a little City make a great one Videtur autem hic sermo innuere saith the Author omnes res curâ continuâ sollicitudine indefesso labore meliores praestantiores quà m Natura producat effici posse It seemes by this that all things by labour and industry may bee made better then Nature produces them And it is certaine that God so ordained it that the industry of man should in all things concurre with the workes of Nature both for the bringing of them to their perfection and for the keeping of them therein being brought vnto it As the Poet speaking of the degenerating of seedes hath truly expressed it Vidi lecta diu multo spectata labore Degenerare tamen ni vis humana quotannis Maxima quaeque manu legeret Oft haue I seene choice seedes and with much labour tryed Eftsoones degenerate vnlesse mans industry Yearely by hand did lease the greatest carefully And this I take to bee the true reason as before hath beene touched why neither so good nor so great store of wine is at this day made in this kingdome as by records seemes to haue beene in former ages the neglect I meane of planting dressing our vines as they might be and at this present are in forraine countreyes and with vs formerly haue beene this neglect hath perchance arisen from hence that we the French being often and long at defiance all friendly commerce ceasing betwixt vs partly to crosse them in the venting of their commodities partly to inrich themselues men were either by publique authority set on worke or they set themselues on worke to try the vtmost of their endeavour in the making of wines but since peace and trade hath beene setled betwixt both kingdomes that practise hath by degrees growne out of vse for that men found by experience that both better wines
thousand yeares agoe when the world was now well replenished and the most necessary sciences depending vpon observation and experience in a manner perfected the length of mans age is nothing abated as cleerely it appeares by that most famous and euident testimony of his the time of our life saith hee is three score yeares and tenne and though men bee so strong that they come to foure score yeares yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow so soone passeth it away and wee are gone And that these are indeede the words of Moses appeares by the very Title of the Psalme prefixed to it A Psalme of Moses the man of God For though S. Augustine seeme to make some doubt of it because hee findes it not recorded in his history And Aben Ezra a Iewish Rabbin thinke the Authour to haue beene one of Davids singers so named yet S. Hierome doubts not constantly to auerre it to be that same Moses who was the penman of holy writ and the Captaine of the Hebrewes that we might not call it into question the Holy Ghost seemes purposely to haue annexed that Epithete The man of God that is not only a godly religious and excellent man but a man endued with a propheticall spirit and so is it taken 1 Sam. 2. 27. 1. Kings 13. 1. In which regard Moses himselfe giues himselfe this same Title Deuter 33. 1. This is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death And for S. Augustines objection hee would leaue very few Psalmes to David himselfe were his argument of any force Yet some Expositours there are who referre it to that story of the Israelites written in the 32 of Exodus Others in the 14 of Numbers which I the rather am induced to beleeue for that of all those six hundred thousand Israelites which vnder the conduct of Moses came out of Aegypt onely two Caleb and Iosua entred into the land of promise all the rest men women children young old leauing their carkases in the Wildernes within the space of forty yeares True indeede it is that both Moses himselfe and his brother Aaron outliued the number of yeares set downe in that Psalme yet saith judicious Calvin de communi ratione loquitur hee speakes of the ordinary course how it commonly fared with men in that respect even in those times And thus doe I take Herodotus to be vnderstood jumping in the same number with Moses spatium vivendi longissimum propositum esse octoginta annos that the vtmost space of mans life is foure score yeares Though Solon come a degree shorter making the age of man threescore and ten as both Laertius and Censorinus in his booke De die natali testifie of him Plato who had as Seneca witnesseth a strong and able body borrowing his name from his broad brest not without much care diligence arrived to the age of eighty one yeares And Barzillai who liued in Dauids time is said to haue beene Senex valdè a very aged man yet was he by his owne confession but foure score yeares old Nay Dauid himself is said to haue beene old striken in yeares Satur dierum full of dayes insomuch as they covered him with clothes but he got no heate yet was he but threescore and ten when he died thirty when he began to raigne and forty yeares he raigned being naturally of a sound and healthfull constitution Solomons age we cannot by Scripture certainly determine some Divines conjecture that he little exceeded forty but the most learned that hee passed not fifty or threescore at most yet is it noted of him that cùm senex esset when hee was old his wiues turned away his heart after other Gods Of all the Kings of Iudah and Ierusalem which followed after the greatest part came not to fifty very few to threescore and none full home to threescore and tenne In the whole Catalogue of Romane Greeke French and Germane Emperours onely foure are found which attained to fourescore and those not among the first of that ranke In the bed-roll of Popes fiue only liued to see those yeares and those of latter dayes in comparison namely Iohn 23. Gregory 12 13. Paulus 3 and 4. and which is more remarkeable our Queene Elizabeth of fresh and blessed memory out-liued all her predecessours since the conquest raigning the yeares of Augustus and liuing the age of Dauid SECT 4. The same confirmed by the testimony of other ancient and learned Writers HEsiodus the first Writer as I take it saith Pliny who hath treated of this argument in his fabulous discourse touching the age of man affirmeth but vpon what ground I know not that a crow liueth nine times as long as wee and the Harts or Staggs foure times as long as the crow but the ravens thrice as long as they And if we should consult with Astrologers Epigines saith that it is not possible to liue an hundred and two and twenty yeares and Berosus is of opinion that one cannot passe an hundred and seuenteene In the Oracle of Sybilla Erithraea by the testimony of Phlegon Trallianus are found these verses Viginti centum revolutis protinus annis Quae sunt humanae longissima tempora vitae When sixe score winters are expir'd which fate Of humane life hath made the longest date Moreouer Trebellius Pollio in his booke to Constantius thus writeth Doctissimi Mathematicorum centum viginti annos homini ad vivendum datos judicant neque amplius cuiquam concessum dicunt illud etiam adijcientes Mosen ipsum vt Iudaeorum libri testantur Dei familiarem viginti quinque ac centum annos vixisse qui cùm interitum hunc vt immutatum fortè quereretur ferunt illi ab incerto Numine responsum neminem deinceps amplius esse victurum The most learned Mathematicians are of opinion that a man can liue but an hundred and twenty yeares and that none can goe beyond that period yet they adde that Moses himselfe as the writings of the Iewes testifie being familiar with God liued to the age of one hundred twenty fiue yeares who when he complained of this change they report this answere to haue beene giuen him by some divine power that no man after that should passe those bounds Thus Pollio ignorantly mistaking the age of Moses but alluding as it seemes to that speech of God in the sixth of Genesis his dayes shall be an hundred twenty yeares Which words notwithstanding I should rather choose to referre to the continuance of the world till the comming of the floud then to the duration of the age of particular men For it is certaine that after this not onely Noah but Sem and Arphaxad and Salah and Eber and Peleg and Nahor and Terah and Abraham and Isaac and Iacob some of them by much and all of them by some number of yeares exceeded this proportion Crinitus in his seuenth
austerenesse and abstinence The Portugals did converse familiarly with him Now besides that the histories of Portugall touching the Indies are faithfully collected and certified by very authenticall witnesses there were in my time saith Torquemado both in Portugall and Castile many which had seene these old men SECT 7. That if our liues be shortened in regard of our Ancestours we should rather lay the burden of the fault vpon our intemperance then vpon a decay in Nature THe High-landers likewise in Scotland and the wild Irish commonly liue longer then those of softer education of nice and tender bringing vp which often fals out in the more civill times and countreyes being no doubt a great enemy to Longevity as also the first feeding and nourishing of the Infant with the milke of a strange dug an vnnaturall curiosity hauing taught all women but the beggar to find out nurses which necessity only ought to commend vnto them Wherevnto may be added hasty marriages in tender yeares wherein nature being but yet greene and growing wee rent from her and replant her branches while her selfe hath not yet any root sufficient to maintaine her own top And such halfe-ripe seedes for the most part wither in the bud and waxe olde euen in their infancy But aboue all things the pressing of Nature with over-weighty burdens and when we find her strength defectiue the help of strong waters hot spices and provoking sauces is it which impaires our health and shortens our life Simul assis Miscueris elixa simul conchylia turdis Dulcia se in bilem vertent stomachoque tumultum Lenta feret pituita vides ut pallidus omnis Coena desurgat dubia Mixe sod with rost and fish with flesh straightwayes The sweet will turne it selfe to bitter gall Tough flegme will in the stomacke tumults raise Seest not how doubtfull suppers make men pale But elegant to this purpose are those verses of Lucan O prodiga rerum Luxuries nunquam parvo contenta paratu Et quaesitorum terra pelagoque ciborum Ambitiosa fames lautae gloria mensae Discite quà m parvo liceat producere vitam Et quantum natura petat Non auro myrrhaque bibunt sed gurgite puro Vita redit satis est populis fluviusque Ceresque O wastfull riot neuer well content With low-priz'd fare hunger ambitious Of Cates by land and sea far fetcht and sent Vaine-glory of a table sumptuous Learne with how little life may be preseru'd In gold and myrrhe they need not to carroufe But with the brook the peoples thirst is seru'd Who fed with bread and water are not steru'd Multos morbos multa fercula fecerunt saith Seneca our variety of dainty dishes hath bred variety of diseases And againe Maximus ille medicorum hujus scientiae Conditor foeminis nec capillos defluere dixit nec pedes laborare atqui haejam capillis destituuntur pedibus aegrae sunt non mutata foeminarum natura sed vita est The greatest of Physitians the founder of that Science affirmes that women neither loose their haire nor grow diseased in their feete but now we see they are both bald and gowty not because their nature is chaung'd but the course of their life Beneficium sexus sui vitijs perdiderunt quia foeminam exuerunt damnatae sunt morbis virilibus They haue forfeited the priviledge of their sexe by their owne vitiousnesse and hauing together with their modesty put off their womanhood they are deservedly plagued with mens diseases Besides our Ancestors vsed some things now growne out of vse with vs which were no doubt speciall meanes to preserue their health and prolong their liues as the annointing of their bodies their frequent vse of saffron and hony their wearing of warmer clothes and dwelling in closer houses with little doores and windowes choosing rather to admit lesse aire then much light preferring their health before their pleasure as also for the most part they vsed lesse Physick and more exercise so that if our liues be shortned in regard of them we haue reason to acquit and discharge nature and to lay the whole burden of the fault vpon our selues Natura beatis Omnibus esse dedit si quis cognoverit vti Nature allowes that all should blessed be Knew they to vse her bounty prudentlie And doubtlesse through our owne ignorance or negligence it is if wee make not that vse of Natures bounty which we might and should and herewith that of Roger Bacon accords in his booke de retardatione accidentium senectutis Mundo senescente senescunt homines non propter mundi senectutem sed multiplicationem viventium inficientium ipsum aerem qui nos circundat negligentiam regiminis ignorantiam illarum rerum illarumve proprietatum quae regiminis defectum supplent The world waxing old men likewise waxe old not so much by reason of the worlds old age as the multiplication of liuing creatures infecting the aire which environs vs and our negligence in the governement of our health and our ignorance in the vertue of those things which should supply the defect of that government and againe in his booke de scientia experimentali Causa autem hujusmodi prolongationis abbreviationis existimaverunt multi à parte coeli nam existimaverunt quod coeli dispositio fuit optima à principio mundo senescente omnia tabescunt aestimantes stellas fuisse creatas in locis convenientioribus in meliori proportione earum ad invicem secundùm diversitatem aspectuum proiectionem radiorum invisibilem quod ab illo statu paulatim recesserunt secundùm hunc recessum ponunt vitae decurtationem vsque ad aliquem terminum fixum in quo est status sed hoc habet multas contradictiones difficultates de quibus non est modo dicendum The cause of this prolonging and shortning our liues many conjectured to be in regard of the Heauens for they thought that the Heauens were best disposed at the first and that as the world waxeth old all things decayed supposing that the Starres were created in more convenient places in a fitter proportion each to other according to the diversities of their aspects and the invisible projection of their beames and that by degrees they are fallen off from that estate and according therevnto they proportiō the decrease of life vntill it come to some settled period beyond which there is no farther progresse but this assertion includes many contradictions and difficulties of which I cannot now speake Yet me thinkes it may be demonstrated by evident reason besides the arguments already alleadged that at the least for these last thousand or two thousand yeares the age of mankinde is little or nothing abated which I will indeavour to make good in the next Chapter CAP. 2. Farther Reasons alleaged that the age of man for these last thousand or two thousand yeares is little or nothing abated SECT 1. The first reason taken from
infirmos praecipitasse senes That yonger men might voices giue alone The elder were downe from the bridges throwne This motion the Barbiccians at seventy in effect put in execution ◅nes septaagesimum annum egressos interficiunt viros mactando mulieres vero stangulando they make away all that are past seaventy sacrificing the men and strangling the women Now then since the age assigned by the Ancients not onely for marriage but likewife for their entrance vpon discharge from publique imployment aswell in the Church and State as in the warres was little or nothing different from that which is both allowed and practised at this day saue that they seemed to haue beene more indulgent and favourable to themselues then now we are what reason haue wee to imagine that the length and duration of time which they vsually liued was different from ours I will close vp this chapter with an observatiō or two taken frō the Municipall lawes of our own Land which account prescription or custome by the practising of a thing time out of minde as they call it and that time they confine to the same number of 60 yeares as formerly they haue done which could not stand with reason or justice were there such a notable and sensible abatement in the age of man as is pretended And againe Our Ancestors for many revolutions of ages in their Leases or other instruments of conveyance commonly valued three liues but at one and twenty yeares in account in Law Whereas now adayes they are valued by the ablest Lawyers at twenty sixe twenty eight yea thirty yeares Whether it were that the warres and pestilentiall diseases then consumed more I cannot determine but me thinkes it should in reason argue thus much that our liues at leastwise are not shortned in regard of theirs which is asmuch as I desire to be graunted and more then is commonly yeelded though as I conceiue vpon no sufficient ground denyed and so I passe from the age of men to the consideration of their strength and stature CAP. 3. Containing a comparison betwixt the Gyants mentioned in Scripture both among themselues and with those of latter ages SECT 1. Of the admirable composition of mans Body and that it can not be sufficiently prooved that Adam as he was the first so he was likewise the tallest of men which in reason sholud be were there in truth any such perpetuall decrease in mans stature as is pretended AS the great power of Almighty God doth shine foorth and shew it selfe in the numberlesse variety of the parts of mans body so doth his wonderfull goodnesse in their excellent vse and his singular wisedome in their orderly disposition sweet harmony and just symmetrie aswell in regard of themselues as in reference each to other but chiefly in the resultance of the beautifull and admirable frame of the whole body The consideration whereof made the Royall Prophet to cry out I will praise thee for I am fearefully and wonderfully made in thy booke were all my members written and curiously wrought marvailous are thy works and that my soule knoweth right well This proportion is in all respects so euen and correspondent that the measures of Temples of dwelling houses of Engins of ships were by Architects taken from thence and those of the Arke it selfe too as it is probably thought For as the Arke was three hundred Cubits in length fifty in bredth and thirty in heigth so the body of man rightly shaped answers therevnto The length from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot and breadth from side to side and thicknes from back to breast carrying the proportion of three hundred and fifty and thirty each to other so that looke what proportion fifty hath to three hundred which is sixe to one the same hath the breadth of mans body to his heigth or length And what proportion thirty hath to three hundred which is ten to one the same hath the thicknes to his length and bredth Nay some haue obserued 300 minuta which I take to be barley cornes the fourth part of an inch or thereabout to make vp the length of a mans body of just stature and consequently fifty in the bredth and thirty the thicknes answereable to the severall numbers of the Cubits in the severall measures of the Arke Now to our present purpose as God and Nature or rather God by Nature his instrument and handmaid hath fashioned the body of Man in those proportions so hath he limited the dimensions thereof as likewise those of all other both vegetable sensitiue and vnsensible Creatures within certaine bounds Quos vltra citraque nequit consistere So that though the dimensions of mens bodies be very different in regard of severall Climats Races yet was there neuer any race of men found to the bignesse of mountaines or whales or the littlenesse of flies or aunts because in that quantity the members cannot vsefully and commodiously either dispose of themselues or exercise those functions to which they were by their maker assigned True indeede it is that both history of former ages and experience of latter times teach vs that a great inequality there is and hath beene but that since the fi◅ ◅reation of man there should be any such perpetuall vniversall an◅ constant decrease and diminution as is pretended that shall I never beleeue For then in reason should the first Man haue beene a Gyant of Gyants the hughest and most monstrous Gyant that euer the world beheld and vpon this ground it seemes though faisely supposed Iohannes Lucidus labours to proue him so indeede from that passage in the fourteenth of Iosua according to the Vulgar Translation Nomen Hebron ante vocabatur Cariah-Arbe Adam maximus ibi inter Enakim situs est which may thus be rendred Adam the greatest of Gyants lies there buried And this fancie of Lucidus is countenanced by that fable of the Iewish Rabbies reported by Moses bar Cephas who supposing Paradise to be di◅oyned from this world by the interposition of the Ocean tell vs that Adam being cast out of it waded thorow the Ocean to come into this by which account his stature should rather be measured by miles then by cubits But as Lucidus by this opinion crosseth the streame of Antiquity S. Ierome only some few others his followers excepted holding that the first Adam was buried not in Hebron but in that place where the second Adam triumphed ouer death so doth he likewise by following the Vulgar Translation corrupt the Hebrew originall which is thus to be rendred Nomen autem Hebronis nomen fuerat Kiriath-arbah is fuerat homo inter Anakeos maximus So that the word Adam or homo is to bee referred not to the first man but to Arbah the first founder as is thought of that Cittie and therevpon our last Translation reades it thus The name of Hebron before was Kiriath-arbah which Arbah
as they did And for the strength of their Physicke let vs heere Goropius a famous Physitian and doubtles a very learned man as his workes testifie and his greatest adversaries cannot but confesse Dicunt olim medicamenta multò vehementiora data fuissâ—… quà m nunc hominum natura ferre possit They say that the Physicke which the Ancients administred was much stronger then the nature of man is now capable of to which he replies eos qui sic arbitrantur insigniter falli contendo ferunt enim corpora aequè nunc helleborum atque olim eodem vel majori pondere vt ipse in alijs meipso sum expertus Verùm inscitia eorum qui nihil Medici habent praeter titulum vestem longam impudentem arrogantiam in causa est vt sic opinentur I am confident that those who thus thinke are notablely deceiued in asmuch as our bodies can now aswell endure the like or greater quantity of Elleborum as I haue made triall in my selfe others But the ignorance of such as haue indeed nothing in them of the Physitian but the bare title a long gowne and impudent arrogancie is the cause that men so thinke And with him heerein plainely accords Leonardus Giachinus of the same profession who hauing composed a Treatise purposely to shew what damage arises to learning by preferring Authority before reason makes this the title of his first Chapter Corpora nostra eadem ferre posse auxilia quibus Veteres vsi sunt idque cum ratione tum experientia comprobari That our bodies now a dayes may well enough suffer the same helpes of Physicke which the Ancients vsed that this may be made euident aswell by reason as experience And I suppose skilfull Physitians will not deny but that the Physicke of former times agrees with ours as in the receites so for the dosis and quantity and for them who hold a generall decay in the course of Nature they are likewise forced to hold this For if plants and drugges and minerals decay in their vertue proportionablely to the body of man as is the common opinion then must it consequently follow that the same quantity hauing a lesse vertue may without daunger and with good successe be administred to our bodies though inferiour in strength Roger Bacon in his booke de erroribus medicorum tells vs that the disposition of the heavens is changed euery Centenary or thereabout and consequently that all things growing from the earth change their complexions as also doth the body of man and therevpon infers that eaedem proportiones medicinarum non sunt semper continuandae sed exigitur observantia certa secundum temporis discensum The same proportions of medicines are not still to be continued but there is required a certain quantity according to the variation of time Where by the change of the disposition of the heavens I cannot conceiue that he intends it alwayes for the worst for so should he crosse himselfe in the same booke neither for any thing I know haue we any certainty of any such change as he speakes of but this am I sure of that if together with the heauens the plants change their tempers and with the plants the body of man then needs there no alteration in the proportion of medicines in asmuch as what art should therein supply nature her selfe preuents performes But for mine own part holding a naturall decay in neither vpon that ground as I conceiue may more safely be warranted the continuance of the ancient proportions Now touching the drawing of blood I know it is said that Galen vsually drew six pounds at the opening of a veine whereas we for the most part stoppe at six ounces which is in truth a great difference if true specially in so short a time he liuing three hundred yeares or thereabout since Christ. For decision then of this point we must haue recourse to Galen himselfe who in that booke which he purposely composed of cures by letting of blood thus writes Memini quibusdam ad sex vsque libras sanguinem detractum fuisse ita vt febris extingueretur I remember that from some I haue drawne six pounds of blood which hath ridde them of their feuer yet from others he tooke but a pound and a halfe or one pound and sometimes lesse as he saw occasion neither in old time nor in these present times was the quantity euer definite or certaine but both then and now variable more or lesse according to strength the disease age or other indications and in pestilent fevers his advise is vbi valida virtus subest aetas permittit vsque ad animae defectum sanguinem mittere expedit where the strength and age of the patient will beare it it will doe well to take blood euen to a fainting or sounding and such was the case as by his owne words it appeares in which he drew so great a quantity Neither is this without example in our age Ambrose Par a French Surgeon a man expert in his profession as his bookes shew reports that he drew from a patient of his in foure dayes twenty seven pallets euery pallet of Paris containing three ounces more so that he drew from him about seven pounds allowing twelue ounces to the pound which was the account that Galen followed as appeares in his owne Treatise of weights and measures and so continues it in vse among Physitians and Apothecaries vnto this day The whole quantity of blood in a mans body of a sound constitution and middle stature was anciently estimated and so is it still at about three gallons and I haue beene informed by a Doctour of Physicke of good credit and eminent place in this Vniversity that a patient of his hath bled a gallon at nose in one day and hath done well after it which as I conceiue could not be so little as seuen or eight pounds allowing somewhat lesse then a pound to a pint in asmuch as I haue found a pint of water to weigh sixteene ounces Now what Nature hath done with tollerance of life Art may come neere vnto vpon just cause without danger And if any desire to be farther informed in this point he need goe no further then the Medicinall observations of Iohannes Shenkius de capite Humano where to his 333 observation hee prefixes this title Prodigiosae narium haemorragiae quae interdum 18 interdum 20 nonnunquam etiam 40 sanguinis librae profluxere Prodigious bleedings at the nose in which sometimes 18 sometimes 20 sometimes 40 pouÌ„ds of blood haue issued The Authors from whom he borroweth his observations are Matheus de Gradi in his commentaries vpon the 35 chapter of Rasis ad Almans Brasauolus comment ad Aphor. 23. lib. 5. Donatus lib. de variolis morbillis cap. 23. Lusitanus Curat 100. Cent. 2. And againe Curat 60 Cent. 7 his instances are of a Nunne who voided by diverse passages 18 pounds of bloud of Diana a
noble Lady of Est who bled onely at the nostrils 18 pounds besides what was spilt on the ground vpon her apparell in napkins and other linnens about her of one Andrew Cooke to Fredericke Gonzaga Cardinall who bled in one day and two nights 20 pounds And lastly of a yong man named Berdavid from whom there issued at the nose within the space of sixe dayes 40 pounds and yet they all liued after it and did well penes Authores fides esto SEC 6. A third doubt cleered touching the length of the Duodenum or first gut as also of the severall opinions of Iacobus Capellus and Iohannes Temporarius touching the decrease of humane strength and stature ANother doubt tending to the same end I receiued from an other Doctour of Physicke of speciall note of mine ancient acquaintance well knowne in London for his sufficiencie in his professiō and from him likewise I must acknowledge the best part of the answere which I shall frame thereunto The objection because of any I haue met with it is most fully opened seriously vrged by Archangelus Piccolhomini in his Anatomicall Lectures I wil expresse in his words where speaking of the first gut he thus goes on Dicitur etiam graecis dodecadactylos nobis duodenū quod duodecem digitos longum illis temporibus videretur nam his nostris temporibus vix 9 digitorum apices aequat fortassèquod hâc nostrâ aetate homines minores illis saeculis grandiores essent idcirco longiora mēbra proportione respondētia Dicitur quoque pyloros id est ianitor portonarius translato nomine inferioris orificij ventriculi ad superiorem duodeni partem quae ex eo proximè enascitur It is called of the Graecians dodecadactylos of vs duodenum because it seemes in those times to haue beene 12 inches long whereas in this age it hardly equals the toppes of nine fingers perchance because now adayes men being lesse and then bigger they had likewise bigger parts of the body answereable therevnto It is also called pyloros or the porter which name is borrowed from the nether orifice of the stomacke and applyed to the higher part of the duodenum which growes out of it Thus he where what he meanes by the apices or toppes of nine fingers I doe not well apprehend but Riolanus I am sure in the 2 booke and 12 Chapter of his Anthropographia tells vs plainely that ab Herophylo duodenum dicitur quoniam olim duodecem transversos digitos longum erat vbi hodie vix quatuor digitos aequat It was by Herophylus called duodenum because anciently it was 12 inches long whereas now it is scarce full foure How long since this Herophilus liued I cannot certainely determine nor well coniecture his name I finde not in Gesners Bibliotheca indeed Tertullian in his booke de anima mentioneth him by which it appeares that he liued before him but how long it appeares not suppose it to bee 5 6 or 8 hundred yeares which is as much as in reason can well bee demanded and vpon that supposition allow him to haue liued two thousand yeares agoe which being granted and withall that all the other parts of mans body are decayed proportionably to the duodenum which Piccolomini himselfe confesseth and thereof I thinke no wise or learned man will once offer to make any doubt this I say being granted it must of necessitie follow that in the space of 2000 yeares two thirds of humane stature are lost for that is the proportiō of 4 to 12 so as if men now be fiue foote high they were then 15 2000 yeares before that againe if we shall allow the like proportion of decrease to the like space of time 45 foot high and so vpward which how vnreasonable it is to affirme or conceiue I leaue to the Authors and Patrons of that fancie to imagine Againe I would willingly knowe whether in Herophilus time the inch were the same with ours or no if so then belike there is no such notorious diminution in stature as from him is collected and if it be varied according to the diminution of stature then should our duodenum be aswell 12 of our inches now as was their duodenum 12 of their inches then for to say that theirs was 12 of their inches ours but 4 of our inches is both an irregular cōparison a matter altogether incredible And I wonder that Galen or Hippocrates or some other of those ancient Physitians had not found the variation thereof in their time in regard of former ages aswell as wee in ours in regard of theirs or that finding it they haue left no record or mention of so notable an observation in any of their writings which me thinks is a strong presumption that indeed either in their practise or reading they observed no such matter But to make a plaine and full answere to this objection we need go no farther then that of Riolanus immediatly annexed to the passage before alleadged Nec mensuram antiquam deprehendes nisi graciliorem angustiorem ventriculi partem à fundo inferne exporrectam vsque ad anfractuum principium addideris quam saepè 12 digitos aequare vidi Neither shall you finde the ancient measure vnlesse you adde to the duodenum the lower and narrower part of the stomack and extend it to that place where the guts begin their pleats and windings and this haue I often seene to equall 12 inches out of which words I make mine answere thus that if we take duodenum strictly onely for so much as is from the lowest orifice of the stomacke to the winding guts then I say it is scantly foure inches long but if we take in that thinner part and end of the ventricle which the Greekes call pyloros and the Latines from thence ianitor or portonarius the porter then by Riolans observation it hath and no doubt may be found fully as long as the ancient measure Now that the pyloros hath beene by ancient Writers taken into the duodenum and accounted as one with it not onely Riolan in the place before alleadged and Laurentius lib. 6. cap 13. but Piccolhomini himselfe confesseth in the latter part of the passage already quoted and Leonardus Fuchsius in the third booke and 1 chapter of his Paradoxes brings to that purpose Celsus lib. 4 cap. 1. Avicen fen 6. can 3. tract 1. cap. 1. Valescus 4. 22. Iohannes Matthaeus de Gradi in his Commentaries vpon the ninth booke of Razis cap. 11 and lastly Alexander Benedictus in his second booke of Anatomie chapt 8. and though he there make Galen to speake in a different language yet are Riolan and others of another opinion therein Whiles this part was even vpon going to the Presse there came to mine hands two bookes written by two learned French men Iacobus Capellus and Iohannes Temporarius the one intituled de mensuris the other Chronologicae demonstrationes in both which the point in hand is touched
it were his profession And for the excellency of the other faculties of the mind together with that of the memory It is wonderfull the testimony that Viues himselfe a man of eminent parts in his Commentaries on the second booke and 17 Chapter de civitate Dei giues Budaeus Quâ—… viro saith he Gallia acutiore ingenio acriore iudicio exactiore diligentia maiore eruditione nullum vnquam produxit hac vero aetate nec Italia quidem then which man France never brought forth a sharper wit or more peircing judgement of more exact diligence and greater learning nor in this age Italy it selfe And then going on tells vs that there was nothing written in Greeke or Latine which he had not turned ouer read examined Greeke Latine were both alike to him yet was he in both most excellent speaking either of them as readily perchaunce with more ease then the french his mother tongue he would reade out of a Greeke booke in Latine out of a Latine booke in Greeke These things which wee see so exquisitely written by him flowed from him ex tempore hee writes more easily both in Greeke Latine then the most skilfull in those languages vnderstand Nothing in those tongues is so abstruse difficult which he hath not ransacked entred vpon looked into brought as it were another Cerberus from darkenesse to light Infinite are the significations of words the figures properties of speech which vnknown to former ages by the only help of Budaeus studious men are now acquainted with And these so great admirable things he without the directions of any teacher learned meerely by his owne industry Foelix foecundum ingenium quod in se vno invenit doctorem discipulum docendi viam rationemque cuius decimam partem alij sub magnis magistris vix discunt ipse id totum à se magistro edâ—…ctus est An happy fruitefull wit which in it selfe alone found both a master a scholler a methode of teaching and the tenth part of that which others can hardly attaine vnto vnder famous teachers all that learned he of himselfe being his owne reader and yet sayth he hitherto haue I spoken nothing of his knowledge in the lawes which being in a manner ruined seeme by him to haue beene restored nothing of his Philosophy whereof he hath giuen vs such a triall in his bookes dâ—… Asse that no man could compose them but such a one as was assiduously versed in the bookes of all the Philosophers then having highly commended him for his piety his sweet behaviour many other rare singular vertues added to his great wit hee farther adds that notwithstanding all this hee was continually conversant in domesticke state affaires at home ambassages abroad so as it might truely be said of him as Plinius Caecilius speakes of his vncle Secundus when I consider his state affaires the happy dispatch of so many businesses I wonder at the multiplicitie of his reading writing againe when I consider this I wonder at that so leaue him with that happy Distich of Buchanan Gallia quod Graeca est quod Graecia barbara non est Vtraque Budaeo debet vtrumque suo That France is turn'd to Greece that Greece is not turn'd rudâ—… Both owe them both to thee their deare great learned Bude And if wee looke ouer the Perynees Metamorus in his Treatise of the Vniversities learned men of Spaine spares not to write of Tostatus Bishop of Abulum si alio quam suo seculo viuere contigisset neque Hipponi Augustinum neque Stridoni Hieronymum nec quempianâ—… ex illis proceribus Ecclesiae antiquis nunc invideremus Had he lived in any other age saue his owne wee should not haue needed now to enuy either Hippo for Augustine or Strideâ—… for Hierom nor any other of those ancient noble worthies of the Church To which Posseuin in his Apparatus adds that at the age of two twenty yeares hee attained the knowledge of almost all Arts Sciences For beside Phylosophy Divinity the Canon the Civill Lawes history the Mathematiques he was well skilled in the Greeke Hebrew tongues so as it was written of him Hic stupor est mundi qui scibile discutit omne The worlds wonder for that hee Knowes whatsoeuer knowne may bee Hee was so true a student so constant in sitting to it that with Didymus of Alexandria aenea habuisse intestina putaretur he was thought to haue a body of brasse somuch he wrote published that a part of the epitaph ingraven on his tombe was Primae natalis luci folia omnia adaptans Nondum sic fuerit pagina trina satis The meaning is that if of his published writings wee should allow three leafes to euery day of his life from his very birth there would be yet some to spare yet withall hee wrote so exactly that Ximines his scholler attempting to contract his Commentaries vpon Matthew could not well bring it to lesse then a thousand leafes in folio and that in a very small print and others haue attempted the like in his other workes with like successe But that which Pasquier hath obserued out of Monstrelet is yet more memorable touching a young man who being not aboue 20 yeares old came to Paris in the yeare 1445 and shewed himselfe so admirably excellent in all Arts Sciences Languages that if a man of an ordinary good wit and found constitution should liue one hundred yeares and during that time study incessantly without eating drinking sleeping or any recreation he could hardly attaine to that perfection insomuch that some were of opinion that hee was Antichrist begotten of the Devill or somewhat at leastwise aboue humane condition Which gaue occasion to these verses of Castellanus who liued at the same time and himselfe saw this miracle of wit I'ay veu par excellence Vn jeune de vingt ans Auoir toute science les degrez montans Soy sevantant scauoir dire Ce qu' onques fut escrit Par seule fois le lire Comme vn jeune Antichrist A young man haue I seene At twenty yeares so skill'd That euery Art he had and all In all degrees excell'd What euer yet was writ He vaunted to pronounce Like a young Antichrist if he Did read the same but once Not to insist vpon supernaturals were there among vs that industry that vnion of forces contribution of helpes as was in the Ancients I see no sufficient reason but the wits of this present age might produce as great effects as theirs did nay greater inasmuch as we haue the light of their writings to guide and assist vs wee haue bookes by reason of the Art of Printing more familiar and at a cheaper rate most men being now vnwilling to giue three hundred pound for three bookes as Plato did for those of Phylolaus the Pythagorean And by this
quickening soules It was likewise the opinion of Origen Chrysostome his Master Eusebius Emissenus that the stars were not fixed in the Heauens as nailes in a Cart wheele or knots in a peece of timber but moued in it as fishes in the Sea or birdes in the Aire Nay Philastrius goes so farre as to condemne the opinion of their fixednesse for an heresie Multi scriptores Ecclesiastici coeli rotunditatem non modo negârunt sed etiam sacris literis adversari existimârunt saith Pererius in his second booke and third question vpon Genesis many of the Ecclesiasticall Writers not onely denyed the sphaericall or circular figure of the Heauens but were of opinion that it crossed the holy Scriptures S. Augustine himselfe in diverse places seemes to make a doubt of it but Chrysostome in his Homilies vpon the epistle to the Hebrewes dare challenge any that should defend it herein is hee followed by Theodoret and Theophilact But these fancies are now so generally cryed downe that to reviue them would be counted no lesse then folly and to defend them absurdity In how many things are Aratus Eudoxus corrected by Ptolomy Ptolomy himself by Regiomontanus Alphonsus Purbachius Copernicus they again by Clavius Tycho-Braye Galilaeus Kepler and others It was the errour of Aristotle that via lactea was a meteor not only of Aristotle but almost all before him that there were but eight Celestiall Spheares after this Timocaris about 330 yeares before Christ found out nine but about the yeare of Christ 1250 Alphonsus discovered ten and the receiued opinion now is that there are eleuen the highest of all being held immoveable the seat of Angels blessed spirits And thus we see how Truth is the daughter of Time how one day teacheth another and one night certifieth another which is likewise verified in the admirable invention of composing the Ephemerides vnknowne to Ptolomy the Ancients who for want of the vse of it were forced by Tables to make their supputations in a most toylesome manner who was the first inventor thereof I am not certaine saith Cardan de rerum varietate lib. 11. cap. 59 but Purbachius was the first who seemes to haue brought it to light after whom Regiomontanus inlarged it but Zelandinus and others to haue perfected it ita vt jam nihil desiderari posse videatur nothing seemes to bee wanting to it The like may be said of Geometry I will instance onely in one demonstration which is the Quadrature of a Circle This Aristotle in diverse places calls scibile but not scitum a thing that might be knowne but as then not knowne in asmuch as the meanes of finding it out though much laboured yet was it in his time vnknowne among the Ancients Antiphon Bryse Hippocrates Euclide Archimede Apollonius Porus travelled long earnestly in the discovery hereof but Buteo in a book written of purpose hath accurately discovered their errours herein And Pancirollus in his nova reperta tels vs that annis abhinc plus minus triginta Ars ista fuit inventa quae mirabile quoddam secretum in se continet about thirty yeares since was that Art found out which containes in it wonderfull secrets to shew that it is indeed found out he there makes demonstration of it approoued farther explicated by Salmuth who hath both translated him written learned commentaries vpon him Notwithstanding Ioseph Scaliger in an Epistle of his to the States of the Vnited Provinces challenge this Invention to himselfe Nos tandem in conspectum post tot secula sistimus wee at last after so many ages haue brought it to light exposed it to publique view I will close vp this consideration of the Arts and Sciences with a view of Philosophie which braunches it selfe into the Metaphysickes Physicks Ethickes Politickes the two latter of which I will reserue to the next Booke contenting my self at this time with the 2 former First then for the Metaphysicks that part of it which consists in the knowledge of immateriall substances was vndoubtedly neither so well studied nor vnderstood of the ancient Philosophers as now it is of Christian Divines They knew little what belonged to the attributes of God which of them were communicable to the Creature which incommunicable so as they might truly graue that inscription vpon their Altars Ignoto Deo to the vnknown God Their ignorance was likewise no lesse touching the nature office of Angels the mansion or function of separated soules nay not a few of the most ancient Christian Divines held the Angels corporeal though invisible substances and that the reasonable soule of man was deriued from his Parents whereas the contrary opinions are now commonly held both more divine and more reasonable The Physicks or Naturall Philosophy is it which the ancients specially the Graecians and among them Aristotle hath with singular commendation much inriched yet can it not be denyed but he is by the experience of latter ages found very defectiue in the historicall part thereof And for the speculatiue both himselfe his followers seeme to referre it rather to profession disputation matter of wit and credit then vse practice It is therefore a noble and worthy endeavour of my Lord of S. Albanes so to mixe and temper practice speculation together that they may march hand in hand and mutually embrace and assist each other Speculation by precepts and infallible conclusions preparing a way to Practice and Practice againe perfecting Speculation Now among those practicall or actiue parts of Naturall Philosophie which latter ages haue produced Pancirollus names Alchymie for a chiefe one And it is true that we finde little mention thereof in Antiquity not suspected of forgery But for mine own part I much doubt whether any such experiment be yet really found or no And if it be whether the operation of it be not more dangerous difficult then the effect arising from it is or can be advantagious But of this am I well assured that as he who digged in his Vineyard for gold missed it but by opening the rootes of the Vines thereby found their fruite the next yeare more worth vnto him then gold so whiles men haue laboured by transmutation of mettals from one species to another to make gold they haue fallen vpon the distillations of waters extractions of oyles and such like rare experiments vnknowne to the Ancients which are vndoubtedly more pretious for the vse of man then all the gold of both the Indies SECT 3. Of the Arts of Painting and Architecture revived in this latter age HErevnto may be added the Arts of Horsmanship and Herauldry Agriculture Architecture Painting and Navigation all which haue beene not a little both inlarged and perfected in these latter ages yet with this difference that some of them together with the other Arts decayed and againe revived with greater perfection Others were neuer in their perfection till now I
will instance onely in the three latter To begin then with the Art of painting When the Romans arrived to the height of their Empire they equalled nay excelled the Graecians heerein who before were esteemed the best in the world Venimus ad summum fortunae pingimus-atque Psallimus luctamur Achivis doctius vnctis To Fortunes height we are aspir'd we paint we sing The skilfull Greekes we passe in wrestling Quintilian in the last chapter saue one of his last booke shewes how much this Art was accounted of among the Ancients and how by degrees it grew to perfection and so doth Pliny in his 35 booke 9 10 chapters Some inventing colours others shadowes landskips and others rules of proportion but in tract of time it so farre againe decayed that Aeneas Sylvius who liued about 200 yeares since tels vs in one Epistle videmus picturas ducentorum annorum nulla prorsus arte politas We see the pictures madu 200 years since polished with no kind of art And in another immediatly following Si ducentorum trecentorumve annorum aut sculpturas intueberis aut picturas invenies non hominum sed monstrorum portentor umque facies If we looke vpon the sculptures or pictures made about 200 or 300 yeares since we shall finde faces rather of monsters then men And to like purpose is that of Durerus himselfe an excellent Painter Penitus deperdita vltra mille annos latuit ac tandem ante ducentos hos annos per Italos rursum in lucem prodijt This Art lay hid in obscurity as it had bin vtterly lost aboue a thousand years til at length about 200 yeares agoe it againe brake forth into light by helpe of the Italian wits The most famous Italians in this Art were Michael Angelo Raphael Vrbin Some of our owne Nation as namely Master Heliard an Exeter man borne many Netherlanders whose names Icones are published by Hondius haue herein deserued good commendation But Durerus of Norinberg is indeed the Man who aswell for practice as precepts in this Art is by the most judicious most commended He was commonly stiled whiles he liued the Apelles of Germany nay Erasmus in his Dialogue of the right pronunciation of the Greeke Latin Tongues seemes to preferre him before Apelles Equidem arbitror saith he si nunc viveret Apelles vt erat ingenuus candidus Alberto nostro cessurum huius palmae gloriam Truly I am of opinion that did Apelles now liue being as hee was of an ingenuous disposition hee would in this Art yeeld the Bucklers to our Albertus But for singular rules in this kinde Lomatius may not be forgotten whom Mr Richard Haydocke hath translated out of Italian into English dedicated to the euer honoured Sir Thomas Bodley Such is the affinitie betwixt the arts of painting building by reason they both stand chiefely vpon proportions iust dimentions that Vassari who was both himselfe hath likewise written the liues of the most famous best skilled in both Vitruvius who liued but in the reigne of Augustus is the only man in a manner among the Ancients either in Greeke or Latine who is renowned for the rules of Architecture Among those of latter times Sir Henry Wotton in his preface to his Elements of Architecture reputes Leon Baptista Alberti the Florentine the first learned Architect beyond the Alpes To whom Angelus Politianus in an Epistle of his to Laurentius Medices Duke of Florence yeelds this testimony Ita perscrutatus antiquitatis vestigia est vt veterem Architectandi rationem deprehenderit in exemplum reuocauerit He so narrowly traced the prints foote-steps of Antiquity that he both fully comprehended the manner of the ancient building reduced it into patterne and in the end concludes touching his worth as Salust of Carthage Tacere satius puto quam pauca dicere I hold it safer to be silent then to speake in few wordes now as the most sufficient moderne Architects in most things follow the ancients so in many things they varie from thē that vpō just reason The ancient Grecians the Romanes by their example in their buildings abroad where the seate was free did almost religiously scituate the front of their houses towards the South But from this the moderne Italians doe justly varie Againe the Ancients did determine the longitude of all roomes which were longer then broad by the double of the latitude and the height by the halfe of the breadth length summed together But when the roome was precisely square they made the heigth halfe as much more as the latitude from which dimensions the moderne Architects haue likewise taken leaue to vary and that vpon good discretion The publique buildings of the Grecians and Romans were doubtles very artificiall magnificent and so were likewise many of those of the ancient Christians I meane their Churches Monasteries Castles bridges and the like But the houses of priuate men were in the memorie of our Fathers for the most part very homely till the Princes of Italy began to bestow more art cost vpon them Cosmo Medices Duke of Florence being one of the first who set vpon this worke the Italians were soone followed by the French after the victorious returne of Charles the eight from Naples and they againe by vs euer since the vniting of the two roses in King Henry the seaventh who at his comming to the Crowne had spent the greatest part of his time in France Before his entrance we had indeede some huge vast buildings but his house at Richmond his Chappell at Westminster except perchaunce some would preferre Kings College Chappell in Cambridge began by Henry the sixth were the two first neate curious peeces that this kingdome had seene The latter of which may well enough compare not onely with any peece this day in Christendome but for the bignes of it with any thing in antiquity of that kinde But for a stately dainty house that of None-such excells which King Henry the eight saith our great Antiquarie built with so great sumptuousnes and rare workemanshippe that it aspireth to the very toppe of ostentation for shew So as a man may thinke that all the skill of Architecture is in this one peece bestowed and heaped vp together So many statues liuely images there are in euery place so many wonders of absolute workemanshippe workes seeming to contend with Romane Antiquities that most worthily it may haue and maintaine still this name that it hath of None-Such according as Leland hath written of it Huic quia non habeant similem laudare Britanni Saepe solent nullique parem cognomine dicunt The Brittaines oft were wont to praise this place for that through all The Realme they cannot shew the like None-Such they it call So as what Sebastianus Serlius a skilfull Architect spake of the Pantheon at Rome may not vnfitly be applied to this pile of building
three Vpon these then will I insist with these conclude this comparison of Arts Wits the rather for that there is none of them but some haue excepted against as being not moderne but ancient inventions I will begin with Printing touching which Bodin outvies Cardane Vna typographia cum omnibus omnium veterum inventis certare facile potest Printing alone may easily contend for the prize with all the inventions of the Ancients And Polidore Virgill hauing spoken of the famous Libraries erected by the Ancients presently adds Fuit illud omnino magnum mortalibus munus sed nequaquam conferendum cum hoc quod nostro tempore adepti sumus reperto novo scribendi genere tantum enim vno die ab vno homine literarum imprimitur quantum vix toto anno à pluriribus scribi possit That was indeede a great benefit to mankinde but not to be compared with this which our age hath found out injoyed since a new kinde of writing was brought to light and practised by meanes whereof as much may be printed by one man in one day as could be written by many in a whole yeare or as Sabellicus as much as the readiest pen-man could well dispatch in two yeares And by this meanes bookes which were before in a manner confined to the Libraries of Monasteries as their onely Magazines were redeemed from bondage obtained their inlargement freely walked abroad in the light so as now they present themselues familiarly to the eyes hands of all men and he that hath but slender meanes may notwithstanding furnish himselfe in a competent manner there being now more good Authours to bee bought for twenty shillings then could then be purchased for twenty pounds And besides they then spake such languages as it pleased the Monkes to put into their mouths who many times thorow ignorance or negligence or wilfulnes mistooke words and sentences and sometimes thrust that into the Text which they found in the Margine From whence arose such a confusion in most Authours that it much puzled the best wits how to restore them to the right sense as Lodouicus Viues complaines it befell him in the setting forth of S. Augustines workes de Civitate Dei diuinandum saepeuumero fuit coniecturis vera restituenda Lectio I was often forced to guesse at the sense none otherwise then by conjectures could the text be restored to the true reading And Erasmus in his preface to the workes of the same father vix in alterius tam impie quam in huius sacri Doctoris voluminibus lusit otiosorum temeriâ—…as hardly hath the rashnes of idle braines so impiously played its part in the volumes of any other as of this holy Doctour Yet that other complaint of his in his preface before S. Hieromes workes touching the many and grosse corruptions which therein he found farre exceedes this Vnum illud vere dicam audacter minoris arbitror Hieronymo suos constitisse libros conditos quam nobis restitutos This one thing may I truly and boldly affirme that in mine opinion S. Hieromes bookes cost him lesse paines the making then me the mending Againe it cannot be denied but the fairenes of the letter beyond that of ordinary writing addes no small grace to this invention Mira certè Ars sayth Cardane quâ mille chartarum vna die conficiuntur nec facile est iudicare an in tanta facilitate ac celeritate pulchritudo an in tanta pulchritudine celeritas facilitas sit admirabilior An admirable Art sure it is by which a thousand sheetes may be dispatcht in a day neither is it easie to judge whether in so great easinesse and quickenesse of dispatch the fairenes of the letter or in the fairenesse of the letter the quickenesse of dispatch and easinesse thereof be more to be wondered at Lastly it is not the least benefit of printing that by dispersing a number of Copies into particular mens hands there is now hope that good letters shall neuer againe suffer so vniuersall a decay as in forrmer ages they haue done by the burning and spoyling of publique Libraries in which the whole treasure of learning was in a manner stored vp Since then by this meanes bookes are become both fairer and cheaper and truer and lesse subiect to a totall perishing and since by this Art the preseruer of Arts the Acts writings of worthy men are made famous and commended to posterity it were a point of haynous ingratitude to suffer the Inventor thereof to be buried in obliuion Some difference I confesse there is about his name yet not such but may be reconciled without any great difficulty Peter Ramus seemes to attribute it to one Iohn Fust a Moguntine and in trueth shewes good cardes for it telling vs that he had in his keeping a copie of Tullies Offices printed vpon parchment with this inscription added in the end thereof Praesens Marci Tullij clarissimum opus Iohannes Fust Moguntinus ciuis non atramento plumali canna neque aerea sed arte quadam perpulchra manu Petri de Gerneshem pueri mei faeliciter effeci finitum an 1466 4 die mensis Februarij This excellent worke of Marcus Tullius I Iohn Fust a citizen of Mentz happily imprinted not with writing ynke quill or brasse pen but with an excellent Art by the helpe of Peter Gerneshem my servant finished it was in the yeare 1466 the 4th of Februarie Pasquier averres that the like had come to his hands and Salmuth that one of the same impression was to be seene in the publique Librarie at Ausburg and another as others in Emanuell College in Cambridge and my selfe haue seene a fifth in the publique Librarie at Oxford though with some little difference in the inscription Yet Pollidore Virgill from the report of the Moguntines themselues affirmes that Iohn Gutenberg a Knight and dwelling in Mentz was the first Inventor thereof therein with him accord Palmerius in his Chronicle Melchior Guilandinus in the 26 Chapter of his Treatise touching paper parchment Chasaneus in his Catalogue of the Glory of the world the second part and 39th Consideration Veignier in his Bibliotheque Bibliander de communi ratione omnium linguarum in his chapter of printing professing that therein he follows Wymphilingius in his Epitomie of the affaires of Germany Iohannes Arnoldus in his booke of the Invention of Printing And lastly Munster in his Cosmographie who addes this particular that he smoothered it a long time labouring to conceale it all that he might For the reconciling then of this difference it may well be that Gutenberg was indeed the first happy inventour of this invalueable Art But Fust the first who taking it from him made proofe thereof in printing a booke They both then deserue their commendation but in different degrees Gutenberg in the highest Fust in a second or third no doubt but many since haue added much to the
sonitus imitatur Olympi Quatuor hic invectus equis ac lampada quaessans Per Graium populos mediaeque per Elidis vrbem Ibat ovans Divumque sibi poscebat honores Demens qui nimbos non imitabile fulmen Aere cornipedum cursu fimulabat equorum I saw Salmoneus there endure Most cruell paines and great For that he dar'd the flames of Ioue And thunder counterfeit In Chariot drawne with horses foure Shaking a fiery brand Through mids of Elis towne he rode And through all Graecian land Triumphing wise and to himselfe Audaciously did take Honours divine Mad franticke man That did not inlie quake With horne-foot horses and brasse-wheeles Ioves stormes to emulate And lightenings impossible For man to imitate But Servius in his Commentaries conceiues that this imitation of thunder was by driuing his Chariot ouer a brasen bridge And if hee vsed any Engine it seemes to haue beene rather for rattling and terrour then for any reall effect And whereas great Ordinance exceed thunder this was such that it came farre short of it And therefore as ' Rota hath well obserued the Poet calls it non imitabile fulmen But this I leaue as a very vncertaine ground for the ancient invention of this Engine Petrarch and Valturius vpon better shew of reason as they conceiue referre it to Archimede found out as they pretend by him for the ouer-throw of Marcellus his shipps at the siege of Syracuse But it were strange that both Plutarch Liuie who haue written largely of his admirable wit wonderfull Engines and particularly of the siege of that citie should among the rest forget this rare invention and yet more strange that the Romanes vpon the taking of the citie should not take it vp and make vse of it Nay as Magius who hath written a chapter of purpose to refute them who referre this invention to the Ancients hath obserued neither Heron nor Pappus nor Athenaeus nor Biton in their manuscrips of the Mechanniques for printed they are not haue described any such Engine nor Aegidius Romanus who liued wrote in the reigne of Philip the faire King of France about the yeare 1285 where he treates purposely of warlike Engines instruments remembers any such thing Brightman in his exposition on the Revelation of S. Iohn tels vs that by the fire smoake brimstone which in that place are said to haue issued out of the mouths of the horses are to be vnderstood our powder gunnes now in vse that of them S. Iohn prophesied but how these can be said to issue out of the mouthes of horses he doth not well expresse nor I thinke well vnderstood The common opinion then is that this diuise was first found out by a Monke of Germanie whose name many writers affirme to be deseruedly lost But Forcatulus in his fourth booke of the Empire Phylosophy of France names him Berthold Swarts of Cullē Salmuth Constantine AnklitZen of Friburg Howsoeuer they all agree that he was a German Monke and that by chaunce a sparke of fire falling into a pot of Niter which he had prepared for Physicke or Alchimy and causing it to fly vp he therevpon made a composition of powder with an instrument of brasse yron and putting fire to it found the conclusion to answere his expectation The first publique vse of Gunnes that we reade of was thought to be about the yeare 1380 as Magius or 400 as Ramus in a battle betwixt the Venetians the Genowayes fought at Clodia-Fossa in which the Venetian hauing from this Monke belike gotten the vse of Gunnes so galled their enimies that they saw themselues wounded slaine and yet knew not by what meanes or how to prevent it as witnesseth Platina in the life of Vrbane the sixth And Laurentius Valla in the second booke 34 Chapter of his Elegancies which as himselfe testifies he wrote in the yeare 1438 affirmes that the Gunne grew in vse not long before his time His words are Nuper inventa est machina quam Bombardam vocant the Engine which they call the Gunne was lately found out And Petrarch who liued somewhat before him to like purpose in his 99 dialogue of the Remedies of both fortunes though therein I confesse he seeme to crosse himselfe Erat haec pestis nuper rara vt cum ingenti miraculo cerneretur This pestilent deuise was lately so rare that it was beheld with marueilous great astonishment Yet I haue seene the copie of a record that great ordinance were brought by the French to the batterie of a Castle or fort called Outhwyke neere to Callis and then in possession of the English the first yeare of Richard the second of which fort one William Weston was Captaine and being questioned in Parliament for yeelding vp the fort he doth in his excuse alalleage that the enimies brought to the batterie thereof nine peeces de grosses Canons par les quelles les mures les measons da dit Chastel furent rentes percussez en plusiears lieux of great Canons by meanes whereof the wals and houses of the sayed Castell were in diuerse places rent in sunder and sorely battered and in another place he tearmeth them huge most greivous admirable Ordinance nay more then so I am credibly informed that a commission is to be seene for the making of Salt-peter in Edward the thirds time and another record of Ordinance vsed in that time some twēty yeares before his death by all which it should appeare that either the invention of Gunnes was sooner then is commonly conceiued or that our Nation and the French had the vse of it with the first howsoeuer it is most cleare that at least-wise in these parts of the world this invention was not knowen till in latter ages in comparison of the worlds duration SECT 4. Of the vse and invention of the Martiners Compasse or sea-card as also of another excellent invention sayd to be lately found out vpon the Load-stone together with a conclusion of this comparison touching Arts Wits with a saying of Bodins and another very notable one of Lactantius TO these inventions of Printing Gunnes may be added in the last place that of the Marriners compasse of which Bodin thus confidently speakes Cum Magnete nihil sit admirabilius in tota rerum natura vsum tamen eius plane diuinum Antiqui ignorarunt Though there be nothing more admirable then the Load-stone in the whole course of Nature yet of the Diuine vse thereof were the Ancients ignorant And Blondus Certum est id navigandi auxilium Priscis omnino fuisse incognitum It is certaine that helpe of sayling was altogether vnknown to the Ancients And Cardan a man much versed in the Rarities of Nature inter caetera rerum inventa admiratione primum digna est ratio Nauticae pyxidis Among other rare Inventions that of the Marriners compasse is most worthy of admiration
By meanes of it was Navigation perfected the liues and goods of many thousand haue bin and daily are preserued It findes out a way thorow the vast Ocean in the greatest stormes and darkest nights where is neither path to follow nor inhabitant or passinger to inquire It points out the way to the skillfull Marriner when all other helpes faile him and that more certainely though it be without reason sense and life then without the helpe thereof all the Wisards learned Clearks in the world vsing the vnited strength of their wits cunning can possiblely doe By meanes of it are the commodities of all countreys discouered trade traffique humane societie maintained their seuerall formes of gouernment and religion obserued the whole world made as it were one Common-wealth and the most distant Nations fellowes citizens of the same bodie politique This wonderfull instrument we haue amply described by Cieze in his second tombe ninth chapter de Rebus Indicis and Bellonus in his second booke sixteenth chapter de Singularitatibus But for the reason thereof I say with Acosta Causas huius tanti prodigij alij rimentur Sympathiam nescio quam conentur inducere ego summi Opificis potentiam providentiamque quoties intueor vehementer admiror iucundissimè celebro Let others search out the causes of this so wonderfull an instrument pretend therein I know not what Sympathie I for my part as oft as I looke vpon it cannot but exceedingly admire most willingly praise the power and providence of God Whether it were knowne to the Ancients or no some doubt is moued as of all things else there is But herein in my judgement without any sufficient reason For can we conceiue that so rare a deuise of so singular vse could be knowne to Aristotle Theophrastus Pliny Dioscorides Galen and that we should no where in any of their workes finde the least mention thereof Surely I for my part shall neuer beleeue it neither can I bee perswaded that so pretious and vsefull an invention could possiblely be entertained commonly practised and yet lost againe out of the world as if it had neuer beene But that indeed it was not practised appeares by this that the Ancients when by reason of a storme or mist they had lost the sight of the lights of heauen they had no remedy to fly vnto Nullum coelo nubibus obscurato à magnete aut alio instrumento petebatur auxilium when the heauen was darkened with clouds they had no assistance from the Load-stone or any other instrument Clauumque affixus haerens Nunquam amittebat oculosque sub astra tenebat The helme he held neuer it forsooke â—…ut on the stars his eyes did euer looke Saith the Poet as long as the starres appeared but when they were be misted they then wandred they knew not whither Tres adeo incertos caeca caligine soles Erramus pelago totidem sine fidere noctes On Sea we rou'd three dayes as darke as night Three nights likewise not feeing starrie light And in S. Pauls coasting voyage by sea when they had lost the sight of the Sunne and Starres all hope that they should be saued was then taken away Some notwithstanding haue beene found who haue thought this invention ancient Levinus Lemnius in his third booke and fourth chapter de Occultis naturae miraculis seemes to doubt of it An hoc instramentum Nauticum superioribus seculis extitit an nostro idaevo excogitatum non ausiâ—… certo pronunciare whether this instrument of Navigation were in being in former ages or found out in latter times I cannot certainely define Now that which chiefly causes him to make a doubt thereof is those words of Plautus Hic ventus nunc secundus est cape modò versoriam where by versoriam Lemnius would haue vs vnderstand the Marriners Compasse and then addes Quanqùam ut opinor haec pixidicula nostro jam tempore magis exculta sit elimata expolita omniaque exactius demonstret as in the same chapter he speakes of printing Yet I beleeue that this instrument was in latter ages brought to exact perfection But for Plautus I dare say he was neuer guilty of such a meaning Turnebus by Versoriam vnderstanding the rope with which the sayle others the rudder with which the ship is turned Neither of which are impertinent or improper so as there is no necessity of applying it to the Marriners Compasse Stephen Pasquier in his 4 Booke 23 chapter of his Recherches of France brings it vp as high as the times of S. Lewis by the verses of one Hugh de Bercy who liued in his raigne and as he pretends plainely describes it but whether the words be so plaine as he makes them or whether they were published by some other since Bercy but in his name is very vncertaine specially since no Poet or Historiographer contemporary with him or more ancient then he are found to make mention thereof and yet S. Lewis died not much aboue 300 yeare since Pineda for the more commodious placing of Tharshis in Spaine is confident that it was in vse in Solomons time making his vniversall wisedome and deepe insight in the nature of all things the principall ground of his opinion But Solomons wisedome though it were vniversall and deepe beyond all the children of the East inasmuch as God gaue him latitudinem cordis a large heart as the sand on the sea shore yet was it finite and limited aswell in things naturall as supernaturall I doubt not but Adam in the state of integrity knew more then Solomon and yet I dare not pronounce him omniscious that being an attribute as is likewise Omnipotencie vbiquity eternity individually proper to the Godhead incommunicable to any created substance though meerely incorporeall whether they bee the damned or the blessed spirits If then the holy Angels if Adam in Paradice knew not all things nay if the Sonne of God himselfe as he was man confesse himselfe to be ignorant of some things why should wee thinke it strange to affirme that Solomon knew not all things If there be such a secret as the artificiall transmutation of other mettals into gold which by the experiments of many is confidently avouched it is more then probable he was ignorant of it for had he known it he needed not to haue sent his Navy to Ophir or Tharshis for gold as likewise had he knowne this secret of the Load-stone it needed not to haue spent three yeares in going and comming neither should his Marriners haue needed to craue the assistance of the Tyrians and Sydonians as Pilots for the better conducting of them in their voyage I conclude then that either Solomon knew not this secret or if he knew it he put it not in practise or if he put it in practise it was since lost and recouered againe which to me seemeth the most vnlikely of all Now to
God would it so should be Life every man from man death none can take A thousand wayes thereto wide open lye And lest we should thinke this to be but a Poeticall fiction whereby men are made to speake what the Poet pleaseth let vs heare the wisest worthiest among them speaking in good earnest in this matter Quintilian affirmes that nemo nisi sua culpa diu dolet no man is long in paine or s◅rrow vnlesse it be thorow his owne fault meaning that killing himselfe he may be rid of it when he pleaseth Yea euen Seneca himself approues of this selfe-homicide in diuerse places and though himselfe of a contrary Sect yet he highly commends that speech of Epicurus Malum est in necessitate vivere necessitas nulla est Quidni nulla si◅ patent vndique ad libertatem viae multae breves faciles agamus Deo gratias quod nemo in vita teneri potest Indeed it is a misery to liue in necessity but there is no necessity for a man so to liue there are many and short and easie wayes to free our selues let vs giue thankes to God that no man can bee compelled to liue whether he will or no. And againe Si me quidem velis audire hoc meditare exerce te vt mortem excipias si ita res suadebit a cersas interest nihil an illa ad nos veniat an ad illam nos If thou wilt follow my counsell so prepare thy selfe that thou mayst entertaine death nay if need be thou mayst send for it For it matters not whether death come to vs or we goe to death Yea he mockes and derides those that make any scruple thereof bono loco res humanae sunt quod nemo nisi vitio suo miser est placet Vive si non placet licet eo reverti vnde venisti the condition of our estate in this is happy that no man is miserable but by his own default Doth thy life please thee liue if it please thee not thou mayst returne when thou wilt frō whence thou camest And in another place Quocunque respexcris ibi malornm finis est vides illud praecipitem locum illac ad libertatem descenditur Vides illud mare illud flumen illud puteum Libertas illic in imo sedet vides illam arborem brevem horridam infaelicem Pendet inde libertas Vides iugulum tuum guttur tuum cor tuum effugia servitutis sunt Nimis mihi operosos exitus monstras multum animi atque roboris exigentes Quaeris quod sit ad libertatem iter quaelibet in corpore toto vena Which way soever thou lookest there is an end of all evills to be found Dost thou see an high and steepe place by falling down from it thou shalt fall into liberty Seest thou such a sea or such a river or such a pit liberty lies in the bottome of them if thou haue the heart to cast thy selfe into them Dost thou see a tree whereon others haue beene hanged there hangs liberty if thou wilt hang thy selfe Dost thou see thine owne necke throate heart they are all places of escape to flie from bondage Are these too hard and painefull meanes to get out wouldest thou yet know the way to liberty Every veine in thy body is a way to it To conclude this point Pliny would haue vs beleeue that our mother earth having pitty on vs doth bring forth poysons to dispatch our selues out of this wretched world with an easie draught without wounding the bodie or shedding the blood when there shall be due occasion And to this purpose the fact of Cato Pomponius Atticus are by their Historians highly commended as is likewise that of Rasias by the Authour of the bookes of Macchabees as a manfull and noble act But among Christians though it be sometimes practised yet it is not taught by them nay by the Christian religion it is straightly forbidden condemned and so farre as punishment may light vpon the dead it is punishable not only by the Common but by the Cannon Civill Lawes The Romanes are generally much commended for their courage their wisedome their iustice But I would demaund what courage it is for a man to runne away from misery that he may not grapple with it or looke it in the face What Wisedome to commend their cittizens for dispatching themselues at their owne pleasure so robbing the state of a member and perchaunce a very serviceable one such as Cato was What iustice that men either thorow weakenes of mind or strength of passion not alwayes capable of reason should be permitted to giue sentence and doe execution vpon themselues And least we should thinke that this was the onely vice this Nation somuch renowned for civility and vertue was subject vnto I will likewise in passing touch their Covetousnesse which was in truth insatiable and th◅en take a larger view of their luxurie spreading it selfe into many branches but all of them most excessiue were they not recorded by their owne writers almost incr edible CAP. 5. Of the excessiue Covetousnesse of the Romanes and their insatiable thirst of having more though by most vniust and indirect meanes SECT 1. Of the excessiue covetousnesse of the Romanes in generall by the testimonies of Petronius Arbiter Iuvenall Galgacus and Hanniball and in particular Caecilius Claudius Marcus Crassus and specially Seneca the Philosopher are taxed for this vice THe rapine and covetousnesse of the Romanes was such that being Lords in a manner of all the knowne world yet therewith they rested not content Orbem jam totum Victor Romanus habebat Qua mare qua tellus qua sydus currit vtrumque Nec satiatus erat Now the victorious Romane all the world had won Sea land and all where both the starres their course doe runne Yet was not satisfied These are they whom braue Galgacus in the life of Iulius Agricola justly stiles Raptores orbis vnjust robbers of the world who having left no land saith he to be spoyled search also the sea whom not the East nor West haue satisfied To take away by maine force to kill and to spoile falsely they call Empire and when all is laid waste as a wildernes that they call peace This vnquenchable desire of theirs Hanniball likewise both truly and wittily expressed before whom whē Antiochus mustered a great army prepared against the Romanes richly furnished with weapons inamiled ensignes saddles bridles and trappings imbossed and imbrodered with gold and silver being demaunded by the King whether all that gallant shew were not sufficient for the Romanes his answere was short but sharpe taxing aswell the Cowardize of Antiochus his souldiers as the covetousnes of the Romanes Plane satis esse credo Romanis haec etsi avarissimi sint yes truly I beleeue heere is enough for the Romanes though they be most excessiuely couetous But this honour of theirs afterwards increased infinitely as appeares by
qui libidines incestas nec à filia nec à sorore nec à matre nec à sacerdote contineant qui adversùs cives suos patria â—…que conjurent Qui denique sacrilegia committant Deorum quos colunt templa dispolient They are not of ours but yours who rob by the high wayes and turne pyrats by Sea Or if open violence will not serue the turne they prepare poyson who make away their wiues that they may gaine their dowries or their husbands that they may marry with their Adulterers who either strangle their infants or if they bee very devout expose them who forbeare not incestuous lustes with their owne daughters their sisters their mothers no nor with their consecrated Priests who treacherously conspire against their owne Country Lastly who commit sacriledge and robbe the Temples of those very Gods whom they worship And least wee should imagine that he speakes of the Gentiles in generall and not rather of the Romanes in particular he referres vs to the testimonies of Seneca Lucilius Qui volent scire plura Senecae libros in manum sumant qui morum vitiorumque publicorum descriptor verissimus accusator acerrimus fuit They who desire to vnderstand more hereof let them take into their hands Seneca's bookes who both most truly describes and most sharpely censures the publique manners and vices And to the testimonie of Seneca he addes that of Lucilius Sed Lucilius tenebrosam istam vitam circumscriptè breviterque depinxit his versibus Lucilius also hath briefely and pithily painted out that base kinde of life Nunc vero à mane ad noctem fâ—…sto atque profesto Totus item pariterque die populusque patresque Iactare indufori se omnes decedere nusquam Vni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere arti Verba dare vt cautè possint pugnare dolose Blanâ—…iri certare bonum simulare virum se Insidias facere vt si hostes sint omnibus omnes From morne to night on dayes profane or festivall They meete at th' common place commons and fathers all There they bestirre themselues thence will they not depart One selfe same study all attending and one art How closely they may cheat striue flatter cunningly Contend and as good men pretend sincerity Yet vndermine as each were others enimy Nostro autem populo quid tale potest obijci Cuius omnis religio est sine scelere sine macula vivere But now vnto those of our profession what can be objected in this kinde whose religion consists wholy in this to liue without wickednes and pollution Nay so much he stands vpon the powerfulnes of Christian Religion that he makes it beyond all the rules of Morall Philosophy strongly effectuall to expell vice and plant in men all kinde of vertue Da mihi virum qui sit iracundus maledicus effraenatus paucissimis Dei verbis tam placidum quâm ovem reddam Da cupidum avarum tenacem jam tibi eum liberalem dabo pecuniam suam proprijs plenisque manibus largientem Da timidum doloris ac mortis jam cruces ignes Phalaridis taurum contemnet Da libidinosum adulterum ganeonem jam sobrium castum continentem videbis Da crudelem sanguinis appetentem jam in veram clementiam furor ille mutabitur Da injustum insipientem peccatorem continuò aequus prudens innocens erit Ad quòd efficiendum non mercede non libris non lucubrationibus opus est Gratis ista siunt facilè citò pateant modo aures pectus sapientiam sitiat Giue me a man that is wrathfull foule-mouthed vnruly with a few words of Gods booke I will make him as gentle as a lambe Giue me one that is close-fisted covetous greedy of money I will send him backe vnto thee liberall bountifully distributing his money with his own hands Giue me one that is fearefull of torment and death he shall soone des pise crosses and fires and Phalaris his bull Giue me a lecher an adul terer a haunter of brothell houses you shall see him sober chast continent Giue me one that is cruelly disposed and thirsting after blood that fury of his shall be changed into true clemency Giue me one who is vnjust vnwise a sinner he quickely shall be just wise vpright For the effecting whereof there is no need of a reward of bookes of watchings those things are done gratis easily suddainly onely let the eares be open and the heart long for wisedome Thus writes Lactantius and much more to this purpose attributing a quickning efficacie to the divine oracles of Gods word in the reformation of manners which was not to be found in the writings of any of the Heathen SECT 2. The same answere farther confirmed by the testimonie of Saint Augustine St Augustine presses them farther that their Gods never taught them to be good or at least-wise that their Priests never published any precepts tending that way in the name of their Gods Dicatur in quibus locis haec docentium Deorum solebant precepta recitari à Cultoribus eorum populis frequenter audiri sicut ostendimus ad hoc Ecclesias institutas quaquaversum religio Christiana diffunditur Let it be shewed in what places such precepts given by direction of their Gods were wont to be read and heard of the people who came frequently to worship them as we shew that among vs temples are to that purpose erected as farâ—…e as Christian Religion is spread Where sayth he in another place out of the Prophets the Gospells the Acts of the Apostles the Epistles many things are read to the people being assembled against covetousnes luxury so excellent so divine as if they were rather thundrings from heaven then wranglings from the Philosophers Schooles And for the particular point in matter of justice hee floutes at Salust for saying that jus bonumque apud eos non legibus magis quà m natura valebat right and equity did as much prevaile with them through the goodnes of their Nature as by the force of the Lawes Ex hoc jure ac bono credo raptas esse Sabinas quid enim justius melius quà m filias alienas fraude spectaculi inductas non à parentibus accipi sed vi vt quisque poterat aâ—…ferri From this loue of right I trow it was that the Sabin women were ravished For what can be more just then not to receiue from their parents hands but to take and carry away by violence other mens daughters drawne on vnder the pretence of beholding a spectacle From the same loue of this right too belike Iunius Brutus being Consull caused Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus husband to Lucretia an innocent and good man and his Collegue to quite both his office and the city only because he bore the name was of kinne to the Tarquins Quod scelus favente vel patiente populo fecit à quo populo consulatum idem Collatinus
them in horse But heere againe he routed and foyled them in somuch as the Romanes were all in a manner either slaine or taken prisoners Of men of speciall note there died in the great battell besides Paulus the Consull two Questors or Treasurers one and twenty Colonells or Tribunes of the souldiers foure score Senatours or such as had borne office out of which they were to bee chosen into the Senate and many of these were men of marke as having beene Aediles Praetors or Consulls among whom was Servilius the last yeares Consull and Minutius late Master of the horse besides all this the number of the Romane Knights that lay slaine on the place of the common souldiers was almost incredible Whereas on the side of Hanniball there died but foure thousand Gaules fifteene hundred Spaniards and Africans and two hundred horse or there-abouts a losse not sensible in the joy of so great a victorie which had he pursued as Maharball advised him and forthwith marched away towards Rome then destitute both of men and money it is little doubted but that the warre had presently beene at an end But he beleeued not so farre in his owne sufficiencie and good fortune and was therefore told that he knew how to get not how to vse a victorie Yet had not his supplies promised expected from Carthage partly by the malice of Hanno and partly by the sloath parsimonie of the Carthaginians beene too long deferred it is to be thought the Romans would never againe haue recovered that blow For after this he performed in Italy many noble worthy exploits marching home even to the gates of Rome it selfe and had he beene supplied with victuals in all likelihood had carried it Now that which hath made the world conceiue the Romane Magnanimity to be vnmatchable is the partiall overvaluing of their manhood by their owne Historians and the too much slighting of all others in comparison with themselues I will instance only in two or three passages Livie to disgrace Hannibal writes that a little before the striking of the battell at Cannae de fuga in Galliam dicitur agitasse he is sayd to haue bethought himselfe of flying into Gaule which was in truth very incredible the difficulties considered which Hannibal before had passed and the tearmes he then stood in This tale therefore Plutarch omitteth who in the life of Hanniball takes in a manner all his directions from Livie My second instance is this Fabius an ancient Roman Historian from whom Livie borrowes much sayth of Amilcar the father of Hanniball his men at Erix a towne in Sicill that hauing cleane spent their strength and being broken with many miseries they were glad to submit themselues vnto the Romans But Polybius a graue writer censureth this report of Fabius as fabulous partiall in as much as the contrary therevnto is to be found in the life of Amilcar set downe by Aemilius Probus confessing that Erix was in such sort held by the Carthaginians that it seemed to be in as good condition as if in those parts there had not beene any warre Though then we may not reprehend in that worthy Historian Livie the tender loue of his countrey which made him giue credit to Fabius others Yet must we not for his sake beleeue those lies which the vnpartiall judgement of Polybius hath condemned in the writers that gaue them originall My third last instance is that the great Captaine Fabius or Livie in his person maketh an objection vnto Cneus Scipio which neither Scipio nor Livie for him doth answere that if Asdruball the brother of Hanniball and sonne of Amilcar were vanquished as Scipio would say by him in Spaine strange it was and as little to his honour as it had beene extreamely dangerous to Rome that the same vanquished man should invade Italy And it is indeed an incredible narration that Asdruball being closed in on all sides and not knowing how to escape out of the battell saue only by a steepe descent of rocks over a great river that lay at his back ranne away with all his monie Elephants and broken troupes over Tagus directly toward the Pyrenees and so toward Italy vpon which hee fell with more then threescore thousand Souldiers Wherefore wee can but be sorry that all Carthaginian records of their warres with Rome if there were any being vtterly lost wee can knowe no more thereof then what it hath pleased the Romans to tell vs vnto whom it were no wisedome to giue too much credit Albericus Gentilis by nation an Italian late professour of the Civill-Lawes in the Vniversity of Oxford well versed in the Roman storie hath written two learned bookes de armis Romanorum In the former of which hee clearely proues that the Romans got the reputation of so great justice and wisedome valour only from the testimonie of their owne writers who were in their relations most partiall notwithstanding sayth he Sunt vel in his ipsis plura disiecta passim quasi in amplo naufragio dissipata quae per sedulam operam collecta vincere vulgi opinionem Consensum hominum inveteratum superare persuasionem de virtute Romanorum bellica tollere possunt Even in them are many passages to be found scattered heere there as it were after some great shipwracke which being diligently collected and put together might serue to vanquish the vulgar opinion to roote out the inveterate common consent to weaken the strong perswasion of men touching the warlike manhood of the Romans And alleaging that place of Cicero in his Oration for murena virtus militaris populo Romano nomen vrbi Romae aeternam gloriam peperit The military vertue of the Romanes wanne to themselues fame and to their Citty aeternall glory imo non ita est M. Tulli sayth he sed fraus avaritia audacia crudelitas illud vobis imperium pepererunt 〈◊〉 terrae reliquum simpliciorem justiorem humaniorem faciliorem moderationem subegerunt Tullie it is not so but fraud covetousnesse impudence cruelty got you the Empire and subdued the rest of the world more innocent more just more courteous more mercifull more moderate more peaceable then yourselues and this he doth not barely affirme but substantially makes it good through that booke though in the next he seeme to haue spoken in the person of another I will conclude this long though I trust not tedious discourse of the Romans with a dispute of Sir Walter Rawleigh's handling that probleme proposed and discussed by Livie whether the great Alexander could haue prevailed against the Romans if after his Easterne conquest he had bent all his forces against them Where having delivered his opinion against Livy for Alexander together with his reasons inducing him therevnto he goes on preferring the English both before the Macedonian the Roman wherein if he speake reason let him be heard if not let him bee censured But for mine owne part I must confesse I
in one of his Sermons of the last Iudgment brings in this glorious Iudge thus expostulating the matter with these miscreants at that Day O man with mine owne handes did I fashion thee out of the slime of the earth into thy earthly members did I infuse a spirit I vouchsafed to bestow vpon thee mine own Image I placed thee among the delights of Paradise but thou contemning the vitall efficacy of my Commandements choosedst rather to listen to the tempter then thy God And when being expelled out of Paradise by reason of sin thou wert held in the chaines of death I was inclosed in the Virgins wombe I was layde in the cratch I was wrapped in swathing cloathes I endured the scorne of infancy the griefe of manhood that so being like vnto thee I might make thee like vnto my selfe I bore the buffetings spittings of scorners I dranke vineger mixed with gall I was scourged with whippes crowned with thornes nayled to the crosse gored with a speare that thou mightest be freed from death in torments I parted with my life Looke vpon the print of the nayles behold the skarres of my wounds I took vpon me thine infirmities that I might impart vnto thee my glory I vnderwent the death due to thee that thou mightst liue for euer I was buried in a sepulchre that thou mightest raigne in Heauen Why hast thou wilfully lost that which I by my sufferings purchased for thee Why hast thou spurned at the gratious gift of thy Redemption I complaine not of my death only render vnto me that life for which I gaue mine Render me that life which by the wounds of thy sinnes thou dayly killest Why hast thou polluted with more then beastly sensuality that Temple which in thee I consecrated to my selfe Why hast thou stained my body with filthy provocations Why hast thou tormented me with a more grievous crosse of thy sinnes then that vpon which I sometimes hung for the crosse of thy sinnes is more grievous in as much as vnwillingly I hang vpon it then that other which taking pity vpon thee to kill thy death I willingly mounted I being impassible in my selfe vouchsafed to suffer for thee but thou hast despised God in man salvation in mine infirmity pardon from thy Iudge life from my crosse and wholesome medicine from my sufferings Now what flinty or steely heart in the world could choose but resolue it selfe into teares of bloud vpon such an expostulation were it moistned with any drop of grace But heerevnto might be added that thou hast often joyned with his enemies against him turned the deafe eare to the ministery of his Word jested at his threatnings neglected his gratious invitations quenched his holy inspirations abused his Sacraments his patience which being long abused at length is turned into fury This Lambe of God therefore shall then shew himselfe as a Lyon he shall then put on righteousnesse for a brest-plate take true judgment in steed of an helmet then shal he put on the garments of vengeance for cloathing be clad with zeale as with a cloake Then shall hee come in strength as a storme of haile as a whirlewinde breaking and throwing downe whatsoeuer standeth in his way as a rage of many waters that flow and rush together The mountaines shall melt fly away at his presence a burning fire shall run before him and on euery side of him a violent tempest And if Felix himselfe a Iudge trembled to heare Paul who as a prisoner was arraigned before him disputing of this Last Iudgment how shall the guilty prisoners tremble before the face of this Iudge being both the Iudge and the party offended If the Iewes who came to attach him fell backward at the hearing of his voyce in the dayes of his humility how shal the wicked stand amazed confounded at his presence when he comes to judge them in glory Maiesty Surely for them to endure the fiercenes of his angry countenance wil be intollerable and yet to fly from it impossible the more intollerable will it be in regard of the nature and number of their accusers SECT 3. Of the nature and number of their accusers THe Creatures shall accuse them whom they haue abused to vanity to luxury to drunkennesse to gluttony to covetousnesse to ambition to revenge and being then freed from their bondage they shall freely cōplain of this vnjust vsurpation Good men shall accuse them as having bin most disdainfully scorned wronged oppressed and troden vnder-foot by them Their Companions shall accuse them as having beene drawne into sin by their wicked intisements and examples Their Teachers and Gouernours shall accuse them as hauing beene irreverent toward their persons rebellious against their instructions and commaunds Their Children and Servants shall accuse them as hauing beene negligent in their education in vertue and piety The Prophets and Apostles shall accuse them as hauing beene carelesse in the observation of their writings The good Angels shall accuse them whose directions they haue refused to follow The Divels shall accuse them in that they haue betrayed their Lord and Captaine to march vnder their banners Their owne Consciences shall bitterly accuse vpbraid them the body shall accuse the soule as being the principall agent and the soule the body as being a ready instrument The appetite shall accuse reason as being too sensuall indulgent reason the appetite as being irregular inordinate all the faculties of the Soule all the senses members of the body shall accuse each other nay which is worst of all the Iudge himselfe shal be thy accuser representing those transgressions to thy memory laying them close to thy charge which either thou hadst forgotten cast behinde thee or didst perchaunce not know or not acknowledge to be sinnes Sweet IESVS which way will the poore Sinner turne himselfe in the midst of all these accusers accusations To confesse thē then will serue but to increase his shame to deny them but to aggravate his fault consequently his punishment nay deny them hee cannot being convinced by two euidences against which there can bee no exception the booke of the Law the booke of his owne Conscience the one shall shew him what he should haue done the other what hee hath done against the booke of the Law hee shal be able to speake nothing his Conscience telling him that the commaundements of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether and for the booke of Conscience against that he cannot possibly except it being alway in his owne keeping so as it could not be falsified whatsoeuer shall then be found written therein he shal freely acknowledge to haue beene written with his owne hand Silence then shall be his safest plea and astonishment his best Apologie The rather for that all these accusations shal be brought in and layde against him in the presence of the blessed Saints and glorious Angels which shall then