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A00931 A bright burning beacon forewarning all wise virgins to trim their lampes against the comming of the Bridegroome. Conteining a generall doctrine of sundrie signes and wonders, specially earthquakes both particular and generall: a discourse of the end of this world: a commemoration of our late earthquake, the 6. of April, about 6. of the clocke in the euening 1580. And a praier for the appeasing of Gods wrath and indignation. Newly translated and collected by Abraham Fleming. The summe of the whole booke followeth in fit place orderly diuided into chapters. Nausea, Friedrich, d. 1552.; Fleming, Abraham, 1552?-1607. 1580 (1580) STC 11037; ESTC S102280 47,166 126

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subiect and foretold them by certeine signes and tokens as namely by their water and other excrements For Physicians as we our selues haue also prooued by obseruation of Starres and Planets can attaine vnto the foreknowledge of diseases in the bodies of men be they either present or be they to come and that without superstition they can also prognosticate and foretell by the inclination of complexions and dispositions of bodies by the set seasons and foure quarters of the yeare they can I say foretell of health and sicknesse For séeing the condition and qualitie of the aire which compasseth our bodies rounde about is verie much altered and changed by the Sunne drawing néere or going farre from vs by the increasing and diminishing of light in the Moone it commeth to passe that hauing rule ouer our bodies there may be coniectures made of many thinges which shall happen vnto vs and which they by their influences together with the aire may worke in these our bodies Herevpon they giue counsell to open the veines and let bloud when the Moone increaseth at which times our naturall abilities are more strong and liuelie and the state of our bodies replenished with more good moisture and iuice they forbid boxing least because it violently draweth and sucketh the humors of the bodie abounding and spreading throughout all partes at the beginnings of Monethes more matter may be voided than behooueth c. And thus I say may Physicians foretell something to come not to any maner of person but to such as haue not their perfect health but are euill affected and apt to fall into one or other strange infirmitie and sickenesse Euen so by Ephemerides or calculations manie things are foretold concerning the qualities of seasons touching the Eclipses of the Sunne and Moone howbeit none otherwise than when such causes woorke their force in the aire wherewith we are incompassed and according to the inclination whereof be it good be it bad be it wholesome be it noysome will we nill we we are ruled and ordered Many prognostications of Physicians both of Arabia and Graecia may be reduced and brought for the proofe of these causes and not a fewe notes out of Aristotles Problemes By the state conditions or qualities of mens bodies also may tokens of life and death bée gathered all which or the greater part of them agrée in this point that looke what they sée in the sicke lieng in his bed that maketh a deade corps hideous ghastly it is a signe of death drawing on Contrariwise if they perceiue in the diseased such séemelinesses as set foorth the state of a sounde man they are coniectures of recouerie and health The like we may read in the particular prognostications of Hippocrates and in the seconde booke of Cornelius Celsus intreating of Physicke For Hippocrates to make the Physician cunning in foreknowing and also foretelling of such issues in the sicke counselleth them to marke diligently the face and countenance For if their eyes bée hollow their eares colde and shroonke together their foreheade drie and withered their colour gréene leaden or blacke their courage calme and consumed their spittle abounding heir knées and limmes fainte and féeble their heate more feruent vehement than was woont to bée their sléepes heauie their dreames troublesome and vnquiet they shall bée signes that the patient will either be extreme sicke and so escape verie narrowly or else that there is no way with him but one euen death To applie this to our purpose when wée sée such wonders in the worlde as are strange and fearefull when we sée them often in such maner as hath not béene in former times it is an vndoubted token that the worlde is not well but infected with certein sore sicknesses and like shortly to die or else to fall into great daunger so much the rather because signes and wonders monstrous appearances and strange sightes haue their generation herehence either because particular nature faileth or through the default of the matter it selfe which resisteth or else by reason of the weaknesse of the agent or worker Which is thought to be a token that the worlde is sicke after the maner of a man who is therefore called a little worlde Herevnto may be also added that woonders of this sort specially such as appeare frō heauen or to speake plainer that are meteors and impressions doe happen when nature is somewhat disordered as when the generation of cattell the fructifieng of trées the coniunctions and moouings of starres come to passe but not altogether at their due and ordinarie times neither doe these impressions kéepe alwaies one and the selfe same place nor yet holde one proportion still in respect of the patient as I may say the matter wherof they are made happening to and fro By that therefore which we haue already declared it is doubtlesse that such signes and wonders as we haue last named doe prooue vnto vs that straunger and rarer sightes appearing haue their significations namely the sicknes of this world and the néerenesse thereof to death and to be tokens so much the rather of these things by how much more often they happen As truly we sée in these times of oures which in the Scriptures are therefore called The last daies wherin shall be the end of this worlde foretold by signes and wonders to be at hand by the deadly diseases which they denounce to the worlde as meanes to bring vpon it the last consummation finall end For it cannot be denied that such signes haue béen séene euer since the creation of the world almost in sundrie countries nations of diuerse people either to the destruction of some or to the ouerthrowe of all euen as many as viewed them with their eies In time the whole world by reason of the partes thereof crasie and ill at ease began day by day to be sicker and sicker because of the miserable maladies and pittifull issues which followed after the sight of such straunge wonders so that by litle and litle it is like to faile to decay and the whole bodie thereof in short space to perish séeing that there are but a fewe members or partes thereof beside the heart but haue both felt and séene the calamities and ruines which haue come to passe after the appearing of certeine straunge signes and wonders in all places not onely in our forefathers daies but also within the compasse of our memorie The case standing thus we must néedes graunt this when all the members of the bodie are smitten with sicknes that the heart being the principall parte is like to be in daunger which when it once faileth the whole bodie sinketh downe and consequently the vniuersall worlde the destruction whereof to be nie these so many and horrible wonders chancing in our age doe certeinly foreshew For the truth it selfe by a foreknowledge of things to come speaketh of these and the like signes prophesieng
Among the profound Clarks of old there was great disagréement about the reason of Earthquakes And as for the common sort of men it passed their capacitie and knowledge to reach to the cause of such a secret nay shall I tell you naturall Philosophie setteth downe no sure ground or determinate sentence in this doubtfull matter Herevpon as Aulus Gellius affirmeth the ancient Romans a people meruelous precise and circumspect in all their affaires of life and specially in cases of religion as also in deuoute seruice and sacrifice to their Gods so soone as they either perceiued by féeling or vnderstood by folks talking that an Earthquake chanced they commanded by proclamation that the people should solemnely kéepe holiday and betake themselues to the Temple Now because they worshipped many Gods and therefore ignorant vnto what one God aboue the rest to dedicate their seruice they prouided that by not naming any one certeine God all their Gods should be honored least by choosing one specially to celebrate so taking one for another the people should be deluded and the God that wrought the wonder not a whit exalted Which ceremonie Marcus Varro saith was obserued by the decrée of the high Priests because it is doubtfull vncertaine which of the Gods or Goddesses by the vertue of their power made the earth to tremble By this custome of old Romanes a people in their kind religious we are taught what to goe about in such casualties For though they through the multitude of their imagined Gods knew not vnto which of them chiefly to offer the frutes of their deuotion and yet fearing that some offence by them committed was the cause of so sudden an Earthquake they discharged their duties as they thought in conscience that by séeking to please all the Gods generally no one God should rest vnappeased seuerally Then to applie this to our selues that their superstition might teach vs true deuotion considering that we liue not in Heathenisme as did they requisite it is that as we are the shéepe of one shepherd the people of one God so in all troubles be they neuer so terrible though earthquakes though famines though battels though plagues c. to haue recourse vnto him as to the God from whome they come being tokens of his further iudgement vpon vs in these later daies wherein sinne is growen to a full measure and crieth out for vengeance ¶ Wherevpon Earthquakes ingender and growe for certaintie Chap. 2. ALthough this be the opinion of the Babylonians as Plinie writeth that Earthquakes gapings of the ground and all other fearefull tempestes issue and come from the force and influence of Starres yet I am of beléef that sometime the earth is shaken and made to tremble by reason of water included and kept within it which water being moued the earth also is made to mooue by the moouing thereof as we may sée in tubbes of water or other vessels Herevpon Neptune had his name to be called Terriquasso and Tellurimotor Earth shaker as some haue held opinion I thinke in like manner that the earth is made to quake by the violence of winds shut vp kept close in the hollowe places of the same which windes by their stirring doe stirre the earth so make an Earthquake Unto which opinion Plinie long ago gaue assent supposing that nothing more than the windes nay the winds alone to be cause of earthquakes and that the earth is neuer wont to quake but when the sea is so calme and the aire so still that nether ships can saile nor birdes flie all the winds being gotten into certeine veines holes and caues of the earth and there mooue by there secrete rusling Now these winds thus shut vp séeking a vent here there to breake out and trieng by all meanes they can make to haue passage that breaking out of prison as it were they might be set at libertie and blowe at large whiles this is intended the earth trembleth rocketh réeleth as though it wold fall stones cracke in sunder towres bend forward castles sinke houses totter to the ground c. An example hereof we haue of our owne wind and breath stopping or staieng in our breast and not hauing recourse in and out by interchaunge of turnes we perceiue féele therby that our very soule or life being assalted the limmes and members of our bodies are taken with a trembling there is stirred vp within vs a kinde of strife or wrestling all the outwarde partes of our bodie thorough feare fall a quiuering till this winde or breath hauing gathered force sufficient find a way to auoid and the pipes wherein it was kept burst open it issue out with a vehement and great noise Herevpon say some that trembling in the earth is nothing else but that which thunder is in a cloude and the gaping of the ground none other thing than when as lightning bursteth forth with violence the aire which is in the cloude resisting and trieng maisteries to get out and be at libertie Notwithstanding these reasons carrie with them a countenance shew of credite and therefore may the lesse be gainsaid yet least by séeking to become too wise in the secret workes of God and referring that to the course of naturall causes which come to passe by the prouidence of his iudgement we fall into securitie from securitie into incredulitie from incredulitie into atheisme from atheisme into open blasphemie my counsell and aduise is that our eares tickle not to heare euery vaine Philosophers fansie descanting vpon matters of great importance and therby pull from God the cause of his iustly conceiued indignation against the wickednes of the world and made apparant before hand by signes and wonders lest any liuing soule should find fault with his too seuere procéeding in iudgement The nexte way to bréede in the mindes of men a deniall of Gods deitie is to derogate and take from him the propertie of his workes to tie that to naturall reason which dependeth vpon his heauenlie wisedome to ascribe that to Philosophie which is the worke of his diuinitie into which follies whiles the Gentiles fell they were néere to falshood but farre from trueth apt to erre but rude to goe right at peace with the diuell but at defiance with God neighbours to hell but straungers from heauen This I speake not to controll the fauourers of Philosophie or to discredite the professours of so sacred a science but that I woulde haue the wit of man estéemed as it is as light as smoke if it be not tempered with the deawe of Gods spirite that Artes and sciences haue their groundes and principles in some pointes vndoubted in some vncertaine and in some fallible Diuinitie onlie deceiueth not which teacheth the true God and that he by his power shaketh the foundations of the earth and yet all this while I affoord euerie profession with their professors that reuerence which belongeth