measured by Time proclaime that they had a beginning of Time Are not Motion and Time as neere Twinnes as Time and Eternitie are implacable enemies Nay how canst thou force thy mind to conceiue an Eternitie in these things which canst not conceiue Eternitie which canst not but conceiue some beginning and first terme or point from whence the motion of this Wheele began And yet how should we know this first turning of the Worlds wheele whose hearts within vs mooue be we vnwitting or vnwilling the beginning whereof thou canst not know and yet canst not but know that it had a begginning and together with thy body shall haue an ending How little a while is it that the best Stories in euery Nation shew the cradle and child-hood thereof Their later receiued Letters Arts Ciuilitie But what then say they did GOD before he made the World I answer that thou shouldest rather thinke Diuinely of Man then Humanely of GOD and bring thy selfe to be fashioned after his Image then frame him after thine This foolish question some answer according to the foolishnesse thereof saying He made Hell for such curious Inquisitors Aliud est videre aliud ridere saith Augustine Labentius responderim nescio quod nescio Quae tempora fuissent quae abs te condita non essent Nec tu tempora tempore praecedis sed celsitudine semper praesentis aeternitatis c. Before all things were GOD onely was and he vnto himselfe was in stead of the World Place Time and all things hauing all goodnesse in himselfe the holy Trinitie delighting and reioycing together To communicate therefore not to encrease or receiue his goodlinesse he created the World quem Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Plinie nomine ornamenti appellant nos à perfecta absolutaque elegantia Mundum But for this matter it is also of the wisest and most learned in all Ages confessed as their testimonies alleadged by Iustin Martyr Lactantius and other Ancients and especially by Philip Morney doe plainely manifest To him therefore to Viues and others which haue vndertaken this taske by reason and by humane authoritie to conuince the gaine-sayers of our faith let such resort as would be more fully resolued in these curious doubts As for all such strange and phantasticall or phreneticall opinions of Heretikes or Philosophers which haue otherwise related of this mysterie of the Creation then Moses they need not confuting and for relating these opinions we shall find fitter place afterwards I will here adde this saying of Viues to such vnnaturall Naturalists as vpon slight and seeming naturall reasons call these things into question Quà m stultum est de mundi creatione ex legibus huius Naturae statuere cùm creatio illa naturam antecesserit Tum enim natura est condita quando mundus nec aliud est natura quam quod Deus iussit alioqui minister esset Deus naturae non Dominus Hence was Aristotles Eternitie Plinies Deitie ascribed to the World Democritus Leucippus and Epicurus their Atomi the Stoikes Aeterna materia PLATO'S Deus exemplar materia as Ambrose tearmeth them or as others vnum or bonum Mens Anima a Trinitie without perfect Vnitie the Manichees two beginnings and an endlesse world of errors about the Worlds beginning because they measured all by Naturall axiomes Orpheus as Theophilus the Chronographer cited by Cedrenus alleadgeth him hath his Trinitie of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which he ascribeth the Worlds Creation but the Poets dreames are infinite which might make and marre their Poetical Worlds at pleasure CHAP. III. Of Man considered in his first state wherein hee was created and of Paradise the place of his habitation HItherto we haue spoken of the framing of this mightie Fabrike the Creation of the visible World leauing that Inuisible to the Spirituall Inhabitants which there alway behold the face of the Heauenly Father as not daring to pry too farre into such Mysteries aduancing our selues in those things which wee neuer saw Rashly puft vp with a fleshly minde This whereof we treat they need not as finding all sufficience in their All-sufficient Creator The inferiour Creatures which hither to haue beene described know it not but content themselues with themselues in enioying their naturall being mouing sense Onely man in regard of his body needeth it and by the reasonable power of his soule can discerne and vse it Man therefore was last created as the end of the rest an Epitome and Mappe of the World a compendious little other World consisting of a visible and inuisible heauenly and earthly mortall and immortall Nature the knot and bond of bodily and spirituall superiour and inferiour substances resembling both the worke and the worke-man the last in execution but first in intention to whom all these Creatures should serue as meanes and prouocations of his seruice to his and their Creator Man may be considered in regard of this life or of that which is to come of this life in respect of Nature or Grace and this Nature also sustayneth a two-fold consideration of integritie and corruption For GOD made man righteous but they sought to themselues many inuentions His first puritie in his Creation his fall from thence by sinne his endeuour to recouer his former innocency by future glory eyeher in the by-wayes of Superstition which Nature a blind guide leadeth him into through so many false Religions or by the true new and liuing way which GOD alone can set him and doth conduct him in is the subiect of our tedious taske the first two more briefly propounded the two last historically and largely related In that first state his Author and Maker was Iehoua Elohim GOD in the pluralitie of Persons and vnitie of Essence the Father by the Sonne in the power of the Spirit wherevnto he did not only vse his powerfull Word as before saying Let there be Man but a consultation Let vs make Man not that he needed counsaile but that hee in this Creature did shew his counsell and wisdome most apparantly The Father as first in order speaketh vnto the Sonne and Holy Ghost and the Sonne and Holy Ghost in an vnspeakeable manner speake and decree with the Father and the whole Trinitie consult and agree together to make Man which for Mans instruction is by Moses vttered after the manner of Men. The manner of his working was also in this Creature singular both in regard of his body which as a Potter his Clay he wrought and framed of the dust into this goodly shape and of his soule which he immediately breathed into his nostrils Thus hath Man cause to glorie in his Creators care in himselfe to bee humbled hauing a body framed not of solid Earth but of the dust the basest and lightest part of the basest and grossest Element
Epiphanius hath written of the Gnostikes alone fully and particularly be considered all these Ethnike and Mahumetan superstitions would comparatiuely be iustified So true is that olde saying Corruptio optimi pessima and of the Truth it selfe Sodom and her daughters not comparable to Ierusalem with hers and of the iustest Iudge that it shall bee easier at the day of Iudgement for Those then These And what indeede doth more set forth the glory of Gods grace then in pardoning his power then in reforming his justice then in giuing men vp to such delusions Are not these the Trophees and glorious victories of THE CROSSE OF CHRIST that hath subuerted the Temples Oracles Sacrifices and Seruices of the Deuill And maist not thou see herein what Man is and thou thy selfe maist bee if God leaue thee to thy selfe Read therefore with prayses vnto GOD the Father of thy light and prayers for these Heathens that GOD may bring them out of the snare of the Deuill that Christ may be his saluation to the ends of the World And let me also obtaine thy prayers in this my Pilgrimage to be therein directed to the glorie of GOD and good of my Countrie Euen so LORD IESVS THE CONTENTS OF THE SEVERALL CHAPTERS AND PARAGRAPHS IN THESE BOOKES ENSVING ASIA THE FIRST BOOKE Of the first beginnings of the World and Religion and of the Regions and Religions of Babylonia Assyria Syria Phoenicia and Palestina CHAP. I. OF GOD One in Nature Three in Persons the FATHER SONNE and HOLY GHOST pag. 1 CHAP. II. Of the Creation of the World pag. 5 CHAP. III. Of Man considered in his first state wherein he was created and of Paradise the place of his habitation pag. 13 CHAP. IIII. Of the word Religion and of the Religion of our first Parents before the fall pag. 17 CHAP. V. Of the fall of Man and of Originall sin p. 21 CHAP. VI. Of the reliques of the Diuine Image after the fall whereby naturally men addict themselues vnto some Religion and what was the Religion of the World before the floud pag. 25 CHAP. VII Of the cause and comming of the Floud p. 30 CHAP. VIII Of the repeopling of the World and of the diuision of Tongues and Nations pag. 34 CHAP. IX A Geographicall Narration of the whole Earth in generall and more particularly of Asia pag. 39 CHAP. X. Of Babylonia the originall of Idolatrie and the Chaldaeans Antiquities before the Floud as Berosus hath reported them p. 44 CHAP. XI Of the City and Country of Babylon their sumptuous Wals Temples and Images pag. 47 CHAP. XII Of the Priests Sacrifices religious rites and customes of the Babylonians pag. 51 CHAP. XIII The Chaldaean and Assyrian Chronicle or computation of Times with their manifold alterations of Religions and Gouernment in those parts vntill our time pag. 59 CHAP. XIIII Of Niniue and other neighbouring Nations pag. 65 CHAP. XV. Of Syria and the ancient Religions there of the Syrià n Goddesse and her Rites at Hierapolis of the Daphnaean and other Syrian Superstitions pag. 67 CHAP. XVI Of the Syrian Kings and alteration in Gouernment and Religion in those Countries pag. 73 CHAP. XVII Of Phoenicia and of the Theologie and Religion of the ancient Phoenicians of their Arts and Inuentions pag. 76 CHAP. XVIII Of Palaestina and the first Inhabitants thereof the Sodomites Idumaeans Moabites Ammonites and Canaanites with others pag. 83 THE SECOND BOOKE Of the Hebrew Nation and Religion from the beginning thereof to our times CHAP. I. THe Preface of this Booke and a Description of the Region of Palaestina since called Iudaea and now Terra Sancta pag. 89 CHAP. II. OF the Hebrew Patriarches and their Religion before the Law also of their Law and Politie pag. 95 § I. Of the Patriarchs and Religion before the Law ibid. § II. Of the Law of Moses the twelue Tribes and of Proselytes pag. 96 § III. Of the Hebrew Polity and ciuill Gouernment pag. 97 § IIII. Of the Iewish Excommunications pag. 100 CHAP. III. OF the Religious places among the Israelites their Tabernacle Temples Synagogues pag. 101 CHAP. IIII. OF the Iewish computation of Time and of their Festiuall dayes pag. 105 CHAP. V. OF the Festiuall dayes instituted by God in the Law pag. 108 CHAP. VI. OF the Feasts and Fasts which the Iewes instituted to themselues with a Kalender of their Feasts and Fasts through the yeere as they are now obserued pag. 113 CHAP. VII OF the ancient Oblations Gifts and Sacrifices of the Iewes of their Tithes and of their Priests and persons Ecclesiasticall and Religious pag. 115 § I. Of their Oblations Gifts and Sacrifices ibid. § II. Of Tithes and their manner of Tithing pag. 116 § III. Of their Personall Offerings and of their and our Ecclesiasticall Reuenues pag. 119 § IIII. Of their first-borne Priests Leuites and other Religious persons pag. 121 CHAP. VIII OF the diuers Sects Opinions and Alterations of Religion amongst the Hebrewes pag. 123 § I. Of their ancient Diuisions and Idolatries ibid. § II. Of the Karraim and Rabbinists and of Hasidaei pag. 125 § III. Of the Pharises pag. 126 § IIII. Of the Sadduces pag. 129 § V. Of the Hessees pag. 130 § VI. Of the Scribes pag. 132 § VII Of many other Iewish Sects and Heresies pag. 133 CHAP. IX OF the Samaritans pag. 136 CHAP. X. THe miserable destruction and dispersion of the Iewes from the time of the desolation of their Citie and Temple to this day p. 140 § I. Of the destruction of the Iewes vnder Titus ibid. § II. Of the destruction of the Iewes vnder Adrian pag. 141 § III. Of other their false Christs and seducing Prophets pag. 143 § IIII. Of the miserable dispersions of the Iewes pag. 144 § V. Of the estate of the Iewes and their dispersed habitations in the time of Ben. Tudelensis pag. 146 § VI. Of some Iewes lately found in China and of their late accidents in Germany pag. 150 § VII Of the Iewes sometimes liuing in England collected out of ancient Records by Master Iohn Selden of the Inner Temple pag. 151 CHAP. XI A Chronologie of the Iewish Historie from the beginning of the World briefly collected pag. 153 CHAP. XII OF the Iewish Talmud and the composition and estimation thereof also of the Iewish learned men their succession their Cabalists Masorites their Rabbines Vniuersities Students Rabbinicall Creations their Scriptures and the Translations of them pag. 155 § I. Of the Talmud ibid. § II. Of the ancient Iewish Authors and their Cabalists pag. 161 § III. Of the Rabbines the Rites of their Creation the Iewish Vniuersities and Students pag. 164 § IIII. Of the Scriptures and their Interpretations pag. 168 CHAP. XIII OF the Moderne Iewes Creed or the Articles of their Faith with their interpretation of the same and their Affirmatiue and Negatiue Precepts pag. 170 § I. Of their Creed ibid. § II. Of the Negatiue Precepts expounded by the Rabbines pag. 174 § III. Of their Affirmatiue Precepts pag.
our inheritance for actuall sinnes are our owne purchase and improuement and yet bought with that stocke which our Parents left vs Our first Parents are to bee considered not as singular persons onely whereby they defiled themselues but as the roote of Mankind which had receiued Originall Righteousnesse to keepe or to lose to them and theirs as a perpetuall inheritance As in the Bodie Politike the Act of the Prince is reputed the Act of the whole the consent of a Burgesse in Parliament bindeth the whole Citie which he representeth and as in the naturall Bodie the whole bodie is lyable to the guilt of that fact which the head or hand hath committed as a root to his branches a Fountaine to his streames doth conuey the goodnesse or badnesse which it selfe hath receiued So stands it betwixt vs and Adam our naturall Prince the Burgesse of the World the Head of this humane Bodie and Generation the Root and Fountaine of our Humanitie When hee sinned hee lost to himselfe and vs that Image of GOD or that part of the Image of GOD which he had receiued for himselfe and vs not the substance nor the faculties of bodie or soule but the conformitie in that substance and faculties to the will of GOD in righteousnesse and holinesse of truth Not so much therefore are wee here to consider the ordinary course of Nature wherein the soule that sinneth it shall dye as the Ordinance of GOD who appointed the first Adam the Wel-spring of Nature which he receiued incorrupted the second of Grace that as men we all by Generation are of the first and with the first one old man in whom we all sinned of and with the second Adam we are all one new man in the Lord euen one bodie one Spirit one Seed one Christ in whom and with whom wee as members of that Head obeyed the Precepts and suffered the curse of the Law Other sinnes of Adam are not our naturall but his personall because he could be no longer a publike person then while he had somewhat to saue or lose for vs all being alreadie forfeited in this first sinne The Authour then of Originall Sinne is the Propagator of our Nature his actuall sinne is originally ours the Guilt being deriued by imputation the Corruption by naturall generation First that Person corrupted Nature after Nature infected our Persons The matter of this Originall corruption in regard of the subiect is All and euery man and All and euery part of all and euery man subiect to all sinne that if all be not as bad as any and the best as the worst it must be ascribed to GODS restrayning or renewing not vnto vnequall degrees in this originall staine In regard of the Obiect the matter of it is the want of originall Righteousnesse and a contrary inclination to Euill The imaginations of our hearts being onely euill continually No Grapes can grow on these Thornes The forme of this corruption is the deformitie of our corrupted Nature not by infusion or imitation but by default of that first instrument by which this Nature descendeth It is the roote of actuall sinnes and whereas they as fruits are transient this still remayneth vntill Christ by his death destroyeth this death in vs But here ariseth another difficulty How this sinne can bee deriued by Generation seeing it is truely beleeued that God is Father of Spirits the For men of our Soules which doth by infusion create and by Creation infuse theme corruptible Elements beeing vnable to procreate an incorruptible substance or generation to produce in corruption Neither standeth it with reason that he which communicateth not the substance should communicate the accidents or with Iustice that an innocent Soule should necessarily be stayned by inuoluntary infusion into a polluted bodie I answere hereunto That although the Soule be not traducted as they terme it and by Generation conferred yet is it coupled to the body in that manner and order which GOD had appointed for the coniunction thereof though man had not sinned Neither was it the Soule alone in Adam or the body alone but the Person consisting of both which sinned Neither can we be partakers of Natures sinne till we be partakers of humane Nature which is not till the Soule and Body bee vnited Wee are not so much therefore to looke to the concupiscence and lust of the Parents in generation as Lumbard teacheth vs but to the Person which Scotus saith is filia Adae debitrix iustitiae originalis And although the Soule be not in the seed yet it is communicated to the Body saith Aquinas by a dispositiue preparatiue power of the Seed which disposeth and prepareth the Body to the receiuing of the Soule where it is receiued after the generall rule according to the measure and nature of that which receiueth The Father is then a perfect Father not because he begetteth the Soule but because he begetteth the Person or at least all whatsoeuer in the Person is begotten and though he doth not beget the substance thereof yet as it is such a subsistence he may be said to procreate it because his generation worketh towards the Vnion of the Soule and Body which Vnion is made by the Spirits Animall and Vitall And these Spirits are procreated by the Seed and consist of a middle nature as it were betwixt bodily and spirituall so that the production of the Soule and incorporating thereof may be counted in the middle way betweene Creation and Generation And therefore this originall corruption did not reach to Christ Iesus although hee were true Man because hee was the Seed of the Woman and did not descend of Adam by generation per seminatem rationem tanquam à principio actiuo saith Aquinas but was miraculously framed in the wombe and of the substance of the Virgin by the power of the Holy Ghost Thus haue I presumed to offer my crude and rude Meditations to the wiser World about the deriuation of Originall sinne which it selfe is the cause why we can no better see it as darkenesse hideth it selfe But the whole Citie of Mankind being here with set on fire it behoueth euery one to be more carefull to quench it then ouer-curiously to enquire how it came It is sufficient that nothing descended hereby to vs by corruption or was made ours by imputation which is not fully cured by Christ who is made vnto vs both by imputation of his actiue and passiue obedience and by reall infusion of his Spirit Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification and Redemption if wee haue faith to receiue it and Charitie to expresse it an absolute renewer and perfecter of the Image of God beyond what wee had in our first Parents lost CHAP. VI. Of the Reliques of the Diuine Image after the Fall whereby naturally men addict themselues vnto some Religion and what was the Religion of the World before the Floud THis sinne of our first
Catholicke and vniuersall idolatrie thereunto which the three Saints Shadrach Meshach and Abednego refused and in a fierie triall were found both Martyrs and Confessors Lyranus Hugo Cardinalis Pererius Pintus Pellicanus thinke that Nabuchodonosor set vp this Image for himselfe requiring diuine honour to be giuen vnto it as Caligula since amongst the Romans but by his expostulation Will yee not serue my god and the like answere of those three men We will not serue thy gods it seemeth to haue beene consecrated to Bel or some other Babylonian Deitie Which because it was erected in the plaine of Dura this is thought to bee Dera in Susiana mentioned by Ptolomey Daniel might haue good occasion of absence from thence whose office was to sit in the gate of the King at Babylon Strabo out of Megasthenes whom Annius hath set out as truly as he hath done Berosus saue that he lisped in the name and called him Metasthenes sayth of this King whom hee nameth Nabacodrosor more esteemed of the Chaldaeans then Hercules that he came in his expeditions as farre as the Pillars of Hercules the straights of Gibraltar and as far as Tearcon the Aethiopian and that he conducted an army out of Iberia into Thracia and Pontus This Tearcon is he whom the Scripture calleth Tirhaka which warred against Senacherib But to returne to our pensile Gardens which Diodorus and Curtius attribute to a Syrian King which was no other but this Conquerour of Syria Nabuchodonosor and both they and Strabo doe at large describe and account among the worlds wonders as were also the Bridge and the Walls of the Citie And no lesse wonderfull was that Obeliske or Needle a square stone made spire-fashion cut by Semiramis out of the mountaines of Armenia one hundred and fiftie foot long and foure and twentie thicke on many Waines brought to the Riuer thence to Babylon and there erected Plinie testifieth that the Temple of Belus stil remaineth in his dayes and that Belus was inuentor of Astronomie This Temple was the same with the Sepulchre of Belus which Strabo sayth was rased by Xerxes yet not so but that Alexander would haue repaired it but in regard that it asked so much labour and time for onely the clensing of the earth required ten thousand men two moneths worke he was not able to finish that which he had begunne In the description he saith lesse then Herodotus that it was a Pyramis or spire-worke a furlong or six hundred foot in height and each of the fouresquares containing as much Arrianus affirmeth that Alexander had the same purpose of other Temples also The Temples sayth he which Xerxes had ouerthrowne he commanded to be repayred and among them the Temple of Belus whom the Babylonians with singular Religion worship At his returne homewards Belus in thankefulnesse it seemeth sent his Chaldaean Priests to meete him and forbid him to enter the Citie as he loued his life whose Oracle Alexander contemning there ended his dayes The cause why he listned not to them is thought a mistrust that he conceiued of the Chaldaeans For whereas Xerxes at his returne out of Greece had razed this and all other sacred places of the Babylonians Alexander minding the repaire hereof hauing already remoued the rubbish thought with his whole Armie to atchieue this enterprise But the reuenue which the Kings of Assyria had left for the maintenance of this Temple sacrifices after the ouerthrow thereof was shared among the Chaldaeans which they by this attempt were like to lose and therefore were willing to want his presence This Temple some suppose to be that Tower of Babel mentioned by Moses Gen. 11. and supposed still in part to remaine For about seuen or eight miles from Bagdat as men passe from Felugia a Towne on Euphrates whereon old Babylon stood to this new Citie on Tygris a worke of eighteene houres and about forty miles space there is seene a ruinous shape of a shapelesse heape and building in circuit lesse then a mile some say but a quarter of a mile about the height of the stone-worke of Pauls steeple in London the bricks being sixe inches thicke eight broad and a foot long as master Allen measured with Mats of Canes laied betwixt them yet remayning as sound as if they had beene laid within a yeeres space Thus master Eldred and master Fitch master Cartwright also and my friend master Allen by testimony of their owne eyes haue reported But I can scarce thinke it to be that Tower or Temple because Authors place it in the middest of old Babylon and neere Euphrates Whereas this is neerer Tygris Isidore affirmeth that first after rhe floud Nimrod the Giant founded Babylon which Semiramis the Assyrian Queene enlarged and made the wall with Bricke and Bitumen The height of the Tower was fiue thousand one hundred seuenty foure paces Verstegan addeth the passage to mount vp was verie wide and great winding about on the out-side the middle and inward part for the more strength being all massie and by Cart Camels Dromedaries Horses and Asses the carriages were borne and drawne vp and by the way were many Lodgings and Hosteries both for man and beast yea fields also for graine and pasture if yee can beleeue it But it is now as wee see come to confusion Also there are yet beyond Tygris some ruines of a Temple which is called the Temple of Bel with high yron gates as is reported Dominicus Niger hath these words Seleucia in processe of time hath changed her state and her site For it was on the westerne banke of Tygris which a Cut from Euphrates flowed into in which place are now seene the ruines thereof where the shepheards haue erected them cottages and on the Easterne banke haue the Barbarians built the Citie and called it Bachdad right ouer-against the old If this be true vaine is the conceit of credulous Trauellers which suppose those ruines to be the monuments of Babylons buriall and confound against this later world with the reports of Babels Tower The Bitumen of slimie pitch which they vsed in stead of Morter in their building is as Dominicus Niger out of Trogus reporteth common in those parts Herodotus telleth that eight dayes iourney from Babylon was another Citie named Is with a small rill of the same name which runneth into Euphrates carrying thither as tribute much of this slimie matter Niger mentioneth one place where out of a clift or opening of the earth proceedeth such a stinke that it killeth the Birds which flie ouer it And at this day two dayes iourney from Bagdat at a place called Ait is a mouth continually throwing forth boyling pitch therefore by the Moores called Hel-mouth which runneth into a great field almost full thereof and herewith they pitch their boates The water as my friend master Allen who liued in Bagdat diuers moneths told me is warme and accounted medicinable for which cause he hath
Esay speake to the Princes of Sodome in his time and the people of Gomorrha in respect of that their wickednesse which suruiued them and hath fructified vnto vs among whom yet the Lord of Hoasts as with them hath reserued a small remnant from this worse plague then Sodoms brimstone a Reprobate sense The difference betwixt ours and them is that they were more open ours more close both in like height but not in like weight of wickednesse our darkenesse excelling theirs both in the sinne and in the punishment in as much as a greater light hath shined which we with hold in vnrighteousnesse And if you will haue the maine character of difference betwixt these and those the one are beastly Men the other are Deuils in the flesh First from a sparke of Hell Concupiscence guided by Sensuall Lust attended by Ease and Prosperitie and further inflamed and blowne by the Deuill an vnnaturall fire which stil beareth the name of Sodomie was kindled which gaue coales to a supernaturall flame rained by the LORD in Brimstone and fire from the LORD out of Heauen and burning euen to Hell againe the Alpha and Omega of wickednesse where they suffer saith Iude the vengeance of eternall fire This is written for our learning on whom the ends of the world are come their ashes being made an example vnto them that should after liue vngodly Let not any obiect the Preacher here and require the Historian seeing that Historie builds no castles in the ayre but preacheth both ciuill and diuine knowledge by examples of the passed vnto the present Ages And why should not I preach this which not my calling alone but the very place it selfe exacteth Discite iustitiam moniti is the quintessence of all Historie They being dead yet speake and the place of their buriall is a place to our memorie being turned into a Sea but a Dead Sea which couereth their sinnes that it may discouer ours which as astonished at their vnnaturalnesse hath forgotten her owne nature It drowneth the Earth which it should haue made as whilome it did fertile it staies it selfe with wonder and indignation and falling in a dead swowne sincketh downe with horrour not wakened not mooued with the windes blustering refusing the light of the Sunne the lappe of the Ocean the Commerce of strangers or familiarity of her owne and as it happeneth in deepe passions the colour goeth and commeth changing three times euery day it gaspeth foorth from her dying entrailes a stincking and noysome ayre to the neere dwellers pestiferous sometimes voyding as it were excrements both lighter ashes and grosse Asphaltum The neighbour fruits participate of this death promising to the eye toothsome and wholesome foode performing only smoake and ashes And thus hath out GOD shewed himselfe a consuming fire the LORD of anger to whom vengeance belongeth all Creatures mustering themselues in his sight and saying at his first call to execution Loe we are heere That which I haue said of these miracles still liuing in this dead-Sea is confirmed by testimonie of many h Authors Brocard telleth of those Trees with ashes growing vnder Engaddi by this Sea and a vapour rising out of the Sea which blasteth the neighbour-fruits and the slimie pits on the brinkes of the Sea which hee saw Neither strangers nor her owne haue accesse there where Fishes the naturall inhabitants of the Waters and Water-fowles the most vsuall ghests haue no entertainment and men or other heauie bodies cannot sinke Vespasian prooued this experiment by casting in some bound vnskilfull of swimming whom the waters surfetted with swallowing her owne spewed vp againe This is mentioned by Aristotle also who saith that the saltnesse there of is the cause why neyther man nor beast though bound can sinke in it nor any fish liue therein which yet in the salt-sea wee see no otherwise The Philosopher could see no further then reason nor all that neither but Moses guideth vs beyond Philosophie to diuine vengeance which thus subuerted Nature when men became vnnaturall The Lake Iosephus saith is fiue hundred and fourescore furlongs in length Plinie hath an hundred myles the breadth betweene sixe and fiue and twentie myles Strabo telleth of thirteene Cities still whereof Sodome was chiefe of threescore furlongs compasse wherof some were consumed by fire or swallowed by Earth-quakes and sulphurous Waters the rest forsaken some Remainders as bones of those carkasses then in his time continuing Vertomannus saith That there are the ruines of three Cities on the tops of three Hils and that the Earth is without water and barren and a greater miracle hath a kinde of bloody mixture somewhat like red waxe the depth of three or foure cubites The ruines of the Cities are there seene still Georgius Cedrenus in his Greeke History written aboue fiue hundred and fiftie yeeres since writeth that hee had seene this dead-Sea and reckoneth thereof these maruells That it produceth no quicke Creature that dead carkasses sinke therein a liuing man can scarcely diue vnder water lamps burning swimme but being put out they sinke there are fountaines of Bitumen allume also and salt but bitter and shining Where any fruit is found nothing is found but smoake The water thereof is holesome to such as vse it but differing from other waters in contrarie accidents Not long after his time Fulcherius Carnotensis in the beginning of the Westerne kingdome in these parts testifieth the vntolerable saltnesse of this sea from his owne taste And that neere the same is a hill which in diuers places thereof is likewise salt shining therewith like ice and hard as stone and ghesseth that the saltnesse of this sea proceedeth partly from that cause partly from the intercourse which vnder the earth it holdeth with the greater sea Compassing this lake on the South side we came to a Village which they say is Segor abounding with Dates where the Inhabitants were blacke And there saith he did I see apples on the trees which when I opened I found blacke and dustie within * The like is read Sap. 10.7 Of whose wickednesse euen to this day the waste Land that smoketh is a testimony and plants bearing fruits that neuer came to ripenesse and a standing pillar of Salt is a monument of an vnbeleeuing soule They left behind them to the World a memoriall of their foolishnesse c. And Moses Deut. 32.32 their vine is of the vine of Sodom and of the vine of Gomorrah their grapes are grapes of gall their clusters are bitter c. Which allegorie must haue his foundation in the naturall disposition of those places and fruits Later Trauellers as William Lithgow and I haue heard the like of Master Eldred which haue seene these parts say there are now no such fruits which may come to passe by that alteration which so long space may cause or else because they visited not those parts which Fulcherius mentions Lithgow addes that the water of this dead Sea contrarie
stones which they binde in an handkerchiefe and carry to that place of Mina where they stay fiue dayes because at that time there is a Fayre free and franke of all custome And in this place are other three Pillars not together but set in diuers places Monuments of those three Apparitions which the Deuill made to Abraham an to Ismael his sonne for they now a dayes make no mention of Isaac as if he had neuer beene borne They say that when as Abraham at Gods command went to offer his sonne Ismael the deuill dehorted him from the same but seeing his labour lost he went to Ismael and bid him pittie himselfe But Ismael tooke vp stones and threw at him saying I defend me with God from the Deuill the offender These words the Pilgrimes repeate in their visitation of these Pillars hurling away the stones they had gathered From hence halfe a mile is a Mountaine whither Abraham went to sacrifice his sonne In the same is a great den whither the Pilgrimes resort to make their prayers and there is a great stone separated in the middest by the knife of Ismael they say at the time of this sacrifice Barthema reporteth that heere at Mecca he saw two Vnicornes which I mention because since that time I haue not found any Author which hath testified the like sight They were sent to the Seriffo for a present by an Aethiopian King The Carouan departing for Medina as soone as they come in sight thereof they call the place The Mountaine of Health they alight and going vp the hill shout with loud voyces and say Prayer and health be vnto thee O Prophet of God Prayer and health be vpon thee O beloued of GOD. They proceed on their iourney and lodge that night within three miles of Medina and the next morning are receiued with solemnitie of the Gouernour Medina is a Citie two miles in circuit with faire houses of lime and stone and a square Mosquita in the middest lesse but more sumptuous then that of Mecca This is called Medina Tal Nabi that is the Citie of the Prophet in Barthemaes time it contained about three hundred houses and was very barren one garden of Dates excepted but now they haue store of fruits This Temple is square an hundred paces in length fourescore in breadth It hath in it an I le made Arch-wise supported with foure hundred Pillars and supporting as he saith three thousand Lampes In one part of this Mosquita was a Librarie of fortie fiue Mahumeticall bookes Also within the same in a corner thereof is a Tombe built vpon foure Pillars with a Vault exceeding in height the Mosquita being couered with Lead and the top all inameld with gold and an halfe Moone vpon the top wrought within verie artificially with gold Below there are round about great yron staires ascending vp to the middest of the Pillars and in the middest lyeth buried the bodie of Mahumet not in an yron chest attracted by Adamant at Mecca as some affirme Or to say the truth neither here nor at Mecca can they shew this Seducers bodie For the Captaine of that Carouan of Damasco in which Barthema went on this Pilgrimage offered to the chiefe Priest of that Mosquita three thousand Saraffi of gold to shew him the bodie of the Nabi or Prophet that saith he being the onely cause of my comming The Priest answered proudly How can those eyes wherewith thou hast committed so much euill in the world see him by whom GOD hath created Heauen and Earth The Captaine replied True Sir but doe me that fauour to let me see his bodie and I will presently plucke out mine eyes The Priest answered O Sir I will tell you the truth It is true that our Prophet would die heere to giue vs good example for hee might haue died at Mecca but such was his humilitie for our instruction and presently after hee was dead he was carried by the Angels into heauen And where saith the Captaine is Iesus Christ the Sonne of Marie The Priest answered At the feet of Mahomet In the night time by some fire-workes in the steeple they would haue gulled the credulous people with opinion of miracle vsing out-cryes in the night saying Mahomet would rise againe and when the Mamalukes could see no such light shine forth of Mahomets Tombe as they rumoured they said It was because they were slaues and weake in the faith and could not see heauenly sights To returne to the discouery of this supposed Sepulchre Ouer the bodie they haue built a Tombe of speckled stone a brace and halfe high and ouer the same another of Legmame foure-square in manner of a Piramis Round about the Sepulchre there hangeth a curtaine of silke which hideth the Sepulture from their sight that stand without Beyond this in the same Mosquita are other two Sepulchres of Fatma and Hali who yet as some say was buried at Massadalli neere Cusa others say hee neuer died but his comming is still expected The attendants on these Sepulchres are fiftie Eunuches white and tawnie of which three onely of the eldest and best esteemed white Eunuches may enter within the Tombe which they doe twice a day to light the Lampes and for other seruices The other attend on the Mosquita and those two other Sepulchres Where euery one may goe and touch at his pleasure and take of the earth for deuotion as many doe The Captaine with great pompe presenteth that Pyramid-like Vestment whereof you haue heard for the Tombe the Eunuches taking away the old and laying on the new and after this other vestures for the ornament of the Mosquita And the people without deliuer vnto the Eunuches each man somewhat to touch the Tombe therewith which they keepe as a Relique with great deuotion Here is a stately Hospitall built by Cassachi or Rosa the wife of great Soliman richly tented and nourishing many poore people A mile from the Citie are certaine houses in one of which they say Mahomet dwelt hauing on euery side many Date-trees amongst which there are two growing out of one stocke exceeding high which their Prophet forsooth grafted with his owne hands The fruit thereof is alway sent to Constantinople for a Present to the Grand-Signior and is said to be the Blessed fruit of the Prophet Also there is a little Mosquita wherein three places are counted holy The first they affirme their Prophet made his first prayer in after hee knew God The second is that whither he went when he would see the house of Abraham Where when he sate downe to that intent the Mountaines opened from the top to the bottome to shew him the house and after closed againe as before The third is the middest of the Mosquita where is a Tombe made of Lime and Stone fouresquare and full of sand wherein they say was buried that blessed Camell which Mahomet was alway wont to ride vpon Euen still as one Mr. Simons a Merchant and beholder thereof
and besides them come in no company of men nor doe they speake with a man or in any part of their body are seene of any man because they thinke sight especially where beautie or comlinesse is cannot bee without sinne Onely the brother may bee permitted to see the sister but not the husbands brother Yea their sonnes when they come to growth are separated from them For this cause that sexe is not suffered to buy and sell but is closely mewed saue that their law alloweth them to frequent the publike Baths The wife and Concubine differ in the right to a dowrie which the later wanteth but the wife must cause the other to bee her husbands bed-fellow when hee commandeth without gaine-saying except on their Sabbath or Friday night which is the wiues peculiar Yet are the Turkes giuen in both Sexes to vnnaturall lust in these times euen the women in publike Baths sometimes are so enflamed in that filthinesse as is intollerable Busbequius tells of one woman which falling in loue with a young maide and no way else preuailing clothed her selfe in mans apparell and hyring a house neere procured the fathers good will to haue that his daughter in marriage which being solemnized betweene them and the truth discouered which the blacke mantle of night could not couer from Hymaeneus complaint was made and the Gouernour quenched the hot flames of this new Bridegroome causing her to bee drowned for that offence If the man abuse the wife to vnnaturall lust shee may haue her remedie by diuorce if shee accuse her husband which modestie forbiddeth to bee done in words and therefore shee puts off her shooe and by inuerting the same accuseth her to her husbands peruersenesse One Master Simons which liued amongst them told me that there are some which keepe boyes gallantly arraied to serue for the worse then beastly lust of such as will hyre them He affirmed also That they haue this lothsome punishment for that lothsome sinne of whoredome to take the panch of a beast new killed and cutting a hole thorow to thrust the adulterers head in this dung-wallet and so carrie him in pompe thorow the streets It is death either to the bodie by iudiciall sentence or the soule by turning Turke for a Christian to haue carnall dealing with any of their women A Iew which had dealing with a Turkes wife with her husbands consent could not escape hanging therefore this indeed was a fauour for hee should haue beene burned notwithstanding his rich countrey-men offered 2000. Duckets to saue him Her husband was hanged for his wittoldly permission and she her selfe drowned George Dousa reporteth the like danger which an Armenian hardly escaped but for talking with a Turkish woman both of them being therefore imprisoned and thence deliuered at a deere rate Hee telleth of their Paederastie that they buy boyes at an hundred or two hundred Duckets and mew them vp for their filthy lust till they proue bearded they will also steale boyes for that villanie as hee instanceth of one which came with the Polonian Embassadour so stolne and neuer could after bee heard of Murther prohibited in their eight Commandement they hold vnpardonable if it bee done wilfully Often will the Turkes braule but neuer in priuate quarrels strike one another for feare of this Law and the seueritie of the Magistrate And if one bee found dead in street or house the Master of the house or the Parish must finde out the murtherer otherwise hee himselfe shall be accused of it and the whole Contado shall be fined and likewise in case of robberie During the time that I remained amongst them you heare Mr. Sandys it being aboue three quarters of a yeere I neuer saw Mahometan offer violence to a Mahometan nor breake into ill language If any giue a blow hee hath many gashes made in his flesh and is led about for a terrour but the man-slayer is deliuered to the friends of the slaine to bee by them tortured to death For publike punishments to mention that heere they haue impaling on stakes thrust in at their fundament ganching on hookes on which they are cast from some high place there to hang till famine if some more gentle crueltie haue not made a suddenner dispatch consumed them they also haue another inuention to twitch the offender about the waste with a towell enforcing him by often prickings to draw vp his breath till they haue drawne him within the compasse of a spanne then tying it hard they cut him off in the middle and setting the bodie on a hot plate of copper which seareth the veynes vp-propping him during their cruell pleasure who not onely retaineth sense but discourse also till hee be taken downe and then departeth in an instant Little faults are chastised by blowes on the soles of their feet by hundreths at a time Parents correct their children by stripes on their bellies §. II. Of other their Opinions and Practices in Religion MEnaninus reckoneth seuen mortall sinnes Pride Auarice Lecherie Wrath Enuie Sloth and Gluttonie The first they say cast Lucifer out of heauen The second is the root of many other sinnes The third is most rise amongst them and that in the most filthy and vnnaturall kinde of Sodomie their Law to the contrarie notwithstanding Their fourth maketh a man a beast The fifth shutteth men out of Paradise and so forth of the rest Wine is also forbidden them but yet they will bee drunke with it if they can get their fill of it And Mahomet the third Anno 1601. imputing diuers insolencies of the Ianizaries to their excessiue drinking of Wine by the Musties perswasion commanded on paine of death all such in Constantinople and Pera as had Wine to bring it out and staue it except Embassadours onely so that the streets ranne therewith One drinking Wine with Busbequius made great clamors being asked the cause hee said hee did it to warne his soule to flee into some corner of the bodie or else be quite gone lest it should bee polluted with that sinne Yet in their Fast or Lent they abstaine very religiously If it be proued against a Priest that he hath drunke wine but once hee shall neuer be beleeued as a witnesse after it Swines flesh is prohibited too in abstaining from which they are more obedient it being vtterly abhorred The Turkes generally hate saith Septemcastrensis that lightnesse in apparell speech gesture c. vsed of the Christians whom for this cause they call Apes and Goates Likewise they are not sumptuous in their priuate buildings They go to the warre as it were to a wedding esteeming them blessed which are therein slaine The wiues and women-sernants agree in one house without iealousie and grudging they are in their habite and behauiour modest and where himselfe dwelt the Father-in-law had not seene the face of his Daughter-in-law liuing in the same house with him in twentie yeeres space so religiously doe they veyle themselues
and Peloponnesus for feare of a second returne of Techellis The remainder of Techellis his power as they fled into Persia robbed a Carauan of Merchants for which outrage comming to Tauris their Captaines were by Ismaels command executed and Techellis himselfe burnt aliue but yet is this Sect closely fauoured in Asia §. III. Of their Rites Persons Places and Opinions Religious WE haue now seene the Proceedings of this Sophian Sect both in Persia and Turkie both here kept downe and there established by force To weare red on the lower parts of their body were to these Red-heads scarsely piacular Touching Hali they haue diuers dreames as that when they doubted of Mahomets successor a little Lizard came into a Councell assembled to decide the controuersie and declared that it was Mahomets pleasure that Mortus Ali or Morts Ali should be the man He had a sword wherewith hee killed as many as he stroke At his death he told them that a white Camell would come for his body which accordingly came and carried his dead body and the sword and was therewith taken vp into heauen for whose returne they haue long looked in Persia For this cause the King kept a horse ready sadled and kept for him also a daughter of his to be his wife but she died in the yeere 1573. And they say further that if he come not shortly they shall be of our beleefe They haue few bookes and lesse learning There is often great contention and mutinie in great Townes which of Mortus Ali his sonnes was greatest sometime two or three thousand people being together by the eares about the same as I haue seene sayth Master Ducket in Shamaky and Ardouill and Tauris where I haue seene a man comming from fighting and in a brauery bringing in his hand foure or fiue mens heads carrying them by the hayre of the crowne For although they shaue their heads commonly twice a weeke yet leaue they a tuft of hayre vpon their heads about two foot long whereof when I enquired the cause They answered that thereby they may bee the easier carried vp into heauen when they are dead In praying they turne to the South because Mecca lyeth that way from them When they be on trauell in the way many of them will as soone as the Sunne riseth light from their horses turning themselues to the South and will lay their gownes before them with their swords and beads and so standing vpright doe their holy things many times in their prayers kneeling downe and kissing their beades or somewhat else that lieth before them When they earnestly affirme a matter they sweare by God Mahomet and Mortus Ali and sometime by all at once saying Olla Mahumet Ali and sometime Shaugham bosshe that is by the Shaughes head Abas the young Prince of Persia charged with imputation of treason after other Purgatorie speeches sware by the Creator that spread out the ayre that founded the earth vpon the deepes that adorned the heauen with Starres that powred abroad the water that made the fire and briefly of nothing brought forth all things by the head of Ali and by the Religion of their Prophet Mahomet that hee was cleare If any Christian will become a Bosarman or one of their superstition they giue him many gifts the Gouernor of the Towne appointeth him a horse and one to ride before him on another horse bearing a sword in his hand and the Bosarman bearing an arrow in his hand rideth in the City cursing his father and mother The sword signifieth death if hee reuolt againe Before the Shaugh seemed to fauour our Nation the people abused them very much and so hated them that they would not touch them reuiling them by the names of Cafars and Gawars that is Infidels or Mis-beleeuers Afterwards they would kisse their hands and vse them gently and reuerently Drunkards and riotous persons they hate for which cause Richard Iohnson caused the English by his vicious liuing to be worse accounted of then the Russes Their opinions and rites most-what agree with the Turkish and Saracenicall Their Priests are apparelled like other men they vse euery morning and afternoone to goe vp to the toppes of their Churches and tell there a great tale of Mahomet and Mortus Ali. They haue also among them certaine holy-men called Setes accounted therefore holy because they or some of their ancestors haue beene on pilgrimage at Mecca these must be beleeued for this Saint-ship although they lie neuer so shamefully These Setes vse to shaue their heâ—ds all ouer sauing on the sides a little aboue the Temples which they leaue vnshauen and vse to braide the same as women doe their hayre and weare it as long as it will grow Iosafa Barbaro at Sammachi lodged in an Hospitall wherein was a graue vnder a vault of stone and neere vnto that a man with his beard and hayre long naked sauing that a little before and behind he was couered with a skinne sitting on a peece of a matte on the ground I sayth hee saluted him and demanded what hee did he told mee hee watched his father I asked who was his father He quoth he that doth good to his neighbour with this man in this Sepulchre I haue liued thirty yeeres and will now accompany him after death and being dead be buried with him I haue seene of the world sufficient and now haue determined to abide thus till death Another I found at Tauris on all-Soules day in the which they also vsed a commemoration of Soules departed neere to the Sepulchre in a Church-yard hauing about him many birds especially Rauens and Crowes I thought it had beene a dead corpse but was told it was a liuing Saint at whose call the birds resorted to him and he gaue them meat Another I saw when Assambei was in Armenia marching into Persia against Signior Iausa Lord of Persia and Zagatai vnto the City of Herem who drew his staffe in the dishes wherein they are and sayd certaine words and brake them all the Sultan demanded what he had sayd they which heard him answered that he said hee should be victorious and breake his enemies forces as hee had done those dishes whereupon he commanded him to be kept till his returne and finding the euent according he vsed him honourably When the Sultan rode thorow the fields he was set on a Mule and his hands bound before him because he was sometime accustomed to doe some dangerous folly at his feet there attended on him many of their religious persons called Daruise These mad trickes he vsed according to the course of the Moone sometimes in two or three dayes not eating any thing busied in such fooleries that they were faine to bind him Hee had great allowance for his expences One of those holy men there was which went naked like to the beasts preaching their faith and hauing obtained great reputation hee caused himselfe to bee immured in a wall forty
and by their weight leaue so deepe impression in the sand that hereby men knowing their haunt doe vnder set this their Tract with sharpe stakes headed with yron couering the same againe with sand by this meanes preying on the spoyler and deuouring the deuourer esteeming nothing more sauorie then the flesh nor more medicinable then the gall of this Serpent More Serpentine then this diet was that custome which they vsed when any proper and personable Gentleman of valourous Spirit and goodly presence lodged in any house amongst them in the night they killed him not for the spoyle but that his soule furnished with such parts of body and mind might remaine in that house Much hope of future happinesse to that house did they repose in so vnhappy attempts But the great Can killed this Serpent also ouerthrowing this custome in the conquest of that Prouince CARDANDAN confineth on the Westerne limits of Carazan They make blacke lists in their flesh razing the skinne and put therein some blacke tincture which euer remayneth accounting it a great ornament When a woman is deliuered of a child the man lyeth in and keepeth his bed with visitation of Gossips the space of fortie dayes They worship the ancientest person of the house ascribing to him all their good In this prouince and in Caindu Vocian and Iaci they haue no Phisicians but when any be sicke they send for their Witches or Sorcerers and acquaint them with their maladie They cause Minstrels to play while they dance and sing in honour of their Idols not ceasing till the Diuell entereth into one of them of whom those Sorcerers demand the cause of the parties sickenesse and meanes of recouerie The Demoniake answereth for some offence to such or such a god They pray that God of pardon vowing that when he is whole he shall offer him a sacrifice of his owne bloud If the Diuell see him vnlikely to recouer he answereth that his offences are so grieuous that no sacrifice can expiate but if there be likelihood of recouery he enioyneth them a sacrifice of so many Rams with blacke heads to be offered by these Sorcerers assembled together with their wiues then will that god be reconciled This is presently done by the kinsemen of the sicke the sheepe killed their bloud hurled vp towards Heauen The Sorcerers and Sorceresses make great lights and incense all this visited house making a smoke of Lignum Aloes and casting into the ayre the water wherein the sacrificed flesh was sodden with some spiced drinkes laughing singing dancing in honour of that God After all this reuel-rout they demand againe of the Demoniake if the God be appeased : if so they fall to those spiced drinkes and sacrificed flesh with great mirth and being well apayed returne home if not they at his bidding renue their superstition ascribing the recouerie if it happen to that Idoll and if he dyeth notwithstanding they shift it off to the want of their full due fleecing or tasting the same before to the Idols defrauding Thus doe they in all Cathay and Mangi Thus much out of the large reports of Paulus that renowmed Venetian to whom our Relations are so much indebted Rubruquius telleth the like of CAILAR and CARACORAM where hee had beene in these Catayan Prouinces concerning their Christopher or Giant-like Idols and Idol Temples in one of which he saw a man with a crosse drawne with inke on his hand who seemed by his answers to bee a Christian with Images like to that of Saint Michael and other Saints They haue a Sect called Iugures whose Priests are shauen and clad in Saffron-coloured garments vnmarried an hundred or two hundred in a Cloyster On their holy-dayes they place in their Temples two long formes one ouer against another whereon they sit with bookes in their hands reading softly to themselues Nor could our Author entring amongst them by any meanes breake this their silence They haue wheresoeuer they goe a string about them full of nut-shels like the Popish beadrols alway they are vttering these words Ou â—am hactani God thou knowest expecting so many rewards as they make such memorials of God They haue a Church-yard and a Church-porch with a long pole on it as it were a steeple adioyning to their Temples In those porches they vse to sit and conferre They weare certaine ornaments of paper on their heads Their writing is downewards and so from the left hand to the right which the Tartars receiued from them They vse Magicall Characters hanging their Temples full of them They burne their dead and lay vp the ashes in the top of a Pyramis They beleeue there is one God that he is a Spirit and their Images they make not to represent God but in memoriall of the rich after their death as they professed to Rubruquius The Priests besides their Saffron-iackets buttoned close before weare on their left shoulder a cloake descending before and behind vnder their right arme like to a Deacon carrying the Housel-boxe in Lent They worship towards the North clapping their hands together and prostrating themselues on their knees vpon the Earth holding also their foreheads in their hands They extend their Temples East and West in length vpon the North side they build as it were a Vestrie on the South a Porch The doores of their Temples are alwayes opened to the South A certaine Nestorian Priest told him of so huge an Idoll that it might be seene two dayes before a man came at it Within the Quier which is on the North side of the Temple they place a chest long and broad like a Table and behind that chest stands their principall Idoll towards the South round about which they place the other lesse Idols and vpon that chest they set candles and oblations They haue great Bels like vnto ours The Nestorians of those parts pray with hands displayed before their breasts so to differ from that Iugurian Rite of ioyning hands in prayer Thus farre William de Rubruquius who was there Anno 1253. In Thebet sayth Odoricus resideth the Abassi or Pope of the Idolaters distributing Religious preferments to those Easterne Idolaters as the Roman Pope doth in the West CHAP. XVII Of other Northerne people adioyning to the Tartars and their Religions THE Permians and Samoits that lye from Russia North and North-east are thought to haue taken their beginning from the Tartar-kind whom they somewhat resemble in countenance The Permians are subiect to the Russe they liue by hunting and trading with their furres as doe the Samoits which dwell more toward the North-Sea The Samoit or Samoed hath his name as the Russe sayth of eating himselfe as if they had sometime beene Canibals and at this time they will eate raw flesh whatsoeuer it be euen the very carrion that lyeth in the ditch They say themselues that they were called Samoie that is of themselues as if they were Indigenae there â—â—ad and not transplanted from
of Barbary the one swelling the other not at all heightned in the East and West Indies I could instance the like not mentioning those currents which hinder all courses of Tides Further the Floud continueth in some places seuen houres in some foure in most sixe In the Straits of Sunda some haue obserued that it flowes twelue houres and ebbes twelue In Negropont it is said to ebbe and flow seuen times a day and Patritius affirmeth that himselfe obserued at Ausser in Liburnia in a hand-made Strait of Sea-water the same to happen twentie times in a day Againe wee see these Tide-motions differ according to their daily weekely monethly and as some adde halfe yearely and yearely alterations All which varieties cannot be attributed to one simple cause neither to any vniuersall whether Sunne Moone or Natiue heat of the Sea or any the like although wee must needs acknowledge which we cannot know one principall cause hindred or altred by manifold accidents and therefore producing effects thus diuersified Other motions also may be obserued in the Sea as that namely which is continuall and if wee call the Tides the breathing this may be tearmed the pulse of the Sea whereby the waters alway wash the shore falling on and off couering and presently vncouering the feet of such as stand by which hath force to expell all Heterogenean or differing natures as drowned carkasses wrackes and the like This as that of the Tides Patritius Peucorus Lydiate and others attribute to a kinde of boyling which as in a vessell of seething water causeth it thus to rise and fall and to expell the drosse and things contrary But the heate which causeth this boyling one ascribes to the Sunne another to fires in the Sea another to the naturall heate of the Sea engendring spirits and causing rarefaction and motion Patritius doth not onely auerre this but that the Sea is as a sublunarie Planet mouing it selfe and moued by the superiour bodies to effect the generation of things for which cause Orpheus calls the Ocean Father of Gods Men and other things The saltnesse thereof is in his opinion the instrument of this motion and the neerest inward and most proper cause of marine mouings as in the two Mexican Lakes appeareth the one whereof is salt and ebbes and flowes which the other being fresh doth not This saltnes saith he with greater heat ingendreth more spirits in moysture the cause of greater Tides he thinketh to be the shallownesse and narrower shores the force of the Ocean thrusting the same most forwards where it findes interruptions and indraughts the certaintie of the motions hee ascribes according to his Philosophie to the soule of the world mouing this as other Planets For my censure it shall bee rather on my selfe then these opinions where silence rather then boldnesse becommeth Euen a foole whiles hee holdeth his peace is accounted wise And to borrow the words of a subtill Disputer Quod vbique clamare soleo nos nihil scire maximè conuenit huic disquisitions quae maris tracta motum Let this also bee arranged amongst the wonders of the Lord in the deepe rather to be admired then comprehended I might heere speake of other Sea-motions either particular or accidentall as that in the open Seas betweene the Tropikes vncertaine whether it may bee termed an Easterly winde or some impetuous violence caused by the superiour motions which draw together with them the inferiour Elements likewise those currents in diuers coasts as at Madagascar on the African and in the great Bay on the American shores From other accidents arise other motions caused by the windes in the ayre which somewhere haue their set seasons by whirle-pooles or rather contrarie currents meeting in the Sea by Capes Indraughts Riuers Ilands of the land by the conceptions and trauelling throwes in the waters in bringing forth some imminent tempest and the like I might speake of strange Currents in many Seas vpon the coast of Africke neere to Saint Laurence and Iohn de Noua and Mayella Captaine Saris hath related that the currents detayned him a long time euen almost to desperation of getting out and one of them so dreadfull that it made a noise like that at London Bridge with a fearefull rippling of the water the more the further from land and there where they founded an hundred fathom depth as it were proclaiming open defiance to winde and sayle notwithstanding their puffing threats and most swelling lookes in foure and twentie houres carrying them a whole Degree and nine Minutes from the course which vnder full sayle with the windes assistance they intended §. III. Of the Originall of Fountaines and other Commodities of the Sea I Might adde touching the Originall of Fountaines which both Scripture and reason finding no other store sufficient deriue from the Sea how they are from thence conueyed by secret Channels and concauities vnder the earth and by what workmen of Nature thus wrought into new fresh waters Scaligers experiment to proue the Sea-water at the bottome fresh by bottles filled there by cunning Diuers or otherwise is by Patritius his experience as hee saith found false And this freshnesse of the springs not withstanding their salt originall from the Sea may rather be ascribed to percolation and straining thorough the narrow spungie passage of the earth which makes them leaue behind as an exacted toll their colour thicknesse and saltnesse Now how it should come to passe that they should spring out of the earth being higher then the Sea yea out of the highest Mountaynes hath exercised the wits of Phylosophers some ascribing it to a sucking qualitie of the thirstie or spungie earth some to the weight of the earth pressing and forcing the waters vpwards some to the motion of the Sea continually as in a Pumpe thrusting forwards the water which expelleth the weaker ayre and followeth it till it finde an out-let whereof both by the continuall protrusion of the Sea and for auoyding a vacuum or emptinesse which Nature abhorreth it holdeth continuall possession some finde out other causes And Master Ladyate in a Treatise of the Originall of Springs attributeth the same to vnder-earth fires which no lesse by a naturall distillation worketh these waters vnder the earth into this freshnesse and other qualities then the Sunne and heauenly fires doe by exhalations aboue Yea such are his speculations of these hidden fires that hee maketh them the causes of Windes Earth-quakes Minerals Gemmes fertilitie and sterilitie of the earth and of the saltnesse and motion as is before said of the Sea But loath were I to burne or drowne my Readers in these fierie and watrie Disputes let vs from these speculations retire our selues to the experimentall profits and commodities which this Element yeeldeth Concerning the commodities of the Sea as the world generally so the little models of the world the Ilands whereof this of Great Britaine is iustly acknowledged the most excellent of
gouerned at the same time in seuerall parts of Egypt as in so small a Region as Canaan Ioshua destroyed 31. Kings This Scaliger coniectureth Lydiat affirmeth Neither yet is Scaliger to be blamed for acquainting the World with these fragments of Manetho considering that the middle part therof holdeth not onely likelihood in it selfe but in great part correspondence with the Scriptures If the Egyptians deuised otherwise to Herodotus and Diodorus it was easie for them to deceiue strangers or bee deceiued themselues The like History of prodigious Antiquities Augustine relateth of an Egyptian Priest that told Alexander of the continuance of the Macedonian Kingdome eight thousand yeeres whereas the Grecians accounted but foure hundred and fourescore Yea the Scriptures themselues haue not escaped that mis-reckoning of Times almost all Antiquitie being carried downe the streame of the seuenty Interpreters which adde many hundred yeeres to the Hebrew Text either of purpose as some suppose or as Augustine thinketh by errour of him that first copied the Scriptures out of Ptolemeys Library Sir Walter Raleigh in that his laborious and learned Worke called The History of the World supposeth That Egypt first tooke that name at such time as Aegyptus or Ramesses chased thence his brother Danaus into Peloponnesus which some reckon 877. yeeres after the Floud some more As for the prodigious Antiquities which they challenge hauing refuted Mercator and Pererius he enclineth to this opinion touching their ancient Dynasties that they are not altogether fabulous but that Egypt being peopled before the Floud two hundred yeeres after Adam there might remayne to the sonnes of Mizraim some Monuments in Pillars or Altars of stone or metall of their former Kings or Gouernours which the Egyptians hauing added to the List and Roll of their King after the Floud in succeeding time out of the vanitie of glory or by some corruption in their Priests something beyond the truth might be inserted Petrus Alexandrinus lately set forth in Greeke and Latine by Raderus writes That Mizraim hauing giuen beginning to the Egyptian Nation did after goe into the East to the Persians and Bactrians and is the same that was called Zoroastres by the Greekes Inuenter of Iudiciall Astrologie and Magicke He hauing giuen order for the keeping of the ashes of his burned body as the pledge of the Empire so long to continue with them called vpon Orion which he saith was Nimrod by the Persian Superstition beleeued thus honoured after his death and was consumed with Lightning the Persians reseruing his ashes to this day the cause saith the Note on that place why the Persians worship the fire . Yet the Author mentions another cause from Perseus which kindled fire by Lightning and preseruing the same built a Temple to it Hee saith also That Picus or Iupitar his father taught Perseus to diuine by a Cup like to that which is mentioned of Ioseph in Egypt and the same Picus was father to Hermes or Mercurie King of Egypt with other Legends too long for this place This Mercurie he maketh the same with Faunus the first finder he saith of Gold and that in a golden Vesture he foretold diuers things and that the Egyptians worshipped him hauing before made him their King which place he held thirty nine yeeres After him reigned Vulcan 1680. dayes for at that time the Egyptians knew not to number by yeeres He first made a Law against Adulterie and that the Egyptian women should haue but one husband He was Inuentor of Iron and Armour Stones and Clubs being before that time the only Weapons His sonne Sol succeeded a great Philosopher after him Sosis and next Osiris then Orus Thules Conqueror of Africa and after that Sesostris of the race of Cham the same as he supposeth with Trismegistus Thus much I haue thought here to adde out of him where the Reader may further satisfie himselfe if that can satisfie any which can nothing certifie or make certaine in these Antiquities wherein we may find many opinions scarcly any truth but in the Word of Truth the Scriptures That which we read of the Dynasties of Shepherds Scaliger interpreteth of that baser seruile sort which Moses saith were abominable to the Egyptians and seeme to haue beene strangers that inhabited some fenny places which Nature had fortified if we beleeue Heliodorus and thence made forrages into the Countrey the custome of Borderers and were called therefore Robbers These it seemeth driuen to their shifts by the hard and tyrannous vsage of the Egyptians procured as wee reade of the Tartars their owne Freedome and thraldome of their Lords The Romanes in their times were forced to mayntaine a Garrison against them therefore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Ierome mentioneth the Bucolia where no Christians dwelled but onely a fierce Nation Iosephus and Eusebius thinke them to bee the Israelites which is vnlikely because they liued in seruitude and neuer raigned there Lydiat supposeth the Philistims vnder Abimelech and Phicol to be the men Nothing is more obscure in the Egyptian Chronologie then the time of the departure of Israelites thence vnder Moses whom Iustin Martyr affirmeth out of Diodorus to haue bin the first that wrote the Egyptian Lawes Tatianus Assyrus who after became an Heretike saith and alledgeth Ptolemey Mendesius a Priest for his Author That this departure was in the dayes of Amasis King of Egypt who liued in the time of Inachus Theophilus and Iosephus out of Manetho in the Reigne of Tethmoses Eusebius in the reigne of Cenchres Cedrenus saith Petisonius Others otherwise according to the diuers interpretation of Manetho The Scripture sheweth it was foure hundred and thirty yeeres from the promise first made to Abraham as all that I know both elder and later Greeke and Latine Chronographers except Genebrard and Adriehomius reckon it Lydiat thinketh That the drowning of the Egyptian Pharo was the cause of those tumults in Egypt about Succession which are ascribed to Egyptus and Danaus Orosius reporteth That the prints of the Chariot-wheeles of the Egyptians then pursuing the Israelites through the Sea did yet in his time remayne in the Sands on the shore and vnder-water which no curiositie or casualtie can so disorder but that Diuine Prouidence doth re-imprint them in their wonted forme Hard it is to apply the yeeres of the Egyptian Chronologie to the true account of the Worlds generation by reason of the disagreement of Authors touching the Egyptian Kings vntill Sesacs time which after Lydiat was in the yeere of the World 3029. although euen from hence we haue but slippery footing Augustus after the same Author made Egypt a Prouince in the yeere 3975. Vnder which Roman gouernment it continued vntill the Saracens conquered it in the time of Omar the third Chalipha who began his reigne after Scaligers computation in his Catalogue of the Chaliphaes in the yeere of Christ 643. The names of the Caesars
they haue a set Winde in some places for the day and another quite contrary bloweth in the night Also neere vnto the Coasts they are more subiect to calmes in this burning Zone than further off in the Sea the grosser vapours which arise out of the Earth and the diuers situation thereof being the cause of these differences Such is the force of this naturall situation that in some places it is strange what effects it produceth There is in Peru an high mountaine called Pariacaca whereupon Ioseph Acosta saith he ascended as well prouided as he could being fore-warned and fore-armed by men expert But in the ascent he and all the rest were surprised with so sudden pangs of straining and casting and some also of scowring that the Sea-sicknes is not comparable hereunto He cast vp Meat Flegme Choler and Blood and thought hee should haue cast out his heart too Some thinking to dye therewith demanded Confession and some are said to haue lost their liues with this accident The best is it lasteth but for a time neither leaueth any great harme behinde And thus it fareth in all the ridge of that Mountaine which runnes aboue a thousand and fiue hundred miles although not in all places alike In foure different passages thereof hee found the like difference and distemper but not so grieuous as at Pariacaca Hee ascribeth it to the subtiltie of the Aire in those high Hils which he thinketh are the highest in the world the Alpes and Pirenees being in respect hereof as ordinarie houses compared to high Towers It is Desart the grasse often burnt and blacke for the space of fiue hundred Leagues in length and fiue and twenty or thirty in breadth There are other Desarts in Peru called Punas where the Aire cutteth off mans life without feeling a small breath not violent and yet depriuing men sometimes of their liues or else of their feet and hands which fall off as a rotten Apple from a Tree without any paine This seemeth to be done by the force of cold which in the Northerne and Northeasterne parts of Europe worketh like effects some being found dead suddenly in those sleds in which they came to market sitting therein as if they were aliue and some losing their ioynts by the like cause But this maketh vp the strangenesse of these mortall accidents that this piercing cold Ayre both killeth and preserueth the same bodie depriuing it of life and yet freeing it from putrifaction A certaine Dominike passing that way fortified himselfe against the cold winds by heaping vp the dead bodies which here hee found and reposing himselfe vnder this shelter by these dead helpes saued his life The cause is Putrefaction cannot be procreated where her Parents Heate and moisture are confined and haue little or no force The Seas which compasse this Westerne India besides the Magellane Streits and the Northerne vnknowne for the knowledge whereof our Countrey-men Frobisher Dauis Hudson and others haue aduentured their liues and fortunes and at last haue giuen vs more hope then euer of the discouerie are the great and spacious Ocean which on this side is called the North Sea and on the other side of America is named the South Sea The qualities thereof will better appeare when we come to speake of the Ilands therein §. III. Of the nature of metals in generall of Gold Siluer Quick-siluer and the plenty and Mines thereof in America COncerning the Land of the New World Acosta diuideth it into three parts High Low and Meane which hold almost the same proportion that Master Lambert obserueth of Kent the first hauing some wealth by reason of the Hauens and Ports therein and of the Vines that grow there but are very vnholesome the Hils are healthfull but not fertile except in the Siluer bowels and Golden entralls thereof the third is the most commodious habitation where the soile yeeldeth Corne Cattle and Pasture and the Ayre health The principall thing that hath brought this Westerne India into such request is the Mines and Metals therein The Wisedome of God hath made Metals for Physicke for defence for ornament and specially for instruments in the worke which God hath imposed vpon man That in the sweat of his browes he should eate his bread The industry of man hath added another vse of Metals by weight or stampe conuerting it to money which the Philosopher calleth the measure of all things And a fit measure might it haue beene if the minde of man were not vnmeasurable and vnsatiable in measuring his measure Metals naturally grow as some obserue in land naturally most barren Nature recompensing the want of other things with these hidden treasures and the God of Nature enriching the Indians with this substance otherwise barren of Humane and Diuine knowledge that might as a rich Bride but withered and deformed make her finde many suters for loue of her Portion And would God they which reape heere these Temporall things would sowe Spirituall and giue them Gold tried in the fire and that which is as Siluer tried seuen times I meane the Word of God sincerely preached without the drosse of their owne superstitions And would they gaue them not Iron for Gold an Iron Age for a Golden imposing a heauy yoke of seruitude which hath consumed worlds of people in this New-World and made the Name of Christ and Christian to stinke amongst them yea they abhorre the Sea it selfe for bringing forth such monsters as they thinke the Spaniards whom for their execrable wickednesse they esteemed not to come of humane generation but of the froth of the Sea and therefore call them Viracochie or Sea-froth That which one saith of Religion I may apply to this American World Peperit diuitias filia deuorauit matrem Shee brought forth rich metals and the Daughter hath consumed the Mother her Gold that should haue beene a price in her hand to buy Wisedome hath to these importunate Chapmen sold her freedome It is i a Golden and Siluer Age indeed to the Spaniards for the condition and state which hereby accrueth to them not for the conditions and state of life which they obserue In the yeare 1587. when Acosta came to Peru eleuen millions were transported in the two Fleets of Peru and Mexico almost one halfe thereof for the King In the time when Pollo was Gouernour of Charcas in Peru from the Mines of Potozi alone were drawne and customed euery day thirty thousand Pezos of Siluer euery Pezo amounting to 13. Rials and a fourth part and yet it is thought the one halfe was not customed or as Ouiedo reckoneth one fourth part more then a Spanish Ducket Hee writeth that Anno 1535. three or foure ships came to Siuil laden with none other commodities but Gold and Siluer Miles Philips recordeth that when he returned out of the Indies 1581. there were seuen and thirty sayle and in euery of them one with another thirtie pipes of siluer
like vnto Kine or Mules which diue and goe but swimme not vnder the water Bores of two sorts Conies Pigs Ounces Foxes with bags to carry their yong vnder the belly The Tatu or Armadilla which digs as much as many men with Mattocks the Conduacu or Porcupine of three sorts the Hirara like Ciuet Cats which eate honey the Aquiqui bearded Apes blacke and sometimes one yellow which they say is their King hauing an Instrument from his gullet as bigge as a Duck-egge wherewith he maketh a loud sound so actiue that they sometimes are said to catch an arrow with the hand and redart it at the shooter and so cunning that they seeke a leafe chew it and put the same into their wounds There are of them many kindes The Cuati are like Badgers they climbe trees no snake egge or bird escapes him There are others greater as great Dogs with Tusks which deuoure men and beasts There are wilde Cats which yeeld good Furre and are very fierce the lagoarucu are Dogs of Brasile the Tapati also barke like Dogs The Iaguacinia is a kind of Foxe which feedeth on Sea-crabs and Sugar-canes The Birataca a kinde of Ferret of such stinking sauour that some Indians haue died thereof yea Dogges which come neere escape not the sent endureth fifteene or twenty dayes in those things which he hath come neere to and causeth some towne sometimes to bee disinhabited This commeth of a ventositie which it voideth and couereth in the earth or casteth it out being in danger to be taken it feedeth on birds Eggs and Amber Ten or twelue kinds of Rats all good meat Other beasts are before mentioned Of Snakes without venome hee numbreth the Giboya some of which are twenty foot long and wil swallow a Deere whole crushing it with the winding of his taile and bruising it with licking to that purpose The Guiaranpiaquana eateth eggs goeth faster on the trees then any man can runne on the ground with a motion like swimming The Camoiama is all greene and liueth on like food The Boytiapua eate Frogs the Indians strike this Serpent on womens hips as remedy to barrennesse The Gaitiaepia smelleth so that none can abide it such is also the Boyuma the Bam so termed of his crie is great and harmelesse the Baicupeganga hath venemous prickles on his backe There are other venomous Snakes as the Iararaca of which are foure kinds of musky sent one ten spannes long with great tuskes which they hide and stretch out at pleasure The Curucucu fifteene spannes long which lyeth on a tree to hunt his prey The Boycimiaga which hath a bell in his tayle so swift that they call it the flying Snake there are two kinds thereof The Ibiracua causeth by his biting the bloud to issue thorow all parts of the body eyes mouth nose eares c. The Ibiboca is the fairest but of foulest venome amongst them all The fields woods houses beds bootes are subiect to the plenty of Snakes which without helpe kill in foure and twenty houres There are also many Scorpions which ordinarily kill not but cause extreme paine for foure and twenty houres space Lizards couer the wals of houses and holes are full of them Their fundament-worms are very dangerous which Sir Richard Hawkins saith he saw like a long Magot greene with a red head creeping in and glewing himselfe to the gut where it groweth so great that it stoppeth the passage and killeth with cruell Colicke torments Master Kniuet speakes of one Serpent which he killed thirteene spans long with foure and twenty teeth great shels about the necke blacke and russet like a collar lesse on her bodie and darke greene vnder her belly all speckled with blacke and white with foure sharpe feet no longer then a mans finger and a tongue like a harping iron Her tayle like a strait bull-horne blacke and white listed If they finde fire they beat themselues in it till either the fire or themselues be extinguished They vse from a tree to fall on their prey passing by thrusting their tayle into the fundament The Indians will not goe vnder fiue or sixe to set vpon one of them this yet he killed with the helue of an axe Of Birds there are Parrots innumerable more then Starlings or Sparrows in Spaine the Guaminbig like Bees which sleepe sixe moneths the Tangara which haue the falling-sicknesse the rest dancing about that which is fallen with a noise from which they will not bee skarred till they haue done c. Of Fruits hee reckons the Iacapucaya like a pot as bigge as a great bowle two fingers thicke with a couer in it within full of Chesnuts being much eaten greene it causeth all haire to fall off Balsam trees pricked excellent for cure and sent Oyle-trees many one as a Well or Riuer growing in dry places where no water is it hath holes in the branches as long as ones arme full of water Winter and Summer neuer running ouer but alwayes at like stay fiue hundred persons may come to the foot of it and drinke and wash their fill without want the water is sauoury and cleere There are hearbs which seeme to sleepe all night and others which make shew of sence as wee haue before obserued from Master Harcourt in Guiana Of strange fishes in Brasil he nameth the Oxe-fish with eyes and eye-lids two armes a cubit long with two hands fiue fingers and nayles as in a man and vnder the armes the female had two paps inwards like an Oxe it cannot bee long vnder water it hath no fins but the tayle which is round and close two stones neere the braine of great esteeme the inwards of an Oxe and taste like Porke The Cucurijuba is a fresh-water Snake fiue and twenty or thirty foot long the Mamma is a greater kinde toothed like a dogge with a chaine striped along the backe very faire It catcheth a Man Cow Stag or any other prey winding it with the tayle and so swalloweth it whole after which she lyes and rots the Rauens and Crowes eating her all but the bones to which after groweth new-flesh by life deriued from the head which is hidden all this while in the mire which therefore they that finde seeke and kill They will sleepe so being full that they may cut off pieces he tels an instance from the tayle and they not awaken They found one which was fifty spans or twelue yards and a halfe long hauing two wilde Bores in the belly Thus much of the creatures in Brasile Let vs now take better view of their Warres Religion and other their Rites CHAP. V. Of the Customes and Rites of the Brasilians §. I. Of their warres and man-eating and of the Diuel torturing them THe Brasilians for the most part as you haue seene exercise irreconciliable hostilitie not to enlarge their dominions but onely to be reuenged for the death of their friends and Ancestors slaine by their enemies The Elder men as they sit or
vpon him He was solemnely inaugurated accordingly Hee was of comely person well fauoured affable easie and apt to ill counsell but dangerous in the end to the giuer of good capacity and ready wit about forty six yeeres of age much affected to Necromancie made shew of great Deuotion and Religion not Learned of a sudden apprehension very precipitate subtle a naturall good Oratour reuengefull not much giuen to luxury temperate in dyet Heroicall in outward shew one which gaue great entertaynment to forreigne Embassadours sent rich Presents to forreigne Kings to illustrate his owne greatnesse Hee now desired league by his Embassadours sent with Letters and Presents to the Emperour Pole Dane Swethen which the three last refused but vpon conditions to his loffe To them adhered those which loued him not and procured his ruine Hee continued the same course of gouernment but made shew of more security and liberty to the Subiect Still fearing his owne safety and continuance he desired to match his Daughter with Hartique Hans the King of Denmarks third Sonne Conditions were agreed on time appointed for the Marriage but this valorous hopefull Prince on that day whereon he should haue beene married dyed in the Musco Not long after he was put to extreame exigents by the Crimme the Pole and Swethen all inuading the neerest Confines Bodan Belskoy the old Emperours Minion vpon whom hee serued Boris his trusty turne making him away and so opening a way to that which Boris aymed at none being also better able to bring in subiection the aduerse Nobilitie and others was rewarded with such recompence as vsually followeth such trecherous Instruments Boris and the Empresse fearing his subtle wit found occasions and placed him remote with his Confederates sure as they thought But he in the time of his greatnesse hauing conuayed infinite Treasure now vseth it to reuenge and ioyning with many discontented Nobles stirres vp the King and Palatines of Poland with the power of Lithuania and with a meane Army hoping of assistance in Russia gaue out that they brought the true Dmetrius Sonne to Iuan Vasilowich Boris wants courage to fight notwithstanding sufficient preparations hee his Wife Sonne and Daughter tooke poyson whereof three presently dyed the Sonne liued to bee proclaymed but quickly dyed And now the Counterfeit Demetrius was admitted and crowned Sonne to a Priest sometimes carried Aquauitae to sell about the Country Married the Palatines Daughter and permitting the Poles to domineere ouer the Russe Nobility and to set their courses of Religion and Iustice out of ioynt hauing rooted out Boris his faction and Family c. The Russes conspire and kill Demetrius take him out of his bed dragge him on the Terras the Gunners and Souldiers thrust their Kniues in his body hacke hew and mangle his head body and legs carry it to the Market place shew it for three dayes about the City the people cursing him and the Traytors that brought him The Palatine his Daughter were conuayed away A new Election was made two propounded Knez Iuan Mishtelloskoy and Knez Vasily Petrowich Suskoy this was chosen and crowned but summoned as a Vassall by a Herald of Armes to yeeld obedience to the Crowne of Poland The Pole strikes the Iron whiles it is hote hauing gotten good footing amongst them inuades Russia repossesses the Musco takes Suscoy and diuers Nobles which are carried Captiues to Vilna chiefe Citie of Lituania Now the Poles tyrannise ouer the Russe more then before seize on their goods money and best things which they conuay into Polaud and Lituania But those hidden by Iuan Vasilowich and Boris in secret places doubtlesse remayne vndiscouered by reason the parties which had beene therein employed were still made away The Russe submits to the Pole desires Stanislaus his Sonne to liue and Reigne ouer and amongst them but that King and State would not herein trust them with their hope of Succession nor doe them so much honour but rule by their Presidents c. The Luganoie Nagoie and Chercas Tartars long setled in obedience to the Russe and best vsed by them now straitned of their wonted Salaries and vsage hate the Pole take armes in great numbers robbed spoyled killed carried away many of them with their rich booties before gotten the Russe Nobilitie tooke heart againe and bethinke them of another Emperour The Sonne of the Archbishop of Restona now Patriarch of Mosco Sonne to Mekita Romanowich before mentioned borne before he was made a Bishop Michael Fedorowich is elected and crowned by generall consent of all Estates God send him long to Reigne with better successe then his Predecessors RELATIONS OF THE KINGDOME OF GOLCHONDA AND OTHER NEIGHBOVRING NATIONS within the Gulfe of BENGALA Arreccan Pegu Tannassery c. And the ENGLISH Trade in those Parts by Master WILLIAM METHOLD THe Gulfe of Bengala famous for its dimensions extendeth it selfe from the Cape called Comorijne lying in 8. degrees of North latitude vnto Chatigan the bottome thereof which being in 22. degrees is not lesse as the Coast lyeth then a 1000. English miles and in breadth 900. limited on the other side by Cape Singapura which lyeth in 1. degree of South latitude washeth the Coast of these great and fertile Kingdomes viz. Ziloan Bisnagar Golchonda Bengala Arreccan Pegu and Tanassery and receiueth into its bosome many Nauigable Riuers which lose their note and names in the eminent Neighbourhood of the famous Ganges whose vnknowne head pleasant streames and long extent haue amongst those Heathen Inhabitants by the Tradition of their Fore-fathers gained a beliefe of clensing all such sinnes as the bodies of those that wash therein brought with them for which cause many are the Pilgrimes that resort from farre to this lasting Iubilee with some of whom I haue had conference and from their owne reports I insert this their beliefe The Island of Zeloan our Nation hath onely lookt vpon en passant the Portugals that clayme all East India by donation hold a great part of this in subiection and with such assurance that they beleeue they can make it good against all their Enemies yet are not they the onely Lords thereof for the naturall Inhabitants haue also their King commonly called the King of Candy with whom the Danes had not long since a fruitlesse treaty for commerce which falling short of their expectation they fortified vpon the Mayne not far from Negapatnam at a place called Trangabay with what successe or hopes of benefit I cannot relate The first Kingdome vpon the Mayne is that ancient one of Bisnagar rent at this time into seuerall Prouinces or Gouernments held by the Naickes of that Countrey in their owne right for since the last King who deceased about fiftene yeeres since there haue arisen seuerall Competitors for the Crowne vnto whom the Naickes haue adhered according to their factions or affections from whence hath followed a continuall Ciuill Warre in some parts of the Countrey and
So vaine a thing is man his soule of nothing lighter then vanitie in the infusion created and in the Creation infused to be the dweller in this house of clay and habitation of dust yea not a house but a Tabernacle continually in dissolution Such is the Maker and matter of Man The forme was his conformitie to GOD after whose Image he was made Christ only is in full resemblance The Image of the inuisible GOD the brightnesse of his glory the ingraued forme of his Person Man was not this Image but made adimaginem According to this Image resembling his Author but with imperfection in that perfection of human Nature This Image of GOD appeared in the soule properly secondly in the body not as the Anthropomorphite Heretikes and Popish Image-makers imagine but as the instrument of the soule and lastly in the whole Person The soule in regard of the spirituall and immortall substance resembleth him which is a Spirit and euerlasting which seeth all things remayning it selfe vnseene and hauing a nature in manner incomprehensible comprehendeth the natures of other things to which some adde the resemblance of the holy Trinitie in this that one soule hath those three essentiall faculties of Vnderstanding Will and Memory or as others of Vegetation Sense and Reason In regard of gifts and naturall endowments the soule in the vnderstanding part receiued a Diuine Impression and Character in that knowledge whereby shee measureth the Heauens bringeth them to the Earth lifteth vp the Earth to the Heauen mounteth aboue the Heauens to behold the Angels pierceth the Center of the Earth in darknesse to discerne the infernall Regions and Legions beneath and aboue them all searcheth into the Diuine Nature whereby Adam was without study the greatest Philosopher who at first sight knew the nature of the beasts the originall of the VVoman and the greatest Diuine except the second Adam that euer the Earth bare The will also in free choice of the best things in righteous disposition towards man and true holinesse towards GOD was conformed to his will for whose wils sake it is and was created The body cannot so liuely expresse the vertue of him that made it but as it could in that perfect constitution so fearefully and wonderfully made and as the Organ of the soule whose weapon it was to righteousnesse had some shadow therefo The whole Man in his naturall Nobility beyond and Princely Dominion ouer the other Creatures that we mention not the hope of future blessednesse sheweth after what Image Man was created and to what he should be renued The end whereunto GOD made Man is GOD himselfe who hath made all things for himselfe the subordinate end was Mans endlesse happinesse the way whereunto is religious obedience Moses addeth He created them Male and Female thereby to shew that the Woman in Oeconomicall respect is the Image and glory of the Man beeing created for the Man and of the Man but in relation to GOD or the World She as a Creature was also framed after the same Image As for that monstrous conceit of the Rabbins that the first man was an Hermaphrodite it deserueth not confutation or mention The order of the Womans Creation is plainly related GOD finding not a meete helpe for Adam in his sleepe tooke one of his ribs whereof he built the Woman This in a Mystery signified that deadly sleepe of the heauenly Adam on the Crosse whose stripes were our healing whose death was our life and out of whose bleeding side was by Diuine dispensation framed his Spouse the Church This may be part of the sense or an application thereof as some say to this Mystery or the signification rather of the thing it selfe here declared then of the words which properly and plainly set downe the Historie of a thing done after the litterall sense to bee expounded According to this sense Moses expresseth the Creation the making and marrying of the Woman The Maker was GOD the matter a Rib of Adam the forme a building the end to be a meete helpe The Man was made of Dust the Woman of the Man to bee one flesh with the Man and of a Rib to be a helpe and supporter of him in his calling which requireth strength neyther could any bone be more easily spared in the whole body which hath not such variety of any other kind nor could any place more designe the Woman her due place not of the head that she should not arrogate rule not of the feet that the husband should not reckon her as his slaue but in a meane betweene both and that neere the heart in which they should as in all Diuine and Humane Lawes else bee fast ioyned The building of this body of the Woman was in regard of the Progeny which was in that larger roome to haue the first dwelling The soule of the Woman is to be conceiued as the soule of the Man before mentioned immediately infused and created by GOD herein equall to Man Being thus made she is marryed by GOD himselfe vnto Adam who brought her vnto him to shew the sacred authority of Marriage and of Parents in Marriage A mutuall consent and gratulation followeth betweene the parties lest any should tyrannically abuse his fatherly power And thus are two made one flesh in regard of one originall equall right mutuall consent and bodily coniunction And thus were this goodly couple glorious in nakednesse not so much in the ornaments of beautie which made them to each other amiable as of Maiestie which made them to other creatures dreadfull the Image of GOD clothing that nakednesse which in vs appeareth filthy in the most costly clothing GOD further blessed them both with the power of multiplication in their owne kind and dominion ouer other kinds and gaue them for food euery herbe bearing seed which is vpon all the earth and euery tree wherein is the fruit of a tree bearing seed He doth as it were set them in possession of the Creatures which by a Charter of free gift he had conueyed to them to hold of him as Lord Paramount But lest any should thinke this but a niggardly and vnequall gift whereas since the Floud more hath beene added and that in a more vnworthinesse through mans sinne let him consider that since the Fall the Earth is accursed whereby many things are hurtfull to mans nature and in those which are wholsome there is not such variety of kinds such plentie in each variety such ease in getting our plenty or such quality in what is gotten in the degree of goodnesse and sweetnesse to the taste and nourishment which had they remayned in this sickly and elder Age of the World we should not need to enuie Cleopatra's vanitie or Heliogabilus his superfluitie and curiositie And had not Man sinned there should not haue needed the death of beasts to nourish his