two Swallowes make not the spring of the yeare But yet if so be the earth be so solid and massie as you say it is and that it admitteth no vacuitie How and whence proceede these terrible earth-quakes tremblings palpitations to the overwhelming of Cities shaking of Towers and steeples c. Answ. No question but as these are commonly prodigies and fore-runners of Gods wrath to bee inflicted upon the Land where they happen as may be seene in the second booke of the Kings chap. 22. Commota est contremuit terra quoniamiratus est Dominus So some way lacke not their owne naturall causes and they be chiefly comprehended in one for all and this is it that the earth is not unfitly compared unto a living mans body the rocks and stones whereof are his bones the brookes and rivers serpenting thorough it the veynes and sinewes conveying moistnesse from their fountaines unto all the members the hollow of our bowells and of the trunke of our bodies to the vast and spacious cavernes and caves within the body of this earth and yet these not hindering the massinesse of the earth for where earth is it is massie indeed within the which hollow of our bodyes our vitious windes are enclosed which if they have no vent presently they beget in us Iliak passions collicks c. whereby our whole body is cast into a distemper and disturbed even as the windes enclosed in these cavernes and hollow subterranean places preassing to have vent and not finding any making way to themselves do then beget these earth-quakes And of this opinion is Aristotle lib. 2. Meteor cap. 7. Sect. 8. Of time whether it bee the Producer or Consumer of things of the wisedome and Sagacity of some Horses and Dogges How the Adamant is Mollified of the needle in the Sea compas and the reason of its turning alwayes to the North. SEeing there is nothing more properly ours than time and seeing it is the eldest daughter of nature How is this that you Philosophers bereave us of our best inheritance saying that there no time at all in respect say you the time past is gone the future and time to come is not yet and the time present is ever glyding and running away yea and your Aristotle calleth it but a number of motions seeing then it consisteth but of parts not having a permanent being it cannot be said to be at all say you Answ. Our true Philosophers reason not so it is but our Sophists who by their insnaring captions doe cavil thus therfore take heed of the subdolousnesse of their proposition which is not universally true for admit that maxime might hold concerning the standing and not standing of a thing in its parts in subjects materiall essentiall and permanent yet it must not evert things of a fluid and successanean nature such as time is and whereas they say that the parts of time are not they mistake in so farre as time is to be measured by now which the Greekes doe terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which ever existeth and by which indeed time is said properly to have existence Quest. What things hold you to be in Time or whether is Time the consumer or the producer of things Answ. To the first with Aristotle I understand onely such things to be in Time as are subiect to mutations changes risings and fallings such as are all naturall things below the Sphere of the Moone by which meanes things sempiternall wanting both beginning and ending whose diuturnity cannot be measured by time cannot fall under it 2. Ans. To the second whether Time be the producer or consumer of things I answer that as in the contravertible points of Philosophy our learned disagree amongst themselves so herein they agree not aright indeed Aristotle whom customably we all follow in his 8. Cap. lib. 4. Physicâ—â—n will have Time rather to be the cause of the ruine and decay of all things and that by vertue of its motion by which sublunary bodies are altered and corrupted rather than of their rising increase or growing And with him many of our Poets Tempus edax rerum tuque invidiosa vetust as Omnia conteritis and againe Omnia fert aetas animum quoque c. Tempora labuntur tacitisque senescimus annis Et fugiunt fraeno non remorante dies To which opinion of Aristotle Cardan adhereth calling Time the Author of life and death but as Iulius Scaliger hath refuted divers of his opinions in his exercitation 352. not without reason hath he confuted this also making Time to bee an accidentall cause of the decay of things for beside Time there must be causa agens which is the Law of Nature ingrafted in all things living moving creeping vegetating by which they tend to ruine as sinne in Man besides his naturall corruption is and must bee thought the Author of his death Now seeing your Philosophy admitteth no other difference betwixt Men and Beasts but the use of reason wherewith we are endued above them how wil you tearme those many reasonable things performed by Beasts wherof our Histories are full as that of Bucephalus of Alexander the Great who would suffer none to back him but his Master though never so artificially disguised in his apparell Iulius Caesar his Horse likewise who at his death was observed to fast so long is remarkeable and that of Nicomedes who because his Lord was killed in the field choosed rather to dye starving for hunger than to survive him Stories of the sagacity of Dogs bookes are fully replenished w th the example of one only shall suffice This Dog being with his Master when a Robber killed him for his purse and had flung him into a River that he might not be found againe did first leape into the River after his dead Master and then upon his shoulders bore up his head so long as any breath was remaining within him thereafter discerning him to be dead straight followes the rogue by his sent to the Citie finds him and incessantly barketh at him whithersoever he went while at length his Master being missed and the Rogue under suspicion of robbery and the Dogs violent pursuing the fellow drew the people into a jealousie of the murther whereupon the robber being called before a Iudge after due examination confessed the murther was condemned died for the fact Now I demand if these and the like doings of Beasts be not founded upon reason whereof we men brag as of a greater prerogative above them Answ. No wayes for we must distinguish betwixt actions of true reason such as ours are and these which are done by a naturall instinct or sensitive faculty of sagacity use and custome but most especially from that which is a neere tying bond even amongst the cruellest of Beasts a perpetuall resenting of a good turne received as is manifest in the example of the Lion who not onely saved the life of that
be allowed who as he should not wish a death unforeseene neither yet be unprepared at the sudden aproach of it so should he not by any meanes either accelerate or wish it thereby to bee rid out of any incomberances that may befall Nec metuit mortem bene conscia vita Nec optat For as Saint Augustine reason well against such Autocides and selfe murtherers it is rather a token of pusillanimity and lacke of courage in them than otherwayes a marke of true resolution to doe so seeing they had not the daring to abide the dint of adversities which threatned them Let us all remember to implore in our daily prayers our Makers assistance from above to aide us in that last houre for my owne part I thinke it one of the best fruits of my studies or travels to be ever arming my selfe against it and as in my morning and evening prayers I call for peace of conscience in the assurance of my reconciliation with my God and for peace on Earth for his blessing upon my children his favour upon my King and Countrey so more specially for the favourable assistance of the Holy Ghost the comforter to assist me then that neither the terror of a present death may affright me nor my trust and confidence breed in mee presumption nor my feare despaire but there being a sweet harmony betwixt my soule and my God I may lay downe my life in hope to re-assume it againe for ever Section 2. That Christians ought not to feare death as the Ethnicks did All things save man keepe their constant course The uncertainty of mans life IT is true that the consideration of death which of all terrible things is most terrible as being the partition of the soule and body and so the destruction of this structure was the cause why divers of the Ancients fearing almost even to name it were wont to say in stead of he is dead he sleepes he hath left off to be hee is gone downe to the lower parts of the earth hunc ferreus urget Somnus in aeternam clauduntur lumina noctem Or desiit esse or transiit ad manes and so forth the reason being that few or none of them had the full knowledge much lesse the assurance of the enjoying these pleasures after this life past which we Christians being taught at a better schoole have wherefore as well learned disciples of so worthy a master let us learne not only to name it but sted fastly to abide the approch the frowne and dint of it In me si lapsus labtur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae Remembring our selves that howsoever soule and body be severed for a season and that the body lye companion with them that sleep in the dust yet that they shal conjoyne againe in the glorious resurrection to possesse those joyes unknowne to many of the Ancients which our Lord and Master hath purchased to us by his death remembring that howsoever wee should live to the fulnesse of yeares that wee shall see no more even unto the last date of our dayes than a boy of ten or fifteene yeeres For the seasons of the Yeare the Dayes and Nights the Seas Sun Moone and Starres Plants Herbes yea Beasts themselves c. keepe a constant course which in a perpetuall revolution were set and if so be that in these any change be then bee sure it is a foretoken of Gods kindled wrath against us For the Heathen Astronomer when the Sunne did eclipse at the time of our Lords passion could well say That either the God of Nature was suffering or else the frame of the world was to dissolve the eye of all things suffering such a deliquie now if the elder see any thing other than the younger be sure it is not in the nature and course of things above spoken which in perpetuall revolution do observe the course prescribed unto them by their Maker But in the persons of men which pointeth out unto us the frailty of their estates and even of them also if we remarke well we shall finde more who have died within thirty or thirty five yeeres of Age than past it But death being the common subject of our preachers especially in their funerall Sermons I passe it over as their peculiar Theme and according to my first purpose doe hasten to the divers sorts of Burialls Sect. 3. In what reverence the interring of the dead was amongst the Ancients of Alexander Of Sylla How the People of Vraba did use their dead Customes of Finland Lapland Greece and other places concerning burialls AND first for the Antiquity of interring of the dead as Writers doe abound in their testimonyes that even amongst enemies in the hottest of their hostility and Wars Truces were granted for burying of the dead so particularly in the Word of God we have warrant out of the Macchabees that although there were not positive lawes of Nations and Countries for this effect Nature seemes to have ingraued it in the hearts of all thus Palinurus case in Virgill is regrated that he wanted the honour of buriall for having made ship-wracke thus the Poet deploreth his losse Heu numium Coelo Pelago confise serenâ— Nudus in ignota Palinure jacebis arena What reverence and regard the Roman Emperors have had unto it in their lawes and statutes in Iustinians workes may be seene plentifully and especially in one Title expressed by it selfe De non violando Sepulchro Alexander the great having discovered Achilles Tombe in Greece overgrowne with brambles and briers so honoured it that being crowned with a Garland of Lawrell and Cyprus he carowsed so many full bowles of Wine to his memory untill he had almost lost his owne So did Tullius Cicero for the time Questor send into Cicilie to readorne Archimedes Tombe it being almost obscured with thornes and brambles Contrariwise to this Sylla his cruelty and inhumane barbarity against the dead bodyes of his enemys is yet registred in the records of his Country for that he to be avenged upon his enemies being dead whom alive he could not come at caused to disinterr the halfe putrified carcases whereon he trampled with his Horses and being Iealous of being so served after his death ordained his body to bee cast into Tyber and caused to divert the Rivers course so to disappoint all who should search after it The like I find done by a certaine Pope who caused to carry about with him the Corps of some Cardinalls in Sheletons upon Mules ever before him to be avenged of them for that either they had crossed his election or had conspired against him whereupon the Author Septem praelati Papa iubente praelati c. Even the most barbarous Nations who otherwayes wanted all sort of humanity and civility have had respect to this For I finde in Peter Martyrs decads touching the Historie of the West Indies in Vraba and other parts thereabout how
by reason that neither lesser nor greater care bee taken about any thing then the cause requireth and that things belonging to liberality and honour be moderated There are three principall duties belonging to every Christian in this life to live in piety and devotion towards God Charity towards our Neighbours and Sobriety towards our selves There are also three subalterne and lesse principall to use respect to our superiours clemencie to our inferiour and gravity to our equalls Wee offend God three wayes with mouth heart and hands by hand heere I understand all our senses for which to him wee ought to make amends three other wayes by Confession Contrition and Satisfaction Three degrees of Christs humiliation his Incarnation life and death three of his exaltation his Resurrection ascention and sitting at the right hand of the Father There are three things incident to unregenerate Nature Ambition Avarice and Luxury There are three wayes to know God Negatively whereby what evill is in man is denied to be in God then by way of excellencie whereby what good is in man we acknowledge to be in God most eminently above man and in the abstract of it Lastly by way of causality whereby we acknowledge God to bee the efficient cause of all things Gods word was written by Prophets Evangelists and Apostles David for numbring his people had choyce of three things Plague Sword and Famine Salomon had choyce of three blessings Wisdome Wealth and length of dayes Three great enemies continually assaile man the Devill without him the World about him and the Flesh within him Against which hee should be armed with these three weapons Fasting Praying and Almes giving Love three fold Divine Worldly and Diabolicall Moreover we are tyed to a three-fold Love Of God our neighbour and our selves A three-fold feare also possesseth us a Naturall feare for our lives and goods a Civill for our honour and fame and a Conscientious for our soules So wee are said to see with three kinde of eyes of our bodies reason and faith The Popes Mitre is engirt with three Crownes SECT 4. Of Politick Government Of living Creatures and of duties belonging to men of severall professions as Physicians Iudges and Lawyers c. with some Physicall observations all Tripartite THere are three kindes of Government Monarchy of Kings Aristocracie of Nobility and Democracie of Commons as our State consisteth of Clergie Nobility and Commons Phylosophers Physicians and Divines doe severally prescribe dyet for living to all men the first a moderate the second a sparing the third a most strict continencie There were principally three kinde of Creatures ordained for the use of man living in three severall Elements Fowle in the Ayre Beasts on the Earth and Fish in the Sea Three kinde of living things Intellectuall Sensitive and Vegetable as Men Beasts and Plants There are three Principles of Physick Matter Forme Privation There are also three things requisite in a Physician to restore health lost to strengthen it being weake and to preserve it when it is recovered Even so the Lawyers parts are three-fold to recover meanes lost to preserve them when they are purchased and to purchase such onely as wee have right to which three the Canonists performe in purchasing of Benefites recovering those which are lost and in conserving those which are once obtained A Iudge should have these three qualities not to be delaying mercenary nor ignorant Lawes of men are three-fold of Nature of Nations and of Cities and the Lawes of God are Morall Ceremoniall and Iudiciall Three things chiefly are to bee observed in Iudgement Examination Consultation and Sentence Three things too are requisite in a good Chirurgian an Eagles eye a Lyons heart and a Ladies hand Three thingâ— required in an Oratour to speake fitly ornately and copiously or as some will have it demonst ratively deliberatively and judicially and in every of these the Circumstances are to bee observed Time Place and Persons There are three objects of the whole Civill Law Things Persons Actions Amongst Latine Poets three kindes of Verses are chiefly used Heroick Elegiack and Lyrick under Lyrick are comprehended Saphick Iambick and the rest Three species of sicknesse wherewith we ate affected which are of quality humour and substance which againe resolve in three kinde of feavers Simple Corrupt and Pestilentious Simple feavers too are three-fold Quotidian Tertian Quartan Corrupt or Hectick Feavers three-fold the first being in the consumption of our ordinary humour the second in our Balmie or oyly substance both curable the third which consumeth our noble parts called Marasmus past cure Of all measurable bodies there are three dimensions length breadth and deepnesse Three things especially the Persians taught their children to ride shoote and speake truth The day is divided into Morning Noone and Evening Every Moone hath her increase full and wane and Post triduum mulier fastidit hospes imber SECT 5. Memorable observations comprehended within the Number of Seven as of the age of the World and mans generation THe Number of Seven by many learned men hath beene held the most mysticall and by some entituled the most sacred of Numbers as on it many most remarkeable matters have happened God created the world in six dayes and rested the seventh and therefore amongst the Iewes every seventh moneth and seventh yeare were appointed to â—est and in how great reverence was their great Iubilee which every seventh yeare being multiplied by seven fell out every 49 yeare The age of the world is divided into seven the first from Adam to Noahs flood the second from that to Abrahams time the third from Abraham to the freeing of the people of Israel from their Captivity in Egypt the fourth from their comming out of Egypt to the building of Salomons Temple the fifth from that to the Babylonish Captivity at what time Ieremie writ his Lamentations the sixth was the time betwixt that and the comming of our blessed Saviour the seventh from our Saviours time to the end of the world And some have given forth that the world shall take end the six thousand yeare of its age and rest the seventh The first seven dayes after conception the seede of man in the wombe becommeth Embrion the seventh weeke there-after it becommeth faetus and quickneth and the seventh moneth after that it is partus and is brought into the world SECT 6. How the seven Planets are said to rule severally over the seven ages in the life of man AStrologians who will have the life and constitution of man to depend on the force of the starres and celestiall bodies no wayes depriving God of his Soveraigne and absolute power have divided the age of man into seven parts ascribing to every part one of the seven Planets which ruleth over it The first they call Infancie over which they place the Moone which is
the people of Vraba did use their dead Customes of Finland Lapland Greece and other places concerning Burialls 158 Sect. 4. Other severall Customes of interring the dead amongst Egyptians Romans and Indians that the manner of Christians interrements are preferrable to all other 162 Sect. 5. That the Church of Rome reapeth great commodity by their funerall ceremonies as by their Bels Cymbals Torches Processions of order and the rest silent obsequies condemned A story of a woman whose Ghost haunted her Husband and family after death and the cause thereof 164 A TREATISE OF Mentall reservation Sect. 1. THe Decree of the Councell of Constance That no faith is to be kept with Hereticks and enemies is agitated the commendation of peace that a necessary and just warre is to be preferred to it a story of Augustus Caesar. 167 Sect. 2. Montall reservation defined All fraudulencie in making peace or taking truce condemned for which purpose are instanced examples of Grecians Romans and others 170 Sect. 3. The integrity of the Ancients commended in making peace and their other pactions A story of P. Corn. Scipio to that purpose Graeca fides what and wherefore used Of the dishonest dealing of Pope Alexander and his Nephew Caesar Borgia c. 172 Sect. 4. The difference betwixt the ancient and the moderne Romans in uprightnesse of dealing instanced by a story of Pompey the Great and Augustus Caesar. 175 Sect. 5. Of the breach of faith to enemies treacherie at a siege of Capua treacherie and cruelty committed by the Spaniards at a siege of Genoa the strictnesse of Generalls over common Souldiers exemplified c. 176 A TREATISE OF Laughing and Mourning Sect. 1. THe benefits and content that all men reape by the workes and labours of Writers and Travellers 181 Sect. 2. Of sudden deaths that have happened unto men amidst their feasting and other jolliâ—ies exemplified with stories both sacred and prophane 182 Sect. 3. Stories of severall worthy and brave men that upon occasions have shed teares of the sensible griefe of some Horses Dogges and Hawkes upon the losse of their Masters 184 Sect. 4. Risus Sardonicus what and how to be taken Of the holy teare kept in the Abby Church at Vandesme in France 187 Sect. 5. Of weeping for the dead how to be moderated The matter of teares of laughing and weeping for one and the same thing moderation in both commended 188 A TABLE OF THE fourth Booke Of Curiosities c. Sect. 1. THe difference betwixt factions and seditions a rebellion of the coÌ„mon people of Rome against the Senate and Patricians Emulation a principall producer of great exploits the harme that followeth Curiositie and that Church-men are not exempt from it 177 Sect. 2. How Curiosities have wonderfully disturbed the peace of the Church a recitall of some impertinent curiosities in Religion with some also of Subtilis Scotus and Thomas Aquinas c. 179 Sect. 3. A continuation of some other Theologicall and Metaphysicall subtilities and curiosities 181 Sect. 4. Of Curiosities in Logick the relation betwixt the Creator and the creature to what Heaven the Prophets Enoch and Elias were wrapt what place is said to be Abrahams Bosome 182 Sect. 5. The curiositie of the Millenarii with many other curiosities more frivolous than necessary 184 Sect. 6. That the Planets and other celestiall bodies have not that power over the natures of men and women that Astrologers ascribe unto them that the starres are innumerable Of the number and greatnesse of some in Via lactea where the center of the earth is its circumference Of Aetna Hecla Saint Patricks hole and the like 186 Sect. 7. To search out the secrets of Nature allow able if men be not too curious in them Eudoxus wish Plinius killed on the Mountaine of Vesuvius Aristotle drowned in Euripus Too much curiosity is a plague sent down from heaven on men the Poet Simonides acknowledged his ignorance of God how the heathenish Gods were pourtrayed 190 Sect. 8. Too great curiosities condemned and a moderation to be used in them prescribed 193 Sect. 9. How God disppointeth the expectations of the most curious and that the most subtill spirits runne into greater errours than the meaner doe 194 Sect. 10. An inducement to the studie and search of the secrets of Nature Of the Needle in the Sea compasse Of the inundations of the River of Nilus and from whence it hath its source and beginning Of the severall dispositions of men Why continuall burning Hils and Mountâ—ines doe not diminish c. 190 Sect. 11. Of Christopher Columbus his practicall curiosity in his discovery of the new World or America 199 Sect. 12. The conclusion of this Treatise of Curiosity conteining a singular curiosity of Livia Tiberius Caesars wife 203 Of divine Philosophy and Mans Felicity Sect. 1. THe Sunne and Moone in the Heavens compared to the Vnderstanding and Will of Man Aristotles definition of happinesse The distinction in Vnderstanding and Will and wherein ancient Philosophers placed their chiefe felicity 205 Sect. 2. That our felicity consisteth in the actions of our Will is confuted Aristotles opinion hereupon A theologicall solution on it seconded with a Philosophicall and an agreement of both to solve the difference 207 Sect. 3. Which of the three faculties of the soule Vnderstanding Memorie and Will is the most excellent 218 Sect. 4. Liberty and compulsion defined that the will is prompted by the understanding and that the adequate object of it proceedeth from thence At what the will and understanding chiefly ayme proved to bee the glory of God 219 Sect. 5. That all Philosophicall precepts have come short to demonstrate true felicity Philosophicall distinctions to know what is good of it selfe in Sciences yet all weake to illustrate wherein mans true happinesse consisted which is philosophically agitated 221 Sect. 6. That wealth and honour cannot be esteemed to bee our supreame good or felicity and the reason therefore Philosophers confuted by their difference of opinions Opinions of severall Sects of Philosophers concerning felicity instanced to that effect 223 Sect. 7. The later Philosophers have aymed neerer the definition of true felicity than the more ancient and their opinions specified the finall and true scope of mans felicity is illustrated with an exhortatory conclusion to all men for endevouring to attaine unto it The Consonancie and Agreement of the ancient Philosophers with our Christian Professours Sect. 1. THe difference betwixt the Physiologer and Physician compared to that betwixt the Metaphysician and Divine Some of Plato's opinions not farre dissonant from our Christian The multiplicity of Heathenish gods that Plato came neere the definition of the Trinity 229 Sect. 2. Of Gods creating and conserving of all things in an orderly order Plato's reasons that the world hath a life Aristotles opinion of God he is praised and at his dying preferred before many doubtfull Christians 231 Sect. 3. Plato's opinion concerning the creation of the world seconded by Socrates and Antisthenes Opinions of
Plato Aristotle and other Philosophers confirming God onely to be the Creator of all things 234 Sect. 4. Opinions of Plato Aristotle and some Hebrewes concerning the worlds eternity the consonancie of opinions betwixt some ancient Philosophers and Moses about the worlds creation 236 Sect. 5. Ancient Philosophers attributed the framing and continuance of all sublunary Creatures as we Christians doe unto God with a recapitulation of severall consonancies betwixt us and them 238 Sect. 6. Severall other opinions wherein the ancient Heathnicks agreed with us Christians confirmed by the testimonies of their Poets 240 Sect. 7. Of good and bad spirits and wherein the opinions of the Heathnicks agree with ours concerning good spirits 242 Sect. 8. How neere the Ancients agree with us concerning bad spirits and in what orders they were divided of old 243 OF SLEEPE AND DREAMES Sect. 1. THat nothing can subsist without sleepe or rest exemplified in the death of Perseus King of Macedon The primary and secondary causes of sleepe that a sound coâ—science is a great motive to sound sleepe proved in the example of Thirois and his two Sonnes 245 Sect. 2. Examples of Kings and great Commanders that upon the thoughtfulnesse of some great exploit or encounter have beene extraordinarily surprized with unusuall sleepe and the reasons thereof agitated 248 Sect. 3. Alexander the great his sound sleeping when he should have encountred Darius in battell here excused Cato's sleeping before his death whereupon is inferred a discourse against selfe-murther 249 Sect. 4. Of Dreames both Naturall Accidentall Divine and Diabolicall Apollodorus dreame Abrahams Iosephs Pharaohs Nebuchadnezzars c. 251 Sect. 5. The Emperour Severus his dreame of Pertinax which he caused to be molded in Brasse An admirable dreame of the Emperour Henry the fifth Cicero's of Octavianus That beasts dreame but hard labouring men seldome and the reason thereof c. 254 A Table of the fifth Booke Wherein the READER must conceive that the Page begins anew and doth not follow the former computation OF THE NVMBERS THREE and SEVEN Sect. 1. Treating briefly of Numbers in generall 1 Sect. 2. Conteining variety of memorable things comprehended within the Number of Three as of Heaven and Hell and of Poeticall fictions and some observations amongst the Romans 2 Sect. 3. Conteining some Theologicall and Morall precepts and observations redacted under the number of three 5 Sect. 4. Of Politicke Government Of living Creatures and of duties belonging to men of severall professions as Physicians Iudges and Lawyers c. with some Physicall observations all Tripartite 7 Sect. 5. Memorable observations comprehended within the Number of Seven as of the age of the World and mans generation 9 Sect. 6. How the seven Planets are sayd to rule severally over the seven ages in the life of man 11 Sect. 7. The opinions of some Fathers of the Church and some Philosophers concerning the number of Seven what attributes they gave with some of Hypocrates observations thereon 13 Sect. 8. Of the Seven Wonders of the world 14 Sect. 9. A continuation of observations on the number of seven taken out of holy Scripture 15 Sect. 10. Of the seven great Potentates of the world of criticall dayes and climacterick yeeres with other observations 16 Sect. 11. Of the Worlds Continuance and Ending 19 A TREATISE OF Prodigies and Miracles Sect. 1. The definition of Miracles with their distinction In what time they were requisite in what not c. 21 Sect. 2. Of Prodigies and in what veneration they were amongst the ancient Romans 23 Sect. 3. A continuation of prodigies which happened in the time of the second Punick Warre with many others that were seene under the times of severall Consuls of Rome 26 Sect. 4. Of Prodigies that happened during the civill warres betwixt Marius and Sylla of some in Iulius Caesars time as at his passing the River of Rubicone the Pharsalian warres and at his death c. 28 Sect. 5. Of Prodigies before the death of Galba before the destruction of Ierusalem and at the end of the Valeriâ—n persecution 29 Sect. 6. A continuation of other Prodigies with a conclusion of this Treatise 31 SALAMANDRA OR The Philosophers Stone Sect. 1. THe History of the life and death of Antonio Bragadino 33 Sect. 2. The reason that moved the Author to handle this matter the different blessings betwixt the Indians and Christians the definition of the Philosophicall Stone the generall way and matter whereof it is made 35 Sect. 3. The Authors proposition the reason of its denomination opinion of most approved Authors touching it and of the possibility and factibility of it 37 Sect. 4. That the making of the Philosophers Stone is lesse expensive and laborious than many things we both use and weare why the makers of it enrich not themselves and others 39 Sect. 5. A generall relation of the matters and materials requisite to this Worke and in what time it may bee perfected 41 Sect. 6. Of the five degrees whereby the Worke is perfectioned and first how to bring it to Solution 43 Sect. 7. How from Solution to make Coagulation 44 Sect. 8. How from Coagulation to produce Fermentation 45 Sect. 9. The way to bring the Worke to Fixation 46 Sect. 10. From all the former how to perfectionate Multiplication 47 Sect. 11. A short recitall of some other wayes of perfecting it used by some Filii artis and why it is called Salamandra 47 OF THE WORLD Sect. 1. OF the various distractions of Philosophers in their opinions concerning their Gods and upon how ill grounds they were setled 94 Sect. 2. Of the severall sorts of Gods amongst the Heathen that they imagined them to bee authors of evils that they were but mortall men And some opinions of Philosophers concerning the nature beeing and power of their Gods 51 Sect. 3. Pythagoras opinion concerning the transmigration of soules rejected of the coupling of the soule and body together with severall opinions of the ancient learned men concerning the substance of the soule 54 Sect. 4. The former Heathnick opinions confuted by our Christian Beliefe that they differed concerning the time of the soules continuance and place of its abode how they thought soules after the separation from the body to bee rewarded for good or ill c. 56 Sect. 5. Philosophicall tenents of plurality of Words confuted of Gods Creation of male and femall of all living Creatures 58 Sect. 6. Severall opinions of severall Philosophers concerning the Worlds Eternity their naturall reasons for approving of it and what the Egyptians thought concerning the antiquity of the World 60 Sect. 8. The most approved opinion of all Philosophers concerning the Worlds beginning and matter the infallible truth of it and a checke of Augustines against over-curious inquisitors after those and the like mysteries 64 Sect. 9. How Philosophers differ from Christians in the wayes whereby God is knowne the parts whereof the world is composed the division of the celestiall Spheares wherein severall varieties may be
Elements mixt together is the purenesse subtilenesse and simplicity if I may say so of that Element Which reason may serve too against them when they say that if it were there it should burne all about And which likewise may serve for answer to the objection of the Comets which are seene seeing they are of a terrestriall maligne exhalation and so having in them that earthly mixture and being inflamed by the neighbour-heate of that fiery Element no wonder though they bee seene and not it her subtile purenesse being free of all combustible matter and so the lesse conspicuous to our eyes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive perspicuum nisi condensetur est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia visum non terminat Iul. Scal. Exer. 9. There is no such question about the second Element which is the Aire for of it all agree that it hath three regions wherein all these you call Meteors are fashioned as clouds haile snow thunder wind and dew yea and higher than all these in the first and supreme Region these blazing Comets although other men place them above the Moone which are so formidable to ignorants who know not the causes of their matter Quest. Is this so as you give it forth Answ. It is of verity that the first Element which we call the Element of fire is disputable and hath beene denied by many but as for the Ayre none to my knowledge ever called it in question neither is there in all our Philosophy a subject more fitting a man of spirit to know than the discourse of the Meteors therein framed of all which although you have a tractate hereafter by it selfe yet one word here more to make you understand their nature and matter the better Section 5. A briefe Discourse of Meteors of their causes matter and differences THE great Creator hath so disposed the frame of this Vniverse in a constant harmony and sympathy amongst the parts of it that these Heavenly Lights which wee see above our heads have their owne force power and influence upon this Earth and Waters whereon and wherein we live marying as it were these two so farre distant Creatures both in place and nature by the mediation of this Ayre above spoken of which participateth of both their qualities warmenesse from the Heavens and moistnesse from the Earth and Waters Nature then but Melior naturâ Deus or GOD better than Nature hath ordained the Sunne Fountaine of light and warmth to be the physicall or naturall cause yea and the remotest cause as wee say in the Schooles of these Meteors as Aristotle himselfe in his first Book of his Meteors cap. 2. observeth When I speak of the Sun as most principall I seclude not the Stars and these celestiall bodies which rolling about in a per-ennall whirling and rotation doe lance forth their power upon the Earth also The neerest Physicall or naturall cause againe must be understood to be cold and heate heate from these heavenly bodies to rarifie or attenuate the vapors of the Earth whereby they may bee the easier evaporated by the Sunne or heate to draw fumes and vapours from the Earth upward cold againe to condensate and thicken those elevated vapours in the Ayre to thicken them I say either in clouds raine or snow or the rest Thus as the Meteors have a twofold cause as you have heard so have they a two fold matter The first and remotest are the two Elements but of them chiefly Earth and Water the neerer cause or matter are exhalations extracted from these former two Which exhalations I divide in fumes and vapours fumes being a thin exhalation hot and dry elevated from the Earth and that of their most dried parts by the vertue of the heavenly Starres and the Sunnes warmenesse elevated I say by the vertue and warmnesse of the Sunne and Stars from the driest parts of the Earth even the Element of fire from whence and of which our Comets fiery-Darts Dragons and other ignean Meteors doe proceed although later Astronomers have found and give forth some of the Comets formation to be above the Moone Whereas vapours are exhalations thicker and hotter swifter drawne up from the Seas and Waters by the power of the Sun and Stars of which vapors thither elevated are framed our raines snow haile dewe wherewith they falling back againe the Earth is bedewed and watered When I say that these vapours are hot and moist thinke it not impossible although the waters their mother be cold and moist for that their warmnesse is not of their owne innate nature but rather accidentall to them by vertue of the Sunne and Starres warmnesse by whose attractive power as the efficient cause they were elevated Now then as of fumes elevated to the highest Region of the Ayre the fiery Meteors are composed so of their watery vapours which are drawne no higher than the middle Region proceeds raine clouds snow haile and the rest or if they passe not beyond this low Region wherein we breath they fall downe into dew or in thick mysts Thus you see that these vapours are of a middle or meane nature betwixt the Ayre and the Waters because they resolve in some one of the two easily even as fumes are medians betwixt fire and earth in respect that they are easily transmuted or changed in the one or the other And thus as you have heard the efficient and materiall causes of Meteors So now understand that their forme dependeth upon the disposition of their matter for the materiall dissimilitude either in quantity or quality in thicknesse thinnesse hotnesse drinesse aboundance or scarcity and so forth begetteth the Meteor it selfe different in species and forme as if you would say by the aboundance of hot and dry exhaled fumes from the Earth and the most burnt parts thereof are begot the greater quantity of Comets winds thunders and contrary-wayes by the aboundance of moist vapours elevated by the force of the Sunne from the Seas and waters we judge of aboundance of raine haile or snow or dew to ensue according to the diverse degrees of light in the Ayrie Region whither they are mounted Now when I said before that hot exhaled fumes are ever carried aloft to the highest Region of the Ayre take it not to be so universally true but that at times they may be inflamed even in this low Region of ours here and that through the Sunnes deficiency of heate for the time for as the uppermost Region is alwayes hot the middle alwayes cold so is the lower now hot now cold now dry and againe moist according to the Sunnes accesse or recesse from it as Aristotle lib. 1. Meteo cap. 3. noteth And of this sort are these even visible inflamations which in the Seas are seene before any storme flaming and glancing now and then as I my selfe have seene yea and sometimes upon the tops of Ships masts Sterne and Poope or such as in darke nights now
and then are perceived to flutter about Horse-meines and feet or amongst people gone astray in darke nights And these our Meteorologians call Ignes fatui ignes lambentes wilde-fires Sect. 6. That the earth and waters make but one globe which must be the Center of the world Of the Seas saltnesse deepnesse flux and reflux why the mediterranean Indian Seas have none Of Magellanes strait what maketh so violent tyde there seeing there is none in the Indian Sea from whence it floweth Of the Southerne Sea or Mare del Zur THus then leaving the Aire I betake me unto the third and fourth elements which are the earth and waters for these two I conjoyne in the Chapter of the world and that after the opinion of the most renowned Cosmographers howbeit Plinius Lib. 2. Naturalis Histor cap. 66. and with him Strabo lib. 1. distinguish them so as they would have the waters to compasse the earth about the middle as though the one halfe of it were under the waters and the other above like a bowle or Apple swimming in a vessell for indeede Ptolomee his opinion is more true that the earth and waters mutually and linkingly embrace one another and make up one Globe whose center should be the' center of the world But here now I aske seeing the frame of the universe is such that the heaven circularly encompasseth the low spheares each one of them another these the fire it the Aire the aire againe encompasseth the waters what way shall the water be reputed an element if it observe not the same elementarie course which the rest doe which is to compasse the earth also which should be its elementarie place Answer True it is that the nature of the element is such but GOD the Creator hath disposed them other wayes and that for the Well of his Creatures upon earth Who as he is above nature and at times can worke beyond and above it for other wayes the earth should have beene made improfitable either for the production or entertainement of living and vegetable Creatures if all had beene swallowed up and covered with waters both which now by their mutuall embracing they do hence necessarily it followeth that the Sea is not the element of water seeing all elements are simple and unmixt creatures whereas the Seas are both salt and some way terrestriall also How deepe hold you the Sea to be Answ. Proportionably shallow or deepe as the earth is either stretched forth in valleys or swelling in mountaines and like enough it is that where the mouth of a large valley endeth at the Sea that shooting as it were it selfe forth into the said Sea that there it should bee more shallow then where a tract of mountaines end or shall I say that probably it is thought that the Sea is as deepe or shallow below as commonly the earth is high in mountaines and proportionably either deepe or shallow as the earth is either high in mountaines or low and streacht forth in vallies But what reason can you render for the Seas saltnesse Answer If we trust Aristotle in his 2 booke of Meteors and 3. as he imputeth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea to the Moone so he ascribeth the cause of its saltnesse to the Sunne by whose beames the thinnest and sweetest purer parts of it are extenuated and elevated in vapors whilest the thicker and more terrestriall parts which are left behind by that same heate being adust become bitter and salt which the same Author confirmeth in that same place before cited by this that the Southerne Seas are salter and that more in Summer then the others are and inforceth it by a comparison in our bodies where our urine by him is alleadged to be salt in respect that the thinner and purer part of that moistnesse by our inborne warmenesse is conveyed and carryed from our stomack wherein by our meate and drinke it was engendred thorough the rest of the parts of our body Neither leaveth he it so but in his Problems Sect 23. 30. for corroboration hereof he maintaineth that the lower or deeper the Sea-water is it is so much the fresher and that because the force of the Suns heat pierces and reaches no further then the Winter Cold extendeth its force for freezing of waters unto the uppermost superfice only and no further If it bee true then that the Seas are salt wherefore are not lakes and rivers by that same reason salt also Answer Because that the perpetuall running and streames of rivers in flouds hindreth that so that the sun beames can catch no hold to make their operation upon them and as for lakes because they are ever infreshed with streames of fresh springs which flow and run into them they cannot be salt at all the same reason almost may serve to those who asâ—â— what makes some springs savour of salt some vitrioâ—â—â—â—e of brimstone some of brasse and the like To which nothing can be more pertinently answered then that the diversity of mineralls through which they run giveth them those severall tastes What have you to say concerning the cause of the flowing and ebbing of the Sea Answ. To that all I can say is this that Aristotle himselfe for all his cunning was so perplexed in following that doubt that he died for griefe because he could not understand it aright if it be truth which Coelius Rhodiginus lib. 29. antiquarum lectionum cap. 8. writeth of him it is true indeede yea and more probable that many ascribe the cause of his death to have beene a deepe melancholy contracted for not conceaving the cause aright of the often flowing and ebbing of Euripus a day rather than to the not knowing the true cause of the Seas ebbing and flowing chiefly seeing Meteor 2 3. he ascribeth it to the Moone the mother and nurse of all moist things which is the most receaved opinion and warranted with the authoritie of Ptolomee and Plinius both as depending upon her magnetick power being of all Planets the lowest and so the neerer to the Sea which all doe acknowledge to bee the mistris of moisture and so no question but to it it must be referred which may bee fortified with this reason That at all full Moones and changes the Seas flowing and swelling is higher then at other times and that all high streams and tydes are observed to bee so seeing the Moone doth shine alike upon all Seas what is the cause that the Mediterranean Sea together with the West Indian-Seas all along Hispaniola and Cuba and the Coasts washing along the firme Land of America to a world of extent hath no ebbing nor flowing but a certain swelling not comparable to our Seas ebbing and flowing Answ. Gonsalus Ferdinando Oviedes observation in his History of the West-Indian-Seas shall solve you of that doubt and this it is He compareth the great Ocean to the body of a man lying upon his back reaching
poore condemned caitive who fled into his denne and cave because he pulled out of his pawe the thorne which molested him but likewise fed him by killing beasts of all sorts and bringing them unto him whereof Gellius at length and out of him Du Bartas If I should follow forth here all other questions of Natures secrets the taske were long and tedious and peradventure lesse pleasant to the Reader than painfull to me as why the Adamant-stone which of its owne nature is so hard that neither fire nor Iron can bruise or break it is neverthelesse broke in peeces in a dishfull of hot Goates-bloud soft bloud being more powerfull than hard Iron Whether fishes doe breath or not seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath What can be the cause of the Loadstones attractive power to draw Iron unto it Why some Plants and Herbes ripen sooner than others Or what makes a member of a Man or Beast being cut from the body to dye presently and yet branches of trees cut off will retaine their lively sap so long within them Whether or not there be such affinity and to say love amongst plants and herbes that some will more fruitfully increase being set planted or sowen together then when mixed amongst others according to that of the Poet Vivunt in Venerem frondes omnisque vicissim Felix arbor amat nutant ad mutua palmae Foedera populeo suspirat populus ictu c. To which questions some others hereafter to be handled for me to give answer were no lesse presumption and foole-hardinesse than a demonstration of my grosser ignorance since Cardan and Scaliger are so farre from agreement in these matters as may be seen in Scaligers Exercitations yet having propounded these questions and to say nothing of my owne opinion touching the solution of such Riddles as wee call them were someway an imputation and I might be equally blamed with those who leade their neighbour upon the Ice and leave him there wherefore thus I adventure And first why the Adamant which for hardnesse is able to abide both the force of the fire and dint of any hammer yet being put in Goates-bloud parteth asunder Answ. Howbeit Scaliger in his 345. Exercitation Sect. 8. giveth no other reason than that absolutely it is one of the greatest miracles and secrets of Nature and therein refuteth their opinions who alleage the Analogie and agreement of the common principles of Nature which are common to the bloud and to the Adamant together to be the cause yet I thinke for my owne part that if any naturall reason may be given in so hidden a mystery it may be this That Goates as we all know live and feed usually on cliffie Rocks wheron herbs of rare pearcing and penetrative vertues and qualities grow neither is the derivation of that herbes name Saxifrage other than from the power it hath to breake stones asunder Goates then feeding on such rockie-herbes as these no wonder that their bloud having Analogie and proportion to their food be penetrative and more proper to bee powerfull in vertue than otherwayes convertible in fatnesse for wee see them of all grazing Beasts the leanest Quest. Now by what power draweth the Loadstone Iron unto it Answ. Aristotle in the 7th Booke of his Physicks which almost al other Philosophers do affirme That the Loadstone attracteth Iron unto it by their similitude and likenesse of substances for so you see they are both of a like colour and that must be the cause how the false-Prophet Mahomet his Chest of Iron wherein his bones are doth hang miraculously unsupported of any thing because either the pend or some verticall stone of the Vault where it is kept is of Loadstone and thus with Iulius Scaliger Exercitatione 151. I disallow Caspar Bartholinus his opinion who alleageth that the Loadstone doth not meerely and solely by its attractive faculty draw Iron unto it but for that it is nourished and fed by Iron for nothing more properly can bee said to feed than that which hath life Therefore c. Here also it will not be amisse to adde the reason why the Needles of Sea-compasses as these of other Sun-Dyals being touched by the Loadstone doe alwayes turne to the North and this is the most received That there is under our North-Pole a huge black Rock under which our Ocean surgeth and issueth forth in foure Currants answerable to the foure corners of the Earth or the foure winds which place if the Seas have a source must bee thought to be its spring and this Rock is thought to be all of Loadstone so that by a kinde of affinity it would seeme by a particular instinct of nature it draweth all other such like stones or other metals touched by them towards it So that the reason of the Needles turning to the North in Compasses is that Nigra rupes of Loadstone lying under our North Pole which by the attractive power it hath draweth all things touched by it or it s alike thither Section 9. Of Fishes if they may be said to breath seeing they lack pulmons Of flying fishes if such things may be c. which are the reasons of their possibility are deduced exemplified Quest. BVT whether and after what manner can Fishes be said to breath seeing they have no lungs the bellowes of breath Answ. This question hath beene agitated many Ages agoe both pro contra as we say Arist. cap. 1. De respiratione denying that they can breath Plato and divers others of his Sect affirming the contrary they who maintaine the negative part do reason thus Creatures that want the Organs and Instruments of breathing cannot be said to breath or respire but such are all fishes therefore c. The opposites on the other side doe thus maintaine their breathing all living creatures not onely breath but so necessarily must breath that for lack of it they dye as experience sheweth nay that the very insects or as you would say demi-creatures they must breathe but fishes are living Creatures therefore they must breathe The Aristotelians answering this distinguish the major proposition restraining the universality of it but to such Creatures as live in the Aire whereas there is no Ayre in the water the nature of it not admitting place for Ayre as the Earth doth which being opened with any Instrument as with a Plough or Spade may admit Ayre whereas the waters will fill all the void presently againe as we may see by buckets boxes or any other materiall thing being put into the water and taken out againe doe leave no vacuum behinde them for the waters doe straight wayes reincorporate seeing then there is no Ayre in the Fishes Element they cannot nor need not be said to breath for contrariwise wee see that being drawne from the waters to the Ayre they doe incontinently dye For answer to both extreames I could allow for fishes a kind of respiration called refrigeration which improperly
wherewith it was perplexed for I was saying that if things on the earth were propagated by their likes as by the authority of Aristotle I did instance and almost unto that the Lyrick Poet Horace applaudeth while he saith although not to this purpose wholly fortes creantur fortibus and againe Nec imbellem feroces progenerant aquilae columbam then how can fishes be said to live and have their substance of and by the Sea For if the Maxime both of Philosophie and medicine hold good that we exist and have our being of those things wherof we are nourished surely fishes existing of a more grosse and more materiall substance than water is cannot be said to live by the Sea much lesse Fowles seeing their flesh is more terrestriall and for that cause they build and bring forth their young ones upon the Land whereas otherwayes it should seeme that they live and have their essence and existence from the Sea for in Genesis we reade that the Great Creator commanded the waters to produce swimming creeping and flying creatures upon the Earth Answ. With Aristotle whom you object to mee you must consider that in the fire and ayre no Creature is framed For so in the 4th Booke of his Meteors he holdeth from them two indeed he admitteth vertue and power to bee derived to those which are created upon the Earth and in the Waters true it is that Fowles being volatile Creatures their generation should have fallen by lot in the Ayre but in respect that none can be well procreated there the next Element became their bringer forth as neerest in nature to the Ayre and as being little lesse than a condensed Ayre from which these Foules might soone flye up so that all things here below being made up of a dry and then of a thickned moist matter which are the Earth and Waters no marvell that properly of them all things are procreated howbeit they may be said to have their temperament and vertues from the superior two fire and ayre and where it may be objected how the matter of Fishes should be so firme and solid they being nourished by the thin waterish and slimy substance of the waters it must be considered that the Seas and waters are not so exempted of some mixture of earth in them out that even as the Earth some way participateth of them so they impart partly to it their moistnesse againe of which mixture both Fowles and Fishes doe live Quest. What is your opinion concerning the potablenesse of Gold after which our Chymists and Extractors of quintessences Calcinators and Pulverizers of Metals make such search and labour whereby Gold made drinkable as they undertake our youth neere spent may be renewed againe all diseases cured and the drinker thereof to live for many Ages Answ. Although Gold of all Metals be the King as the Sun amongst the Planets and that it is the softest of all and most volatile so the easiest to bee extended and wrought upon in so much that one Ounce of it is able to cover many Ounces and Pounds of Silver yea although of all Metals it abideth the triall of the fire best and loseth nothing by it as Arist. in the 3. Booke of his Meteors cap. 6. observeth yet that it may be made potable I doubt much of it and am a Galenist in that point and that for these two notable reasons which Iulius Scaliger setteth downe in his 272. Exercitation First because there must bee some resemblance betwixt the body nourished and the thing that nourisheth which no more holdeth betwixt our bodies and gold than betwixt a living and a dead thing Secondly because nothing is able to nourish us which the heate of our stomack is not able to digest But such is Gold and therefore c. Alwayes of the worth and vertue of Gold reade Plinius lib. 1. c. 3. capâ— 1. Quest. Now what is the matter of precious-Stones earth it cannot be for it is heavie dull and blackish coloured they are glitteringly transparent like Stars water it is not for even Crystalline Ice will dissolve whereas they for hardnesse are almost indissoluble yet Cleopatra is said to have liquefide a Pearle to Anthonie Answ. They are of most purified earth not without some mixture of moistnesse but such as are both mavellously by the force of the Sun subtilized tempered and concocted Section 11. Of the Earth its circumference thicknesse and distance from the Sunne OVR Cosmographers generally but more particularly our Geographers have beene very bold to take upon them the hability as I am informed to shew how many graines of Wheate or Barley will encompasse the whole Earth which I esteeme a thing impossible to any mortall man to doe and therefore frivolous to be undertaken and I think it very much if they can demonsttate how many Miles it is in compasse leaving to trouble their wits with the other yet hereupon I desire to be resolved Answ. The Philosophicall generall knowledge of things is twofold either knowing things which fall under the reach of their Science in their effects thereby to come to the knowledg of the cause or contrariwise by the cause first to know the effects to come But the Mathematicall demonstrations whereof Geometry is a part consist not in these speculations but in reall demonstrations and that in such sort that their positions being once well founded thereon they may build what they please whereas on the other side a little error or mistaking in the beginning becommeth great and irreparable in the end and so to make way to your answer there is no question but if once a Geometrian give up the infallible number of the Miles which the Earth will reach to in compasse but soone and on a sudden hee may shew how many graines will encompasse it for it is universally held that the Earth is in circuit one and twenty thousands and so many odde hundred Miles a Mile consisteth of a thousand paces a pace of five feet a foot of foure palmes a palme of foure fingers breadth a fingers beadth of foure Barley cornes and so from the first to the last the number of the Miles holding sure the supputation of the graines number will cleere it selfe by Multiplication Quest. By that meanes I see you seeme to make no difficulty of that whereof I so much doubted Answ. No indeed and in this point I perceive how farre learned men are to be respected above ignorants yea as much as Pearles Diamonds or precious Stones are to be preferred to grosse Minerals Quest. Seeing all depende upon the knowledge of the Earths compasse then how many Miles hold you it to be in roundnesse Answ. The discovery of our new found-lands and the confident assurance which our moderne Navigators and Mappers have of this Terra australis incognita maketh that punctually not to be pointed out but what may satisfie in that or in knowing how thick the masse of the
Poictouvin 2 man of his owne coate but younger falling to contradictory termes for a naughty matter because in the Kings house they durst not put hand to their swords did agree to meet elsewhere time place and armes are designed the Gascon that same morning betimes calling on his page commands him to provide a bottle of Wine and to have it in readinesse at the place appointed before hee came where he himselfe following and presently espying his adversary both being demounted and in their shirts before they began to lye at their guard in these or the like termes the Elder bespake the younger That I as the Elder doe take upon me to speake first impute it not to any presumption I have of my worth but to the priority of my yeares Wee reade in the Roman History that two of their Consulls who before had bin at mortall enmity and variance going together with their Armies against the enemy being a pretty way from the City the elder should say to the younger Camerad seeing we goe together on a publike charge in conjunct offices let us lay downe all former grudges under this stone now if thou please at our returne lift thou it up againe and reassume them you may advise but for the present I thinke this best which was agreed unto to the great contentment of the younger So say I to thee if it please thee for so petty and frivolous a quarrell that wee expose our lives and estates to the hazard of a doubtfull fight and of a variable fortune I will not decline it For as none doubteth of your courage So I trust that none dare call mine in question so then if you list Cavalier with the worthy Roman let us bury in this Boule of wine our yesternights rash words so we shal procure Gods blessing upon our soules and bodies and our Prince his favour by our good examples to his quarrelling courtiers and withall indissolubly tye our loves together for ever without any disparagement of our credit or reputation which being accepted by the younger and related to the King they were by him in presence of the whole Court condignely praysed as most duely they deserved Now albeit it be not of those or the like voluntary duels I treat of here but of these which are tolerated by permission of the Prince or Magistrate for the eschewing of murther greater bloud-shed in the common-wealth upon apparent conject res of wrongs received yet I thought it not altogether imperinent to insert this story Now for the other Although some have permitted them as of old Fraton King of Denmarke and are yet tolerated in Muscovia yet we finde that Rhotaris King of Lombardy absolutely discharged them and although his successor for the inconvenience which thereafter ensued licensed them againe yet hee protested that it was against his will and conscience and as these good Kings inhibited them so many of the French Kings as Philip le bel Lewis the 9th Charles the 9th King Henries 3d. and 4th and many moe of the best governed Common-wealths have done the like Which maketh mee admire why Bodin in his 7. Chapter of his 4. Booke of Republick giveth way to their toleration they being both repugnant to the Law of God and contrary to the Civill and Canon Lawes and the constitutions of best governed Kingdomes Indeed the said Bodin admits them onely to be permissible when legall proofes are wanting provided that they be only for matter of honor not wealth and consequently among persons honourable for the preventing of further bloud-shed averting of kinsfolkes murthers and such like evils which might ensue to which if he had subjoyned Charles the 5th his condition of fighting armed I thinke his reasons might have beene more passable But however in elder times duels were tolerated by certaine Kings which by appearance the necessity of those times required as common Stewes were for eschewing of greater inconveniencies yet they being practises so ill-grounded so unnaturall and so farre both against the Lawes of God and Man Succeeding Kings in every Nation almost have enacted most strict Lawes against them with most exemplary punishments to be executed on the rash infringers of them all which being well knowne every where were superfluous to be inserted in this small Treatise A TREATISE OF DEATH And of diverse Orders and Ceremonies of Burials Section 1. The remembrance of death requisite in all men Ceremonies for the remembrance of it some documents against the feare of it what death Iulius Caesar wished of Autocides of selfe-murtherers c. THERE is nothing whereof a Christian should be more mindefull than of death The Ethnickes that wanted the true consolation which a beleeving and faithfull Christian hath had nothing more frequent in their mouthes than Death The Poets are full of these passages Vive memor quà m sis aevi brevis Nascentes morimur mors rediviva brevis Especially Horace with Tribullus Catullus Propertius Seneca Tragoedus Persius Iuvenall Claudian Ovid Lucianus and the rest whereof to make mention were to fill up a little Volume there is nothing almost under the heavens but may serve man as a memoriall thereof the Sunne setteth at evening the day giveth place to the night Summer to Winter infancy to childhood that to youth it to man-hood this againe to decrepit old age whence it may be inferred that the best fruits we can reap of all our studies yea chiefly of Philosophy are to prepare us for this death neither almost to any other end tend all their documents than to live w th pleasure in reason here then to dye in patience no wayes dismaid at the approach of death because of its inevitablenesse of our our obedience to the Law of Nature of the examples of al Ages sexes and conditions of men to this houre who have gone before us so that the principall aime of vertue whereof they made such account was to induce prepare all that have beene are or shall succeed to a patient acceptance or rather a contempt of it that we might passe our lives more peaceably here which otherwise by the perpetuall feare of it would be a never-dying life For this cause it should seeme the Ancients did institute Graves Monuments and Tombes to be either in the Churches or Church-yards adjoyning thereunto as in the most conspicuous and usuall places where the living frequented most I cannot but wonder that what the Philosophers thought fit continually to bee thought on Iulius Caesar should wish to come upon him suddenly and at unawares Histories relate that while some Philosophers were reasoning before him What sort of death was best some alledging one kinde and some another He maintained that a sudden and unfore-seene death was the best for howsoever unto a man of his high estate and profession it might seeme a word dispensable yet to a Christian who is learned to say A morte subita improvisa libera me Domine it cannot so well
they doe dry as we doe fishes the bodyes of their dead which thereafter they hang up round about the Walls of their inner roomes adorning their heads shoulders and upper lips with Gold and Pearle And Ortelius in his Cosmographie speaking of Find-land or Lapland which he calls Livonia where there is no Religion almost at all because after the manner of the Heathen they worship the Sunne Moone and Serpents c. I find I say that when any one of great esteeme dieth his friends sit round about his corps laid on the earth but not yet covered with any mould and make good cheere and drinke to his farewell and putting the Cuppes in his hand as if he could pledge them they quaffe about a long time in end they lay him in the grave with store of meate and drinke by him and put a peece of money in his mouth and a sharpe Pole-axe fast by him then they shout aloud in his eares and give him in Commission that when he shall come to the other world whither they had victualled him and given him mony to defray his charges that he faile not whensoever he meete with any Dutch man to correct him as well as they had thralled him and theirs in this world which custome but after a more solemne manner and sumptuous they of China Cathay and Tartarie keepe almost in all points The like wherof that same Author observeth done in Ternessare a Citie of the East Indies but not to a like enemy In Greece yet as of old at least in such parts of it as are under the Turkish Empyre whensoever any remarkable person dieth all the women thereabouts after their old heathen custome meete together about the house of the deceased and there choosing the lowdest and shrillest voices to beginne betimes in the morning they make lamentable howlings and cryes weeping and tearing the haire from their heads beating their teats and breasts with their nailes defacing their cheekes and faces they conduct him to his grave singing by the way his praises and recounting what memorable things he had done in his life Which custome Aëtius an ancient Historian of our Country observeth to have beene used of Old amongst our British and yet in our Highlands is observed The Poets in their Luctus neniae make mention of this and the like as Ovid Horace Iuvenall Catuallus Tibullus Propertius amongst the Greekes Sophocles Musaeus Aristophanes Phocyllides and the rest whereof Ennius speaking of himselfe Nemo me lachrymis decoret nec funera flet◠Faxit Cur volito vivus per ora virum Sect. 4. Other severall Customes of interring the Dead amongst Aegyptians Romans and Indians that the manner of Christian Interrements are preferreable to all other NOw what hath beene the Curiosity of the Aegyptians for the keeping of their dead their Momies can testifie where the whole and intyre bodyes of some of their Princes and great men were to bee seene of late who died many thousand yeares agoe whereof who pleaseth to reade may consult Diodorus Siculus Ammianus Marcellinus Strabo Herodotus and others the Athenians and after their example the Salaminians saith Sabellicus lib. 5. Aeneid 2. used to interre their dead with their faces turned to the Sunne setting not to the rising with the Megarians and apparently Catullus was of their opinion when he said Nobis cùm semel occidit brevis lux nox perpetua una dormienda est But of the severall fashions of burying the dead I finde two most remarkable the one of some Greeks and Romans and not used but by those of the better sort which was in burning the Corps of the deceased after this manner There was either an Eagle or some other great fowle tyed unto the top of the Pyramide of Wood wherein the dead body lay This Pyramide being kindled by some of the most intire friends of the deceased amongst the cloud of smoke the Fowle being untyed which was tyed before was seene to flutter and flye away which by the Spectators was taken to be the soule of the deceased flying to Heaven the Ashes then of this burnt body they collected and kept in an Vrne and of this the Poets almost every where make mention The other was the Indians in eating the dead bodyes of their Parents and friends as they did in ire to those of their foes thinking that they could give them no more honorable Sepulchre abhorring the others burning into ashes as a thing unnaturall which might well be seene at the time that Alexander had conquered them for he willed both Greekes and Indians to doe alike but they upon no condition would condiscend to that the power of custome being so strong as it was impossible for any Novations though never so good to alter it Amongst al fashions above rehearsed I think that of our Christian interments to be most consonant to nature seeing of earth we are and that to it we must returne againe As for the Greekes howling weeping renting their cloathes haire and faces it seemeth that Saint Augustine in his worke De cura pro mortuis habenda aymed at them for in that whole worke I perceave nothing that maketh much for praying for them but chiefly he willeth all men to moderate extraordinary Griefes mournings and howlings for them seeing they rest from their labours and his conclusion is good that if prayers for the dead be not meritorious for them yet at least that they are some way comfortable for the living Si non subsidia mortuorum saith hee tamen solatia sunt viventium Indeede I will not deny but that Father and others also in their writings allow prayer for the dead as Peter Martyr Vermillius also in his loco 9. lib. 3. in the Title De Purgatorio denyeth it not but onely he refuseth such prayers to have beene subsidiary or helpfull to them but rather congratulatorie for that they were released from all their miseries which he instanceth by the funerall Oration of Saint Ambrose upon the deaths of the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian where there is no mention of praying for their soules to ease or shorten their paines in Purgatory Section 5. That the Church of Rome reapeth great commodity by their funerall ceremonies as by their bells Cymballs Torches processions of order and the rest silent obscquies condemned a story of a woman whose Ghost haunted her Husband and family after her death and the cause thereof NOw for all this as there is nothing whereby the Church of Rome reapes more commodity then by their prayers for the dead for it is called the Friers kitchen So it is there is nothing wherein their pompous solemnities and their devotion appeareth more than in their accompanying their dead to the grave with the sound of Bells and Cymballs Tapers Torches prayers musicke Church Ornaments solemne processions of the fraternities and not without contention of precedence of orders all which ceremonyes as they bred a kinde of pious compassion in
no nature of it selfe left unto it's owne Tutory able to attaine well being for so I interprete Salutem without his assistance or helpe wherefore his opinion is that God holdeth the beginning middle and end of all things So Theophrast saith that all things have a divine beginning by which they are and doe subsist Dionysius likewise in his booke De divinis nominibus avoucheth that nothing hath subsistance but by the omnipotent power of God with whom Theodoret that the governour of nature is the Creator of it neither will he forgoe that Ship which hee hath built Hence GOD is said by the ancients to bee divided through all natures as if all were full of God because his divine power spreadeth it selfe over and is seene in all his workes how be it one way in the heavens another way againe in the inferiour creatures for in them also his power manifesteth it selfe Inde hominum pecudumque genus vitaeque volantum Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus Igneus est â—llis vigor coelestis origo Seminibus Section 6. Severall other opinions wherein the Ancient Heathnicks agreed with us Christians Confirmed by the Testimonyes of their Poets GOD then as he created all things maintaineth and governeth them both according to these Philosophers opinions and ours so they jumpe with us in this that to procure his greater favour and to shun his greater curse we should adore invoke and sacrifice unto him not only the calves of our lippes but reall sacrifices as in those dayes under the law was done by Aaron and his successors under the Old Testament and as they who were appointed to attend upon the Altar were sequestrated from amongst the rest of the people so was it amongst them The Poets are full of the testimony of both these Now as particularly Processions were used for the good successe of their cornes as yet in the Roman Church is observed so had they particular dayes which they esteemed more sacred then others Tibullus in the first Elegie of his second booke perfectly particularizeth it Dii Patrii purgamus agros purgamus agrestes Vos mala de nostris pellite limitibus Neu seges eludat messem c. Vina diem celebrent non festâ luce madere Est rubor errantes malè ferre pedes And as yet in the said Church there is invocation of certaine Saints for such or such diseases and for raine whose relicts in such processions they carry about so the same Poet in the same Elegie acknowledgeth some Gods to be appropriated as I may say to this or that use and place Huc ades aspiraque mihi dum carmine nostro Redditur agricolis gratia Coelitibus Ruracano rurisque Deos. Lastly as in the new Roman profession there is almost in every family the Statue of some Saint so finde I amongst the ancient to have beene the like Sed patrii servate lares aluistis iidem cursarem vestros cùm tener antepedes Nec pudeat prisco vos esse è stirpite factos Sic veteris sedes incoluistis avi Tunc melius tenuere fidem cùm paupere cultu Stabat in exigua ligneus aede Deus That they acknowledged nothing to happen unto men by chance but by the dispensation of the supreme powers In that also they agreed with us Finally I may say that as these Philosophers acknowledged punishments for sins to be inflicted upon men both in their life and after their death so had they confidence of joyes to be reaped in the world to come for their good deeds as Socrates in his Apologie for himselfe at length declareth Sect. 7. Of good and bad Spirits and wherein the opinions of the Heathnicks agree with ours concerning good Spirits AS for their opinion concerning good or bad spirits I reade Plato and Aristotle come so neere ours that you would beleeve that they had collected their sayings out of the holy Scriptures yet they doe startle my beliefe when they say that the continuall rolling of the celestiall orbes and their spirits doe make that harmony they speak of in the heavens I could much easier have trusted them if they had spoken any thing of Musicke within the heavens by those spirits where wee have warrant indeed that the blessed Spirits there assisting the presence of him that sitteth upon the Throne doe sing Allelujas glory to God on high Which good Spirits as I finde them distributed in 9. severall Quires or orders by Dionysius so in Plato finde I 9. distinct orders of good daemones Yea the story of the evill spirits is no cleerer set downe by our owne Writers then they have it expressed in theirs The blessed spirits as I was saying are divided by Dionysius in these Quyres Seraphins Cherubins Thrones Dominations Vertues Powers Principalities Arch-angels and Angels subdivided in two rankes The first of them assisting the presence of the Almighty The second is called inferior because as it obeyeth the commandement of the first as Dionysius in the tenth Chap. of his booke touching the heavenly hierarchie witnesseth so their imployment is much in the world as the Lord his servants excuting his wil appointed either for whole countries or particular persons Apparent accinctae aurae flammaeque ministrae ut jussa accipiant Sect. 8. How neere the Ancients agree with us concerning bad spirits and in what orders they were divided of old AS for the bâ—d spirits who were banished heaven the first and best mansion for their pride they invaded the principality of this world and so bewitched it by their craft that there was no nation almost that they did not draw to their obedience under the name of God and that so strangely that every where after a like manner they were worshipped and adored as Gods both amongst the French Druides and the remotest Gymnosophists of the Indies in shapes of Idols how soever since the comming of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ both they and the old Sybillas have ceassed for a great part although yet in many places their sacrifices doe continue And that same Lucifer goeth about yet as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure So Plato by severall arguments proveth not onely that they are but setteth down their division and power over the world both generally and particularly But leaving all both Deos majorum and minorum gentium The gods as they termed them of greater or lesser Nations their Gods Patrii and Penates ordained for the custodie of provinces or families their Dii Lares which were propitious ones or Larvae the badder sort with their Genii good or bad Angels ordained as they thought for the guarde and attendance of every particular person and so forth I conclude this Treatise OF SLEEPE AND DREAMES Section 1. That nothing can subsist without sleepe or rest Exemplified in the death of Perseus King of Macedon The Primary and secondary causes of sleepe That a sound conscience is a great motive to sound sleepe Proved in the example
Foure formes of drawing up of armies used by the Romans Description of the battell of Cannas The defeates of Cannas and Trasimenes rather by the Romans unskilfulnesse then prowesse of their foes A maxime of military discipline Pompey his oversight at the battell of Pharsalia The neerer our owne timâ—s writers are more spaâ—ing to write without sure warcâ—nds More battels of â—ate amongst the French than all countries â—eâ—ide Few fights abroad to their commendation The Spaniard more slow and mature in their doings than the French Emulation betwixt the house of Gwyse and Bourbon and not religion the cause of warres of France France most subject to Duels â—ombats authorised Lotharius tryall of his wifes Chastitie Champions in Duell to cleere Queenes Honours That Ladyes have fought combats Combats of Church-men Combats of Iudges and Counsellors aâ— Law Combats whereof Kings have been spectators Combats rewarded by Kings S. Almachius slaine for speaking against combats Six score men killed in combats in one voyage of K. Lewis of Fran. The quarrell a Commander on the Kings side * A principall man in the Dukes party and brother to him The challenge The combat Comparison of the French and Spaniard Venetian and Florentine A duel betwixt two Spaniards granted by the authority and fought in the presence of the Emperour Charâ—es the 5. The occasion and quarrell Occasion moving the challenger to petition a publike combate Conditions granted by the Emperour whereupon they should fight Ceremonies observed in this combate The event of â—heir fight What way combats permissible if they should be at all suffered The Canon Law gaine-saâ—eth their permission and Why Example where in a Duâ—ll the innocent was killed We should rather referre to God the punishment of a misdeed which by no legall meanes can be cleared rather then to a fight David his fight with Goliah should not serve for example and Why Cardinall Cajetan his permission where â—nd how Solution of certaine Obâ—â—ctions It is not a good consequence seeing I refuse Duells therefore Batteils too No more is it a good consequence if wars and Battels be lawfull therefore Combats 〈◊〉 A Notable Combat of 3. Brethren Romans against so many Albans Their fight Some Grecian Roman Hunnish Danish Kings have combated with others for saving much bloud Challenge but no meeting nor fight betwixt the Prince of Aragon and Charles of Anjou Challenge betwixt Charles the 5. and the French King Francis The occasion of the quarrell Combate of 13 French knights against so many Italians The quarrell and challenge The conditions agreed upon Observation upon this combat A memorable combat betwixt two powerfull Clan parties of our own nation dâ—bated of Pearth The conditions accepted and agreed upon An Exemplary Combat betwixt two French Barons All things we see serves to refresh our memories of death and mortality The documents of all the old Philosophers tendeth to this chiefly not to feare death Burials and tombs in most conspicuous places erected for that cause Iulius Caesar his death which hee wished not to be allowed of by a Christian. S. Augustine reputeth it a token rather of pusillanimity to put hand on our selves than of courage My usuall prayer The ancients for all their good injunctions yet feared it Not to be afraid of death and why All things except man keepe their constant course If change be in things a token of Gods wrath The Antiquity of interring the dead The Old Roman Emperoâ—s respect had thereunto Alexander of Macedon daunced about Achilles tombe Sylla his cruelty against burialls remarked in Histories The memory they carry to the dead in Vraba and the way how they use the Corps The manner of burialls observed in Find-land and Lapland That same sort observed of old in this same Country and yet in certaine parts of our Highlandâ— The Aegyptian burials and their Momies most remarkable Two sorts of interring the dead most remarkable The Romans burned consumed theirs to ashes The Indians againe did eat their dead as thinking their bellies a honorable sepulchre for them The dumbe silent obsequies of our burialls condemned A History of a Gentlewoman who for not being interred in the Church-yard molested her family by her ghost while she was disinterred and according as shee desired was buried Bartol and Vlpian admit deceit to bee used with the circumventer and no faith to be kept to particular enemies The Emperour Augustus kept faith although to a rogue Of mentall reservation what it is Cleomenes although packt up a truce with his enemy for some-dayes yet in the night surprised them Alexander the great could honourably say Malo me fortunae peâ—iteat quà m victoriae pudeat The Romane offended with their Legat L. Marcius because that in their warres under him with Perseus King of Macedon he used subtilties and circumventions The manner observed by the ancients in making their truces peace or other pactions The termes and words of their covenants The Grecians branded with that to be called Not keepers of their oathes Pope Alexander and his nephew Borgia both remarked dishonest in their deeds and words Other Popes guilty of that same fault Exhortation to his Countrey-people not to doe so The integrity of ancient Romans Of keeping no faith to enemies A fault ' committed by our Duke Aubigny at the siege of Capua or rather by the insolent French under him A Cruelty committed at Genoa against the French within by the Spanyard without Little good followeth commonly excesse of mirth and laughter Examples of Nebuchadonozor Baliasar and the rich glutton to this purpose Examples of such who in the middest of all their felicities have been taken away Wisely was it ordained that the Paschall Lambe should be eaten with foure hearbes Our Saviour did never laugh Foure famous and renowned Warriors have shed teares The Emperor Adrian even amidst all his triumphs remembring the frailty of nature The Prophet David when he did heare of Absoloms death Iulius Caesar at Pompeys head Vespasian seeing the temple of Salomon on fire Xerxes seeing all his numerous Army before him We reade of Horses which have wept The Teare which is in the Abby Church of Vandome what it can be Weeping for the dead allowable provided it be not immoderate The matter 〈◊〉 our teares We laugh and weepe diveâ—sly for the selfe-same causes Neither they commendable who laugh alwayes nor they who mourne Difference betwixt factions and seditions Vproare of the Commons at Rome against the Patricians appeased by Menenius Agrippa Emulation and ambition in well doing is allowable Curiosity the Mother of mischief Our Schooles and Learned men not exempt from it What peace hath the most curious questions brought unto the Church but rather hath divided us all In Metaphysick we crossed to know if there be in nature any other production besides Creation and Generation Whether accidents be create or concreat If God may sustayne accidents without their substances to subsist in The actions of Gods will tend unto and