drowned before it ceased to rain it cannot but be that the rain descended from some higher place 1. Object But perhaps some may think that the clouds mounted higher and higher as the waters increased insomuch that as the waters by little and little gat above the mountains so did the clouds Answ. This cannot be because that which makes us distinguish the aire so as it may have a middle Region is nothing else but the differing temper that it hath both from the upper and lower Region and this differing temper is caused by the hills which hindering the aire from following the motion of the heavens do make it a fit place to thicken those vapours into clouds which by the attractive power of the starres and planets are drawn up thither as already hath been shewed and as afterwards shall be touched when I come again to speak of the severall Regions and their tempers shewing you that it is an Axiome undeniable that the farnesse from a circular motion gives quietnesse coldnesse and heavinesse even as the nearenesse to it gives motion heat and lightnesse 2. Object Or secondly perhaps some may think that the hills and mountains were not before the Floud but made by the violence of the waters and that Moses when he would describe how high the waters were doth but shew us that they were higher by fifteen cubits then the highest mountain that was then in his time which he might well say and make such a comparison although there were no hills before the floud Answ. That which hath been said in the former answer concerning the cause of the middle Region doth sufficiently stop this last objection unlesse it be granted that there were no clouds untill the Floud had made the hills And indeed if any such thing be granted then all is granted and the controversie quite ended concerning these waters above the Heavens But besides that answer I hope to make it appeare that mountains valleys and plains were created in the beginning and were before the Floud in the dayes of Noah For first if hills were caused by the Floud then it must be that the waters suffered an extream violent motion but the waters being over the whole face of the earth had nothing to hinder them from their own free motion nor any thing to compell them to a violent motion such I mean as should make them work such wonders as are supposed Had they been overtopped by any thing then indeed running from one place to another there might have been a repercussion and by such contention more strange accidents then were might have been produced as the making of hills and the like Or secondly if there were such a violent motion as questionles the waters moved untill all places were filled alike with no small violence yet the violence was not so great as to be the parent of the hills and mountains for then without doubt it would have been so forcible also as to have turned rivers and changed them from one place to another cast down all manner of buildings and structures rooted up all trees and the like so that after the Floud nothing should have had the same name bounds and description which before it had neither would the memories of the former ages have been but buried from all succeeding time which we know is otherwise for if it were not it is likely that Moses speaking of the site of Paradise and setting down all the rivers of it exactly would have specified it in his historie that thereby after-ages looking for those places might not mistake or suspect the truth of his relation Neither have we just cause to think that all buildings and ancient monuments of the Fathers before the floud were extinguished in the floud For it is reported by Pomponius Mela and Plinie concerning the citie Ioppa that it was built before the floud and that Cepha or Cepheus reigned there which is witnessed by certain ancient altars bearing titles of him and his brother Phineus together with a memoriall of the grounds and principles of their religion And of the citie Henoch there is a much like relation But what need I mention more seeing Iosephus a writer of good credit affirmeth that he himself saw one of those pillars which was set up by Seth the sonne of Adam and this for the truth of it was never questioned but warranted by all antiquitie Moreover seeing the dove was twice sent out of the ark and returned with an olive branch at her last return and not at her first it is not without reason that we think the trees were not torn up by their roots but remained still fixed in the ground even as they had done before for if the trees had been swimming or floating upon the waters as some may think then the poore dove might have found one branch or other as well at the first as second time Besides when she did bring any thing Noah took it not as a token what havock the floud had made but as a signe that the waters were decreased she therefore plucked it off from some tree growing on the earth and not floating on the waters And last of all although I say nothing of the delectation and profit of the mountains which do thereby even amplifie the goodnesse of God in his works creating and not occasioning them I shall need to point you no further then to the plain text it self which doth most plainly tell us not that the waters were as high as the highest mountains which are now or were then when Moses wrote his historie but that even from the beginning there were hills and mountains whose loftie tops in the universall floud were covered with waters for thus stand the words And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills which were under the whole heaven were covered Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail and the mountains were covered Whereupon as I remember one writeth thus saying that this judgement was admirable seeing there are mountains as Atlas Olympus Caucasus Athos and other such that are so high as their tops are above the clouds and windes as Historiographers do report it and yet see all these are covered and these being covered the middle Region must needs be drowned and that being drowned how could the clouds be those windows of heaven which poured down rain for fourtie dayes And those not being the windows of heaven it cannot but be that the waters above the heavens are in a more remote and higher place even above the concave of the out-spread Firmament 3. Object But perhaps you may think that I now pitch too much upon reason concerning this of the Floud seeing it was caused not by naturall and ordinary means but by the extraordinary power of God Answ. To which it is answered that this floud was partly naturall partly supernaturall and to shew how farre nature had a hand in this admirable effect we may distinguish with
parts of the same IF I should expound the words of Moses so nicely as some have done the starres must then either signifie nothing in the course of nature or else be for signes onely of seasons as Spring Summer Autumne Winter and of dayes and yeares Which exposition doth certainly tie up the sense in too strait bands For it is plain enough that Moses very positively setteth down as a distinct office by it self that they were made for signes And then he proceedeth adding therewithall And let them be for seasons and for dayes and for yeares In consideration whereof the sentence certainly must be divided And first let us observe out of it that the starres by a divine ordination were set in the heavens to be for signes of future events wherefore it is said Let them be for signes Secondly they were appointed to be as it were heavenly clocks and remarkable measures by their motions defining and discerning Time and the parts thereof as dayes weeks moneths and yeares And therefore it is also added And let them be for seasons and for dayes and for yeares Of which two offices I purpose to discourse a while beginning with the first as being most pertinent to this Paragraph And lest it may be thought that Moses his meaning is here mistaken by me besides other things that I purpose to remember I would have him compared with the Prophet Jeremie in the 10 chap. at the 2 vers where when the Prophet commands the people that they should not learn the way of the Heathen he calleth the starres like unto Moses in this very text The signes of heaven From whence Melancthon gathereth that the Prophet doth not onely name them signes but also sheweth that they were set to be signes of portending something For Non ait Ieremias nihil esse signa coeli sed A signis nolite timere Imò cùm nominat signa portendi aliquid affirmat And Luther also affirmeth in his commentarie upon the words of Moses Simpliciter lunam cum sole stellis in firmamento coeli Moses dicit positas ut essent signa futurorum eventuum sicut experientia de Eclipsibus magnis conjunctionibus aliis quibusdam Meteoris docet Which is Moses plainly saith that the moon with the sunne and starres were placed in the firmament of heaven that they should be for signes of future events as experience teacheth us in Eclipses great conjunctions Meteors and the like To which may be also joyned the testimonie of learned Philo alledged by Sr Christapher Heidon in his defence of Judiciall Astrologie This man saith he was familiar with Peter the Apostle and with Mark and in divers places but specially in his book De Mundi fabricatione in his exposition of that in the 1 of Genesis viz. LET THEM BE FOR SIGNES he thus speaketh saying They were created not onely that they might fill the world with their light but also that they might be for signes of future things For by their rising setting defections apparitions occultations and other differences of motion they teach men to conjecture of the event of things as of plentie and dearth of the growing up or decay of creatures animate of cleare weather and storms of calms and windes of overflowings and of droughts of the quiet motion of the sea and the boisterous times of waves of the anniversarie changes of times either when the Summer shall be tossed with tempests or the Winter scorched with heat or when the Spring shall be clothed with the nature of Autumne or Autumne imitate the Spring Yea saith he by these some have foreshewed when there should be a shaking or trembling of the earth with infinite other things which have certainly come to passe insomuch that it may be truely said The starres were appointed for signes and seasons Thus farre Philo then which what can be plainer Neither are we to take them as bare naked and simple signes onely but as causes also of worldly events which whilest some have denied what do they but runne mad with reason and plainly oppose themselves to more then common sense For it is certain that the same thing may be both a signe and a cause a cause as it worketh to an effect and a signe as being presented to the sense it leadeth us to the knowledge of the effect And therefore when the starres are called signes their causalitie is not excluded Howbeit in some things when they work upon a subject not immediately but by accident they be then occasions rather then causes But let me enlarge my self upon this discourse a little more and because some have denied that the starres have any vertue at all or that we ought to attribute no more power to them then to the signes at an Inne-keepers post or tradesmans shop I purpose to shew the vanitie of that errour as plainly as I can both by Scripture and also by daily experience And first for Scripture Those oracles tell us that great is the force and dominion which the starres have heaven being the admired instrument of the glorious God whereby he governeth the frame of this corruptible world For had the heavens and starres no force at all the Scriptures would never distinguish between the sweet influences of the Pleiades and the binding vertues of Orion but the Scripture makes such a distinction therefore the starres have their power The minor is proved out of the book of Job chap. 38. 31. where the words are these Canst thou binde the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion by which speech the Almighty doth not onely shew that the starres have their vertues but also declare that their power and vertue is such as no man on earth is able to restrain unloose or binde it and here S. Austin also teacheth us that God comprehendeth all the rest of the starres by the figure Synechdoche putting the part for the whole which is an intimation that the rest have their severall vertues as well as these For further proof whereof see concerning some of the other in Deuteronomie chap. 33. 14. Of Ioseph he said Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven for the dew and for the deep that coucheth beneath and for the precious things brought forth by the sunne and for the precious things put forth by the moon where we see that the sunne and moon have power to thrust forth the fruits of the earth And again I will heare the heavens and the heavens shall heare the earth where see last of all that the vegetation of the fruits of the earth dependeth not upon one or two constellations but upon the whole heavens Also were the starres and lights without power the Scriptures would never tell us of their dominion over the earth but the Scripture speaketh of their dominion therefore they be not destitute of power and vertue The minor is proved in Genesis chap. 2. 1. and in the second book
over the actions of men AS for the power which the starres can have in this kinde I have in the end of the former Article alreadie declared Howbeit that I may leave as few scruples behinde me as I can my purpose is to cleare this question a little more For it hath been the serious perswasion of not a few that according to the tenent of Basil in his Hexameron and some others the dispositions of men may not be imputed any whit to the starres without wrong either to God or them If say they vicious inclinations or evil actions be stirred up by the starres then God should be the cause of humane outrages wickednesse and the like Or again if the moderation of our actions dependeth upon the stars then many absurdities would follow For first those starres whose aspect is said to be evil should either of themselves be created evil by their maker or else it must be that in respect of their own wills they made themselves evil afterwards neither of which may be affirmed Not the first because every thing thâ—… God made was very good Gen. 1. Not the second because seeing the stars are inanimate creatures without life and soul it were wickednesse to attribute a will unto them To all which objections and doubts it may be thus answered viz. that the starres are no malicious agents voluntarily striving to do mischief to the world but rather such as do harmlesly send down their naturall influences and powers into the universe and had it been that man had not fallen their inclinations in him had been no inclinations nor their power in occasioning felt any jot at all The evil proceeds from the nature of man who lost his puritie and strength of will in yeelding to that which was forbidden it comes not from the starres but from our selves And so Melancthon doth in effect answer to that of Basil saying that we ought in this to consider what excellencie of condition our humane nature hath lost and thereby observe how grievous and evil sinne is by which our temperatures are become brutish and not rashly condemne or without consideration go throw the starres out of heaven For in this present state of things Nè nunc quidem stellas scelerum causas esse they be his own words we say not that the starres are causes of our sinne in regard that though our inclinations rise from them yet they are not sole or chief causes of our actions but our will is the principall cause thereof which was first created in perfect libertie by which it both had power to withstand even as still it ought to refrain all inordinate inclinations Non enim fatalem necessitatem constituimus nec cogi Neronem à stellis c. For we do not constitute fatall necessitie nor affirm that Nero was compelled by the starres unto his so great and monstrous sinnes but yeelding to his lusts he willingly entertained those rages which the devil more and more instigated and so became worse then his nature though bad enough had made him Hitherto Melancthon to that of Basil. Wherefore when we fall into a due consideration of these things and finde that it was the fall of our first parents which hath induced this disproportion between our natures and the influences of the starres we shall soon see where the fault resteth namely in our selves For as that worthy Knight observeth we must consider that the impression or operation of every agent is alwayes answerable not to the power of it self but to the capacitie and aptnesse of the patient according to which rule the starres produce their effects even as the subject or matter is in which their influence doth work Which is but as I said before viz. that if man had not fallen their inclinations in him had been no inclinations nor their power in occasioning felt any jot at all For as the fire hurteth sore eyes but warmeth cold hands so the starres are formaliter bona although effectivè according to the unapt qualitie of the subject they produce a sad effect Or to use again the words of the said authour as we see the wine which is healthfull and comfortable to some how quickly it hurteth the constitution of another who hath but a weak brain so the sunne doth soften and melt wax but stiffen and make clay hard yet no man for this affirmeth either the wine to be drunk or the sunne to be formally soft or hard Wherefore saith he by this I may boldly conclude that although it be confessed that the starres are efficient causes of our inclinations yet there is no consequence to conclude them such themselves as the effects are that they produce for where the fault resteth hath been declared Furthermore he also proveth against those who say the starres are tainted in being causes by accident or occasions many times of ill he proveth I say that every occasion to sinne is not to be accounted a provocation to sinne or to be held unlawfull for if this were admitted we must also pollute God himself with sinne because he hath made fair women and sweet wine by means whereof many men fall yet neverthelesse none will denie them to be good for they have their lawfull use and right end Wherefore he doth here also excellently conclude that as no man will say that the Physician or his medicines do sinne though when they restore a spent and difeased bodie accidentally they procure lust no more are the starres to be accounted bad or to sinne though in constituting the temperature of our bodies they may be truely confessed causes by accident or occasions of sinne The question is therefore resolved that it is no derogation from the perfection of things created although we grant the starres to have a kinde of power over the actions of men which power both how and what it is hath been declared Artic. 3. Of predictions or whether the signes of heaven may be understood or searcht into THey be Davids words that The works of the Lord are great and sought out of those who have pleasure therein And Moses here in testifying that God created the starres for signes doth likewise shew that they may be understood otherwise to us they were no signes at all Neither do I doubt but that even Moses himself and Daniel likewise who were brought up the one in the learning of the Egyptians the other in the skill of the Caldeans did understand the signification of these signes And from whence was it that those nations had their knowledge but from Noah and Abraham if Iosephus or Berosus may be credited For concerning Noah do not those authours storie that soon after the floud he taught the Armenians and Scythians the secrets of these things Whereupon they said that he participated of a divine spirit So also Abraham that Father of many nations did equally instruct the Caldeans and Egyptians although indeed afterwards it was their bold adventure to mix magick
and superstitious vain inventions with this their lawfull skill And for us experience hath travelled in the manifestation of the severall qualities belonging to the lamps of heaven For as we know the fire to be hot the water moist this herb to be cold that to be drie so also by observation it doth manifestly appeare that the sunne gives heat and cherisheth the moon moisteneth Mars drieth and so of the rest Or thus ♄ Saturn is cold and drie stirres up and increaseth melancholy ♃ Jupiter is temperately hot and moist works most upon sanguine complexions stirring up and increasing that humour ♂ Mars through his heat and immoderate drinesse stirres up and increaseth choler and so often proves an accidentall cause of brawlings fightings warres and the like beside such sicknesses as may come by the superabundancie of that humour ☉ Sol is moderately hot and drie greatly cherishing all kinde of creatures ♀ Venus is cold and moist but it is in a temperate manner and as for her operation it is seen most in flegmatick complexions ☿ Mercurie is said to be drie in respect of his own nature but joyned to any of the other Planets he puts upon him their natures and works as they work Then followeth the Moon and she is well known to be the mistris of moisture Neither can you truely say that it is impossible to finde their natures to be either thus or thus for it is but 30 yeares that the longest of these did ever spend in his periodicall revolution and but 72 yeares as Tycho teacheth can runne about whilest the fixed starres alter one degree in their longitude Insomuch that Saturn whose period is but 30 yeares cometh twice to the same point of heaven before the eighth sphere is moved one degree and Jupiter whose revolution is 12 yeares cometh 6 times to the same place and Mars who accomplisheth his period in little lesse then 2 yeares meets 36 times with the same starres in the same place and as for the Sunne Venus Mercurie and the Moon their meetings with them be oftner Also it is certain that the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is once every 20 yeares and Mars and Saturn visit each other in lesse then every two yeares by means whereof it is no hard thing or as a thing impossible to finde out the simple natures either of the Planets or fixed starres And from these natures thus known and their mixtures and places observed it is that the effect is foreseen and the judgement given which if it be modestly carefully deeply and deliberately done by one well versed or conversant in these things doth for the most part happen as is foretold for the most part I say and not alwayes For as the Physician knoweth that the same portion of either single or mixed simples will not work upon all bodies alike so neither can the like portion and power of qualities stirre up or work alwayes ad idem but may sometimes receive either intention or remission according to the indisposed aptnesse of the subject the elements or elementary bodies not alwayes admitting of their powers alike or when they be overswayed by more potent and prevailing operations For universall and particular causes do many times differ and then the one hinders the operation of the other As for example particular causes as the conjunction of Venus and the Moon or some such like meeting may promise rain snow or sleet when universall causes which are not so easily seen do often turn it into more fair and warm weather And so also particular influences may seem to work upon such or such humours and thereupon make the bodie subject to this or that sicknesse and the minde enclined to this or that kinde of action with many such other like things howbeit it may so happen that nature may be at this time so abstrusely shut up that what we see not may overpower and work beyond what we see A man had need therefore have Argus his eyes to pierce throughly into these causes and examine without rashnesse either what may help or what may hinder otherwise his judgement may fail him even in things wrought by the course of nature for of other things he ought not to judge And indeed when there is a divers mixture of qualities all in a manner of equall portions as it may sometimes be how hard a thing is it then to finde out without a sound judgement the true event for there be many difficulties proceeding from the weaknesse of our judgements And for that again which I said before of natures abstruse kinde of working although I be no Stoick to tie Gods mightie hand to second causes yet I verily suppose that all things are not beyond the course of nature which seem to be extraordinarie but even many strange seeming things are wrought by the power of nature as sometimes in unwonted storms tempests droughts strange appearances or other like accidents And this again I also think that one man may see the cause when another cannot whereupon it comes to passe that there is such diversitie of judgements and thwarting of opinions many times about one and the same thing Also I might adde something which one or other will be readie to object concerning the devils permission in raising unwonted windes storms and such like Or I might speak not onely of Gods power but of his providence likewise in disposing his creatures to manifest their operation rather in one place then in another which is an act proceeding from his secret purpose and divine wisdome as when the clouds according to his decree do disburden themselves of their wearie drops rather here then there or there then here For saith he in the 4 chap. of Amos at the 7 vers I have caused it to rain upon one citie and it hath not rained upon another and the citie where it hath not rained was barren But I shall not need to meddle further For notwithstanding these difficulties it is manifest enough that the signes of heaven may be both sought into and also in some ample measure understood For it is true that God Almightie having both set and foreseen the course of nature long before doth now uphold it by his providence instrumentally to perform his will Neither every day doth he make the windows of heaven to stand open or the fountains of the great deep to be broken up nor yet doth he every day make the sunne or moon to stand still or the shadow to go back or an Eclipse to be at a quite contrarie time or the moon again to arise before her usuall course but hath undoubtedly left his works to be sought out of all those who take pleasure therein and according to that portion of sound judgement which he hath given to every one they may understand either more or lesse of these signes For as one starre differeth from another in lustre and beautie so one mans knowledge and better judgement transcends not seldome
the Firmament that is appointed to this separating office but the whole Firmament as any one may see if he do but observe the words of God producing and assigning it Neither do we finde that the Firmament is any more then one To divide it into parts so as they imagine is not to divide it into parts but rather to make so many Firmaments as they imagine parts like as every scale of an onyon is a severall and differing scale and not one the part of another And besides neither is there the same reason between the parts of water and these supposed parts of the Firmament for then when God made the Sunne Moon and Starres he would not have said Let them be in the Firmament but above the Firmament for they are farre higher then the clouds yet I say they being higher then the clouds he is said to place them but in the Firmament and they being no more but in it how improperly do we affirm those things to be above it whose places are lower then either Sunne Moon or Starres And secondly admit Job tells us that there are waters bound up in thick clouds doth not Jeremie also tell us that they are drawn up in vapours from the earth which as hath been shewed cannot at all times be but then when there is a naturall concourse of causes to effect it whereas the out-spread Firmament is to be alwayes between them separating them not at times but continually And as for the rain proceeding from those waters which we call the clouds it stayeth not long in the aire but forthwith falleth down again shewing that of right their proper place is here below and therefore we make not three kindes of waters as if we would be contrary to Moses in saying that there are other waters above the concave of the Firmament which on this second day of the worlds creation were separated from all other waters Wherefore observe but this they being separated on this second day how could they be such as the aire affordeth for the middle Region of the aire which is the place for the clouds was not untill the third day Not untill the third day I say because it is found by experience and from sufficient witnesse proved true that the tops of the highest mountains do reach up unto that place which we call the middle Region of the aire being some of them more loftie then the clouds As for example in Iapan there is a mountain called Figeniana which is some certain leagues higher then the clouds And in Ternate among the Philippine Islands there is a mountain which as Mr. Purchas in his pilgrimage relateth is even angry with nature because it is fastened to the earth and doth therefore not onely lift up his head above the middle Region of the aire but endeavoureth also to conjoyn it self with the fierie Element And of the mountain Athos between Macedon and Thrace it is said to be so high that it casteth shade more then thirtie and seven miles Also the mount of Olympus in Thessalie is said to be of that height as neither the windes clouds or rain do overtop it And although I omit sundry others of exceeding height it is also written of another mount so high above the clouds that some who have seen it do witnesse that they have been on the top of it and have had both a cleare skie over their heads and also clouds below them pouring down rain and breaking forth with thunder and lightnings at which those below have been terrified but on the top of the hill there was no such matter This surely was that mountain which Mr. Lydiat meant when he said that etiam aestivis diebus even in the summer time when the clouds are at the highest those on the top of the mountains have had fair weather and withall perceived that there was plentie of rain about the middle height of the same hills Thus we see that there are lofty mountains And indeed their loftines is the cause of a middle Region for the hils hindering the aire from following the motion of the heavens do make it about their tops a fit convenient place to thicken these vapours into clouds which by the attractive power of the heavenly bodies are drawn up thither Wherefore that I may conclude the place of the middle Region being both caused and also overtopped by sundry high mountains it will appeare that there was no middle Region of the aire untill the third day because the waters were all over the earth and standing above the hills untill that very day For then and not before God gathered them together unto one place and made the drie land to appeare which before was covered with waters as with a garment Psalm 104. Rarior aqua saith one velut nebula terras tegebat quae congregatione densata est The thinne water like a mist or wet cloud covered the earth which by gathering together was made thick In which regard it may be said saith Aquinas that it was as naturall for the water to be every where about the earth as for the aire to be about both water and earth yet neverthelesse propter necessitatem finis saith he for the necessitie of the end namely that plants and living creatures should be upon the earth it was meet that the earth should be so uncovered and the waters so gathered that the drie land appeare Now this was a work pertinent unto the third day and before this work done there could be no middle Region and the middle Region being on this day and not before how can the waters in the clouds be those waters which were separated by the out-spread Firmament on the second day Neither do I here argue à facto ad fieri because in the very creation of this Firmament God then said Let it be between the waters that is even then beginning its office and art of separating them Which that it is even so we see he speaketh next concerning the lower waters and makes no more mention at all of those upper ones because he had already done with them and left them in their place unto which he had appointed them But furthermore this tenent is not a little helped by a consideration of the cataracts or windows of heaven which in the dayes of Noah were opened and poured down rain by the space of fourty dayes For me thinks the clouds could not be those windows of heaven because it rained fourty dayes and before it left raining the waters were higher then the hills being when fourty dayes were ended fifteen cubits above the highest mountains as in the historie of the Floud is manifest And hereupon it was that one once by the same reason concluded and said that either it did not rain fourty dayes which assertion we are sure is false or else it rained from some other where then from the middle Region For seeing the middle Region it self was
them who say that an effect may be called naturall two manner of wayes first in regard of the causes themselves secondly in regard of the direction and application of the causes If we consider the meer secondary and instrumentall causes we may call this effect naturall because it was partly performed by their help and concurrence but if we consider the mutuall application and conjunction of these second causes together with the first cause which extraordinarily set them on work we must needs acknowledge it to be supernaturall Now then although we have built upon reason and so found that before fourtie dayes fully ended the middle Region it self was drowned whereupon it could not rain from thence yet in so doing we do not argue amisse for it is no whit derogating from the power of the Almighty to ascend up higher till we finde the cause of this long rain and also the place from whence it came seeing that when we have so done we shall plainly finde that in regard of the direction and application of the cause it was extraordinarily set on work by a divine dispensation and so the effect was supernaturall I may therefore now proceed and that I may make the matter yet a little plainer concerning these cataracts or windows of heaven and so by consequence of the waters also above the heavens this in the next place may be added namely that Moses setteth down two causes by which there grew so great an augmentation of water as would drown the world the one was the fountain of the great deep the other was the opening of the windows of heaven Now if these windows were the clouds then it seemeth that the waters were increased but by one cause for the clouds in the aire come from the waters in the sea which by descending make no greater augmentation then the decresion was in their ascending And although it may be thought that there are waters enough within the bowels of the earth to overflow the whole earth which is demonstrated by comparing the earths diameter with the height of the highest mountains yet seeing the rain-water is made a companion with the great deep in the augmentation of the drowning waters I see no reason why that should be urged against it especially seeing it is found that the earth emptied not all the water within her bowels but onely some For thus stand the words The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained their store therefore was not spent when they had sufficiently drowned the world but their fury rather was restrained when they had executed Gods purpose by climbing high enough above the hills Cardinall Cajetane was conceited that there was a mount in Paradise which was not overflown and there forsooth he placeth Henoch The like dream also they have amongst them concerning Elias And as their champion and Goliah Bellarmine is perswaded all those mountains onely were overflown where the wicked dwelt Iosephus also reporteth out of Nicholas Damascenus that the hill Baris in Armenia saved many who fled thither for succour But these are dreams and devices which are soon overthrown by Moses in his foresaid evident text where the words are so generall that they include all and every mountain under not onely the Aiery heaven as Cajetane collecteth but under the whole Heaven without exception And now after all what hindereth that there should not be waters above the concave of the Firmament and that the opening of the windows of heaven should not be more then the loosing of the clouds For it is affirmed and not without reason you see that the rain or a great part of it which fell in the universall Floud came from an higher place then the middle Region of the aire and that the upper waters are to be above the Firmament and not the parts of it is an assertion well agreeing to Moses his description of this second dayes work For as hath been shewed concerning the fowls and stars it is true that they are but in the Firmament and not above it neither is there any more Firmament then one seeing Moses mentions not a second The fowls indeed fly above the earth as the text it self speaketh in Gen. 1. 20. but not above the Firmament their course being as Iunius reads the place versus superficiem expansi coeli or ante expansum or coram expanso coeli but never supra expansum And as for the starres the text likewise saith ver 15. Let them be for lights in the out-spread firmament mentioning never more then one and the same Firmament But for the waters it is otherwise The Firmament is appointed to separate them as being between and not above them Esto expansum inter aquas it is learned Iunius his right version of the place ut sit distinguens inter aquas Fecit ergò Deus expansum quod distinguit inter aquas quae sunt sub expanso inter aquas quae sunt supra expansum That is Let there be a firmament between the waters c. Between the waters as having waters above it And how unlike it is that the upper waters should be placed otherwise let the former reasons witnesse For all things considered we need not stand so much upon Pareus his reading Super quasi in expanso and desuper expanso as if they were but above or on high within the concave as are the fowls and starres this I say we need not stand upon seeing Iunius readeth Supra expansum without any such nice salving although he thinketh with Pareus that these upper waters are no higher then the middle Region of the aire And also admit that some derive the word Schamajim or Shamajim which signifieth Heavens from Sham There or in that place and from Majim Waters concluding thereupon that these waters which we now speak of must be There viz. in the heavens and not above them although some I say make this derivation yet others derive the same word otherwise And no few be there who not without reason do suppose that it is no derivative nor compound word at all but rather that the Ismaelitish word Schama which signifieth nothing else but High or Above doth proceed from this word Schamajim which in English we reade Heavens In which regard the Etymologie helpeth nothing to prove the adverse part And yet as I said before let the reader take his choice For perhaps he may now think after all that if there be waters above the starry heaven and that part of those waters descended in the time of the Floud that then the Heavens would have been corrupted and dissolved as some have said the rain falling through them from the convexitie of the out-spread Firmament Sect. 3. An objection answered concerning the nature of the Heavens examining whether they be of a Quint-essence BUt concerning this it may be said that it is not known whether the heavens be of
Comets be burnt consumed and wasted in the starrie heavens it seemeth that there is no great difference between them and things here below for if there were it might be thought that they would not suffer such earthly matter to ascend up their territories such I say as doth either wholly or in part compose them Wholly or in part I adde because perhaps even the heavens themselves may afford some matter towards the generation of them especially if they be new starres such as Aristotle never saw wherefore he writes that a Comet consisteth altogether of an hot drie and a kinde of oylie exhalation drawn from the earth and questionlesse in such as are utterly below the moon it is even so but if they â—…e higher and continue longer they as well as new starres may have some help from such matter as the heavens afford towards the generation of strange appearances which though they have yet that they have no earthly matter is not excluded because next under God the efficient cause of these things is attributed to the starres and their operation for when they are aptly and conveniently placed and aspected then by their power working upon things here below they draw up hot drie and oylie exhalations and these exhalations afford unto Comets that matter whereof they consist Ptolomie attributeth much in this kinde to Mars and Mercurie and so do many others else beside him and why the yearely aspects of these starres do not alwayes produce such effects is because they are not alwayes aspected in the same manner but sometimes in one part of the heavens sometimes in another and cannot therefore produce their intended effects without either the meeting or avoiding of apt or inconvenient occurrences But I conclude and do yet affirm that the nature of the heavens is certainly such that the waters above the heavens might passe or issue through them in the time of the Floud and yet the heavens not be dissolved nor suffer damage by their falling damage neither in corrupting them nor yet in leaving a vacant place by coming all away of which in the fourth dayes work when I come to speak of the starres I shall adde yet something more CHAP. V. How to understand the word Heavens and of the severall Regions of the aire together with a consideration of such appearances as we use to see there Sect. 1. ANd now to go on with the residue of this dayes work God saith Moses called the firmament Heavens c. By heavens in this place Moses meaneth onely the visible heavens because he speaketh onely of the visible part of the world And yet the same word which is here used is sometimes put for the aire wherein windes clouds and fowls do flie sometimes for the upper Firmament where the sunne moon and starres are set and sometimes for the high places where Angels dwell And hereupon it was that S. Paul mentioned the third heavens wherein he saw things unspeakable The first of these is like to the outward court of Solomons temple and is the most open to us The second is like his inward court lesse open and abounding with starrie lights or lamps never going out And the next is as the Sanctum Sanctorum whither he is entred once for all who is a Priest for ever and maketh intercession for us In the two lowest is no felicitie for neither the fowls nor starres are happie It is the third of these alone where the blessed Trinitie enjoyeth it self and the glorified spirits enjoy it And questionlesse in this highest part must needs be more then exceeding glorie seeing the other two within the concave of the Firmament are so full of wonder But of the one of them I shall need to speak little in this dayes work yet of the other under it as being more pertinent something must be added Sect. 2. Parag. 1. Of the Aire and the severall Regions in it VVE may therefore now if you please look into the Aire and here following the common path and separating it from the starrie heaven I must say that it is divided into three stages or Regions although I verily think as afterwards shall be shewed when I come to speak of the starres that all this space even from the earth to the eighth sphere is nothing else but aire The highest Region is said to be exceeding hot and also drie by reason of the neighbourhood that it hath with the fierie element as is said and with the starres by the force of whose beams it receiveth heat which is also much increased by following the motion of the heavens The lowest Region is somewhat contrary for it is said to be hot and moist hot chiefly by the reflection of the sunne-beams meeting with the earth and moist by reason of the proper nature of the aire and also by reason of the vapours exhaled out of the earth and water This is the qualitie which commonly is attributed to this Region But I think that we may rather say it is variable now hot now cold and sometimes temperate differing according to the times and seasons of the yeare In which regard Du Bartas writeth thus Warm-temper'd show'rs do wash it in the Spring And so in Autumne but more varying In Winter time 't is wet and cold and chill In Summer season hot and soultry still For then the fields scorched with flames reflect The sparkling rayes of thousand starres aspect The chief is Phoebus to whose arrows bright Our Globie Grandam serves for But and White Neither is it altogether variable in regard of time but also by reason of the diversitie of place some climates being more hot and drie some more cold and moist then others which cometh to passe according to their distance from the Equinoctiall towards either of the Poles Thus for these two Regions But now concerning the middle Region it is alwayes cold yet surely in its own nature it would be warmer then the Region which is here below were it not cooled by a cold occasioned by the reflection of the Sunne-beams For they reflecting upon the earth drive up above the beams of their reflection much cold from below which being daily supplied is kept as a continuall prisoner between the heat above and the heat beneath Or if you will take it thus namely that it is cold but not extreamly cold yet cold I say it is in respect of the two other Regions which are hotter then it And this coldnesse happeneth partly through the causes before expressed and partly by reason of the Aire in it which cannot follow the motion of the heavens seeing it is hindred by the tops of the mountains And hereupon it is that the Philosophers make this a rule saying that the farrenesse from a circular motion gives quietnesse coldnesse and heavinesse even as the nearnesse gives motion heat and lightnesse Which in this thing concerning the middle Region is found to be true the
Aire in it being cold because it is hindred from following the circular motion of the heavens But as I said it is not absolutely cold but respectively For if it were extream cold then the heat of the Sunne would never passe through it to this Region here below neither would there be grasse herbs and such high trees as are upon the tops of the mountains But to proceed 1. In the highest Region and oft times above it be generated Comets or Blazing starres and such like fiery Meteors of divers sorts 2. In the middle Region Clouds Thunder Rain Windes Storms c. 3. In the lowest Region we have Dews Mists Hoar-frost Ice and Frost As also here is your Ignis fatuus or foolish fire with other Lights burning about graves or such like fattie places where there is store of clammie or fat oylie substance for their matter These Lights are seen also in fields and are driven by a gentle winde to and fro untill their matter be consumed Now these and every one of these seeing they have their causes in nature let us a little view them both how and what they are For they who send us to God and his decree in nature have indeed said what is the true cause but not how it is by naturall means effected For the manner of producing these things doth no lesse amplifie the power and providence of God then the things themselves when they are produced Sect. 2. Parag. 2. Of Meteors first in generall then how they are divided in particular ANd these things of which we now speak seen in any of the Regions by a generall name are called Meteors And the matter of Meteors as it is remote is from the Elements but as it is propinque or neare it consisteth of Exhalations And Exhalations are of two kindes 1. There is Fumus 2. Vapor If it come from the earth or some sandy place it is Fumus a Fume or a kinde of Smoke If it come from the water or some watry place it is Vapor For this is a rule that A Fume hath a certain earthly nature in it and yet is not earth and a Vapour hath a certain watry nature in it and yet it is not water Or if you had rather take it thus Fumus est mediae naturae inter terram ignem Vapor verò inter aquam aërem That is A Fume is of a middle nature between earth and fire but a Vapour is of a middle nature between water and aire And further all vapours are warm and moist and will easily be resolved into water much like the breath that proceedeth out of a mans mouth or out of a pot of water standing on the fire and these are never drawn higher then the middle Region of the Aire for there they are thickened and conglomerated by the cold into clouds And why vapours are warm being drawn from that which is cold is not from any internall propertie of their own but they receive this qualitie from the power and influence of the stars For after that the matter is by them attenuated or made thin their beams cannot but warm it although it proceed from that which is cold Again all fumes are as smokes which be hot and dry which because they be thin and lighter then vapours they often passe the lowest and middle Regions of the Aire being sometimes carried even beyond the highest Region it self And thus we see how there are two kindes of Exhalations Th' one somewhat hot but heavy moist and thick The other light drie burning pure and quick Moreover these Exhalations being the matter of Meteors as hath been said are either from the Earth or Water As for the Fire and Aire they are mixed with this matter as with all other things but not so abundantly that they may be said to be the materiall cause of any Meteor although without them none can be effected And thus much generally But now more particularly And in coming to particulars it may be found that these kinde of Meteors concerning which I speak are of three sorts either Fierie Waterie or Aierie Fierie are of two sorts either such as are in very deed fired or else such as onely seem to burn which are therefore called Phasmata In which regard it may be said that these Fierie ones are either Flames or Apparitions And again in respect of their matter if they be such as burn in very deed then they be either more or lesse pure Their place where we see them is according to the abundance and scarcitie or rather qualitie of the matter whereof they consist for if it be heavie and grosse it cannot be carried high but if it be not so grosse but rather light and more full of heat then it aspires and transcends so much the higher by how much it is the lighter sometimes above the highest Region of the Aire even into the starry heaven it self which is witnessed by our best modern Astronomers who have observed many Comets above the Moon Furthermore these Fiery impressions according to the diverse disposing of their matter are of severall fashions and thereupon they have severall appellations being called according unto the names of those things unto which they seem to be like As 1. Torches 2. Burning Beams 3. Round Pillars 4. Pyramidall Pillars 5. Burning Spears Streams or Darts 6. Dancing or leaping Goats 7. Flying Sparks 8. Shooting Starres 9. Flying Launces 10. Fires either scattered or else as if all the aire burned 11. Flying Dragons or Fire-drakes 12. Wandring Lights 13. And also licking or cleaving fire sticking on the hairs of men or beasts Now all these kindes of which I have mentioned thirteen I take to be such fierie Meteors as are said to be pure and not mixt Then again have you those which are said to be mixt and lesse pure As 1. Comets of all sorts 2. All kindes of lightening 3. Unto which must be joyned thunder as an adjunct And now of these severally before I mention any more of another kinde whether waterie or aierie Sect. 2. Parag. 3. Of such fierie Meteors as are pure and not mixt 1. FAx which is a Torch or Fire-brand or as a lighted candle is an exhalation hot and drie drawn beyond the middle Region of the aire where being arrived it is set on fire as are all exhalations that come there partly by their own heat and partly by the heat of that place and because the matter of the exhalation is long and not broad and being equally compact and fired at the one end it burneth like a torch or candle untill the whole whereof it consisteth be consumed And why it should burn at the one end rather then at the other is found to be because it is long and standeth upright having the most of its aspiring matter in the top and in this station ascending up it comes to passe that when the upper end doth present it self to the
other young fruits and trees is drawn up by the Sunne among Vapours and Exhalations which being clottered together falleth down like locks of wooll or hair 9. Concerning stones they proceed from earthly matter gathered into the clouds as before was shewed concerning the Thunder-stone c. Plinie in the 58 chapter of his second book writeth of a strange stone which fell out of the heavens the fall whereof was foretold by Anaxagoras in the second yeare of the 78 Olympiad 10. Iron may also drop out of the clouds when the generall matter of all metalls which is quicksilver and brimstone with the speciall matter of mixtion making iron are all drawn up together and there concocted into metall Or as one saith Quando vapores metallici aut sulphurei in aëre indurantur vehementi siderum caliditate When metallick vapours or vapours of a sulfurous nature are hardened in the aire by the vehement heat of the starres 11. And as for earth chalk dirt and the like it is drawn up in thin dust at the first with the vapour Or else by force of some winde blowing from caverns or holes of the ground it is carried up and being conglomerated or as it were glued together falleth down again 12. But beside all these there have sometimes been red drops which falling upon mens garments have made a stain like unto a crosse Such drops as these fell upon the clothes of the Jews when in the dayes of the Apostata Iulian they went about to restore their citie and temple For when the said Iulian raged with impietie and devilish fury against the Christians he gave the Jews licence to build their temple that they might restore again their ancient sacrifices and the like things that they longed for at which time Cyril was Bishop of Ierusalem and he to animate the Christians shewed that it was impossible for the Jews to finish that work which they had begun alledging the prophet Daniel in his ninth chap. at the 27 verse and also that saying of our Saviour in the 24 of Matthew by both which places it did appeare that their house was left unto them desolate and that there must not be one stone upon another but that their desolations must be perpetuall Thus it happened to the Jews But this surely was a thing altogether miraculous For their red crosses came not alone but were accompanied with other prodigies As first of all an Earth-quake which overthrew and tumbled down their building which they had raised upon the old foundation Then came forth a fire which consumed all their engines and instruments And last of all fell these drops imprinting upon their clothes crosses with so deep a stain as they were not able to wash them out And both the same night and night after was also a bright signe of the crosse seen in t he skie as Theodoret in his Ecclesiasticall historie reporteth adding herewithall that when the Jews saw this they fled and returned home being perplexed through fear of a divine scourge confessing that he whom their forefathers had nailed to a crosse was God indeed This was both the prodigie and the issue of it of which being so plainly miraculous I know not what to say But I finde that other times have in a manner afforded the like Wherefore although I speak nothing at all of these at this time thus miraculous concerning them some reasons may be given And not to go farre Magirus in the Comment upon his Physicks telleth us that in Suevia a Province in Germanie in the yeare of our Lord 1534 the aire distilled certain red drops which falling upon linen garments made such an impression or stain as was like unto a crosse Which impression as he alledgeth out of Cardan his sixteenth book De subtilitate might be procured thus viz. because a certain kinde of extraordinarie dry dust sticked to those garments which by the piercing or through-washing drops falling upon it was so miraculously divided into parts that there seemed a figure as of a crosse Or thus because the woven threads in themselves had such a form Or else which is most probable because the humour in the middle part lay on high whereas the sides were but thin and fashioned according to the dashing of the drop For when a drop falleth upon any thing with a kinde of force we see that most of the humour resteth in the midst whilest certain sparkling raies are dashed about the sides And thus he thinketh it might be then in the fall of those staining drops which why they stain hath relation to that which I said before concerning the raining of bloud I will therefore now conclude adding in the last place that the devil by Gods permission both often hath and also doth produce many such prodigies as these that I have spoken of with sundry other like unto them especially amongst the Heathen Pagan and superstitious nations For he is quovis homine scientior more subtill then any man his knowledge and skill whereby he worketh wonders arising First from his spirituall nature which proclaimeth a large measure of cunning and wisdome in him for we know that there is a greater measure of knowledge in man then is in a brute beast by reason of that nature which God hath given unto man above beasts and where there is a nature and a substance beyond either there must also be knowledge above either Secondly God created him a good Angel and although like man he lost much by his fall yet thirdly by his long observations and continuall experience he hath as it were made up the breach or want of his created knowledge by acquired skill and therefore when he hath commission he can upon occasion work strange wonders As for example nothing more familiar or common in Lapland Lituania and all over Scandia as also in Tartaria then to sell windes to mariners and cause tempests which the witches and sorcerers there procure by the help and power of the devil wherein he sheweth himself according to his title Prince of the aire Wherefore as I said I do not doubt but that many such as the former strange prodigies especially long ago in heathen times and amongst heathen people were procured by his power For what did the magicians in the sight of Pharaoh but as it were rain frogs and turn the waters into bloud although Moses and Aaron were by Besides it is apparent that in the little world I mean when parties are possessed the devil can cause them to vomit strange things out of their mouthes and stomacks as crooked pins iron coals nails brimstone needles lead wax hair straw live eels and the like of which many have been eye-witnesses confirming the same for truth All which he can as well and easily perform in the greater world causing the aire to spit and the clouds to vomit for his own advantage most strange and prodigious things
Zanchius his opinion was not much differing for speaking of strange rains he confessed concerning some of them that they were produced by such causes or the like as I before alledged concluding for the rest which were more occult that they were truely prodigious and caused either by the power of God as portenders of his wrath or else by the sleights of the devil through Gods permission Artic. 3. Of Dew DEw offers it self in the next place as being a neare kinsman to rain For it consisteth of a cold moist vapour which the sunne draweth into the aire from whence when it is somewhat thickened and condensed through cold of the night and also of the place whither the sunne exhaled it it falleth down in very small and indiscernible drops to the great refreshment of the earth And this is certain that the morning and the evening are the onely times when it falleth the reason being in regard of the sunne which both positively privatively causeth it Dew at night is caused privatively dew in the morning positively At night or in the evening privatively because when the sunne setteth the lowest part of the vapour not being high enough to hang in the aire falleth down through absence of the sunne And in the morning positively because at the return of the sunne the residue of the vapour together with the augmentation of it haply by some condensed aire caused by cold of the night is dissolved by his approaching beams and so made fit to fall rather then hang any longer For look what vapours are about the Horizon at the rising of the sunne are dispersed by his first approach and so it comes to passe that the morning as well as the evening affordeth dew But know that if the vapour be not conveniently placed that is if it be very high above the Horizon or in a loftie station of the aire then the sunnes approaching beam neither dissolveth nor disperseth it whereupon we have no dew but rather look for rain because the matter of dew is still in the aire staying there till it be turned into a cloud and so into rain And now by this you may see what is the materiall what the efficient what the formall and lastly what the finall cause of dew The materiall cause is a subtil and moist vapour being the thinnest of all vapours The efficient cause is the temperate cold of the night together with the absence and approach of the sunne The formall cause is the sprinkling of most thin drops which the hand can scarcely perceive And the finall cause that without rain the earth may have some refreshment Yet neverthelesse this I finde concerning dew as it is of a calorificall nature that rorilentas segetes collectas putrefacit because every externall heat is putrefactive Also dew is a great enemie to sheep begetting a deadly rot in them or a dangerous flux of the bellie which cometh to passe in regard of the humour being of much viscositie and not throughly refined or purged Wherefore your carefull and skilfull shepherds will never drive out their sheep to feed untill the sunne or the winde have licked the tops of the grasse and flowers Also know that a windie night hindereth the falling of dew Some say three things hinder it viz. winde great heat and cold for the most temperate and calm times afford it when other times want it As for the kindes of dew I cannot but joyn with them who divide them into three For there is first common dew secondly sweet dew and thirdly bitter blasting dew The common dew is ordinary Sweet dew is threefold 1. Manna 2. Mel. 3. Ladanum Manna is said to be white like sugar by some it is called Coeli sudor The matter of it is a fat and pure vapour not tainted with any putrid or corrupt Exhalations Or according to some it is roris melliti genus sed concreti a kinde of hony-sweet dew but concrete or compact more close together it falleth in the East parts Arabia Syria c. As for that Manna which God rained to the Israelites in the wildernesse some think that it was altogether miraculous others that it was ejusdem speciei cum Manna vulgari of the same kinde with common Manna which I also think because Iosephus in his third book and first chapter writeth that in his dayes there was great store of it in that part of Arabia wherein Moses was 40 yeares with the Israelites What should hinder this opinion I see not unlesse because the common Manna is of a purging qualitie and therefore to be taken for a medicine rather then for food To which I finde an answer that haply at the first it might work the like effect on their bodies also till it expelled the humours proceeding from the onyons and leeks that they eat in Egypt but afterwards through custome it might not work at all upon them or else God for their good that they might be fed might allay that qualitie in it by his mighty power for God resting from all his works on the seventh day created no new species of anything afterwards Fuohsius a learned Physician testifieth that there falleth great store of Manna upon the mountain of Libanus which is eaten without harm although they take it in plentifull abundance Yet neverthelesse it cannot be denied but that the Israelites had many things miraculous in theirs as that they could not finde it on the Sabbath day that he which gathered little and he which gathered much had alwayes sufficient for his eating and the like All which proclaimed the power of God In which regard he saith that he fed them with Angels food Not that the Angels eat of it but because it was cibus excellentissimus a most excellent kinde of meat insomuch that were the Angels to be fed with bread they might be fed with this In which sense we also call that which is daintie meat meat for a King or a Prince intimating the goodnesse of it So also the poets called their Myrrhina or their Nectar the drink of the Gods because it was a liquour of such excellencie But besides this the Scripture in like manner saith that it was bread from heaven as well as Angels food Not that it came from heaven if heaven be taken in a strict sense but because it was a symbole of Christs descending from heaven as it is John the 6. Moses gave you not that bread saith our Saviour but I am that bread of life come down from heaven Or else it is said to come from heaven because it came out of the aire for so the word signifying heaven is often used as the fowls of the aire are said to flie in the open firmament of heaven Gen. 1. 20. The clouds are called the clouds of heaven and the windes the windes of heaven although they be but in the aire Dan. 7. And thus much concerning Manna
The other kinde of sweet dew is Mel or an Hony-dew Now this falleth not onely in other countreys but also here in England and we cannot give it a more significant name then a Mel-dew being both as sweet and also of the same substance that hony is Some suppose that it is drawn out of sweet herbs and flowers which I also beleeve acknowledging that there is a kinde of resudation of juice proceeding from them at a certain convenient time of their growth which juice is either drawn up as a vapour and so sweeteneth the dew in the aire by such time as it falleth or else issuing of it self from the said flowers and plants but not ascending it sweeteneth the dew after it is come down or fallen on them although the said dew be but ordinary for when ordinary dew falleth upon any of those leaves which yeeld such a resudation or sweat it cannot but be sweetened although none of the sweet liquour be drawn into the aire as a vapour with it Now of these two choose which in your judgement is the most probable Plinie witnesseth that these dews are most common at the shining of Syrius or the great Dog-starre and that before the rising of Virgiliae or the Seven starres in the morning with the Sunne they cannot at all be Ladanum is another kinde of sweet dew Arabia hath great plentie of it and no other countrey as Plinie writeth unlesse it be Nabathaea bordering on the Arabick coast of Syria It is called Ladanum because it is a vapour falling upon the herb Ladon or Ledum and is sweetened by the juice issuing from the leaves of the said herb mixing it self with the vapour Goats hairs are often found amongst it because the Goat feeding upon that herb scattereth some of his hairs which are incorporated with the vapour and the juice of Ladon whilest like gumme it is hardened by the Sunne And thus much of sweet dews Now followeth that which I called bitter blasting dew The Germanes say it is Mildaw which is an improper name if it hath relation to that which we call Mel-dew For Mel-dew as before I shewed is an hony-sweet dew and not a bitter dew This therefore may be rather named Ros noxius or bitter blasting dew because it hurteth and killeth such herbs and plants as it falleth on and sticketh or cleaveth to This vapour hath much earthly matter in it and therefore it remaineth white when the moisture is gone It is also corrupted which comes to passe as 't is conjectured through the often change of the Aire which being tainted or infected through varietie of differing Exhalations sendeth down noysome and unwholesome dews falling sometimes even in the day time it self And here an end concerning dew Artic. 4. Of white hoar-frosts I Come now to speak of Frosts for as dew claimed kindred of rain so white hoar-frost is of the house and linage of dew As for example thus When a vapour drawn into the aire is congealed before it can be turned into dew then we have Pruina in stead thereof or a white hoar-frost so that such a frost is nothing else but dew congealed by overmuch cold Aristotle affirmeth the like shewing among other things that both in respect of matter and place of generation they do well agree to which is also pertinent the calmnesse clearnesse and quietnesse of the time wherein either of them falleth For both of them consist of subtill thin vapours and are generated in the lowest region of the aire because upon some high hills there is neither hoar-frost nor dew to be seen the vapour as it seemeth ascendeth not so high And as for a windie obscure time it is an enemie to them both The difference being that hoar-frost is congealed in the vapour before it can be turned into water The one caused in a season that is temperately warm the other when it is cold The materiall cause therefore of hoar-frost is a subtill thinne vapour The formall is the congealing of it by which it differeth from dew The efficient is the autumnall or winter cold for those are the most common and ordinary times peculiar to it although sometimes it comes as an unwelcome guest in the spring and summer when the aire through cold is forward to send it And last of all the end or principall effects when it cometh not out of season or the finall cause is the contraction or shutting up of the pores or breathing holes of the earth and about the roots of plants that thereby their spirits being the chariots of heat may be contained in their own bowels for the good of such things as they give life unto And thus much concerning frost Artic. 5. Of Snow THere is no great difference between the matter of snow and matter of rain and hail excepting as some think that the vapour for snow is of an hotter qualitie then the vapour for rain and yet not so hot as that which is the materiall cause of hail For it is a tenent amongst Philosophers that hot things being cooled are apter for congelation then cold as is seen in warm water taken from the fire which will more suddenly and throughly be frozen then that which never felt the heat And this comes to passe in regard of the pores or passages made into the water through heat into which the cold entring it both cooleth it the sooner and congealeth it the more Neither is there any difference between white frost and snow excepting that frost is made of a vapour before it be turned into a cloud and snow of a cloud before it can be turned into water Snow therefore is a cloud congealed by great cold before it be perfectly resolved from vapours into water For if it should come to the densitie of water before the congelation then it could not fall so like locks of wooll as it doth but would be more closely compacted or joyned together having little or no spunginesse in it As for the whitenesse it proceedeth not from its own proper colour but rather in respect of those parts which are more aierie then the rest whereupon I finde some authours who determine the case thus namely that the white is by receiving the light into it at those many small parts even as in froth and fome is seen For say some Nix est spuma quaedam Snow is a kinde of froth and when it loseth part of its frothie nature and begins to melt it loseth also part of that whitenesse which at the first it retained To this also may be added the coldnesse that is infused into it when it is congealed as being a cause of whitenesse even as in phlegmatick bodies and cold countreys may be seen For such people are alwayes whiter of complexion then others cold being the cause of that their whitenesse Such winters as are void of snow are not so good for the fruits of the ground
of Kings chap. 17. 16. and chap. 21. 3. and chap. 23. 5. and in Jeremie chap. 19. 13. and in Zeph. chap. 1. 5. and in the Acts chap. 7 42. For in all these places the holy Ghost calleth the starres the host and armies of heaven thereby amplifying the divine power of God by the force and power of these glorious creatures and this also is further confirmed by that in the song of Deborah Judg. 5. 20. where it is expressely testified that The starres fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera Thus farre Scripture And now let experience also speak that thereby they who will not frame their understandings to be taught by the one but will seek for strange expositions may be forced to yeeld and acknowledge the truth by compulsion of this other in the front whereof I cannot but remember the noble Poets saying Senselesse is he who without blush denies What to sound senses most apparent lies And ' gainst experience he that spits fallacians Is to be hist from learned disputations And such is he that doth affirm the starres To have no force on these inferiours 1. As for example when the sunne shifts his habitation how diversly are the seasons differing insomuch that although the frostie beard of winter makes us tremble and shiver through extremitie of cold the warm lustre of the summers raies causeth us on the contrary to sweat and as it were pant through heat 2. Also the terrible accidents that succeed eclipses may not be forgotten nor vilipended for these testifie that the sunne by his heat and light quickeneth after an admirable fashion all earthly creatures being as it were the sourse and conserver of vitall heat and that the moon also hath a great power over inferiour bodies For if it were otherwise such lights coming to be hidden from the earth where there is a continuall revolution of generation and corruption could not cause after their eclipses the nature of inferiour things to be so altered and weakened as they are both in the elements and also in bodies composed of them 3. And furthermore who seeth not how orderly the tides keep their course with the moon of which I have spoken in the third dayes work 4. Also it is an observation that seldome faileth viz. that we have thunder and lightning in the summer time at the meeting of Mars with Jupiter Sol or Mercurie and for the most part great windes when Sol and Jupiter or Jupiter and Mercurie or Mercurie and Sol are in conjunction 5. And again the increase and decrease of bodies or of marrow bloud and humours in the bodie according to the increase and decrease of the moon doth speak for that horned queen and signifie that her vertue is not little For as she fills with light the marrow abounds in bones the bloud in veins the sap in trees the meat and moisture in the oister crab and creafish 6. Moreover experience also teacheth that all such wood as is cut for timber if it be not cut after the full moon will soon be rotten 7. Also those pease which are sown in the increase never leave blooming And as some report the pomegranate will bear no fruit any longer then just so many yeares as the moon was dayes old when it was first set and planted The Heliotropium with certain other flowers and plants we likewise see that they keep their course with the sunne And Plinie reports in his 37 book at the 10 chapter that the Selenite is a stone which hath the image of the moon in it increasing and decreasing according to her course in the heavens And doth not Cardan also report for certain as Sir Christopher Heydon it may be affirmed that the heavens in some sort do work upon mens mindes and dispositions And hereupon it comes to passe that Mars doth sometimes sow the seeds of warre by his working upon adult choler and the like Or the aire being greatly out of tune causeth not onely many sicknesses but strange disorders of the minde and they breaking out into act do many times disturb states translate kingdomes work unluckie disasters and the like of which I spake before in the second dayes work And now know that if the operation of the heavens in this be but so farre forth as the soul depends upon the bodily instruments all that is done to the soul is but an inclination for there can be no compulsion where the cause is so remote And therefore let it be observed that it is one thing to cause another thing to occasion or one thing to inferre a necessitie another thing to give an inclination The former we cannot averre to be in the power of the starres forasmuch as mans will which is the commandresse of his actions is absolutely free from any compulsion and not at all subject to any naturall necessitie or externall coaction Howbeit we cannot deny a certain inclination because the soul of man is too much indulgent to the body by whose motion as one worthily observeth it is rather perswaded then commanded There is therefore no Chaldean fate to be feared nor any necessitie to be imposed upon the wills of men but onely an inclination and this inclination is not caused by an immediate working of the starres on the intellectuall part or minde of man but occasioned rather mediately or so farre forth as the soul depends on the temperaments and materiall organs of the bodie In which regard I hope never to be afraid of the signes of heaven neither is there cause why I should ever curse my starres seeing I know in this the utmost of their power And as it was said to that Apostle My grace is sufficient for thee so may every one take it for granted that there is a second birth which overswayes the first To which purpose one makes this an observation Iustè age Sapiens dominabitur astris Et manibus summi stant elementa Dei Do godly deeds so shalt thou rule the starres For then God holds the elements from warres Or as another not unfitly also speaketh Qui sapit ille animum fortunae praeparat omni Praevisumque potest arte levare malum The wise for ev'ry chance doth fit his minde And by his art makes coming evils kinde And in a word that pithie saying of Ioannes de Indagine shall close this Article Quaeris a me quantum in nobis operantur actra dico c. Dost thou demand of me how farre the starres work upon us I say they do but incline and that so gently that if we will be ruled by reason they have no power over us but if we follow our own nature and be led by sense they do as much in us as in brute beasts and we are no better For agunt non cogunt is all that may be said Artic. 2. Whether it be not a derogation from the perfection of things created to grant that the starres have any kinde of power
above the rest Neither can the devil every day have it in his commission to go and blow down houses upon the heads of Jobs children Nay saith one if these significations are not to be considered why are they so divinely written and painted in the heavens Surely it were impietie altogether to pluck or draw away our mindes from the observation of these things For if the heavens as they do declare the glorie of God or the firmament shew forth his handie work we may well beleeve that they expresse what God effecteth by them for otherwise every thing which God created doth declare his handie work as well as they Eclipses conjunctions prodigious sights flashings comets new starres what are they but the Oracles of God by which changes alterations and sundrie calamities are threatned to the world And these if any one contemne them what doth he but despise the admonitions of God Also how much these observations have profited the Commonwealth let Thales teach us For they that have Thales his skill may by these signes judge of cheapnesse and plentie of dearth and deernesse with other like things whose knowledge cannot but be profitable to the life of man Onely beware that more be not attributed to the heavens then to him that made the heavens not more to the servants then to the Master as they did who made them gods or they who trust and rely upon them not daring to take a journey or begin a work or speak with a friend about any businesse without a needlesse consultation Also know that the observing of these signes must not be mixed with magicall spells as charmers do when in stead of using they come to abusing of herbs For as the herbs on the ground were not made to be abused in such damned and forbidden practises no more were the starres in the skie Neither ought the observing of these signes to be mixed with charactericall practises diabolicall or superstitious divinations making of images under such or such a constellation dangerous elections of times either to procure good or bring down ill from heaven as they did who blasphemously maintained that men are long-lived and their souls go to heaven when Saturn is in Leo or they who have not quaked to affirm that when the Moon is joyned with Jupiter in the head of the Dragon whatsoever a man then asketh at the hands of God he shall receive Neither ought we to flie unto them for finding of things lost for where you cannot argue from the cause to the effect their use is unlawfull Nor may we use them in the contingencie of things when the cause is unknown or indeterminate Nor were they made to decide horarie questions or sortilegious demands Nor yet may we erect figures thereby to answer to certain questions as to know whether a man shall have the thing he hopeth or looketh for to know what shall become of a mans secret enemies to know of the speedie or slack return of him that taketh in hand any journey and of such things as shall happen in the journey or to know by the eighth house whether a man shall enjoy the goods and dowrie of his wife or by the seventh whether a man shall obtain that woman in marriage which he desireth or by the sixth to know whether a man shall keep or leave his servant with other the like questions of which can be given or known no cause why the starres should ever be thought to effect them in somuch that it is a kinde of wonder to think how it should come to passe that ever any one could forge out such inquiries to be answered from the signes of heaven For the starres were not made to justifie the dangerous practises of wicked impostours nor to give answer to the causelesse curiosities of superstitious demanders but made to be both signes and causes of such things as already I have mentioned for when the state of the question is come beyond the course of the foure principall qualities of cold heat moisture and drinesse it will finde succour neither in sound philosophie nor in the holy Word of written veritie Last of all let this one thing be remembred that the constellations as is well known and apparently perceived of Astronomers by reason of a slow motion which the fixed starres hath sliding from the equinoctiall point about one degree in 72 yeares are now removed into other signes of the divided Zodiack causing those signes by the qualitie of the starres which are now in them to be of another nature as Aries which was hot and drie in the dayes of Ptolomie is by reason that the starres of Pisces are moved thither cold and moist and Taurus which was cold and drie is now of the nature of the starres of Aries that is hot and drie and so of all the residue of the fixed starres they are removed into new houses or other mansions Which if it be not proportionably considered let any mean capacitie judge how grosse an errour may heedlessely be produced by an unskilfull artist Parag. 3. Of that other office given to the starres viz. that they were appointed to be heavenly clocks and remarkable measurers of time and the parts thereof This office is laid down in these words And let them be for seasons and for dayes and yeares Artic. 1. Of Seasons IF we take seasons dayes and yeares together it is no hard thing to see how the whole and parts are joyned For Tempus is the whole and Annus is pars temporis and Dies is pars anni Not that these are the onely parts of time but because the other do chiefly consist of these Howbeit seeing they be laid down severally it is fit they be explained sunderly And first of Seasons We need not with the Jews understand here their feasts onely and anniversarie dayes of solemnitie for then this distinction of seasons had not been in use till after the coming out of Egypt neither is it enough to applie them to the monethly revolution of the moon or to the sunnes changing into a new signe or partition of the Zodiack But by the name of Seasons we ought rather to be led unto those Quatuor anni Cardines or foure Quarters of the yeare when the reviving sunne crosseth the Equinoctiall and again toucheth upon either solstice which last is as it were solis statio because the dayes seem to stand at a stay and the two other have their names from equall day and night because the dayes and nights are then of equall length Sol cheerfully riding in his gold-like fierie chariot just in the middest between the Artick and Antartick Poles For these were those seasons which God again established for ever when he renewed that face upon the decayed world which by the impartiall Floud was blemished saying as it is in Gen. chap 8. 22. While the earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter shall not cease And as for us we commonly