Scorpion hath sometimes been bred in the brain 244 Scriech-owl 403 Sea Why seas be salt and rivers fresh 201. Why Springs be fresh 206. Why the Sea ebbeth and floweth 208 209 sequent Why fresh Waters and all Seas do not ebbe 218 Seasons of the yeare 354 Securitie Small securitie on earth by an example from the Squirrell 454 Selenite a stone which follows the course of the Moon 294 295 Sentida an herb of a strange propertie 273 Servius Tullius his head burning as he slept 97 Sethim It was that wood whereof Noah made the Ark 276 Seven a number of rest 21 Shad 388 Shark 378 Sheep and their natures 482. How sheep may catch 〈◊〉 rot 155. 252 Shepherds purse 270 Shooting starres a Meteor 92 Shrew A medicine to be used at the death of a Shrew 263 Shrew-mouse and his properties shewed 467 Sight Sight dulled by Leeks 262. Rue eaten fasting is very good for the sight 248. See Eyes Signes Signes of heaven must not be abused 351 sequent Silver the best mettall next to Gold 288 Sinne. We should weep for sinne by an example taken from the Hart 481. We should not sleep in sinne by an example taken from the Sea-Elephant 371. When the baits of sinne are swallowed they must be vomited up again by an embleme from the Scolopendra 384. The sweetnesse of sinne in the end is bitter by an example from the Beare eating hony 477. Those who are taken away in the very act of sinne what they are like unto 485 Sinner A sinner though blinde in life seeth in death by an example taken from the Mole 462 Sivet-cat or the Zibeth 463 Skirret 264 Sleet and the cause thereof 162 Slow-worm 490 Smaradge Plinie makes many kindes of this stone 293 Snapdragon an herb of a strange propertie 272 Snow 160. The matter of Snow 161. Why Snow is white ibid. Snow in the mountains and rain in the valleys both out of one cloud together with the cause thereof 162 Societie ought to be amongst men by an example taken from the Stork 399 Sole and Whiting 387 Sorrell and the vertues thereof 270 Sorrow An embleme concerning those who sorrow to part with earth for heaven 459. 481 Sothernwood and the qualities thereof 254 Soul The Soul breathed into man infused in the creation and created in the infusion 499. God stampt his image in the Soul ibid. 500. Souls Souls cannot appeare after death 94 95 South-winde 182 Sowbread an herb of a strange propertie 262. 272 Sow-thistle and the vertues thereof 267 Sparrow and his nature 409 Speare-wort the beggars herb 260 Spheres A figure shewing their motion 317 Sphinx and the meaning of Aenigma 472 Splene A medicine for the splene 274 Spring The Spring described 355. The creation was not in the Spring 30. 32 Squirrell described with his properties 453 Starling 402 Starres 311 312 sequent The Starres not to be worshipped 312. Their matter and motion 315 320. They be nourished by the waters above the heavens and how 321 322 323 324. The reason of their differing heights 324 325. Their offices 327. 334. 354. Why they seem to twinkle 332. They work upon this inferiour world 334 sequent New Starres 107. 114 115. 119. The signification of Cassiopea's Starre 108. 114 Steel and what it is 289 Stitch. Good to give ease to one troubled with a stitch in the side 247 Stomack Good to strengthen the Stomack 250. Good to help digestion 396 Stone in the body with â—… medicine for it 387. 254 Stones what they are their kindes c. 290 sequent They live not a vegetative life 291. Common Stones ibid. Precious Stones 292. A Stone which followes the course of the Moon 294. A Stone which will cool seething water 296. A compassionate Stone and the reason thereof ibid. 297. A Stone of power to draw gold 299. The Loadstone 297. The Bloud-stone ibid. Stories A Storie of a Sea-woman 375. A storie of a Boy and a Dolphin 380. A storie of a Sparrow 409. A storie concerning Cock-fighting 411. A storie of a Lion 438. Another of a Lion 440. A storie of a dying Usurer 459. A storie of two much familiaritie amongst Cats 464. A storie of a Bishop eaten up with Mice 466. A storie of a loving Dog 470. Another ibid. Another 471. A storie shewing how Alexander was deceived by Apes 472. A storie of a Man saved from death by a Beare 475 Stork 399. Lessons to be learnt from the stork ibid. Strange A rule to be observed in Strange sights 131 Students Mint good for students 255 Sturgeon 384 Su a strange beast in the new-found world 454 Sulphurwort it is good for young children 260 Summer described 356 Sunne Whether the Sunne be the fountain of light 329. Why the Sunne hath sometimes seemed to dance 333. The appearance of many Sunnes 130. Their cause 131. What they signifie ibid. Swallow 406. What strange things some have written of the swallow 407. It is said that she taught men first to build 408. They cure the blinde eyes of their young ones with an herb viz. Celandine 261 Swam-fisk a fish so called being the most greedy of all fishes 372 373 Swanne The nature and qualities of the Swanne 413 414 Swine eat no Turneps 263 Sword-fish 370 T TAmarisk It is of great vertue for the hardnesse of the splene or milt 274 Tanners An herb for Tanners in the dressing of Leather 257 Tarragon 264 Tarantula and his strange properties 425 Teeth Good against the tooth-ach 261. 267. How to scoure the Teeth and kill the worms in them 251 Temper Waters of a strange temper 220 221 Tench 388 Terebinth or the Turpentine tree 279 Thirst. An herb very good for the thirstie 269 Thrive The thriving of a man that upon occasion is of two trades The embleme is taken from the flying fish 382. Some men thrive in a course which to the vulgar seems contrary by an example taken from the Sturgeon 384 Throat Good for a sore throat 253 Thrush 402 Thunder what it is 122. A difference in Cracks 123. Thunder sometimes without Lightning and so on the contrarie ibid. How this may be 124. The making of the Thunder-stone 125. See more in the word Lightning Thyme and the vertues thereof 259 Time what it is 45. Times when the World should have ended according to some mens foolish fancies 18. 22 23 24 c. Tinne 290 Toad An antipathie between the Toad and Rue 248 Tobacco and the kindes thereof Where it was first found together with the names qualities and vertues thereof 264 265. The Indian women take no Tobacco 266. The time when it came first into England and by whom it was first brought ibid. A precious salve to be made of the green leaves 265. A lesson for quaffers ibid. Tongue 498. The Tongue hath brought many to mischief 413. Fair tongues false hearts 443 Topaz a very strange stone which stancheth bloud 295 296 Tophus 292 Torch a burning Meteor 89 Torpedo a
SPECVLVM MUNDI OR A GLASSE REPRESENTING THE FACE OF THE WORLD SHEWING both that it did begin and must also end The manner How and time When being largely examined WHEREUNTO IS JOYNED an Hexameron or a serious discourse of the causes continuance and qualities of things in Nature occasioned as matter pertinent to the work done in the six dayes of the Worlds creation AUG in Ser. de Ascen Qui se dicit scire quod nescit temerarius est Qui se negat scire quod scit ingratus est ¶ Printed by the Printers to the Universitie of Cambridge 1635. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND ILLUSTRIOUS JAMES Duke of Lenox Earl of March Baron of Setrington Darnley Terbanten and Methven Lord great Chamberlain and Admirall of Scotland Knight of the most noble order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most honourable Privie-Councel in both Kingdomes May it please your Grace AFter I had brought this small portion of my intended labour to that unpolished perfection which now it is and loth to let it go abroad without a Mecoenas to protect it I could not on the sudden resolve either whom or where to make my choice For it is a tenet which may be easily granted that men of retired lives and small-grown fortunes are seldome known to many it being with them as with those in the dark who see and observe the passages to and fro of others in the light but are unseen themselves which condition sith it doth little lesse then jump with mine and reflect with an opposite rade upon me I could not I confesse at the first be setled untill my second thoughts recalled the happie memorie of your gracious name unto whom I could not but commit the patronage of this unworthy work both in regard that I was then a student in that house where and when your welcome presence made it glad as also if it be not presumption so to say in that I was directed by one and the self-same tutour with your gracious self But above all my especiall motive hereunto was the never doubting thought of your kinde good will to students and encouragement of those whose wishes are well devoted to the Muses Now then if it may please your Grace to make this book yours by protecting it from the detracting crew of Zoilus his companie I shall think my self alwayes too poore to expresse my thankfulnesse Let it be as the grapes of Babel who as the Jews have it in a certain Apologue sent upon a time to the vine-leaves of Judea desiring to be overshadowed by them for otherwise they should be consumed by the heat of the sunne and never suffered to grow up to maturitie The wings of your favour may be as those leaves to shelter my green and scarce grown grapes so shall I hope to see them thrive not as the camomill by being troden on nor as the palm by being suppressed for they be like to such a plant which needeth props and is cherished by the pearled distillations of crystall dew And as for your gracious self my wishes are that your honours and dignities may increase with your houres and let eternall glorie be attendant on your vertues to crown them with eternitie so shall you live not onely with saints above but with â—…en below and have the precious memorie of your renâ—…wned name honoured of those whose times are yet unborn and beings as yet farre from being Thus prayeth Your Graces most humbly devoted servant JOHN SVVAN To the Reader Gentle Reader I Present thee here with a book of no great volume yet stor'd with much varietie and seeing I am guiltie of my many weak infirmities and no few overfights I cannot but crave thy courteous acceptation for it is a granted Maxime that a stander by hath often better eyes then they who play the game Howbeit he were no man that could not erre no more then they whose rancor'd mouthes shall bite with scorn or vent the poison of a loath'd disdain In a word if thou expectest quaint language or fragrant flowers of flowing Rhetorick I am somewhat sorie my sad fate should prove so cruell as not to give way for satisfaction Beleeve it I could have wished a better stile and not been sorie to have soar'd aloft and yet again I must confesse that as eloquence was never any part of my essence so neither was my aim so much at that as to produce apt matter fitting the seriousnesse of the subject I took in hand And verily if in this my hopes fail me not I do not fear but my pains will be accepted for although I go not about to teach the learned because Humiles arbusta juvant yet the ignorant may be instructed in what before they knew not yea and the learned also may be occasioned to call again to minde something which for the present hath either slept or slipt their memories by reason of their better thoughts and deeper contemplations Be not therefore unjust judges in an harmlesse cause nor forward censurers churlishly to blast young springing blossomes in their tender bud but rather take in good part this from him who resteth as his own so also Yours in this or the like endeavour JOHN SWAN To his friend the Authour THou art the World and now methinks I see A world of goodnesse here distill'd from thee Distill'd in lines so sweetly I protest I thought thy book the crystall of thy breast Where live Idea's such as all shall passe When they endure onely in clearnesse glasse Yet now I 'le blame thee If thou would'st have had The world drawn right some line should have been bad THO. HARLESTON Coll. Pemb. WHen fresh Aurora first puts forth her head And calls bright Sol from out his Eastern bed She modestly doth blush her crimson die Makes red the verges of the dawning skie Fearing perhaps that Sols reflecting ray Procures too hot to some too cold a day So I with bashfull fear and trembling doubt This new-born book into the world send out Some sure t will please but never all did any I wish the All were few the Some were many But be they as they will 't is told me since That envie snarleth most at innocence And those who least know where to finde th' amisse Will soonest brag they could do more then this Let them go on they hurt not me nor mine Detracting harms reflect at home in fine J. S. A table of the contents in the severall Chapters Sections Paragraphs Articles and Questions which are contained in this book CHAP. I. THe first Chapter concerneth the worlds beginning and ending and is divided into three Sections Sect. 1. That the world began and must also end Sect. 2. Of the manner how the world must end Sect. 3. Of the sundry times which some have fancied out for the worlds ending CHAP. II. THe second Chapter concerneth the time of the yeare when the world began and it is divided into seven Sections Sect. 1. Of three opinions concerning
the nature of the place over which it passeth it may be altered of which I shall speak more afterwards And besides all this the secret influence of the Planets worketh greatly towards the dissolution of the foresaid vapours But I proceed And now it followeth that I divide all sorts of rain into two kindes First such as are ordinary secondly such as be extraordinary I call those ordinary when nothing but water falleth And I call those extraordinary which others call prodigious rains as when worms frogs fish wheat milk flesh bloud wooll stones iron earth c. fall from the clouds Plinie makes mention of many such prodigies as these in the 56 chapter of his second book setting down the times when they happened Concerning all which next under God the causer of the causes causing them these or the like reasons may be urged to shew how it is possible they should be procured and upon what causes they naturally depend 1. And first for the raining of worms it may be thought that the putrefaction of some dead carcasses or other hath been drawn up into the aire as fumes and vapours are where it breedeth such worms as use to breed out of the like matter here below 2. The like may be said of frogs when the vapour is exhaled out of marish grounds at such times as they engender 3. So also of fishes excepting that as is supposed the force of windes may suddenly sweep away little frey out of ponds upon montanous places and so also little young frogs with many the like things may be taken up Some write of a whole calf falling from the clouds and have been thereupon perswaded that it is possible of Vapours and Exhalations with the power of heavenly bodies concurring a calf may be made in the aire But this is idle It was therefore as others write taken up in some storm of whirl winde and so let fall again 4. As for wheat and other grain it hath been observed that their raining down hath often come in case of extremitie to the great preservation and refreshment of the distressed in which regard it may be supposed that it was an immediate work of God wrought without the rule of nature so that were all the wits in the world prest into one yet were they all too weak to shew a true cause of such a prodigie Which made Du Bartas write concerning such Let them declare what cause could yerst beget Amid the aire those drizzling showres of wheat Which in Carinthia twice were seen to shed Whereof that people made them store of bread To speak therefore as I think I will not boldly affirm how this was caused but onely touch at the possibilitie of it namely that it might be effected like unto other strange rains first drawn from the earth into the aire and then sent down again For as I have already said in shewing probable reasons for such things as are strange we do also include God the chief and best cause of all things And so also we reade that when the Red sea was bayed up with a double wall to give the children of Israel safe and free passage through it God sent a strong East-winde all that night c. by which the waters were divided Exod. 14. 21. And again when the Quails came and filled their tents being as it were rained round about them they were brought from the sea with a winde and let fall a dayes journey on this side and a dayes journey on that side even round about their camp Numb 11. 31. He that hath seen saith one an egge-shell full of dew drawn up by the sunne into the aire in a May morning will not think it incredible that wheat and other grain should be drawn up in much hotter countreys then ours is much rather the meal or flower which is lighter 5. By the like reason also it sometimes raineth milk for when the intensissimus solis calor the vehement heat of the sunne shall either draw milk from the udders of cattell and shall mix it with the other parts of the cloud or shall so throughly trie purifie digest or concoct the vapour that it may look something white then will the drops look as if it rained milk 6. As for the raining of flesh it is supposed to be after this manner namely through the drawing up of bloud from places where much bloud hath been shed which being clottered together seemeth as if it were flesh 7. And so also it may rain bloud namely when it is not clottered together but thinner c. In the yeare of Christ 480 was such a rain As also in the yeare 864 neare unto Brixia in Italie was the like Yea and before either of these times our own chronicles tell us that in the dayes of Rivallo King of the Britains we also had bloud rained upon which ensued great mortalitie of people Histories make mention of the like wonders at other times But say some there is often great store of bloud spilt and yet no prodigie appeareth To which is answered that it is not the ordinarie exhaling vertue which resteth in the starres and Planets that can draw up such bloudy vapours although much bloud be spilt but then onely when there is a more unusuall concurrence of causes for sometimes they are disposed to one thing sometimes to another And for the working of any strange thing it must be when there is a strange kinde of combination amongst them To which purpose we know although we cannot alwayes directly see and demonstrate how they are mixed and combined that they principally intend and cause at the same time other changes of which the visible prodigie is but the proclaimer or fore-runner as if you look but a little before concerning Comets you may see and so rest satisfied And unto this also adde that there may be drops like unto bloud and yet no bloud drawn up And this may be either when the Sunne draweth vapours out of putrified watery places in which as I have often seen in a drought resteth much slimie and red-coloured corrupted water or else when the Sunnes immensive heat doth so boyl the water in the cloud that like unto the urine which a man maketh in a burning fever it looketh red when it falleth The like cause I gave before unto the water of a white colour but know that it must then be of another qualitie the matter of the vapour I mean for there are some kinde of waters as is well known which being boyled turn to white salt c. And as for a red colour the ordinarie rain sheweth that it is possible for we see that ordinary rain-water looketh alwayes more brown then spring or river-water being as if a more powerfull operation would turn it into red 8. The raining of wooll or hair is when a certain mossinesse like wooll such as is upon quinces willows and
yeares from the Creation to the Law in any of them Sealiger Calvisius Helvicus Funccius Bucholcerus and others who reckon the fewest yeares do account 453 above two thousand and yet they reckon not so many as they should by almost 60 yeares some say altogether 60 as may be seen by Calvin Iunius Pareus Ainsworth or Dr. Willet on Genesis besides many excellent Chronologers especially Sr. W. Ralegh that learned Knight who in his historie of the world makes it plain And not onely doth this Elias fail in his first division but in his second also For from the Law to the death of Christ are not 2000 yeares there be wanting well neare 500 to make them up As for example take a view again of Scaliger Calvisius Helvicus or our countrey-man Mr. Thom. Lydiat or Bucholcerus or Petavius or Funccius and see if it be not even so Bucholcerus I think wanteth the fewest and yet it is manifest that he falleth short of 2000. Whereupon it may be seen that in his first division which is for the time before the Law he overshoots And in his second division for the time under the Law he is too short imitating a bad archer who tries but cannot hit the mark If then for the time past the Rabbin is found to be faulty why should we be so mad as to give credit to him for the time which is yet to come Questionlesse as he hath deceived us in the one so likewise he will deceive us in the other and therefore he is to beslighted and nothing credited at all Yea saith one Dictum Eliae non est authenticum Valet quidem adversus Iudaeos qui vaticinium illud admittunt ad probandum venisse Messiam cùm jam elapsi sint anni quinquies mille 560 sed ad finem seculi demonstrandum nihil valet That is The saying of Elias is not authentick It maketh indeed against the Jews who entertain that prophecie to prove that the Messias or Christ is come seeing there are 5560 yeares of the 6000 alreadie runne out but it prevaileth nothing to shew the end of the world for which cause it was chiefly intended But come we now to the examination of that forenamed place in Peter which is brought as an help to uphold the Jews opinion because a day taken for a thousand yeares and applied to the weekly dayes seemeth to point out six thousand yeares so some imagine But without doubt the Apostle meant no such thing nor yet had in his minde to set down any strict manner of accounting times peculiar to the court of heaven For mark but the circumstances of the place and view well the occasion given him to speak so as he did of the Lords coming to judgement and then you shall soon finde that it was to comfort the godly against the cavils and reproaches of the wicked who because the time seemed long to them did thereupon mock at the promise of his coming taking it as if he would not come at all For Where is say they the promise of his coming since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they did from the beginning c. Which is as if they should say Is it not a great while since the world began and yet what alteration can we see in it yesterday was as is this day men are born and die as orderly as they ever did nature keeps her course and the like Wherefore if the Judge had meant to come or shew himself at all he would not surely that his coming should be thus long deferred but would rather have shewed himself before thus many yeares could possibly be born Thus or after this manner such mockers reasoned and cavilled with S. Peter which cavill of theirs is agreeable to that of S. Paul where he mentions such as did not beleeve the Resurrection but were like minded with these who mocked at the slacknesse of Christs coming to judgement Saint Peter therefore that he might comfort the weak and confute the wicked sheweth how to answer this their faithlesse objection namely thus That although the time be long in respect of us yet to God with whom there is no time either long or short it is not so A day compared with an houre to us may seem long But a thousand yeares compared with a day to God they seem but short for what is time to eternitie And therefore although that day to the faithlesse seems so to be taken away or deferred rather as if it were not or would not come because it quickly came not yet know that it is not quite taken away For as the same Apostle speaketh at the 9 verse God is not slack in his promises as some account slacknesse but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance And this questionlesse was the Apostles meaning farre differing from their fancies who from hence would fain gather that for one day God useth to account a thousand yeares and a thousand yeares for one day Hic sermo saith one est de aestimatione hominum qui non aequè aestimant tempus longum breve This speech is according to the estimation of men who do not equally esteem of times long and short Which also doth yet further appeare by that in the 90 Psal. at the 4 vers Where as there is a comparison likewise between 1000 yeares and one day so also in respect of God a thousand yeares are compared to that which is lesse then a day namely to a watch in the night For saith the Prophet God turneth man to destruction and then he saith Turn again ye children of men For a thousand yeares in thy sight are but as yesterday and they are gone as a watch in the night To which purpose S. Hierome speaketh also fitly saying Aeternitati comparatum omne tempus est breve that is All time compared with eternitie is but short time yea indeed as no time And again did not Zanchius worthily finde fault with Ireneus and Lactantius concerning these things Undoubtedly he did affirming that their opinion was contrary to the word of God For our Lord himself saith that none can know c. Whereas saith he if this sentence of the 6000 yeares were true then the time might be known Let therefore they who will embrace this fancie of six thousand yeares for the whole time of the worlds continuance I cannot For sure I am that the tradition of Elias hath greatly failed for the time that is past if therefore it should be true for the time which is yet to come it were more then an unheard of wonder and as for the argument taken from S. Peter to uphold it how his meaning hath been thereby forced is declared Yet neverthelesse I will not deny but that the world may stand six ages before it endeth and so the ages although not the yeares may be compared to the six
〈◊〉 Time shall be no more but we do not know whether the space of time allotted for that Trumpet be either long or short The Trumpets before it had time allowed them and what time this last shall have the event will best discover Wherefore I do well perceive that it is no easie thing to finde an apparent length of this last age any long while before it endeth unlesse we could be directly certified of the utmost periods of all the Trumpets or knew the times of the seven Vials which by seven Angels were to be poured out The best and onely way is alwayes to watch and to be evermore ready either for death or judgement For certainly when that time comes pure hearts as Bernard speaketh shall prevail more than subtill words good consciences better then full purses because the Judge will not be deceived with words nor moved with gifts neither is it possible that any should avoid him for all shall be summoned to appeare before him To which purpose Du Bartas descants thus Those that were laden with proud marble tombes Those that were swallow'd down wilde monsters wombes Those that the Sea hath drown'd those that the flashes Of ruddy flames have burned all to ashes Awaked all shall rise and all revest The flesh and bones that they at first possest But some must Justice some must Mercie taste Some call'd to joy some into torment cast CHAP. II. Shewing in what part of the yeare the world was created Sect. 1. Of three opinions concerning the time of the worlds beginning with a confutation of the first IN the account of Times it is very necessary that there should be a proposed point or mark from whence every reckoning may take beginning that thereby the yeares which have severall times of beginning may the more truely be computed and compared amongst themselves Wherefore it cannot be amisse to set down the most probable conjectures concerning the yeare wherein the world began especially seeing amongst Chronologers it is usuall to referre their accounts either to the yeare of the worlds Creation or to the birth of Christ. And now concerning this there be chiefly three opinions 1. Some imagine that the world was created in the very time of the Summer Solstice and that in the beginning of time the Sunne entring into Leo gave beginning to the yeare 2. Others referre it to the Spring when the Sunne entred into Aries 3. And in the last place 't is supposed that the world was made in Autumne when the Sunne entred into Libra Of all which I purpose to discourse severally and to shew the best reasons for that which I think to be the truest time The first is an opinion maintained by Mercator and as is thought was first hatched among the Priests of Egypt who observing the river Nilus to overflow about the Summer Solstice adored it for a God esteeming the time of its inundation for an infallible beginning of divine actions in things created and thereupon for the beginning likewise of the yeare at the time of the worlds creation But if this were the onely cause we may not unfitly say that it was folly and superstition which first set this opinion abroach and therefore he is worthy of blame who will go about to maintain it And although Mercator in his Chronologie seems to alledge some other reasons thereby to uphold his share in it yet his chief reason is not sufficient for it is grounded upon that which is not granted viz. that the Floud should end about Iuly because in the eleventh moneth which he supposeth to be May or Iune when the Olive beginneth to put forth the Dove brought green Olive leaves unto Noah into the Ark. To which it is answered That the word in Gen. 7. 11. which he taketh to signifie green leaves may as expositours witnesse as well be taken for branches even such as have been used to make Bowers with which according to the translation of the Septuagint is expressed by a word signifying a dry stalk And so saith that †Doctour in his Hexapla upon Genesis chapter the first question the 17 that the word in the originall is Gâ—…alce which as S. Hierome translateth it elsewhere signifies the branches of Olives and in the Septuagint it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stalk without leaves That therefore which the Dove brought might be some branch of the Olive tree rather then the leaves and so might the Floud end at the dead time of the yeare rather then when things were fresh and flourishing But admit that the stalk or branch had leaves on it yet it proves not that it was about May or Iune when the Dove found and brought it because it is recorded of the Olive that she loseth not her leaves as other trees doe but is green and flourishing all the yeare Such leaves therefore as it had before the Floud it might have after the Floud for if they were new ones they must needs spring out in seven dayes because the Dove was sent out but seven dayes before returning then as a creature disconsolate not finding any thing at all Sect. 2. ANother opinion is that it was created in the Spring and that the Sunne who is the Index of time by whose revolution we account our yeares began his course in Aries The most forcible reasons to uphold this opinion are these First the naturall beginning of the yeare was in the Spring time because Noah entred into the Ark the first moneth and after a yeare about the end of the second moneth he came forth of the Ark again Gen. 7. 8. Now the first and second moneths here mentioned agree not to Autumne because if Noah came out of the Ark at that time of the yeare he could not then provide himself with victualls for those creatures which were with him against the next yeare by reason that the Harvest time was then past and Winter coming on so that the yeare naturally began in the Spring time and not in Autumne Secondly it is likely that the world took beginning at such a time when things were growing more and more to perfection as in the Spring rather then when they were decreasing as in Autumne Thirdly it is no weak assertion to affirm that the world was created about that time of the yeare when by the second Adam it was redeemed which was not in Autumne but in the Spring Fourthly the children of Israel coming out of Egypt were commanded to begin their yeare at Abib called afterwards Nisan which moneth agreeth partly to our March and partly to April See Exodus chap. 12. verse 1 and chap. 23. verse 15. Now by this command it is like that they were onely put in minde of their ancient custome which was in use amongst their Ancestours and lost by them since their going into Egypt and death of the Patriarchs For when the twelve Patriarchs the sonnes of Jacob were dead they of their posteritie learned the customes of Egypt
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
also the creditours of whom I have borrowed such extraordinary summes of money both at Frankford and elsewhere and the dangers which I do daily expose my self unto I call all these to witnesse whether I have left mine own kingdome and the dearest I have in the world to any other end and with other intention but onely to destroy the tyranny of the house of Austria and to obtain a profound and setled peace unto all These words of his shew nothing lesse then that he was extraordinarily set on work to undergo such fortunes as the eyes of all the world have bravely seen him struggle with and God knows who shall end that which his coming into Germanie hath begun It was his own saying that if he himself should not survive so long as to bring to passe so great a work that then in his stead some other might succeed and go on untill a full point and period were put unto the warre For upon the occasion of his deliverance from a cannon shot he utters these words saying that he was not onely mortall but subject also unto the very same accidents that the poorest and meanest souldier is subject unto It is a generall law saith he from which my crown my birth my victories are not able to rescue and exempt me There remaineth nothing else therefore but that I must resigne my self to the providence of the Almighty who if it please him to call me out of this world will neverthelesse not abandon and leave a cause so just as that which I have undertaken but will doubtlesse raise up some other more wise more couragious and valiant then my self who shall put a period to this warre And again it was but three dayes before his death that at Naumbourg he uttered these words Our affairs saith he answer our desires but I doubt God will punish me for the folly of the people who attribute too much unto me and esteem me as it were their God and therefore he will make them shortly know and see I am but a man He be my witnesse it is a thing distastfull unto me And what ever befall me I shall receive it as proceeding from his divine will Onely in this I rest fully satisfied that he will not leave this great enterprise of mine imperfect Great King of Hearts in arms transcending fame Eternall praise shall blazoâ—… forth thy name Soul of thy friends thou wert But terrour scourge of foes Canst thou then die though death Thine eyes in spight may close No no For times unborn shall yet repeat What deeds were done by thee a King so great And this doth â—…lso raise thy just renown That in thy fall thine enemies fell down Thine was that day thy men undaunted fought Untill their foes the field were driven out For as it were from forth their Kings last bloud The palm and bay sprung up and conqu'ring stood Great deeds thou diddest soon hot Mars his sphere In Germanie thee mov'd a double yeare From whence at last above the spheres he caught thee And to a place of peace eternall brought thee Where thou shalt rest how e're the rest proceed With those fierce warres which heav'n hath thus decreed But let me now return again to this New starre and shew you that in the dayes of Hipparchus who lived towards the end of the Grecian Monarchie there appeared one much like it and so Plinie telleth us But since that time we reade of no other untill this in the yeare 1572 excepting that which appeared at our Saviours birth which indeed was no such starre for it had three properties never seen in any else moving first from the North to the South secondly it was seated in the lowest Region of the aire thirdly it was nothing hindred by the light of the sunne c. Yet in later times following the said yeare 1572 some smaller ones have been as in the yeare 1596 this was seated in the Whale And in the yeare 1600 or thereabouts another was seen in the constellation of Cygnus Kepler makes mention of one in the yeare 1602 in the constellation of Pisces soon after which upon the death of Q. Elisabeth and coming in of K. Iames was that great plague at London Some say that Andromeda's girdle and the constellation of Antoninous afforded each of them one in the yeare 1612. But the yeare 1604 must not be forgotten for in the 16 degree and 40 minute of Sagittarius toward the Southwest a remarkable one appeared having 2 degrees and 15 minutes of North latitude and was seated in the constellation of Ophiucus this at the first shined as bright as Venus and in the very next yeare that damnable powder plot of the Papists was discovered But now though these and more were reckoned up yet that in Cassiopea would be the chief the elder brother and captain of them all because both in height bignesse and lustre they were lesse remarkable Tycho upon the sight of this New starre laboureth to prove that the heavens and not the earth afford matter to such as these are thinking that it differeth not from the matter of other starres unlesse in this viz. that it is not exalted to such a perfection and solid composition of the parts as in the first continuing and created starres the main and principall reason being taken from the magnitude of them together with their extraordinary height As for example Tycho affirmeth concerning that New starre in Cassiopea being as it were the elder brother of all the other after it that it was 300 times bigger then the earth Which being so it is with small probabilitie affirmed that it should have matter from that which is so much lesse then it and indeed a thing impossible The heavens are large enough to afford matter although the earth be not and no part of the heaven can be imagined to be more fit for such a purpose then the via lactea or milkie way for that place alwayes shews it self even to the eye so as if there were much indigested matter in it reserved onely to work such wonders Yet neverthelesse I suppose it may be also granted that an earthly Exhalation may have recourse sometimes unto the battlements of heaven and in some sort and in part concurre towards the composition of these New starres as they are called and of such Comets as have been above the Moon What should we think of that last in the yeare 1618 it was as I have already said amongst the wandring starres themselves and yet it was no other then such a starre as we call a Comet or a blazing starre Now then if this had matter from the earth and spent it amongst the Planets rather then below the Moon why might not those which we call New starres obtain the like freedome to have the like matter ascend a little higher What should hinder this conjecture I do not easily see for questionlesse the
no such luckie flouds there it is found that these bounteous watrie bodies yeelding vapours do purchase for them such dropping showers of rain that the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing and therefore these are great benefits challenging most humble thanks as it is Psal. 107. The third is that they can quell the rage of the hottest element and keep our mansions from cinders or a flamie conversion into ashes The fourth is that they yeeld us an easinesse and speedinesse of conduct and traffick by which each place partaketh of the blessings of every place Yea these and many more are the benefits of water without which the life of man could not be sustained But here I contract my sails and end this question for by coming on the shore I shall the better view that which remaineth concerning this liquid element Wherefore it followeth The next and last question propounded was concerning the fluxion and refluxion of the sea wherein I purpose as neare as I can to shew both why seas have that alternate motion as also why such murmuring brooks and rivers as do not ebbe and flow are destitute of the foresaid courses The motion of the sea is either naturall or violent The first is performeth on its own accord the other it doth not but by some externall force compelling it The first being a naturall motion is such as is in every other water namely that all waters do evermore flow into the lowest place because they have an heavinesse or ponderositie in them And thus the ocean naturally floweth from the North where it is highest unto the South as the lower place for there in regard of the great cold the waters are not onely kept from drying up but also increased whilest much aire is turned into water whereas in the South by reason of great heat they are alwayes sucked up and diminished Now this motion is called a motion of Equation because it is for this end namely that the superficies of the water may be made equall and distant alike on every side from the centre of gravitie The other being that which dependeth upon some externall cause is such as may be distinguished into a threefold motion One is rapt and caused by force of the heavens whereby it floweth from East to West The second is a motion of Libration in which the sea striving to poise it self equally doth as it were wave from one opposite shore to another And note that this is onely in such as are but strait and narrow seas being a kinde of trepidation in them or as I said before a motion of Libration just like a rising and falling of the beam of an equall-poised balance which will not stand still but be continually waving to and fro The third and last is Reciprocatio or Aestus maris called the ebbing and flowing of the sea The cause of which hath added no little trouble nor small perplexitie to the brains of the best and greatest Philosophers Aristotle that master of knowledge helps us little or nothing in this question And yet Plutarch affirmeth that he attributed the cause to the motion of the sunne Others have gathered from him that he seemed to teach it was by certain exhalations which be under the water causing it to be driven to and fro according to contrary bounds and limits But howsoever he taught or whatsoever he thought this we finde that nothing troubled him more For as Coelius Rhodiginus writeth when he had studied long about it and at the last being weary he died through the tediousnesse of such an intricate doubt Some say he drowned himself in Negropont or Euripus because he could finde no reason why it had so various a fluxion and refluxion ebbing and flowing seven times a day at the least adding before that his untimely and disastrous precipitation these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quandoquidem Aristoteles non cepit Euripum Euripus capiat Aristotelem That is Although Aristotle hath not taken Euripus yet Euripus shall take Aristotle meaning that that should end him whose cause could not be comprehended by him But leaving Aristotle we shall finde as little help from his master Plato who as did also the Stoicks attributed the cause to the breath of the world Such also have been the fancies of others among whom Kepler may not be forgotten who in good earnest affirmeth and beleeveth that the earth is a great living creature which with the mightie bellows of her lungs first draweth in the waters into her hollow bowels then by breathing respires them out again A prettie fiction this and well worthy the pen of some fabling poet rather then to be spoken in good sober sadnesse and affirmed as a truth Others would have the cause to be by reason of waters in the holes of the earth forced out by spirits which comes something neare to that before concerning the breath of the world A third sort attribute the cause to the circular motion of the earth affirming that there is a daily motion of the earth round about the heavens which it performeth in 24 houres the heavens in the mean time onely seeming to move and not moving in very deed This opinion came first from the Pythagoreans and is defended by the Copernicanians as an effect of the foresaid motion As for example the earth moving swiftly round the water not able to follow the motion is left behinde and caused to flow to and fro like as in a broad shallow vessel may be seen for put water in such a vessel and let it be swiftly pulled forward and then you shall see that by being left behinde it will beat it self against the one side before the other can at all partake of its company and so it is also in the earth leaving the waters behinde whilest it moveth But if this opinion be true first tell me how it comes to passe that the sea doth not ebbe and flow alwayes at one and the same time but altereth his course and is every day about one houre later then other Secondly shew me why the tides are at one time of the moneth higher then at another Thirdly let me be informed why broad lakes and large rivers do not flow as well as seas Fourthly let me be rightly instructed how it comes to passe that things tend to the earth as their centre if the sunne as Copernicus and his followers imagine be the centre of the world Fifthly shew me why the aire in the middle Region is not rather hot then cold for surely if the earth should move round with a diurnall motion as they maintain then the middle Region must be either farre higher then it is or else the aire would be so heated by going round that the coldnesse in it would be either little or none at all for it is a ruled case that Remotio à motu circulari dat quietem frigiditatem et gravitatem sicut
propinquitas dat motum calorem et levitatem and thereupon it comes to passe that we have coldnesse in the middle Region the cause first beginning it being in respect of the hills which hinder the aire from following the motion of the heavens as in two severall places of the second dayes work I have declared Sixthly I would also know why an arrow being shot upright should fall neare upon the same place where the shooter standeth and not rather fall beyond him seeing the earth must needs carry him farre away whilest the arrow flyeth up and falleth down again or why should a stone being perpendicularly let fall on the West side of a tower fall just at the foot of it or on the East side fall at all and not rather be forced to knock against it We see that a man in a ship at sea throwing a stone upright is carried away before the stone falleth and if it be mounted up in any reasonable height not onely he which cast it but the ship also is gone Now why it should be otherwise in the motion of the earth I do not well perceive If you say that the earth equally carries the shooter aire arrow tower and stone then methinks you are plainly convinced by the former instance of the ship or if not by that then by the various flying of clouds and of birds nay of the smallest grashopper flie flea or gnat whose motion is not tied to any one quarter of the world but thither onely whither their own strength shall carry them some flying one way some another way at one and the same time We see that the winde sometimes hindereth the flight of those prettie creatures but we could never yet perceive that they were hindered by the aire which must needs hinder them if it were carried alwayes one way by the motion of the earth for from that effect of the earths motion this effect must needs also be produced Arm'd with these reasons 't were superfluous To joyn our forces with Copernicus But perhaps you will say it is a thing impossible for so vast a bodie as the heavens to move dayly about the earth and be no longer then 24 houres before one revolution be accomplished for if the compasse were no more then such a distance would make as is from hence to Saturns sphere the motion must extend in one first scruple or minute of time to 55804 miles and in a moment to 930 miles which is a thing impossible for any Physicall bodie to perform Unto which I must first answer that in these mensurations we must not think to come so neare the truth as in those things which are subject to sense and under our hands For we oft times fail yea even in them much more therefore in those which are remote and as it were quite absent by reason of their manifold distance Secondly I also answer that the wonder is not more in the swiftnesse of the motion then in the largenesse of the circumference for that which is but a slow motion in a little circuit although it be one and the same motion still must needs be an extraordinary motion in a greater circle and so I say the wonder is not more in the motion then in the largenesse of the circumference Wherefore he that was able by the power of his word to make such a large-compassed bodie was also able so to make it that it should endure to undergo the swiftest motion that the quickest thought can keep pace with or possibly be forged in imagination For his works are wonderfull and in wisdome he hath made them all Besides do but go on a while and adhere a little to the sect of Copernicus and then you shall finde so large a space between the convexitie of Saturns sphere and the concavitie of the eighth sphere being more then 20 times the distance of Saturn from us and yet void of bodies and serving to no other purpose but to salve the annuall motion of the earth so great a distance I say that thereby that proportion is quite taken away which God the Creatour hath observed in all other things making them all in number weight and measure in an excellent portion and harmonie Last of all let me demand how the earths motion and heavens rest can agree with holy Scripture It is true indeed as they alledge that the grounds of Astronomie are not taught us in Gods book yet when I heare the voice of the everlasting and sacred Spirit say thus Sun stand thou still and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon I cannot be perswaded either to think teach or write that the earth stood still but the sunne stood and the moon stayed untill the people had avenged themselves on their enemies Neither do I think after this that it was the earth which went back but the sunne upon Ahaz his diall in the dayes of Ezekias For when God had made the earth what said he did he bid it move round about the heavens that thereby dayes weeks moneths and yeares might be produced No. What then This was its office and this that which it should do namely bud and bring forth fruit for the use of man And for motion it was absolutely and directly bestowed upon the heavens and starres witnesse those very words appointing to the sunne and moon their courses setting them in the heavens so as they should never rest but be for signes and for seasons for dayes and for yeares And so also the wise Siracides understood it saying Did not the sunne go back by his means and was not one day as long as two I conclude therefore and concluding cannot forget that sweet meditation of a religious and learned Prelate saying Heaven ever moves yet is that the place of our rest Earth ever rests yet is that the place of our travell and unrest And now laying all together if the cause be taken away the effect perisheth My meaning is no more but thus that seeing the earth is void of motion the ebbing and flowing of the sea cannot be caused by it but dependeth upon some other thing Or again were it so that the earth had such a motion I should scarce beleeve that this ebbing and flowing depended on it For as I said before if this were the cause it could never be that the course of ebbs and flouds should keep such a regular alteration as they do day by day Neither could it produce a cause why the tides should be more at one time of the moneth then at another Nor yet as some suppose could the waters be suffered to flow back again but alwayes must be going on as fast as they can toward the Eastern part of the world But I leave this and come to another It was a mad fancie of him who attributed the cause to an Angel which should stand in a certain place of the world and sometimes heave up the earth above the waters
which will drown bastard children that be cast into it but drive to land them that be lawfully begotten Or is not this strange which he also mentioneth of a certain well in Sicilia whereof if theeves drink they are made blinde by the efficacie of the water The like I finde in other authours concerning certain fountains in Sardinia for it is said that they have this marvellous propertie namely that if there be a cause to draw any one to his oath he that is perjured and drinketh thereof becometh blinde and the true witnesse seeth more clearely then he did before Solinus and Isiodore report it Solinus also and Aristotle make mention of a water called the Eleusinian or Halesinian spring which through the noise of singing or musick is moved as if it danced or capered up and down whereas at other times it is still and quiet But I conclude and as that honoured Poet cannot but say Sure in the legend of absurdest fables I should enroll most of these admirables Save for the reverence of th' unstained credit Of many a witnesse where I yerst have read it And saving that our gain-spurr'd Pilots finde In our dayes waters of more wondrous kinde Unto which in things that are strange and not fabulous let this also be added that God Almighty hath proposed infinite secrets to men under the key of his wisdome that he might thereby humble them and that seeing what meer nothings they are they might acknowledge that all are ignorant of more then they know for indeed this is a rule Maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus The greatest part of those things which we know is the least part of those things which we know not Sect. 3. Of the drie-land appearing after the gathering of the waters THe waters were no sooner gathered but the drie-land then appeared and this may be called the second part of the third dayes work For the end of the gathering of the waters was that the earth might shew it self and not onely so but that also it might appeare solid and drie Two things therefore saith Pareus did the earth in this act principally receive one was that it might be conspicuous the other that it might be solid and drie and both depended upon the law of great necessitie For first had it been continually covered with waters how could it have been a place for habitation either man must have been otherwise then he is or else the earth must as it was be uncovered Secondly were it uncovered and not also drie and solid it could not conveniently have bore up those living creatures weights and other things which tread and presse upon it Whereupon Expositours well witnesse that earth is so named from the Hebrew Erets which say they implieth a thing trod and runne upon by the creatures on it and heavenly orbs about it The same word spoken of particular places is englished land as the land or earth of Canaan and the like Here then it appeareth that this was that time when the earth received her proper elementarie qualitie which it had potentially before but not actually till now Now therefore it being not onely uncovered but also made drie it might easily be distinguished from the other three elements of fire aire and water For the proper qualitie of the fire is heat of the aire is moisture of the water is coldnesse and of the earth is drinesse These qualities I say are most proper and peculiar to them yet so as the aire is not onely moist but of a moderate heat as being nearest to the element of fire the water not onely cold but also moist as coming nearest to the nature of aire and the earth not onely drie but something cold as being hoast or landlord to the water and upon these terms the elements are combined together there being in all an harmonious order pointing to him who in number weight and measure hath constituted all things I will not go about to prove that the earth is the centre of the world for fear I should be like to him who disputed whether snow were white onely I will adde that even as an infant is potentially rationall by nature but is made rationall in act by youth or yeares so it was with the earth both before and after the drying of it Unto which let this also be joyned that the earth is not so arid or drie that it is void of all moisture for then it would be dissolved and fall into dust But it is arid and dry that it might be solid and firm retaining in the mean time even in the solid parts of it such a conveniencie of humour that all parts may both be glewed together and also have sufficient nutriment for the things which like to a teeming mother she either bringeth forth or nourisheth in her wombe Thus was the earth prepared and thus was it made a fit habitation for man to dwell on But as if man were not alwayes worthy to tread upon such a solid foundation we see it often shakes and quakes and rocks and rends it self as if it shewed that he which made it threatened by this trembling the impietie of the world and ruines of those which dwell upon the earth For though the efficient materiall and formall causes of an earthquake be naturall yet the finall is the signification of an angry God moved by the execrable crimes of a wicked people according to that of David in the 18 Psalme at the 7 verse The earth trembled and quaked the very foundations of the hills also shook and were removed because he was wroth Fear chills our hearts What heart can fear dissemble When steeples stagger and huge mountains tremble The Romanes in times past commanded by publick edict that prayers and supplications should be made in time of an earthquake but they must call upon no god by name as on their other holy-dayes for fear they mistook that god unto whom it belonged And the most ancient of the Grecians called Neptune the shaker and mover of the earth because they supposed that the cause proceeded from the fluctuations and flowings of waters up and down in the hollow places under ground Others thought that the shaking proceeded from the downfalls of subterranean dens or caves and that sometimes whole mountains sunk in and they caused the trembling But by that which I said before in the generation of windes it appeareth that what it is which is the cause of windes above the earth is also the cause of trembling and shaking in the earth For when it happeneth that aire and windie spirits or Exhalations be shut up within the caverns of the earth or have such passage as is too narrow for them they then striving to break their prisons shake the earth and make it tremble Now this imprisonment is said to be caused thus namely when the earth which is dry by nature
starres which like glittering saphires or golden spangles in a well wrought canopie do shew the admired work of the worlds brave palace And seeing this was not done before the sprouting of the earth it may well be granted that they are but foolish naturalists who will presume to binde Gods mighty hand in natures bands and tie him so to second causes as if he were no free or voluntarie agent but must be alwayes bound to work by means And again the Text declareth that the sun moon and starres were all unmade before this present day and yet it saith there was light before But it was then a dispersed shining and now united to these bright lamps of heaven that that riding and they running like fierie chariots might not onely rule the day and night but also distinguish the better and more harmoniously the dayes from nights seasons weeks moneths and yeares and not onely so but be also for signes of something else Also God made them saith the Text. See then the folly of those who make them gods and vainly do adore them For let it be observed that although the sunne and moon be called the greatest lights yet if they be worshipped they are abused to the greatest darknesse and they that deifie them may damnifie themselves by being as blinde as the heathen Gentiles and as superstitiously addicted as some of old amongst the Jews whose answer to the Prophet Jeremie was that they would not do according to his teaching but follow rather the desperate bent of their own bows in worshipping the moon as Queen of heaven As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth cut of our own mouth to burn incense to the Queen of heaven and to poure out drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our fathers our kings and our princes in the cities of Iudah and in the streets of Ierusalem Of which they give this reason For then say they we had plentie of victuals and were well and saw no evil Jer. 44. 16 17. By which last words it well appeareth that it was fear as much as any thing else which made them thus advance this practise And truely fear is an effect proceeding from the nature of superstition and so farre prevailing that it will there make gods where it doubteth most of danger as the Egyptians did in making fortune a goddesse For they kept an annuall feast in honour of her deitie giving thanks for the yeare which was past and earnestly imploring her favour for the yeare to come It was Pluâ—…archs observation that the superstitious alwayes think the gods readie to do hurt By means whereof he accounteth them in worse case then malefactours or fugitives who if they once recover the Altar are there secured from fear where neverthelesse the superstitious are in greatest thraldome And from hence arose that ancient saying Primus in orbe deos fecit timor And hence it also was that the heathen in institution of their sacrifices did offer as well to all their gods that they should not hurt them as for any help they expected from them An example whereof we have again among the poore silly Indians who sacrifice their children unto the devil at this very day because they be mainly afraid of him And of old as it is storied we have the example of Alexander Magnus who sacrificed to the sunne moon and earth that thereby he might divert the evil luck which as he feared was portended by an Eclipse but a little before And the Jews did not onely burn incense to the Queen of heaven but offer up cakes unto her also as in Jer. 7. 18. From which kinde of idolatrie Job did thus acquit himself saying If I have beheld the sunne when it shined or the moon when it walked in brightnesse or if my heart hath secretly enticed my mouth to kisse my hand unto it or by way of worshipping it then this were iniquitie that ought to be punished chap. 31. verse 26. It ought indeed to be punished because God Almightie had forbidden it as in Deut. 4. 19. Beware lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven and when thou seest the sunne and the moon and the starres even all the host of heaven shouldest be driven to worship and serve them which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven And in Jerem. chap. 10. vers 2. Learn not the way of the heathen and be not dismaid at the signes of heaven for the heathen are dismaid at them Which is as if it should be said The way of the heathen is to worship their gods with a servile fear and attribute divine honour to the creature But you which are my people do not you so for God willeth not that the works of his hands should be worshipped Or thus He there teacheth them to have their trust so firmly fixed on him that what disaster soever the heavens in the course of nature should threaten unto them they ought not to fear it For Astra regunt homines sed Deus astra regit And again Moses in the text calls the sunne and moon two great lights the greatest of which even the sunne it self seemeth to our eyes but little and yet by rules of art is found farre greater then the earth that thereby we may learn not to trust our senses too much in heavenly things Last of all let me prevent a question The moon is lesse then any starre For Tycho makes Mercury but 19 times lesse then the earth whereas the moon is lesse by 42 times how then can the moon be called a great light seeing her bodie is no bigger Take this answer The sunne and moon are called great lights partly from their nature effects because they give more light then other starres The sunne appeareth alone in the day not because he is alone but because through his exceeding brightnesse the other starres cannot be seen The moon also in her brightnesse obscureth many starres and being more beautifull then any other hath worthily the chief preheminence in ruling the night as the Scripture speaketh Or thus They be called great lights say some according to the custome of the Scripture speaking according to the capacitie of the simple for in outward appearance they are the greatest And yet as great as the greatest is if one should go about to perswade the vulgar that the earth is of a farre lesse circuit they would scarce beleeve it making the sunne of the bignesse of some wheel and the moon as much in compasse as the breadth of a bushel howbeit S. Ambrose gives sensible and apparent reasons of greatnesse in the sunne and moon even by daily experience For first they appeare of like quantitie to all the world whereas herds of cattel being espied farre off seem as ants and a ship discerned farre in
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