be abolished and the same substance indued with a more glorious condition To which accordeth that of Dauid Psa 102. They shall perish but thou shalt indure they shall all wax old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall bee changed plainely signifying that the perishing of the creatures shall be onely an alteration which God shall bring vpon them Now to that fruitlesse question of the heauens motion or rest we may answer probably that they shall haue an end of moouing for their motion being ordained onely for ordering things below especially for continuance of their generation seeing all propagation of the species in liuing creatures as also mutuall procreation in the elementish liuelesse bodies being ended to what purpose should the heauens mouing longer indure Which may also semblably be answered touching the action and passion of the elements as also for the being of things compounded of their mixture as plants and sensible creatures being things ordained onely for mans helpe and sustenance who in that blessed state of immortality without the least defect shall neede no such supply of his wants which quiet restfull estate of these vnder-bodies is not as some haue fondly imagined to be attributed onely vnto the quiet rest of the heauens for when at the praiers of Ioshua the Sunne stood still and with it the rest of the celestiall bodies vnlesse we imagine the whole course of them to haue beene peruerted yet ceased not the naturall actions of things below for euen at that time did Ioshua fight But the true cause of their rest from motion is the will of the first cause without whose adiuuant-fellow-working the secundary causes are quite disabled to performe their functions From hence therefore namely from the certainety of the worlds dissolution we thus reason for our maine position For if the world vncapable of eternity haue a limited time of endurance which it cannot passe then hath man also his continuance bounded at least within compasse of the worlds lasting For location being a thing inseparable from existence the world mans habitation and mansion house being dissolued man the principall inhabitant must haue aioynt and fellow dissolution But for the more through-handling of this vndoubted truth our purpose is more particularly to treat thereof therefore to leaue this farre fetched though not impertinent reason taken from the worlds ineuitable destruction we will come to a neerer and more proper disquisition holding our selues within the compasse of mans owne nature I haue read of a late liuing learned Physitian Paracelsus by name who had such confidence in the absolute perfection of his skill that he doubted not to professe himselfe able by Physicke to preserue a man in so perfect a temperature that he should neuer die by sicknesse but his owne hastie leauing of his life was confutation sufficient of his either false ostentation or extreme madnesse For himselfe either not able which bewraied his vnskilfull impotencie or els vnwilling which shewed his wilfull folly ere he came to the prime of his age before he was thirtie yeeres old ended his daies learning at length by his owne experience that arte can neuer ouercome the necessitie of nature nor mans cunning preuent or preuert the decrees of the destinies But to the matter in hand the question is whether man by nature is subiect vnto death the end of nature To which we answer that mans nature hath a double consideration first in the incorrupt stare and puritie of creation secondly in the degenerated condition of corruption which although it were altogether vnknowen vnto the Gentilish Philosophers yet is its consideration in part Philosophicall therefore not wholly to bee omitted Now in the first cōsideration of nature we answer negatiuely forasmuch as vndefiled nature was vncapable of the soules separation from the bodie betweene which there was so absolute and perfect an harmony and consent that as the vnderfaculties of the soule were in subiection to the reasonable and most principall part thereof without the least iarre and disagreement so fared it in the bodie though compounded of the contrarie natures of the foure elements yet so wel tempered by proportion that there could bee no obseruance of the least discord But after that mans pride set abroch by the diuels suggestion ventred to taste of the forbidden fruite for desire of knowledge the light of reason being the life of the soule ouercast by the vnauoidable cloudes of ignorance there grew a disagreement and quarrell among the subiect inferior parts of the soule from whence followed the warre of the elements in the bodie neuer to bee ended till the field were lost by blood and therefore excellent was the speech of the Frier Ferus The diseases of the bodie came from sinne the soules sicknesse the death of the body from the death of the soule and who dares say the dealing is vnequall that hee should incurre the death of the body who wilfully reiected the life of the soule or who marueils that the diuell by Gods sufferance tormenteth the bodie with diseases that gaue the diuell a place of dwelling in his soule so that the death of the bodie being the separation of the soule from the bodie was a punishment inflicted for mans wilfull sequestration of himselfe from God and it is a good collection more then coniecturall that the bodie had neuer beene subiect to the corruption of destruction had not the soule beene tainted with the corruption of defiling Man therefore in his primarie state of creation was not naturally subiect vnto death but in the defiled condition of corrupted nature death is become ineuitable and therefore Thales Milesius one of the seuen wise men was wont to say that there was no difference betweene a mans life and his death being both things agreeable vnto nature and thence proceeded their resolute contempt of death because they thought it was ineuitable whereupon the Epicure himselfe considering the ineuitablenesse of deaths comming was as Maximus witnesseth wont to say that against other things we must finde some defence and remedie onely death was vnresistable our bodie the vndefenced citie of our soule being all vnsufficient to withstand the violent assaults of death But to leaue the infinite testimonies of the learned grounded vpon so long experience let vs deale with reasons more artificiall and shew this trueth first in particular that euery man hath his endurance dated which he cannot passe afterward goe vnto the species to declare it also in the whole kinde The principall and maine reason is taken from his composition for man consisting of a matter and a forme as doe also the other bodily liuing creatures though the spirituall substance of his soule be immortall yet his body being made of the first matter whose inseparable companion is a desire of change there must of necessitie follow dissolution for God and nature according to our presupposition doing nothing in vaine this insatiable appetite of receiuing newe formes shall
manifold turmoiles and dangers of our fore-spent life the good giftes and indowments of our minde as we see it fall out in the fruites of Nature receiue a kind of seasonable and timely ripenesse Our old age hee resembleth vnto the colde and troublesome winter season very fitly thereby expressing the cumbersome coldnesse of the latter end of our life Aristotle setteth downe onely three distinct ages child-hood floursshing man-age and old-age the first plentifully abounding with heat and moisture the middle age hauing the same two qualities of life aswell tempered as their nature possibly can be old age declining and swaruing from that good and moderate temper and by little and little decaying in both these qualities till at length they be both of them consumed Now that our life is thus often and thus in order changed in the temperature it will easily appeare if we consider the matter whereof we are all made and that is semen sanguis parentum both abounding with heat and moisture whereout ariseth this consequence that in the first entrance into life wee haue groatest store of those two liuely qualities which decay not but by length of time and that in our infancie wee are fullest of moisture our experience and sense teacheth vs for so we see infants flesh most fluid and almost of a waxen disposition ready to receiue impression of any light touch and as for heat Galen and Hippocrates both consent that man is most hot in the first day of his birth though by reason of the great store of moisture the heats power doth not so euidently appeere and because the heat without any the least intermission or pause worketh vpon our moisture and by little and little consumeth it it selfe also in time decaying who seeth not that the best part of our life euen necessarily is most cold and drie whence also this may be inferred that the space between the two extremes is most temperate forasmuch as Nature neuer passeth from one extreme vnto the other but by the meane and this is the warrant of Aristotles tripartite diuision of ages the seuerals are thus briefly defined Childhood is the first part and age of a mans life wherein their generation and growth is perfected and this lasteth for the most part vntill wee be fiue and twentie yeeres old and this age is proportionable vnto the Spring hot and moist for in this time our naturall heat supplieth greater store of vitall aerie moisture from the nourishment receiued than was spent of that our naturall store thence it is that within compasse of this time our bodies grow bigger and taller But according to the successiue decay and diminution of our heat and moisture it hath pleased antiquitie to point out certaine degrees of this first age the first is our infancie and that lasteth vntil the third or fourth yeere of our life and is alwaies best stored with moisture the next is our boy hood and that lasteth other fiue yeeres the third our budding and blossoming age when our cheekes and other more hidden parts begin to be clothed with that mossie exerement of haire which is proroged vntill the eighteenth yeere the last our youth lasting vntill we be fiue and twentie yeeres old and these are the parts of our growing age The next is our flourishing and middle age and this is when a man is come to the highest degree of perfection in the temper of his body continueth in that flourishing liuelinesse without any notorious decay or impairing his heat supplying the iust quantity of moisture from the nourishment which in the former action of it was consumed and this is compared to the Summer hot and drie or rather moderately moist drie onely in comparison of the former age not simplie lest the heat should too soone dissolue the body and this also hath it parts the first is our youth for so the penurie of our English toong warranteth me to call it when our growth is staied and our naturall heat beginneth to be most flourishing you may call it our Prime for then indeed are wee in our prime and most flourishing estate it lasteth from the fiue and twentieth to the fiue and thirtieth or fortieth yeere of our life the second part of our middle age is our Manhood the most constant and setled part of our life as hauing our lifequalities most firme and in greatest mediocritie wherein notwithstanding our naturall heat beginnes a little to decay and decline from its vigour yet so as it cannot by sense be perceiued and this lasteth oftentimes till we be fiftie yeeres old The last is old age when not onely the augmentatiue facultie of the soule ceaseth to increase the quantitie of our bodies but also by reason of our heats and moistures decay there is a manifest declining from our former lustinesse and liuelihood our bodily strength together with the weake and feeble operations of our soule in her functions sensiblie impaired And this last part of our life is resembled vnto Winter for that although it be in it self hot and moist as life consisteth wholly in these two qualities yet in comparison of the former ages and in regard of death vnto which it leadeth vs is accounted cold and this hath also its degrees or parts the first wherein our strength and heat are euidently impaired yet not so much but that there remaineth a will and readinesse to bee doing and this lasteth vsually from our fiftieth yeere vnto our three-score and fiue The second part of this last part of our life which they call decrepit old age is when our strength and heat is so farre decaied that not onely all abilitie is taken away but euen all willingnesse to the least strength and motion of our bodie and this is the conclusion and end of our life resembling death it selfe whose harbinger and fore-runner it is and so haue we seuen seuerall parts of our life comprising our Pubertatem and adolescentiam vnder one accordingly whereto the Astrologers haue assigned to euerie of them their peculiar predominant Planet our Infant age is allotted to the Moones milde and moist dominion cherishing vs with her sweet influence which she hath especially vpon moist bodies our Boy-hood Mercury hath charge ouer inclining vs to sportfulnesse talke and learning Venus guides our blossomming lustfull age our youthfull prime by the Sunnes liuely operation is lifted vp from base delights to a loftier and more man like resolution and liuelinesse Mars the sterne god of warre hath the precincts of his dominion limited within compasse of our man-age adding courage to our liuelihood and whetting our otherwise dull spirits vnto a more ventrous boldnesse in quarrelling combats Old age from Iupiter receiueth granitie and staiednesse Decrepit crooked age from the angrie aspect of drie Saturne sucketh the poisonous infirmities of crasie sicknesse and waiward pettishnesse and this is briefly the summarie explication of the differences of mans ages and the causes of this distinction together with those
being to an vtter not being at all hauing a limited and finit power To which purpose a learned frier said excellently well That the first maker of all things in respect of its being and not being is subiect onely vnto Gods wil permitted to the rule of Naturall agents onely in regard of transmutation For a Naturall agent may induce or expell a forme either substantial or accidentall But how farre soeuer mans Power or Nature is caried in fury laboring by might and maine towards an vtter ruinating and distruction of things yet shall it neuer attaine vnto Annihilation They may indeed by tyrannous inflicting of death make that which is neere the matter of a man the matter of a carcase they may also with fire burne the dead corps but though a thousand thousand woods should bee spent in burning of one poore carcase yet were they neuer able vtterly to annihilate and bring it vnto nothing So that Nature is too weake to cause Annihilation But yet saie the scrupulous aduersaries God who by his infinite and supernaturall power was able of nothing to make the world is by the same his boundles power able at his pleasure to returne it to nothing It is true indeed out of question that God by his absolute vndecaied power is sufficient as well to distroy the world as he was at the beginning to make it by his absolute power I say considered without regard of his will but if we respect his power restrained by his will that is regard what he will and hath decreed to do if by his word we may learne his will we may truly answer that God himselfe cannot annihilate the word because he can do nothing that implieth contradiction or that any way importeth mutability whereby of God he should be made no God Nor do we heerby take away his omnipotency nay rather we establish his power it being a chiefe point of infirmity and weakenesse to bee capable of change and able to deny it selfe but God hath decreed not to annihilate the world therefore he cannot now turne it vnto nothing how then may some man say shall it haue an end for if neither of it selfe it incline nor can be by any meanes naturall inforced to Annihilation no nor God himself can turne it into nothing what end shall it haue The answer is that as man hath his end by death whereas notwithstand his soule is immortall his body is onely changed into its first matter not turned into nothing so the world though incapeable of annihilation as hath beene proued yet hath in it an end vneuitable when it shall be changed from the present corrupt estate into a far more excellent and heauenly condition of indurance and immortality But heere ariseth a doubt moued by those scoffers that Peter prophecied should come in the last daies which demaund Where is the promise of his comming For since the father fell on sleepe all things haue continued alike from the beginning of the creation Where by the way let vs obserue that they make the time of Christs comming and the end of the world things of one and the same signification so that as many testimonies of scripture as warrant the certainty of Christs comming serue also to proue the worlds end and dissolution To their reason we may answer with Peter that the worlds long and hither to vnchanged continuance is no sure proofe of impossibility to bee destroied For God that by his bare word could of nothing make the world can now also with as great facrlity alter the state of the same But their supposition is most vntrue for the world hath not from the beginning continued in the same state vnaltred the whole earth being in Noahs floud ouerwhelmed with waters But to this they may answer that it was no generall or vniuersall destruction being extended onely to the liuing creatures they also in part preserued in Noahs arke It is true indeed that this was onely a particular or partial destruction the heauens remaining altogether vntouched the other elements also incorrupted But yet this sheweth a change in the worlds estate which they seemed to deny Touching the generall distinction of all things Peter after answereth to which place we wil refer them But that wherein the difficulty of the whole controuersie consisteth is the immutable estate of the heauenly bodies wherein hath beene obserued by experience of all ages a constancy almost admirable when in this sublunary region of elementish bodies there hath beene as great variety and almost a circular alteration And indeed were the heauens capable of corruption how could the spheare of the Moone situated so neere the fire haue continued so long vnconsumed Let vs therfore a little examine how the cause stands with the heauens in the matter of corruption There are two different opinions of them that make the heauens incorruptible some to deliuer them from corruption haue made them void of all matter others allot them a matter but in a distinct kinde from that of the sublunary bodies all agreeing that they be incorruptible The chiefe of the first sect is Auerroes a learned Turke who expostulating the matter with vs demands by what meanes we came to know the matter of the heauens For the onely meanes to prooue the existence of matter in any thing is as he calleth it Substantiall transmutation or more plainely the succession of formes But in heauen there hath beene no such succession no nor any alteration of qualities therefore the heauens are immateriall But wee may answer first that the being of matter in anie thing is knowen as wel by accidentary or locall as by substantiall transmutation But the heauens haue a locall Motion or Mutation at least in their parts therfore they consist of matter Secondly we answer thus that although the heauens haue all this while lasted without change in their substance yet seeing they are capable of future transmutation we may thence conclude the presence of matter in them For who would say that there is in a sucking child no reasonable soul because he seeth in him no actuall vse of reason or present conceit of learning we know that his potentiall disposition and sitnesse to conceiue is testimony sufficient of that soule which is in him Their second argument is this all things consisting of a corporall matter are withall corruptible for the ability of receiuing the yet absent formes being a propertie inseparable from the matter which also is accompanied with a longing desire to supply its defects there must needs be granted an expulsion of the incumbent forme for induction of a new successor wherein is corruption or els this The matters inclination and ingrafted desire as it were must be alway frustrate which folly the most wise God of Nature detesteth therfore there is in the heauens no such matter as we talke of To which argument they that make the matter of the celestiall bodies different from that of the sublunary creatures frame this answer
to be weakned and in the end cleane consumed onely by want of interchangeable rest and ceasing from its operation For as we see fire not wasted by much vse but lingringly extinguished by decay and want of fit fewell for to feed vpon so our home-bred naturall heat not tired with ouer-working but languishing with the decay of fit food is at length together with our moisture its naturall prouided foode cleane consumed To which may be added that saying of Fernelius to this purpose that though Aesculapius himselfe the God of Physicke had the guiding of the most temperate complexioned man that can be imagined and that from his birth to keepe him from all outward annoiances whatsoeuer yet hath he in himselfe an home-bred enemy by little and little to spoile him of his life Vnnaturall and violent death is when our naturall heat either with too much cold or excessiue externall heat or with an immoderate measure of moisture is extinguished According to which two kinds of death the learned School-men haue deuised a double tearme of our life There is say they A tearme of nature and there is A tearme beside nature The naturall tearme is that vtmost time that a man by his complexion can reach vnto whch is farther off or nerer according to the differences of mens temperatures The terme or limit beside nature is when mans life either commeth short of that length which by his complexion hee may attaine vnto or is protracted and prolonged beyond the course of nature that they cal the end or terme of Gods prescience fore-appointment in his vnreaueled will which a man can neither preuent nor yet prolong and this hath for the most part place in violent death and was therefore also propounded by those deuout Schoole-men lest men should not thinke they depended only vpon chance or fell out without Gods especiall counsell and disposing For so we see in daily experience many men in the prime of their yeeres and strength of their age either by riot or famine pestilence or sword suddenly cut off and we are many times mooued with pity in that behalfe bewailing their estate that in our iudgements might haue liued a great deale longer as indeed they might if we respect what they were capable of by their complexion but in regard of Gods decree and purpose it was impossible for them to passe that moment and point of time for Gods prescience can neuer be deceiued And this to auoid tediousnesse may briefly serue for the certainetie of the end of particular men Now for the indurance of man in specie in which regard onely he is said to be a part of the world we may passe ouer vnto it by way of Prolepsis or preoccupation For it may be obiected that though there is a limited endurance of particular and single men yet there may be a perpetuall preseruation of the species or kinde and therefore God hath bestowed on man a faculty of procreation to propagate his kinde that though euery man must of a naturall necessity die yet might hee leaue an other of his owne kinde behinde him that so there might be a continuall and euerlasting succession To which we answer that if they grant a corruption in the particular they must withall grant it in the species For the species being a thing existent onely in imagination not hauing any reall being but as wee conceiue of it in the particulars it is a necessary illation that from the corruption of all the particulars we may conclude the like of the generall But to shew it more plainely by a demonstratiue proceeding we may obserue the like course of decay in the species as there is in the indiuiduum For as nutrition is to the particular so is generation to the species in the case of their continuance and preseruation wherefore as by the nourishment we take for restitution of our naturall moisture there being supplied not so pure humidity as was lost the particulars decaying by little and little are at last cleane consumed so by procreation the maintenace of our species the purity of our complexion being by degrees and by time diminished at length there followes euen of necessitie an absolute corruption Now as I conceiue of it the decay commeth thus for the particulars whose function this generation is being by continuall mixture of outward nourishment corrupted the seed the matter and means of propagation cannot but be tainted with like corruption And that is the chiefe reason amongst other lesse principall that men in this age of the world are of lesse continuance than they were in former time From all which we thus conclude if the naturall vigour of the species be by little and little continually weakened there must of necessity in the end follow a full and perfect corruption For as Aristotle said of the diuision of any thing finite that by often detraction though but of a little quantity the whole becommeth at length vncapable of diuision so by continuall wasting of the vertue of the kinde there followeth at length euen of necessity a totall and ineuitable extinguishing Now to that friuolous fruitlesse question whether this end and destruction be of nature or proceedeth from any effectual operation of God wee may thus answer that we dispute not what shall be in this case but what may bee and according to that sense wee say that euen of ai naturall necessitie though God should not vntimely cut off the thred of our life yet euen of its owne accord should whole mankind haue an end which is manifest by that forenamed continuall curtalling of our life obserued by experience and noted out of the legends of antiquities for before that vniuersall deluge in Noahs time we reade of some that liued six seuen eight nine hundred yeeres as Adam Noah Methusalem and others After the floud he that liued longest recorded in holy historie exceeded not the age of a hundred and twentie yeeres some few yeeres after in Dauids time it fell to seuentie yeeres or if there were any ouerplus it was mingled with labour and sorrow more worthy the name of death than life So that we may hence conclude that it is impossible for mankinde to last for euer hauing inwardly in his nature sufficient and vnpreuentable causes of dissolution Hauing thus euidenced the truth of our two positions that there is a set time of endurance vnto euery man and vnto all mankind and learning by experience the naturall and true mother of knowledge that among the particulars so me haue a longer some a shorter time of continuance and that euen by nature it remaineth that with all possible breuity and perspicuity wee set downe the causes naturall of this naturall difference which we can no otherwise doe than by propounding the receiued causes of the length and shortnesse of mans life and according as they are more or lesse in any man so iudge of their effects Aristotle in his preface to this treatise premiseth a word or