Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	witness_v	write_v	year_n	53	3	3.8191	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46233	An history of the constancy of nature wherein by comparing the latter age with the former, it is maintained that the world doth not decay universally in respect of it self, or the heavens, elements, mixt bodies, meteors, minerals, plants, animals, nor man in his age, stature, strength, or faculties of his minde, as relating to all arts and science / by John Jonston of Poland.; Naturae constantia. English	Jonstonus, Joannes, 1603-1675.; Rowland, John, M.D.	1657 (1657)	Wing J1016; ESTC R11015	93,469	200

the Antients By Scaliger I mean Ioseph though his father was a Man of so great learning that Lipsius reckons him to be the fourth with those three that he admires amongst the Antients whose commendation ●ounds in the mouthes of learned men if you except Schoppius who was the shame and spot of his Countrey There is nothing saith Casaubon that any man would learn that he could not teach he had read nothing and what had he not read but he presently remembred it there was nothing so obscure or difficult in any old Author Greek Latine or Hebrew but if he were asked he would presently answer to it He readily remembred the Histories of all Nations all Ages the successions of Empires and the Estate of the Ancient Church He held a record of all Animals Plants Metals and of the properties of all naturall things with their differences and names were they new or old He knew perfectly the situation of places the bounds of Provinces and the divers divisions of them at severall times He left none of the more weighty Arts or Sciences that he attempted not to learn he had the knowledge of so many tongues so exactly that had he done nothing but this all his life time it would worthily be accounted a Miracle The same is is witnessed of him by Julius Caesar Bullingerus a Sorbon Doctor and Professour at Pisa but in fewer words for he writes thus The yeer 1609 followeth which was fatall by the death of Joseph Scaliger than whom our age brought forth no man of a greater Genius and Ingenuity for Learning and it may be the Ages past had hardly his equall for all kinds of Learning To these I may adde that young Man who in the yeer 1445 was at Paris who though he were but twenty yeers old yet was he very well versed in all Arts and Sciences and therefore he was thought to be Antichrist and born of the Divell Castellanus who then lived writes thus of him A youth I did behold But twenty yeers old Who could all Arts unfold And the Degrees uphold He boasted that he knew What ever had been writ Had he but once the view As a young Antichrist But if we consider the whole matter exactly and shall compare the condition of the later times with the former we shall finde that we can do as much and more than they could For we have many helps the Antients wanted Amongst which the Art of Printing is the chief For by this the prices of Books are eased which were so high in former ages that Plato paid three thousand Florens for three Books and the Books of the Antients are preserved for our use Onely this is necessary that we may employ lesse time in gaining languages and that Controversies in Religion may be shortened and that equall diligence may be used and the like Patrons may be found Aristole received from Alexander eight hundred Talents to compose his naturall History Roscius the Comoedian had a daily sallary of three hundred florens Aesop the Tragoedian left to his son 1500000 Franks How much hard Labour can do wee may learn by the example of Joseph Scaliger For he in twenty one dayes time learned all Homer by heart and in four moneths he learned all contained in the Greek Poets besides Hence saith Vives good wits grow in any place if they may be adorned it may be in some places more frequently but every where some And Quintilian writes Nature hath not rejected us that we should be slothfull but we indulge more to our selves than we ought so then they did not so much exceed us in wit as in resolution In the mean while certain it is that there is a circular motion also in habits For first the Egyptians floruished Then the Greeks At length Learning forsook Athens and passed into Italy And now in the principall parts of Europe there are most learned Men. And I dare say with Ramus we have seen greater increase of learned men and of their labours in one Age than our Ancestours saw before in fourteen ages that are past Part. II. There is nothing decayed in the three Faculties Divinity Law or Physick IT is almost clear concerning Divinity that it is now in greater perfection For I. The Gentiles were employed in vain disputes concerning the number and nature of their Gods They became vain in their Imaginations Now women understand better the most secret mysteries that are worth the knowing and needfull than formerly the greatest Philosophers did They were all alwaies eloquent in speaking against their vices we appear not in a habit of wisdom but in our mindes we do not speak great matters but we live so II. The Church of the Jewes had the Oracles of God committed to them But the Thalmudist Cabalist Pharisees and Essens c. did strongly wrest them That they held a transmigration of souls not onely appears by the opinion of Herod and of others concerning Christ as though he had received the soul of John Baptist or Elias But also the question of the twelve Apostles declares as much And that they supposed a Temporall Kingdom of Christ should be upon the earth that question shewes after Christs Resurrection Concerning the restoring of the Kingdom of Israel III. The three former Centuries are commended for their piety and Martyrdom the fourth for learning For that age if ever any had most excellent and famous Doctours Thence were Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Hilarius Basilius Nazianzene Ambrose Epiphanius Theophilus Hieronymus Augustine c. Yet Tertullian Origen Cyprian are condemned for their enormous Errours And then the principall Heresie concerning the Trinity and Christs Incarnation was so rife that in those dayes it was an ingenious matter● to be a Christian. And at that time was the opinion of the Millenaries maintained and that they were Angels that were called the Sons of God in Genesis Chap. 6. Whence Peternus on the place I am ashamed to speak what I am about speak here concerning the best writers IV. About the ninth Century men were so ignorant that if any man studied Philosophy they commonly held him for a Conjurer Genebrard saith This is called an unhappy age and drawn dry of men that were famous for wit and learning wanting hoth Famous Princes and Bishops V. So soon as Divinity was wrapt up with distinctions there followed a great contempt of Gods Word For Albertus M. brought Aristotle into the inmost and secret places of the Church of God whom former times had brought to the door The men of former dayes did onely equallize the sayings of the Fathers of the Church with the Word of God But he with his followers took away that small Reverence was left unto the Word of God and compared Aristotles writings with it as if these were founded upon demonstrations and that concluded onely by probable Arguments Hence the most famous Graserus supposeth that the third Viol in the

Apocalyps was then powred forth To this contempt was joyned a wonderful ignorance of Tongues To understand Greek was suspected and Hebrew was almost Heresy Remigius being ignorant of those Languages in his Comment upon those words 1 Thes. 1. 8 From you sounded out the word saith that Paul spake something improperly for he should have said divulged being ignorant that S. Paul writ in Greek In a part of Germa●y as appears out of the Rescript of Pope Zacharie to Boniface Bishop of Germany One Baptized in this maner Ego baptizote in Nomine Patria Filia Spiritua Sancta King Alfred in the Pastoral Preface prefixed to St. Gregory writes that in his dayes there was noe Priest in the Southpart of Humber who understood the Sacred Office written in Latine or could interpret it And Clemangus They came not from their Studies or Schooles but from the Plough tail and baser arts almost every where to take charge of Parishes who understood little more Latine than Arabick and they could not read and it is a shame to speak it they could scarce distinguish Alpha from Bets and if they had a little learning their manners were naught forasmuch as they were bred without learning in idlenesse and followed nothing but ribaldry playes eating and drinking and vain controversies I shall here set down the example of Du Prat a Bishop and Chancellour of France wh● when he met with these words in the Letters of Henry the eighth King of England written to Francis the First King of France Mitto tibi duodecim Molossos He thought he m●●nt Mules by Molossos and afterward observing his mistake he mended the matter well taking Molossos for Muletis and so doubled his ignorance But all men will excuse themselves with that saying of Saint Gregory The words of the Heavenly Oracle must not be subject to the Rules of Donatus He that would know more herein let him read Henricus Stephanus in his Apologie on Herodotus VII Lastly it is beyond all doubt that no longer than about two hundred yeers did Greek and Hebrew begin to revive And as St. Augustine said before Pelagius arose the Fathers spake more carelesly and that may be said also of the times that preceded Luther I need not speak much of the knowledge of the Imperiall Lawes He that shall compare Baldus Bartho Jason Accursius with Cujacius Alciat Ho●toman Duarenus French men he shall see the phrase more polite in these and the method more exact and the sense of the Law more quick For Cujacius said as Thuan testifies that Govianus of all the Interpreters of Justinian his Law as many as are or were is the onely Civilian to whom the Garland must be ascribed if the question were made concerning the best Yea Pithaeus in his Epitaph made upon him calls the same Man the first and last Interpreter of the Romane Lawes from the first founders Massonius writes thus of him Jacob Cujacius dug up the Romane Lawes by the Roots and brought them to the light with so great care that others before him may seem to be ignorant of them he alone after many men seems to have sought them out more diligently and more neerly to have discovered them But if we enquire concerning the practick from the decisions and judgements that now are at Rome Naples Florence Genoa Bononia Mantua at Perussium in Italy Spires in Germany at Paris Burdeaux Gratianapolis in France we shal easily perceive to whether the Goal must be delivered We acknowledge that Physick flourished in the dayes of Hippocrates and was renewed as it were by Galen but that it is now come to the top point may be demonstrated by most firm Arguments And I. Anatomy or artificiall Dissection of bodies was scarce known to the Antients For the Aegyptians Dissected and Annoynted bodies to preserve them from corrupting The Greeks burn'd them witnesse Herodotus and Thucidides Plutarch intimates that the custome was to burn one Womans body with ten Mens as being fatter and Hippocrates speaks nothing of these things Democritus was found by him dissecting many Animals and when he asked him the reason of it he answered I dissect these Animals you see not that I hate Gods works but to search out the nature of the Gall and of Choler Amongst the Jewes the custome was either to burn Malefactours or to stone them if they were hanged they were buried the same day It was sin to touch the bodies of the dead Amongst the Romanes also bodies were burnt The place where was called Puticulae or Culina and the vessels their ashes were put into Urnae And though Cicero writes that Sylla was the first who amongst the Senators of the Cornelii would be burnt with fire Yet Ovid writes of Remus The limbs must burn he did annoint And Numa who was addicted to the Sect of Pythagoras forbad men to burn his body Tully himself saith that the Lawes of the twelve Tables forbad to bury a dead body in the City or to burn it And these were given in the 300. V. C. yeer Lastly Vignerius shewes out of the eighth Book of Livie that the body of the Son of Manlius the Consull was burned in the fields and that was done in the yeer V. C. CCCC XII Before Syllas death CCLXX. It was not lawfull for them to behold the Entralls of man This custome began to be antiquated after the Antonini Macrobius saith it began to fail in his dayes Yet fifty yeers after the bodies of Pertinax and Severus were burnt as Dion and Herodian testifie Then lived Galen who as some write did dissect many Apes and Monkeys no bodies of Men unlesse perhaps he did One. Whilst Laurentius writes that he did that often he saith onely it is probable that he did so As for the Primitive Church Tertullian calls Herophilus a Butcher rather then a Physitian who hated man that he might know him And Augustine Though the diligence of some Physitians be cruelty yet those men call'd Anatomists do butcher the bodies of the dead Boniface threatens those with Excommunication who should take out mens bowels Which is not onely saith he made very odious in the sight of the Majesty of God but ought also as being obvious to the eyes of men to be exceedingly abhorred Therefore in our and our predecessours dayes that Science began to be adorned and it was adorned by Vesalius who was the restorer of it Valerius Sylvius Fallopius Columbus Riolanus Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapedente Remmelinus Spigelius Casserius and others II. The knowledge of Plants though it were first known to Theophrastus after that to Pliny and most of all to Dioscorides yet in the Age newly past this also is brought to greater perfection And this is not onely apparent by the peregrinations of Ravilius L●on●ardus Fuchsius Clusius and Americus by the Discovery of the New World and by Navigations into both the Indies which amongst the rest have brought

Britains French Germans of Pyrrhus and of the Carthagenians against them we shall finde these inferiour to them in very few things He that desires to see an exact comparison between the Britains and the Romans let him read Rawleghs History of the World Moreover if unity be respected amongst vertues It is most certain that there was no example of Amity amongst the Greekes or Romans that may be compared with the examples of Marcus Tarvisanus and Nicolaus Barbadicus Senatours of Venice Alexander de Galtis hath described it prefixing before it an Historicall Argument Point X. And the last It is probable as some think that the Church shall be in greater glory upon the earth yet than ever it was before THough the matter be as I have shewed yet many places of Scripture are objected which seem clearly to speak the contrary of the last times And indeed it is expresse in Saint Matthew Because iniquity shall abound the charity of many shall wax cold When the Son of Man comes shall he finde faith in the Earth In Saint Paul The spirit speaks expresly that in the latter times some shall fall from the faith Wicked men shall grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived In Saint Peter There shall come Scoffers in the last days walking after their own lusts c. But all this cannot evince so much as to subvert our Opinion And I may answer to those places both in generall and in speciall Generally I. For though it were true that about the end of the world Mens maners should grow worse yet it follows not that therefore there was an universall perpetuall decay II. It cannot be understood how we shall expect a conversion of Jews and Gentiles and yet mens manners should grow worse III. The last dayes seem not to mean those that are neerest to Christs coming but for all that time that is between his first and second ●●mming So in Isaiah And it shall be in the last dayes when the Mountain of the House of the Lord shall be set in the top of the Mountains and lifted above the hills that all Nations shall come unto it Man is a little World and as his age is divided into many parts so is the age of the World divided into many periods Therefore as old age onely may equall all the other periods past so may the last times also Nor may that seem strange For the time from Jobs restitution untill his death is called his last age though it comprehends a 140 yeers IV. The last dayes may be taken for the latest whence as Joel speaks of Prophesies And it shall be after that saith he Peter in the Acts of the Apostles pronounceth the same by saying that shall be in the last times And that appears most clearly in the Prophecie of Jacob preceding his death For he promiseth to certifie unto his sons what should happen in the last dayes Yet he sets between those times the taking away of the Scepter from Judah and the comming of Shiloh Wherefore the last times seem not here onely to be meant but also as a learned man explains it in his Comment upon the Epistle of Jude the Kingdom of Christ And thus much for the generall In speciall I. The Praediction of S. Paul concerning forbidding to marry is fulfilled in Eustatius the Tatiani Marcionists Manichees Catharists and Montanists The same reason serves for the other For he doth not compare his age with ours but rather teacheth us what shall be the condition of the kindgom of Christ. Nor is that increase of wickednesse joyned with the succession of time any thing to a universall and perpetuall ruine of nature For as some fall off to wickednesse others hold the faster to what is good And S. Paul himself saith But they shall proceed no further but their folly shall be made manifest unto all II. The Prophesie of Peter came to passe then in Judes times for Jude useth almost the very same words and the difference is no more but this that one foretells it and the other shews it fulfilled III. The predictions of Christ are to understood concerning the Persecutions of the Christian Religion and the subversion of the City of Jerusalem and in this sense Maldonat and Aretius alleadge Saint Pauls words 2 Tim. 4. v. 6. Those words in Saint Luke signifie nothing else than that from the time that Christ asscended into Heaven untill his coming again Men will be alwaies incredulous Divines interpret them and Jansenius saith They do not onely signifie Paucity and want of faith in men who shall be found alive in the last day but also in men of all times Some things also are alleadged for the coming of Antichrist but of this subject you may read Whitaker Downam and others The most certain Argument is the removing of that which hindereth or the overthrow of the Romane Empire which the popish party as Thomas Lyra Ribera and Salmeron confess to be done already Who succeeded into his place Pasquier Matchiavel and Sigonius shew But the clearest of them all is Lipsius whose most memorable words are these Wonderfull is Gods goodnesse to this City When he took away the force of arms he gave force to the Lawes When he would not let the sword rule he granted power to the Church and so also he made it to be the honour the defence and the support of things But they say that old Senate is not Not that but an other and behold in that Purple select Judges out of all our World who are to be regarded for their Manners Prudence and Arms. Should the old Cynick live again should see this Assembly he would make no question to compare it with Kings or Noblemen What are the Tributes Not so great but they are more innocent also and more willingly paid What are the Embassies of Nations Nor are they wanting but they come from the known and unknown world so wide doth this Majesty spread it self and hence they fetch Rights and Lawes of Sacred things Kings and Princes come and how themselves and submit their obedient heads to this one head But as it is no doubt but that Antichrist is come and is also revealed to the world so many places of Scripture according to some pious Interpreters seem to intimate the neernesse of his Ruine upon which they say will follow such a peace of the Church as the like was never before To this peace some adjoyne a more full conversion of Jewes and Gentiles to which the noble D. Makovius the Light of his Countrey amongst strangers addes their return into the land of Canaan The restitution of all things by Elias the ceasing of all Heresies Forrain persecutions and of all Impiety Some adde further to this the Resurrection of the Martyrs and a Reign with Christ upon the Earth for a thousand yeers Of that opinion are Carolus Gallus Professour formerly of the University at Leyden

in his Clavis Prophetica nova Apocalypseos In which work he confesseth that he laboured twenty five yeers in reading meditating searching writing and debating And also George Hawkwell in his Apologia Providentiae Divinae out of which we have taken a great part of this small Tract as also Mathias Martinus My Master in his Epistle by way of answer to my letters whererein I desired his opinion of this matter Anno a thousand six hundred twenty eight Alsted and Piscator are of this minde But this man makes that kingdom to be in the Heavens the other saith it is not onely upon the Earth but makes the thousand yeers to begin about the yeer a thousand six hundred ninety four Carolus Gallus seems to joyn with them For in his eighth Observation on the 20 Chapter of the Revelations he writes thus The Propheticall Spirit briefly doth prophesie in this Revelation of S. John of a singular and wonderfull Resurrection of the Church Renovation and restitution thereof Namely that in this last age it shall be conspicuous consisting of Jewes and Gentiles quick and dead and it shall after a wonderfull maner Revive be Renewed Restored and Flowrish again more Gloriously than ever it did formerly and that from those that were dead the very first death If you enquire of their Arguments they are partly taken from the certainty of the conversion of Jews and Gentiles partly out of some places in the Scripture expresly promising peace partly out of the prophecy of a thousand yeers described in the twentieth Chapter of the Revelations not yet fulfilled And though that matter as Enigmaticall cannot be decided before the event and if it might it is beyond my abilityes nor doth it concern this place Yet I. It seems to be most true that there shall be a more full conversion of Jewes and Gentiles as Keckerman and Justus Heurnius have demonstrated out of the Scripture But after the Ruine of Antichrist not onely that which shall oppose Idolatry but the matter it self doth shew it to say nothing of the shutting up of the Devill which is written of after the casting of the false Prophet and the Beast into the Lake II. No Article of the Faith should be violated though we should maintain the coming again of Elias and the returning of the Jews again into the Land of Canaan For that which is spoken of Elias by the Evangelist to come again and restore all things Christ did not ascribe to John the Baptist. Nor is that in Micha spoken of him ascribed to this man To say nothing that the first coming of Christ was not terrible but joyful The promise made to the Israelites Deuteronomie 30 is too glorious and that it is not yet fulfilled is apparent by the dispersion of the Jewes nor yet restored III. It is very probable that the notable ruine of Antichrist is hard at hand For since it is evident that the History of the Revelations describes unto us three periods of the Church and each of them is bounded with seventy seven yeers and from thence it certainly followes that the Denunciation of the Ruine of Babylon fel about the Reign of Charles the Fifth and there is nothing more written of the restitution thereof but that those late tumults in that battell described in the nineteenth of the Revelations seem to be prefigured and the successe on that side sheweth nothing else than what appeared in Carthage half destroyed Namely that the bitings of beasts when they are ready to dy are most violent It can hardly be thought that it can last long Nor are all those Prodigies Presages and Predictions to be neglected which are written to have fallen out both in former times and in these last ten yeers Indeed they are more obscure than that they may be easily looked into and too serious to be rejected with scoffing prejudice And though I finde that ambitious and ignorant men challenge this to themselves Yet Men of better mindes hold it better to wait on the event with hope and patience than by rash Judgement to accuse the Scriptures of falshood and to make things false to be true or to ascribe Divinity to Humane actions or supernaturall Power to naturall things I though I had rather be silent both concerning Divinity and the Truth yet I professe that I have hardly found any thing in Histories I have read that is not foretold either by Divine or Diabolick or Humane or Naturall predictions or by them altogether All the order of the four Monarchies lies couched in Daniels Images the brief of all the Ecclesiasticall History is contained in the Apocalyptick writings And out of these the Divell hath taken some things The birth of Christ was fore shewed by the Sybils Oracles and Stars besides the writings of the Holy Prophets What Figures of mens Nativities and what all the rest can do is taught by a work of Julius Caesar Bullinger de Divinatione and by the History of the Duke of Biron Yet there is a mean to be used in these things they must be made use of occasionally and not fundamentally IV. It is probable that the thousand yeers in the Revelations are not yet fu●fill●d For were they fulfilled that must be either in the first second or third period Not in the first For then the seven Seals had their event nor did then any thing fall out besides but what is written of the Womans driving away and the battell with the Dragon also then there was an Infinite number of Hereticks and a mighty flood of persecution Not in the second For under that both Anti-Christianisme sprang up and Mahumetisme Not in the third For then they say he was let loose But then began the Church to rise again with the two Witnesses that were slain in the former period and Babylon began to decline Of the same opinion is Dr. Mede a Divine of Cambridge my Honourable friend who is the Author of the Clavis Apoca●yptica fetched out of the innate and imbred characters of the visions and demonstrated from them The most reverend Doctor usher Primate of Ireland saith that there is a two fold Millenary But Martinius takes it for a long time by Synccdoche and more rightly But I will say no more of this matter than I have said for I would shew onely what may be said thereof and not what may be certainly said if you except the first and second In the mean while I desire to be instructed of two things Namely Whether the Ruine of Antichrist shall be totall And whether after that Satan is bound up so there must needs follow a cessation of all Heres●es of all Impiety and of all Persecutions in the visible Church Far be it from me any farther to favour the Millenaries that were defended by Papia Ireneus Apollinarius Tertullian and Lactantius who dreamt of a glorious Jerusalem upon the earth for a thousand yeers after the Resurrection The blood of Sacrifices Rest