he appeared alive unto them according as the Prophets inspired by God had foretold and prophesied of him And yet in our time the doctrine and the name of Christians continues all the world over These are the words of Josephus who writ of the destruction of Jerusalem as an eye-witnesse which hapned fourty years after the death of Christ Pilate likewise that gave the sentence of death against him neverthelesse bears witnesse of his great miracles sending word of them by letters to the Emperour Tyberius so that the Senate was put to sit in Councell to advise whether they should receive Jesus Christ for a God and although they did not assent unto it Tyberius forbad any further persecuting the Christians As for the Earth-quake and the darknesse of the Sun during the time that Christ suffered upon the Crosse we have also Ethnicks for witnesses Flegon the Greek Historiographer born in Asia of whom Suydas makes speciall mention That in the fourth year of the two hundred and tenth Olympiade which will meet being well accounted with the eighteenth year of the Emperour Tiberius which was then when our Saviour suffered There was an eclipse of the Sun the greatest that ever was seen or found in any History and that it endured from the sixth to the ninth hour And that during this eclipse the Earth-quake was so great in Asia and Bithinia that there were an infinite number of houses fell to the ground It seems besides Flegon who lived in those times and writ this that Plinie vented and writ the same thing For he saith that in the time of the Emperour Tyberius the Earth-quake was greater than ever was any before it and saith thereby was thrown to the earth and ruined twelve Towns in Asia besides an infinite of other buildings So that the Historiographers who were Gentiles although they knew not the cause forbear not to write of the miracles of Christ The other miracle of the vail of the Temple which rent in sunder Iosephus recites it also Of the cruell death of the innocent children which Herod caused to die mention is made of it by another Jew named Filon a writer of great authority In his abridgement of time where he saith that Herod caused many children to be put to death and among them his own son because that he had heard that Christ a King promised to the Hebrews was born and this Authour was in the times of the other Herod called the Tetrark as he himself saith This History is again more amply recited by Macrobâ—us an Ethnick Historioagrapher who recites some pleasant and witty speeches of the Emperour Octavian in whose time our Saviour lived saying that the Emperour having heard of the cruelty of Herod towards his son and the other innocents said it was better in Herods house to be his hog than his child because the Jews killed no swine which witty conceit is alledged also by Dion in the life of the same Emperour So that there are many miracles whereof the Jews and the Gentiles not thinking of it be or witness to have been done by Christ besides those that the Christians make mention of What should we say any more of that the ancient Emperours have tasted of our belief and of that which they have done against the Christians The first Vicar of God St. Peter and likewise St. Paul died by the commandment of Nero the Emperour thirty six years after the death of our Saviour and then was the great persecution of the Church of which the Gentiles have not omitted to make mention And particularly Suetonus Tranquillus and Corneliâ—s Tacitus who lived in those times and of great authority Suetonus in the life of Nero speaking of some of his decrees and ordinances saith that he tormented and afflicted with great punishment a sort of people which called themselves Christians and followed a certain belief and new Religion and Cernelius Tacitus treatingon the acts of the same Nero saith that he persecuted and punished with terrible torments a sort of people which the vulgar called Christians And that the Author of this name was Christ of Jerusalem whom Pilate the Governour of Judea had caused to be crucified and by the means of his death his doctrine began to be extolled But now let us see what some other Gentiles write that are not of lesse authority Plinie in some of his elegant Epistles writes to the Emperour Trajan whose Proconful he was in Asia to know how he would that he should punish the Christians which were accused and brought before him that he might give his Lord a good account of what he found against them Amongst other things he writes that these Christians rose at certain hours in the night and assembled themselves together to sing hymns and praises to Jesus Christ whom they worshipped for God And being assembled into a Congregation they made vows to do no evil or hurt to any but promised not to steal not to be adulterers not to break their promises or vows not to deny what hath been lent or given them to keep And this Plinie saith further that they eat altogether without possessing any thing in proper By this we may know what was then the exercise of Christians and for what the world hated them and persecuted them These things were written by a Heathen and an Idolater sixty years after the Passion of our Saviour To which letters the Emperour made answer that seeing they were not accused for any excesse or other misdeeds that he should not trouble himself to punish them or make any inquisition against them Yet neverthelesse if they were accused and brought before him that he should find out a means to make them forsake their Religion but if they would not leave it yet he should do nothing to them Before this it is true that this Emperour Traian being a Heathen and deceived by accusers had persecuted the Christians To which Empire afterwards succeeded Adrian his Nephew of whom Aelius Lampridius a Heathen Historiagrapher and an Idolater writes that he began to honour the Christians suffering them to live in their belief and he himself worshipped Christ with the others and built Temples but afterwards he changed his copy and became hatefull odious and cruell towards the Christians being deceived and abused by the Masters and their false ceremonies and by the Bishops of those false Gods telling him that if he favoured the Christians all the world would be converted to their belief and they should loose the religion of their Gods This is certified by Peter Criniff It is found in the life of Saturninus that to this Empeaour Adrian there was a letter sent by Severinus the Consul where he writes that there was in Egypt divers Christians amongst which some called themselves Bishops and that none of them were idle but that all of them did work and employed themselves in some action and that there was not amongst them even those that were blind and lame that did not live
THE WONDERS Of the World OR Choise Observations and Passages concerning the beginning continuation and endings of Kingdomes and Commonwealths With an exact division of the several Ages of the World and the most remarkable passages and memorable accidents that have come to pass therein Also divers weighty grounds and reasons both from Scripture and natural experience why men lived longer in former Ages then at this present With the seven several ages of men The opinions of divers great Emperours and Kings touching the person of Christ and the life of mankinde with the strange events that have befaln several of them Also a discovery of divers creatures bred in the Sea and other obscure places of the World retaining the similitude and likeness of men and women Together with the miserable death that befel Pontius Pilate after that he had condemned our Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST The place of his birth and burial and how he appears once every year in the said place in the shape and likeness of a Judge A Work very profitable and necessary for all Written originally in Spanish translated into French and now made English by that pious and learned Gentleman JOSHUA BAILDON Imprimatur John Downam London Printed for John Andrews at the white Lion in the Old Baily 1656. The WONDERS Of the VVORLD Discovering Many secret Rarities that have been hidden since the Creation CHAP. I. Why men lived longer in former ages than now in these days ALL those that are studious in Divine Writ may read that in the time of the first age and before that for sin a generall Deluge came over the earth mans life then was longer than it is at this present It is certain that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years Seth nine hundred and twelve Cain nine hundred and ten And descending from the one unto the other the shortest of their lives was seven hundred years and in these times we see few attain to fourscore or ninety years and if some one passe that it is rare and marvellous so that we come not to the tenth of the age of former men The learned either Divines or Philosophers who have discoursed thereupon seeing that nature that brings us forth now is the same that it was in times past and that those first men lived so long by nature and not miracle became astonied thereat and have curiously searched out the causes and reasons as Marcus Varro and an infinite number of others who have found these things so difficult in natures appearance that they have thought the years in ancient times not to be the same with ours in these modern times which opinion and belief is a great and vain errour as will be made appear in this following Chapter The truth is when I see the works of others and descend to that which agrees with my opinion that the principall reason why men live not so long now a days as formerly is that the Ancients had not in their times the causes that engender now in us those diseases whereby comes so soon old age and death Then we must consider that the first Parents of all humane linnage Adam and Eve were created by the immediate hand of God without any other means or help and therfore it is presumed that he created them of a most excellent complexion perfect Sympathie and proportion of humours which caused them to live in health so long and many years By means whereof the children that proceed from Parents so full of health must needs resemble their Progenitors in the same good and healthful complexion as men descended of excellent matter even till the change of ages the property whereof is to change and impair all things all humane kind began to grow weaker and the days of men to grow shorter Now in those times there was one thing that made much toward their long life which in these times is very hurtfull and contrary to us which was their great temperance in drink both in quality and quantitie and the small varietie of meats for they had not of so many sorts as now we have nor with so many inventions of cooking We do nor find that before the Deluge men knew what it was to eat flesh besides some hold it for certain that the fruits and hearbs were of far greater virtue and substance without comparison than now they are because then they proceeded out of new earth and not as it is at this day weak weary and as it were fallow for the Deluge was the cause of taking away its fat leaving it more infertile with a salt savour lesse perfect by the inundation of the Sea which floted for many weeks over it All these reasons are and every one of them sufficient however there are more if they were all put together to prove that this is no strange thing but naturall that men lived longer then than in these times Moreover it is to be noted and we hold it for certain that Adam knew all the virtues of Hearbs Plants and precious Stones and his children learned from him more than any man could learn since This was in part for health and the support of life and to cure diseases if peradventure any should happen by using such remedies as were simple and perfect and leaving out venemous compositions used in these present times the which instead of purging and cleansing weaken and kill those that take them and which is more in those former times the life and health of man was more supported and helped by the course of the heavens and influence of the Stars more benevolent in those times than they are now because they had not passed so many aspects conjunctions eclipses and other celestiall impressions from whence are proceeded these alterations variations and changes upon the earth and amongst the elements principall occasions of life and health in those former times and on the contrary infirmities and death in these But above all that that we have said and founded upon naturall reason I maintain that the cause of the long life of men in those days proceeded from the providence of God who would have their lives such and that the occasions aforesaid might help one the other to the end that onely of two might be bred many that the earth might be filled and human kind multiplied So we see that men not living so long after the Deluge as before God suffered them to go into the ark and so saved more men and women then he did create at the first to the end that the world might be replenished more easily St. Augustine speaking of these things sayeth That our fore-Fathers had the advantage of us not onely in health and long life but also in stature of body as it is evident in many Sepulchres and bones which have been found under great Mountains so that one may verily believe they were the bones of men living before the Deluge The same St. Augustine affirms that being in Vtica a Town in
have writ hereof is true or very likely Plinie and Varro speaking of the time of mans life affirm that the learned Egyptians knew by experience that man according to the order of nature could not live above a hundred years and if any one happen to live longer it is by some particular influence and force of the stars and a thing marvellous in nature Of this they took their ground from the heart of man in which by an Anotomy they have found experimentally marvellous secrets For they say at the age of one year the heart of man weighs two of their draghms at the age of two year four and so many years as he lives so many two draghms the heart encreases so that attaining to fifty years the heart weighs a hundred draghms And from that time afterwards it diminisheth its weight every year two draghms as before it did increase So that in a hundred years the heart annihilates it self and the body dies if by some other accident it be not advanced sooner for there are so many accidental causes which may and commonly cause death that there are few men arrive half the way to make this experience If this thing seem strange to some of us yet the Egyptians hold it for certain according to divers Authors and some as Lewis Caelius alledging Diescorides to have spoken much of this amongst other notable things as also Peter Crinit in his book of honest discipline and Cornelius Agrippa I scite all these Authors because it is a thing hard to be believed Let every one then give what credit to it seems good to himself And now we are treating of the heart of man and of so many excellencies that are in it we will not speak of one alone we must understand according to Aristoâ—le that man onely hath the heart placed on the left side and that all other creatures have it in the middest of the breast which he affirms in the first book of the nature of beasts Also this is the common opinion of all naturall Philosophers That the first part which is formed in man is the heart as the root of all the members in a humane body fountain of all naturall heat and the last member that dies in man and looses its motion It is so noble and delicate a member that it cannot be touched but it is present death Plinie recites an other wonder which happens some times saying that men have been fonnd to have the heart hairy and he that hath it so is very valiant and strong of disposition which was experimented in Aristomines who killed with his own hand in battell three hundred Lacedemonians who afterwards having escaped many dangers by his great valour at last died and being opened his heart was found hairy Suetonus in the life of Caligula and Plinie also saith that if a man die of poison his heart cannot burn although you throw it in the fire which was verified by the heart of Germanicus father of Caligula So it fareth with them that die of the disease called the Cardiague or griping at the heart And we must know that among the pellicles of the heart is the seat of laughter and to this purpose the ancient Historians write that the Roman-Gladiators having by any blow the caul or pellicles of the heart strook died laughing But even as laughter and joy proceeds from the heart so melancholy proceeds from thence and likewise good and evill thoughts Speech is procreated there and divers are of opinion that it is the principall seat and residence of the soul which seems to be confirmed by Christ himself when he says that wicked and evill thoughts proceed from the heart And that which enters in at the mouth soils not for those are indifferent things So venerable Bede in his Commentaries upon Saint Mark saith The chiefest place of the soul is not in the Brain as Plato maintains but in the hearr as our Saviour Christ saith CHAP. VII Of two Women the one of which in the habit of a man was made Pope the other Empresse I Beleeve many have heard of a woman Pope But because peradventure all know not by what means and that it was one of the strangest things that could happen amongst men I will here speak of it as it is extracted out of very true Histories She was born in England and in her youth grew acquainted with a learned man of whom perceiving her self to be beloved and she loved him no lesse took the habit of a man and named her self Iohn and forsaking her Countrey went along to dwell with him in the Town of Athens where then flourished the Schools with all manner of Learning and there lived some time where by her industry she attained to so much Learning that afterwards retiring her self to Rome she read publickly in the Schools in the habit of a Doctor By which readings and publick disputes she so gained the opinion of the Auditors that she was reputed one of the most Learnedst men of all her time and obtained such favour and authority among all that in the vacancie of the Apostolick Chair by the death of Leo the fourteenth of that name in the year of our Lord Eight hundred fifty two being taken for a man she was chosen Great Bishop of Rome and Universal Pope in the Church of God and kept that Chair two years and thirty odde days But being in this estate as happens always to such ill enterprises not having care of the preservation of her Chastitie had the company of one of her Favourite Serviteurs in whom she trusted most in so much that Madam the Pope proved with Child Nevertheless she hid her great belly with such care that none but her Minion could know any thing of it Howsoever God would not suffer such wickedness to last long nor go unpunished for as she went along according to the common solemnity to visit Saint Iean de Lateran her time of bearing being come she had publick correction for her secret sin for comming near to a certain place which is between the Church of Saint Clement and the Theatre improperly called Colliseus she was delivered with great pain of a humane creature which died incontinently with the Mother so both of them together without any Pomp or mourning were put into the ground and buried And for that cause the common opinion is that all the Soveraign Bishops that have been ever since come short of that place and when they come near it turn down another street in detestation of so horrible an offence And when they choose a Pope they set him upon a thing like a Close-stool pierced through that they may secretly know whether him that the choose be a male Many Authors write of this but I find not one that assures it Platinus onely writes of the Election of Popes ever since as is before recited Of all the Authors there is Martin and Platin in the Life of Popes and Sabollicus and St. Anthony
is true that Iulius Caesar since named it Scivil and greatly enobled it and made it a Collonie and the Romans dwelt in it nevertheles it was greatly enobled before But to return to our first purpose in succession of time Moses was born under whose conduct the Hebrews came out of Egypt In this time also was Iob the just Then afterwards came the Deluge of Thessalie and many Kingdomes began to encrease in divers Provinces In Ethiopia first reigned Ethiop In Sicily Siculus In Boecia Boecim And so the Countries received their names of their Princes Then flourished the Town of Troy Iaeson made a conquest of the Golden Fleece from whence proceeded the history of Medea The Amazons were then in their force And the beginning of the raign of the Latines in Italy In this very age Paris ravished Helena which was the cause of the war destruction of Troy of the coming of Aeneas into Italy of divers other things which wil not admit of brevity Then failed the third Age which gave way to the fourth And began at the raign of David the 2 K. of the Hebrews which fourth age dured even to the Transmigration and Perigrination of the Jews in Babylon and lasted four hundred four-score five years Beda saith 474 years This age may be called the youth of the world during which happened an infinite many things whereof histories are full in it was the original of the victories of good King David he conquered the Philistines he avenged himself of the Amonites for the injury which they did to his Ambastadours and killed the Captain of the Assyrians After him succeeded in the Kingdom the wise King Solomon who built the rich Temple in Jerusalem he dead the Kingdome was divided Jeroboam succeeded to ten families and Roboam his son to two After the Empire of the Assyrians which had lasted more than twelve hundred years it was ruined by the death of Sardanaepalus who was Lord thereof and the most puissant King in the world who was killed by Arbact And then the Empire fell to the Medes In ths very Age began the reigns of the most puissant Kings of Macedoma And the Greeks began to count their years by Olimpiades which were feasts that they made from five years to five years with certain prizes for them that deserved best Also was that puissant City of Carthage built by Dido And a little while after Rome by Romulus and his brother Remus where the Kings began to reign The great Town of Bizance was also built in this time which is since called Constantinople Again there hapned great wars and mutation of Signiories in many parts of the world whereof histories are full And principally towards the end of this age Nabucadonozor King of the Medes and of Babylon fell upon Jerusalem which he destroyed and the Temple also Then led the people of Judea prisoners along with them and from that it is called the Transmigration in Babylon At which began the fifth Age of the world Age. 5 which lasted even to the birth of Jesus Christ God and Man our Saviour and Redeemer And this shall last five hundred eighty nine years by the computation of all During this time there was puissant Kings and great Republicks in the world such as it is marvellous to read and contemplate of the great things that happened in this Age The Changes The ruine of Estates The ordering of great Armies In brief it is better to be silent than to abreviate them Almost at the beginning of this Age began the Monarchy of the Persians whose Kingdomes were then the greatest by means of the victories of that great Cyrus which reigned thirty years during which time he conquered and discomfited the rich King Cresus of Lydia Then was discomfited himself and put to death by Tomoris Queen of the Scythians Seventy years of this Age being accomplished The Hebrews came out of their Captivity And the Temple that had been destroyed was re-edified by Solomon at Jerusalem In Europe the Romans chased their Kings and were governed by Consuls of which L. I. Brut was the first and the L. Collatine In Greece flourished Arms and letters which brought forth many excellent Philosophers and Captains Xerxes came thither with an innumerable army but he was constrained to retire with great losse and disgrace Then came to flourish in Macedonia King Philip who subdued all Greece the Mother of learning and of arms and which in this time brought forth Demosthenes Thomistocles Epaminondas Agifilaus Teno Plato Aristotle and others the like After the death of Philip his son Alexander went out of Greece and entred Asia which he conquered destroying the Empire of Persia And by the Victories which he gained against King Darius he lived the remainer of his life Monarch of all the world But he dead the Captains divided among themselves the Signiories and Lordships which being so mingled bred a discord which raised wars through all Asia and a great part of Europe In like manner the power of the Romans and Carthagenians encreased beyond measure for all of them strove to command the whole world and to attribute to themselves the Empire These two forces fought divers times against one another so that each of these two Towns brought forth Captains excellent skilfull in arms Carthage put forward Asdrubal Hano Hanibal Rome Fabius Scipio Marcellus Emillus and others Finally after a great quantity of bloudshed Rome became victorious and Carthage desolate destroyed and all Affrica tributary This Victory obteined the Romans proud and envious of the Greeks prosperity found out an occasion of war with them in which Greece was taken and made Tributary Not contented with this Their covetousnesse made them passe into Asia where they overcame Antiochus and then Mithridates making themselves Lords of Asia the lesse as also of Syria and Palestina and Egypt and all the coast on this side of France Spain England and the greatest part of Germany Of all which Conquests the chief Ministers were Sylla Marius Lucullus Pompeius Caesar and many others it happened that their envious ambition swelled their hearts whereof bred civill wars amongst them that every one would be a Commander one over another but at the last the Empire fell to Caesar whom after many fortunes had happened unto him his Nephew or adopted son Octavian succeeded who after having overcome all his enemies he rested peaceably in such sort that seeing himself in peace and concord with all the Kings and Common-wealths in the world he made them lock up the doors of his God Janus which were never shut in time of war Then the accomplishment of time being come the Fifth age of the World ended And our Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ was born very God and very Man in the year of the Creation of the World according to the Hebrews Three thousand nine hundred fifty and two years And according to the seventy Interpretours Eusebius and the greatest part of Historians Five
the use of his limbs and cast him to the ground tormenting him as if he were mad And he saith more that the Enchantment which it brings by the eys pierceth or striketh through one person to another by the imagination of him that causeth the charm So S. Thomas speaking after Avicon asks which soonest kills a body the melancholy imagination or the delectable imagination by the violence of the one or the other Joy expels and forceth out the spirits and leaves a man without life the other binds them in so strong that thereby grows a violent suffocation We saw in Sivile James Osorius who was taken by the Catholick King by the strong imagination of the fear which he conceived became old and white haired onely in one night being the day before strong and young Again we see that imagination many times makes men become fools and at such times so ill and crazie that its effects and power is wonderfull CHAP. XVII What Countrey-man Pilate was How he died And of the Lake called the Lake of Pilate and of its property And also of the Den of Dalmatia PIlate the most wicked and unjust Judge that ever was or ever shall be was according to common opinion born at Lyons in France yet some of that Nation will not have any such thing but say this name Pontius comes from a house in Italie and of Pontius Ireneas Captian of the Samnites which vanquished the Romans Be it how it will this Pilate either for respect to his person or to his parentage came to be of great note in Rome and being known to Tiberius successour to Octavius according to Josephus and Eusebius was sent by him in the twelfth year of his Empire to govern Jerusalem and stiled him with the dignity of Proctor of the Empire So then Pilate governed the holy City and all the Province of Judea which is called Palestina And he held this Officeren years in the seventh of which and the eighteenth of the Emperor Tiberius according to Eusebius and Beda he gave sentence of death upon the Saviour and Redeemer of all mankind our Lord Jesus Christ God and Man at which time came to passe those things which are written by the holy Evangelists of his Death and Passion whose Resurrection was so publick in Jerusalem although they sought by all means to hide it that Pilate thought although he were wicked that such Resurrection and Miracles were not of humane power but of God For this cause as Eusebius and Tertullian recites he advertised the Emperour Tyberius for it was the custome of Consuls and Pro-consuls to advertise the Emperour or the Senate what things happened in their Provinces This news marvellously amazed the Emperour which made him refer it to the Senate to sit ill Councel to know if it mighâ— seem good that this Prophet should be worshipped for a God which he did because they could not without the authority of the Senate worship any new God in Rome without the slighting of their other Gods But as the divinity of Christ hath no need to confirm it self by the approbation of men onely God suffered that the Senators would do nothing in it On the contrary as these Authours say they were displeased that Pilate had not writ to them as well as to Tyberius yet for all this Tyberius forbad the further persecution of Christians After these things Pilate coming to live in Rome and confirmed by the Devil for his loyal servant did never after do any thing in his Office but unjust and unlawfull acts Whereof being accused before Cajus Caligula Successour to Tyberius And also to have profaned the Temple by putting in Statues and Images and to have robbed the common Treasury and other grievous crimes was banished to the town of Lions some say to Vienna in Dauphenie and because this place was assigned for his banishment some say that this was the place of his birth he was so handled that he killed himself with his own hands which was by divine permission that he might die by the hand of the most wickeddest man in the world Eusebius saith that he killed himself eight years after the death of our Saviour of which this accused Pilate made no profit to himself forasmuch as he died in despair For the goodnesse of God is so great that although he had condemned his son to death yet if he had repented him of his sin him whom he had condemned to die would have given him eternall life And now we speak of Pilate I remember of a Lake so called this Lake is in Suisse near a Town called Lucerna in a Plain environed with very high Mountains from the highest of which as some say he casts himself into the water And the common report is that every year he shews himself there in his Judges habit but whosoever it be that by chance happens to see him either man or woman dies within the year Over and beyond this I will bring upon the stage to witnesse it Ioachin Vadian a learned man who expounded Pomponius Mela he writes also an other notable thing of this Lake very true and wonderfull he saith it hath such a property that if any one cast a stone into it or a piece of wood or any other thing this Lake swels and grows into such a boisterous Tempest that it runs beyond its bounds in great fury in such sort that sometimes it drowns a great part of the Country from whence proceeds great losse and damage as well to trees and Plants as to beasts and neverthelesse if these things are not cast in expresly it swels not at all And this Ioachin saith further that there are Edicts that forbids upon pain of life for any one to cast any thing into this Lake and that divers that have transgressed this edict have been executed whether this proceeds of a naturall cause or by a miracle I know not howsoever some waters have great and wonderfull properties part whereof there may be reasons given for and for others none Plinie recites a thing like to this and saith that in Dalmacia there is a very deep Pit or Den into which if one cast a stone or any other heavy thing there arises such a boistrous and furions air out of it that it breeds a dangerous tempest to the neighbours thereabout It may very well be but I am not certain of it that Pilates body was cast into it and that Devil by divine permission because of his ignominie executes such effects in that place CHAP. XVIII Of a strange thing that happened to one of the sons of Cresus King of Lydia and to the child of another King amongst which there in a discourse That is to say whether speech be a thing natural to man and whether man onely hath speech HErodotus writes a wonderfull thing that hapned to a son of Cresus King of Lydia and so it is reported by Aulus Gelius This Cresus was a rich King and he which Cyrus destroyed as
impossible or very hard things So it is neverthelesse that this toilsome desire hath not been totally in vain because contemplation and continuall study hath found out things which have seemed impossible and supernatuall to come to the knowledge of men as are the motions of the Heavens the course of the Planets and the Stars with their power and influence and such like things Amongst which is comprehended that which I intend now to treat of which is to know At what time of the year and upon what day the world began Or to speak better When and at what season God created the world when began the time and the year or where was the Sun or where did God first place it when it began its course and likewise the Moon and other Planets Aristotle troubles himself little with these questions no more doth a number of other Philosophers who for want of the light of faith believe that the world was eternal and without beginning yet those that have not been ignorant of these things but have believed this beginning of time are almost divided in two opinions Some amongst them say that at the instant when the world was created the Sun was found in the first point of the sign of the Ram which is in the summer Equinoxial about the eleventh day of the moneth of March. Others say that the world began the Sun being in the first point of Libra which is the winter Equinoxial commonly beginning the thirteenth or fourteenth of September Of this opinion were some Egyptians and Arabians and likewise some Greeks Those that follow that opinion alledge one reason but at the last I will shew how feeble and weak it is For say they then the principal fruits of the earth were ripe and in season And also that it was reason that the earth should present it self at the beginning perfect and to this purpose alledge the authority in Deuteronomie Deut. 12. where it is said God made all things perfect and furnished There have been others which have said that the begining of time and years was the longest day of all the rest which is then when the Sun enters in the sign of Cancer which is the eleventh or twelfth of June Iulius Fermicus an ancient Author and of great authority in Astrologie saith that at the beginning of the world the Sun was at fifteen degrees of the Lion which is the sign in which it hath most Lordship because it is called the house of the Sun and so he saith in discoursing upon other of the Planets But the most reasonable of all these opinions And the most agreeing to truth is That when time and the Heavens began to move the Sun was in the first point of Aries the Ram which is to us in March which is almost the beginning of Summer which is affirmed besides those reasons which we will give by the greatest part of Historiographers as well Christians as Ethnicks amongst which are St. Jerome St. Ambrose St. Basil and others all which place the beginning of the world and of the year in the Equinoxiall of our summer and although there seemeth to be some difference amongst them Because one will have this beginning to be in March and the other will have it in April that may be born with for they both agree that it was in the Equinoxial which now is in March Neverthelesse as we have said heretofore the Equinoxiall is not constant for our Saviour Christ suffered the five and twentieth of March which was then the Equinoxiall and now it is the eleventh And therefore it may be supposed that heretofore it was in April for this cause some have put April for the first moneth and others March and yet they would all say that when the Sun enters into the first point of Aries that is the Equinoxiall and this opinion is founded upon the holy Scripture namely out of the twelfth Chapter of Exodus where it is said that the Moneth Nisan which is our March is the beginning of their year Also Vincent saith that the Hebrews began their year in March. because in that moneth is the Equinoxiall where the world began This opinion is likewise held of divers Heathens as Elpaco in his Treatise of Astrologie where he saith that the Caldeans who were very great Astrologers believed also that the first day in which the world was created the Sun entred into the first point of the sign of Aries which is also maintained by the greatest part of Astrologers as well Ancient as Modern When therefore the Sun joins himself there that is the beginning of the year and from thence comes the beginning or first day For it is very clear that the first day of the world was made the first day of the year seeing that before there was neither time nor year for this cause the sign of Aries is of all accounted the first in the order of the twelve signs And as to judge of the revolution of years and of things to come it is necessary to even the figures by the beginning of the world so is it easie to prove that God placed the Sun in the first point of this sign at the beginning of the world and the creation thereof which may be more easily imagined by that which we have proved in a former Chapter That the Sun was in the same point at the Creation then when the great Sun framed the re-generation of the world suffering death in humane flesh which came to passe as we have said in this Equinoxial of Summer which is an Argument and presupposal that he placed it so then when he created it Again it seems credible that it hath been so placed because those that know any thing in Astrologie and the Sphears will see very well that the Sun entring the degree of this Sign and performing his revolution in the space of one whole day there is no part of the world but seeth it and is illuminated by his light which is not performed in any other part of the Zodiack because in what other part soever it be there is some part of the earth where it is not seen But being in this first point as we have said there is not any place which is not enlightened in making his days course Now it was convenient and fit that the first day that the Sun should run his compasse he should begin in such a place that with his beams he might visit all the parts of the world that this should be rather in the Sign of Aries than Libra appears by that which I have said That the day of the Passion of our Saviour the Sun was in the same place and hath also in that Sign a perticular force Holding then this opinion for the most certain I say the reason alledged by those that say The beginning of the world was in the September Equinoxial is weak Nor doth it help them to say that all fruits were then ripe and in season