touch only those of the Planets The proper Motion of Saturn was by the Ancients observed and is now likewise found by our Modern Astronomers to be accomplished within the space of thirty years that of Jupiter in twelve that of Mars in two that of the Sun in Three hundred sixty and five dayes and almost six hours neither do we find that they have quickned or any way slackned these their courses but that in the same space of time they always run the same races they have passed These then are the bounds and limits to which these glorious Bodies are perpetually tyed in regard of their Motion these be the unchangeable Laws like those of the Medes and Pâ—rsianâ— whereof the Psalmist speaks He hath given them a Law which shall not be broken Psal. 148. 6. Which Seneca in his Book De divina providentia well expresses in other words AEterna legis imperio prâ—â—â—dunt they move by the appointment of an eternal Law that is a Law both invariable and inviolable That which Tully hath delivered of one of them is undoubtedly true of all Suturni stella in suâ— cursu multa miracula efficiens tum ante â—dende tum râ—tardando tum vespertinâ—s temporibus delitesendâ— tum matutinis rursum se aperiâ—ndâ— nihil tamen immutat sempiternis saeculerum aetatibus quam â—adim eiisdem tâ—mporibus efficiat Lib. 2. de nat Deor. The Planet Saturn doth make strange and wonderful passages in his Motion going before and sometimes coming after withdrawing himself in the Evening and sometimes again shewing himself in the Morning and changeth himself nothing in the continual duration of ages but still at the same season worketh the same effects And in truth were it not so both in the Planet and in all other Starrs it is altogether impossible that they should supply that use which Almighty God in their Creation ordained them unto that is To serve for Signs and Seasons for dayes and for years to the Worlds end Gen. 1. 14. And much more impossible it were that the year the month the day the hour the minute of the oppositions the Conjunctions and Ecclipses of the Planets should be as exactly calculated and foretold One hundred years before they fell out as at what hour the Sun will rise to morrow morning To which perpetual aequability and constant uniformity in the Coelestial Motions the Divine Plâ—io accords Nec errant nec praeter antiquuâ— ordinem revolvuntur Neither do they run at randum nor are they rolled beyond their ancient order Aristotle in his Book De Mundo breaketh out in this passionate admiration thereof Quod nunquam poterit aequart caelesti ordinâ— volubilitati cum sydera convertantur exalâ—issiâ—a norma de alioin aliud seculum What can ever be compared to the order of the Heavens and to the Motion of the Starrs in their several Revolutions which move most exactly by a rule or square by line and level from one Generation to another There were among the Ancients not a few nor they unlearned who by a strong fancie conceived to themselves an excellent melody made up by the motion of the Coelestial Spheers it was broached by Pythagoras entertained by Plato and stifly maintain'd by Macrobrius and some other Christians as Bede Boetius and Ansâ—lm Bishop of Canterbury But Aristeâ—le puts it off with a jest in his Lib. 2. de Caelo Cap. 9. as being Lâ—pide Musice dictum factis autem impossibile a pleasant and Musical conceit but in Effect impossible in as much as those bodies in their Motion make noise at all Howsoever it may well be that this conceit of theirs was grounded upon a certain truth which is the Harmonical and Proportionable Motion of those Bodies in their just order and sâ—â— courses as if they were ever dancing the rounds and the Measures In which regard the Psalmist tells us That the Sun knoweth his going down he appointeth the Moon for seasons Psal. 104. 19. Which words of his may not be taken inâ—â— proper but in a figurative sence the Prophet therefore implying that the Sun observeth his prâ—â—cribed Motion so precisely to a point that in the least jâ—tâ— he never erreth from it And therefore he is said to do the same upon knowledg and understanding Non quod animatus fit aut ratione â—ut atur saith Basil upon the place Sâ—d quod juxtâ—â— terminum divinitus prescriptum ingrediens semper eâ—â—dem cursâ—s â—â—rvat ac mensuras suas custodit Not that the Sun hath any Souâ—â— or use of understanding but because he keepeth his courses and measures exactly according to Gods prescription But the Motion of the Heavens puts me in mind of passing from it to the Light thereof As the Waters were first spread over the face of the Earth So was the Light dispersed through the Firmament and as the Waters were gathered into one heape so was the Light knit up and united into one body as the gathering of the Waters was called the Sea so that of the Light was called the Sun As the Rivers come from the Sea so is all the Light of the Stars derived from the Sun and lastly as the Sea is no whit lessened though it furnish the Earth with abundance of fresh Rivers So though the Sun have since the Creation both furnished and garnished the World with Light neither is the store of it thereby deminished nor the beauty of it any way stained What the Light is whether of a corporeal or incorporeal Nature it is not easie to determine Philosophers dispute it but cannot well resolve it Such is our ignorance that even that by which we see all things we cannot discern what it self is But whatsoever it be we are sure that of all visible Creatures it was the first that was made and comes nearest the name of a Spirit in as much as it moveth in an instant from the East to the West and piercing through all transparent Bodies and still remains in it self unmixed and undivided it chaseth away sad and melancholy thoughts which the Darkness both begets and maintains it lifts up our minds in meditation to him that is the true Light that Lightneth every man that cometh into the World himself dwelling in Light in accessible and cloathing himself with Light as with a Garment And if we may behold in any one Creature any spark of that Eternal Fire or any farr-off dawning of Gods brightness the same in the beauty and vertue of this Light may be best discernedâ— Quid pulchâ—rrimus Luce saith Hugo de sanctoVictore quae cum in se colorem non habeat omnium â—amâ—n rerum colores ipsâ— quodammodo colorat What is more beautiful then Light which having no colour in it self yet sets a lustre upon all Colours And St. Ambrose Unde Vex Dâ—i in Scriptura debuit inchoare nisi a Lumine unde Mundi ornatus â—â—si a Luce exordium sumerâ— frustra enim esset si non videretur From whence should the voice of God
moveable Spheres and Starrs since every part of the same Climate successively but equally enjoyes the same Aspect It remains then that these Effects be finally reduced to some Superiour immoveable cause which can be none other then that Empyreal Heaven neither can it produce these effects by means of the Light alone which is uniformly dispersed through the whole but by some secret quality which is diversified according to the divers parts thereof and without this we should not only find wanting that connexion and unity of order in the parts of the World which make it so comly but withal should be forced to make one of the worthiest peeces of it void of Action the chief end of every Created thing Neither can this Action mis-beseem the worthiness of so glorious a piece since both the Creatour is still busied in the works of Providence and the Inhabitants in the works of Ministration The other kind is that which is derived from the Starrs the Aspect of several Constellations the Opposition and Conjunction of the Planets and the like These we have warranted by the mouth of God himself in Job 38. 31. according to our last and most exact Translation Canst thou bind the sweet Influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion canst thou bring forth Mazoreth in his season or canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons know'st thou the Ordinances of Heaven canst thou set the dominion thereof in the Earth where by the Ordinances of Heaven it may be thought is meant the course and order of these hidden qualities which without Divine and Supernatural Revelation can never perfectly be known to any mortal Creature Besides as Sr. Walter Raleigh hath well and truly observed it cannot be doubted but the Starrs are Instruments of far greater use then to give an obscure Light and for men only to gaze at after Sun set it being manifest that the diversity of Seasons the Winters and Summers more hot or cold more dry or wet are not so uncertained by the Sun and Moon alone who alwayes keep one and the same Course but that the Starrs have also their working therein as also in producing of several kinds of Mettals and Minerals in the bowels of the Earth where neither Light nor Heat can pierce For as Heat pierces where Light cannot so the Influence pierces where the Heat cannot Moreover if we cannot deny but that God hath given Vertues to Springs and Fountains to the cold Earth to Plants to Stones and Minerals nay to the excremental parts of the basest living Creatures why should we rob the beautiful Stars of their working Powers for seeing they are many in number and of eminent beauty and Magnitude we may not think in the Treasury of his Wisdom who is Infinite there can be wanting even for every Star a peculiar Vertue and Operation As every Herb Plant Fruit and Flower adorning the face of the Earth hath the like As then these were not Created to beautifie the Earth alone or to cover and shaddow her dusty face but otherwise for the use of Man and Beast to feed them and cure them so were not those incomparably glorious Bodies set in the Firmament to none other end then to adorn it but for Instruments and Organs of his Divine Providence and Power so far as it hath pleased his just Will for to determine which Bartas admirably expresseth I 'le ne'r believe that the Arch-Architect With all these Fires the Heavenly Arches deckt Only for shew and with these glistering Shields T' amaze poor Shepheards watching in the Fields I 'le ne'r believe that the least Power that pranks Our Golden Borders or the common Banks And the lest Stone that in her warming lap Our kind nurse Earth covetously doth wrap Hath some peculiar Vertue of its own And that the Glorious Starrs of Heaven have none But shine in vaine and have no charge precise But to be walking in Heavens Galleries And through that Pallace up and down to Clamber As golden Guls about a Princes Chamber But how far it hath pleased God in his Divine Wisdom to determine of these Influences it is hard I confess to be determined by any human Knowledg For if in the peculiar vertues of Herbs and Plants which our selves sow and set and which grow under our feet and we daily apply to our several uses we are notwithstanding in effect ignorant much more in the Powers and workings of the Coelestial Bodies For as to this purpose we said before Hardly do we guess at the things that are on the Earth and with labour do we find the things that are before us but the things which are in Heaven who hath searched out Wisd. 9. 16. It cannot well be denyed but that they are not Signes only but at least wise concurrent Causes of immoderate cold or heat drought or moisture lightning thunder raging winds Inundations Earthquakes and consequently of Famine and Pestilence yet such cross accidents may and often do fall out in the matter upon which they work that the Prognostication of these casual Events by the most skillful Astronomers is very uncertain And for the common Alminacks a man by observation shall easily find that the contrary to their Predictions is commonly truest Now for the things which rest in the liberty of Mans Will the Starrs have doubtless no power over them except it be led by the sensitive appetite and that again stirred up by the constitution and complexion of the body as too often it is specially when the humours of the Body are strong to assault and the Vertues of the Mind weak to resist If they have dominion over Beasts what shall we judge of Men who differ little from Beasts I cannot tell but sure I am that though the Starrs incline a Man to this or that course of life they do but incline inforce they cannot Education and Reason and most of all Religion may alter and over-master that Inclination as they may produce a clean contrary Effect It was to this purpose a good and Memorable speech of Cardinal Poole who being certified by one of his acquaintance who professed the knowledg of these secret favours of the Starrs that he should be raised and advanced to a great Calling in the World made answer that whatsoever was portended by the figure of his birth for natural Generation was cancelled and altered by the grace of his second Birth or Regeneration in the Blood of his Redeemer Again we may not forget that Almighty God created the Starrs as he did the rest of the Universal whose secret Influences may be called his reserved and unwritten Laws which by his Prerogative Royal he may put in execution or dispence with at his pleasure For were the strength of the Starrs such as God hath quitted unto them all Dominion over his Creatures that Petition in the Lords Prayer Lead us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil had been none other but a vain expence of words and time Nay
same supernatural and extraordinary Power by which at the first he gave it existence For my own part I constantly believe that it had a beginning and shall have an ending and judg him not worthy of the name of a Christian who is not of the same mind yet so as I believe both to be matter of faith Through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God Heb. 11. 3. And through the same Faith we understand likewise that they shall be again unframed by the same Word Reason may grope at this truth in the dark howbeit it can never clearly apprehend it till it be enlightned by the bright beams of Faith Though I deny not but that it is probable though not demonstrative and convincing Arguments may be drawn from the discourse of Reason to prove either the one or the other I remember the Philosophers propose a question Uirum Mundus filo generall concursu Dei perpetâ—â— durare possit and for the most part they conclude it affirmatively even such as professed the Christian Religion and for the proof of this assertion they bring in effect this reason The Heavens say they are of a nature which is not capable of it self of corruption the loss of the Elements is recovered by compensation of mixt bodies without Life by accretion of living bodies by succession the fall of the one being the rise of the other as Rome triumphed in the ruines of Alba and the depression of one Scale is the elevation of another according to that of Solomon One generation passeth away and another generation cometh but the Earth abideth for ever Eccles. 1. 4. Again all Subcoelestial Bodies as is evident consist of Matter and Form now the first Matter having nothing contrary unto it cannot by the force of Nature be destroyed and being Created immediately by God it cannot be abolished by any inferiour Agent And as for the Forms of Natural Bodies no sooner doth any one abandon the Matter it informed but another instantly steps into the place thereof no sooner hath one acted his part and is retired but another presently comes forth upon the Stage though it may be in a different shape and to act a different part so that no proportion of Matter is or at any time can be altogether void and empty but like Vertumnes or Proteus it turns it self into a thousand Shapes and is alwayes supplied and furnished with one Form or other by a power Divine above Nature but to proceed such and so great is the Wisdom the Bounty and the Omnipotence which God hath expressed in the Frame of the Heavens that the Psalmist might justly say The Heavens declare the glory of God Psal. 19. 1. The Sun and the Moon and the Stars serving as so many Silver and Golden Characters embroidered upon azure for the daily Preaching and Publishing thereof to the World And surely if he have made the floor of this great house so beautiful and garnished it with such wonderful variety of Beasts of Trees of Herbs of Flowers we need wonder the less at the Magnificence of the Roof which is the highest part of the World and the nearest to the Mansion House of Saints and Angels Now as the excellency of these bodies appear in their Situation their Matter their Magnitude and their Spherical and Circular Figure so specially in their great use and efficacy not only that they are for Signes and Seasons and for Days and Years but in that by their Motion their Light their warmth and Influence they guide and govern nay cherish and maintain breed and beget these Inferiour Bodies even of Man himself for whose sake the Heavens were made It is truly said of the Prince of Philosophers Sol homo generunt hominem the Sun and Man beget Man Man concurring in the generation of Man as an immediate and the Sun as a remote cause And in another place he doubts not to affirm of this inferiour World in general Necessa est Mundum inferiorem super in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibus continuari ut â—â—â—â—is inde Virtus â—â—rivetur It is requisite that these inferiour parts of the World should be co-joyned to the Motions of the higher Bodies that so all their Virtue and vigour might be from thence derived There is no question but the Heavens have a marvellous great stroak upon the Air the Water the Earth the Plants the Mettals the Beasts and upon Man himself at least wise in regard of his body and natural faculties To let pass the quailing and withering of all things by their recess and their reviving and resurrection as it were by the reaccess of the Sun I am of opinion that the sap of the trees so precisely follows the motion of the Sun that it never rests but is in a continual agitation as the Sun it self which no sooner arrives at the Tropick but he instantly returns and even at the very instant as I conceive and I think it may be demonstrated by experimental Conclusions the sap which by degrees descended with the declination of the Sun begins to remove at the approach thereof by the same steps that it descended And as the approach of the Sun is scarce sensible at his first return but afterwards the day increases more in one week than before in two in like manner also fares it with the Sap in Plants which at the first ascends up insensibly and slowly but within a while much more swiftly and apparently It is certain that the Tulip Marigold and Sun-flower open with the rising and shut with the setting of the Sun so that though the Sun appear not a man may more infallibly know when it is high noon by their full spreading then by the Index of a Clock or Watch. The Hop in its growing windeth it self about the Pole always following the course of the Sun from East to West and can by no means be drawn to the contrary choosing rather to break then yield It is observed by those that Sayl between the Tropicks that there is a constant set Wind blowing from the East to the West Saylers call it the Breeze which rises and falls with the Sun and is always highest at noon and is commonly so strong partly by its own blowing and partly by over-ruling the Currant that they who sayl to Peru cannot well return the same way they came forth And generally Marriners do observe that caeteris paribus they sayl with more speed from the East to the West then back again from the West to the East in the same compass of time All which should argue a wheeling about of the Air and Waters by the diurnal Motion of the Heavens and especial by the motion of the Sun Whereunto may be added that high-Sea springs of the year are always nearer about the two AEquinoctials and Solstices and the Cock as a trusty Watchman both at midnight and break of day gives notice of the Suns approach These be the strange and secret effects of
weight and credit to the relation being somewhat strange and rare I will set it down in the very words of Varro as I find them quoted by St. Augustine in coelo mirabile extitit portentum nâ—m in Stella Veneris nobilissima quam Plautus vesperuginem Homerus Hisperon appellat pulcherimam dicent Castor scribit tantum portentum exâ—â—tisse ut mutaret colorâ—â— magnitudinam figuram eursum quod factum ita neque antea neque postea â—iâ— hoc factum Ogyge Rege dicebant Adrastus Cyzicenus Dyon Neapolites Mathematici Nobiles saith he appeared a marveilous great wonder the most noted Star cal'd Venus which Plautus calls Vesperugo and Homer Vesperus the fair as Castor hath left upon Record changed both colour and bigness figure and motion which accident was never seen before nor since that time the renouned Mathematicians Adrastus and Dion averring that this fell out during the Reign of King Ogyges which wonder neither Varro nor Augustine ascribe to the changeable matter of the Heavens but to the unchangeable will of the Creator And therefore the one calls it as we see mirabile portentum and the other makes this Comment upon it that it happened quia ille voluit qui summo regit imperio ac potestate quod condidit because he would have it so who governs all things that he hath made with a Soveraign independing Power So that two special reasons may be rendred for these extraordinary unusual Apparitions in Heaven the one that they may declare to the World that they have a Creatour and Commander who can alter and destroy their Natures restrain or suspend their operations at his pleasure which should keep men from worshiping them as Gods since they cannot keep themselves from alteration The other to portend and foreshew his Judgments as did that new Star in Caessopaeia a most unnatural inundation of Blood in France And this change in Venus such a Deluge in Achaia as it overflowed and so wasted the whole Country that for the space of Two hundred years after it was not Inhabited It will next fall to our task to Discover of the Eclipses of which Virgil in his Georg. Lib. 2. Calls Defectus Solis varios Lunaeque Labores Defects and travels of the Sun and Moon As also the manner of the Ancient Romans while such Eclipses lasted who as Tacitus in his Annals saith Lib. 7. Did use to lift up burning Torches towards Heaven and withal to beat pans of Brass and Basons as we do in following of a swarm of Bees So Bâ—etius Lib. 4. Met. Commâ—vâ—t Gentes publicus Error Lassantque crâ—bris pâ—lsibus ara A Common Error through the world doth pass And many a stroke they lay on pans of Brass And Manilius speaking of the appearance of the Moons Eclipse by degrees in diverse parts of the Earth in his Lib. 1. Seraque in extremis quatiuntâ—â— gentibus ara The utmost Coasts do beat their Brass pans Last And Juvenal the Satyrist wittily describing a tatling Gosship in his Lib. 2. Sat. 6. Una lâ—boranti poterit succurrâ—re Lunae She only were enough to help The Labours of the Moon They thought thereby they did the Moon great ease and helped her in her Labour as Plutarch in his Life of AEmilius observeth That AEmilius himself a wise man as the same Author there Witnesseth did congratulate the Moons delivery from an Ecclipse with a solemn Sacrifice as soon as she shined out bright again which action of his that prudent Philosopher and sage Historian doth not only relate but approve and commendeth it as a sign of godliness and devotion yea this Heathenish and Sottish custom of relieving the Moon in this case by noise and out-cries the Christians it seems borrowed from the Gentiles as St Ambrose expresses in his Ser. 83. And Maximus Turriuensis hath a Homile to the same purpose Whereas Aristotle in his eighth Book of his Metaphysicks makes it plainly to appear That the Moon suffereth nothing by her Ecclipse where also he evidenceth by reason that it is caused by the shadow of the Earth interposed betwixt the Sun and the Moon as in exchange or revenge thereof as Pliny speaketh the Ecclipse of the Sun is caused by the Interposition of the Moon betwixt the Earth and it The Moon so depriving the Earth and again the Earth the Moon of the beams of the Sun which is the true cause that in the course of Nature the Moon is never Ecclipsed but when she is Full the Sun and She being then in opposition nor the Sun but when it is New Moon those two Planets being then in Conjunction I say in the course of Nature foâ— the Ecclipse at our Saviours Passion was undoubtedly Supernatural Quam solis obscurationem â—â—â— ex â—â—nico syderâ—â—â— cursu accidisse satis oftenditur quod tune er at Pascha Judeâ—â—â— nam plâ—nae Luna solemniter agitur saith St. Augustin Lib. 3. Civit Dei cap. 15. It is evident that that Ecclipse of the Sun happened not by an ordinary and orderly course of the Starrs it being then the Passover of the Jews which was solemnized at the Full Moon And this was it that gave occasion as is commonly believed to that memorable exclamation of Dennys the Areopagite being then in Egypt Aut Diuâ— Naturâ— patitur aut Machina Mâ—â—â—di dissolvetur Either the God of Nature suffers or the Frame of the World will be dissolved And hereupon too as it is thought by some was erected the Altar at Athens Ignotâ— Deâ— Tâ— the unknown God Act. 17. 23. Though others think that this Eclipse was confined in the borders of Judaea howsoever it cannot be denyed but that it was certainly besides and above the compass of Nature Neither ought it to seem strange That the Sun in the Firmament of Heaven should appear to suffer when the Sun of Righteousness indeed Suffered upon the Earth But for other Ecclipses though the causes be not commonly known yet the ignorance of them was it which caused so much Superstition in former Ages and left that impression in mens minds as even at this day wise men can hardly be perswaded but that those Planets suffer in their Ecclipses which in the Sun is most childish and ridiculous to imagine since in it self it is not so much as deprived of any Light nor in truth can be it being the Fountain of Light from which all other Starrs borrow their Light but pay nothing back again to it by way of retribution Which was well expressed by Pericles as Plutarch in his Life reports it for there happening an Ecclipse of the Sun at the very instant when his Navy was ready to Lanch forth and himself was imbarked his followers began much to be appald at it but especially the Master of his own Gally which Pericles perceiving takes his Cloak and therewith hood winks the Masters eyes and then demands of him what danger was in that he answering none Neither said Pericles is there in this Ecclipse