defluat amnis at iste Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum The Clowne waites till the foord be slidden all away But still it slides and will for euer and a day SECT 3. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in regard of their qualities THere is no feare then of the naturall decay of the Elements in regard of their quantity and dimensions all the controversie is in regard of their quality whether the aire and water be so pure and wholsome and the earth so fertile and fruitfull as it was some hundreths or thousands of yeares since Touching the former I thinke I shall make it appeare that the World in former ages hath beene plagued with more droughts excessiue raines windes frosts snowes hailes famines earthquakes pestilences and other contagious diseases then in latter times all which should argue a greater distemper in the Elements and for the fruitfulnesse of the earth I will not compare the present with that before the fall or before the floud I know and beleeue that the one drew on a curse vpon it though some great Divines hold that curse was rather in regard of mans ensuing labour in dressing it then of the Earths ensuing barrennesse and the other by washing away the surface and fatnesse thereof and by incorporating the salt waters into it much abated the natiue and originall fertility thereof and consequently the vigour and vertue of plants as well in regard of nourishment as medicine Upon which occasion it seemes after the Floud man had leaue giuen him to feede vpon the flesh of beasts and fowles and fishes which before the floud was not lawfull Neither can it be denied that Gods extraordinary fauour or curse vpon a land beside the course of Nature makes it either fruitfull or barren A fruitfull land maketh hee barren saith the Psalmist for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein And on the other side he turneth the wildernes into a standing water and dry ground into water springs And for grounds which are continually rent wounded with the plowshare worne and wasted with tillage it is not to be wondered if they answere not the fertility of former ages But for such as haue time and rest giuen to recouer their strength and renew their decayed forces or such as yet retaine their virginity without any force offered vnto them I doubt not but experience and tryall will make it good that they haue lost nothing of their primitiue goodnesse at leastwise since the floud and consequently that there is in the earth it selfe by long-lasting no such perpetuall and vniversall decay in regard of the fruitfullnesse thereof as is commonly imagined And if not in the earth it selfe then surely not in the trees and hearbs and plants and flowers which suck their nourishment from thence as so many infants from their mothers breast Let any one kind of them that ever was in any part of the world since the Creation be named that is vtterly lost no God and Nature haue so well provided against this that one seede sometimes multiplies in one yeare many thousands of the same kind Let it be proued by comparing their present qualities with those which are recorded in ancient writers that in the revolution of so many ages they haue lost any thing of their wonted colour their smell their tast their vertue their proportion their duration And if there be no such decay as is supposed to be found in the severall kindes of vegetables what reason haue wee to beleeue it in beasts specially those that make vegetables their food If Aristotle were now aliue should he need to compose some new treatise De historia Animalium in those things where he wrote vpon certaine groundes and experimentall observations haue the beasts of which he wrote any thing altered their dispositions Are the wild become tame or the strong feeble no certainely It was true in all ages both before and since which the Poet hath Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Virtus nec imbellem feroces Progenerant aquilae Columbam From nobles noble spirits proceed Steeres Horses like their Sires do proue The Eagle feirce doth never breed A timerous and fearefull Doue Hath the Lyon forgotten his Majestie or the Elephant his sagacity or the Tyger his fiercenesse or the Stagge his swiftnesse or the Dogge his fidelitie or the Foxe his wilinesse were the Oxen then of the same Countrey stronger for labour the horses better featured or more serviceable then now doubtlesse these lessons as their Mistresse cannot but teach them so these schollers cannot but learne them neither is it in their power to forget them SECT 4. Touching the pretended decay of mankind in regard of manners and the arts WIth man it is otherwise for he hauing a free will at leastwise in morall and naturall actions by reason of that liberty varieth both from his kind and from himselfe more then any other creature besides And hence is it other circumstances concurring that in the same countrey men are sometimes generally addicted to vertue sometimes to vice sometimes to one vice sometimes to another sometimes to civillity sometimes to barbarisme sometimes to studiousnesse learning sometimes to ease and ignorance sometimes they are taller of stature sometimes lower lastly sometimes longer sometimes shorter liued ct this I say ariseth partly from the Libertie of mans will partly from Gods providence ouerruling disposing all things according to the secret counsell of his owne vnsearchable wisdome Signat tempora proprijs Aptans officijs Deus Nec quas ipse coercuit Misceri patitur vices To proper offices God hath each season bounded And will not that the courses He sets them be confounded Haec omnia mutantur saith S. Augustine nec mutatur divinae providentiae ratio qua fit Vt ista mutentur All these things are changed and yet the reason of the Divine Providence by which they are changed changeth not To affirme then that humane affaires remaine allwaies in the same estate continually drawne out as by an even thread without variation is vntrue and on the other side to say that they allwayes degenerate and grow worse and worse is as vnsound For surely had it beene so since the Creation or the fall of man civill society nay the world itself could not haue subsisted but would long since haue beene brought to vtter ruine and desolation Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit vice was at highest and neere its downefall stood And as Bodin hath both rightly observed and learnedly expressed Quod si res humanae in deterius prolaberentur jampridem in extremo vitiorum ac improbitatis gradu constitissemus quo quidem antea peruentum esse opinor Sed cum flagitiosi homines nec vlterius progredi nec eodem loco stare diutius possent sensim regredi necesse habuerunt vel cogente pudore qui hominibus inest à natura
neerer to the quick strikes indeed at the very throat of the cause is an opinion of very many and those very learned men that the Body of the Sunne is drawne nearer the Earth by many degrees then it was in former ages that it daylie makes descents approaches towards it which some ascribe to a deficiencie of strength in the Earth others in the Sun most in both Bodin out of Copernicus Reinoldus Stadius great Mathematicians tell vs that since Ptolomies time who liued about an hundred forty yeeres after Christ the Sunne by cleare demonstrations is found to haue come neerer vs by one hundred thirty semidiameters of the earth which make twenty six thousand six hundred and sixty German miles which are double to the French as the French are to the Italian and ours This wonderfull change Philip Melancthon saith he ad coelestium terrestriumque corporum tabescentem naturam referendum putavit thought fit to impute to the declining estate of the coelestiall terrestriall Bodies But if the terrestriall depend vpon the coelestiall as hath already beene prooued is the common opinion of all both Divines and Philosophers then what is wanting in the wonted vigour of the coelestiall being supplied by the approach thereof the terrestrial should still without any decay remaine vnimpaired in their condition The force of which reason serues also strongly against them who maintaine an habitablenesse vnder the Torride Zone through the weaknesse of the Sun and yet withall hold a supply of that weakenesse by the neerer approach thereof But consulting in this point with both the learned Professours in the Mathematickes at Oxford they both jointly agree that this assertion of the Sunnes continuall declination or neerer approach to the Earth is rather an idle dreame then a sound position grounded rather vpon the difference among Astronomers arising from the difficulty of their observations then vpon any certaine infallible conclusions Ptolomy who liued about the yeare of Christ one hundred forty makes the distance of the Sun from the Earth to be one thousand two hundred ten semidiameters of the Earth Albategnius about the yeare eighr hundred eighty makes it one thousand one hundred forty sixe Copernicus about the yeare one thousand fiue hundred and twenty makes it one thousand one hundred seventy nine Tychobrahe about the yeare one thousand six hundred makes it one thousand one hundred eighty two Now I would demaund whether the Sun were more remote in Ptolomies time neerer in the time of Albategnius then againe more remote in the latter ages of Copernicus Tycho which if it were so then one of these two must needs follow that either their observations were notgrounded vpon so certaine principles as they pretend or that the declination of the Sunne is vncertaine variable not constant perpetuall as is pretended But what would Bodin say if hee liued to heare Lansbergius Kepler other famous Astronomers of the present age teaching that the Sun is now remote aboue two thousand and eight hundred nay three thousand semidiameters from the Earth affirming that Copernicus and Tycho neglected to allow for refractions which as the Opticks will demonstrate doe much alter the case I will close vp this point with â—…he censure of Scaliger vpon the Patrons of this fancy Quae vero nonnulli prodere ausi sunt solis corpus longè propius nos esse quà m quantum ab Antiquis scriptum sit ita vt in ipsa deferentis corpulentia locum mutasse videatur vel ipsa scripta spongijs vel ipsi Authores scuticis sunt castigandi In as much as some haue dared to broach that the Body of the Sun is nearer the Earth then by the Ancients it was obserued to be so that it might seeme to haue changed place in the very bulke of the Spheare either the Authors themselues of this opinion deserue to be chastned with stripes or surely their writings to be razed with sponges SECT 4. A third objection answered taken from a supposed removall of the Sun more Southerly from vs then in formâ—…r ages AS some haue inferred a diminution in the Heauenly warmth from a supposed neerer approach of the Sunne to the Earth so haue others at leastwise in regard of the Earth from the removall thereof more Southerly then in former ages But crauing in this point likewise the opinion of my worthy friend Master Doctour Bainbridge Professour in Astronomie at Oxford hee returned mee this answere It is the generall opinion of Moderne Astronomers that the Sun in our time goeth not so far Southernly from vs in Winter as it did in the time of Ptolomy and Hipparchus neither in Summer commeth so much Northernly towards vs as then For Ptolemy aboue ann Christ. 140 observed the greatest declination of the Sunne from the Aequinoctiall towards either Pole 23. 51. 20. agreeable to the observations of Hipparchus 130 yeares before Christ and of Eratosthenes before Hipparchus Wherevpon Ptolemy thought the Sunnes greatest declination immutable But succeeding Ages haue observed a difference for about Anno Christi 830. many learned Arabians obserued the greatest declination of the Sunne to bee 23. 35. to whom agreeth Albategnius a Syrian about an Christ. 880. Yet did not Albategnius from hence conclude any mutation in the greatest declination of the Sunne for so small a difference might well happen by errour of observations Afterwards about ann Christ. 1070. Arzachel a Moore of Spaine observed the greatest declination of the Sunne 23. 33. 30. who to salue these different observations invented a new Hypothesis which yet was not received by Astronomers of after times who for many ages followed the greatest declination of Arzachel without any alteration till the times of Regiomontanus and Copernicus for Copernicus by his observations some yeares before and after ann Christi 1520. affirmed the greatest declination of the Sunne to bee no more then 23. 28. 24. agreeable to the observations of Regiomontanus and Peurbachius some yeares before him Copernicus collating his observations with those of former ages renewed the Hypothesis of Arzachel that the Sunnes greatest declination was mutable yet so that it was never greater then 23. 52. nor lesse then 23. 28. The difference being only 24. And that in 1717 yeares it decreaseth from the former to the latter and in other 1717 yeares encreaseth from this to that againe According to which Hypothesis of Copernicus aboue 65 yeares before Christ the greatest declination of the Sunne was 23. 52. From which time accounting backewards it was lesse and lesse so that about 1782 yeares before Christ the greatest declination of the Sunne was but 23. 28. from which time accounting still backewards it was more and more till about 3499 yeares before Christ it was againe 23. 52. So after Christ about the yeare 1652 the greatest declination of the Sunne by this Hypothesis shall bee but 23. 28. and from thence againe encrease till it become 23. 52.
most true that in the yeare of our Lord 1532 in the Northerne parts of our own land not farre from Tinmouth hauen was a mighty Whale cast on land found by good measure to be 90 foot in length arising to 30 English yards the very bredth of his mouth was sixe yards and an halfe and the belly so vast in compasse that one standing on the fish of purpose to cut off a ribbe from him and slipping into his belly was very likely there to haue beene drowned with the moisture then remaining had hee not beene suddenly rescued From whence we may gather that Iobs admirable description of this fish vnder the name of Leviathan is still true that in vastnes since Augustus his time he is nothing decreased And yet I well beleeue that those on the Indian Seas may much exceed ours which might perchance giue occasion to those large relations of Pliny Iuba Herevnto may be added the observation of Macrobius touching the growth of the Mullet Plinius Secundus saith he temporibus suis negat facile mullum repertum qui duas pondo libras excederet at nunc majoris passim videmus praesentia hac insana nescimus Plinius Secundus denies that in his time a Mullet was easily to be found which exceeded two pound weight but now adayes we euery-where see them of greater weight and yet are not acquainted with those vnreasonable prises which they then payde for them I will close vp this chapter with a relation of Gesners in his Epistle to the Emperour Ferdinand prefixed before his bookes De Piscibus touching the long life of a Pike which was cast into a pond or poole neere Hailebrune in Swevia with this inscription ingraven vpon a collar of brasse fastned about his necke Ego sum ille piscis huic stagno omnium primus impositus per mundi Rectoris Frederici Secundi manus 5 Octobris anno 1230. I am that fish which was first of all cast into this poole by the hand of Frederick the second governour of the World 5 of Octob. in the yeare 1230. He was again taken vp in the yeare 1497 by the inscription it appeared hee had then liued there 267 yeares so as it seemes that as fishes are not diminished in regard of their store or growth so neither in respect of their age and duration But I leaue floting on the Waters and betake mee to the more stable Element the Earth CAP. 9. Touching the pretended decay of the Earth together with the Plants and beasts and minerals SECT 1. The divine meditations of Seneca and Pliny vpon the globe of the Earth An objection out of Aelian touching the decrease of mountaines answered That all things which spring from the earth returne thither againe consequently it cannot decay in regard of the fruitfulnesse in the whole Other objections of lesse consequence answered BOth Seneca and Pliny haue most divine meditations vpon this consideration that the Globe of the Earth in regard of the higher Elements and the Heauens wheeling about it is by the Mathematicians compared to a prick or point These so many peeces of Earth saith Pliny or rather as most haue written this little prick of the World for surely the Earth is nothing else in comparison of the whole is the only matter of our glory this I say is the very seat thereof here we seeke for honours and dignities heere we exercise our rule and authority here wee covet wealth and riches here all mankind is set vpon stirs and troubles here we raise civill warres still one after another and with mutuall massacres murthers we make more roome therein And to let passe the publique furie of Nations abroad this is it wherein wee chace and driue out our neighbour Borderers and by stealth dig turfth from our Neighbours soyle to put into our owne And when a man hath extended his lands and gotten whole countreyes to himselfe farre and neere what a goodly deale of earth enjoyeth he and say that he set out his bounds to the full measure of his covetous desire what a great portion thereof shall he hold when he is once dead and his head layed Thus Pliny with whom Seneca sweetly accords Hoc est punctum quod inter tot gentes ferro igne dividitur ôquam ridiculi sunt mortalium termini Punctum certè est illud in quo navigamus in quo bellamus in quo regna disponimus It is but a point which so many Nations share with fire and sword Oh how ridiculous are the bounds of mortall men It is verily but a point inwhich we saile in which we wage warres in which we dispose of Kingdomes But from these sublime speculations wee are to descend to the examination of the Earths supposed decay Aelian in the eight booke of his history telleth vs that not onely the mountaine Aetna for thereof might be given some reason because of the daily wasting and consuming of it by fire but Parnassus Olympus did appeare to be lesse and lesse to such as sayled at sea the height thereof sinking as it seemed and therevpon infers that men most skilfull in the secrets of Nature did affirme that the world it selfe should likewise perish and haue an end His conclusion I cannot but approue and most willingly accept of as a rich testimonie for the confirmation of our Christian doctrine from the penne of a Gentile But that he inferres it from so weake groundes I cannot but wonder at the stupidity of so wise a man For to graunt that those mountaines decrease in their magnitude yet shall I never yeeld a vniuersall decrease in the whole globe of the Earth since the proportions aswell of the Diameter as Circumference thereof are by Geometricall demonstrations found to be the same which they were in former ages or at least-wise not to decrease And for the difference which is observed betwixt the Calculation of Ancient Moderne writers it is certainely to be referred to the difference of miles or of instruments or the vnskilfullnesse of the Authours not to the different dimensions of the Earth which I thinke no Geometrician euer somuch as dreamed of Notwithstanding which truth I must doe readily subscribe to that of Iob Surely the mountaine falling commeth to nought and the rocke is remoued out of his place but let vs take Iobs reason with vs which he immediately adds The waters weare the stones thow washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth This diminution then of the Mountaines as Blaucanus obserues is caused partly by Raine-water and partly by Riuers which by continuall fretting by little and little wash away eate out both the tops and sides and feete of mountaines whence the parts thus fretted through by continuall falling downe weare out the mountaines and fill vp the lower places of the valleyes making the one to increase as the other to decrease whence it comes to passe
in Heauen as all things vnder the cope of heauen vary and change so doth the militant heere on earth it hath its times and turnes sometimes flowing and againe ebbing with the sea sometimes waxing and againe waning with the Moone which great light it seemes the Almighty therefore set the lowest in the heavens and nearest the Earth that it might dayly put vs in minde of the constancy of the one and inconstancy of the other her selfe in some sort partaking of both though in a different manner of the one in her substance of the other in her visage And if the Moone thus change and all things vnder the Moone why should we wonder at the chaunge of Monarchies and Kingdomes much lesse petty states and private families they rise and fall and rise again and fall againe that no man might either too confidently presume because they are subject to continuall alteration or cast away all hope and fall to despaire because they haue their seasons and appointed times of returning againe Nemo confidat nimium secundis Nemo desperet meliora lapsus Miscet haec illis prohibetque Clotho Stare fortunam Let him that stands take heed lest that he fall Let him that 's falne hope he may rise againe The providence divine that mixeth all Chaines joy to griefe by turnes losse to gaine I must confesse that sometimes looking stedfastly vpon the present face of things both at home and abroad I haue beene often put to a stand and staggered in mine opinion whither I were in the right or no and perchaunce the state of my body and present condition in regard of those faire hopes I sometimes had served as false perspectiue glasses to looke through but when againe I abstracted and raised my thoughts to an higher pitch and as from a vantage ground tooke a larger view comparing time with time and thing with thing and place with place and considered my selfe as a member of the Vniverse and a Citizen of the World I found that what was lost to one part was gained to another and what was lost in one time was to the same part recouered in another and so the ballance by the divine providence over-ruling all kept vpright But comonly it fares with men in this case as with one who lookes onely vpon some libbet or end of a peece of Arras he happily conceiues an hand or head which he sees to be very vnartificially made but vnfolding the whole soone findes that it carries a due and just proportion to the body so qui de pauca respâ—…cit de facili pronuntiat saith Aristotle he that is so narrow eyed as he lockes onely to his owne person or family to his owne corporation or nation or the age wherein himselfe liues will peradventure quickly conceiue and as some pronounce that all things decay and goe backward which makes men murmure and repine against Ged vnder the names of Fortune and Destinie whereas he that as a part of mankinde in generall takes a view of the vniversall compares person with person family with family corporation with corporation nation with nation age with age suspends his judgement and vpon examination clearely findes that all things worke together for the best to them that loue God and that though some members suffer yet the whole is no way thereby indammaged at any time and at other times those same members are againe relieued as the Sunne when it sets to vs it rises to our Antipodes and when it remooues from the Northerne parts of the world it cherishes the Southerne yet stayes not there but returnes againe with his comfortable beames to those very parts which for a time it seemed to haue forsaken O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men or at leastwise cry out in admiration with the Apostle O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of our God how vnsearchable are his pathes and his wayes past finding out Yet the next way in some measure to finde them out so farre as is possible for vs poore wormes heere crawling in a mist vpon the face of the Earth is next the sacred Oracles of supernatutall and revealed Truth to study the great Volume of the Creature and the Histories not onely of our owne but of forraigne Countreyes and those not onely of the present but more auncient times Enquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thy selfe to the search of their Fathers for wee are but of yesterday and know nothing because our dayes vpon earth are but a shadow If then to make my party good and to waite vpon Divinity I haue called in subsidiary aydes from Philosophers Historiographers Mathematitians Grammarians Logicians Poets Oratours Souldiers Travellers Lawyers Physitians and if I haue in imitation of Tertullian Cyprian Eusebius Augustine Lactantius Arnobius Minutius endeavoured to cut the throates of the Paynims with their owne swords and pierced them with their owne quills I hope no learned man or louer of Learning will censure me for this Philosophie and the Arts I must account a part of mine owne profession and for Physicke and the Lawes I haue therein consulted the chiefe as well in this Vniversity as out of it of mine owne acquaintance nay in History the Mathematiques and Divinity it selfe I haue not onely had the approbation of the publique professours therein for the maine points in my booke which concerne their severall professions but some peeces I must acknowledge as receiued from them which I haue made bold to insert into the body of my discourse let no man think then that I maintaine a paradoxe for ostentation of wit or haue written out of spleene to gall any man in particular nor yet to humour the present times the times themselues mine indisposition that way and resolution to sit downe content with my present fortunes if they serue not to giue others satisfaction therein yet doe they fully to cleare mee to my selfe from any such aspersion yet thus much I hope I safely may say without suspition of flattery that by the goodnesse of GOD and our gratious Soveraigne vnder GOD wee yet enjoy many great blessings which former ages did not and were wee thankfull for these as we ought and truely penitent for our excesse in all kinde of monstrous sinnes which aboue all threatens our ruine I nothing doubt but vpon our returne to our God by humiliation and newnesse of life he would soone dissolue the cloud which hangs ouer vs and returne vnto vs with the comfortable beames of his favour and make vs to returne each to other with mutuall imbracements of affection and duety and our Armies and Fleetes to returne with spoyle and victory and reduce againe as golden and happy times as euer wee or our fore-fathers saw but if we still goe on with an high hand and a stiffe necke in our prophanesse our pride
the temper thereof Sect. 1 Of excessiue drouth and cold in former ages and that in forraine Countryes pag. 110. Sect. 2 Of excessiue cold raine in former ages heere aâ—…tome and of the common complaint of vnseasonable weather in all ages together with the reason thereof p. 112. Sect. 3 Of contagious diseases and specially the plague both here at home 〈◊〉 abroad in former ages p. 113. Sect. 4 Of Earth-quakes in former ages and their terrible effects elegantly described by Seneca p. 116. Sect. 5 Of dreadfull burnings in the bowels of Aetna Vesuvius and the rising of a new Iland out of the Sea with hideous roring neere Putzol in Italy p. 117. Sect. 6. Of the nature of Comets and the vncertainety of predictions from them as also that the number of those which haue appeared of late yeares is lesse then hath vsually beene observed in former ages and of other fiery and watery meteors p. 119. Sect. 7 Of strange and impetuous windes and lightnings in former ages aboue those of the present p. 121. CAP. 8. Touching the pretended decay of the waters the fish the inhabiters thereof Sect. 1 That the Sea Rivers and Bathes are the same at this present as they were for many ages past or what they lose in one place and time they recover in another by the testimony of Strabo Ovid and Pontanus p. 123. Sect. 2 That fishes are not decayed in regard of their store dimensions or duration p. 125. CAP. 9. Touching the pretended decay of the earth together with the plants beasts minerals Sect. 1 The divine meditation of Seneca and Pliny vpon the globe of the earth An objection out of Aelian touching the decrease of mountaines answered That all â—…hings which spring from the earth returne thither againe and consequently it cannot decay in regard of the fruitfulnes in the whole Other objections of lesse consequence answered p. 128. Sect. 2 Another obiection touching the decay of the fruitfulnes of the holy Land fully answered p. 131 Sect 3 The testimonies of Columella Pliny produced that the earth in it selfe is as fruitfull as in former ages if it be well made and manured together with the reason why so good and so great store of wine is not now made in this kingdome as formerly hath bin p. 133. Sect. 4 An argument drawne from the present state of husband-men and another from the many and miserable dearths in former ages together with an objection taken from the inhauncing of the prizes of victuals in latter times answered p. 136. Sect. 5 That there is no decrease in the fruitfulnesse the quantities or vertues of plants and simpâ—… nor in the store and goodnesse of mettals mineralls as neither in the bignesse or life of beasts together with an objection touching the Elephant mentioned in the first of Macchabes answered p. 139. Sect. 6 Aâ—…ection taken from the Eclypses of the planets answered p. 142. LIB 3. Of the pretended decay of mankind in regard of age duration of strength and stature of arts and wits CAP. 1. Touching the pretended decay of Men in regard of their age and first by way of comparison betweene the ages of the Ancients and those of latter times Sect. 1 Of the short life of man in regard of the duration of many other Creatures and that he was created mortall but had he not fallen should haue beene preserved to immortalitie pag. 144. Sect. 2 Of the long liues of the Patriarches and of the manner of computing their yeares and that Almighty God drew out the lines of their liues to that length for reasons proper to those first times p. 145. Sect. 3 That since Moses his time the length of mans age is nothing abated as appeares by the testimony of Moses himselfe and other graue Authours compared with the experience of these times p. 147. Sect. 4 The same confirmed by the testimony of other ancient and learned writers p. 149. Sect. 5 That in all times and nations some haue beene found who haue exceeded that number of yeares which the wisest of the ancients accounted the vtmost period of mans life and that often those of latter ages haue exceeded the former in number of yeares as is made to appeare aswell from sacred as prophane story p. 150. Sect. 6 The same assertion farther proved inlarged by many instances both at home abroad specially in the Indyes p. 153. Sect. 7 That if our liues be shortned in regard of our Ancestours we should rather lay the burden of the fault vpon our selues our owne intemperance then vpon a decay in nature p. 156. CAP. 2. Farther Reasons alleadged that the age of man for these last thousand or two thousand of yeares is little or nothing abated Sect. 1 The first reason taken from the severall stops pawses of nature in the course of mans life as the time of birth after our conception our infancie childhood youth mans estate old age being assigned to the same compasse of yeares as they were by the Ancients which could not possiblely be were there an vniversall decay in mankinde in regard of age and the like reason there is in making the same Clymactericall yeares the same danger in them p. 159. Sect. 2 The second is drawne from the age of Matrim ony and generation which among the Ancients was as forward as ours now is if not more timely p. 163. Sect. 3 The third is borrowed from the age which the Ancients assigned for charge and imployment in publique affaires Ecclesiasticall Civill Militarie they were therevnto both sooner admitted therefrom sooner discharged then men now a dayes vsually are which should in reason argue that they likewise vsually finished the course of their life sooner p. 167. CAP. 3. Contayning a comparison betwixt the Gyants mentioned in Scripture both among themselues and with those of latter ages Sect. 1 Of the admirable composition of mans bodie that it cannot bee sufficiently proved that Adam as he was the first so he was likewise the tallest of men which in reason should be were there in truth any such perpetuall decrease in mans stature as is pretended p. 171. Sect. 2 What those Gyants were which are mentioned in the sixth of Genesis and that succeeding ages vntill Davids time afforded the like p. 173. Sect. 3 That latter times haue also afforded the like both at home abroad specially in the Indies where they liue more according to nature p. 175. CAP. 4. More pressing Reasons to proue that for these last two or three thousand yeares the stature of the AncieÌ„ts was little or nothing different from that of the present times Sect. 1 The first reason taken from the measures of the Ancients which were proportioned to the parts of mans body in the view of them wee are first to know that they were standards that is for publique contracts certaine constant consequently if the graines of our barley corne the first
wōderfull either to beget in vs an abilitie for the doing of that which we apprehēd we cā do or a disability for the not doing of that which we cōceiue we cānot do which was the reasō that the Wisards and Oracles of the Gentiles being cōsulted they ever returned either an hopefull answer or an ambiguous such as by a favourable cōstructiō might either include or at leastwise not vtterly exclude hope Agesilaus as I remēber clapping his hāds vpon the Al tar taking it off againe by a cūning divice shewed to his souldiers victory stāped vpon it whereby they were so encouraged and grew so cōfident that beyong all expectation they indeed effected that wherof by this sleight they were formerly assured Prognostications and Prophesies often helpe to further that which they foretell and to make men such as they beare thē in hand they shall be nay by an vnavoydable destinie must bee Francis Marquesse of Saluzze yeeldes vs a memorable example in this kind who being Lieuetenant Generall to Francis the first King of France over all his forces which hee then had beyond the mountaines in Italy a man highly favoured in all the Court and infinitly obliged to the King for his Marquesite which his brother had forfeited suffered himselfe to be so farr afrighted and deluded as it hath since been manifestly proued by Prognostications which then throughout all Europe were giuen out to the advantage of the Emperour Charles the fifth and to the prejudice of the French that hauing no occasiō offered yea his owne affections contradicting the same hee first began in secret to complaine to his private friends of the inevitable miseries which he foresaw prepared by the Fates against the Crowne of France And within a while after this impression still working into him he most vnkindly revolted from his Master and became a turne-coate to the Emperours side to the astonishment of all men his owne greate disgrace ond the no lesse disadvātage to the French enterprize on the other side I doubt not but that the prophesies of Sauanarola as much assisted Charles the eight to the conquest of Naples which he performed so speedily and happily as he seemed rather with chalke to marke out his lodgings then with his sword to winne them To like purpose was that Custome among the Heathen of deriving the pedegree of valiant men from the Gods as Varro the most learned of the Romanes hath well observed Ego huiusmodi à Dis repetitas origines vtiles esse lubens agnosco vt viri fortes etiamsi falsum sit se ex Dis genitos credant vt eo modo animus humanus veluti diuinae stirpis fiduciam gerens res magnas aggrediendas presumat audaciùs agat vehementiù ob haec impleat ipsa securitate foeliciùs I for my part sayth he judge those pedegrees drawne from the Gods not to be vnprofitable that valiant men though in truth it be not so beleeving themselues to be extracted from divine races might vpon the confidence thereof vndertake high attemps the more boldly intend them the more earnestly and accomplish them the more securely and successiuely And of the Druides Caesar hath noted that among other doctrines they taught the soules immortality by propagation because they taught hoc maximè ad virtutem excitari homines metu mortis neglecto that by meanes of this apprehension men were notablely spurred forward and whetted on to the adventuring and enterprising of commendable actions through the contempt of death Which same thing Lucan hath likewise remarked Vobis authoribus vmbrae Non tacitas Erebi sedes ditisque profundi Pallida regna petunt regit idem spiritus artus Orbe alio longae conitis si cognita vitae Mors media est certè populi quos despicit Arctos foelices errore suo quos ille timorum Maximus haud vrget Lethi metus inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris animaeque capaces Mortis et ignavum est rediturae parcere vitae Your doctrine is Our ghost's goe not to those pale realmes of Stygian Dis And silent Erebus the selfe same soules doth sway Bodyes else-where and death if certaine trueth you say Is but the mid'st of life Thrice happy in your error Yee Northerne wights whom Death the greatest Prince of terror Nothing affrights Hence are your Martiall hearts inclind To rush on point of sword hence that vndanted mind So capable of Death hence seemes it base and vaine To spare that life which will eft soones returne againe By all which wee see the admirable efficacy of the imagination either for the elevating or depressing of the mind for the making of it more abject and base or more actiue and generous and from thence infer that the doctrine of Natures necessary decay rather tends to make men worse then better rather cowardly then couragious rather to draw them downe to that they must be then to lift them vp to that they should and may bee rather to breed sloath then to quicken industry I will giue one instance for all and that home-bredde the reason why we haue at this day no Vineyards planted nor wine growne in England as heretofore is commonly ascribed to the decay of Nature either in regard of the heavens or Earth or both and men possessed with this opinion sit downe and try not what may be done whereas our great Antiquary imputes it to the Lazines of the Inhabitants rather then to any defect or distemper in the Climat and withall professes that he is no way of the mind of those grudging sloathfull husbandmen whom Columella censures who thinke that the earth is growne weary and barren with the excessiue plenty of former ages I haue somewhere read of a people so brutish and barbarous that they must first be taught and perswaded that they were not beasts but men and capable of reason before any serviceable or profitable vse could be made of them And surely there is no hope that ever wee shall attaine the heigth of the worthy acts and exploits of our Predecessours except first we be resolved that Gods Grace and our own endeavours concurring there is a possibility wee should rise to the same degree of worth Si hanc cogitationem homines habuissent vt nemo se meliorem fore eo qui optimus fuisset arbitraretur ij ipsi qui sunt optimi non fuissent if men had alwayes thus conceaved with themselues that no man could be better then he that then was best those that now are esteemed best had not so beene They be the words of Quintilian and therevpon hee inferres as doth the Apostle 1. Corinth 12. at the last verse Nitamur semper ad optima quod facientes aut evademus in summum aut certe multos infra nos videbimus Let vs covet earnestly the best gifts and propose to our selues the matching at least if not the passing of the most excellent patterns by which meanes we
the Lord that I will heare the heavens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the oile and they shall heare Israell From that we may descend to the foure Elements which as a musicall instrument of foure strings is both tuned and touched by the hand of heaven And in the next place those bodies which are mixed and tempered of these Elements offer themselues to our consideration whether they bee without life as stones and mettalls or haue the life of vegetation only as Plants or both of vegetation and sense as beasts and birds and fishes and in the last place man presents himselfe vpon this Theater as being created last though first intended the master of the whole family chiefe Commaunder in this great house nay the master-peece the abridgment the mappe and modell of the Vniuerse And in him wee will examine this pretended decay first in regard of age and length of yeares secondly in regard of strength and stature thirdly in regard of wits and Arts and fourthly and lastly in regard of manners and conditions to which all that is in man is or should bee finally referred as all that is in the world is vnder God finally referred to man And because it is not sufficient to possesse our owne fort without the dismantling and demolishing of our enimies a principall care shall bee had throughout the whole worke to answere if not all at least the principall of those obiections which I haue found to weigh most with the adverse part And in the last place least I should any way bee suspected to shake or vndermine the ground of our Christian religion or to weaken the article of our beliefe touching the consummation of the world by teaching that it decayes not to wipe off that aspertion I will endeavour to prooue the certainety thereof not so much by Scripture which no Christian can be ignorant of as by force of Reason and the testimony of Heathen writers and finally I will conclude with an exhortation grounded therevpon for the stirring of men vp to a preparation of themselues against that day which shall not only end the world but iudge their actions and dispose of the everlasting estate of their persons CAP. 4. Touching the worlds decay in generall SECT 1. The three first generall reasons that it decayes not THe same Almighty hand which created the worlds massie frame and gaue it a being out of nothing doth still support and maintaine it in that being which at first it gaue and should it with draw himselfe but for a moment the whole frame would instantly returne into that nothing which before the Creation it was as Gregorie hath righly observed Deus suo presentiali esse dat omnibus rebus esse ita quod si se rebus subtraheret sicut de nihilo facta sunt omnia sic in nihilum diffluerent vniversa God by his presentiall Essence giues vnto all things an Essence so that if hee should withdraw himselfe from them as out of nothing they were first made so into nothing they would be againe resolved In the preservation then of the Creature wee are not so much to consider the impotencie and weakenesse thereof as the goodnesse wisedome and power of the Creator in whom and by whom and for whom they liue and moue and haue their being The spirit of the Lord filleth the world saith the Authour of the wisedome of Solomon and the secret working of the spirit which thus pierceth through all things hath the Poet excellently exprest Principio caelum ac terr as camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet The heauen the earth and all the liquide maine The Moones bright globe and starres Titanian A spirit within maintaines and their whole masse A minde which through each part infus'd doth passe Fashions and workes and wholly doth transpierce All this great Body of the Vniverse This Spirit the Platonists call the Soule of the World by it it is in some sort quickned and formaliz'd as the body of man is by its reasonable Soule There is no question then but this Soule of the World if wee may so speake being in truth none other then the immortall Spirit of the Creator is able to make the body of the World immortall and to preserue it from disolution as he doth the Angels and the spirits of men and were it not that he had determined to dissolue it by the same supernaturall and extraordinary power which at first gaue it existence I see not but by the ordinary concurrence of this spirit it might euerlastingly endure and that consequently to driue it home to our present purpose there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the course of Nature as is imagined and this I take to be the meaning of Philo in that booke which he hath composed De Mundi incorruptibilitate of the Worlds incorruptibility there being some who haue made the World eternall without any beginning or ending as Aristotle and the Peripateticks others giue it a beginning but without ending as Plato and the Academicks whom Philo seemes to follow and lastly others both beginning ending as Christians and other Sects of Philosophers whom Aristotle therefore flouts at saying that he formerly feared his house might fall downe about his eares but that now he had a greater matter to feare which was the dissolution of the world But had this pretended vniversall perpetuall decay of the World beene so apparant as some would make it his flout had easily beene returned vpon himselfe his opinion by dayly sensible experience as easily confuted which wee may well wonder none of those Philosophers who disputed against him if they acknowledged and beleeued the trueth thereof should any where presse in defence of their owne opinions it being indeed the most vnanswerable and binding argument that possibly could be enforced against him were there that evident certaintie in it as is commonly imagined whereas he in the sharpnesse of his wit seeing the weakenesse thereof would not so much as vouchsafe it a serious answere but puts it off with a jeast For mine owne part I constantly beleeue that it had a beginning and shall haue an ending and hold him not worthy the name of a Christian who holds not as much yet so as I beleeue both to bee matter of faith through faith we vnderstand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God and through the same faith we likewise vnderstand that they shall be againe vnframed by the same word Reason may grope at this truth in the darke howbeit it can neuer cleerely apprehend it but inlightned by the beame of faith I deny not but probable though not demonstratiue and convincing arguments may be drawn from discourse of reason to proue either the one or the other
therin he alludes to the opinion of the ancient Philosophers Poets perchance thereby intending Lucretius the great admirer and sectary of Epicurus who of all the Poets I haue met with hath written the most fully in this argument I am que adeo effa ta est aetas effoetaque tellus Vix animalia parva creat quae cuncta creavit Soecla deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu Haud vt opinor enim mortalia soecla superne Aurea de coelo demisit funis in arva Nec marc nec fluctus plangentes saxa crearunt Sed genuit tellus eadem quae nunc alit ex se. Praeterea nâ—…idas fruges vinetaque laeta Sponte suà primum mortalibus ipsa creavit Ipsa dedit dulces foetus pabula laeta Quae nunc vix nostro grandescunt aucta labore Conterimusque boves vires agricolarum Conficimus ferrum vix arvis suppeditati Vsque adeò parcunt faetus augentque labores Iamque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator Crebrius in cassum magnum cecidisse laborem Et cum tempora temporibus praesentia confert Praeteritis laudat fortunas saepe parentis Et crepat antiquum genus vt pietate repletum Perfacile angnstis tolerârit finibus aevum Cum minor esset agri multo modus ante viritim Nec tenet omnia paulatim tabescere ire Adscopulum spaâ—…io aetatis defessa vetusto The world with age is broke the earth out worne And shee of whome what ever liues was borne And once brought forth huge bodied beasts with paine A small race now begets No golden chaine These mortalls downe from heaven to earth did let As I suppose nor sea nor waues that beat The rockes did they create t' was earth did breed All of herselfe which now all things doth feed The chearefull vine shee of her owne accord Shee corne to mortall wights did first afford Sweete fruites beside and food did she bestow Which now with labour great great hardly grow The plough-swanes strength wee spend our oxen weare When we our feildes haue sowne no crop they beare So wax our toyles so waneth our reliefe The husband shakes his head and sighs for griefe That all his travels frustrate are at last And when times present he compares with past Hee his Sires fortune raises to the skie And much doth talke of th' ancient pietie And how though every man lesse ground possest Yet better liu'd with greater plentie blest Nor markes how all things by degrees decay And tir'd with age towards the rocke make way But herein Lucretius likewise contradicted himselfe in other places of the same booke and had the world beene indeede so neare its last breathing as it were and giueing vp of the Ghost as Cyprian would make it in his time much more as Lucretius in his vndoubtedly it could never haue held out by the space of allmost fourteene hundred yeares since the one aboue sixtee ne hundred since the other how long it is yet to last he only knowes who hath put the times and seasons in his owne power SECT 4. The same authority of Cyprian farther answered by opposing against it the authority of Arnobius supported with ponderous and pressing reasons NOw because this authority of Cyprian is it which prevailes so much with so many it shall not bee amisse to oppose therevnto that of Arnobius not naked and standing vpon bare affirmation as doth that of Cyprian but backt with weighty forcible arguments a very renowned both Oratour and Philosopher he was the master of Lactantius and diverse other very notable and famous men and being pressed by the Gentiles of his time with the same objection against Christian religion as was Cyprian by Demetrianus hee shapes vnto it an answere cleane contrary by shewing that all the fundamentall and primordiall parts of the world as the heavens elements remained still entire since the profession of Christian religion as before they were for other calamities of famine and warres and pestilence and the like the common scourges of the world they had beene as great or greater in former ages and that before the name of Christianity was heard of in the world then at that time they were His Latine because the allegation is long and in some places it savours of the Affrican harshnes I will spare and onely set downe the English And first of all in faire and familiar speech this we demaund of these men since the name of Christian religion began to be in the world what vncouth what vnvsuall things what against the Lawes instituted at the beginning hath Nature as they terme call her either felt or suffered Those first Element whereof it is agreed that all things are compounded are they changed into contrary qualities Is the frame of this engine and fabricke which covereth and incloseth vs all in any part loosed or dissolved Hath this wheeling about of Heaven swarving from the rule of its primitiue motion either begun to creepe more slowly or to be carried with headlong volubilitie Doe the Stars begin to raise themselues vp in the West and the Signes to inâ—…line towards the East 〈◊〉 The Prinâ—…e of Stars the Sun whose light clotheth and heat quickneth all things doth hee cease to be hot is he waxen cooler and hath he corrupted the temper of his wonted moderation into contrary Habits Hath the Moone left off to repaire her selfe and by continuall restoring of new to transforme herselfe into her old shapes Are colds are heats are temperate warmths betweene them both by confusion of vnequall times gone Doth Winter beginne to haue long dayes and Summer nights to call backe the slowest lights Haue the winds breathed forth their spirits as having spent their blasts Is not the aire straitned into clowds and doth not the field being moistned with showres wax fruitfull Doth the Earth refuse to receiue the seeds cast into her Will not trees budde forth Haue fruites appointed for food by the burning vp of their moisture changed their tast Doe they presse gore bloud out of oliues Are lights quenched for want of supplie The Creatures enured to the land and that liue in waters doe they not gender and conceiue The young ones conceived in their wombs do they not after their owne manner and order conserue To conclude Men themselues whom their first and beginning nativitie dispersed through the vnhabited coasts of the Earth doe they not with solemne nuptiall rights couple themselues in wedlocke Doe they not beget most sweete ofsprings of children Doe they not manage publicke private and domesticall businesses Doe they not every one as he pleaseth by divers sorts of arts and disciplines direct their wits and studiouslie repay the vse of their nativitie Doe they not reigne do they not commaund to whom it is allotted Doe they not every day more increase in the like dignities and power Doe they not sit in iudgement to heare causes Do they not interpret lawes and
and operatiue bodies and seated in the most eminent roome LIB II. Of the pretended decay of the Heauens and Elements and Elementary Bodies Man onely excepted CAP. 1. Touching the pretended decay of the Heauenly Bodies SECT 1. First of their working vpon this inferiour World SUch and so great is the wisdome the bounty and the power which Almighty God hath expressed in the frame of the Heauens that the Psalmist might justly say The Heauens declare the glory of God the Sun the Moone the Stars serving as so many silver golden Characters embroidered vpon azure for the daylie preaching and publishing thereof to the World And surely if he haue made the floore of this great House of the World so beautifull and garnished it with such wonderfull variety of beasts of trees of hearbes of flowres we neede wonder the lesse at the magnificence of the roofe which is the highest part of the World and the neerest to the Mansion House of Saints and Angels Now as the excellencie of these Bodies appeares in their situation their matter their magnitudes and their Sphericall or Circular figure so specially in their great vse and efficacy not onely that they are for signes and seasons and for dayes yeares but in that by their motion their light their warmth influence they guide and gouerne nay cherish and maintaine nay breed beget these inferiour bodies euen of man himselfe for whose sake the Heauens were made It is truly said by the Prince of Philosophers Sol homo generant hominem the Sunne and man beget man man concurring in the generation of man as an immediate and the Sunne as a remote cause And in another place he doubts not to affirme of this inferiour World in generall Necesse est mundum inferiorem superioribus lationibus continuari ut omnis inde virtus derivetur it is requisite that these inferiour parts of the World should bee conjoyned to the motions of the higher Bodies that so all their vertue and vigour from thence might be derived There is no question but that the Heauens haue a marvailous great stroake vpon the aire the water the earth the plants the mettalls the beasts nay vpon Man himselfe at leastwise in regard of his body and naturall faculties so that if there can be found any decay in the Heauens it will in the course of Nature and discourse of reason consequently follow that there must of necessity ensue a decay in all those which depend vpon the Heauens as likewise on the other side if there be found no decay in the Heauens the presumption will be strong that there is no such decay as is supposed in these Subcaelestiall Bodies because of the great sympathy and correspondence which is knowne to be betweene them by many and notable experiments For to let passe the quailing and withering of all things by the recesse and their reviving and resurrection as it were by the reaccesse of the Sunne I am of opinion that the sap in trees so precisely followes the motion of the Sunne that it neuer rests but is in continuall agitation as the Sun it selfe which no sooner arriues at the Tropick but he instantly returnes and euen at that very instant as I conceiue and I thinke it may be demonstrated by experimentall conclusions the sappe which by degrees descended with the declination of the Sun begins to remount at the approach thereof by the same steps that it descended and as the approach of the Sunne is scarce sensible at his first returne but afterward the day increases more in one weeke then before in two in like manner also fares it with the sap in plants which at first ascends insensibly and slowly but within a while much more swiftly and apparantly It is certaine that the Tulypp Marigold and Sun-flowre open with the rising and shut with the setting of the Sunne So that though the Sunne appeare not a man may more infallibly know when it is high noone by their full spreading then by the Index of a Clock or Watch. The hop in its growing winding it selfe about the pole alwayes followes the course of the Sunne from East to West and can by no meanes bee drawne to the contrary choosing rather to breake then yeeld It is obserued by those that sayle betweene the Tropicks that there is a constant set winde blowing from the East to the West saylers call it the Breeze which rises and falls with the Sunne and is alwayes highest at noone and is commonly so strong partly by its owne blowing and partly by ouer-ruling the Currant that they who saile to Peru cannot well returne home the same way they came forth And generally Marriners obserue that caeter is paribus they sayle with more speed from the East to the West then backe againe from the West to the East in the same compasse of time All which should argue a wheeling about of the aire and waters by the diurnall motion of the Heauens and specially by the motion of the Sunne Whereunto may be added that the high Seasprings of the yeare are alwayes neere about the two Aequinoctials and Solstices and the Cock as a trusty Watchman both at midnight and breake of day giues notice of the Sunnes approach These be the strange and secret effects of the Sunne vpon the inferiour Bodies whence by the Gentiles hee was held the visible God of the World and tearmed the Eye thereof which alone saw all things in the World and by which the World saw all things in it selfe Omma qui videt per quem videt omnia mundus And most notablely is he described by the Psalmist in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun which is as a bridegroome comming out of his chamber rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race His going forth is from the end of the Heauen and his circuite vnto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof Now as the effects of the Sun the head-spring of light and warmth are vpon these inferiour Bodies more actiue so those of the Moone as being Vltima coelo Citima terris neerer the Earth and holding a greater resemblance therewith are no lesse manifest And therefore the husbandman in sowing setting graffing and planting lopping of trees felling of timber and the like vpon good reason obserues the waxing waning of the Moone which the learned Zanchius well allows of commending Hesiod for his rules therein Quod Hesiodus ex Lune decrementis incrementis totius agricolationis signa notet quis improbet who can mislike it that Hesiod sets downe the signes in the whole course of husbandry from the waxing and waning of the Moone The tydes and ebbes of the Sea follow the course of it so exactly as the Sea-man will tell you the age of the Moone onely vpon the sight of the tide as certainly as if he saw it in the water It is the observation of Aristotle
of Pliny out of him that oysters and mussels and cockles and lobsters crabbs and generally all shell-fish grow fuller in the waxing of the Moon but emptier in the waning thereof Such a strong predominancie it hath euen vpon the braine of Man that Lunatikes borrow their very name from it as also doth the stone Selenites whose property as S. Augustine and Georgius Agricola record it is to increase and decrease in light with the Moone carrying alwayes the resemblance thereof in it selfe Neither can it reasonably be imagined that the other Planets and starrs and parts of Heauen are without their forcible operations vpon these lower Bodies specially considering that the very plants and hearbes of the Earth which we tread vpon haue their seueral vertues as well single by themselues as in composition with other ingredients The Physitian in opening a veine hath euer an eye to the signe then raigning The Canicular star specially in those hotter Climates was by the Ancients alwayes held a dangerous enemy to the practise of Physick and all kind of Evacuations Nay Galen himselfe the Oracle of that profession adviseth practitioners in that Art in all their Cures to haue a speciall regard to the reigning Constellations Coniunctions of the Planets But the most admirable mystery of Nature in my mind is the turning of yron touched with the loadstone toward the North-pole of which I shall haue farther occasion to intreate more largely in the Chapter touching the Comparison of the wits inventions of these times with those of former ages Neither were it hard to add much more to that which hath beene said to shew the dependance of these Elementary Bodies vpon the heauenly Almighty God hauing ordained that the higher should serue as intermediate Agents or secondary Causes betweene himselfe and the lower And as they are linked together in a chaine of order so are they likewise chained together in the order of Causes but so as in the wheeles of a Clocke though the failing in the superior cannot but cause a failing in the inferiour yet the failing of the inferiour may well argue though it cannot cause a failing in the superiour We haue great reason then as I conceiue to begin with the Examination of the state of Coelestiall bodies in as much as vpon it the conditionof the subcoelestiall wholly de-pends Wherein fiue things offer themselues to our consideration Their substance their motion their light their warmth and their influence SECT 2. Touching the pretended decay in the substance of the Heavens TO finde out whether the substance of the heavenly bodies bee decayed or no it will not be amisse a little to inquire into the nature of the matter and forme of which that substance consists that so it may appeare whether or no in a naturall course they be capable of such a supposed decay That the Heavens are endued with some kinde of matter though some Philosophers in their jangling humour haue made a doubt of it yet I thinke no sober and wise Christian will deny it But whether the matter of it bee the same with that of these inferiour bodies adhuc sub Iudice lis est it hath beene and still is a great question among Diuines The ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Primitiue Church for the most part following Plato hold that it agrees with the matter of the Elementary bodies yet so as it is compounded of the finest flower and choisest delicacy of the Elements But the Schoolemen on the other side following Aristotle adhere to his Quintessence and by no meanes will bee beaten from it since say they if the Elements and the heauens should agree in the same matter it should consequently follow that there should bee a mutuall traffique and commerce a reciprocall action and passion betweene them which would soone draw on a change and by degrees a ruine vpon those glorious bodies Now though this point will neuer I thinke bee fully and finally determined till wee come to be Inhabitants of that place whereof wee dispute for hardly doe wee guesse aright at things that are vpon earth and with labour doe wee find the things that are at hand but the things which are in heaven who hath searched out Yet for the present I should state it thus that they agree in the same originall mater and surely Moses mee thinkes seemes to favour this opinion making but one matter as farre as I can gather from the text out of which all bodily substances were created Vnus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe So as the heavens though they bee not compounded of the Elements yet are they made of the same matter that the Elements are compounded of They are not subject to the qualities of heat or cold or drought or moisture nor yet to weight or lightnes which arise from those qualities but haue a forme giuen them which differeth from the formes of all corruptible bodies so as it suffereth not nor can it suffer from any of them being so excellent and perfect in it selfe as it wholy satiateth the appetite of the matter it informeth The Coelestiall bodies then meeting with so noble a forme to actuate them are not nor cannot in the course of nature bee lyable to any generation or corruption in regard of their substance to any augmentation or diminution in regard of their quantity no nor to any destructiue alteration in respect of their qualities I am not ignorant that the controversies touching this forme what it should bee is no lesse then that touching the matter Some holding it to bee a liuing and quickning spirit nay a sensitiue and reasonable soule which opinion is stiffely maintained by many great learned Clarks both Iewes and Gentiles Christians supposing it vnreasonable that the heavens which impart life to other bodies should themselues bee destitute of life But this errour is notablely discovered and confuted by Claudius Espencaeus a famous Doctor of the Sorbone in a Treatise which hee purposely composed on this point In as much as what is denied those bodies in life in sense in reason is abundantly supplied in their constant vnchangeable duration arising from that inviolable knot indissoluble marriage betwixt the matter the forme which can never suffer any divorce but from that hand which first joyned them And howbeit it cannot be denied that not only the reasonable soule of man but the sensitiue of the least gnat that flies in the aire and the Vegetatiue of the basest plant that springs out of the earth are in that they are indued with life more divine and neerer approaching to the fountaine of life then the formes of the heavenly bodies yet as the Apostle speaking of Faith Hope and Charity concludes Charity to bee the greatest though by faith wee apprehend and apply the merits of Christ because it is more vniversall in operation and lasting in duration so though the formes of the Creatures endued
tempus eam debilitavit Dost not thou see the heavens how faire how spacious they are how bee-spangled with diverse constellations how long now haue they lasted fiue thousand yeares or more are past and yet this long duration of time hath brought no old age vpon them But as a body new and fresh flourisheth in youth So the heavens still retaine their beauty which at first they had neither hath time any thing abated it Some errour or mistake doubtlesse there is in Chrisostomes computation in as much as he lived aboue 1200 yeares since yet tels vs that the world had then lasted aboue 5000 yeares but for the trueth of the matter he is therein seconded by all the schoole divines and among those of the reformed churches none hath written in this point more clearely and fully then Alstedius in his preface to his naturall divinity Tanta est hujus palatij diuturnitas atque firmitas vt ad hodiernum vsque diem supra annos quinquies mille sexcentos ita perstet vt in eo nihil immutatum diminâ—…tum aut vetustate diuturnitate temporis vitiatum conspiciamus Such saith hee and so lasting is the duration and immoveable stability of this palace that being created aboue 5600 yeares agoe yet it so continues to this day that wee can espie nothing in it changed or wasted or disordered by age and tract of time SECT 4. Another obiection taken from Psalme the 102 answered ANother text is commmonly and hotly vrged by the Adverse part to like purpose as the former and is in truth the onely argument of weight drawne from Scripture in this present question touching the heavens decay in regard of their Substance In which consideration wee shall bee inforced to examine it somewhat the more fully Taken it is from the hundred and second Psalme and the wordes of the Prophet are these Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth the heavens are the worke of thine handes They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall waxe old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall haue no end To which very place vndoubtedly the Apostle alludes in the first to the Hebrewes where he thus renders it Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the workes of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them vp and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall not faile In which passages the words which are most stood vpon and pressed are those of the growing old of the heavens like a garment which by degrees growes bare till it bee torne in peeces and brought to ragges S. Augustine in his Enarration vpon this Psame according to his wont betakes him to an Allegoricall Exposition interpreting the heavens to bee the Saints and their bodies to bee their garments wherewith the soule is cloathed And these garments of theirs saith hee waxe old and perish but shall be changed in the resurrection and made comformable to the glorious body of Iesus Christ. Which exposition of his is pious I confesse but surely not proper since the Prophet speakes of the heavens which had their beginning together with the earth and were both principall peeces in the great worke of the Creation Neither can the regions of the aire be here well vnderstood though in some other places they bee stiled by the name of the heavens since they are subiect to continuall variation and change and our Prophets meaning was as it should seeme to compare the Almighties vnchangeable eternity with that which of all the visible Creatures was most stable and stedfast And besides though the aire bee indeed the worke of Gods hands as are all the other Creatures yet that phrase is in a speciall manner applied to the starry heavens as being indeed the most exquisite and excellent peece of workemanship that ever his hands fram'd It remaines then that by heavens heere wee vnderstand the lights of heaven thought by Philosophers to bee the thicker parts of the spheres together with the spheres themselues in which those lights are fixed and wheeled about For that such spheres and orbes there are I take it as granted neither will I dispute it though I am not ignorant that some latter writers thinke otherwise and those neither few in number nor for their knowledge vnlearned But for the true sense of the place alleadged wee are to know that the word there vsed to wax old both in Hebrew Greeke Latin doth not necessarily imply a decay or impairing in the subject so waxing old but somtimes doth only signifie a farther step accesse to a finall period in regard of duration Wee haue read of some who being well striken in yeares haue renewed their teeth and changed the white colour of their haire and so growne yong againe Of such it might truly be sayd that they grew elder in regard of their neerer approch to the determinate end of their race though they were yonger in regard of their constitution and state of their bodies And thus do I take the Apostle to be vnderstood that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away where hee speakes of the Ceremoniall law which did not grow old by degrees at least before the incarnation of Christ but stood in its full force and vigour vntill it was by him abrogated and disanulled To which purpose Aquinas hath not vnfitly observed vpon the place Quod dicitur vetus significat quod sit prope cessationem the tearming of a thing old implies that it hastens to an end This then as I take it may truly be affirmed of the signification of the word in generall and at large and may justly seeme to haue been the Prophets meaning in as much as he addeth But thou art the same and thine yeares shall haue no end From whence may be collected that as God cannot grow old because his yeares shall haue no end so the heavens because they shall haue an end may be therefore sayd to grow old But whereas it is added not only by the Psalmist but by the Apostle in precise tearmes They shall wax old as doth a garment and againe as a Vesture shalt thou change them the doubt still remaines whether by that addition the sense of the word bee not restrained to a graduall and sensible decay I know it may be sayd that a garment waxing old not only looses his freshnesse but part of his quantitie and weight it is not only soyled but wasted either in lying or wearing so in continuance of time becomes vtterly vnserviceable which no man I think will ascribe to the heavens I meane that their quantity is any way diminished All agree then that the Similitude may be strained too
apud parentes nostros fuerunt dies laetiores fuerunt dies meliores O si interrogares ipsos parentes tuos similiter tibi de diebus suis murmurarent Fuerunt beati Patres nostri nos miseri sumus malos dies habemus Doe you not daily murmurre and thus say how long shall wee suffer these things All things grow worse worse Our Fathers saw better merrier dayes But I wish thou would'st aske the question of thy Fathers thou shalt finde them murmurre likewise in regard of their daies saying Oh our Fathers were happy wee miserable wee see nothing but badde dayes But had this complaint beene as true as ancient as just as vsuall in all ages wee had not beene left at this day to renue it wee should by this time haue had no weather to ripen our corne or fruites in any tollerable manner For my selfe then mine opinion is that men for the most part being most affected with the present more sensible of punishments then of blessings growing in worldly cares consequently in discontent as they grow in yeares and experience they are thereby more apt to apprehend crosses then comforts to repine murmurre for the one then to returne thankes for the other Whence it comes to passe that vnseasonable weather the like crosse accidents are printed in our memories as it were with red letters in an Almanacke but for seasonable faire there stands nothing but a blanke the one graven in is brasse the other written in water SECT 3. Of contagious diseases and specially the plague both heere at home and abroad in former ages NOW for contagious diseases specially the plague it selfe it is well known that this land hath now by Gods favour been in a mannerall together free from it since the first yeare of his Majesties raigne whereas heretofore it hath commonly every seaven or eight yeares at farthest spread it selfe through the greatest part of the land and swept away many thousands in the yeare one thousand three hundred forty eight it was so hot in Wallingford a Towne of Barkeshire that in a manner it dispeopled the Towne reducing their twelue Churches to one or two which they now only retaine In London it had so sharpe and quick an edge and mowed downe such multitudes that within the space of twelue moneths there were buried in one Churchyard commonly called the Cistersians or Charterhouse aboue fifty thousand They writ further that through the kingdome it made such a ravage as it tooke away more then halfe of men Church-yards could not suffice to burie the dead new grounds are purchased for that purpose And it is noted that there died onely in London betweene the first of Ianuary and the first of Iuly 57374. Other Citties and townes suffering the like according to their portions The earth being every where filled with graues and the aire with cries In the tenth yeare likewise of Edward the second there was so great a pestilence and generall sickenesse of the common sort caused by the ill nutriment they receiued as the liuing scaree sufficed to bury the dead Now if wee cast our eyes abroad vnder the Emperours Vibius Gallus Volutianus his son about two hundred fiftie yeares after Christ there arose a plague in Ethiopia which by degrees spread it selfe into all the provinces of the Romane Empire and lasted by the space of fitteene yeares together without any intermission and so great was the mortallity that in Alexandria as Dyonisius himselfe at that very time Bishop of that sea reports it there was not one house of the whole citty free the whole remainder of the inhabitants did not equall the number of old men in former times By meanes whereof S. Cyprian Bishop of Carthage who liued in the same age tooke occasion to write that his excellent Treatise de Mortalitate And Lypsius his censure of this pestilence is Non alia vnquam maior lues mihi lecta spatio temporum siue terrarum I neuer read of a more greivous contagion whether wee regard the long lasting or the large spreading thereof Yet was that certainely for the time more impetuous and outragious vnder Iustinian the fiercenes whereof was such that onely in Constantinople and the places neere adjoyning therevnto it cut off at least fiue thousand sometimes tenne thousand persons in one day Which my selfe should hardly bee drawne either to report or to beleeue but that I finde it recorded by faithfull Historiographers of those times Neither lesse wonderfull was that pestilence in Africa which snatcht away onely in Numidia Octingenta hominum millia saith Orosius eight hundred thousand men Or that vnder Michael Duca in Greece which was so sharpe and violent Vt viui prorsus pares non essent mortais sepeliendis they bee the words of Zonaras the liuing were no way sufficient to burie the dead But that which scourged Italy in Petrarches time in the yeare one thousand three hundred fiftie nine as himselfe relates it in my minde exceedes all hitherto spoken of there being scarely left aliue tenne ofa thousand thorow the whole countrey Whereby the way I cannot let passe that vnder David though by most Diuines held to bee supernaturall and miraculous in which there died of the people seuenty thousand men within the space of three dayes Now for other infectious â—…idemicall diseases in former ages Pasquier assignes a whole chapter to them which hee thus intitles Des maladies qui ont seulement vnifois Cours par La disposition de L' air Of those diseases which haue but once had their course through the distemper of the aire Heere with vs wee haue not heard of late dayes of any such diseases as the shaking of the sheetes or the sweating sickenesse touching which it is very memorable that Mr Camdem hath deliuered in his description of Shrewesbury as for the cause thereof saith hee let others search it out for my own part I haue obserued that this malady hath run through England thrise in the ages afore-going yet I doubt not but long before also it did the like although it were not recorded in writing First in the yeare of our Lord 1485 in which King Henry the seventh first began his raigne a little after the great Coniunction of the superiour Planets in Scorpio A second time yet more mildly although the Plague accompanied it in the 33d yeare after Anno 1518 vpon a great opposition of the same Planets in Scorpio Taurus at which time it plagued the Netherlands and high Almany also Last of all 33 yeares after that againe in the yeare 1551 when another Coniunction of those Planets in Scorpio tooke their effects so that by Gods goodnes for the space now of these last seuenty three yeares wee haue not felt that disease Twise thirty three yeares more and the same Coniunction and opposition of the Planets haue passed ouer yet it hath
waues to shoreward roll And againe Omnia ventorum concurrere praelia vidi I saw the windes all combating together Such a winde it seemes was that which smote at once all the foure corners of the house of Iobs eldest sonne Let any who is desirous to inquire into and compare things of this nature but reade what is recorded in the Turkish history of two wonderfull great stormes the one by land in Sultania set downe in the entrance of Solymans life the other at Algiers not farre from the mi'dst of the same life at Charles the 5th his comming thither as also at his parting from thence and I presume hee will admire nothing in this kinde that hath falne out in these latter times Vidi ego saith Bellarmine quòd nisi vidissem non crederem à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem eamque delatam super pagum quendam vt fovea altissima conspiceretur vnde terra eruta fuerat pagus totus coopertus quasi sepultus manserit ad quem terra illa deuenerat I my selfe haue seene which if I had not seene I should not haue beleeued a very great quantity of earth digged out and taken vp by the force of a strong winde and carried vpon a village thereby so that there remained to be seene a great empty hollownes in the place from whence it was lifted and the village vpon which it lighted was in a manner all couered ouer buried in it This example I confessâ—… could not be long since since Bellarmine professes that himselfe saw it Yet it might well be some skores of yeares before our last great windes which notwithstanding by some for want of reading and experience are thought to bee vnmatchable And I know not whether that outragious winde which happened in London in the yeare 1096. during the reigne of William Rufus might not well bee thought to paralell at least this recorded by Bellarmine It bore downe in that City alone six hundred houses blew off the roofe of Bow Church which with the beames were borne into the aire a great heigth six whereof being 27 foote long with their fall were driuen 23 foote deepe into the ground the streetes of the citty lying then vnpaued And in the fourth yeare of the same King so vehement a lightning which as hath beene said is of the same matter with the winde pierced the steeple of the Abbay of Winscomb in Glostershire that it rent the beames of the roofe cast downe the Crucisixe brake off his right legge and withall ouerthrew the image of our Lady standing hard by leauing such a stench in the Church that neither incense holy-water nor the singing of the Monkes could allay it But it is now more then time I should descend a steppe lower from the aire to the water CAP. 8. Touching the pretended decay of the waters and the fish the inhabiters thereof SECT 1. That the sea and riuers and bathes are the same at this present as they were for many ages past or what they loose in one place or time they recouer in another THough the Psalmist tell vs that the Lord hath founded the earth vpon the Seas and established it vpon the flouds because for the more commodious liuing of man and beasts hee hath made a part of it higher then the seas or at least-wise restrained them from incursion vpon it so as now they make but one intire Globe yet because the waters in the first Creation couered the face of the earth I will first begin with them The mother of waters the great deepe hath vndoubtedly lost nothing of her ancient bounds or depth but what is impaired in one place is againe restored to her in another The riuers which the Earth sucked from her by secret veines it renders backe againe with full mouth the vapours which the Sunne drawes vp empty themselues againe into her bosome The purest humour in the Sea the Sun Exhales in th' Aire which there resolu'd anon Returnes to water descends againe By sundry wayes into his mother maine Her motions of ebbing flowing of high springs and dead Neapes are still as certaine constant as the changes of the Moone and course of the Sunne Her natiue saltnes by reason thereof her strength for the better supporting of navigable vessells is still the same And as the Sea the mother of waters so likewise the rivers the daughters thereof â—…ither hold on their wonted courses and currents or what they haue diminished in one age or place they haue againe recompenced and repayed in another as Srâ—…bo hath well expressed it both of the sea and rivers Quoniam omnia moventur transmutantur aliter talia ac tanta administrari non possent existimandum est nec terram ita semper permanere vt semper tanta sit nec quicquam sibi addatur aut adimatur sed nec aquam nec candem sedem semper ab istis obtineri presertim cum transmutatio ejus cognata sit ac naruralis quiniâ—…ò terrae multum in aquam convertitur aquae multum in terram transmutatur Quare minime mirandum est si eas terrae partes quae nunc habitantur olim mare occupabat quae pelagus sunt prius habitabantur Quemadmodum de fontibus alios deficere contingit alios relaxari item flumina lacus Because thnigs moue and are changed without which such and so great matters could not well be disposed we are to thinke that the earth doth not remaine alwayes in the same state without addition or diminution neither yet the water as if they were alwayes bounded within the same lists specially seeing their mutuall chang is naturall kindly but rather that much earth is turned into water coÌ„trarywise no lesse water in to earth it is not theÌ„ to be wondered at if that part of the earth which is now habitable was formerly overflowed with water and that againe which now is sea was sometimes habitable as among fountaines some are dried vp and some spring forth afresh which may also be verified of rivers and lakes wherewith accordes that of the Poet. Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago Chonchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis Quodque fuit campus vallem decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis Quaeque sitim tulerant stagnata paludibus hument Hic fontes natura nouos emisit et illic Clausit antiquis tam multa tremoribus orbis Flumina prosiliunt aut exsiccata residunt What was firme land sometimes that haue I seen Made sea and what was sea made land againe On mountaine tops old anchours found haue been And sea fish shells to lie farre from the maine Plaines turne to vales by
that some old houses heretofore fairely built be now almost buried vnder ground and their windowes heretofore set at a reasonable height now growen euen with the pauement So some write of the triumphall Arch of Septimius at the foote of the Capitol mountaine in Rome now almost couered with earth in somuch as they are inforced to descend downe into it by as many staires as formerly they were vsed to ascend whereas contrariwise the Romane Capitoll it selfe seated on the mountaine which hanges ouer it as witnesseth George Agricola discouers its foundation plainely aboue ground which without question were at the first laying thereof deepe rooted in the earth whereby it apppeares that what the mountaine looseth the valley gaines and consequently that in the whole globe of the earth nothing is lost but onely remoued from one place to another so that in processe of time the highest mountaines may be humbled into valleyes and againe the lowest valleyes exalted into mountaines If ought to nought did fall All that is felt or seene within this all Still loosing somewhat of it selfe at length Would come to nothing if death's fatall strength Could altogether substances destroy Things then should vanish euen as soone as die In time the mighty mountaines tops be bated But with their fall the neighbour vales are fatted And what when Trent or Avon overflow They reaue one field they on the next bestow And whereas another Poet tels vs that Eluviemons est diductus in aequor The mountaine by washings oft into the sea is brought It is most certaine and by experience found to be true that as the rivers daily carrie much earth with them into the sea so the sea sends backe againe much slime and sand to the earth which in some places and namely in the North part of Deuonshire is found to bee a marveilous great commoditie for the inriching of the soyle Now as the Earth is nothing diminished in regard of the dimensions the measure thereof from the Surface to the Center being the same as it was at the first Creation So neither is the fatnes fruitfulnes thereof at least-wise since the flood or in regard of duration alone any whit impaired though it haue yeelded such store of increase by the space of so many reuolutions of ages yet hee that made it continually reneweth the face thereof as the Psalmist speakes by turning all things which spring from it into it againe Saith one Cuncta suos ortus repetunt matremque requirunt And another E terris orta terra rursus accipit And a third joynes both together Quapropter merito maternum nomen adepta est Cedit enim retro de terra quod fuit ante In terras And altogether they may thus not vnfitly be rendred All things returne to their originall And seeke their mother what from earth doth spring The same againe into the earth doth fall Neither doe they heerein dissent from Syracides with all manner of liuing things hath hee couered the face of the earth and they shall returne into it againe And that doome which passed vpon the first man after the fall is as it were ingraven on the foreheads not onely of his posterity but of all earthly Creatures made for their sakes Dust thou art and vnto dust shalt thou returne As the Ocean is mainetained by the returne of the rivers which are drayned deriued from it So is the earth by the dissolution and reuersion of those bodies which from it receiue their growth and nourishment The grasse to feede the beasts the corne to strengthen and the wine to cheere the heart of man either are or might bee both in regard of the Earth Heauens as good and plentifull as euer That decree of the Almighty is like the Law of the Medes Persians irreuocable They shall bee for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares And againe Heereafter seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease so long as the Earth remaineth And were there not a certainety in these reuolutions so that In se sua per vestigia voluitur annus The yeare in its owne steps into in selfe returnes It could not well be that the Storke and the Turtle the Crane and the Swallow and other fowles should obserue so precisely as they doe the appointed times of their comming and going And whereas it is commonly thought and beleeued that the times of the yeare are now more vnseasonable then heeretofore and thereby the fruites of the Earth neither so faire nor kindely as they haue beene To the first I answere that the same complaint hath beene euer since Salomons time Hee that observeth the winde shall not sow and he that regardeth the clowdes shall not reape By which it seemes the weather was euen then as vncertaine as now and so was likewise the vncertaine and vnkindely riping of fruites as may appeare by the words following in the same place In the morning sow thy seede and in the euening let not thy hand rest for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether both shall bee alike good And if sometimes wee haue vnseasonable yeares by reason of excessiue wet and cold they are againe paid home by immoderate drought and heate if not with vs yet in our neighbour countries and with vs. I thinke no man will bee so vnwise or partiall as to affirme that there is a constant and perpetuall declination but that the vnseasonablenes of some yeares is recompensed by the seasonablenes of others It is true that the erroneous computation of the yeare wee now vse may cause some seeming alteration in the seasons thereof in processe of time must needes cause a greater if it bee not rectified but let that errour be reformed and I am perswaded that communibus annis we shall finde no difference from the seasons of former ages at leastwise in regard of the ordinary course of nature For of Gods extraordinary judgements we now dispute not who sometimes for our sinnes emptieth the botles of heaven incessantly vpon vs and againe at other times makes the heavens as brasse ouer our heads and the earth as yron vnder our feete SECT 2. Another obiectiòn to uching the decay of the fruitfulnes of the holy land fully answered WHen I consider the narrow bounds of the land of Canaan it being by S. Hieromes account who liued long there but 160 miles in length from Dan to Bersheba and in bredth but 40 from Ioppa to Bethleem and withall the multitude incredible were it not recorded in holy Scripture both of men cattell which it fedde there meeting in one battle betweene Iudah Israel twelue hundred thousand chosen men Nay the very sword-men beside the Levites and Benjamites were vpon strict inquirie found to be fifteene hundred and seuentie thousand whereof the youngest was twenty yeares old there being none
which the first founder of the world blessed with perpetuall fruitfullnesse is affected with barrennesse as a kind of disease neither is it the part of a wise man to think that the Earth which being indued with a divine and aeternall youth is deservedly tearmed the Common Parent of all things inasmuch as it both doth and hereafter shall bring all things forth is now waxen old like a man so as that which hath befalne vs I should rather impute it to our owne default then to the vnseasonablenesse of the weather inasmuch as wee commit the charg of our husbandry to the basest of our slaues as it were to a publique executioner whereas the very best of our ancestours with most happy successe vnderwent that charge themselues and performed that worke with their owne hands Now Sylvinus to whom he dedicated his workes having received and read this resolute assertion by reason he knew it to be against the common tenet and specially of one Tremellius vpon whose judgment it seemed he much relyed made a Quaere thereof sent it to Columella to which in the very first chapter of his second booke he returnes answer with this title title prefixed Terram nec senescere nec fatigari si stercoretur That the earth is neither wearied nor waxeth old if it be made And then thus goes on Queris à me Publi Sylvine quod ego sine cunctatione non recuso docere cur priori libro veterem opinionem fere omnium qui de cultu agrorum loquuti sunt à principio confestim repulerim falsamque sententiam repudiaverim censentium longo aevi situ longique jam temporis exercitatione fatigatam effoetam humum consenuisse You demaund a question of mee Sylvinus which I will endevour to answer without delay which is why in my former booke presently in the very entrance I haue rejected the ancient opiniō almost of all who haue written of husbandry haue cast of their imagination as false who conceiue that the earth by long tracte of time and much vsage is growne old and fruitles where he is so farre from recalling his assertion or making any doubt of the certaine truth thereof that hee labours farther to strengthen it with new supplies of reasons and at length concludes Non igitur fatigatione quemadmodum plurimi crediderunt nec senio sed nosta scilicet inertia minus benignè nobis arva respondent licet enim maiorem fructum percipere si frequenti tempestiva modica stercoratione terra refoveatur It is not through the tirednesse or age of the earth as many haue beleeued but through our owne negligence that it hath not satisfied vs so bountifully as it hath done For we might receiue more profit from it if it were cherished with frequent and moderate and seasonable dressing And with Columella agrees Pliny in the eighteenth booke of his Naturall History third Chapter where discoursing of the great abundance and plenty in fore-going ages and demaunding the reason thereof he therevnto shapes this reply Surely saith he the cause was this and nothing else Great Lords and Generals of the field as it should seeme tilled themselues their grounds with their own hands And the Earth again for her part taking no small pleasure as it were to be aired and broken vp Laureato vomere triumphali aratore with ploughs laureat ploughmē triumphant strained her self to yeeld increase to the vttermost Like it is also that these braue men and worthy Personages were as curious in sowing a ground with corne as in setting a battle in aray as diligent in disposing and ordering of their lands as in pitching a field And commonly euery thing that commeth vnder good hands the more neat cleane that the vsage thereof is and the greater paines that is taken about it the better it thriueth and prospereth afterwards And hauing instanced in Attilius Serranus and Quintius Cincinnatus he goes on in this maner But now see how the times be changed they that doe this businesse in the field what are they but bond-slaues fettered condemned malefactors and in a word noted persons such as are branded and marked in their visage with an hot yron yet we forsooth marvaile that the labour of these contemptible slaues and abject villaines doth not render the like profit as that trauell in former ages of great Captaines and Generals of Armies By which it appeares that Columella and Pliny imputed the barrennes of the Earth in regard of former ages if any such were not to any deficiency in the Earth it selfe but to the vnskilfulnes or negligence of such as manured it To which purpose Aelian reports a pretty story of one Mises who presented the Great King Artaxerxes as hee rode through Persia with a Pomegranate of wonderfull bignesse which the King admiring demaunded out of what Paradise he had gotten it who answered that he gathered it from his owne garden the King seemed therewith to bee marvailous well content gracing him with royall gifts swore by the Sunne this man with like diligence and care might aswell in my judgment of a little City make a great one Videtur autem hic sermo innuere saith the Author omnes res curâ continuâ sollicitudine indefesso labore meliores praestantiores quà m Natura producat effici posse It seemes by this that all things by labour and industry may bee made better then Nature produces them And it is certaine that God so ordained it that the industry of man should in all things concurre with the workes of Nature both for the bringing of them to their perfection and for the keeping of them therein being brought vnto it As the Poet speaking of the degenerating of seedes hath truly expressed it Vidi lecta diu multo spectata labore Degenerare tamen ni vis humana quotannis Maxima quaeque manu legeret Oft haue I seene choice seedes and with much labour tryed Eftsoones degenerate vnlesse mans industry Yearely by hand did lease the greatest carefully And this I take to bee the true reason as before hath beene touched why neither so good nor so great store of wine is at this day made in this kingdome as by records seemes to haue beene in former ages the neglect I meane of planting dressing our vines as they might be and at this present are in forraine countreyes and with vs formerly haue beene this neglect hath perchance arisen from hence that we the French being often and long at defiance all friendly commerce ceasing betwixt vs partly to crosse them in the venting of their commodities partly to inrich themselues men were either by publique authority set on worke or they set themselues on worke to try the vtmost of their endeavour in the making of wines but since peace and trade hath beene setled betwixt both kingdomes that practise hath by degrees growne out of vse for that men found by experience that both better wines
better cheape might be had from France then could be made heere and I make no doubt but as tillage with vs so the planting of Vineyards is increased with them and for this reason together with the Causes before alleadged it seemes to be that the French wines are better with vs at this present then they were in the raigne of Edward the second as shall by Gods helpe bee fully manifested in the next Section And that which hath beene spoken of the making of wines may likewise be vnderstood of the making of Bay sale in this kingdome in former ages for which as I am credibly informed records are likewise to be seene for to ascribe either the one or the other to the Sunnes going more Southerly from vs in Summer is in my judgement both vnwarrantable and improbable vnwarrantable as hath already beene shewed in this very booke Cap. 4. Sect 4. improbable for that if this plant should decay for this reason all other plants trees hearbes flowres should consequently partake of the like decay at leastwise in some proportion which our best Physitians and Herbalists haue not yet found to be so nay the contrary is by them avouched and as our wines are in a manner vtterly decayed here so their strength in France in Spaine in Italy in Hungary in Germany should vpon the same supposition be much abated which notwithstanding I haue no-where found to be observed SECT 4. An argument drawne from the present state of husbandmen and another for the many miserable dearths in former ages together with an obiection taken from the high prizes of victuals answered BVt that which farther perswadeth me that neither the goodnes of the soyle nor the seasonablenesse of the weather nor the industry of the husbandman is now inferiour to that of former ages is this that both this fyne and rent being raised his apparell and education of his children more chargeable the rates of publique payments more burdensome yet he fares better and layes vp more money in his purse then vsually in those times he did Besides it is certaine that if we compare time with time the famines of former ages were more grievous then ours I omit those of Ierusalem and Samaria because occasioned by the sieges of those Cities as also those which either Civill warres or forraine invasions hath drawne on Of the rest that of Lypsius is vndoubtedly true Iam de fame nihil profectò nos aut aetas nostra vidimus si videmus antiqua Now touching famine verily we and our age haue seene nothing if wee behold ancient records Vnder the Emperour Honorius so great was the scarcity dearth of victuals in Rome it selfe that in the open market-place this voice was heard Pone pretium humanae carni set a price to mans flesh And long before euen when L. Minutius was made the first over-seer of the graine Livy reports multos è plebe ne diutinâ fame cruciarentur capitibus obvolutis sese in Tyberim praecipitasse That many of the Commons least they should bee tortured with long famine covering their faces cast themselues headlong into Tyber What a miserable dearth was that in Egypt held by the Ancients for abundance of Corne the Granary of the world when for want of bread their greatest Nobles were forced to sell not only their lands but themselues and become bond-slaues to Pharaoh How vniversall was that fore-told by Agabus which also came to passe vnder Claudius Caesar as both Dion and Suetonius beare witnesse to S. Luke But to come nearer home few histories I thinke exceed our owne in this point About the yeare 514 during the raigne of Cissa king of the South-Saxons in his countrey raigned such an extreame famine that both men and women in great flockes and companies cast themselues from rhe rocks into the Sea in the yeare 1314 about the beginning of the reigne of Edward the second the dearth was generally such ouer the land that purposely for the moderation of the prices of victuals a Parliamēt was assembled at London but it increased so vehemently that vpon S. Lawrence Eue there was scarcely bread to be gotten for the sustentation of the Kings owne family And the yeare following it grew so terrible that horses dogges yea men and children were stollen for food and which is horrible to thinke the theeues newly brought into the gaoles were torne in peeces and presently eaten halfe aliue by such as had beene longer there In London it was proclaimed that no Corne should be converted to Brewers vses which Act the King moued with compassion towards his Nation imitating caused to be executed through all the kingdome otherwise saith Walsingham the greater part of the people had perished with penury of bread And againe to conclude this sad discourse in the yeare 1317 in the tenth yeare of the same King there was such a murraine of all kinde of cattell together with a generall fayling of all fruits of the Earth by excessiue raines and vnseasonable weather as provision could not be had for the Kings house nor meanes for other great men to maintaine their Tables Inasmuch as they put away their servants in great numbers who hauing beene daintily bred and now not able to worke skorning to beg fell to robbery and spoyle which added much to the misery of the Kingdome It will be said if the plenty of corne and victuals be as great as in former ages how comes it to passe that their prices are somuch inhanced But if wee compare our prices with those of the ancient Romanes wee shall finde that theirs farre exceeded ours The Romane penny by the consent of the learned and the judgement of our last Translatours in diverse parts of their Marginall notes was the eight part of an ounce accounting fiue shillings to the ounce so that it was worth of our money seven pence halfe penny Now by the testimony of Varro and Macrobius their Peacocks egges which are now of no reckoning with vs were sold with them for fiue Roman pence a peece and the Peacocks themselues for fifty Thrushes and Ousells or blackebirds were commonly sold for three pence a peece Nay Varro mentions one L. Axius a Romane Knight who would not let goe a paire of doues minoris quadringentis denarijs for lesse then foure hundred pence But these insana pretia as Macrobius calls them mad and vnreasonable prices wee shall haue fitter occasion to speake of when wee come to treate of the luxury of the Ancients In the meane time it shall not be amisse to remember what our Saviour tells vs in the Gospell that two Sparrowes or passerculi as Beza renders it were then sold for a farthing thereby implying their great cheapenes Yet for the same money it beeing the tenth part of a Romane penny and answering in value to halfe penny farthing of our coyne more may bee had at this day with vs But
He was there shewed a tooth belonging as it was thought to that St bigger then a mans fist the patterne whereof belike was taken from that huge Colossus made to represent him at the entrance of Nostre-dame in Paris more like a mountaine then a man whereas notwithstanding Baronius professeth in plaine tearmes se non habere quid dicat de Gigantea statura qua pingi consuevit that he knowes not what to say to that Gyantlike stature in which they commonly set him forth But Villauincentius goes farther dubium nemini esse picturam hanc à sanctis Patribus in hunc vsum propriè excogitatum vt Evangelij preconem adumbret that no man neede doubt but that picture was deuised of holy men to shadow forth the preacher of the Gospell who whiles hee lifts vp Christ by his preaching and carries him about to be seene and knowne is indangered in the waues of this world and yet vpheld by the staffe of hope The like tooth is to be seene in the Netherlands pretended to belong to the Gyant of Antwerpe but Goropius Becanus rather thinkes it to be the tooth of an Elephant whose conjecture is therein the more probable for that as witnesseth Verstegan at such time as the famous water passage was digged from Brussells vnto the river of Rupell at Willibrooke there was found the bones of an Elephant the head whereof which is yet reserued himselfe had seene Of latter times it hath beene written and by some strongly auerred that the body of William the Conquerour was found vncorrupt more then foure hundred yeares after it was buried and in length eight foote the former of which could not well be since his tombe being too narrow for the vnbowelled body so say our stories it brake in the laying of it downe for the latter there is as litle shew since they who haue written his life all agree that he was a man of a meane or middle stature though for his limmes actiue strong And for a full confutation of the said fable saith Stow when his restlesse bones which so hardly had obtained intombing did afterwards as vnluckily againe lose it in the yeare of Christ 1562 viz when Chastillion conducting the remnant of those that escaped at the battell of Dreux tooke the citie of Cane certaine sauage souldiers aswell English as others did beat downe vtterly deface the noble Monument of that victorious King pulling out all his bones which some of them spitefully threw away when they could not finde the treasure they falsely surmised had beene laid vp there and others specially the English snatched euery one to haue some peece of them not making any wonder of them as they would haue done if they had exceeded the length bignesse of mens bones of latter yeares whereas indeede there was no such thing noted in them as I haue beene certainely informed saith the same Authour by English men of good credit who were then present eye-witnesses at the spoyle of that Monument bones and brought some part of them into this Realme Theuet likewise in the second Tome of his Cosmographie describing the city of Cane mentioneth the rifling of his Monument but of any such monstrous bones or body there found hee speakes not a word And besides it is most vnreasonable to conceiue that within the compasse of fiue hundred yeares or little more there should be such a wonderfull abatement neither in truth if our measures be the same as then they were is it at all possible SECT 2. Diverse reasons alleadged why such bones might be found in former ages and not now and yet the ordinary stature of mankind remaine the same NOtwithstanding all this I am not so incredulous diffident or so peremptory and daring in this case as is Becanus Non credam illud Orionis apud Plynium licet Lucius Flaccus Metellus qui visum iuisse dicuntur per capita sua iurarent I will not credit that story of Orion reported by Pliny though Flaccus and Metellus who are sayd to see it should sweare by their heads it was true Let vs not wrong Antiquity so farre but deale with them as we desire our posterity should deale with vs Let vs not conceiue they were all either so vaine as to affirme they saw that which they saw not or so weake as not able to distinguish betwixt the figure of the bones of men and those of beasts fishes specially when they found the Sceleton whole and intire Much I graunt might be and no doubt was fained much mistaken much added to truth thorow errour or an itching desire of Hyperbolicall amplifications yet I cannot but beleeue that many of their relations touching this point were true howbeit a diminution of the stature of mankind in generall cannot from thence be sufficiently inforced To let goe then the conceite of Theophrastus Paracelsus that by the influence of the heavens such bones might be bred in certaine tracts veines of the earth I should rather choose to ascribe these superlatiue prodigious shapes to artificiall or supernaturall then to naturall ordinary causes For the former it may be that either great princes out of ambition and desire of honour in succeeding ages or cunning woorkemen out of curiosity haue framed and composed such peeces which posterity discouering might behold with astonishment the infernall spirits thereby to delude men and the sooner to draw them from the knowledge and worship of the true God to Idolatry and superstition haue concurred with them heerein yeelded them their assistance who being able to raise wonderfull tempests in the aire stormes in the sea I see not but they might be as able to compose such frames vnder the earth The wit and art of man may goe farre but being assisted by the Devils helpe it produceth effects almost incredible That insana substructio that huge monstrous peece of worke knowne by the name of Stone-henge neere Amesbery though it be by the Ancients tearmed Chorea Gigantum the Gyants daunce yet shall I neuer thinke that it was performed by the strength of men but rather by some sleights or Engines now vnknowne or by some artificiall composition they being no naturall stones hewen out of the rocke but artificially made of pure sand by some glewy and vnctuous matter knit and incorporated together as Camden seemes to conjecture or whether Merlin as the common saying is brought them thither reared disposed them in that order by Magicke and the helpe of Deuills I will not take vpon me to determine howsoeuer it were it is doubtles a worke for admiration nothing inferiour to the greatest Sceleton or frame of bones that was euer yet discouered And for teeth I make no question but they may by meere art be made so liuely to resemble the naturall teeth of men that the wisest will hardly be able to distinguish the counterfeite from the naturall But that which I rather
dixi Cyprianus videtur statuere Sed quare â—…on tam facile assentiar causam attuli quia de mensurâ quam Gellius definivit hodie nihil propemodum videam immutatum If I were demaunded whether I thinke that mens bodies since the floud are decreased in regard of those before the floud happily I should grant it but that since the floud downward to this our present age they should still decrease that would I not easily yeeld specially observing those words which Aulus Gellius hath in his third booke where hee sayth that the measure of growth in mans body is to seaven foote which at this day seemes to be the heigth of those of the tallest stature yet to conceale nothing wee read indeede in the fourth booke and toward the end of the fifth chapter in the apocryphall Esdras that our bodies are lesse then they were and that still they shall be lessened more more in asmuch as nature is euery day weakened more then other and the same opinion as I said before seemes to be approved by Cyprian but why I cannot easily yeeld assent therevnto I haue giuen my reason because I find litle or nothing abated of that measure which Gelliâ—… defined Plinyes words I must confesse are more round and resolute In plenum autem cuncto mortalium generi minorem staturam indies fieri propemodum observatur rarosque patribus proceriores consumente vbertatem seminum exustione in cuius vices nunc vergat aevum which is thus rendred by Philemon Holland Doctor in Physicke whose Latin Copy differed it seemes somewhat from mine or he added somewhat of his owne This is obserued for an vndoubted truth that generally all men come short of the full stature in times past decrease every day more then other seldome shall we see the sonne taller then his father for the ardent heate of the Elementary fire wherevnto the world inclineth already now toward the latter end as sometimes it stood much vpon the watery Element devoureth consumeth that plentifull humor and moisture of naturall seede that ingenâ—…eth all things and this appeareth by these examples following And then hauing brought the examples of Orion and Orestes he adds Iam verò ante annos prope mille vates ille Homerus non cessavit minora corpora mortalium quà m prisca conqueri And verily that great and famous Poet Homer who liued almost a thousand yeares agoe complained and gaue not ouer that mens bodies were lesse of stature euen then then in old time But if I bee not mistaken this assertion of Plinyes directly crosseth himselfe in the very entrance of his Naturall History where he thus begins Mundum hoc quod nomine alio calum appellaâ—…e libuit cuius circumflexu tegâ—…ntur cuncta numen esse credi par est aeternum immensum neque genitum neque interiturum vnquam The world and this which by another name men haue thought good to call Heaven beleeue we ought in all reason to be a God without beginning likewise Endlesse If the world be Endlesse how doth it suffer a perpetuall decrease and if it suffer any such decrease how is it endlesse Againo holding a decrease in stature I see not how he can well avoide a diminution likewise in age which notwithstanding in other places he seemes to deny or at leastwise hauing in sundry seuerall Chapters faire occasion offered doth not maintaine but rather chuseth to passe it ouer in silence as being thereof some what doubtfull Besides how the ardent heate of the Elementary fire should cause any such decay I cannot for my part conceiue since that heat for any thing we find is not increased since the first Creation and this supposed decay is commonly attributed rather to a deficiencie then an excesse of heat But Pliny who held that the Sun and Starres were nourished by an Elementary moisture must of necessity vpon that supposed though false ground likewise hold a sensible decay in the World inasmuch as that moisture cannot possibly suffice those bodies for food And thus we see how in this assertion he both plainly crosseth himself and builds it vpon a sandy foundation He was doubtlesse an admirable Man in that which he vndertooke the Historicall part of Nature but whether he deserued the like commendation in that which we call the Philosophicall part thereof I leaue it to others to judge and passe to the examination of the testimonies of the Poets But before I descend to the particulars it shall not be amisse a little to consider of the Vanity of their fictions and fables about the Gyants which doubtlesse in part gaue occasion to this common Error touching Mans and the Worlds decay though I verily beleeue that the Poets themselues had a mysticall meaning therein They faigned them to be borne of the Earth to haue a thousand hands and snakes for haires and to wage warre with the Gods Terra feros partus immania monstra Gygantes Edidit ausuros in Iovis ire domum Mille manus illis dedit pro crinibus angues Atque ait in magnos arma movete Deos. Giants wild monsters earth great mother bare Who durst assaile the sacred seat of Iove With thousand hands and snakes insteed of haire Arm'd armes she charg'd them gainst the gods to moue Which warre of the Gyants Cornelius Severus thus elegantly describes Tentavêre nefas olim detrudere mundo Sydera captivique Iovis transferre Gygantes Imperium victo leges imponere Coelo The Gyants did advance their wicked hand Against the stars to thrust them headlong down And robbing Ioue of his Imperiall crowne On conquer'd heauens to lay their proud command But Macrobius his interpretation of this fable is worth the observing Gygantes autem quid aliud fuisse credendum est quà m hominum quandam impiam gentem Deos negantem et ideo existimatam deos è coelesti sede pellere voluisse What otherthing should we imagine those Gyants to haue been but an impious race of men denying the Gods and were therefore said to haue attempted the chasing of them out of Heauen Yet these fables no doubt infected the vulgar as those of Guy of Warwick Bevis of Hampton Corineus and Gog-Magog Robin Hood and little Iohn Amadis of Gaule Pontagruel Gargantua and the like haue since done And therefore Plato banished Poets from his common-wealth and Moses as Philo in his booke of Gyants witnesseth both painting and the statuary Art cosen Germans to Poetry Quod veritatem mendacijs vitient credulis animis per oculos illudentes saith he because they corrupt the truth with lies deceiue credulous mindes by those representations which are presented to their eyes Yet will we not deny them the fauour to heare what they can say for themselues Let Iuvenall then first speake Saxa inclinatis per humum quaesita lacertis Incipiunt torquere domestica seditione Tela nec hunc lapidem quali se Turnus Aiax Et quo Tydides
Besides he made away whosoeuer was valiant or vertuous in Senate in citty in Province without any difference of sexe or age No marvell then that being of a disposition so bloody he fell as a bitter storme vpon the Christians and his cruelty be by S Paule compared to the mouth of a Lyon Nay by reason of that violent persecution which vnder him the Christians endured hee was as witnesseth S. Augustine commonly reputed Anti-Christ But certaine it is that Rome being by his commaund set on fire he falsely accused punished most greevously the innocent Christians for it The second persecution was vnder Domitian whom Tertullian calls Neronis portionem Eusebius â—…aeredem the one a part the other the heire of Nero And Tacitus puts onely this difference betweene them that Nero indeed commaunded cruell murthers but Domitian not only commaunded them but beheld them himselfe What the world was to expect from him appeared in his very entrance to the Empire retyring himselfe euery day into a private closet where he passed his time in killing of flies with a sharp bodkin insomuch that one demaunding who was within with the Emperour Vibius Crispus made answer ne musca quidem not somuch as a flie But from the blood of flies hee proceeded on to the shedding of the blood of men so farre and in so fierce a manner Vt timeas ne Vomer deficiat ne marrae sarcula desint Well might yee doubt Least culters mattocks spades yee soone should be without The Authour of the last and most greivous persecution was Dioclesian whose raging cruelty towards the Christians Lactantius sets forth in liuely colours Nemo hâ—…ius tantae belluae immanitatem potest pro merito describere quae vno loco recubans tamen per totum orbem dentibus ferreis saevit non tantum artus hominum dissipat sed ossa ipsa comminuit in cineres furit ne quis extet sepulturae locus Quaenam illa fâ—…itas quae rabies quae insania est lucem viuis terram morâ—…uis denegasse No man can sufficiently describe the cruelty of this so vnreasonable a beast which lying in one place yet rageth with his iron teeth thorow the world and doth not only scatter the members but breake the bones of men yea shewes his furie vpon their very ashes least there should be found any place for their buriall what rage what madnes what barbarous cruelty is this to deny both the light to the liuing and the earth to the dead Where Lactantius seemes to allude to that fourth namelesse beast of Daniell which was fearefull terrible and very strong it had great yron teeth it devoured and brake in peeces and stamped the residue vnder his feete And though I haue instanced only in these three yet it is certaine that the Authours and Instruments of these persecutions were all of a disposition much alike Of whom the same Lactantius affirmes that they haue borrowed the shapes of beasts and yet were more cruell then they pleasing themselues in this that they were borne men yet had they nothing but the outward figure and lineaments of men For what Caucasus what India what Hircania saith he ever bred or brought forth so cruell and bloody beasts the rage of other beasts ceaseth when their appetite is satisfied their hunger being slaked they grow more mild tame but the rage of these never ceaseth their appetite is never satiated with blood the truth whereof will easily appeare if in the second place we doe but cast our eyes vpon the infinite multitude of innocent Christians that euery where suffered death and for none other cause but only the profession of their religion SECT 3. Secondly in regard of the incredible number of those that suffered OMnis ferè sacro Martyrum cruore orbis infectus est neque vllis vnquam magis bellis exhaustus est saith Sulpitius well nigh the whole world is stayned with the blood of the Martyrs neither was it euer in the like sort emptied by any warres And Gregorie the great almost in the same words totum mundum fratres aspicite Martyribus plenus est jam penè tot qui videamus non sumus quot veritatis testes habemus Deo ergo numerabiles nobis super arenam multiplicati sunt quia quanti sunt à nobis comprehendi non possunt Brethren looke abroad vpon the whole world it is filled with Martyrs we are hardly so many in number to behold them as we haue witnesses of the truth who haue sealed it with their blood in regard of God they are numerable but in regard of vs they are multiplied aboue the sand on the sea shore in asmuch as we cannot comprehend their number And happily those latter words of Gregorie had reference to that of Cyprian himselfe a glorious Martyr in his exhortation to Martyrdome Exuberante postmodum copia virtutis fidei numerari non possunt Martyres Christiani testante Apocalypsi dicente post haec vidi c. The strength of courage and faith afterwards increasing the Christian Martyrs could not be numbred according to that testimonie in the Apooalyps After these things I beheld and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all nations kindreds and people tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lambe cloathed with long white robes and palmes in their handes Wherevnto might be added that other Propheticall passage of the same booke The wine-presse was troden without the cittie and blood came out of the wine-presse vnto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs Which Prophesiâ—… we may well conceiue to haue beene accomplished to the full when the very axes swords of the Executioners were blunted with executions and themselues were forced to giue ouer and sit downe being vtterly wearied therewith when the day failing the bodies of the executed were burnt in the night to giue light to passengers and thirty three Romane Bishops successiuely from S. Peter to Sylvester were all martyred when hundreds thousands yea tenne or twenty thousands were slaughtered at once Lastly when by the testimony of S. Hierome in his Epistle to Chromatius and Heliodorus if it be his there was not a day in the yeare to which aboue fiue thousand might not justly be assigned the Kalends of Ianuarie only excepted Funditur ater vbique cruor crudelis vbique Luctus vbique pauor plurima mortis imago Piteous lamenting dreadfull feare and blood-shed every where And many a ghastly shape of death did euery where appeare SECT 4. Thirdly in regard of the various and divelish meanes and instruments which they devised and practised for the execution or torture of the poore Christians NOw though the Romane cruelty sufficiently appeare in the malice of the principall persecutors of the Christians and the infinite number of Martyrs that suffered yet doubtlesse the various and diuelish
But I hope I shall prepare a way to an easier beleife of that which is past by that which is now to follow touching their luxurie in building apparâ—…ll and other prodigall expences every way sutable to their luxurie in diet if not exceeding it CAP. 8. Of the Romanes excessiue luxurie in building SECT 1. Of their excesse in the great variety of their farre fetcht and deare bought marble THe chiefest materialls of building in which the Romanes most generally exceeded was the great variety of their farre fetcht deere bought Marble of which Pliny as being himselfe an eye-witnesse speakes so feelingly and yet withall so wittily that he best deserues to be heard Though I professe to make choyce of his words as they lie heere there and sute best with the present purpose It now remaines saith he to write of the nature of stones that is to say the principall point of all enormous abuses and the very height of wastfull superfluities For all things else which we haue handled heretofore even to this booke may seeme in some sort to haue beene made for man But as for Mountaines Nature hath framed them for her own selfe partly to strengthen as it were certaine ioints within the veines bowels of the earth partly to tame the violence of great rivers and to breake the force of surging waues inundations of the sea And yet notwithstanding for our wanton pleasures and nothing else wee cut hew we loade and carry away those huge hills and inaccessible rockes which otherwise to passe only over was thought a wonder Our Ancestours in time past reputed it a miracle in a manner prodigious that first Hanniball and afterwards the Cimbrians surmounted the Alpes But now even the same mountaines we pierce through with pickaxe mattocke for to get out thereof an hundred sortes of marble we cleaue the Capes and Promontories we lay them open for the sea to let it in downe we goe with their heads as if we would lay the whole world even and make all levell The mighty mountaines set as limits to bound the frontiers of diverse countreyes and to seperate one nation from another those we transport and carry from their natiue seate Ships we build of purpose for to fraught with marble the cliffes toppes of high hills they carry to and fro amid the waues billowes of the sea Now let every man thinke with himselfe what excessiue prices of these stones he shall heare anon and what monstrous peeces and masses he seeth drawne carried both by land and sea then let him consider withall how much more faire happy a life many a man should haue without all this and how many cannot choose but die for it whensoever they goe about to doe or if I should speake more truly to suffer this enterprise Also for what vse else or pleasure rather but only that they might lie in beds chambers of stones that forsooth are spotted as if they never regarded how the darkenesse of the night bereaveth the one halfe of each mans life of those delights joyes SECT 2. Of their excessiue sumptuousnesse in their temporary or transeunt buildings made only for pastime to last but for a short time NOw their buildings were either private or publique and the publique again either meerly for pleasure or for vse such were their places for civill assemblies their bridges their Aqueducks their draughts vnder ground their market places high wayes these though respectiuely to their severall ends they were very sumptuous yet because they were for publique vse I will not touch but will only insist vpon their excessiue snperfluity cast away vpon those which were only for publique pleasure or the vaine delight of private men Among those that were destined to none other end but game pastime their Theaters Amphitheaters first present themselues to our view and among these the renowned Theater of Scaurus This Scaurus saith Pliny when he was Aedile caused a wonderfull peece of worke to be made and exceeding all that ever haue beene known wrought by mans hand not only those that haue beene erected for a moneth or such a thing but even those that haue beene destined for perpetuity and a Theatre it was The stage had three lofts one aboue another wherein were 360 columnes of marble the base or nethermost part of the stage was all of Marble the middle of glasse an excessiue superfluity neuer heard of before or after as for the vppermost the boards planks floores were gilded the columnes beneath were 40 foot high wanting twaine and betweene these columnes there stood of statues images in brasse to the number of 3000. The Theater it selfe was able to receiue 80000 persons to sit well and at ease As touching the other furniture of this Theater of Scaurus in rich hangings which were cloth of gold painted tables the most exquisite that could bee found Players apparell and other stuffe meet to adorne the stage there was such abundance thereof that there being carried back to his house of pleasure at Tusculum the surplusage thereof ouer and aboue the daintiest part whereof hee had dayly vse at Rome his servants and slaues there vpon indignation for this waste and monstrous superfluities of their Master set the said countrey house on fire and burnt as much as came to an hundred millions of Sesterces Yet was this magnificent peece of building by the testimony of the same Pliny but Temporarium Theatrum a Theater set vp but for a short time And in another place vix vno mense futurum in vsu scarce to indure for a moneth Such a kinde of worke was Caligula his bridge novum inauditum spectaculi genus a new and vnheard of kinde of shew It reached from Putzoll to Bauly three miles and a quarter Hee built it vpon ships in a few dayes and in emulation of Xerxes ouer this hee marched with the Senate and the Souldierie in a triumphant manner and in the view of the people vpon this he feasted and passed the night in dalliance and gaming but like Ionas his gourd it was suddenly vp and suddenly downe Immensum opus perpendenti sed cui laudem vanitas detrahit nam quo fine structum nisi vt destrueretur a marveilous great worke indeed but such as the vanity thereof depriued it of commendation for to what end was it raised but to be demolished thus sported he saith Seneca with the power of the Empire and all in imitation furiosi externi infoeliciter superbi regis of a forraine frentique and vnluckie proud King Of like nature were those buildings set vp by the commaund of Caracalla whom we may not vnfitly or vnjustly call another Caligula Vbicunque hyematurus erat aut etiam putabatur hyematurus cogebantur amphitheatra circos struere et ea ipsa mox diruenda wheresoeuer hee wintred or but intended to winter they were
from hence I beleeue hath chiefely growen in the world so great an admiration of them in many things beyond all succeeding ages and their deserts But certaine it is that never any people vnder the Sunne more daringly chalenged to themselues the toppe of all perfection Nulla vnquam Respub nec maior nec sanctior nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit sayth Livie Never was there any common-wealth more ample or holy or rich in good examples Gentiuâ—… in toto orbe praestantissima vna in omni virtute haud dubie Romana exstitit saith Pliny The Romane Nation hath beene doubtlesse of all others in all kinde of vertue the most excellent Nulla Gens est quae non aut ita subacta sit vt vix exstet aut ita domita vt quiescat aut ita pacata vt victoria nostra imperioque laetatur sayth Tully There is no Nation which either is not so vtterly vanquished as it is extinguished or so mastered as it is quieted or so pacified that it rejoyceth in our victorie and Empire and Claudian Haec est exiguis quae finibus orta tetendit In geminos axes parvaque à sede profecta Dispersit cum sole manus Small were her confines when she first begun Now stretcheth to both poles small her first seat Yet now her hands shee spreadeth with the Sunne This seemed not enough vnto Caecilius against whom Arnobius writes for he sayth that the Romans did Imperiuâ—… suum vltra solis vias prapagare They inlarged their dominion beyond the course of the Sun And Ovid he commeth not a steppe behind them in this their exaggerated amplification For he sayth that if God should looke downe from heaven vpon the earth he could see nothing there without the power of the Romanes Iupiter arce sua totum cum spectet in orbem Nil nisi Romanum quod tueatur habet Yea and as Egesippus recordeth there were many that thought the Romane Empire so great and so largely diffused over the face of the whole earth that they called orbem terrarum orbem Romanum the globe of the earth the globe of the Romanes the whole world the Romane world Hyperbolicall speeches which though Lypsius put off with an animosèmagis quam superbè dicta as arguing rather magnanimitie then ostentation yet Dyonisius Halicarnassaeus somewhat more warily limits them thus Romana vrbs imperat toti terrae quae quidem inaccessa non sit the citty of Rome commaunds the whole earth where it is not inaccessible But Lypsius himselfe more truly quicquid oportunum aut dignum vinci videbatur vicit it overcame whatsoeuer it could well overcome or thought worthy the ouercomming And Macrobius though himselfe a Roman ingenuously acknowledgeth Gangem transnare aut Caucasum transcendere Romà ni nominis fama non valuit The fame of the Romans as great as it was yet was neuer so great as to be able to swimme ouer the Riuer Ganges or climbe ouer the mountaine Caucasus so that euen their fame came short of their swelling amplifications vsed by their Orators and Poets but their Dominion came much shorter as is expressely affirmed by the same Author Totius terrae quae ad coelum puncti locum obtinet minima quaedam particula à nostri generis hominibus possidetur Though the whole Earth compared with the Heauens bee no bigger then a Center in the midst of a Circle yet scarce the least parcell of this little earth did euer come into the hands of the Romans Yet how could a man well devise to say more then Propertius hath said of that City Omnia Romanae cedant miracula terrae Natura hic posuit quicquid vbique fuit All miracles to Rome must yeeld for heere Nature hath treasur'd all what 's euery-where Except Martial perchaunce out-vy him Terrarum Dea gentiumque Roma Cui par est nihil nihil secundum Of Lands and Nations Goddesse Rome and Queene To whom novght peere nought second yet hath beene Which Frontinus seemes to borrow from him but with some addition of his owne Romana vrbs indiges terrarumque Dea cui par est nihil nihil secundum Now saith Crinitus alleaging those words of Frontinus Eos dicimus ferè indigetes qui nullius rei egeant id enim est tantum Deorum wee vsually call those indigites which want nothing for that is proper to the Gods Hubertus Golzius in his treasure of Antiquity hath effigiated two peeces of coine the one with a Greeke Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other with this in Latin ROMA DEA the meaning of both being that Rome was a Goddesse neither was this figuratiuely but properly vnderstood she hauing advanced her selfe into the number of the Gods as witnesseth Dion in Augustus nay erected Temples and addressed sacrifices to her selfe as testifie Victor and Onuphrius in their descriptions of Rome which Prudentius a Christian Poet both glances at and deservedly derides Colitur nam sanguine ipsa More Deae nomenque loci seâ—… numen hà betur Atque Vrbis Venerisque pari se culmine tollunt Templa simul geminis adolentur thure deabus Shee Goddesse-like is worshipped with blood A places name is hallowed for a god As high as Venus Cities Church doth rise And joint to both they incense sacrifice And Lucan as to a Goddesse directs his prayer solemnely vnto her summique ô numinis instar Roma saue câ—…ptis And thou as greatest power divine Favour O Rome this enterprise of mine Her Temple was situate vpon mount Palatine as appeares by that of Claudian bringing in the Provinces as suppliants to visite the Goddesse Conveniunt ad tecta Deae quae candida lucent Monte Palatino They meet at th'Goddesse Temple which doth shine So white and glorious on mount Palatine But this was in truth such a mad drunkennesse with pride and self-loue that Lypsius himselfe cannot hold from crying out O insaniam aedificijs inanimato corpori non vitam solùm attribuere sed numen O strange madnesse to ascribe vnto houses and stones and a dead body not life onely but a deity And being now a Goddesse shee might well take to her selfe that of old Babylon a type of her pride I sit as a Queene and am no widdow shall see no sorrow and challenge to her selfe aeternity as most blasphemously she did as is to be seene in the coine of the Emperour Probus in which we haue Rome set forth sitting in her Temple in a victorious triumphant manner hauing on the one side this inscription Conserv vrbis suae and on the other Romae aeternae and so is it expressely named both by Symmachus and Ammianus Marcellinus And Suetonius testifies in the life of Nero cap. 11 that of all their seuerall kindes of playes pro aeternitate imperij susceptos appellari maximos voluit those which were exhibited for the aeternity of the Empire should bee had in greatest
before in his former Epistle and 4 chapt he had called the Latter times and that word which in the last of S. Marke our former Translations rendred Finally our last hath turned Afterward nay whereas wee reade in the Prophet Ioel It shall come to passe afterward S. Peter by divine inspiration no doubt hath rendred it It shall come to passe in the last dayes But very remarkeable are the words of old Iacob to this purpose when hee lay a dying and by the spirit of Prophesie foretold what should become of his sonnes I will tell you saith he that which shall befall you in the last dayes in which prediction of his though it be true that some things cōcerne the Kingdome of Christ as that touching Iudah the Scepter shall not depart from Iuda nor a Lawgiuer from betweene his feet vntill Shiloh come yet is it as true that many things in that Prophesie both concerning Iudah and the other Patriarches and Tribes descending from them were fulfilled long before the incarnation of CHRIST and not long after the death of Iacob In like manner the same word is vsed by Daniel in the Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzars dreame There is a God in heauen that revealeth secrets and maketh knowne to the King what shall be in the latter dayes or last dayes Which same speech in the 45 v. following hee againe repeates in these tearmes The great God hath made knowne to the King what shall come to passe hereafter And though it be most certaine that some of those things there fore-shewed were none otherwise fulfilled then in the kingdome of Christ as namely that in the 44. v. in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of Heauen set vp a Kingdome which shall neuer be destroyed yet withall it may not it cannot be denyed but the greatest part of them were accomplished before our Saviours apparelling himselfe with our flesh and some of them to wit the setting vp of the Persian Monarchy but 63 yeares after Nebuchadnezzars dreame or vision and Daniels prediction And hence it is that Iunius and Tremelius render the Hebrew word in both those passages of Genesis and Daniel with Sequentibus or Consequentibus temporibus which implies nothing else but times following and ensuing Those Prophesies then of S. Peter and S. Paul touching the great wickednesse of the latter or last times may well bee vnderstood either of the Kingdome of Christ as hath beene said or of times following theirs and not necessarily neere approaching the end of all time SEC 3. The passages of Scripture alleadged to that purpose particularly and distinctly answered NOW for the particular passages That prophesie of S. Paul touching Apostates forbidding to marry and commanding to abstaine from meates was accomplished in Eustathius the Encratits or Tatians the Marcionists the Manichaeans the Cathari the Cataphrygians or Montanists who all vented their heresies in those two points within lesse then two or three hundred yeares of the Apostles And if wee should with some latter Writers referre that whole prophesie to the defection of the Roman Church I thinke we should therein doe her no wrong Howsoeuer it is fully agreed vpon both by them and vs that the prophesie was long since fulfilled The same in effect may be said of his other prophesie in his second Epistle Neque enim aetatem suam cum nostra comparat sed potius qualis futura sit regni Christi conditio docet sayth judicious Calvin in his Commentaries vpon that place Hee doth not compare his owne age with ours but rather teaches what the Condition of Christs Kingdome was to be And that which the Apostle addes of Euill men and Seducers that they shall waxe worse and worse deceiuing and being deceiued is not sufficient to evince a perpetuall and vniversall declination For though some euill men grow worse yet others may and by Gods grace doe grow from bad to good and from good to better and euen of the same men doth the same Apostle tell vs in the same place They shall proceede no farther but their folly shall be manifest vnto all men As for S Peter and his prophesie touching the last dayes it is cleere that it was accomplished when S. Iude wrote his Epistle in as much as he points in a manner with his finger to that passage of S. Peter not only vsing the same words but putting vs in mind that he had them expressely from the Apostles of the Lord Iesus the onely difference betwixt S. Peter and S. Iude is this that the one foretells it and the other shewes how it was euen then fulfilled But I passe from the Schollers to the Master from the Apostles to our Saviour himselfe and his prophesies touching this point recorded by the Evangelists whereof the first is in Mat. 24. Because iniquity shall abound the loue of many shall waxe cold For the exposition of which words we are to know that our Sauiour in that chapter speaketh of the signes fore-running aswell the destruction of Ierusalem as the consummation of the World and so twisteth as it were or weaueth them one within another that it is hard to distinguish them yet by the consent of the best expositours the former of these is to bee referred to the first part of the chapter and so consequently this prophesie was long since accomplisned the meaning of it to be this that such and so cruell shall bee the persecution of Christian Religion that many who otherwise had a good minde to embrace it shall forsake both it and the Professours thereof leauing them to the malice of their Persequutors And to this purpose doe both Maldonate and Aretius bring the Example and words of S. Paul At my first answere no man stood with me but all men forsooke mee I pray God it be not laid to their charge Our Saviours second prophesie to this purpose is recorded in the 18 of S. Luke When the Sonne of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth Which words both Calvin and Iansenius referre not precisely to the time of Christs comming to judgment but extend them to the generall state of men euen from his Ascension to his second Comming Disertè Christus à suo in Coelum ascensu vsque ad reditum homines passim incredulos fore praedicit saith Calvin Christ expressely teacheth that from his ascension euen till his returue many vnbeleevers shall euery-where be found But Iansenius somewhat more cleerely and fully Non tantum significat defectum paucitatem fidei in hominibus qui vivi reperientur in novissimo die sed etiam in hominibus cuiuslibet temporis He doth not onely intimate the defect and scantnesse of faith which shall be found in men at the last day but in those of all ages To these passages may be added that in the 12 of the Revelation Woe to the Inhabitants of the earth and of the sea for the divell is come downe vnto you hauing great wrath
all To Chaos backe returne then all the starres shall be Blended together then those burning lights on high In sea shall drench earth then her shores will not extend But to the waues giue way the moone her course shall bend Crosse to her brothers and disdaining still to driue Her chariot wheels athward the heavenly orbe shall striue To rule the day this frame to discord wholy bent The worlds peace shall disturbe and all in sunder rent SECT 3. That the world shall haue an end by fire proved likewise by the testimony of the Gentiles ANd as they held that the world should haue an end so likewise that this end should come to passe by fire Exustionis hujus odor quidam etiam ad Gentes manauit sayth Ludovicus Vives speaking of the generall combustion of the world some sent of this burning hath spread it selfe even to the Gentiles And Saint Hierome in his comment on the 51 of I say Quae quidem Philosophorum mundi opinio est omnia quae cernimus igni peretura which is also the opinion of the Philosophers of this world that all which we behold shall perish by fire Eusebius is more particular affirming it to be the doctrine of the Stoicks and namely of Zeno Cleanthes Chrysippus the most ancient among them Certaine it is that Seneca a principall Scholler or rather Master of that sect both thought it taught it Et Sydera Syderibus incurrent omni flagrante materia vnâ—… igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet ardebit The starres shall make inrodes one vpon another and all the whole world being in a flame whatsoever now shines in comely and decent order shall burne together in one fire Panaetius likewise the Stoick feared as witnesseth Cicero ne ad extremum mundus ignesceret least the world at last should be burnt vp with fire And with the Stoicks heerein Pliny agrees Consumente vbertatem seminum exustione in cujus vices nunc vergat aevum the heate burning vp the plentifull moisture of all seedes to which the world is now hastening Numeâ—…us also saith good soules continue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vntill the dissolution of all things by fire And with the Philosophers their Poets accord Lucan as hee held that the world should haue an end so in speciall by fire where speaking of those whom Caesar left vnburned at the battle of Pharsalia hee thus goes on Hos Caesar populos si nunc non vsserit ignis Vret cum terris vret cum gurgite ponti Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus astra Misturus If fire may not these corpes to ashes turne O Caesar now when earth and seas shall burne It shall a common fire the world shall end And with these bones those heau'nly bodies blend As for Ovia he deduces it from their propheticall records Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus convexaque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laborat Besides he calls to minde how by decree Of fates a time shall come when earth and sea And Heavens high Throne shall faint and the whole frame Of this great world shall be consum'd in flame Which he borrowed saith Ludovicus Vives ex fatis indubiè Sybillinis vndoubtedly from the Oracles of Sybilla And indeed verses there are which goe vnder the name of Sybilla to the very same purpose Tunc ardens fluvius coelo manabit ab alto Igneus atque locos consumâ—…t funditus omnes Terramque Oceanumque ingentem caerula ponti Stagnaque tum fluvios fontes ditemque Severum Coelestemque polum coeli quoque lumina in unum Fluxa ruent formâ deletâ prorsus eorum Astra cadent etenim de coelo cuncta revulsa Then shall a burning floud flow from the Heavens on high And with its fiery streames all places vtterly Destroy earth ocean lakes rivers fountaines hell And heavenly poles the Lights in firmament that dwell Loosing their beauteous forme shall be obscur'd and all Raught from their places down from heaven to earth shall fall He that yet desires farther satisfaction in this point may reade Eugubinus his tenth booke de Perenni Philosophia Magius de exustione Mundi And so I passe to my third and last point proposed in the beginning of this Chapter which is that the whole world by fire shall totally and intirely be consumed SECT 4. That the world shall be by fire totally and finally dissolved and annihilated prooved by Scripture I Am not ignorant that the opinions of Divines touching the manner of the Consummation of the world haue beene as different as the greatest part of them are strange and improbable some imagining that all the Creatures which by Almighty God were made at the first beginning shall againe be restored to that perfection which they injoyed before the fall of man Others that the Heauens and Elements shall onely be so restored others that the Heauens and onely two of the Elements the Aire and the Earth others againe that the old world shall be wholly abolished and a new created in steed thereof and lastly others which I must confesse to me seemes the most likely opinion and most agreeable to scripture and reason that the whole world with all the parts and workes thereof onely men and Angels and Divels and the third Heauens the mansion-house of the Saints and blessed Angels and the place and instruments appointed for the tormenting of the damned excepted shall be totally and finally dissolued and annihilated As they were made out of nothing so into nothing shall they returne againe In the prooving whereof I will first produce mine owne arguments and then shew the weakenes of the adverse Man lieth downe and riseth not saith Iob till the heauens be no more Of old hast thou laide the foundation of the earth and the heauens are the worke of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure saith the Psalmist which the Apostle in the first to the Hebrewes and the 10. and the 11. repeates almost in the same words Lift vp your eyes to the heauens and looke vpon the earth beneath for the heauens shall vanish away like smoake and the earth shall waxe old as doth a garment saith the Prophet Esay and in another place all the host of heauen shal be dissolved the heauen shal be rolled together as a scroll all their host shall fall downe as the leafe falleth off from the vine and as a falling fig from the figge tree To the former of which wordes S. Iohn seemes to allude And the heauen departed as a scroll which is rolled together Heauen earth shall passe away but my word shall not passe away saith our Saviour The day of the Lord will come as a theefe in the night in the which the Heauens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heate The earth
whom they derided and vilified or what greater comfort and content to the other then to be justified and rewarded in the view of them who were their professed enemies Lastly as our blessed Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ who shall then appeare as Iudge at his first comming into this world was contemptible in the eye of wordlings and dishonoured publiquely both in his life and death So was it convenient that once in this world hee should shew his power and Majesty and that in the sight of all his Creatures but specially of his wicked enimies who after that day are never to see or behold him more To these reasons may be added the testimonie of the very Gentiles of Hydaspes Hermes Sybilla whereof the first having described the iniquity of the last age sayes that the godly and righteous men being severed from the vntighteous shall with teares and groanes lift vp their hands to heaven imploring the helpe of Iupiter and that therevpon Iupiter shall regard the earth heare their prayers and destroy the wicked Quae omnia vera sunt praeter vnum quod Iovem dixit illa facturum quae Deus faciet saith Lactantius all which things are true saue one which is that he ascribes that to Iupiter which God shall doe And besides sayth he it was not without the cunning suggestion of Sathan left out that then the Sonne of God shall be sent from the father who destroying the wicked shall set the righteous at liberty Which Hermes notwithstan ding dissembled not Part of Sybilla's verses alleadged by Lactantius in Greeke may thus be rendred in Latine English Huic luci finem imponent cum fata supremum Iudicium aethereus Pater exercebit in omnes Iudicium humano generi imperiumque verendum When God shall to this world its fatall period send Th' immortall mortall men in judgment shall arraigne Great shall his judgment be his Kingdome without end And againe Tartareumque chaos tellure hiscente patebit Regesque aetherij sistentur judicis omnes Ante thronum Tartarean Chaos then Earth opening wide shall show And then all kings before Gods judgment seat shall bow And in another place Coelum ego convolvens penetralia caeca recludam Telluris functique fati lege soluti Et mortis stimulo exurgent cunctosque tribunal Ante meum Iudex statuam reprobosque probosque Rolling vp Heauen I will Earths secret vaults disclose Deaths sting also and bonds of fate will I vnloose Then shall the dead arise and all both small and great Both good and bad shall stand before my judgment seat Ouer and aboue these Prophets and men of learning Peru the South part of America doth yeeld to vs an ignorant people who by the light of Nature and a generall apprehension for God knoweth they haue nothing else doe beleeue that the World shall end and that there shall be then a reward for the good and for the euill according to their desert SECT 2. The consideration of this day may first serue for terrour to the wicked whether they regard the dreadfulnesse of the day it selfe or the quality of the Iudge by whom they are to be tryed THe certainty then of this vniversall Iudgment at the last day being thus cleerely prooued not only by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament but by the light of Reason and the testimonies of the Gentiles the consideratiō thereof may justly serue for terrour to the wicked it being to them a day of wrath and vengeance for Comfort to the Godly it being to them a day of refreshing and full redemption and lastly for admonition instruction to both First then it may justly serue for matter of extreame terrour to the wicked whether they regard the dreadfulnes of the day in which they shall be tryed or the quality of the Iudge by whom they are to be tryed or the nature number of their accusers that shall bring in evidence against them or the presence of such an assembly of men and Angels before whom they shall be arraigned or their owne guiltinesse and astonishment or lastly the sharpnesse and severity of the sentence that shall passe vpon them The very face and countenance of that day shall be hideous and dismall to looke to it shal be apparelled with horrour and affrightment on euery side That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and heavinesse a day of destruction and desolation a day of gloominesse and darknesse a day of clouds stormes and blacknesse a day of the trumpet and alarme against the strong cities and against the high towres Then shall the Sun be darkned and the Moone shall be turned into bloud and the starres shall fall from heauen as it were withered leaues from their trees and the powers of heauen shall be shaken and the graues shall vomit vp their dead bodies the heauens shall passe away with a noise and shriuel together like scorched parchment the elements shall melt dissolue with heat the sea flouds shall roare the Earth with the works that are therein shall be burnt vp there shall be horrible clapps of thunder flashes of lightning voyces earthquakes such as neuer were since men dwelt vpon the earth such howling such lamentations such skriches shall be heard in euery corner that the hearts of men shall tremble wither for very feare and expectation of those things which at that day shall befall them And now tell me what mortall heart can choose but ake and quake at the remembrance of these vnspeakable incomprehensible terrours The Law was giuen with thunder lightnings and a thick cloud vpon the mount with an exceeding lowde and shrill sound of the trumpet so that all the people were afrayde yea so terrible was the sight that Moses said I feare and quake Now if Moses the servant of the Lord quaked to heare the first trumpet at the giuing of the Law how shall the wicked condemned in their owne Conscience tremble and quake to heare the second at the execution thereof Specially being arraigned at the barre of such a Iudge apparelled with Robes of Majesty attended with millions of Angels A Iudge so soueraigne as there lyes no appeale from him so wise as nothing can escape his knowledge so mighty as nothing can resist his power so vpright as nothing can pervert his justice who neither can bee deceiued with sophistry nor blinded with gifts nor terrified with threats They shall looke vpon him whom they haue wounded and gored with the speare of their blasphemies with the nailes of their cursings and cursed oathes whō they haue buffeted spit vpon with their impiety prophanesse whō they haue again crucified to themselues by their divelish damnable actions trampling his pretious Bloud vnder foot by their impenitencie putting him to open shame by their infidelity making a mock of him by their obstinacy and turning his grace into wantonnes by their presumption Holy Augustine
the other commaunding the one out of thy presence with an Ite Goe and inviting the other to approach neere with a Venite Come Come come my deare hearts now is the time that you must rest from your labours that your teares must be wip'd off that your long expectatiō longing hope must be turned into fruitiō your race is at an end you must now receiue the prize your wrestling at an end you must now receiue the garland your combating at an end you must now receiue the Crowne Come yee Blessed of my Father Blessed in your liues and blessed in your deaths blessed in your election blessed in your vocation blessed in your adoption blessed in your justification blessed in your sanctification and now for accomplishment of all most blessed in your glorification And the fountaine of all this your blessednes is none other then the very Father of blessings my Father and your Father mine by nature yours by grace mine by eternall generation and yours by spirituall regeneration And whom the Father blesses the Son cannot but most lovingly and tenderly imbrace Come yee blessed of my Father what to doe to inherit a Kingdome Least my words should seeme to be but winde least my promises should seeme to be vaine and your patience and beleeving vaine Come receiue that which I haue promised and you haue beleeved Come and take actuall possession of it yet not as a purchase of your owne but as an inheritance not as wages but as a reward not as bought by the value of your merits but conferred vpon you by the vertue of my sufferings and the benediction of my Father as the cause and your sonne-shippe and obedience as the condition Your title is good your evidence faire so as no exception can be taken to your right nothing so much as pretended or pleaded to disinherit you Come on then chearefully make hast and enter vpon it my selfe will leade you the way follow me But what may it bee gracious Lord that wee shall possesse surely no lesse then a Kingdome This reward is sometimes set forth vnto vs vnder the name of a pleasant garden or Paradise of delight sometime of a stately magnificent palace sometime of a large and beautifull Cittie but here of a Kingdome a glorious a spacious a secure a durable Kingdome whose King is the Trinity whose Law is Divinitie whose measure aternity as farre beyond all the kingdomes of this world and all the guilded pompe the glittering power and riches of them as the greatest earthly Monarch is beyond the King in a play Earthly Monarches haue their secret pressures and pinches they haue their feares and cares and griefes and envy and anger and sickenes mixed with their joyes and contents or at least by turnes succeeding them Somewhat is ever wanting to their desires and full of doubtes and jealousies they are that their dominions may be either impaired or invaded And if they were free from the possibility of all those yet may they in a moment and that by a thousand wayes be arrested by death and then all their honour lies in the dust all their thoughts perish But now with them that inherit this heavenly Kingdome it is not so they haue joy and content at full without the least intermission or diminutiō without the least mixture of any feare or care or griefe or envy or anger or any other troublesome passion whatsoever They are out of all doubt jealousie of loosing that which they possesse either in whole or in part they are confident and secure that neither this Kingdome can be taken from them by rebellion or invasion nor they from it by death or deposition And herein againe doth this Kingdome excell all other kingdomes that it is of Gods speciall preparing And such happinesse he hath prepared in it for them that shall possesse it as eye hath not seene eare hath not heard tongue cannot vtter neither hath at any time entred into the heart of man Such as his imagination cannot apprehend nor his vnderstanding possiblely conceiue O my Lord if thou for this vile body of ours hast given vs so great and innumerable benefits from the firmament from the aire from the earth from the sea by light by darkenesse by heate by shadow by dewes by showers by windes by raines by fishes by beasts by birds by multitude of hearbes and variety of plants and by the ministery of all thy Creatures O sweete Lord what manner of things how great how good and how innumerable are those which thou hast prepared for vs in our heavenly Kingdome where we shall see thee face to face and raigne with thee eternally If thou doe so great things for vs in our prison what wilt thou giue vs in our palace If thou givest so many things in this world to good and evill men together what hast thou layd vp for only good men in the world to come If thine enemies and friends together are so well provided for in this life what shall thy only friends receiue in the life to come If there be so great solaces in these dayes of teares what joy shall there be in that day of marriage If our jayle and prison containe so great matters what shall our Kingdome doe O my Lord and God thou art a great God great is the multitude of thy magnificence sweetnes and as there is none end of thy greatnes nor number of thy mercies nor bottome of thy wisedome nor measure of thy beauty So is there no end number or measure of thy rewards to them that loue serue thee SECT 7. Thirdly the consideration of this day may serue for admonition to all SEing then that all these things must be dossolved what manner persons ought we to be in holy conversation and godlines looking for and hasting vnto the comming of that day in which we all shall appeare before the judgement seate of Christ that every man may receiue according to that hee hath done in his body whether it be good or evill Truly I know not sayth S. Chrysostome what others doe thinke of it for my selfe it makes mee often tremble when I consider it And holy Hierome whatsoever I am doing saith he whether I be eating or drinking or sleeping or waking or alone or in company or reading or writing me thinkes I ever heare the shrill sound of the Archangels trumpet summoning all flesh to appeare and crying aloud Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise yee dead and come away to judgement The remembrance hereof is like a bitter pill to purge out the malignitie of many wanton and vaine humours or like a strainer all our thoughts and speeches and actions which passe thorow it are thereby cleansed and purified As the bird guideth her bodie with her traine and the shippe is steered with the rudder so the course of a mans life is best directed with a continuall recourse vnto his last end It is hard for a man to thinke of
in workes of heate but the sunne burneth the mountaines three tymes more breathing out fiery vapours Neither were there wanting some among the ancient Philosophers who maintained the same opinion as Plato and Plyny and generally the whole sect of Stoicks who held that the Sunne and Starres were fed with watery vapours which they drew vp for their nourishment and that when these vapours should cease and faile the whole world should be in daunger of combustion and many things are alleaged by Balbus in Ciceroes second booke of the nature of the Gods in favour of this opinion of the Stoicks But that the Sunne and Starres are not in truth and in their owne nature fieric and hot appeares by the ground already layd touching the matter of the heavens that it is of a nature incorruptible which cannot bee if it were fiery inasmuch as thereby it should become lyable to alteration and corruption by an opposite and professed enimie Besides all fiery bodies by a naturall inclination mount vpwards so that if the starres were the cause of heat as being hot in themselues it would consequently follow that their circular motion should not bee Naturall but violent Wherevnto I may adde that the noted starres being so many in number namely one thousand twenty and two besides the Planets and in magnitude so greate that every one of those which appeare fixed in the firmament are sayd to bee much bigger then the whole Globe of the water and earth and the Sunne againe so much to exceede both that globe and the biggest of them as it may iustly bee stiled by the sonne of Syrach instrumentum admirabile a wonderfull instrument which being so were they of fyre they would doubtlesse long ere this haue turned the world into ashes there being so infinite a disproportion betweene their flame and the little quantity of matter supposed to bee prepared for their Fewell That therefore they should bee fed with vapours Aristotle deservedly laughs at it as a childish and ridiculous device in as much as the vapours ascend no higher then the middle region of the ayre and from thence distill againe vpon the water and earth from whence they were drawne vp and those vapours being vncertaine the flames likewise feeding vpon them must needes be vncertaine and dayly vary from themselues both in quantity and figure according to the proportion of their fewell SECT 2. That the heate they breed springes from their light and consequently their light being not decayed neither is the warmth arising there from THe absurdity then of this opinion beeing so foule and grosse it remaines that the Sunne and Starres infuse a warmth into these Subcaelestiall bodies not as being hot in themlselues but only as beeing ordeined by God to breed heate in matter capable thereof as they impart life to some creatures and yet themselues remaine voyd of life like the braine which imparts Sense to every member of the body and yet is it selfe vtterly voyd of all Sense But here againe some there are which attribute this effect to the motion others to the light of these glorious bodies And true indeed it is that motion causes heat by the attenuation rarefaction of the ayre But by this reason should the Moone which is neerer the Earth warme more then the Sunne which is many thousand miles farther distant the higher Regions of the Aire should be alway hotter then the lower which notwithstanding if wee compare the second with with the lowest is vndoubtedly false Moreouer the motion of the coelestiall bodies being vniforme so should the heat deriued from them in reason likewise be the motion ceasing the heat should likewise cease yet I shall neuer beleeue that when the Sun stood still at the prayer of Iosua it then ceased to warme these inferiour Bodies And we find by experience that the Sun works more powerfully vpon a body which stands still then when it moues the reason seemes to be the same in the rest or motion of a body warming or warmed that receiueth or imparteth heat The motion being thus excluded from being the cause of this effect the light must of necessitie step in and challenge it to it selfe the light then it is which is vndoubtedly the cause of coelestiall heate in part by a direct beame but more vehemently by a reflexed for which very reason it is that the middle Region of the aire is alwaies colder then the lowest and the lowest hotter in Summer then in Winter and at noone then in the morning and evening the beames being then more perpendicular and consequently in their reflexion more narrowly vnited by which reflexion and vnion they grow sometimes to that fervencie of heate that fire springs out from them as wee see in burning glasses and by this artificiall device it was that Archimedes as Galen reports it in his third booke de Temperamentis set on fire the Enemies Gallyes and Proclus a famous Mathematician practised the like at Constantinople as witnesseth Zonaras in the life of Anastasius the Emperour And very reasonable me thinkes it is that light the most Divine affection of the Coelelestiall Bodies should be the cause of warmth the most noble actiue and excellent quality of the Subcoelestiall These two like Hippocrates twinnes simul oriuntur moriuntur they are borne and dye together they increase and decrease both together the greater the light is the greater the heate and therefore the Sun as much exceedes the other starres in heate as it doth in light To driue the argument home then to our present purpose since the light of the Sun is no way diminished and the heate depends vpon the light the consequence to me seemes marvailous faire and strong which is that neither the heate arising from the light should haue suffered any decay or diminution at all SECT 3. Two obiections answered the one drawne from the present habitablenes of the Torrid Zone the other from a supposed approach of the Sun neerer the earth then in former ages NOtwithstanding the evidence of which trueth some haue not doubted to attribute the present habitablenesse of the Torride Zone to the weaknesse and old age of the Heauens in regard of former ages But they might haue remembred that the Cold Zones should thereby haue become more inhabitable by cold as also that holding as they doe an vniversall decay in all the parts of Nature men according to their opinion decaying in strength as well as the Heauens they should now in reason be as ill able to indure the present heate as the men of former ages were to indure that of the same times wherein they liued the proportion being alike betweene the weaknes as between the strength of the one and the other But this I onely touch in passing hauing a fitter occasion to consider more fully of it hereafter when we come to compare the wits and inventions of the Ancients with those of the present times That which touches
also the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp saith S. Peter And I saw a great white throne him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heauen fled away and there was found no place for them saith S. Iohn Now I would demaund whether being no more as Iob perishing as David vanishing away like smoake dissolving rolling together falling downe as a withered leafe or a dry fig from the tree as Esay passing away as our Saviour passing away with a great noise melting with feruent heate burning vp as S. Peter or lastly flying away so as their place be found no more as S. Iohn doe not include an vtter abolition or at leastwise exclude a restitution to a perfecter estate once Beza I am sure is so evidently convinced by the alleadged words of S. Peter that he plainly confesses the dissolution the Apostle there speakes of to be a kinde of annihilation And both Tilenus Meisnerus are confident that those who hold a restitution will neuer be able to reconcile their opinion with the alleadged Scriptures If we looke back to higher times before S. Hierome we shall not easily finde any who maintained it And certaine it is that Clement in his Recognitions or whosoeuer were the Author of that worke brings in S. Peter reasoning with Simon Magus teaching that there were two Heauens the one Superius invisibile aeternum quod Spiritus beati incolunt the highest invisible and eternall which bl◅ssed spirits inhabite the other inferius visibile varijs distinctum syderibus corruptibile in consummatione saeculi dissolvendum prorsus abolendum lower visible distinguished with diverse starres corruptible and at the worlds end to be dissolued and vtterly abolished Now though that worke were not Clements yet was it doubtlesse very ancient being quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen and remembred by S. Hierome in his Commentaries vpon Esay and is of sufficient authority against those who receiue it for my selfe I stand not vpon his authority but the rock of Scripture and reason drawne from thence and the force of naturall discourse SECT 5. The same farther prooved by reason THE first then and as I conceiue the most weighty argument is taken from the End of the Worlds creation which was partly and chiefely the glory of the Creator and partly the vse of man the Lord Deputy as it were or Viceroy thereof Now for the glory of the Creator it being by the admirable frame of the World manifested vnto man man being remoued out of the world and no Creature being capable of such a manifestation besides him wee cannot imagine to what purpose the frame it selfe should bee left and restored to a more perfect estate The other end being for mans vse either to supply his necessity in matter of diet of Physick of building of apparell or for his instruction direction recreation comfort and delight or lastly that therein as in a looking-glasse he might contemplate the wisdome the power and the goodnesse of God when he shall attaine that blessed estate as he shall haue no farther use of any of these enjoying perfect happinesse and seeing God as he is face to face the second or subordinate end of the Worlds being must needs be likewise frustrate And what other end can bee giuen or conceiued for the remaining or restoring thereof for mine owne part I must professe I cannot conceiue And to affirme that it shal be restored withal to assigne no end wherefore is ridiculous and vnreasonable An house being built for an inhabitant as the World was for man If it bee decreed that it shall no more be inhabited it were but vanity to repaire much more to adorne and beautifie it farther And therefore when mankinde shall bee dislodged and remoue from hence therevpon shall instantly ensue the Consummation or End not the reparation or restitution but the End of the world So the Scriptures call it in plaine tearmes and so I beleeue it And in truth some Divines considering that of necessity some end must bee assigned haue falne vpon ends so absurd and vnwarrantable that the very naming of them were sufficient to make a man beleeue there was no such matter indeed Some then and that of our owne Church and that in published bookes for the clearing of this objection haue fancied to themselues an intercourse of the Saints after the resurrection betwixt heauen and earth and that full Dominion ouer the Creatures which by the fall of Adam was lost Others are of opinion that the Earth after the day of judgement being renewed with fire and more pleasantly apparelled shall be the mansion of such as neither by their merits haue deserued heauen nor hell by their demerits And lastly others that such as haue died in their infancy without circumcision or Baptisme might possesse it Now what meere dreames these are of idle braines if I should but endeavour to demonstrate I feare I should shew my selfe more vaine in vouchsafing them a confutation then they in publishing them to the World And yet they are the best wee see that Learned men by the strength of their wits can finde out My second reason shall be drawne from the nature of the world and the quality of the parts thereof which are supposed shall bee restored to their originall integrity and so in that state euerlastingly remaine I will begin with the vegetables and Creatures endued with sense concerning them would willingly learne whether they shall bee all restored or some onely namely such as shall be found in being at the day of Iudgment if all where shall we finde stowage for them Surely we may in this case properly apply that which the Evangelist in another case vses figuratiuely if they should all be restored euē the world it self could not cōtain the things which should be restored if some only thē would I gladly know why those some should be vouchsafed this great honour not all or how these creatures without a miracle shal be restrained frō propagating multiplying that infinitly their kinds by a perpetuall generatiō Or lastly how the several individuals of these kinds shall cōtrary to their primitiue natures liue dure immortally But to make a good sound answere to these demaunds is a point of that difficulty that the greatest part of Divines rather choose to leaue out the mixt bodies preferre only the heavens the elements to this pretended dignity of restitution though about the number of the Elements to be restored they all agree not But heere againe I would demaund whether the world without the mixt bodies can truly be sayd to be more perfect and beautifull then before whether the inbred and inseparable qualities of the Elements as thickenesse and thinnesse weight lightnesse heate cold moisture drynesse shall remaine if they shall not how shall they remaine Elements if they shall how without