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
that of Iuvenall Vberior nunquam vitiorum copia nunquam Maior avaritiae patuit sinus Was never yet more plenteous store of vice Nor deeper gulfe lay ope of avarice And Manilius Nullo votorum fine beati Victuros agimus semper nec viuimus vnquam Never contented with our present state W' are still about to liue but liue not till too late Every man sayth he wishing for that he hath not but making no reckoning of that he hath Nec quod habet numerat tantum quod non habet optat For particulars Pliny tells vs that when Asinius Gallus Martius Censorinus were Consuls died Cecilius Claudius who signified by his last will testament that albeit he had sustained exceeding great losse during the troubles of the civill warres yet he should leaue behind him at the thoure of his death of slaues belonging to his retinew foure thousand one hundred sixteene in oxen three thousand and six hundred yoke of other cattell two hundred fifty seaven thousand and in ready coine three score millions of sesterces besides a very great summe he set out for defraying his funerall charges And for Marcus Crassus the same Authour in the same chapter affirmes that he was wont to say that no man was to be accounted rich and worthy of that title vnlesse he were able to despend by the yeare asmuch in revenew as would maintaine a legion of souldiers And verily saith Pliny his owne lands were esteemed worth two hundred millions of Sesterces and yet such was his avarice that he could not content himselfe with that wealthy estate but vpon an hungry desire to haue all the gold of the Parthians would needs vndertake a voyage against them in which expedition hee was taken prisoner by Surinas Lieutenant Generall for the King of Parthia who stroke off his head and powred gold melted into his mouth to satisfie his hunger after it But I most wonder at Seneca the Philosopher who every where in his writings bitterly inveighs against these co vetous desires yet within foure yeares space gathered he three thousand times three hundred thousand Sesterces which amounts in our coyne to 2343750 pounds and in casting vp this summe both the Translatour of Tacitus his Annales and Master Brerewood precisely accords And whatsoever faire pretence he make in his bookes of mortification and contempt of the world yet certaine it is that beside this masse of treasure he had goodly farmes in the countrey as appeares by his owne Epistles and in the citty spacious gardens princely sumptuous palaces the one mentioned by Iuvenall Sat. 10. Senecae praedivitis hortos The gardens of Seneca the rich The other by Martiall lib 4. Epigram 40 Et docti Senecae ter numeranda domus Three houses of Seneca the learn'd SECT 2. Of their wonderfull greedinesse of gold manifested by their great toyle and danger in working their mines fully and liuely described by Pliny BVt that which much more aggravates this vice of the Romanes is that commonly they gathered their riches either by violent rapine extortion oppression or by cunning slights base practises or lastly by the infinite toyle of such as therein they imployed not without the indangering of the liues of many thousands I will begin with the last and that I may the more cleerely and effectually expresse it I will deliver it in the words of Pliny where he thus speakes of the earth torne and rent in sunder for rich mettals and pretious stones The misvsages saith he which she abideth aboue and in her outward skin may seeme in some sort tollerable but we not satisfied therewith pierce deeper and enter into her very bowells wee search into the veines of gold silver we mine digge for copper lead mettals and for to seeke out gemmes some little stones we strike pits deepe within the ground Thus we plucke the very heart-strings out of her and all to weare on our finger one gemme or pretious stone To fulfill our pleasure desire how many handes are worne with digging delving that one â—…oynt of our finger might shine againe Surely if there were any Devils beneath ere this time verily these mines for to feede covetousnes riot would haue brought them vp aboue ground And againe in his proeme to his 33 booke we descend saith he into her entralls we goe downe as farre as to the seate habitation of infernall spirits and all to meete with rich treasure as if the earth were not fruitefull enough beneficiall vnto vs in the vpper face thereof where she permitteth vs to walke and tread vpon her Now the infinite toyle the fearefull and continuall danger of these workes he notably describeth in the fourth chapter of the same booke The third manner of searching of this mettall is saith he so painefull and toylesome that it surpasseth the wonderfull worke of the Gyants in old time For necessary it is in this enterprice and businesse to vndermine a great way by candle light and to make hollow vautes vnder the mountaines in which labour the Pioners worke by turnes successiuely after the manner of a releife in a set watch keeping every man his houres in just measure and in many a moneths space they never see the sunne nor day-light This kinde of worke mines they call Arrugiae wherein it falleth out many times that the earth aboue head chinketh and all at once without giving any warning setleth falleth so as the poore Pioners are overwhelmed buried quicke yet say they worke safe enough and be not in jeopardy of their liues by the fall of the earth yet be their other difficulties which impeach their worke For other whiles they meete with rockes of flint and ragges which they are driven to cleaue pierce thorow with fire vineger yet for feare of being stifled with the vapour arising from thence they are forced to giue ouer such fire-workes betake themselues oftentimes to great mattockes pickaxes yea and to other engines of iron weighing one hundred fiftie pound a peece where with they hew such rockes in peeces so sinke deeper make way before them The earth and stones which with somuch adoe they haue thus loosed they are faine to carry from vnder their feete in scuttles and baskets vpon their shoulders which passe from hand to hand evermore to the next fellow Thus they moyle in the darke both day night in these infernall dungeons and none of them see the light of the day but those that are last next vnto the pits mouth or entry of the caue Howbeit be the rocke as ragged as it will they count not that their hardest worke For there is a certaine earth resembling a kind of tough clay which they call white Lome this being intermingled with gravell or gritty sand is so hard baked together that there is no dealing with it it so scorneth and checketh all their ordinary tooles
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
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
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
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
an oxe or a horse or a sheepe in their times is now likewise thought to be but competent And the same proportions of body which the Ancient Painters Caruers allowed to horses and dogges is now likewise by the skilfullest in those Arts found to be most convenient Indeede in the first booke of Macchabes sixth chapter is somewhat a strange relation made of Elephants which are there described to be so bigge that each of them carryed a wooden towre on his backe out of which fought thirty two armed men besides the Indian which ruled the beast Whence some haue conceited that the Elephants of those times were farre greater then those of the present age But doubtles the Authour of that booke speakes of the Indian race which are farre beyond the Ethiopian as Iunius in his annotations on that place hath observed out of Pliny And there are of them saith Aelian nine cubits high which is thirteene foote and an halfe And those which haue beeene in the great Mogulls countrey assure vs that at this day they are there farre more vast and huge then any that wee haue seene in these parts of the world But leaving the Vegetables and beasts springing and walking vpon the face of the earth let vs a little search into the bowels thereof and take a view of the mettalls and mineralls therein bredde Of the nature causes and groweth whereof Georgius Agricola hath written most exactly but neither he nor any man else I thinke euer yet obserued that by continuance of time theirveines are wasted impaired one treatise he hath expresly composed de veteribus novis metallis wherein he shewes that as the old are exhausted new are discouered It is true indeede which Pliny hath observed that wee descend into the entrailes of the earth wee goe downe as farre as to the seat and habitation of the infernall spirits and all to meete with rich treasure as if shee were not fruitfull enough beneficiall vnto vs in the vpper face thereof where shee permitteth vs to walke and tread vpon her Yet notwithstanding by the couetousnesse and toyle of men can her mines neuer be drawn dry nor her store emptied The Earth not onely on her backe doth beare Abundant treasures gliftring every where But inwardly shee 's no lesse fraught with riches Nay rather more which more our foules bewitches Within the deepe folds of her fruitfull lappe So bound-lesse mines of treasure doth shee wrappe That th' hungry hands of humane avarice Cannot exhaust with labour or device For they be more then there be starres in heav'n Or stormy billowes in the Ocean driv'n Or eares of corne in Autumne on the fields Or savage beasts vpon a thousand hils Or fishes diving in the silver floods Or scattred leaues in winter in the woods I will not dispute it whether all mineralls were made at the first creation or haue since receiued increase by tract of time which latter I confesse I rather with Quercetan incline vnto they being somewhat of the nature of stones which vndoubtedly grow though not by augmentation or accretion yet by affimilation or apposition turning the neighbour earth into their substance Yet thus much may wee confidently affirme that the minerals themselues wast not in the ordinary course but by the insatiable desire of mankind Nay such is the divine providence that even there where they are most vexed and wrought vpon yet are they not worne out or wasted in the whole Of late within these few yeares Mendip hills yeelded I thinke more lead then ever at this day I doe not heare that the Iron mines in Sussex or the Tinne workes in Cornewall are any whit abated which I confesse to be somewhat strange considering that little corner furnishes in a manner all the Christian world with that mettall for mines of gold silver though by some it be thought that they faile in the East Indies in regard of former ages Yet most certaine it is that in the West Indies that supposed defect is abundantly recompensed SECT 6. An obiection taken from the Eclipses of the Planets answered BEfore we conclude this Chapter there remaines yet one rubbe to be remoued touching the Eclypses of the Sunne and Moone For as some haue beene of opinion that the bodies of those Planets suffered by them so many haue thought that these inferiour bodies suffered from them consequently that the more Eclypses there are which by tract of time must needes increase in number the more do all things depending vpon those planets decay and degenerate in their vertues operations But as the former of these opinions is already proued to be certainely false so is this latter altogether vncertaine What effects Eclypses produce I cannot punctually define Strange accidents I graunt aswell in the course of Nature as in the Ciuill affaires haue often followed vpon them as appeares in Cyprianus Leouicius who hath purposely composed a Tract of them And Mr Camden obserues that the towne of Shrewesbery suffered twice most grievous losse by fire within the compasse of fiftie yeares vpon two severall Eclypses of the Sunne in Aries but whether those Accidents were to be ascribed to the precedent Eclypses I cannot certainely affirme Once wee are sure that the moone is Eclypsed by the interposition of the Earth as is the Sun by the moone Since then the night is nothing else but the interposition of the Earth betweene vs and the Sunne I see no reason but wee should daily feare as dangerous effects from every night or thicke cloud as from any Eclypse But I verily beleeue that the ground of this errour as also of the former sprang frō the ignorance of the Causes of Eclypses Sulpitius Gallus being the first amongst the Romanes and amongst the Greekes Thales Milesius who finding their nature did prognosticate and forshew them After them Hipparchus compiled his Ephimerides containing the course and aspects of both these Planets for six hundred yeares ensuing and that no lesse assuredly then if hee had beene privy to Natures counsailes Great persons and excellent doubtles were these saith Pliny who aboue the reach of all humane capacity found out the reason of the course of so mighty starres and diuine powers And whereas the weake minde of man was before to seeke fearing in these Eclypses of the starres some great wrong or violence or death of the Planets secured them in that behalfe In which dreadfull feare stood Stesicorus and Pyndarus the Poets notwithstanding their lofty stile and namely at the Eclypse of the Sunce as may appeare by their Poemes In this fearefull fit also of an Eclypse Nicias the generall of the Athenians as a man ignorant of the cause thereof feared to set saile with his fleet out of the haven and so greatly indangered distressed the state of his countrey But on the contrary the forenamed Sulpitius being a Colonell in the field the day before that King Perseus was vanquished by
the severall stops and pawses of nature in the course of mans life as the time of birth after our conception our infancie childhood youth mans estate and old age being assigned to the same compasse of yeares as they were by the Ancients which could not possible bee were there a vniversall decay in mankind in regard of age And the like reason there is in making the same Clymactericall yeares and the same danger in them THat the age of mankinde for these last thousand or two thousand yeares is nothing shortned will farther appeare by the severall stages and stops which the Ancients haue marked out aswell in the growth of the infant in the mothers wombe and time of birth as in the distribution of mans age after the birth agreeable vnto that which is generally receiued by the learned and for the most part wee finde to be verified by experience at this day As among Plants those which last longest haue likewise their seedes longest buried vnder the earth before their springing aboue ground so likewise among beasts those which liue longest are carried longest in the wombe of their dammes the bitch carries her young but foure moneths the mare nine the elephant two yeares not ten as some haue vainely written and looke what proportion is found betwixt their conception and birth the like is commonly found betwixt their birth and death Nature then in her proceedings in naturall actions beeing alike aswell to them as to mankind it should in reason seeme that as their time is the same which the Ancients namely Hippocrates and Aristotle haue left vpon record from their conception to their birth and againe ordinarily or caeteris paribus as in Schooles we speake from their birth to their death so it should fare with mankind too If then it shall appeare that the Ancients assigned the same space of time for the deliuerie of a woman with child which wee now doe me thinkes the consequent from hence deduced should bee more thē probable that as the space of their abode in the womb of the mother and comming from thence into the world is the same as then it was so likewise ordinarily and in the course of nature if shee bee not wronged or interrupted nor on the otherside by a supernaturall power advanced aboue herselfe it should bee the same during their abode heere in the world and their returne to the wombe of their common mother the earth Now though it be true that the space of time from the conception to the birth of man is more variable then that of any other Creature perchaunce because his foode fancie are more variable or because nature is more sollicitous of him as being her darling yet most certaine it is the same periods which by Hippocrates were assigned for his first comming into the light are now also by Physitians observed that so precisely as they exactly agree with him not only in the number of moneths but of dayes the moneths assigned by him were the seaventh the ninth the tenth sometimes the eleuenth so they still remaine and as the eight was by him held dangerous deadly so is it now as the tenth moneth is our vsuall computation so was it likewise theirs as appeares by that of Neptune in Homer speaking to a Nimph. Anno circummacto speciosum partum edes nimirum decimo mense The yeare ended thou wilt be deliuered of a faire child that is to say in the 10th moneth From whence it may be obserued that the Aeolians of whom was Homer counted their yeare from thence as did also the Romanes till Numa's raigne I meane from the vsuall time of a womans going with child Quod satis est vtero matris dum prodeat infans Hoc anno statuit temporis esse satis Sayeth the Poet speaking of Romulus That space which is vnto our birth assign'd The same by him was to the yeare confin'd And to the end we may fully know what space is there by him vnderstood hee presently adds Annus erat decimum cum luna receperat orbem Hic numerus magno tunc in honore fuit Seu quia tot digiti per quos numer are solemus Seu quia bis quino famina mense parit Our yeare tenne full moones did containe This number then was honoured For that a woman going in paine So long was then disburdened But I proccede from the time of the birth to the Ancients distribution of mans age after the birth Some of them divided the age of man into three some into foure some into five some into six some into seaven parts which they resembled to the seaven Planets comparing our infancie to the Moone in which wee seeme only to liue grow as plants the second age or childhood to Mercury wherein wee are taught and instructed the third age or youth to Venus the dayes of loue desire vanity the fourth to the Sunne the strong flourishing and beautifull age of mans life the fifth to Mars in which wee seeke honour and victory and in which our thoughts travell to ambitious ends the sixth to Iupiter in which we begin to take account of our times judge of our selues grow to the perfection of our vnderstanding The last seaventh to Saturne wherein our dayes are sad and overcast in which we finde by deere lamentable experience by the losse which neuer can be repaired that of all our vaine passions and affections past the sorrow only abideth Philo Iudaeus in that excellent booke of the workemanshippe of the world discoursing of the admirable properties of the sacred number of seaven among many other things alleaged to that purpose he affirmes that at the end of euery seaventh yeare there is some notable chaunge in the body of man and for better proofe thereof hee produceth the authority of Hippocrates and an Elegie of Solons which thus begins Impubes pueri septem voluentibus annis Claudunt enatis dentibus eloquium Post alios totidem Diuorum numine dextro Occultum pubis nascitur indicium Annus ter septem primâ lanugine malas Vestiet aetatis robore conspicuus c. When children once to seaven yeares haue aspired The tale of all their teeth they haue acquired By that the next seaven ended haue their date Pubertie comes and power to generate The third seaven perfect's growth and then the chin With youthly downe to blossome doth begin But among all the Ancients I haue mette with Macrobius in his first booke of Scipio's dreame extolling as Plilo doth the rare and singular effects of the septenary number most cleerely and learnedly expresseth the remarkeable pawses and chaunges of Nature euery seaventh yeare in the course of mans age as the casting of the teeth in the first seaven the springing of the pubes in the second of the beard in the third the vtmost period of growth in the fourth of strength in the fifth a consistence in the sixth and a
percussit pondere coxam Aeneae sed quam valeant emittere dextrae Illis dissimiles nostro tempore natae Nam genus hoc vivo iam decrescebat Homero Terra malos homines nunc educat atque pusillos Ergo Deus quicunque aspexit ridet odit Stooping for stones them in brawles alway The readiest weapon they commence their fray Not that of Turne or Aiax or whereby The sonne of Tydeus brake Aeneas thigh But such as hands vnlike to theirs and now Bred in our dayes well able are to throw For euen while Homer liv'd this race decreased And mother earth hath euer since beene pleased Cowardly dwarfes to breed those deities That them behold deride them and despise Now for asmuch as it is euident that Invenall heerein followed Virgill and Homer as will cleerely appeare when we come to the examining of their testimonies I will likewise referre the answere heerevnto to that place For Virgill then he speaking of Turnus and his great strengh thus poetizes Saxum antiquum ingens campo qui forte iacebat Limes agro positus litem vt discerneret aruis Vix illum lecti bis sex ceâ—…vice subirent Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus Ille manu raptum valida toquebat in hostem A huge old stone which then by chaunce lay in the field To bound out severall grounds and quarrells to prevent Scarce twelue choyce men such as now mother earth doth yeeld Could beare it on their necks yet he incontinent Caught it with puissant arme and to his foe it sent With which accords that in the first of his Georgickes touching the plowing vp of the Emathean and Emonean fields where many bloody battels had beene fought Scilicet tempus veniet cum finibus illis Agricola incurvo terram molitus aratro Exesa inveniet scabra rubigine pila Aut gravibus rastris galeas pulsabit inanes Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris The time will one day come when in those feilds The painefull husband plowing vp his ground Shall finde all fret with rust both pikes and sheilds And emptie helmes vnder his harrow sound Wondring at those great bones those graues doe yeeld But what credit shall wee giue to Virgill in these things who tels vs of Enceladus Fessum quoties motat latus intremere omnem Trinacriam As oft as wearied he from side to side doth turne Trinacria trembles And of Titius Per tota novem cui iâ—…gera corpus Porrigitur Whose bodie stretches to nine akers length And besides he was doubtles heerein as in many other passages thorow the Aeneads Homers ape who thus brings in Hector Hector autem rapiens lapidem portabat qui portas Stetit ante deorsum crassus sed superne Acutus erat hunc neque duo viri è populo optimi Facile ad plaustrum è terra perducerent Quales nunc sunt homines Hector caught vp a stone before the gate that lay The vpper pointed was blunt was the nether part Two of the better sort such as liue now a day Could scarce with all their force mount it into a cart To like purpose and very neere in the same words is that which hee hath in another place of Diomedes throwing a stone at Aeneas Saxum accepit manu Tytides magni ponderis quod non duo viri ferrent Quales nunc homines sunt Into his hand Tydides tooke A stone of wondrous weight Two men such as the world now yeelds To bear 't haue not the might From whence it is manifest that all the alleadged Authours herein followed Homer he being named by Gellius Pliny Iuvenall so plainely imitated by Virgill that wee neede not doubt from whom hee borrowed it rendring Homers Quales nunc sunt homines into Qualia nunc hominum producit corpora tellus But heerein he exceedes Homer that he turnes two into twelue more tollerablely I confesse because more Poetically that a man may know it at the first blush to be but a fiction And as for Homer himselfe the founder and spring-head of this opinion as he was the Authour of many excellent inventions so as it was truely written of him Hic ille est cuius de gurgite sacro Combibit arcanos vatum omnis turba furores This is the man whose sacred streame hath served all the Crew Of Poets thence they dranke their fill thence they their furies drew And therefore was hee painted vomiting and the Poets round about licking vp his vomit yet as a ranke and battell soyle that abounds both in corne and weedes so was he likewise the fruitfull parent of many errours and fables which were afterwards taken vp and imbraced with like greedines as were his best and choisest inventions Such is naturally our affection that whom in great things wee mightily admire in them we are not perswaded willingly that any thing should be amisse The reason whereof is for that as dead flies putrifie the oyntment of the Apothecarie so a little folly him that is in estimation for wissdome And this in euery profession hath too much authorised the judgement of a few I will not stand to make a Catalogue of Homers mistakes and fictions which his admirers in succeeding ages haue entertained as certaine truths That fable of the Pigmies because it hath some affinitie with our present matter and their manner of fighting with Cranes shall suffice for all which many not onely Poets but great Philosophers and among them Aristotle himselfe relying vpon his authority haue taken vp vpon trust whereas all the parts of the world being now in a manner discouered there is no such countrey or people to be found in it And for this particular opinion it is not onely objected by Goropius but by Magius freely acknowledged that Homer by Plutarches computation who composed a treatise purposely of his life liuing but one hundred yeares or a little more after the Troian warres made such a difference in mens strength and stature as was altogether incredible within the compasse of so short a space nay himselfe makes Hectors speare to bee but tenne Cubits long the ordinary length they are at euen at this day brings Telemachus Vlysses his sonne thus speaking to his nurce Euriclea Haud equidem quenquam longinquus sit licet hospes Absque labore feram contingere Chanica nostram No guest though come from farre I thee assure To touch my Choenix will I Choenix endure From which Budaeus inferres that euen then a Choenix was the daily allowance for a man as it likewise was many hundred yeares after Homers times among the Graecians For conclusion though tenne persons be brought to giue testimony in any cause yet if the knowledge they haue of the thing wherevnto they come as witnesses appeare to haue growne from some one among them and to haue spread it selfe from hand to hand they are all in force but as one testimony and if it appeare that the fountaine from
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
old but a substitution of new in asmuch as the Prophet Esay addes the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde And Saint Iohn the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there was no more Sea And Saint Peter The heavens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp And of this opinion Beza in one place seemes to haue beene Promittuntur novi Coeli ac nova terra non priorum restitutio sive in eundem sive in meliorem statum nec ijs possum assentiri qui hanc dissolutionem ad solas qualitates referendam censent There are promised new heavens and a new earth not the restitution of the old either vnto their former or a better state neither can I assent vnto them who referre this dissolution to the qualities alone But seing belike the singularity and absurditie of this opinion he recalls himselfe in his annotations vpon the very next verse But the truth is that by new heavens and a new earth is to be vnderstood in the Prophet Esay the state of the Church during the kingdome of Christ and in Saint Peter and S. Iohn the state of the Saints in the heavenly Ierusalem For the Prophet that which I affirme will easily appeare to any vnderstanding Reader that pleaseth to pervse that Chapter specially if therevnto we adde the latter part of the next touching the same point For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remaine before me sayth the Lord so shall your seed and your name continue and from moneth to moneth and from sabbaoth to sabbaoth shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. Vpon the alleaged passage of the former chapter Iunius Tremelius giue this note Omnia instauraturus sum in Christo I will restore all things in Christ Referring vs for the farther illustration thereof to that of the same Prophet in his 25 chapter at the 8 verse And for the exposition of the latter passage in the 66 chapter referres vs to that in the 65 going before So that aswell by the drift and coherence of the text as by the judgement of sound Interpreters materiall heavens and earth are not there vnderstood Which some of our English Translatours well perceiving haue to the first passage affixed this note I will so alter and change the state of the Church that it shall seeme to dwell in a new world And to the second this Heereby he signifieth the kingdome of Christ wherein his Church shall be renewed Yet I will not deny but that the Prophet may in those words likewise allude to the state of the Saints in the heavenly Ierusalem To which purpose S. Peter seemes to apply them according to his promise sayth he we looke for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousnes that is by the consent of the best expositours righteous and just men who after the day of judgement shall dwell no longer vpon the Earth but in the heavenly Ierusalem Which Saint Iohn more liuely describes in the 21 of the Revelation for having sayd in the first verse And I saw a new heaven and a new earth he presently addes in the second as it were by way of Exposition of the former And I Iohn saw the holy Citty new Ierusalem comming downe from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and by the sequele of that Chapter and the latter part of the precedent it cleerely appeares whatsoever Bright-man dreame to the contrary that he there describes the state of the Saints after the day of judgement and the glory of that place which they are eternally to inhabite being such that it had no need of the Sunne nor of the Moone to shine in it the glory of God inlightning it and the Lambe being the light thereof And Iunius thus begins his Annotations on that chapter Nunc sequitur historiae propheticae pars secunda de statu futuro Ecclesiae coelestis post Iudicium vltimum Now followes the second part of this propheticall history of the future state of the Church triumphant after the day of Iudgement And with him therein accord the greatest part of the soundest and most judicious Interpreters The other passage alleaged of the Prophet Esay touching the increase of light in the Sunne and Moone is likewise vndoubtedly to be vnderstood of the restauration of his Church according to the tenour of the chapter and the annotation of Iunius annexed therevnto Illustrissima erunt gloriosissima omnia in restitutione Ecclesiae all things shall then be more beautifulll and glorious in the restitution of the Church And with him fully accord our English notes when the Church shall be restored the glory thereof shall passe seaven times the brightnesse of the Sunne For by the Sunne and Moone which are two excellent Creatures he sheweth what shall bee the glory of the Children of God in the kingdome of Christ. Now for the words of the Apostle The fashion of this world passeth away what other thing intends he but that in these wordly things there is nothing durable and solide elegantly thereby expressing the vanitie of them in which exposition both Iunius Calvin agree That of the same Apostle in the 8 to the Romans touching the delivering of the Creature from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God is I confesse in appearance more pressing But this passage the great wit of Saint Augustine found to be very obscure and perplexed in somuch as not a few vnderstand those words of Saint Peter of this particular that in Saint Paules Epistles some things are hard to be vnderstood It were then in my judgement no small presumption vpon a place so intricate and difficult peremptorily to build so vncertaine a doctrine But because it is so hotly vrged as a testimony vnanswereable let vs a little examine the parts and sense thereof First then it is cleere that the Creature may be delivered from the bondage of corruption and yet not restored to a more perfect and beautifull estate in asmuch as being annihilated it is thereby freed from that abuse of wicked and vngratefull men which heere it is of necessity still subject vnto But all the doubt is how the Creature shall be made partaker of the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God I hope no man will dare to affirme that they shall be with them Coheires of eternall blessednes as the words seem to import how then are they made partakers of this glorious liberty But in asmuch as when the sonnes of God shall be made partakers thereof the Creature shall be altogether freed from the bondage of corruption So as that into the liberty of the sonnes of God is no more then together with the liberty of the Sons of God or by reason of
in one of his Sermons of the last Iudgment brings in this glorious Iudge thus expostulating the matter with these miscreants at that Day O man with mine owne handes did I fashion thee out of the slime of the earth into thy earthly members did I infuse a spirit I vouchsafed to bestow vpon thee mine own Image I placed thee among the delights of Paradise but thou contemning the vitall efficacy of my Commandements choosedst rather to listen to the tempter then thy God And when being expelled out of Paradise by reason of sin thou wert held in the chaines of death I was inclosed in the Virgins wombe I was layde in the cratch I was wrapped in swathing cloathes I endured the scorne of infancy the griefe of manhood that so being like vnto thee I might make thee like vnto my selfe I bore the buffetings spittings of scorners I dranke vineger mixed with gall I was scourged with whippes crowned with thornes nayled to the crosse gored with a speare that thou mightest be freed from death in torments I parted with my life Looke vpon the print of the nayles behold the skarres of my wounds I took vpon me thine infirmities that I might impart vnto thee my glory I vnderwent the death due to thee that thou mightst liue for euer I was buried in a sepulchre that thou mightest raigne in Heauen Why hast thou wilfully lost that which I by my sufferings purchased for thee Why hast thou spurned at the gratious gift of thy Redemption I complaine not of my death only render vnto me that life for which I gaue mine Render me that life which by the wounds of thy sinnes thou dayly killest Why hast thou polluted with more then beastly sensuality that Temple which in thee I consecrated to my selfe Why hast thou stained my body with filthy provocations Why hast thou tormented me with a more grievous crosse of thy sinnes then that vpon which I sometimes hung for the crosse of thy sinnes is more grievous in as much as vnwillingly I hang vpon it then that other which taking pity vpon thee to kill thy death I willingly mounted I being impassible in my selfe vouchsafed to suffer for thee but thou hast despised God in man salvation in mine infirmity pardon from thy Iudge life from my crosse and wholesome medicine from my sufferings Now what flinty or steely heart in the world could choose but resolue it selfe into teares of bloud vpon such an expostulation were it moistned with any drop of grace But heerevnto might be added that thou hast often joyned with his enemies against him turned the deafe eare to the ministery of his Word jested at his threatnings neglected his gratious invitations quenched his holy inspirations abused his Sacraments his patience which being long abused at length is turned into fury This Lambe of God therefore shall then shew himselfe as a Lyon he shall then put on righteousnesse for a brest-plate take true judgment in steed of an helmet then shal he put on the garments of vengeance for cloathing be clad with zeale as with a cloake Then shall hee come in strength as a storme of haile as a whirlewinde breaking and throwing downe whatsoeuer standeth in his way as a rage of many waters that flow and rush together The mountaines shall melt fly away at his presence a burning fire shall run before him and on euery side of him a violent tempest And if Felix himselfe a Iudge trembled to heare Paul who as a prisoner was arraigned before him disputing of this Last Iudgment how shall the guilty prisoners tremble before the face of this Iudge being both the Iudge and the party offended If the Iewes who came to attach him fell backward at the hearing of his voyce in the dayes of his humility how shal the wicked stand amazed confounded at his presence when he comes to judge them in glory Maiesty Surely for them to endure the fiercenes of his angry countenance wil be intollerable and yet to fly from it impossible the more intollerable will it be in regard of the nature and number of their accusers SECT 3. Of the nature and number of their accusers THe Creatures shall accuse them whom they haue abused to vanity to luxury to drunkennesse to gluttony to covetousnesse to ambition to revenge and being then freed from their bondage they shall freely cōplain of this vnjust vsurpation Good men shall accuse them as having bin most disdainfully scorned wronged oppressed and troden vnder-foot by them Their Companions shall accuse them as having beene drawne into sin by their wicked intisements and examples Their Teachers and Gouernours shall accuse them as hauing beene irreverent toward their persons rebellious against their instructions and commaunds Their Children and Servants shall accuse them as hauing beene negligent in their education in vertue and piety The Prophets and Apostles shall accuse them as hauing beene carelesse in the observation of their writings The good Angels shall accuse them whose directions they haue refused to follow The Divels shall accuse them in that they haue betrayed their Lord and Captaine to march vnder their banners Their owne Consciences shall bitterly accuse vpbraid them the body shall accuse the soule as being the principall agent and the soule the body as being a ready instrument The appetite shall accuse reason as being too sensuall indulgent reason the appetite as being irregular inordinate all the faculties of the Soule all the senses members of the body shall accuse each other nay which is worst of all the Iudge himselfe shal be thy accuser representing those transgressions to thy memory laying them close to thy charge which either thou hadst forgotten cast behinde thee or didst perchaunce not know or not acknowledge to be sinnes Sweet IESVS which way will the poore Sinner turne himselfe in the midst of all these accusers accusations To confesse thē then will serue but to increase his shame to deny them but to aggravate his fault consequently his punishment nay deny them hee cannot being convinced by two euidences against which there can bee no exception the booke of the Law the booke of his owne Conscience the one shall shew him what he should haue done the other what hee hath done against the booke of the Law hee shal be able to speake nothing his Conscience telling him that the commaundements of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether and for the booke of Conscience against that he cannot possibly except it being alway in his owne keeping so as it could not be falsified whatsoeuer shall then be found written therein he shal freely acknowledge to haue beene written with his owne hand Silence then shall be his safest plea and astonishment his best Apologie The rather for that all these accusations shal be brought in and layde against him in the presence of the blessed Saints and glorious Angels which shall then
the times are more Civill and men more given to luxury and ease which passe and returne by turnes Succession it selfe effects nothing therein alone in case it did the first man in reason should haue lived longest and the son should still come short of his fathers age so that whereas Moses tells vs that the dayes of mans age in his time were threescore yeares and tenne by this reckoning they might well enough by this time be brought to tenne or twenty or thirty at most It cannot be denied but that in the first ages of the world both before and after the floud men vsually lived longer then wee finde they haue done in latter ages But that I should rather choose to ascribe to some extraordinary priviledge then to the ordinary course of nature The world was then to be replenished with inhabitants which could not so speedily be done but by an extraordinary multiplication of mankinde neither could that be done but by the long liues of men And againe Arts and sciences were then to be planted for the better effecting whereof it was requisite that the same men should haue the experience and observation of many ages For as many Sensations breed an experiment so doe many experiments a Science Per varios vsus artem experimentia fecit Exemplo monstrante viam Through much experience Arts invented were Example shewing way Specially it was requisite men should liue long for the perfecting of Astronomy and the finding out of the severall motions of the heavenly bodies whereof some are so slow that they aske a long time precisely to obserue their periods and reuolutions It was the complaint of Hippocrates Ars longa vita brevis And therefore Almighty God in his wisedome then proportioned mens liues to the length of Arts and as God gaue them this speciall priviledge to liue long so in likelihood hee gaue them withall a temper constitution of body answereable therevnto As also the foode wherewith they were nourished specially before the floud may well bee thought to haue beene more wholesome and nutritiue and the plants more medicinall And happily the influence of the heavens was at that time in that clymate where the Patriarches liued more favourable and gratious Now such a revolution as there is in the manners wits and ages of men the like may well bee presumed in their strength and stature Videtur similis esse ratio in magnitudine corporum siue statura quae nec ipsa per successionem propaginis defluit There seemeth to be the like reason in the groweth bignesse of mens bodies which decreaseth not by succession of ofspring but men are sometimes in the same nation taller sometimes of a shorter stature sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker as the times wherein they liue are more temperate or luxurious more given to labour or exercise or to ease and idlenesse And for those narrations which are made of the Gyantlike statures of men in former ages many of them were doubtles merely poeticall and fabulous I deny not but such men haue beene who for their strength and stature haue beene the miracles of nature the worlds wonders whom God would therefore haue to bee saith S. Austine that hee might shew that as well the bignesse as the beautie of the body are not to be ranged in the number of things good in themselues as being common both to good and badde Yet may wee justly suspect that which Suetonius hath not spared to write that the bones of huge beasts or sea-monsters both haue and still doe passe currant for the bones of Gyants A very notable story to this purpose haue wee recorded by Camerarius who reports that Francis the first king of France who reigned about an hundred yeares since being desirous to know the truth of those things which were commonly spread touching the strength and stature of Rou'land nephew to Charlelamaine caused his sepulchre to be opened wherein his bones and bow were found rotten but his armour sound though couered with rust which the king commaunding to bee scoured off and putting it vpon his owne body found it so fit for him as thereby it appeared that Rouland exceeded him little in bignesse and stature of bodie though himselfe were not excessiue tall or bigge SECT 6. The precedents of this chapt summarily recollected and the methode observed in the ensuing treatise proposed NOw briefely and summarily to recollect and as it were to winde vp into one clue or bottome what hath more largely beene discoursed thorow this chapter I hold first that the heavenly bodies are not at all either in regard of their substance motion light warmth or influence in the course of nature at all impaired or subject to any impairing or decay Secondly that all individuals vnder the Cope of heaven mixed of the elements are subject to a naturall declination and dissolution Thirdly that the quantity of the Elements themselues is subject to impairing in regard of their parts though not of their intire bodies Fourthly that the ayre and earth and water and diverse seasons diversely affected sometime for the better sometime for the worse and that either by some speciall favour or judgement of God or by some cause in nature secret or apparent Fiftly that the severall kindes of beasts of plantes of fishes of birds of stones of mettalls are as many in number as at the Creation every way in Nature as vigorous as at any time since the floud Sixtly and lastly that the manners the wits the health the age the strength and stature of men daily vary but so as by a vicissitude and reuolution they returne againe to their former points from which they declined againe decline and againe returne by alternatiue and interchangeable courses Erit hic rerum in se remeantium orbis quamdiù erit ipse orbis This circle and ring of things returning alwayes to their principles will neuer cease as long as the world lasts Repetunt proprios cuncta recursus Redituque suo singula gaudent Nec manet vlli traditus ordo Nisi quod fini iunxerit ortum Stabilemque sui fecerit orbem To their first spring all things are backeward bound And every thing in its returne delighteth Th' order once setled can in nought be found But what the end vnto the birth vniteth And of its selfe doth make a constant round And consequently there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the frame of the Creatures as is commonly imagined and by some strongly maintained The methode which I propose is first to treate heereof in generall that so a cleerer way and easier passage may be opened to the particulars then of the Heavens as being the highest in situation and the noblest in outward glory and duration as also in their efficacie and vniversality of operation and therefore doth the Prophet rightly place them next God himselfe in the order of Causes it shall come to passe in that day saith
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