the time of the worlds creation with a confutation of the first Sect. 2. Their reasons shewed who suppose the time to be in the Spring Sect. 3. That the world began in Autumne with an answer to their first reason who endeavour to prove it was in the Spring Sect. 4. An answer to their second reason Sect. 5. An answer to their third reason Sect. 6. An answer to their fourth reason Sect. 7. Concluding the time to be Autumne CHAP. III. THe third Chapter concerneth the first day of the world and is divided into three Sections Sect. 1. Of God the Architect of all and of the first part of the first dayes work Sect. 2. Of the creation of Light Sect. 3. Of the intercourse between day and night CHAP. IIII. THe fourth and fifth Chapters concern the second day with such things as are pertinent to the work done in it and are divided into these following Sections Paragraphs and Articles Sect. 1. Of the Expansum or stretching out of the heavens called the Firmament Sect. 2. Of the waters above the heavens Sect. 3. Of the matter of the heavens c. CHAP. V. THe fifth Chapter beginneth with the second part of the second dayes work and hath two Sections Sect. 1. How to understand the word Heavens Sect. 2. Of the Aire together with such appearances as we use to see there This Section hath seven Paragraphs Parag. 1. Of the division and qualitie of the Regions in the Aire Parag. 2. Of Meteors first in generall then how they be divided in particular Parag. 3. Of Fierie Meteors such as are said to be pure and not mixt This Paragraph hath thirteen Articles 1. Of burning Torches 2. Of burning Beams 3. Of round Pillars 4. Of Pyramidall Pillars 5. Of burning Spears Streams or Darts 6. Of dancing or leaping Goats 7. Of flying Sparks 8. Of shooting Starres 9. Of flying Launces 10. Of Fires in the Aire two kindes 11. Of Flying Dragons or Fire-Drakes 12. Of Wandring Lights 13. Of Licking Lights Sect. 2. of the fifth Chapter still continued Parag. 4. of the second Section It concerneth Fiery Meteors impurely mixt This Paragraph hath three Articles 1. Of Comets c. 2. Of New stars their matter and significations 3. Of Thunder and Lightning Parag. 5. Of such Meteors as are Fiery onely in appearance This hath seven Articles 1. Of the Galaxia that it is no Meteor 2. Of Colours in the Clouds 3. Of many Sunnes and Moons 4. Of Beams or Streams of Light 5. Of Circles or Crowns 6. Of the Rain-bow 7. Of Openings or Chaps in the skie Parag. 6. Of Watery Meteros and of their severall kindes This Paragraph hath eight Articles 1. Of Clouds and their matter 2. Of Rain 3. Of Dew 4. Of Frosts 5. Of Snow 6. Of Hail 7. Of Mists and their kindes 8. Of the Cobweb-like Meteor Parag. 7. Of Aiery Meteors This hath five Articles 1. Of divers opinions concerning Winde 2. Of Winde what it is c. 3. Of the division of Windes c. 4. Of the qualitie and nature of Windes 5. Of Whirl-windes Storm-windes c. CHAP. VI. THe sixth Chapter treateth of the third day together with such things as are pertinent to the work done in it Here befoure Sections and two Appendices Sect. 1. Shewing into how many main parts the businesse of this day may be distinguished Sect. 2. Concerning the first thing done viz. The gathering together of the Waters which God Almighty calleth Seas This Section disputeth seven Questions 1. How the Waters were gathered together 2. How they could be gathered but to one place seeing there be many Seas Lakes Rivers and Fountains farre asunder 3. Whether they be higher then the Earth 4. Whether there be more Water then Earth 5. Whether the Earth be founded upon the Waters 6. The originall of Rivers as also why the Seas be salt and Rivers fresh 7. Of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Unto which Section an Appendix is joyned and it concerns strange properties in certain Wells Waters and Fountains Sect. 3. Of the Drie-land appearing after the Waters were gathered wherein the cause of Earth-quakes together with the compasse and circuit of the Earth is shewed Sect. 4. Of the Sprouting Springing and Fructification of the Earth wherein the varietie and vertues of sundry Herbs and Trees is largely discovered according to the best Authours Unto which two last Sections an Appendix is joyned concerning all kinde of Metals as Gold Silver Stones of all sorts and such like things as are under ground CHAP. VII THe seventh Chapter concerneth the fourth day together with such things as are pertinent to the work done in it namely the Matter Names Natures Motions and Offices of the Starres It hath three Sections Sect. 1. An entrance towards the discourse of the Stars and Lights Sect. 2. Of the Matter Place Motion and Height of the Starres c. This Section hath two Articles 1. That the Starres consist most of a Fiery matter and are cherished by the Waters above the Heavens as was mentioned Chap. 4. 2. Of their Order and Place in the Skie and why one is higher then another Sect. 3. Of those offices given to the Starres when they were created This third Section hath three Paragraphs Parag. 1. Shewing that their first office is to shine upon the Earth to rule the Day and Night c. Here we have two Articles 1. Of Light what it is and whether the Sunne be the onely fountain of Light 2. Of the Starres twinkling and Sunnes dancing Parag. 2. Of that other office viz. that the Starres should be for Signes c. This Paragraph hath three Articles 1. That the Starres work upon the inferiour world and are signes of future events 2. Whether it be not a derogation from the perfection of things created to grant that the Starres may give an inclination to Man in his actions 3. Of Predictions or understanding the Signes Parag. 3. Of that other office wherein the Starres were made as it were heavenly clocks This hath three Articles 1. Of Seasons as Spring Summer c. 2. Of Dayes and their kindes c. 3. Of Yeares and their kindes c. CHAP. VIII THe eighth Chapter concerneth the creatures made in the fifth day of the world viz. Fish and Fowl This Chapter hath two Sections Sect. 1. Of Fishes their names kindes properties together with sundry emblemes drawn from them Sect. 2. Of the names kindes and properties of Fowls with many and sundry emblemes drawn from most of them CHAP. IX THe ninth Chapter concerneth the creatures made in the sixth and last day being such creatures as live neither in the Aire or Water but upon the Earth This Chapter hath likewise two Sections Sect. 1. Of Beasts their properties names kindes c. together with sundry emblemes drawn from many of them Sect. 2. The creation of Man being created male and female and made according to the image of God together with the institution of Marriage and blessing
Comets or New strange shining starres Surely if they should suffer their bodies to be thus exhaled they could not choose but fall into a deep consumption and be visibly disproportioned in their shapes and figures farre otherwise then we see them For it is a long time since the world began and no few Comets have had their seats above the Moon where they all cry out against an opinion so improbable shewing that the changes would be such as would be apparant and visible enough to every vulgar eye Besides it cannot but be granted that for ordinary Meteors every starre and Planet hath an exhaling vertue as well as the Sunne why therefore should they now desist and leave it all to him who if he may have this libertie will at the last suck them all to nothing These men may well imagine as they do mountains in the Moon with woods and groves seas and rivers and make every planet another world but yet 'twere good they knew that God made all but one althoûgh the parts be two and that Adam being cast out of Paradise was sent to till the ground and labour the earth which he sought not with the man in the Moon for he knew that that was not to bud forth with fruit bear trees and the like because it had another office For Let the earth saith the Almightie bring forth grasse herb fruit trees c. but let there be lights in the Firmament the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night Also if the Sunne should work thus among the starres and that there should be vapours exhaled from their bodies how comes it to passe that we perceive no clouds in the Ethereall vault and that we cannot see them glide between starre and starre flying upon the wings of such windes as must necessarily upon the admittance of this tenent be generated there Perhaps they will answer that these things may be and we not see them by reason of the great distance between us and them Well be it so yet know that although we could not see them we should sometimes feel them and perceive our mother earth to be watered with showers of rain when we see nothing but a cleare skie over us But it may be they again will answer that the starres do not frequently afford such Vapours and Exhalations but sometimes onely and then if they be not copious enough to make such a cloud as may shine like a Comet or blazing starre they are rather dispersed into nothing then turned into rain for their matter is too hot and drie to make a rainie cloud In good time The starres do not frequently afford such Exhalations and why so I pray surely the sunne is never so farre distant from some one Planet or other but that he would make this his operation appeare if he had at all any such working or power of exhaling matter from them and if not a waterie yet a drie cloud might be visible The starres surely are of such a nature that they be rather fed and nourished by vapours then compelled to suffer an unwilling wasting caused by an exhaling vertue which is improperly given onely to the Sunne because onely to him and from whence these Vapours come which upon all likelihood do continually nourish the starres shall be shewed in the fourth dayes work Neither do some exempt the Sunne from these evaporations but affirm that day and night he also expireth vapours from him which others again denie because they imagine that this publick lamp of the world ought to be more immortall lest being extinct he should be quite without light and afford the world nothing but black and dismall darknesse That therefore which before I affirmed joyning in part with Tycho who fetcheth matter from the Galaxia seems to me farre more probable concerning the generation of these appearances For first the Galaxia doth sensibly appeare as if it were an ample storehouse and had large portions of matter reserved onely for such purposes which when there is a working in nature apt and convenient to produce it is liberally afforded and sent thither where the most power is to attract it And secondly that an earthie Exhalation may sometimes be admitted to joyn with the abovesaid matter this seems to me a reason because like other low and ordinary Meteors these also shew themselves or first begin to shine in the Autumnall season and not in the Spring Summer or Winter Quarter Article 3. Of Thunder and Lightnings NOw it followeth that I speak of such fierie mixt Meteors as are of lesse continuance then Comets or blazing starres and by their generall names they are called Thunder and Lightnings Concerning the first which is Thunder it is not properly any kinde of Meteor but rather an adjunct or depending effect For Thunder is nothing else but a sound heard out of a thick or close compacted cloud which sound is procured by reason of hot and drie Exhalations shut within the cloud which seeking to get out with great violence do knock and rend the cloud from whence proceeds that rumbling noise which we call thunder For when an Exhalation which is more hot then ordinary meets with cold and moist vapours in the middle Region of the aire and are inclosed all together in an hollow cloud it cannot but be that they fall at variance and by this strife being driven together the Exhalation is made stronger and either by the motion or by an Antiperistasis it is set on fire which violently breaking the clouds whilest it seeks for libertie gives an horrid sound A similitude may be taken from a chest-nut apple or egge breaking in the fire or from the cracking of moist wood or any such like thing for this is apparent that when any inclosed hot winde is holden and withholden so as it can have no vent it will then seek it self a way by breaking the skin shell or case and in the breaking seeing it is with violence it must of necessitie make a noise And thus it is in thunder But observe that in thunder the noise made is not alwayes of a like sound for in respect of the hollownesse thicknesse or thinnesse of the cloud and small or great force of the Exhalation the sound is altered A great crack is caused when the cloud is very hollow his sides thick and the Exhalation very drie and copious which if it break the cloud all at once then it maketh a short and terrible crack much like the sound of a gunne If it rend the cloud all along breaking out by leisure then it makes a noise like to the rending of broad cloth or the ratling of stones out of a cart A small crack is caused when either the cloud or Exhalation is but weak or the cloud strong and the Exhalation of some little quantitie And in small thunders it sometimes falleth out that when the sides of the cloud are stronger then the force of
eyes can see Sect. 3. Of the offices given to the Sunne Moon and Starres in the day of their creation Paragr 1. Shewing that their first office is to shine upon the earth to rule over the day and night c. Artic. 1. Of light what it is and whether the Sunne be the onely fountain of light THe former part of my discourse hitherto in this dayes work was chiefly founded upon these words Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven and upon these And God made the starres also But now I come to speak of their offices The first whereof is that exquisite one above the rest I mean their bright and radiant shining by which the dismall clouds of foggie darknesse are daintily devoured and the sweet comelinesse of the worlds ornament made apparent For without light all things would appeare like the face of hell or horrour and each parcell of the worlds fabrick lie buried in black obscuritie dismall squalour Whereupon one speaketh worthily saying that amongst those qualities subject to sense there is none more fit to shew the due decorum and comely beauty of the worlds brave structure none more fit then light For where it spreads it self either above us or below us all things are then encompast with such a splendour as if a golden garment were dilated over them or curiously put upon them Let it not then be ashamed to shine shew it self to the praise of him who made it For Praise him sun and moon praise him oh ye stars and light was Davids song But to proceed Authours make a difference between Lux and Lumen It is called Lux as it is in the fountain that is in a bodie which is lucid of it self as in the sunne so saith Zanchius But it is Lumen as it is in some Medium that is in corpore diaphano as is the aire or water Lumen enim nihil aliud est quà m lux lucisve imago in corpore diaphano From whence may be gathered that that primarie light which we comprehend under the name of Lux is no other thing then the more noble part of that essence which is either in the sunne moon or starres and so far as a corporeall substance may be given to fire it may be also attributed to that which is properly called light being in and of those lamps of heaven which were made ex primava luce chiefly and so came to appeare of a fiery colour Whereupon Patricius writing against the Peripateticks saith Lux est essentia stellarum Nihil enim aliud flamma quà m lumen densius lumen non aliud quà m flamma rarior Calor quoque non aliud quà m ignis rarefactus atque diffusus ignis non aliud quà m calor densatus sive lux compacta Take therefore my meaning rightly lest I be supposed to be much mistaken And again concerning Radius which is a Beam or Ray it is no primarie light neither but rather as Patricius also writeth it is Fulgor à Luce exiliens in rectam acutam figuram seu in modum Pyramidis Coni promicans To which Scaliger is affirming saying Lux est alia in corpore lucido ab eo non exiens alia à corpore lucis exiens ut Lumen Radius And Zaharel also saith Lux alia est propriè dicta in astris ipsis alia à luce producta in perspicuo Whereupon I cannot but be perswaded that light in it self properly primarily taken must be an essentiall propertie as formerly I have related but to the aire or other things enlightned by it it is an accidentall quality approved of God as good both to himself the future creatures For although it be commonly said of compound things that they are such as we may distinguish of them in ipsam essentiam susceptricem in eam quae ipsi accidit qualitatem yet here the case proves otherwise because the sunne and starres have susceptam semel secúmque immixtam lucem And again as saith Theodoret Lucem quidem condidit ut voluit Quemadmodum verò firmamento aquas divisit ità lucem illam dividens ut voluit luminaria magna ac parva in coelo collocavit And as touching the brightnesse of the starres the sunne may well be called Oculus mundi The eye of the world For he is indeed the chief fountain from whence the whole world receiveth lustre shining alone and enlightning our whole hemisphere when all the other starres are hid From whence some Philosophers and Astronomers have been of opinion that the fixed starres shine not but with a borrowed light from the sunne Plutarch in his 2 book and 17 chap. of the opinions of Philosophers saith that Metrodorus and his disciples the Epicures have been of this minde But according to the mindes of the best authours and nearest equipage to truth the starres are called lights as well as the sunne and moon although there be a difference between them either of more or lesse For Paul distinguisheth between the starres and sunne non privatione lucis sed tantùm gradu And when God said Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven he made not the sunne alone but the sunne moon and starres the light in the starres being in very deed darkened by that in the sunne which doth but differ in degree from that in them Whereupon it is that the starres shew themselves by night onely when the sunne is hid or in some deep pit whither the sunne-beams cannot pierce If therefore we cannot see them Id non solis non stellarum culpâ fit sed oculorum nostrorum hic est defectus ob solaris enim luminis copiam ac vigorem debilitantur Also some adde their influences as that of the Little dogge the Plâ—…iadas and others being plain testimonies of their native light For if they had not their proper and pâ—…culiar light being fo farre distant from the inferiour bodies it is thought they could not alter them in such sort as they sometimes do and evermore the further they be from the sunne the better and brighter we see them And as for the diversitie of their influence the differing qualitie of the subject causeth this diversitie So that though this light for the first three dayes was but one in qualitie it came to have divers effects as soon as it was taken and bestowed upon the starres and lights And perhaps as there is in them the more of this fire the â—…otter is their qualitie but little fire and more water the moister and cooler and so also the more earthy substance the darker Neither do I think that we may altogether exempt the moon from her native light For although she shineth to us with a borrowed light yet it is no consequence to say she hath therefore no own proper light There is saith Goclenius a double light of the moon Proper and Strange The Proper is that which is Homogeneall to it self or
lux congenita a light begotten together with the moon and essentiall to it although it be but weak The other is that which it borroweth from the sunne as is seen in eclipses monethly revolutions For she is one while full another while hid one while horned another while half lightened which is but in respect of us who cannot see what light she borroweth but as she approacheth from the sunne for otherwise she is half lightened alwayes Or if you please consider it thus that as a well polished Mirrour transporteth the light of the fire or the sunne against a wall or a floore so the moon receiveth her light from the sunne and reflecteth it in the night upon the earth for the sunne being then absent gives an abundant and free leave to see it And again as in a Mirrour which hath behinde it his foil of lead scratched and torn a man may perceive certain spots So in the moon because her bodie is in some places rare and transparent and in other places massie thick and solid there appeare certain Maculae or blemishes for those places and parts are not of a fit temper to reflect the light of the sunne But if it be so in the moon why may not the other starres shine likewise with a borrowed light as well as she I answer Because we have not the like reasons to declare it Neither is it like saith Patricius that that unmeasurable companie of fixed starres in the highest part of heaven which is so much more noble then the place of the sunne by how much it comes nearer to the Heaven of heavens should shine but by the light of the sunne For neither in them nor in any other of the Planets doth any man see a waxing and waning of light nor yet are they ever eclipsed but shew alwayes of one and the same brightnesse and therefore it is not the same reason between the moon and them Perhaps if their bodies were composed in the same manner with the bodie of the moon or had the like proportions and temperaments that she hath it might be so but her lownesse shews her gravitie and her gravitie her soliditie and her soliditie shews not onely her own light to be weak through a want of that fierie matter or lux primaeva which is in the other starres in a differing degree but also her aptnesse for reflexion is declared to be such as she may well shine by a borrowed light Howbeit I do also think that the starres have aliquid lucis alienae which they receive from the sunne To which Patricius also assenteth as he is mentioned by Casman in the first part of his Astrologie saying Tribuit quidem omnibus sed lucere nequaquam facit Nam ipsa flammae sunt suâ essentiâ lux sunt non minùs suis viribus lucere possunt lucent Sed lumen suum eis sol addit lucémque eorum reddit lucidiorem Lucem ergò eis non indit sed insitam adauget meaning that the sunnes light inereaseth the light of the starres making it the brighter and the clearer which must be understood of them so long as they are at a convenient distance from the sunne For if they be too neare either the lesser light is obscured by the greater as is seen in the Planets being often hid by the beams of the sunne or else such a dark starre as Mercurie will with the losse of his light shew us his dark bodie which sometimes happeneth being then seen as a spot in the sunne For if you take Mercurie in his best hue he hath but a cloudie countenance and a leaden look which therefore argueth that he hath a thick bodie and little light of which I shall need to say no more Artic. 2. Of the twinkling of starres or vibration of their light THe twinkling of the starres is the vibration or trembling of their light Or rather thus It is when the light of any starre seemeth to tremble For indeed to speak properly the starres themselves do not twinkle as we think they do but either from the trembling of the eye or motion of the aire this appearance proceedeth For when the eye looks long at a sensible object whose brightnesse excelleth the sense it then beginneth to faint and being weak and wearie is possessed with a kinde of trembling and thereupon we think that the starre it self twinkleth Also the Optick Masters confesse and prove that the forms of the starres are comprehended of the sight reflectly and not rightly that is a right line drawn from the eye falleth not into the centre of the starre but into the form of it reflected and refracted in the aire to the sight Now it is manifest that as the aire hath one motion proper to it which is upwards so hath it another motion improper caused by the revolution of the heavens every 24 houres which draweth all the airie region about therewith by which means the apparent form of the starres is distracted seeming to cast forth sparkles called twinkling For if the bodie move wherein the form of the starre appeareth it must be so which we may well prove by a piece of silver in the bottome of a swift running brook or by the reflexion of the starres seen in the same for by the running of the water the reflected form is distracted and as it were broken and so it is likewise in the aire with the starres But may not this twinkling be seen in the Planets as well as in the other starres I answer that not alwayes yet sometimes it may and this is but when a watrie vapour is neare unto them which is carried and tossed of the windes with a various motion for then the forms of the Planets also being refracted in the said vapour appeare to the sight as if they twinkled Now this is most of all perceived in the East at the time of their rising whereupon it comes to passe that the common people have supposed they have sometimes seen the sunne dance and as it were hop up and down which why some have attributed it to such and such dayes is fabulous For this may be upon any day when the sunne meets with a fit portion of vapours at the time of his rising and the other Planets may also in some sort sometimes shew it when they have climbed to an indifferent height above the Horizon which because it is not ordinarie some have falsely supposed that the Planets twinkle not at all And again let this be remembred that if there be fit vapours rightly placed Mars and Venus twinkle more then Saturn Jupiter and Mercury but otherwise this appearance is neither in Mars nor Venus nor any of the rest Parag. 2. Of that other office which was given to the starres viz. that they should be for signes c. Artic. 1. That the starres are signes of future events and that by their naturall qualities they work upon the inferiour world and all the
given to that estate CHAP. I. Wherein is shewed that the world neither was from eternitie nor yet shall be extended to eternitie but that it had both a beginning and shall also have an ending wherein also is considerable how that ending shall be as also the time when is largely examined Sect. 1. That the world began and must also end THe Philosophers of ancient times were diversly transported in the stream of their own opinions both concerning the worlds originall and continuance some determining that it once began others imagining that it was without beginning and that the circled orbs should spin out a thread as long as is eternitie before it found an ending Plato could say that it was Dei Patris ad genus humanum epistola an epistle of God the Father unto mankinde and that God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creatour Maker and Father of the whole universe But Aristotle sticked not to affirm that the world neither began nor yet shall end Yet this his opinion himself being witnesse was nothing else but a Paradox and as without wrong to him may be affirmed he maintained it rather by way of contradicting others then for any desire of truth calling it Problema topicum as in the first book of his Topicks chap. 9. is manifest and as in that book written in his old age to king Alexander the Great he also confesseth This therefore made one say that it was not so much a logicall question as a thesis or position which Aristotle held and maintained whose reasons some have called vain sophistications to obscure the truth having more with then matter in them and may again be answered by more solid arguments then he alledgeth For that the world had both a beginning and must also have an ending even reason it self although there were no Scripture for it is sufficient As first if the world were eternall then there would be some memorie given us of the generations of men more ancient then that which Moses mentioneth but there is none given us for all other histories are but late in respect of the sacred storie which is an evident argument not onely against the eternitie of the world but also against the fables of the Egyptians Scythians and Grecians concerning their ancientnesse and the ancientnesse of their acts and deeds of fame For indeed omitting their palpable fictions when Ethnick writers tell us of any ancient thing it is either concerning the Thebane or Trojane warre of Cecrops of Inachus of Ogyges Deucalion or Ianus of Ninus or his father Belus or of the warre of the giants striving to heap mountain upon mountain that they might pull the gods out of heaven Now all these were either about the dayes of the Judges Moses Abraham or Noah at the furthest For to whom did they allude by their Ianus with two faces but to Noah who saw the times both before and after the floud Or whom did they point at by their Gigantomachia when Pelion forsooth must be set upon Ossa's back and all thrown down with a thunder-crack whom I say did they point at but Nimrod and his company or those who built the tower of Babel and had their languages confounded for it That of the Poet is therefore pertinent Si nulla fuit genitalis origo Terrarum coeli sempérque aeterna fuâ—…re Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinêre Poetae Quò tot facta virûm toties cecidêre nec usquam Aeternis famae monimentis insita florent If that the heavens and earth did not begin Had no creation but remain'd from aye Why did not other Poets something sing Before the Thebane warre or fall of Troy What are become of great mens many deeds They could not die But would remain unto posteritie Secondly thus it may be also proved All things which are to us conspicuous consisting of matter and form are of themselves frail and fading having such a nature that they either are or may be subject to corruption but such is the world and therefore as in respect of its essence it is finite so likewise in respect of time it cannot be infinite but have both a beginning and an ending For first that is properly eternall which is altogether incommunicable or which is without beginning mutation succession and end and such onely is God and not the world Secondly it cannot be denied but that there is the same reason of the whole which is of the parts so that if the parts of the world be subject to corruption then must likewise the whole world also but the parts are as we daily see and therefore the whole But leaving reason we have a rule beyond it which is the rule of faith whos 's first assertion makes it plain that the world began and that Time by which we measure dayes weeks moneths and yeares hath not been for ever For In the beginning saith Moses God created the heavens and the earth and why is it said In the beginning he created but that it might be known especially to his Church that the world 〈◊〉 from everlasting Divinely therefore did Du Bartas sing as in the sound of Silvester we have it Cleare fire for ever hath not ayre embrac't Nor ayre for aye environ'd waters vast Nor waters alwayes wrapt the earth therein But all this ALL did once of nought begin Th' immutable divine decree which shall Cause the worlds end caus'd his originall Which whosoever shall deny he doth but betray his misery either because he wants Gods holy word to be his rule or else because he disdaineth to be ruled by it How great a priviledge then is that which even the poorest Christian hath above the greatest and most wise Philosopher And as for the scoffing Atheist whose peevish and perverse opinion leads him up and down in an affected cloud of ignorance disdaining to have faith because he scoffeth at the rule of faith it is no more then thus with him he kicks against the pricks and cannot therefore escape away unhurt For Sequitur injustas ultor à tergo Deus God as a revenger follows at the heels of a sinner Which many thousands now can witnesse well Whose faults with woe recanted are in hell Sect. 2. BUt concerning the worlds ending here fitly may arise this question viz. Whether it shall be destroyed according to the substance or according to the qualities 1. If it be destroyed according to the substance then it must be so destroyed as that nothing of it be remaining 2. If it be destroyed according to the qualities then it shall onely be purged the substance still abiding Now of both these opinions there can be but one truth which I verily think to be in the latter of them For although it be said in S. Peter that the heavens shall passe away with a noise the elements shall melt away with heat c.
viz. God commanded this elementarie light to be that so the thinner and higher element severed from the aire might by his enlightning operation effect a light some shining and the aire according to the nature thereof receive it which to the fire was an essentiall propertie to the aire an accidentall qualitie approved of God as good both to himself and the future creatures Thus some But others except against it affirming that this light was moveable by the presence of it making day and by its absence making night which could not have been had it been the element of fire unlesse it be more or lesse in one place then in another and not equally dispersed Or as Pareus answereth it could not be the element of fire because that is above the clouds according to the common rules of Philosophie and therefore in his judgement the fierie element was not untill the second day being created with the Expansum or stretching out of the aire But unto these exceptions I think an answer may be framed as I perhaps shall afterwards shew you Thirdly if as some have done we should think that this was the very light of the sunne and then in the sunne or in such a cloud or subject as was the matter of the sunne the text would be objected against it which affirmeth that the sunne was not untill the fourth day for the creation of that was but then although the light was before Fourthly Aquinas saith Lux primo die fuit producta secundum communem lucis naturam quarto autem die attributa est luminaribus determinata virtus ad determinatos effectus secundum quod videmus alios effectus habere radium solis alios radium lunae sic de aliis Whereupon he concludeth that howsoever it was it was but an informed light untill the fourth day Now therefore amongst a multitude of opinions which are besides these already mentioned I for mine own part cannot but preferre this as the best namely that the light for three dayes space wanted a subject such as now it hath and yet it did perform the same office which now it doth being fastened to a subject or to the bodie of the Sunne which is Vehiculum lucis A Chariot for the light For we may easily perceive that in the works of creation there is such an harmonious order observed as that there may be an union and reduction of all things of one kinde to their own heads and centre As for example the upper waters must be severed by the out-spread firmament and the lower must repair all to one sea as their naturall subject and as for heavie substances they hasten downwards and the light ones they fly upwards In like manner that light which at the first was dispersed and fixed to no subject doth presently as soon as the sunne was unite it self unto that body as now it is This of all other seemeth to me the best opinion to pitch upon and the most probable in this kinde which may well be as an Embleme how God will one day gather his elect from all coasts of heaven to the participation of one glorie S. Paul applieth it to our regeneration thus God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts c. that we who were once darknesse are now light in the Lord. And in this consideration I think we need not much dissent from them who would have the element of fire signified by it which opinion was before mentioned for howsoever it be that that element be now dispersed or wheresoever placed yet it might be that the first light shined from it thus I say it might be because we may not reason à facto ad fieri or from the order of the constitution of things in which they now are to the principles of their institution whilest yet they were in making And for further proof of this I do easily assent to them who have probably affirmed that the starres and lights of heaven contain the greatest part of this fire as afterwards in the fourth dayes work shall be more plainly shewed This I have said as seeming to me the best and most probable tenent although perfectly to affirm what this light was must be by our enlightning from him who commanded that it should shine out of darknesse Of which shining and darknesse seeing the Sunne was not yet made which by his course and turning about makes it day and night at the same time in divers places it may be said that it was day and night at the same instant now over the face of the whole earth which made one therefore say that the first darknesses were not loco divisae sed planè depulsae à luce ut nusquam essent yet so as that they should either return or depart according to the contraction or expansion of this first light caused by a divine dispensation Thus Pareus And now of thee oh bright-shining creature it may be said that hadst thou never been the beautie of the world had been as nothing For thou art the beautie of all the beauties else as saith Du Bartas Gods eldest daughter Oh how thou art full Of grace and goodnesse Oh how beautifull Quest. But if God made the Light was he not before in darknesse Answ. No For he needs not any created light who is himself a Light uncreated no corporall light who is a spirituall one God is light and in him is no darknesse at all 1. Joh. 1. 5. He made this light for our mortall journey on earth himself is the Light of our immortall abode in heaven neither did he more dwell in this light that he made then the waters were the habitation of the Spirit when it was said that the Spirit moved upon the waters But see there was Night Light and Day before the Sunne yet now without it there is neither which sheweth that we must allow God to be the Lord of his own works and not limit his power to means And surely as it was before man was made so shall it be after he is dissolved For then as the Prophet speaketh The Sunne shall no more be thy light by day neither shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory Lastly unto this amongst many things let me adde but one thing more God made light on the first day so Christ arose from death on the same day being the first of the week And he is the true light which lighteth every one that cometh into the world Of which light if we have no portion then of all creatures man is the most miserable Sect. 3. Of the intercourse between day and night WHat now remaineth God called the light Day and the darknesse Night 'T is true Th' All 's Architect alternately decreed That Night the Day the Day should Night succeed Of both which we have more then
Aire in it being cold because it is hindred from following the circular motion of the heavens But as I said it is not absolutely cold but respectively For if it were extream cold then the heat of the Sunne would never passe through it to this Region here below neither would there be grasse herbs and such high trees as are upon the tops of the mountains But to proceed 1. In the highest Region and oft times above it be generated Comets or Blazing starres and such like fiery Meteors of divers sorts 2. In the middle Region Clouds Thunder Rain Windes Storms c. 3. In the lowest Region we have Dews Mists Hoar-frost Ice and Frost As also here is your Ignis fatuus or foolish fire with other Lights burning about graves or such like fattie places where there is store of clammie or fat oylie substance for their matter These Lights are seen also in fields and are driven by a gentle winde to and fro untill their matter be consumed Now these and every one of these seeing they have their causes in nature let us a little view them both how and what they are For they who send us to God and his decree in nature have indeed said what is the true cause but not how it is by naturall means effected For the manner of producing these things doth no lesse amplifie the power and providence of God then the things themselves when they are produced Sect. 2. Parag. 2. Of Meteors first in generall then how they are divided in particular ANd these things of which we now speak seen in any of the Regions by a generall name are called Meteors And the matter of Meteors as it is remote is from the Elements but as it is propinque or neare it consisteth of Exhalations And Exhalations are of two kindes 1. There is Fumus 2. Vapor If it come from the earth or some sandy place it is Fumus a Fume or a kinde of Smoke If it come from the water or some watry place it is Vapor For this is a rule that A Fume hath a certain earthly nature in it and yet is not earth and a Vapour hath a certain watry nature in it and yet it is not water Or if you had rather take it thus Fumus est mediae naturae inter terram ignem Vapor verò inter aquam aërem That is A Fume is of a middle nature between earth and fire but a Vapour is of a middle nature between water and aire And further all vapours are warm and moist and will easily be resolved into water much like the breath that proceedeth out of a mans mouth or out of a pot of water standing on the fire and these are never drawn higher then the middle Region of the Aire for there they are thickened and conglomerated by the cold into clouds And why vapours are warm being drawn from that which is cold is not from any internall propertie of their own but they receive this qualitie from the power and influence of the stars For after that the matter is by them attenuated or made thin their beams cannot but warm it although it proceed from that which is cold Again all fumes are as smokes which be hot and dry which because they be thin and lighter then vapours they often passe the lowest and middle Regions of the Aire being sometimes carried even beyond the highest Region it self And thus we see how there are two kindes of Exhalations Th' one somewhat hot but heavy moist and thick The other light drie burning pure and quick Moreover these Exhalations being the matter of Meteors as hath been said are either from the Earth or Water As for the Fire and Aire they are mixed with this matter as with all other things but not so abundantly that they may be said to be the materiall cause of any Meteor although without them none can be effected And thus much generally But now more particularly And in coming to particulars it may be found that these kinde of Meteors concerning which I speak are of three sorts either Fierie Waterie or Aierie Fierie are of two sorts either such as are in very deed fired or else such as onely seem to burn which are therefore called Phasmata In which regard it may be said that these Fierie ones are either Flames or Apparitions And again in respect of their matter if they be such as burn in very deed then they be either more or lesse pure Their place where we see them is according to the abundance and scarcitie or rather qualitie of the matter whereof they consist for if it be heavie and grosse it cannot be carried high but if it be not so grosse but rather light and more full of heat then it aspires and transcends so much the higher by how much it is the lighter sometimes above the highest Region of the Aire even into the starry heaven it self which is witnessed by our best modern Astronomers who have observed many Comets above the Moon Furthermore these Fiery impressions according to the diverse disposing of their matter are of severall fashions and thereupon they have severall appellations being called according unto the names of those things unto which they seem to be like As 1. Torches 2. Burning Beams 3. Round Pillars 4. Pyramidall Pillars 5. Burning Spears Streams or Darts 6. Dancing or leaping Goats 7. Flying Sparks 8. Shooting Starres 9. Flying Launces 10. Fires either scattered or else as if all the aire burned 11. Flying Dragons or Fire-drakes 12. Wandring Lights 13. And also licking or cleaving fire sticking on the hairs of men or beasts Now all these kindes of which I have mentioned thirteen I take to be such fierie Meteors as are said to be pure and not mixt Then again have you those which are said to be mixt and lesse pure As 1. Comets of all sorts 2. All kindes of lightening 3. Unto which must be joyned thunder as an adjunct And now of these severally before I mention any more of another kinde whether waterie or aierie Sect. 2. Parag. 3. Of such fierie Meteors as are pure and not mixt 1. FAx which is a Torch or Fire-brand or as a lighted candle is an exhalation hot and drie drawn beyond the middle Region of the aire where being arrived it is set on fire as are all exhalations that come there partly by their own heat and partly by the heat of that place and because the matter of the exhalation is long and not broad and being equally compact and fired at the one end it burneth like a torch or candle untill the whole whereof it consisteth be consumed And why it should burn at the one end rather then at the other is found to be because it is long and standeth upright having the most of its aspiring matter in the top and in this station ascending up it comes to passe that when the upper end doth present it self to the
no such luckie flouds there it is found that these bounteous watrie bodies yeelding vapours do purchase for them such dropping showers of rain that the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing and therefore these are great benefits challenging most humble thanks as it is Psal. 107. The third is that they can quell the rage of the hottest element and keep our mansions from cinders or a flamie conversion into ashes The fourth is that they yeeld us an easinesse and speedinesse of conduct and traffick by which each place partaketh of the blessings of every place Yea these and many more are the benefits of water without which the life of man could not be sustained But here I contract my sails and end this question for by coming on the shore I shall the better view that which remaineth concerning this liquid element Wherefore it followeth The next and last question propounded was concerning the fluxion and refluxion of the sea wherein I purpose as neare as I can to shew both why seas have that alternate motion as also why such murmuring brooks and rivers as do not ebbe and flow are destitute of the foresaid courses The motion of the sea is either naturall or violent The first is performeth on its own accord the other it doth not but by some externall force compelling it The first being a naturall motion is such as is in every other water namely that all waters do evermore flow into the lowest place because they have an heavinesse or ponderositie in them And thus the ocean naturally floweth from the North where it is highest unto the South as the lower place for there in regard of the great cold the waters are not onely kept from drying up but also increased whilest much aire is turned into water whereas in the South by reason of great heat they are alwayes sucked up and diminished Now this motion is called a motion of Equation because it is for this end namely that the superficies of the water may be made equall and distant alike on every side from the centre of gravitie The other being that which dependeth upon some externall cause is such as may be distinguished into a threefold motion One is rapt and caused by force of the heavens whereby it floweth from East to West The second is a motion of Libration in which the sea striving to poise it self equally doth as it were wave from one opposite shore to another And note that this is onely in such as are but strait and narrow seas being a kinde of trepidation in them or as I said before a motion of Libration just like a rising and falling of the beam of an equall-poised balance which will not stand still but be continually waving to and fro The third and last is Reciprocatio or Aestus maris called the ebbing and flowing of the sea The cause of which hath added no little trouble nor small perplexitie to the brains of the best and greatest Philosophers Aristotle that master of knowledge helps us little or nothing in this question And yet Plutarch affirmeth that he attributed the cause to the motion of the sunne Others have gathered from him that he seemed to teach it was by certain exhalations which be under the water causing it to be driven to and fro according to contrary bounds and limits But howsoever he taught or whatsoever he thought this we finde that nothing troubled him more For as Coelius Rhodiginus writeth when he had studied long about it and at the last being weary he died through the tediousnesse of such an intricate doubt Some say he drowned himself in Negropont or Euripus because he could finde no reason why it had so various a fluxion and refluxion ebbing and flowing seven times a day at the least adding before that his untimely and disastrous precipitation these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quandoquidem Aristoteles non cepit Euripum Euripus capiat Aristotelem That is Although Aristotle hath not taken Euripus yet Euripus shall take Aristotle meaning that that should end him whose cause could not be comprehended by him But leaving Aristotle we shall finde as little help from his master Plato who as did also the Stoicks attributed the cause to the breath of the world Such also have been the fancies of others among whom Kepler may not be forgotten who in good earnest affirmeth and beleeveth that the earth is a great living creature which with the mightie bellows of her lungs first draweth in the waters into her hollow bowels then by breathing respires them out again A prettie fiction this and well worthy the pen of some fabling poet rather then to be spoken in good sober sadnesse and affirmed as a truth Others would have the cause to be by reason of waters in the holes of the earth forced out by spirits which comes something neare to that before concerning the breath of the world A third sort attribute the cause to the circular motion of the earth affirming that there is a daily motion of the earth round about the heavens which it performeth in 24 houres the heavens in the mean time onely seeming to move and not moving in very deed This opinion came first from the Pythagoreans and is defended by the Copernicanians as an effect of the foresaid motion As for example the earth moving swiftly round the water not able to follow the motion is left behinde and caused to flow to and fro like as in a broad shallow vessel may be seen for put water in such a vessel and let it be swiftly pulled forward and then you shall see that by being left behinde it will beat it self against the one side before the other can at all partake of its company and so it is also in the earth leaving the waters behinde whilest it moveth But if this opinion be true first tell me how it comes to passe that the sea doth not ebbe and flow alwayes at one and the same time but altereth his course and is every day about one houre later then other Secondly shew me why the tides are at one time of the moneth higher then at another Thirdly let me be informed why broad lakes and large rivers do not flow as well as seas Fourthly let me be rightly instructed how it comes to passe that things tend to the earth as their centre if the sunne as Copernicus and his followers imagine be the centre of the world Fifthly shew me why the aire in the middle Region is not rather hot then cold for surely if the earth should move round with a diurnall motion as they maintain then the middle Region must be either farre higher then it is or else the aire would be so heated by going round that the coldnesse in it would be either little or none at all for it is a ruled case that Remotio à motu circulari dat quietem frigiditatem et gravitatem sicut
ruin'd towns and drown'd walls as they row A fourth effect is the cutting the neck of some Isthmus from the continent and thus Britain was severed from France Africa from Spain and Sicilie from Italie with the like A fifth is the translation of mountains buildings trees c. unto some other places of which we may finde testimonie in good authours of credit Albertus calls this motion a vection or a carrying A sixth is the breaking out of rivers and fountains in some new places which happeneth by the breaches made in the earth amongst water-springs through the violence of the Exhalation A seventh is plague and pestilence caused by the poysonous fume of the Exhalation such as was in the yeare 1531 before mentioned when Lisbon was so strangely shaken For putrid Exhalations infect the Aire and the Aire us An eighth effect is famine which may be by reason of the shocks and shakings of the earth making it thereby become as it were sick and steril Or else it may be by reason that the long pent vapour carries with it a blasting hurtfull fume A ninth is sometimes the discovering of new burning hills which may happen when the abundance of Brimstone and sulphurous matter that is under ground is set on fire through the violent motion of the Exhalation and so it breaketh forth A tenth is or else should be the fear of a Deitie For if it be the Lords will by this work of his in his handmaid nature to shake it no land can be sure no place so strong that can defend us Nay the more strong the more dangerous For the higher the greater fall With the wiâ—…e man therefore I will say I know that whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it And God doth it that men should fear before him Ecclesiastes 3. 14. Last of all this I will adde and it is a saying of one well worthy to be remembred The whole earth saith he is nothing but the centre or point of the world This is all the matter of our glorie this our seat Here we bear honours here we exercise rule here we desire riches and here mankinde troubleth and turmoileth himself here we wage warre yea civil warre and make the very earth become soft and fat with the crimson bloud of our mutuall slaughters This is that place where we drive away from us our neare neighbours ditch in his grounds to ours and so measure our demeans by driving others from our coasts that thereby we may be like to him who can freely triumph in any part of the earth But what of all this When time by ending us hath put a measure to our covetousnesse then after all what a small portion shall he obtain who is dead and gone from all O amatores mundi cujus rei gratiâ militatis Oh ye lovers of the world for the sake of what thing is it that you strive Let any judge whether this lower Ball Whose endlesse greatnesse we admire so all Seem not a point compar'd with th'upper Sphere Whose turning turns the rest in their career Lo then the guerdon of your pinching pain A needles point a mote a mite you gain A nit a nothing did you all possesse Or if then nothing any thing be lesse Why then should man this nothing thus respect As he for it Heav'ns Kingdome should neglect If thou feed'st well if feet and back be clad What more to thee can Kingly riches adde Not house not land not heaps of gold and treasure When sicknesse of thy body hath took seisure Can thence remove it neither canst thou finde A force in them to cure a troubled minde Which if man could well remember he would cease to spend himself for nothing and willingly subscribe to the lamentation made by the Poet under the person of Hecuba upon the ruine of Troy saying Quicunque regno fidit magnâ potens dominatur aulâ Animúmque rebus credulum laetis dedit Me videat te Troja non unquam tulit Documenta sors majora quà m fragili loco Starent superbi Which is as one translates it thus He that his confidence puts in a Crown Or in his Palace potently doth frown And takes with prosp'rous fortunes all his joy Let him but look on me and thee O Troy Chance by no greater influence could declare In what a fickle state all proud things are To this purpose also serveth that Epigram of Ausonius wherein he feigneth Diogenes to see the rich King Cresus among the dead and there Diogenes himself hath as good an estate as he Effigiem Rex Croese tuam ditissime Regum Vidit apud manes Diogenes Cynicus Constitit útque procul solito majore cachinno Concussus dixit Quid tibi divitiae Nunc prosunt Regum Rex O ditissime cùm sis Sicut ego solus me quoque pauperior Nam quaecunque habui mecum fero cùm nihil ipse Ex tantis tecum Croese feras opibus Amongst the ghosts Diogenes beheld Thee Cresus of all kings with most wealth swell'd This 't was he did conclude and as one mov'd With greater laughing then his wont behov'd He farre off said Thou richest once of kings Speak to this place below what profit brings All thy late pomp for ought that I now spie We are alike nay thou more poore then I. For nought was what I had I brought that store Thou hadst much wealth yet now then I no more Like unto which is that example of him who lying at length upon the ground and rising by chance espied the print that his bodie at the full length made he breaks out into this or the like speech saying Lo here what a small piece of ground will serve us when we die and yet living we seek to conquer kingdomes To which we may joyn that worthy command of famous Saladine who being ready to depart this life called for his standard-bearer giving him in charge that he should go and take his winding sheet and hanging it on his pike he should go out with it and tell to his camp that of all his triumphs of all his conquests and of all his victories he had nothing left unto him now but onely that to wrap up his bodie for his buriall Are all men mortall are all born to die Can none on earth possesse eternitie Sure he that looks upon the worlds frail stage And views the actions of this present age He cannot but with eyes indiff'rent see That mortalls here would fain immortall be For by the symptomes is the sicknesse found And by the thoughts that equalize the ground Transcending rarely from that pitch on high Up to the court above the azure skie No hard thing 't is a judgement true to give That such descendents here would ever live But souls inspired with the gales of grace Esteem the witching world no resting place A place of travell not a place of stay Such well
attraction between this stone and iron and the accretion which is caused by their reall contaction This I think may be supposed But I leave it to the readers further enquirie and abler examination 5. Asbestos is a stone of an iron colour which being once fired can hardly be ever quenched Plinie saith that it is to be found in the mountains of Arcadia Lib. 37. cap. 10. 6. Dendritis is a white precious stone which being put under a tree keepeth the ax that cutteth it from dulling Idem lib. 37. cap. 11. 7. Galactites is of an ash-colour it seemeth to sweat out a kinde of liquour like unto milk Plinie saith it increaseth milk in nurses and keeps the mouth of the childe moist if it be hanged about the neck c. some also say that it helpeth running of the eyes and ulcers 8. Amphitane is a precious stone of gold colour square and of the nature of the Loadstone almost excepting that it is said to draw gold unto it Plinie saith that this stone is also called Chrysocolla and is found in a part of India where the ants cast up gold from their hills Lib. 37. cap. 10. 9. Androdamas is a stone hard and heavie bright like silver and in form like divers little squares It putteth away rage of lecherie and as the magicians think saith Plinie it stoppeth the force of furie and anger 10. Pansebastos is a precious stone taking away barrennesse 11. There is also in Plinie mention made of the stone Thracius which being steeped in water burneth and sprinkles but it is quenched with oyl 12. Amiantus is a stone like unto alume this being put into the fire is not hurt nor slurried but rather more bright and cleare Unto which one patient in troubles and adversities may be likened for his afflictions harm him not but better him making him look in the middest of a fierie triall not like one slurried with repining but cleare and beautifull in the sight of heaven by refining But I conclude and with him who writeth thus cannot but say Oh mickle is the pow'rfull good that lies In herbs trees stones and their true qualities For nought so vile that on the earth doth live But to the earth some secret good doth give And nought so rich on either rock or shelf But if unknown lies uselesse to it self Therefore who thus doth make their secrets known Doth profit others and not hurt his own Now follow metalls of a more friable and brittle nature They are more mollified bodies may be easily brought into crumbes or dust are called precious earths something clammie and of a middle nature between stones and the lesse pliable metalls First I begin with Terra Lemnia which is an exceeding red earth of Lemnos isle digged in a red hill In old time this had Diana's seal upon it printed by her priests who were onely wont to wash this earth and now in Silesia and Hassia there is almost as good earth found It is of force to resist poison and to heal old putrified or festered wounds 2. Cinoper is a soft red stone found in mines otherwise called Vermilion of which Plinie speaketh in his 33 book at the 7 chapter saying that in times past it was not onely of great but of sacred esteem among the Romanes for they painted their gods with it as he tells us of Jupiters image whose face was coloured with Vermilion So Virgil also speaking of the shepherds god Pan saith that he was seen Sanguineis Ebuli baccis Minió que rubentem With bloudie Walwort berries stain'd And with Vermilion red Neither were their gods alone thus beautified but their own bodies also in publick feasts and triumphing solemnities as we reade again in Plinie that Camillus when he triumphed in Rome was painted with this Vermilion 3. Boâ—… Armenian or Bole Armoniack is of a pale red colour as easie to break as chalk being of a very binding nature and of great vertue against the plague and seeing it drieth it profiteth against all fluxes 4. Oker is a light clayie earth of a red or yellow colour 5. That which the Grecians call Arsenick the Latines call Auripigmentum but I had rather that Arsenick should be the generall name and that it be divided into 3 kindes namely into white red and yellow Orpment The white is that which is the common rats-bane Red Arsenick is called Sandaracha of a bright red colour used of painters and found in mines of gold and silver Yellow Orpment is the right Auripigmentum it is like unto Brimstone This if it be our common Arsenick is a very dangerous drug for it is hot and burning so as it gnaweth the stomack pierceth the bowels producing a fever with an intolerable and an unquenchable thirst 6. Red lead comes something neare to the nature of Vermilion and as Plinie writeth out of Homer was used by the Trojans and honoured before they knew Vermilion For as Theophrastus in Plinie witnesseth Callias of Athens first found out Vermilion thinking indeed to draw gold out of it Howbeit Red lead is no minerall but made artificially 7. Terra Samia is a white stiffe and tough earth coming from the isle Samos Plinie makes two kindes of it the one more glutinous then the other the other more â—…loddie lesse glutinous and whiter He saith there be those who preferre the first as best They are either of them good against spitting of bloud Lib. 35. cap. 16. 8. Chalk is a white earth which was first found in Creet and therefore in Latine it is called Creta But now we finde of it in many other places Plinie makes many kindes of Chalk all which are not white as in his 34 book at the 17 chapter is apparent Fullers earth being a chief kinde among them and that by others is called Creta Tasconia Brown Umber cometh also neare to the nature of the said earth Calx is Lime-Chalk which after it is burnt will be fired with water but quenched with oyl as authours write It is called Calx viva because it contains a kinde of hid fire in it 10 Ampelite is a pitchie earth cleaving and black being much like to that which we call Pit or Sea-coal as some imagine and haply the diversitie of climate causeth the difference There is also found another earth which Plinie calls Pignitis and some others Pnigitis and it is as black as this 11. Bitumen is a fat and tough moisture like Pitch and is called Earthy Pitch Or thus It is a kinde of clay or naturall Lime clammie like Pitch and is to be found in many countreys of Asia They who builded the tower of Babel used this in stead of Morter as appeareth in Gen. chapter the 11. And so did others also in old time making it in like manner burn in lamps in stead of oyl
out of some experiment very busie in tempering brimstone sulphureous powder of dried earth and certain other ingredients in a mortar which he covered with a stone and growing dark he took a tinder-box to light him a candle into which whilest he assayed to strike some fire a spark by chance flew into the mortar where catching hold of the brimstone and salt-peter it fired with a sudden flash and violently blew up the stone The cunning Chymist guessing which of his ingredients it was that produced this effect never left till he found it out then taking an iron pipe he crammed it full of the said ingredient together with some stones and putting fire to it he saw that with great furie and noise it discharged it self Soon after he communicated this his invention to the Venetians who having been often vanquished by the Genowaies did by help of these bombards or gunnes give them a notable discomfiture which was in the yearâ—… of our Lord 1380 as Bucholcerus writeth in his chronologie saying Hoc tempore BOMBARD Ae ad hominum perniciem inventae sunt excogitatâ—… à Bertholdo Nigro Chymista ut quidam volunt Monacho Germano Wherein we see that he calls them bombards invented for the ruine of men For by these saith he it comes to passe that now in a manner all the force of the footmen all the splendour of the horse and all right warlike power doth shamefully cease lie dead faint and dull Polydore also saith that of all other instruments which ever were devised to the destruction of man the gunnes be most devilish In which regard sith he was not well instructed concerning the Almains name that invented them he addeth yet thus much more saying For the invention he received this benefit that his name was never known lest he might for this abominable device be cursed and evill spoken of as long as the world remaineth And in the continuation of Carions chronicle by Caspar Peucer it is also said that about the beginning of Wanceslaus his reigne That raging kinde of engine and tormenting torture which from the sound we call a bombard was found out by a Monk the devil being the chiefest enginer or master-workman For it was their care that seeing the authoritie of idle superstitions should decline and fade by little and little which through these authors had bewitched the mindes of mortalls and cast them into eternall destruction this might therefore succeed by them the same authours as another kinde of mischief which should rage against their bodies as that other had done against their souls To this purpose Peucer And indeed an experiment of his speech we then beheld when the upholders of that tottering kingdome would have traiterously tried to have sent at once even all the peers of this our land piece-meal into the aire But he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep The Lord himself was our keeper so that their sulphureous fire could neither burn us by day nor sâ—…are us by night although Faux were taken the night before among the barrells and wished that then sith he had done so much and could do no more his match with fire had toucht the powder Oh never let the mem'rie of that day Flie from our hearts or dully slide away God thought on us that we remembring this Might think on him whose hand defendeth his But whither am I transported now These foure although they be the principall kindes of salt digged from the ground yet there be other also amongst which those Spanish mountains would be remembred where there is a salt cut out and drawn as stones are out of a quarrie in which place it afterwards increaseth and filleth up the gap with more salt again Du Bartas calls this the brine-quar-hill in Arragon And as for Salt digged out of waters or watrie places or not digged from under ground it is thus caused namely by the heat of the sunne percocting those waters which are extreamly salt For when salt waters are throughly concocted by the sunne they are so dried congealed and thickened that in their shores by their banks and often upon their very surfaces or superficies they render liberally good store of Salt Thus in the summer time is the Tarentine lake of which Plinie speaketh turned into â—…alt the salt being in the surface of the waters to the depth of a mans knee So also in Sicilie in the lake Coranicus And in some rivers the water is known to runne underneath in its ordinary course whilest the uppermost part is turned into salt as about the Caspian straits which are called the rivers of salt and also neare the Mardi and Armenians whose countreys are in Asia But leaving these I come to the second kinde of Salt which is artificiall and made or boiled salt For although the matter be naturall yet the making is by art From whence it comes to passe that of one and the same salt water this man will boil better Salt then that man and he then another Yea some out of water lesse salt will boil and make better Salt then others out of fountains more salt Many be the places where they make Salt after this manner by boiling of salt water neither is this kingdome of ours destitute of such fountains or wells For at the towns called the Witches in Cheshire there is a brinie water which by boiling is turned into white Salt And the same water is said to be as good to powder any kinde of flesh as brine for within 24 houres it will powder beef sufficiently A great blessing of God to raise up such springs for our use so farre within the land as also an evident argument that the Sea is made salt by the substance of the ground of which I have spoken my minde already And here unto all this I could adde the necessitie of Salt which is such that we cannot well live without it and therefore it is the first thing that is set on the table and ought to be the last taken away according as one translateth out of Schola Salerni saying Salt should be last remov'd and first set down At table of a Knight or countrey clown This I confesse as pertinent might be added but it is now high time to put a period to the discourse of this dayes work Take the rest therefore all in one word and then it is thus The eve and morn conclude the third of dayes And God gives to his work deserved praise CHAP. VII Concerning the fourth day together with such things as are pertinent to the work done in it Sect. 1. Being as it were a kinde of entrance into this dayes work which treateth of the starres and lights THe structure of the earth being adorned with herbs trees and plants in the third or former day Moses now returns to shew both how when God beautified the heavens bedecking that vaulted roof with shining lights and beauteous
starres which like glittering saphires or golden spangles in a well wrought canopie do shew the admired work of the worlds brave palace And seeing this was not done before the sprouting of the earth it may well be granted that they are but foolish naturalists who will presume to binde Gods mighty hand in natures bands and tie him so to second causes as if he were no free or voluntarie agent but must be alwayes bound to work by means And again the Text declareth that the sun moon and starres were all unmade before this present day and yet it saith there was light before But it was then a dispersed shining and now united to these bright lamps of heaven that that riding and they running like fierie chariots might not onely rule the day and night but also distinguish the better and more harmoniously the dayes from nights seasons weeks moneths and yeares and not onely so but be also for signes of something else Also God made them saith the Text. See then the folly of those who make them gods and vainly do adore them For let it be observed that although the sunne and moon be called the greatest lights yet if they be worshipped they are abused to the greatest darknesse and they that deifie them may damnifie themselves by being as blinde as the heathen Gentiles and as superstitiously addicted as some of old amongst the Jews whose answer to the Prophet Jeremie was that they would not do according to his teaching but follow rather the desperate bent of their own bows in worshipping the moon as Queen of heaven As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth cut of our own mouth to burn incense to the Queen of heaven and to poure out drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our fathers our kings and our princes in the cities of Iudah and in the streets of Ierusalem Of which they give this reason For then say they we had plentie of victuals and were well and saw no evil Jer. 44. 16 17. By which last words it well appeareth that it was fear as much as any thing else which made them thus advance this practise And truely fear is an effect proceeding from the nature of superstition and so farre prevailing that it will there make gods where it doubteth most of danger as the Egyptians did in making fortune a goddesse For they kept an annuall feast in honour of her deitie giving thanks for the yeare which was past and earnestly imploring her favour for the yeare to come It was Pluâ—…archs observation that the superstitious alwayes think the gods readie to do hurt By means whereof he accounteth them in worse case then malefactours or fugitives who if they once recover the Altar are there secured from fear where neverthelesse the superstitious are in greatest thraldome And from hence arose that ancient saying Primus in orbe deos fecit timor And hence it also was that the heathen in institution of their sacrifices did offer as well to all their gods that they should not hurt them as for any help they expected from them An example whereof we have again among the poore silly Indians who sacrifice their children unto the devil at this very day because they be mainly afraid of him And of old as it is storied we have the example of Alexander Magnus who sacrificed to the sunne moon and earth that thereby he might divert the evil luck which as he feared was portended by an Eclipse but a little before And the Jews did not onely burn incense to the Queen of heaven but offer up cakes unto her also as in Jer. 7. 18. From which kinde of idolatrie Job did thus acquit himself saying If I have beheld the sunne when it shined or the moon when it walked in brightnesse or if my heart hath secretly enticed my mouth to kisse my hand unto it or by way of worshipping it then this were iniquitie that ought to be punished chap. 31. verse 26. It ought indeed to be punished because God Almightie had forbidden it as in Deut. 4. 19. Beware lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven and when thou seest the sunne and the moon and the starres even all the host of heaven shouldest be driven to worship and serve them which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven And in Jerem. chap. 10. vers 2. Learn not the way of the heathen and be not dismaid at the signes of heaven for the heathen are dismaid at them Which is as if it should be said The way of the heathen is to worship their gods with a servile fear and attribute divine honour to the creature But you which are my people do not you so for God willeth not that the works of his hands should be worshipped Or thus He there teacheth them to have their trust so firmly fixed on him that what disaster soever the heavens in the course of nature should threaten unto them they ought not to fear it For Astra regunt homines sed Deus astra regit And again Moses in the text calls the sunne and moon two great lights the greatest of which even the sunne it self seemeth to our eyes but little and yet by rules of art is found farre greater then the earth that thereby we may learn not to trust our senses too much in heavenly things Last of all let me prevent a question The moon is lesse then any starre For Tycho makes Mercury but 19 times lesse then the earth whereas the moon is lesse by 42 times how then can the moon be called a great light seeing her bodie is no bigger Take this answer The sunne and moon are called great lights partly from their nature effects because they give more light then other starres The sunne appeareth alone in the day not because he is alone but because through his exceeding brightnesse the other starres cannot be seen The moon also in her brightnesse obscureth many starres and being more beautifull then any other hath worthily the chief preheminence in ruling the night as the Scripture speaketh Or thus They be called great lights say some according to the custome of the Scripture speaking according to the capacitie of the simple for in outward appearance they are the greatest And yet as great as the greatest is if one should go about to perswade the vulgar that the earth is of a farre lesse circuit they would scarce beleeve it making the sunne of the bignesse of some wheel and the moon as much in compasse as the breadth of a bushel howbeit S. Ambrose gives sensible and apparent reasons of greatnesse in the sunne and moon even by daily experience For first they appeare of like quantitie to all the world whereas herds of cattel being espied farre off seem as ants and a ship discerned farre in
the seas seemeth no bigger then a flying dove They shew of the same greatnesse in India in England They enlighten all parts of the earth alike and appeare the same indifferently to all and therefore must needs be of an extraordinarie bignesse And secondly as soon as the sunne ariseth all the starres are hid which shews his greatnesse And further if the sunne were not of such greatnesse as Artists give unto it how could all the world be enlightned by it Sect. 2. Of the Matter Place and Motion of the Starres with other like things which are also pertinent Artic. 1. That they consist most of a fierie matter and are cherished by the waters above the heavens BY Heaven and Earth which Moses saith were created in the beginning we are to understand all and every part of the whole Universe whose matter was created at once and made as it were the store-house for all things else as alreadie in the first dayes work I have declared Howbeit some contend that the starres and lights of heaven were not made out of any matter either of the earth or the waters or of heaven or any thing beside but immediately out of nothing Which certainly is scarce agreeable to the whole scope of creation For in the beginning the matter of all was made And perhaps as it was proper to the earth to bring forth herbs grasse and trees at the command of God in the third dayes work so also perhaps it was as proper to the heavens in some sort to afford the matter of the luminaries and otherstarres as soon as God said Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven And herein those Philosophers were not much amisse who defined the starres to be the thicker part of their orbs Yet neverthelesse not so to be followed as if the heavens afforded any solid orbs unto which as the knots in a tree or the nails in a wheel or the gemme in a ring the starres are joyned For besides that which I have alreadie spoken of the whole space within the concavitle of the firmament viz. that it is but aire yet purer and purer the higher we climbe which I proved in the second day both by opticall demonstration height consumption and motion of Comets with the like besides that I say there be other reasons also to declare it For not onely certain Poets have confessed as much calling the Skie Spirabile coeli numen as we reade in Virgil or a Liquid heaven as Ovid tells us saying Et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aëre coelum nor yet is it confirmed by the testimonie of Plinie alone who followed herein the opinion of ancient Philosophers but even reason also and exquisite modern observations have made it plain For suppose there were solid orbs or that this concave were not filled with liquid aire would it not follow that there should be as it were penetratio corporum or that one Sphere should cut another in sunder Questionlesse it would For the Planets move so up and down that they often enterfeir and cut one anothers orbs now higher and then lower as Mars amongst the rest which sometimes as Kepler confirms by his own and Tycho's accurate observations comes nearer the earth then the Sunne and is again eftsoons aloft in Iupiters sphere And doth not Tycho's Hypothesis and Systema of the world make it also plain that the sphere of the Sunne must be interfected by the orbs of Venus Mars and Mercury which could not be if the heavens were impenetrable or differed toto genere from this soft aire wherein we live and move And now see this figure framed according to Tycho's demonstration Thus Tycho describeth the wayes and situations of the Planets The starres therefore move in the heavens as birds in the aire or fishes in the sea and the like yet so as their bounds are set which with great regularitie to the admiration of their Maker they constantly come unto depart away from in their appointed times and determined orders and therefore said to be set in the firmament of heaven vers 17. those of the fixed ones being as equally distant one from another now and at this very day as at the first when God Almightie made them and those of the wandring ones as constant in their courses as ever yet from the first time they began to move Whereupon saith Tycho Semper judicavi naturalem motûs scientiam singulis Planetis congenitam vel potiùs à Deo inditam esse quâ in liquidissimo tenuissimo â—…there cursûs sui normam regularissimè constantissimè observare coguntur Yet neverthelesse we may not think that therefore they are living creatures animated with a soul and endued with life and reason but rather and in very deed as even now I said let this be an argument to shew and declare the admired wisdome of their Makeâ—… according to that of David in the 19 Psalme Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei The heavens declare the glorie of God and the firmament sheweth his handie work For The sunne cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoycath as a giant to runne his course And yet again it is a thing very probable that those amongst the Iews who made cakes for the Queen of heaven who burnt incense to the Sunne Moon Planets and host of heaven who dedicated horses and chariots to the Sunne did not onely do it because they worshipped them as gods but also because like some amongst the Philosophers and others amongst the Fathers they thought them to be living creatures Sure we are that Moses puts them not into his catalogue amongst such creatures as he reckoneth to have life and therefore who will say they live They may move and yet be inanimate as fire which is of power to move waste and consume aire inclosed is able to shake the earth water carrieth ships boats and barges flows this way and that way yet is no living creature hath no soul minde or reason Also it may be granted that they are daily nourished by vapourie humours and are as it were fed by such kinde of food yet no living creatures For no man will denie a transmutation of the elements but rather easily grant that they one nourish another for conservation of the Universe And in such a kinde or not farre differing it is that the stars may be nourished by watrie humours and have their beams made wholesome to the world although they be no living creatures All which may be seen more largely proved in Lydiats Praelectio Astronomica where having discoursed of the matter of the heavens and starres as also of the portions and transmutation of the elements he proveth that there is such a penurie of water here below that it cannot be supplied ad mundi non dicit aeternitatem sed diuturnitatem propter inaequales elementorum transmutationes not supplied without the consumption of the aire were not the waters divided The one
parts of the same IF I should expound the words of Moses so nicely as some have done the starres must then either signifie nothing in the course of nature or else be for signes onely of seasons as Spring Summer Autumne Winter and of dayes and yeares Which exposition doth certainly tie up the sense in too strait bands For it is plain enough that Moses very positively setteth down as a distinct office by it self that they were made for signes And then he proceedeth adding therewithall And let them be for seasons and for dayes and for yeares In consideration whereof the sentence certainly must be divided And first let us observe out of it that the starres by a divine ordination were set in the heavens to be for signes of future events wherefore it is said Let them be for signes Secondly they were appointed to be as it were heavenly clocks and remarkable measures by their motions defining and discerning Time and the parts thereof as dayes weeks moneths and yeares And therefore it is also added And let them be for seasons and for dayes and for yeares Of which two offices I purpose to discourse a while beginning with the first as being most pertinent to this Paragraph And lest it may be thought that Moses his meaning is here mistaken by me besides other things that I purpose to remember I would have him compared with the Prophet Jeremie in the 10 chap. at the 2 vers where when the Prophet commands the people that they should not learn the way of the Heathen he calleth the starres like unto Moses in this very text The signes of heaven From whence Melancthon gathereth that the Prophet doth not onely name them signes but also sheweth that they were set to be signes of portending something For Non ait Ieremias nihil esse signa coeli sed A signis nolite timere Imò cùm nominat signa portendi aliquid affirmat And Luther also affirmeth in his commentarie upon the words of Moses Simpliciter lunam cum sole stellis in firmamento coeli Moses dicit positas ut essent signa futurorum eventuum sicut experientia de Eclipsibus magnis conjunctionibus aliis quibusdam Meteoris docet Which is Moses plainly saith that the moon with the sunne and starres were placed in the firmament of heaven that they should be for signes of future events as experience teacheth us in Eclipses great conjunctions Meteors and the like To which may be also joyned the testimonie of learned Philo alledged by Sr Christapher Heidon in his defence of Judiciall Astrologie This man saith he was familiar with Peter the Apostle and with Mark and in divers places but specially in his book De Mundi fabricatione in his exposition of that in the 1 of Genesis viz. LET THEM BE FOR SIGNES he thus speaketh saying They were created not onely that they might fill the world with their light but also that they might be for signes of future things For by their rising setting defections apparitions occultations and other differences of motion they teach men to conjecture of the event of things as of plentie and dearth of the growing up or decay of creatures animate of cleare weather and storms of calms and windes of overflowings and of droughts of the quiet motion of the sea and the boisterous times of waves of the anniversarie changes of times either when the Summer shall be tossed with tempests or the Winter scorched with heat or when the Spring shall be clothed with the nature of Autumne or Autumne imitate the Spring Yea saith he by these some have foreshewed when there should be a shaking or trembling of the earth with infinite other things which have certainly come to passe insomuch that it may be truely said The starres were appointed for signes and seasons Thus farre Philo then which what can be plainer Neither are we to take them as bare naked and simple signes onely but as causes also of worldly events which whilest some have denied what do they but runne mad with reason and plainly oppose themselves to more then common sense For it is certain that the same thing may be both a signe and a cause a cause as it worketh to an effect and a signe as being presented to the sense it leadeth us to the knowledge of the effect And therefore when the starres are called signes their causalitie is not excluded Howbeit in some things when they work upon a subject not immediately but by accident they be then occasions rather then causes But let me enlarge my self upon this discourse a little more and because some have denied that the starres have any vertue at all or that we ought to attribute no more power to them then to the signes at an Inne-keepers post or tradesmans shop I purpose to shew the vanitie of that errour as plainly as I can both by Scripture and also by daily experience And first for Scripture Those oracles tell us that great is the force and dominion which the starres have heaven being the admired instrument of the glorious God whereby he governeth the frame of this corruptible world For had the heavens and starres no force at all the Scriptures would never distinguish between the sweet influences of the Pleiades and the binding vertues of Orion but the Scripture makes such a distinction therefore the starres have their power The minor is proved out of the book of Job chap. 38. 31. where the words are these Canst thou binde the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion by which speech the Almighty doth not onely shew that the starres have their vertues but also declare that their power and vertue is such as no man on earth is able to restrain unloose or binde it and here S. Austin also teacheth us that God comprehendeth all the rest of the starres by the figure Synechdoche putting the part for the whole which is an intimation that the rest have their severall vertues as well as these For further proof whereof see concerning some of the other in Deuteronomie chap. 33. 14. Of Ioseph he said Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven for the dew and for the deep that coucheth beneath and for the precious things brought forth by the sunne and for the precious things put forth by the moon where we see that the sunne and moon have power to thrust forth the fruits of the earth And again I will heare the heavens and the heavens shall heare the earth where see last of all that the vegetation of the fruits of the earth dependeth not upon one or two constellations but upon the whole heavens Also were the starres and lights without power the Scriptures would never tell us of their dominion over the earth but the Scripture speaketh of their dominion therefore they be not destitute of power and vertue The minor is proved in Genesis chap. 2. 1. and in the second book
of Kings chap. 17. 16. and chap. 21. 3. and chap. 23. 5. and in Jeremie chap. 19. 13. and in Zeph. chap. 1. 5. and in the Acts chap. 7 42. For in all these places the holy Ghost calleth the starres the host and armies of heaven thereby amplifying the divine power of God by the force and power of these glorious creatures and this also is further confirmed by that in the song of Deborah Judg. 5. 20. where it is expressely testified that The starres fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera Thus farre Scripture And now let experience also speak that thereby they who will not frame their understandings to be taught by the one but will seek for strange expositions may be forced to yeeld and acknowledge the truth by compulsion of this other in the front whereof I cannot but remember the noble Poets saying Senselesse is he who without blush denies What to sound senses most apparent lies And ' gainst experience he that spits fallacians Is to be hist from learned disputations And such is he that doth affirm the starres To have no force on these inferiours 1. As for example when the sunne shifts his habitation how diversly are the seasons differing insomuch that although the frostie beard of winter makes us tremble and shiver through extremitie of cold the warm lustre of the summers raies causeth us on the contrary to sweat and as it were pant through heat 2. Also the terrible accidents that succeed eclipses may not be forgotten nor vilipended for these testifie that the sunne by his heat and light quickeneth after an admirable fashion all earthly creatures being as it were the sourse and conserver of vitall heat and that the moon also hath a great power over inferiour bodies For if it were otherwise such lights coming to be hidden from the earth where there is a continuall revolution of generation and corruption could not cause after their eclipses the nature of inferiour things to be so altered and weakened as they are both in the elements and also in bodies composed of them 3. And furthermore who seeth not how orderly the tides keep their course with the moon of which I have spoken in the third dayes work 4. Also it is an observation that seldome faileth viz. that we have thunder and lightning in the summer time at the meeting of Mars with Jupiter Sol or Mercurie and for the most part great windes when Sol and Jupiter or Jupiter and Mercurie or Mercurie and Sol are in conjunction 5. And again the increase and decrease of bodies or of marrow bloud and humours in the bodie according to the increase and decrease of the moon doth speak for that horned queen and signifie that her vertue is not little For as she fills with light the marrow abounds in bones the bloud in veins the sap in trees the meat and moisture in the oister crab and creafish 6. Moreover experience also teacheth that all such wood as is cut for timber if it be not cut after the full moon will soon be rotten 7. Also those pease which are sown in the increase never leave blooming And as some report the pomegranate will bear no fruit any longer then just so many yeares as the moon was dayes old when it was first set and planted The Heliotropium with certain other flowers and plants we likewise see that they keep their course with the sunne And Plinie reports in his 37 book at the 10 chapter that the Selenite is a stone which hath the image of the moon in it increasing and decreasing according to her course in the heavens And doth not Cardan also report for certain as Sir Christopher Heydon it may be affirmed that the heavens in some sort do work upon mens mindes and dispositions And hereupon it comes to passe that Mars doth sometimes sow the seeds of warre by his working upon adult choler and the like Or the aire being greatly out of tune causeth not onely many sicknesses but strange disorders of the minde and they breaking out into act do many times disturb states translate kingdomes work unluckie disasters and the like of which I spake before in the second dayes work And now know that if the operation of the heavens in this be but so farre forth as the soul depends upon the bodily instruments all that is done to the soul is but an inclination for there can be no compulsion where the cause is so remote And therefore let it be observed that it is one thing to cause another thing to occasion or one thing to inferre a necessitie another thing to give an inclination The former we cannot averre to be in the power of the starres forasmuch as mans will which is the commandresse of his actions is absolutely free from any compulsion and not at all subject to any naturall necessitie or externall coaction Howbeit we cannot deny a certain inclination because the soul of man is too much indulgent to the body by whose motion as one worthily observeth it is rather perswaded then commanded There is therefore no Chaldean fate to be feared nor any necessitie to be imposed upon the wills of men but onely an inclination and this inclination is not caused by an immediate working of the starres on the intellectuall part or minde of man but occasioned rather mediately or so farre forth as the soul depends on the temperaments and materiall organs of the bodie In which regard I hope never to be afraid of the signes of heaven neither is there cause why I should ever curse my starres seeing I know in this the utmost of their power And as it was said to that Apostle My grace is sufficient for thee so may every one take it for granted that there is a second birth which overswayes the first To which purpose one makes this an observation Iustè age Sapiens dominabitur astris Et manibus summi stant elementa Dei Do godly deeds so shalt thou rule the starres For then God holds the elements from warres Or as another not unfitly also speaketh Qui sapit ille animum fortunae praeparat omni Praevisumque potest arte levare malum The wise for ev'ry chance doth fit his minde And by his art makes coming evils kinde And in a word that pithie saying of Ioannes de Indagine shall close this Article Quaeris a me quantum in nobis operantur actra dico c. Dost thou demand of me how farre the starres work upon us I say they do but incline and that so gently that if we will be ruled by reason they have no power over us but if we follow our own nature and be led by sense they do as much in us as in brute beasts and we are no better For agunt non cogunt is all that may be said Artic. 2. Whether it be not a derogation from the perfection of things created to grant that the starres have any kinde of power