principally vnderstand the frame of all things in heauen and in earth lesse principally Man as being but a part thereof As for the other terme namely Eternall that also hath two acceptions for things are said to bee Eternall two waies First improperly that which neuer shall haue end more fitly called Euiternall or Immortall Properly that is said to be Eternall which neither had beginning nor shall haue end nor as Boethius addeth any succession Now Eternall we take in the more proper and latter sense So that the Question may thus more plainlie be expressed Whether the heauen and earth with the bodily Creatures therein contained had a beginning or shall haue an end of being But because that part of the opinion which concerneth the worlds eternitie a parte ante as the schoole-men speake that is its being from euerlasting is not so directly pertinent vnto our purpose we will with all possible breuitie runne ouer the speciall reasons and foundations thereof the rather because the authors and maintainers thereof from the want of beginning inferre the vncapablenesse of an end Now the chiefe Patron and desender of this opinion in regard of authoritie though not of time was Aristotle who as I take it rather affecting singularitie than for any soundnesse of the matter or strength of argument tanght it in his Lycoeum For the Philosophers which liued before him with generall consent agreed in the contrarie opinion Trismegistus who with his learning watered the then barren countrey of Greece as Diodorus Siculus witnesseth in his first booke of Antiquities Musaeus Orpheus Linus Epicharmus Hesiodus and Homer amongst the Poets Zoroastes Anaxagoras Melissus Empedocles Pherecides Philolaus Democritus and Plato as Philo Indaeus Laertius Diogenes Sulcitius Seuerus Alexander Aphrodisiensis Plutarch and Tully witnesse which also his bookes intituled Timaeus and Critias together with those De Republica doe testifie Onely Aristotle in a selfe-conceit of singularity howsoeuer elsewhere honoring antiquitie rather liketh in this case a new broched opinion of his owne contrary to so many foregoing Philosophers and therefore Hierophantes a deuout though idolatrous Priest condemned him of arrogancie and selfe-loue not onely because contrarie to the common receiued opinion of his countrey continued so many ages vngainsaied hee denied the pluralitie of Gods but also and much more for that he stucke not to teach that the world was from euerlasting which all Greece confessed to haue had beginning in time But to fetch the beginning of this phantasticall opinion somewhat higher we will beginne with Democritus the archpatron of fortune who will haue the World Eternall and withall chanceable But Eternitie and Chance being as the learned Sir Philip obserued things vnsufferable together If Chanceable then not Eternall Againe what is more absurd then to thinke the World was made by the vntended and casuall concourse of indiuisible substances for whence came these substances If you say they came from Euerlasting so were Eternall can you conceiue such chanceable effects to proceed from so certaine necessary causes Nay rather if you wil needs maintane the infinitenes of these diminitiue bodies grant they had beginning from that Infinite One that glued the Infinite parts of your Infinite All together by his vnmeasurable Power and Wisedome For can we imagine such a perfect Order and Stabilitie to consist in these disioined substances Order Constancie are children onely of Wisdome sooner may we prooue Darknesse to proceed from the Sunne than Constancie and Order from inconstant chance constant in nothing but in Inconstancie Finally we must either exclude Gods Wisedome and prouident care of the World made or els Fortune from making of the World for the World is Gods possession onely by right of creation vnlesse we imagine a deed of gift passed by Fortune at her death or Fortune the true Owner if the true Maker disinherited by violence driuen out of her dominion by God as an Vsurper But God hauing nothing to plead for his title vnto his kingdome but the right of creation if that plea be improoued God cannot any longer call the World his owne and therefore without crueltie may cast off all care of this his supposed ofspring For it is onely Gods Fatherhood that bindes him vnto his Prouidence Therefore not to stay long in this opinion of Fortune let vs now come vnto Nature deified especially by Strato a Naturalist who fearing to ouersway God with the weight of this burthen either in the making or gouerning of the World hath granted hm a Remedie or Otium as they terme it thinking it more reason that God should haue an exemption from trouble than Gods priests who for his sake be dispensed withall But let vs see what this Nature may bee so highly by Strato magnified There is a particular Nature and there is a generall or vniuersall Nature The particular is that which in euery seuerall single substance ministreth Essence to the whole compound and withall is author of such action and motion as is agreeable to the subiect wherein it is as the Nature of fire causeth the fires ascention the Nature of earth the earths going downward and in regard of this Nature we say it is Naturall to the fire to ascend to the earth to descend the bodies hauing in them cuen of themselues by their inherent forme a promptnesse and inclination vnto these motions Now if by the conspiring of these many manifold Natures this All we now speake of were made as if the Elements Ethereall parts should in their town-house set downe the bounds of euery ones office then consider what followeth that there must needs haue beene a wisdome ouerruling power which made them concur for their natures being so diuers and contrary would rather haue wrought each others destruction than so friendly haue cōsorted to make vp so vnexpressable an harmony For to grant knowledge vnto them whereby to moderate the extremity of their naturall fury or intendment of such agreement were to enter into a bottomlesse pit of absurdities seeing that knowledge alway presupposeth roason reason sense both which are neuer found either iointly or in part in bodilie senselesse creatures Now touching the Vninersall Nature which some will haue to be nothing but an influent virtue helping furthering the actions of euery particular naturall body others an Vniuersall ouerruling and as it were an Ideall Nature subsisting For as the particular nature of euery particular body causeth and mainetaineth the particular actions of the body wherein it is so this generall Nature is the author and maintainer of all actions and bodies to which the single seuerall bodies are in subiection by their obedience acknowledging a kinde of superiority in that nature which we call vniuersall And in the respect of this nature the fire is said in some cases to goe downeward by nature as to hinder the discontinuitie of things in the world and so that emptines which nature so much abhorreth Now if by this vniuersall nature
Indeed say they whatsoeuer is compounded of such a matter as this is of the sublunary creatures is subiect vnto corruption but the heauens haue a matter of a different and farre more excellent state than these vnder elements and that is the sum and foundation of Aristotle his opinion and reason touching the heauens incorruptible condition But we that make one matter of both may thus somewhat probably answer That though such a matter is alway accompanied with a capablenesse of corruption yet may it by some superior ouerruling power be preserued from all actuall cotruption And so standeth the case with the heauens which neuer had beene able of themselues so long to haue continued without alteration but by the helpe of some higher power not as the Peripateticks and Platonicks fondly imagine the Angels or Intelligences which Alcinous calleth Lesser gods but by the soueraigne appointment of God who to moderate and stay the too frequent and ouerhastie alteration of the vnder bodies hath allotted the heauens this regularity and vniformitie of motion But heere they will demand a reason what hath so fulfilled the matters desire of interchangeable succession of formes that it remaineth contented with that forme which it presently inioyeth The answer is That either the excellencie of the forme present causeth this contentment or els Gods appointment ouerswayeth its desire How then Are we Patrons or rather Authours of violence in those excellent agreeing bodies Nay rather by the limitation of the matters vnstayed indifferencie we doe more establish that their excellent harmonie For as in a city situate on the confines of two disagreeing kingdomes of it selfe inclining to neither side but indifferent for entertainment of either conquering aduersarie if after valourous conquest performed by one partie it yeeldeth it selfe to the vanquishers dominion and by the prouident industrious care of the new superuisor be fortified against the violent irruption of the forevanquished aduersaries by this new restraint of its old indifferencie suffereth no violence but rather is confirmed in a quiet and peaceable condition within it selfe so the matter of the celestiall bodies howsoeuer naturally indifferent to entertaine any forme if by the conquering action of some preuailing Agent it be possessed of so excellent and powerfull a forme as admits of no outward new impression in this limitation of its equall instable for disposition is not any way violenced but rather fitter for the intended harmonie of the celestiall bodies And that may serue for a sufficient reason of the hitherto-incorrupted condition of the celestiall bodies Now touching their future estate we shall after dispute if first wee haue their fourth argument for disproofe of the matter as also the substance of their opinion Auerroes therefore saith that heauen is a forme of a selfe-subsistence immaterial dimensional locally mooueable participating light and other accidents wherein me thinketh is a plaine contradiction for to omit the disquisition whether any forme can consist without matter what is more absurd then to imagine quantitie really separate from the matter quantitie hauing its basis and foundation in the matter and onely limitation from the forme farther whatsoeuer is capable of real diuision hath this capabilitie that I may so terme it from the matter Reall diuision I say for the Mathematicians proportionably to their mentall abstraction or separation of quantitie haue also a mentall diuision but whatsoeuer hath quantity is capable of such a diuision therefore also it hath a matter Ouer and beside all this whatsoeuer is perceiueable by sense hath a matter for the forme of nothing can be perceiued by sense but is vnderstood and conceiued by its operation in the matter but the heauen is sensible therefore also materiall To this adde Auerroes his owne testimonie set downe in his Comment vpon Aristotle his seuenth booke of Metaphysicks wherein himselfe confesseth that accidents are inseparable companions of the first Matter but the heauen by his owne authoritie in the first alleaged place hath in it light and other accidents inherent how then is it altogether voide of matter Other arguments taken from the inherencie of qualities peculiarly incident vnto things materiall for breuities sake I omit hastning to the second Patrons of the heauens immortalitie that doe acknowledge a composition of a matter and a forme in the celestiall bodies but will haue it a different and a distinct kinde from the elementish matter of the vnder bodies Touching the sense of the question Plato and some of his followers in this error interpret it as if when we say the heauens consist of elementary matter wee meant that they are so compounded of the elements as are mixt bodies heere below whereupon some of the more ancient sectaries in this kinde as Heraclitus and Pythagoras thought that it was made of fire Thales and Anaximenes of earth Empedocles of a medley of aire and fire Plato himselfe of the foure elements or as Proclus recordeth his opinion of the quintessence of them whose refutation we omit as impertinent vnto our purpose for our meaning is not that the elements are the matter whereof the heauens be made but thus we vnderstand it that the matter of the Ethereall and Elementish bodies is of the same kinde the whole first matter being diuided into these principal parts as into halfes the one halfe vnited vnto the formes celestiall the other halfe coupled vnto the formes of the elements and so as I conceiue is that place in the beginning of Genesis to be vnderstood where it is said that In the beginning God created the Heauen and the Earth that is the matter whereof heauen and the elements were afterwards made signified vnto vs by the name of those waters wherupon the spirit of God was mooued and mee thinketh the argument is very sound which is commonly alleged by our partakers for as in other kindes of causes there is one first principall whereunto all the rest are reduced so also in this kinde of the Matter there being the like reason of al. But if we distinguish the Matter of the heauens frō that of the elements we can not come to one first Matter of al things therefore there is the same Matter both of the celestial inferior bodies to which we may adde that thredbare argument of the Philosophers Wit hout necessity we must not imagine a pluralitie in Nature forasmuch as Nature abhorreth vanitie but there is no necessitie of the matters pluralitie for the maine ground of this distinction for ought that I can see is lest they should bee forced to grant a power in the heauens tending to corruption which as is before said hath no necessary illation forasmuch as the excellency of the forme present restraineth the wandring indifferent desire of the matter resisting the violent impression of forren qualities that should breed rebellion of the subiect creatures against their commander the heauens But touching their reasons in my poore opinion they are very insufficient for first thus they dispute The
formes of the sublunary bodies may be separated from their matter but the heauens forme is vnseparable when in my iudgement they proue rather a distinction of formes than any diuerfity of the matter Or if they thence prooue a diuersity of matter because the formes incident are of greater and lesse excellency one in respect of an other we may as well say that the body of a man is of distinct matter from that of the other more base creatures because his form is so passing excellent Or if they restraine their comparison onely to the power of separation that because the matter of the heauens is ioyned inseparably to the forme when contrariwise the elementish matter hath often separation therefore there is not the same matter of both wee answer that the same matter in kinde may so inseparably bee vnited to its forme as that it can neuer be seioyned not that we deny a power of future separation of the heauens matter from the present forme but that this may bee a sufficient reason of their hitherto inseparable vnion A second argument is that of Aristotle saith he whatsoeuer things participate the same matter are capable of mutable transmutation but the heauens can neuer bee changed into the inferior bodies for somuch as the elements are altogether passiuely disposed for receit of the heauens action without any reaction vpon the heauens therefore there is not the same matter of both To which we answer that the proposition or first sentence must be vnderstood of a potentiall transmutation and that with this exception vnlesse the matters imperfectiō be perfected by the formes inherent excellency or resistance be made of some superiour forme to turne away the violence of the oppugning agent We say that the forme now being in the heauens is of so powerfull and vnconquerable a nature as that no naturall contrary agent is able to compasie any the least new impression Thirdly thus they reason Were the heauens of the same matter with the bodies of the elements then in like fort should they at least by nature be corruptible but the corruption is altogether abhorrent from the heauens nature To which assumption Damascen answers by a flat deniall for euen the heauens in his Philosophie are naturally subiect to corruption To which accordeth that of Plato in his Timaeus that attributes the heauens incorruptiblenes to a superior more powerfull cause For so hee brings in the maker of the world speaking vnto the celestiall bodies By nature you are dissoluble but through my will preserued from dissolution Nor shall the destintes of death preuaile ouer you to destroy you because my will is a bond of more power to keepe you from corruption than that wherewith at your first making you were holden together And thus haue we hastily runne ouer the difficult question of the heauens matter Touching the certainty and meanes of their dissolution we will briefly speake by and by after the resolution of the other ar-arguments for the non-dissolution of the world Simon Magus as it is recorded lib. 3. Recog Beati Petri. cap. 3. if the records be true thus replied vpon the learned Apostle for the worlds immortalitie If God be infinitely and only good and the world also good how shall God in the end destroy the world If hee destroy that which is good how shall himselfe continue good If hee pull it downe because it is euill how shall he then be free from euill that made it euill To which wee answer with S. Peter in the same place That the world in its first originall state was good yet so as it was foreordeined to dissolution nor doe wee thereby detract from Gods goodnesse for the heauens the most excellent part of the world being not made for themselues but for some end after to be reuealed how good soeuer yet were to be dissolued that that for which they were ordeined might appeare which also Peter thus familiarlie sheweth Who seeth not how cunningly an egshell is framed yet for manifestation of the end of its making it must be broken of necessitie So must the present estate of the world of necessitie be destroyed that the more excellent condition of the kingdome of heauen may be made manifest at which time also this degenerated euill state of corruption shall be done away that a more glorious estate of incorruption may be restored So then that the world shall haue an end I take it it is manifest and that not an end of annihilation but of corruption which indeed shall be a way vnto its perfection Now concerning the times and seasons of the worlds dissolution we will not take vpon vs curiously to determine seeing God the beginning and end of all things hath left the time vnreuealed vnto vs. Touching the means and maner of the dissolution the Stoicks glanced at it a farre off being of opinion that the world should by fire be dissolued For thinking the starres and the skies fire to haue a wasting action vpon the inferiour elements their nourishing moisture by little and little decaying when neither the earth can haue refection by the water nor the aire procreation after its absolute consumption there shall-remaine nothing but fire to consume both the heauens and the earth of which afterward a new world should be made whose opinion is very consonant vnto that of Peter saue onely that they thought this destruction should come of a natural necessity for Peter also taugnt it should be by fire wherewith God withdrawing his hand of preseruation should consume this world and of the ashes heereof create a new yet so as neither the seate of the blessed souls in heauen nor the dungeon of the damned in hell should be destroied that neither the iotes of the Saints nor the torments of the wicked should be interrupted As for the firmament and the other inferiour spheres together with the elements they shal be indued with another that a far more excellent cnodition putting off these accidents and affections of corruption fit for the continuall generation and corruption of the naturall bodies and receiuing other qualities agreeable to the incorruptible estate of the world to come so that their substance shall be all one howsoeuer they alter their qualities As in the resurrection mens bodies shall bee of the same substance but of a different disposition For this corruption must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality So that as Saint Paul said our imperfect knowledge which we haue in this life shall in the after-world be abolished because then we shall haue a morefull and perfect knowledge of God and his Christ So may we well say this world shall be destroied because it shall lose this present estate of imperfection and put on a more glorious condition fit for the world to come And so as I take it are those places of scripture to bee vnderstood where niention is made of the worlds perishing that is the present estate of this world shall
they vnderstand a nature of wisedome and goodnesse and pronidence which with knowledge performeth its actions and so of purpose deliberately hath knit togethet these so many points to such an excellent vnitie this Nature wee reiect not but retaine as that God and Maker of all things that by his infinite irresistable power bath conioined the disagreeing parts of this visible world and of things contrary made a perfect harmony permitting in their nature a mutuall resistance yet so as they hinder not their friendly copulation in the worlds composition In sum touching Nature and Fortune they are thus onely saith Scaliger to be interpreted that Nature signifies Gods ordinary power and thus things extraordinary may be called vnnaturall Fortune his vnreuealed will and thus may wee call things chanceable that are beside expectation or beyond reason Now touching the Epicure who as Tully saith deriued his opinion from Democritus we will in one word answer his reason recorded by Tully in his second booke de Natura Deorum and so come vnto Aristotle and his Scholar the Atheist The Epicures reason is briefly thus propounded by way of interrogation What eies saith he in his scoffing impudency had Plato to behold the framing of this so great a worke Or what tooles and fellow-workemen had God to make the World withall The answer is that Plato his eie was the eie of reason gathering by necessary consequence both the being of the Deity as also confusedly apprehending the infinitenesse of God his power and wisdome shinig in the world as in a most cleere glasse reflecting in some sort the Image of Gods inuisible Nature vpon the eies of all the beholders Touching absence of instruments and fellow-workemen whereby the Epicure would inferre the impossibility to create in God we are not to thinke that God infinite in power is tied to the helpe of secundary instrumentall causes they being but supplies of defects and helps of wants in the otherwise insufficient agents and therefore not requisit to the eternall infinitenesse of Gods ability Nay we may adde further which is Gods priuiledge God of nothing is powerfull enough to make all things much more without instruments Now a possibility of creating in God may thus briefly be shewn according to the maner of being of euery thing so also is the order of working but Gods being and beginning dependeth vpon nothing but himselfe why then should it be thought impossible that Gods action is not tied vnto any matter And indeed the reason as far as I can perceiue why other things require a subject whereon to worke is onely the impotency of the Agents but God Al-sufficient and powerfull who can out of the rocks bring water out of darkenesse light can also as he hath done make all things of nothing An other reason may be this taken from the difference of the principall efficients God Nature Arte. Arte alway presupposeth a thing really and perfectly subsisting Nature onely a matter with a power to be God a farre more powerfull Agent then either Arte or Nature is able of that which is nothing at all to make a thing of actuall and reall subsistence For if Nature can of a thing in the lowest degree of being and next to a not being make a thing actually subsisting God All-sufficient and infinit in power can of nothing create any thing in what degree of being soeuer Now touching the Atheist out of Aristotle his Philosophie he hath drawen this subtile Interrogatorie which hee propoundeth with so vnsauorie scorne If the world were not from Euerlasting but made by the God you talke of I would know of you where he liued before the time that hee made the world how he busied himselfe all the time before for it is an absurdity euen among vs to say he was idle as also what he did if he did not make it from euerlasting Touching the place of his being and the maner of his worke I may not vnfitly answer as a learned Father of the Primitiue Church did vnto the same demand He was in a wood prouiding fewell for that fire which should in heltorment such curious priers into matters beyond their reach But for his location I may thus more fitly answer that God is tied to no place being in all places to fill them with his goodnesse in no place to be circumscribed by the circumference Touching his action we answer that howsoeuer the externall worke the after-fruit of his externall working had no externall sensible being yet was hee not vnoccupied his very decreeing being an action and that also hauing relation vnto the creatures which should afterward haue being The Hebrewes who many times do but trifle in matters of waight giue vnto this friuolous question as friuolous an answer saying that God to keepe himselfe vnoccupied spent that time in trifling experiments now making a world on this fashion now on that then by and by dissoluing his loose displeasing worke at length by many trials to haue light vpon this world this fashion which for his conceiued liking he established But these learned Rabbins meant a more serious matter then their words beare shew of and that was that God did not rashly nor without great deliberation make the world on this fashion rather than any other and that he sawe he might haue made it many other waies and sooner and more worlds but would not alluding as I take it to Gods counsell-taking at the dedecree touching the time and maner of the worlds creation which was the sum of our first giuen answer But more soundly and to the purpose we answer that the actions of the Deity are of two sorts immanent internall or externall and transeunt the immanent actions are those which bee in the Deitie from one person vnto another as to loue together and such like the transeunt actions are those that passe from the Godhead to some externall obiect they may both bee thus illustrated As in the element of fire there is a facultie of heating and enlightning whence proceedeth heat and light vnto the externall neere bodies and beside this facultie there is also in it a naturall power to go vpward which when it commeth into act is receiued in no other subiect but the fire it selfe so that if fire could by abstractiue imagination be conceiued of as wanting these two transeunt operations yet could we not iustly say it had no action forasmuch as it might mooue vpward which is an immanent and inward action So and much more so though we grant that there was no externall worke of the Godhead vntill the making of the world yet can there be no necessarie illation of idlenesse seeing it might haue as indeed it had actions immanent included in the circle of the Trinity Againe thus reason these blasphemous Atheists against the truth If for mans sake God made the world and all things therein how cōmeth it to passe that there are in the world so many noisome creatures as vipers
being to an vtter not being at all hauing a limited and finit power To which purpose a learned frier said excellently well That the first maker of all things in respect of its being and not being is subiect onely vnto Gods wil permitted to the rule of Naturall agents onely in regard of transmutation For a Naturall agent may induce or expell a forme either substantial or accidentall But how farre soeuer mans Power or Nature is caried in fury laboring by might and maine towards an vtter ruinating and distruction of things yet shall it neuer attaine vnto Annihilation They may indeed by tyrannous inflicting of death make that which is neere the matter of a man the matter of a carcase they may also with fire burne the dead corps but though a thousand thousand woods should bee spent in burning of one poore carcase yet were they neuer able vtterly to annihilate and bring it vnto nothing So that Nature is too weake to cause Annihilation But yet saie the scrupulous aduersaries God who by his infinite and supernaturall power was able of nothing to make the world is by the same his boundles power able at his pleasure to returne it to nothing It is true indeed out of question that God by his absolute vndecaied power is sufficient as well to distroy the world as he was at the beginning to make it by his absolute power I say considered without regard of his will but if we respect his power restrained by his will that is regard what he will and hath decreed to do if by his word we may learne his will we may truly answer that God himselfe cannot annihilate the word because he can do nothing that implieth contradiction or that any way importeth mutability whereby of God he should be made no God Nor do we heerby take away his omnipotency nay rather we establish his power it being a chiefe point of infirmity and weakenesse to bee capable of change and able to deny it selfe but God hath decreed not to annihilate the world therefore he cannot now turne it vnto nothing how then may some man say shall it haue an end for if neither of it selfe it incline nor can be by any meanes naturall inforced to Annihilation no nor God himself can turne it into nothing what end shall it haue The answer is that as man hath his end by death whereas notwithstand his soule is immortall his body is onely changed into its first matter not turned into nothing so the world though incapeable of annihilation as hath beene proued yet hath in it an end vneuitable when it shall be changed from the present corrupt estate into a far more excellent and heauenly condition of indurance and immortality But heere ariseth a doubt moued by those scoffers that Peter prophecied should come in the last daies which demaund Where is the promise of his comming For since the father fell on sleepe all things haue continued alike from the beginning of the creation Where by the way let vs obserue that they make the time of Christs comming and the end of the world things of one and the same signification so that as many testimonies of scripture as warrant the certainty of Christs comming serue also to proue the worlds end and dissolution To their reason we may answer with Peter that the worlds long and hither to vnchanged continuance is no sure proofe of impossibility to bee destroied For God that by his bare word could of nothing make the world can now also with as great facrlity alter the state of the same But their supposition is most vntrue for the world hath not from the beginning continued in the same state vnaltred the whole earth being in Noahs floud ouerwhelmed with waters But to this they may answer that it was no generall or vniuersall destruction being extended onely to the liuing creatures they also in part preserued in Noahs arke It is true indeed that this was onely a particular or partial destruction the heauens remaining altogether vntouched the other elements also incorrupted But yet this sheweth a change in the worlds estate which they seemed to deny Touching the generall distinction of all things Peter after answereth to which place we wil refer them But that wherein the difficulty of the whole controuersie consisteth is the immutable estate of the heauenly bodies wherein hath beene obserued by experience of all ages a constancy almost admirable when in this sublunary region of elementish bodies there hath beene as great variety and almost a circular alteration And indeed were the heauens capable of corruption how could the spheare of the Moone situated so neere the fire haue continued so long vnconsumed Let vs therfore a little examine how the cause stands with the heauens in the matter of corruption There are two different opinions of them that make the heauens incorruptible some to deliuer them from corruption haue made them void of all matter others allot them a matter but in a distinct kinde from that of the sublunary bodies all agreeing that they be incorruptible The chiefe of the first sect is Auerroes a learned Turke who expostulating the matter with vs demands by what meanes we came to know the matter of the heauens For the onely meanes to prooue the existence of matter in any thing is as he calleth it Substantiall transmutation or more plainely the succession of formes But in heauen there hath beene no such succession no nor any alteration of qualities therefore the heauens are immateriall But wee may answer first that the being of matter in anie thing is knowen as wel by accidentary or locall as by substantiall transmutation But the heauens haue a locall Motion or Mutation at least in their parts therfore they consist of matter Secondly we answer thus that although the heauens haue all this while lasted without change in their substance yet seeing they are capable of future transmutation we may thence conclude the presence of matter in them For who would say that there is in a sucking child no reasonable soul because he seeth in him no actuall vse of reason or present conceit of learning we know that his potentiall disposition and sitnesse to conceiue is testimony sufficient of that soule which is in him Their second argument is this all things consisting of a corporall matter are withall corruptible for the ability of receiuing the yet absent formes being a propertie inseparable from the matter which also is accompanied with a longing desire to supply its defects there must needs be granted an expulsion of the incumbent forme for induction of a new successor wherein is corruption or els this The matters inclination and ingrafted desire as it were must be alway frustrate which folly the most wise God of Nature detesteth therfore there is in the heauens no such matter as we talke of To which argument they that make the matter of the celestiall bodies different from that of the sublunary creatures frame this answer
cold and drought both enemies to life hasteneth the destruction of the body whereunto it is incident The second inward cause of long life is the moderation of our affections Whether it be that naturall appetite of meat and drinke for nourishmēt or those other of anger loue ioy lust sorrow and such like For all these are auaileable both waies either in excesse to kill or in moderation to saue Touching the moderate vse of meats and drinkes what neede we seeke farre for proofe of its profitablenes to preserue life when we see so many daily by surfetting ouercharging their stomacks with too much and too riotus vse of meats vntimely end their daies and contrariwise men very crasie and sickely by temperancie and moderation many times protract their liues almost to an incredible length For so is it reported of one Herodicus a student in Aristotle his daies the most weake and sickely of any that liued in that time by the testimony both of Plato of Aristotle who notwithstanding by his diligent care and guidance of himselfe liued full out 100. yeeres and no maruell for so did he repaire the daily decay of his humidity by supply of nourishment and neither ouerwhelmed his heat with the abundance of moisture nor mingled his radicall moisture with too much externall superfluous impurities Where we may resolue that doubt how it comes to passe that often drinkers of wine for the most part hasten their death The reason is that the vehement heat of the wine consumeth their moisture and so by detraction of the heats food in time also extinguisheth the heat Now if any man shall require me to prescribe a diet vnto him though I be no Physitian yet will I referre him vnto that of the excellent Emperour who neuer eat till he was hungry nor euer proceeded to a gluting satiety For the extreames are dangerous both excesse and defect too much meate hindring good digestion and ingendring crudities too little giuing occasion of the heats too sudden preuailing ouer the moisture both which are friends of death Not would I counsell men strictly to tie themselues vnto set houres for that saith Paracelsus is dangerous causing many times either delaie of applying nourishment or too speedy ministring before the former digestion is finished And heere we may seasonably annex the vse of exercise for that is a thing very auaileable to digestion dispersing the nourishment into the parts of the body and being as it were the bellowes to kindle and reuiue our naturall heate for ouermuch rest and ceasing from motion cooleth the body And as the elementish fire which we vse vnlesse it bee sometime blowen and fed as it were with aire is extinguished so our naturall heat without exercise and motion is after a sort cast on sleep or rather benummed whence proceedeth that other daughter of dulnesse collection of excremental superfluities the heat being not able to digest our receiued nourishment thence is that corruption and rottennesse which ouertaketh these slow-backes as we see standing water soonest putrifie and gather filth Wherefore Aristotle enquiring the causes of the toilesome trauell of some women in child-birth ouer others setteth down this as principall among the rest namely their idlenesse and want of exercise for his experience of women in other countries so accustomed to paines taking had taught him for to them child-bearing was not so painefull their labour consuming those excrements that are the vsuall impediments of ease in that kinde Nor will I take vpon me to limit any man to any kind of exercise rather than an other or appoint any time although this caueat will not be amisse prescribed that they vse not to stirre themselues more violently than is ordinary before the through digestion of meate for then they clogge their stomacks and make them vnfit for after concoction and withall fill their bodies with raw humours which by exercise are dispersed through the veines into al the parts of the body onely as inother things so especially in exercise of what kinde soeuer either for delight or of paines let them remember moderation that it be neither too much nor to little Not too much that is neither too vehement nor yet continual but interchangeable for both these by consuming of the spirits are alike hurtfull not too little for continued rest and idlenesse as is afore said engendreth putrefaction Where the consideration of the moderate vse of sleepe and waking is very incident for they are both things necessary for maintenance of life in their mediocrity both as hurtfull if beyond measure For immoderate and vnseasonable watching wasteth the spirits and by consuming of the vitall iuice causeth leannesse in the body enfeebleth the parts thereof hindreth the operation of the senses drieth the marrow and the braine insomuch that oftentimes it proceedeth to doting and frensie So likewise too much sleepe hindreth our health and well-fare by loosing the parts of the body dulling the naturall heat consuming the moisture and such like But moderatly vsed and interchangeably they are notable meanes of procuring and preseruing health not only because this varietie and change is verie delightsome and refreshing but much more by restoring or hindring the decay of Nature Now touching these other affections as anger ioie sorrow and such like though wee read not of many that haue suddenly died for anger yet by reason of that sudden emission of hear into the outward parts of the body and kindling as it were the fire of choler it must needs be very hurtful when as all suddennesse especially ioyned with vehemency is an horror vnto nature And choler inflameth the blood whence proceedeth that vnreasonablenesse raging vsually obserued in men ouermuch angred But examples are plentifull of such as with sudden and immoderat ioy haue died as Pliny reports of Sophocles and Dionysius the Sicilian Tyrant that immediately vpon tidings of victory gaue vp the ghost And Liuie maketh mention of two mothers at Rome that after the bloudy battell of Cannas for ioie of the safe and vnexpected returne of their sonnes suddenly fell downe dead the one meeting her sonne at the City gate the other in her house bewayling the reported death of her sonne when on the sudden beside her expectation safely presented himselfe to her sight The like also Gellius writeth of one Dingenes of Rhodes that hauing his three sons for the mastery obtained at the games in one day crowned after his sonnes imbracements and the peoples applause suddenly yeelded vp the ghost The meanes of this death was the sudden dilatation of the heart the vitall spirits and the heat whose beginning is the heart being too farre caried from their fountaine So also read wee of Aristotle that not able to finde the reason why Euripus a part of the sea situated betweene Aulis of Bootia and Eubaea ebbed flowed seuen times a day for very greefe died the means and maner of his death being the too great contraction of the