The Second LECTURE being an Introduction to COSMOGRAPHIE Read Publiquely at SR. Balthazar Gerbiers ACADEMY ON BEDNALL GREENE ROM. cap. 1. ver. 20. Invisibilia enim Dei a creatura Mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur Sempiterna quoque ejus virtus Divinitas The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made Rom. chap. 1. Vers 20. London Printed for Robert Ibbitson in Smithfield near the Queens head Tavern 1649. To the Right Honourable the Lord President of the most Honourable Councell of State Right Honourable HAving given to the Publique according to desire the first Lecture concerning an Introduction to Cosmography read gratis in the Academy which I have endeavoured to Erect for the glory of God the honour of this State and Nation the encouragement and improvement of all Lovers of Vertue I have accompanied the same by way of respect and humble duty with a Dedicatory Epistle to the Right Honourable Speaker of the most Honourable Assembly of Parliament And accordingly take leave humbly to present this Printed Lecture to your Lordship who sits at the Helm of that great Councell of State on which the wisest publique Ministers of the world look with great observance And as I may humbly conceive this Dedication to be very fit This Lecture beginning with a Summary Description of the Orders of the Heavens of their Revolutions and Distances so many times by those Orders which passe at the Councell of State this part of the world is to be Governed so as that the Question may prove not inpertinent whether or no this State shall bee a second Earthly Paradise And all the Revolutions setled answerable to the same that there be no Distances between Peace Righteousnesse and Truth but that all may be so united as to meet and kisse each other perpetually Being the fervent wishes and prayers of Right Honourable Your most humble and obedient Servant Balthazar Gerbier Bednall green this 5 of Novemb. 1649. THE Second Lecture BEING An Introduction to Cosmographie Read Publiquely at Sir Balthazar Gerbiers Academy on Bednall-greene IN our first Lecture of Cosmography we declared what the Sphere is What Heaven is Of the Qualities of the Heavens Of the Celestiall Region That there are many Heavens or Orbes Of the Firmament or eight Heaven Whether or no the Starres be infinite and how the Astronomers divide them Whether or no the Stars be shining of themselves and transparent That the Heavens are round and that their motions are the one within the other from the East to the West In this Second Lecture wee shall shew how that there are two other Heavens differing from the eight precedent The Order of the Heavens Of the Heavens revolutions Of the Heavens distances Of the Elementary Region Of the Fire the Aire the Water and the Earth That the Earth is in the Center of the World and that the Earth is unmoveable That there are two other Heavens differing from the eight Heavens proved in our first Lecture UNtill the time of Aristotle there were but eight Heavens discovered because that then there were but observed but eight different motions in the Celestiall Bodies but when afterwards it was observed that the Starres had a different motion to that of the world it was expedient not to give two contrary motions to a simple Body as the Heavens are to suppose a ninth Heaven the which as first moveable conveyed by its impetuous swiftnesse all the others with it This was the opinion of Ptolomie and since him Thebit Alphragan Albategnius and other excellent Astronomers and for the same reason after that it was observed that there were three different motions in the Firmament there was added a tenth Heaven which is the first moveable it moves from East to West in 24 houres on the Poles of the World drawing by its impetuous swiftnesse all the other inferiour Heavens with it the which neverthelesse turnes alwayes contrary to it performing the course which is proper and naturall to them from West to East on the Poles of the Zodiaque the which they severally atchieve in diversity of times This is also alledged by the learned King Alfonze John of Lineris George Purbachis John of Monte Region and others Besides these ten Heavens which have been observed by the diverse motions of the Starres and Planets there is yet another the highest and largest of all the which is unmoveable and its in that Heaven in the which God spreads the beames of his glory to his welbeloved there is the eternall rest of the happy or as the Apostle sayes Quod oculos non vidit nec auris audivit nec in cor hominis ascendit quae preparavit Deus iis qui diligunt illum that is to say Eye hath not seen nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him It 's named Coelum impereum that is to say of fire because of its purenesse But this Heaven being not knowne unto us but by divine Revelation it behooves the Divines and not the Astrologers to discourse of it The Orders of the Heavens or Orbes IN times past there were divers opinions touching the order and disposition of the Heavens or Orbes some placing the Sunne and the Moon above the other Planets as having authority over them others as Plato assuring that the lights were the nearest to the Earth that their influences might flow with more effect Some as Democritus maintaining Mercury to bee the highest elevated But in this manner the order of the Heavens is by us proved First by the swiftnesse or slownesse of the motions that is to say that the Planet which is the longest a finishing its course is of necessity the highest Saturne performes his in 30 yeares Jupiter in 12 Mars in 2. the Sun in 365 dayes and 6 houres c. and therefore it must necessarily follow that they exceed one another in height Of the Heavens or Orbes Revolutions ALL the Heavens or Orbes doe sur-round the Earth as a circle doth its center and the further they are from it the longer they are accomplishing their circuits The Moon as being in the lowermost Orbe or Heaven and the nearest to the Earth makes its revolution in 27 dayes and 8 houres Mercury Venus and the Sunne in 365 dayes and 6 houres Mars in one year three hundred twelve dayes and 23 houres Saturne in nine and twenty years one hundred foure and fifty dayes and three and twenty houres The Firmament makes a revolution in six and thirty thousand years and another revolution in seven thousand years The ninth Heaven accomplisheth its course in nine and forty thousand yeares And the tenth Heaven of a quite contrary motion to all these performes his in foure and twenty houres or in a naturall day These Marvelous revolutions Manifest unto us the Power and Greatnesse of the Omnipotent
Providence of him that made them they likewise daily manifest and Praise him as the Royall Prophet sayes in the 19 Psa. Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei opera manuum ejus annuntiat Firmamentum that is The Heavens declare the glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handyworks Of the Heavens or severall Orbes distances THe Astronomers in their measuring the height of the severall Orbes or Heavens doe make use of the Earths halfe diameter the halfe Diameter is of twelve hundred Leagues or thereabouts and infer thus that the Heaven of the Moon is distant three and thirty halfe Diameters from the Center of the Earth which makes nine and thirty thousand and six hundred Leagues Mars one thousand eight hundred and two and fifty halfe Diameters Jupiter Seven thousand eight hundred two fifty Saturne Fourteen thousand three hundred and seventy three The Firmament two and twenty thousand six hundred and twelve halfe Diameters which are seven and twenty Millions one hundred foure and thirty Thousand and foure Hundred Leagues These leagues are Geometricall leagues which containe three thousand paces which is so vast an extent that if our first father Adam were yet alive and that from his Creation he had ascended every day eighteen Leagues towards the Heavens yet for the present he would not have attained to the concavity of the eight Heaven and thus much more I may say for to represent how far distant the Starres are from us That if a Cannon bullet were in that place where the Starres are and that it should descend each hour two hundred leagues yet would it remaine more then 15 yeares before it could arrive to the Earth Now by the distance of the Heavens as beforesaid can be knowne the thicknesse of each Orbe or Heaven and that by substracting the lesser distance from the greater following As for Example if three and thirty halfe diameters be substracted from threescore and foure halfe Diameters the remainder will be one and thirty halfe diameters and of so many halfe Diameters is the solidity of the Moones Heaven or Orbe and in the like manner you may find out the others Of the Elementary Region THe Elementary Region is the concavity of the Moones Heaven or Orbe the which is filled with the four Elements Fire Aire Water and Earth An Element is a simple Body the which cannot be divided nor seperated into different formes that there are foure Elements is easily proved since there is nothing so naturall as that the things do dissolve into the same parts of the which they are composed All perfect mixt Bodies ca 〈…〉 into Earth Water Aire and into Fire there 〈…〉 both earth water aire and fire the which 〈…〉 manifestly shews for when a green St 〈…〉 of it is seen dissolved into Fire part into 〈…〉 which is of the nature of Aire part into scumme which is of the nature of water and part of it into ashes which are of the nature of the Earth and consequently all oother mixt Bodies as Stones Mettalls Plants Animalls c. That they are just foure is also proved by the four humours which are observed to be in the severall bodies of Animalls as the gall which answers to the fire the Blood which answers to the Aire the Fleame which answers to the Water and the Melancholy humour which answers to the Earth The Fire possesses the highest place of the Elementary Region as the most purest and the lightest The Aire is next unto the Element of the Fire as being purer and lighter then the Water and Earth The Water is under the Aire and above the Earth and the Earth as heaviest is the Lowermost and the Center to all the world Of the Fire THe Fire is an Element extreame hot and moderately dry Since each Element hath its proper and naturall place Reason wills that the fire should have his Now since its the purest and the lightest of all the Elements its naturall place must then bee in the nearest space unto the concavity of the Moone wee doe also see that all the Fires lighted here beneath tend naturally upwards and are corrupted by the Aire which invirons them which clearly shews that the naturall place of this Element is above the Aire We cannot see it in its naturall place because it hath no colour and it does not inflame the Heaven because the Heaven is not susceptible of any heat nor of any other alteration The Element of the Fire containes about forty thousand leagues of depth from its superficiall concavity to its convexe Of the Aire THE Aire is an Element very moist and moderately hot Its naturall place is the superficiall concavity of the Element of the Fire and the superficiall convexe of the Element of Water But the Water and the Earth making but one Globe as wee shall shew hereafter the place of the Aire is all the space there remaines betwixt the Earth and the elementary Fire which space hath thirty leagues of height The Aire is divided into three Regions the highest middlemost and lowermost The highest Region of the Aire is hot and dry by reason of the proximity of the elementary Fire and of the motions of the Heavens The middlemost is cold and moist by reason of the vapors which are elevated by the vertue of the Sun which thickening and congealing do refresh the place where they are and this Region is yet colder by reason of the Antyperistasis that is to say by a contrary force which a contrary Element makes strengthening it selfe against a greater strength of a contrary Element The lowermost Region of the Aire is both hot cold and temperate according as the beames of the Sunne cast themselves perpendicularly or oblickly thereon Of the Water THE Water is an Element both extream cold and moderately moist The naturall place of the Water is betweene the Aire and the Earth so that the Earth ought to be environed and wholly incompassed by the Waters But God hath caused the Element of the Water to retire in the concavities of the Earth for the habitation and preservation both of Men and Animals in their being there is much to be alleadged that may contradict this passage but this seemes to be the most probably true that God hath ordained it by his absolute power as it is written in Genesis the first Chapter Congregentur aquae quae sub Coelo sunt in locum unum et appareat arida that is to say Let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appeare Of the Earth THE Earth is an Element both extream dry and moderately cold That the Earth is heavier then the Water is proved thus That which causes another to yeeld in heavinesse ought to be heavier then that other But the Earth causes the water to yeeld in heavines therfore it must needs follow that the Earth is heavier then the Water this is proved thus when any Earth or a Stone is cast into a
Vessell full of water it descends to the bottome and causes the water to retire and when the Earth or the Stone is first at the bottome of the vessell the water being poured therein it doth not cause them to retire Against this there are opposed two considerable objections the one is that the water is seene to have motion through the Earth which happens by the Rain falling on the Earth and its passing through it Its Elementary place must needs then be under the Earth towards which it alwaies runs and this would not happen if it were not heavier then the Earth The second Objection is that seeing there are great Gulphes of water found under the Earth as appeares by Wells and Fountaines it therefore followes that the elementary place of the water ought to be under the Earth for the more water you draw out of a Well the more there enters into it which would not be say they if there were not great Gulphes of water under the ground which are the sourses of Springs But these opinions being maintained by very feeble grounds we shall answer to the First That though the name water is seene to descend through the Earth it is not because its heavier but onely that it fills the pores and concavities thereof which having done we may clearly see it onely drives over the superficies of the Earth The answer against the Second is That the Perennity of Springs doth not proceed from the great water-gulphs under ground forasmuch that there hath no such thing beene knowne but to the contrary that all the Fountains have their origin from the Sea and that the Earth is full of veines which containe the water sent from the Sea for to moisten the Earth which otherwise could not produce its sundry proprieties The opening of those veines make a Fountaine the Fountaines engender currents many currents make a River many Rivers a Floud which discharges it selfe in the Sea Against this there is also objected that then the Fountains ought to be brinish and Salt as the Sea-water is and secondly that the Springs being much higher then the Sea the motion ought to ascend which is contrary to the nature of water The answer to it is that the saltnesse of the water is purged by the long and narrow traces which it makes within the stony and sandy places through which it passeth which is evident in the greatest part of such Fountaines as passe by the Rocks since they are much purer and cleaner then those which run through fat and fenny grounds For the Springs it is not incongruous to say that the water ascends from the Sea to them because its a motion made by attraction That the Earth is in the middle of the World THE Philosopher Aristarchus Samienus did believe that the Earth was not in the middle of the World but that the Sunne was in the middle and being there as unmovable it gave light to all the world This Philosophers esteeming it to be a great absurdity that the Earth which produceth an infinit number of movable animalls should be unmovable and that the cause should be of a worse condition then its effect This opinion hath been since renewed by Copernicus an excellent Astronomer who did strive to prove it in his revolutions But the contrary is proved thus The Stars which are in the Firmament whether they be in the middle of the Heaven towards the East or towards the West appeare alwayes of one and the selfe same bignesse which would not happen if the earth were not equally distant from it for if the Earth were nearer to the Firmament in one place then the other it would follow that from the part of the superficies of the Earth nearest to the Firmament the halfe of the Heaven could not be seene which is against the opinion of Ptolomie and of all the Philosophers who say that in what part soever of the Earth a man is he may see six signes of the Zodiacke to rise and six to descend so there be no hinderance and thus alwayes halfe of the Heaven is seene and the other halfe hidden It is also proved thus the further the Moone goes from the Sunne the more it augments its light to our consideration therefore when it s at the full it is at the furthest distance that possibly may be from the Sunne and so it must of necessity be on the Diameter of the Heaven and then the halfe of the Heaven will be between the Sun and the Moone when it s at the full The same is proved also by the Ecilpses of the Moone for when the Moon is eclipsed halfe of the Heaven is interposed between the Sunne and the Moone because the Moone never eclipses but in its full therefore if the earth were not interposed there would be no eclipse since by the interposition of the Earth the shadow is made as also the Equinoxe would not be throughout the whole world The long Artificial dayes would not equall the long Artificiall nights and an infinite number of other absurdities would follow and therefore we will conclude that the Earth as the heaviest element hath beene placed in the lowermost place and the lowermost place of necessity must be that which is the furthest from the Heavens and the place which is the furthest from the Heavens cannot but be the Center therefore the Earth is in the Center that is to say in the middle of the Heavens or of the World That the Earth is unmovable THE Earth cannot have any motion for if it should move it must needs either be out of its place or circularly on its Center If it moves out of its place its motion must be either upwards or downwards downwards it cannot because it s at the Center It cannot move upwards because it s against the nature of heavy things and then the proofs here before mentioned doe suffice for it would else quit its Center and then the Starres would not alwayes appeare of the selfe-same greatnesse which is absurd therefore if it hath any motion it must be circularly on its Center Neither can its motion be circularly according to Copernicus his opinion because that if it were so it must turne on the Axe of the World or on some other If it be on the Axe of the World it must performe its course in twenty foure houres by reason of the first movable and then by such a violent motion the buildings would be shaken the Birds the Clouds and all what is seene in the Aire would alwayes incline toward the West as not being able to follow the swift motion of the Earth Nor can it move by any other way be the motion never so slow because that a Towne placed either more or lesse distant from the Pole would then have divers elevations because that the circumference which the motion of the earth would cause it to make about the Pole would not be parallell to it which can never happen therefore it s