a miracle shall they be suspended from a mutuall intercourse of working one vpon another and a production of Meteors mixt bodies And how shall the Earth disvested of the vegetables which apparelled her and appearing with her naked and dustie face be sayd to be more amiable then before Finally if the heavens according to their Essence shall remaine how shall they naturally without a miracle stand still being now naturally inclined to a circular motion Or how without a miracle shall the light be increased and yet the warmth springing from thence be abated nay wholy abolished Or if the warmth shall remaine how can it choose but burne vp those parts of the Earth vpon which it never ceases to dart perpendicular beames Or how can the Sunne stand still and yet inlighten both the Hemespheres or the starres of that Hemesphere which it inlightens at all appeare To these demaunds Pererius makes a short answere and in my judgement a very strange one and vnworthy the penne of so great a Clarke that some of these things God hath already done that we might be induced the more readily to beleeue that they both may and shall be done againe And for instance he alleageth the standing still of the Sunne Moone at the prayer of Iosuah the restrayning of the burning force of the fire in the Babylonian furnace but withall foreseing that those were miracles for satisfaction therevnto he concludes Non agere autem inter se qualitates elementorum nec lu em Syderum calefacere quamvis nunc ingens esset miraculum tunc tamen posita semel mundi renovatione non erunt miracula It were now a great miracle that the qualities of the Elements should not mutually worke each vpon other or that the light of the starres should not produce warmth but then the world being renewed they shall be no miracles Indeed if the world were so to be renewed as the former essence of it were to be destroyed or the former qualities to be entinguished then should I happily allow of his reason as probable passable but now granting that the same Identicall forme and matter shal still continue that the former qualities shall not be abandoned but perfected not altered in kinde but only in degree I cannot see how it should be held tearmed a great miracle heeretofore which shall not be so heereafter And whereas it is said that the bodies of the Saints shall then naturally liue without meate which now without a miracle they cannot doe we must consider that though the substance of their bodies shall remaine yet the qualities of them shall be intirely changed so farre as the Apostle is bold to call it a spirituall bodie And besides we may be bold to challenge a speciall priviledge vnto the bodies of the Saints the temples of the holy Ghost which without speciall warrant cannot be yeelded to any other Corporeall substance And withall we must remember that for the resurrection of the bodie wee haue an Article in our Creede most cleere proofes from Scripture but for the restitution of the Creatures no one such sufficient proofe as the mind of a Christian desirous to be truly informed can rest fully satisfied therein Such as they are I will not conceale them These places then are to that purpose commonly alleaged SECT 6. The arguments commonly alleadged from the Scriptures for the renovation of the world answered WHom the heavens must containe till the times of the Restitution of all things He layed the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever sayth David And Solomon one generation passeth and another commeth but the earth abideth for ever Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind To which words of the Prophet S. Iohn seemes to allude And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there was no more Sea And for the increase of the light of the Planets and other starres that passage of the same Prophet is vsually alleadged The light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne seaven fold But the pretended proofes most stood vpon are drawne from S. Paules Epistles The fashion of this world passeth away the fashion not the substance And againe The Creature it selfe also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God And lastly heerevnto they adde the words of the Psalmist Thou shalt change them and they shall be changed not abolished but chaunged Which words are againe by the Apostle taken vp and repeated Heb. 1. 12. These are I am sure the strongest if not all the pretented proofes that are commonly drawne from the holy Scripture and pressed for the maintenance of the adverse opinion the strength of which I thinke I shall so put backe as it shall appeare to any indifferent Iudge that it is in truth but forced and wrested The passages I will consider in order as they are alleaged severally examine their validitie to the purpose they are vrged First then whereas wee out of the Greeke reade the Restitution of all things the Syriake Interpreter hath it vsque ad Complementum temporum omnium to the end of all times whereby none other thing can be vnderstood then the finall consummation of the world but to take the words as we finde them The times of restitution are vndoubtedly the same which Saint Peter in the next verse saue one going before had tearmed times of refreshing and by them is meant the actuall fulnesse and perfection of our redemption quoniam restitutio illa adhuc in cursu est adeoque redemptio quando adhuc sub onere servitutis gemimus sayth Calvin because our restitution and consequently our redemption as yet is but imperfect whiles we groane vnder the burden of servitude To the second it may be sayd that in the course of nature the earth should remaine for ever without decay or diminution had not the Creator of it decreed by his almighty power to abolish it But I rather chuse to answere with Iunius who vpon the first place taken out of the Psalme giues this note tantisper dum saeculum duraturum est as long as time shall endure and vpon the second this hominis vani comparatione in comparison of the vanishing estate of man The earth then is sayd to remaine for ever as Circumcision and the Leviticall Law are sayed to be perpetuall not absolutely but comparatiuely Now for the new heavens and the new earth it should seeme by the places alleaged that if it be litterally to be vnderstood of the materiall heavens they shall not be renewed as the common opinion is but new Created creation being a production of some new thing out of nothing So as it shall not be a restitution of the
farre as the wringing of the nose bringeth forth bloud and the wresting of a string too high marres the musick but yet the question still remaines how it is to be vnderstood and how farre we me may safely extend it For to say that waxing old in that passage is only to be vnderstood of a nearer approch to an alteration or an abolishment seemes to be too cold an interpretation in as much as then needed not the Prophet to haue added for a clearer explication of his mind in the manner of their waxing old as doth a garment it rests then to be shewed as I conceiue wherein the similitude stands which the interpreters I haue met with do not sufficiently vnfold and those that vndertake the vnfolding of it runne vpon the rocks by publishing harsh and vnwarrantable positions Mee thinkes the Psalmist himselfe giues some light vnto it Thou coverest thy selfe sayth hee with light as with a garment and stretchest out the heauens like a Curtaine his meaning then in my judgment may be this that the Heavens which for their expansion may well be campared to a Curtaine or garment shall wax old the comparison standing betweene the heavens and a garment not in regard of their deficiencie but their spreading the heavens covèring this inferiour world as a garment doth the bodie it is spread over Or if the comparison stand in their deficiencie which seemes I confesse the more kindly exposition to my seemeing Aquinas in few wordes looseth the knot sicut uestimentum sayth hee quod sumitur ad vsum cessante vsu deponitur The heavens then shall wax old as doth a garment in that their vse shall cease together with man as doth the vse of a garment with him that vseth it Which exposition hee seemes to haue borrowed from Dydimus blind in his bodily eyes but in his mind sharpe sighted quod canit Psaltes veterescent mutabuntur designat eorum vsum abijsse defecisse Vt enim indumentum vbi officio functum fuerit obvoluitur sic coelum ac terrae functae munerihus suis abibunt In that the Psalmist professeth They shall waxe old and be changed his meaning is when there shall be no further vse of them For as a garment hauing performed that vse to which it was ordained is folded vp and layd aside so the heaven and the earth having finished those services for which they were created shall vanish and passe away And vpon this Comment of Dydimus Eugubinus thus commeth Hoc autem summus docet Theologus primum mundum antiquandum vetustate senio interiutrum sed non'eo senio quo res mortales corrumpuntur atque abolentur in coelo tale senium nullum est sed alium quoddam cujus similitudo ex vestibus ostenditur cum deponimus eas vbi nobis esse vsui desijssent tanquam invtiles eas exuimus atque obuoluimus sic mundus id est coelum non eo delebitur quod eadem vetustate atque omnia animalia arbores aliquando sit defecturus sed quia cessabit vsus ejus quo rerum tantos ordines peragebat The purpose of this greate Divine was to teach that the heavens should wax old and consume with age but not with such an old age as that by which things mortall suffer corruption and dissolusion In heaven there is no such waxing old to be found but another kind there is the resemblance whereof is taken from garments when we put them off as hauing no further vse of them laying them aside and folding them vp in like manner the heaven shall not therefore be disolued because it shall at any time suffer defect thorow that old age which beastes and plantes feele but because the vse of it shall cease by which it kept these inferiour bodies in due order And perchance the Apostle himselfe rendring the words of the Psalmist intends as much As a vesture shalt thou fold them vp as the curtaines and carpets and hangings are folded vp and layd aside when the family remoues Which seemes likewise to haue been foretold by the Prophet Isayah the heavens shall be rouled together as a scrole and they shall passe away with with a noyce sayth S. Peter like the hissing of parchment riueled vp with heat for so signifies the originall word in that place Howsoever they shall not wax old by the course of nature but by the mightie power of the God of Nature he that created them shall dissolue them and nothing else which the Prophet seemes to point at in this very passage Tu mutabis mutabuntur thou shalt change them not Nature but thou shalt change and they shall be changed And as for that fresh lustre and brightnesse wherwith as is commonly thought the heauens shall be renewed at the last day as a garment by turning is changed and by changing refreshed it may well be by making them more resplendent then now they are or euer at any time were since their first creation Not by scowring off of contracted rust but adding a new glosse and augmentation of glory And whereas some Divines haue not doubted to make the spots and shadowes appearing in the face of the Moone to be vndoubted arguments of that contracted rust if those spots had not beene originall and natiue of equall date with the Moone her selfe but had beene contracted by age and continuance of time as wrinkles are in the most beautifull faces they had said somewhat but that there they were aboue fifteene hundred yeares agone appeares by Plutarchs discourse De maculis in facie Lunae that they haue since any whit increased it cannot be sufficiently prooued Perchance by the helpe of the new devised perspectiue glasses they haue beene of late more cleerely distinctly discerned thē in former ages but that prooues no more that they were not there before then that the Sydera Medcaea lately discouered by vertue of the same instruments were not before in being which the Discoverers themselues knew well enough they could not with any colour of reason affirme SECT 5. A third objection taken from the apparition of new starres answered HOwbeit it cannot be denied but that new starres haue at times appeared in the firmament as some thinke that was at our Saviours birth yet in as much at it pointed out the very House in which he was borne by standing ouer it and was not for ought we finde obserued by the Mathematicians of those times I should rather thinke it to haue beene a blazing light created in the Region of the Aire carrying the resemblance of a starre then a new and true created starre seated in the firmament As for that which appeared in Cassiopaea in the yeare one thousand fiue hundred seventy two the very yeare of the great Massacre in France I thinke it cannot well be gainsaid to have beene a true starre it being obserued by the most skilfull and famous Astronomers of that time to hold the same
also the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp saith S. Peter And I saw a great white throne him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heauen fled away and there was found no place for them saith S. Iohn Now I would demaund whether being no more as Iob perishing as David vanishing away like smoake dissolving rolling together falling downe as a withered leafe or a dry fig from the tree as Esay passing away as our Saviour passing away with a great noise melting with feruent heate burning vp as S. Peter or lastly flying away so as their place be found no more as S. Iohn doe not include an vtter abolition or at leastwise exclude a restitution to a perfecter estate once Beza I am sure is so evidently convinced by the alleadged words of S. Peter that he plainly confesses the dissolution the Apostle there speakes of to be a kinde of annihilation And both Tilenus Meisnerus are confident that those who hold a restitution will neuer be able to reconcile their opinion with the alleadged Scriptures If we looke back to higher times before S. Hierome we shall not easily finde any who maintained it And certaine it is that Clement in his Recognitions or whosoeuer were the Author of that worke brings in S. Peter reasoning with Simon Magus teaching that there were two Heauens the one Superius invisibile aeternum quod Spiritus beati incolunt the highest invisible and eternall which bl◅ssed spirits inhabite the other inferius visibile varijs distinctum syderibus corruptibile in consummatione saeculi dissolvendum prorsus abolendum lower visible distinguished with diverse starres corruptible and at the worlds end to be dissolued and vtterly abolished Now though that worke were not Clements yet was it doubtlesse very ancient being quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen and remembred by S. Hierome in his Commentaries vpon Esay and is of sufficient authority against those who receiue it for my selfe I stand not vpon his authority but the rock of Scripture and reason drawne from thence and the force of naturall discourse SECT 5. The same farther prooved by reason THE first then and as I conceiue the most weighty argument is taken from the End of the Worlds creation which was partly and chiefely the glory of the Creator and partly the vse of man the Lord Deputy as it were or Viceroy thereof Now for the glory of the Creator it being by the admirable frame of the World manifested vnto man man being remoued out of the world and no Creature being capable of such a manifestation besides him wee cannot imagine to what purpose the frame it selfe should bee left and restored to a more perfect estate The other end being for mans vse either to supply his necessity in matter of diet of Physick of building of apparell or for his instruction direction recreation comfort and delight or lastly that therein as in a looking-glasse he might contemplate the wisdome the power and the goodnesse of God when he shall attaine that blessed estate as he shall haue no farther use of any of these enjoying perfect happinesse and seeing God as he is face to face the second or subordinate end of the Worlds being must needs be likewise frustrate And what other end can bee giuen or conceiued for the remaining or restoring thereof for mine owne part I must professe I cannot conceiue And to affirme that it shal be restored withal to assigne no end wherefore is ridiculous and vnreasonable An house being built for an inhabitant as the World was for man If it bee decreed that it shall no more be inhabited it were but vanity to repaire much more to adorne and beautifie it farther And therefore when mankinde shall bee dislodged and remoue from hence therevpon shall instantly ensue the Consummation or End not the reparation or restitution but the End of the world So the Scriptures call it in plaine tearmes and so I beleeue it And in truth some Divines considering that of necessity some end must bee assigned haue falne vpon ends so absurd and vnwarrantable that the very naming of them were sufficient to make a man beleeue there was no such matter indeed Some then and that of our owne Church and that in published bookes for the clearing of this objection haue fancied to themselues an intercourse of the Saints after the resurrection betwixt heauen and earth and that full Dominion ouer the Creatures which by the fall of Adam was lost Others are of opinion that the Earth after the day of judgement being renewed with fire and more pleasantly apparelled shall be the mansion of such as neither by their merits haue deserued heauen nor hell by their demerits And lastly others that such as haue died in their infancy without circumcision or Baptisme might possesse it Now what meere dreames these are of idle braines if I should but endeavour to demonstrate I feare I should shew my selfe more vaine in vouchsafing them a confutation then they in publishing them to the World And yet they are the best wee see that Learned men by the strength of their wits can finde out My second reason shall be drawne from the nature of the world and the quality of the parts thereof which are supposed shall bee restored to their originall integrity and so in that state euerlastingly remaine I will begin with the vegetables and Creatures endued with sense concerning them would willingly learne whether they shall bee all restored or some onely namely such as shall be found in being at the day of Iudgment if all where shall we finde stowage for them Surely we may in this case properly apply that which the Evangelist in another case vses figuratiuely if they should all be restored euē the world it self could not cōtain the things which should be restored if some only thē would I gladly know why those some should be vouchsafed this great honour not all or how these creatures without a miracle shal be restrained frō propagating multiplying that infinitly their kinds by a perpetuall generatiō Or lastly how the several individuals of these kinds shall cōtrary to their primitiue natures liue dure immortally But to make a good sound answere to these demaunds is a point of that difficulty that the greatest part of Divines rather choose to leaue out the mixt bodies preferre only the heavens the elements to this pretended dignity of restitution though about the number of the Elements to be restored they all agree not But heere againe I would demaund whether the world without the mixt bodies can truly be sayd to be more perfect and beautifull then before whether the inbred and inseparable qualities of the Elements as thickenesse and thinnesse weight lightnesse heate cold moisture drynesse shall remaine if they shall not how shall they remaine Elements if they shall how without
old but a substitution of new in asmuch as the Prophet Esay addes the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde And Saint Iohn the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there was no more Sea And Saint Peter The heavens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp And of this opinion Beza in one place seemes to haue beene Promittuntur novi Coeli ac nova terra non priorum restitutio sive in eundem sive in meliorem statum nec ijs possum assentiri qui hanc dissolutionem ad solas qualitates referendam censent There are promised new heavens and a new earth not the restitution of the old either vnto their former or a better state neither can I assent vnto them who referre this dissolution to the qualities alone But seing belike the singularity and absurditie of this opinion he recalls himselfe in his annotations vpon the very next verse But the truth is that by new heavens and a new earth is to be vnderstood in the Prophet Esay the state of the Church during the kingdome of Christ and in Saint Peter and S. Iohn the state of the Saints in the heavenly Ierusalem For the Prophet that which I affirme will easily appeare to any vnderstanding Reader that pleaseth to pervse that Chapter specially if therevnto we adde the latter part of the next touching the same point For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remaine before me sayth the Lord so shall your seed and your name continue and from moneth to moneth and from sabbaoth to sabbaoth shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. Vpon the alleaged passage of the former chapter Iunius Tremelius giue this note Omnia instauraturus sum in Christo I will restore all things in Christ Referring vs for the farther illustration thereof to that of the same Prophet in his 25 chapter at the 8 verse And for the exposition of the latter passage in the 66 chapter referres vs to that in the 65 going before So that aswell by the drift and coherence of the text as by the judgement of sound Interpreters materiall heavens and earth are not there vnderstood Which some of our English Translatours well perceiving haue to the first passage affixed this note I will so alter and change the state of the Church that it shall seeme to dwell in a new world And to the second this Heereby he signifieth the kingdome of Christ wherein his Church shall be renewed Yet I will not deny but that the Prophet may in those words likewise allude to the state of the Saints in the heavenly Ierusalem To which purpose S. Peter seemes to apply them according to his promise sayth he we looke for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousnes that is by the consent of the best expositours righteous and just men who after the day of judgement shall dwell no longer vpon the Earth but in the heavenly Ierusalem Which Saint Iohn more liuely describes in the 21 of the Revelation for having sayd in the first verse And I saw a new heaven and a new earth he presently addes in the second as it were by way of Exposition of the former And I Iohn saw the holy Citty new Ierusalem comming downe from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and by the sequele of that Chapter and the latter part of the precedent it cleerely appeares whatsoever Bright-man dreame to the contrary that he there describes the state of the Saints after the day of judgement and the glory of that place which they are eternally to inhabite being such that it had no need of the Sunne nor of the Moone to shine in it the glory of God inlightning it and the Lambe being the light thereof And Iunius thus begins his Annotations on that chapter Nunc sequitur historiae propheticae pars secunda de statu futuro Ecclesiae coelestis post Iudicium vltimum Now followes the second part of this propheticall history of the future state of the Church triumphant after the day of Iudgement And with him therein accord the greatest part of the soundest and most judicious Interpreters The other passage alleaged of the Prophet Esay touching the increase of light in the Sunne and Moone is likewise vndoubtedly to be vnderstood of the restauration of his Church according to the tenour of the chapter and the annotation of Iunius annexed therevnto Illustrissima erunt gloriosissima omnia in restitutione Ecclesiae all things shall then be more beautifulll and glorious in the restitution of the Church And with him fully accord our English notes when the Church shall be restored the glory thereof shall passe seaven times the brightnesse of the Sunne For by the Sunne and Moone which are two excellent Creatures he sheweth what shall bee the glory of the Children of God in the kingdome of Christ. Now for the words of the Apostle The fashion of this world passeth away what other thing intends he but that in these wordly things there is nothing durable and solide elegantly thereby expressing the vanitie of them in which exposition both Iunius Calvin agree That of the same Apostle in the 8 to the Romans touching the delivering of the Creature from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God is I confesse in appearance more pressing But this passage the great wit of Saint Augustine found to be very obscure and perplexed in somuch as not a few vnderstand those words of Saint Peter of this particular that in Saint Paules Epistles some things are hard to be vnderstood It were then in my judgement no small presumption vpon a place so intricate and difficult peremptorily to build so vncertaine a doctrine But because it is so hotly vrged as a testimony vnanswereable let vs a little examine the parts and sense thereof First then it is cleere that the Creature may be delivered from the bondage of corruption and yet not restored to a more perfect and beautifull estate in asmuch as being annihilated it is thereby freed from that abuse of wicked and vngratefull men which heere it is of necessity still subject vnto But all the doubt is how the Creature shall be made partaker of the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God I hope no man will dare to affirme that they shall be with them Coheires of eternall blessednes as the words seem to import how then are they made partakers of this glorious liberty But in asmuch as when the sonnes of God shall be made partakers thereof the Creature shall be altogether freed from the bondage of corruption So as that into the liberty of the sonnes of God is no more then together with the liberty of the Sons of God or by reason of
in Heauen as all things vnder the cope of heauen vary and change so doth the militant heere on earth it hath its times and turnes sometimes flowing and againe ebbing with the sea sometimes waxing and againe waning with the Moone which great light it seemes the Almighty therefore set the lowest in the heavens and nearest the Earth that it might dayly put vs in minde of the constancy of the one and inconstancy of the other her selfe in some sort partaking of both though in a different manner of the one in her substance of the other in her visage And if the Moone thus change and all things vnder the Moone why should we wonder at the chaunge of Monarchies and Kingdomes much lesse petty states and private families they rise and fall and rise again and fall againe that no man might either too confidently presume because they are subject to continuall alteration or cast away all hope and fall to despaire because they haue their seasons and appointed times of returning againe Nemo confidat nimium secundis Nemo desperet meliora lapsus Miscet haec illis prohibetque Clotho Stare fortunam Let him that stands take heed lest that he fall Let him that 's falne hope he may rise againe The providence divine that mixeth all Chaines joy to griefe by turnes losse to gaine I must confesse that sometimes looking stedfastly vpon the present face of things both at home and abroad I haue beene often put to a stand and staggered in mine opinion whither I were in the right or no and perchaunce the state of my body and present condition in regard of those faire hopes I sometimes had served as false perspectiue glasses to looke through but when againe I abstracted and raised my thoughts to an higher pitch and as from a vantage ground tooke a larger view comparing time with time and thing with thing and place with place and considered my selfe as a member of the Vniverse and a Citizen of the World I found that what was lost to one part was gained to another and what was lost in one time was to the same part recouered in another and so the ballance by the divine providence over-ruling all kept vpright But comonly it fares with men in this case as with one who lookes onely vpon some libbet or end of a peece of Arras he happily conceiues an hand or head which he sees to be very vnartificially made but vnfolding the whole soone findes that it carries a due and just proportion to the body so qui de pauca respâ—…cit de facili pronuntiat saith Aristotle he that is so narrow eyed as he lockes onely to his owne person or family to his owne corporation or nation or the age wherein himselfe liues will peradventure quickly conceiue and as some pronounce that all things decay and goe backward which makes men murmure and repine against Ged vnder the names of Fortune and Destinie whereas he that as a part of mankinde in generall takes a view of the vniversall compares person with person family with family corporation with corporation nation with nation age with age suspends his judgement and vpon examination clearely findes that all things worke together for the best to them that loue God and that though some members suffer yet the whole is no way thereby indammaged at any time and at other times those same members are againe relieued as the Sunne when it sets to vs it rises to our Antipodes and when it remooues from the Northerne parts of the world it cherishes the Southerne yet stayes not there but returnes againe with his comfortable beames to those very parts which for a time it seemed to haue forsaken O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men or at leastwise cry out in admiration with the Apostle O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of our God how vnsearchable are his pathes and his wayes past finding out Yet the next way in some measure to finde them out so farre as is possible for vs poore wormes heere crawling in a mist vpon the face of the Earth is next the sacred Oracles of supernatutall and revealed Truth to study the great Volume of the Creature and the Histories not onely of our owne but of forraigne Countreyes and those not onely of the present but more auncient times Enquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thy selfe to the search of their Fathers for wee are but of yesterday and know nothing because our dayes vpon earth are but a shadow If then to make my party good and to waite vpon Divinity I haue called in subsidiary aydes from Philosophers Historiographers Mathematitians Grammarians Logicians Poets Oratours Souldiers Travellers Lawyers Physitians and if I haue in imitation of Tertullian Cyprian Eusebius Augustine Lactantius Arnobius Minutius endeavoured to cut the throates of the Paynims with their owne swords and pierced them with their owne quills I hope no learned man or louer of Learning will censure me for this Philosophie and the Arts I must account a part of mine owne profession and for Physicke and the Lawes I haue therein consulted the chiefe as well in this Vniversity as out of it of mine owne acquaintance nay in History the Mathematiques and Divinity it selfe I haue not onely had the approbation of the publique professours therein for the maine points in my booke which concerne their severall professions but some peeces I must acknowledge as receiued from them which I haue made bold to insert into the body of my discourse let no man think then that I maintaine a paradoxe for ostentation of wit or haue written out of spleene to gall any man in particular nor yet to humour the present times the times themselues mine indisposition that way and resolution to sit downe content with my present fortunes if they serue not to giue others satisfaction therein yet doe they fully to cleare mee to my selfe from any such aspersion yet thus much I hope I safely may say without suspition of flattery that by the goodnesse of GOD and our gratious Soveraigne vnder GOD wee yet enjoy many great blessings which former ages did not and were wee thankfull for these as we ought and truely penitent for our excesse in all kinde of monstrous sinnes which aboue all threatens our ruine I nothing doubt but vpon our returne to our God by humiliation and newnesse of life he would soone dissolue the cloud which hangs ouer vs and returne vnto vs with the comfortable beames of his favour and make vs to returne each to other with mutuall imbracements of affection and duety and our Armies and Fleetes to returne with spoyle and victory and reduce againe as golden and happy times as euer wee or our fore-fathers saw but if we still goe on with an high hand and a stiffe necke in our prophanesse our pride
the Lord that I will heare the heavens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the oile and they shall heare Israell From that we may descend to the foure Elements which as a musicall instrument of foure strings is both tuned and touched by the hand of heaven And in the next place those bodies which are mixed and tempered of these Elements offer themselues to our consideration whether they bee without life as stones and mettalls or haue the life of vegetation only as Plants or both of vegetation and sense as beasts and birds and fishes and in the last place man presents himselfe vpon this Theater as being created last though first intended the master of the whole family chiefe Commaunder in this great house nay the master-peece the abridgment the mappe and modell of the Vniuerse And in him wee will examine this pretended decay first in regard of age and length of yeares secondly in regard of strength and stature thirdly in regard of wits and Arts and fourthly and lastly in regard of manners and conditions to which all that is in man is or should bee finally referred as all that is in the world is vnder God finally referred to man And because it is not sufficient to possesse our owne fort without the dismantling and demolishing of our enimies a principall care shall bee had throughout the whole worke to answere if not all at least the principall of those obiections which I haue found to weigh most with the adverse part And in the last place least I should any way bee suspected to shake or vndermine the ground of our Christian religion or to weaken the article of our beliefe touching the consummation of the world by teaching that it decayes not to wipe off that aspertion I will endeavour to prooue the certainety thereof not so much by Scripture which no Christian can be ignorant of as by force of Reason and the testimony of Heathen writers and finally I will conclude with an exhortation grounded therevpon for the stirring of men vp to a preparation of themselues against that day which shall not only end the world but iudge their actions and dispose of the everlasting estate of their persons CAP. 4. Touching the worlds decay in generall SECT 1. The three first generall reasons that it decayes not THe same Almighty hand which created the worlds massie frame and gaue it a being out of nothing doth still support and maintaine it in that being which at first it gaue and should it with draw himselfe but for a moment the whole frame would instantly returne into that nothing which before the Creation it was as Gregorie hath righly observed Deus suo presentiali esse dat omnibus rebus esse ita quod si se rebus subtraheret sicut de nihilo facta sunt omnia sic in nihilum diffluerent vniversa God by his presentiall Essence giues vnto all things an Essence so that if hee should withdraw himselfe from them as out of nothing they were first made so into nothing they would be againe resolved In the preservation then of the Creature wee are not so much to consider the impotencie and weakenesse thereof as the goodnesse wisedome and power of the Creator in whom and by whom and for whom they liue and moue and haue their being The spirit of the Lord filleth the world saith the Authour of the wisedome of Solomon and the secret working of the spirit which thus pierceth through all things hath the Poet excellently exprest Principio caelum ac terr as camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet The heauen the earth and all the liquide maine The Moones bright globe and starres Titanian A spirit within maintaines and their whole masse A minde which through each part infus'd doth passe Fashions and workes and wholly doth transpierce All this great Body of the Vniverse This Spirit the Platonists call the Soule of the World by it it is in some sort quickned and formaliz'd as the body of man is by its reasonable Soule There is no question then but this Soule of the World if wee may so speake being in truth none other then the immortall Spirit of the Creator is able to make the body of the World immortall and to preserue it from disolution as he doth the Angels and the spirits of men and were it not that he had determined to dissolue it by the same supernaturall and extraordinary power which at first gaue it existence I see not but by the ordinary concurrence of this spirit it might euerlastingly endure and that consequently to driue it home to our present purpose there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the course of Nature as is imagined and this I take to be the meaning of Philo in that booke which he hath composed De Mundi incorruptibilitate of the Worlds incorruptibility there being some who haue made the World eternall without any beginning or ending as Aristotle and the Peripateticks others giue it a beginning but without ending as Plato and the Academicks whom Philo seemes to follow and lastly others both beginning ending as Christians and other Sects of Philosophers whom Aristotle therefore flouts at saying that he formerly feared his house might fall downe about his eares but that now he had a greater matter to feare which was the dissolution of the world But had this pretended vniversall perpetuall decay of the World beene so apparant as some would make it his flout had easily beene returned vpon himselfe his opinion by dayly sensible experience as easily confuted which wee may well wonder none of those Philosophers who disputed against him if they acknowledged and beleeued the trueth thereof should any where presse in defence of their owne opinions it being indeed the most vnanswerable and binding argument that possibly could be enforced against him were there that evident certaintie in it as is commonly imagined whereas he in the sharpnesse of his wit seeing the weakenesse thereof would not so much as vouchsafe it a serious answere but puts it off with a jeast For mine owne part I constantly beleeue that it had a beginning and shall haue an ending and hold him not worthy the name of a Christian who holds not as much yet so as I beleeue both to bee matter of faith through faith we vnderstand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God and through the same faith we likewise vnderstand that they shall be againe vnframed by the same word Reason may grope at this truth in the darke howbeit it can neuer cleerely apprehend it but inlightned by the beame of faith I deny not but probable though not demonstratiue and convincing arguments may be drawn from discourse of reason to proue either the one or the other
therin he alludes to the opinion of the ancient Philosophers Poets perchance thereby intending Lucretius the great admirer and sectary of Epicurus who of all the Poets I haue met with hath written the most fully in this argument I am que adeo effa ta est aetas effoetaque tellus Vix animalia parva creat quae cuncta creavit Soecla deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu Haud vt opinor enim mortalia soecla superne Aurea de coelo demisit funis in arva Nec marc nec fluctus plangentes saxa crearunt Sed genuit tellus eadem quae nunc alit ex se. Praeterea nâ—…idas fruges vinetaque laeta Sponte suà primum mortalibus ipsa creavit Ipsa dedit dulces foetus pabula laeta Quae nunc vix nostro grandescunt aucta labore Conterimusque boves vires agricolarum Conficimus ferrum vix arvis suppeditati Vsque adeò parcunt faetus augentque labores Iamque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator Crebrius in cassum magnum cecidisse laborem Et cum tempora temporibus praesentia confert Praeteritis laudat fortunas saepe parentis Et crepat antiquum genus vt pietate repletum Perfacile angnstis tolerârit finibus aevum Cum minor esset agri multo modus ante viritim Nec tenet omnia paulatim tabescere ire Adscopulum spaâ—…io aetatis defessa vetusto The world with age is broke the earth out worne And shee of whome what ever liues was borne And once brought forth huge bodied beasts with paine A small race now begets No golden chaine These mortalls downe from heaven to earth did let As I suppose nor sea nor waues that beat The rockes did they create t' was earth did breed All of herselfe which now all things doth feed The chearefull vine shee of her owne accord Shee corne to mortall wights did first afford Sweete fruites beside and food did she bestow Which now with labour great great hardly grow The plough-swanes strength wee spend our oxen weare When we our feildes haue sowne no crop they beare So wax our toyles so waneth our reliefe The husband shakes his head and sighs for griefe That all his travels frustrate are at last And when times present he compares with past Hee his Sires fortune raises to the skie And much doth talke of th' ancient pietie And how though every man lesse ground possest Yet better liu'd with greater plentie blest Nor markes how all things by degrees decay And tir'd with age towards the rocke make way But herein Lucretius likewise contradicted himselfe in other places of the same booke and had the world beene indeede so neare its last breathing as it were and giueing vp of the Ghost as Cyprian would make it in his time much more as Lucretius in his vndoubtedly it could never haue held out by the space of allmost fourteene hundred yeares since the one aboue sixtee ne hundred since the other how long it is yet to last he only knowes who hath put the times and seasons in his owne power SECT 4. The same authority of Cyprian farther answered by opposing against it the authority of Arnobius supported with ponderous and pressing reasons NOw because this authority of Cyprian is it which prevailes so much with so many it shall not bee amisse to oppose therevnto that of Arnobius not naked and standing vpon bare affirmation as doth that of Cyprian but backt with weighty forcible arguments a very renowned both Oratour and Philosopher he was the master of Lactantius and diverse other very notable and famous men and being pressed by the Gentiles of his time with the same objection against Christian religion as was Cyprian by Demetrianus hee shapes vnto it an answere cleane contrary by shewing that all the fundamentall and primordiall parts of the world as the heavens elements remained still entire since the profession of Christian religion as before they were for other calamities of famine and warres and pestilence and the like the common scourges of the world they had beene as great or greater in former ages and that before the name of Christianity was heard of in the world then at that time they were His Latine because the allegation is long and in some places it savours of the Affrican harshnes I will spare and onely set downe the English And first of all in faire and familiar speech this we demaund of these men since the name of Christian religion began to be in the world what vncouth what vnvsuall things what against the Lawes instituted at the beginning hath Nature as they terme call her either felt or suffered Those first Element whereof it is agreed that all things are compounded are they changed into contrary qualities Is the frame of this engine and fabricke which covereth and incloseth vs all in any part loosed or dissolved Hath this wheeling about of Heaven swarving from the rule of its primitiue motion either begun to creepe more slowly or to be carried with headlong volubilitie Doe the Stars begin to raise themselues vp in the West and the Signes to inâ—…line towards the East 〈◊〉 The Prinâ—…e of Stars the Sun whose light clotheth and heat quickneth all things doth hee cease to be hot is he waxen cooler and hath he corrupted the temper of his wonted moderation into contrary Habits Hath the Moone left off to repaire her selfe and by continuall restoring of new to transforme herselfe into her old shapes Are colds are heats are temperate warmths betweene them both by confusion of vnequall times gone Doth Winter beginne to haue long dayes and Summer nights to call backe the slowest lights Haue the winds breathed forth their spirits as having spent their blasts Is not the aire straitned into clowds and doth not the field being moistned with showres wax fruitfull Doth the Earth refuse to receiue the seeds cast into her Will not trees budde forth Haue fruites appointed for food by the burning vp of their moisture changed their tast Doe they presse gore bloud out of oliues Are lights quenched for want of supplie The Creatures enured to the land and that liue in waters doe they not gender and conceiue The young ones conceived in their wombs do they not after their owne manner and order conserue To conclude Men themselues whom their first and beginning nativitie dispersed through the vnhabited coasts of the Earth doe they not with solemne nuptiall rights couple themselues in wedlocke Doe they not beget most sweete ofsprings of children Doe they not manage publicke private and domesticall businesses Doe they not every one as he pleaseth by divers sorts of arts and disciplines direct their wits and studiouslie repay the vse of their nativitie Doe they not reigne do they not commaund to whom it is allotted Doe they not every day more increase in the like dignities and power Doe they not sit in iudgement to heare causes Do they not interpret lawes and
they proceed I care not For what if the first matter digested into the foure elements of all things containe wrapped vp in its rotations the causes of all miseries what if the motions of the starres by certaine signes parts times lines produce these evils and bring vpon things subject vnto them necessities of diverse sortes what if inset times the vicissitude of things fall out and as it is in the motions of the sea sometime there is a flow of prosperity somtime it ebbeth back againe and evils returne in the roome thereof What if the dregs of this matter which wee treade vnder our feet haue this law given vnto it to breath forth most noysome vapours wherewith this aire being corrupted should both infect the bodies and disable the endevours of men what if which indeed is nearest vnto truth whatsoever seemeth crosse vnto vs is not evill to the world it selfe and that wee perswading ourselues that all things are done for our benefits do by reason of our wicked opinions wrongfull accuse the event of nature Plato the highest top and chiefest piller of Philosophers maintaineth in his cōmentaries that those fearefull inundations and conflagrations of the world are the purging of the earth neither was that wise man affraid to call the subversion slaughter ruine destruction and funerals of mankind an innovation of things and that thereby repareing their strength they recover accrtaine youth agane Heaven saith hee raines not and wee labour of I know not of what scarcity of corne What dost thou require that the Elements serue thy necessities and to the end thou mayst liue more daintily and delicately that the times obsequiously apply themselues to thy commodities What if he that is desireous of navigation complaine in like sort that now along time there are no windes and that the blasts of heaven are ceased Must wee say there fore that such tranquillitie of the world is pernicious because it hinders the desires of Passengers What if any who hath beene accustomed to tosse himselfe in the sun and to procure drynesse to his body should in like manner complaine that the pleasure of faire and cleare weather is by very often cloudinesse taken away Must the cloudes therefore be sayd as enimies to hang and ouerspread the skie because thou canst not at thy pleasure frie thy selfe in the flames and prepare occasions for drinking All these events which come to passe and fall out vnder the cope of Heaven are to be weighed not by our petty commodities but by the reasons and orders of nature itselfe Neither if any thing happen which toucheth vs and our affaires but with vnwelcome successes is it forthwith evill and to be accounted noxious Whether the worldraine or not raine it raineth or not ratneth to itselfe and which happily thou knowest not either it consumes away the too much moysture with the fervencie of drought or temper thes drought of a very long time with the pouring out of raines It sendeth pestilences diseases famines other formes of evils threatning destruction how dost thou know whether so it take away that whichis superfluous and by itsowne losses set a measure to the riot and excesse of things Darest thou say this or that is evill in the world the originall and cause whereof thou art not able to vnfold and resolue and because happily it hinders thy pleasures of the deleights and lustes wilt thou say it is pernicious cruell what then If cold be contrary vnto thy body vse to congeale the heat of thy bloud must not winter therefore be in the World And because thou canst not endure the fervent heat of the Sun must the Summer be taken out of the yeare and nature againe be ordered by other lawes Hellebore is poison vnto men ought it not for this cause to bee brought forth The wolfe layes wait for the flocke of sheep is Nature in the fault which hath bred so troublesome a beast vnto those fleecie creatures The biting of the Serpent taket away life shall I therefore speake evill of the first beginnings of things because they haue added so cruell monsters vnto living Creatures It is too arrogant a part seeing thy selfe art not thine owne and livest in possession of another to presume to prescribe to those that are mightier then thy selfe and to require that that be done which thou desirest not that which thou findest by ancient constitutions already settled in things Wherefore if you men will haue your complaints to take place it is requisite yee first teach vs whence or what yee are whether this World be made framed for you or ye came as stranger◅ vnto it out of other Countries Which seeing you are not able to tell you cannot resolue vs for what cause you liue vnder this hollow vault of Heaueu leaue off to suppose that any thing belongeth vnto you seeing the things that are done are not alike done but are to be reckoned accounted in the summe intended in the whole By reason of Christians say they these evils are come the gods send these calamities vpon corne I demaund when ye say these things doe ye not see how desperatly with open manifest lies ye slander vs It is now three hundred yeares more or lesse since we Christians began to be beare this name in the World haue there been all these yeares continuall warrs continuall dearths hath there been no peace at all in the Earth no cheapnes no plenty of things For he that accuseth vs must first of all demonstrate that these calamities haue been perpetual continuall that mortall men haue neuer had any breathing time that without any holydayes as they say haue endured the formes of manifold dangers But do we not see in these middle yeares middle times that innumerable victories haue bin obtained over conquered enemies that the territories of the Empire haue bin inlarged Nations whose names were neuer heard of bin brought in subiection that oftentimes the yeares haue yeelded marveilous great increase such cheapnes plenty of things that there was no buying or selling at all the prices of things being so much fallen For how could things be done how could mankind continue vntill this time if fertility plenty did not supply all whatsoeuer need required But sometimes heretofore haue bin in need necessity And theyhaue bin recompenced again with abundance Again some wars haue bin waged against our will And they haue afterwards bin corrected by victories good successe What then shall we say that thegods are somtime mindfull of our miseries somtime againe vnmindfull If at what time there is Famine it be said they are angry it followeth that in time of plenty they are not aengry nor displeased so all is brought to this issue that by turnes they lightly lay aside take vp their angers by remembrance of offences returne afresh vnto them again Although what that is wbieh they say seemes to be inexplicable
and operatiue bodies and seated in the most eminent roome LIB II. Of the pretended decay of the Heauens and Elements and Elementary Bodies Man onely excepted CAP. 1. Touching the pretended decay of the Heauenly Bodies SECT 1. First of their working vpon this inferiour World SUch and so great is the wisdome the bounty and the power which Almighty God hath expressed in the frame of the Heauens that the Psalmist might justly say The Heauens declare the glory of God the Sun the Moone the Stars serving as so many silver golden Characters embroidered vpon azure for the daylie preaching and publishing thereof to the World And surely if he haue made the floore of this great House of the World so beautifull and garnished it with such wonderfull variety of beasts of trees of hearbes of flowres we neede wonder the lesse at the magnificence of the roofe which is the highest part of the World and the neerest to the Mansion House of Saints and Angels Now as the excellencie of these Bodies appeares in their situation their matter their magnitudes and their Sphericall or Circular figure so specially in their great vse and efficacy not onely that they are for signes and seasons and for dayes yeares but in that by their motion their light their warmth influence they guide and gouerne nay cherish and maintaine nay breed beget these inferiour bodies euen of man himselfe for whose sake the Heauens were made It is truly said by the Prince of Philosophers Sol homo generant hominem the Sunne and man beget man man concurring in the generation of man as an immediate and the Sunne as a remote cause And in another place he doubts not to affirme of this inferiour World in generall Necesse est mundum inferiorem superioribus lationibus continuari ut omnis inde virtus derivetur it is requisite that these inferiour parts of the World should bee conjoyned to the motions of the higher Bodies that so all their vertue and vigour from thence might be derived There is no question but that the Heauens haue a marvailous great stroake vpon the aire the water the earth the plants the mettalls the beasts nay vpon Man himselfe at leastwise in regard of his body and naturall faculties so that if there can be found any decay in the Heauens it will in the course of Nature and discourse of reason consequently follow that there must of necessity ensue a decay in all those which depend vpon the Heauens as likewise on the other side if there be found no decay in the Heauens the presumption will be strong that there is no such decay as is supposed in these Subcaelestiall Bodies because of the great sympathy and correspondence which is knowne to be betweene them by many and notable experiments For to let passe the quailing and withering of all things by the recesse and their reviving and resurrection as it were by the reaccesse of the Sunne I am of opinion that the sap in trees so precisely followes the motion of the Sunne that it neuer rests but is in continuall agitation as the Sun it selfe which no sooner arriues at the Tropick but he instantly returnes and euen at that very instant as I conceiue and I thinke it may be demonstrated by experimentall conclusions the sappe which by degrees descended with the declination of the Sun begins to remount at the approach thereof by the same steps that it descended and as the approach of the Sunne is scarce sensible at his first returne but afterward the day increases more in one weeke then before in two in like manner also fares it with the sap in plants which at first ascends insensibly and slowly but within a while much more swiftly and apparantly It is certaine that the Tulypp Marigold and Sun-flowre open with the rising and shut with the setting of the Sunne So that though the Sunne appeare not a man may more infallibly know when it is high noone by their full spreading then by the Index of a Clock or Watch. The hop in its growing winding it selfe about the pole alwayes followes the course of the Sunne from East to West and can by no meanes bee drawne to the contrary choosing rather to breake then yeeld It is obserued by those that sayle betweene the Tropicks that there is a constant set winde blowing from the East to the West saylers call it the Breeze which rises and falls with the Sunne and is alwayes highest at noone and is commonly so strong partly by its owne blowing and partly by ouer-ruling the Currant that they who saile to Peru cannot well returne home the same way they came forth And generally Marriners obserue that caeter is paribus they sayle with more speed from the East to the West then backe againe from the West to the East in the same compasse of time All which should argue a wheeling about of the aire and waters by the diurnall motion of the Heauens and specially by the motion of the Sunne Whereunto may be added that the high Seasprings of the yeare are alwayes neere about the two Aequinoctials and Solstices and the Cock as a trusty Watchman both at midnight and breake of day giues notice of the Sunnes approach These be the strange and secret effects of the Sunne vpon the inferiour Bodies whence by the Gentiles hee was held the visible God of the World and tearmed the Eye thereof which alone saw all things in the World and by which the World saw all things in it selfe Omma qui videt per quem videt omnia mundus And most notablely is he described by the Psalmist in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun which is as a bridegroome comming out of his chamber rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race His going forth is from the end of the Heauen and his circuite vnto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof Now as the effects of the Sun the head-spring of light and warmth are vpon these inferiour Bodies more actiue so those of the Moone as being Vltima coelo Citima terris neerer the Earth and holding a greater resemblance therewith are no lesse manifest And therefore the husbandman in sowing setting graffing and planting lopping of trees felling of timber and the like vpon good reason obserues the waxing waning of the Moone which the learned Zanchius well allows of commending Hesiod for his rules therein Quod Hesiodus ex Lune decrementis incrementis totius agricolationis signa notet quis improbet who can mislike it that Hesiod sets downe the signes in the whole course of husbandry from the waxing and waning of the Moone The tydes and ebbes of the Sea follow the course of it so exactly as the Sea-man will tell you the age of the Moone onely vpon the sight of the tide as certainly as if he saw it in the water It is the observation of Aristotle
of Pliny out of him that oysters and mussels and cockles and lobsters crabbs and generally all shell-fish grow fuller in the waxing of the Moon but emptier in the waning thereof Such a strong predominancie it hath euen vpon the braine of Man that Lunatikes borrow their very name from it as also doth the stone Selenites whose property as S. Augustine and Georgius Agricola record it is to increase and decrease in light with the Moone carrying alwayes the resemblance thereof in it selfe Neither can it reasonably be imagined that the other Planets and starrs and parts of Heauen are without their forcible operations vpon these lower Bodies specially considering that the very plants and hearbes of the Earth which we tread vpon haue their seueral vertues as well single by themselues as in composition with other ingredients The Physitian in opening a veine hath euer an eye to the signe then raigning The Canicular star specially in those hotter Climates was by the Ancients alwayes held a dangerous enemy to the practise of Physick and all kind of Evacuations Nay Galen himselfe the Oracle of that profession adviseth practitioners in that Art in all their Cures to haue a speciall regard to the reigning Constellations Coniunctions of the Planets But the most admirable mystery of Nature in my mind is the turning of yron touched with the loadstone toward the North-pole of which I shall haue farther occasion to intreate more largely in the Chapter touching the Comparison of the wits inventions of these times with those of former ages Neither were it hard to add much more to that which hath beene said to shew the dependance of these Elementary Bodies vpon the heauenly Almighty God hauing ordained that the higher should serue as intermediate Agents or secondary Causes betweene himselfe and the lower And as they are linked together in a chaine of order so are they likewise chained together in the order of Causes but so as in the wheeles of a Clocke though the failing in the superior cannot but cause a failing in the inferiour yet the failing of the inferiour may well argue though it cannot cause a failing in the superiour We haue great reason then as I conceiue to begin with the Examination of the state of Coelestiall bodies in as much as vpon it the conditionof the subcoelestiall wholly de-pends Wherein fiue things offer themselues to our consideration Their substance their motion their light their warmth and their influence SECT 2. Touching the pretended decay in the substance of the Heavens TO finde out whether the substance of the heavenly bodies bee decayed or no it will not be amisse a little to inquire into the nature of the matter and forme of which that substance consists that so it may appeare whether or no in a naturall course they be capable of such a supposed decay That the Heavens are endued with some kinde of matter though some Philosophers in their jangling humour haue made a doubt of it yet I thinke no sober and wise Christian will deny it But whether the matter of it bee the same with that of these inferiour bodies adhuc sub Iudice lis est it hath beene and still is a great question among Diuines The ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Primitiue Church for the most part following Plato hold that it agrees with the matter of the Elementary bodies yet so as it is compounded of the finest flower and choisest delicacy of the Elements But the Schoolemen on the other side following Aristotle adhere to his Quintessence and by no meanes will bee beaten from it since say they if the Elements and the heauens should agree in the same matter it should consequently follow that there should bee a mutuall traffique and commerce a reciprocall action and passion betweene them which would soone draw on a change and by degrees a ruine vpon those glorious bodies Now though this point will neuer I thinke bee fully and finally determined till wee come to be Inhabitants of that place whereof wee dispute for hardly doe wee guesse aright at things that are vpon earth and with labour doe wee find the things that are at hand but the things which are in heaven who hath searched out Yet for the present I should state it thus that they agree in the same originall mater and surely Moses mee thinkes seemes to favour this opinion making but one matter as farre as I can gather from the text out of which all bodily substances were created Vnus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe So as the heavens though they bee not compounded of the Elements yet are they made of the same matter that the Elements are compounded of They are not subject to the qualities of heat or cold or drought or moisture nor yet to weight or lightnes which arise from those qualities but haue a forme giuen them which differeth from the formes of all corruptible bodies so as it suffereth not nor can it suffer from any of them being so excellent and perfect in it selfe as it wholy satiateth the appetite of the matter it informeth The Coelestiall bodies then meeting with so noble a forme to actuate them are not nor cannot in the course of nature bee lyable to any generation or corruption in regard of their substance to any augmentation or diminution in regard of their quantity no nor to any destructiue alteration in respect of their qualities I am not ignorant that the controversies touching this forme what it should bee is no lesse then that touching the matter Some holding it to bee a liuing and quickning spirit nay a sensitiue and reasonable soule which opinion is stiffely maintained by many great learned Clarks both Iewes and Gentiles Christians supposing it vnreasonable that the heavens which impart life to other bodies should themselues bee destitute of life But this errour is notablely discovered and confuted by Claudius Espencaeus a famous Doctor of the Sorbone in a Treatise which hee purposely composed on this point In as much as what is denied those bodies in life in sense in reason is abundantly supplied in their constant vnchangeable duration arising from that inviolable knot indissoluble marriage betwixt the matter the forme which can never suffer any divorce but from that hand which first joyned them And howbeit it cannot be denied that not only the reasonable soule of man but the sensitiue of the least gnat that flies in the aire and the Vegetatiue of the basest plant that springs out of the earth are in that they are indued with life more divine and neerer approaching to the fountaine of life then the formes of the heavenly bodies yet as the Apostle speaking of Faith Hope and Charity concludes Charity to bee the greatest though by faith wee apprehend and apply the merits of Christ because it is more vniversall in operation and lasting in duration so though the formes of the Creatures endued
with life doe in that regard come a step neerer to the Deity then the formes of the heavenly bodies which are without life yet if wee regard their purity their beauty their efficacy their indeficiencie in moving their Vniversallity and independencie in working there is no question but the heavens may in that respect bee preferred euen before man himselfe for whose sake they were made Man being indeed immortall in regard of his soule but the heavens in regard of their bodies as being made of an incorruptible stuffe Which cannot well stand with their opinion who held them to bee composed of fire or that the waters which in the first of Genesis are said to bee aboue the firmament and in the hundred fortie eight Psalme aboue the heavens are aboue the heavens wee now treate of for the tempering and qualifying of their heat as did S. Ambrose and S. Augustine and many others venerable for their antiquity learning and piety Touching the former of which opinions wee shall haue fitter oportunity to discusse it at large when we come to treate of the warmth caused by the heavens But touching the second it seemes to haue beene grounded vpon a mistake of the word Firmament which by the Ancients was commonly appropriated to the eight sphere in which are seated the fixed starres whereas the originall Hebrew which properly signifies Extention or Expansion is in the first of Genesis not onely applied to the spheres in which the Sunne and Moone are planted but to the lowest region of the aire in which the birds flie and so doe I with Pareus Pererius take it to bee vnderstood in this controversie This region of the aire being as S. Augustine somewhere speakes Terminus intransgressibilis a firme and immoveable wall of separation betwixt the waters that are bred in the bowels of the earth and those of the Cloudes and for the word heaven which is vsed in the hundred forty and eight Psalme it is likewise applyed to the middle region of the aire by the Prophet Ieremy which may serue for a Glosse vpon that text alleaged out of the Psalme When hee vttereth his voice there is a noise of waters in the heavens and hee causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth Now the Schoolemen finding that the placing of waters aboue the starry heavens was both vnnaturall and vnvsefull and yet being not well acquainted with the propriety of the Hebrew word to salue the matter tell vs of a Christalline or glassie heaven aboue the eight sphere which say they is vndoubtedly the waters aboue the firmament mentioned by Moses which exposition of theirs though it doe not inferre a decay in the heavenly bodies yet doth it crosse the course of Moses his historicall narration his purpose being as it seemes only to write the history of things which were visible and sensible as appeares in part by his omitting the Creation of Angells whereas the Christalline heaven they speake of is not only invisible and insensible but was not at all discouered to be till the dayes of Hipparchus or Ptolomy Since then the heavens in regard of their substance are altogether free for any thing yet appeares from any mixture or tincture of the Elements being made of an incorruptible and inalterable quintessence which neither hath any conflict in it selfe nor with any other thing without it from thence may wee safely collect that it neither is nor can be subiect to any such decay as is imagined SECT 3. An objection drawne from Iob answered HOwbeit the deserved curse of God deprived the earth of her fertility in bringing forth without the sweat of Adam and his ofspring yet I finde not that it stretched to the Starres or that any thing aboue the Moone was altered or changed in respect of Adams fault from their first perfection True indeed it is which Eliphaz teacheth that the heavens Bildad that the starres are not cleane in Gods sight it may bee because of the fall of Angels the inhabitants of heaven whom therefore he charged with folly Which exposition Iunius so farre favours as insteed of Coelum hee puts Coelites into the very body of the text But in my judgement it would better haue sorted with the Margin in as much as by Coelites wee may vnderstand either Saints or Angells both Citizens of heaven either in actuall possession or in certaine hope and expectation in possession as Angels and Saints departed in expectation as the Saints heere in warfaire on the earth And of these doth Gregory in his Moralls on Iob expound the place hoc coelorum nomine repetijt quod Sanctorum prius appellatione signavit saith hee Iob repeates that by the name of heaven which before hee expressed vnder the name of Saints And thus both hee and S. Augustine expound that of the nineteene Psalme The heavens declare the glory of God And with them most of the Ancients that petition of the Lords Prayer Thy will bee done on earth as it is in heaven But what neede wee flie to allegories figuratiue senses when the letter of the text will well enough stand with the analogie of faith the texts of other Scriptures and the rule of sound reason The very materiall heavens then may not vntruly or vnproperly bee said to bee vncleane in Gods sight First Quia habent aliquid potentialitatis admixtum as Lyra speakes they haue some kinde of potentiality I know not how otherwise to render his word mixed with them hee meanes in regard of their motion and the illumination of the moone and starres from the Sunne But chiefely as I take it they are said to be vncleane not considered in themselues but in comparison of the Creator who is Actus purissimus simplicissimus all Act and that most pure not only from staine and pollution but all kinde of impotency imperfection or Composition whatsoever And in this sense the very blessed glorious Angels themselues which are of a substance farre purer then the Sunne it selfe may bee said to be vncleane in his sight in which regard the very Seraphins are said to couer their faces and feete with their winges But to grant that the heavens are become vncleane either by the fall of man or Angells yet doth it not follow as I conceiue that this vncleannes doth daily increase vpon them or which is in trueth the point in controversie that they feele any impairing by reason of this vncleannes it being rather imputatiue as I may earne it then reall and inherent Nonne vides coelum hoc saith Chrysostome vt pulchrum vt ingens vt astrorum choreis varium quantum temporis viguit quinque aut plus annorum millia processerunt haec annorum multitudo ei non adduxit senium Sed vt corpus novum ac vegetum floridae virentisque juventae viget aetate Sic coelum quam habuit à principio pulchritâ—…dinem semper eadem permansit nec quicquam
tempus eam debilitavit Dost not thou see the heavens how faire how spacious they are how bee-spangled with diverse constellations how long now haue they lasted fiue thousand yeares or more are past and yet this long duration of time hath brought no old age vpon them But as a body new and fresh flourisheth in youth So the heavens still retaine their beauty which at first they had neither hath time any thing abated it Some errour or mistake doubtlesse there is in Chrisostomes computation in as much as he lived aboue 1200 yeares since yet tels vs that the world had then lasted aboue 5000 yeares but for the trueth of the matter he is therein seconded by all the schoole divines and among those of the reformed churches none hath written in this point more clearely and fully then Alstedius in his preface to his naturall divinity Tanta est hujus palatij diuturnitas atque firmitas vt ad hodiernum vsque diem supra annos quinquies mille sexcentos ita perstet vt in eo nihil immutatum diminâ—…tum aut vetustate diuturnitate temporis vitiatum conspiciamus Such saith hee and so lasting is the duration and immoveable stability of this palace that being created aboue 5600 yeares agoe yet it so continues to this day that wee can espie nothing in it changed or wasted or disordered by age and tract of time SECT 4. Another obiection taken from Psalme the 102 answered ANother text is commmonly and hotly vrged by the Adverse part to like purpose as the former and is in truth the onely argument of weight drawne from Scripture in this present question touching the heavens decay in regard of their Substance In which consideration wee shall bee inforced to examine it somewhat the more fully Taken it is from the hundred and second Psalme and the wordes of the Prophet are these Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth the heavens are the worke of thine handes They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall waxe old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall haue no end To which very place vndoubtedly the Apostle alludes in the first to the Hebrewes where he thus renders it Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the workes of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them vp and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall not faile In which passages the words which are most stood vpon and pressed are those of the growing old of the heavens like a garment which by degrees growes bare till it bee torne in peeces and brought to ragges S. Augustine in his Enarration vpon this Psame according to his wont betakes him to an Allegoricall Exposition interpreting the heavens to bee the Saints and their bodies to bee their garments wherewith the soule is cloathed And these garments of theirs saith hee waxe old and perish but shall be changed in the resurrection and made comformable to the glorious body of Iesus Christ. Which exposition of his is pious I confesse but surely not proper since the Prophet speakes of the heavens which had their beginning together with the earth and were both principall peeces in the great worke of the Creation Neither can the regions of the aire be here well vnderstood though in some other places they bee stiled by the name of the heavens since they are subiect to continuall variation and change and our Prophets meaning was as it should seeme to compare the Almighties vnchangeable eternity with that which of all the visible Creatures was most stable and stedfast And besides though the aire bee indeed the worke of Gods hands as are all the other Creatures yet that phrase is in a speciall manner applied to the starry heavens as being indeed the most exquisite and excellent peece of workemanship that ever his hands fram'd It remaines then that by heavens heere wee vnderstand the lights of heaven thought by Philosophers to bee the thicker parts of the spheres together with the spheres themselues in which those lights are fixed and wheeled about For that such spheres and orbes there are I take it as granted neither will I dispute it though I am not ignorant that some latter writers thinke otherwise and those neither few in number nor for their knowledge vnlearned But for the true sense of the place alleadged wee are to know that the word there vsed to wax old both in Hebrew Greeke Latin doth not necessarily imply a decay or impairing in the subject so waxing old but somtimes doth only signifie a farther step accesse to a finall period in regard of duration Wee haue read of some who being well striken in yeares haue renewed their teeth and changed the white colour of their haire and so growne yong againe Of such it might truly be sayd that they grew elder in regard of their neerer approch to the determinate end of their race though they were yonger in regard of their constitution and state of their bodies And thus do I take the Apostle to be vnderstood that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away where hee speakes of the Ceremoniall law which did not grow old by degrees at least before the incarnation of Christ but stood in its full force and vigour vntill it was by him abrogated and disanulled To which purpose Aquinas hath not vnfitly observed vpon the place Quod dicitur vetus significat quod sit prope cessationem the tearming of a thing old implies that it hastens to an end This then as I take it may truly be affirmed of the signification of the word in generall and at large and may justly seeme to haue been the Prophets meaning in as much as he addeth But thou art the same and thine yeares shall haue no end From whence may be collected that as God cannot grow old because his yeares shall haue no end so the heavens because they shall haue an end may be therefore sayd to grow old But whereas it is added not only by the Psalmist but by the Apostle in precise tearmes They shall wax old as doth a garment and againe as a Vesture shalt thou change them the doubt still remaines whether by that addition the sense of the word bee not restrained to a graduall and sensible decay I know it may be sayd that a garment waxing old not only looses his freshnesse but part of his quantitie and weight it is not only soyled but wasted either in lying or wearing so in continuance of time becomes vtterly vnserviceable which no man I think will ascribe to the heavens I meane that their quantity is any way diminished All agree then that the Similitude may be strained too
in workes of heate but the sunne burneth the mountaines three tymes more breathing out fiery vapours Neither were there wanting some among the ancient Philosophers who maintained the same opinion as Plato and Plyny and generally the whole sect of Stoicks who held that the Sunne and Starres were fed with watery vapours which they drew vp for their nourishment and that when these vapours should cease and faile the whole world should be in daunger of combustion and many things are alleaged by Balbus in Ciceroes second booke of the nature of the Gods in favour of this opinion of the Stoicks But that the Sunne and Starres are not in truth and in their owne nature fieric and hot appeares by the ground already layd touching the matter of the heavens that it is of a nature incorruptible which cannot bee if it were fiery inasmuch as thereby it should become lyable to alteration and corruption by an opposite and professed enimie Besides all fiery bodies by a naturall inclination mount vpwards so that if the starres were the cause of heat as being hot in themselues it would consequently follow that their circular motion should not bee Naturall but violent Wherevnto I may adde that the noted starres being so many in number namely one thousand twenty and two besides the Planets and in magnitude so greate that every one of those which appeare fixed in the firmament are sayd to bee much bigger then the whole Globe of the water and earth and the Sunne againe so much to exceede both that globe and the biggest of them as it may iustly bee stiled by the sonne of Syrach instrumentum admirabile a wonderfull instrument which being so were they of fyre they would doubtlesse long ere this haue turned the world into ashes there being so infinite a disproportion betweene their flame and the little quantity of matter supposed to bee prepared for their Fewell That therefore they should bee fed with vapours Aristotle deservedly laughs at it as a childish and ridiculous device in as much as the vapours ascend no higher then the middle region of the ayre and from thence distill againe vpon the water and earth from whence they were drawne vp and those vapours being vncertaine the flames likewise feeding vpon them must needes be vncertaine and dayly vary from themselues both in quantity and figure according to the proportion of their fewell SECT 2. That the heate they breed springes from their light and consequently their light being not decayed neither is the warmth arising there from THe absurdity then of this opinion beeing so foule and grosse it remaines that the Sunne and Starres infuse a warmth into these Subcaelestiall bodies not as being hot in themlselues but only as beeing ordeined by God to breed heate in matter capable thereof as they impart life to some creatures and yet themselues remaine voyd of life like the braine which imparts Sense to every member of the body and yet is it selfe vtterly voyd of all Sense But here againe some there are which attribute this effect to the motion others to the light of these glorious bodies And true indeed it is that motion causes heat by the attenuation rarefaction of the ayre But by this reason should the Moone which is neerer the Earth warme more then the Sunne which is many thousand miles farther distant the higher Regions of the Aire should be alway hotter then the lower which notwithstanding if wee compare the second with with the lowest is vndoubtedly false Moreouer the motion of the coelestiall bodies being vniforme so should the heat deriued from them in reason likewise be the motion ceasing the heat should likewise cease yet I shall neuer beleeue that when the Sun stood still at the prayer of Iosua it then ceased to warme these inferiour Bodies And we find by experience that the Sun works more powerfully vpon a body which stands still then when it moues the reason seemes to be the same in the rest or motion of a body warming or warmed that receiueth or imparteth heat The motion being thus excluded from being the cause of this effect the light must of necessitie step in and challenge it to it selfe the light then it is which is vndoubtedly the cause of coelestiall heate in part by a direct beame but more vehemently by a reflexed for which very reason it is that the middle Region of the aire is alwaies colder then the lowest and the lowest hotter in Summer then in Winter and at noone then in the morning and evening the beames being then more perpendicular and consequently in their reflexion more narrowly vnited by which reflexion and vnion they grow sometimes to that fervencie of heate that fire springs out from them as wee see in burning glasses and by this artificiall device it was that Archimedes as Galen reports it in his third booke de Temperamentis set on fire the Enemies Gallyes and Proclus a famous Mathematician practised the like at Constantinople as witnesseth Zonaras in the life of Anastasius the Emperour And very reasonable me thinkes it is that light the most Divine affection of the Coelelestiall Bodies should be the cause of warmth the most noble actiue and excellent quality of the Subcoelestiall These two like Hippocrates twinnes simul oriuntur moriuntur they are borne and dye together they increase and decrease both together the greater the light is the greater the heate and therefore the Sun as much exceedes the other starres in heate as it doth in light To driue the argument home then to our present purpose since the light of the Sun is no way diminished and the heate depends vpon the light the consequence to me seemes marvailous faire and strong which is that neither the heate arising from the light should haue suffered any decay or diminution at all SECT 3. Two obiections answered the one drawne from the present habitablenes of the Torrid Zone the other from a supposed approach of the Sun neerer the earth then in former ages NOtwithstanding the evidence of which trueth some haue not doubted to attribute the present habitablenesse of the Torride Zone to the weaknesse and old age of the Heauens in regard of former ages But they might haue remembred that the Cold Zones should thereby haue become more inhabitable by cold as also that holding as they doe an vniversall decay in all the parts of Nature men according to their opinion decaying in strength as well as the Heauens they should now in reason be as ill able to indure the present heate as the men of former ages were to indure that of the same times wherein they liued the proportion being alike betweene the weaknes as between the strength of the one and the other But this I onely touch in passing hauing a fitter occasion to consider more fully of it hereafter when we come to compare the wits and inventions of the Ancients with those of the present times That which touches
Canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth whereby the ordinances of heaven it may well bee thought is meant the course and order of these hidden qualities which without divine and supernaturall revelation can neuer perfectly bee knowne to any mortall creature Besides as a wise man of late memory hath well and truly observed it cannot bee doubted but the starres are instruments of farre greater vse then to giue an obscure light and for men to gaze on after sunne set it being manifest that the diuersity of seasons the Winters Summers more hot or cold more dry or wet are not so vncertained by the Sunne and Moone alone who alway keepe one the same course but that the stars haue also their working therein as also in producing severall kindes of mettalls and mineralls in the bowels of the earth where neither light nor heat can pierce For as heat peirces where light cannot so the influence pierces where the heat cannot Moreouer if wee cannot deny but that God hath given vertues to springs and fountaines to cold earth to plants and stones and mineralls nay to the very excrementall parts of the basest liuing creatures why should wee robbe the beautifull starres of their working powers For seeing they are many in number and of eminent beauty and magnitude wee may not thinke that in the treasury of his wisedome who is infinite there can be wanting euen for euery starre a peculiar vertue and operation As euery hearbe plant fruite and flower adorning the face of the earth hath the like As then these were not created to beautifie the earth alone or to couer and shadow her dusty face but otherwise for the vse of man and beast to feede them and cure them so were not those incomparablely glorious bodies set in the sirmament to none other end then to adorne it but for instruments and organs of his divine prouidence so farre as it hath pleased his just will to determine I 'le ne'r beleeue that the Arch-Architect With all these fires the Heav'nly Arches deckt Onely for shew and with these glistring shields T' amaze poore sheepheards watching in the fields I 'le ne'r beleeue that the least flower that pranks Our garden borders or the common banks And the least stone that in her warming lap Our kind nurse Earth doth covetously wrap Hath some peculiar vertue of it owne And that the glorious Starres of Heau'n haue none But shine in vaine and haue no charge precise But to be walking in Heau'ns Galleries And through that Palace vp and downe to clamber As golden Guls about a Princes Chamber But how farre it hath pleased the Divine Providence to determine of these influences it is hard I confesse to be determined by any humane wisedome SECT 3. That the particular and vttermost efficacie of these influences cannot be fully comprehended by vs. IF in the true and vttermost vertues of hearbs and plants which ourselues sow and set and which grow vnder our feet and wee dayly apply to our severall vses we are notwithstanding in effect ignorant much more in the powers and working of coelestiall bodies For as was sayd before hardly do wee guesse aright at things that are vpon the earth and with labour do wee find the things that are before vs but the things which are in heauen who hath searched out It cannot well be denyed but that they are not signes only but at leastwise concurrent causes of immoderate cold or heat drought or moysture lightning thunder raging winds inundations earthquakes and consequently of famine and pestilence yet such crosse accidents may and often do fall out in the matter vpon which they worke that the prognostication of these casuall events euen by the most skilfull Astronomers is very vncertaine And for the common Almanackes a man by observation shall easily find that the contrary to their prediction is commonly truest Now for the things which rest in the liberty of mans will the Starres haue doubtlesse no power over them except it be lead by the sensitiue appetite and that againe stirred vp by the constitution and complexion of the body as too often it is specially where the humours of the body are strong to assault and the vertues of the minde weake to resist If they haue dominion over Beastes what should we judge of Men who differ litle from Beasts I cannot tell but sure I am that though the Starres incline a man to this or that course of life they do but incline inforce they cannot Education and reason and most of all Religion may alter and over-master that inclination as they shall produce a cleane contrary effect It was to this purpose a good and memorable speech of Cardinall Poole who being certified by one of his acquaintance who professed knowledge of these secret favours of the starres that he should be raysed and advanced to great calling in the world made answer that whatsoever was portended by the figure of his birth â—…or naturall generation was cancelled and altered by the grace of his second birth or regeneration in the bloud of his Redemer Againe we may not forget that Almighty God created the starres as he did the rest of the Vniversall whose secret influences may be called his reserved and vnwritten Lawes which by his Prerogatiue Royall he may either put in execution or dispence with at his owne pleasure For were the strength of the Sarres such as God had quitted vnto them all dominion over his Creatures that petition of the Lords Prayer Lead vs not into temptation but deliver vs from evill had been none other but a vaine expence of words and time Nay be he Pagane or Christian that so beleeueth the only true God of the one and the imaginary Gods of the other would thereby be dispoyled of all worship and reuerence and respect As therefore I do not consent with them who would make those glorious Creatures of God vertulesse so I think that we derogate from his eternall and absolute power and providence to ascribe to them the same dominion over our immortall soules which they haue over our bodily substances and perishable natures For the soules of men louing and fearing God receiue influence from that divine light it selfe whereof the Suns clarity and that of the Sarres is by Plato called but a shadow Lumen est vmbra Dei Deus est lumen luminis Light is the shadow of Gods brightnesse who is the light of light SECT 4 That neither of these kindes of influences is decayed in ther benigne and favorable effects but that curious inquisition into them is to be forborne NOw then since the Immoveable Heaven by the confession of all that acknowledg it is altogether inalterable since the aspect of the fixed constellations the conjunction and opposition of the Plannets in the course of their revolutions is still the same and constant to it selfe since for their number their quantity their distance their substance thâ—…is motion their
Spirat florifer annus odores Aestas Cererem fervida siccat Remeat pomis gravis autumnus Hyemem defluus irrigat imber Haec temperies alit profert Quicquid vitam spirat in orbe Eadem rapiens condit aufert Obitu meâ—…gens orta supremo The concord tempers equally Contrary Elements That moist things yeeld vnto the dry And heat with cold consents Hence fire to highest place doth flie And Earth doth downward bend And flowrie Spring perpetually Sweet odours forth doth send Hote Summer harvest giues and store Of fruit Autumnus yeelds And showres which down from Heau'n doe powre Each Winter drowne the fields What euer in the world doth breath This temper forth hath brought And nourished the same by death Againe it brings to nought Among the subcoelestiall bodies following Natures methode I will first begin with the consideration of the Elements the most simple and vniversall of them all as being the Ingredients of all mixt bodies either in whole or in part and into which the mixt are finally resolued again are again by turnes remade of them the common matter of them all still abiding the same Heere 's nothing constant nothing still doth stay For birth and death haue still successiue sway Here one thing springs not till another dye Onely the matter liues immortally Th'Almightie's table body of this All Of changefull chances common Arcenall All like it selfe all in it selfe contained Which by times flight hath neither lost nor gained Changelesse in essence changeable in face Much more then Proteus or the subtill race Of roving Polypes who to rob the more Transforme them hourely on the wauing shore Much like the French or like our selues their apes Who with strange habit doe disguise their shapes Who louing novels full of affectation Receiue the manners of each other Nation By consent of Antiquity they are in number foure the Fire the Aire the Water and the Earth Quatuor aeternus genitalia corpora mundus Continet ex illis duo sunt onerosa suoque Pondere in inferius tellus atque vnda feruntur Et totidem gravitate carent nulloque premente Alta petunt aer atque aere purior ignis Quae quamquam spatio distant tamen omnia fiunt Et ipsis in ipsa cadunt Foure bodies primitiue the world still containes Of which two downeward bend the earth and watery plaines As many weight doe want and nothing forcing higher They mount th' aire and purer streames of fire Which though they distant bee yet all things from them take Their birth and into them their last returnes doe make Three of them shew themselues manifestly in mixt the butter beeing the Aieriall part thereof the whey the watery and the cheese the earthly but all foure in the burning of greene wood the flame being fire the smoke the aire the liquor distilling at the ends the water and the ashes the earth Philosophy likewise by reason teaches and proues the same from their motion vpward and downeward from their second qualities of lightnes and heauines and from their first qualities either actiue as heat and cold or passiue as dry and moist For as their motion proceeds from their second qualities so doe their second from the first their first from the heauenly bodies next to which as being the noblest of them all as well in puritie as activity is seated the Element of the fire though many of the Ancients and some latter writers as namely Cardane among the rest seeme to make a doubt of it Ignis ad aethereas volucer se sustulit aur as Summaque complexus stellantis culmina Coeli Flammarum vallo naturae moenia fecit The fire eftsoones vp towards heaven did stie And compassing the starrie world advanced A wall of flames to safeguard nature by Next the fire is seated the aire divided into three regions next the aire the water and next the water the earth Who so sometime hath seene rich Ingots tride When forc't by fire their treasure they devide How faire and softly gold to gold doth passe Silver seekes silver brasse consorts with brasse And the whole lumpe of parts vnequall severs It selfe apart in white red yellow rivers May vnderstand how when the mouth divine Op'ned to each his proper place t'assigne Fire flew to fire water to water slid Aire clung to aire and earth with earth abid The vaile both of the Tabernacle and Temple were made of blew and purple and scarlet or crimson and fine twisted linnen by which foure as Iosephus noteth were represented the foure elements his wordes are these Velum hoc erat Babylonium variegatum ex hyaâ—…intho bysso coccoque purpura mirabiliter elaboratum non indignam contemplatione materiae commistionem habens sed velut omnium imaginem praeferens Cocco enim videbatur ignem imitari bysso terram hyacintho aerem ac mare purpura partim quidem coloribus bysso autem purpura origine bysso quidem quia de terra mare autem purpuram gignit The vaile was Babylonish worke most artificially imbrodered with blue and fine linnen and scarlet and purple hauing in it a mixture of things not vnworthy our consideration but carrying a kinde of resemblance of the Vniversall for by the scarlet seemed the fire to be represented by the linnen the earth by the blew the aire and by the purple the sea partly by reason of the colours of scarlet and blue and partly by reason of the originall of linnen and purple the one comming from the earth the other from the sea And S. Hierome in his epistle to Fabiola hath the very same conceite borrowed as it seemes from Iosephus or from Philo who hath much to like purpose in his third booke of the life of Moses or it may be from that in the eighteenth of the booke of Wisedome In the long robe was the whole world As not only the vulgar lattin and Arias Montanus but out of them and the Greeke originall our last English Translation reades it The fire is dry and hot the aire hot and moist the water moist and cold the earth cold and dry thus are they linked and thus embrace they one another with their symbolizing qualities the earth being linked to the water by coldnes the water to the aire by moistnes the aire to the fire by warmth the fire to the earth by drought which are all the combinations of the qualities that possiblely can bee hot cold as also dry and moist in the highest degrees beeing altogether incompatible in the same subject And though the earth the fire bee most opposite in distance in substance in activity yet they agree in one quality the two middle being therein directly contrary to the two extreames aire to earth and water to fire Water as arm'd with moisture and with cold The cold-dry earth with her one hand doth hold With th' other th' aire The aire as moist and warme Holds fire
most true that in the yeare of our Lord 1532 in the Northerne parts of our own land not farre from Tinmouth hauen was a mighty Whale cast on land found by good measure to be 90 foot in length arising to 30 English yards the very bredth of his mouth was sixe yards and an halfe and the belly so vast in compasse that one standing on the fish of purpose to cut off a ribbe from him and slipping into his belly was very likely there to haue beene drowned with the moisture then remaining had hee not beene suddenly rescued From whence we may gather that Iobs admirable description of this fish vnder the name of Leviathan is still true that in vastnes since Augustus his time he is nothing decreased And yet I well beleeue that those on the Indian Seas may much exceed ours which might perchance giue occasion to those large relations of Pliny Iuba Herevnto may be added the observation of Macrobius touching the growth of the Mullet Plinius Secundus saith he temporibus suis negat facile mullum repertum qui duas pondo libras excederet at nunc majoris passim videmus praesentia hac insana nescimus Plinius Secundus denies that in his time a Mullet was easily to be found which exceeded two pound weight but now adayes we euery-where see them of greater weight and yet are not acquainted with those vnreasonable prises which they then payde for them I will close vp this chapter with a relation of Gesners in his Epistle to the Emperour Ferdinand prefixed before his bookes De Piscibus touching the long life of a Pike which was cast into a pond or poole neere Hailebrune in Swevia with this inscription ingraven vpon a collar of brasse fastned about his necke Ego sum ille piscis huic stagno omnium primus impositus per mundi Rectoris Frederici Secundi manus 5 Octobris anno 1230. I am that fish which was first of all cast into this poole by the hand of Frederick the second governour of the World 5 of Octob. in the yeare 1230. He was again taken vp in the yeare 1497 by the inscription it appeared hee had then liued there 267 yeares so as it seemes that as fishes are not diminished in regard of their store or growth so neither in respect of their age and duration But I leaue floting on the Waters and betake mee to the more stable Element the Earth CAP. 9. Touching the pretended decay of the Earth together with the Plants and beasts and minerals SECT 1. The divine meditations of Seneca and Pliny vpon the globe of the Earth An objection out of Aelian touching the decrease of mountaines answered That all things which spring from the earth returne thither againe consequently it cannot decay in regard of the fruitfulnesse in the whole Other objections of lesse consequence answered BOth Seneca and Pliny haue most divine meditations vpon this consideration that the Globe of the Earth in regard of the higher Elements and the Heauens wheeling about it is by the Mathematicians compared to a prick or point These so many peeces of Earth saith Pliny or rather as most haue written this little prick of the World for surely the Earth is nothing else in comparison of the whole is the only matter of our glory this I say is the very seat thereof here we seeke for honours and dignities heere we exercise our rule and authority here wee covet wealth and riches here all mankind is set vpon stirs and troubles here we raise civill warres still one after another and with mutuall massacres murthers we make more roome therein And to let passe the publique furie of Nations abroad this is it wherein wee chace and driue out our neighbour Borderers and by stealth dig turfth from our Neighbours soyle to put into our owne And when a man hath extended his lands and gotten whole countreyes to himselfe farre and neere what a goodly deale of earth enjoyeth he and say that he set out his bounds to the full measure of his covetous desire what a great portion thereof shall he hold when he is once dead and his head layed Thus Pliny with whom Seneca sweetly accords Hoc est punctum quod inter tot gentes ferro igne dividitur ôquam ridiculi sunt mortalium termini Punctum certè est illud in quo navigamus in quo bellamus in quo regna disponimus It is but a point which so many Nations share with fire and sword Oh how ridiculous are the bounds of mortall men It is verily but a point inwhich we saile in which we wage warres in which we dispose of Kingdomes But from these sublime speculations wee are to descend to the examination of the Earths supposed decay Aelian in the eight booke of his history telleth vs that not onely the mountaine Aetna for thereof might be given some reason because of the daily wasting and consuming of it by fire but Parnassus Olympus did appeare to be lesse and lesse to such as sayled at sea the height thereof sinking as it seemed and therevpon infers that men most skilfull in the secrets of Nature did affirme that the world it selfe should likewise perish and haue an end His conclusion I cannot but approue and most willingly accept of as a rich testimonie for the confirmation of our Christian doctrine from the penne of a Gentile But that he inferres it from so weake groundes I cannot but wonder at the stupidity of so wise a man For to graunt that those mountaines decrease in their magnitude yet shall I never yeeld a vniuersall decrease in the whole globe of the Earth since the proportions aswell of the Diameter as Circumference thereof are by Geometricall demonstrations found to be the same which they were in former ages or at least-wise not to decrease And for the difference which is observed betwixt the Calculation of Ancient Moderne writers it is certainely to be referred to the difference of miles or of instruments or the vnskilfullnesse of the Authours not to the different dimensions of the Earth which I thinke no Geometrician euer somuch as dreamed of Notwithstanding which truth I must doe readily subscribe to that of Iob Surely the mountaine falling commeth to nought and the rocke is remoued out of his place but let vs take Iobs reason with vs which he immediately adds The waters weare the stones thow washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth This diminution then of the Mountaines as Blaucanus obserues is caused partly by Raine-water and partly by Riuers which by continuall fretting by little and little wash away eate out both the tops and sides and feete of mountaines whence the parts thus fretted through by continuall falling downe weare out the mountaines and fill vp the lower places of the valleyes making the one to increase as the other to decrease whence it comes to passe
that some old houses heretofore fairely built be now almost buried vnder ground and their windowes heretofore set at a reasonable height now growen euen with the pauement So some write of the triumphall Arch of Septimius at the foote of the Capitol mountaine in Rome now almost couered with earth in somuch as they are inforced to descend downe into it by as many staires as formerly they were vsed to ascend whereas contrariwise the Romane Capitoll it selfe seated on the mountaine which hanges ouer it as witnesseth George Agricola discouers its foundation plainely aboue ground which without question were at the first laying thereof deepe rooted in the earth whereby it apppeares that what the mountaine looseth the valley gaines and consequently that in the whole globe of the earth nothing is lost but onely remoued from one place to another so that in processe of time the highest mountaines may be humbled into valleyes and againe the lowest valleyes exalted into mountaines If ought to nought did fall All that is felt or seene within this all Still loosing somewhat of it selfe at length Would come to nothing if death's fatall strength Could altogether substances destroy Things then should vanish euen as soone as die In time the mighty mountaines tops be bated But with their fall the neighbour vales are fatted And what when Trent or Avon overflow They reaue one field they on the next bestow And whereas another Poet tels vs that Eluviemons est diductus in aequor The mountaine by washings oft into the sea is brought It is most certaine and by experience found to be true that as the rivers daily carrie much earth with them into the sea so the sea sends backe againe much slime and sand to the earth which in some places and namely in the North part of Deuonshire is found to bee a marveilous great commoditie for the inriching of the soyle Now as the Earth is nothing diminished in regard of the dimensions the measure thereof from the Surface to the Center being the same as it was at the first Creation So neither is the fatnes fruitfulnes thereof at least-wise since the flood or in regard of duration alone any whit impaired though it haue yeelded such store of increase by the space of so many reuolutions of ages yet hee that made it continually reneweth the face thereof as the Psalmist speakes by turning all things which spring from it into it againe Saith one Cuncta suos ortus repetunt matremque requirunt And another E terris orta terra rursus accipit And a third joynes both together Quapropter merito maternum nomen adepta est Cedit enim retro de terra quod fuit ante In terras And altogether they may thus not vnfitly be rendred All things returne to their originall And seeke their mother what from earth doth spring The same againe into the earth doth fall Neither doe they heerein dissent from Syracides with all manner of liuing things hath hee couered the face of the earth and they shall returne into it againe And that doome which passed vpon the first man after the fall is as it were ingraven on the foreheads not onely of his posterity but of all earthly Creatures made for their sakes Dust thou art and vnto dust shalt thou returne As the Ocean is mainetained by the returne of the rivers which are drayned deriued from it So is the earth by the dissolution and reuersion of those bodies which from it receiue their growth and nourishment The grasse to feede the beasts the corne to strengthen and the wine to cheere the heart of man either are or might bee both in regard of the Earth Heauens as good and plentifull as euer That decree of the Almighty is like the Law of the Medes Persians irreuocable They shall bee for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares And againe Heereafter seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease so long as the Earth remaineth And were there not a certainety in these reuolutions so that In se sua per vestigia voluitur annus The yeare in its owne steps into in selfe returnes It could not well be that the Storke and the Turtle the Crane and the Swallow and other fowles should obserue so precisely as they doe the appointed times of their comming and going And whereas it is commonly thought and beleeued that the times of the yeare are now more vnseasonable then heeretofore and thereby the fruites of the Earth neither so faire nor kindely as they haue beene To the first I answere that the same complaint hath beene euer since Salomons time Hee that observeth the winde shall not sow and he that regardeth the clowdes shall not reape By which it seemes the weather was euen then as vncertaine as now and so was likewise the vncertaine and vnkindely riping of fruites as may appeare by the words following in the same place In the morning sow thy seede and in the euening let not thy hand rest for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether both shall bee alike good And if sometimes wee haue vnseasonable yeares by reason of excessiue wet and cold they are againe paid home by immoderate drought and heate if not with vs yet in our neighbour countries and with vs. I thinke no man will bee so vnwise or partiall as to affirme that there is a constant and perpetuall declination but that the vnseasonablenes of some yeares is recompensed by the seasonablenes of others It is true that the erroneous computation of the yeare wee now vse may cause some seeming alteration in the seasons thereof in processe of time must needes cause a greater if it bee not rectified but let that errour be reformed and I am perswaded that communibus annis we shall finde no difference from the seasons of former ages at leastwise in regard of the ordinary course of nature For of Gods extraordinary judgements we now dispute not who sometimes for our sinnes emptieth the botles of heaven incessantly vpon vs and againe at other times makes the heavens as brasse ouer our heads and the earth as yron vnder our feete SECT 2. Another obiectiòn to uching the decay of the fruitfulnes of the holy land fully answered WHen I consider the narrow bounds of the land of Canaan it being by S. Hieromes account who liued long there but 160 miles in length from Dan to Bersheba and in bredth but 40 from Ioppa to Bethleem and withall the multitude incredible were it not recorded in holy Scripture both of men cattell which it fedde there meeting in one battle betweene Iudah Israel twelue hundred thousand chosen men Nay the very sword-men beside the Levites and Benjamites were vpon strict inquirie found to be fifteene hundred and seuentie thousand whereof the youngest was twenty yeares old there being none
Paulus was brought forth by the Generall into open audience before the whole host to foretell the Eclipe that should happen the next morrow whereby he delivered the army from all pensiuenesse and feare which might haue troubled them in the time of battaile and within a while after he compiled also a booke thereof Thus far Plyny touching the harmlesse and innocent nature of Eclipses himselfe in the next chapter reducing their certaine revolutions and returnes to the space of two hundred twenty two moneths I will shut vp all with a memorable story to this purpose taken out of Iohn de Royas in his Epistle to Charles the fifth prefixed to his Commentaries vpō the plaine Sphere Colonus the leader of King Ferdinands army at the Iland of Iamaica being in great distresse for want of victuals which he could by no meanes attaine of the Inhabitants by his skill foreseeing an Eclips of the Moone shortly to ensue tooke order that it should be declared to the Governours of the Iland that vnlesse they supplyed him and his with necessaries imminent danger hanged over their heads in witnesse wherof they should shortly see the Moone Eclypsed The Barbarians at first refused his demaunds and contemned his threatning but when at the set time they indeed beheld the Moone by degrees to faile in her light and vnderstood not the cause thereof they first gaue credit to his words and then supply of victuals to his army casting themselues to his feete and craving pardon for their offence Finally to the present objection if any harmefull malignant effect be for the present or afterward produced by the Eclips in those parts where it is seene yet no man I thinke will deny it but to be repairable by by the tract and revolution of time or if irrepairable yet this decay in the Creatures ariseth not from any deficiencie in themselues from any waxing old or removall from their first originals which is the very poynt in question but from an adventitious and externall cause And so I passe from the other Creatures to the Consideration of Man the Commaunder and Compendium of all the rest for whose sake both they were first made and this discourse was first vndertaken LIB III. Of the pretended decay of mankind in regard of age and duration of strength and stature of arts and witts CAP. I. Touching the pretended decay of men in regard of their age and first by way of comparison betweene the ages of the Ancients and those of latter times SECT 1. Of the short life of man in regard of the duration of many other Creatures and that he was Created Mortall but had he not falne should haue beene preserued to immortality SInce vpon exammination wee haue found that there is no such perpetuall and vniversall decay as is pretended in the Hea◅ens in the Earth in the Ayre in the Water the fishes the plants the Beastes the Mineralls I see no reason but that from thence wee might safely and sufficiently conclude that neither is there any such decay in man But because this discourse was principally vndertaken and intended for the sake of mankind I will consider and compare them of former ages with those of latter first in regard of age secondly in regard of Strength and stature thirdly in regard of wits and inventions fourthly and lastly in regard of manners and conditions And if vpon due consideration and comparison it shall appeare that there is no such decay in any of these as is supposed the Question I trust touch-the worlds decay in generall will soone be at at end The ordinary age of man being compared with that of the heavens the stones the mettalls some beasts trees is very short but the longest being cōpared with God and Eternity is but as a span a shadow a dreame of a shadow nay meere nothing which the Romane Oratour hath both truly observed and eligantly expressed Apud Hypanim fluuium qui ab Europae parte in pontum influit Aristoteles ait bestiolas quasdam nasci quae vnum diem viuant ex ijs igitur hora octaua quae mortua est provecta aetate mortua est quae vero occidente sole decrepita eo magis si etiam Solstitiali die Confer nostram longissimam aetatem cum aeternitate in eadem propemodum brevitate qua istae bestiolae reperiemur Aristole writes that by the river Hypanis which on the side of Europe fals into Pontus certaine little animals are bred which liue but a day at most Amongst them then such as dye the eight houre dy old such as dye at sun set dye in their decrepit age specially if it be vpon the day of the Sūmer Solstice Now cōpare our age with eternity and we shall be found in regard of duration almost in the same state of shortnesse that those Creatures are The body of man even before the fall was doubtlesse in it selfe by reaof contrary Elements contrary humours and members of contrary temper whereof it was composed dissoluble and morrall As also by reason of outward accidents the dayly wasting of his natiue heate and the disproportionable supply of his radicall moisture But these defects his Creator supplyed arming him against outward accidents by divine providence the guard of Angels and his owne excellent wisedome against the contrarieties fighting in his body by the harmony of his soule against the wasting of his natiue heat and radicall moysture by that supernaturall vertue efficacy which he gaue to the fruit of the tree of life He was then Naturally Mortall for otherwise even after his fall should he haue continued immortall as the Apostate Angells did but by speciall priviledge and dispensation immortall mortalis erat saith S. Augustine conditione corporis animalis immortalis autem beneficio-conditoris He was mortall in respect of his naturall body but immortall by the favour of his Creator Yet doubtles had he not sinned he had not still liued here vpon earth though in likelihood his age might be extended to some thousands of yeares but should haue beene at length translated from hence to heaven where he could neither haue sinned nor dyed◅ Sic est immortalis conditus Sayth Gregory vt tamen si peccaret mori possit sic mortalis est conditus vt si non peccaret etiam non mori possit atque ex merito liberi arbitrij beatitudinem illius regionis attingeret in qua vel peccare vel mori non possit He was so created immortall that if he sinned he might dye and againe so was he created mortall that he could not dye But by the merit of his freewill should haue beene translated to that place of blisse where he could neither sinne nor dye SECT 2. Of the long liues of the Patriarchs and of the manner of Computing there yeares and that Almighty God drew out the lines of their liues to that length for reasons proper to those first times THough vpon the fall of man the
the Lattine Poets who came after the Greeke in time are notwithstanding by Scaliger preferred before them And by name Virgill before Homer Virgilius artem ab eo rudem acceptam lectioris naturae studijs atque iudicio ad summum extulit fastigium perfectionis Virgill receiuing from him an vnpolisht art by the studie judgement or a choiser temper raysed it to the vtmost point of perfection And againe Equidem vnum illum censeo sciuisse quid esset non ineptire vnum esse inter omnes vnicum singulis autem instar omnium Truely I thinke hee onely knew what it was not to trifle that he was the only one amongst them all and insteed of all beeing compared with any one To which I know not what can bee added except that of Macrobius exceed it Haec est Maronis gloria vt nullius laudibus crescat nullius vituperatione minuatur This is Virgills commendation that a man can neither adde to him by praysing him nor take from him by dispraysing him Yet if I should match him with Ariosto or Torquato Tasso in Italian Bartas in French or Spencer in English I thinke I should not much wrong htm Of the latter of which our great Antiquary in the life of Q. Elizabeth anno 1598 giues this testimony Musis adeo arridentibus natus vt omnes Anglicos superioris aeui poetas ne Chaucero quidem conciue excepto superaret he was borne so farre in favour of the Muses that he excelled all the English Poets of former ages not excepting Chaucer himselfe his fellow citizen And among the Latine Poets as they began their infancie or child-hood in Liuius Andronicus Ennius Accius Pacuvius Neuius Plautus so they came to their full strength in Terence Catullus Tibullus Ouid Horace Virgill plus est exacti iudicij in vna Comaedia TereÌ„ttana quam in Plautinis omnibus there is more exaâ—… judgement in one of Terence his Comedies then in all those of Plaâ—…s They declined in Martiall Iuvenall Silius Statius grew old in Serenus Sidonius Severinus Ausonius but sprang vp and reflourished againe in Palingenius Aonius Politianus Cerratus Vida Pontanus Sanazarus Fracastorius Quos cum quovis veterum compares multis non ignobilibus anteponas saith the same Scaliger whom a man may safely compare with any of the Ancients and preferre before many of them and those not of the lowest ranke Crinitus his censure of the Latin Poets differs not much from this of Scaligers and Famianus Strada hath so well both censured imitated the chiefe of them that hee comes nothing short of the Authors themselues which is the more to bee wondred at in that therein he is to act so different parts to apply himself to so different vaines nay his imitation of Claudian in expressing a controversie between a Lutist and a Nightingale for quicknes and life may without prejudice be equalled with any thing that Antiquity can boast of in that kinde It is true that Mantuan excepted few of the Monkes or Fryars who were counted the onely Schollers for a while excelled in Poetry for the most part they only delighted in rhyming without either sharpnesse of wit or neatnesse of stile and sometimes they wanted all three witnesse those poore verses vpon Venerable Bede Presbyter hic Beda requiescit carne sepultus Dona Christe animam in coelis gaudere per aevum Daque illi Sophiae d'ebriari fonte cui jam Suspiravit ovans intentus semper amore Presbyter Bedes corse rests buried in this graue Grant Christ his soule in Heauen eternall joyes may haue Giue him of to be drunke the well of wisedome to Which with such joy and loue he striu'd and breathed so Which verses William of Malmesburie though himselfe a Monke bitterly censures as being shamefull ones vnworthy the monument of so worthy a man Neither can the shame saith he be lessned by any kinde of excuse that in the Monasterie which whiles he liued flourished as a Schoole of good letters not a man could be found to commend his memory to posterity but in so barren slender a stile Yet were these tollerable verses in regard of those which passed with applause in succeeding ages the famous King Ethelbert had this Epitaph set vpon him Rex Ethelbertus hic clauditur in poliandro Fana pians certus Christo meat absque Meandro King Ethelbert lyeth here Clos'd in this Polyander For building Churches sure he goes To CHRIST without Maeander Gervasius de Blois son to King Stephen and Abbot of Westminster was there buried with this De Regum genere pater hic Gervasius ecce Est defunctus mors rapit omne genus Even father Gervase borne of Kings race Loe is dead thus death all sorts doth deface Vpon the Great Seale of Edward the Confessor was this verse ingâ—…en Sigillum Eaduuardi Anglorum Basilei But I most pity the mishap of Francis Petrarch a man of singular learning himselfe an excellent Poet as those times afforded that his bones could finde no better an Epitaph then this at Arqua in Italy Frigida Francisci lapis hic tegit ossa Petrarchae Suscipe virgo parens animam sate virgâ—…ne parce Fessaque jam terris coeli requiescâ—…t in 〈◊〉 This stone doth couer the cold bones of â—…anc Petrarch Thou Virgin Mother take his soule thou Christ pardon grant Now weary of the earth he rests in Heauens Arke But when together with the regeneration of other kindes of learning Poetrie likewise grew in request among an infinite number which excelled in this kinde I will onely instance in two Ronsard Buchanan of the former of which Pasquier hath written this singular Epigram Seu tibi numeri Maroniani Seu placent Veneres Catulliâ—… Sive tu lepidum velis Petrarcham Siue Pindaricos modos referre Ronsardus numeros Maronianos Ronsardus Veneres Catullianas Neonon Italicum refert Petrarcham Neonon Pindariâ—…um refert leporem Quin tam benè Pindaâ—…â—…mulatur Quin tam variè exprâ—…mit Petrarcham Atque Virgilium meum Catullum Hunc ipsum vt magis aemulentur illi Rursus tam graviter refert Maronem Vt nullus putet hunc Catullianum Rursus tam lepidè refert Catullum Vt nullus putet hunc Maronianum Et cùm sit Maro totus Catullus Totus Pindarus Petrarcha totus Ronsardus tamen est sibi perennis Quod si nunc redivivus extet vnus Catullus Maro Pindarus Petrarcha Et quotquot veteres fuere vates Ronsardum nequeant simul referre Vnus qui reliquos refert Poetas Whether thee Maro's number please Or elegant Catullus vaine Or Petrarchs Thuscan gracefulnesse Or Theban Pindars lofty straine Ronsard doth Maro's rimes expresse And elegant Catullus vaine And Petrarchs Thuscan gracefulnesse And Theban Pindars lofty straine He so expresseth Pindars stile So doth Catullus emulate Virgil and Petrarch that the while They all seeme him to imitate Graue Maro he resembles so None would him thinke
meanes and instruments which they diuised and practised for their dispatch or torture doth more euidently proue it Quae autem per totum orbem singuli gesserint enarrare impossibile est Quis enim voluminum numerus capiet tam infinita tam varia genera crudelitatis saith Lactantius Those things which in this kinde thorow the world were euery where acted to recount were impossible For what number of volumes can containe so infinite and diverse kindes of cruelty And againe dici non potest huiusmodi iudices quanta quam gravia tormentorum genera excogitaverint vt ad effectum propositi sui pervenirent It cannot be expressed how many and how greivous kindes of torments those Iudges divised that they might attaine the end of their purpose And Gregory to like purpose Quae poenarum genera novimus quae non tum vires Martyrum exercuisse gaudemus What kinde of punishment can we conceiue which we reioyce not then to haue exercised the strength of the Martyrs They were burned in furnaces they were put into vessels of boyling oyle they were pricked vnder the nayles with sharpe needles their breasts were seared their eyes boored their tongues cut out they were rosted at a soft fire with vineger salt powred vpon them they were throwne headlong downe the mountaines rocks vpon sharpe stakes their braines were beaten out with malles their bodies were scraped with sharpe shels and the tallents of wild beasts they were fryed in iron chaires and vpon grid-irons their entrals were torne out and cast before their faces they were crucified with their heads downeward they were hanged by the middles by the haire by the feete their bones were broken with bats they were torne a sunder with the boughes of trees and drawne in peeces with wilde horses they were tossed vpon buls hornes and throwne to Libards Lyons they were couered vnder hogs-meate and so cast to swine they were stabbed with penknifes they were dragged thorow the streets they were fleyd aliue they were couered in the skins of wild beasts and torne in peeces with dogges as witnesseth Tacitus they were set to combate with wild beasts as witnesseth the Apostle of himselfe Non mihi si centum linguae sint oraque centum Ferrea vox omnes scelerum comprendere formas Omnia paenarum percurrere nomina possem An hundred tongues an hundred mouths an yron voice had I I could not all those torments name nor kindes of villany SECT 5. Of their extreame cruelty towards others their very Religion leading them thereunto as witnesseth Lactantius ANd least we should thinke that this cruelty of the Romanes towards the Iewes Câ—…ristians was onely in regard of their Religion their owne Histories informe vs of the like vpon other Nations nay their owne very Religion was it seemes their strongest motiue greatest inducement to cruelty Nec vllam aliam ad immortalitatem viam arbitrantur quam exercitus ducere aliena vastare delere vrbes oppida exsâ—…indere liberos populos aut trucidare aut subijâ—…ere servituti saith Lactantius They conceiue there is no other way to immortality but by leading Armies laying waste other mens Dominions razing cities sacking townes rooting out or bringing vnder the yoke of slauery free-borne people Si quis unum hominem jugulaverit pro contaminato nefario habetur nec ad terrenum hoc domicilium Deorum admitti eum fas putant ille autem qui infinita hominum millia trucidaverit cruore campos inundaverit flumina infecerit non modo in templum sed etiam in coelum admittitur apud Ennium sic loquitur Africanus Si fâ—…s caedendo coelestia scandere cuiquam est Mi soli coeli maxima porta patet Scilicet quia magnam partem generis humani extinxit ac perdidit O quantis in tenebris Africane versatus es vel potius Ô Poeta qui per caedes sanguineÌ„ patere hominibus asoensum in coelum putaveris Cui vanitati Cicero assensit Est vero inquit Africane nam Herculi eadem ipsa porta patuit tanquam ipse planè cum id fieret janitor fuerit in coelo Equidem statuere non possum dolendumne an ridendum putem cum videam graves doctos ut sibi videntur sapientes viros in tam miserandis errorum fluctibus volutari Si haec est virtus quae nos immortales facit mori equidem malim quà m exitio esse quamplurimis If a man kill but one he is held for a villaine neither is thought fit to admit him to the houses of the Gods heere vpon earth but he who murthers infinite thousands waters the fields dies the rivers with blood is not onely admitted into the Temple but into Heauen Thus in Ennius speakes Africanus If man by murdering may climbe Heauen assuredly The widest gate of Heauen is open laid for me Forsooth because he had extinguished and made away a great part of mankinde O with how great darknesse art thou compassed Africanus or rather thou Poet who thoughtest that by slaughter blood an entrance was opened for men into Heauen yet to this vanity euen Cicero himselfe assents It is euen so Africanus saith he for the same gate was open vnto Hercules as if himselfe had then beene a Porter in Heaven when that was done Truly I cannot well determine whether I should rather grieue or laugh when I see graue learned as to theÌ„selues it seemes wise men so miserably tossed vp and downe in the waues of Errour if this be the vertue which makes vs immortall for mine owne part I professe I would rather die then bee the death of so many Yet had this doctrine as it seemes generally taken such deep roote in the mindes of the Romanes that hee who shed most blood was held the worthiest the holiest man that is most like the Gods and fittest for their hahitation which is the chiefe reason as I conceiue that we reade of such wonderfull slaughters committed by them euen to the astonishment of such as haue beene acquainted but with the principles of Christian Religion Within the space of seuenteene yeares their warres only in Italy Spaine Sicily consumed aboue fifteene hundred thousand men Quaesivi enim curiosè saith Lypsius I haue diligently searched into it One Caius Caesar ô pestem perniciemque generis humani O plague mischiefe of mankinde professeth of himselfe and boasteth in it that hee had slaine in the warres eleuen hundred ninety two thousand yet so as the slaughter of his Ciuill warres came not into that account but onely during his commaund a few yeares in Spaine and France Quintus Fabius slew of the French one hundred ten thousand Cajus Marius of the Cimbri two hundred thousand Aetius one hundred sixty two thousand of the Hunnes Polybius writeth that Scipio at the taking of Carthage gaue charge that all should be put to the sword without sparing any And then addes
If Caesar whâ—…t on Gods heaven thou hast bestow'd Thou shouldst as Creditour call in and all that 's ow'd Though in the Etheriall skies portsale of all were made And all the Gods were forc't to sell what ere they had Atlas would bankerupt proue and to the prince of heaven Not one ounce would remaine to make all reckonings even For for the Capitols great temples how can he Or for Taâ—…peian oakes laurels satisfie c. Thou must ô Caesar needes a while forbeare stay For why Ioâ—…es coffers yet haue not wherewith to pay By which it appeares what account they made of the Gods to whom they dedicated these Temples Nay Domitian himselfe the founder of the Capitoll is so bold with them as if they had indeed beene his debtours or at least-wise his companions to stile himselfe in his edicts Dominus Deus noster sic fieri iubet our Lord God so commaunds vnde institutum posthac vt nec scripto quidem nec sermone cuiusquam appellaretur aliter And from thence forth was it ordained that no man should giue him other title either in writing or speech Now for the riches ornament of the Capitoll we may in part giue a guesse at it by this that there was spent only vpon the gilding of it supra duodecem millia talentorum aboue twelue thousand tallents It was gilded all over not the inner roofe only but the vtter covering which was of brasse or copper but the doores were layd over with thicke plates of gold which remained till Honorius his raigne and then in a dearth of coyne Stilicho mandasse per hibetur saith Zozimus vt fores in Capitolio Romano quae auro magni ponderis erant obductae laminis ijs spoliarentur Cum autem qui hoc facere iussi erant idagerent in parte forâ—…um scriptum reppererant infoelici Regi servantur Quod eventus docuit nam Stilicho paulo post infoeliciter perijt 〈◊〉 is said to haue given commaund that the doores of the Capitoll which were laid over with massie gold should be robbed of those plates and when they who had it in charge put it in execution they found ingraven vpon a part of the doore these wordes They are reserved for an vnfortunate King which the event proved to be true for Stiliche within a while after perished vnfortunately Next to the Capitoll was the Pantheon the Temple of honour of Fortune of the City strange Idolls and that of Peace inferiour to none It was built by Vespastan three hundred foote in length it was and in breadth two hundredth so as Herodian defervedly calls it Maximum pulcherimum omnium in vrbe operum the greatest and fairest of all the workes in the city Wherevnto he addes ditissimum ornamentis auri argenti excultum the most sumptuous in ornaments of gold filver of which Iosephus thus writes Omnia in hoc templum collata disposita sunt ob quae homines videndi cupiditate antea per totum orbem vagabantur Vpon this temple were bestowed all the rarities which men before traveiled thorow the world to see And Pliny ex omnibus quae retuli clarissima quaeque in vrbe jam sunt dicata à Vespasiano Principe in teâ—…plo Pacis of all the choyce peeces that I haue spoken of the most excellent are laid vp and dedicated by Vespasian the Emperour in the temple of Peace Thus they made Idolls to themselues which the simplest of them could not but discerne were no Gods and then without measure or reason powred out infinite masses of treasure in the serving worshipping of them SECT 7. Of their wonderfull vanity in erecting infinite numbers of statues and those very chargeable that to themselues YEt in this was some pretence of Religion but in their Statues they worshipped themselues vainely imagining thereby to aeternize their names Quidam aeternitati secommendari posse per statuas aestimantes eas ardenter affectant atque auro curant inbracteari saith Ammianus Marcellinus some hoping to recommend themselues to eternity by statues infinitely affect them causing them to be overlaid with gold This itching humour of theirs pene parem vrbi populum dedit quà m natura procreavit in time begat almost as many inhabitants to the city as nature brought forth meaning that the number of their statues did in a manner equall their citizens And no marveile they being sine numero without number in somuch as they filled every corner pestered their streetes and straightned their wayes which gaue occasion to that Edict of Claudius whereby private men were inhibited the erecting of statues to themselues but by leaue first obtained from the Senate such only excepted as had done some publique service For the prize of the stuffe whereof they were made the most common and basest of them were of Marble the rest of yvorie silver and gold and those solide maâ—…sie Statuas sibi in Capitolio non nisi aureas argenteasque poni permisit ac ponderis certi they be the wordes of Sutonius touching Domitian he forbad any statues to be erected to him in the Capitoll saue only of gold silver those of a certaine weight which weight perchaunce those verses of Statius expresse Da Capitolinis aeternum sedibus aurum Quo niteant sacri centeno pondere vultus Grant to the Capitoll eternall gold wherein Those sacred faces of one hundred weight may shine But that of Commodus fare exceeded this weight Statuam mille librarum auream habuit he had a Statue erected to him of a thousand pound weight Now as they were at this great charge in the making and erecting of their Statues So were they likewise in the guarding of them They were kept with no lesse caution then they were set vp with care cost And to this purpose maintained they an Officer of great honour who had the title of Comes Romanus giuen him This man with his souldiers walked thorow the streets of the citie in the night to see good order but chiefly to provide that no wroÌ„g should be offred to the Statues thus prodigally carefull they were of their owne shadowes and as prodigally carelesse of the liues of others so as I cannot easily determine whether their cruelty were greater in the one or their folly in the other SECT 8. Their prodigall sumptuousnesse in their private buildings in regard of their largenesse and height of their houses as also in regard of their marble pillars walls roofes beames pavement full of Art and cost NOw for their dwelling houses and private buildings Claudian speaking of Rome thus sets them out in generall Qua nihil in terris complectitur altius aether Cujus nec spatium visus nec corda decorem Nec laudem vox vlla capit On earth nought higher doe the Heavens embrace Her largenesse sight her beauty hearts her praise Tongue comprehends not It was the vaunt of
from hence I beleeue hath chiefely growen in the world so great an admiration of them in many things beyond all succeeding ages and their deserts But certaine it is that never any people vnder the Sunne more daringly chalenged to themselues the toppe of all perfection Nulla vnquam Respub nec maior nec sanctior nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit sayth Livie Never was there any common-wealth more ample or holy or rich in good examples Gentiuâ—… in toto orbe praestantissima vna in omni virtute haud dubie Romana exstitit saith Pliny The Romane Nation hath beene doubtlesse of all others in all kinde of vertue the most excellent Nulla Gens est quae non aut ita subacta sit vt vix exstet aut ita domita vt quiescat aut ita pacata vt victoria nostra imperioque laetatur sayth Tully There is no Nation which either is not so vtterly vanquished as it is extinguished or so mastered as it is quieted or so pacified that it rejoyceth in our victorie and Empire and Claudian Haec est exiguis quae finibus orta tetendit In geminos axes parvaque à sede profecta Dispersit cum sole manus Small were her confines when she first begun Now stretcheth to both poles small her first seat Yet now her hands shee spreadeth with the Sunne This seemed not enough vnto Caecilius against whom Arnobius writes for he sayth that the Romans did Imperiuâ—… suum vltra solis vias prapagare They inlarged their dominion beyond the course of the Sun And Ovid he commeth not a steppe behind them in this their exaggerated amplification For he sayth that if God should looke downe from heaven vpon the earth he could see nothing there without the power of the Romanes Iupiter arce sua totum cum spectet in orbem Nil nisi Romanum quod tueatur habet Yea and as Egesippus recordeth there were many that thought the Romane Empire so great and so largely diffused over the face of the whole earth that they called orbem terrarum orbem Romanum the globe of the earth the globe of the Romanes the whole world the Romane world Hyperbolicall speeches which though Lypsius put off with an animosèmagis quam superbè dicta as arguing rather magnanimitie then ostentation yet Dyonisius Halicarnassaeus somewhat more warily limits them thus Romana vrbs imperat toti terrae quae quidem inaccessa non sit the citty of Rome commaunds the whole earth where it is not inaccessible But Lypsius himselfe more truly quicquid oportunum aut dignum vinci videbatur vicit it overcame whatsoeuer it could well overcome or thought worthy the ouercomming And Macrobius though himselfe a Roman ingenuously acknowledgeth Gangem transnare aut Caucasum transcendere Romà ni nominis fama non valuit The fame of the Romans as great as it was yet was neuer so great as to be able to swimme ouer the Riuer Ganges or climbe ouer the mountaine Caucasus so that euen their fame came short of their swelling amplifications vsed by their Orators and Poets but their Dominion came much shorter as is expressely affirmed by the same Author Totius terrae quae ad coelum puncti locum obtinet minima quaedam particula à nostri generis hominibus possidetur Though the whole Earth compared with the Heauens bee no bigger then a Center in the midst of a Circle yet scarce the least parcell of this little earth did euer come into the hands of the Romans Yet how could a man well devise to say more then Propertius hath said of that City Omnia Romanae cedant miracula terrae Natura hic posuit quicquid vbique fuit All miracles to Rome must yeeld for heere Nature hath treasur'd all what 's euery-where Except Martial perchaunce out-vy him Terrarum Dea gentiumque Roma Cui par est nihil nihil secundum Of Lands and Nations Goddesse Rome and Queene To whom novght peere nought second yet hath beene Which Frontinus seemes to borrow from him but with some addition of his owne Romana vrbs indiges terrarumque Dea cui par est nihil nihil secundum Now saith Crinitus alleaging those words of Frontinus Eos dicimus ferè indigetes qui nullius rei egeant id enim est tantum Deorum wee vsually call those indigites which want nothing for that is proper to the Gods Hubertus Golzius in his treasure of Antiquity hath effigiated two peeces of coine the one with a Greeke Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other with this in Latin ROMA DEA the meaning of both being that Rome was a Goddesse neither was this figuratiuely but properly vnderstood she hauing advanced her selfe into the number of the Gods as witnesseth Dion in Augustus nay erected Temples and addressed sacrifices to her selfe as testifie Victor and Onuphrius in their descriptions of Rome which Prudentius a Christian Poet both glances at and deservedly derides Colitur nam sanguine ipsa More Deae nomenque loci seâ—… numen hà betur Atque Vrbis Venerisque pari se culmine tollunt Templa simul geminis adolentur thure deabus Shee Goddesse-like is worshipped with blood A places name is hallowed for a god As high as Venus Cities Church doth rise And joint to both they incense sacrifice And Lucan as to a Goddesse directs his prayer solemnely vnto her summique ô numinis instar Roma saue câ—…ptis And thou as greatest power divine Favour O Rome this enterprise of mine Her Temple was situate vpon mount Palatine as appeares by that of Claudian bringing in the Provinces as suppliants to visite the Goddesse Conveniunt ad tecta Deae quae candida lucent Monte Palatino They meet at th'Goddesse Temple which doth shine So white and glorious on mount Palatine But this was in truth such a mad drunkennesse with pride and self-loue that Lypsius himselfe cannot hold from crying out O insaniam aedificijs inanimato corpori non vitam solùm attribuere sed numen O strange madnesse to ascribe vnto houses and stones and a dead body not life onely but a deity And being now a Goddesse shee might well take to her selfe that of old Babylon a type of her pride I sit as a Queene and am no widdow shall see no sorrow and challenge to her selfe aeternity as most blasphemously she did as is to be seene in the coine of the Emperour Probus in which we haue Rome set forth sitting in her Temple in a victorious triumphant manner hauing on the one side this inscription Conserv vrbis suae and on the other Romae aeternae and so is it expressely named both by Symmachus and Ammianus Marcellinus And Suetonius testifies in the life of Nero cap. 11 that of all their seuerall kindes of playes pro aeternitate imperij susceptos appellari maximos voluit those which were exhibited for the aeternity of the Empire should bee had in greatest
of him that devised it or the bold heart of him that vndertooke it To commaund such a thing to be done or to obey and yeeld and goe in hand with it But when wee haue sayd all that we can the folly of the blind and bold people of Rome went beyond all who trusted such a ticklish frame durst sit there in a seate so moueable loe where a man might haue seene the body of that people which is Commaunder and ruler of the whole earth the Conqueror of the world the disposer of kingdomes Realmes at their pleasure the divider of countryes and Nations at their wils the giver of lawes to forraine states the vicegerent of the immortall Gods vnder heaven and representing their image vnto all mankind hanging in the aire within a frame at the mercy of one onely hooke rejoycing ready to clap hands at their owne daunger What a cheape market of mens liues was heere toward what was the losse at Cannae to this hazard how neere vnto a mischiefe were they which might haue hapned heereby in the turning of a hand Certes when there is newes come of a city swallowed vp by a wide chink and opening of the earth all men generally in a publique commiseration doe greeue thereat and there is not one but his heart doth yearne and yet behold the Vniversall state and people of Rome as if they were put into a couple of barkes supported betweene heaven and earth and sitting at the deuotion only of two pinnes or hookes And what spectacle doe they behold a number of Fencers trying it out with vnrebated swords Nay ywis but even themselues rather entred into a most desperate fight and at the point to breake their neckes every mothers sonne if the scaffold failed never so little and the frame went out of joynt SECT 5. The third objection touching the pretended fortitude of the Romans answered in asmuch as their Empire is by their owne writers in a great part ascribed to Fortune by Christians may be referred to Gods speciall providence for the effecting of his owne purposes rather then to any extraordinary worth in them NOw that which is most of all stood vpon aswell by the Romanes themselues as by their Proctours Patrons is their great fortitude courage as appeares in their subduing the greatest part of the knowne world and in truth placing their chiefe happinesse in the honour and glory of their names withall supposing that there was for the purchasing thereof no readier meanes then the sacryficing of their liues for the inlarging advancement of their Empire they were in this regard for the most part even prodigall of their blood But shall we call that fortitude which neither aimed at justice nor was guided by true wisedome or rather obstinacie adventurous boldnes It is very true that they were often in their warres very successefull but Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat May that mans actions never well succeed Who by th' event doth censure of the deed By the confession of their owne writers they owed as much to Fortunâ—… as their valour whom therefore they made a Goddesse and placed in heaven Te facimus Fortuna Deam coeloque locamus Thee Fortune we a Goddesse make And grant thee place in heaven to take These two Fortune Fortitude Ammianus so chayneth linketh together as neither of them could well be wanting in the raysing of their Empire Roma vt augeretur sublimibus incrementis foedere pacis aeternae virtus convenit atque fortuna quarum si altera defuisset ad perfectam non venerat summitatem That Rome should rise to that height greatnes Fortitude Fortune made a league of eternall peace so as had either of them beene wanting it could never haue risen to that perfection Both of them performed their parts heerein seeming to striue which should precede the other which Plutarch disputes at large in his booke de fortuna Romanorum and Florus hath briefely but roundly cleerely expressed Ad constituendum Romanum imperium virtutem ac Fortunam contendisse videri that to the stablishing of the Romane Empire Fortitude Fortune seemed to contend which should be most forward Now if themselues attributed as much to fortune as to their fortitude wee may well conceiue that the latter was short of the former rather then otherwise And surely if by Fortune we should vnderstand Gods Providence we may safely say that for the effecting of his owne purposes though happily vnknowne to theÌ„r ather then for any extraordinary worth or merit in them he conferred vpon them the Empire of the world As Augustus Caesar was by Gods speciall providence directed in taxing the world that so euery man repairing to his owne Citty Christ by that meanes might be borne in Bethleem as was fore-told by the Prophet Micah so likewise was he by the same hand and power settled in the Empire that he might thorow the world settle an vniversall peace when the Prince of Peace was to be borne into it as was foretold by another Prophet They shall beate their swords into plow-shares and their speares into pruning hookes And may we not well conceiue that the world was therefore by the divine Providence brought vnder the yoake of the Roman government made subject to their Lawes and acquainted with their language that so when the Emperours themselues should become Christians as afterwards they did the propagation of the Gospell of Iesus Christ might finde an easier passage The Romans then perchaunce might challenge that as due to their owne worth in the conquering of the world which is rather to be ascribed to the hand of Heauen disposing these earthly Monarchies for the good of his Church or for the chastising of his enemies To which purpose he gaue to Nebuchadnezzar such great victories and large Dominions Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of heaven hath giuen thee a kingdome power and strength and glory which was not for any extraordinary worth or vertue that we read of in Nebuchadnezzar but only to make him as a staffe or a rod in his hands for the scourging of other rebellious nations an instrument for the accomplishment of his own designes Answerable whereunto is that memorable speech of S. Augustin Non tribuamus dandi regni atque imperij potestateÌ„ nisi Deo vero qui dat faelicitateÌ„ in regno coeloruÌ„ solis piis regnum verò terraruÌ„ piis impiis sicut ei placet cui nihil injustè placet Let vs not referre the power of conferring Kingdomes but only to the true God who giues happines in the kingdome of heauen only to the godly but these earthly kingdoms both to the godly vngodly as pleases him whoÌ„ nothing pleases that is vnjust I conclude this point with that of Salomon The race is not alwayes to the swift nor the battle to the
particular shall come to passe which they haue likewise foretold though happily we cannot set downe the time or manner of their event And iâ—… asmuch as we who now liue haue seen the accomplishment of many prophesies foretold by the pen-men of holy writ which our forefathers saw not if we stedfastly beleeue not the fulfilling of those which are yet to come in their due time we shall thereby be made the more guilty and the lesse excusable before God Howsoever if we beleeue as we all pretend the Scriptures to be the liuely oracles of God and to haue bin indited by the divine sacred inspiration of the holy Ghost we cannot but withall beleeue that the consuÌ„mation of the world shall most vndoubtedly in due time though to vs most vncertaine be accomplished Now as the cleere light of this truth hath by Gods grace so brightly shined among Christians that except they wilfully shut their eyes against it they cannot but apprehend and imbrace it So did it appeare to the Iewes though not in so conspicuous a manner yea some sparkes of this truth haue beene scattered even among the Gentiles themselues so as it were a shame vnpardonable for vs Christians not to acknowledge it or somuch as once to doubt of it SECT 1. That the world shall haue an end by the testimonie of the Gentiles SEneca disputing this question whether a wise man be so sufficiently content with himselfe as he needs not the helpe of any frâ—…end puts the case Qualis futura est vita sapientis how he would liue being destitute of friends if he were cast into prison or banished into some desart or cast vpon some strange shoare his answere is Qualis est Iovis cum resoluto mundo c. as Iupiter shall liue when the world shall be dissolved contenting himselfe with himselfe And againe more cleerely Quidenim mutationis periculo exceptum non terra non coelum non totus hic rerum omnium contextus quamvis Deo agente ducatur non semper tenebit hunc ordinem sed illumex hoc cursu aliquis dies deijciet certis eunt cuncta temporibus nasci debent crescere extâ—…ngui Quaecunque vides supra nos currere atque haeo quibuâ—… innixi atque impositi sumus velut solidissimis carpentur 〈◊〉 What is there which is prviledged from danger of change not the earth not the heavens no nor this whole frame of Creatures though it be guided by the finger of God it shall not alwaies obserue this order but some one day at last shall turne it out of his course For all things haue a time to be borne to increase and then againe to die be â—…ntinguished All those things which thou seest wheeling over our Heads and even those vpon which we are seated and setled as being most solide shall be surprized and leaue to be And in another place Si potest tibi solatio esse commune fatum nihil constat loco stabili nihil qua sint loto stabit Omnia sternet abducetque secum vetustas supprimet montes maria sorbebit If the common destiny of all things may any whit comfort thee there is nothing setled in a stable course nothing shall alwayes remaine in that state it now stands in time shall carry downe all things with it it shall levell the mountaines and swallow vp the seasâ—… And lastly in his Naturall questions vnus humanum genus condet dies one day shall burie all mankinde Yet it should seeme that withall he held a restoring of all things againe Omne ex integro animal generabitur dabiturque terris homo inscius scelerum melioribus auspicijs natus Sed illis quoque innocentia non durabit nisi dum novi sunt citò nequitia subrepet All Creatures shall be againe restored and mankind shall againe be sent to inhabite the earth but a kind voyd of wickednes and borne to a better fortune yet shall not their innocencie long endure neither but only whiles they are yet fresh and new afterward vngratiousnes will by degrees creepe vpon them Aelian as I haue already touched to another purpose in the eight booke of his Historie telleth vs that not only the mountaine Aetna for thereof might be given some reason because of the daily wasting and consuming of it with fire but Parnassus and Olympus did appeare to be lesse and lesse to such as sayled at sea the height thereof sinking as it seemed and therevpon inferres that men most skilfull in the secrets of nature did affirme that the world it selfe should likewise perish haue an end His premises I haue in another place sufficiently disproved but his conclusion inferred therevpon I cannot but highly approue most willingly accept of as a rich testimony for the confirmation of our Christian doctrine touching the end of the world delivered from the pen of a Gentile nay he positiuely affirmes it to haue beene the opinion of the most skilfull in the secrets of Nature And certaine it is that the greatest part of Philosophers before Aristotle Heraclitus Empedocles Anaxagoras Democritus and others as they held that the world had a beginning in time so did they likewise that in time it should haue an end And since Aristotle the greatest part his followers only excepted haue ever constantly maintained the same in somuch that the very Epicures heerein accord with the Stoickes though in other opinions they differ as fire and water as may appeare in Lucretius by sect an Epicurean and for his wit much esteemed among the Ancients Principio maria ac terris coelumque tuere Horâ—…m naturam triplicem tria corpora Memmi Tres species tam dissimiles tria talia texta Vna dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Behold O Memmi first the earth the sea The heaven their three-fold nature bodies three Three shapes so farre vnlike three peeces wrought And woven so fast one day shall bring to naught And the huge frame engine of this all Vpheld so many yeares at length shall fall And Ovid speaking of Lucretius seemes to haue borrowed from him part of these very words Carmina sublimis tum sunt peritura Lucreti Exitio terras cum dabit vna dies Lucretius loftie rimes so long shall liue Till to this earth one day destruction giue And Lucan as he differs not much from Lucrece in name so doth he fully accord with him in this opinion Sic cum compage soluta Saecula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora. Antiquum repetens iterum Chaos omnia mixtis Sydera Syderibus concurrent ignea pontum Astra petent tellus extendere littora nolet Excutietque fretum fratri contraria Phaebe Ibit obliquum bigas agitare per orbem Indignata diem poscet sibi totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera mundi So When the last houre shall So many ages end and this disjoynted
all To Chaos backe returne then all the starres shall be Blended together then those burning lights on high In sea shall drench earth then her shores will not extend But to the waues giue way the moone her course shall bend Crosse to her brothers and disdaining still to driue Her chariot wheels athward the heavenly orbe shall striue To rule the day this frame to discord wholy bent The worlds peace shall disturbe and all in sunder rent SECT 3. That the world shall haue an end by fire proved likewise by the testimony of the Gentiles ANd as they held that the world should haue an end so likewise that this end should come to passe by fire Exustionis hujus odor quidam etiam ad Gentes manauit sayth Ludovicus Vives speaking of the generall combustion of the world some sent of this burning hath spread it selfe even to the Gentiles And Saint Hierome in his comment on the 51 of I say Quae quidem Philosophorum mundi opinio est omnia quae cernimus igni peretura which is also the opinion of the Philosophers of this world that all which we behold shall perish by fire Eusebius is more particular affirming it to be the doctrine of the Stoicks and namely of Zeno Cleanthes Chrysippus the most ancient among them Certaine it is that Seneca a principall Scholler or rather Master of that sect both thought it taught it Et Sydera Syderibus incurrent omni flagrante materia vnâ—… igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet ardebit The starres shall make inrodes one vpon another and all the whole world being in a flame whatsoever now shines in comely and decent order shall burne together in one fire Panaetius likewise the Stoick feared as witnesseth Cicero ne ad extremum mundus ignesceret least the world at last should be burnt vp with fire And with the Stoicks heerein Pliny agrees Consumente vbertatem seminum exustione in cujus vices nunc vergat aevum the heate burning vp the plentifull moisture of all seedes to which the world is now hastening Numeâ—…us also saith good soules continue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vntill the dissolution of all things by fire And with the Philosophers their Poets accord Lucan as hee held that the world should haue an end so in speciall by fire where speaking of those whom Caesar left vnburned at the battle of Pharsalia hee thus goes on Hos Caesar populos si nunc non vsserit ignis Vret cum terris vret cum gurgite ponti Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus astra Misturus If fire may not these corpes to ashes turne O Caesar now when earth and seas shall burne It shall a common fire the world shall end And with these bones those heau'nly bodies blend As for Ovia he deduces it from their propheticall records Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus convexaque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laborat Besides he calls to minde how by decree Of fates a time shall come when earth and sea And Heavens high Throne shall faint and the whole frame Of this great world shall be consum'd in flame Which he borrowed saith Ludovicus Vives ex fatis indubiè Sybillinis vndoubtedly from the Oracles of Sybilla And indeed verses there are which goe vnder the name of Sybilla to the very same purpose Tunc ardens fluvius coelo manabit ab alto Igneus atque locos consumâ—…t funditus omnes Terramque Oceanumque ingentem caerula ponti Stagnaque tum fluvios fontes ditemque Severum Coelestemque polum coeli quoque lumina in unum Fluxa ruent formâ deletâ prorsus eorum Astra cadent etenim de coelo cuncta revulsa Then shall a burning floud flow from the Heavens on high And with its fiery streames all places vtterly Destroy earth ocean lakes rivers fountaines hell And heavenly poles the Lights in firmament that dwell Loosing their beauteous forme shall be obscur'd and all Raught from their places down from heaven to earth shall fall He that yet desires farther satisfaction in this point may reade Eugubinus his tenth booke de Perenni Philosophia Magius de exustione Mundi And so I passe to my third and last point proposed in the beginning of this Chapter which is that the whole world by fire shall totally and intirely be consumed SECT 4. That the world shall be by fire totally and finally dissolved and annihilated prooved by Scripture I Am not ignorant that the opinions of Divines touching the manner of the Consummation of the world haue beene as different as the greatest part of them are strange and improbable some imagining that all the Creatures which by Almighty God were made at the first beginning shall againe be restored to that perfection which they injoyed before the fall of man Others that the Heauens and Elements shall onely be so restored others that the Heauens and onely two of the Elements the Aire and the Earth others againe that the old world shall be wholly abolished and a new created in steed thereof and lastly others which I must confesse to me seemes the most likely opinion and most agreeable to scripture and reason that the whole world with all the parts and workes thereof onely men and Angels and Divels and the third Heauens the mansion-house of the Saints and blessed Angels and the place and instruments appointed for the tormenting of the damned excepted shall be totally and finally dissolued and annihilated As they were made out of nothing so into nothing shall they returne againe In the prooving whereof I will first produce mine owne arguments and then shew the weakenes of the adverse Man lieth downe and riseth not saith Iob till the heauens be no more Of old hast thou laide the foundation of the earth and the heauens are the worke of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure saith the Psalmist which the Apostle in the first to the Hebrewes and the 10. and the 11. repeates almost in the same words Lift vp your eyes to the heauens and looke vpon the earth beneath for the heauens shall vanish away like smoake and the earth shall waxe old as doth a garment saith the Prophet Esay and in another place all the host of heauen shal be dissolved the heauen shal be rolled together as a scroll all their host shall fall downe as the leafe falleth off from the vine and as a falling fig from the figge tree To the former of which wordes S. Iohn seemes to allude And the heauen departed as a scroll which is rolled together Heauen earth shall passe away but my word shall not passe away saith our Saviour The day of the Lord will come as a theefe in the night in the which the Heauens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heate The earth
considering that with thee is the well of life in thy presence is the fulnes of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore By parting from thee then wee part from the blisfull vision of the face of God from the fruition of the happy fellowship of the holy Angels and society of Saints and consequently from happinesse it selfe What remaines then but that parting from happinesse wee should indeede become most miserable and accursed Caitifs Depart from me yee Cursed Men sometimes curse where God blesses and blesse where God curses They can only pronounce a man cursed they cannot make him so but heere it is otherwise for with this powerfull and righteous Iudge to pronounce is to make when he cursed the figge tree it instantly withered And as these impenitent Sinners loved cursing so shall it come vnto them and as they loved not blessing so shall it be farre from them As they cloathed themselues with cursing like a rayment so shall it come into their bowels like water and like oyle into their bones it shall be vnto them as a garment to cover them and for a girdle wherewith they shall be alway girded Cursed shall be the day of their conception cursed the day of their birth Cursed they shall be in their soules and cursed in their bodies Cursed in their thoughts and cursed in their desires cursed in their speeches and cursed in their actions Cursed in the haynousnes of their sinne and cursed in the grievousnesse of their punishment cursed in their punishment of losse for their aversion from the Creator Depart from me and cursed in their punishment of sense for their conversion to the Creature Depart from me into everlasting Fire Of all the Creatures appointed by Almighty God to be instruments for the execution of his vengeance water and fire are noted to haue the least mercy And therefore with fire brimstone consumed he the filthy Sodomites a type of this hellish fire as Sodome was of hell it selfe If creating an element heere for our comfort I meane the fire he made the same so insufferable as it is in such sort as a man would not hold his onely hand therein one day to gaine a kingdome what a fire thinke you hath he provided for hell which is not created for comfort but only for torment Our fire hath many differences from that and therefore is truly sayd of the holy Fathers to be but as a painted or fained fire in respect of that For first our fire was made to comfort as I haue sayd and that only to afflict and torment Our fire hath need to be fed continually with wood and fewell or else it goeth out that burneth eternally without feeding and is vnquenchable for that the breath of the Lords owne mouth doth blowe and nourish it Our fire worketh only vpon the body immediatly vpon the soule being a spirit it cannot worke that worketh vpon the soule separated from the bodie as it likewise doth vpon the Apostate Angells and vpon both soule and bodie rejoyned Our fire giveth light which of it selfe is comfortable that admitteth none but is full of dismall darkenesse Our fire may be extinguished or the rage of it abated with water that cannot Ours breedeth weeping that not only weeping but gnashing of teeth the ordinary effect of cold Such a strange and incredible fire it is that it implies contraries and so terrible is this Iudge to his enimies that he hath devised a wonderfull way how to torment them with burning heate and chilling cold both at once Lastly our fire consumeth the food that is cast into it and thereby in short space dispatcheth the paines whereas that afflicteth tormenteth but consumeth not to the end the paines may be Everlasting as is the fire O deadly life O immortall death what shall I tearme thee Life and wherefore then dost thou kill Death and wherefore then dost thou endure There is neither Life nor Death but hath something good in it For in life there is some ease and in death an end but thou hast neither ease nor end What shall I tearme thee even the bitternesse of both For of death thou hast torment without any end and of life the continuance without any ease so long as God shall liue so long shall the damned die and when he shall cease to be happy then shall they also cease to be miserable A starre which is farre greater then the earth appeareth to be a small spot in comparison of the heavens much lesse shall the age of man seeme yea much lesse the age and continuance of the whole world in regard of this perpetuity of paines The least moment of time if it be compared with tenne thousand millions of yeares because both tearmes are finite and the one a part of the other beareth although a very small yet some proportion but this or any other number of yeares in respect of endlesse eternity is nothing lesse then just nothing For all things that are finite may bee compared together but betweene that which is finite and that which is infinite there standeth no comparison O sayth one holy Father in a godly meditation if a sinner damned in hell did know that hee had to suffer those torments no more thousand yeares then there be sands in the sea or grasse leaues on the ground or no more thousand millions of ages then there be Creatures in heaven hell and in earth he would greatly rejoyce for that he would comfort himselfe at the leastwise with this cogitation that once yet the matter would haue an end But now sayth this good man this word never breaketh his heart considering that after an hundred thousand millions of worlds if there might be so many he hath as farre to his journeyes end as hee had the first day of his entrance into those torments And surely if a man that is sharpely pinched with the goute or the stone or but with thetoothach and that they hold him but by fits giving him some respite betweene-whiles notwithstanding doe thinke one night exceeding long although he lie in a soft bed well applied cared for how tedious doe wee thinke eternity will seeme to those that shall be vniuersally in all their parts continually without intermission perpetually without end or hope of end schorched in those hellish flames which besides that they are everlasting haue this likewise added that they are prepared for the Devill and his Angells Prepared by whom surely by the Iudge himselfe who giues the sentence Now if but mortall Iudges should set and search their wits to devise prepare a punishment for some notorious malefactour what grievous tortures doe they often finde out able to make a man tremble at the very mentioning of them what kinde of punishment then shall wee conceiue this to be which this immortall King of Heauen Earth this Iudge both of the quick dead hath prepared Surely his invention this way is as farre beyond the reach
of all mortal wits were they all vnited in one braine as is his power It must needes be then a torment insufferable vnspeakable incomprehensible which hee hath set himselfe to prepare But for whom for the Divell and his Angels that is for the Arch-traitour the chiefe rebell that stands out against him hath stood out against him since the first Creation of the World How art thou fallen from heauen O Lucifer sonne of the morning thou saydst in thine heart I will exalt my throne aboue beside the starres of God I will bee like vnto the most high Therefore hath hee cast thee downe to the bottomlesse pit of hell there te be imprisoned in everlasting chaines vnder darknesse to the iudgment of this great day of the generall assise then there shalt thou receiue thy compleat finall sentence and then shall those miscreants who haue chosen rather to hearken to thy intisements to yeeld to thy temptations to march vnder thy banner and with thee thine Angels to stand out in open rebellion against their Liege Lord then to yeeld their due obedience to him who by so many obligations might deservedly challenge it from them Then I say shall they who haue thus sinned with thee suffer likewise with thee as thou labouredst by all means to make them like thy self insin so shalt thouthen as earnestly labour to make them like thy selfe as in the kinde so likewise in the degree of thy punishment that as the Saints shall resemble the blessed Angels in heauen so they may in all respects resemble thee thy cursed Angels in hell And thus haue wee in part heard the terrour of this last day in regard of the obstinately wicked Let vs now heare what Comforts the remembrance and meditation thereof may justly afford the righteous that is such as by Gods grace endeavour to liue a vertuous and religious life SECT 5. Secondly the consideration of this day may serue for a speciall comfort to the godly whether they meditate vpon the name and nature of the day it selfe in regard of them or the assurance of Gods loue and favour towards them and the gracious promises made vnto them THese Comforts then arise first from the name nature of the day in regard of them Secondly from the assurance of Gods loue and favour toward them from the gracious promises made vnto them Thirdly from the quality and condition of the Iudge by whom they are to be tryed and lastly from the sweetnes of the sentence which shal be pronounced on their behalf First then this day howbeit it shal be very tert rible to impenitent sinners yet to the Servants of God shall it be a day of ioy triumph a day of Iubilee exultation or as the Scriptures tearme it a day of refreshing redemption Neither ought this to seem strange since the same Sun which melteth the wax hardneth the clay the same beams exhale both stinking vapours out of the dunghilis sweet savours out of flowres the beame is every way the same which workes vpon them only the difference of the subjects which it workes vpon is it that thus diversifies the effects When the Iudges in their Assises come to the bench or place of judgment apparelled in skarlet robes invironed with holdbards attended on with great troopes assisted by the principall knights and gentlemen of the Country all this is a pleasing sight to the innocent prisoner because hee hopes that now his innocency shal appeare in the face of the Country and that the day of his deliuerance is come whereas to the guilty it is a dreadful sight because he knowes that the day of his tryall consequently of his condemnation and execution cannot be farre off in like manner when the gibbet or gallows is set vp the ladder the halter the hangman all in readines for the execution this to the good subject true man is a pleasing spectacle because it is for their peace safeguard but a spectacle full of horrour to the condemned theefe or murtherer who are there instantly to be executed To such as are straitly besieged in a Castle or City when a powerful Army is raised to rescue them draweth neere to the place and is come within sight the neighing and trampling of the horses the glittering of the armour the clashing of weapons the beating of the drumme the sounding of the trumpet yea the roaring of the cannon to them are as sweâ—…t musick because they know all this to be for their succour and reliefe but to the besiegers the noyse is terrible because they know it is to assault remoue and vanquish them this surely shall be the difference betwixt the faithfull and the vnrighteous at the day of iudgment The Maiesty Glory of Christ the traine of innumerable Angels attending on him the shrill sound of the trumpet summoning all flesh to appeare before his Tribu-nall at this great generall Assises and all other solemnities belonging to the pomp magnificence thereof as it shall vtterly daunt and confound the one in as much as they know themselues guilty of all those enormities and out-rages wherewith they shall be charged so shall it cheere vp the other for that they are theÌ„ fully to be cleered in the presence of men Angels froÌ„ those vnjust aspersions imputations whichtheir enemies haue cast vpon them they are to be freed from all those wrongs and oppressions they haue sustained they are to be rescued from that narrow siege that fierce assault that long strong battery which by sinne the world the flesh the Divell hath beene laid to their soules so as all those fearefull signes fore-running the last end as the trembling of the earth and the shaking of the powers of heauen shall be vnto them as the Earthquake was to Paul and Silas which serued to loose their fetters and manicles and to open vnto them the prison doores and set them at liberty Neither can it in truth be otherwise considering the loue favour which Almighty God beares them He hath redeemed them with the pretious Blood of his deare Sonne he hath begotten them by the incorruptible seed of his word hee hath illuminated and sanctified them with his Spirit he hath sealed them by his Sacraments he hath pacified their guilty Consciences with his grace delivered them out of dangers supported them in their temptations relieued them in their distresses resolued them in their doubts made all things worke together for the best vnto them and will he forsake them at this last tryall no no herein he setteth out his loue toward them seeing that while they were yet sinners Christ died for them much more being now iustified by his Blood shall they bee saued from wrath thorow him For if when they were enemies they were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne much möre being reconciled shall they bee saued by his life if they were pardoned