in Psal. 16. 12. And further seeing it is said that righteousnesse shall dwell in the new earth as well as in the new heaven it may from thence be gathered that both the heaven and the earth shall be the seat of the blessed and that the saints shall follow the Lambe whithersoever he goeth and that there shall be an intercourse between the said heaven and earth which is as Jacob in his vision saw when the angels were some of them ascending some descending that ladder which reached from heaven to earth or as Moses and Elias were seen talking with Christ upon the Mount But herein let us not be too bold for in this we may soon wade too farre namely if we should nicely determine how the saints shall then be disposed of whether some alwayes to the heaven some alwayes to the earth or such like things which to us are unrevealed Let it therefore suffice that although the manner of this change be secret and not known in every point yet the change it self is most certain and therefore hold we most certainly this truth for our stay that the world shall end and leave we the manner thereof to be exactly and particularly revealed by him who will very quickly perform it But of the time when in the following Section Sect. 3. ANd thus much concerning the manner of the worlds ending Now follows the time when But here I purpose not to meddle with any thing which shall tend to the precise scanning of it I will leave that to them who out of a desire they have to lanch into the deep have pried too farre I fear into the secrets of the Thunderer for oftentimes we see that they do but wisely tell us foolish tales and smoothly bring long lies unto an end because they say more then they have warrant for To whom Du Bartas by our famous Silvester thus sendeth greeting You have mis-cast in your Arithmetick Mis-laid your counters gropingly ye seek In nights black darknesse for the secret things Seal'd in the Casket of the King of kings 'T is He that keeps th' eternall clock of Time He holds the weights of that appointed chime And in his hand the sacred Book doth bear Of that close-clasped finall CALENDER Where in Red letters not with us frequented The certain Date of that Great Day is printed That Dreadfull Day which doth so swiftly post That 't will be seen before foreseen of most Yet such is the folly and curiositie of many that they will needs undertake to tell us when this time shall be which if they could then it seems it should not come as a snare upon the world nor yet steal upon us as a thief in the night But so it shall do For of that day and houre knoweth no man saith our Saviour and we may take his word because himself by his humanitie could not know it although in his humanitie by reason of his Godhead he was not ignorant of it Had he not therefore been God as well as man and of a divine as well as humane nature he must have remained ignorant in both with men and angels Mar. 13. 32. And furthermore concerning us that we be not too bold the same lesson which he taught his disciples is also ours not to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power as it is Act. 1. 7. From whence we may learn that whilest we exercise our selves in things that be too high for us we shall sooner betray our own curiositie then deliver a truth For Maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus The greatest part of those things which we know is the least part of what we know not Whereupon I cannot but think that the predictions of men in this kinde especially seeing they are so various must needs be as true as those amongst the brood of presumptuous Astrologers concerning the end of Christian Religion which as Du Plessie observeth from them should have been some hundreds of yeares before this time nay it should then have ended when indeed it began most of all to flourish And so I doubt not but am certain that the world also should have had many endings before this time according to the doting froth of some mens idle fancies which if need were I could relate But as time was little beholding to them for cutting it off so short in like manner they were as little beholding to time for discovering their lies so plainly I will therefore before I meddle further with such approved liars leave them unto their best friends to gain if they can their credit for the time past and addresse my self to examine those who talk of a time yet to come Amongst whom the Jews have a tradition which although they fetch from the school or house of Elias yet we are not bound to credit it For it was not Elias the Prophet but a Rabbin of the same name as the learned know and who more fabulous or more full of vain fancies then those their greatest Doctours Six thousand yeares saith he the world shall stand and then it shall be consumed by fire Two thousand yeares shal be void or without Law two thousand yeares shall be under the Law and the last two thousand shall be the dayes of Messiah or Christ. Thus farre Elias And that this opinion hath been favoured by some of old and is also favoured now by some of our time I am not ignorant which chiefly they do for this reason namely because the six dayes of weekly labour do bear the Symbole of 6000 yeares wherein mankinde should endure the cares and troubles and travels of this world and then shall come that Sabbath of Sabbaths in the heaven of heavens when they are to rest from their labours Or as God was six daies in creating the world before there was a Sabbath so he shall be 6000 yeares in governing it and then the seventh begins an eternall rest in heaven Now this they ground upon the words of S. Peter who speaking of the day of judgement noteth that a thousand yeares in Gods sight are but as one day and one day as a thousand yeares 2. Pet. 3. 8. So that in this regard for six dayes of weekly labour they would have 6000 yeares of worldly trouble and the like before it endeth But if this weaknesse be the greatest strength for maintaining their assertion then I do not doubt to see their cause fainting upon the ground as not being able to subsist or stand upright For first concerning the Rabbin had he been a Prophet he would certainly have been a better Seer This I am sure of that he was much deceived in the particular division of his time in making three periods all of 2000 yeares apiece For although the yeares of the world have been diversly accounted by sundry authours yet you shall not finde the Rabbins just number of 2000
vertice visus Iuli Fundere lumen apex tactúque innoxia molli Lambere flamma comas circum tempora pasci Behold the lively crown Of soft Iulus head With light was circled round A flame his temples fed But toucht not having hurt nor feeling harm The licking fire his hairs would scarcely warm Livie also maketh mention of two others upon whom the like Meteor appeared For Servius Tullius when he was a childe even as he lay sleeping had his hair on his head as if it were all on a fire And upon the head of Marius that worthy Romane was the like appearance even whilest he was making an oration to his souldiers And I my self do also know one who hath often protested to me that as he lay in his bed one night his head was all on a flame which hurt him not although it greatly scared his wife and him as I have heard them both confesse Moreover others testifie how they have been scared in their beds by a kinde of light sticking to their coverings like dew upon the nap of a frieze coat which must needs be this Ignis Lambens caused by some kinde of clammie sweat proceeding from among them For that a clammie sweat will cause these things is manifest in the nimble currying of a foggie horse visible sparks appearing and coming from him if it be done in the dark But of these kindes of fierie Meteors enough Sect. 2. Parag. 4. Of such fierie Meteors as are impurely mixt Article 1. Of Comets NOw follow those which are Ignita mixta and lesse pure coming so to passe when the Exhalation through the admixtion of some vapour is more slimie grosse and impure For those Meteors already described were meerly Fumes without the admixture of Vapours unlesse it might be some little in one of a glutinous nature or composition Now these Ignita mixta are usually divided into two sorts for they are either such as continue long or else such as are but for a little while Those that continue long are Comets or blazing starres And a Comet is a fierie Meteor whose matter is an Exhalation hot and drie fat and clammie drawn by vertue of the heavenly bodies into the highest part of the aire and sometimes into the starrie Region where it is closely conglutinated into a great lump by reason of supply that it hath from below so long as there is a working to exhale it and being thus compacted and exhaled it is set on fire in convenient time by the excessive heat of the place where it resteth Sometimes it continues burning long sometimes but a little while seven dayes is the least time whereas some have been seen six moneths all which cometh to passe by reason either of the paucitie or plentie of the matter whereof it consisteth That last Comet which was seen of us viz. Anno Domini 1618 was perspicuous by the space of one moneth namely from the 18 day of November untill the 16 day of December next following and was farre above the highest Region of the aire overlooking even the moon her self as Longomontanus proveth in a book of his where he treateth of new starres and such appearances as have been seen in the heavens since the yeare of our Lord God 1572. But in a Comet two things especially are considerable the one the colour the other the fashion both which arise out of the diverse disposing of the matter Their colours are principally three 1. If the matter be thin then the colour is white 2. If meanly thick then the colour is ruddie looking like fire 3. If very thick then their colour is like the burning of brimstone or of a blew appearance Yet know that they are not alwayes exactly of these three colours without any difference but as neare them as the disposing of their matter will suffer as in stead of white we sometimes have them of a yellowish colour in stead of blew of a watchet or greenish colour and the like Concerning their fashions if we stand upon a curious examination of them they may be manifold and yet as Aristotle accounteth they are principally but two all their other shapes being dependant on these two For first either they seem round having beams round about them which cometh to passe when the matter is thin on the edgeâ—… and thick every where else or secondly they seem as it were with a beard or tail which cometh to passe when it is but meanly thick towards some one side or other and rather long then round But some would have these two fashions to be three because the tail sometimes hangs downward as well as sidelong and so there is by this means stella crinita stella caudata and stella barbata concerning which I am not much solicitous That therefore which in these things I do much more wonder at is the strange and admired multitude of effects which are produced by them as not onely change of aire but change of heirs also proceeding from the disturbance of states translation of kingdomes bloudy warres and death of Potentates Histories have carefully recorded these things and left them to the consideration of after-times First therefore let it be observed that when the kingdome of the Macedonians came to an end in the last yeare of Perseus which was about the yeare 584 or 585 of the building of Rome a Comet appeared as if it came to point out the last period of that kingdome Secondly when the Emperour Iovian attained to the empire succeeding the Apostata Iulian under whom the Church suffered much persecution when I say the said Iovian was Emperour and that under him both Church and Commonwealth were like to have had a flourishing time had he not been taken away by sudden death then also appeared a Comet shewing that further trouble was yet to be expected Thirdly also when a certain captain of the Goths an Arian named Cajan had raised sedition against the Emperour Arcadius God shewed by manifest wonders that both Arcadius and his citie should be well protected but before this tumult saith Carion a strange Comet was seen great and terrible casting flames down to the very earth the like whereunto no man had ever seen before 4 And again other authours make mention of a strange Comet seen in the yeare of Christ 410 being like unto a two-edged sword which portended many mischiefs For Rome was taken about the same time by Alaricus King of the Goths Sundry calamities happened both in the East and West and so great slaughters of men were about those dayes as no age ever afforded the like All Europe was in a manner undone no small part of Asia was affrighted and Africa also was not void of those evils Warre Famine Drought and Pestilence all of them strove as it were to trouble the whole world 5. Also in these yeares viz. 1400 1401 1402 1403 Comets appeared and great calamities followed sundry and unheard-of
the Firmament that is appointed to this separating office but the whole Firmament as any one may see if he do but observe the words of God producing and assigning it Neither do we finde that the Firmament is any more then one To divide it into parts so as they imagine is not to divide it into parts but rather to make so many Firmaments as they imagine parts like as every scale of an onyon is a severall and differing scale and not one the part of another And besides neither is there the same reason between the parts of water and these supposed parts of the Firmament for then when God made the Sunne Moon and Starres he would not have said Let them be in the Firmament but above the Firmament for they are farre higher then the clouds yet I say they being higher then the clouds he is said to place them but in the Firmament and they being no more but in it how improperly do we affirm those things to be above it whose places are lower then either Sunne Moon or Starres And secondly admit Job tells us that there are waters bound up in thick clouds doth not Jeremie also tell us that they are drawn up in vapours from the earth which as hath been shewed cannot at all times be but then when there is a naturall concourse of causes to effect it whereas the out-spread Firmament is to be alwayes between them separating them not at times but continually And as for the rain proceeding from those waters which we call the clouds it stayeth not long in the aire but forthwith falleth down again shewing that of right their proper place is here below and therefore we make not three kindes of waters as if we would be contrary to Moses in saying that there are other waters above the concave of the Firmament which on this second day of the worlds creation were separated from all other waters Wherefore observe but this they being separated on this second day how could they be such as the aire affordeth for the middle Region of the aire which is the place for the clouds was not untill the third day Not untill the third day I say because it is found by experience and from sufficient witnesse proved true that the tops of the highest mountains do reach up unto that place which we call the middle Region of the aire being some of them more loftie then the clouds As for example in Iapan there is a mountain called Figeniana which is some certain leagues higher then the clouds And in Ternate among the Philippine Islands there is a mountain which as Mr. Purchas in his pilgrimage relateth is even angry with nature because it is fastened to the earth and doth therefore not onely lift up his head above the middle Region of the aire but endeavoureth also to conjoyn it self with the fierie Element And of the mountain Athos between Macedon and Thrace it is said to be so high that it casteth shade more then thirtie and seven miles Also the mount of Olympus in Thessalie is said to be of that height as neither the windes clouds or rain do overtop it And although I omit sundry others of exceeding height it is also written of another mount so high above the clouds that some who have seen it do witnesse that they have been on the top of it and have had both a cleare skie over their heads and also clouds below them pouring down rain and breaking forth with thunder and lightnings at which those below have been terrified but on the top of the hill there was no such matter This surely was that mountain which Mr. Lydiat meant when he said that etiam aestivis diebus even in the summer time when the clouds are at the highest those on the top of the mountains have had fair weather and withall perceived that there was plentie of rain about the middle height of the same hills Thus we see that there are lofty mountains And indeed their loftines is the cause of a middle Region for the hils hindering the aire from following the motion of the heavens do make it about their tops a fit convenient place to thicken these vapours into clouds which by the attractive power of the heavenly bodies are drawn up thither Wherefore that I may conclude the place of the middle Region being both caused and also overtopped by sundry high mountains it will appeare that there was no middle Region of the aire untill the third day because the waters were all over the earth and standing above the hills untill that very day For then and not before God gathered them together unto one place and made the drie land to appeare which before was covered with waters as with a garment Psalm 104. Rarior aqua saith one velut nebula terras tegebat quae congregatione densata est The thinne water like a mist or wet cloud covered the earth which by gathering together was made thick In which regard it may be said saith Aquinas that it was as naturall for the water to be every where about the earth as for the aire to be about both water and earth yet neverthelesse propter necessitatem finis saith he for the necessitie of the end namely that plants and living creatures should be upon the earth it was meet that the earth should be so uncovered and the waters so gathered that the drie land appeare Now this was a work pertinent unto the third day and before this work done there could be no middle Region and the middle Region being on this day and not before how can the waters in the clouds be those waters which were separated by the out-spread Firmament on the second day Neither do I here argue à facto ad fieri because in the very creation of this Firmament God then said Let it be between the waters that is even then beginning its office and art of separating them Which that it is even so we see he speaketh next concerning the lower waters and makes no more mention at all of those upper ones because he had already done with them and left them in their place unto which he had appointed them But furthermore this tenent is not a little helped by a consideration of the cataracts or windows of heaven which in the dayes of Noah were opened and poured down rain by the space of fourty dayes For me thinks the clouds could not be those windows of heaven because it rained fourty dayes and before it left raining the waters were higher then the hills being when fourty dayes were ended fifteen cubits above the highest mountains as in the historie of the Floud is manifest And hereupon it was that one once by the same reason concluded and said that either it did not rain fourty dayes which assertion we are sure is false or else it rained from some other where then from the middle Region For seeing the middle Region it self was
drowned before it ceased to rain it cannot but be that the rain descended from some higher place 1. Object But perhaps some may think that the clouds mounted higher and higher as the waters increased insomuch that as the waters by little and little gat above the mountains so did the clouds Answ. This cannot be because that which makes us distinguish the aire so as it may have a middle Region is nothing else but the differing temper that it hath both from the upper and lower Region and this differing temper is caused by the hills which hindering the aire from following the motion of the heavens do make it a fit place to thicken those vapours into clouds which by the attractive power of the starres and planets are drawn up thither as already hath been shewed and as afterwards shall be touched when I come again to speak of the severall Regions and their tempers shewing you that it is an Axiome undeniable that the farnesse from a circular motion gives quietnesse coldnesse and heavinesse even as the nearenesse to it gives motion heat and lightnesse 2. Object Or secondly perhaps some may think that the hills and mountains were not before the Floud but made by the violence of the waters and that Moses when he would describe how high the waters were doth but shew us that they were higher by fifteen cubits then the highest mountain that was then in his time which he might well say and make such a comparison although there were no hills before the floud Answ. That which hath been said in the former answer concerning the cause of the middle Region doth sufficiently stop this last objection unlesse it be granted that there were no clouds untill the Floud had made the hills And indeed if any such thing be granted then all is granted and the controversie quite ended concerning these waters above the Heavens But besides that answer I hope to make it appeare that mountains valleys and plains were created in the beginning and were before the Floud in the dayes of Noah For first if hills were caused by the Floud then it must be that the waters suffered an extream violent motion but the waters being over the whole face of the earth had nothing to hinder them from their own free motion nor any thing to compell them to a violent motion such I mean as should make them work such wonders as are supposed Had they been overtopped by any thing then indeed running from one place to another there might have been a repercussion and by such contention more strange accidents then were might have been produced as the making of hills and the like Or secondly if there were such a violent motion as questionles the waters moved untill all places were filled alike with no small violence yet the violence was not so great as to be the parent of the hills and mountains for then without doubt it would have been so forcible also as to have turned rivers and changed them from one place to another cast down all manner of buildings and structures rooted up all trees and the like so that after the Floud nothing should have had the same name bounds and description which before it had neither would the memories of the former ages have been but buried from all succeeding time which we know is otherwise for if it were not it is likely that Moses speaking of the site of Paradise and setting down all the rivers of it exactly would have specified it in his historie that thereby after-ages looking for those places might not mistake or suspect the truth of his relation Neither have we just cause to think that all buildings and ancient monuments of the Fathers before the floud were extinguished in the floud For it is reported by Pomponius Mela and Plinie concerning the citie Ioppa that it was built before the floud and that Cepha or Cepheus reigned there which is witnessed by certain ancient altars bearing titles of him and his brother Phineus together with a memoriall of the grounds and principles of their religion And of the citie Henoch there is a much like relation But what need I mention more seeing Iosephus a writer of good credit affirmeth that he himself saw one of those pillars which was set up by Seth the sonne of Adam and this for the truth of it was never questioned but warranted by all antiquitie Moreover seeing the dove was twice sent out of the ark and returned with an olive branch at her last return and not at her first it is not without reason that we think the trees were not torn up by their roots but remained still fixed in the ground even as they had done before for if the trees had been swimming or floating upon the waters as some may think then the poore dove might have found one branch or other as well at the first as second time Besides when she did bring any thing Noah took it not as a token what havock the floud had made but as a signe that the waters were decreased she therefore plucked it off from some tree growing on the earth and not floating on the waters And last of all although I say nothing of the delectation and profit of the mountains which do thereby even amplifie the goodnesse of God in his works creating and not occasioning them I shall need to point you no further then to the plain text it self which doth most plainly tell us not that the waters were as high as the highest mountains which are now or were then when Moses wrote his historie but that even from the beginning there were hills and mountains whose loftie tops in the universall floud were covered with waters for thus stand the words And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills which were under the whole heaven were covered Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail and the mountains were covered Whereupon as I remember one writeth thus saying that this judgement was admirable seeing there are mountains as Atlas Olympus Caucasus Athos and other such that are so high as their tops are above the clouds and windes as Historiographers do report it and yet see all these are covered and these being covered the middle Region must needs be drowned and that being drowned how could the clouds be those windows of heaven which poured down rain for fourtie dayes And those not being the windows of heaven it cannot but be that the waters above the heavens are in a more remote and higher place even above the concave of the out-spread Firmament 3. Object But perhaps you may think that I now pitch too much upon reason concerning this of the Floud seeing it was caused not by naturall and ordinary means but by the extraordinary power of God Answ. To which it is answered that this floud was partly naturall partly supernaturall and to shew how farre nature had a hand in this admirable effect we may distinguish with
the Exhalation is able to break that then it runneth up and down within and sticking against the cold and moist sides maketh a noise much like to the quenching of an hot iron in cold water or of a squib made of wet powder in which regard Plinie seemeth to averre that thunder is but the quenching of fire in a wet cloud Also if the Exhalation be meanly strong and the cloud of unequall thicknesse then it breaketh out at the thinnest places and makes a kinde of buzzing noise like to a winde blowing out of narrow holes And so sometimes it happeneth that there may be a thunder-crack and yet no lightning and sometimes lightning without thunder The first is caused thus either when the cloud is so thin that it cannot keep in the Exhalation till it be kindled but suffereth it to go presently forth making a noise like to the winde out of a pair of Smiths bellows or else when the cloud is so thick and the Exhalation so slender and thin that although it stirre up and down within the cloud yet it fireth not but wastes it self within that prison as not being able to get out And thus may thunder be without lightning The second is caused when either the Exhalation and Vapour are both thin and the cloud also as thin or else thus namely when many thin light and hot Exhalations by immoderate heat are drawn up from the earth and by the absence of the sunne are destitute of that force by which they should be drawn up higher yet somewhat ascending by their own nature in that they be light and hot they meet with the cold either of the night in the lowest Region or else of the aire in the middle Region and so by an Antiperistasis or resistance of contraries they are beaten back and with the force of their motion set on fire as in summer nights and evenings we often see after an hot parching day Now this kinde of lightning some call Fulgetrum Another sort they call Coruscatio which indeed is nothing else but the shining of the lightning the shining or glittering of it rather then the lightning it self for in this regard we can perceive a flashing when there be no clouds above our Horizon or if there be clouds we see the flashing when our backs are turned from them or else we often perceive even through a thick cloud that it lightened when the lightning came not so low but onely issued out of a thinner cloud which was above that thicker one and shined through it A third kinde is called Fulgur and this is accompanied with thunder caused by the strife and reluctation which the Exhalation maketh in the cloud shewing it self in the breaking of the said cloud and although the crack be heard long after we have seen the fire yet they come together the seeming difference being because the quicknesse of our sight preventeth our hearing which is so much the sooner done either when the thunder is farre off and not neare unto us or when the winde is contrary which is also seen in the cleaving of wood or any the like knocking for let us be but in some sort distant from the partie making the noise or striking the blow and we shall see the ax heaved up again before we heare the sound The next is Fulmen and between this and the other is a great difference For Fulmen is an Exhalation which in respect of its quantitie is so copious and in respect of its qualitie is so hot and drie and mixed with so many other vapours of a contrary nature that when it breaketh the cloud wherein it is inclosed it comes with such a violence and continues burning so long that it falleth even to the very ground making a more fearfull fragor or crack then ordinary And oftentimes a great stone is blown out of the cloud with it whose cause is also naturall For when the Exhalation is drawn up with more then an ordinarie violence or is so drawn up or from such a place as it may carrie much earthie matter with it then is the stone procured The matter causing it at the first is thin and like unto the finest sand that can be imagined yet neverthelesse through the moisture which it getteth in the Aire and by the meeting with wet vapours in the ascent it clottereth together and being also it self of a kinde of clammie natuâ—…e it disjoyneth not but sticketh fast and then by the 〈◊〉 heat which it findeth in the generall matter of the Exhalation when it is fired it is throughly hardened even as a brick which is burned in the fire and being thus hardened and burnt it breaketh forth with the Exhalation and they both come tumbling down together For the force of the Exhalation shoots it out and look whatsoever is in the way it overthroweth burneth and dasheth in pieces Howbeit when it striketh the earth it is reported to go never above five foot deep All this is pertinent to that which is called Fulmen But for that other which is Fulgur the case is farre otherwise For in regard of the little plentie of the matter it never falleth to the ground but is wasted and consumed by the way Moreover Philosophers make three kindes of Fulmen viz. Terebrans Discutiens and Urens or as some call them Scindentia Infuscantia and Urentia 1. The first is said not to burn but rather to pierce cleave and extirpate such things as are obvious to it For seeing it is more subtill and pure then grosse as also wondrous drie and carrieth with it great plentie of spirits winde or breathings it must needs produce strange effects and passe through the pores of any thing be they never so small striking through with such wonderfull swiftnesse as that it cannot possibly hurt but where it is resisted and hindered by the close composure of that matter against which it striketh And hereupon it comes to passe that money is sometimes melted in the purse the purse not hurt at all the bones broke and the skin sound yea and sometimes the whole man burnt to ashes when his clothes are not consumed with many the like strange accidents And why it should cleave a wine vessell and the wine be so dull as not to runne out untill some 2 or 3 dayes after this may be a reason viz. in regard of the swift alteration and change whereby also all the clamminesse of the wine is drawn to the outwardmost part which keepeth in the wine as in a skin not suffering it suddenly to disperse it self 2. The second kinde burneth not to ashes but blasteth or scorcheth leaving the tincture of fire and as it were of smoke behinde it for the things which it striketh do use to look black or of a footie colour like unto a chimneys stock And this is caused in regard that this kinde of lightning is farre more full of moisture
before when there was onely light in those thinne parts in stead of fire And thus have I shewed you the naturall cause of all fiery Meteors Sect. 2. Parag. 6. Of watery Meteors and their severall kindes NOw it followeth that I speak something of watery Meteors and shew after what manner they are generated They be called watery because they consist most of water their substance being that kinde of Exhalation which we call Vapor and not Fumus And that which in the first place offereth it self is Nubes a Cloud Artic. I. Of Clouds I Begin therefore with clouds And a cloud is a vapour or Exhalation cold and moist drawn from the earth out of wet or watery places by heat of the Sunne into the middle Region of the aire where by cold it is so thickened and knit together that it hangeth untill either the own weight or some resolution causeth it to fall If it be a great cloud it is Nubes if it be but a little one it is called Nubecula The name comes ab obnubendo id est operiendo coelum from hiding or covering the heavens because a cloud through the thicknesse that the vapour is condensed into hindereth that a lesse portion of the heavens is conspicuous then otherwise would be It is also two-fold either fertill or barren A fertill or fruitfull cloud affordeth rain but a barren cloud doth not because it is at length by the blasts of winde and vertue of the heavenly bodies turned into thin aire And to either of these clouds belong motion colour Their motion is caused by the winde most commonly through whose force they are driven to and fro But if the windes blow not then they are drawn along by the Sun and made a companion with him in his travels alwayes moving that way which the Sunne goeth Concerning their colours I spake before in Paragraph 5. Article 2. And therefore here you may expect the lesse yet let me say that they are either simple or mixt Black or white are simple because they consist of no other colours But red green and the rest are mixt They appeare white when the vapour is thin for then it is easily pierced by the light which disperseth it self into it But when they appeare of a black colour then the vapour is thick and more closely condensed insomuch that the beams of light cannot be admitted As for their rednesse it may be caused two wayes according to Goclenius either through the adustion of the aire magno aestu incensum as he saith Or propter retusum radium Solis by reason of the beams of the Sunne beat back again which falling upon a watery cloud that is thickly condensed pierceth not but being doubled causeth rednesse as in the morning and this is a signe of rain but the other is not For the other rednesse is in such a cloud as sheweth the drinesse and adustion of the aire the cloud it self consisting of a smokie humid substance unto which is joyned a kinde of drie and adust matter This therefore is a signe of fair weather being seen in the evening towards the place of Sun-setting according as it hath been said of old Serò rubens coelum mané indicat esse serenum Concerning green clouds they are altogether watery and as it were already resolved into water which receiving into them the light appeare green like unto water in a great vessel or in the sea and deep rivers Blew clouds come something neare to the nature of black excepting that the black are thicker And note If when the Sunne sets there appeare or arise black dark clouds it portendeth rain Also observe the place opposite to the Sunne at his setting viz. the East and see if that be cleare for if it be pestered with black clouds there is but small hope of fair weather that night or the next day The common opinion is that the height of the clouds is not above nine miles But it is agreeable to no reason at all why any certain height should be determined for they are of unequall heights differing both according to the matter of their composure and also according to the time of the yeare being lower in winter then in summer for when the sunne hath the greatest force they then ascend the higher and in his smaller force they hang the lower By which it appeareth that the sunne helpeth to uphold them and keepeth them although heavier then the aire even in the aire for they sometimes also follow his motion But note that it is not the sunne alone which upholds them for the aire it self is also a cause of their not falling and that both within the clouds and also without them within the clouds for the clouds are of a spungie nature and full of pores which are filled with aire leâ—…t there should be vacuum and this aire heaveth them up causing them to aspire without the clouds also because they do as it were float up and down in the aire as some heavie things do in the water and yet not sink unlesse their substance be too earthie and heavie Artic. 2. Of Rain FRom clouds I proceed to speak of rain And rain is nothing else but as it were the melting of a cloud turned into water Or according to Aristotle it is the flux of a fertill cloud resolved by the heat of the sunne into distilling drops of water which being depressed with their own weight fall down to the earth For when the matter of the cloud being a cold vapour and earthly humour is drawn from the earth and waters into the middle Region of the aire and there thickened through the cold dwelling in the confines of that place it is at the last dissolved and cannot therefore but fall down in drops which drops if they be great are caused either by the quick resolution of the cloud or else by the little distance of it from the earth But if they be smaller then either the great distance or slow resolution maketh them of no ample quantitie The first of these is named nimbus the other is called imber And note that the dissolution as hath been said proceedeth out of heat which is not onely of the sunne but of windes also of an hot temper as is seen in the southern winde which bloweth up rain sooner then any other winde And as for rains which come from cold coasts and at cold times of the yeare if the cloud be not at such times as some may think dissolved through the heat of any winde it dissolveth it self through its own weight being a little holpen by the sunne for it continueth in the aire even whilest it can stay no longer And at these times also if we consider all aright we shall finde that the winde somewhat helpeth although not so speedily as from hotter coasts for naturally there is a kinde of heat in every winde because it is an Exhalation hot and drie although by accident as from
South South and by East South South East South East and by South South East South East and by East East South East East and by South East East and by North East North East North East and by East North East North East and by North North North East North and by East And then North again as in the beginning Artic. 4. The nature and qualitie of the windes IT may well appeare by that which already hath been written concerning the generation of windes that every winde in it self or in respect of the matter causing it is of an hot and drie qualitie If therefore blowing from any quarter we finde it other it is by accident and not through any inherent propertie for windes do evermore participate of the nature of that place by which they passe If by snowie mountains then bring they with them the cold of those mountains if by marshes contagion if by woods their blast is broken if by sandie plains they are warm if by moist watry places they are wet And therefore for particular windes the Panormi in Sicil are extream hot for before they pierce thither they scoure through the plains of Sicil and taking heat from the sands they carrie it into the citie The South winde at Genua is cold because it passeth the sea and taketh coldnesse thereof without touching the land before it arive But the North winde which bloweth through France saith one cometh from the sea and taking some measure of heat by the saltnesse thereof and finding no mountains covered with ice or snow in his passage augmenteth his heat by passing over the fields of Normandie Champaigne the isle of France and other provinces even to the hills of Auvergne which being moderately heated by the South winde on the one side and the North winde on the other bringeth forth every where excellent pastures and feedings for cattell and sheep besides divers sorts of medicinable plants and most perfect simples Also in some places it is found that the Eastern winde moisteneth and the Western winde bringeth drought and in other some the Western moisteneth and the other drieth So that it is possible for one and the same winde to have a divers qualitie although not in it self yet by accident as at the first was mentioned Yet neverthelesse generally and in most places the North with his associates is cold and drie the South with his companions is warm and moist and the East with his adherents is farre more drie then the Western and his neare neighbour windes The reasons whereof may be First for the North because it bloweth over many snowie mountains and ariseth from a climate which hath little neighbourhood with the sunne where the vapours be few and the exhalations many that arise out of sundry islands by the way Unto which also adde because the exhalation passeth not farre before it come at us that therefore it seldome bringeth rain for the exhalation hath not time enough to spend the driest portion of it so as the South winde doth who passeth both over more waterie places and also cometh further before we feel it Secondly for the South winde it cometh over the Mediterranean sea out of which the sunne begets abundance of waterie vapours which mix themselves with the windes causing them thereupon to be the blowers in of rain And as for their heat it is because they blow from the Equator where heat is most predominant Also know that a long and gentle South winde may sometimes cause clearenesse and fair weather most commonly in the summer season because it is by nature hot and therefore blowing for a certain space it so warmeth the aire that the vapours which otherwise would produce rain are not suffered to be knit but are attenuated and made so thin that they come to nothing or being any thing they prove onely barren clouds affording little rain Thirdly the East winde is found to be the driest because it cometh over a great continent of land lying towards the East out of which many drie and earthie exhalations are drawn In winter these windes are very cold and freezing but in summer they are pleasantly warm but healthfull and if at any time they blow up rain which is not ordinary they then continue it by the space of a whole day even as the like also sometimes happeneth from the North. The reason of which I take to be because perhaps their lateralls not being absolutely of the same qualitie may arise together with them and so bring rain especially if at the same time there be any other working in nature apt to moisten the skie with vapours For it is affirmed that Eurus on the one side and Coecias on the other side being two laterall windes pertinent to the East do naturally raise clouds and often turn them into rain as do also Upocoecias and Mes'eurus their collateralls And so also Cyrcius may do and Borrholybicus being on the West side of the North if either of them happen to arise and joyn although but weakly with the Northern blast For in their own sole blowings they beget both snow and hail either of which may fall down in drops of rain when the mixture of qualities is found to be divers Fourthly the Western winde is farre more moist then the East because it passeth over the great ocean of the Atlantick sea which must needs cast out many waterie and moist vapours and they cannot but beget rain and showers It is said also to be of a cold temper but surely not of an absolute coldnesse for it is found by experience that a direct Zephyrus or Favonius with their collateralls Mesocorus and Up'africus are warm and pleasant bringing sometimes hot showers sometimes warm and cleare weather And therefore it is determined by certain authours that this winde may blow from a cold place and yet bring heat For although in regard of the place over which it cometh it be cold yet in respect of the time when it usually bloweth it is hot Which Horace also pointed at saying Solvitur acris hyems grat â vice veris Favonî The winter sharp is loosed by the kinde Return of Spring and of the Western winde Or will you heare what others say Lemnius as Origanus relateth affirmeth that this Western winde and his collateralls are of a changing temper For although in the beginning of the Spring they be pleasing and gentle and are found to recreate and cherish all things seeing they are warmed by the moderate heat of the sunne which makes them bring out the beautie of trees and flowers to the view of the world and also causeth the bloud and good humours to appeare which in winter lay hid as if they were not casting away also the clouds of the minde and begetting jocundnesse in the heart yet neverthelesse Autumne ending and the circuit of the yeare enclining to Winter the foresaid windes do blow unkindely striking the sea
flows out of the same lake makes them white See Plin. in the 103. chap. of his 2 book Plinie also in the former book and chapter makes mention of the river Xanthus which will make the flocks turn red if they drink the water Solinus affirmeth the like of a fountain in Arabia neare to the Red-sea saying in littore maris istius fontem esse quem si oves biberint mutent vellerum qualitatem at fulvo postmodum nigrescant colore To which purpose we may heare Du Bartas descant thus Cerona Xanth and Cephisus do make The thirsty flocks that of their waters take Black red and white And neare the crimson deep Th' Arabian fountain maketh crimson sheep Seneca speaketh of a river which maketh horses red Now these things may be as Dr. Fulk yeelds probable conjecture in that the qualitie of the water may alter the complexion and the complexion being altered the colour of their wooll and hairs may be changed Aristotle in his 3 book chap. 12 de histor animal maketh mention of such like waters also as there is a river in Assyria called Psychrus of that coldnesse which causeth the sheep that drink thereof to yean black lambes in Antandria there are two rivers the one maketh the sheep white the other black the river Scamander doth die them yellow Dr. Will. in his Hexap on Gen. ex Aristot. Plinie makes mention of the Hammonian fountain saying Iovis Hammonis fons interdiu frigidus noctibus fervet The fountain of Jupiter Hammon is cold in the day time and hot in the night Like unto which is that which he calleth the fountain of the Sunne excepting that the water is sweet at noon and bitter at midnight but for the times of cold and heat it is like to the other fountain lib. 2. cap. 103. Some seem to think that this may be the reason namely that the cold humidity of the night nourisheth the heat and by an Antiperistasis causeth it to reinforce it self inward But by day the Sunne-beams sucking up that heat which is in the surface that is to say above the water remaineth cold Others determine thus saying that this may be by the same reason that well-water is colder in summer then it is in winter We have in England wells which make wood and all things else that be cast into them stones the cause whereof is great cold Iosephus de Bello Iudaic. lib. 7. cap. 24. writeth that there is a river in Palestine which passeth between two cities called by these names viz. Arcen and Raphaneâ—… which river is admirable for an extraordinarie singularitie namely that having entertained his violent and swift course for the space of six dayes on the seventh it remaineth dry which being past it runneth as before and therefore is called the river of the Sabbath Du Bartas calleth it the Jews religious river Keeping his waves from working on that day Which God ordain'd a sacred rest for ay In Idumea was a well which one quarter of the yeare was troubled and muddy the next quarter bloudie the third green and the fourth cleare Isiodore makes mention of this and it is called the fountain of Job Seneca and others affirm that there be rivers whose waters are poyson now this may be in regard that they run through poysonous mineralls and receive infection from their fume and the like Such is the water Nonacrinis in Arcadia of which it is recorded that no vessell of silver brasse or iron can hold it but it breaketh in pieces onely a mules hoof and nothing else can contain it Some write that Alexander the great through the treacherie and plots of Antipater was poysoned with this water Curtius calleth it the water of Styx lib. 10. juxta finem In an isle of Pontus the river Astaces overfloweth the fields in which whatsoever sheep or other milch cattell be fed they alwayes give black milk This river Plinie forgetteth not lib. 2. cap. 103. It is reported that in Poland is a fountain so pestilent that the very vapour thereof killeth beasts when they approach unto it There be some waters which make men mad who drink of them Which is in a manner by the same reason that other fountains have made men drunk Some again spoil the memorie and make men very forgetfull which may very well be by procuring obstructions in the brain Fulk Seneca speaketh of a water that being drunk provoketh unto lust Plinie in the second chapter of his 31 book speaketh of certain waters in the Region of Campania which will take away barrennesse from women and madnesse from men And in Sicilia are two springs one maketh a woman fruitfull the other barren The foresaid Plinie in the same book and chapter saith that the river Amphrysus or Aphrodisium causeth barrennesse And again in his 25 book and 3 chapter he speaketh of a strange water in Germanie which being drunk causeth the teeth to fall out within two yeares and the joynts of the knees to be loosed Lechnus a spring of Arcadia is said to be good against abortions In Sardinia be hot wells that heal sore eyes and in Italie is a well which healeth wounds of the eyes In the isle of Chios is said to be a well which makes men abhorre lust and in the same countrey another whose propertie is to make men dull-witted Now these and the like qualities may as well be in waters which are mixed with divers mineralls and kindes of earth as in herbs roots fruits and the like The lake Pentasium as Solinus saith is deadly to serpents and wholesome to men And in Italie the lake Clitorie causeth those that drink of it to abhorre wine Fulk Met. lib. 4. Ortelius in the description of Scotland maketh mention of divers fountains that yeeld forth oyl in great quantitie which cometh to passe by reason of the viscositie or fatnesse of the earth where they passe and from whence they arise The like may be also said concerning pitchie streams c. Some waters are of that temper that men sink not in them although they know not how to swimme The like lake is said to be in Syria in which as Seneca relateth no heavie thing will sink That which Plinie writeth of the fountain Dodone lib. 2. cap. 103. is very strange whereupon Du Bartas makes this descant What should I of th' Illyrian fountain tell What shall I say of the Dodonean well Whereof the first sets any clothes on fire Th' other doth quench who but will this admire A burning torch and when the same is quenched Lights it again if it again be drenched There be some wells whose waters rise and fall according to the ebbing and flowing of the sea or of some great river unto which they are neare adjoyned The reason therefore of this is plain But strange is that which Dr Fulk mentioneth of the river Rhene in Germanie
likewise many islands such as were never seen before And thus there may be five severall kindes of earthquakes Know also that an earthquake hath both his Antecedentia and Subsequentia The Antecedentia are the signes which go before it and shew that it will be The Consequentia or Subsequentia are the effects which follow after it and shew that it hath been As for the Antecedentia or signes they be of these sorts chiefly First a great tranquillitie or calmnesse of the aire mixed with some cold the reason of which is because the exhalation which should be blowing abroad is within the earth Secondly the sunne is observed to look very dimme certain dayes before although there be no clouds the reason of which is because the winde which should have purged and dissolved the grosse aire is taken prisoner and enclosed within the bowels of the earth Thirdly the birds flie not but sit still beyond their ordinary wont and seem as if they were not fearfull to let any one come neare them the reason of which is because either the pent exhalation sendeth some strange alteration into the aire which slenderly breatheth out of some insensible pores of the earth which it may do though the exhalation comes not out or else it is that they are scarce able to flie for want of some gentle gales for their wings to strike upon it being a thing well known that birds flie more willingly and cheerfully when the aire is of such a temper Fourthly the weather is calm and yet the water of the sea is troubled and rageth mightily the reason of which is because the great plentie of spirits or winde in the bottome of the sea beginneth to labour for passage that way and finding none is sent back again whereupon soon after it shaketh the land This is evermore a certain signe Fifthly the water in the bottome of pits and deep wells is troubled ascending and moving as if it boyled stinking and is infected the reason of which is because the exhalation being pent and striving to get forth moveth some stinking mineralls and other poisonous stuffe to the springs of those waters and they with the strugling exhalation stirre and attaint them Sixthly there is a long thin cloud seen in a cleare skie either a little before sunne-setting or soon after now this is caused by reason of the calmnesse of the aire even as Aristotle observeth that in a quiet sea the waves float to the shore long and straight I do not think that this alone can be any more then a very remote signe unlesse it be joyned with some of the other signes already mentioned for although such a cloud may be seen yet every calm brings not an earthquake neither are all places alike subject to them The last signe and that which cannot but be infallible is the great noise and sound which is heard under the earth like to a groning or very thundering And yet some say that this is not alwayes attended with an earthquake for if the winde finde any way large enough to get out it shaketh not the earth Now this noise is made by the struggling of the winde under the earth Next after the Antecedentia the Consequentia of earthquakes would be considered and these as I said be their effects which indeed be not so much the effects of the earthquake as of the exhalation causing the earthquake The first whereof may be the ruine of buildings and such like things together with the death of many people About the 29 yeare before the birth of Christ was an earthquake in Iurie whereby thirtie thousand people perished In the fifth yeare of Tiberius Emperour of Rome thirteen cities of Asia were destroyed in one night by an earthquake Some say but twelve Lanq. chron In the 66 yeare of Christ three cities of Asia were also by the like accident overthrown namely Laodicea Hieropoliâ—… and Colossus Again in the yeare of Christ 79 three cities of Cyprus came to the like ruine and in the yeare following was a great death of people at Rome And in the yeare 114 Antioch was much hurt by an earthquake at which time the Emperour Trâ—…jan being in those parts escaped the danger very difficultly Eusebius placeth it in the second yeare of the 223 Olympiad and Bucholcerus setteth it in the yeare of Christ one hundred and eleven Eusebius makes mention of another before this in the 7 yeare of Trajan this was that which in Asia Greece Calabria overthrew nine severall cities About the yeare of Christ 180 or 182 the citie Smyrna came to the like ruine for the restauration whereof the Emperour remitted ten yeares tribute About the yeare of Christ 369 Eusebius again telleth of an earthquake which was in a manner all over the world to the great damage of many towns and people The like was in the yeare 551 at which time a quave of the earth swallowed a middle part of the citie Misia with many of the inhabitants where the voice of them that were swallowed was heard crying for help and succour He also in the yeare 562 mentions another wherewith the citie Berintho was overthrown and the isles called Câ—…y grievously shaken Again he writeth of a great tempest and earthquake in the yeare 1456 wherein as he hath it out of Chronica chronicorum there perished about Puell and Naples 40 thousand people Also in the yeare 1509 the citie of Constantinople was sorely shaken innumerable houses and towers were cast to the ground and chiefly the palace of the great Turk insomuch that he was forced to fly to another place Thirteen thousand perished in this calamitie Again in the yeare 1531 in the citie Lisbon a thousand foure hundred houses were overthrown or as some say one thousand five hundred and above six hundred so shaken that they were ready to fall and their churches cast unto the ground lying like heaps of stones This earthquake was attended with a terrible plague and pestilence And thus do these examples confirm the first effect A second is the turning of plain ground into mountains and raising up of islands in the sea as Thia in the time of Plinie and Therasia which as Seneca witnesseth was made an island even in the sight of the mariners or whilest they were looking on Thus also Delos Rhodos and sundry others came to be islands A third effect is the throwing down of mountains and sinking of islands and such like Thus perished the Atlantick island as I shewed before yea thus also perished by the breach of the earth those famous cities of Achaia viz. Helice and Buris of which Ovid writeth thus Si quaras Helicen Burin Achaeidas urbes Invenies sub aquis Et adhuc ostendere nautae Inclinata solent cum moenibus oppida mersis If thou would'st Helice and wish'd Buris finde Th'Achaean cities never lost in minde The water hides them and the shipmen show Those
the seas seemeth no bigger then a flying dove They shew of the same greatnesse in India in England They enlighten all parts of the earth alike and appeare the same indifferently to all and therefore must needs be of an extraordinarie bignesse And secondly as soon as the sunne ariseth all the starres are hid which shews his greatnesse And further if the sunne were not of such greatnesse as Artists give unto it how could all the world be enlightned by it Sect. 2. Of the Matter Place and Motion of the Starres with other like things which are also pertinent Artic. 1. That they consist most of a fierie matter and are cherished by the waters above the heavens BY Heaven and Earth which Moses saith were created in the beginning we are to understand all and every part of the whole Universe whose matter was created at once and made as it were the store-house for all things else as alreadie in the first dayes work I have declared Howbeit some contend that the starres and lights of heaven were not made out of any matter either of the earth or the waters or of heaven or any thing beside but immediately out of nothing Which certainly is scarce agreeable to the whole scope of creation For in the beginning the matter of all was made And perhaps as it was proper to the earth to bring forth herbs grasse and trees at the command of God in the third dayes work so also perhaps it was as proper to the heavens in some sort to afford the matter of the luminaries and otherstarres as soon as God said Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven And herein those Philosophers were not much amisse who defined the starres to be the thicker part of their orbs Yet neverthelesse not so to be followed as if the heavens afforded any solid orbs unto which as the knots in a tree or the nails in a wheel or the gemme in a ring the starres are joyned For besides that which I have alreadie spoken of the whole space within the concavitle of the firmament viz. that it is but aire yet purer and purer the higher we climbe which I proved in the second day both by opticall demonstration height consumption and motion of Comets with the like besides that I say there be other reasons also to declare it For not onely certain Poets have confessed as much calling the Skie Spirabile coeli numen as we reade in Virgil or a Liquid heaven as Ovid tells us saying Et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aëre coelum nor yet is it confirmed by the testimonie of Plinie alone who followed herein the opinion of ancient Philosophers but even reason also and exquisite modern observations have made it plain For suppose there were solid orbs or that this concave were not filled with liquid aire would it not follow that there should be as it were penetratio corporum or that one Sphere should cut another in sunder Questionlesse it would For the Planets move so up and down that they often enterfeir and cut one anothers orbs now higher and then lower as Mars amongst the rest which sometimes as Kepler confirms by his own and Tycho's accurate observations comes nearer the earth then the Sunne and is again eftsoons aloft in Iupiters sphere And doth not Tycho's Hypothesis and Systema of the world make it also plain that the sphere of the Sunne must be interfected by the orbs of Venus Mars and Mercury which could not be if the heavens were impenetrable or differed toto genere from this soft aire wherein we live and move And now see this figure framed according to Tycho's demonstration Thus Tycho describeth the wayes and situations of the Planets The starres therefore move in the heavens as birds in the aire or fishes in the sea and the like yet so as their bounds are set which with great regularitie to the admiration of their Maker they constantly come unto depart away from in their appointed times and determined orders and therefore said to be set in the firmament of heaven vers 17. those of the fixed ones being as equally distant one from another now and at this very day as at the first when God Almightie made them and those of the wandring ones as constant in their courses as ever yet from the first time they began to move Whereupon saith Tycho Semper judicavi naturalem motûs scientiam singulis Planetis congenitam vel potiùs à Deo inditam esse quâ in liquidissimo tenuissimo â—…there cursûs sui normam regularissimè constantissimè observare coguntur Yet neverthelesse we may not think that therefore they are living creatures animated with a soul and endued with life and reason but rather and in very deed as even now I said let this be an argument to shew and declare the admired wisdome of their Makeâ—… according to that of David in the 19 Psalme Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei The heavens declare the glorie of God and the firmament sheweth his handie work For The sunne cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoycath as a giant to runne his course And yet again it is a thing very probable that those amongst the Iews who made cakes for the Queen of heaven who burnt incense to the Sunne Moon Planets and host of heaven who dedicated horses and chariots to the Sunne did not onely do it because they worshipped them as gods but also because like some amongst the Philosophers and others amongst the Fathers they thought them to be living creatures Sure we are that Moses puts them not into his catalogue amongst such creatures as he reckoneth to have life and therefore who will say they live They may move and yet be inanimate as fire which is of power to move waste and consume aire inclosed is able to shake the earth water carrieth ships boats and barges flows this way and that way yet is no living creature hath no soul minde or reason Also it may be granted that they are daily nourished by vapourie humours and are as it were fed by such kinde of food yet no living creatures For no man will denie a transmutation of the elements but rather easily grant that they one nourish another for conservation of the Universe And in such a kinde or not farre differing it is that the stars may be nourished by watrie humours and have their beams made wholesome to the world although they be no living creatures All which may be seen more largely proved in Lydiats Praelectio Astronomica where having discoursed of the matter of the heavens and starres as also of the portions and transmutation of the elements he proveth that there is such a penurie of water here below that it cannot be supplied ad mundi non dicit aeternitatem sed diuturnitatem propter inaequales elementorum transmutationes not supplied without the consumption of the aire were not the waters divided The one
part whereof is circa mundi medium from whence may be had in readinesse alwayes that which is sufficient to water and fructifie the earth and leave a place for habitation The other circa mundi extremum as in a great treasure and plentifull store-house from whence per mediam aëris naturam both the starres are cherished their beams made wholesome to the world and also the expense of these lower waters salved in what is needfull for the earth as a bad debter either sends back none or little of that which it borrowed not being easily turned into any other element From whence saith he we may answer that question amongst the ancient Ethnick Philosophers mentioned by Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unde nutriatur mundus And indeed for mine own part I also think that the starres are of such a nature or substance that in their kinde they stand in need of daily sustentation like a lamp which can burn no longer then the oyl lasteth which ever feeds it For the heavens are subject to change and alteration neither is there any necessitie compelling us to attribute a quintessence to either of them especially seeing we are certain that the world is not eternall but that we may as well and as probably grant them to be of the same nature with the elements as formerly I have related Which being granted I suppose them to be chiefly of a fierie nature and this perhaps they took from the highest part of the aire in the supream height of heaven which reacheth to the utmost extent of the out-spread firmament For there is that which we call the Elementarie fire there I say and not in a lower place although Aristotle would have it in concavo lunae or next under the orb of the moon of which see more in the second dayes work And herein I do willingly also embrace the opinion of Plato that the starres for the most part are fierie yet so as they in some sort participate also of the other elements that thereby their bodies may be as it were glewed together and firmly concreted into a durable lump differing no otherwise from a Comet then ice doth from crystall or a cleare solid gemme from bright brittle glasse An experiment whereof we have in that new starre of Cassiopea's chair which because it was of a more solid composition then ordinarie comets and of a nearer nature to the matter of the continuing starres did therefore appeare like one of them lasted a long while with them before it was extinguished for had it not been exalted to a great perfection and solid composition of the parts it had been gone extinct and vanished a long while sooner And in granting to them something of every element although their greatest portion especially in the sunne be fierie it comes to passe that they have differing qualities of which see more afterwards in the Astrologicall part of this dayes work Neither shall I need to stand upon it as a thing necessary for me to prove whether they make warm the aire and us by any heat which is formally in them or by the attrition made with their beams Onely know that it is hotter in summer then in winter because when the beams of the sunne come nearest to a perpendicular trajection their heat is the greater because their reflexion is the stronger But leaving this give me leave to proceed and to prosecute more fully the matter in hand that thereby I may shew my meaning now more clearely concerning the daily nourishment of these bright heavenly lamps For as hath been said seeing their chiefest matter is of that nature of which it appeareth to be they must of necessitie be nourished out of some store-house or other otherwise the world comes to decay impavidum ferient ruinae and the very ruines will strike him who fears it not For satisfaction therefore in this it cannot be amisse to remember the opinion amongst sundry of the ancient Philosophers who said the truth and yet erred in declaring it as Cleanthes who allowed the matter of the sunne to be fierie and that it was nourished by humours attracted from the ocean Also Anaximander and Diogenes after whom Epicurus and the Stoicks thought in like manner that the sunne was nourished by waters and lest it should perish through any defect of aliment they fondly supposed that the oblique motion which it had from one Tropick to another was to finde out moist humours that thereby it might live perpetually Now these things very worthily were held by Aristotle to be ridiculous and absurd as in the second book of his Meteors at the second chapter is apparent Yet neverthelesse succeeding times did in a manner pitch still upon the same tenents and would not onely have the sunne and rest of the Planets but even all the other starres nourished by vapours and watrie humours as well as they For amongst others it was Cicero's opinion in his second book De natura deorum making the sea and waters of the earth their daily store-house See also Seneca in his 6 book and 16 chapter of Naturall questions and Plutarch in libello de Iside and Plinie in his Naturall historie lib 2. cap. 9. whose words are these Sydera verò haud dubiè humore terreno pasci c. These indeed spake the truth but as I said before they erred in declaring it For it is nothing probable neither may it be granted that all the seas or waters in the world are able to afford moisture enough for such a purpose And therefore smile I at those fable-forgers Whose busie-idle style so stiffly urges The heav'ns bright Saphires to be living creatures Ranging for food and hungry fodder-eaters Still sucking up in their eternall motion The earth for meat and for their drink the ocean Nor can I see how th' earth and sea should feed So many starres whose greatnesse doth exceed So many times if starre-divines say troth The greatnesse of the earth and ocean both For here our cattell in a moneth will eat Sev'n times the bulk of their own bulk in meat Wherefore be pleased to call to minde what was formerly mentioned in the second day concerning the waters above the heavens set apart from these below by the out-spread Firmament but how it is that there they are and that the out-spread Firmament is able to uphold them let the alledged reasons in the foresaid day be again remembred And then observe that these waters were certainly separated for some purpose for Deus Natura nihil faciunt frustra God and Nature make nothing in vain He made all things in number weight and measure saith Solomon so that there is nothing which was not made for something I do therefore consent again to those who suppose that these waters do daily nourish and cherish the starres thereby also so tempering and ordering their beams that they may remain wholesome to the world turning also and attenuating those drops with
above the rest Neither can the devil every day have it in his commission to go and blow down houses upon the heads of Jobs children Nay saith one if these significations are not to be considered why are they so divinely written and painted in the heavens Surely it were impietie altogether to pluck or draw away our mindes from the observation of these things For if the heavens as they do declare the glorie of God or the firmament shew forth his handie work we may well beleeve that they expresse what God effecteth by them for otherwise every thing which God created doth declare his handie work as well as they Eclipses conjunctions prodigious sights flashings comets new starres what are they but the Oracles of God by which changes alterations and sundrie calamities are threatned to the world And these if any one contemne them what doth he but despise the admonitions of God Also how much these observations have profited the Commonwealth let Thales teach us For they that have Thales his skill may by these signes judge of cheapnesse and plentie of dearth and deernesse with other like things whose knowledge cannot but be profitable to the life of man Onely beware that more be not attributed to the heavens then to him that made the heavens not more to the servants then to the Master as they did who made them gods or they who trust and rely upon them not daring to take a journey or begin a work or speak with a friend about any businesse without a needlesse consultation Also know that the observing of these signes must not be mixed with magicall spells as charmers do when in stead of using they come to abusing of herbs For as the herbs on the ground were not made to be abused in such damned and forbidden practises no more were the starres in the skie Neither ought the observing of these signes to be mixed with charactericall practises diabolicall or superstitious divinations making of images under such or such a constellation dangerous elections of times either to procure good or bring down ill from heaven as they did who blasphemously maintained that men are long-lived and their souls go to heaven when Saturn is in Leo or they who have not quaked to affirm that when the Moon is joyned with Jupiter in the head of the Dragon whatsoever a man then asketh at the hands of God he shall receive Neither ought we to flie unto them for finding of things lost for where you cannot argue from the cause to the effect their use is unlawfull Nor may we use them in the contingencie of things when the cause is unknown or indeterminate Nor were they made to decide horarie questions or sortilegious demands Nor yet may we erect figures thereby to answer to certain questions as to know whether a man shall have the thing he hopeth or looketh for to know what shall become of a mans secret enemies to know of the speedie or slack return of him that taketh in hand any journey and of such things as shall happen in the journey or to know by the eighth house whether a man shall enjoy the goods and dowrie of his wife or by the seventh whether a man shall obtain that woman in marriage which he desireth or by the sixth to know whether a man shall keep or leave his servant with other the like questions of which can be given or known no cause why the starres should ever be thought to effect them in somuch that it is a kinde of wonder to think how it should come to passe that ever any one could forge out such inquiries to be answered from the signes of heaven For the starres were not made to justifie the dangerous practises of wicked impostours nor to give answer to the causelesse curiosities of superstitious demanders but made to be both signes and causes of such things as already I have mentioned for when the state of the question is come beyond the course of the foure principall qualities of cold heat moisture and drinesse it will finde succour neither in sound philosophie nor in the holy Word of written veritie Last of all let this one thing be remembred that the constellations as is well known and apparently perceived of Astronomers by reason of a slow motion which the fixed starres hath sliding from the equinoctiall point about one degree in 72 yeares are now removed into other signes of the divided Zodiack causing those signes by the qualitie of the starres which are now in them to be of another nature as Aries which was hot and drie in the dayes of Ptolomie is by reason that the starres of Pisces are moved thither cold and moist and Taurus which was cold and drie is now of the nature of the starres of Aries that is hot and drie and so of all the residue of the fixed starres they are removed into new houses or other mansions Which if it be not proportionably considered let any mean capacitie judge how grosse an errour may heedlessely be produced by an unskilfull artist Parag. 3. Of that other office given to the starres viz. that they were appointed to be heavenly clocks and remarkable measurers of time and the parts thereof This office is laid down in these words And let them be for seasons and for dayes and yeares Artic. 1. Of Seasons IF we take seasons dayes and yeares together it is no hard thing to see how the whole and parts are joyned For Tempus is the whole and Annus is pars temporis and Dies is pars anni Not that these are the onely parts of time but because the other do chiefly consist of these Howbeit seeing they be laid down severally it is fit they be explained sunderly And first of Seasons We need not with the Jews understand here their feasts onely and anniversarie dayes of solemnitie for then this distinction of seasons had not been in use till after the coming out of Egypt neither is it enough to applie them to the monethly revolution of the moon or to the sunnes changing into a new signe or partition of the Zodiack But by the name of Seasons we ought rather to be led unto those Quatuor anni Cardines or foure Quarters of the yeare when the reviving sunne crosseth the Equinoctiall and again toucheth upon either solstice which last is as it were solis statio because the dayes seem to stand at a stay and the two other have their names from equall day and night because the dayes and nights are then of equall length Sol cheerfully riding in his gold-like fierie chariot just in the middest between the Artick and Antartick Poles For these were those seasons which God again established for ever when he renewed that face upon the decayed world which by the impartiall Floud was blemished saying as it is in Gen. chap 8. 22. While the earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter shall not cease And as for us we commonly
†It was but to shew saith S. Augustine contentnendam futuri tempoâ—…is 〈◊〉 vitatem d Marlor in Pet. Hierome on â—…er Zanch. Tom. 7. Praelect ae 〈◊〉 se. uâ—…i The world hath six Ages but not reckoned by thousands of yeareâ—… * 1. Cor. 15. 52. Revel 10. 5 6. Du Bartas in the handy-crafts 1 Adam 2 Noah 3 Abram 4 David 5 Zedech â—…ah or the captivitie 6 Christ. 7 The eternall sabbath e Ger. loc com Tom. 9. pag. 182. Impostours and false Prophets concerning the worlds ending f Ibid. ut antea * Or from the time of Christ born of a Virgin A crotchet to shew that the world must end in the yeare 1657 which is 24 yeares hence 1000 M 5 V  n 500 D 1 I   100 C  o  n  f 50 L  a  g  r  a  t 1 I  o 1657.  Another erotchet whereby the world should end in the yeare 1645 which now 12 is yeares hence The former opinion confuted John 19. 37. Vide Buchol chron anno Dom. 1533. Vide Dieteâ—… post Dom. 2. adven g See Treas of ancient and modern times l. 4. cap. 20. h Napeir on the Revelat. Prop. 14 where he determines the time to be betwixt the yeares 1688 and 1700 naming either the yeare 1697 or 1699. i See Jun. Calâ—… Polan or Dr. Will. Hexap 〈◊〉 Dan. k August Epist. 80 〈◊〉 Hesych Revelat. 10. 6. Plin. lib. 16. cap. 20. A second opinion is that the world began at the Spring A third and best opinion is that the world began in Autumne An answer to their first reason who place the creation in the Spring * Viz. the first day Gen. 8. 4 5. * Gen. 9. 3. * Calvis chrâ—… cap. de temp mundi conditi * Or from the tenth to the second moneth See Gen. chap. 8. An answer to â—â—eir second reason who place the creation in the Spring Gen. 1. 29. and 3. 2. The course of nature was never changed An answer to their third reason who place the creation in the Spring Adam â—…ll soon after his creation * Upon Matth. chap. 27. * Broughtonâ—… Concent Hexap upon Gen. chap. 3. quest 31. An answer to their fourth reason who place the creation in the Spring Object Answ. Object Answ. * 1. Kings â—… 2. a 1. King 6. 38. b 1. King 6. 1 â—…7 The conclusion wherein the former part of the chapter is recapirulated and all explained * Calvis Chr. cap. de temp mund cond Bâ—…oald lib. 1. cap. 7. * FORTIUM à praestantia dignitate dicitur quia non a â—…ni tantum sed etiam Sabbati Iubilaei principium fuit Wolph de Temp. lib. 1. pag. 15. †Levit. 23 39. * 2. Sam. 11. 1. 2. Chron. 36. 10. Ezek. 40. See also Wolph de temp Bux de Synag Iul. Seal de Em. Temp. c. Quest. Answ. a Deus dum coetum 〈◊〉 et fecit aeteâ—…nitatis quandam in numâ—… fluentem imaginem quam noâ—… Tâ—…pus vocaâ—… us Coclen ex Plâ—…t Exoâ—… 3. 14. b c When we behold the admired fabrick of the world c. we can no more ascribe it to chance then a Printers case of letters could by chance fall into the right composition of any such book as he printeth * Psal. 2. 7. John 15. 26. d Du Bart. 1. day of the 1. week * Coloss. 1. 16. e Dr. Willet on Gen. pag. 20. f Gib on Gen. Quest. 1. g Freig Histor. Mosaic pag. 5. h Gib on Gen. Quest. 1. i Etsi ex rihilo nihil sit per mâ—…um seu transmutatioâ—…em id est generatur tamen ex nihilo aliquid sit per simâ—…licem emanationem id est creatur Goâ—…len disp Phys. k Confess lib. 12. cap. 21. l Du Bart first day of the first week m Mr. Purch in his first part lib. 1. cap. 2. n Not the aire or winde they were not yet o Gibbens on Gen. quest 2. annâ—…t d. †Aust. * Ephes. 1. 11. Quest. Answ. * Bish. Hall contemp lib. 1. * Psal. 104. 2. * 2. Cor. 4. 6. a Ex tenebris dicitur eduxiâ—…se luâ—…em non ut ex materia nihil enim tenebrae fu rient nisi negatio lacis sed ut è conâ—…rario termino Pare in Gen. pag. 146. b Which was the locall but not materiall originall of it as saith Pareus ibid. c Aquin. Sum. 1. par Quest. 70. aâ—…tie 1. Of Angels and when theâ—… were created d See Dr. Willet on Gen. chap. 1. Quest. 33. e Aquin. Sum. part 1. quest 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f God made one proper centre for all things of one kinde unto which he reduceâ—… them * 2. Cor. 4. 6 Ephe. 5. 8. g Purcâ—… lib. 1. cap. 2. h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 4. i inâ—…n â—…n pag. 148. k But otherwise it may be said that the first dayes light was carried to another hemispheare just with the dawning of the second day for as soon as the out spread Firmament was commanded to be the Heavens surely were made and began to move * Esay 60. 19. a Janius Gibbens and others b Meth. Theâ—…l lib. 2. pag. 333. c See Gibbens on Gen. chap. 1. quest 5. d See Lydiats disquisitio Phys. cap. 10. pag. 196. a â—…oclon disput 18. sect 29. b In his second day of the first week * Gen. 1. 7. Psal. 104 3. Psal. 148. 4. c Hyp. Meth. 〈◊〉 liv 2. pag 335. d Ainsworth on Gen. e Lydiat disqui sâ—…tio Phys. cap. 10. * â—…er 10. 13. f 〈◊〉 noâ—… magis 〈◊〉 câ—…lum ipsum quâ—…ant Hyper. Meth. Theâ—…l lib. 2. pag. 335. The contrary and their reasons * Job 26. 8. g In Gen. pag. 70. h Plin. lib. 31. cap. 1. The reader is left unto his free choice The matter in question is cleared by answering the contrary arguments The sunne moon and starres are higher then the clouds and yet they are not said to be above the firmament but in it the fowls also flie in it but not above it * â—…er 10. 13. There was no middle Region untill the third day * Viz. 300 furlongs which make 37 miles and an half †As Atlas Pelion Ossa Caucasus and Tabor which last riseth up 30 furlongs as Iosephuâ—… writeth i Lyd. de orig fontiâ—…ns cap. 10. k Aquin. Sum. pâ—…r 1. Quest 69. Artâ—… Of the windows of heaven opened in the Floud That hills and mountains were not caused by the Floud l Pom. Mela lib. 1. cap. 11. Plin. lib. 5. cap. 13. m Antiq. lib. 1. cap. 3. * Gen. 7. 19 10. n Ains on Gen. * Gen. 8. 2. o Dr. Will. ex Bel. de gra pri hom p Antiq. lib. 1. cap. 4. q Necessario fatendum est si modo â—…ubes sint superiores illâ—… aqâ—…ae duo esse expansa ita duo ut de fabrica illius quod duoâ—…um multo est nobillus nulla siai mentâ—…o Lyd. de Orig. font cap. 10. r Distinguit a word