learnedly upon the Simple vulgarly and so on every one according to his condition and quality Secondly because it is not its Intention to fill our mindes in this life with vain and various curiosities which might occasion our doubt and suspense For the truth is He that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow Moreover it did not only permit but even decree that the World should be very much busied in Controversies and Disputations and that it should be imployed about the uncertainty of things according to that saying of Ecclesiastes He hath set the World in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning unto the end And touching those doubts God will not permit that they shall be discovered to us before the end of the World At which time he will bring to light the hidden things of darknesse But Gods onely scope in the sacred Scripture is to teach men those things which conduce to the attainment of Eternal Life which having obtained We shall see him face to face and shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Then shall he clearly à Priori make known unto us all those Curiosities and Dogmatical Questions which in this life in which we see through a Glasse darkly could be known by us but imperfectly and à postetiori and that not without much pains and study For this cause the Wisdome of God revealed to us in the sacred Leaves is not stiled Wisdome absolutely but Saving Wisdome It s onely end being to lead us to salvation And S. Paul preaching to the Corinthians saith I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified whereas notwithstanding he was thorowly instructed and profoundly learned in all humane Sciences but making no account of these things he professeth that it was his desire to teach them no more but the way to Heaven Hence is that which God speaketh to us by Isaiah Ego Dominus Deus docens te utilia I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee profitable things Where the Glossary addeth non subtilia not subtilties for God neither taught us Whether the Materia Prima of Heaven and the Elements be the same nor Whether Continual be composed of Indivisibles or whether it be divisible in infinitum nor whether the Elements are formally mixt nor how many the Coelestial Spheres and their Orbs are Whether there be Epicycles or Eccentricks nor the Vertues of Plants and Stones nor the Nature of Animals nor the Motion and Influence of the Planets nor the Order of the Universe nor the Wonders of Minerals and universal Nature but only utilia things profitable to wit his Holy Law ordained to the end that we being put into possession of Blessedness might at length be made capable of all perfect knowledge and the vision of the whole Order and admirable Harmony as also the Sympathy and Antipathy of the Universe and its parts in his Word wherein all those things shall most clearly and distinctly then appear to us which mean while in this life he hath remitted as far as its ability reacheth to humane search and enquiry But it was not his purpose to determine any thing directly or indirectly touching the truth of them Because as the knowledge thereof would little or nothing profit Us but might in some cases prove prejudicial so the ignorance thereof can doubtless be no detriment but may in some cases be very beneficial to us And therefore by his most admirable Wisdome it comes to pass that though all things in this World are dubious uncertain wavering and perplexed yet his Holy Faith alone is most certain and although the opinions about Philosophical and Doctrinal points be divers there is in the Church but one Truth of Faith and Salvation Which Faith as necessary to Salvation is so ordered by Divine Providence that it might not only be indubitable but also unshaken sure immutable and manifest to all men the infallible Rule of which he hath appointed the Holy Church that is washed with his precious Blood and governed by his Holy Spirit to whom belongs our Sanctification as being his work This therefore is the Reason why God would have Speculative Questions which nothing conduce to our Salvation and Edification and why the Holy Ghost hath very often condescended to Vulgar Opinions and Capacities and hath discovered nothing that is singular or hidden to us besides those things that pertain to Salvation So that consequently it is clear by what hath been said how and why nothing of certainty can be evinced from the foresaid Authorities to the determining of Controversies of this Nature as also with what Reason from this first Axiome the Objections of the first and second Classe are easily answered as also any other Authority of sacred Scripture produced against the Pythagorian and Copernican Systeme so long as by other proofs it is true And the Authorities of the second Classe in particular by this same Maxime Of the ordinary manner of apprehending things as they appear to us and after the common way of speaking may be thus reconciled and expounded namely Oftentimes an Agent is commonly and not improperly said to move though it have no motion not because it doth indeed move but by extrinsick denomination because receiving its influence and action at the motion of the Subject the Form and Quality infused to the Subject by the said Agent doth likewise move As for example a Fire burning in a Chimney is an immoveable Agent before which a man opprest with cold sits to warm himself who being warmed on one side turns the other to the Fire that he may be warmed on that side also and so in like manner he holds every part to the Fire successively till his whole body be warmed 'T is clear that although the Fire do not move yet at the Motion of the Subject to wit the Man who receiveth the heat and action of the Fire the Form and Quality of its Heat doth move singulatim per partes round about the mans body and alwayes seeketh out a new place and so though the Fire do not move yet by reason of its effect it is said to go round all the parts of the Mans body and to warm it not indeed by a true and real motion of the Fire it self since it is supposed and that not untruly not to move but by the motion to which the Body is excited out of a desire of receiving the heat of the Fire in each of its parts The same may be applied to the Illumination impressed successively on the parts of any Globe which moves Orbicularly at the aspect of a shining immoveable Light And in the same manner may the Sun be said to rise and set and to move above the Earth although in reality he doth not move nor suffer any mutation that is to say Inasmuch as his Light which effect is the Form and Quality proceeding
doth not oblige us to receive those Precepts which they have not so much as in their intentions enjoyned But if they did reflect and consider thereon they would long since have condemned it if they had judged it erroneous which we do not find that they have done Nay after that some Divines have began to consider it we find that they have not deem'd it erroneous as we read in the Commentaries of Didacus a Stunica upon Job in Cap. 9 v. 6. on the words Qui commovet Terram de loco suo c. Where he at large discourseth upon the Copernican Hypothesis and concludeth That the Mobility of the Earth is not contrary to Scripture Withal I may justly question the truth of that determination namely That the Church enjoyneth us to hold such like Natural Conclusions as matters of Faith onely because they bear the stamp of an unanimous Interpretation of all the Fathers And I do suppose that it may possibly be that those who hold in this manner might possibly have gone about in favour of their own Opinion to have amplified the Decretal of the Councils which I cannot finde in this case to prohibit any other save onely Perverting to Senses contrary to that of Holy Church or of the concurrent consent of Fathers those places and those onely that do pertain either to Faith or Manners or concern our edification in the Doctrine of Christianity And thus speaks the Council of Trent Sess. 4. But the Mobility or Stability of the Earth or of the Sun are not matters of Faith nor contrary to Manners nor is there any one that for the stablishing of this Opinion will pervert places of Scripture in opposition to the Holy Church or to the Fathers Nay Those who have writ of this Doctrine did never make use of Texts of Scripture that they might leave it still in the breasts of Grave and Prudent Divines to interpret the said Places according to their true meaning And how far the Decrees of Councills do comply with the Holy Fathers in these particulars may be sufficiently manifest in that they are so far from enjoyning to receive such like Natural Conclusions for matters of Faith or from censuring the contrary Opinions as erronious that rather respecting the Primitive and primary intention of the Holy Church they do adjudge it unprofitable to be busied in examining the truth thereof Let your Highness be pleased to hear once again what S. Augustine answers to to those Brethren who put the Question Whether it be true that Heaven moveth or standeth still To these I answer That Points of this nature require a curious and profound examination that it may truly appear whether they be true or false a work inconsistent with my leasure to undertake or go thorow with nor is it any way necessary for those whom we desire to inform of things that more nearly concern their own salvation and The Churches Benefit But yet although in Natural Propositions we were to take the resolution of condemning or admitting them from Texts of Scripture unanimously expounded in the same Sense by all the Fathers yet do I not see how this Rule can hold in our Case for that upon the same Places we read several Expositions in the Fathers Dionysius Areopagita saying That the Primum Mobile and not the Sun stand still Saint Augustine is of the same Opinion All the Celestial Bodies were immoveable And with them concurreth Abulensis But which is more amongst the Jewish Authors whom Josephus applauds some have held That The Sun did not really stand still but seemed so to do during the short time in which Israel gave the overthrow to their Enemies So for the Miracle in the time of Hezekiah Paulus Burgensis is of opinion that it was not wrought on the Sun but on the Diall But that in short it is necessary to Glosse and Interpret the words of the Text in Joshua when ever the Worlds Systeme is in dispute I shall shew anon Now finally granting to these Gentlemen more than they demand to wit That we are wholly to acquiesce in the judgment of Judicious Divines and that in regard that such a particular Disquisition is not found to have been made by the Ancient Fathers it may be undertaken by the Sages of our Age who having first heard the Experiments Observations Reasons and Demonstrations of Philosophers and Astronomers on the one side and on the other seeing that the Controversie is about Natural Problems and Necessary Dilemma's and which cannot possibly be otherwise than in one of the two manners in controversie they may with competent certainty determine what Divine Inspirations shall dictate to them But that without minutely examining and discussing all the Reasons on both sides and without ever comming to any certainty of the truth of the Case such a Resolution should be taken Is not to be hoped from those who do not stick to hazzard the Majesty and Dignity of the Sacred Scripture in defending the reputation of their vain Fancies Nor to be feared from those who make it their whole businesse to examine with all intensness what the Grounds of this Doctrine are and that only in an Holy Zeal for Truth the Sacred Scriptures and for the Majesty Dignity and Authority in which every Christian should indeavour to have them maintained Which Dignity who seeth not that it is with greater Zeal desired and procured by those who absolutely submitting themselves to the Holy Church desire not that this or that opinion may be prohibited but onely that such things may be proposed to consideration as may the more ascertain her in the safest choice than by those who being blinded by their particular Interest or stimulated by malitious suggestions preach that she should without more ado thunder out Curses for that she had power so to do Not considering that all that may be done is not alwayes convenient to be done The Holy Fathers of old were not of this opinion but rather knowing of how great prejudice and how much against the primary intent of the Catholick Church it would be to go about from Texts of Scripture to decide Natural Conclusions touching which either Experiments or necessary Demonstrations might in time to come evince the contrary of that which the naked sense of the Words soundeth they have not only proceeded with great circumspection but have left the following Precepts for the instruction of others In points obscure and remote from our Sight if we come to read any thing out of Sacred Writ that with a Salvo to the Faith that we have imbued may correspond with several constructions let us not so farre throw our selves upon any of them with a precipitous obstinacy as that if perhaps the Truth being more diligently search't into it should justly fall to the ground we might fall together with it and so shew that we contend not for the sense of Divine Scriptures but our own in that we
follow that Hell is either in the Sun forasmuch as it is supposed by this Hypothesis to be in the Centre of the World or else supposing that Hell is in the Centre of the Earth if the Earth should move about the Sun it would necessarily ensue that Hell together with the Earth is in Heaven and with it revolveth about the third Heaven than which nothing more absurd can be said or imagined The fifth Classis is of those Authorities which alwayes oppose Heaven to the Earth and so again the Earth to Heaven as if there were the same relation betwixt them with that of the Centre to the Circumference and of the Circumference to the Centre But if the Earth were in Heaven it should be on one side thereof and would not stand in the Middle and consequently there would be no such relation betwixt them which nevertheless do not only in Sacred Writ but even in Common Speech ever and every where answer to each other with a mutual Opposition Whence that of Genes 1. In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and Psal. 115. The Heaven even the Heavens are the Lords but the Earth hath he given to the Children of menâ— and our Saviour in that Prayer which he prescribeth to us Matth. 6. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven and S. Paul 1 Corinth 15. The first man is of the Earth earthy the second man is of Heaven heavenly and Coloss. 1. By him were all things created that are in Heaven and that are in Earth and again Having made peace through the Blood of his Crosse for all things whether they be things in Earth or things in Heaven and Chap. 3. Set your affections on things above not on things on the Earth with innumerable other such like places Since therefore these two Bodies are alwayes mutually opposed to each other and Heaven without all doubt referreth to the Circumference it must of necessity follow that the Earth is to be adjudged the place of the Centre The sixth and last Classis is of those Authorities which being rather of Fathers and Divines than of the Sacred Scripture say That the Sun after the day of Judgment shall stand immoveable in the East and the Moon in the West Which Station if the Pythagorick Opinion hold true ought rather to be ascribed to the Earth than to the Sun for if it be true that the Earth doth now move about the Sun it is necessary that after the day of Judgment it should stand immoveable And truth is if it must subsist without motion in one constant place there is no reason why it should rather stand in one site of that Place than in another or why it should rather turn one part of it than another to the Sun if so be that every of its parts without distinction which iâ— destitute of the Suns light cannot choose but be dismal and much worse affected than that part which is illuminated Hence also would arise many other absurdities besides these These are the Classes c. from which great assaults are made against the structure of the Pythagorick Systeme yet by that time I shall have first laid down six Maximes or Principles as impregnable Bulwarks erected against them it will be easie to batter them and to defend the Hypothesis of Pythagoras from being attaqued by them Which before I propound I do proâ—ess with that Humility and Modesty which becometh a Christian and a person in Religious Orders that I do with reverence submit what I am about to speak to the Judgment of Holy Church Nor have I undertaken to write these things out of any inducements of Temerity or Ambition but out of Charity and a Desire to be auxiliary to my neighbour in his inquisition after Truth And there is nothing in all this Controversie maintained by me that expect to be better instructed by those who profess these Studies which I shall not retract if any persons shall by solid Reasons reiterated Experiments prove some other Hypothesis to be more probable but yet until such time as they shall decide the Point I shall labour all I can for its support My first and chiefest Maxime is this When any thing is attributed in Holy Writ to God or to a Creature that 's not beseeming to or incommensurate with them it must of necessity be received and expounded one or more of the four following wayes First it may be said to agree with them Metaphorically and Proportionally or by Similitude Secondly According to our manner of Considering Apprehending Conceiving Vnderstanding Knowing c. Thirdly according to the Opinion of the Vulgar and the Common way of Speaking to which Vulgar Speech the Holy Ghost doth very often with much study accomodate it self Fourthly In respect of our selves and for that he makes himself like unto us Of each of these wayes there are these examples God doth not walk since he is Infinite and Immoveable He hath no Bodily Members since he is a Pure Act and consequently is void of all Passion of Minde and yet in Sacred Scripture Gen. 3. vers 8. it is said He walked in the cool of the day and Job 22. vers 14. it is said He walketh in the Circuit of Heaven and in many other places coming departing making hast is ascribed to God and likewise Bodily parts as Eyes Ears Lips Face Voice Countenance Hands Feet Bowâ—â— Garments Arms as also many Passions such as Anger Sorrow Repentance and the like What shall we say therefore Without doubt such like Attributes agree with God to use the Schoolmens words Metaphorically Proportionally and by Similitude And touching Passions it may be said that God condescendeth to represent himself after that manner as for instance The Lord is angry i. e. He revealeth himself as one that is angry He grieved i. e. He revealeth himself as one that is sorrowful It repented him that he had made man i. e. He seemed as one that repented And indeed all these things are Comparativè ad nos and in respect of us So God is said to be in Heaven to move in time to shew himself to hide himself to observe and mark our steps to seek us to stand at the door to knock at the door not that he can be contained in a bodily place nor that he is really moved nor in time nor that humane manners or customes can agree with him save only according to our manner of Apprehension This Conception of ours orderly distinguisheth these Attributes in him one from another when notwithstanding they are one and the same with him This Apprehension of ours divideth also his actions into several times which neverthelesse for the most part are produced in one and the same instant And this to conclude alwayes apprehendeth those things with some defect which notwithstanding are in God most perfect For this reasâ—n doth the Sacred Scripture express it self according to the Vulgar Opinion whilst it