Heresie and Atheism I confidently believe that this admirable order of the World which disperses the confusisions and chaos which by reason of mens ignorance do yet reign will even make the greatest Atheists of this world to confesse That they cannot have their originall but from God alone who is the Soveraign Creator of all things Melancthon saith farther That if there were divers Worlds it would be requisite that Jesus Christ should suffer death several times for to save them all but what do we know whether those Men in the Stars are better then those that are in this world whereof Satan is called the Prince and where he abides for which cause St. John saith in Chap. 12. v. 12. of the Revelations Therefore rejoyce ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea for the Devil is come down unto you And though we should certainly know that those men in the Starres have need of salvation God hath so many means and wayes to us unknown for to save them and to satisfie his Justice that we need not inform our selves about these things but believe them in faith captivating our understandings as an ancient Father of the Church hath well spoken But some may object Who is he that will believe it To whom I shall reply with Plato No wicked man shall ever know it but he onely who shall be found worthy of it Let then those who are unworthy of so high and sublime knowledge withdraw hence their gross spirit cannot apprehend the subtilty of it and as Spiders do turn the best food into venome and poyson they call that which is the true way to the knowledge of God the high-way to Atheism Chap. XXXV Proving the Plurality of Worlds by a Reason drawn from the place of Hell SOme scrupulous persons might say That the Reason of this Chapter seems in something to contradict the doctrine of the Church But I shall answer him That if any one should endeavour to prove that there is no Hell his Opinion should certainly be esteemed erroneous and pernicious but to do nothing but to establish and confirm it as I do in this Chapter and to remark the place where it is being that the Divines cannot certainly point out the place I find nothing in it repugnant to Christianity Now whereas our bodies are to rise from the dead for to be rewarded according to their deserts good or evill and that the damned are in greater number then the saved the place of Hell must needs be very spatious and great to contain them all and solid and firm to uphold them but it cannot be anywhere but in one of the Stars and so consequently the Stars may have Inhabitants in them for it 's said That the Center of the Earth because it is the center of the World and the farthest place from Heaven but that I cannot find it needful to place it in the Center of the World considering that God is equally every where and that men cannot alienate themselves from him and also because it 's very easie to prove the contrary not only in that it could not be sufficient to contain in it self all the damned that have been since the Creation and shall be unto the end nor can be penetrated through by their lumpish bodies and also because the Earth it self at the day of Judgment must be consumed and done away as Esdras saith in 4th Chapter and 42 verse of his second book but also in this that not the earth but the Sun is the Center of the worlds the Sun then by reason of its far distance from the highest Heavens saith Foscarinus is the true place of Hell even as its siery nature required for the internall habitations seems to perswade it but I cannot admit this opinion though that I hold that Hell must be in one of the Stars but to seat it in so beautiful a Star as the Sun is I cannot consent to it seeing that the damned Souls cannot merit so good and advantagious an habitation But on the contrary It may seem more plausible and consonant to truth to seat the Paradise of God in the Sun according to that Text in the Psalms In Sâ—le posuit tabernaculum suum God hath placed his Tabernacle in the Sun But to prove more certainly that Hell is not within the Earth let us but observe that it was created before the Earth seeing that the wicked Angels were banished into it before the Creation of the Earth to which agrees the first Chapter and 14 verse of the Wisdome of Solomon saying The Kingdom of death is not upon the Earth Chap. XXXVI Proving the plurality of Worlds by an Argument drawn from the Seat of Paradise both Celestial and Terrestrial IT may likewise be proved That Paradise is no where else but in the Stars Now it 's most clear and certain that it 's not this Earth but a new Earth wherein is the heavenly Jerusalem which must needs be a solid place as well as our Earth that it may hold us up wherein all joy and happinesse shall be and out of which shall all miseries and torments be banished this place is prepared of old for men and what do we know but that we shall be dispersed into severall Stars doth not our Lord Christ Jesus assure us That in his Fathers house are many Mansions and Esdras in the 4. chap. 7. ver. of his second Book tels us How many Springs are above the Firmament and which are the out-goings of Paradise It may be that after we have inhabited this Earth of misery and sorrow wherein death and infirmity are the wages of our sins we shall be introduced into those high Globes wherein we shall live for ever in fulnesse of happinesse and joy Is it not said in Rev. 2. ver. 28. To him that overcomes will I give the morning Star And Job in the 38. and 7. v. doth see through Faith the Morning Stars singing together and all the Sons of Men shouting for joy This his Vision shall be accomplished when we shall trample upon these moving wonders and if by reason of those glorious objects we may remember the things of this Earth we shall from those vast habitations of glory look with great contempt and disdain upon this lump of Earth so highly esteemed of men and by them divided into so many Regions and Countreys and upon that drop of water by them divided into so many Seas May it not also be that the Earthly Paradise or Garden of Eden out of which Adam was driven was the same place whereunto we shall return he was driven out of it for his sins without which he had not tasted death And now that Jesus Christ by his satisfaction to the Father's Justice hath blotted them out we shall be therein introduced Munster faith that many ancient Philosophers did imagine it scituated in a high place encompassed with fire adjoyning the Circle of the Moon
and batter and thunder down the strongest places and that in a moment those instruments should execute our will That by printing and the letters we might communicate our thoughts to another and write in a short time a number infinite of books and even write a thousand times faster then we speak transmit and leave to our posterity our exquisite conceptions and get an immortal name And that by the prospective glasses we might approach to objects far distant strengthen our sight and make us distinctly to see things sar remote If these things I say had been proposed to us in a time wherein farther speech and enquire had never more been made of it who had believed them but rather who had not laughed at them and derided the first motioner of them and yet experience daily sheweth the effects of these Inventions to be true So the former Ages did condemne as hereticks those who believed the Antipodes and this belief was a long time held for a false and ridiculous opinion Christophorus Columbus was rejected of divers Kings when he proposed to them the discovery of the West-Indies and yet his propositions have been found very true and have immortalised their Author So likewise do I hope that time will bring forth the truth of this my opinion which I do not produce to the light without many strong Reasons and the authority of the most learned men the holy Scripture it self is not repugnant and contradictory to it but rather leans much towards my opinion And as touching those Philosophers who grant it not some deny not but that this may be others dare not contradict it and others have so ridiculous reasons that I cannot imagine weaker can be found and considering all they no more then I have ascended into Heaven and therefore who ever hath the best Reasons ought to be believed which being doubtlesse on my side my opinion ought not at all to be esteemed ridiculous Democritus King of the Abderitanes constantly smiled because the World could not apprehend the multiplicity of Worlds I like him have also sufficient occasion to smile and laugh at those who are ignorant of the plurality of the Worlds and even to compare them to bruit beasts which eat the fruits of the Earth without considering whence they come to them for Man is lodged in this World to contemplate in it the wonders that God exposes to the sight of his eyes and to which end he hath given him a face looking upward for to look up to Heaven but he will not make use of his gifts nor enquire after the place of their habitation Why open ye not your eyes O ye learned and wise Men and why awake ye not out of your slumber and deep sleep Awake up the eyes of your Understanding and Reason towards the Heavens contemplating the wonderfull things thereof despise the earthly things and as true Philosophers consider the rest of Men in a dunghill having their thoughts low and Earthly Souls which not being able to stretch themselves beyond the limit of their weak activity dare even accuse those who by noble projects desire to lend them their hands for to draw them out of their ignorance Having then so many and so good Reasons and authority on my behalf I shall not longer fear those who scarce can find any for the confirmation of their opinion or what they have is so weak that the building that the edifice is upon tottereth and leans on every side therefore will I not fear those backbiting tongues which envy anothers good repute and fame which I already foresee in great number opened against me but I shall justly say that they accuse God and Nature of weaknesse and insufficiency and their own proper reason of incapacity Can it be possible that so many rare and great persons who in former Ages did believe it and whose memory is by us honoured and reverenced had erroneous opinions and that so many pertinent reasons should have no solid ground Could it be possible that you would not willingly hearken to those who desire to free you from your mistakes nor suffer your eyes to be unfolded when they be folded with the vail of Preoccupation No I hope that some of the most reasonable at least will be found who will adhere to me and take my part against the assaults of the ignorants who endeavour to discredit me thinking to obtain great glory for the endeavouring the overthrow of so great a project for that is their ordinary scope Alta petit livor praestant altissima venti Alta petunt dextrâ fulmina miss a Jovis That is Envy nothing but high things emulates As by the whirlwinds shaken are high States And the thunders of great Jupiter the god of gods Fall upon the Steeples and not upon the Valleys But I shall smile at them in my heart and applaud my self if none can be found to second me hoping that the Ages to come will produce men more reasonable and who better esteeming my conceptions will accuse this present Age of great ingratitude Chap. II. Proving the plurality of the Worlds by a reason taken from the place wherein are ingendred the Comets PRoclus Cardanus Telessius and others have observed That most of the Comets are formed not onely out of the Region of the Meteors but even far above the Moon and Tycho Brabe that great Astrologian who by his exquisite and rare Observations hath gotten an everlasting name discoursing of it hath asserted That all the Comets are formed above the Moon even according to Kepler as high as the Sun Now it 's Impossible for the vapours to pierce and penetrate into the fiery Region there to be changed into Comets even far above it considering that according to all the Philosophers Judgment the fiery Region is under the concavity of the Moon and so these Comets are formed out of the exhalations of other Lands which are the Starres it 's so clear and perspicuous that I cannot believe that any Man is so void of Reason as to deny it If it be objected That it cannot positively and certainly be known that the Comets are above the region of the Moon I shall send them to the School of Astrologie which teaches by true Rules and Demonstrations the way to measure all the bodies and their far distances from the earth the which Galileus a Person of great fame and renown in this our Age hath confirmed by such like Observations Chap. III. Proving the same by another Argument taken from the bignesse and continuancy of the Comets THE same Astrologers have observed That some Comets have so vaste and great bodies that it 's impossible to believe that the exhalations of this Earth could furnish them sufficiently with matter but I shall dare to go beyond and shall say That though all the Earth should be dissolved into vapours and exhalations yet it could not form so great Comets and of such long continuancy as those which sometimes have been seen
Soul and by his exquisite Meditations rise up to the meditation and contemplation of these Worlds When once we are well acquainted with it and freed from all Preoccupation nothing can be found sweeter pleasanter and more consonant to truth What Patents and particular priviledges have they who believe the contrary that we should adhere to them and our belief should be ruled by them as if it were under their commands Men feign and forge to us five Zones in Heaven and seen other things that are nothing but dreams and foolish fancies as if they had been there above to see it We may say the same to them as Diogenes said to such other creatures How long is it since thou camest from Heaven It 's then as lawful for us to establish new Maxims as for them and to believe in the strength of our reason what we here have attempted and what others say with reason or appearance of truth O that Nature would once open us her bosome and plainly shew us the direction and Government of its motion with what is contained in those great and vaste bodies which sparkle and glister in Heaven What abuses and grosse mistakes should we find in all Sciences Chap. XXIII Wherein the same is proved by an Argument taken from the place where the Clouds stay without going farther WE have here above spoken of the Clouds and thence have drawn an Argument to assert this our opinion we may yet draw this from them viz. that the Clouds and vapours being light should ascend without limitation untill that they were lost from our sight if there were not some other terrestrial Globes in Heaven nor any other attraction then that of the Center of the Earth but we may observe even in the hottest of Summer that the Clouds do not ascend above 3. miles and the strongest vapours that are not above 30 miles whence we must infer that they ascend unto the limit of the activity and attraction of the center of the Earth not being able to go beyond because it would be to bend downward viz. towards the Center of some other terrestriall Globe But that I may better be understood it 's to be observed that as the Loadstone hath a certain inward virtue to draw iron or to move the Needle of the Sea-compasse unto such a distance and no farther so likewise the Earth which by the opinion of some is a great Loadstone whose circumference and activity is extended towards the Moon unto such a certain heighth and the other Stars also have such like circumference wherunto their virtue attraction may reach Insomuch that the Clouds having attained unto that distance which makes a middle between us and the Moon there they are stayed not being suffered to go beyond it because then they would descend towards the Moon or some other Stars which would be contrary to their nature which is to rise upward still so that if a ponderous body as a stone being cast up could go beyond the Earth's attractive point it would not fall back upon the Earth but upon that Star whose attractive Center should reach unto that place whither the stone was cast therefore hath Bacon said in his Book de progressu Scientiarum that Gilbert did not doubt incongruously That the bodies of weight and ponderosity being at a far distance from the Earth would by little and little forsake their motion towards things below Chap. XXIV Containing a Reason drawn from the Bird of Paradise THe new World discovered by our Fathers amongst those infinite riches and rare things it communicates to us makes us partakers of a Bird called by the Indians Manucodiata that is to say the Bird of God or of Paradise This Bird is so beautiful that no one in the Earth is to be compared to it its figure is of so rare a form and so extraordinary that never the like hath been found for it hath neither feet nor wings but is clothed with a skin of feathers made otherwise then that of other birds it 's not found but dead either upon the Earth or in the Sea no body ever saw its eggs nor its nest and it 's asserted that it lives by the Air this Bird never being found upon Earth is it not confonant to Reason that it may come from some other Starre where it lives and breeds and that having flown higher and beyond the attractive Center of that earth or Star where he lived he dyeth by changing his Ayr unto that which is not proper and natural and dying falls upon this Earth Now if birds be found in the Stars there also may other living Creatures be having all the same right of habitation And grant that what some object be true that it hath feet but that they are very short or that its feet are cut that it may appear the rarer yet it hinders not the consequence drawn from it provided that the other circumstances of its nature be true for if it hath feet it must be understood of some of its species onely for Aldrovandus mentions five or six sorts of them whereof some have feet and some none Chap. XXV Wherein is alledged an Argument taken from the Eclipses BEfore the Creation of this whole Fabrick God did inlighten himself and contemplate himself he was a sealed Book which at length is opened and hath set forth to the view that which remained in Himself wherefore the whole World is nothing else then an evident image an Idea of his hidden God-head he is through it all as our soul is throughout all our body and by his will encompasses all the motions of the spheres having spread through them all the Aires as a scrowl which folding it self away at the last day shall be reduced to its former Silence or rather to Nothing This wonderful order thus by him established may be seen in the constant and unchangeable course of the Planets upon which the Astrologians make some certain Almanacks for many years together and foretell the eclipses of Ages to come without missing a moment of time These Stars being all of one and the same nature do eclipse one another the Earth eclipses the Moon the Moon the Sun and so all the rest if their small body is not overcome by the bignesse of those they intend to darken as it s testified by Averroe's Observation who hath seen Mercury in the center of the Sun which seemed to grow in it its light if it hath any being covered and put out Now from these Eclipses or want of light in the Stars we may draw this strong Reason for the assertion of our Position for it sheweth and verifieth that they are of an earthly nature and that their light is borrowed the Moon appears black when the Earth hinders it to receive light from the Sun and divers Philosophers have believed that all the Stars do borrow their light of the Sun they are then obscure and thick of their own nature and consequently earthy and may have