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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	work_v	world_n	year_n	68	3	4.4561	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64764	A brief natural history intermixed with variety of philosophical discourses and refutations of such vulgar errours as our modern authors have hitherto omitted / by Eugenius Philalethes.	Vaughan, Thomas, 1622-1666.	1669 (1669)	Wing V145; ESTC R1446	49,654	136

touch only those of the Planets The proper Motion of Saturn was by the Ancients observed and is now likewise found by our Modern Astronomers to be accomplished within the space of thirty years that of Jupiter in twelve that of Mars in two that of the Sun in Three hundred sixty and five dayes and almost six hours neither do we find that they have quickned or any way slackned these their courses but that in the same space of time they always run the same races they have passed These then are the bounds and limits to which these glorious Bodies are perpetually tyed in regard of their Motion these be the unchangeable Laws like those of the Medes and P●rsian● whereof the Psalmist speaks He hath given them a Law which shall not be broken Psal. 148. 6. Which Seneca in his Book De divina providentia well expresses in other words AEterna legis imperio pr●●●dunt they move by the appointment of an eternal Law that is a Law both invariable and inviolable That which Tully hath delivered of one of them is undoubtedly true of all Suturni stella in su● cursu multa miracula efficiens tum ante ●dende tum r●tardando tum vespertin●s temporibus delitesend● tum matutinis rursum se aperi●nd● nihil tamen immutat sempiternis saeculerum aetatibus quam ●adim eiisdem t●mporibus efficiat Lib. 2. de nat Deor. The Planet Saturn doth make strange and wonderful passages in his Motion going before and sometimes coming after withdrawing himself in the Evening and sometimes again shewing himself in the Morning and changeth himself nothing in the continual duration of ages but still at the same season worketh the same effects And in truth were it not so both in the Planet and in all other Starrs it is altogether impossible that they should supply that use which Almighty God in their Creation ordained them unto that is To serve for Signs and Seasons for dayes and for years to the Worlds end Gen. 1. 14. And much more impossible it were that the year the month the day the hour the minute of the oppositions the Conjunctions and Ecclipses of the Planets should be as exactly calculated and foretold One hundred years before they fell out as at what hour the Sun will rise to morrow morning To which perpetual aequability and constant uniformity in the Coelestial Motions the Divine Pl●io accords Nec errant nec praeter antiquu● ordinem revolvuntur Neither do they run at randum nor are they rolled beyond their ancient order Aristotle in his Book De Mundo breaketh out in this passionate admiration thereof Quod nunquam poterit aequart caelesti ordin● volubilitati cum sydera convertantur exal●issi●a norma de alioin aliud seculum What can ever be compared to the order of the Heavens and to the Motion of the Starrs in their several Revolutions which move most exactly by a rule or square by line and level from one Generation to another There were among the Ancients not a few nor they unlearned who by a strong fancie conceived to themselves an excellent melody made up by the motion of the Coelestial Spheers it was broached by Pythagoras entertained by Plato and stifly maintain'd by Macrobrius and some other Christians as Bede Boetius and Ans●lm Bishop of Canterbury But Ariste●le puts it off with a jest in his Lib. 2. de Caelo Cap. 9. as being L●pide Musice dictum factis autem impossibile a pleasant and Musical conceit but in Effect impossible in as much as those bodies in their Motion make noise at all Howsoever it may well be that this conceit of theirs was grounded upon a certain truth which is the Harmonical and Proportionable Motion of those Bodies in their just order and s●● courses as if they were ever dancing the rounds and the Measures In which regard the Psalmist tells us That the Sun knoweth his going down he appointeth the Moon for seasons Psal. 104. 19. Which words of his may not be taken in●● proper but in a figurative sence the Prophet therefore implying that the Sun observeth his pr●●cribed Motion so precisely to a point that in the least j●t● he never erreth from it And therefore he is said to do the same upon knowledg and understanding Non quod animatus fit aut ratione ●ut atur saith Basil upon the place S●d quod juxt●● terminum divinitus prescriptum ingrediens semper e●●dem curs●s ●●rvat ac mensuras suas custodit Not that the Sun hath any Sou●● or use of understanding but because he keepeth his courses and measures exactly according to Gods prescription But the Motion of the Heavens puts me in mind of passing from it to the Light thereof As the Waters were first spread over the face of the Earth So was the Light dispersed through the Firmament and as the Waters were gathered into one heape so was the Light knit up and united into one body as the gathering of the Waters was called the Sea so that of the Light was called the Sun As the Rivers come from the Sea so is all the Light of the Stars derived from the Sun and lastly as the Sea is no whit lessened though it furnish the Earth with abundance of fresh Rivers So though the Sun have since the Creation both furnished and garnished the World with Light neither is the store of it thereby deminished nor the beauty of it any way stained What the Light is whether of a corporeal or incorporeal Nature it is not easie to determine Philosophers dispute it but cannot well resolve it Such is our ignorance that even that by which we see all things we cannot discern what it self is But whatsoever it be we are sure that of all visible Creatures it was the first that was made and comes nearest the name of a Spirit in as much as it moveth in an instant from the East to the West and piercing through all transparent Bodies and still remains in it self unmixed and undivided it chaseth away sad and melancholy thoughts which the Darkness both begets and maintains it lifts up our minds in meditation to him that is the true Light that Lightneth every man that cometh into the World himself dwelling in Light in accessible and cloathing himself with Light as with a Garment And if we may behold in any one Creature any spark of that Eternal Fire or any farr-off dawning of Gods brightness the same in the beauty and vertue of this Light may be best discerned● Quid pulch●rrimus Luce saith Hugo de sanctoVictore quae cum in se colorem non habeat omnium ●am●n rerum colores ips● quodammodo colorat What is more beautiful then Light which having no colour in it self yet sets a lustre upon all Colours And St. Ambrose Unde Vex D●i in Scriptura debuit inchoare nisi a Lumine unde Mundi ornatus ●●si a Luce exordium sumer● frustra enim esset si non videretur From whence should the voice of God

A BRIEF Natural History Intermixed with variety OF Philosophical Discourses AND REFUTATIONS Of such VULGAR ERROURS As our Modern Authors have hitherto omitted By Eugenius Philalethes LONDON Printed for Matthew Smelt next door to the Castle near Moor-gate 1669. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER I Presume I shall no sooner appear upon the Stage I am prepared for but I must without evasion expect to be assaulted by that furious and inconsiderate Monster called Censour whose lashes I will receive with the same slight concern the Lacedemonians did the cruelty of their Correctors sporting themselves whilst their backs were torn with the unmerciful Whip Of that efficacy is Resolution that it presents pain but meer Opinion and values a scoffing Lucian or a satyrical Memphus no more then a harmless Hellespont did the vain threats of a proud Xerxes Seneca saith well better aliud agere quam nihil for Idleness is the Devils opportunity the Considerations of which with my assent to the Judgment of Thucidides who sayes To know a thing and not to express it is all one as thongh he knew it not made me to expose my self to publick view My Subject is good and great called by the Name of Nature here I present her expressing mans Ingratitude who is fit to strip her of those Robes of Priviledge that God himself hath endowed her with not considering that what she acts is by the vertue of his Power and that She is one of those Mirrours that represents him to us which a Philosophick Passion adores as the supream Efficient But indeed how can She expect our Veneration till we have divested our selves of that prejudice ignorance possesses us with which must be done by a serious reflex upon her Effects as this little Volumn will acquaint you if you read it with an impartial and unbyased Reason for I have as all others of the same Inclination must do used Philosophy as the Tellescope by which we must make our Observations as you will when you see find my curiosity descending to little Insects and that with wonder at their production out of Corruption from thence I view her care in beautifying this little Globe we live in with Robes sutable to every Season and when I ascend the lower Region and mark the Clouds ranging themselves in such bodies as though they intended another Deluge it occasions wonder so likewise the coldness of the middle Region with the heat of the upper and the Element of Fire must be Miracles to ignorance And if we observe the Moon with the Motion attending that of the Seas flux and reflux it would make us judge that there is some secret contract made ab Origine betwixt her and the watery Element Mercury and Venus I have spoken of in their places the next that presents us with cause of Admiration is the glorious Sun the Luminary of the Universe called by some and not improperly the Anima Mundi for we find her approach gives life to Vegitives sense to Animals and almost a new Nature to Rationals As for Mars Jupiter and Saturn the Eighth Sphere and Christalline Heaven the Empyreum I have treated on if not like a knowing Secretary of Nature yet a submiss Admirer of her And whereas I make a refutation of Errours as an addition to my Title some perhaps will say I am like the Tinker that for stopping of one hole make two or for my refuting of one Errour I have made two it may be I have in the Opinion of some But whether I have or no who shall be judge for what appears an Errour to one is to another a very evident truth sometimes a Week or a Day nay an hour puts a change upon an Opinion of many years standing But let my Errours be as great and as many as I pretend to correct Reason shall convince me and command my Acknowledgment for it 's our Errours that presents us human I have writ this to give Satisfaction to others if I can but if not howsoever I have secured it to my self And let the Reader judge of it as it pleases him I have writ that which delights me And if envie cause a misapplication of my intention it matters not the contempt of it will make me bold to say I value it and thee after the rate as thou dost it and me The assertions here laid down are plain and perspicuous convincing and satisfactory to the intelligent But I know that common prejudice which is usually taken of any thing though never so true which is contrary to any mans belief it does beget such Passion and animosity c. and makes such a breach as is hardly to be repaired And since our own Opinion may make it disputable what reason we have to pretend of convince another by I shall only offer this for common satisfaction that things demonstrable are the most evident marks of Truth and that they are so clearly manifested in this little Book deserves nothing but sobriety and moderation and a well weighing of the matter herein contained Reader I am loth to leave thee but that I would not keep thee from the Book it self which I hope will be to thy ample satisfaction c. Vale. Eugenius Philalethes A Brief Natural History Intermixed With variety of Philosophical Discourses c. GOD by his presential Essence gives unto all things an Essence so that if he should withdraw himself from them as out of Nothing they were first made so into Nothing they would be again resolved In the preservation then of the Creature we are not to consider so much the impotency and weakness thereof as the goodness wisdom and power of the Creator in whom and by whom and for whom they live move and have their being The spirit of the Lord filleth the world saith the Author of the Wisdom of Solomon and the secret working of the Spirit which thus pierceth through all things as Virgil AEneid 6 hath excellently exprest Principio coelum ac terras camposque Liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaq astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet The Heavens the Earth and all the Liquid Main The Moons bright Globe and Stats Titanian A Spirit within maintains and their whole Mass A Mind which through each part infus'd doth pass Fashions and works and wholly doth transpierce All this great body of the Universe The Spirit the Platonists call the Soul of the World by it it is in some sort quickned and formalized as the body of Man is by its reasonable Soul There is no question then but that this Soul of the World if we may so speak with reverence being in truth no other then the immortal spirit of the Creator is able for to make the Body of the World Immortal and to preserve it from Dissolution as he doth the Angels and the spirits of men were it not that he hath determined to dissolve it by the