grounds of Christian religion to be better vnderstood For as S. Augustine speakes of the Fathers writings before Pelagius ante exortum Pelagium securius loquebantur Patres before the rising of Pelagius the Fathers spoke more securely so may wee truely say before Luther arose and awakened the world Diuines spoke wrote more loosely then since they haue done The sparkes of trueth being forced out of contention as the sparkes of fire arc out of the collision of the flint steele To conclude this Section touching Diuinitie it is most true which alearned Diuine of our owne times Church hath rightly obserued that whosoeuer shall pervse the Church storie digested into Centuries or Annales or cast but a glance of his eye vpon the Catalogues of writers made by S. Hierome Suidas Photius Gennadius Abbas Tritemius Illyricus Ball Bellarmine shall finde the ages of the Church to resemble the starres of the skie In some parts wee see many glorious and eminent starres in others few of any remarkeable greatnes and in some none but blinkards and obscure ones In like manner in some ages of the Church we may behold many worthy glorious lights like stars of the first or second magnitude in others few of any note or bright lustre and in some none but obscure and vnknowne Authours resembling the least and obscurest starres in the skie After wee haue passed the eight age of the Church we fall into Cymerian darkenesse Bellarmine cannot speake of the ninth age with patience Seculo hoc nullum extitit indoctius aut infoelicius quo qui mathematicae aut Philosophiae operam dabat vulgo Magus putabatur neuer was there any age more vnlearned or vnhappy then this in which he that studied the Mathematikes or Philosophy was commonly held a Magician Sabellicus is at a stand in admiring the palpable Egyptian darkenesse thereof mirum est quanta omnium bonarum artium obliuio per id tempus mortalium animos obrepserit vt ne in Pontificibus quidem vllis siue Principibus quicquam illuceret quod vitam iuvare possit A wonder it is how strange a forgetfullnes of all good arts about this time crept vpon the mindes of men so as neither in Prelates nor Princes appeared any thing which might farther ciuilitie Genebrard after a sort blesseth himselfe from it Infoelix dicitur hoc seculum exhaustum hominibus doctrina ingenio claris sine etiam claris Principibus atque Pontificibus This is called the vnhappie age void of men renowned either for wit or learning as also without any famous either Princes or Prelates So great an alteration there is in the studies and endeavours of men in diverse ages sometimes for the better sometimes for the worse and then by Gods blessing for the better againe SECT 3. The Lawyers of this last age preferred before those of former times NExt Gods Lawes those of the Empire seeme to challenge their place howbeit with vs hauing neither that reward nor imployment as they deserue they haue lost both their ranke and dignitie but in forraine parts where they are cherished and honoured they maruellously flourish in somuch as in some transmarine kingdomes their Lawyers are held and for the most part vndoubtedly are more sufficient Schollers then their Diuines and within this last Centenarie much more sufficient then the writers and professours of the same facultie in many precedent ages aswell in that part which is professed in Schooles as the practique expressed in judgements and pleadings He that shall judiciously compare Baldus and Bartolus Iason and Accursius with Cuijacius Alciatus Ottomannus Duarenus all french men shall easily finde these latter not only for their phrase more polite for their methode more exact but for the marrow true sence of the law more profound I will instance onely in the two first For Cuijacius it is a memorable testimonie which is yeelded him by Massonius Iacobus Cuijacius juris Romani radices tanta cura effossas in lucem protulit vt caeteri ante eum ignorasse illas ipse solus post multos quaesiuisse diligentius penitius invenisse videatur Iames Cujace with so great industry digged vp and brought to light the very rootes of the Imperiall Law that both others before him seemed to be ignorant of them and he alone after others to haue sought them more diligently and discouered them more fully But that of Pithaeus outuies this of Massonius where in an Epitaph erected to him he doubts not to stile him Romani iuris à primis Conditoribus interpretem primum vltimum the first and the last interpreter of the Romane Law since the first founders thereof adding withall that what cleere and natiue light soeuer is at all brought to that science this present age hath deriued it from him and to him posterity must owe it which he hath well expressed in this Distich Cuijacij Themidisque vides commune sepulchrum Conduntur simul hic quae periere simul Cuias and Themis here lie in one common graue They di'd together and one sepulchre they haue Wherevnto may be added the graue testimony which Arias Montanus giues Alciat Eloquio ius Romanum lucabat arte Turba obscurarunt barbara legulei Andreas prisco reddit sua iura nitori Consultosque facit doctius inde toqui The Ciuill Law with art and eloquence did shine But barbarous pettifoggers did the same obscure In season Alciat came and did the Lawes refine And taught the Lawyer thence to speake more pure Yet Cuijacius himselfe whether out of judgement or modesty I cannot affirme was content to yeeld the bucklers to Gouianus touching whom Thuanus witnesseth that himselfe heard him thus protesting Gouianum ex omnibus iuris Iustinianaei interpretibus quotquot sunt vel fuere vnum esse cui si quaeratur quis excellat palma deferenda sit that of all the Interpreters of the Lawes of Iustinian which either are or haue bin if the question should bee who amongst them most excelled Gouianus was the onely man to whom the price was of right to be adiudged Now for the latter part which is the practique it may easily be euidenced to any who will be pleased to looke into it that by the obseruations experience paines and learning of the Lawyers of these latter ages it is grown to much more exactnesse and perfection then former ages had Which appeares by the iudgements decisions arrests and pleadings of the highest Courts of the greatest part of the Christian Nations which are extant in great numbers as the decisions of the seuerall Rotes of Italy at Rome at Naples at Florence at Genoa at Bononia at Mantua at Perusium and the rest The iudgements of the Imperiall chamber at Spire which is the last ressort of the Germane Nation and the arrests of the seuerall Courtes of Parliament in France as Paris Aix Burdeaux Grenâ—…ble and the rest to which may be added the pleadings of Monsieur Seruin
they may apparell their wals and to snatch their meate from their mouthes that they may giue it to their hawkes and dogges For if they shall stand among the goates on the left hand and heare that dolefull sentence Goe y◅ cursed who cloathed not the naked and fed not the hungry tell me what shall become of them who by extortion and oppression by vnconscionable racking of rents and wresting from them excessiue fines make them naked hunger-starved nay grinde the face of the poore and eate their flesh to the bare bones Let the Iudges shew that they beleeue it by forbearing to giue sentence for feare or favour much lesse for gold or gifts as well knowing remembring that themselues must one day giue a strict account to this supreame Iudge from whose sentence lyeth no appeale Let the Lawyer shew that he beleeues it by forbearing to spin out the suites of his Clients to whip him about from Court to Court and to set his tongue to sale for the bolstering out of vnjust causes which his owne Conscience tells him to be such least that cause which here perchance he gained to his Client and got credit by proue there to be his greatest shame and vtter ruine where all his sophistrie subtile quirks will not serue his turne Let the merchant shew that he beleeues it by for bearing lies aswel as oathes by putting his confidence in God not in his wedge of gold and by often calling to minde that whither soever he trauell or what bargaine soeuer he make Hee stands by him as a witnes who shall hereafter be his Iudge And what folly were it for a theefe to steale in the presence of the Iudge before whom he must be arraigned Let the Farmer and Countryman shew that he beleeues it by their just laying out of the Lords portions to his Ministers as knowing that though they haply deceiue his Ministers yet the Lord himself they cannot deceiue that the double damages thē of their bodies souls wil be infinitly more grievous thē their treble damages here Finally let all sorts make it appeare that they indeed doe not professe it only but beleeue it by shewing that reverence respect to the word to the Sacraments to the Ambassadours to the house to the day to the servants to the members of him who then shall be the reiudge that they may with comfort confidence appeare in his presence The least good worke now done for his sake and to his honour shall then steed vs more then the treasure of both the Indies then all the kingdomes of the world the glory of them Then our indignation revenge vpon our selues our compunction and contrition for our sins committed against this Iudge shall refresh vs and cheare vs. For if we would iudge our selues we should not be iudged Then shall our resisting of alluring temptations our patient induring bitter afflictions chastisements our sufferings losses disgraces banishments for the Truths sake serue vnto vs as so many soveraigne and pretious Cordials for when we are iudged we are chastened of the Lord because we should not be condēned with the world Let vs heare the end of all Feare God and keepe his commaundements for this is the whole duty of man For God will bring euery worke vnto iudgment with euery secret thing whether it be good or euill Euen so come Lord Iesus come quickly How long Lord how long holy and true Not vnto vs O Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glory BOETHIVS lib. 1 metr 7. Tu quoque si vis Lumine claro cernere verum Tramite recto carpere coelum Gaudia pelle pelle timorem Spemque fugato Nec dolor adsit Nubila mens est Vinctaque frenis Haec vbi regnant If with cleare eye thou wilt see Truth and in the right way tread Ioy and hope chase farre from thee Banish sorrow banish dread Cloudy fettered fast with chaines Is the minde where passion raigne Whatsoeuer I haue written in this or any other booke I humbly submit to the censure of the Church of England FINIS A REVISE WHen my booke was almost past the presse I met with one Iohannes Fredericus L◅nius a Netherlander de extremo dei judicio Indorum vocatione who lib. 2. cap. 19. indevouring to proue the vicinity of the last judgement by the worlds decay makes this a maine argument thereof Constat saith he illos qui supra annos viginti prodierunt in lucem non pauciores habuisse dentes quam 32 cum iam in eis qui infra decennium nati sunt non nisi 20 aut 24 inveniantur A bold assertion of a graue divine that man kind should so speedily decrease as in the compasse of tenne yeares to loose 12 or 8 teeth of 32 and his booke being printed in the yeare 1567 had the like measure of decay gone on in proportion since that time no man long before this day should haue had a tooth left in his head to chew his meate But I wonder he durst so confidently publish that to the world which daily experience and the writings of moderne Anatomists so evidently convince of falshood and in truth I thinke there cannot lightly a better argument be brought for the confirmation of the contrary opinion against himselfe in that point in asmuch as according to Hippocrates longaevi plurimos dentes habent and Aristotle quibus pauciores rariores hi brevioris sunt vitae so that the full number being a signe of longaevity and that of naturall strength if it appeare as vndoubtedly it doth that men now adayes haue ordinarily the same number of teeth as anciently they had then must it consequently follow that likewise ordinarily they are as strong and long-lived as anciently they were yet heerein are we beholding to the same Authour that what he takes from the age and strength of men he addes to their wits Sed quod humanorum corporum decedit conditionibus hoc ingenijs accedit quod de membrorum robore perit hoc accumulatur intellectus acumine sagacitate Pag. 45. is a great mistake about a pound of bloud being printed for almost halfe a pound of bloud notwithstanding which abatement yet is the proportion there mentioned altogether incredible for if Galen vsually drew six pounds of bloud and we vsually stoppe at six ouuces as Sir Walter Rawleigh would haue it and we allow for every pound twelue ounces then in reason should men in Galens time bee ordinarily twelue times as strong and tall as now they are so that if men be now ordinarily fiue foote high they must then haue bin three score and allowing the like proportionable decrease since the Creation in the like distance of time before Galen they must haue beene aboue seaven hundred foote high and if we should thus rise vpward to the Creation it selfe wee must then measure men by miles and not by feet which I wonder the great wit of Sir
tempus eam debilitavit Dost not thou see the heavens how faire how spacious they are how bee-spangled with diverse constellations how long now haue they lasted fiue thousand yeares or more are past and yet this long duration of time hath brought no old age vpon them But as a body new and fresh flourisheth in youth So the heavens still retaine their beauty which at first they had neither hath time any thing abated it Some errour or mistake doubtlesse there is in Chrisostomes computation in as much as he lived aboue 1200 yeares since yet tels vs that the world had then lasted aboue 5000 yeares but for the trueth of the matter he is therein seconded by all the schoole divines and among those of the reformed churches none hath written in this point more clearely and fully then Alstedius in his preface to his naturall divinity Tanta est hujus palatij diuturnitas atque firmitas vt ad hodiernum vsque diem supra annos quinquies mille sexcentos ita perstet vt in eo nihil immutatum diminâ—…tum aut vetustate diuturnitate temporis vitiatum conspiciamus Such saith hee and so lasting is the duration and immoveable stability of this palace that being created aboue 5600 yeares agoe yet it so continues to this day that wee can espie nothing in it changed or wasted or disordered by age and tract of time SECT 4. Another obiection taken from Psalme the 102 answered ANother text is commmonly and hotly vrged by the Adverse part to like purpose as the former and is in truth the onely argument of weight drawne from Scripture in this present question touching the heavens decay in regard of their Substance In which consideration wee shall bee inforced to examine it somewhat the more fully Taken it is from the hundred and second Psalme and the wordes of the Prophet are these Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth the heavens are the worke of thine handes They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall waxe old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall haue no end To which very place vndoubtedly the Apostle alludes in the first to the Hebrewes where he thus renders it Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the workes of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them vp and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall not faile In which passages the words which are most stood vpon and pressed are those of the growing old of the heavens like a garment which by degrees growes bare till it bee torne in peeces and brought to ragges S. Augustine in his Enarration vpon this Psame according to his wont betakes him to an Allegoricall Exposition interpreting the heavens to bee the Saints and their bodies to bee their garments wherewith the soule is cloathed And these garments of theirs saith hee waxe old and perish but shall be changed in the resurrection and made comformable to the glorious body of Iesus Christ. Which exposition of his is pious I confesse but surely not proper since the Prophet speakes of the heavens which had their beginning together with the earth and were both principall peeces in the great worke of the Creation Neither can the regions of the aire be here well vnderstood though in some other places they bee stiled by the name of the heavens since they are subiect to continuall variation and change and our Prophets meaning was as it should seeme to compare the Almighties vnchangeable eternity with that which of all the visible Creatures was most stable and stedfast And besides though the aire bee indeed the worke of Gods hands as are all the other Creatures yet that phrase is in a speciall manner applied to the starry heavens as being indeed the most exquisite and excellent peece of workemanship that ever his hands fram'd It remaines then that by heavens heere wee vnderstand the lights of heaven thought by Philosophers to bee the thicker parts of the spheres together with the spheres themselues in which those lights are fixed and wheeled about For that such spheres and orbes there are I take it as granted neither will I dispute it though I am not ignorant that some latter writers thinke otherwise and those neither few in number nor for their knowledge vnlearned But for the true sense of the place alleadged wee are to know that the word there vsed to wax old both in Hebrew Greeke Latin doth not necessarily imply a decay or impairing in the subject so waxing old but somtimes doth only signifie a farther step accesse to a finall period in regard of duration Wee haue read of some who being well striken in yeares haue renewed their teeth and changed the white colour of their haire and so growne yong againe Of such it might truly be sayd that they grew elder in regard of their neerer approch to the determinate end of their race though they were yonger in regard of their constitution and state of their bodies And thus do I take the Apostle to be vnderstood that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away where hee speakes of the Ceremoniall law which did not grow old by degrees at least before the incarnation of Christ but stood in its full force and vigour vntill it was by him abrogated and disanulled To which purpose Aquinas hath not vnfitly observed vpon the place Quod dicitur vetus significat quod sit prope cessationem the tearming of a thing old implies that it hastens to an end This then as I take it may truly be affirmed of the signification of the word in generall and at large and may justly seeme to haue been the Prophets meaning in as much as he addeth But thou art the same and thine yeares shall haue no end From whence may be collected that as God cannot grow old because his yeares shall haue no end so the heavens because they shall haue an end may be therefore sayd to grow old But whereas it is added not only by the Psalmist but by the Apostle in precise tearmes They shall wax old as doth a garment and againe as a Vesture shalt thou change them the doubt still remaines whether by that addition the sense of the word bee not restrained to a graduall and sensible decay I know it may be sayd that a garment waxing old not only looses his freshnesse but part of his quantitie and weight it is not only soyled but wasted either in lying or wearing so in continuance of time becomes vtterly vnserviceable which no man I think will ascribe to the heavens I meane that their quantity is any way diminished All agree then that the Similitude may be strained too
AN APOLOGIE OF THE POWER AND PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD OR AN EXAMINATION AND CENSVRE OF THE COMMON ERROVR TOVCHING NATVRES PERPETVALL AND VNIVERSALL DECAY DIVIDED INTO FOVRE BOOKES WHEREOF The first treates of this pretended decay in generall together with some preparatiues thereunto The second of the pretended decay of the Heauens and Elements together with that of the Elementary bodies man only excepted The third of the pretended decay of mankinde in regard of age and duration of strength and stature of arts and wits The fourth of this pretended decay in matter of manners together with a large proofe of the future consummation of the World from the testimony of the Gentiles and the vses which we are to draw from the consideration thereof By G. H. D. D. ECCLESTASTES 7. 10. Say not thou what is the cause that the former dayes were better then these for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this OXFORD Printed by IOHN LICHFIELD and WILLIAM TVRNER Printers to the famous Vniversity Anno Dom. 1627. TO MY VENERABLE MOTHER THE FAMOVS AND FLOVRISHING VNIVERSITIE OF OXFORD WERE I destitute of all other arguments to demonstrate the providence of God in the preservation of the World and to proue that it doth not vniversally and perpetually decline this one mightfully suffice for all that thou my Venerable Mother though thou waxe old in regard of yeares yet in this latter age in regard of strength and beauty waxest young againe Within the compasse of this last Centenarie and lesse thou hast brought forth such a number of worthie Sonnes for piety for learning for wisdome and for buildings hast bin so inlarged and inriched that he who shall compare thee with thy selfe will easily finde that though thou be truly accounted one of the most auncient Vniversities in the World yet so farre art thou from withering and wrinkles that thou art rather become fairer and fresher and in thine issue no lesse happy then heretofore The three last Cardinals that this Nation had were thine if that can adde any thing to thine honour Those thine vnnaturall Sonnes who of late dayes forsooke thee fledde to thine Enemies campe Harding Stapleton Saunders Raynolds Martyn Bristow Campian Parsons euen in their fighting against thee shewed the fruitfulnes of thy wombe and the efficacie of that milke which they drew from thy breasts What one Colledge euer yeelded at one time and from one Countrey three such Divines as Iewell Raynolds and Hooker or two such great wits Heroicall spirits as Sir Thomas Bodley and Sir Henry Sauill How renowned in forraine parts are thy Moore thy Sidney thy Cambden what rare Lights in the Church were Humfreyes Foxe Bilson Field Abbot What pillars those fiue sonnes of thine who at one time lately possessed the fiue principall Sees in the Kingdome So as if I should in this point touching the Worlds pretended decay be cast by the votes of others yet my hope is that by reflecting vpon thy selfe I shall be cleared and acquitted by thine And in confidence heereof I haue to thy censu◅ submitted this ensuing Apologie which perchaunce to the Vulgar may seeme somewhat strange because their eares haue bin so long inured vnto and consequently their fancies fore-stalled with the contrary opinion But to thee I trust who judgest not vpon report but vpon tryall neither art swayed by number and lowdnes of voyces but by weight of argument it will appeare not onely just and reasonable in that it vindicates the glory of the Creator and a trueth as large and wide as the world it selfe but profitable and vsefull for the raising vp of mens mindes to an endeavour of equalling yea and surpassing their noble and worthy Predecessours in knowledge and vertue it being certaine that the best Patternes which wee haue in them both either extant at this present or recorded in monuments of auncienter times had neuer beene had they conceiued that there was alwayes an inevitable declination as well in the Arts as matter of Manners and that it was impossible to surmount those that went before them I doe not beleeue that all Regions of the World or all ages in the same Region afford wits alwayes alike but this I think neither is it my opinion alone but of Scaliger Vives Budaeus Bodine and other great Clearkes that the witts of these latter ages being manured by industry directed by precepts regulated by methode tempered by dyet refreshed by exercise and incouraged by rewardes may bee as capable of deepe speculations and produce as masculine and lasting birthes as any of the ancienter times haue done But if we conceiue thē to be Gyants our selues Dwarfes if we imagine all Sciences already to haue receiued their vtmost perfection so as wee need not but translate and comment vpon that which they haue done if we so admire and dote vpon Antiquitie as wee emulate and envy nay scorne and trample vnder foot whatsoeuer the present age affords if wee spend our best time and thoughts in clyming to honour in gathering of riches in following our pleasures and in turning the edge of our wits one against another surely there is little hope that wee shall euer come neare them much lesse match them The first step to inable a man to the atchieuing of great designes is to be perswaded that by endeavour he is able to atchieue it the next not to bee perswaded that whatsoeuer hath not yet beene done cannot therefore be done Not any one man or nation or age but rather mankinde is it which in latitude of capacity answeres to the vniversality of things to be knowne And truely had our Fathers thought so reverently of their predecessours and withall of themselues so basely that neither any thing of moment was left for them to be done nor in case there had beene were they qualified for the doing thereof wee had wanted many helpes in learning which by their travell wee now injoy By meanes whereof I see not but wee might also advaunce improue and inlarge our patrimony as they left it inlarged to vs And thereunto the Arts of Printing and Navigation the frequency of goodly Libraries and liberality of Benefactours are such inducements furtherances that if wee excell not all ages that haue gone before vs it is only because we are wanting to our selues And as our helpes are more greater for knowledge learning so likewise for goodnes vertue I meane since the beames of Christian Religion displayed themselues to the World which for the rooting out of vice planting of vertue no Christian I hope will deny to be incomparably more effectuall then any other Religion that euer yet was heard of in the World Or if others should chance to make a doubt of the certainty of this truth yet cannot you who preach it publish it to others Doubtlesse being rightly applyed without apish superstition on the one side or peevish singularity on the other it workes vpon the Conscience more
the day it selfe or the quality of the Iudge by whom they are to be tryed p. 456. Sect. 3 Or the nature and number of their accusers p. 459. Sect. 4 Or lastly the dreadfulnes of the sentence which shall then be pronounced vpon them p. 461. Sect. 5 Secondly the consideration of this day may serue for a speciall comfort to the godly whether they meditate vpon the name and nature of t'c day it selfe in regard of them or the assurance of Gods loue and favour towards them and the gracious promises made vnto them p. 464. Sect. 6 Or the quality condition of the Iudge in respect of them by whom they are to be tryed or lastly the sweetnes of the sentence which shall then be pronounced on their behalfe p. 467. Sect. 7 Thirdly the consideration of this day may serue for admonition to all p. 470. Sect. 8 As likewise for instruction p. 471 OF THE VALVE OF THE ROMAN SESTERCE Compared with our English coyne now in vse BEcause in the fourth and last booke of this ensuing treatise in discovering of the Romane luxuâ—…ie frequent mention is made of their excessiue expences and the ordinary computation of their Authors whose testimonies I vse is by Sesterces I held it requisite for the better vnderstanding of those summes by such who are not acquainted with the Romane coynes in this table to expresse the value of the Sesterce and withall to reduce some of their most noted summes to our sterling that so the Reader desirous to know any particular summe may either finde it expressed in this Table or easily find it out by proportioning the summe he desires to know with the neerest vnto it either aboue or vnder The Sestertius was among the Romans a coyne so common that nummus and Sestertius came at length to be vsed promiscuously the one for the other so called it was quasi Semistertius because of three asses it wanted halfe a one and is thus commonly expressed â—…S or thus HS by which is vnderstood two asses and an halfe For the value os it ten asses make a denarius or Roman pennie so tearmed because it contained denaaera which were the same with their asses so as the Sesterce containing two asses and an halfe must oâ—… necessity be founâ—… in the denarius foure times now the denarius being the eighâ—… part of an ounce and an ounce of silver being now with vs valued at fiue shillings it followes from thence that the value of the denarius is seaven pence halfepenny consequently of the Sesterce being the fourth part thereof pennie halfe pennie farthing halfe farthing Touching their manner of counting by Sesterces a controversie there is betwixt Budaeus and Agricola whether Sestertius in the masculine and Sestertium in the neuter be to bee valued alike which Agricola affirmes Budaeus vpon better reason in my iudgement denies and to him I incline holding with him that Sestertium in the neuter containes a thousand Sestertios But heere two things are specially to be noted first that if the numerall or word that denoteth the number being an adictinâ—… and of a different caâ—…e be joyned with Sestertiûm by an abbreviatioÌ„ put for Sestertiorum in the genitiue case plurall then doth it note so many thousand Sesterty for example decem Sestertiûm signifieth decem millia tenne thousand Sesterces Secondly if the numerall joyned with Sestertiûm be an adverb then it designeth so many hundred thousand ex grâ—… decies Sestertiûm signifies decies contena millia ten hundred thousand or a million of Sesterces and sometimes the substantiue Sestertiûm is omitted but necessarily vnderstood the adjectiue then or adverbe set alone being of the same value as if the substantiue were expressed as thuâ—… decem standing by it selfe is fully as much as decem Sestertium decies in like case as if it were decies Sestertiûm which I haue premised that the reason of my rendring the Latin summes might the better be conceived now to the table Sesterces Are worth In English monies Twenty 0l-3 -3s-1 -1d-0b A hundred 0-15-7-0b Fiue hundred 3-18-1-0b A thousand 7-16-3-0 Fiue thousand 39-1-3-0 Ten thousand 78 2 6-0 Twenty thousand 156-5-0-0 Fiftie thousand 390-12-6-0 A hundred thousand 781-5-0-0 Fiue hundred thousand 3906-5-0-0 A Million 7812-10 0-0 Fiue Millions 39062-10-0-0 Ten Millions 78125-0-0-0 Twenty Millions 156250-0-0-0 Fiftie Millions 390625-0-0-0 A hundred Millions 781250-0-0-0 Two hundred Millions 1562500-0-0-0 Fiue hundred Millions 3906250-0-0-0 A thousand Millions 7812500-0-0-0 A Talent is 750 ounces of silver which after fiue shillings the ounce is 187 pounds Boethius Lib. 3. Metro 9. O Qui perpetua mundâ—…m ratione gubernas Terrarum Coelique Sator qui tempus ab aevo Ire jubes stabilisque manens das cuncta moveri Da Pater augustam menti conscendere sedem Da fontem lustrare boni da luce reperta In te conspicuos animae defigere visus Disijce terrenae nebulas pondera molis Atque tuo splendore mica Ta namque serenum Tu requies tranquilla pijs Te cernere finis Principium vector dux semita terminus idem THou that madest heaven earth whose wisedome still doth guide The world by whose commaund time euermore doth slide Thou that vnmov'd thy selfe causest all things to moue Graunt Father I may climbe these sacred seates aboue Graunt I of good may view the spring that finding light My minde perpetually on thee may fixe her sight Dispell these cloudes discharge this loade of lumpish clay And spread thy beames for thou to Saints the clearest day The calmest quiet art and thee to comtemplate Port passage leader way beginning is and date AN APOLOGIE OF THE POWER AND PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD OR An Examination and Censure of the common errour touching Natures perpetuall and vniversall decay LIB I. Which treates of this pretended decay in generall together with some preparatiues thereunto CAP. I. Of diuerse other opinions justly suspected if not rejected though commonly receiued SECT I. In Divinitie THE opinion of the Worlds decay is so generally receiued not onely among the Vulgar but of the Learned both Diuines and others that the very commonnes of it makes it currant with many without any further examination That which is held not onely by the multitude but by the Learned passing smoothly for the most part without any checke or controle Nec alius pronior fidei lapsus quà m ubi rei falsae gravis author extitit saith Pliny Men doe not any-where more easily erre then where they follow a guide whom they presume they may safely trust They cannot quickly be perswaded that he who is in reputation for knowledge and wisdome and whose doctrine is admired in weighty matters should mistake in points of laesser consequence and the greatest part of the World is rather led with the names of their Masters and with the reverend respect they beare their persons or memories then with the soundnesse and truth of the things they
faith These are as seuerall lines drawne from the same Center or seuerall beames from the same Sunne All which notwithstanding in their seuerall rankes and degrees carry in them or rather haue stamped and printed vpon them some character or resemblance of the Diuine Excellencie And as Truth is the breath of God so is the Soule of man too which may well be thought to be in part the cause that the Soule is so wonderfully taken and affected with the loue and liking of it All the Kingdomes in the World and the glittering pomp of them cannot so much refresh and delight a studious minde as this one inestimable Iewell of Truth which Lucretius hath liuely described Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis c. It is a view of delight saith he to stand or walke vpon the shore side to see a ship tossed with tempests vpon the Sea or to be in a fortified towre and to see two Armies joyne battle vpon a plaine but it is a pleasure incomparable for the minde of man to be setled landed and fortified in the certainty of Truth and from thence to descry and behold the errours perturbations labours and wandrings vp and downe of other men We see in all other pleasures there is satiety and after they be vsed their verdure departeth which sheweth well they be but deceits of pleasure and not pleasures and that it was the novelty that pleased and not the quality But of the Contemplation of Truth there is no satiety but satisfaction and appetite are perpetually interchangeable and certainely the more contentment and comfort doe we reape therein For that the apprehension of Truth helpes to repaire that Image of God which by the fall of man was in that very part sorely batter'd and bruis'd I meane in regard of the knowledge of naturall Truths but in regard of supernaturall vtterly defaced Now such being the condition of Truth both in regard of God it selfe and vs we may not part with it vpon any tearmes nor can we purchase it at too deare a rate Buy the truth but sell it not Some perchance in this very point may suppose that the opinion maintaining Natures decay argues in the maintainers more modesty and humility and is apter to breed in men a religious feare and devotion being perswaded as well by sense and reason as by Scripture and faith that the World must haue an end and that in appearance the end thereof cannot be far off Which though it were so yet may it not be vpheld with an vntruth Rectè placet laudem humilitatis in parte non ponere falsitatis ne humilitas conconstituta in parte falsitatis perdat praemium veritatis saith S. Augustine Wee desire not to settle the praise of humility vpon false grounds lest being built vpon falshood it loose the reward of Truth If euill be in no case to be done that good may come thereof no not the least euill for the greatest good if a lye may not be made for the winning of a mans Soule no nor for the gaining of a world of Infidels to the faith as Diuines truly teach then may not the defence of any vntruth bee vndertaken what faire pretence soeuer of piety or charity or humility it may put on For as we are to speake veritatem in charitate the truth in loue so are we to follow charitatem in veritate loue grounded vpon truth It being one of the properties of true charity to reioyce in truth Truth then and true piety Truth and true charity Truth and true humility being inseparable companions let none presume to put them asunder whom God hath thus linked and ioyned together Will yee talke deceitfully for Gods cause saith Iob will ye make a lye for him if we may not vtter an vntruth for Gods cause and the advancement of his glory much lesse for the best good of man the glory of God being as much and more to bee preferred before the best spirituall good of man as mans spirituall good before his temporall Absit à me vt veritatem per mendacium vâ—…lim iri confirmatam saith Chrysostome farre bee it from mee to attempt the strengthning of truth by falshood The reason hereof is well yeelded by S. Augustine fracta velleviter imminuta authoritate veritatis omnia dubia remanebunt the credite and soueraignty of Truth being neuer so little crackt or the practise of lying neuer so little countenanced a man can build vpon nothing but all things will be full of doubt and distrust And againe nunquam errari tutius existimo quam cùm in amore nimio veritatis reiectione nimia falsitatis erratur a man cannot lightly erre more safely then in too much loue of Truth and hatred of lies whe ther they arise from errour and mistake or malice and forgerie whether they consist in the disagreement and disconformitie betwixt the speech and the conceptions of the minde or the conceptions of the minde and the things themselues or the speech and the things SECT 2. The second is the vindicating of the Creators honour AS my first Reason for the writing and publishing this Discourse was for the redeeming of a captivated truth so my second is for the vindicating of the Creators honor the reputation of his wisedome his iustice his goodnes and his power being all of them in my judgment by the opinion of Natures decay not a little impeached and blemished His wisedome for that intending as by the sacred Oracles of his word hee hath in sundry passages cleerely manifested it to put an end to the World by fire it cannot I thinke be well conceiued why hee should ordaine or admit such a daylie vniversall and irrecouerable consumption in all the parts of Nature which without fire or any other outward meanes would vndoubtedly bring it to that finall period His iustice for that withdrawing from latter ages that strength and ability of performing religious duties and practising morall vertues which to the former he granted yet to demaund and expect no lesse from the latter then he did from the former what is it but to reape where he sowed not to require as much of him that had but fiue talents as of him that had tenne or to deale as Pharaoh did with the Israelites still to exact the same taske of bricke and yet to withhold the wonted allowance of straw Neither can we with that confidence reprehend the raigning vices of the times if we cast the reason thereof not so much vpon the voluntary malice and depravation of mens wils as vpon the necessitie of the times praeordained by God which vpon the matter what is it but to lay the burden vpon God and to accuse him that so we may free and excuse our selues His Bounty and Goodnesse as if out of a niggardly and sparing disposition he envied the succeeding generations of the World that happines which vpon the preceding he freely and
bouche diuine Qui Causera sa fin Causa son origine Th'immutable diuine decree which shall Cause the Worlds end caus'd his originall Let not then the vaine shadowes of the Worlds fatall decay keepe vse ither from looking backward to the imitation of our noble Predecessors or forward inproviding for posterity but as our predecessors worthily prouided for vs so let our posterity blesse vs in providing for them it being still as vncertaine to vs what generations are yet to ensue as it was to our predecessors in their ages I will shut vp this reason with a witty Epigram made vpon one who in his writings vndertooke to foretell the very yeare of the Worlds consummation Nonaginta duos durabit mundus in annos Mundus ad arbitrium sistat obitque tuum Cur mundi sinem propiorem non facis vt ne Ante obitum mendax arguerere sapis Ninety two yeares the World as yet shall stand If it doe stand or fall at your command But say why plac'd you not the Worlds end nigher Lest ere you died you might be prou'd a lyer SECT 5. The fifth and last reason is the weake grounds which the contrary opinion is founded vpon THE fifth and last reason which moued me to the vndertaking of this Treatise was the weake grounds which the contrary opinion of the Worlds decay is founded vpon I am perswaded that the fictions of Poets was it which first gaue life vnto it Homer hath touched vpon this string with whom Virgill accords and they are both seconded by Iuvenal and Horace But aboue all that pretty invention of the foure Ages of the World compared to foure mettals Gold Siluer Brasse and Iron hath wrought such an impression in mens mindes that it can hardly bee rooted out For ancient Philosophers and Divines I finde not any that are so much as alleadged in defence of it but Pliny and Cyprian to whom some haue added Gellius and Augustine but how truly it shall appeare Godwilling when we come to speake of their testimonies in their proper places And for Scripture proofe it is both very sparing and wrested That which aboue all as I conceaue hath made way for this opinion is the morosity and crooked disposition of old men alwayes complaining of the hardnesse of the present times together with an excessiue admiration of Antiquity which is in a manner naturall and inbred in vs vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi The ancient we extoll beingcarelesse of our owne times For the former of these old men for the most part being much changed from that they were in their youth in complexion and temperature they are fill'd with sad melancholy thoughts which makes them thinke the World is changed whereas in truth the change is in themselues It fares with them in this case as with those whose taste is distempered or are troubled with the Iaundise or whose eyes are bloodshot the one imagining all things bitter or sowre which they taste and the other red or yellow which they see Terraeque Vrbesque recedunt Themselues being launched out into the deepe the trees and houses seeme to goe backward whereas in truth the motion is in themselues the houses and trees still standing where they were Seneca tels vs a pleasant tale of Harpaste his wiues foole who being become suddenly blind shee deemed the roome in which she was to be darke but could by no meanes be perswaded of her owne blindnesse Such for the most part is the case of old men themselues being altered both in disposition of body and condition of minde they make wonderfull narrations of the change of times since they remember which because they cannot bee controlled passe for currant The other pioner as I may so call it which by secret vndermining makes way for this opinion of the Worlds decay is an excessiue admiration of Antiquity together with a base and envious conceit of whatsoeuer the present age affords or possibly can afford in comparison thereof Vetulam praeferunt immortalitati they preferre the wrinkles of Antiquity before the rarest beauty of the present times the common voice euery where is and euer hath beene and will be to the Worlds end Faelix nimium prior aetas Contenta fidelibus arvis Vtinam quoque nostra redirent In mores tempora priscos Thrice happy former ages and blessed With faithfull fields content and pleased Would our times also had the grace Againe old manners to embrace yet if we will speake properly and punctually Antiquity rather consists in the old age then infancie or youth of the World But take it as commonly vnderstood I thinke it will not be denied by any that vnderstand the course of times but that in latter ages many abuses haue beene reformed many Arts perfected many profitable Inventions discouered many noble and notable acts atchieued Multa dies variusque labor mutabilis aevi Rettulit in melius Time and much toile of this vnsteddie World Hath bettered many things As truly Virgil and elegantly Claudian Rerumque remotas Ingeniosa vias paulatim explorat egestas Wittie necessity by degrees traceth out Of things the prints and windings most remote But let vs heare what the wisest man that euer liued of a meere man hath determined in this point Say not thou what is the cause that the former dayes were better then these for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this Vpon which words saith Isidorus Clarius Quia manifestum est habuisse priora tempora sicut haec nostra habent incommoda sua because it is evident that former times had their mischiefes and miseries waiting vpon them as well as ours Yet because for the most part the best of former times is recorded and the worst concealed from vs as the Sieue le ts goe the finest flower but retaines the bran or because wee are generally more sensible of the crosses then the blessings of our owne times or lastly because the sight and presence of things diminisheth that reputation which we conceiued of them Such is the disease and malignity of our nature Vitium malignitatis humanae as Tacitus cals it vt vetera semper in laude praesentia sint in fastidio Et nisi quae terris semota suisque Temporibus defuncta videt fastidit odit Sed redit ad fastos virtutem imputat annis Miraturque nihil nisi quod Libitina sacravit Saue what remoued is by place nor lacks Antiquity to warrant it he lothes and hates Vertue he counts by yeares and Almanacks Wonders at nought but what death consecrates But as the same Poet wittily speakes comparing the Graecians with the Romans the same may wee demaund comparing our selues and â—…atter ages generally with the ancients Quod si tam antiquis novitas invisa fuisset Quam nobis quid nunc esset vetus aut quid haberet Quod legeret tereretque viritim publicus vsus If ancients had envied as much as wee Things that
ingenia despicio neque enim quasi lassa aut effaeta natura vt nihil jam laudabile pariat I am one of the number of those who admire the ancients yet not as some doe I despise the wits of our times as if Nature were tired and barren and brought forth nothing now that were praise-worthy To which passage of Pliny Viues seemes to allude male de natura censet quicunque vno illam aut altero partu effaetam arbitratur hee that so thinkes or sayes is doubtles injurious and ingratefull both to God and nature And qui non est gratus datis non est dignus dandis hee that doth not acknowledge the peculiar and singular blessings of God bestowed vpon this present age in some things beyond the former is so farre from meriting the increase of more as hee deserues not to enjoy these And commonly it falls out that there the course and descent of the graces of God ceases and the spring is dried vp where there is not a corespondent recourse and tide of our thankfullnes Let then men suspend their rash judgoments nec perseverent suspicere preteritos despicere presentes onely to admire the ancients and despise those of the present times Let them rather imitate Lampridius the Oratour of whom witnesseth the same Sydonius that he read good Authours of all kindes cum reverentia antiquos sine invidia recentes the old with reverence the new without envy I will conclude this point and this chapter with that of Solomon Hee hath made every thing beautifull in his time answereable wherevnto is that of the sonne of Syrach which may well serue as a Commentary vpon those workes of Solomon All the workes of the Lord are good and hee will giue every needfull thing in due season so that a man cannot say this is worse then that therefore prayse ye◅ the Lord with the whole heart and mouth and blesse the name of the Lord. CAP. 3. The Controversy touching the worlds decay stated and the methode held thorow this ensuing Treatise proposed SECT 1. Touching the pretended decay of the mixt bodies LEast I should seeme on the one side to sight with shaddowes and men of straw made by my selfe or on the other to maintaine paradoxes which daily experience refutes it shall not bee amisse in this Chapter to vnbowell the state of the question touching the Worlds decay and therewithall to vnfold and lay open the severall knots and joynts thereof that so it may appeare wherein the adverse party agrees and wherein the poynt controverted consists where they joyne issue and where the difference rests It is then agreed on all hands that all subcoelestiall bodies indiuidualls I meane vnder the circle of the moone are subiect not onely to alteration but to diminution and decay some I confesse last long as the Eagle and Rauen among birds the Elephant and Stagge among beasts the Oake among Vegetables stones and mettalls among those treasures which Nature hath laid vp in the bosome of the earth yet they all haue a time of groweth and increase of ripenesse and perfection and then of declination and decrease which brings them at last to a finall and totall dissolution Beasts are subject to diseases or at least to the spending of those naturall spirits wherewith their life and being as the Lampe with oile is mainetai ned Vegetables to rottennesse stones to mouldering and mettalls to rust and canker though I doubt not but some haue layen in the bowells of the earth vntainted since the worlds Creation and may continue in the same case till the Consummation thereof Which neede not seeme strange since some of the Aegyptian Pyramides stones drawne from their naturall beds and fortresses and exposed to the invasion of the aire and violence of the weather haue stood already well nigh three thousand yeares and might for ought wee know stand yet as long againe And I make no question but glasse and gold and christall and pearle and pretious stones might so be vsed that they should last many thousand yeares if the world should last so long For that which Poets faine of time that it eates out and devoures all things is in truth but a poeticall fiction since time is a branch of Quantity it being the measure of motion and Quantity in it selfe isno way actiue but meerely passiue as being an accident flowing from the matter It is then either some inward conflict or outward assault which is wrought in time that eates them out Time it selfe without these is toothlesse and can neuer doe it Nay euen among Vegetables it is reported by M. Camden that whole trees lying vnder the Earth haue beene and daylie are digged vp in Cheshire Lancheshire Cumberland which are thought to haue layen there since Noahs floud And Verstigan reports the like of finre trees digged vp in the Netherlands which are not knowne to grow any where in that Countrey neither is the soyle apt by nature to produce them they growing in cold hillie places or vpon high mountaines so that it is most likely they might from those places during the deluge by the rage of the waters be driuen thither Yet all these consisting of the Elements as they doe I make no doubt but without any outward violence in the course of nature by the very inward conflict of their principles whereof they are bred would by degrees though perchance for a long time insensibly yet at last feele corruption For a Body so equally tempered or euenly ballanced by the Elements that there should be no praedominancie no struggling or wrastling in it may be imagined but surely I thinke was neuer really subsisting in Nature nor well can be SECT 2. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in regard of their quantity and dimensions I Come then in the next place from the mixt Bodies to the Elements themselues wbereof they are mixed Of these it is certaine that they decay in their parts but so as by a reciprocall compensation they both loose and gaine sometime loosing what they had gotten and then again getting what they had formerly lost Egregia quaedam est in elementis quaternarum virium compensatio aequalibus iustisque regulis ac terminis vices suas dispensantium saith Philo in his book de Mundi incorruptibilitate there is in the Elements a singular retribution of that foure-fold force that is in them dispensing it selfe by euen bounds and just rules The Element of the fire I make no doubt but by condensation it sometimes looses to the aire the aire againe by rarefaction to it Again the aire by condensation looses to the water the water by rarefaction to it The earth by secret conveyances sucks in steales away the waters of the Sea but returns them againe with full mouth And these two incroach likewise make inrodes interchangeably each vpō other The ordinary depth of the sea is cōmonly answerable to the ordinary hight of the
the Lord that I will heare the heavens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the oile and they shall heare Israell From that we may descend to the foure Elements which as a musicall instrument of foure strings is both tuned and touched by the hand of heaven And in the next place those bodies which are mixed and tempered of these Elements offer themselues to our consideration whether they bee without life as stones and mettalls or haue the life of vegetation only as Plants or both of vegetation and sense as beasts and birds and fishes and in the last place man presents himselfe vpon this Theater as being created last though first intended the master of the whole family chiefe Commaunder in this great house nay the master-peece the abridgment the mappe and modell of the Vniuerse And in him wee will examine this pretended decay first in regard of age and length of yeares secondly in regard of strength and stature thirdly in regard of wits and Arts and fourthly and lastly in regard of manners and conditions to which all that is in man is or should bee finally referred as all that is in the world is vnder God finally referred to man And because it is not sufficient to possesse our owne fort without the dismantling and demolishing of our enimies a principall care shall bee had throughout the whole worke to answere if not all at least the principall of those obiections which I haue found to weigh most with the adverse part And in the last place least I should any way bee suspected to shake or vndermine the ground of our Christian religion or to weaken the article of our beliefe touching the consummation of the world by teaching that it decayes not to wipe off that aspertion I will endeavour to prooue the certainety thereof not so much by Scripture which no Christian can be ignorant of as by force of Reason and the testimony of Heathen writers and finally I will conclude with an exhortation grounded therevpon for the stirring of men vp to a preparation of themselues against that day which shall not only end the world but iudge their actions and dispose of the everlasting estate of their persons CAP. 4. Touching the worlds decay in generall SECT 1. The three first generall reasons that it decayes not THe same Almighty hand which created the worlds massie frame and gaue it a being out of nothing doth still support and maintaine it in that being which at first it gaue and should it with draw himselfe but for a moment the whole frame would instantly returne into that nothing which before the Creation it was as Gregorie hath righly observed Deus suo presentiali esse dat omnibus rebus esse ita quod si se rebus subtraheret sicut de nihilo facta sunt omnia sic in nihilum diffluerent vniversa God by his presentiall Essence giues vnto all things an Essence so that if hee should withdraw himselfe from them as out of nothing they were first made so into nothing they would be againe resolved In the preservation then of the Creature wee are not so much to consider the impotencie and weakenesse thereof as the goodnesse wisedome and power of the Creator in whom and by whom and for whom they liue and moue and haue their being The spirit of the Lord filleth the world saith the Authour of the wisedome of Solomon and the secret working of the spirit which thus pierceth through all things hath the Poet excellently exprest Principio caelum ac terr as camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet The heauen the earth and all the liquide maine The Moones bright globe and starres Titanian A spirit within maintaines and their whole masse A minde which through each part infus'd doth passe Fashions and workes and wholly doth transpierce All this great Body of the Vniverse This Spirit the Platonists call the Soule of the World by it it is in some sort quickned and formaliz'd as the body of man is by its reasonable Soule There is no question then but this Soule of the World if wee may so speake being in truth none other then the immortall Spirit of the Creator is able to make the body of the World immortall and to preserue it from disolution as he doth the Angels and the spirits of men and were it not that he had determined to dissolue it by the same supernaturall and extraordinary power which at first gaue it existence I see not but by the ordinary concurrence of this spirit it might euerlastingly endure and that consequently to driue it home to our present purpose there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the course of Nature as is imagined and this I take to be the meaning of Philo in that booke which he hath composed De Mundi incorruptibilitate of the Worlds incorruptibility there being some who haue made the World eternall without any beginning or ending as Aristotle and the Peripateticks others giue it a beginning but without ending as Plato and the Academicks whom Philo seemes to follow and lastly others both beginning ending as Christians and other Sects of Philosophers whom Aristotle therefore flouts at saying that he formerly feared his house might fall downe about his eares but that now he had a greater matter to feare which was the dissolution of the world But had this pretended vniversall perpetuall decay of the World beene so apparant as some would make it his flout had easily beene returned vpon himselfe his opinion by dayly sensible experience as easily confuted which wee may well wonder none of those Philosophers who disputed against him if they acknowledged and beleeued the trueth thereof should any where presse in defence of their owne opinions it being indeed the most vnanswerable and binding argument that possibly could be enforced against him were there that evident certaintie in it as is commonly imagined whereas he in the sharpnesse of his wit seeing the weakenesse thereof would not so much as vouchsafe it a serious answere but puts it off with a jeast For mine owne part I constantly beleeue that it had a beginning and shall haue an ending and hold him not worthy the name of a Christian who holds not as much yet so as I beleeue both to bee matter of faith through faith we vnderstand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God and through the same faith we likewise vnderstand that they shall be againe vnframed by the same word Reason may grope at this truth in the darke howbeit it can neuer cleerely apprehend it but inlightned by the beame of faith I deny not but probable though not demonstratiue and convincing arguments may be drawn from discourse of reason to proue either the one or the other
he tooke it vp vpon trust without bringing it to the touchstone to prooue men to be but reedes now a dayes as he termeth them in comparison of the Cedars of former ages giues vs an instance drawne from the times and practise of Galen in comparison of ours telling vs that Galen did ordinarily let bloud six pound weight whereas wee saith hee for the most part stop at six ounces The truth of his allegation touching Galens practise I shall heereafter haue â—…itter occasion to examine in the chapter purposely dedicated to the consideration of mens decay in strength at this time I will only touch the matter of proportion There is some doubt among Chronologers of the precise time wherein Galen liued as appeares by Gesner in his life but in this they all agree that he practised at least two huâ—…dred yeares since Christ so that taking our leuell from thence we may safely affirme that hee flourished about fourteene hundred yeares since in the compasse of which time men haue lost by that account about a pound of bloud for euery Centenary which proportion of losse if wee should obserue in the like distances of time before Galen from the Creation it were not possible that so much as a drop of bloud should be left in any mans body at this day From these particulars wee may guesse at the rest as retaylers doe of the whole peece by taking a view of the ends thereof or as Pythagoras drew out the measure of Hercules whole body from the Sâ—…antling of his foote SECT 4. Sixth argument taken from the authority of Solomon and his reason drawne from the Circulation of all things as it were in a ring TO these reasons may be added the weighty authority of the wisest man that euer liued of a meere man how often doth he beat vpon the circulation and running round of all things as it were in a ring how earnestly and eloquently doth hee presse it and expresse it as it were in liuely colours in that most divine booke of the Preacher The Sunne saith hee ariseth and the Sunne goeth downe and hasteth to the place where he arose Which Boetius discoursing vpon the same Theme hath elegantly set forth Cadit Hesperias Phoebus in vndas Sed secreto tramite rursus Cursum solitos vertit ad ortus The sunne doth set in Westerne maine But yet returnes by secret wayes Vnto his wonted rise againe But the Preacher stayes not there The winde goeth toward the South and turneth about toward the North it whirleth about continually and returneth againe according to his circuites All the rivers runne into the Sea yet the sea is not full Vnto the place from whence the rivers come thither they returne againe Wherevpon hee inferres the thing that hath beene it is that that shall bee and that which is done is that which shall bee done and there is no new thing vnder the sunne Is there any thing whereof it may bee sayd behold this is new it hath beene already of old time before vs againe that which hath beene is now and that which is to bee hath already beene and God requireth that which is past Now this wheeling about of all things in their seasons and courses and their supposed perpetuall decrease are in my vnderstanding incompatible they cannot possiblely stand together nor be truly affirmed of the same subject For if they returne againe to their times and turnes to the state from which they declined as Boetius speakes of a bowed twigge Validis quondam viribus acta Pronum flectit virga cacumen Hanc si curuans dextra remisit Recto spectat vertice coelum The tender plant by force and might Constran'd its top doth downeward bend Romoue the hand which bowed it And straight to heaven-wards will it tend If I say they thus returne to their former condition as hath bin more at large proved by Lodovicus Regius a French man in a booke which hee purposely intitles De La Vicissitude des choses and dedicates it to Henry the third King of France then can it not bee they should alway grow worse and worse as on the other side if they alway degenerate and grow worse and worse it cannot be they should haue such returnes as Solomon speakes of wise and learned men in all ages haue observed and experience daily confirmes The Poets faine that Saturne was wont to devouâ—…e his sonnes and then to vomite them vp againe which fiction of theirs saith Rodogin the wiser sort vnderstand to be referred to time shadowed vnder the name of Saturne à quo vicibus cuncta gignantur absumantur quae renascantur denuò because as all things spring from time and by it are consumed so in it they are renewed and restored againe And by this meanes the world for the intire is still preserved safe and sound Exutae variant faciem per secula gentes At manet incolumis mundus suaque omnia servat Quae nec long a dies auget minuitve senectus Nec motus puncto currit cursuve fatigat Idem semper erit quoniam semper fuit idem Non alium videre patres aliumve nepotes Aspicient The people chang'd at times the face doth vary The world stands sound and alwaies holds its owne Nor by long daies encreas'd nor age lesse growne Runnes round yet moues not nor by running's weary Was still the same and still the same shall bee That which our gransirs saw our sonnes shall see CAP. 5. Generall arguments making for the worlds decay refuted SECT 1. The first generall objection drawne from reason answered HOwbeit as the great Patriarch of Philosophers hath taught vs that Verum est index sui obliqui Truth may serue as a square or rule both for it selfe and falshood as a right line discovers the obliquity of a crooked yet because Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera Aequum licet statuerit haud aequus fuit Who but one party heares yet doth decree Iust is he not though iust his sentence bee Let vs see what the Adverse part can say for themselues Their generall arguments then for the worlds decay are drawne partly from reason and partly from authority The maine argument drawne from reason vpon which all the rest in a manner depend so as I may call it the Pole-deede of their evidence is this That the Creature the neerer it approaches to the first mould the more perfect it is and according to the degrees of its remouall and distance from thence it incurres the more imperfection and weakenes as streames of a fountaine the farther they runne thorow vncleane passages the more they contract corruption For the loosing of which knot I shall craue pardon if I inlarge myselfe and make a full answere therevnto considering that in the striking off of this head the body of the opposite reasons fall to the ground and at the shaking of this foundation the whole building totters First
old age and the well-spring which formerly flowed abundantly with full streames being dryed vp through age hardly distils a drop of moisture This sentence is passed vpon the World this is the Law which God hath set it that all things that are borne should die all that increase should decrease that strong things should be weakned and great lessened and being thus weakned and lessened they should at last be vtterly dissolued This discourse of Cyprian and the excellent flowres of Rhetorique in it shew him to haue beene both a sweet and powerfull Oratour of a great wit a flowing eloquence but whether in this he shew himselfe so deepe a Philosopher or sound Divine I leaue that to the Reader to judge and referre his judgment to the future examination of the particulars only by the way it shall not be amisse to remember that the Christians of those times happily by reason aswell of the bloody persecutions which pressed them sore as the frequent passages both in the Gospell and Epistles which speake of the second comming of Christ as if it had beene then hard at hand stood in continuall allarums and expectation of the day of Iudgment and the end of the World as evidently appeares by the very words of Cyprian himselfe in this discourse their thoughts still running therevpon all things seemed sutable thereunto and to draw towards that end It cannot be denied but those times wherein Cyprian liued were indeed very bitter and miserable in regard of f◅mine and warre mortality yet about forty yeares after it pleased Almighty God to pacifie those stormes and dispell those cloudes by the conversion of the renowned Constantine to the Christian Religion as it had beene by the breaking forth of the Sun beames so as they who sowed in teares reaped in joy at which time had Cyprian liued no doubt he would haue changed his note his pen would haue as much triumphed in the tranquillity and flourishing estate of the Church vnder that noble Emperour as it deplored the torne state of the World in the time wherein himselfe liued The former famine and warre and mortality being then by Gods gratious blessing happily turned into health and peace and plenty He would then haue told you that whereas before showres of their blood were powred out for Christs sake now it pleased God to open the windowes of Heauen for the moistning and nourishing of their seedes that as Christ the Sonne of Righteousnesse was acknowledged as the Saviour of the World and the shining beames of the Gospell displayed themselues so the Sunne in the firmament had recovered its warmth and strength for the ripening of their corne that as the outward face of the Church was become beautifull and glorious so the very fieldes seemed to smile and to receiue contēt therin by their fresh and pleasant hue that as men brought forth the fruites of Christianity in greater abundance so their trees were more plentifully loaden with fruites that as the rich mines of Gods word were farther searched into so new veines of marble and gold and silver were discovered that Christian religion hauing now gotten the vpper hand had made the Husbandman and Artificer more carefull industrious in their callings had opened the Schooles for Professours in all kind of learning had restored wholsome discipline in manners faithfullnesse in friendship Finally he would haue told you that the world with the Eagle had now cast her worne bill and sick feathers and vpon the entertainement of Christ and his Gospell was growne young againe Which I am the rather induced to beleeue for that Cyprian himselfe in the same discourse against Demetrianus in another place referres the disasters of those times to the obstinacie of the world in not receiuing the truth of Christianity and submitting itselfe to the yoake of Christ Iesus A more likely and certaine cause doubtlesse then that other of the worlds imaginary old age and decay His words are these Indignatur ecce Dominus irascitur quod ad eum non convertamini comminatur tu miraris et quereris in hac obstinatione contemptu vestro si rara desuper pluvia descendat si terra situ pulueris Squalleat si vix jejunas pallidas herbas sterilis gleba producat c. Behold the Lord is angry and threatens because you turne not vnto him and dost thou wonder or complaine if in this your obstinacie contempt the raine seldome fall the earth be deformed with dust the land bring forth hungry starved grasse if the haile falling do spill the vine if the ouerturning whirlewind do marre the Oliue if drought dry vp the springes if pestilent dampes do corrupt the ayre if diseases consume men when all these things come by sinnes provoking God is the more offended since such and so great things do no good at all And the same reason is vpon the like occasiō yeelded by Lactantius Discite igitur si quid vobis reliquae mentis est homines ideo malos iniustos esse quia dij coluntur ideo mala omnia rebus humanis quotidie ingravescere quia Deus mundi hujus effector gubernator der◅lictus est quia susceptae sunt contra quam fas est impiae religiones postremo quia ne vel a pau◅is quidem coli deum sinitis Learne thus much then if you haue any vnderstanding left that men are therefore wicked vnjust because such Gods are worshipped and that such mischeefes dayly befall thē because god the Creator and Governour of the world is forsaken by them because impious religions against all right are entertained of them finally because you will not permit the worship of the true God so much as to a few Heere then was the true cause of their bloudy warres that they shed the innocēt bloud of Christians trāpled vnder foote the pretious bloud of Christ as their warres together with the vnkindly season were the cause of dearth and famine and both famine and warre of pestilence and mortalitie how frequently and fervently doth the Scripture beate vpon this cause God every where promising to reward the obedience of his people with plenty and peace and kindly seasons their rebellion with scarcitie sicknes the sword But that these scourges of the world were at any time caused by or imputed to the old age or decay therof to my remembrance we no where read As then the referring of these plagues with Demetrianus and the Gentiles to the curse of God vpon Christian religion was a blasphemous wrong to Gods truth So with Cyprian to referre them to the old age and naturall decay of the world be it spoken with all due reverence to so great a light in the church of God is in my judgment an aspersion vpon the Power and providence and justice of God And Pammelius in his annotations to excuse Cyprian herein conceiuing beelike that he was not in the right tells vs that
or begotten in old age are alwayes weaker then those in youth Whereas Isaak borne of Sarah when shee was now so old that shee was thought both by others and her selfe to be past conceiving and begotten of Abraham when his body was now dead was for any thing wee finde to the contrary of as strong healthfull a constitution as Iaacob borne in the strength of Isaack and Rebecca And Ioseph or Benjamin as able men as Reuben though Iaacob in his blessing call him The beginning of his strength and the excellencie of power as being his first begotten Nay often wee see that the youngest borne in age not equalls onely but excells both in wit and spirit and strength and stature the Eldest borne in youth So vnsure and sandie is this ground and for his inference drawne from thence it is no lesse vnwarrantable and insufficient There being in the resemblance betwixt a woman and the world as large a difference as is the dissimilitude betweene the fruite of the one and the generations of the other The one taking her beginning by the course of nature in weakenesse so growing to perfection and ripenesse shee quickely declines and hastens to dissolution Shee must necessarily expect the tearme of certaine yeares before she can conceiue her fruite and then againe at the end of certaine yeares shee leaues to conceiue Whereas the other being created immediatly by a supernaturall power was made in the very first moment that it was fully made in full perfection which except it bee for the sinne of man it never lost nor by any force of subordinate causes possiblely could or can loose The quickening efficacy of that word Crescite multiplicamini though deliuered many thousand yeares since is now as powerfull in beasts in plants in birds in fishes in men as at first it was And thus much this false Prophet seemes himselfe to acknowledge in the chapter following where he thus brings in the Lord speaking vnto him All these things were made by me alone and by none other by mee also they shall be ended and by none other And if they shall be ended immediatly by the hand of the Almighty as immediatly by it they were made then doubtles there is no such naturall decay in them which would at last without the concurrence of any such supernaturall power bring them to a naturall d◅ssolution no more then there was any naturall forerunning preparation to their Creation And thus wee see how this Goliah hath his head stricken off with his owne sword and this lying Prophet condemned out of his owne mouth I haue dwelt the longer vpon this examination because I finde that the testimony drawne from this Counterfeite was it that in appearance misledde Cyprian both their testimonies togeather that which hath yeelded the principall both confidence and countenance to the Adverse part SECT 6. The last obiection answered pretended to bee taken from the authority of holy Scriptures AS the testimony taken frō Esdras wants authority so those which re drawn frō authority of sacred Canonicall Scriptures want right explicatiō applicatiō Whereof the first that I haue met with are those misconstrued words of the Prophet Isaiah The world languisheth and fadeth away or as some other translations reade it The world is feebled decayed Which by Iunius Tremelius are rendred in the future tence Languebit Concidet orbis habitabilis and are vndoubtedly to be referred to the destruction desolation of those Nations against which he had in some chapters precedent denounced the heauy judgements of God As the Moabites Egyptians Tyrians Syrians Assyrians Ethiopians Babylonians and the Isralites themselues Iunius thus rightly summing the chapter Propheta summam contrahit judiciorum quae supra denunciauerat The Prophet recapitulates or drawes into one head or summe the judgements which before hee had denounced at large and in particular which comming from the justice and immediate hand of God for sin vpon a part of the world can in no sort be referred to the ordinary course of Nature in regard of the Vniversall That which carries with it some more colour of Reason is that by St. Paul The Crearure is said to be subiect to vanity to the bondage of corruption to groaning and to travelling in paine All which seeme to imply a decay and declination in it But in the judgement of the soundest Interpreters the Apostle by vanity and bondage of corruption meanes first that impurity infirmity and deformity which the Creature hath contracted by the fall of man Secondly the daily alteration and change nay declination and decay of the Individuals and particulars of every kind vnder heaven Thirdly the designation hasting of the kindes or species themselues to a finall totall dissolution by fire And lastly the abuse of them tending to the dishonour of the Creator or the hurt of his servants or the service of his enimies All these may not improperly be tearmed vanity and a bondage of corruption vnder which the Creature groaneth and travelleth wishing and waiting to be delivered from it But that of S. Peter is it which is most of all stood vpon where he brings in the prophane scoffers at Religion and especially at the article of the worlds Consummation thus questioning the matter where is the promise of his comming For since the fathers fell asleepe all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation But in truth that place if it bee well weighed rather makes against the worlds supposed decay then for it in as much as if the Apostle had known or acknowledged any such decay in it it is to be presumed that being invited and in a manner forced therevnto by so faire and fit an occasion hee would haue pressed it against those scoffers or in some sort haue expressed himselfe therein But since hee onely vrges the Creation of the world and the overwhelming of it with water to proue that the same God who wasthe Authour of both those is as able at his pleasure to vnmake it with fire it should seeme hee had learned no such divinity as the worlds decay or at least-wise had no such assurance of it and warrant for it as to teach it the Church Nay in the 7 verse of the same chapter hee tells vs that the heavens and earth which are now are by the same word by which they were Created kept in store and reserved to fire It was not then their auerring that things continued as they were that made them scoffers but their irreligious inference from thence that the world neither had beginning neither should haue ending but all things should alwaies continue as formerly they alwayes had done And thus much may suffice for the consideration of the worlds decay in Generall it rests now that wee descend to a distinct view of the particulars amongst which the Heavens first present themselues vpon the Theatre as being the most glorious
in workes of heate but the sunne burneth the mountaines three tymes more breathing out fiery vapours Neither were there wanting some among the ancient Philosophers who maintained the same opinion as Plato and Plyny and generally the whole sect of Stoicks who held that the Sunne and Starres were fed with watery vapours which they drew vp for their nourishment and that when these vapours should cease and faile the whole world should be in daunger of combustion and many things are alleaged by Balbus in Ciceroes second booke of the nature of the Gods in favour of this opinion of the Stoicks But that the Sunne and Starres are not in truth and in their owne nature fieric and hot appeares by the ground already layd touching the matter of the heavens that it is of a nature incorruptible which cannot bee if it were fiery inasmuch as thereby it should become lyable to alteration and corruption by an opposite and professed enimie Besides all fiery bodies by a naturall inclination mount vpwards so that if the starres were the cause of heat as being hot in themselues it would consequently follow that their circular motion should not bee Naturall but violent Wherevnto I may adde that the noted starres being so many in number namely one thousand twenty and two besides the Planets and in magnitude so greate that every one of those which appeare fixed in the firmament are sayd to bee much bigger then the whole Globe of the water and earth and the Sunne againe so much to exceede both that globe and the biggest of them as it may iustly bee stiled by the sonne of Syrach instrumentum admirabile a wonderfull instrument which being so were they of fyre they would doubtlesse long ere this haue turned the world into ashes there being so infinite a disproportion betweene their flame and the little quantity of matter supposed to bee prepared for their Fewell That therefore they should bee fed with vapours Aristotle deservedly laughs at it as a childish and ridiculous device in as much as the vapours ascend no higher then the middle region of the ayre and from thence distill againe vpon the water and earth from whence they were drawne vp and those vapours being vncertaine the flames likewise feeding vpon them must needes be vncertaine and dayly vary from themselues both in quantity and figure according to the proportion of their fewell SECT 2. That the heate they breed springes from their light and consequently their light being not decayed neither is the warmth arising there from THe absurdity then of this opinion beeing so foule and grosse it remaines that the Sunne and Starres infuse a warmth into these Subcaelestiall bodies not as being hot in themlselues but only as beeing ordeined by God to breed heate in matter capable thereof as they impart life to some creatures and yet themselues remaine voyd of life like the braine which imparts Sense to every member of the body and yet is it selfe vtterly voyd of all Sense But here againe some there are which attribute this effect to the motion others to the light of these glorious bodies And true indeed it is that motion causes heat by the attenuation rarefaction of the ayre But by this reason should the Moone which is neerer the Earth warme more then the Sunne which is many thousand miles farther distant the higher Regions of the Aire should be alway hotter then the lower which notwithstanding if wee compare the second with with the lowest is vndoubtedly false Moreouer the motion of the coelestiall bodies being vniforme so should the heat deriued from them in reason likewise be the motion ceasing the heat should likewise cease yet I shall neuer beleeue that when the Sun stood still at the prayer of Iosua it then ceased to warme these inferiour Bodies And we find by experience that the Sun works more powerfully vpon a body which stands still then when it moues the reason seemes to be the same in the rest or motion of a body warming or warmed that receiueth or imparteth heat The motion being thus excluded from being the cause of this effect the light must of necessitie step in and challenge it to it selfe the light then it is which is vndoubtedly the cause of coelestiall heate in part by a direct beame but more vehemently by a reflexed for which very reason it is that the middle Region of the aire is alwaies colder then the lowest and the lowest hotter in Summer then in Winter and at noone then in the morning and evening the beames being then more perpendicular and consequently in their reflexion more narrowly vnited by which reflexion and vnion they grow sometimes to that fervencie of heate that fire springs out from them as wee see in burning glasses and by this artificiall device it was that Archimedes as Galen reports it in his third booke de Temperamentis set on fire the Enemies Gallyes and Proclus a famous Mathematician practised the like at Constantinople as witnesseth Zonaras in the life of Anastasius the Emperour And very reasonable me thinkes it is that light the most Divine affection of the Coelelestiall Bodies should be the cause of warmth the most noble actiue and excellent quality of the Subcoelestiall These two like Hippocrates twinnes simul oriuntur moriuntur they are borne and dye together they increase and decrease both together the greater the light is the greater the heate and therefore the Sun as much exceedes the other starres in heate as it doth in light To driue the argument home then to our present purpose since the light of the Sun is no way diminished and the heate depends vpon the light the consequence to me seemes marvailous faire and strong which is that neither the heate arising from the light should haue suffered any decay or diminution at all SECT 3. Two obiections answered the one drawne from the present habitablenes of the Torrid Zone the other from a supposed approach of the Sun neerer the earth then in former ages NOtwithstanding the evidence of which trueth some haue not doubted to attribute the present habitablenesse of the Torride Zone to the weaknesse and old age of the Heauens in regard of former ages But they might haue remembred that the Cold Zones should thereby haue become more inhabitable by cold as also that holding as they doe an vniversall decay in all the parts of Nature men according to their opinion decaying in strength as well as the Heauens they should now in reason be as ill able to indure the present heate as the men of former ages were to indure that of the same times wherein they liued the proportion being alike betweene the weaknes as between the strength of the one and the other But this I onely touch in passing hauing a fitter occasion to consider more fully of it hereafter when we come to compare the wits and inventions of the Ancients with those of the present times That which touches
as they did And for the strength of their Physicke let vs heere Goropius a famous Physitian and doubtles a very learned man as his workes testifie and his greatest adversaries cannot but confesse Dicunt olim medicamenta multò vehementiora data fuissâ—… quà m nunc hominum natura ferre possit They say that the Physicke which the Ancients administred was much stronger then the nature of man is now capable of to which he replies eos qui sic arbitrantur insigniter falli contendo ferunt enim corpora aequè nunc helleborum atque olim eodem vel majori pondere vt ipse in alijs meipso sum expertus Verùm inscitia eorum qui nihil Medici habent praeter titulum vestem longam impudentem arrogantiam in causa est vt sic opinentur I am confident that those who thus thinke are notablely deceiued in asmuch as our bodies can now aswell endure the like or greater quantity of Elleborum as I haue made triall in my selfe others But the ignorance of such as haue indeed nothing in them of the Physitian but the bare title a long gowne and impudent arrogancie is the cause that men so thinke And with him heerein plainely accords Leonardus Giachinus of the same profession who hauing composed a Treatise purposely to shew what damage arises to learning by preferring Authority before reason makes this the title of his first Chapter Corpora nostra eadem ferre posse auxilia quibus Veteres vsi sunt idque cum ratione tum experientia comprobari That our bodies now a dayes may well enough suffer the same helpes of Physicke which the Ancients vsed that this may be made euident aswell by reason as experience And I suppose skilfull Physitians will not deny but that the Physicke of former times agrees with ours as in the receites so for the dosis and quantity and for them who hold a generall decay in the course of Nature they are likewise forced to hold this For if plants and drugges and minerals decay in their vertue proportionablely to the body of man as is the common opinion then must it consequently follow that the same quantity hauing a lesse vertue may without daunger and with good successe be administred to our bodies though inferiour in strength Roger Bacon in his booke de erroribus medicorum tells vs that the disposition of the heavens is changed euery Centenary or thereabout and consequently that all things growing from the earth change their complexions as also doth the body of man and therevpon infers that eaedem proportiones medicinarum non sunt semper continuandae sed exigitur observantia certa secundum temporis discensum The same proportions of medicines are not still to be continued but there is required a certain quantity according to the variation of time Where by the change of the disposition of the heavens I cannot conceiue that he intends it alwayes for the worst for so should he crosse himselfe in the same booke neither for any thing I know haue we any certainty of any such change as he speakes of but this am I sure of that if together with the heauens the plants change their tempers and with the plants the body of man then needs there no alteration in the proportion of medicines in asmuch as what art should therein supply nature her selfe preuents performes But for mine own part holding a naturall decay in neither vpon that ground as I conceiue may more safely be warranted the continuance of the ancient proportions Now touching the drawing of blood I know it is said that Galen vsually drew six pounds at the opening of a veine whereas we for the most part stoppe at six ounces which is in truth a great difference if true specially in so short a time he liuing three hundred yeares or thereabout since Christ. For decision then of this point we must haue recourse to Galen himselfe who in that booke which he purposely composed of cures by letting of blood thus writes Memini quibusdam ad sex vsque libras sanguinem detractum fuisse ita vt febris extingueretur I remember that from some I haue drawne six pounds of blood which hath ridde them of their feuer yet from others he tooke but a pound and a halfe or one pound and sometimes lesse as he saw occasion neither in old time nor in these present times was the quantity euer definite or certaine but both then and now variable more or lesse according to strength the disease age or other indications and in pestilent fevers his advise is vbi valida virtus subest aetas permittit vsque ad animae defectum sanguinem mittere expedit where the strength and age of the patient will beare it it will doe well to take blood euen to a fainting or sounding and such was the case as by his owne words it appeares in which he drew so great a quantity Neither is this without example in our age Ambrose Par a French Surgeon a man expert in his profession as his bookes shew reports that he drew from a patient of his in foure dayes twenty seven pallets euery pallet of Paris containing three ounces more so that he drew from him about seven pounds allowing twelue ounces to the pound which was the account that Galen followed as appeares in his owne Treatise of weights and measures and so continues it in vse among Physitians and Apothecaries vnto this day The whole quantity of blood in a mans body of a sound constitution and middle stature was anciently estimated and so is it still at about three gallons and I haue beene informed by a Doctour of Physicke of good credit and eminent place in this Vniversity that a patient of his hath bled a gallon at nose in one day and hath done well after it which as I conceiue could not be so little as seuen or eight pounds allowing somewhat lesse then a pound to a pint in asmuch as I haue found a pint of water to weigh sixteene ounces Now what Nature hath done with tollerance of life Art may come neere vnto vpon just cause without danger And if any desire to be farther informed in this point he need goe no further then the Medicinall observations of Iohannes Shenkius de capite Humano where to his 333 observation hee prefixes this title Prodigiosae narium haemorragiae quae interdum 18 interdum 20 nonnunquam etiam 40 sanguinis librae profluxere Prodigious bleedings at the nose in which sometimes 18 sometimes 20 sometimes 40 pouÌ„ds of blood haue issued The Authors from whom he borroweth his observations are Matheus de Gradi in his commentaries vpon the 35 chapter of Rasis ad Almans Brasauolus comment ad Aphor. 23. lib. 5. Donatus lib. de variolis morbillis cap. 23. Lusitanus Curat 100. Cent. 2. And againe Curat 60 Cent. 7 his instances are of a Nunne who voided by diverse passages 18 pounds of bloud of Diana a
Polygamie yet in regard of their frequent practice we haue great reason to conceiue that they scarce held it to be a sinne And the Pharises though of all other sects they pretended and seemed to be the most zealous strict obseruers of the Lanâ—… yet teaching others themselues practising the observation thereof as they did only in regard of outward conformity thereby perhaps made their disciples formall Iusticiaries but withall damnable hypocrites boyling in malice lust couetousnes while they set a faire face on it and made a goodly semblance of holynes piety and devotion And if it so fared with the Iewes no marvell that the Gentiles their naturall inclination carrying them headlong to wickednes and withall their religion their lawes the doctrine and examples of their Teachers being as so many provocations to draw them onward proued such indeede as the Apostle describes them to be in the 1 of the Romanes full of all vnrighteousnes fornication wickednesse couetousnes maliciousnes full of envy of murther of debate of deceite taking all things in euill part whisperers backebiters haters of God doers of wrong proud boasters inventers of euill things disobedient to Parents without vnderstanding couenant breakers without naturall affection such as neuer can be appeased mercilesse which men though they know the Law of God how that they which commit such things are worthy of death yet not only doe the same but favour them that doe them And so I passe from the roote to the fruite from the causes to the effects from their lawes precepts touching manners to their practice customes manners themselues And heere I must freely professe my selfe to accord with Sidonius Apollinaris veneror antiquos non ita tamen vt aequaeuorum meorum virtutes merita postponam I haue the Ancients in such due respect and veneration as they deserue yet so as I would not willingly disesteeme or vndervalue the vertues and merits of those who haue liued since or now liue in the same age with mee The Ancients I know well had many great vertues and wee no lesse vices yet let no man be so vnwise or vnjust to surmise that either the former ages were free from notorious vices or the latter voide of singular vertues And surely he that shall reade Bohemus of the manners of the Gentiles or the bookes of Iudges the Kings the Chronicles the Prophets and Iosephus of the manners of the Iewes will easily acknowledge the former Wherevnto wee may adde the testimony of Coelius Secundus Curio a witty and learned man of this age in his Epistle prefixed to his commentary vpon Iuvenall where he tels vs that meeting with those verses of Horace Damnosa quid non imminuit dies Aetas parentum peior avis tulit Nos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem What doth not wastfull time impaire Our Fathers worse then Gransires are We worse then they our progenie More vitious then ourselues will be Hee began to doubt of the trueth of them and therevpon fell to a serious inquirie thereinto for his better proceeding in that search made speciall choice of two Authours Tacitus and Iuvenall the one held as vnpartiall in history as the other in Satyres to make report what they found in matter of manners in their times and hauing thorowly consulted with them both but chiefely with the latter from them he makes this relation Quibus auditis saith he nostri seculi cum illa facta contentione deprehendt longe ab illa nostram aetatem vitijs illam à nostra multis magnis virtutibus superari Vpon the hearing of them and the comparing of this present age with that I found that ours was much surpassed by that in vice and that againe by ours in many and great vertues Yet long before Horace did Aratus in Phoenomenis take vp the same complaint Aurea degenerem pepererunt saecula prolem Vos peiorem illis sobolem generabitis Those golden sires a baser race begat Your race shall be yet more degenerate But Hesiod in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more advised and moderate hoping it seemes for better times then himselfe saw O vtinam quinto hoc minime mihi vivere saeclo Sed fas vel post nasci aut ante perire fuisset Would God this fift age I had neuer seene But or had died before or after beene For with Ovid I can scarce hope that any should accord professe Prisca iuvent alios ego nunc me denique natum Gratulor Let others like old times but I am glad That in this latter age my birth I had SECT 2. Touching that idle tale of the golden age first forged by Poets and since taken vp by Historians THat which hath deceiued many in this point is that idle tale and vaine fancie forged by the Poets taken vp by some Historians beleeued by the vulgar of the foure ages of the world The first of gold the second of siluer the third of brasse the fourth of yron Thus elegantly described by the wittiest of Poets Aurea prima sata est aetas quae vindice nullo Sponte sua sine lege sidem rectumque colebat Poena metusque aberant nec vincla minacia collo Aere ligabantur nec supplex turba timebat Iudicis ora sui sed erant sine judice tuti c. Postea Saturno tenebrosa in Tartara misso Sub Iove mundus erat subijtque argented proles Auro diterior fulvo pretiosior aere c. Tertia post illam successit ahenea proles Saevior ingenijs ad horrida promptior arma Non scelerata tamen De duro est vltima ferro Protinus erupit venae pejoris in aevum Omne nefas fugêre pudor verumque fidesque In quorum subiere locum fraudesque dolique Insidiaeque vis amor sceleratus habendi The golden age was first which vncompell'd And without rule in faith and truth excell'd As then there was not punishment nor feare Nor threatning Lawes in brasse prescribed were Nor suppliant crouching prisoners shooke to see Their angry Iudge but all was safe and free c. But after Saturne was throwne downe to Hell Ioue rul'd and then the silver age befell More base then gold and yet then brasse more pure c Next vnto this succeedes the brazen age Worse natur'd prompt to horride warre and rage But yet not wicked stubborne yr'n the last Then blushlesse crimes which all degrees surpast The world surround Shame faith and truth depart Fraud enters ignorant in no bad Art Force treason and the wicked loue of gaine c. And from hence it seemes was that of Boetius borrowed Faelix nimium prior aetas Contenta fidelibus arvis Nec inerti perdita luxu Facili quae sera solebat Iejunia solvere glande Nec Bacchica munera nor at Liquido confundere melle Nec lucida vellera serum Tyrio miscere veneno Tunc classica saeva tacebant
Odijs neque fusus acerbis Cruor horrida tinxerat arma Vtinam modo nostra redirent In mores tempora priscos Thrice happy former age well pleas'd With faithfull fields from riot free Whose hunger readily was eas'd With akornes gathered from the tree They skill'd not with Lyaeus juice The liquid honey to compound Nor knew that twice the Serian fleece In Tyrian die was to be drown'd Alarmes of warre were silent then And horrid arms all smear'd with blood Through malice shed of cruell men Were yet vnseene O would to God These times so much degenerate Might turne againe to th' ancient state But that all this adoe about the golden age is but an empty rattle frivolous conceipt like Apuleius his tale of a golden asse Bodin is so confident that he breakes forth into this assertion Aetas illa quam auream vocant si ad hanc nostram conferatur ferrea videri possit That which they call the Golden age being compared with ours may well seeme but iron And in truth he may boldly affirme it if that be true which Cicero writes of it Fuit quoddam tempus cùm in agris homines passim bestiarum more vagabantur sibi victu ferino vitam propagabant nec ratione animi quicquam sed pleraque viribus corporis administrabant Nondum divinae religionis non humani officij ratio colebatur nemo legitimas viderat nuptias non certos quisquam inspexerat liberos non jus aequabile quid vtilitatis haberet acceperant Time was when men like beasts wandered in the fields and maintained their life by the food of beasts neither did they administer their affaires by justice but by bodily strength There was no heed given either to Religion or Reason no man enjoyed lawfull marriage nor with assurance beheld his owne issue neither were they acquainted with the commodity which vpright Lawes bring with them During this golden age flourished Camesis Saturne there is no doubt but by Camesis is vnderstood Cham the son of Noah by Saturne Nimrod whose son Iupiter Belus famous for the deposition of his father incest with his sister many other villanies saw the last of this age Now how vertuous these men times were appeares by the story of Moses C ham like a most vngratious childe discovers and derides the nakednesse of his aged worthy Father was therefore deservedly accursed to be a seruant of servants Nimrod grandchilde to Cham as his name signifies was a notorious Rebell Robustus venator coram Domino a great Oppressour a Robber as Aristotle numbers robberiâ—… among the severall kindes of hunting And besides he is thought to haue beene the ring-leader in that out-ragious attempt of building the towre of Babel And such kinde of men are those Gyants supposed to haue beene who before this are called Mighty men men of renowne In as much as Moses presently adds And God saw that the wickednesse of man was great in the earth and that euery imagination of the thoughts of his heart was onely euill continually And it repented tbe Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieued him at his heart Quibus verbis intelligit saith Cassanion tantas ea-tempestate fuisse morum corruptelas vt omne vitiositatis nequitiaeque genus vbique regnaret Cùm autem ex robore potentia qua isti pollebant nominis celebritatem adepti sint in eo animadvertere licet qualis fuerit prima mundi nobilitas aestimata non quae pietatis justitiae aliusve cujusdam virtutis specie pulchritudine illustris appareret sed quae solius potentiae fortitudinisue titulo sese venditabat Nam qui tum caeteris valentiores robustioresque erant ij vim aliis audacter inferentes nobiliores praestantioresque censebantur Vnde fortassis illud invaluit ut gentilitia quorundam insignia non nisi crudelium belluarum rapaciumque ferarum volucrium habeant imaginem By which words he vnderstands that such and so great was the vniversall corruption of manners in those times as all kinde of vice and wickednesse euery-where raigned And in that the men of that age are said to haue gotten renown by meanes of their exceeding great might from thence we may gather how the first Nobility of the world was valued not such as was coÌ„spicuous by the beauty Iustre of piety justice or any other vertue but such only as gloried contented it self with the title of streÌ„gth power For those who then were more mighty and powerfull then others and were thereby imboldened to oppresse others were commonly held the most noble and worthy And happily from hence it was that some families carry in their Scutchions the representation of wilde beasts or birds of prey Howsoeuer we are sure that vpon this vniversall invndation of sinne followed the vniversall deluge of water washing and cleansing the earth from that abominable filthinesse which had generally infected and polluted it And as about this time sinne was ripened so in the very infancy of the world it grew vp so fast that the second man in the world wilfully murthered the third being then his only brother And another of the same race soone after was the founder of Polygamie and a while after it is added Then men began to call vpon the name of the Lord as if till then they had not done it at least-wise in publique assemblies And in that Enoch not long after this is said to haue walked with God Iunius giues this note vpon it id est non est sequutus malitiam sui seculi that is he followed not the wicked courses of the age wherein he liued and therefore was he translated least wickednes should alter his vnder standing or deceipt beguile his mind Haec est illa aurea aetas quae talia moÌ„stra nobis educavit this is forsooth that goodly goldeÌ„ age which hath brought into the world bred such foul moÌ„sters After this the world was pestered with a nuÌ„ber of intollerable Tyrants whom Hercules subdued and yet was himselfe accounted by many a Captaine of Pyrats And certaine it is he was most foule and yet I know not whether more foule or strong in matter of lust and both Theseus and Periâ—…hous whom he admitted into his society were of a straine much alike But because these things happily may seeme fabulous let vs listen to Thucidides one of the ancientest truest fathers of history He then hath left vpon record that a little before his time in Greece it selfe so great was the wildnes and barbarousnes thereof that both by sea and land robberies were commonly practised and that without any touch of disgrace it was vsually demaunded of passengers whether they were Theeues or Pyrats And Caesar in a manner reports the same of the Germans Latrocinia nullam habent apud Germanos infamiam quae extra fines cuiusque civitatis fiunt atque ea iuventutis
Besides he made away whosoeuer was valiant or vertuous in Senate in citty in Province without any difference of sexe or age No marvell then that being of a disposition so bloody he fell as a bitter storme vpon the Christians and his cruelty be by S Paule compared to the mouth of a Lyon Nay by reason of that violent persecution which vnder him the Christians endured hee was as witnesseth S. Augustine commonly reputed Anti-Christ But certaine it is that Rome being by his commaund set on fire he falsely accused punished most greevously the innocent Christians for it The second persecution was vnder Domitian whom Tertullian calls Neronis portionem Eusebius â—…aeredem the one a part the other the heire of Nero And Tacitus puts onely this difference betweene them that Nero indeed commaunded cruell murthers but Domitian not only commaunded them but beheld them himselfe What the world was to expect from him appeared in his very entrance to the Empire retyring himselfe euery day into a private closet where he passed his time in killing of flies with a sharp bodkin insomuch that one demaunding who was within with the Emperour Vibius Crispus made answer ne musca quidem not somuch as a flie But from the blood of flies hee proceeded on to the shedding of the blood of men so farre and in so fierce a manner Vt timeas ne Vomer deficiat ne marrae sarcula desint Well might yee doubt Least culters mattocks spades yee soone should be without The Authour of the last and most greivous persecution was Dioclesian whose raging cruelty towards the Christians Lactantius sets forth in liuely colours Nemo hâ—…ius tantae belluae immanitatem potest pro merito describere quae vno loco recubans tamen per totum orbem dentibus ferreis saevit non tantum artus hominum dissipat sed ossa ipsa comminuit in cineres furit ne quis extet sepulturae locus Quaenam illa fâ—…itas quae rabies quae insania est lucem viuis terram morâ—…uis denegasse No man can sufficiently describe the cruelty of this so vnreasonable a beast which lying in one place yet rageth with his iron teeth thorow the world and doth not only scatter the members but breake the bones of men yea shewes his furie vpon their very ashes least there should be found any place for their buriall what rage what madnes what barbarous cruelty is this to deny both the light to the liuing and the earth to the dead Where Lactantius seemes to allude to that fourth namelesse beast of Daniell which was fearefull terrible and very strong it had great yron teeth it devoured and brake in peeces and stamped the residue vnder his feete And though I haue instanced only in these three yet it is certaine that the Authours and Instruments of these persecutions were all of a disposition much alike Of whom the same Lactantius affirmes that they haue borrowed the shapes of beasts and yet were more cruell then they pleasing themselues in this that they were borne men yet had they nothing but the outward figure and lineaments of men For what Caucasus what India what Hircania saith he ever bred or brought forth so cruell and bloody beasts the rage of other beasts ceaseth when their appetite is satisfied their hunger being slaked they grow more mild tame but the rage of these never ceaseth their appetite is never satiated with blood the truth whereof will easily appeare if in the second place we doe but cast our eyes vpon the infinite multitude of innocent Christians that euery where suffered death and for none other cause but only the profession of their religion SECT 3. Secondly in regard of the incredible number of those that suffered OMnis ferè sacro Martyrum cruore orbis infectus est neque vllis vnquam magis bellis exhaustus est saith Sulpitius well nigh the whole world is stayned with the blood of the Martyrs neither was it euer in the like sort emptied by any warres And Gregorie the great almost in the same words totum mundum fratres aspicite Martyribus plenus est jam penè tot qui videamus non sumus quot veritatis testes habemus Deo ergo numerabiles nobis super arenam multiplicati sunt quia quanti sunt à nobis comprehendi non possunt Brethren looke abroad vpon the whole world it is filled with Martyrs we are hardly so many in number to behold them as we haue witnesses of the truth who haue sealed it with their blood in regard of God they are numerable but in regard of vs they are multiplied aboue the sand on the sea shore in asmuch as we cannot comprehend their number And happily those latter words of Gregorie had reference to that of Cyprian himselfe a glorious Martyr in his exhortation to Martyrdome Exuberante postmodum copia virtutis fidei numerari non possunt Martyres Christiani testante Apocalypsi dicente post haec vidi c. The strength of courage and faith afterwards increasing the Christian Martyrs could not be numbred according to that testimonie in the Apooalyps After these things I beheld and loe a great multitude which no man could number of all nations kindreds and people tongues stood before the Throne and before the Lambe cloathed with long white robes and palmes in their handes Wherevnto might be added that other Propheticall passage of the same booke The wine-presse was troden without the cittie and blood came out of the wine-presse vnto the horse bridles by the space of a thousand six hundred furlongs Which Prophesiâ—… we may well conceiue to haue beene accomplished to the full when the very axes swords of the Executioners were blunted with executions and themselues were forced to giue ouer and sit downe being vtterly wearied therewith when the day failing the bodies of the executed were burnt in the night to giue light to passengers and thirty three Romane Bishops successiuely from S. Peter to Sylvester were all martyred when hundreds thousands yea tenne or twenty thousands were slaughtered at once Lastly when by the testimony of S. Hierome in his Epistle to Chromatius and Heliodorus if it be his there was not a day in the yeare to which aboue fiue thousand might not justly be assigned the Kalends of Ianuarie only excepted Funditur ater vbique cruor crudelis vbique Luctus vbique pauor plurima mortis imago Piteous lamenting dreadfull feare and blood-shed every where And many a ghastly shape of death did euery where appeare SECT 4. Thirdly in regard of the various and divelish meanes and instruments which they devised and practised for the execution or torture of the poore Christians NOw though the Romane cruelty sufficiently appeare in the malice of the principall persecutors of the Christians and the infinite number of Martyrs that suffered yet doubtlesse the various and diuelish
out of Pliny will I presume alter his opinion therein not by excusing the present but by not excusing the former ages and the better learne to detest this beastly vice in both Thus then writeth he no lesse sharpely then elegantly of this vice and the great excesse thereof in his time If a man marke and consider well the course of our life we are in no one thing more busie curious nor take greater paines then about wine as if Nature had not given to man the liquor of water which of all other is the most wholesome drinke and wherewithall other Creatures are well contented But we thinking it not sufficient to take wine ourselues giue it also to our horses mules labouring beasts and force them against nature to drinke it Besides such paines so much labour so great cost charges we are at to haue it such delight pleasure we take in it that many of vs thinke they are borne to nothing else and can skill of none other contentment in this life Notwithstanding when all is done it transporteth carrieth away the right wit and mind of men it causeth furie rage and induceth nay it casteth headlong as many as are given therevnto into a thousand vices misdemeanours and yet forsooth to the end that we may take the more cups and powre it downe the throate more lustily we let it runne thorow a strainer for to abate geld as it were the force thereof yea and other devices there be towhet our appetite therevnto and cause vs to quaffe more freely nay to draw on their drinke men are not affraid to make poysons while some take hemlocke before they sit downe because they must drinke perforce then or else die for it others the powder of the Pumish stone and such like stuffe which I am abashed to rehearse teach those that be ignorant of such lewdnes And yet we see those that be the stoutest most redoubted drinkers even those that take themselues most secured of danger to lie sweating so long in the baines brothell houses for to concocke their surfet of wine that otherwhiles they are carried forth dead for their labour You shall haue some againe when they haue beene in the hot house not to stay so long as they may recover their beddes no not so much as to put on their sherts but presently in the place all naked as they are puffing labouring still for winde catch vp great cans and huge tankards of wine to shew what lusty and valiant Champions they be set them one after another to their mouth power the wine downe the throate without more adoe that they might cast it vp againe and so take more in the place vomiting and revomiting twice or thrice together that which they haue drunke and still make quarrell to the pot as if they had beene borne into this world for none other end but to spill and marre good wine or as if there were no way else to spend waste the same but thorow mans body And to this purpose were taken vp at Rome these forraine exercises of vauting and dauncing the Moriske from hence came the tumbling of wrastlers in the dust and mire together for this they shew their broad breasts bare vp the heads and carry their necks farre back in all which gesticulations what doe they else but professe that they seeke meanes to procure thirst take occasion to drinke But come now to their pots that they vse to quaffe and drinke out of are there not grauen in them faire pourtraites thinke you of adulteries as if drunkennesse it selfe were not sufficient to kindle the heat of lust to teach them wantonnesse Thus is wine drunke out of libidinous cups and more then that he that can quaffe best play the drunkard most shall haue the greatest reward But what shall we say to those would a man thinke it that hire a man to eat also as much as he can drinke vpon that condition covenant to yeeld him the price for his wine-drinking and not otherwise You shall haue another that will injoyne himselfe to drinke euery denier that he hath wonne at dice. Now when they are come to that once be thoroughly whittled then shall you haue them cast their wanton eyes vpon mens wiues then fall they to court faire Dames and Ladies and openly bewray their folly euen before their jealous and sterne husbands then I say the secrets of their heaâ—…t are opened and displayed Some you shall haue euen in the midst of their cups make their wills euen at the board where they sit others againe cast out bloudy and deadly speeches at randome cannot hold but bluit out those words which afterwards they are forced to eat againe for thus many a man by a lavish tongue in his wine hath come by his death had his throat cut And verily the world is now grown to this passe that whatsoeuer a man saith in his cups is held for sooth as if truth were thâ—… dâ—…ughter of wine But say they escape these dangers certes speed they neuer so well the best of them all neuer seeth the Sunne rising so drowzie and sleepie they are in bed euery morning neither liue they to be old men but die in the strength of their youth Hence commeth it that some of them looke pale with a paire of flaggie cheekes others haue bleared and sore eyes and there be of them that shake so with their hands that they cannot hold a full cup but shed and powre it downe the floore Generally they all dreame fearefully which is the very bâ—…ginning of their hell in this life or else haue restlesse nights And finally if they chance to sleepe for a due guerdon and reward of their drunkennesse they are deluded with imaginary conceits of Venus delights defiled with filthy abominable pollutions thus both sleeping waking they sin with pleasure Well what becomes the morrow after they belch sowre their breath stinketh of the barrell and telleth them what they did ouer night otherwise they forget what euer they did or said they remember no more then if their memory were vtterly extinct And yet our jolly drunkards giue out and say that they alone enjoy this life and rob other men of it But who seeth not that ordinarily they loose not onely the yesterday past but the morrow to come Of all Nations the Parthians would haue the glory for this goodly vertue of wine bibbing among the Greekes Alcibiades indeed deserved the best game for this worthy feate But here with vs at Rome Nivellius Torquatus a Millanois wan the name from all Romanes and Italians both This Lombard had gone thorow all honourable degrees of dignity in Rome he had beene Pretor and attained to the place of a Proconsull In all these offices of state he wonne no great name but for drinking in the presence of Tiberius 3 gallons of wine at one draught before hee
of him that devised it or the bold heart of him that vndertooke it To commaund such a thing to be done or to obey and yeeld and goe in hand with it But when wee haue sayd all that we can the folly of the blind and bold people of Rome went beyond all who trusted such a ticklish frame durst sit there in a seate so moueable loe where a man might haue seene the body of that people which is Commaunder and ruler of the whole earth the Conqueror of the world the disposer of kingdomes Realmes at their pleasure the divider of countryes and Nations at their wils the giver of lawes to forraine states the vicegerent of the immortall Gods vnder heaven and representing their image vnto all mankind hanging in the aire within a frame at the mercy of one onely hooke rejoycing ready to clap hands at their owne daunger What a cheape market of mens liues was heere toward what was the losse at Cannae to this hazard how neere vnto a mischiefe were they which might haue hapned heereby in the turning of a hand Certes when there is newes come of a city swallowed vp by a wide chink and opening of the earth all men generally in a publique commiseration doe greeue thereat and there is not one but his heart doth yearne and yet behold the Vniversall state and people of Rome as if they were put into a couple of barkes supported betweene heaven and earth and sitting at the deuotion only of two pinnes or hookes And what spectacle doe they behold a number of Fencers trying it out with vnrebated swords Nay ywis but even themselues rather entred into a most desperate fight and at the point to breake their neckes every mothers sonne if the scaffold failed never so little and the frame went out of joynt SECT 5. The third objection touching the pretended fortitude of the Romans answered in asmuch as their Empire is by their owne writers in a great part ascribed to Fortune by Christians may be referred to Gods speciall providence for the effecting of his owne purposes rather then to any extraordinary worth in them NOw that which is most of all stood vpon aswell by the Romanes themselues as by their Proctours Patrons is their great fortitude courage as appeares in their subduing the greatest part of the knowne world and in truth placing their chiefe happinesse in the honour and glory of their names withall supposing that there was for the purchasing thereof no readier meanes then the sacryficing of their liues for the inlarging advancement of their Empire they were in this regard for the most part even prodigall of their blood But shall we call that fortitude which neither aimed at justice nor was guided by true wisedome or rather obstinacie adventurous boldnes It is very true that they were often in their warres very successefull but Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat May that mans actions never well succeed Who by th' event doth censure of the deed By the confession of their owne writers they owed as much to Fortunâ—… as their valour whom therefore they made a Goddesse and placed in heaven Te facimus Fortuna Deam coeloque locamus Thee Fortune we a Goddesse make And grant thee place in heaven to take These two Fortune Fortitude Ammianus so chayneth linketh together as neither of them could well be wanting in the raysing of their Empire Roma vt augeretur sublimibus incrementis foedere pacis aeternae virtus convenit atque fortuna quarum si altera defuisset ad perfectam non venerat summitatem That Rome should rise to that height greatnes Fortitude Fortune made a league of eternall peace so as had either of them beene wanting it could never haue risen to that perfection Both of them performed their parts heerein seeming to striue which should precede the other which Plutarch disputes at large in his booke de fortuna Romanorum and Florus hath briefely but roundly cleerely expressed Ad constituendum Romanum imperium virtutem ac Fortunam contendisse videri that to the stablishing of the Romane Empire Fortitude Fortune seemed to contend which should be most forward Now if themselues attributed as much to fortune as to their fortitude wee may well conceiue that the latter was short of the former rather then otherwise And surely if by Fortune we should vnderstand Gods Providence we may safely say that for the effecting of his owne purposes though happily vnknowne to theÌ„r ather then for any extraordinary worth or merit in them he conferred vpon them the Empire of the world As Augustus Caesar was by Gods speciall providence directed in taxing the world that so euery man repairing to his owne Citty Christ by that meanes might be borne in Bethleem as was fore-told by the Prophet Micah so likewise was he by the same hand and power settled in the Empire that he might thorow the world settle an vniversall peace when the Prince of Peace was to be borne into it as was foretold by another Prophet They shall beate their swords into plow-shares and their speares into pruning hookes And may we not well conceiue that the world was therefore by the divine Providence brought vnder the yoake of the Roman government made subject to their Lawes and acquainted with their language that so when the Emperours themselues should become Christians as afterwards they did the propagation of the Gospell of Iesus Christ might finde an easier passage The Romans then perchaunce might challenge that as due to their owne worth in the conquering of the world which is rather to be ascribed to the hand of Heauen disposing these earthly Monarchies for the good of his Church or for the chastising of his enemies To which purpose he gaue to Nebuchadnezzar such great victories and large Dominions Thou O King art a King of Kings for the God of heaven hath giuen thee a kingdome power and strength and glory which was not for any extraordinary worth or vertue that we read of in Nebuchadnezzar but only to make him as a staffe or a rod in his hands for the scourging of other rebellious nations an instrument for the accomplishment of his own designes Answerable whereunto is that memorable speech of S. Augustin Non tribuamus dandi regni atque imperij potestateÌ„ nisi Deo vero qui dat faelicitateÌ„ in regno coeloruÌ„ solis piis regnum verò terraruÌ„ piis impiis sicut ei placet cui nihil injustè placet Let vs not referre the power of conferring Kingdomes but only to the true God who giues happines in the kingdome of heauen only to the godly but these earthly kingdoms both to the godly vngodly as pleases him whoÌ„ nothing pleases that is vnjust I conclude this point with that of Salomon The race is not alwayes to the swift nor the battle to the
particular shall come to passe which they haue likewise foretold though happily we cannot set downe the time or manner of their event And iâ—… asmuch as we who now liue haue seen the accomplishment of many prophesies foretold by the pen-men of holy writ which our forefathers saw not if we stedfastly beleeue not the fulfilling of those which are yet to come in their due time we shall thereby be made the more guilty and the lesse excusable before God Howsoever if we beleeue as we all pretend the Scriptures to be the liuely oracles of God and to haue bin indited by the divine sacred inspiration of the holy Ghost we cannot but withall beleeue that the consuÌ„mation of the world shall most vndoubtedly in due time though to vs most vncertaine be accomplished Now as the cleere light of this truth hath by Gods grace so brightly shined among Christians that except they wilfully shut their eyes against it they cannot but apprehend and imbrace it So did it appeare to the Iewes though not in so conspicuous a manner yea some sparkes of this truth haue beene scattered even among the Gentiles themselues so as it were a shame vnpardonable for vs Christians not to acknowledge it or somuch as once to doubt of it SECT 1. That the world shall haue an end by the testimonie of the Gentiles SEneca disputing this question whether a wise man be so sufficiently content with himselfe as he needs not the helpe of any frâ—…end puts the case Qualis futura est vita sapientis how he would liue being destitute of friends if he were cast into prison or banished into some desart or cast vpon some strange shoare his answere is Qualis est Iovis cum resoluto mundo c. as Iupiter shall liue when the world shall be dissolved contenting himselfe with himselfe And againe more cleerely Quidenim mutationis periculo exceptum non terra non coelum non totus hic rerum omnium contextus quamvis Deo agente ducatur non semper tenebit hunc ordinem sed illumex hoc cursu aliquis dies deijciet certis eunt cuncta temporibus nasci debent crescere extâ—…ngui Quaecunque vides supra nos currere atque haeo quibuâ—… innixi atque impositi sumus velut solidissimis carpentur 〈◊〉 What is there which is prviledged from danger of change not the earth not the heavens no nor this whole frame of Creatures though it be guided by the finger of God it shall not alwaies obserue this order but some one day at last shall turne it out of his course For all things haue a time to be borne to increase and then againe to die be â—…ntinguished All those things which thou seest wheeling over our Heads and even those vpon which we are seated and setled as being most solide shall be surprized and leaue to be And in another place Si potest tibi solatio esse commune fatum nihil constat loco stabili nihil qua sint loto stabit Omnia sternet abducetque secum vetustas supprimet montes maria sorbebit If the common destiny of all things may any whit comfort thee there is nothing setled in a stable course nothing shall alwayes remaine in that state it now stands in time shall carry downe all things with it it shall levell the mountaines and swallow vp the seasâ—… And lastly in his Naturall questions vnus humanum genus condet dies one day shall burie all mankinde Yet it should seeme that withall he held a restoring of all things againe Omne ex integro animal generabitur dabiturque terris homo inscius scelerum melioribus auspicijs natus Sed illis quoque innocentia non durabit nisi dum novi sunt citò nequitia subrepet All Creatures shall be againe restored and mankind shall againe be sent to inhabite the earth but a kind voyd of wickednes and borne to a better fortune yet shall not their innocencie long endure neither but only whiles they are yet fresh and new afterward vngratiousnes will by degrees creepe vpon them Aelian as I haue already touched to another purpose in the eight booke of his Historie telleth vs that not only the mountaine Aetna for thereof might be given some reason because of the daily wasting and consuming of it with fire but Parnassus and Olympus did appeare to be lesse and lesse to such as sayled at sea the height thereof sinking as it seemed and therevpon inferres that men most skilfull in the secrets of nature did affirme that the world it selfe should likewise perish haue an end His premises I haue in another place sufficiently disproved but his conclusion inferred therevpon I cannot but highly approue most willingly accept of as a rich testimony for the confirmation of our Christian doctrine touching the end of the world delivered from the pen of a Gentile nay he positiuely affirmes it to haue beene the opinion of the most skilfull in the secrets of Nature And certaine it is that the greatest part of Philosophers before Aristotle Heraclitus Empedocles Anaxagoras Democritus and others as they held that the world had a beginning in time so did they likewise that in time it should haue an end And since Aristotle the greatest part his followers only excepted haue ever constantly maintained the same in somuch that the very Epicures heerein accord with the Stoickes though in other opinions they differ as fire and water as may appeare in Lucretius by sect an Epicurean and for his wit much esteemed among the Ancients Principio maria ac terris coelumque tuere Horâ—…m naturam triplicem tria corpora Memmi Tres species tam dissimiles tria talia texta Vna dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Behold O Memmi first the earth the sea The heaven their three-fold nature bodies three Three shapes so farre vnlike three peeces wrought And woven so fast one day shall bring to naught And the huge frame engine of this all Vpheld so many yeares at length shall fall And Ovid speaking of Lucretius seemes to haue borrowed from him part of these very words Carmina sublimis tum sunt peritura Lucreti Exitio terras cum dabit vna dies Lucretius loftie rimes so long shall liue Till to this earth one day destruction giue And Lucan as he differs not much from Lucrece in name so doth he fully accord with him in this opinion Sic cum compage soluta Saecula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora. Antiquum repetens iterum Chaos omnia mixtis Sydera Syderibus concurrent ignea pontum Astra petent tellus extendere littora nolet Excutietque fretum fratri contraria Phaebe Ibit obliquum bigas agitare per orbem Indignata diem poscet sibi totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera mundi So When the last houre shall So many ages end and this disjoynted
also the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp saith S. Peter And I saw a great white throne him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heauen fled away and there was found no place for them saith S. Iohn Now I would demaund whether being no more as Iob perishing as David vanishing away like smoake dissolving rolling together falling downe as a withered leafe or a dry fig from the tree as Esay passing away as our Saviour passing away with a great noise melting with feruent heate burning vp as S. Peter or lastly flying away so as their place be found no more as S. Iohn doe not include an vtter abolition or at leastwise exclude a restitution to a perfecter estate once Beza I am sure is so evidently convinced by the alleadged words of S. Peter that he plainly confesses the dissolution the Apostle there speakes of to be a kinde of annihilation And both Tilenus Meisnerus are confident that those who hold a restitution will neuer be able to reconcile their opinion with the alleadged Scriptures If we looke back to higher times before S. Hierome we shall not easily finde any who maintained it And certaine it is that Clement in his Recognitions or whosoeuer were the Author of that worke brings in S. Peter reasoning with Simon Magus teaching that there were two Heauens the one Superius invisibile aeternum quod Spiritus beati incolunt the highest invisible and eternall which bl◅ssed spirits inhabite the other inferius visibile varijs distinctum syderibus corruptibile in consummatione saeculi dissolvendum prorsus abolendum lower visible distinguished with diverse starres corruptible and at the worlds end to be dissolued and vtterly abolished Now though that worke were not Clements yet was it doubtlesse very ancient being quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen and remembred by S. Hierome in his Commentaries vpon Esay and is of sufficient authority against those who receiue it for my selfe I stand not vpon his authority but the rock of Scripture and reason drawne from thence and the force of naturall discourse SECT 5. The same farther prooved by reason THE first then and as I conceiue the most weighty argument is taken from the End of the Worlds creation which was partly and chiefely the glory of the Creator and partly the vse of man the Lord Deputy as it were or Viceroy thereof Now for the glory of the Creator it being by the admirable frame of the World manifested vnto man man being remoued out of the world and no Creature being capable of such a manifestation besides him wee cannot imagine to what purpose the frame it selfe should bee left and restored to a more perfect estate The other end being for mans vse either to supply his necessity in matter of diet of Physick of building of apparell or for his instruction direction recreation comfort and delight or lastly that therein as in a looking-glasse he might contemplate the wisdome the power and the goodnesse of God when he shall attaine that blessed estate as he shall haue no farther use of any of these enjoying perfect happinesse and seeing God as he is face to face the second or subordinate end of the Worlds being must needs be likewise frustrate And what other end can bee giuen or conceiued for the remaining or restoring thereof for mine owne part I must professe I cannot conceiue And to affirme that it shal be restored withal to assigne no end wherefore is ridiculous and vnreasonable An house being built for an inhabitant as the World was for man If it bee decreed that it shall no more be inhabited it were but vanity to repaire much more to adorne and beautifie it farther And therefore when mankinde shall bee dislodged and remoue from hence therevpon shall instantly ensue the Consummation or End not the reparation or restitution but the End of the world So the Scriptures call it in plaine tearmes and so I beleeue it And in truth some Divines considering that of necessity some end must bee assigned haue falne vpon ends so absurd and vnwarrantable that the very naming of them were sufficient to make a man beleeue there was no such matter indeed Some then and that of our owne Church and that in published bookes for the clearing of this objection haue fancied to themselues an intercourse of the Saints after the resurrection betwixt heauen and earth and that full Dominion ouer the Creatures which by the fall of Adam was lost Others are of opinion that the Earth after the day of judgement being renewed with fire and more pleasantly apparelled shall be the mansion of such as neither by their merits haue deserued heauen nor hell by their demerits And lastly others that such as haue died in their infancy without circumcision or Baptisme might possesse it Now what meere dreames these are of idle braines if I should but endeavour to demonstrate I feare I should shew my selfe more vaine in vouchsafing them a confutation then they in publishing them to the World And yet they are the best wee see that Learned men by the strength of their wits can finde out My second reason shall be drawne from the nature of the world and the quality of the parts thereof which are supposed shall bee restored to their originall integrity and so in that state euerlastingly remaine I will begin with the vegetables and Creatures endued with sense concerning them would willingly learne whether they shall bee all restored or some onely namely such as shall be found in being at the day of Iudgment if all where shall we finde stowage for them Surely we may in this case properly apply that which the Evangelist in another case vses figuratiuely if they should all be restored euē the world it self could not cōtain the things which should be restored if some only thē would I gladly know why those some should be vouchsafed this great honour not all or how these creatures without a miracle shal be restrained frō propagating multiplying that infinitly their kinds by a perpetuall generatiō Or lastly how the several individuals of these kinds shall cōtrary to their primitiue natures liue dure immortally But to make a good sound answere to these demaunds is a point of that difficulty that the greatest part of Divines rather choose to leaue out the mixt bodies preferre only the heavens the elements to this pretended dignity of restitution though about the number of the Elements to be restored they all agree not But heere againe I would demaund whether the world without the mixt bodies can truly be sayd to be more perfect and beautifull then before whether the inbred and inseparable qualities of the Elements as thickenesse and thinnesse weight lightnesse heate cold moisture drynesse shall remaine if they shall not how shall they remaine Elements if they shall how without