SPECVLVM MUNDI OR A GLASSE REPRESENTING THE FACE OF THE WORLD SHEWING both that it did begin and must also end The manner How and time When being largely examined WHEREUNTO IS JOYNED an Hexameron or a serious discourse of the causes continuance and qualities of things in Nature occasioned as matter pertinent to the work done in the six dayes of the Worlds creation AUG in Ser. de Ascen Qui se dicit scire quod nescit temerarius est Qui se negat scire quod scit ingratus est ¶ Printed by the Printers to the Universitie of Cambridge 1635. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND ILLUSTRIOUS JAMES Duke of Lenox Earl of March Baron of Setrington Darnley Terbanten and Methven Lord great Chamberlain and Admirall of Scotland Knight of the most noble order of the Garter and one of his Majesties most honourable Privie-Councel in both Kingdomes May it please your Grace AFter I had brought this small portion of my intended labour to that unpolished perfection which now it is and loth to let it go abroad without a Mecoenas to protect it I could not on the sudden resolve either whom or where to make my choice For it is a tenet which may be easily granted that men of retired lives and small-grown fortunes are seldome known to many it being with them as with those in the dark who see and observe the passages to and fro of others in the light but are unseen themselves which condition sith it doth little lesse then jump with mine and reflect with an opposite rade upon me I could not I confesse at the first be setled untill my second thoughts recalled the happie memorie of your gracious name unto whom I could not but commit the patronage of this unworthy work both in regard that I was then a student in that house where and when your welcome presence made it glad as also if it be not presumption so to say in that I was directed by one and the self-same tutour with your gracious self But above all my especiall motive hereunto was the never doubting thought of your kinde good will to students and encouragement of those whose wishes are well devoted to the Muses Now then if it may please your Grace to make this book yours by protecting it from the detracting crew of Zoilus his companie I shall think my self alwayes too poore to expresse my thankfulnesse Let it be as the grapes of Babel who as the Jews have it in a certain Apologue sent upon a time to the vine-leaves of Judea desiring to be overshadowed by them for otherwise they should be consumed by the heat of the sunne and never suffered to grow up to maturitie The wings of your favour may be as those leaves to shelter my green and scarce grown grapes so shall I hope to see them thrive not as the camomill by being troden on nor as the palm by being suppressed for they be like to such a plant which needeth props and is cherished by the pearled distillations of crystall dew And as for your gracious self my wishes are that your honours and dignities may increase with your houres and let eternall glorie be attendant on your vertues to crown them with eternitie so shall you live not onely with saints above but with â—…en below and have the precious memorie of your renâ—…wned name honoured of those whose times are yet unborn and beings as yet farre from being Thus prayeth Your Graces most humbly devoted servant JOHN SVVAN To the Reader Gentle Reader I Present thee here with a book of no great volume yet stor'd with much varietie and seeing I am guiltie of my many weak infirmities and no few overfights I cannot but crave thy courteous acceptation for it is a granted Maxime that a stander by hath often better eyes then they who play the game Howbeit he were no man that could not erre no more then they whose rancor'd mouthes shall bite with scorn or vent the poison of a loath'd disdain In a word if thou expectest quaint language or fragrant flowers of flowing Rhetorick I am somewhat sorie my sad fate should prove so cruell as not to give way for satisfaction Beleeve it I could have wished a better stile and not been sorie to have soar'd aloft and yet again I must confesse that as eloquence was never any part of my essence so neither was my aim so much at that as to produce apt matter fitting the seriousnesse of the subject I took in hand And verily if in this my hopes fail me not I do not fear but my pains will be accepted for although I go not about to teach the learned because Humiles arbusta juvant yet the ignorant may be instructed in what before they knew not yea and the learned also may be occasioned to call again to minde something which for the present hath either slept or slipt their memories by reason of their better thoughts and deeper contemplations Be not therefore unjust judges in an harmlesse cause nor forward censurers churlishly to blast young springing blossomes in their tender bud but rather take in good part this from him who resteth as his own so also Yours in this or the like endeavour JOHN SWAN To his friend the Authour THou art the World and now methinks I see A world of goodnesse here distill'd from thee Distill'd in lines so sweetly I protest I thought thy book the crystall of thy breast Where live Idea's such as all shall passe When they endure onely in clearnesse glasse Yet now I 'le blame thee If thou would'st have had The world drawn right some line should have been bad THO. HARLESTON Coll. Pemb. WHen fresh Aurora first puts forth her head And calls bright Sol from out his Eastern bed She modestly doth blush her crimson die Makes red the verges of the dawning skie Fearing perhaps that Sols reflecting ray Procures too hot to some too cold a day So I with bashfull fear and trembling doubt This new-born book into the world send out Some sure t will please but never all did any I wish the All were few the Some were many But be they as they will 't is told me since That envie snarleth most at innocence And those who least know where to finde th' amisse Will soonest brag they could do more then this Let them go on they hurt not me nor mine Detracting harms reflect at home in fine J. S. A table of the contents in the severall Chapters Sections Paragraphs Articles and Questions which are contained in this book CHAP. I. THe first Chapter concerneth the worlds beginning and ending and is divided into three Sections Sect. 1. That the world began and must also end Sect. 2. Of the manner how the world must end Sect. 3. Of the sundry times which some have fancied out for the worlds ending CHAP. II. THe second Chapter concerneth the time of the yeare when the world began and it is divided into seven Sections Sect. 1. Of three opinions concerning
in Psal. 16. 12. And further seeing it is said that righteousnesse shall dwell in the new earth as well as in the new heaven it may from thence be gathered that both the heaven and the earth shall be the seat of the blessed and that the saints shall follow the Lambe whithersoever he goeth and that there shall be an intercourse between the said heaven and earth which is as Jacob in his vision saw when the angels were some of them ascending some descending that ladder which reached from heaven to earth or as Moses and Elias were seen talking with Christ upon the Mount But herein let us not be too bold for in this we may soon wade too farre namely if we should nicely determine how the saints shall then be disposed of whether some alwayes to the heaven some alwayes to the earth or such like things which to us are unrevealed Let it therefore suffice that although the manner of this change be secret and not known in every point yet the change it self is most certain and therefore hold we most certainly this truth for our stay that the world shall end and leave we the manner thereof to be exactly and particularly revealed by him who will very quickly perform it But of the time when in the following Section Sect. 3. ANd thus much concerning the manner of the worlds ending Now follows the time when But here I purpose not to meddle with any thing which shall tend to the precise scanning of it I will leave that to them who out of a desire they have to lanch into the deep have pried too farre I fear into the secrets of the Thunderer for oftentimes we see that they do but wisely tell us foolish tales and smoothly bring long lies unto an end because they say more then they have warrant for To whom Du Bartas by our famous Silvester thus sendeth greeting You have mis-cast in your Arithmetick Mis-laid your counters gropingly ye seek In nights black darknesse for the secret things Seal'd in the Casket of the King of kings 'T is He that keeps th' eternall clock of Time He holds the weights of that appointed chime And in his hand the sacred Book doth bear Of that close-clasped finall CALENDER Where in Red letters not with us frequented The certain Date of that Great Day is printed That Dreadfull Day which doth so swiftly post That 't will be seen before foreseen of most Yet such is the folly and curiositie of many that they will needs undertake to tell us when this time shall be which if they could then it seems it should not come as a snare upon the world nor yet steal upon us as a thief in the night But so it shall do For of that day and houre knoweth no man saith our Saviour and we may take his word because himself by his humanitie could not know it although in his humanitie by reason of his Godhead he was not ignorant of it Had he not therefore been God as well as man and of a divine as well as humane nature he must have remained ignorant in both with men and angels Mar. 13. 32. And furthermore concerning us that we be not too bold the same lesson which he taught his disciples is also ours not to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power as it is Act. 1. 7. From whence we may learn that whilest we exercise our selves in things that be too high for us we shall sooner betray our own curiositie then deliver a truth For Maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus The greatest part of those things which we know is the least part of what we know not Whereupon I cannot but think that the predictions of men in this kinde especially seeing they are so various must needs be as true as those amongst the brood of presumptuous Astrologers concerning the end of Christian Religion which as Du Plessie observeth from them should have been some hundreds of yeares before this time nay it should then have ended when indeed it began most of all to flourish And so I doubt not but am certain that the world also should have had many endings before this time according to the doting froth of some mens idle fancies which if need were I could relate But as time was little beholding to them for cutting it off so short in like manner they were as little beholding to time for discovering their lies so plainly I will therefore before I meddle further with such approved liars leave them unto their best friends to gain if they can their credit for the time past and addresse my self to examine those who talk of a time yet to come Amongst whom the Jews have a tradition which although they fetch from the school or house of Elias yet we are not bound to credit it For it was not Elias the Prophet but a Rabbin of the same name as the learned know and who more fabulous or more full of vain fancies then those their greatest Doctours Six thousand yeares saith he the world shall stand and then it shall be consumed by fire Two thousand yeares shal be void or without Law two thousand yeares shall be under the Law and the last two thousand shall be the dayes of Messiah or Christ. Thus farre Elias And that this opinion hath been favoured by some of old and is also favoured now by some of our time I am not ignorant which chiefly they do for this reason namely because the six dayes of weekly labour do bear the Symbole of 6000 yeares wherein mankinde should endure the cares and troubles and travels of this world and then shall come that Sabbath of Sabbaths in the heaven of heavens when they are to rest from their labours Or as God was six daies in creating the world before there was a Sabbath so he shall be 6000 yeares in governing it and then the seventh begins an eternall rest in heaven Now this they ground upon the words of S. Peter who speaking of the day of judgement noteth that a thousand yeares in Gods sight are but as one day and one day as a thousand yeares 2. Pet. 3. 8. So that in this regard for six dayes of weekly labour they would have 6000 yeares of worldly trouble and the like before it endeth But if this weaknesse be the greatest strength for maintaining their assertion then I do not doubt to see their cause fainting upon the ground as not being able to subsist or stand upright For first concerning the Rabbin had he been a Prophet he would certainly have been a better Seer This I am sure of that he was much deceived in the particular division of his time in making three periods all of 2000 yeares apiece For although the yeares of the world have been diversly accounted by sundry authours yet you shall not finde the Rabbins just number of 2000
CONFLAGRATIO which signifie The burning of the world hath set down the time when the world must end namely in the yeare of our Lord 1657 and that for two reasons First because as the yeare of the world 1657 was a fatall yeare in regard of the universall â—…loud which them came and drowned all the world In like manner the yeare of Christ 1657 shall also be a fatall yeare in regard that then shall be the end of the world by fire for is it not said in Matthew As it was in the dayes of Noah so shall also the coming of the Sonne of man be Matth. 24. 37. Secondly take these two words namely MUNDI CONFLAGRATIO which signifie in English The burning of the world and you shall finde in them so many numerall letters as will make 1657 if they be all added together as in the margent may be plainly seen For in the first word MUNDI there are M V D and I which are all numerall letters and in the other word namely CONFLAGRATIO C L and I are likewise letters of number and how much every one of them doth signifie is easily known amounting in the whole summe to 1657. Thus upon these two fancies is this prediction grounded which that it is altogether idle may easily appeare For first concerning the universall floud which they urge that yeare was indeed a fatall yeare to the world when it came but that it came in the yeare of the world 1657 is denied for it came not when Noah was 600 yeares compleat but when he was in the six hundredth yeare current of his age and so the yeare of the world was not 1657 but 1656. As for example Seth was born to Adam when he was 130. Gen. 5. 3. Enos to Seth when he was 105. Gen. 5. 6. Kenan to Enos when he was 90. Gen. 5. 9. Mahalaleel to Kenan when he was 70. Gen. 5. 12. Iared to Mahalaleel when he was 65. Gen. 5. 15. Henoch to Iared when Iared was 162. Gen. 5. 18. Mathuselah to Henoch when Hen. was 65. Gen. 5. 21. Lamech to Mathuselah when Ma. was 187. Gen. 5. 25. Noah to Lamech when Lamech was 182. Gen. 5. 29. Then came the floud in the yeare of Noah 600. Gen. 7. 11 All which do make being added together 1656 and not 1657 as they imagine because that which is said of Noah in Gen. chap. 7. verse 6. viz. that he was 600. yeares old when the floud of waters was upon the earth is expounded in two severall places after it that it must be understood of his 600 yeare current and not compleat The places are Gen. 7. 11. and Gen. 8. 13 the one expressing the beginning the other the ending of the floud and so also the most and best chronologers hitherto have observed although some do not Which as it is agreeable to the truth of computation so also that I may answer one fancie by another it is more congruous to the nature of the number of the yeare wherein it came For Six is no number of rest witnesse the six dayes of creation the six dayes of our weekly labour and the six ages of the world But Seven is for rest witnesse the sabbaticall dayes the sabbaticall yeares and that eternall sabbath in the heaven of heavens when the six ages of the world shall be ended Wherefore in the yeare of the world 1656 the Ark was without rest and tossed upon the waters but in the yeare 1657 it found rest the waters were dried up and gone and Noah then came out and offered sacrifice And further admit it be said that As it was in the dayes of Noah so shall also the coming of the Sonne of man be Doth this point out any thing concerning the time of his coming Verily no. It shews indeed the great securitie that shall then be in the world amongst the wicked so that as the floud came upon the old world when they feared nothing in like manner shall the coming of the Sonne of man be But what is this to the time Our Saviour doth not compute the time but compares the manners of the times together as may be very plainly seen by that which he hath elsewhere published saying that the coming of the Sonne of man shall be not onely As it was in the dayes of Noah but also As it was in the dayes of Lot Luke 17. 28. For conclusion therefore seeing the floud came before that yeare which they have computed it may easily appeare that their Mundi conflagratio for the end of the world in the yeare of Christ 1657 is but an idle fancie And as for the time which they referre to the dayes of Noah we see that it is likewise referred to the dayes of Lot the intent onely being to compare the times and not compute them But secondly for their Mundi conflagratìo admit it were so that the floud did not come untill the yeare of the world 1657 as they would have it yet why should it be that these numerall letters must be picked out of two Latine words rather then out of words in some other language In Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of which words you may gather 1830 at the least Surely in this we may say that as in the making of anagrams upon a name if one language will not help us we may then write the name in some other tongue rather then want letters for our purpose so the same libertie belike he took who was the first authour of this fancie for the worlds ending wherefore we may well conclude that it is but idle and not worth regarding Another much like to this is that which others have also hatched whereby in the yeare of Christ 1645 should be the end of the world Now this they gather out of these words ADVENTVS DOMINI which signifie The coming of the Lord for in them they have so many numerall letters as will make 2012 out of which they subtract so much as they gather out of these words DIES ABBREVIABVNTVR The dayes shall be shortened namely 517 and then the remainder of 2012 is 1495 unto which they adde so many as these words will afford viz. PROPTER ELECTOS which signifie For the elects sake wherein is a number of 150 and so the whole summe amounteth to 1645 being as they fondly imagine the last yeare of the world But if such or the like fancies could hold then questionlesse the world should have had many endings since it first began and must either have had a new creation or else no world had been till now As for example either in the yeare 1532 or in the yeare 1533 or in the yeare 1578 or in the yeare 1588 or in the yeare 1623 the judgement day upon these grounds was foretold to come For first in the yeare 1532 they had two wayes to prove it either out of these words VIDEBVNT INQVEMPVPVGERVNT or out of these words VIDEBVNT IN
omnipotence in not working all at once but sheweth that he worketh all things according to the counsell of his will which in this work of creation prosecuted both by an order of time and degrees is so farre from eclipsing his power that it rather doth demonstrate both his power and wisdome to be infinite and that he hath so done his marvellous works that they ought alwayes to be had in remembrance Psal. 111. 4. For in wisdome he hath made them all And why not all at once was because the counsell of his will was otherwise But may we not yet enquire a further reason why it pleased the Almighty thus to will such a space and would not rather produce this All perfect at once This perhaps may be thought a question too curious to be determined because Gods will is a sufficient reason in all his actions and therefore it is better left then looked into Which surely might well be so if the reasons urged prove too eagle-eyed and unprofitable not bettering us in our dulnesse or want of knowledge But otherwise if they instruct man in any thing pertinent to his present condition and inform him so as he may be somewhat reformed by them then they may be urged without the brand of nicenesse or imputation of curiositie First therefore we may joyn with them who say that perhaps it pleased Gods infinite perfection to take this leisure because if the creatures had been made all at once they might be thought to be increate and not made at all nor yet to have the like sense of their infirmitie as now they have one seeing another made before them Secondly seeing the world was thus perfected by degrees before man was who being made was the chief inhabitant of it me thinks so orderly to raise such a sumptuous palace for mankinde whilest yet mankinde was not what was it but the declaration of a greater kindnesse and a demonstration proving how kinde how carefull and how gracious God would be to us ever after being made and therefore now we must not distrust him but in all our wayes acknowledge him and he shall direct our paths Prov. 3. 5 6. For so he hath promised and so he doth perform to all that love and fear him causing every thing to work together for their good nay for their best as the Apostle speaketh Or as the Psalmist hath it No good thing shall he withhold from them who live a godly life Psal. 84. 12. Thirdly by this example mankinde may reade a lecture against himself if heedlesly or hastily he behave himself in any work and shall not rather proceed soberly and by degrees making haste as it is said by leisure For true it is that with us a soft pace goes farre Which made one fix this contemplation upon the works of creation saying How should we deliberate in our actions which are so subject to imperfection seeing it pleased Gods infinite perfection not out of need to take leisure Upon thought of which let us Make sober speed for 't is observ'd by proof That what is well done is done soon enough Festina lenté Nam sat citò si sat bene Thus having as it were considered the first part of the first dayes work we may now come more nearely to that which is the beauty of it I mean the Light which some call Gods eldest daughter or the first distinguished creature wherewith the Lord decked the world as with a garment Sect. 2. The creation of the Light ANd now concerning this bright creature no sooner did God say Let it be but lo it was He commanded that it should shine out of darknesse as speaks the Apostle and that being separated and set apart from the darknesse the first of dayes might be and Gods good works appeare beginning with the Lights proceeding to shew forth his exceeding glory But of this resplendent creature without which the beauty of the rest could not be seen there are no few opinions 1. Some would have it a spirituall Light and so under it they comprehend the creation of Angels But surely in my judgement their opinion is the founder who make it a naturall and materiall Light onely such as now is in the Sunne the Index of time and the worlds bright eye For as the office of the Sunnes light is now to distinguish between the Day and the Night so was the office of this Light being commanded to shine out of darknesse before the Sunne was made which being made was the subject ever after to retain it If it were otherwise or any other light where is it now shall we say that it is either extinguished or applied to some other use surely I think not because God who made all by the power of his word needed no instrument or help in the work of his creation And therefore that Light which at the first made his works appeare is no spirituall Light but such and the same that now is in the Sunne And yet perhaps as Aquinas thinketh it was but Lumen informe quod quarto die formatum est An informed Light which on the fourth day had its perfect form And as for the creation of Angels it is not like that they were made this first day but on the fourth day For it is very probable that there was the like order observed in making of the invisible world which was in the visible and that on the second day not onely the visible but also the invisible heavens were created yet so as both of them remained as it were unpolished or unfinished untill the fourth day For then as the outward heavens were garnished with Starres so might the inward and highest heavens be beautified with Angels This me thinks is not obscurely pointed at in Job chap. 38. vers 7. Where wert thou saith the Lord to Job when the starres praised me or sang together and all the sonnes of men shouted for joy it being here evident that when the Starres were made the Angels also had then their being rejoyced before God which was but upon the fourth day of the creation All this I say might well be thus although Moses doth not directly mention it which was because he applied himself to the simple capacitie of the people describing the creation onely of sensible things being that which at the first he intended and did in plain tearms testifie in the beginning of his historie when he said These Heavens and this Earth of which I spoke before And further were the creation of Angels comprehended under the creation of the heavens and light what were this but to leave the literall sense which is to be followed in the historie of the creation and to cleave unto Allegories But secondly concerning this Light others think that the element of fire was signified by it whose effect is light and whose act and qualitie is to enlighten which made one therefore say that The uncreated Light
the Firmament that is appointed to this separating office but the whole Firmament as any one may see if he do but observe the words of God producing and assigning it Neither do we finde that the Firmament is any more then one To divide it into parts so as they imagine is not to divide it into parts but rather to make so many Firmaments as they imagine parts like as every scale of an onyon is a severall and differing scale and not one the part of another And besides neither is there the same reason between the parts of water and these supposed parts of the Firmament for then when God made the Sunne Moon and Starres he would not have said Let them be in the Firmament but above the Firmament for they are farre higher then the clouds yet I say they being higher then the clouds he is said to place them but in the Firmament and they being no more but in it how improperly do we affirm those things to be above it whose places are lower then either Sunne Moon or Starres And secondly admit Job tells us that there are waters bound up in thick clouds doth not Jeremie also tell us that they are drawn up in vapours from the earth which as hath been shewed cannot at all times be but then when there is a naturall concourse of causes to effect it whereas the out-spread Firmament is to be alwayes between them separating them not at times but continually And as for the rain proceeding from those waters which we call the clouds it stayeth not long in the aire but forthwith falleth down again shewing that of right their proper place is here below and therefore we make not three kindes of waters as if we would be contrary to Moses in saying that there are other waters above the concave of the Firmament which on this second day of the worlds creation were separated from all other waters Wherefore observe but this they being separated on this second day how could they be such as the aire affordeth for the middle Region of the aire which is the place for the clouds was not untill the third day Not untill the third day I say because it is found by experience and from sufficient witnesse proved true that the tops of the highest mountains do reach up unto that place which we call the middle Region of the aire being some of them more loftie then the clouds As for example in Iapan there is a mountain called Figeniana which is some certain leagues higher then the clouds And in Ternate among the Philippine Islands there is a mountain which as Mr. Purchas in his pilgrimage relateth is even angry with nature because it is fastened to the earth and doth therefore not onely lift up his head above the middle Region of the aire but endeavoureth also to conjoyn it self with the fierie Element And of the mountain Athos between Macedon and Thrace it is said to be so high that it casteth shade more then thirtie and seven miles Also the mount of Olympus in Thessalie is said to be of that height as neither the windes clouds or rain do overtop it And although I omit sundry others of exceeding height it is also written of another mount so high above the clouds that some who have seen it do witnesse that they have been on the top of it and have had both a cleare skie over their heads and also clouds below them pouring down rain and breaking forth with thunder and lightnings at which those below have been terrified but on the top of the hill there was no such matter This surely was that mountain which Mr. Lydiat meant when he said that etiam aestivis diebus even in the summer time when the clouds are at the highest those on the top of the mountains have had fair weather and withall perceived that there was plentie of rain about the middle height of the same hills Thus we see that there are lofty mountains And indeed their loftines is the cause of a middle Region for the hils hindering the aire from following the motion of the heavens do make it about their tops a fit convenient place to thicken these vapours into clouds which by the attractive power of the heavenly bodies are drawn up thither Wherefore that I may conclude the place of the middle Region being both caused and also overtopped by sundry high mountains it will appeare that there was no middle Region of the aire untill the third day because the waters were all over the earth and standing above the hills untill that very day For then and not before God gathered them together unto one place and made the drie land to appeare which before was covered with waters as with a garment Psalm 104. Rarior aqua saith one velut nebula terras tegebat quae congregatione densata est The thinne water like a mist or wet cloud covered the earth which by gathering together was made thick In which regard it may be said saith Aquinas that it was as naturall for the water to be every where about the earth as for the aire to be about both water and earth yet neverthelesse propter necessitatem finis saith he for the necessitie of the end namely that plants and living creatures should be upon the earth it was meet that the earth should be so uncovered and the waters so gathered that the drie land appeare Now this was a work pertinent unto the third day and before this work done there could be no middle Region and the middle Region being on this day and not before how can the waters in the clouds be those waters which were separated by the out-spread Firmament on the second day Neither do I here argue à facto ad fieri because in the very creation of this Firmament God then said Let it be between the waters that is even then beginning its office and art of separating them Which that it is even so we see he speaketh next concerning the lower waters and makes no more mention at all of those upper ones because he had already done with them and left them in their place unto which he had appointed them But furthermore this tenent is not a little helped by a consideration of the cataracts or windows of heaven which in the dayes of Noah were opened and poured down rain by the space of fourty dayes For me thinks the clouds could not be those windows of heaven because it rained fourty dayes and before it left raining the waters were higher then the hills being when fourty dayes were ended fifteen cubits above the highest mountains as in the historie of the Floud is manifest And hereupon it was that one once by the same reason concluded and said that either it did not rain fourty dayes which assertion we are sure is false or else it rained from some other where then from the middle Region For seeing the middle Region it self was
Comets be burnt consumed and wasted in the starrie heavens it seemeth that there is no great difference between them and things here below for if there were it might be thought that they would not suffer such earthly matter to ascend up their territories such I say as doth either wholly or in part compose them Wholly or in part I adde because perhaps even the heavens themselves may afford some matter towards the generation of them especially if they be new starres such as Aristotle never saw wherefore he writes that a Comet consisteth altogether of an hot drie and a kinde of oylie exhalation drawn from the earth and questionlesse in such as are utterly below the moon it is even so but if they â—…e higher and continue longer they as well as new starres may have some help from such matter as the heavens afford towards the generation of strange appearances which though they have yet that they have no earthly matter is not excluded because next under God the efficient cause of these things is attributed to the starres and their operation for when they are aptly and conveniently placed and aspected then by their power working upon things here below they draw up hot drie and oylie exhalations and these exhalations afford unto Comets that matter whereof they consist Ptolomie attributeth much in this kinde to Mars and Mercurie and so do many others else beside him and why the yearely aspects of these starres do not alwayes produce such effects is because they are not alwayes aspected in the same manner but sometimes in one part of the heavens sometimes in another and cannot therefore produce their intended effects without either the meeting or avoiding of apt or inconvenient occurrences But I conclude and do yet affirm that the nature of the heavens is certainly such that the waters above the heavens might passe or issue through them in the time of the Floud and yet the heavens not be dissolved nor suffer damage by their falling damage neither in corrupting them nor yet in leaving a vacant place by coming all away of which in the fourth dayes work when I come to speak of the starres I shall adde yet something more CHAP. V. How to understand the word Heavens and of the severall Regions of the aire together with a consideration of such appearances as we use to see there Sect. 1. ANd now to go on with the residue of this dayes work God saith Moses called the firmament Heavens c. By heavens in this place Moses meaneth onely the visible heavens because he speaketh onely of the visible part of the world And yet the same word which is here used is sometimes put for the aire wherein windes clouds and fowls do flie sometimes for the upper Firmament where the sunne moon and starres are set and sometimes for the high places where Angels dwell And hereupon it was that S. Paul mentioned the third heavens wherein he saw things unspeakable The first of these is like to the outward court of Solomons temple and is the most open to us The second is like his inward court lesse open and abounding with starrie lights or lamps never going out And the next is as the Sanctum Sanctorum whither he is entred once for all who is a Priest for ever and maketh intercession for us In the two lowest is no felicitie for neither the fowls nor starres are happie It is the third of these alone where the blessed Trinitie enjoyeth it self and the glorified spirits enjoy it And questionlesse in this highest part must needs be more then exceeding glorie seeing the other two within the concave of the Firmament are so full of wonder But of the one of them I shall need to speak little in this dayes work yet of the other under it as being more pertinent something must be added Sect. 2. Parag. 1. Of the Aire and the severall Regions in it VVE may therefore now if you please look into the Aire and here following the common path and separating it from the starrie heaven I must say that it is divided into three stages or Regions although I verily think as afterwards shall be shewed when I come to speak of the starres that all this space even from the earth to the eighth sphere is nothing else but aire The highest Region is said to be exceeding hot and also drie by reason of the neighbourhood that it hath with the fierie element as is said and with the starres by the force of whose beams it receiveth heat which is also much increased by following the motion of the heavens The lowest Region is somewhat contrary for it is said to be hot and moist hot chiefly by the reflection of the sunne-beams meeting with the earth and moist by reason of the proper nature of the aire and also by reason of the vapours exhaled out of the earth and water This is the qualitie which commonly is attributed to this Region But I think that we may rather say it is variable now hot now cold and sometimes temperate differing according to the times and seasons of the yeare In which regard Du Bartas writeth thus Warm-temper'd show'rs do wash it in the Spring And so in Autumne but more varying In Winter time 't is wet and cold and chill In Summer season hot and soultry still For then the fields scorched with flames reflect The sparkling rayes of thousand starres aspect The chief is Phoebus to whose arrows bright Our Globie Grandam serves for But and White Neither is it altogether variable in regard of time but also by reason of the diversitie of place some climates being more hot and drie some more cold and moist then others which cometh to passe according to their distance from the Equinoctiall towards either of the Poles Thus for these two Regions But now concerning the middle Region it is alwayes cold yet surely in its own nature it would be warmer then the Region which is here below were it not cooled by a cold occasioned by the reflection of the Sunne-beams For they reflecting upon the earth drive up above the beams of their reflection much cold from below which being daily supplied is kept as a continuall prisoner between the heat above and the heat beneath Or if you will take it thus namely that it is cold but not extreamly cold yet cold I say it is in respect of the two other Regions which are hotter then it And this coldnesse happeneth partly through the causes before expressed and partly by reason of the Aire in it which cannot follow the motion of the heavens seeing it is hindred by the tops of the mountains And hereupon it is that the Philosophers make this a rule saying that the farrenesse from a circular motion gives quietnesse coldnesse and heavinesse even as the nearnesse gives motion heat and lightnesse Which in this thing concerning the middle Region is found to be true the
rod spoils the childe Geminianus mentions the like custome of the foolish Ape but he applieth the embleme otherwise directing it as an example to decipher out the follie of a covetous man who bears up and down in the arms of his affection that fondling which he loveth namely the world but leaves and neglects other things wherein his love should shew it self casting them upon his back and as it were behinde him although afterwards it be his hap to suffer for it For when any necessitie shall urge the Ape to runne she casteth down the young one in her arms but the other behinde her sitteth still and hinders her course so that being oppressed she is taken In like manner when he whose onely love and joy was in the world is compelled by death to flie away he letteth go that which was his best beloved and thinking to escape the eager pursuit of his fierce tormentours he is deceived because the neglect of things to be regarded lieth heavie on him and they help now to make him wretched It is better therefore to be poore then wicked for it is not thy povertie but thy sinnes which shut thee ouâ—… from God and fond fooll do not they take pains without gains labour in vain and traffick ill who lose their souls to â—…ll their bagges For as Isaac shewed in blessing him who was to be blest the dew of heaven must go before the fragrant fatnesse of the fertil earth but in him who lost the blessing the earths fatnesse goes before and takes place of the dew of heaven But do you not see the pawing Bear he is a creature well known and such a one as is found in divers places of the world Plinie describeth this beast at large not onely shewing the time and manner of their birth but also of their retreating to their caves long time of fasting and of sleeping there They bring forth young within the space of thirtie dayes after their time of copulation which at the first be shapelesse and void of form without eyes without hair their nails onely appearing and hanging out each whelp being little bigger then a mouse and these by licking are moulded into fashion and day by day brought to perfection This beast can fast many dayes and by sucking his foremost feet asswage or somewhat mitigate his hunger Some say that they can be without meat 40 dayes and then when they come abroad they are filled beyond measure which voracitie and want of moderation they help again by vomiting and are provoked unto it by eating of ants But above all other things they love to feed on hony whereupon they will fearlesly disturb the bees and search into hollow trees for such repast not altogether to fill their bellies but most of all to help a dimnesse in their dull eyes Moscovia hath many such breeding bees and Munster tells a storie how a Bear seeking for hony was the cause of delivering a man out of an hollow tree There was saith he a poore countreyman who used to search the woods and trees for the gain and profit of hony and espying at the length a very great hollow tree he climbed up into the top of it and leaped down into the trunk or bodie sinking and sticking fast in a great heap of hony even to the breast and almost to the throat and having continued two dayes in this sweet prison during which time he fed himself with hony all hope of deliverance was quite gone for it was impossible he should climbe up and get out neither could his voice be heard although he cried with an open mouth especially in such a solitude and vast place of wood and trees so that now being destitute of all help and consolation he began utterly to despair and yet by a marvellous strange and as it were an incredible chance he escaped for it so fell out that he was delivered and drawn forth by the help and benefit of a great Bear which seeking for hony chanced to happen upon this tree the Bear scaleth it and letteth her self down into the hollownesse thereof with her back-parts first in manner and fashion of man when he climbeth Now the man in the tree perceiving this in a great fear and affrightment he claspeth fast about the reins and loins of the Bear who being thereupon terrified as much as the man is forced to climbe up again and violently to quit her self from the tree the man in the mean time using great noises and many outcries and so by this accident a wished but hopeles libertie was procured for the Bear being feared drew up the man and knew not of it And note that in Bears their head is very weak being contrary to the Lion whose head is alwayes strong And therefore when necessitie urgeth that the Bear must needs tumble down from some high rock she tumbleth and rolleth with her head covered between her claws and oftentimes by dusts and knocks in gravel and sand they are almost exanimate and without life Neither is it seldome that their tender heads catch deadly wounds although they cannot quickly feel them by reason of their ardent love to hony For as Olaus Magnus mentioneth in Russia and the neighbour countreys they use to catch Bears with a certain engine like the head of a great nail beset round with sharp iron pegs which they hang upon a bough just before that hole where the Bear fetcheth his hony who coming according to his wonted custome strives to thrust it away with his head but the more he puts it from him the stronger it cometh back upon him howbeit he being greedy of the hony in the tree ceaseth not to push against the engine untill at last his many knocks cause him faintingly to fall So have I seen many perish through their own vain and fond delights for as the sweetnesse of hony causeth the death of the Bear so the delight in sinne causeth the death of the soul. Geminianus applies it thus saying that as the hony-seeking Bear destroyes her self by her own folly in beating back the piercing hammer so man who seeketh after the pleasures and delights of sinne wounds himself by pushing against the pricks for the word of God as a hammer breaking the rocks resisteth both him and his sin which whilest he casteth from him it doth more strongly impinge upon him and will at the last day judge him to perdition The Bugill is of the same kinde with Kine and Oxen and so is that other beast which we call a Byson The Byson is a kinde of wilde Bull never tamed and bred most commonly in the North parts of the world He is also called Taurus Paeonicus The Paeonian Bull of which there be two kindes the greater and the lesse Neither do I think these to be any other then those wilde Bulls of Prussia mentioned by Munster in his book of Cosmography saying There be wilde Bulls
given to that estate CHAP. I. Wherein is shewed that the world neither was from eternitie nor yet shall be extended to eternitie but that it had both a beginning and shall also have an ending wherein also is considerable how that ending shall be as also the time when is largely examined Sect. 1. That the world began and must also end THe Philosophers of ancient times were diversly transported in the stream of their own opinions both concerning the worlds originall and continuance some determining that it once began others imagining that it was without beginning and that the circled orbs should spin out a thread as long as is eternitie before it found an ending Plato could say that it was Dei Patris ad genus humanum epistola an epistle of God the Father unto mankinde and that God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creatour Maker and Father of the whole universe But Aristotle sticked not to affirm that the world neither began nor yet shall end Yet this his opinion himself being witnesse was nothing else but a Paradox and as without wrong to him may be affirmed he maintained it rather by way of contradicting others then for any desire of truth calling it Problema topicum as in the first book of his Topicks chap. 9. is manifest and as in that book written in his old age to king Alexander the Great he also confesseth This therefore made one say that it was not so much a logicall question as a thesis or position which Aristotle held and maintained whose reasons some have called vain sophistications to obscure the truth having more with then matter in them and may again be answered by more solid arguments then he alledgeth For that the world had both a beginning and must also have an ending even reason it self although there were no Scripture for it is sufficient As first if the world were eternall then there would be some memorie given us of the generations of men more ancient then that which Moses mentioneth but there is none given us for all other histories are but late in respect of the sacred storie which is an evident argument not onely against the eternitie of the world but also against the fables of the Egyptians Scythians and Grecians concerning their ancientnesse and the ancientnesse of their acts and deeds of fame For indeed omitting their palpable fictions when Ethnick writers tell us of any ancient thing it is either concerning the Thebane or Trojane warre of Cecrops of Inachus of Ogyges Deucalion or Ianus of Ninus or his father Belus or of the warre of the giants striving to heap mountain upon mountain that they might pull the gods out of heaven Now all these were either about the dayes of the Judges Moses Abraham or Noah at the furthest For to whom did they allude by their Ianus with two faces but to Noah who saw the times both before and after the floud Or whom did they point at by their Gigantomachia when Pelion forsooth must be set upon Ossa's back and all thrown down with a thunder-crack whom I say did they point at but Nimrod and his company or those who built the tower of Babel and had their languages confounded for it That of the Poet is therefore pertinent Si nulla fuit genitalis origo Terrarum coeli sempérque aeterna fuâ—…re Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinêre Poetae Quò tot facta virûm toties cecidêre nec usquam Aeternis famae monimentis insita florent If that the heavens and earth did not begin Had no creation but remain'd from aye Why did not other Poets something sing Before the Thebane warre or fall of Troy What are become of great mens many deeds They could not die But would remain unto posteritie Secondly thus it may be also proved All things which are to us conspicuous consisting of matter and form are of themselves frail and fading having such a nature that they either are or may be subject to corruption but such is the world and therefore as in respect of its essence it is finite so likewise in respect of time it cannot be infinite but have both a beginning and an ending For first that is properly eternall which is altogether incommunicable or which is without beginning mutation succession and end and such onely is God and not the world Secondly it cannot be denied but that there is the same reason of the whole which is of the parts so that if the parts of the world be subject to corruption then must likewise the whole world also but the parts are as we daily see and therefore the whole But leaving reason we have a rule beyond it which is the rule of faith whos 's first assertion makes it plain that the world began and that Time by which we measure dayes weeks moneths and yeares hath not been for ever For In the beginning saith Moses God created the heavens and the earth and why is it said In the beginning he created but that it might be known especially to his Church that the world 〈◊〉 from everlasting Divinely therefore did Du Bartas sing as in the sound of Silvester we have it Cleare fire for ever hath not ayre embrac't Nor ayre for aye environ'd waters vast Nor waters alwayes wrapt the earth therein But all this ALL did once of nought begin Th' immutable divine decree which shall Cause the worlds end caus'd his originall Which whosoever shall deny he doth but betray his misery either because he wants Gods holy word to be his rule or else because he disdaineth to be ruled by it How great a priviledge then is that which even the poorest Christian hath above the greatest and most wise Philosopher And as for the scoffing Atheist whose peevish and perverse opinion leads him up and down in an affected cloud of ignorance disdaining to have faith because he scoffeth at the rule of faith it is no more then thus with him he kicks against the pricks and cannot therefore escape away unhurt For Sequitur injustas ultor à tergo Deus God as a revenger follows at the heels of a sinner Which many thousands now can witnesse well Whose faults with woe recanted are in hell Sect. 2. BUt concerning the worlds ending here fitly may arise this question viz. Whether it shall be destroyed according to the substance or according to the qualities 1. If it be destroyed according to the substance then it must be so destroyed as that nothing of it be remaining 2. If it be destroyed according to the qualities then it shall onely be purged the substance still abiding Now of both these opinions there can be but one truth which I verily think to be in the latter of them For although it be said in S. Peter that the heavens shall passe away with a noise the elements shall melt away with heat c.
dayes of weekly labour and that the seventh age shall begin at the resurrection as was figured in Henoch the seventh from Adam who died not as did the six before him but was taken up into heaven Unto this I assent as probable But that each age should have a thousand yeares is still denied and as in setting them down according to Scripture will be manifest The first is from the creation to the floud and this by S. Peter is called the old world 2. Pet. 2. 5. The second is from the floud to Abraham Matth. chap. 1. The third from Abraham to David Matth. chap. 1. The fourth from David to the captivitie Matth. chap. 1. The fifth from the captivitie to Christ. Matth. chap. 1. The sixt is the time after Christ called in many places the last age and the last of times as in Hebrews chap. 1. 1. God saith the Apostle who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken to us by his Sonne And again S. Peter calls this the last of times 1. Pet. 1. 20. S. John also saith Little children it is the last time 1. John 2. 18. These I grant to be the six ages of the world but who is so mad as to say or think that there were just thousands of yeares betwixt each or any of them The Septuagints make more then thousands between some of them and the Hebrews they make lesse excepting the first age Yet if you will know their lengths according to that which is none of the worst accounts take them thus and this account I may afterwards prove in another work The first hath 1656 yeares The second if we end it at the beginning of Abrahams peregrination and giving of the promise hath the just number of 423 yeares The third if we end it at the death of Saul and beginning of Davids kingdome after him containeth the number of 866 yeares The fourth if we begin the captivitie in the first yeare of Nebuchadnezzar hath 448 yeares The fifth containeth the length both of the Chaldean Persian and Grecian Monarchies together with so much of the Roman greatnesse as was past before Christ came into the world amounting in all to the summe of 605 yeares or there abouts although we reckon no further then the birth of Christ. But go rather to his baptisme and then this age is 634 c. The sixth and last hath so many yeares as are from the time of mans redemption untill now for hitherto this age hath continued and shall not be ended untill the last trumpet be blown and Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Arise you dead and come to judgement be sounded in our eares To which purpose divine Du Bartas that noble Poet brings in our father Adam speaking of these ages thus setting them down as if the speech had been uttered by him to his sonne saying The First begins with me the Seconds morn Is the first Ship-wright who doth first adorn The hills with vines that Shepherd is the Third Who after God through strange lands leads his herd And past mans reason crediting Gods word His onely sonne slayes with a willing sword The Fourth 's another valiant Shepherdling That for a cannon takes his silly sling And to a scepter turns his shepherds staff Great Prince great Prophet Poet Psalmograph The Fifth begins from that sad Princes night Who sâ—…es his children murdred in his sight Or from poore Iudahs dolefull heavinesse Led captives on the banks of Euphrates Hoped Messias shineth in the Sixt Who mockt beat banisht buried crucifixt For our foul sinnes still selfly-innocent Must fully bear the hatefull punishment The Last shall be the very resting-day Aire shall be mute the waters works shall stay The earth her store the starres shall leave their measures The sunne his shine and in eternall pleasures We plung'd in heaven shall aye solemnize all Th' eternall sabbaths endlesse festivall Thus farre Du Bartas But from hence I proceed and on the sudden I have met some other sorts of calculatours For so various are mens searching heads that these things have not onely been boulstered out by Rabbinicall traditions sabbaticall symboles and the like but also by sundry other fancies Some have pretended revelations and thereby deluded many Amongst whom learned Gerard makes mention of a certain woman of Suevia in Germanie who was called Thoda she in the yeare of Christ 848 prophesied that by the apparition of an Angel it was revealed unto her that the world should end that very yeare After whom there were others as true prophets as her self namely in the yeares 1062 1258 1345 1526 1530 c. He in the yeare 1526 ran up and down the streets in the citie of S. Gallus in Helvetia crying with horrid gestures that the day of the Lord was come that it was present And he in the yeare 1530 did so strongly prevail with some that he perswaded them the last yeare of the world was come whereupon they grew prodigall of their goods and substance fearing that they should scarcely spend them in so short a time as the world was to continue But this surely was an Anabaptisticall trick and a chip of that block which maketh all things common boasting of visions and dreams in an abundant manner Others have pitched upon certain Mathematicall revolutions and thereby constituted a time amongst whom Ioannes Regiomontanus is said to be one who partly thought that the yeare 1588 should adde an end to the world because at that time was a great conjunction of Saturn Jupiter Mars Upon which occasion I remember these verses Post mille expletos à partu Virginis annos Et post quingentos rursus ab orbe datos Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus Ingruet is secum tristia multa trahet Si non hoc anno totus malus occidet orbis Si non in nihilum terra fretúmque ruent Cuncta tamen mundi sursum ibunt atque deorsum Imperia luctus undique grandis erit That is When from the Virgins birth a thousand yeares With full five hundred be compleat and told The Eightie Eighth a famous yeare appeares Which brings distresse more fatall then of old If not in this yeare all the wicked world Do fall and land with sea to nothing come Yet Empires must be topsie turvie hurl'd And extream grief shall be the common summe Which what it was the event hath shewed Others again dream of secrets in Cabalisticall conclusions Some subscribe to Analogies taken from Jubilees or from the yeares of Christs age and the like Yea and to omit many sundry others have their tricks and devices in Arithmeticall numbers whereby they can directly calculate the time and make the superstitious multitude admire them and lend a more then greedie eare to their feared predictions Such a one was he who out of these words MUNDI
〈◊〉 Time shall be no more but we do not know whether the space of time allotted for that Trumpet be either long or short The Trumpets before it had time allowed them and what time this last shall have the event will best discover Wherefore I do well perceive that it is no easie thing to finde an apparent length of this last age any long while before it endeth unlesse we could be directly certified of the utmost periods of all the Trumpets or knew the times of the seven Vials which by seven Angels were to be poured out The best and onely way is alwayes to watch and to be evermore ready either for death or judgement For certainly when that time comes pure hearts as Bernard speaketh shall prevail more than subtill words good consciences better then full purses because the Judge will not be deceived with words nor moved with gifts neither is it possible that any should avoid him for all shall be summoned to appeare before him To which purpose Du Bartas descants thus Those that were laden with proud marble tombes Those that were swallow'd down wilde monsters wombes Those that the Sea hath drown'd those that the flashes Of ruddy flames have burned all to ashes Awaked all shall rise and all revest The flesh and bones that they at first possest But some must Justice some must Mercie taste Some call'd to joy some into torment cast CHAP. II. Shewing in what part of the yeare the world was created Sect. 1. Of three opinions concerning the time of the worlds beginning with a confutation of the first IN the account of Times it is very necessary that there should be a proposed point or mark from whence every reckoning may take beginning that thereby the yeares which have severall times of beginning may the more truely be computed and compared amongst themselves Wherefore it cannot be amisse to set down the most probable conjectures concerning the yeare wherein the world began especially seeing amongst Chronologers it is usuall to referre their accounts either to the yeare of the worlds Creation or to the birth of Christ. And now concerning this there be chiefly three opinions 1. Some imagine that the world was created in the very time of the Summer Solstice and that in the beginning of time the Sunne entring into Leo gave beginning to the yeare 2. Others referre it to the Spring when the Sunne entred into Aries 3. And in the last place 't is supposed that the world was made in Autumne when the Sunne entred into Libra Of all which I purpose to discourse severally and to shew the best reasons for that which I think to be the truest time The first is an opinion maintained by Mercator and as is thought was first hatched among the Priests of Egypt who observing the river Nilus to overflow about the Summer Solstice adored it for a God esteeming the time of its inundation for an infallible beginning of divine actions in things created and thereupon for the beginning likewise of the yeare at the time of the worlds creation But if this were the onely cause we may not unfitly say that it was folly and superstition which first set this opinion abroach and therefore he is worthy of blame who will go about to maintain it And although Mercator in his Chronologie seems to alledge some other reasons thereby to uphold his share in it yet his chief reason is not sufficient for it is grounded upon that which is not granted viz. that the Floud should end about Iuly because in the eleventh moneth which he supposeth to be May or Iune when the Olive beginneth to put forth the Dove brought green Olive leaves unto Noah into the Ark. To which it is answered That the word in Gen. 7. 11. which he taketh to signifie green leaves may as expositours witnesse as well be taken for branches even such as have been used to make Bowers with which according to the translation of the Septuagint is expressed by a word signifying a dry stalk And so saith that †Doctour in his Hexapla upon Genesis chapter the first question the 17 that the word in the originall is Gâ—…alce which as S. Hierome translateth it elsewhere signifies the branches of Olives and in the Septuagint it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stalk without leaves That therefore which the Dove brought might be some branch of the Olive tree rather then the leaves and so might the Floud end at the dead time of the yeare rather then when things were fresh and flourishing But admit that the stalk or branch had leaves on it yet it proves not that it was about May or Iune when the Dove found and brought it because it is recorded of the Olive that she loseth not her leaves as other trees doe but is green and flourishing all the yeare Such leaves therefore as it had before the Floud it might have after the Floud for if they were new ones they must needs spring out in seven dayes because the Dove was sent out but seven dayes before returning then as a creature disconsolate not finding any thing at all Sect. 2. ANother opinion is that it was created in the Spring and that the Sunne who is the Index of time by whose revolution we account our yeares began his course in Aries The most forcible reasons to uphold this opinion are these First the naturall beginning of the yeare was in the Spring time because Noah entred into the Ark the first moneth and after a yeare about the end of the second moneth he came forth of the Ark again Gen. 7. 8. Now the first and second moneths here mentioned agree not to Autumne because if Noah came out of the Ark at that time of the yeare he could not then provide himself with victualls for those creatures which were with him against the next yeare by reason that the Harvest time was then past and Winter coming on so that the yeare naturally began in the Spring time and not in Autumne Secondly it is likely that the world took beginning at such a time when things were growing more and more to perfection as in the Spring rather then when they were decreasing as in Autumne Thirdly it is no weak assertion to affirm that the world was created about that time of the yeare when by the second Adam it was redeemed which was not in Autumne but in the Spring Fourthly the children of Israel coming out of Egypt were commanded to begin their yeare at Abib called afterwards Nisan which moneth agreeth partly to our March and partly to April See Exodus chap. 12. verse 1 and chap. 23. verse 15. Now by this command it is like that they were onely put in minde of their ancient custome which was in use amongst their Ancestours and lost by them since their going into Egypt and death of the Patriarchs For when the twelve Patriarchs the sonnes of Jacob were dead they of their posteritie learned the customes of Egypt
manifold use and benefit The night easeth the burden of the day the day driveth away the terrour of the night The night burieth our cares and doth what she can to drown all our griefs in a silent sleep the day serveth for our needfull labours is the wicked mans just terrour the mother of truth and true beauties onely glasse wherein she may both see her self and be also seen The night serveth to temper the dayes exceeding drought and to cool its heat for by moistning the aire it makes the earth to fructifie the day again warmeth the coolnesse of the night melting the white hoarie haires of winters beard and with a reviving cherishing and nourishing of things as well sensible as vegetative addes life afresh into the dying universe serving as I said before for the need full labours of man For as the Psalmist hath it The sunne ariseth and then man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour untill the evening Psal. 104. 22. And so also for the night it is destinated or appointed for quiet and sleep wherein the wearied bodies of living creatures are refreshed and their strengths repaired the noisome beasts now come forth and feed lest coming in the day they might be a terrour unto men For as the Psalmist again recordeth Thou makest darknesse that it may be night wherein all the beasts of the forrest do move as the lions roaring after their prey and the like vers 20. But of this enough And now last of all when this dayes work was done or brought to an end God is said to view it and behold there was nothing amisse That is Moses speaking according to our capacities telleth us that God doth approve and ratifie that work now done which before he purposed to make So Eve and Morn conclude the first of dayes And God gives to his work deserved praise CHAP. IIII. Of the second day and of such things as are pertinent to the work done in it Sect. 1. Of the Expansum or stretching out of the Heavens COncerning this dayes work what it was we finde it thus expressed And God said Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament and it was so And God called the firmament Heaven and the evening and the morning were the second day Gen. 1. 6 7 8. This is the narration of what was done And here let us consider first of the Firmament then of the waters which it separateth and lastly of the severall Heavens together with the regions of the aire and of such appearances as we use to see there unto which if any thing else be met withall pertinent to this dayes work it shall be added The word Rakiah translated Firmament signifieth Expansum or expansionem which is a stretching out not onely from the earth but about the earth so that the world being mans house the Firmament is as the vaulted roof of it Or as Hyperius observeth it is tanquam theca quaedam omnia quae Deo ipso inferiora sunt inclusa continens as a certain husk shell or box inclusively containing all things without the Heaven of heavens or which are below that place where God doth manifest his glorie Which also is further to be seen in the hundred and fourth Psalme at the second verse where it is said that God hath stretched out the heavens as a canopie or extendisse incurvando coelos tanquam conopeum as some reade it by which comparison it seemeth that the Firmament is not so much expansum ratione extensionis à centro quà m circa centrum not so much a thing stretched out by reason of its distance from the centre as about the centre And again we call it the Firmament because in the stretching out it was not weakened but made strong In which regard expositours do well observe the difference which is between Rakiah and Karah For the word which is here used they reade it Rakiah and say that it doth properly signifie a thing made strong by stretching out being therefore contrary to the word Karah which is to break in stretching And the Greeks likewise that they may give a full expression according to the proprietie of the word do translate it and call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to make strong or firm and thus also the ancient Greek Philosophers observed calling the whole compasse of the heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning the very utmost bound of them which is not so weak that it should be broken in the stretching but strong and farre more free from a fluid nature then is that aire which the concave of it keepeth and holdeth The Latines also call it Firmamentum and we in our speech the Firmament which in respect of its extension is the whole compasse of heaven on all sides being as it were the case of the visible world and all things in it as hath been shewed Sect. 2. Of the waters above the Heavens BUt from the concavitie of this firmament we may passe to the convexitie of it And now if it be considered as it is convex then we shall come to the examination of that which God assigned as proper to it most especially viz. that it separate the waters from the waters For this out-spread firmament is by its office to separate and to be not above the waters but between them and therefore those waters which it separateth cannot be such waters as are in the clouds but rather above the concave of the firmament If they be such as are in the clouds then are they rather in the middle of the firmament then the firmament in middle or between them And this made one argue thus saying Expansio in nubium regione aut finitur aut ulteriùs extenditur si ibi finitur stellas infra nubes constitutas esse oportet Sin ulteriùs extenditur supercoelestes aquâ—…s ab inferioribus expansio non sejungit sed nubes potiùs unam expansionis partem ab altera dispescunt Atqui utrumque horum à Mosis narratione absonum Tutissimè igitur aquas coelestes supra sidera esse constitutas totúmque illud quod à globo terrae aquae sursum expanditur coeli velaëris nomine contineri sentiemus That is The out-spread firmament either is ended in the cloudie region or is further extended If it be ended there then the starres must needs be under the clouds because they are within the firmament Gen. 1. 6. But if it be further extended then the supercelestiall waters are not separated by the firmament but rather the clouds sever one part of the firmament from the other both which are against Moses his narration Therefore we may safely think that the celestiall waters are above the starres c. In which regard it
also the creditours of whom I have borrowed such extraordinary summes of money both at Frankford and elsewhere and the dangers which I do daily expose my self unto I call all these to witnesse whether I have left mine own kingdome and the dearest I have in the world to any other end and with other intention but onely to destroy the tyranny of the house of Austria and to obtain a profound and setled peace unto all These words of his shew nothing lesse then that he was extraordinarily set on work to undergo such fortunes as the eyes of all the world have bravely seen him struggle with and God knows who shall end that which his coming into Germanie hath begun It was his own saying that if he himself should not survive so long as to bring to passe so great a work that then in his stead some other might succeed and go on untill a full point and period were put unto the warre For upon the occasion of his deliverance from a cannon shot he utters these words saying that he was not onely mortall but subject also unto the very same accidents that the poorest and meanest souldier is subject unto It is a generall law saith he from which my crown my birth my victories are not able to rescue and exempt me There remaineth nothing else therefore but that I must resigne my self to the providence of the Almighty who if it please him to call me out of this world will neverthelesse not abandon and leave a cause so just as that which I have undertaken but will doubtlesse raise up some other more wise more couragious and valiant then my self who shall put a period to this warre And again it was but three dayes before his death that at Naumbourg he uttered these words Our affairs saith he answer our desires but I doubt God will punish me for the folly of the people who attribute too much unto me and esteem me as it were their God and therefore he will make them shortly know and see I am but a man He be my witnesse it is a thing distastfull unto me And what ever befall me I shall receive it as proceeding from his divine will Onely in this I rest fully satisfied that he will not leave this great enterprise of mine imperfect Great King of Hearts in arms transcending fame Eternall praise shall blazoâ—… forth thy name Soul of thy friends thou wert But terrour scourge of foes Canst thou then die though death Thine eyes in spight may close No no For times unborn shall yet repeat What deeds were done by thee a King so great And this doth â—…lso raise thy just renown That in thy fall thine enemies fell down Thine was that day thy men undaunted fought Untill their foes the field were driven out For as it were from forth their Kings last bloud The palm and bay sprung up and conqu'ring stood Great deeds thou diddest soon hot Mars his sphere In Germanie thee mov'd a double yeare From whence at last above the spheres he caught thee And to a place of peace eternall brought thee Where thou shalt rest how e're the rest proceed With those fierce warres which heav'n hath thus decreed But let me now return again to this New starre and shew you that in the dayes of Hipparchus who lived towards the end of the Grecian Monarchie there appeared one much like it and so Plinie telleth us But since that time we reade of no other untill this in the yeare 1572 excepting that which appeared at our Saviours birth which indeed was no such starre for it had three properties never seen in any else moving first from the North to the South secondly it was seated in the lowest Region of the aire thirdly it was nothing hindred by the light of the sunne c. Yet in later times following the said yeare 1572 some smaller ones have been as in the yeare 1596 this was seated in the Whale And in the yeare 1600 or thereabouts another was seen in the constellation of Cygnus Kepler makes mention of one in the yeare 1602 in the constellation of Pisces soon after which upon the death of Q. Elisabeth and coming in of K. Iames was that great plague at London Some say that Andromeda's girdle and the constellation of Antoninous afforded each of them one in the yeare 1612. But the yeare 1604 must not be forgotten for in the 16 degree and 40 minute of Sagittarius toward the Southwest a remarkable one appeared having 2 degrees and 15 minutes of North latitude and was seated in the constellation of Ophiucus this at the first shined as bright as Venus and in the very next yeare that damnable powder plot of the Papists was discovered But now though these and more were reckoned up yet that in Cassiopea would be the chief the elder brother and captain of them all because both in height bignesse and lustre they were lesse remarkable Tycho upon the sight of this New starre laboureth to prove that the heavens and not the earth afford matter to such as these are thinking that it differeth not from the matter of other starres unlesse in this viz. that it is not exalted to such a perfection and solid composition of the parts as in the first continuing and created starres the main and principall reason being taken from the magnitude of them together with their extraordinary height As for example Tycho affirmeth concerning that New starre in Cassiopea being as it were the elder brother of all the other after it that it was 300 times bigger then the earth Which being so it is with small probabilitie affirmed that it should have matter from that which is so much lesse then it and indeed a thing impossible The heavens are large enough to afford matter although the earth be not and no part of the heaven can be imagined to be more fit for such a purpose then the via lactea or milkie way for that place alwayes shews it self even to the eye so as if there were much indigested matter in it reserved onely to work such wonders Yet neverthelesse I suppose it may be also granted that an earthly Exhalation may have recourse sometimes unto the battlements of heaven and in some sort and in part concurre towards the composition of these New starres as they are called and of such Comets as have been above the Moon What should we think of that last in the yeare 1618 it was as I have already said amongst the wandring starres themselves and yet it was no other then such a starre as we call a Comet or a blazing starre Now then if this had matter from the earth and spent it amongst the Planets rather then below the Moon why might not those which we call New starres obtain the like freedome to have the like matter ascend a little higher What should hinder this conjecture I do not easily see for questionlesse the
this they prove because the blast bloweth not farre but is like the winde that cometh out of a pair of bellows strong neare the coming forth but farre off is not perceived Upon thought of which let it also be known that the blowing of the winde sometimes one way and sometimes another way dependeth upon no other cause then upon the situation of the place from whence the exhalation ariseth and that it is sometimes stirred up one where sometimes another where proceedeth from the operation of the heavens Also know that windes diametrally opposite cannot blow together under one and the same Horizon with a continued blast For if they be of equall strength the one will be as powerfull as the other and so not one give place to either Or if their forces be unequall then the one will overcome the other and so the conquered must upon necessitie give place to the conquerour and rather joyn unwilling forces with him then be against him Yet neverthelesse if they be obliquely contrary they may blow together and by how much they are the more oblique by so much they stirre up the greater strivings and tempestuous blasts But if the exhalation be little tenuous or thin then we have onely a pleasant whisking winde such as may be called aura by which the aire is gently moved Also know that it is as possible to see the winde as the aire their substances being too tenuous to be perceived unlesse in a storm-winde whose matter is an exhalation so thick that it darkens the aire of which more shall be spoken afterwards as also of whiâ—…lwindes and the like Last of all as it is observed and found by experience the generall profit of winde by the unspeakable wisdome of the eternall God is wonderfull great unto his creatures For besides the alteration of the weather and change of seasons from drinesse to rain from rain to drinesse from cold to heat from heat to cold with frost and snow which all are necessary there is yet an universall commoditie that riseth by the onely moving of the aire which were it not continually moved and stirred would soon putrifie and being putrified would be a deadly poison and infection to all that breathe upon the earth Wherefore although we know not the particular place from whence it is raised or where it is laid down as Christ meaneth John the third yet it teacheth the admired providence of the Almightie insomuch that we may worthily crie out with the Psalmist and say Oh Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdome thou hast made them all Artic. 3. Of the division of windes and of their names and number THe Ancients as Plinie witnesseth observed onely foure windes East West North and South but the following ages added eight making the whole number to be twelve Foure whereof were principall and called Cardinall windes because they blew à quatuor mundi cardinibus from the foure quarters of the world The other eight they called Laterall because they were as it were side companions with the former foure The Cardinall were called by these names 1. Solanus Subsolanus or the East winde 2. Notus Auster or the South winde 3. Zephyrus Favonius or the West winde 4. Aquilo Septentrio or the North winde And again the laterall were called by these names that follow and thus placed from the Cardinall As first the East hath on the Southern side Eurus or Vulturnus and on the Northern side Coecias or Hellespontus Secondly the South winde hath on the East side Phoenix or Euronotus and on the West side Lybonotus or Austro-Africus so called because it declineth from the South something towards Africa Thirdly the West hath on the South side Lybs or Africus so called from Lybia and Africa the Regions from whence they proceed and on the North side there is Corus or Caurus called also Iapix and Olympias because it bloweth from the mountain Olympus Fourthly the North hath on the West side Cyrcius called also Thraschias from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 converto because it useth to overturn many things with it The Spaniards call it Gallicus because it is observed to blow from the coasts of new Gallicia a Mexicanian province And 〈◊〉 the East side of the North point there is blustering Boreas which is a bellowing winde blowing with a loud hollow sound and is therefore derived by Aulus Gellius in his Attick nights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This division Aristotle also assenteth unto making three windes in every quarter as in the second book of his Meteors at the sixth chapter may be seen But the mariners make 20 more besides these insomuch that the whole circumference of the Horizon is divided into two and thirtie equall parts which they call and distinguish by severall names And now observe in this division that there be foure Cardinall windes as before foure middle windes which are just in the middest between each Cardine eight laterall already mentioned and sixteen collaterall making in the whole summe the aforesaid number of two and thirtie Know therefore that the Cardinall and middle windes are properly the principall the other being lesse principall and subordinate divided therefore into laterall and collaterall as hath been mentioned And as for those middle ones they be such as we call South-west South-east North-west and North-east windes Notolybicus is the South-west winde and Notapeliotes the South-east Borrholybicus is the North-west winde and Borrhapeliotes the North-east The rest being sixteen in number and collaterall have their places one between each of the other and so the circumference is divided into 32 parts as before I shewed Now the names of these sixteen are borrowed from those lateralls with whom they have the greatest neighbourhood by adding Meso and Upo to them For Meso comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medius because it is in the middle between a principall and a laterall winde and Upo comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub because it is as it were subject to that laterall winde next unto which it is placed and from whence it taketh the name As for example Eurus is a laterall winde a little from the East towards the South and this hath on each side of it one collaterall That which is between Notapeliotes or the South-east winde and it is called Mes'eurus being middle between a principall and a laterall But that which is between the East and it is called Up'eurus as being subject unto Eurus And by observing this order you may give names unto all the rest for Meso and Upo will compound them Yet neverthelesse ordinarily the mariners name them thus As North North and by West North North West North West and by North North West North West and by West West North West West and by North West West and by South West South West South West and by West South West South West and by South South South West South and by West
other be the meaning of Moses his words it may be answered that although the sea be divers in name yet all seas are so continued together that one sea is perpetually joyned with another and thereupon the name given is not Sea but Seas as in the text is manifest Yea and hereupon it also is that Geographers make these waters come under a fourefold division For they either call this gathered water Oceanus Mare Fretum or Sinus 1. Oceanus the ocean is that generall collection of all waters which environeth the world on every side 2. Mare the sea is a part of the ocean to which we cannot come but through some strait 3. Fretum a strait is a part of the ocean restrained within narrow bounds and opening a way to the sea 4. Sinus a creek or bay is a sea contained within a crooked shore thrusting out as it were two arms to embrace the lovely presence of it Object But perhaps you will say that the Caspian sea is a sea by it self and therefore all seas joyn not the one unto the other Answ. To which it is answered that this sea is either as a lake in respect of the contiguous or joyning seas or else it was no sea in the beginning of the world but began onely at the ceasing of the Floud was caused by the waters coming down from the Caspian hills setling themselves in those declive and bottomie places where the said sea is Plinie and Solinus are perswaded that it joyneth it self unto other seas by running into the Scythian or Northern ocean through some occult passages under ground which is not improbable But howsoever this we are sure of that the river Volga is joyned to it being as another sea and having no lesse then seventie mouthes to emptie it self which river is also joyned to the river Don and that hath great acquaintance with the Euxine sea Besides Volga is not a stranger to other waters which fall either into the Scythian or Baltick ocean insomuch that it may be said this Caspian sea is tied as it were with certain strings to three other seas and so not onely all waters are made one bodie like as before I shewed but if this gathering must needs be referred to the seas even all seas also shake hands and by one means or other mutually embrace one the other A third question is Whether the waters be higher then the earth Concerning which there be authours on both sides some affirming some denying That they be higher then the earth it is thus affirmed First because water is a bodie not so heavie as earth Secondly it is observed by sailers that their ships flie faster to the shore then from it whereof no reason can be given but the height of the water above the land Thirdly to such as stand on the shore the sea seemeth to swell into the form of an hill till it put a bound to their sight Fourthly it is written of Sesostris King of Egypt and after him of Darius King of Persia that they would have cut the earth and joyned Nilus and the Red sea together but finding the Red sea higher then the land of Egypt they gave over their enterprise lest the whole countrey should be drowned Fifthly the arising of springs out of the highest mountains doth declare it because the water cannot be forced higher then the head of the fountain opposite to it As for example Like as we see a spring that riseth in an hill conveyed in lead unto a lower ground will force his waters to ascend unto the height it beareth at the fountain even so the waters which stand above the mountains do force out springs of water by necessary and naturall cause out of the highest mountains Sixthly the Psalmist doth witnesse the same affirming moreover that God Almighty hath made the waters to stand on an heap and hath set them a bound which they shall not passe nor turn again to cover the earth And Jer. 5. 22. Fear ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waves thereof rage yet can they not prevail Thus on the one side But notwithstanding all this methinks the other part yet choose which you will is most probable For first the water indeed is a bodie not so heavie an earth yet heavie enough to descend not being of an aspiring nature but presseth eagerly towards the same centre that a stone or any part of the earth coveteth It cannot therefore possibly be above the earth although not so heavie as earth unlesse there were no hollow places in the ground to receive it But God Almighty in gathering them provided lodgings for them lest they should turn again and cover the earth which also is insinuated by the Hebrew word Kava signifying to congregate or gather together from whence the Latine word Cavus hollow may seem to be derived Besides should it be alledged that the hollow places could not be deep enough to receive them what were this but to curtall the earths Diameter or thicknesse for suppose the waters stood above the hills before they were gathered to one place yet know that even the Semidiameter of the earth is deeper by no few miles then the highest hill Suppose you could imagine an hill to be above a thousand miles high which is impossible yet the earths Semidiameter would be two thousand foure hundred and above 36 miles deeper then that height As for example if the earth be 21600 miles in compasse then the Diameter will be 6872 8 11 miles and if the Diameter be 6872 8 11 miles then the Semidiameter must be half so much viz. 3436 4 11 miles Secondly suppose it be observed by sailers that their ships fly faster to the shore then from it this proveth not the sea higher then the land For know that it is no wonder to see a ship sail more speedily homewards then outwards because when it approacheth to the shore it cometh with a continued motion which makes it the swifter but when it goeth from the shore it doth but begin its motion and is therefore slower then before This if need were might be proved by many plain and familiar examples Thirdly suppose that the sea seemeth to such as stand on the shore to swell higher and higher till it put a bound to the sight this rather proveth the sphericall roundnesse of the earth and sea then any thing else shewing that both together make one globie bodie Which why it is perceived rather in the water then the land this may be a reason namely because the sea being a plain and liquid element and spacious enough doth better shew it then the earth which hindereth our full view by reason of many woods trees and other fixed obstacles which the sight meeteth and encountreth by the way Fourthly although Sesostris K. of
Pines chiefly and Tarre to the Pine called the Torch-Pine There is a tree in India called the Indian Coquo or Cocus being the most strange and profitable tree in the world of which in the islands of Maldiva they make and furnish whole ships so that save the men themselves saith one there is nothing of the ship or in the ship neither tackling merchandise or ought else but what this tree yeeldeth It groweth high and slender the wood is of a spungie substance easie to be sewed when they make vessels thereof with cords made of Cocus It hath a continuall succession of fruits and is never without some they grow like a kinde of nut which is of a very large size having two sorts of husks as our walnuts the uppermost whereof is hairy like hemp and of this they make cordage and of the next they make drinking-cups When the fruit within these shells is almost ripe it is full of water which as it ripeneth changeth into a white harder substance at the first this liquour is sweet but with the ripening groweth sowre The tree affords a very medicinable juice and if it stand one houre in the sunne it is good vineger but distilled it may be used in stead of wine or Aqua-vitae There be wayes also to make sugar of it and of the meat in the nut dried they make oyl Of the pith or heart of the tree they make paper of the leaves they make coverings for their houses tents mattes and the like Nay their apparell firing and other necessary commodities they gather from this tree Thus some Or according to others it is thus described In the isle of Zebus there is a fruit which they call Cocos formed like a Melon but more long then thick It is inclosed with divers little skinnes so strong and good as those that environ a Date stone The islanders make thread of the skinnes as strong and good as that which is of hemp The fruit hath a rinde like a drie Gourd but farre more hard which being burned and beaten to powder serveth for medicine The inward nut is like unto butter being both as white and as soft and besides that very savoury and cordiall They make use of this fruit also in divers other things For if they would have oyl they turn and tosse it up and down divers times then they let it settle some few dayes at which time the meat will be converted into a liquour like oyl very sweet and wholesome wherewith they oftentimes anoint themselves If they put it into water the kernell is converted into sugar if they leave it in the sunne it is turned into vineger Towards the bottome of the tree they use to make a hole and gather diligently into a great cane the liquour that distilleth which amongst them is of as much esteem as the best wine in these parts for it is a very pleasant and wholesome drink There is also among the Indians a tree called Arbore de rais or the tree of roots called also the Indian fig-tree and by some affirmed with more confidence then reason saith one to be the tree of Adams transgression It groweth out of the ground as other trees and yeeldeth many boughs which yeeld certain threads of the colour of gold which growing downwards to the earth do there take root again making as it were new trees or a wood of trees covering sometimes the best part of a mile There is also another tree which some call the Indian mourner or Arbore triste the sad and sorrowfull tree It hath this propertie that in the day time and at sunne-setting you shall not see a flower on it but within half an houre after it is full of flowers which at the sunne-rising fall off the leaves shutting themselves from the sunnes presence and the tree seeming as if it were dead The Indians have a fable of one Parisatico who had a daughter with whom the sunne was in love but lightly forsaking her he grew amorous of another whereupon this damosel slew her self and of the ashes of her burned carcase came this tree A prettie fiction this Ovid himself hath not a better In the island of Hierro being one of the seven islands of the Canaries is a tree which distilleth water incessantly from the leaves thereof in so great abundance that not onely it sufficeth those of the island for there is no other water in the island but also might furnish the necessary uses of a farre greater number of people This strange tree is alwayes covered with a little mist which vanisheth by degrees according as the sunne sheweth himself When the Spaniards saith my authour took upon them to conquer this isle they found themselves almost discomfited because they saw neither fountains springs nor rivers and enquiring of the islanders where they had their water they answered that they used none but rain-water in the mean time kept their trees covered hoping by this subtiltie to drive the Spaniards out of the isle again But it was not long before one of their women entertained by a Spaniard discovered the tree with the properties of it which he at the first held for a fable untill his own witnesse saw it was true whereupon he was almost ravished with the miracle but the woman was put to death by the islanders for her treacherie In the north parts of Scotland and in the islands adjacent called Orchades are certain trees found whereon there groweth a certain kinde of shell-fish of a white colour but somewhat tending to a ruffet wherein are contained little living creatures For in time of maturitie the shells do open and out of them by little and little grow those living creatures which falling into the water when they drop out of their shells do become fowls such as we call Barnacles or Brant Geese but the other that fall upon the land perish and come to nothing Mr Gerard affirmeth that he hath seen as much in Lancashire in a small island which is called the Pile of Foulders for there be certain boughs of old trees and other such like rubbish cast up by the sea whereon hangeth a certain spume or froth which in time breedeth unto a shell out of which by degrees cometh forth a creature in shape like a bird sending out first a string or lace as it were of silk finely woven and of a whitish colour then follow the legs and afterwards more and more till at the last it hangeth by the bill soon after it cometh to maturitie and falleth into the sea where it gathereth feathers and groweth to a fowl bigger then a mallard and something lesse then a goose being somewhat coloured like to our mag-pies This Mr Gerard testifieth to be true upon his own knowledge as in his Herball is apparant And thus gentle reader I would here end not onely this Chapter and Section but also the first part of my book were it not that I have a
eyes can see Sect. 3. Of the offices given to the Sunne Moon and Starres in the day of their creation Paragr 1. Shewing that their first office is to shine upon the earth to rule over the day and night c. Artic. 1. Of light what it is and whether the Sunne be the onely fountain of light THe former part of my discourse hitherto in this dayes work was chiefly founded upon these words Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven and upon these And God made the starres also But now I come to speak of their offices The first whereof is that exquisite one above the rest I mean their bright and radiant shining by which the dismall clouds of foggie darknesse are daintily devoured and the sweet comelinesse of the worlds ornament made apparent For without light all things would appeare like the face of hell or horrour and each parcell of the worlds fabrick lie buried in black obscuritie dismall squalour Whereupon one speaketh worthily saying that amongst those qualities subject to sense there is none more fit to shew the due decorum and comely beauty of the worlds brave structure none more fit then light For where it spreads it self either above us or below us all things are then encompast with such a splendour as if a golden garment were dilated over them or curiously put upon them Let it not then be ashamed to shine shew it self to the praise of him who made it For Praise him sun and moon praise him oh ye stars and light was Davids song But to proceed Authours make a difference between Lux and Lumen It is called Lux as it is in the fountain that is in a bodie which is lucid of it self as in the sunne so saith Zanchius But it is Lumen as it is in some Medium that is in corpore diaphano as is the aire or water Lumen enim nihil aliud est quà m lux lucisve imago in corpore diaphano From whence may be gathered that that primarie light which we comprehend under the name of Lux is no other thing then the more noble part of that essence which is either in the sunne moon or starres and so far as a corporeall substance may be given to fire it may be also attributed to that which is properly called light being in and of those lamps of heaven which were made ex primava luce chiefly and so came to appeare of a fiery colour Whereupon Patricius writing against the Peripateticks saith Lux est essentia stellarum Nihil enim aliud flamma quà m lumen densius lumen non aliud quà m flamma rarior Calor quoque non aliud quà m ignis rarefactus atque diffusus ignis non aliud quà m calor densatus sive lux compacta Take therefore my meaning rightly lest I be supposed to be much mistaken And again concerning Radius which is a Beam or Ray it is no primarie light neither but rather as Patricius also writeth it is Fulgor à Luce exiliens in rectam acutam figuram seu in modum Pyramidis Coni promicans To which Scaliger is affirming saying Lux est alia in corpore lucido ab eo non exiens alia à corpore lucis exiens ut Lumen Radius And Zaharel also saith Lux alia est propriè dicta in astris ipsis alia à luce producta in perspicuo Whereupon I cannot but be perswaded that light in it self properly primarily taken must be an essentiall propertie as formerly I have related but to the aire or other things enlightned by it it is an accidentall quality approved of God as good both to himself the future creatures For although it be commonly said of compound things that they are such as we may distinguish of them in ipsam essentiam susceptricem in eam quae ipsi accidit qualitatem yet here the case proves otherwise because the sunne and starres have susceptam semel secúmque immixtam lucem And again as saith Theodoret Lucem quidem condidit ut voluit Quemadmodum verò firmamento aquas divisit ità lucem illam dividens ut voluit luminaria magna ac parva in coelo collocavit And as touching the brightnesse of the starres the sunne may well be called Oculus mundi The eye of the world For he is indeed the chief fountain from whence the whole world receiveth lustre shining alone and enlightning our whole hemisphere when all the other starres are hid From whence some Philosophers and Astronomers have been of opinion that the fixed starres shine not but with a borrowed light from the sunne Plutarch in his 2 book and 17 chap. of the opinions of Philosophers saith that Metrodorus and his disciples the Epicures have been of this minde But according to the mindes of the best authours and nearest equipage to truth the starres are called lights as well as the sunne and moon although there be a difference between them either of more or lesse For Paul distinguisheth between the starres and sunne non privatione lucis sed tantùm gradu And when God said Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven he made not the sunne alone but the sunne moon and starres the light in the starres being in very deed darkened by that in the sunne which doth but differ in degree from that in them Whereupon it is that the starres shew themselves by night onely when the sunne is hid or in some deep pit whither the sunne-beams cannot pierce If therefore we cannot see them Id non solis non stellarum culpâ fit sed oculorum nostrorum hic est defectus ob solaris enim luminis copiam ac vigorem debilitantur Also some adde their influences as that of the Little dogge the Plâ—…iadas and others being plain testimonies of their native light For if they had not their proper and pâ—…culiar light being fo farre distant from the inferiour bodies it is thought they could not alter them in such sort as they sometimes do and evermore the further they be from the sunne the better and brighter we see them And as for the diversitie of their influence the differing qualitie of the subject causeth this diversitie So that though this light for the first three dayes was but one in qualitie it came to have divers effects as soon as it was taken and bestowed upon the starres and lights And perhaps as there is in them the more of this fire the â—…otter is their qualitie but little fire and more water the moister and cooler and so also the more earthy substance the darker Neither do I think that we may altogether exempt the moon from her native light For although she shineth to us with a borrowed light yet it is no consequence to say she hath therefore no own proper light There is saith Goclenius a double light of the moon Proper and Strange The Proper is that which is Homogeneall to it self or
whereof they make lard and hath not the savour or taste of fish It feedeth on the grasse that groweth on the banks of the river and never goeth out it hath a mouth like the mozell of an ox and there be of them that weigh five hundred pound apiece Purchas In the West sea there is a fish called the Pontarof a cruell monster that taketh great pleasure to carrie away young children loving to play and sport with them Du Bart. Summar ex Oviedo lib. 13. The fishes called Sharks are most ravenous devourers and in the waters upon the coasts of Africa they have been seen with six or seven other smaller fishes garded with blew and green attending like serving-men And omitting many whether in the new-found world in the Norway seas or elsewhere I come now to the Dolphin that king of fishes then whom there is not any which is swifter none more charitable to his fellows and which is above all the rest none more loving to man Plinie hath written much of this fish in his ninth book at the eighth chapter and so have others also affirming that he is not onely sociable and desirous of mans company but delighted also in sweet and sensecharming musick Amongst the fishes that did swiftly throng To dance the measures of his mournfull song There was a Dolphin did the best afford His nimble motions to the trembling chord But whether that in the storie of Arion be true I am not able to say Perhaps their censure is none of the worst who perswade themselves it is a fable which was invented by those who had heard of that famous historie of the Prophet Jonas for divers stories of the Bible have been in this manner changed by the Pagans as amongst the rest that of Sennacheâ—…ib was very counterfeitly told by Herodotus when he makes mention of a great companie of mice as he had his relation from the priests of Egypt who came by night and eat off the feathers from his arrows Herod lib. 2. And the floud of Deucalion is related by Ovid as if Noahs floud and that were all one And the Grecians fable upon the sunnes going back in Hezechiahs time that at the birth of Hercules the sunne made a longer night then at other times Howbeit this scruple may not take away the love of the Dolphin towards man For besides those things related in Plinie of a boy feeding a Dolphin and carried on his back over the waters to school with such like things in the said authour others also have in a manner written to the same purpose And amongst the rest Elian tells a storie of a Dolphin and a boy this boy being very fair used with his companions to play by the sea side and to wash with them in the water practising likewise to swimme which being perceived by a Dolphin frequenting that coast the Dolphin fell into a great liking with this boy above the rest and used very familiarly to swimme by him side by side the boy at the first was fearfull of this his unwonted companion but through custome he and the Dolphin grew so familiar that they would be friendly antagonists and contend together in swimming each by other insomuch that sometimes the boy would get upon the Dolphins back and ride through the waterie territories of Neptunes kingdome as upon some proud pransing horse and the Dolphin at all times would bring him safely to the shore again of which the people in the adjoyning citie were eye-witnesses and that not seldome At last it chanced that the boy not carefull how he sat upon the fishes back but unadvisedly laying his belly too close was by the sharp pricks growing there wounded to death And now the Dolphin perceiving by the weight of his bodie and by the bloud which stained the waters that the boy was dead speedily swimmeth with all his force to the land and there laying him down for very sorrow died by him In memorie whereof let these few lines be added The fish would live but that the boy must die The dying boy the living fish torments The fish tormented hath no time to crie But with his grief his life he sadly vents Oh where is love or grief so firm as this Of such true love and grief most men do misse The Sea-fox is a fish that hath a long tail is subtil in his chase having a strong sent as the Land-fox hath He â—…seth to swallow his young into his belly in time of danger as the Balaena doth which some also attribute to the Dolphin This fish and the Amia use to deceive the fisherman either by leaping at or by sucking up so much of his line that they may be sure to bite off the hook Aelian var. hist. lib. 1. The Cantharus is an admired pattern of chastitie Elian speaketh of the ardent love of this Cantharus and saith that between him and the adulterous Sargon is great enmitie for he will fight as couragiously for his mate as Paris could fight for Helena being in this the true embleme of a loyall couple who hate defiled sheets loving and living constantly together Like unto which is the Mullet who albeit she be a fearfull fish as Plinie telleth us lib. 9. cap. 17. and will hide her head for fear yet seeing her male taken she followeth after him as farre as she can choosing rather to die with him then to be left her self alone But the Sargon is contrarie for this is an adulterous fish daily changing mates and not so content useth to go on the grassie shore horning the he-goats who had horns before For as Elian writeth his lustfull love towards the she-goat is so furious that the fishermen use to take these fishes by covering themselves with a goats skinne And doth not this fish bear a true embleme against adulterers Yes surely doth it For those who make horns on other mens heads do but make engines to tosse themselves to hell Caprae refert scortum similis fit Sargus amanti Qui miser obscoeno captus amore perit The goat a harlot doth resemble well The Sargus like unto the lover is Who poore wretch taken is condemn'd to hell And for his lust depriv'd of heav'nly blisse Howbeit a Ten in the hundred or a Fox-furr'd-clouted-pated fornicatour who to his tenants wife is sometimes a lecherous administratour cannot see it neither will such beleeve that whores are the hackneys which men ride upon into Devils-ditch for thither do they gallop like the deceived Sargus caught by the fisher in the skinne of a goat Hoga is said to be a fish as big as a mackerell or as some say no bigger then a herring This fish hath wings which do not so much help her by flying to escape a farre greater fish as endanger her to the mercilesse crueltie of another enemie I mean a certain sea-fowl which waits but for such an oportunitie
which is good against the stinging of Scorpions and so are love-sick youngsters cured for when nothing will help them they may again be healed by enjoying her who gave the wound The Asp is something like to a land-snake but with a broader back their eyes are red and flaming and out of their foreheads grow two pieces of flesh like an hard skinne and for their poison it is in a manner incurable Plinie writeth that they go alwayes two and two together and if one of them be slain the other will follow eagerly and seek up and down after him that slew his mate but it is the providence of God Almighty to give as many remedies against evil as there be evils in the world For the dulnesse of this serpents sight and slownesse of her pace doth keep her from many mischiefs which otherwise would be done The best way to cure their stings is presently to cut off the member bitten There be they who make three sorts of them that is to say the Terrestriall five handfulls long the Hirundiner coloured like a Swallow and is but a handfull long and last of all the Spitter greater then the other Their biting causeth death within few houres that of the Hirundiner is sudden of the Spitter somewhat slower beginning first with a dimnesse or trouble in the eyes then with a swelling in the face after that it proceedeth to a deafnesse and last of all it bringeth death Caelius Rhodiginus writeth that the Kings of Egypt did wear the pictures of Asps in their crowns whereby they signified the invincible power of principalitie in this creature whose wounds cannot easily be cured making it thereby an embleme of the power and wrath of a King and the priests of Egypt and those of Ethiopia did likewise wear very long caps having towards their top a thing like a navel about which were the forms of winding Asps to signifie to the people that those who resist God and the King shall perish by unresistable violence Topsell The Chameleons are admirable for their aierie subtance and for the changeablenesse of their colours 〈◊〉 if you will for their aierie sustenance although they sometimes hunt and eat flies He is of the form and greatnesse of a Lizzard but hath higher legs his ribs joyn in his bellie as in fishes his muzzle is long and his tail small towards the end and turning inwards his skinne is rough his eyes hollow and his nails crooked and when he moves himself he craâ—…leth slowly like a Tortoise See Plin. in his 8 book chap 33. Hâ—… tongue is almost half a foot long which he can dart â—…rth as swiftly as an arrow shot from a bow it hath a big â—…ot on the tip thereof and is as catching and holding as â—…lue which when he darteth forth he can fasten to the Grasse-hoppers Caterpillers and Flies thereby drawing them down into his throat He changeth into all and every colour excepting white and red whereof there be divers opinions some think that he changeth through fear but this is not like for though fear alter the colour as we when we are afraid wax wan and pale yet it will not change the bodie into every colour others think that by reason of his transparencie he taketh colour from those things which are neare him as the fish called Polypus taketh the similitude of the rocks stones where he lieth to deceive the fish and some again joyn both together for the Chameleon being in fear swelleth by drawing in the aire and then his skin being thereby pent is the smoother and the apter to receive the impression of the colours of things objected agreeing in this to that of Aristotle saying that his colour is changed being puft up with winde But be the cause from whence it will it affordeth a fit embleme or lively representation of flatterers and time-servers who fit themselves for all companies times occasions flattering any one thereby to make fit use of every one The Lizzard is a little creature much like the Eve but without poyson breeding in Italy and in many other countreys the dung of which beast cleareth the sight and taketh away spots in the eye the head thereof being bruised and applied will draw out a thorn or any other thing sticking in the flesh The Salamander is a small venimous beast with â—…ure feet and a short tail it doth somewhat resembâ—… the shape of a Lizzard according to Plinie lib. 10. câ—… 67. And as for his constitution it is so cold that like 〈◊〉 if he do but touch the fire he puts it out They be common in India in the isle of Madagascar as Mr Purchasâ—…lledgeth â—…lledgeth where he treateth of the creatures Plants and fruits of India But stay it is time to stop I know not how to mention every thing and yet there is nothing which is not worthy admiration I made I must confesse as much haste as I could and yet me thinks I see both these and thousands more runne from me flocking all together as if they meant to dance attendance now on Mans creation and not onely shew to him their due obedience and humble welcome into the world his stately palace but also wait to have their names according to their natures For whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was saith Moses the name thereof Let us now then come to him for whose sake all things else were made for God made the world for Man and Man for himself It was therefore a daintie fancie of one who brought in the World speaking to Man after this manner Vide homo dicit Mundus quomodo amavit te qui propter te fecit me Servio tibi quia factus sum propter te ut servias illi qui fecit me te me propter te te propter se. See oh man saith the World how he hath loved thee who made me for thee I serve thee because I am made for thee that thou maist serve him who made both me and thee me for thee and thee for himself This I will therefore adde Herbs cure our flesh for us the windes do blow The earth doth rest heav'n move and fountains flow United waters round the world about Ship us new treasures kingdomes to finde out The lower give us drink the higher meat By dropping on the ground nigh parcht with heat Night curtains draws the starres have us to bed When Phebus sets and day doth hide his head One world is Man another doth attend him He treads on that which oft times doth befriend him Grant therefore Lord that as the world serves me I may a servant to thy greatnesse be Sect. 2. The creation of Man being created male and female and made according to the image of God together with the institution of Marriage and blessing given to that estate THough Mankinde were the last yet not the least God onely spake his powerfull
this book I have declared Wherefore I will now conclude and concluding say God saw the works which he had made And good he found them all If therefore now they faint or fade 'T is 'cause Man caught a fall For ev'ry creature groneth deep A change they wish to see They travail seek they want and weep Till sonnes of God be free For then they likewise freedome have No longer kept in pain Come therefore quickly Lord we crave Renew this world again And in its kinde it being free 'T will praise thy name as well as we FINIS SOLI DEO GLORIA A Table of the principall and most remarkable matters contained in this book ABraham he had skill in the signes of heaven and taught the same to the Egyptians 347 The second age of the world was from the floud to Abraham 16 Achates the Eagles stone 295 Adam he fell soon after his creation 36 37 Adamant or Diamond the most precious of all stones and how to soften it 292 Adder and his properties 490 Adulterie An embleme against it by an example taken from the Sargon 381. Adulterous men like to the Cuckoe 406 Aeschynomen a strange kinde of herb 273 Affliction opens the eyes of securitie 480. One patient in trouble like to the stone Amiantus 299. False friends flie away in affliction 293. 405. Affliction ought to be taken patiently by an embleme from the Camel 444 Ages of the world 15. There be six ages but not of equall thousands 16 Agnus castus and the properties 274 Aire From the earth to the highest Firmament nothing but aire 116. See more in the word Regions Alabaster 291 Alborach a beast frequent in Turkie on which they fable Mahomet was carried into heaven 457 Alexander deceived by Apes 472 Alpine-mouse and the strange properties of it 468 Alume and the severall kindes thereof 304 Amber 303 304. Amber-greese 368 America A conjecture how America came at the first to be unknown 233 Amethyst a stone of power to resist drunkennesse 294 Amiantus a stone which the fire cannot hurt 299 Amphisbena a serpent with two heads 489 Ampelite a black pitchie earth of the same nature with our coals 301 Amphitane a stone of neare nature to the load-stone 298 Anacrampseros an herb causing love 272. Sowbread is of the same qualitie ibid. Androdamas is a stone stopping anger and furie 299 Angels when they were created 53. How Manna is said to be Angels food 157. The oath of the 7th Angel in the Revelation 27 Angelica and the vertues thereof 261 Anger restrained by the Sardius 295. as also by the Androdamas 299 Antiperistasis what it is 92 Apes and their kindes 471 Arbore de Rais or the tree of roots growing in India and called the Indian fig-tree 280 Arbore triste or the sad tree 281 Arguments to prove that the world began and must also end 2 3 Arions storie how to be credited 379 Aristotle 1. he drowned himself in Euripus 210 Armadill an Indian beast 457 Arsmart or Water-pepper 259 Arsnick rightly described and the kindes thereof 300 Artichoke 264 Asbestos a strange stone which being once fired cannot be quenched 298 Asp 492 Asphaltus or black Bitumen 302 Asterite a stone bearing in it the image of the sunne 294 Astrologers many times too busie 10. bold and wicked 351 352 sequent Atheists kick against the pricks 4 Atlantick island was once and had kings raigning in it but now it is a sea 233 Autumne described 356. The world was made in Autumne 32 41 42 43 c. B BAck Good against strains in the back 268 Badger 482 Balaena a kinde of whale Their love to their young with an instruction from thence 368 Barble a warie fish 383 Barnacles or Geese which grow upon a tree 282 Barrennesse Good against barrennesse 262 Bartas a divine Poet 4. His opinion of the worlds end 9. His description of the worlds ages 17. His opinion of the worlds beginning 4. His opinion of the Chaos 49. His opinion of the waters above the heavens 63 64. His opinion of the Regions 85. His opinion of wheat rained 147. His opinion of strange waters 227. His commendation of the vertues of herbs 267. His opinion opposite to those who make the starres living creatures 322 Basil and the vertues thereof 244 Basilisk or Cockatrice 486 Bat 404 Baum or Balm 245. It is good to close wounds 246. Bees are much delighted with Baum ibid. Beam a burning Meteor 90 Beams or streams seeming to burn 133 Beard Good to make the beard grow 254 Bear 475. A storie of a man saved by a Bear ibid. Bears love hony 476 Beasts Brute beasts not to be renewed in the end of the world 6 Beaver and his properties 452 Beautie The beautie of the heavenly bodies after the world is purged by fire 7 Bees 420. They lose their life with their sting ibid. Difference of bees ibid. Their king and common-weal 421. They never breathe ibid. The female bee supposed to be the drone 422. Their order of going to rest and work ibid. Their physick 423. The manner of their swarming ibid. How to keep them from stinging 244. See more in Thyme and Baum. Good against their stinging 425 Beggars How cunning beggars use to blister their arms and legs 260 Bellie The bellie destroyeth many by an embleme taken from the mouse 467 Bermuda-birds and their properties 418 Betonie and the sundry vertues thereof 266 Birds of Paradise 418 Bitumen and the kindes 302 Black-bird 402 Blasting Dew 158 Bleeding A bleeding herb 272 For bleeding at the nose 255 Bloud Times when it rained bloud together with the cause 149 Bloud-stone or the Haematite 297 Spitting of bloud and how to help it 247. 303 Boas and the properties 488 Bodie Our bodies follow the temper of the aire 104. 341. The parts of the bodie 497 498 499 Boldnesse We must not be too bold in things above our reach 9 Bole-armoniack what it is and what it is good for 300 Bombyx or the Silk-worm 425 Borage 245 Boy A storie of a Boy and a Dolphin 380 Brain Things good for the brain 247. A Scorpion bred in the brain 244. The animall spirits go from the brain 497 Brasse and Copper 288 Bream 388 Breath Good against a stinking breath 250 Brionie and the properties 256 Brown Umber 301 Bruises Good against bruises 269 Bubo or the great Owl 402. He is thought to be an ominous bird 403 Buffe and his properties 478 Bugill and Byson described 477 Buglosse See Borage Bulls and their natures 477 478 Burstnings good against them in children 260. Good against them in old folks 269 Butterwort and the properties thereof 252 C CAjetane confuted together with Bellarmine concerning Noahs Floud 75 Calamarie being a fish called the Sea-clerk 384 Calcedon is a stone which expelleth sadnesse 294 Callicia an herb turning water into ice 272 Camel 443. The Horse the Camel great enemies 444. Stuffes made of Camels hair ibid. The Cameleopard 445 Cantharus
obvious to the sight d Fulk e Iste locus vult quâ—…d ventus sensibus deprehendi nequeat certus locus ubi ventus flarâ—… incipias desiâ—…at notari non possit vis enim ejus tantùm sentiatâ—… Havenreut * Psal. 104. 24. a Plin. Lib. 2. cap. 47. b Origan de effect cap. 5. c Ibid. d Lib. 2. cap. 22. The mariners reckon 32 windes f Orig. Ephes. lib. de effect cap. 6. a Windes blowing into the haven and famous citie of Panormus or Palermo in Sâ—…cilie b In a book called a generall description of the world c Origan Ephem de effect cap. 5. Their qualities according as they commonly blow Norths qualitie Souths qualitie Easts qualitie Why the East and North windes sometimes bring rain for a whole day West windes qualitie d Lib. 1. carm od 4. The effects of a long-continuing winde at certain seasons A signe of plague and earthquake a Lib. 2. cap. 48. Typhon * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est verberare 〈◊〉 Prester A conclusion repeating the sum ne of this dayes work a Aeneid lib. 1. Questions concerning the waters which are said to be gathered together Quest. 1. Which sheweth how the waters were gathered together * Ezek. 1. 16. * Job 38. 10. Quest. 2. Shewing how they were gathered to one place * Esay 40. 22. * Dr. Fulk in his Met. lib. 4. saith that some lakes are so great that they bear the names of seas among which he reckoneth this Caspian sea a As Duina major and Duina minor called also Onega Look into the maps of Russia or Moscovia b Viz. the Euxine Baltick and Scythian or Northern seas Quest. 3. Shewing whether the waters be higher then the earth c Herodot in â—…terpe in lib. sequent Plin. lib. 6. cap. 39. * Psal. 104. d Met. lib. 1. cap. 14. e De subtil lib. 3. pag. 123. Quest. 4. Shewing whether there be more water then earth * 2. Esdr. 6. 42. Quest. 5 Shewing upon what the earth is founded * Wisd. 11. 22. * Job 26. 7. Quest 6. Shewing why the sea is salt and rivers fresh i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. de Met. lib. 2. cap. 1. k Lyd. dâ—…â—…ig foâ—… cap. 8 9. l viae under the water The sea made salt by the substance of the ground that is my opinion Of rivers and from whence they proceed Arist. de Met. lib. 1. cap. 13. n Lib. 2. cap. 103. †Aëriall vapours are partly a cause of springs o Goclen Disput. Phys. cap. 39. ex Plat. in Phaed. * Plato did but expresse Moses meaning Gen. 7. 11. in other words How springs come to be fresh seeing the sea is salt p Putei prope mare falsi longiùs minùs procul nihil Ial Scal. exercitat 50. The benefit and use of waters Quest. 7. Wherein is shewed the cause of the ebbing and flowing of the sea q Zanch. Tom. 3. lib. 4 cap. 1. quest â—… thes 1. * Note that this is pertinent to the openest seas as the Atlantick and Southseas and especially between the Tropicks where is a constant Easterly breath caused by the superiour motions which draw together with them not onely the element of fire but of the aire and water also r De placiâ—… â—…los lib. 3. cap. 17. Dr. Fulk 〈◊〉 liâ—… 4. t Antiquarum lecti 〈◊〉 lib. 29. cap. â—… u Iuâ—… Mart. Greg. Naz. Aescâ—…ines orat contra â—…tes L. Valla Dialog de lib. arbitriâ—… c. x Livie saith that it is not seven times a day but â—…emere in modum venti nunc huc nunâ—… ilâ—…c rapitur lib. 8. dec 3. The earth hath no circular motion * Viz. chap. 4. sect 2. and chap. 5. sect 2. Paragraph 1. y Lâ—…sberg 〈◊〉 iâ—… 〈◊〉 terra diâ—…r pag. 7. * Wiâ—…d 11. 22. * Joâ—…h 10. 12 13. Esay 38. 8. z Motus terra is nothing but Germinatio terrâ—… Gen. 1. * Ecclus. 46. 4. * Bish. Hall * Revel 16. 5. This is the most probable cause why the Sea ebbs and flows z Sir Christopher Heydon in his defence of Judiciall Astron. chap. 21. pag. 432. a Idem pag 433. cap 21. Why all seas do not ebbe and flow Why fresh waters do not ebbe and flow Psal. 107. 23 24. Water used in stead of vineger Water used in stead of burnt wine Water which makes men drunk A water which is deadly to beasts but not to men A purging killing water A water which makes horses mad A cold burning water A water which will both rosâ—… and bake A river which breedeth flies A water which maketh oxen white Water which maketh sheep black or white Water which makes them red b Plin. lib. 31. cap 2. See also 〈◊〉 2 cap. 103. A water like to the former A water cold in the day and hot in the â—…ight A water turning wood into stone A river which rests every seventh day c In his 3 day A strange well in Idâ—…mea Poysoning waters d Plutarch See also Just. lib. 12. and Curt. lib. 10. A water which makes cattell give black milk Poysoning waters Water which makes men mâ—…d A water that spoils the memorie A water which procureth lust A water which causeth barren nesse and another which causeth the teeth to fall c. e For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 where 〈◊〉 you may 〈◊〉 of â—…nother that sharpeâ—…eth the senses Fountains of oyl Waters of a strange temper Of the fountain Dodone Waters which work miracles * In which he was deceived it was rather to trie their strength and make them hardie as Verstegan well declareth Restitâ—… cap. 2. pag. 45. f Dâ—… 〈◊〉 cap. 51 52. g Dâ—… 〈◊〉 3 day We ought to make the best uses of the strangest things i Hâ—…iditas non est â—…stimanda ex irrigatione sed ex propria deâ—…nitione quod scilic et difficulter alieno termino clâ—…uditur Iam videâ—…us â—…quam includi faciliùs certis limitibus quà m aâ—…rem ergo c. Quod autem aqua magis â—…ectat id fit propter crassiorem substantiam Cùm eâ—…im humiditas aqua in denâ—…ore materia hâ—…reat ideo est magìs unita proinde efficacioâ—… ad humectandâ—…m Aeris verò humiâ—…tas tam crâ—…ssam substantiam siâ—…ut â—…qua non habet propâ—…erea tantum madorem corporibus 〈◊〉 â—…equit quod quandoque exiccâ—…re videatur id non est per se sed per accidens 〈◊〉 per exhalationes c. k Efficiens est calor solis simul ignis subterraneus quibus suppeditant tres superiores planetae l Causa materialis est spiritus seu vapor in terrae visceribus conclusus exire contendens m Forma est ipsa concussio terrae agitatio exhalationum terrae inclusatum The cause of earthquakes n Origaâ—… de effect cap. 9. ex Holy c. The kindes of earthquakes n Plâ—…t 〈◊〉 Tiâ—… A digression touching the new found world The attendants of an earthquake Signes of an earthquake Effects of earthquakes p