Section I, Book 5, chapters 6–9: Winds, clouds, fountains, lightning and thunder

CHAP. VI. The true and essentiall Definition, or rather description of a Cloud is set forth in this Chapter.

WEll then, will they reply, Let us understand how you can better define, or describe the nature of a clowd, according unto that holy Philosophy, and true Wisdom which you seem to profess. To the which I answer: that I am willing, and that after a divers manner, though agreeing in one unity of Essence.

A clowd is the revealing and making manifest of the invisible mundan spirit, which is hidden in the treasury of God, namely, the heavens, by the centrall operation of the divine wisdom, and his windy ministers, being incited thereunto by the will of God, into a vaporous heap or clowdy substance, which the said spirit of wisdom erecteth for his secret place or vehicle, to move in; and for the effecting of his will, as well in heaven above, as in the earth and waters beneath.

Or, after this manner;

A clowd is the reducing of the invisible aire, into a visible, thick, and gloomy consistence, which is by the will of God effected, through the concurrence or meeting together of opposite or transversall winds, for the accomplishment of his secret will and pleasure.

Or else, thus;

A clowd is a certain visible condensed heap of aire, the which the Spirit of wisdom being expansed every whe[…]e, doth make and compose as it were of nothing, that is to say, of an airy invisible somewhat, which it extracteth out of his mysticall treasury, to do and effect the will of God, as well in heaven as in earth.

In which definitions, or rather descriptions, the materiall substance seemeth to be a coagulated mist, or condensed masse or heap of aire, the formall cause is set out in the shape and form of the clowd; the efficient cause, or centrall agent, is the essentiall act of the divine wisdom, who employeth and exciteth his windy ministers, to work externally by the way of compression. We have also the magazine or treasury, out of which the substance of the winds is produced, namely, the heavens or aire, which is termed, Arca Dei thesauraria, The chist or cabinet of Gods treasures. To conclude, the finall cause is manifested in this, that the clowd is ordained to bring forth the effects, as well of Gods clemency and benignity, as of his severity and anger.

Now for the defence of the first part of these descriptions, we find it thus written, Deus sapientia suâ apt at pondus aeri & appendit aquas in mensura, facit pluviae statuta & viam fulgetro tonitruum, &c. God doth by his wisdom proportionate the weight of the aire, and hangeth the waters or clowds in measure, assigneth lawes unto the rain, and maketh a way unto the lightnings of the thunder. That is to say, according unto the will and ordination of the divine Spirit, the aire or substance of heaven is changed from a lighter or thinner estate or weight, unto a heavier or thicker, the degrees of which mutation are expressed in the words following; for first it was aire, then clowds, then rain, or vulgar water. Also the Text doth seem to make the lightnings internall or formall light of the clowd, which is not revealed, but by the violation or ruption of the compound, and ablation of darkness. Again, it is said by Job, (as is already related) Aer condensabitur in nubes, & ventus transiens fugabit eas; The aire will be thickned into clowds. And touching the clowds of snow, Congregatio spiritus aspergit nivem, The aire being gathered together, doth scatter the snow on the earth.

Touching the efficient cause, it appeareth to be God, or the eternall Wisdom; and therefore in the precedent Text it is said, Deus sapientia sua aptat pondus aeri, & appendit aquas vel nubes in mensura: God by his wisdom hangeth or ballanceth the waters or clowds in measure. And again, Nubibus densis obtegit Deus coelos, God covereth the heavens with thick clowds. But all this is sufficiently expressed before. As for the finall cause, set down in the foresaid definitions, it is confirmed by Scriptures in this fashion, Pro irrigatione fatigat Deus den sam nubem, & dispergit lucem nubis suae, quodcunque praecipit illis faciendum in terra sive ad flagellum, sive ad faciendam beneficentiam efficiet ut presiò sit. God wearieth the thick clowd for the watering of the earth, and he disperseth every where the light of his clowd, whatsoever he commandeth them to be done upon the earth, whether it be for a scourge, or else in favour and benignity, he maketh them to be ready to accomplish it. And Baruch saith, When God commandeth the clowds that they passe over the whole earth, they perform what is commanded them. So that we see, these creatures are drawn out of their secret dwellings, to do the will of him that created them.

CHAP. VII. How by our experimentall Instrument, the reas[…]n of the composition of clowds is ocularly demonstrated. A so in this, the Snow is defined falsly and truly.

NOw I think it most fit to demonstrate unto you, how the clowds are procreated, by the opposite blast of two winds of a contrary nature, namely, of the Southerly wind in eminency and dominion, and a Northerly spirit which also bloweth, but insensibly. I told you in the Chapter, where I did demonstrate by our experimentall Instrument, the reason of the Southerly winds which happen in winter, that as the aire included in the Weather-glasse, did by the onely touch of a warm hand dilate it self, and in dilatation fly from the hand of the toucher, unto the cold region of the water, which was evidently proved and maintained, because the water did suddainly thereupon move downward: So also the grosse winter aire in the southern hemisphear, did at the approach of the Sun unto the parts beyond the Line, dilate it self, by vertue of that ever-acting and subtiliating spirit, which put his tabernacle in the Sun; so that the southern dilated aire posted apace, or flew hastily away, to seek a larger place; but comming into the northern hemisphear, (which by reason of the Sun's absence, became brumall or wintry) the constant aire of that region being now contracted by the northern cold, and the north-wind, by reason of the colds dominion, blowing more or lesse, though insensibly, it meeting with the warm southerly spirit, condenseth it with the rest into clowds; and this is the reason, that alwaies almost, (and that is, where no northern blasts are discerned) that the southerly winds do bring abundance of clowds and rain with them, for that the hot southerly vertue of the divine agent, doth more and more subtiliate and rarifie the winter aire which it found there, till it had by rarefaction purified it, and reduced it unto the nature of a true Summer aire; so that the superfluous parts of the aire after rarefaction, were chased away (as is said) into the northern region, where it is condensed again, partly by the privative act of the divine puissance, and partly by the spissitude of the northern aire, which denyeth it free passage into the form of clowds: For the cold spisse aire of the northern hemisphear, agitated and animated by the northern blast or property, resisteth the hot vaporous aire, and so it condenseth by little and little.

To conclude, I could here set down the Aristotelian definitions of the snow, frost, hail, ice, and such like other meteors; and then check and contradict them mainly, by other true descriptions of them, proved by the testimony of holy writ. As for example, Aristotle seemeth to aver, that the snow is a clowd, congealed by the great cold, which before it be perfectly dissolved into water by a vaporous disposition, it is changed into a snowy substance. In which definition, because he is ignorant, as hath been proved already, in the fabrick of a clowd, we ought in no case believe him. Again, he digresseth from the tenour of Scriptures, according unto the mind whereof, we have defined the snow thus.

The Snow is a meteor which God draweth forth of his hidden treasury, in the form of wool, to effect his will upon the earth, either by way of punishment or clemency.

Or thus.

The Snow is a creature produced out of the air, or heavenly treasury of God, by the cold breath or blast of the divine spirit, in the form of wool, to perform his will on the earth.

Where the fountain of his originall substance is made the aire, or the matter of the heavens; and therefore the Text hath it, Congregatio speritus aspergit nivem, The gathering together or condensation of the spirit, ingendereth and sprinkleth the snow upon the earth. And Job, Pervenistine in the sauris nivis? Camest thou into the treasury of the snow? Also the form and efficient cause is expressed thus, Deus verbo suo nives emittit sicut lanam, coram frigore ejus quis consistat? God by his word sendeth out the snow like wool, who is able to resist his cold? So that God by his Word, which doth operate in his privative property by his cold, is the essentiall, efficient, and omnipotent actor, in the production of the snow.

I could (I say) effect all this at large, but because my minde is not to dwell upon on these particulars, forasmuch as in the description of the clowd, I have sufficiently pointed at the rest, I will proceed unto my enquiry touching Aristotle's opinion, concerning the beginning of fountains, that we may perceive thereby, whether he have erred as far in that mystery, as he hath done in the rest.

CHAP. VIII. What Aristotle's opinion is, touching the generation of Fountains and Rivers, and whether he in his opinion doth jump with the verity of the true wisdom.

SInce therefore it is apparent, that Aristotles doctrine is erroneous and deceiptfull, touching the generation and essence of the winds and clowds, we purpose in the third place to bring his judgment and opinion, concerning the beginning and originall of fountaines and rivers, unto the touch-stone of truth, that thereby we may perceive, whether it will endure the tryall, and not shrink (as the proverb is) in the wetting.

The Peripateticks, as well Christians as Gentiles, are as much deceived in their meteorologicall grounds, concerning the generation of fountains and rivers, as in the rest, of which we have spoken before; and therefore their Master Aristotle (all things being well pondered in the ballance of justice) ought to be accounted of all true Christians, for a seducer and deceiver of the world; and consequently his doctrine touching this point, ought of right to be repudiated and rejected.

Aristotle, with his peripateticall sect or faction, are of opinion, that being the belly or bowells of the earth is full of cavities, and hollow passages; vapours, to avoid vacuity, must needs ascend from the center or bottom of it, the which cleaving in their ascent unto the sides of the hollow vaults, and streighter passages or veines of the earth, do resolve into water, which distilling down by drops, do ingender fountaines and rivers.

In the which opinion of theirs they conclude, that the matter of fountains is nothing else, but a vapour arising from the bottom of the earth, and resolved, liquefied, or condensed into water, through cold and heat together within the earth; no otherwise then after their saying, the clowd, rain, snow, and hail do arise, and are generated in the aire of a vapour, first condensed, and afterwards liquefied.

But if we shall duely examine every member of this their description, we shall perceive, that they require as well a double matter, as formall agent in this generation of fountaines; for they faign, that the remote matter is a vapour, and then the near and immediate matter they imagine to be drops of water, which are caused by the concretion or condensation of that vapour. Also they make their two efficient causes, cold and heat; for, say they, it is the office of cold to condense and congeal the included vapour into water, and that it is the heat and cold together, which maketh the water fluxible and moovable. Let it therefore be lawfull for me (judicious Reader) to answer these Peripatetick Philosophers, with an over-worn axiom of their own, and consequently to fight with them at their own weapons. Their axiom is, Erustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora. That is vainly done or effected by many, which may be effected by lesse. Now if that this originall work in the producing of fountains, may be performed most conveniently by one and the self-same subject of water, without the altering of it, first, into vapour by subtiliation, and afterward by condensing again that subtle vapour into water; Then I make no doubt but you will conclude with me, that this Peripatetick definition is vain, imaginary, and sophisticall, by their own rules. But I will make it apparent hereafter, by an ocular demonstration, that it is possible by a course in nature onely, that water without any alteration of his consistence, may by the secret veines, and close passages or conduits of the earth, be drawn or sucked up out of the huge seas, unto the top or summity of the mountains, after by his soaking through the sands, and pory substance of the earth, it hath left his salt nature behind it; which appearing evidently to every mans sense, the vanity of Aristotles invention will soon be discovered unto wise men. Besides all this, the sterility of his reason or invention, which would faign, that these vapours cleaving unto the sides of the caverns or hollow places, and that there (forsooth) they must be converted into drops of water, which from thence must issue forth into rivers, will be palpable and manifest, if we consider, that these drops so made, are apter to circulate, and readier to fall down again into the bowells of the earth, from whence they came, by those self-same vaulty passages or hollow veines, through which they ascended, than to issue forth of the ground allaterally, because that every heavy thing is more prone to descend, then to move sidelong. And therefore it is likely, that either all the waters so made, or the greater part must needs return downward by the way it came or ascended in the form of vapour. But omitting these reasons for a while, we must see if the Text, which is conteined in the Book of Verity, do consent in this Opinion with Aristotle and his faction, yea or no.

We find in the first place, that it is not an accidentall and imaginary heat or cold, that acteth in this Meteor's Generation, but God who operateth by his Angelicall Spirits, and solar act in the accomplishment of this business. And although that in his action, as well privative as positive, cold and heat do expresse themselves as his Ministers: For the Text saith, Coram frigore ejus quis consistat: Who can stand against his cold? Yet it is his catholick positive act, which he extendeth out of his sunny Tabernacle, and hotter winds, and privative vertue, which he manifesteth in the longinquity and absence of his bright Tabernacle, from the region pointed at, and the propinquity of the polar seat of the colder winds, to alter annually the created Element. And therefore it is God which by his Spirituall Organs, as well in Heaven above, as Earth and Water beneath, that operateth all things, and amongst the rest, produceth the Fountains of which the rivers are made. And consequently we ought to esteem it the Act of God's Spirit which filleth the earth, (as Solomon saith) and operateth all the naturall effects therein. Which also David doth testify in these words: Qui emittis fontes per valles, ut inter montes ambulent & potum praebeant omnibus animantibus agri, frangant onagri sitim suam: Qui irrig at montes è caenaculis suis, faciens ut germinet foenum adjumenti, & herbam ad hominis usum: Who sendeth forth the fountains through the valleys, that they may run between the mountains, and give drink unto every living creature of the field, that the Asse may quench his thirst, and that they may water the mountains from their cells, causing the grass to grow for the use of the Oxe, and the herb for the benefit of man, &c. So that here we have the sole catholick Agent, and therefore the Operator of fountains as is proved by this Text. Again, here we have the finall cause set down, for the which they were created and continued in succession by God, namely to water the earth; for the giving drink unto all cattell, and living creatures, and for the multiplying of grasse, herbs, trees, and fruit, for the use as well of man as beast. But will our Peripateticks say, we hear no news out of Scripture, for the contradicting of our matter assigned for the composition, or consistence of Fountains, which we say to be a vapour, and not water, in its naturall substance: Neverthelesse, to qualify this their imagination, and to make them behold the Truth without Spectacles, I counsell them to give eare unto this assertion of Solomon: Omnia flumina (saith he) intrant in mare, & mare non redundat, ad locum unde exeunt revertuntur ut iterum fluant: All rivers enter into the Sea, and it is never the bigger, they return unto the place from whence they came, that they might flow again. By the which Speech of the wise-man, expressing the materiall cause of Fountains, the foresaid definition of Aristotle is utterly othrown, for this doth evidently prove, that it is one and the self-same water, and that in the plain form of water, without any transmutation of it out of water into vapour, and then from vapour into water again, as he doth erroneously alledge, which moveth from the Sea unto the Mountains, and from the Mountains unto the Sea again: Insomuch that for this onely errour, some of his earnest disciples have become Apostates, or renegado's unto his doctrine: For Joannes Velcurius, (a learned man in the worldly Philosophy, and one who hath sweat and taken great pains in the Aristotelian doctrine: insomuch that he wrote a Comment on his Physicks) when he cometh to speak of the Generation of Fountains, he seemeth to confess and publish his Master's folly in these words: Non conveniunt plane Sacrae Scripturae cum Physicis de ortu fluminum & fontium; quae ex mari per varios alveos meatusque fluere ac ad suos fontes refluere (Eccles. 1.) testatur dicens. Omnia flumina intrant in mare, & mare non redundat; a[…] locum unde exeunt flumina reve[…]tuntur ut iterum fluant. Caeterum Physici dicunt materiam esse vaporem resolutum in aquam, & liquefactum à frigore et calore simul intra terram: The holy Scriptures do not agree with the Naturalists, concerning the Originall of Rivers and Fountains, which (Ecclesiastes 1.) saith to flow by divers channels or passages out of the Sea, and to flow again unto their Fountains, saying, All rivers enter into the Sea, and the Sea is not the greater, they return again unto the place from whence they came, &c. Whereby it is plain, that he must accuse his Master of false doctrine, or else he must condemn Solomon in his Judgment. For if the one be contradictory unto the other, it ought of all wise-men to be chased away, or expelled from Christian mens remembrance: Now it were a foolish thing for any religious person to say, that the divinely-wise Solomon lied, to save the reputation of the Ethnick of diabolically wise Aristotle. But if they would, yet will I teach them in the next Chapter, by an evident ocular demonstration, that Solomon's assertion is most true, and that of Aristotle's most erroneous and fantasticall.

I conclude therefore, that I gather out of the aforesaid places of the Bible, that this following Definition doth best agree with the nature of a Fountain.

A Fountain is a continuated Flux of water, issuing from the Sea, as from his beginning, and flowing into bowells of the earth, and after that from the bowells of the earth, as from the mean by which it passeth, unto the upper or higher Superficies of it, by vertue of the divine act, in the mundan Spirit, as well positive or dilative, as privative and contractive; for the benefit and sustenance both of man and beast.

In which definition, plain water without any alteration of his shape, is expressed for the materiall cause, and is said to have its beginning from the Sea, from whence it moveth unto the Mountain's tops. The efficient cause of this work, we find to be the act of the Divine Word, in a double property, as shall be more at large demonstrated in the next Chapter. And, hereupon Solomon said, Sapientia erat apu[…] IEHOVAM in principio viae suae cuncta componens, qua[…]do roborabat fontes abyssi, & ponebat mari statum: Wisdome was with IEHOVAH in the beginning of his waies, as a composer of all things, when he did establish the Fountains of the abysse, and set the Sea within his limits or bounds. And lastly, The finall cause is to give drink and food unto both man and beast, as we may gather out of the forementioned Text of the royall Prophet. We come now unto the demonstration.

CHAP. IX. Wherein Solomon's assertion touching the Fountains and Rivers, is maintained; partly by an ocular demonstration, and partly by true Philosophicall reasons, which are founded thereon.

I Did advertise you (Learned Reader) in my precedent discourse, that Gods Spirit doth operate annually in the common Element of the Sublunary world, by a double vertue, whereof the one is dilative, which is effected in his positive, and manifest property, namely in his light, active, and warm disposition, the principall Treasury and store-house whereof he hath made the Sun: Forasmuch as his bright emanating Spirit of Wisdome, did elect that pure vessell for his Tabernacle. The other is contractive, which is effected in his privative, and secret condition, namely in his dark fixing and cooling disposition, whose principall treasury is about the poles: Forasmuch as it being contrary in effect with the first, is seated in the farthest quarters or points of the world from the Sun. So that as the vivifying Spirit which is seated in the Sun, doth by his presence, operate onely by dilatation in the common sublunary Element, in banishing of the Northern cold, and undoing the actions thereof, by the way of Rarefaction: In like manner by the absence of the Sun, the spirits of the Polar property, doth take possession of that portion of the Element, and undoeth by the way of congelation, all the subtill actions of the Spirituall and active solar vertue. As for example; all that in the winter time among the nations of the Southern world, that is to say, beyond the line, the Sun being then in the Northern Hemisphere, causing by his vertuous Spirit our Summer season, the Antartick pole's cold property doth effect, namely in thickning the aire; raising the Fountains or Springs, and multiplying the waters, producing the Snows, Frost, Ice, and Hail: mortifying the herbs, fruits, and plants, and such like, the Sun at his next visitation of those quarters, which will be in our Northern winter, by the vetue of that dilating and vivifying Spirit, from the Fountain and Father of Light, which aboundeth in it, will undo; converting the thick aire to thin, striking down the Fountains more towards the bowels of the Earth, which were raised in the winter: dissolving the Snow, Frost, ice, and hail, and of fix and opake bodies, making them movable and transparent waters, reviving the spirit of the trees, plants, and herbs, which were almost livelesse through congelation, and renewing their mourning bodies with new green garments, blossoms, and flowers, and lastly, with wholsome fruit. To con[…]lude, there is nothing that the polar cold prevaileth over in the one hemisphear, but the solar heat operateth contrarily by the same p[…]oportion in the oppo[…]ite region of the world; for else the world must endure an augmentation, or a diminution in its substance, that is, sometimes it would be bigger, and sometimes lesser: But, as S[…] lomon averred, that the seas, for all the comming in of rivers, are never the greater, so also, though fountains rise in one part of the world, and sinke in another; and although also the aire by attenuation, made by the active spirit of the Lord, moveth from the warm or summer hemisphear, unto the cold and winter hemisphear, yet is the world no bigger or lesser in its existency, for all that. What therefore the winter properly doth operate in one hemisphear of the world, the summer-hemisphear must needs act in the same proportion in the contrary; for if beyond the Line are made great raines in their winter, we must needs have great drought in the summer on this side the Line. When it is hottest with us, it will be coldest with them; if it prove temperate with us, it will be so with them; as the Sun being in the Aequinoctiall, maketh daies and nights equally long, and the season temperate to both hemispheares. These things therefore being considered maturely in the first place, I proceed unto my practicall conclusion: and my naturall observation thereupon is, that the aire included in the Weather-glasse is made Hybernall, or of the nature of winter, by the dominion of cold; for as soon as the head of it feeleth the externall cold, the contained aire will immediately shrinck up, and contract it self into a little space, and consequently the aire is made more dense and thick: and that this is so, it appeareth by the mounting or attracting up of the water, for there is such a naturall tye betwixt the one and the other, that if the one contracteth it self in a narrower place, namely the aire, then the water will immediately mount up with it, and to it, because it is contiguous unto the aire. By this therefore it is apparent, that the contracting and attracting vertue of the northern spirit, or rather divine puissance, which is made manifest in cold, doth first attract, contract, and condense the dilated aire, and then the aire so contracted by the northern spirit, doth draw or attract the water from beneath upwards, and that without altering of that water which was beneath, in any thing from that which is above; so that in conclusion, it is but one and the self-same water. Lo here therefore it is by this demonstration proved feazible and possible, that water may be sucked and drawn from the caverns of the earth, which is fostered and maintained by the sea, even unto the top of the high mountains, and that by a naturall means or operation, without any necessity of altering the form of the water into vapour, as Aristotle doth vainly surmize, and that contrary unto his axiom, Frustra fit per plura quod fieri potest per pauciora, That is vainly done by many, which may be effected by a fewer. Contrariwise we see and observe in the Weather-glasse, that if the dilative vertue of the present Sun or hot winds, doth heat the head of the Weather-glasse, or inflame the outward aire, then the aire within the glasse will also dilate it self, and by its dilatation will strike down or precipitate the water, that the aire contracted by cold had sucked or drawn up; and again, the visible sinking of the water doth point at, and prove, the invisible dilatation of the air.