Body of Divinity, Book 3 · Chapter 6
CHAP. VI. Of the Fishes, Fowls, Beasts.
THe fifth Dayes work was the Creation of all living Creatures which liveGen. 1. 20, 21, 22. and move in the two moist Elements, the Water and the Air, viz. Fishes *The Fishes were appointed to encrease and multiply, and to fill the waters: the Fowls were appointed to increase & multiply and flie in the Air.and moving Creatures, which live and move in the waters; and all kind of Fowls which flie in the open Region of the Air, divers in nature, shape, qualities, and manner of living.
The Hebrew verb foreign of which the word foreign which is here translated The moving Creature, is derived; is used as here, so in other Scriptures frequently, first to signifie creeping or moving forward without feet, as Gen. 7. 21. & Levit. 11. 19. And secondly also to bring forth abundantly as here, and also Exod. 1. 7. Fishes breed and bring forth young in great abundance, more then any other creatures do, by the multitude of spawn they would encrease beyond all measure and number, if by one means or other the spawn were not devoured and consumed.
Who can render a reason of their ability to swimme so in the waters, to support themselves in the midst of the waters, and convey themselves up and down in it?
Fishes are in Scripture termed Reptilia, Psalm 104. 25. In the great and wide Sea there are things creeping innumerable both small and great, so called, because things when they swim seem to creep along in the water. As Birds have their wings and trains by means whereof they cut their way, and make smooth passage through the Air, so Fishes are furnished with fins wherewith they guide themselves in their swimming, and cut the current of the streams and waves for their more easie passage, wherein their course is directed by their tail, as Ships are conducted by their Helm.
The Sea gives more and greater dainties then the Earth, those that did most affect to please their Palate of old, set great store by Fishes, and paid dearer for them then flesh. God hath furnished them with a strong power of encreasing. Birds bring forth some four or five in a nest, some three, and some but two, the most but twenty, as the little Wren, for being so little, the kinde would be consumed by the things which devour such weak creatures, if those that be did not bring forth very many: But every Fish brings forth a great multitude, many hundreds, as we may see in their spawn.
That God should give unto these things a power to multiply so very fast, is wonderfull, and it is agreeable to reason too, for the fishes do more devour one another then the beasts do, the greater being much more ravenous then any beast, as being bigger; and their stomacks by an Antiperistasis of the cold water more vehement in digesting.
They are said to be without number, Psa. 104. 25. not simply, but to us, for we cannot tell the number of them, though God (which made them) do know the particular number of them. He can tell how many fishes there be in the Sea, though to us they exceed the power of counting, yet he hath the precise and exact number of them.
We know not the kindes of fishes, how much lesse the particulars!
There be (saith Pliny) of fishes and other creatures living in the Sea; one hundredPlinies Naturall History, l 32. c. 11. seventy and six severall and distinct kindes.
What Philosopher can tell how many Dolphins, Herrings, Whales, Sword-fishes there be in the Sea?
A Crocodile equals eighteen cubits, it comes from an Egge as bigge as thatQuidam hoc unum animal quam diu vivit, crescere arbitrantur. Pliny l. 8. c. 25. Naturalists write of the Crocodile that it grows as long as it lives. Scribunt humanum caputà Crocodilo ob crassitiem ossis non posse devorari. Cum vero persentiat medullam, hoc est, cerebrum cranio subesse, lacrymas in id effundere quarum vi suturae protinus dissipentar: inde medullam exsorberi à truculentissima bestia. Abiere hinc in Proverbium, Lacrymae Crocodili, quae non a commiseratione sed ab immanissima crudelitate proveniu…. Wendelinus de admirandis Nili. c▪ 16. vide plura ibid. &c. 17. of a Goose: Nec aliud animal ex minori origine in majorem crescit magnitudinem. Pliny lib. 8. cap. 25. From so small a beginning it encreaseth to eight or ten yards in length. Their bodies are not much longer then their tails, which is of like use with them, as the Proboscis is to the Elephant; their mouths are very wide, at one gulph able to swallow horse or man. The name is taken a Croceo colore, or per Antiphrasin quòd Crocum timeat. The Ichneumon steals into his belly, and gnaws his guts, whilest he opens his chaps to let the little Troclill pick his teeth, which give it feeding. Herb. Trav. l. 3.
The Echeneis, Remora, or stop-ship, but half a foot long is able to stay the greatestPlinies Naturali history, l. 32. c. 1. Ship under sail. Keckermannus humori frigido à remora fuso adscribere videtur qui aquam circa gubernaculum conglaciet. in Disput. Physic. The Cramp-fish Torpedo is able to benumn and mortisie the arms of the lustiest and strongest Fishers that beId. ibid. by touching onelyonly the end of any part of an angle-rod, which they hold in their hands, although they stand aloft and a great way from her: hence it hath its name,Iohnstoni Thaum atographia. quod torpore manus afficiat, because it benummeth the hands. See Voss. de orig. & progres. Idol. l. 4. c. 11. both of the Remora and Torpedo.
The Naturalists tell us of one fish which they call the Uranoscope, which hath but one eye, and that in a verticall point, on the top of the head, directly upward: by which it avoids all rocks and dangers.
There have been known Whales six hundred foot *Pliny Ibid. Four Acres long in the Indian Sea. Idem l. 9. c. 3. Amama Antibarb. Bib. l. 3. Chamierus tom. 2 l. 9. c. 11. Plin. ib c. 2. Ante omnia nihil velocius habent maria ut plerumque saliente transvolent vela navium. Solinus c. 21.long, and three hundred and sixty foot broad, some like mountains, and some like Islands. God himself speaking of his own power over all the creatures, rehearseth only two, the Behemoth, Job 40. 15. to the end, that is, the Elephant; and the Leviathan Job 41. per tot. that is, the Whale, this being the greatest among the Fishes, as that among the Beasts.
The Sword-fish hath a beak or Bill sharp-pointed, wherewith he will drive through the sides and planks of a Ship, and bore them so, that they shall sink withall.
The Dolphin is said to be a fish of such exceeding great swiftnesse, as that oftentimes he out-strippeth a Ship under sail in the greatest ruffe and merriest winde, in swiftnesse of course. In this fish is propounded to us an example of charity, and kinde affection toward our Children, as Plinyb in his description of the nature of this fish sheweth, and Aelianus l. 5. c. 18. As also of his singular love toward man, whereof Aelianus produceth strange examples.
It may seem strange that it should please the Pope to forbid flesh to men rather then *Pisces Deus noluit sibi offerri, tum quod extra aquam non vivant (nihil autem mortuum ex animalibus offerri sibi Deus velit) tum etiam quod ex Serpentum genere cense… tur Pisces: Serpentum vero genus universum damnatum est à Deo, proptereà quod per serpentem deceptus fuerit homo, fuitq… serpens organon Diabelt, Gen. 3. Danaeus Isag. Christ. l. 2. c. 23.fish, that is, the lesse dainty and luxurious, before the more: for what is by some alledged, that the curse fell upon the earth, and not the Seas, is fondly affirmed, seeing when it is said, cursed be the earth, by earth is meant the whole globe of the earth consisting of Sea and dry Land.
Some fishes are exceeding small, and for their smalnesse and workmanship bestowed upon them, admirable. In the Sea the Cockles, a little kinde of shell-fish, yet in its kinde very artificiall, somewhat resembling a Cre-fish, which are dainties for rich men.
Those little and small things are made with so many joynts and parts and turnings, such a proportion and shape, and every thing so exact and suitable, as would stir up astonishment in any beholder. Gods power is likewise seen in the greatnesse of some fishes, as the Whale, some of which are 80. yards long, their eyes are as big as an hogshead, and their mouth so wide, that a man sitting on horseback might be held in it.
God hath created the Fowls of Heaven among other creatures, Psa. 104. 12. Gen. The orderly course of birds in breeding their young ones is most remarkable. After they have coupled they make their nest, they line it with mosse, straw, and feathers; they lay their egges, they set upon them, they hatch them, they feed their young ones, and they teach them to fly t all which they do with so continuate and regular a method, as no man can direct or imagine a better. Sir Kenelm Digbies Treat. of Bod. c. 37.1. 20, 21.
The things wherein the Fowls differ from other creatures are. 1. That they be winged, having feathers and wings by which they are covered, and by which they do passe through the air, and the place wherein they fly, viz. in the open firmament in this lower heaven. Their creation is wonderfull in divers respects.
1. Their making is wonderfull, far differing from that of beasts, fishes, and men.
2. They have great variety of kindes, some wilde, some tame, some great, some little, some Sea or water birds, some land birds.
3. Their manner of breeding, they lay egges and hatch them, and out of a kinde of confused substance, that to us seems void of life, by the heat of their bodies they doe bring forth their young naked at first, which after by the same cherishing of warmth, do bring forth feathers to cover them. Many of them are so beautifully adorned with their feathers for colour, and are so glorious, as a man cannot but look upon them with wondring and delight, for where doth nature shew more variety, and a pleasinger composition of colours then in Doves neck, a Peacocks tail, and some other like Birds?
4. For their swiftnesse of flying, that they can with such celerity passe through the air.
5. They are many waies serviceable to many: they are a dainty food for weak stomacks, they pull up many kindes of worms and vermine, that else would be harmfull to us.
Fowls or Birds are more worthy then Fishes, because they do more participate of air and fire (the two noblest Elements) then of water and earth. All birds are mastered under the name of Fowls as under their Genus.
There are examples of vertues in the fowls propounded for us to imitate, and of vicesJob 12. 7. for us to shun.
In the Phaenix an example of the Resurrection: in the Stork of loving affection:One cannot say of the Phoenix being only one in the world, Encrease and multiply, there were two of all creatures went into the Atk, therefore there is no Phoenix. Aldrovandus and Pliny. Vide Voss. de orig. & progres. Idol. l. 3. c. 99. In the Dove of innocency and conjugall faith: in the Crows and Estridges of unnaturalnesse.
We should imitate the Storke, Crane ond Swallow cJob 39. 13, 14, 15, 16. Lam. 4. 3. Ier. 8. 7.in acknowledging the seasonable time of our repentance.
The Stork hath her name from foreign, love, and the * Hebrew word is near of kin*foreign with another, which signifieth bowells of compassion, as which indeed are most tender in her. A story whereof aShe is somewhat like a Hern having a long neck and feet. Doctor Twisse against Doctor Iackson. Petronius Arbiter & Solinus call the Stork pictatis cultricem.we have in the description of the Netherlands, viz. of a Stork, that when the house was on fire where her nest was, kept the fire off from her young ones with her own body and wings so long till she was burnt her self.
It is loving to mankinde, delightfull to build in the tops of houses and chimneys, as is usuall to be seen in Germany.
It is the embleme of a gratefull man: for at her departure from the house whereThey count it there a happy Omen for the Stork to build in their houses. she builds (as some report) she usually leaveth a young one behinde her. Aelian lib. 8. de Animal. cap. 19. writeth of a Storke which bred on the house of one which had a very beautifull wife, which in her Husbands absence used to commit adultery with one of her base servants; which the Storke observing, in gratitude to him who freely gave him houseroom, flying in the villains face, struck out both his eyes. It is recorded also of the Stork, that when the dams are old, the young ones feed them; and when through age they are ready to faint in their flying, the young ones help them; and when they are past flying, the young ones carry them on their weak backs.
The Eagle is reckoned the Soveraign Queen of all Fowls, as the Lion is reputed the King of all beasts.
It is Altivolans avis, an high soaring bird, that sometime flyeth so high a pitch as she transcendeth the view of man, whence the Proverb, Aquila in nubibus, she makesJob 39. 27, 28, 29. See of the Nightingales singing. Pliny l. 10. of naturall History, c. 29. and Famianus Stradas Pr…lusions. her nest also in the high trees or rocks, lest her young ones should be hurt of the lesser birds, Ier. 49. 16. She flies also swiftly, Iob 9. 26. She sees acutely when she is so high that men can scarce see her, she sees (they say) fishes swimming in the Sea.
—tam cernis acutum,
Quam aut aquila aut serpens Epida…r….
She hath a tender care of her young, when they be …l…sh and ready for flight▪ then she stirreth up her nest and fluttereth over them; yea she taketh them on her wings, and so soareth with them through the air, and carrieth them aloft, and so freeth them from all danger. In that she carrieth her young ones rather upon her wings then in her …alons, she sheweth her tender care and love that she beareth unto them, Exod▪ 19. 4. Deut. 32. 11.
The Hebrew name foreign which is translated Fowl, Gen. 1. 26. signifieth in generallInter omnia Infecta principatus apibus, & jure praecipua admiratio, solis ex eo genere hominum causa genitis: Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 5. Nomen Insectis datur ab incisuris, quas habent, quasi annulos. Vossius de orig. & progres, Idol. l. 4. every living thing, which by help of wings flieth above the earth in the air: so that not only birds, but also bees, wasps▪ hornets, and all other winged things may here be understood: Bees are principall among the Insects; Bees are notable,
1. For their good husbandry, she is very painfull, she flies to every herb and flower,When bees are most angry in swarming, cast but a little dust upon them, and they ar… presently quiet, and leave their humming. Practise the fedulity of the Bee, labour in thy calling: and the community of the Bee, beleeve that thou art called to assist others: and the purity of the Bee, which never settles upon any foul thing. D. Donne on Prov. 25. 19. See Butler's history of Bees. Vide Voss. de orig. & progres. Idol. l. 4. c. 72▪ de apum prudentia in fabricando alveari deque tota corum foreign. and seeks and searches into every corner of the same. She so abhors idlenesse that she punisheth the idle drone, and will not give it any quiet harbour in the hive. 2. She is thrifty, which is another part of good husbandry, what she hath gotten in the Summer, she charily laies up in her Cells, and doth not spend it till she must needs.
2. For their cleanlinesse and neatnesse, mundissimum omnium hoc animal, they will not suffer any sluttery within if they may go abroad, neither can they endure any unsavorinesse without nigh unto them, Pliny l. 11. c. 10. & 18.
3. For their care of the common good, she is an admirable lover of that, she labours, eats, fights in common, and all her pains is directed to the common good, she will with unresistable courage assail any enemy though never so strong, which shall offer to wrong the common body.
4. For their concord, Bees of the same hive are linked together in the bond of amity, though they be many of them, yet they know and love each other, and keep peace among themselves, and fly domesticall sedition, unlesse the rulers be multiplied, and by their disorders set the rest of the Bees at variance.
5. For their dutifullnesse to their King or Prince (for they have a Monarchy, as the Ants a Democracy) *See Plinies natural history, l. 11. c. 17. Vide Moufetum de Insect is l. 2. corpora bello. objectant, pulchram que petunt per vulnera mortem. Virg. 4. Georg. Corollaries.they are most loyall subjects to him, they labour for him, and build him more then one Palace, and that more large and stately then their own, they fight for him, and go abroad with him.
The workmanship of God is more excellent in some Insects, as Bees, and others little creatures, then in those of great bulk; See Pliny l. 7. c. 21. and 36. 5. Austin prefers a fly (in regard of its life) before the Sun. But some things (saith Vossius) are not so much to be valued for their form, as their end, which is more excellent in the Sun, then in any perfect living creature, man only excepted.
We see and use the fowls, and eat their flesh, and lye upon their soft feathers, and yet contemplate not the goodnesse of God in them.
We have divers kinde of tame fowl in our back-sides, they bring us young, and we kill and dresse them, and let them upon our Tables and feast with them. They lay egges, and we eat of them: they sit and hatch and cherish their young, and we see that admirable manner of drawing actuall life out of a potentiall life by the working of heat. And we have many wilde fowl, but who seeth Gods wisedom, power, bounty, in giving them to us?
Let us stir up our selves to give God his due glory, in respect of this kinde of creature.
Amongst other creatures, the Lord hath stored the world with divers kindes of four-footed beasts, which move and walk upon the face of the earth, Psa. 104. 11, 12. these were created on the sixth day. Gen. 1. 24.
These beasts are creatures endued not with life alone, but with sense also: Yea,There are not known to be of beasts and creeping things above the number of 150 kinds, probably there are not many nor great that are not known. Plin. nat hist. l. 10. Gesn. de animal. There are dive…s kindes of brute beasts differing in nature, qualities, figure, colour, quantity, voice. they excell man in quicknesse of sense,
Nos aper auditu praecellit, ar…ea …ctu,
Vultur odoratu, lynx visu, simia gustu.
They consist of a body and of a sensible soul, and besides the life of vegetation which is to be found in plants, by which they grow and are nourished; They have also a soul whereby they discern divers bodily objects, and can both discern and follow that which is good for them, and shun what is evill, and so preserve themselves alive by using things helpfull for them, and avoiding the contrary. All these beasts were made to walk upon the ground with 4. feet, having their heads bowing down to the ground to seek their diet, without which they could not live, and which is provided for them upon the face of the ground.
This work is wonderfull in respect of the divers sorts of these beasts, some great, and some small, some of one shape and nature, some of another.
We see great variety of them in our own Countrey, and there is far greater variety abroad in the world which we have never seen. That out of the same earth and water all these kindes should grow by a word spoken with the mouth of God, let it be so, is a strange and wonderfull thing. By vertue of these words, there were Sheep, Goats, Kine, Horses, Camels and Dromedaries, Elephants, Lions, Bears, Dogs, Tygers, Wolves, Foxes, Deer. What are all these but a most artificiall mixture of earth and water put into a certain shape or form of members, having head, feet, back, breast, belly, brain, liver, heart, guts, and other intrails, and having power to see, hear, to touch, smell, taste, to eat, drink, go, generate, to remember, to have a kinde of thought of things within, to imagine and discern, having also affections and passions. They carry us, feede us, cloathe us, till the ground for us. How full of tedious and toilsome pains would our lives be, if we had not a horse to bear us up and down from place to place, and Horses or Oxen to conveigh all manner of things for us!
We must magnifie the name of God, and frame our selves to sincere thankfullnesse unto him who hath made such a multitude of creatures inferiour to our selves, and given to us the use of them. O what a wonderfull skillfull workman is he, that out of the earth could produce such a number of such creatures! And how good was he to us, that he did not give reason unto them as well as sense; for if they had reason to know their own strength and our Weaknesse, we should never keep them under as we do.
Let us not abuse creatures of God to bad purpose, or use them in a cruell and inhumane manner: they are our fellow-creatures, made of a little courser earth; and since they obey us with all chearfullnesse, let us be likewise obedient to God.
There is no creature among all the beasts of the world which so aptly demonstrates the power and wisedom of Almighty God as the *Utrum ea vox Elephas ab Eleph bos, a… verò potius ab Alaph quod Syris & Ebraeis discere est, derivata sit, meritò dubites, adeò verisimi▪ lis utraque sententia est; Nam quod primam attinet, in confesso est apud Graecos & Latinos, nobilitatam semper fais… bovis pra ceteris terrestribus animantibus magnitudinem. Ita credibile est, Ebraeos, Syros & Phaenices cum hoc animal & mole & figuratione corporis ad bovem quàm proxime accedens primò vidissent, bovis nomine appellasse. Quod ad alteram attinet, quis ignorat ea, quae de hujus belluae docilitate narrat Plinius, l. 80 c. 1. 3. 7. Cicero Epist. Famil. 1. 7. & plena manu Lipsius. Centuria prima Epist. 5. Amama Antibarb. Bibl. l. 3. Vide Plin. hist. l. 8. The Elephant is for growth and understanding, chiefest of unreasonable Animals. They go two, sometimes three years with young, and havn extream torm… in their labour: They grow till fifteen, in that time mounting to 24. foot, yet lie down, dance, and prove very active. Herberts Trav. l. 3.Elephant, both in respect of his proportion of body and disposition of spirit. He is by the Hebrews called Behemoth, by way of excellency, as the Latines for the same cause call him Bellua, and by Iob 40. 15. he is likewise called Behemoth in the plurall number. Behold now Behemoth which I made with thee, he eateth grasse as an oxe. The LXX and Chaldee by Behemoth understand all earthly beasts of great bulk, but the Hebrews think the Elephant is only meant, whom Thomas Aquinas and Nicolaus Lyranus follow; God stirs Iob up to consider well of this huge beast, as if he had said, If thou dost not yet understand how weak a man thou art, and how unfit to grapple with me, see how thou canst deal with this great beast. Vide Vossi. de Orig. & progress. Idol. lib. 3. cap. 50, 51. He is wittily called by Iulius Scaliger, Bestiarum Heros: and by Iob in the same Chapter, vers. 19. the chief of the waies of God, that is, the greatest, strongest, and most understanding of all earthly irrationall creatures, as Deodate interprets it. Vide Fulleri miscel. Sac. l. 4. c. 10.
Elephas peregrinum est apud nos animal, Indis & aliis notissimum & obvium, Certè turres olim armatorum in praelia ferebant, Johnstoni Thaumatographia. The Elephants were usefull in the wars, they caryed Towers, whence ten or fifteen souldiers did cast darts or spears, See Mac. 6. 37. If by accident in their fury they kill him that feeds them, they so mourn for it afterward, that they die through hunger, saith Strabo: the like I have heard reported of an Elephant here in England.
Aristotle l. 9. de hist. animal. c. 47. makes mention of a memorable thing to make men fly incest. The King of Scythia had a Mare of a most excellent race, which brought forth most excellent colts; among the rest she had one which excelled them all; the King was desirous that this colt might horse his damme, that so he might have an excellent race of them: but the colt when he was brought to his damme, would not horse her; the King seeing this, he caused them to cover the damme that he might not know her. But he perceiving afterwards that it was his damme, ran away and cast himself over a steep rock, and brake his neck. Vide Vos. de orig. & prog. Idol. l. 3. c. 61.
There are many things wonderfull in the Dog, his sagacity, docility, fidelity: Of this creature and the horse is Plinies Elogie. Fidelissimi ante omnia homini canes atque equi.
A dog in Epyrus in a great assembly of people, knowing the man that had murderedPlinies nat. hist. l. 8. c. 40. See Camerar. Hist. meditat. l. 2. c. 6. his Master, flew upon him with open mouth, barking and snapping at him so furiously, that he was ready to take him by the throat, untill he at length confessed the fact, that caused the dog thus to rage and foam against him. Vide Voss. de orig. & progres. Idol. l. 3. c. 61.
Alexander the Great being on his voyage toward the Indies, received for a PresentId. ib. a very great Dog which the King of the Albanians sent him, with advice, that he should not set his Dogge against Wolves, Bears or Bores, but against Lions and Elephants. Alexander desiring to see some sport, made a Lion to be brought, whom the dog overcame, and with a trice tare in peeces. Then he commanded to set an Elephant upon him, longing to see the issue of that fight. The dog seeing his adversary, begins to bustle himself, and to bristle his hair all his body over, and casting out a furious bawling, maketh the Elephant turn tail, and proceedeth so couragiously, to the great applause and astonishment of all that beheld it. Pliny l. 8. c. 40. See Camerar. Histor. meditat. l. 2. c. 6. & Voss. de orig. progres. Idol. l. 3. c. 56.
The dogs which be near unto Nilus lap of the River, running still, and never stay while they are drinking, for fear of the greedy Crocodiles. Aegyptio canes è Nil… nunquam nisi currentes lambitant, dum Crocodilis insidias cavent.
It happened, that upon a narrow thin plank that lay for a Bridge, one goat met another, both coming from divers parts: now by reason that the place was so narrow, that they could not passe by, nor turn about, nor yet retire backwards blindely, considering how long the plank was, and so slender withal; moreover the waterPlinies …. hist. l. 8. c. …0. that ran underneath, ran with a swift stream, and threatned present death if they failed and went besides, Mutianus affirmeth, that he saw one of them to lie flat down, and the other to go over his back.
In Sibaris there was a young man named Crathis, which being not able to retainA memorable story of the punishment of buggery. lust, but forsaken of God, and given over to a reprobate sense, committed buggery with a female Goat, the which thing the Master Goat beheld and looked upon, and dissembled, concealing his minde and jealousie for the pollution of his female. Afterward finding the said young man asleep (for he was a Shepheard) he made *Topsell de quadrupedibus.all his force upon him, and with his horns dashed out the Buggerers brains.
Alexander the Great had a very strange and rare horse called Bucephalus, *Bucephalus signifieth an oxe head. Vide Vos. Instit. orat. l. 4. c. 7. Sect. 11. Plin. nat. hist. l. 8. c. 42. l. 6. c. 20. Aul. Gel. Noct. Att. l. 5. c. 2. This horse is also celebrated by Plutarch and Q. Curtius.eithr for the greatnesse of his head, or else from the mark or brand of a Bulls head, which was imprinted upon his shoulder. He would suffer no man to sit him, nor come upon his back but Alexander, when he had the Kings saddle on, and was also trapped with royall furniture, for otherwise he would suffer any whomsoever. When he was dead the King solemnized his funerals most sumptuously; erected a Tomb for him, and about it built a City that bare his name Bucephalia.
That is a lofty description of a horse, Iob 39. 19. to 26. By which words it is signified, that that terrible strength of the horse is from God, that neighing almost like to thunder, that mettle, when not being able to stand still, he hollows the earth with his hoofs, goes on undaunted into the battell, neither is terrified with so many darts falling near him and his rider, and runs with that swiftnesse that he seems to swallow up the earth, and rejoyceth at the sound of the Trumpet stirring up the souldier to battell.
If Banks aSir Walter Rawleigh.had lived in elder times, he would have shamed all the Inchanters of the world; for whosoever was most famous among them, could never master or instruct any beast as he did his Horse. He would restore a glove to the due owner after his Master had whispered that mans name in his ear; he would tell the just number of pence in any peece of silver coin barely shewed him by his Master, and obey presently his command in discharging himself of his excrements whensoever he bad him.
That story of Androdus and the Lion bHic est leo hospes hominis; hic est homo medicus leo…is. See D. Willet of the Camell on Lev. 11. quest. 14. The ape is so docible, that he will learn to play at Chesse. See Plin. nat. hist. l. 8. c. 54. vide plura de Simia. Voss. &c orig. & prog. Idol. l. 3. c. 59.is commonly known: Vide Auli Gellij noctes Atticas, l. 5. c. 14. and Vossius de orig. & prog. Idol. l. 3. c. 52. relates a strange story out of Aelian, of the sagacity of the Lion; a Bear in the mountain of Thracia entring into his Den, and killing the young Lions, the old He and Shee-Lion returned at last home from hunting, and seeing this Spectacle, they pursued the Bear, and the Bear getting up into the next Tree, the Lionesse stayed at the tree, and the Lion wandered about all the mountains, till he met with a Carpenter, who at the first sight of him out of fear let the hatchet fall from his hand, but the Lion fawned upon the man, and with his foot shewed him the hatchet, that he might take it up, and at length with his tail embracing the man he brought him to his den, and the Lionesse came thither, both shew the destruction of their whelps, and also looked up to the tree where the Bear was, then the Carpenter conjecturing that the Bear did this injury, cut down the Tree, that falling with the Bear, the Lion and the Lionesse presently tear the Bear in peeces, and the Lion brought back the man safe to the place where before he did cut wood: See more of the Lion in that Chapter, and 53. of Vossius his Book before-cited.
It is a great token of Gods goodnesse to us, that from the vety Serpents (which are poysonfull for mans sin) a threefold profit redounds to man.
1. In respect of nourishment, in Africa, as Pliny relates lib. 6. cap. 29. men feed on them.
2. They serve for Medicament: See Vossius de Origine & Progress. Idol. lib. 4. cap 62.
3▪ They are a Preservative against poyson, amoletum ab amoliendo, or as they commonly write it amuletum. Treacle is made of the flesh of a viper, the oyl of Scorpions is good against the sting of Scorpions. Being bitten by a Serpent, if you anoint the wound with spittle, it will hinder the poyson from spreading any farther.