OPINIONS OP ST. AUGUSTINE. 23 



be fit now to vnderstand what the holy Doctor Augustine LlB - r - 

 disputes uppon this matter in his bookes of the cittie of 

 God, ec It is no point that we ought to beleeve, as some ^ b - J vi 

 affirme, that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men which 

 inhabite that other part of the earth, in whose region the 

 Sunne riseth when it sets with vs, and that their steppes 

 be opposite and contrarie to ours, seeing they afSrine not 

 this by any certaine revelation which they have, but onely 

 by a Philosophicall discourse they make, whereby they con 

 clude that the earth being in the middest of the world, 

 invironed of all parts and covered equallie with the heaven, 

 of necessitie that must be in the lowest place which is in 

 the midst of the world. &quot; Afterwards hee continues in 

 these words, &quot; The holie Scripture doth not erre, neither is 

 deceived in anie sort; the truth whereof is well approved in 

 that which it propoundeth of things which are passed, for 

 as much as that which hath bene fore-told, hath succeeded 

 in every point, as we see ; And it is a thing void of all 

 sense to say that men could passe from this continent to 

 the new found world and cut through the Vast Ocean, seeing 

 it were impossible for men to passe into those parts any other 

 way, being most certain that al men deseed from the first 

 man.&quot; Wherein we see that all the difficultie S. Augustine 

 hath found was nothing else but the incomparable greatnes 

 of this vast Ocean. Gregorie Nazianzene was of the same 

 opinion, assuring, as a matter without any doubt, that it 

 was not possible to saile beyond the Straights of Gibraltar; 

 and vpon this subiect he writes in an Epistle of his, &quot; I 

 agree well with the saying of Pindarus, That past Cadiz, 

 that Sea is not nauigable .&quot; And hee himselfe in the 

 funerall Sermon he made for saint Basil saith, &quot; It was not 

 tollerable for anie one sailing on the Sea to passe the 

 Straight of Gibraltar.&quot; And it is true, that this place of 

 Pindarus, where he saith, &quot; That it is not lawfull, neyther 

 for wise men nor fooles, to know what is beyond the 



