Page:Halliwell Collection of Letters.djvu/51

Rh tyme is ended. The motion whereby the nature of our Saviour is manifested is every moment to come forth out of that place where he is pourtracted, to signifie that he carefully provideth for all ages, and lovingly presenteth him selfe at all tymes. This is, Right Worshipfull Sir, in breef, the summe of that which is in the fabricke of the clocke contayned, wherein lie hidden more misteries then I have manifested unto you in theise fewe lines, and yet so mutch hath been uttered as deserveth a duble and treble consideracion, for in this so many divers partes is a wonderfull consent and agreement; for heer the foure men doe soe distinguishe the continewaunce of the whole woorld, as the foure seasons doe the yeare; the ages doe the life of man, and the foure quarters doe the moone and the hower; and yeat all theise have and figured by death, all theise have originall motion by Christ, which is there lif, figured forth by the pellicau, and all theise have been garded and maintained by our Saviour, the laste parte of the worke. There is also the creation of man, the fall of man, and the restoringe of man, and his resurrection, painted in the lower parte of the table, over the eclipses of the soonne and the moone. The cocke on the left hand dothe croe at three of the clocke in the afternoone. This was not devised of late, but kept in the church as a monument of antiquitie; for in tymes past they used, when the passion of Christ was celebrated, to make this cocke croe at sutch tyme as they reade in the Evangelist, Peter three tymes deniall of Christe, the which savoreth nothinge of the invention of the rest of the woorke. The other side is only an artificiall steare whereby men maie behould the conveyances of the motions within. In the mindes of the magistrates that fournisshed the deviser with habilitie to make shewe of his skill by magnificent expenses, there is to be considered a desyre to consecrat the memoriall of there names to perpetuall admiration of succeadinge ages, imitatinge therebie the examples of many kinges and princes that emptied there treasures on such heroicall woorkes. Some in buildinge of temples; some by inventinge of warlike engins; some by devisinge spatious and ample theatres; some by convayinge miraculously waters by aquaeductes; some by buildinge of bathes; by bridges; by gardens; some by piramides; some men by obeliscy, and some by measuringe of tyme by clepsydræ, clockes and hower-glasses and sutch like, that to recite all the other kindes of inventions weare to you troublesome and to me laborious. The great Temple of Diana in Ephesus did contayne in length foure hundred and thirtie twoe feet, in breadth one hundred and twenty, was supported by one hundred and twenty seaven