by so uncertain and proverbially inconstant a thing as the Winds But I shall not trouble my self to remarque on Matters with which my Discourse hath nothing to do My business is with the pretended Answers to the Difficulties I mention as not well resolv'd by any yet known Hypothesis On which the Learned Man enters Plea 5th and in order begins with those about the SOUL in these words 1. In the third Chapter therefore of his most eloquent Discourse he objects our Ignorance of that thing we ought to be best acquainted with viz. our own SOVLS p. 30. This I do and to the Difficulties I propound about the Origine of the Soul It 's Vnion with the Body It 's moving of it and direction of the Spirits The general short Answer is That to suppose the Soul a Substance that may be made come and joinâ—…d to another a Subsistence Thing or Substance is a most important Error in Philosophy of which he saith none can doubt that is able to discern the opposition of one and many ibid. The meaning of which must be That the Soul is no distinct Substance from the Body And if so almost all the World hath hitherto been mistaken For if we inquire iâ—…to the Philosophy of the Soul as high as any accounts are given of it we shall find its real substantial distinction from the Body to have been the current belief of all Ages notwithstanding what this Gentleman saith That none can doubt that this is an error in Philosophy that knows the opposition of one and many For 1. The highest times of whose Doctrines we have any History believ'd its Preexistence and consequently that it is a certain Substance that might be made come and be join'd to another Of this I 'le say a few things If credit may be given to the Chaldean Oracles and perhaps more is due to them than some will allow Preexistence is of highest Antiquity We have that Doctrine plainly taught in those ancient Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oportet te festinare ad Lucem patris Lumina Vnde missa tibi est anima And afterwards more clearly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quaere tu animae canalem unde aut quo ordine Coâ—…pori inservieris in ordinem a quo effluxisti Rursuâ—… restituas And Isellus in his exposition of the Chaldean Theology tells us That according to their Doctrine Souls descended hither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either through the moultring of its Wings or the will of the Father of Spirits that they might adorn this Terrestrial State And again Zoroaâ—…ter speaking of Humane Souls saith they are sent down to Earth from Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Trismegistus if those remains that bear his Name may be allow'd is express in asserting the same Doctrine In his Minerva Mundi he brings in God threatning those he had placed in an happy condition of Life and injoyment with Bonds and Imprisonment in case of Disobedience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they transgressing he adds That he commanded the Souls to be put into Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in another place assigns this for the cause of their Imprisonment in Bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He would have them acknowledg that they sustain'd that punishment and imprisonment in Bodies for the things they had done before they came into them 3. It was also the Opinion of the Ancient Jews That all Souls were at first created together and resided in a place they call Goph a Celestial Region And therefore 't is said in the Mishna Non aderit filius David priusquam exhaustae fuerint universae Animae quae fuâ—…t in Goph So that they believ'd all Generations on Earth to be supplyed from that Promptuary and Element of Souls in Heaven whence they supposed them to descend by the North Pole and to ascend by the South whence the saying of the Cabalists Magnus Aquilo Scaturigo Animarum From which Tradition 't is like Homer had this Notion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Janua duplex Haec Boream Spectans homines demittit at illa Respiciens Austrum divinior invia prorsus Est homini praebâ—…tque viam immortalibus unis 4. 'T is notoriously known that Pythagoras and his Sectators held the Doctrine of Transmigration which supposeth Preexistence and both that the Soul is a Substance which can come and be join'd to another thing Some Pythagoreans write that Pythagoras himself after 216 years Transanimation returned to Life again Now this Opinion being so universally imputed to this Philosopher and his School I shall not need to insist on it as far as it concerns them but I take notice that both Jews Persians Indians Arabians and divers other Nations c. did of old and do still hold the same Doctrine Manasseh â—…en Israel ascribes the Opinion of Transmigration to Abraham and the Cabalists teach that every Soul is successively join'd to three Bodies So the same Soul they say was in Adam David and the Messias and the same in Seth Shem and Moses according to R. Simeon who as the Cabalists generally do stops the course in the third Transmigration as is noted from him by a Learned Man of our own There are at this day great Sects among the Indians of the East that retain this Doctrine of Transanimation believing that the Souls of some descend again into Humane Bodies but that others pass into the Bodies of Beasts So did some of the Ancient Pythagoreans who taught that good Men returned to their former blessed and happy Life but that the wicked in their first Transmigration chang'd their Sex in the second they descended into Beasts yea some supposed them at last to go into Trees and other Vegetables Now all these committed the great Error in Philos phy of which I am accused in supposing the Soul to be a certain Substance which may directly be made come and be join'd to another thing and so according to our Author They could none of them discern the opposition of one and many But 2. This pretended important Error in Philosophy of the Soul 's being a Thing and Substance and one distinct from the Body must be held by all that believe its natural Immortality for Separability is the greatest Argument of real distinction especially that which the Schools call Mutual Now the Soul's Immortality hath had a general Reception from the wiser and better part of Mankind The Egyptians Chaldeans Assyrians Indians Jews Greeks and universally all that had a name for Wisdom among the Ancients believ'd it And the same hath been the apprehension of latter Ages A Councel of the Church of Rome it self hath defin'd it and recommended the demonstrating of it to all Christian Philosophers And if the Soul lives after the dissolution of the Body 't is certainly a Substance distinct from it for nothing
can be kept to regular and uniform Motions 4. Mr. Hobbs attempts another way there is nothing in us according to this Philosopher but Matter and Motion All Sense is Reaction in Matter Leviath Chap. 1. the decay of that Motion and Reaction is Imagination Chap. 2. And Memory is the same thing expressing that decay Ib. So that according to M. H. all our Perceptions are Motions and so is Memory Concerning which I observe but two things 1. Neither the Brain nor Spirits nor any other material Substance within the Head can for any considerable time conserve Motion The Brain is such a clammy Consistence that it can no more retain it than a Quagmire The Spirits are more liquid than the Air which receives every Motion and loseth it as soon And if there were any other corporeal part in us as fitly temper'd to keep Motion as could be wisht yet 2. the Motions made in it would be quickly deadned by Counter-Motions and so we should never remember any thing longer than till the next Impression and it is utterly impossible that so many Motions should orderly succeed one another as things do in our Memories For they must needs ever and anon thwart interfere and obstruct one another and so there would be nothing in our Memories but Confusion and Discord Upon the whole we see that this seemingly plain Faculty the Memory is a Riddle also which we have not yet found the way to resolve I might now add many other difficulties concerning the Vnderstanding Fancy Will and Affections But the Controversies that concern these are so hotly managed by the divided Sohools and so voluminously handled by disputing Men that I shall not need insist on them The only Difficulties about the Will its nature and manner of following the Vnderstanding c. have confounded those that have enquired into it and shewn us little else but that our Minds are as blind as that Faculty is said to be by most Philosophers These Controversies like some Rivers the further they run the more they are hid And perhaps after all our Speculations and Disputes we conceive less of them now than did the more plain and simple Understandings of former times But whether we comprehend or not is not my present business to enquire since I have confined my self to an Account of some great Mysteries that do not make such a noise in the World And having spoken of some that relate to our Souls I come now to some others that concern II. BODIES I begin with our Own which though we see and feel and have them nearest to us yet their inward Constitution and Frame is hitherto an undiscovered Region And the saying of the Kingly Prophet that we are wonderfully made may well be understood of that admiration that is the Daughter of Ignorance For 1. There hath no good account been yet given how our Bodies are formed That there is Art in the contrivance of them cannot be denied even by those that are least beholden to Nature and so elegant is their composure that this very Consideration saved Galen from being an Atheist And I cannot think that the branded Epicurus Lucretius and their Fellows were in earnest when they resolv'd this Composition into a fortuitous range of Atoms 'T were much less absurd to suppose or say that a Watch or other curious Automaton did perform divers exact and regular Motions by chance than 't is to affirm or think that this admirable Engine an Humane Body which hath so many Parts and Motions that orderly cooperate for the good of the whole was framed without the Art of some knowing Agent But who the skilful particular Archeus should be and by what Instruments and Art this Fabrick is erected is still unknown That God hath made us and fashion'd our Bodies in the nethermost parts of the Earth is undoubted But he is the first and universal Cause who transacts things in Nature by secondary Agents and not by his own immediate hand The supposal of this would destroy all Philosophy and enquiry after Causes So that He is still supposed but the Query is of the next and particular Agent that forms the Body in so exquisite a manner a Question that hath not yet been answered Indeed by some 't is thought enough to say That it is done by the Plastick Faculty and by others 't is believ'd that the Soul is that that forms it For the Plastick Faculty 't is a big word but it conveys nothing to the Mind For it signifies but this that the Body is formed by a formative Power that is 't is done by a power of doing it But the doubt remains still what the Agent is that hath this power The other Opinion of the Platonists hath two Branches some will have it to be the particular Soul that fashions its own Body others suppose it to be the general Soul of the World If the former be true By what knowledg doth it do it and how The means and manner are still occult though that were granted And for the other way by a general Soul That is an obscure Principle of which we can know but little and how that acts if we allow such a being whether by knowledg or without the Assertors of it may find difficulty to determine The former makes it little less than God himself and the latter brings us back to Chance or a Plastick Faculty There remains now but one account more and that is the Mechanical viz. That it is done by meer Matter moved after such or such a manner Be that so It will yet be said that Matter cannot move it self the question is still of the Mover The Motions are orderly and regular Query Who guides Blind Matter may produce an elegant effect for once by a great Chance as the Painter accidentally gave the Grace to his Picture by throwing his Pencil in rage and disorder upon it But then constant Uniformities and Determinations to a kind can be no Results of unguided Motions There is indeed a Mechanical Hypothesis to this purpose That the Bodies of Animals and Vegitables are formed out of such particles of Matter as by reason of their Figures will not lie together but in the order that is necessary to make such a Body and in that they naturally concur and rest which seems to be confirm'd by the artificial Resurrection of Plants of which Chymists speak and by the regular Figures of Salts and Minerals the hexagonal of Chrystal the Hemi-spherical of the Fairy-Stone and divers such like And there is an experiment mentioned by approved Authors that looks the same way It is That after a decoction of Herbs in a frosty Night the shape of the Plants will appear under the Ice in the Morning which Images are supposed to be made by the congregated Eâ—…uvia of the Plants themselves which loosly wandring up and down in the Water at last settle in their natural place and order and so make up an appearance of the Herbs from
daily I shall therefore add no more here but only do right to an excellent Person of our own Nation Dr. Wallis a Member of the ROYAL SOCIETY to whom Geometry is exceedingly indebted for his rare Discoveries in that Science Particularly he hath propounded a Method for the measuring of all kind of crooked Lines which is highly ingenious and put an end to all future Attempts about Squaring the Circle which hath puzzled and befooled so many Mathematicians that have spent their thoughts and time about it This he hath brought to effect as it near as can be done and shew'd the exact performance by rational Numbers impossible He hath proposed excellent ways for the measuring all kinds of Plains and all multangular and solid Bodies But 't is time now to proceed to the consideration of the next Mathematical Science Viz. 4. Astronomy one of the grandest and most magnifique of all those that lie within the compass of Natural Inquiry I shall not look back to its beginning among the Chaldaeans Aegyptians and eldest Graecians in which Times it was but rude and imperfect in comparison to its modern Advancements For the great Men among the Greeks are taken much notice of but for very ordinary and trite things in this Science As Anaximander Milesius for teaching That the Earth was Globous and the Centre of the World not bigger than the Sun Anaximines for affirming That the Moon shone but with a borrowed Light That the Sun and It were Eclips'd by the Earths interposal and That the Stars move round our Globe And Pythagoras was the first that noted the obliquity of the Ecliptick This Philosopher indeed was a Person of a vast reach and said things in Astronomy very agreeable to late Discoveries But Aristotle made very odd Schemes not at all corresponding with the Phaenomena of the Heavens as appears from his Hypotheses of Solid Orbs Epicycles Excentricks Intelligences and such other ill-contrived Phancies Besides which if I should descend to consider his now palpable Mistakes about the nature of Comets the Galaxy the Sphere of Fire under the Moon and numerous other such I should oblige my self to a large ramble Wherefore to be brief in these Notes I observe That after Aristotle Astronomy was cultivated and improved by Theophrastus Aratus Aristarchus Samius Archimedes Geminus Menelaus Theon Hipparchus Claudius Ptolomaeus and many others among the Greeks Among later Authors considerable things have been done in this way by both Latins and Arabians To omit the latter I shall give you some particular Instances of the other Johannes de Sacro Bosco ingeniously and methodically explained the Doctrine of the Sphere Thebit first found the Motion of Trepidation Regiomontanus published the first Ephemerides and did excellent things in his Theoricks of the Planets Wernerus stated the greatest Declination of the Sun Albertus Pighius directed the way to find Aequinoxes and Solstices Baersius fram ed perpetual Tables of the Longitudes and Latitudes of the Planets Copernicus restored the Hypothesis of Pythagoras and Philolaus and gave far more neat and consistent Accounts of the Phaenomena Joachimus made Ephemerides according to the Copernican Doctrine Clavius invented a most useful demonstrative Astrolabe and writ an exquisite Comment upon Sacro Bosco But I conclude the last Century with the Noble Ticho Brahe who performed the great Work of restoring the Fix'd Stars to their true places the assignation of which before him was rather by guess than any competent Rules and the mistakes here were the very Root and Foundation of most Errors in Astronomy For which reason it was that Copernicus left that earnest advice to his Scholar Joachimus that he should apply himself to the restitution of the Fix'd Stars for till this were done there could be no hopes of attaining to the true places of the Planets nor doing any thing to purpose in the whole Science This ingaged the Noble Tycho to this Enterprise and he made it the Foundation of all the rest The Method he used is described by Gassendus By the help of this noble Performance he reformed the elder Astronomical Tables both the Ptolomaick and Copernican And from his Observations of the new Star of 1572 and six others in his time he asserted Comets into their place among Heavenly Bodies shattering all the Solid Orbs to pieces And he hath done it with such cleaer conviction that even the Jesuits whose thraldom to the Church of Rome deters them from closing with the Motion of Earth confess a necessity of repairing to some other Hypothesis than that of Ptolomy and Aristotle I might add to this That this generous Nobleman invented and framed such excellent Astronomical Instruments as were for use and convenience far beyond any of former Times Himself hath a Treatise concerning them He hath also made exquisite Tables of the difference that Refractions make in the appearance of the Stars and done more great things for Astronomical Improvement than many Ages that were before him for which reason I could not pardon my self in a curt mention of so glorious an Advancer of this Science The next Age after him which is ours hath made excellent use of his Discoveries and those of his Elder the famed Copernicus and raised Astronomy to the noblest height and Perfection that ever yet it had among Men. It would take up a Volume to describe as one ought all the particular Discoveries But my Design will permit but a short mention Therefore briefly I begin with Galilaeo the reputed Author of the famous Telescope but indeed the glory of the first Invention of that excellent Tube belongs to Jacobus Metius of Amsterdam but 't was improved by the noble Galilaeo and he first applied it to the Stars by which incomparable Advantage he discovered the Nature of the Galaxy the 21 New Stars that compose the Nebulosa in the Head of Orion the 36 that conspire to that other in Cancer the Ansulae Saturni the Asseclae of Jupiter of whose Motions he composed an Ephemeris By these Lunulae 't is thought that Jupiters distance from the Earth may be determined as also the distance of Meridians which would be a thing of much use since this hath always been measured by Lunar Eclipses that happen but once or twice a year whereas opportunities of Calculating by the occultations of these new Planets will be frequent they recurring about 480 times in the year Besides to hasten Galilaeo discovered the strange Phases of Saturn one while obâ—…long and then round the increment and decrement of Venus like the Moon the Spots in the Sun and its Revolution upon its own Axis the Moons libration collected from the various position of its Maculae and divers other wonderful and useful Raritics that were strangers to all Antiquity Shortly after Galilaeo appears Christopherus Scheiner who by greater Telescopes viewed the Sun with a curled and unequal Superficies and in or near the Horiâ—…n of an Elliptical Figure He found also That that supposed uniform Globe of Light was
Knowledge or for Life To perswade Men that there is worthier Imployment for them than tying Knots in Bulrushes and that they may be better accommodated in a well-built House than in a Castle in the Air We must seek and gather observe and examine and lay up in Bank for the Ages that come after This is the business of the Experimental Philosophers and in these Designs a progress hath been made sufficient to satisfie sober expectations But for those that look they should give them the Great Elixir the Perpetual Motion the way to make Glass malleable and Man immortal or they will object that the Philosophers have done nothing for such I say their impertinent Taunts are no more to be regarded than the chat of Ideots and Children But I think I am fallen into things of which the Ingenious Historian hath somewhere given better accounts However I shall briefly endeavour to shew the injustice of the Reproach of having done nothing as 't is applyed to the Royal Scociety by a single Instance in one of their Members who alone hath done enough to oblige all Mankind and to erect an eternal Monument to his Memory So that had this great Person lived in those days when Men deified their Benefactors he could not have miss'd one of the first places among their exalted Mortals And every one will be convinc'd that this is not vainly said when I have added That I mean the Illustrious Mr. BOYLE a Person by whose proper Merits that noble Name is as much adorned as by all the splendid Titles that it wears And that this Honourable Gentlemâ—… hath done such things for the benefit of the World and increase of Knowledge will easily appear to those that converse with Him in his excellent Writings 1. In his Book of the AIR we have a great improvement of the Magdeburg Experiment of emptying Glass Vessels by exsuction of the Air to far greater degrees of evacuation ease and conveniences for use as also an advance of that other famous one of Torticellius performed by the New Engine of which I have said some things above and call'd the AIR-PUMP By this Instrument as K have already intimated the Nature Spring Expansion Pressure and Weight of the Air the decrease of its farce when dilated the Doctrine of a Vacuum the Height of the Atmosphere the Theories of Respiration Sounds Fluidity Gravity Heat Flame the Magnet and several other useful and luciferous Matters are estimated illustrated and explain'd And 2. The great Doctrine of the Weight and Spring of the Air is solidly vindicated and further asserted by the Illustrious Author in another BOOK against HOBS and LINVS 3. In his PHYSIOLOGICAL and EXPERIMENTAL ESSAYS he nobly encourageth and perswades the making of Experiments and collecting Observations and gives the necessary Cautions that are to be used in such Designs He imparts a very considerable luciferous Experiment concerning the different parts and redintegration of Salt-petre whence he deduceth That Motion Figure and Disposition of parts may suffice to produce all the secondary Affections of Bodies and consequently That there is no need of the substintial Forms and Qualities of the Schools To this he adds a close History of Fluidity and Firmness which tends mightily to the elucidating of those useful Doctrines 4. In his SCEPTICAL CHYMIST he cautions against the sitting down and acquiescing in Chymical and Peripatetical Theories which many do to the great hinderance of the growth and improvement of Knowledge He therefore adviseth a more wary consideration and examen of those Doctrines before they are subscribed and for that purpose he assists them with many very considerable Observations and Experiments 5. In his VSEFVLNESS of EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY he makes it appear how much that way tends to the advance of the Power and Empire of Man over the Creatures and the universal Benefit of the World confirming and illustrating his Discourse with innumerable new and useful Discoveries 6. In his HISTORY of COLD he hath to wonder cultivated that barren Subject and improved it as is noted in the Philosophical Transactions by near 200 choice Experiments and Observations He hath there given an account of the defectiveness of common Weather-Glasses the Advantages of the new Hermetical Thermometers and an Inquiry concerning the cause of the Condensation of the Air and Ascent of Water by Cold in the ordinary Weather-wisers All which afford valuable Considerations of Light and Vse But these are only Preliminaries The main Discourse presents us with an Account what Bodies are capable of freezing others and what of being frozen The ways to estimate the degrees of coldness How to measure the intenseness of Cold produced by Art beyond that imploy'd in ordinary Freezing In what proportion Water will be made to shrink by Snow and Salt How to measure the change produc'd in Water between the greatest heat of Summer the first degree of Winter-cold and the highest of Art How to discover the differing degrees of Coldness in different Regions A way of freezing without danger to the Vessel What may be the effects of Cold as to the preserving or destroying the texture of Bodies Whether specifick Virtues of Plants are lost through congelation and then thawing Whether Electrical and Magnetick Vertues are altered by Cold The expansion and contraction of Bodies by freezing how they are caused and how their quantity is to be measured The strength of the expansion of Water freezing and an Inquiry into the Cause of that prodigious force The Sphere of Activity of Cold. How far the Frost descends in Earth and Water An Experiment shewing whether Cold can act through an hot medium A way of accounting the solidity of Ice and the strength of the adhesion of its parts What Liquors are its quickest Dissolvents An Experiment of heating a cold Liquor with Ice These and many more such instructive and useful things are contained in that excellent Discourse To which is annex'd a very ingenious Examination and Disproof of the common obscure Doctrine of Antiperistasis and Mr. Hobbs his Notion of Cold. 7. In his EXPERIMENTAL HISTORY of COLOVRS he hath laid a foundation in 150 Experiments at least for grounded Theory about these Matters He hath shewn the grand mistake of the common belief That Colours inhere in their Objects and proved they depend upon the disposition of the external parts and the more inward texture of Bodies He hath stated and explained wherein the Disparity consists between the Real and Exphatical explicated the Nature of Whiteness and Blackness rectified some Chymical Principles compounded Colours by trajecting the Solar Beams through tinged Glasses shewed how by certain Tinctures it may be known whether any Salt be acid or sulphureous Hath proved there is no necessity of the Peripatetick FORMS for the production of Colours by making Green by nine kinds of mixtures compounded Colours real and phantastical turned the Blew of Violets by acid Salts into a Red and by the alcalizate into a Green and performed many
Chron. 16. 25. We are to offer him the Sacrifice of Praise Heb. 13. 15. And are encouraged to do so because It is good to sing Praises and praise is comely for the upright Psal. 1. 47. and Psalm 33. To recite all the particular recommendations and commands of this duty were endless I only mention the next to my thoughts and add That Nature saith the same That Praise is the Tribute that is due to the Author of our Beings And we can offer him nothing less and in a manner nothing else All the World have been unanimous in this and the rudest part of Mankind have owned the dueness of Praise and devout Acknowledgment And II. the other Branch is as clear That God is to be praised particularly for his Works For in these we have very full discoveries of his Perfections and his Mercies the most proper Subjects for our Praises But here I must be more large and therefore propose the following things to be consider'd 1. When God himself would represent his own Magnificence and Glory he directs us to his Works He illustrates his Greatness to Job by instancing the Wonders of his Creatures Among whom we are sent to the Earth and Ocean to the Clouds and Rainâ—… to the Light and heavenly influence to Behemoth and Leviathan to the Ostrich and the Eagle and the other Furniture of Land and Air and Seas in the four last Chapters of that Book in all these are the marks of his Glory and his Greatness and they are no less so of his Wisdom and his Goodness For in Wisdom he hath made them all Psalm 104. and the Earth is full of his goodness Psalm 119. 54. And again 2. when devout and holy Men would quicken their own Souls and those of others to praise him they use the same method and send abroad their Thoughts among the Creatures to gather instances of acknowledgment Thus Elihu in Job magnifieth his Power by the Lightning and Thunder by the Snow and Rain by the Whirlwinds of the North and Cold of the South and calls upon his afflicted Friend to remember to magnifie his Works that Men behold and again bids him stand still and consider the wondrous Works of God Job 36 and 37 Chapters And the Psalmist upon the same account urgeth his Soul to bless his Maker for his Majesty and Honour disclosed in the natural Wonders of the Heavens and Earth the Winds and Waters the Springs and Grass the Trees and Hills Psalm 104. throughout and he gives particular thanks again Psalm 136. for the discoveries of the Divine Wisdom and Mercy in the same instances of his Providence and Power which he further celebrates by calling upon the noblest of inanimates to praise him Psal. 148. Praise him Sun and Moon praise him O ye Stars and Light which Creatures of his though they are not able to sing Hallelujahs and vocally to rehearse his praise yet they afford glorious Matter for grateful and triumphant Songs and by their beauty and their order excite those that study and observe them to adore and glorifie their Maker And therefore the Prophet runs on further into an aggregation of more Particulars of Fire and Hail Storms and Vapours Mountains and Cedars Beasts and Fouls and creeping Things all which in the same Divine Canticle are summon'd to praise him that is we are required to use them as the Matter and Occasions of Holy Eucharist and Thanksgiving To these I add 2. That God was pleased to sanctifie a solemn Day for the celebration of his Works He appointed a Sabbath for rest and contemplation to himself and for praise and acknowledgment to us and his making Heaven and Earth the Sea and all that in them is is intimated as the reason of the consecration of that Day which was observed upon that account among the Jews and the devout Christians of eldest times kept the same in memory of God's Creation after the institution of the other Sabbath This I take to be enough for the first Proposition viz. That God is to be praised for his Works I descend to the second which is II. That his Works are to be studied by those that would praise him for them We are commanded to sing Praises with understanding Psal. 40. 7. and the Offering he requires is that of a reasonable service His Works receive but little glory from the rude wonder of the ignorant and there is no wise Man that values the applauses of a blind admiration No one can give God the Glory of his Providence that lets the Particulars of it pass by him unobserv'd nor can he render due acknowledgments to his Word that doth not search the Scriptures 'T is equally impossible to praise the Almighty as we ought for his Works while we carelesly consider them We are commanded to search for Wisdom as for hidden Treasure It lies not exposed in the common ways and the chief wonders of Divine Art and Goodness are not on the surface of things layed open to every careless eye The Tribute of praise that we owe our Maker is not a formal slight confession that his Works are wonderful and glorious but such an acknowledgment as proceeds from deep Observation and acquaintance with them And though our profoundest Study and Inquiries cannot unfold all the Mysteries of Nature yet do they still discover new Motives to devout admiration and new Objects for our loudest Praises Thus briefly of the second Proposition also viz. That God's Works are to be studied by those that would praise him for them From these I now advance to the Third which will require more thoughts and it is this III. That the study of Nature and God's Works is very serviceable to Religion We commonly believe that the glory of God is the end of this we say 't is his and we know 't is ours and the Divine Glory is writ upon the Creatures the more we study them the better we understand those Characters the better we read his Glory and the more fit are we to celebrate and proclaim it Thus the knowledge of God's Works promotes the end of Religion And it disposeth us to it by keeping the Soul under a continual sense of God He that converseth with his Works finds in all things the clear stamps of infinite Benignity and Wisdom he perceives the Divine Art in all the turnings and varieties of Nature and Divine Goodness in that He observes God in the colour of every Flower in every fibre of a Plant in every particle of an Insect in every drop of Dew He meets him in all things and sees all things are his and hath an advantage hereby to be instructed how to use them as our Makers not ours with reverence and thanksgiving with an eye to his Glory and an aim at his Enjoyment This is the tendency of the knowledge of Nature if it be abused to different and contrary Purposes natural Wisdom is not in fault but he that turns this excellent Instrument of
act like his own Temptations and Perswasions In brief there is nothing more strange in this Objection than that Wickedness is Baseness and Servility and that the Devil is at leasure to serve those whom he is at leasure to tempt and industrious to ruine And 2. I see no necessity to believe that the Devil is always the Witches Confederate but perhaps it may fitly be considered whether the Familiar be not some departed Humane Spirit forsaken of God and Goodness and swallowed up by the unsatiable desire of Mischief and Revenge which possibly by the Laws and capacity of its State it cannot execute immediately And why we should presume that the Devil should have the liberty of wandering up and down the Earth and Air when he is said to be held in the Chains of Darkness and yet that the separated Souls of the Wicked of whom no such thing is affirm'd in any Sacred Record should be thought so imprison'd that they cannot possibly wag from the Place of their Confinement I know no shadow of Conjecture This Conceit I 'm confident hath prejudic'd many against the belief of Witches and Apparitions they not being able to conceive that the Devil should be so ludicrous as Appearing Spirits are sometimes reported to be in their Frolicks and they presume that Souls departed never revisâ—… the free and open Regions which confidence I know nothing to justifie For since good Men in their state of separation are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why the wicked may not be supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the worst sense of the word I know nothing to help me to imagine And if it be so supposed that the Imps of Witches are sometimes wicked Spirits of our own Kind and Nature and possibly the same that have been Sorcerers and Witches in this Life This Supposal may give a fairer and more probable account of many of the Actions of Sorcery and Witchcraft than the other Hypothesis that they are always Devils And to this Conjecture Pleadventure to subjoin another which also hath its probability viz. 3. That 't is not impossible but that the Familiars of Witches are a vile kind of Spirits of a very inferiour Constitution and Nature and none of those that were once of the highest Hierarchy now degencrated into the Spirits we call Devils The common division of Spirits is in my Opinion much too general and why may we not think there is as great a variety of Intellectual Creatures in the Invisible World as of Animals in the Visible And that all the Superiour yea and Inferiour Regions have their several kinds of Spirits differing in their natural Perfections as well as in the Kinds and Degrees of their Depravities Which if we suppose 't is very probable that those of the basest and meanest Orders are they who submit to the mention'd Servilities And thus the Sagess and grandeur of the Prince of Darkness need not be brought in question on this Occasion IV. BVt IV. the Opinion of Witches seems to some to accuse Providence and to suggest that it hath exposed Innocents to the fury and malice of revengeful Fiends yea and supposeth those most obnoxious of whom we might most reasonably expect a more special care and protection most of the cruel practices of those presum'd Instruments of Hell being upon Children who as they least deserve to be deserted by that Providence that superintends all things so they most need its Guardian Influence To this so specious an Objection I have these things to answer 1. Providence is an unfathomable Depth and if we should not believe the Phaenomena of our Senses before we can reconcile them to our Notions of Providence we must be grosser Scepticks than ever yet were extant The miseries of the present Life the unequal distributions of Good and Evil the ignorance and barbarity of the greatest part of Mankind the fatal disadvantages we are all under and the hazard we run of being eternally miserable and undone these I say are things that can hardly be made consistent with that Wisdom and Goodness that we are sure hath made and mingled it self with all things And yet we believe there is a beauty and harmony and goodness in that Providence though we cannot unriddle it in particular Instances nor by reason of our ignorance and imperfection clear it from contradicting Appearances and consequently we ought not to deny the being of Witches and Apparitions because they will create us some difficulties in our Notions of Providence 2. Those that believe that Infants are Heirs of Hell and Children of the Devil as soon as they are disclosed to the World cannot certainly offer such an Objection for what is a little trifling pain of a moment to those eternal Tortures to which if they die as soon as they are born according to the tenour of this Doctrine they are everlastingly exposed But however the case stands as to that 't is certain 3. That Providence hath not secur'd them from other violences they are obnoxious to from cruelty and accident and yet we accuse It not when a whole Townful of Innocents fall a Victim to the rage and ferity of barbarous Executioners in Wars and Massacres To which I add 4. That 't is likely the mischief is not so often done by the evil Spirit immediately but by the malignant influence of the Sorceress whose power of hurting consists in the fore-mention'd Ferment which is infused into her by the Familiar So that I am apt to think there may be a power of real Fascination in the Witches Eyes and Imaginations by which for the most part she acts upon tender Bodies Nescio quis teneros oculus For the Pestilential Spirits being darted by a spightful and vigorous Imagination from the Eye and meeting with those that are weak and passive in the Bodies which they enter will not fail to infect them with anoxious Quality that makes dangerous and strange Alterations in the Person invaded by this poisonous Influence which way of acting by subtil and invisible Instruments is ordinary and familiar in all natural Efficiencies And 't is now past question that Nature for the most part acts by subtil Streams and Aporrhaea's of Minute Particles which pass from one Body to another Or however that be this kind of Agency is as conceivable as any of those Qualities which our Ignorance hath called Sympathy and Antipathy the reality of which we doubt not though the manner of Action be unknown Yea the thing I speak of is as easie to be apprehended as how Infection should pass in certain tenuious Streams through the Air from one House to another or as how the biting of a mad Dog should fill all the Blood and Spirits with a venomous and malign Ferment the application of the Vertue doing the same in our Case as that of Contact doth in this Yea some kinds of Fascination are perform'd in this grosser and more sensible way as by striking giving Apples and the
Analogy of Nature which useth not to make precipitious leaps from one thing to another but usually proceeds by orderly steps and gradations whereas were there no order of Beings between Us who are so deeply plunged into the grossest Matter and pure unbodied Spirits 't were a mighty jump in Nature Since then the greatest part of the World consists of the finer portions of Matter and our own Souls are immediately united unto these 't is exceeding probable that the nearer orders of Spirits are vitally join'd to such Bodies and so Nature by degrees ascending still by the more refin'd and subtile Matter gets at last to the pure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or immaterial Minds which the Platonists made the highest Order of Created Beings But of this I have discoursed elsewhere and have said thus much of it at present because it will enable me to add another Reason of the unfrequency of Apparitions and Compacts viz. 3. Because 't is very likely that these Regions are very unsutable and disproportion'd to the frame and temper of their Senses and Bodies so that perhaps the Courser Spirits can no more bear the Air of our World than Bats and Owls can the brightest Beams of Day Nor can the Purer and Better any more endure the noysom Steams and poisonous Reeks of this Dunghil Earth than the Delicate can bear a Confinement in nasty Dungeons and the foul squalid Caverns of uncomfortable Darkness So that 't is no more wonder that the better Spirits no oftner appear than that Men are not more frequently in the Dark Hollows under-ground Nor is 't any more strange that evil Spirits so rarely visit us than that Fishes do not ordinarily fly in the Air as 't is said one sort of them doth or that we see not the Batt daily fluttering in the Beams of the Sun And now by the help of what I have spoken under this Head I am provided with some things wherewith to disable another Objection which I thus propose XI XI IF there be such an intercourse between Evil Spirits and the Wicked How comes it about that there is no correspondence between Good Angels and the Vertuous since without doubt these are as desirous to propagate the Spirit and Designs of the Vpper and better World as those are to promote the Interest of the Kingdom of Darkness Which way of arguing is still from our Ignorance of the State and Government of the other World which must be confest and may without prejudice to the Proposition I defend But particularly I say 1. That we have ground enough to believe that Good Spirits do interpose in yea and govern our Affairs For that there is a Providence reaching from Heaven to Earth is generally acknowledg'd but that this supposeth all things to be order'd by the immediate influence and interposal of the Supreme Deity some think is not very Philosophical to suppose since if we judge by the Analogy of the Natural World all things we see are carried on by the Ministery of Second Causes and Intermediate Agents And it doth not seem so Magnificent and Becoming an apprehension of the Supreme Numen to fancy his immediate Hand in every trivial Management But 't is exceeding likely to conjecture that much of the Government of us and our Affairs is committed to the better Spirits with a due subordination and subserviency to the Will of the chief Rector of the Universe And 't is not absurd to believe that there is a Government that runs from Highest to Lowest the better and more perfect orders of Being still ruling the inferiour and less perfect So that some one would fancy that perhaps the Angels may manage us as we do the Creatures that God and Nature have placed under our Empire and Dominion But however that is That God rules the Lower World by the Ministery of Angels is very consonant to the Sacred Oracles Thus Deut. 32. 8 9. When the Most High divided the Nations their Inheritance when he separated the Sons of Adam he set the Bounds of the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the number of the Angels of God as the Septuagint renders it the Authority of which Translation is abundantly credited and asserted by its being quoted in the New Testament without notice of the Hebrew Text even there where it differs from it as Learned Men have observ'd We know also that Angels were very familiar with the Patriarchs of old and Jacob's Ladder is a Mystery which imports their ministring in the Affairs of the Lower World Thus Origen and others understand that to be spoken by the Presidential Angels Jer. 51. 9. We would have healed Babylon but she is not healed forsake her and let us go Like the Voice heard in the Temple before the taking of Jerusalem by Titus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And before Nebuchadnezzar was sent to learn Wisdom and Religion among the Beasts He sees a Watcher according to the LXX an Angel and an Holy One come down from Heaven Dan. 4. 13. who pronounceth the sad Decree against Him and calls it the Decree of the Watchers who very probably were the Guardian Genii of of Himself and his Kingdom And that there are particular Angels that have the special Rule and Government of particular Kingdoms Provinces Cities yea and of Persons I know nothing that can make improbable The instance is notorious in Daniel of the Angels of Persia and Graecia that hindred the other that was engaged for the Concerns of Judaea yea our Saviour himself tells us that Children have their Angels and the Congregation of Disciples supposed that St. Peter had his Which things if they be granted the good Spirits have not so little to do with Us and our Matters as is generally believed And perhaps it would not be absurd if we referr'd many of the strange Thwarts and unexpected Events the Disappointments and lucky Coincidences that befal us the unaccountable Fortunes and Successes that attend some lucky Men and the unhappy Fates that dog others that seem born to be miserable the Fame and Favour that still waits on some without any conceivable Motive to allure it and the general neglect of others more deserving whose worth is not acknowledg'd I say these and such-like odd things may with the greatest probability be resolv'd into the Conduct and Menages of those Invisible Supervisors that preside over and govern our Affairs But if they so far concern themselves in our Matters how is it that they appear not to maintain a visible and confest Correspondence with some of the better Mortals who are most fitted for their Communications and their Influence To which I have said some things already when I accounted for the unfrequency of Apparitions and I now add what I intend for another return to the main Objection viz. 2. That the Apparition of Good Spirits is not needful for the Designs of the better World what-ever such may be for the Interest of the other For we have had the