they were not yet Improperly Created or so Made as it is said of the Air that God Made or fitted the Firmament therof or Expansum in the Second Day though they were Properly Created in the Begining in their several Bodys and Spheres but were then all in Rest and only the Spirit of God Moved among them and as the Irregular Winds and the Regular Courses of the Tides and of the Sun Moon and Starrs were not before or untill those other Elementary Bodys were Improperly Created so neither was there any Motion of the Earth wherof if we could suppose any such Motion yet we may not reasonably suppose it to have been before the Third Day and Improper Creation of the Earth therin concerning which I shall Discours heerafter and now only add one other Observation that as the Sun though farr less then one Hemisphere of the Aether yet maketh Day therin by his Emanant Rays so probably the Diurnal Light in this First Day did not fill one whole Hemisphere but only some such part therof as according to the Vigor and Extent of the Emanant Rays therof did make Day Artificial in one Hemisphere and perhaps with some such Crepuscula as the Sun now doth make for we may well conceiv that First Day and Night to have been Analogous to every Day since in all the general Circumstances therof besides only such as are more specialy superinduced in the Variations of sooner or later more or less by the Courses of the Sun and Moon wheras if that Diurnal Light Inherent should have filled one whole Hemisphere the Emanant Rays therof would have extended much farther and the Inherent Light should have been Hemispherical which is not Conformable to the Natural Figure therof and therefore I rather conceiv that it was a Particular Globe Glomus or Confluvium collected from the Light which was first Generaly and Diffusively Created in the whole Aether and that which was left in the common Body therof is therefore Comparatively called Darknes and though it were not strictly such Darknes as was in the Chaos yet the Expression is not therefore Popular so as some would make all the Philosophical Expressions in Scripture to be but Necessarily to be so understood for there are no Purae Tenebrae in the whole Elementary Nature and in the Superaether there is either a Superaethereal Light or neither Light nor Darknes for where there is not nor Naturaly ought to be any Positive there is no Privative which is founded in the Positive is only the Privation therof as in a Stone there is neither Sight nor Blindnes wherefore after the first Creation of Light that Darknes must necessarily be understood of Comparative Darknes only and this is the Natural Darknes which God Created and is also sufficiently so explained in the ensuing words And the Darknes he called Night which hath its Nocturnal Light whereby it is expressly and most exactly Distinguished from a Pure Privation of Light such as was Antecedently in the Chaos wherin there was neither Day nor Night And heer again Cavillation which is endles may proceed to term these Expressions God Said or Called and the like Popular though as the others so these also are most Necessary for indeed nothing can be Properly spoken of God either as he is in Essence or in Operation and there can be no Expression more apposite then that the Creatures are Verba Mentis Divinae And heer I must affirm of this whole History of Creation that it is not Popular as some would have it and thereby render it Insignificant unto all others as well as to themselvs whereby they have lost the Benefit of so great a Treasure which hath been a Chaos to this Day and is still hid from the Wise and Prudent or rather they thus hide it from themselvs though I am confident that neither themselvs nor any other can ever declare or describe such a System of the World in more brief or less Popular Expressions Wherefore I term it a History that is of Matter of Fact which hath only such apt Expressions as serv to declare and describe the Matter of Fact and therefore certeinly are not Popular otherwise we may call all the Sacred History of Adam and Eve of Noah of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and of all the Patriarchs Judges and Kings and Governors and of Christ and his Apostles Popular and reject all the Matters of Fact Recorded both in the Old and New Testament and our very Creed which should be most Irreligious and also Irrational Thus when God saith In the Begining he Created the Heaven and the Earth shall any say he did not and so of the rest And if any may be so Irreligious as to deny the Verity of the Fact yet he may not be so Irrational as to deny the Veracity of the Expressions or to affirm that the Scripture doth not say that In the Begining God Created the Heaven and the Earth and so of the rest But that we may not frame any Popular Notion of what we intend by a Popular Expression and so Confound our Discours therof as I have hitherto strictly examined other Terms and Expressions so I shall also now examin this very Expression of an Expression And I acknowledg generaly all Language to be Popular becaus Words are no Natural Signatures but only Instituted Tesserae or Symbola of Things Coined by Men and so made to pass Current among themselvs And since the Confusion of Languages every National Language is more particularly Popular or peculiar to the People of that Nation and the same Word may signify one Thing in one Tong and another in another as Nay in English hath a Contrary Signification in Greek Wherefore I acknowledg also that there is such Popularity in the Hebrew Tong and also many Idiotisms therof as well as in others but I suppose this is not the Popularity Intended for then we should also Invalidate all Language as well as this and all Books as well as the Bible Also there are certein General Propertys and Modifications of all Human Language as well as several Idiotisms of Particular Languages As that which is spoken Respectively of any Thing or in one Respect according to that which is the Subject Matter of the present Discours can not reasonably by any Rational Men in any Language be Interpreted Absolutely or in all Respects whatsoever And so again as I have before noted that which no Human Language can Properly Express may not reasonably by any Rational Men be Interpreted Properly and the like which if we should not allow we should destroy all Human Discours and otherwise then so I know not one Popular Expression in this whole History of the Creation and such Popularity also is and must be in any other History of Matter of Fact and therefore this can be no reason why any should regard it less then any other Philosophical Discourses whatsoever Wherefore they must rather Intend by
neither do we read nor can we reasonably suppose that any new Matter was Created afterward Nor was it Created in the very Begining only Matter or one Homogeneous Mass therof but one Body expressly distinguished into several Heterogeneous Members Celestial and Terrestrial or Heaven and Earth Nor was the Heaven and Earth thus only Different in Nature in their First Creation but also Distinct and separate in their Situations and not Confounded together but Created such several Members of the great Body of the World And as the Heaven is named before the Earth so were the Celestial Bodys above or without the Terrestrial incompassing them as now they do for neither do we read nor can we reasonably suppose that there was any other Separation or Disposition of the Celestial Bodys afterward as is expresly mentioned of the Terrestrial or Terraqueous Globe wherof and of all their several Situations I shall further discours heerafter II. The word Heaven Hebraâ—caly is Heavens not only Grammaticaly as the word God in this Text but Phisicaly and in the nature of the thing it self And so generaly the Hebrews distribute Heaven into three several Heavens of three several Natures Wherof the highest is also called the Third Heaven becaus it is Utmost and the last above us and encompasseth both the others and this I shall therefore call the Superaether The midst or Second is the Aether or Starry Heaven The lowest or First is the Air which Immediately encompasseth the Terraqueous Globe And these are all the Celestial Spheres wherof we read and therefore I can acknowledg no more however Astronomers have pleased to multiply them These three Heavens are thus built one upon another and all upon the Terraqueous Globe which is the Habitation of all Corporeal Animals as Amos elegantly expresseth it He that builded the Storys of the Heavens and founded his Troop on the Earth Of all the three Heavens the Third which is the Supreme is most Properly Heaven and therefore also is called the Heaven of Heavens by way of Excellency and so is specialy called the Temple of the most high God and is the Native Region and Province of Blessed Angels or Caelum Angelicum and shall be the Everlasting Habitation of the Spirits of Just Men or Sedes Beatorum Wherof we have no farther discoverâ— then only that it was Created together with the other two Heavens and so is Comprehended uâ—der one Common Name with them and probably because it was made Perfect in the Begining or first Instant of the Creation therof and so must continue for ever without any Elementary Mistion Generation or Corruption therefore we have no other account therof among all the Works of the Six Days wherein the Elements and whole Elementtary Nature and the Cours of Generation and Corrupti on therin was Set in order And accordingly I observ that wheras the other two Elementary Heavens Aether and Air are called Expansa and Firmaments this Superaether is never so termed but only Heaven probably becaus it is not capable of Expansion or Compression But as the Divine Wisedom hath conceled any farther notice therof and also given us very little Knowledg of the nature of Angels the proper Inhabitants therof as Impertinent for us to know in this present State so I shall not presume farther to inquire therinto or discours therof and indeed if the Hebraical Word Heavens be dualy rendred it must be intended only of Aether and Air. III. As the Aether and Air are Elementary and both of them Heâ—erogeneous from the Superaether and every of them one from another So are all of them from the Earth and Terraqueous Globe And as Heaven generaly Comprehendeth all the three Heavens so heer also Earth Comprehendeth both Earth and Water which were afterward formed into one Terraqueous Globe and by that general Name in this Text is not only to be Understood Earth particularly which was not so termed untill the Third Day and then also is called Dry Land nor the Terraqueous Globe such as it was made afterward but the Orb of Earth and the Water above it which is also mentioned afterward Thus we have a Discovery of what was Created in the Begining that is Superaether which is also Superelementary and Aether Air Water Earth which are the fower Elements as God the Creator hath declared and Moses reveled them unto us both in this Text and in the Context whom I shall believ before all Athens or any Modern Conceptions whatsoever and shall accordingly prove them heerafter And now upon this Subject Matter proceed to discours and first enter upon such Philosophical Consyderations therof as may concern them all and all Creatures Generaly and so according to the order of this History of the Creation Expatiate into more Particular Contemplations of their several Natures afterward The first and most Universal Consyderation of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures whatsoever is that they are Entitys for since Creation is of Being from Absolute Nothing whatsoever is Created must necessarily Be otherwise it should not be Created So that an Entity is any Thing that Is which I confess is no more in effect then that an Entity is Entity whose Subject and Praejudicate Genuâ— and Difference is and must necessarily be the same becaus it is the same Genus Generalissimum of all Things without any Specifical Difference And heer I must also premise that in every Perfect and Proper Definition of any Specifical or more Particular Thing the Specifical or particular Differences therof must be Identical becaus the Specifical or particular Essence or Entity is the only true Specifical or Particular Difference of every thing But becaus we cannot know Essences as they are in themselvs therefore we declare things by their Propertys which is rather Description then Definition As in the Common Instance Homo est Animal Rationale Rationality is not the true Specifical Difference of Humanity though it be most Proper to Man becaus it is not his Specifical Essence and therefore doth not Define the Humanity it self Nor doth it indeed Comprehend all the Properties therof as Risibility and the like but only Describe it by one Proper Faculty So that the most Proper Definitions are only Vocabularys and Nomenclatures which yet are of good use to explain one Term by another whereby we may avoid all needless Caption and Contention about Terms and when the Thing intended thereby is clearly understood it shall suffice me And I have now made this Digressive Parenthesis to save my Self the whole labor of Defining and the expectation of any who otherwise perhaps might exact it of me but I shall use as clear and pregnant Declarations or Descriptions as the Thing will afford Thus I affirm Created Entity to be a Creature or whatsoever is Created which is also Convertible with it Again becaus the Created World doth Consist of several Heterogeneous and different Entitys and Natures into which Differences we must also inquire I affirm such a Different
without a denial of the Creation Whence the Chaldaeans began to worship the Creature or Created Nature instead of God the Creator but principally the Sun and Fire as the Supreme and most Beneficial Element The Egyptians who would also have their National Deity did Idolise Water rather than Fire induced thereunto by a Gratitude to their Great Benefactor the River Nilus The Pâ—oenicians Graecians Romans and generaly all the more Western Nations have worshiped all the Elements under several Names and in the several Forms and Images wherewith they pleased to Invest them deducing them all from Coelum and Terra or Heaven and Earth which the Chineses still worship But Pan and Proteus whereby they represented Matter and Motion were by all esteemed Dii Minorum Gentium This Antient Theogony is also Recorded and Celebrated by the Poets Which though afterward the Athenian Philosophers did more strictly examin yet the Tradition of a Chaos and Creation did very long continue among them but they supposed the Creation of the World by one Chief God to have been Eternal like himself with certain Revoluâ—ions of Time and Transmigrations of Spirits Eternally Circulating and Changing by Perpetual Generation and Corruption believing the Lying Records of Egyptian Antiquity from whom also Pythagoras learned his Philosophy and fansied I know not what Harmony of the Spheres with many such Fictions which he by his own Ipse Dixit pleased to Affirm and Impose as Credenda on his Disciples And Plato being partly a Follower of his Sect and partly a Master of another generally reteined and refined this Philosophy But Aristotle rejecting all Matters of Faith both Divine and Human and examning all things only by Reason descended lower even to a first Matter affirming it and the Potentia thereof to be Common Principle of all Material things Upon which false Foundation and also his Compliance with popular Idolatry almost all his other Errors are grounded though otherwise I esteem him the greatest Master of Reason among all Pagan Philosophers and his Errors are not Dangerous being now so well known to all But as Moses is the only Divine and true Philosopher so of them all I acknowledg Aristotle to be his best Commentator Epicurus departed from both these ways of Knowledg regarding Sens more than either Reason or Faith Whereas these three being all and the only Ways of Human Knowledg a Philosopher should accordingly make use of them all and therefore all Heathen Philosophy wanting the Divine Light of Faith could never yet produce any Complete System of the World nor give any true and satisfactory Account therof And this Universal Dissatisfaction begat the last of Sects which was Scepticism or a professed Denying or Doubting all things whatsoever admitting no Testimony or Evidence either of Faith Reason or Sens. But though Doubting may be a good Disciple yet certainly it can be no Master of Philosophy and if it be Affected and Resolved is the very Contradiction therof and Oppugner of all Knowledg both Divine and Human Speculative and Practical and however some may esteem it Caution in Philosophy it is plainly Libertinism in Morality and Infidelity in Theology and any Dogmatical Error or Inconvenience can hardly be greater than Total Scepticism which is as Utter Darkness and the State of Desperation the Bottomless pit and Vorago of all Knowledg and Practice Now as this was formerly the Progress of Heathenish Philosophy so since Christianity Illuminated the World yet through the Natural Darkness and Corruption of Human Understanding it hath again had the same Revolutions For so first Platonical Philosophy which Porphyrius Plotinus Iamblichus and others very much rectified and refined by the Spiritual Light of Christianity was by them opposed against it Also Philo Iudaeus and Origen and some of the Christian Fathers seem to have some Savor therof Afterward the Schoolmen generally referring Matters of Faith to Scripture and examining Nature by Reason rather embraced the Peripatetical Philosophy which hath long continued untill in this last Age some others though they can discover nothing which the Athenian Wits had not Invented before them yet reviving and renewing old Errors like Fashions relaps again to Epicurism in one kind or other of Atoms or Corpuscles or the like And when this Humor hath lasted as long as it did formerly we may expect Scepticism to succeed and indeed I suspect that we are already in the very Confines therof Now though Wanton Wits think they may thus dally with Opinions as they please yet as it is most truly said Studia abeunt in Mores and so Virgil very aptly introduceth Drunken Silenus changing the Epicurean Opinion but Grave Anchises more soberly Platonising Certainly their Novell Doctrine of Matter and Motion doth much Embase the Immaterial Spirit of Man and render it more Gross and Sensual and unfit for Spiritual and Divine Contemplations And though I believ some of the Assertors therof to be as far from Atheism as my self yet I must freely profess that the Assertion tendeth toward it and was by Heathens Improved to the Denial of a Creation and I appeal to every Reader whether it doth not Induce some Suspicion therof in himself yea I suppose this to be chiefly that which renders iâ— so acceptable and agreeable to the Corrupt Minds of Men and the Writers therof themselvs seem to be somewhat Conscious herein while they make their usual Apologies and need to tell the World they are no Atheists Thus also by affirming Accidents and Qualities to be no Real things they make both Virtue and Piety to be only Notions O Virtus colui te ut Rem at tu Nomen inane es And if they could also prove the Reward therof and Punishment of Impiety and Vice which all must accordingly perceiv and feel to be only Notional and not Real they should thereby deliver up all Mankind to a Reprobate sens or rather Insensibility and Indistinction of any Good or Evill And their Opinion of Universal Nature is like that of Caesar Respublica Inane Nomen Besides how prejudicial such Contempt of Antiquity and of all Authority and the Affection of Novelty and Innovation may be to Church or State I leav to wise Politicians Certainly all Christian Academies and Schools of Literature should deeply resent such Novell Attempts which Professedly subvert all the Antient foundations of Learning 〈◊〉 formerly the Barbarous World was taught both Arts 〈…〉 and a ready way prepared for Christian Religio◠〈…〉 wherupon so fair a Superstructure hath been raised 〈…〉 these Novellists ow their Education and Instruction and a farther Progress might still have been made if it were not Obstructed by themselvs and Young Wits led away into an Inextricable Labyrinth of Matter and Motion and the Magnum Inane of Vacuity and at last plunged into the Abyss of Perpetual Scepticism I have no Petulant Humor yet it may exceed the Meekness and Patience of my Great Master Moses to hear some Christians affirm the very Essences and
Formalities of all Elementary Vegetative yea even sensitive Natures to be only Matter and Motion as Aaron said of his Materials I cast them into the fire and there came out this Calf and so to set up several Figures of things as the Jews did the Figures which they had made and Heathenish Idolaters their Idols and Images Wheras indeed it is rather the Art of a Statuary than of a Philosopher thus to make Mercurius Ex quolibet ligno or as he who having only an Hercules of Wax in his shop when one came to buy of him a Mercury could presently turn his Beard into a Galerus his Club into a Caduceus and his Buskins into Talaria and so he might as well have made thereof a Iupiter Iuno Venus Man Beast or Tree or as we say Quidlibet ex quolibet Which yet shou'd be only Wax varied Thus our new Philosophers not acknowledging all those several Primitive Natures which God in his Infinite Wisedom pleased to Create like Etymologists can derive one thing from another so far as scarcely to leav any Primitives Cartacean Philosophy which describes the World in Paper otherwise then God hath made it to be in Nature beginning Cogito Ergo Sum and so proceeding Cogito Ergo Est as though becaus the Operation doth indeed prove the Essence of the Cogitant it did therefore also prove the Real Entity of any thing Cogitated and yet this is all the Argument it can afford us to prove that First and Fundamental Truth That there is a God Cogito esse Deum Ergo Est. Whereas the most Judicious and Ingenious Father long before had Invented the first Argument when disputing with a Sceptike he first proves that he Is because he doubts whether he Is or not and because he is a Creature thereby also proves that there is a God the Creatour whom I shall rather chose to follow than any such Neophytes who when God saith in the Beginning he made Heaven and Earth say he made only Matter and Motion and professing that they had deliberated and tried to deduce all this Spectable World from a Chaos or from Matter only diversified by its own Motion Figure and the like have asserted it to be Matter whereas God expresly declareth that he Produced it out of a Chaos in the Six Days Works and who make Sol and the Planets and the Starrs to be the Centers and Foundations of all the Vortices of Matter and Corpuscles about them whereas the whole Aether Air Water Earth and Vegetatives were made in the Three first days before them Whereupon I may very truly and safely pronounce Aut haec non est Scriptura aut iâ—ta non est Philosophia For mine own part I must here profess that having long since studied Philosophy in the University and read over several Philosophers both Antient and Modern I could never find a satisfaction in any of them and if I had not reflected on this Divine History should have been tempted as others to Invent some new Philosophy suitable to mine own Fansy For now he is no Philosopher who willnot attempt to make a new Philosophical World and produce his Module therof shewing how it might be best made and with least Charges but certainly it is most Ridiculous and Impious thus to presume that God must therefore have made the World according to our Module becaus we judge it best rather than acknowledge that to be best which he hath made becaus he who made it is Infinitely Wiser than us Wherefore to find out how God made the World I had recours to his Word reading over this first Chapter of Genesis again and again and also many Commentators in whom generaly besides the first Article of our Creed concerning God the Maker of Heaven and Earth I found more of Aristotle than of Moses yea even Translators seem to incline that way but the Cabalistical Rabbins and Scholastical Philosophers by their Jewish and Heathenish Interpretations have so Confounded and Obnubilated this Divine Light that almost all Christians fear to approach it and seem rather to dread and adore it at a distance as some Inscrutable Mystery and some think they greatly favor Scripture by restraining it to Theology and Morality and not intitling it to Natural Philosophy and so as it were going backward cover it with the Mantle of their Indulgence that the Philosophical Nakedness thereof may not appear to themselves or others Whereas considering for what end this Divine History of Created Nature was writ and being sufficiently confident of the Intrinsecal Verity and Extrinsecal Evidence thereof I adventured to look into the Naked Simplicity of the Text and endeavored first to discover the plain and true System of the World which God the Creator hath described therin and therby reveled unto us Which I have accordingly expressed in my Explications being only a brief Philosophical Paraphrase upon the Text and yet while I thus Explicate the Text by my Paraphrase I still submit my Paraphrase to be judged by the Text and I therefore set these Explications as a Partition or Cancelli between the Divine Word and my Human Illustrations therof which I have also deduced from the Created Nature as the Counterpart of Scripture and have hearkned to the Voice therof as to the Echo of the Creating Voice of God Nor do I dissent from Pagan Philosophy Animo Contradicendi or to flatter Christianity which is far above it but shall also retein any thing of Truth that I have found therin and all advantages therof either Platonical Speculations Peripatetical Ratiocinations or Epicurean Sensations yea even Sceptical Caution it self and am Dogmatical only in such Theses which according to the Law that I impose on my self I shall first prove by the Concurrence of Divine Authority Human Argument and Sensible Experiment and if I knew any more ways of Probation should not decline but most gladly embrace them Neither do I thus offer any thing to the World wherof I have not first satisfied my self after so long trial and strict examination wher in I could never yet find any thing considerable either of Reason or Sens which I could not fairly reconcile to the Divine Authority of the Text. Also I have adventured to propound many Hypotheses which though I dare not so confidently Assert yet I should not Insert them if I did not esteem them very Probable for indeed it is the most proper and a sufficient Task for any Philosopher to Inquire only what God hath Created and I ever reputed it a great Vanity in any who presume to go farther and will also offer to shew what he might have Created not without some Insinuation of what one most Profanely Expressed That if he had stood at Gods elbow when he made the World he could have shewed him how to have made it better as though whatsoever Hypothetical Natures or Poetical Worlds they please to fansy and describe Natura aut facit haec quae legis aut faceret Possibility
ought to believ whatsoever this Noble Person declareth that he hath done in all those manifold Experiments wherewith he hath enriched the World Now let this be the Conclusion and Summ of the whole matter That as the End of all Created Nature is the Divine Glory of the Creator which the whole World as a Mirror was made to Represent to us Naturaly so should all Spiritualy Render it unto him And thus we Christians being taught by God the Author both of Scripture and Nature truly to know the Creation and System of the World which Heathen Philosophers groped to find out all their days and have disputed in all Ages should with the Primitive Hebrews and their Divine Doctors Moses David Solomon and the rest Glorify the Infinite Iehovah Creator of Heaven and Earth And I have very much wondered that not only in Spirituals but also in Naturals Seing we should not See and Hearing we should not Hear and Understand with our Hearts the things which are writ in such large Characters and Proclaimed to us with so loud a Voice Wherefore I beseech the Divine Spirit so to Illuminate us in the true Knowledg of his Word and Works that henceforth they may be no longer hid from our Eys but that it may now be said of Holy Scripture and of the Nativity of the World therin Nota Mathematicis Genesis tua THE Divine History OF THE GENESIS OF THE WORLD SECTION I. In the Begining c. EXPLICATION In the very First Being of Heaven and Earth or of any Thing therin or of any Originals therof from Absolute Not being And in the very First Instant of their Duration or Time it self then also commencing from Non-time or an Absolute Nullity therof ILLUSTRATION 1 That the World is Finite Proved by the Corporeal Quantity therof 2 By Successive Quantity 3 By Discrete Quantity 4 Rejection of Impertinencys and what Postulations only are required 5 Sensible Demonstration of the first Proof 6 Of the Second 7 Of the Third 8 The Possibility of the Worlds being Ab Aeterno disproved 9 The Possibility of being In Aeternum or Immortality in what Sens granted 10 The Summ of the whole Discours That there was a Begining of the World I. THat there was a Begining of the World besides the Divine Authority of the Text is as Rationaly Demonstrable as it is Sensibly evident That there is a Heaven and Earth for it is also evident that they are Bodys Extended by Part beyond Part and therefore Finite or bounded with Extremitys of that Extension which we call First or Begining and Last or End becaus we may begin to measure at one and end at the other for that very Extension which renders them Bodys by Extending Part beyond Part doth also Terminate them that is Extend them so far and no farther Thus the whole Body of the World hath two great Parts Heaven and Earth And whatsoever hath Parts is Finite becaus every Part is Finite or Limited to a Proportion not so great as the Whole otherwise it should not be a Part of the Whole And as one Part is Finite so are all the Parts of the Whole becaus they are all Parts And so Consequently is the Whole becaus it is equal to all the Parts otherwise it should not be the Whole of all the Parts therof And thus Heaven which is one Part of the whole Body of the World is a less Whole in it self becaus it is the whole Heaven And so likewise Earth which is the other Part of the whole Body of the World is also a less Whole in it self becaus it is the whole Earth Now either of these two less Wholes is Finite in it self becaus it is only a Part of the whole Body of the World and becaus both these less Wholes are Finite therefore the whole Body of the World is also Finite though it be a greater Whole for there is no Greater nor Less in Infinite which is Infinitely beyond any Proportion and without any Parts whatsoever becaus a greater Whole is that which hath greater Parts or more equal Parts and a less Whole is that which hath less Parts or fewer equal Parts And since whatsoever hath Parts is Finite therfore whatsoever hath greater or more or less or fewer Parts is also Finite and cannot be Infinite Again every Part is such a certain Proportion of the Whole as it is otherwise it should not be such a Part therof and therefore hath such a certein Measure of it self whereby it is such a certein Proportion as it is and not greater nor less And as all the Proportions of all the Parts are the Whole Proportion of the Whole so all the Measures of all the Parts are the whole Measure of the Whole And whatsoever is Mensurable is Finite becaus it is Mensurable and not Immens Wherefore the whole Body of the World is Finite as well as Heaven and Earth or any less Part or the least Particle therof whatsoever wherof there is the same reason Otherwise the Whole should be greater then all the Parts or the Parts greater or more then they are which is Impossible And the contrary therof So Mathematicaly true and evident according to Common Sentence that every Part is less then the Whole and the Whole greater then any Part and equal to all the Parts therof that it cannot be further proved by any thing more evident then it self Wherefore this Conclusion is most true and evident Omne Sectile est Finitum II. Now as Corporeal Quantity which is Consistent and hath Part beyond Part is therefore Finite So also Time which is Successive and hath Part after Part is also Finite And though Part beyond Part may be Inverted and the First become Last or the Last First or Circulated and the Begining United to the End and so every Consistent Quantity is Finite becaus it hath such Parts Yet Part after Part Succeed and follow one another in a most direct Line and by Such an Immutable Law and Order as can neither be Inverted nor Circulated otherwise there should not be Part after Part which must necessarily be in Temporary Succession for Past can never be Present nor Present Future nor all together Wherefore Time cannot possibly be Circular for in a Circle all the Parts must Consist together as in Circular Motion all the Parts must Move together Though probably the Opinion of the Eternity of the World was grounded on some such Imaginary Circulation of Time and Revolution of Platonical Years Whereas though all things measured by Time might be supposed to return again into the same State in all other respects yet Time it self can never return to be the Same becaus it is as Impossible to recall Past as to anticipate Future So that where there is such a fixed Priority and Posteriority runing still forward in a most Direct and Immutable Succession of Part after Part which is Finite there must necessarily be a Finite and Fixed First or Begining and Last
or End according to the Fixed Order and Succession of the Parts And as certeinly as this Present Instant is now the Last or End of all Time Past or Present which hath hitherto Actualy Existed or doth Exist so certeinly there was some determinate Instant which was the first or Begining therof And so this Conclusion also is most true and evident Ubi Prius Posterius ibi Primum et Postremum III. Lastly as Bodys and Time so Number or Quantity Discrete which hath Part Discreted and severed from Part is also Finite in it self and doth most Discernibly manifest the Finite Nature both of Bodys as in the Scale and also of Time as in the Dial whereby their Continuous Parts being Arithmeticaly Divided into Numerable Proportions are rendred most apparently Numerable and Finite And so also this Conclusion is most true and evident Nullum Multiplex est Innumerum From all which Conclusions drawn from every kind of Quantity Corporeal Successive and Discrete it most Necessarily follows That whatsoever is Quantitative is Finite for it must be granted under the highest pain of Contradiction That Actualy Mensurable cannot be Actualy Immense nor Temporary Eternal nor Numerable Innumerable IIII. Nor is this plain Probation concerned in those more Curious Disquisitions Whether Quantity be any Real thing in it self or only a Mode or Relative Respect or I know not what others pleas to term it Since it is most evidently the Geometrical Chronical or Arithmetical Measure of all Quantitative things which are within the Virge therof and Measurable by it Nor of what Parts it doth Consist or how it is Divisible into them since it is most evident that it hath Parts Nor yet whether any Whole Quantity hath Physical Parts since it is most evident that it hath Mathematical Parts and is Divisible into them And though I shall heerafter inquire into all these yet I will neither now prevent my Self nor intangle this Probation which as it is most firm and solid in it self so I desire to render it most clear and free from all Impertinencys with any such Curiositys Nor do I begg any therof before hand but only insist upon these most reasonable and undeniable Postulations That an Inch is the twelfth Part of a Foot not more nor less and a Foot twelve Inches not more nor less That an Hour is the fower and twentieth Part of a Day not more nor less and a Day fower and twenty Hours not more nor less That an Unit is the hundredth Part of a Century not more nor less and a Century an hundred Units not more nor less Or yet more plainly That an Inch is an Inch a Foot a Foot an Hour an Hour a Day a Day an Unit an Unit and a Century a Century And so any greater or less Part or Whole whatsoever which are all Identical Propositions and neither need nor are indeed capable of Probation Nor are these Sections of Continuitys only Imaginations or the Institutions of Reason but Realitys in Nature And so God Created the Heaven and the Earth distinct Parts of the whole Body of the World and made the Evening and Morning a distinct Day and consequently the Cardinal Numerations therof And he made the Heaven to be above or without the Earth and the Earth to be beneath or within the Heaven and the First day to be before the Second and the Second before the Third and consequently the Ordinal Numerations therof And heerin I suppose no Human Reason or Sens will or can dissent from Divine Authority becaus these are things also Rationaly and Sensibly evident in themselvs however some may doubt or dispute what I have evidently proved heerby That there was a Begining of the World Nor do I labor or care to prove when that determinate Begining was which I leav to Chronologists but only that there was such a Begining whensoever it was which sufficeth my present Intention V. For as in a great Wast or Common though only the learned Artist can give an exact account of all the Acres Rodes and Perches therof yet every Vulgar Ey can discern that it is Measurable and Finite and can estimate it more or less And as every Traveler though he hath not an Itinerary to instruct him in the just Distances between one City or Country and another yet knows that there is a certein Space between them otherwise such and so many Paces could never bring him from one to the other so though it be the Work of Geometricians and Astronomers to measure Heaven and Earth yet we all know that the Earth on which we tread hath a Surface and a Diameter which are Finite because the Surface on which we tread doth end and terminate it self under our feet and that doth also determinate the Diameter which is Proportionable unto it and because the Diameter is Finite therefore also the Circumference which must be Proportionable therunto is Finite And so is every Sphere of the World Air Aether and any higher Heaven or whatsoever we can Imagine to be the utmost Circumference of the whole World for to whatsoever Circumference our Imagination can extend it self it can only be Proportionably greater then the Circumference of the Earth which it encompasseth and must also have a Diameter proportionable to it self both which evidently prove it to be Finite as well as the Earth becaus there is no Greater nor Less in Infinite as I have already proved VI. And so though we may dispute the Nativity or certein Begining of the World yet it is most evident and indisputable that it had a Begining for none can deny it to be this Day or Hour or the like one Day or Hour or the like elder then it was the last and so backward as far as he pleaseth therefore he must also confess that there was some First Day Hour and the like and consequently some First Instant and Begining therof for the Duration and Age of every thing must necessarily be computed from a Begining or Nativity otherwise it should be incapable of any Addition or Succession which is apparently in all time becaus it already exceedeth all Number for Precedency of Part before Part without any Begining renders the Precedent Parts Innumerable and consequently incapable of any Succession or Addition VII So also in Number there must necessarily be a First and no Number can precede an Unit though you may still add to it and possibly multiply it to any Summ Imaginable which yet being once Stated will be found as Numerable as a Single Unit becaus it is only the Addition of so many Units for as a Day or Hour or any other Part of Time Actualy Past is only a Day or Hour or such Part of Time as it is and not greater nor less so every Day or Hour or other Part of Time whatsoever is only One Day or Hour or One such Part of Time as it is and not more nor fewer and therefore so many Days or Hours or
other Parts of Time as are Actualy Past are only so many Ones as they are and not more nor fewer which though never so many must necessarily be all Numerable by Addition of so many Ones as they are and not more nor fewer And consequently all Time Actualy Past which may be Numbred by them is Numerable and Finite and therefore had a Begining becaus the Number therof is Ordinal or Successive wherof there must be a First Thus if we should compute the whole Age of the World according to the particular Ages or Secula of Men or Brutes or if you pleas according to the Revolutions of Platonical years yet there must necessarily have been a First Second and Third Seculum or Revolution or so many as we will suppose to have been Actualy Past and Precedent and not more nor fewer nor other then Successive All which summed up together will be found as Finite as a single Unit and must have a First and Last aswel as One and One Ordinaly and Successively Nor indeed can we Rationaly Imagin any Time whatsoever Actualy Past and Precedent not to be Actualy Finite And if it cannot be otherwise in Imagination much less in Reality VIII Yet the World might Possibly have Existed before it did Exist or Actualy was and as long before as you pleas to Imagin and so it may still be continued Perpetualy in Possibility which yet will be alway Possible and can never be Actual for no such Precedent or Subsequent Perpetuity ever was or shall be nor can reasonably be Imagined to be Actual Neither is it properly a Possible Perpetuity but rather a Perpetual Possibiliâ—y of such a supposed Precedency or Subsequent Futurity which can never be Actual otherwise it should not be Perpetualy Possible for as Possible while it is Possible cannot be Actual otherwise it should not be Possible but Actual so Perpetualy Possible can never be Actual becaus then it should ceas to be Perpetualy Possible As it is said of Corporeal Quantity that it is alway Divisible into alway Divisibles ever Possibly but never Actualy becaus if it should once be Actualy Divided into all its Divisibles then it should ceas to be alway Divisible which is a most true and evident Ratiocination supposing such a Perpetual Divisibility therof wherof I shall heerafter discours But no Possibility whatsoever either Precedent or Subsequent doth militate against this present Discours concerning the Actual Existence of the World IX This Perpetual Possibility in Futurity is the Duration of Immortal Spirits which though it may not seem to be the same with Time in a restrained sens as Time may be distinguished from Duration yet is the same with it in a general sens And so the Soul of Man both in this Mortal Life and also in his Immortal Life heerafter shall continue to be under the same Duration though his Time may be restrained to this Mortal Life which hath an End and is computed according to the Chronology of the Hours Days and Years therof and so we commonly distinguish between Temporal and Eternal or Everlasting Thus Plato makes all Time to be the Measure of Duration according to the Motion of the Heavenly Bodys which divide it into such Parts or Sections therof and therupon I suppose grounded his Opinion of the Circular Revolutions of Time like the Circular Motions of the Heavens But as Duration was Coetaneous with the first Chaos for there was an Evening before any Morning or Illumination of the Aether and three several Days before the Sun and Stars so the same Duration shall continue when they shall be dissolved and when Time in that sens shall be no more And yet in all the Perpetual Possibility of this Duration so farr as it shall ever heerafter become Actual it shall likewise be Actualy Finite as I have already proved Wheras Proper Eternity is neither in any Precedent nor Subsequent Possibility but always Actual and alway Present or one Perpetual Instant which is Divine Infinite and Incomprehensible and of another nature Infinitely and Incomprehensibly Different from any Finite Duration Actual or Possible whatsoever which it doth Comprehend but not in any maner Confound or Chaâ—ge the Temporary nature therof as I shall shew in the next Section X. Wherfore I Conclude upon the whole precedent matter That every Quantity that hath Existed or doth Actualy Exist is Actualy Finite And so is every Quantitative thing measured thereby And that no Imagination nor Possibility it Self can make it to be otherwise Because all Quantity and Quantitative things have Parts and all Parts are Finite and therefore whatsoever hath Parts is Finite and whatsoever is Finite is Terminated or bounded with Extremitys or First or Begining and Last or End Respectively according to the Parts otherwise it should not be Finite And particularly that time and Duration which is Successive and all Temporary and Durable things had a Realy Precedent and fixed First or Begining Now that the force of this most Cogent Argument may not be lost or spent in so large a Dilatation I will briefly Summ it up in these few and short Propositions which I shall present to any Man of Reason most strictly to examin and consider whether he can deny any one of them or the Consequence of them all without forfeiture of his Rationality I. That every Day is One Day and of no more nor greater Number nor Duration II. That Yesterday was One Day Actualy Past and Precedent to this Day and so all the Days Actualy Past and Precedent one unto another III. That the whole Number and Duration of all the One Days Actualy Past and Precedent is as Finite or bounded with first or Begining and Last or End as of any One Day IV. Therefore there was a First or Begining of the whole Duration of all the One Days Actualy Past and Precedent aswel as of the particular Duration of any One Day Wherefore I Conclude according to that right and true Sentence Vim inferunt Humano Intellectui qui Mundum affirmant Infinitum ex Finitis Partibus Constantem SECTION II. God c. EXPLICATION The Infinite Creator of Heaven and Earth ILLUSTRATION 1. That God is Infinite 2. Of Infinite 3. That Absolute Nothing is Not finite 4. Of Proper and Improper Infinite 5 Of Proper and Improper Not finite I. WE have proved that Heaven and Earth and Consequently the whole World had a Begining of Being from Absolute Not being or was Created becaus it is Finite Wherefore the Creator of all Finites must necessarily be Infinite for if he were Finite he must also be Created by another and so Infinitely But there can be no such Process Infinite becaus it is Successive from one to another and therefore must be finite as I have already proved II. But becaus our Understanding also is Finite and not Infinite therefore the proper Object thereof must be Finite and not Infinite and all the knowledg we can have of Infinite is only
from and by Finite Now we have discovered Finite to be Partial that is either a Part or a Whole having Parts And so indeed not only all Quantity and Quantitative things wherof we have discâ—ursedâ— but also all Qualitys and Qualitative things are Finite becaus they have certein Degrees of themselvs which are their Respective Parts or Proportions And also all Substances or Created Entitys whatsoever either have Parts or are themselvs Parts of the Univers And the Univers it self is only the Whole of all those Parts whatsoever and Consequently Finite· Wherefore Infinite must neither be any Part or Degree nor any Whole having Parts or Degrees otherwise it should not be Infinite but Finite Also Infinite becaus it hath no Parts or Degrees in it self is not Partialy or Gradualy what it is but Infinitely without any Parts or Degrees One and All in iâ— self and Infinitely comprehending all Finites for if it were more then One or less then All it should be Partial or Gradual becaus More or Less are Partial or Gradual and consequently Finite Thus Infinite doth Transcend Finite not Finitely by any Parts or Degrees whatsoever but Infinitely according to its own Nature which is Infinite Wherefore also Finite cannot be any the least Part or Degree of Infinite for then the Whole also should be Finite And Infinite doth not only Infinitely Transcend Finite but is also Infinitely Different from it without any Part or Degree of Difference And so though it doth Comprehend all Finites as we say Infinite Being doth Comprehend all Finite Beings Infinite Immensity all Finite Bodys Infinite Eternity all Finite Time and Infinite Unity all Finite Numbers Yet it doth also Comprehend them Infinitely according to its own Infinite Nature that is Incomprehensibly as to our Finite Understanding and Inconfusedly as to the Finite Nature of the Things themselvs and so God is the only true Transcendent and Eminent Caus neither Confounded nor Compounded with them nor such as doth Contradict Alter or Interfere with them in any kind or maner whatsoever And wheras Infinite and Finite do thus Consist together and yet Infinitely Differ we must alway reserv the Notions therof under most Different and Distinct Considerations and not Confound them one with another in our Understandings which are not Confounded in themselves otherwise we shall thereby also Confound our own Understandings and disturb any right Apprehension either of Infinite or Finite Thus is Infinite both the Infinite Affirmation of all Being and Welbeing and the Infinite Negation of all Notbeing and Ilbeing which Negation being double is only the Infinite Affirmation of it self III. As Infinite is Infinitely Affirmative so Absolute Nothing is Not-finitely Negative or the Notfinite Negation of all that is Affirmative And any Affirmation of it self as that Nonentity is Nonentity and the like is only the Notfinite Negation of it self Wherefore Absolute Nothing is so purely Null that as Plato rightly saith it is altogether Ineffable and Incomprehensible and not capable of any Name or Notion but what is borrowed from thing or Being wherof it is the Notfinite Negation and therefore I rather chuse to term it Notfinite to restrain it to the Negative Signification of it self which purely is not then Infinite which hath also an Affirmative Signification of what it is in it self Infinitely and wherof Notfinite is the adequate Negation and â—s Notfinitely Notfinite as Infinite is Infinitely Infinite IV. But Infinite is either Proper or Improper Properly Infinite is only God who as he is Infinitely One admitts only â—n Identical Predication of Himself or That God is God for Quicquid est in Deo est Deus And yet as he is Infinitely All and the Transcendency of all Finite Perfections which are many and several so there is Improperly Infinite which may Improperly be Predicated of him severally according to our Finite Understanding and his Infinite Condescension thereunto And such are all those Partial and Distinguishing Notions which we frame of him As that he is Entity Immensity Eternity Unity and the like Whereby we render that which is Infinite and Infinitely One in Himself and with Himself Partial and Several and Consequently Improperly Infinite but not Properly Finite for though thereby we render that which is Infinitely One in Himself Many in our Understanding Yet we also acknowledg him to be Infinite Entity Infinite Immensity Infinite Eternity and Infinite Unity and not More or Less Again more Improperly Infinite is that which is Properly Finite in it self but Improperly Infinite in respect of God who is Infinite as Sin which is committed against him is therefore by Divines said to be Infinite and so indeed is every Creature in respect of him who is the Infinite Creating Caus and Being of the Being therof But most Improperly Infinite are such things as are only Indefinite unto us or exceed our Finite Understanding So we say that the Globe of Heaven and Earth which is Finite in it self is Immens and the World Eternal and the Dust of the Earth Innumerable and the like And so we term a Circle Figuratively and Hieroglyphiâ—aly Infinite and the like V. Also Notfinite is either Proper or Improper Properly Notfinite is only Absolute Nothing wherof there can be no other Proper Predication then that it is not or Nothing is Nothing Improperly Notfinite is either that in it self wherof we frame some Partial and Distinguishing Notions as Nonentity Vacuity Nontime Nullity and the like which are only Particular and Respective Negations of that wherof Absolute Nothing is the Absolute Negation Also there are other more Improper Notfinites answerable to such Improper Infinites which we have before Specified SECTION III. Created c. EXPLICATION Caused the Finite Being of Heaven and Earth by his Infinite Power to Be from Absolute Notbeing ILLUSTRATION 1 Of Infinite Power 2 What Creation is 3 Of the Possibility of Creation by Infinite Power 4 Of the Impossibility therof by Finite Power 5 Of Annihilation 6 Of Proper and Improper Creation 7 Of Proper and Improper Annihilation I. HAving proved that there was Actualy such a Begining of the Being of Heaven and Earth and of all things therin from Absolute Not-being and consequently a Creation I need not now to prove the Possibility therof becaus it Actualy was Yet farther to confirm it I shall proceed to examin and refute the Grand Argument against the Possibility therof Ex Nihilo Nihil fit Absolute Impossibility is that which no Power can Possibly reduce into Act or Actual Being Wherefore whatsoever may be so reduced is Possible to Infinite Power which should not be Infinite if any Affirmative Act should be Impossible unto it for then it should be Limited by Somthing Possible which it cannot Act and consequently be Finite Thus Infinite Power must Necessarily be Omnipoteâ—t or able to Act all things except Contradictions which are only the Negations of it self and consequently infer a Notfinite Impotence And not to be able to Act such Negations
is a double Negation which as I have said is only the Affirmation of it self So God cannot Contradict Himself either in Essence as not to be God or not to be Infinite which is the same or in Operation as to make the same Thing to Be and Not be Absolutely for then he should undo what he doth And so God cannot make Absolute Nothing or Notbeing to Be for then it should Be and Not be Absolutely which is an Absolute Contradiction Neither can he Convert Absolute Nothing into Somthing or Extract Somthing out of Absolute Nothing for then it should not be Absolute Nothing out of which there is Nothing which may be so Converted Extracted or Made in any kind or maner whatsoever II. So that if to Create were any of these Operations as the Objection doth import then it should be confessedly Impossible And I suppose some such Misapprehension hath been the ground of that Error Wheras Creation rightly understood is only a Causing Finite Being to be from Absolute Notbeing as the Negative Term from which it doth Commence and not of which or out of which it is Made in any kind or maner whatsoever Now becaus Absolute Nothing or Notbeing is only a Negative Term or pure Negation it can neither resist Creation nor contribute any thing to or toward it becaus it is Absolute Nothing III. And becaus Absolute Nothing cannot resist in the least therefore Creation is Infinitely Possible to Infinite Power because there is Nothing to resist it And also becaus whatsoever is Possible to Infinite Power is Infinitely Possible to it and not Partialy or Gradualy becaus Infinite hath no Parts or Degrees Nor doth the Creation of Finite Being Contradict or Alter Augment or Diminish Infinite Being or Notfinite Not being And so the present Finite Being which is Created as we have already shewed doth not Contradict Alter Augment or Dâ—minish either of them which are Eternaly the same in themselvs IIII. But because Absolute Notbeing cannot contribute any thing to or toward Creation therefore it is Impossible to any Finite Power for Absolute Nothing doth afford no Matter Principle Preparation Inclination Capacity or any Somthing whatsoever wherupon or whereby Finite Power may begin to work and where there is no Begining there cannot Possibly be any Progress or Perfection therof by any Finite Power but only by Infinite Power which can Create Being and the very Begining therof from Absolute Notbeing Also all Finite Power it self before it was Created was absolutely Null and so had no Power in it Self to Create it self or any other Being from Absolute Notbeing Nor could God himself Delegate this Infinite Power to Angels or Daemons or any Rabbinical or Platonical Subcreators which must be either Totaly or Partialy not Totaly for then God should ceas to have or be Infinite Power in Himself and consequently to be God which is an Infinite Contradiction nor Partialy for Infinite hath no Parts Certeinly no Angel nor Man the chief of Natural Operators did ever arrogate unto himself a Creating Power Nor have we any Instances of Creation in the whole History of Nature among all those Monstrous Relations which the Writers therof have inserted Nor hath any Poetical Fansy ever Invented or Imagined a Metamorphosis of Being from Notbeing Much less hath any Philosophy ascribed this Creating Power to Nature her self but rather denieth a Creation and yet to solv it is forced to substitute an Impossible Eternity of Finite Nature and certein Fictitious Powers Eminences and Equivocal Causalitys which I shall also examin heerafter V. As Creation is a Causing to be from Notbeing so Annihilation is a Causing Not to be from Being which is most Possible to the Infinite Creator becaus it is only the withdrawing his own Infinite Power whereby he doth continualy Caus the Creature to Be but Impossible to any Finite Power becaus it cannot resist the Infinite Creating Power which doth so continualy Cause the Creature to Be. And as there can be no Annihilation by any Finite Power So we never read of any by Infinite Power Nor probably will God ever Annihilate any thing which he hath Immediately Created for he doth nothing in vain but continueth and reserveth all things which he hath made by Proper Creation for his own Everlasting Glory VI. Thus to Caus to Be or Continue to Be from Absolute Notbeing is Proper Creation But there are also Improper Creations which do not produce or preserv any Being from Absolute Notbeing but only alter the Created Being in such a Supernatural maner as is beyond all Natural Generation or any other Natural Power of the Creature which being Finite and no more then it is as it cannot Create without Infinite Power which it hath not so neither can it Act any thing beyond that Finite Power which it hath And thus though it is the Opinion of Divines that God Originaly Created nothing after the Begining except Souls of Men or Angels if they were not Originaly Created in and with their Heaven by Proper Creation Yet God is said to Create in all the Six days and expressly in the Fifth day to Create great Whales though it be also said that the Waters Produced them aswell as others by Improper Creation which was his Immediate Ordination of the whole Frame and Cours of Nature and Original Generation of them all which the several Creatures in their First Chaos before their Active Qualitys and Mist Forms were Produced and all other previous and requisite Matters Powers and Instruments were prepared and adapted by God could not perform in or by themselvs nor Generate others untill they were so fitted and instructed and the Divine Blessing of Multiplication added therunto as I shall shew heerafter and therefore all those Works of the Six Days which did Succeed the Original and Proper Creation in the Begining were Improper Creations So also all Positive Miracles which are Preternatuâ—al or beside the Natural Course and Order are Improper Creations VII Proper Annihilation is a Causing any Being not to be Absolutely and improper Annihilation only a Preternatural Alteration therof And as God in Positive Miracles doth work beyond Natural Power so in other Privative Miracles he doth obstruct and suspend it As in causing Iron to swim by suspending the Gravity therof or fire not to burn by Suspending the Heat therof and the like SECTION IIII. The Heaven and the Earth c. EXPLICATION The whole Body of the World consisting of Several Heterogeneous Members Heaven and Earth which were Created together in the Begining ILLUSTRATION I. Of Heaven and Earth 2. Of Heaven 3. Of Earth 4. Philosophical Consyderations of Entity and the Differences therof 5. Of Substances and Accidents 6. Of Matter and Forms 7. Of Common and Proper Accidents I. WE have heer a brief Description and Map of the World and of the whole Globe of the Matter therof from the utmost Circumference to the inmost Center which was all Created in the Begining for
Entity to be whatsoever God hath Created Different in Nature from another for as whatsoever he hath Created must Necessarily Be so whatsoever he hath Created Different must necessarily Differ Now heer we must Consyder a Difference which Scholemen have made of Entity it Self which is that it is either Entity Real or Entity of Reason Entity Real is in the Thing it Self and Nature therof as Heaven and Earth and all things therin Entity of Reason is in our Reason or Mind as the whole Poetical World and all things therin Hircocervs Hippocentaurs and the like which are therefore also called Entitys becaus our very Imaginations and Fictions therof are Creatures and Entitative though the Imaginary Figments themselvs are as it were our Creatures and Objectively Nothings And so also there are Entitys of Sens as all Deceptions of the Senses for though there be no such Objects yet there is Realy and truly such a Sensation as well as when the Objects are Real and true as I shall shew heerafter Now as Entitys Real and of Reason are both Entitative So there is such a Diversity of Entity it Self Respectively and Improperly But as Entitys of Reason are Objectively Nonentitative So also there is Absolutely and Properly no Difference but a plain Contradiction between them and Real Entity as a Number and a Null or Cyphar do not Properly Differ but Contradict one another becaus one is and the other is not Wherefore all Real and true Difference must be between things that are truly Real and again whatsoever things are Real may Realy Differ from others in the Things themselvs and Natures therof So that Real Difference is not only Corporeal or of things wherof there is or may be a Local Separation but also of any other Thing or Entity though not Separated or Separable Localy for though Entity it self be only Generical yet there are also Specifical and Particular Essences and Differences Thus an Angel in a Body and the Body are Realy Different Specificaly in the Things themselvs and Natures therof though not Localy Separated yet as truly as when they are Localy Separated So that their Difference is not only from their several Localitys but from their several Specifical Natures So also the Soul and Body of Man are now Different though not yet Separated but only Separable by Death and shall be Different after the Resurrection when they shall be Inseparable as well as after Death and before the Resurrection when they shall be Localy Separated and So Heaven and Earth also Differ not only becaus they are Loâ—aly Separated but also becaus they are Heaven and Earth that is Several Natures Specificaly Different Also there may be an Individual Difference where there is no Specifical Difference as in a Legion of Angels or Men Lastly there is a Numerical Difference where there is no Individual Difference as all the Members of a Body are so many as they are Numericaly but yet do not Differ Individualy otherwise it should not be one Body or Individual Composition therof but so many several Individuals as there are Members But whatsoever doth Differ in any other kind doth also Differ Numericaly becaus Number or Quantity Discrete is Comprehensive of all Differences Diversitys or Discretions whatsoever And now I shall Conclude that whatsoever God hath Created and is in Nature and Not only in our Reason or Mind Realy is and whatsoever God hath Created Different and doth Differ in Nature and not only in our Reason or Mind is Realy Different which I suppose None can Deny and according to these Undeniable Rules I shall proceed VI The first Real Difference of Entity is that it is either Substance or Accident And now becaus I know I must fight out my way by Inches against all Sceptical Disputers I shall proceed as clearly and firmly as I can And first I shall explain my Terms By Substance I intend an Entity Naturaly Subsisting in it Self and from which other Accidental Entitys do Naturaly Flow and Subsist therin By Accident I intend an Entity which doth Naturaly Flow from and Subsist in a Substance So that Substance is both the Original Fountain and Continual Foundation of any Accident Cujus Esse est Inesse which some cavill against becaus they do not Understand it though it is very true and rightly said of an Accident that it is the Accident of a Substance and in respect of the Substance as it may be also said of Substance in respect of Accidents Cujus Esse est Subesse But as all particular Substances Matter and Forms have their own Specifical Essences or Entitys So also have all particular Accidents Extension Figure Density Gravity Motion Heat Light and the rest Also though all Accidents do Originaly Subsist in their Substances yet Derivatively one Accident may Subsist in another as Figure in Extension Gravity in Density and 〈◊〉 Imâ—mediately and the others Mediately in Matter 〈◊〉 Several Accidents may Subsist Immediately in the 〈…〉 as Extension and Density in Matter which is one 〈…〉 Substance And one Accident doth so Subsist in 〈◊〉 if it be a particular Product Property or Affection therof as Figure is of Extension or Gravity of Density and the like Now Accidents are therefore so called becaus they are Adventitious to the Substance wherof the Specifical Essence as I have said is in it Self and doth not consist in any or all the Accidents therof nor is or can be Altered or made More or Less by the Variations therof and also becaus Accidents in themselvs do sometimes Actualy Exist Appear and Exert their Operations and sometimes only Subsist Potentialy and are Latent and Quiescent in their Substances as may evidently appear by all the several Variations of Accidents the Substance remaining the same becaus it doth alway Subsist in it Self and therfore always is Actualy what it is in it Self for if it should be Potential then the Potentiality therof not Actualy Subsisting in it Self should Subsist in another and Consequently be an Accident and not a Substance And thus every Entity which is Created and cannot be Annihilated must necessarily alway Subsist either in it Self or in another Actualy or Potentialy But becaus Accidents Affect and indeed Perfect the Substance therefore they are also called Affections Now that there are Substances I Suppose none will Deny who acknowledg any Actual Entitys and that there are Accidents none can deny who hath the use of his Senses wherof all Sensible Accidents are the Proper Objects and Objects of Intellect are only understood by Objects of Sens. So that indeed all our Conversation is Immediately with and by Accidents and we neither know Essences of Accidents nor Substances otherwise then by their Actual Phaenomena or Appearances Nor can Substances Operate any thing without the Actual Operations of Accidents Wher efore that I may not fight as beating the Air nor Contend for that which will and must be yielded I shall more directly oppugn that wherin I conceiv the greatest
strength of opposition to ly and accordingly address my Self to prove that Accidents are Realy Different from their Substances whereby I shall also prove that both Substances and Accidents Realy are becaus any Real Difference is only between Real Entitys Now as I have said before God in the Begining Created Heaven and Earth and all other their Primitive Entitys therin which yet did not then all Actualy Exist Appear and Operate for it is said expresly that there was yet no Light in the Heaven but Darkness was upon the face of the Deep and of the Earth that it was without form and void and if they had been otherwise Created in the Begining all the ensuing Works of God in the Six Days had been needless and Superfluous Wheras Elementary Substances and the Essences of their Accidents in their Potentialitys being Created together in the Begining the work of the Three first Days was to Produce their Accidents out of Potentiality into Act as I shall particularly shew heerafter And though this was not Properly Creation of any New Entity from Nonentity yet as it was the Production of the Actualitys of the Accidents and not of the Substanceâ— of the Elements it plainly Discovers a Real Difference between Substances and Accidents Certeinly as it was the Production of Several Actualitys therof in several Days it declares the Accidents so severaly Actuated to be several and Different in themselvs and much more all of them to be Different from the Substances from which they all Differ more Genericaly and consequently more then one from another Again if Substances and Accidents did not Realy Differ then no Accidents of the same Substance should Realy Differ one from another but all should be one and the same with themselvs as well as with their Substance For as the Mathematical Rule is most true That if each of two Lines be Equal to a third one of them must necessarily be Equal to the other So if each of two Entitys could be one and the same with a third the one must Necessarily be one and the same with the other and so if Extension Figure Density Gravity Motion Heat Light and the rest and all the Several Variations therof were one and the same with the Aethereal Substance then they must also be one and the same in themselvs Yea if they were only Accidents of the Matter as some affirm all Contrary Qualitys Heat and Cold and the rest must be one and the same with the Matter which is most Absurd and Irrational for then Heat should be Cold and Cold Heat and the like Also if we Consyder the Continual Sensible Variations of Accidents and their Productions out of Potentiality into Actuality and Reductions from Actuality to Potentiality whereby they so often Appear and Disappear unto us and their Desultory and Exile Nature which to some scarcely seems to be Real we may not Imagin them to be Realy the same with their Substances which Subsist in themselvs and are Fixed Solid and Substantial Entitys and therefore always are Actual and never Potential as I shall particularly shew heerafter in all the ensuing Discourses Wherefore I Conclude that Since there are such Substantial and Accidental Entitys and that they Differ one from another in Nature and not only in our Mind and Reason that they both Realy are and that Accidents Realy Differ from Substances and also one from another VII Substance is either Matter or Forms for I must use that Common Term untill I can substitute another And becaus as I have said we know Substances only Intelligibly by their Sensible Accidents I shall accordingly by them declare what I intend by Matter and what by Forms Matter is known by Corporeal Quantity which is the Proper Accident therof And this Quantity is either Extension and the Products or Propertys therof Figure Porosity and the like or Density and the Products or Propertys therof Gravity Corporeal Motion and the like Also Matter hath a Common Receptivity of Forms and is Passively apt to be Consubstantiated with them and is as the Body therof being in it Self one Homogeneous and Uniform Moles or Mass and is also the Passive Subject of all its own Corporeal Variations which are Superinduced in it by the various Activitys of Forms Whence it is rightly called Materia which the Forms as Architects do severaly Mold and Fashion into fit Bodys for themselvs And therefore I Describe Matter to be One Passive Substantial Entity or Common Body of Forms Again Forms are known by their Qualitys which are Generaly Active as Heat Cold Moisture Drines and the like and are not only Various and Innumerable to us but also many of them Contrary one to another whereby I know their Substantial Forms also to be Several Heterogeneous and Difform wherof some are apt to Consubstantiate themselvs Subordinately with the Passive Matter which they as Spirits do Actively Inform or InSpirit as all Inferior Forms or Spirits and some do not Consubstantiate but only Inform it as the Human Spirit and some neither Consubstantiate nor Inform it as Angels and though all Exist in it yet none Subsist in it as Accidents do in Substances And so these Forms are Several Active Substantial Entitys or Spirits And I shall henceforth generally call them Spirits Wherby I do not intend Spirit Grammaticaly that is Breath nor yet with Physicians and others those Igneous Aereous Aqueous and Terreous Natural Vital or Animal Spirits which indeed are only such Qualitys of the Elementary Spirits but Substantial Spirits Distinct or Different from the Matter as I have before discoursed them And so there are not only Angelical Spirits which Exist Separate from the Matter Naturaly though in it Localy and Human Spirits which are also Immaterial and such as may so Exist separately as well as Angelical and yet are apt to Inform or InSpirit the Human Body wherwith they are Composited But also Material Spiritâ— which cannot so Exist Separately or as Separate Substances without the Matter and therefore are called Material though they are in themselvs neither Matter nor Homogeneous with the Matter as I shall shew heerafter And so the Wiseman mentioneth The Spirit of a Beast that goeth downward to the Earth as well as the Spirit of Man that goeth upward And so also there are Vegetative Spirits and the Spirit of the Heaven as the Author of Esdras saith of the Firmament and of all the Elements which are more Properly Material becaus they Immediately Consubstantiate Matter that is such Active Substantial Entitys as I have before Described And there are also Accidental Spirits or Spiritual Activitys Powers and Virtues mentioned in Scripture Which yet are no Substantial Spirits but Subsist in them And I suppose this general Name Spirit doth better express all simple Substantial Activitys which were Immediately Created by God as well as Matter and can never be Annihilated or Altered as they are in themselvs any more then Matter it Self then Forms by which they are
commonly exprest as well as Formâ— Mistorum And therefore I do not term them Forms but I rather reserv Form to express that which is otherwise called Formae Misti or Compositi by which I intend only the Generative Complexion and Compagination of those simple Created Spirits and Matter which are Ingenerable and Incorruptible in themselvs and wherof Generation and Corruption are only the Confabrication or Demolition as I shall shew heerafter and consequently every Formâ— Misti or Compositi is Generable and Corruptible and so these Forms are as far Different from the others which I therefore term Spirits as they are from Matter and are called Substantial only becaus they are the Complexions of the others which are Substances as also Material Spirits are so called only becaus they are so Unâ—ted to the Matter as I said before Having thus explained my Terms I shall proceed as before concerning Substances and Accidents to prove that Matter and these simple Created Spirits Realy Differ whereby I shall also prove that there Realy are both such Matter and Such Spirits And wheras it is now generaly granted that there are such Angelical and Human Spirits Realy Different from Matter for which I suppose we may thank Christianity I shall accept iâ— and apply my Self only to prove the same of the rest and then I presume no Heathen can deny it of the others Now in our present History of the Creation it is said that the Water brought forth Fishes after their Kinds and Fowls after their Kinds and the Earth Beasts after their Kinds and Creeping things after their Kinds Whereby it appears that these Creatures were of Several Kinds and Heterogeneous one from another and Consequently all of them from the Matter which being one Homogeneous Substance in it Self can never Produce any Heterogeneous Substances and therefore all this Heterogeneity must necessarily be from some other Substantial Principles that is their Spirits which were Created thus Specificaly Heterogeneous one from another and all of them more Genericaly Heterogeneous from the Common Matter And so it is also expresly said concerning Vegetatives and must be reasonably understood of Heaven and Earth and all the Elements for the Matter of them all being one and the same could not Constitute and Denominate them Heaven or Earth neither could they be so Denominated from their own Proper Qualitys which were not yet Actualy Produced but afterward in the Three first Days Wherfore there were such several Heterogeneous Substantial Principles which I call Elementary Spirits Created in the Begining and then Actualy Subsisting in and with the Matter which did so Denominate the Heaven and Earth and the rest And if they together with the Matter could not Produce their own Proper Qualitys without such a Supernatural though Improper Creation much less could the Matter of it Self Produce any Such Substantial Spirits and Activitys farr more excellent then it Self Again if Accidents of the same Substance being Several must therefore Realy Differ from the Substance as I have before proved then certeinly Accidents of Several Substances which are not only Several but also Contrary do necessarily prove that they can not proceed from one and the same Substantial Principle such as Matter is for then the same Nature should destroy it self by its own Natural Contrarietys And though in Mist Bodys which are Composed of all the Elements there be the Substantial Principles of Contrary Qualitys Heat Cold Moisture Driness and the like Mist and Contemperated together or though the same thing may Produce Contrary Effects in Several Subjects as Motion may excite Heat in Fire and Cold in Air or the same Faculty may exercise Contrary Actions toward Contrary Objects as the Will or Appetite doth Affect that which is Pleasant and Disaffect that which is Displeasant Yet Matter which is one and the same cannot Produce Contrary Activitys and Exercise Contrary Operations in it Self which destroy one another and so consequently should Corrupt it self by such Contrary Qualitys Wherefore all Generation and Corruption and all Menstrua and the like do plainly prove that there are Several Substantial Principles of Such Contrary Qualitys not only Realy Different from the Matter but also Difform one from another And therefore unless we affirm Heat Cold Moisture Driness and all other Contrary Qualitys and Consequently Aeâ—her Air Water Earth Vegetatives and Sensitives to be all one and the same and not Different and thereby Confound Heaven and Earth and all things therin and our own Notions therof we must Necessarily grant that there are such Several Accidental Qualitys and also such Substantial Principles therof Different one from another and consequently all from the Matter And this may appear most clearly by many Sensible Distinctions and Differences between them which I shall now only generaly mention and heerafter more particularly discover in the ensuing Discourses As that Matter hath Pondus and the Products therof which Spirits have not but there are Active Potentiae of Spirits and all the various Operations and Effects therof which Matter hath not And the Pondus of Matter tendeth from the Circumference to the Center but the Potentia of Spirits from the Center to the Circumference And Matter being only one Homogeneous Body hath only one Center but Spirits being Many and Several have every one of them in their Composita a several Center Also all Matter is Continuous becaus it is one Homogeneous Body but the Contiguity of several Bodys is only from the several Spirits Also Matter tendeth Naturaly to Rest but Spirits intend their Acts and Exercises to the Utmost Also Matter hath only Different Degrees of More or Less but Spirits have their Actively Contrary Qualitys and the like Now though I cannot Sensibly Produce and Present such a Genius of things or Spirit as it is in it Self not only becaus it is a Spirit but also becaus it is a Substance which as I have said that it is only Intelligible as none can discover Pure Matter or Materia prima as it is in it Self but both may be discerned by their Sensible Accidents wherof the Accidents of Spirits which are Proper Sensibles are more Sensible then of Matter which are only common Sensibles and Sensed by the others so I have proved Matter and Spirits by their Different Accidents to be several Substantial Principles and Realy Different one from another And though none can affirm that there is any Matter Separate from Spirits yet it is granted that there are Spirits Separate from Matter as Angels Nor may it seem strange that two such Substances should be Consubstantiated into one since there is no Matter without some Spirit to Diversify it and it is also granted that there is a Spirit of Man which doth Inform or Inspirit his Body and not only Possess it as an Angel Wherefore certeinly Material Spirits which are Connatural may also Consubstantiate the Matter And we must understand that as all Created Entitys are Creatures or Created by God
so they are United into one Genus of their Common Entity which though it be Metaphysical yet it is not only a Notional but a Real Universality of them all whereby they are so Realy United and accordingly have some Physical Communion one with another and all Conspire together against Nonentity And so Matter and Spirits though very Different Entitys yet because they are all Entitys either Consubstantiate one another as all Material Spirits which cannot be Separate nor Exert or Exercise their Qualitys or Operations without the Instrumentality of their Material Bodys or otherwise Inform and Inspirit them as the Immaterial Spirit of Man which may be Separate or not Separate from the Body therof and Exert and Exercise some Qualitys and Operations by the Instrumentality therof and some without it as I shall shew heerafter or at least as Angels who though they be purely Immaterial Spirits and have no such Consubstantial nor Compositive Union with the Matter nor do Inform or Inspirit it nor Operate by any Instrumentality therof but are in that respect wholy Separate from it yet have this Communion with it that they are Localy in it where they are and do Move from one Part or Place therof to another and more or less suddenly and easily and can not Move beyond the Universal Body therof for then they might Wander in Notfinite and Endless Inanity which as I have said is Pure Nonentity And though Extension and Local Motion be Properly of the Matter yet Material Spirits by their Conjunct State and Consubstantiation are Coextended with it and all others are Conteined in it and in this or that Part therof and Move from this or that Place therof according to the several Spheres of their own Substantial Activitys whether they be more United unto it by a Conjunct Consubstantiation as Material Spirits which are in the Matter like Inherent Light in the Lucid Body and in so much therof as it doth Inherently Illuminate or less and without any such Conjunct Consubstantiation as the Human Spirit which is in the Matter as Light in the Diaphanous Air which it requires to Illuminate or otherwise as Angels which are in it as Magnetical Emanations in any Medium And accordingly Material Spirits are most Powerful in their Center but Immaterial Intirely Equal in their whole Sphere Now wheras some affirm that Substantial Spirits and all their Spiritual Qualitys are only Various Motions of the Matter I shall according to my maner first endeavour to Understand what is or may be Intended by the Motion of the Matter which certeinly can not be any Substantial Activity in it Self Distinct from the Matter for then we might agree in the Thing and should not differ about Terms wherefore Motion of the Matter must be only an Accidental Affection therof like Extension and the rest whereby matter Extends it Self and so in Effect Motion of the Mâ—tter is only Matter Moving it Self Wheras it Naturaly tends to Rest and Moves only in order therunto as I shall shew heerafter and this Moving must be only Local becaus it is of the Matter from one Part or Place therof to another But as I have shewed that there are other Differences of things besides Local Separation So there are other Motions besides Local Motion as every Mutation from one State to another in Generation Corruption and the like and iâ— Intellection and Volition there may be such Spiritual Motions without any Local Motion whatsoever wheras Local Motion is only a Transition or passing from one Part or Place of the Matter to another as I shall also shew heerafter And now I may safely affirm that such Local Motion is only Local Motion and neither more nor less nor other for as this Identical Proposition is most true That Local Motion is Local Motion So the Predicate therof being Adaequate to the Subject it can be neither more nor less nor other then the Subject Now that this Local Motion which Properly belongeth to the Matter is an Instrument not only of Matter but also of all Material Spirits becaus they are Material or Conjunct with the Matter in their Consubstantiation and also in their Operation as well as Extension Figure and the rest I easily grant but must wholy deny that Aether Air Water Earth or any other Substantial Spirits Heat Cold Moisture Driness Vegetation Sensation and innumerable other Spiritual Qualitys are only Local Motions one way or other or any way whatsoever for then Local Motion should not be only an Instrumental Causality or Effect of all those Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys but the very Essence and Formality or Formal Caus therof which is most Uncouth and Inconceivable for they are Formaly every one of them Such as they are in themselves as well as the Matter is Matter in it Self without any Actual Motion and so also Extension is Formaly Extension in it Self and may Exist and be Such without any Actual Motion and Figure is Formaly Figure in it Self and may Exist and be Such without any Actual Motion and so any other Accidents of Matter much more Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys which I shall now very plainly prove In the Begining God Created the Heaven and the Earth and not only Matter and Motion nor could Matter by Motion Diversify it Self in the Begining into Heaven and Earth that is as I have before explained them Superaether Aether Air Water and Earth for no local Motion can be in an instant but the Begining was only the First Instant otherwise it should not be the First or Begining Wheras Local Motion being from Place to Place which are several Terms must necessarily be in several Instants and most Probably there was no Local or any such Natural Motion in the first Chaos but only the Spirit of God Supernaturaly Moved on the face of the Waters Also if several Local Motions were the Formalitys or Formal Beings of all Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys then they should not be before nor after nor any longer then the Local Motion doth continue for the Formality of any thing is the very Specifical Being therof as Wind which is indeed only Aer Motus continues no longer then the Motion and Nothing can be without the Specifical Being of it Self otherwise it should not be what it is Wherefore I suppose I may set this down as another Infallible Canon according to which also I may safely proceed that Whatsoever Actualy Exists without somthing which doth not then also Actualy Exist must Realy differ from it otherwise the same thing should Actualy Exist and not Exist at the same time which is Contradictory and Impossible And thus as I have proved Substances which did Actualy Exist in the Begining to differ Realy from Accidents which did not then Actualy Exist So particularly Spiritual Substances and their Qualitys which do or may Actualy Exist without any Actual Local Motion must necessarily be Realy Different from it And this is most Sensibly Evident that they may so Exist and be
without any Local Motion and when they are in Local Motion are Commonly rather Causes therof then Caused by it and so they Caus Motion in the very Matter which of it self would Perpetualy Rest in the Center and due Position of it Self as I have said and shall heerafter prove and is Disturbed and Moved by the Potentiae of Spirits which alter the Natural Position Figure Density and Gravity therof and Properly it hath no Natural Motion of it Self but only to restore it Self unto Rest. Nor can the Matter and Motion and any or all the other Accidents or Variations therof Formaly Caus the Spirits or Spiritual Qualitys but are only Instruments and fit Bodies therof which they form for themselves Take Wax and Move it this Way or that Way or Mold it into this or that Figure or Discind it into any Threads or Corpuscles or Mechanicaly Vary the Matter therof how you will yet it will still be Wax as well as every part of Water is Water Unless there be also some new Generation or Corruption therof by Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys as I shall shew heerafter Wherefore that which some call Texture whether Extrinsecal as Figure Porosity or plain Interweaving of Threads or Filaments and the like or Intrinsecal as Density and Rarity which indeed are the only true Intrinsecal Textures of Bodys and yet are wholy denied by our Textorian Philosophers as well as Local Motion is only Instrumental and no Formal Caus or Being of any Spirit or Spiritual Quality And so take Common Water and Spirit of Wine Vitriol or any stronger Spirits and setting them in their several Vessels one by another Inspect them with a Microscope and see if you can discern any such Proportionable and Consyderable Difference of their Extension Figure Density Gravity Local Motion or any Corporeal Texture whatsoever as there is of their Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys Or take any Aethereous Globules or Materia Subtilis Emittent Transmittent or Remittent if you can tell where to find it or the most Subtile and Pure Air which may be had on the Top of the highest Mountain and which is Common Matter as well as any other and putting this Matter into any Windgun Airpump or Expansor or any such Torcular or other Rack of Nature whatsoever or applying to it any Chymical Fire or Heat or Salt and Snow or what you will and vex it how you will and try if you can force it to Confess it Self to be any other thing then Air or Extort from it all or any of these Spiritual Diversifications or such as may be Effected by the like Experiments made of Vapor Water or Earth or any parcel or part of the Terraqueous Globe and Cortex therof Which God having made to be the Native Countrey and Region of Animals hath also Impregnated with such Material Spirits and their Spiritual Qualitys which he did first Produce and still may be Produced ouâ— of them Wherefore since Matter and Spirits do thus Differ not only in our Mind and Reason but in their own Natures I Conclude them both Realy to Be and Realy to Differ one from the other and not to be only Matter and the Motions therof VIII Accidents are either Common or Proper Common Accidents are such as were Concreated and Actualy Existed together with the Substances in the Begining and without which no Substances or any Created Entity whatsoever can Actualy Exist as all Quantitys whether discrete as Number for every Creature that is whatsoever it be must also be Numerable Or Successive as Duration for every Creature that is whatsoever must also be Durable or Temporary Or Consistent as Extension which though is be in it Self Proper to Matter yet as the Matter of the whole World is a Common Matter so as I have shewed it doth Coextend or Contein all Spirits and every Creature that is in Heaven or Earth must necessarily be Localy therin that is in the Universal Body of the Matter or Vbi therof and in some Part or Place therof that is it must be there where it is and no where els at the same Time Proper Accidents are such as Originaly Flow from and Subsist in their Proper Substances as Consistent Quantity Extension Figure Density and the rest in Matter and Spiritual Qualitys in Spirits Again these Simple Accidents may be either Compounded together or Several and yet mutualy Relating one to another and Such Relations may also be Real as First and Last in Successive Quantity or Time for they Realy are Such in the Successive Nature therof which otherwise should not be Successive and are not only Notional such as First or Last in Consistent Quantity or Extension for they are not Realy such in the Consistent Nature therof becaus it is Consistent altogether and so the First may be Last or the Last First according to our Notion and Institution therof Also there are other more Complex Relations which may likewise be Real either Mathematical as a Triangle and three several Lines are different things or Physical as Beauty which is a Relative Conformity of severall Lineaments and Colors to the Physical Law therof Or Moral as Virtue which is a Relative Conformity of Actions Modes and Circumstances to the Moral Law therof Or Theological as Piety which is a Relative Conformity of Actions Modes and Circumstances to the Theological Law therof and the like which being more Complex are also more Curious and Excellent and the Relative Conformitys therof are Not only Real but also the Excellencys and Perfections of those Realitys wherin they Relatively and Realy Subsist And this Relative Reality though iâ— doth Subsist in the particular Entitys wherof they are the Relations yet doth Consist in the very Relative Conformity therof for their particular Entitys being Inverted will vary them as a Triangle may so be made a Zeta or Pi or render that which was Beautiful Deformed and that which was Virtuous Vitious and that which was Pious Impious And heer I shall Conclude with this general Observation That though Substances Excell in Entity becaus they Subsist in themselvs yet Accidents Excell in Bonity becaus they Perfect their Substances For such indeed was that great Difference between the first Chaos and the six Days Works Perfected therin SECTION V. And the Earth was without form and void And Darknes was upon the face of the Deep EXPLICATION The Elementary Globe of Earth Water Air and Aether was first Created Inform and Inane without any of those Actual Compositions Mistions Figures and Virtues which were afterward Produced in the Six Days ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the fower Elements 2. Of the Chaos 3. Of Quantity 4. Of Number 5. Of Time 6. Of Extension 7. Of Figure 8. Of Porosity 9. Of Density and Rarity 10. Of Gravity and Levity 11. Of Rest and Motion 12. Of Place Space and Vacuity I. WE have heer a farther Explication in the Text itself of the Heaven and Earth Created in the Begining Wherof it is again said
the Created Substantial Spirits of the fower Elements and others did then so Actualy Exist in the Begining when they were first Created and the Heavens or Aether and Air and Earth or Water and Earth were thereby then so Denominated as I have already shewed yet their first Simple Qualitys Heat Cold Moisture Drines and others which are Accidents and Subsist in their Substances and were then also Created first in their Potentiality did not Actualy Exist but were afterward Produced out of their Potentiality into Act in the Six Days And the Elements though Created Pure and Unmist severaly in themselvs and separately in their own Spheres yet were Miscible and their Natural Perfection was to be Mist and so it was accordingly performed afterward and by that very Mâ—stion and Temperature their Proper Qualitys were Produced out of Potentiality into Act which otherwise could not Actualy Exist severaly by reason of their own Vehemence and Extremity And certeinly there are such Contrary Qualitys which are not only Degrees or More or Less of the same Mist Quality as there are Degrees of Corporeal Quantity which very Contrariety by a fit Mistion and Temperature doth mutualy Qualify them and so Produce them by Degrees out of their Potentiality in Generation and the Excess of either of them doth again destroy the other in Corruption and thereby also would destroy itself if it were not so Tempered by the Contrary And I thus judg therof becaus otherwise there could be no Mistion or Temperature of Contrary Qualitys in their Actual Extremitys which would destroy one another but they are not so Actualy Contrary in their Potentialitys becaus then they are only Potential whereby they are easily Mist at first and so proceed by degrees to be both Actuated together in their mutual Mistion and Temperature And this Order of Generation and Corruption is the very Cours of Nature that was ordeined in the Six Days And as in the Begining none of these Qualitys did Actualy Exist in their own Vehemence and Extremity so never since can either of such Contrary Qualitys Actualy Exist without the other which should so Temper and Qualify it Also all Secondary Qâ—alitys which are Compounded of such first Simple Qualitys cannot possibly Exist without such Composition and Mistion becaus their Compound Nature is to be Mist of others But though the first Chaos was thus Inform and Inane without any such particular Figures of Bodys or Spiritual Qualitys or any such Substantial or Accidental Mistion or Composition yet as the Matter and several Elementary Spirits were severaly Consubstantiated therin whereby they were then Actualy Heaven and Earth though not such as afterward and as now they are So also we may not conceiv them to have been without any Actual Accidents whatsoever for they must necessarily have those Common Accidents which were Concreated with them wherof I have formerly discoursed Actualy Existing becaus no Created Substance whatsoever can Exist or Be without them and the matter had the general Accidents therof Actualy Existing in it And of these and the Products therof both Common and Proper to Matter as they were Concreated with it or wherof it was capable I shall now proceed to discours III. And first I shall consyder Quantity generaly which though it be severaly and Specificaly Threefold Number Time and Extension yet all of them are Genericaly One or that which we by one common Name call Quantity and they are so One not only Nominaly or Notionaly but Realy and Physicaly as shall appear by the Real and Physical Analogy and Confederacy that is between them which as it is most Proportionable and Regular in itself so if it were rightly consydered in all Statike Machins or Engines any Artist might thereby without the trouble and charge of Experiment set down in his Mind or Paper before hand what the Effect and Execution will be and all particular Errors in that Art proceed from the Universal Error or Ignorance heerof As one saith of their various Essays of a Perpetual Motion that they have all proved vain and ineffectual Non rite observatis Proportionibus for what is gained by one Quantity will be lost by others as what is gained by Distances from the Center Multiplication of unequal Wheels and the like is again lost in the Total Summ of the whole Account of Proportions in Time Number longer or more Circumvolutions aâ—d the like which at last cast up together will amount to no more then a Balance or Aequipondium and these several ways are only several Variations of the Quantitys which â—et may be very useful and advantagious accordingly as we have more or less Weight or Power or more or less Time and the rest to imploy and lay out in the Operation Such are the Romana Statera or French Beam the Leaver the Skrew the Pâ—lley the Snake Wheel Cranes and the like And the common Culinary Jack may plainly discover the use and advantage therof in Diminishing the Burden of the Weight by Multiplication of the Distances and Revolutions as if the Weight were divided into so many several Parts or less Weights as it hath such Proportions in the Whole and one of them only were to be Moved at one Distance and by one Revolution Or the Burden of the Weight in a contrary way may be Multiplied by Diminishing the Distances and Revolutions Or there may be a delivery of all at once as in Catapults Balists and the like And of all these the whole Account will ever be Equal as I have said allowing only for Frictions and Attritions and the like And this wonderful Analogy of Quantity is not only thus useful in Mechanical Practice but also in Philosophical Contemplation which I shall now accordingly Improve And becaus as I have formerly observed Number is the Discerner of both the other Quantitys and most Discernible in it self I shall heer begin with it and thereby endeavor to Explicate the most Indiscernible Mysteries of Time and Extension though I esteem no Quantity Mystical or Cabalistical in Virtue or Signification but only intend such Natural Mystery's therin as are Incomprehensible to us and our Reason IIII. The first Principle of Number is an Unit which is Unity in it self and Disunity from others wherof all Number doth consist but it is no Number in it self being only an Imperfect Principle therof for all Number is Quantity Discrete and such Discretion must necessarily be of more then One Yet all other Numbers are only so many Ones but One is most Intirely and Individualy One in it self having both the same Root and Square And it is Analogous to an Instant or Point but Different from both and each of them one from another For an Unit may either severaly Exist as in one Instant or Coexist as in many Points but an Instant can only Exist severaly and Successively for Past Present and Future cannot be otherwise then several and Successive and a Point can only Coexist for it cannot be
and the only Question is whether there be any such Matter which is Comparatively more Dens or more Rare then any other Matter simply in itself And wheras generaly Porous Bodys that are filled are more Dens and Bodys which fill the Pores more Rare as I have shewed it plainly appears by Porosity itself whereby they seek to solv Density and Rarity that they also are such in their several Simple Bodys so consydered in themselvs otherwise becaus a Brass or Iron Kettle set upright with the Concavity therof above the Water will swim in Water the Complex Extension both of the Vessel and of the Air which fills that one great Pore of the Cavity being in the whole more Rare and consequently more Light then the same Proportionable Extension of Water we might therefore affirm that the Brass or Iron in itself is not more Dens and consequently more Heavy then the Water nor the Air more Rare and consequently more Lâ—ght then the Brass or Iron nor any of them more Dens or more Rare and consequently not more Heavy or more Light then another simply considered in themselvs which if they be as certeinly they are then there is also such Density and Rarity both of the Matter of any Porous Body and of that which fills the Pores simply consydered in themselvs And indeed if we should consyder Density and Rarity only Complexively and not Simply there should be no Density and Rarity in the World which would take away the very Subject of the Question for the whole World being one Complex Body though it consist of many particular Bodys more Dens and more Rare Simply in themselvs yet is all Equidens Complexively becaus it is all one Complex Body Wherefore either there is no Density or Rarity in the World or if there be the difference therof must be in the different Simple Bodys and particular Maâ—ter itself Also to inquire farther into this Porosity which is assigned to be the Formal Caus of Rarity we will again consyder the Reason therof which must be this that a more Porous Body is therefore more Rare becaus the Pores are filled with more Rare Matter unles we pleas to admitt a Vacuity therin which is another Subterfuge of this Question but now we will consyder it as filled with some other Matter which if it be Equidens will make the whole Complex Body Equidens and therefore necessarily must be more Rare to make the Porous Body more Rare and then I demand Why is that Matter more Rare which so fills it and according to the same Reason it must likewise be becaus that Matter is a Body more Porous and the Pores therof filled with another matter more Rare then itself and so Infinitely which is both Irrational and Impossible for suppose the Pores of any Terreous Body to be filled with Water and any Pores of that with Air and any Pores of that with Aether and any Pores of that with Superaeâ—hereous Matter yet we must at last stop somwhere and confess either that the last Matter is more Rare in itself which will destroy the Reason assigned or otherwise that the Pores therof are not filled but that the last Porous Body hath only Interspersed Vacuitys And so indeed whosoever doth deny Density and Rarity of the Matter in itself if he be true to his own Reason must hold an Absolute Vacuum in Nature wherof I shall discours heerafter not esteeming this sufficient occasion nor any present Discours therof pertinent to the Question which is as I have said concerning the Density or Rarity of the Matter in itself whether Porous or not Porous or whether the Pores therof be filled or not filled Now if there be such a different Density and Rarity of the Matter itself then there may be Condensation and Rarefaction of the Matter itself And becaus this is the greater Question and doth also contein the other I shall solemnly argue it according to my maner Certeinly there is no such fixed Standard of Density in the Matter itself and in the Nature therof that it could not Possibly be more or less Dens or that God could not have Created the Matter more or less Dens becaus there is no Contradiction in it for it should be Matter whether more less Dens and if God might as he pleased have Created the whole Matter more or less Dens then he could also Create one part of the Matter more Dens and another less Dens and so indeed he hath for he Created both Heaven and Earth wherof the Heaven and Heavenly Bodys are less Dens and more Rare and the Earth and Earthly Bodys more Dens and less Rare And if he could Create one Body more Dens and another more Rare then he can also caus the Dens Body to become more Rare or the Rare to become more Dens and so also he hath for he made the Water which is more Dens to Ascend in Vapors which are more Rare otherwise they could not so Ascend into the Air and again the Vapors which are more Rare to Descend in Miâ—ts and Rains which are more Dens otherwise they could not so Descend through the Air. Also I prove it by the Products of Density and Rarity which are Gravity and Levity and their very Motions of Descent and Ascent according to the Hydrostatical Rule of Archimedes and all others since him That more Matter of less Extension will sink through less Matter of more Extension if it be Fluid And this is the very Formality of Density that it is the Affection of more Matter being of less Extension and of Rarity that it is of less Matter being of more Extension And if there be Density and Rarity then also Condensation and Rarefaction of Bodys as I have shewed and which may be confirmed by many Sensible Experiments wherof I shall mention only two one of Condensation and the other of Rarefaction The first is the Impregnating of Common Water with Salt Take a Glass Wine-bottle and first put into it as much Salt as the Water may Imbibe and then fill it up with Water and stop it with a Cork so as no Water may come forth and being so stop'd stir it up and down by moving the Glass-Bottle until the Water be perfectly Impregnated with the Salt and so made Brine and when you let it rest again you shall find that the Brine which now conteins both the Water the Salt will not fill the Bottle as before but Subside in the Neck almost to the Belly which doth plainly shew a Consyderable Condensation or the same Matter of less Extension then it was before The other shall be the common Instance of Gunpowder fired in a Gun loaded with a Bullet which will be violently discharged by the sudden and great Rarefaction of so small a Body of Powder into so large a Body of Flame or the same Matter of more Extension then it was before which therefore requireth a larger Place according to the inlarged Extension therof and explodeth the
best suffice to contein it and less Matter of more Extension which is more Rare should be in a larger Sphere which is more fitt to contein it And thus the Globe of Earth and Water which is most Dens is seated in the Inmost Orb of the World which is least and the Air which is more Rare in a Sphere next above it which is more large and the Aether which is yet more Rare in the next above that which is still more large and the Superaether which is most Rare in the the uppermost which is largest And this most Proper and Connatural Situation of the Terraqueous Globe and of all the Spheres doth rightly constitute both the Circumfereâ—ce and the Center of the whole World and the most Symmetrical Chorus of all the Bodys therof as I shall shew heerafter And certeinly as there is but one Circumference of the whole Body therof so also but one Center for those two do mutualy Relate one to the other as there can be but one Circumference and one Center in any one Body Now that all this Body is Matter we all grant and I suppose no Materialist will or can deny it Also it must be granted as I have shewed of Density and Rarity that Gravity or Pondus is the Proper Affection of the Matter and not of Spirits becaus it Subsists in the Density of the Matter and that more Dens and Grave Bodys Naturaly do sink through more Rare and Light And that Sinking is to this Universal Center of all the Matter which is Lowest and Inmost as the Circumference is Highest and Utmost Wherefore if any Particular Body which is and must be a Part of this Universal Body of Matter be more Dens and consequently more Grave it must Naturaly sink through any other Bodys beneath it which are more Rare and consequently more Light toward this Universal Center of the whole Body of Matter which is the Center of the whole Body of the World and consequently of all Particular Bodys which are only Parts therof and no Parts of any such Particular Bodys which are also Matter as well as their whole Bodys can sink Inwardly to any Center of Gravity in themselvs as to any such Particular Center for then they should Ascend in departing from the Universal Center of Extension which is exactly Centrum Gravium to which all tend And though more Dens and Heavy Bodys may sometimes Ascend to prevent Vacuity yet that is not as to any such Particular Center but only to fill the Universal Globe when more Rare cannot succeed as I shall shew heerafter Or if they be supported by any Consistent Body though more Rare that is only a Fulciment and Tanquam a Natural Center unto them Wherefore as all Pondus is of the Matter and Matter only one Homogeneous Body in itself so there can be but one Center of the Pondus therof though as Potentiae are of the Spirits and they are several and Heterogeneous so there may be several Spiritual Centers therof which are all of another Nature and very farr Different from this one Universal Center of Matter and though they be Radicaly most Dens and Strong in those several Centers yet their Motion tendeth Outward every way from the Center to the Circumference of their Particular Sphere of Activity and not as the Matter Inward or only Downward from the Circumference to the Center of Rest becaus Spirits are Active and Energetical but Matter Passive and Torpid as I have shewed And now I shall proceed to prove this Center of the Universal Body of the Matter of the whole World which as I have said is also both the Center of the Extension of the Gravity therof to which all tend or the Universal Center to be in the Earth which will also comprehend that other Question concerning the Center of the whole World Certeinly this is the constant Language of Scripture and so it is said that the Waters which covered the Earth were Beneath and the Vapors in the Air Above and the Royal Philosopher saith expresly The Heaven for Highâ— and the Earth for Depth and I suppose none can shew any one Expression in the whole Bible which may seem in the least to color or favor the contrary Opinion And the Reason therof is as apparent which I have before sufficiently declared that Earth being most Dens and consequeâ—tly most Grave and Gravity being one and the same Affection of all Matter and having but one principal Motion which is Direct must therefore tend to one and the same Term which cannot be Outward or Upward for then Grave Bodys should Ascend but must necessarily be Inward or Downward which therefore must be to one Inmost Point or Center of that Gravity And I shall confirm this Motion of Descent by clearing a common mistake concerning the Ascent of Rare or Light Bodys for as all Dens and Heavy Bodys do Descend so also do Rare Proportionably becaus they are only less Heavy as I have said As if a Pound Weight be put into one Scale and two Pounds into the other which will caus its one Scale to Descend and thereby the other to Ascend yet apparently the Pound Weight is also Heavy becaus it weighs one Pound though the two Pounds be more Heavy and so caus that Scale Proportionably to Descend and the other to Ascend Thus the Motion of Ascent of Rare Bodys is indeed rather a being Moved and their Ascent only a Violent Elevation by more Dens and Heavy Bodys which crowding more strongly or swiftly to or toward the Center do Elevate and Extrude the more Rare and Light from it Also Earth only is Consistent and cannot be prevented in the Descent therof by any other Bodys which might be Fulciments unto it as it may be to others and all this doth Sensibly appear by any Terreous Body Descending through Water and through Air and so it would also through Aether if it were in it not particularly as to its Proper Element by any Potentia of the Elementary Spirit therof but generaly as to the Universal Center of all Matter by the greater Density and Pondus therof For so if a Hole were made in the Earth from the Surface therof to the Center Water would Descend thereby to it as well as Earth if there were neither Earth nor Water therin Air would Descend likewise and so if their were neither Earth Water nor Air Aeâ—her or Superaether would Descend likewise though some pleas to phansy otherwise and would make all the Planetary Orbs so many Worlds of themselvs having their own Proper Centers not respecting this Universal Center of the whole World to which all tend but only consyder it as the Universal Center of Extension wheras as I have said the Gravity or Pondus of the Matter is an Universal Affection of the Matter Subsisting in it as well as Extension which Absurdity they have Excogitated only to defend some others which I shall also disprove heerafter And though
I might if I pleas believ a Traveller who hath been in Africa concerning any Monster therin yet certeinly I should not much believ him who had never been there himself Neither can I more believ any such Assertors concerning Aether which being so Remote is commonly made Amplissâ—â—us fingendi Campus but shall proceed in the known and beaten Road of Scripture Reason and Sens so far as they extend and as we can know or judg thereby and leaving these fansys of vain men to themselvs shall heer inquire into a more solid and true Secret of Nature and such as deservs a more Curious Search which is this That as God hath placed all the Spheres in their most Proper and Connatural Situations by such Directive Principles in themselvs and Symmetry of Nature so in that Natural Position the whole Vast and Indefinite Body of the World and all the Inconceivable Weight of the whole Matter therof doth support itself thereby withal Facility and Suavity without any suspending Funicles above or under-propping Columns beneath and so without any Force or Pressure whatsoever For though when any Particular Body or Part of the Universal Body therof is Dislocated and removed from its Proper Station and Natural Situation therin which is when any more Dens Bodys are above others more Rare they then Move or Press toward their Proper Place by their own Gravity and Motion of Descent being thereby Actuated to reduce them therunto as the Magnetical Virtue doth Move the Body therof being displaced towards the Poles of the Earth yet when they have atteined it their Motion which was Actuated before for that end being now useles and needles is again reduced to Potentiality and they then neither Move nor Press Actualy any more or any farther nor have any Actual Nisus therunto but having obteined their End are thenceforth in Peace and Rest and their very Gravity is also suspended and reduced to Potentiality as the Magnetical Needle doth Rest in the North Point which plainly shews what I said before that though Gravity flow Immediately from Density and Subsist in it and Motion of Descent in the Gravity yet they are Realy Different becaus though the Body continue to be the same and hath the same Density Actualy both when it is out and when it is in its Proper Place yet when it is our it hath Actual Gravity and Gravitation and when it is in it only Potential And thus neither the Superaether doth Press upon the Aether nor that upon the Air nor that upon the Water nor that upon the Earth nor the Earth upon itself becaus they are already in their Proper Places and therefore tend no farther for the more Dens Bodys are Natural Fulciments and so farr Centers to the more Rare And so the Proper Place of any Body is when being more Rare it is above more Dens or being more Dens beneath more Rare as I have said or also being among Equidens whether above or beneath any other parts therof yet it is in its Proper Place becaus it hath such a Natural Fulciment or Center sufficient for it and there are none more Rare beneath it through which it may or ought to Move according to this Statike Law of Nature but the other Equidens Parts whether above or beneath it are also in their Proper Sphere which is the Proper Place of them all and they can not otherwise be all in one and the same Point Again I shall observ that these Spheres being all Rotund that Spherical Roâ—undity must be filled and so the Sphere Completed to render it the Proper Place of those Bodys wherof it is the Sphere otherwise the Bodys will flow or fall every way to fill the Sphere or any Chasm therin becaus the lower parts of that Chasm will be beneath or neerer to the Center of the World then the others wherefore being Equidens they will all contend for one Equality or Spherical Community of Situation which must Equaly relate to the Center and Circumference of the World Also heerby it appears that these Spherical greater Bodys do not Move to the Center nor respect it in Regular Cylinders as less particular Bodys Plummets or Bullets falling through the Air which seem to us to Descend in a most Directly Perpendicular Line and serv for Measures therof well enough becaus any such requisite Pyramidal Confirmity therof to the Center is not discernible by reason of their smalnes as smooth Water in a Pond seems to us Exactly Plane and that Planities therof servs well enough to make a Water level wheras any Quadrant or Semiquadrant or the like of those Proportionable greater Bodys respect the Center as Pyramids Inverted with their Cones Downward and Bases Upward which is their Exact Conformity therunto and the way of their Gravitation and Motion of Descent as we may easily understand if we duly consyder the Relation of any Circumference to the Center And therefore such Quadrants and Semiquadrants do not Superpend nor consequently Superincumb in such their Pyramidal Bases beyond their Cones Yet I do not conceiv of such Proper Places and Spheres that they are Magical Circles or any such Phantastical Houses as Astronomers fansy to be in Heaven but only as I have said Proper Localitys of the whole Body of Matter and Extension of such several Spherical Bodys according to the more or less Density and Gravity therof Much less do I conceiv that the Center hath any such Magical Virtue or Attractive Power nor that it is any Cavity or the like but only a Term which is the Midst and Inmost Point and consequently the Lowest of the whole Body of the Matter of the World Immovable and Inalterable and relating to the Circumference therof that is the Utmost Superficies of the Superaether which is Ingenerable Incorruptible and Invariable being the Universal Bound and Limit of Nature and of all Bodys and of the whole Matter and Extension therof Having thus premised I shall now examin the Pressure of the Atmosphere which is so confidently asserted by some though evidently there be no such thing nor can there be any Rational Supposition therof without a supposed Dislocation of the Body of the World and offering Violence to Nature as I shall now prove God Created the Heaven and the Earth and nothing beyond or without them wherefore certeinly they Press upon nothing or do not Press Outwardly becaus there is no Outward thing to support them or on which rhey might Press but only they tend to Union Inwardly And as the several Spherical Bodys of the Elements do not Press upon the Superaether nor one upon another Outwardly so neither Inwardly as Iob saith He hangeth the Earth upon nothing that is it doth not hang or Press at all either Outwardly wherof he spake before He stretcheth out the North which is the most Terreous part of the Globe over the empty place that is the Air as a Vessel is said to be Comparatively empty when it is filled only with Air
and Spirits and their Spiritual Qualitys which are all conteined within the same Extension of the whole Body of Matter and the several Figures therof are the Hieroglyphical Images of the Various Spirits and may have some kind of Signature therof and so Condensation is Analogous to Intension and Rarity to Remission of Qualitys and Pondus to Potentia and the rest but especialy Motion is Analogous to the very Activity of Spirits and yet as Matter and Spirit so all Material and Spiritual Accidents are Genericaly Different and particularly Local Motion from the Active and Generative or Corruptive Motion of Elementary Spirits and much more from Vegetation Sensation and Intellection which are Motions of a farr other Nature as I shall shew heerafter Again as Matter and Material Accidents are not nor can not be Formaly the very Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys so neither are they Potentialy as others have supposed and so would Educe them all out of I know not what Potentia Materiae and some Christian Philosophers in compliance therwith have supposed the first Chaos to be only such a Materia Prima though God saith expresly that in the very Begining he Created Heaven and Earth Comprehending Superaether and all the fower Elements as I have said and that the Matter had not only as a Materia Prima the first and common Affections therof that is one Extension one Orbicular Figure Equidensity and Equigravity and the like but particular Diversifications and Variations of Spheres of several Figures Densitys and Gravitys and the like and the Superaether then probably was Created Perfect and adorned with all the Furniture therof whatsoever it is and the Elements were Created in such a maner as did Denominate them Aethereal and Aereal Heavens Earth and Water yea the very Heavens and the very Earth as some have Criticaly observed though Inform and Inane and without Motion which is Secondary and Subordinate to Rest and wherof there was no Need nor Use before Generation and Corruption were Ordeined afterward in the Six Days Of all which I shall now proceed to discours SECTION VI. And the Spirit of God Moved upon the face of the Waters EXPLICATION The Spirit of God Moving in the Chaos by Supernatural Incubation did Prepare and Predispose it for the Producing and Perfecting all things that were before Created in it afterward in the Six Days ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Incubation of the Divine Spirit 2. Of Actuality and Potentiality 3. Of Generation and Corruption 4. Of the Process therof 5. Of the Scale of Nature 6. Of the Oeconomy therof I. GOd who in the Begining or very first Instant Created Heaven and Earth could also have Perfected them and all Creatures therin in the very same Instant as most probably he did so Perfect the Superaether and Angelical Nature which are the highest Sphere and highest Nature for the manifestation of his Infinite Power yet also to manifest his Infinite Liberty and Absolute Sovereignty over Created Being and the Subordination and Subjection therof to himself and how the Creatures as they could not Caus themselvs to Be from Notbeing so also after they had a Being could not of themselvs Perfect themselvs nor attein any farther Degree of Welbeing without him and his Creating Causality did first let this Elementary World ly in the Chaos therof and afterward in such a Space of Time as seemed fitt to his Divine Wisedom that is in Six several Days proceed Gradualy and Orderly to Perfect them And though the first Creation which was from Absolute Notbeing to Being must therefore have been in an Instant becaus there is only one Affirmative Term therof that is Being which must necessarily be in the same Instant assoon as it was yet all these Works of the Six Days which were Productions from Potentiality to Actuality or Original Generations from not such a Being to such a Being which are several Affirmative Terms of Being and the first only Negative of such a Being which yet implys Being was Gradualy in Time according to Natural Generation and the Process and Cours therof which was then Instituted as I shall shew heerafter And this Original Generation was another Improper Creation and Pâ—rfective of the Primitive and Proper Creation and such as could not be perâ—ormed by Nature until the Natural Cours therof was sett in Order by the Divine Spirit who before it was so Produced and until it was Perfected did from the Begining Effectively Move or Incubate in or upâ—n the Created Chaos as it were hatching the Egâ— or Embryo therof in the midst of all the Elements that is upon or above the Face of the Waters and Earth beneath them and under the Aereal and Aehereal Heavens Preparing and Predisposing them for the Production of all their Apparatus and Inhabitants out of their first Created Potentâ—alitys Latent in the first Chaos into their Actualitys in the Six Days And all those Productions were also the Immediate Works of the same Divine Power as it is said God said Let there be Light and so of the rest which were not tâ—e same Creations with the first for that had been Vain and Superflâ—ous nor in the same maner for that was in the Begining or first Instaâ—t but these in Six several Days Gradualy and Orderly according to the Natural Process of Generation which was then fiâ—st Instituted as I have said and wherin as all their Primitive Enâ—itys were first Created in the Chaos and then Prepared and Predisposed by the Divine Spirit so every Production in every one of the Six Days was Previous and Preparatory in Nature to and for the Succeeding Productions as I aâ—so shall shew heerafter Aâ—d Angels probably being Createâ— Perfect in and with their Superae her in the Begining though they migâ—t be Spectators yet neither did Operate nor Assist in this Improper Creation which though Improper in respect of the former yet is only Proper to God himself who is expressly said so to Create in all the Six Days as well as in the Begining But I presume rather that as God made all things for himself and the manifestation of his own Glory to his Intellective Creatures Angels and Men so Angels were Created in the Begining in and with their Native Region of the Highest Heaven that they who can Intuitively behold all things and needed no Created Light to Inspect the Dark Chaos and so I suppose the whole World and Frame of Nature is Transparent to them might Contemplate all the Works of God in the Improper Creations of the Inferior Elementary World which was to be the Region of Man as he who is the other Intelligence was made last to Review as God himself afterward did all the Works which he had made and to celebrate that Sabbath of Rest which God Instituted and as it is said made for him And as the Divine Spirit was the only Creator and Angelical Spirits no Subcreators so much less was there or is there any such Archaus Faber or
into the Actuality then there is a Generation therof and when again that Actuality is Reduced into the Potentiality then there is a Corruption therof But Simple Substances which subsist in themselvs therefore always are Actualy in themselvs and are Ingenerable and Incorruptible Thus in the Begining there was not only the Matter nor only the Spirit of the Superaether Actualy Subsisting but also of Aether Air Water and Earth which did so Denominate those first Elementary Composita of the Matter and their several Spirits the Heavens and the Earth as I have shewed And so there were also in them and with them all the Substantial Simple Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits Subsisting Actualy in themselvs though there were yet no such Mist Composita of the Elements themselvs as afterward which might Denominate them Stone Metall and the like nor any Composition of the Elementary Spirits with the Vegetative or of Elementary and Vegetative with Sensitive which might so Denominate them Trees Beasts and the like untill such Composita were Produced in the Six Days afterward And so also there were all the Intrinsecal Created Essences or Entitys of Simple Accidents aswell as Substances which were also Created together in the Begining in and with their Substances though only the Universal Accidents of Matter Extension Orbicular Figure Density Rest and the like did then Actualy and Extrinsecaly Exist in the Matter and there were yet none of those Particular Variations therof which were afterward superinduced by the Spiritual Qualitys of Spirits becaus those Spiritual Accidents did not yet Exist themselvs and so not only Substantial Composita but also such Simple Accidents were in their Chaos of Potentiality As there was no Actual Light but Darknes and so of the rest but yet the Intrinsecal Essence or Entity of Light and the Rest was in the Chaos Pâ—tentialy which is therefore termed Inform and Inaâ—e becaus they were not yet in it Actualy and Extrinsecaly but were afterward so Produced in the Six Days And all the Previous and Requisite Principles Substantial or Accidental wherin any of their Produced Composita did Subsist Mediately or Immeâ—iately were first Produced themselves without which the other could not have been Produced as Mist Elements before Vegetative Composita and Vegetatives before Sensitive Composita And so doth the Natural Generation and Corruption botâ— Suâ—stantâ—al and Accidental still continue as doth plainly appear by all Generative Mistion and Composition and production thereby of the Composita which are so Confabricated Naturaly aswell as Artificialy As a Hous is Potentialy in all the Materials before it be built and every particular Figure in the Extension of the Materials before it is framed and when it is so Prepared and Eâ—ected it may be said to be Artificialy Generated and when it is Demolished to be Corrupted the Materials like Substances still remaining the same and the whole Compositum and every Figure therof being first Potentialy and afterward Actualy therin and so again Reduced from Actuality to Potentiality by Demolition and there is no other Difference heerin between them but only that Natural Generation and Corruption are Intrinsecal Consubstantâ—ations or Compositions of Proper Principles of Nature which are both the Materials and Architect therof and Artificial Generation and Corruption are Extrinsecal which only can be by Application and Apposition of the Intrinsecal Principles of Nature so applied and conjoined by the Architecture of Art And as all these Mistions Compositions Figures and Virtues which were afterward Produced in the Six Days were Potentialy in this first General Chaos so every thing now in the Cours of any Generation or Corruption while it is in Potentiality is so farr forth in the Particular Chaos therof and when it is Actuated is Produced out of it and there is no other difference heerin between them but that the first Production was by the Supernatural Power of the Divine Spirit and the others by the Power of Instituted Nature or Application of Art so that this Potentiality is not Relative to Essence or Entity as if it were only a Possibility of something which yet hath no Essence or Entity in any maner whatsoever but only to Actuality of the Essence or Entity therof which is not yet in such a maner as Potentialy it may be not only by Divine Power which may Create it Properly or Improperly but according to the ordinary Cours of Nature or Art which may so Generate it Naturaly or Artificialy And so the Existence itself or this Realy Difâ—erent maner of Being is an Entity Potentialy in the Essence before it Exists and Actualy when it doth Actualy Exist And whatsoever is not so Actualy Existent must necessarily Be before in the Essence therof Potentialy otherwise it could never be Produced or made Actualy to Exist by any Power of Nature or Art And these Essences or Entitys which are yet in their Chaos of Potentiality do then Actualy Exist when as I may so say they come forth upon the Stage of Nature and there Appear and Act or might so Appear and would so Act if there were no Violent Impediment as Accidents which are the Emissarys and Instruments of Spirits do Exist when they are Actualy so Emitted and Instructed and consequently Actuated whereby the Spirits of Sensible Composita do Immediately Act or Operate upon our Senses or Sensitive Facultys which are also Accidents and thereby Mediately upon our Substantial Spirits and yet there may be such a Violent Impediment whereby like Substantial Spirits which always Exist though sometimes Latent they may not so Appear and Act unto or upon us though they Exist Actualy in themselvs as a Picture under a Curtain or the like And so there may be also an Erupturient Endeavour which we call Nisus when they can not Appear and Act as otherwise they might and would by reason of some more immediate Obstruction like Retention by any Spontaneous Power with some Strife and Difficulty which plainly shews them to be so far Actual becaus there is no Actual Contention of or between any Accidents while they are in Potentiality though their Essential Natures be most Contrary one to another And I conceiv that all Mistion and Contemperature of Contrary Qualitys is first begun while they are in the Chaos of their several Potentialitys as they were so Prepared and Predisposed by the Divine Spirit in the Universal Chaos as I have before shewed and then there being no Actual Contrariety between them they are easily Mist at first and so by Degrees are more and more Actualy Mist as their Contrary Essences are more and more Actuated and Produced into Existence by a mutual Contemperation and Gradual Process therof Thus I have more largely explained what I intend by Actuality and Potentiality becaus the right Understanding therof is as I conceiv and shall shew heerafter the Fundamental Knowledg of the whole Doctrine of Generation and Corruption And now I shall proceed to prove it accordingly It is said of the first
Miâ—tion and Temperature of the Elementary Spirits and Qualitys which is so Subordinate and Subâ—ervient to the Sensitive Spirit and that they are all Consubstantiated together in and with the Matter in the Sensitive Compositum And lastly a Proper Sensitive Body thus Prepared is a fourth Matter or Body of the Intellective Spirit of Man and the Body of Adam into which God first Inspired his Human Spirit was such and more then a Statue of Clay as is commonly supposed And this Spirit of Man thus Inspired is of another and farr Different Kind from all the former which were not Inspired into but Educed out of the Inferior Bodys therof nor is it so Consubstantiated with them as Material Spirits becaus it is Immaterial and a Perfect Substance in itself which needeth no such Consubstantiation but like an Angelical Spirit can also live and Operate Separately Nor yet doth it only Possess a Body as an Angel may but hath a Natural Union and Composition with it and doth Naturaly Inspirit or Inform it that is Live and Operate in it as in a fitâ— Domicil and Officine in this Conjunct State and Predominate and Govern it as a Master in a Ship All which I shall more particularly declare heerafter having now generaly treated therof only to discover and describe this Scale of Nature as God did first Erect it aâ—d as it still stanâ—eth whose Basis is the Matter and whose Acme the Intellective Spirit wherin Man also is Coordinate with the Immaterial and Separate Spirits of Angels And so all Created Nature is not only Localy but Politicaly United that is all Coordinate except Angelical and Human Spirits may be properly Mist but Subordinate except Angels only Composited together but not Confounded either by Transpeciation of one Species into another or Production of one out of another as some have supposed nor by Midle Natures or Participles as they call them partaking of the Natures of several Classes which is more Monstrous and Anomalous then the Generation of Mules and the like which are only of one and the same Classis though of two Confused Species therin but every one is in itself either Spirit or not Spirit as all Elementary and other Material Spirits Vegetative or Not Vegetative as Moss and the like Sensitive or not Sensitive as all Plantanimals Intellective or not Intellective as Idiots Lunatiks or other Human Monsters though there be such Compositions and Subordinations Classes and Hosts of them all and of one unto and with another as I have declared and as Moses hath concluded this History of the Creation Thus the Heavens and Earth were Finished and all the Hosts of them VI. And yet some who will not so understand it seem to deny any such Scale and Order of Nature and any such Oeconomy and Polity therof becaus they also deny those very Natural Principles Powers and Virtues which God hath Immediately Created and Imprinted therin since they can Educe no such things from the rude Matter nor indeed doth any such Wisdom or Will appear to be Actively in any Inferior Natures which are neither Sensitive or Intellective nor yet doth it proceed from the Sensitive and Intellective Facultys in the Superior Natures nor is it in the Universal Nature of them all and therefore they laugh at all such Expressions as that Nature intendeth the Best Affecteth Union Abhorreth Vacuity and the like and I suppose no man so void of of Sens and Intellect as to conceiv it capable therof but when we see and must acknowledg such Analogous Effects therin we must ascribe them to some Analogous Causalitys and express them by such Analogous Expressions which is all that is Intended thereby that is that God hath so Ordered Compaginated and as the Apostle saith Catartisâ—d Nature that it doth Naturaly Caus the same Effects and indeed more Powerful and Political then our Intellective and all the Sensitive Spirits therin can Caus and Produce And that God doth not so Caus these wonderful Effects Immediately by himself as he doth Supernaturaly Conserv all things which he hath Created Upholding them by the same Word of his Power but Mediately by Natural Principles Powers and Virtues which he who is Infinitely Powerful and Wise so Immediately first Created and Imprinted in Nature and thus sett it in Order in the Six Days whereby it doth and shall so continue in itself untill the last Dissolution therof to Caus and Produce such Effects which certeinly as none can deny them Realy to be such so unles he ascribe them unto the Immediate Power and Wisdom of God himself and so only to such a Continued Creation without any other Natural Causation wheras he saith he Rested from all these Works which he had thus made and set in Order in the Six Days he must acknowledg them to be also Natural and Created Causalitys then Produced and Actuated which indeed were the very Works of all the Six Days becaus ever since there are manifestly such Effects and therefore there must necessarily be some Causes therof either Supernatural or Natural for such Order Oeconomy and Polity can not be reasonably supposed to be Casual becaus it is not only most Regular but also most Constant which yet Epicurus who was more Rational and true to his own Principles did affirm but must be either as some others affirm by such Immediate Divine Causation which doth render all Philosophy which is the Study of Nature and Natural Causes and Effects Vain and Impertinent Or otherwise it must be by such Natural Principles Powers and Virtues as we have as I have declared and proved to have been so Created and Instituted and this indeed is that which we call Nâ—ture Subsisting in all the Particular Natures which do Particularly so Concurr and Cooperate therin not theâ—â—â—â— any such Active Wisdom or Will in themselvs but by theâ—◠〈◊〉 Natural Principles Powers and Virtues which God who Creaâ—â—d and Imprinted them severaly and Particularly did also so Coordinate and Direct Relatively and Maturely one toward another as that they should so Concurr and Cooperate to the Universal Good Safety and Beauty of one another and of them all and consequently of this Universal Nature As an Artist who makes a Clock or Watch or the like so frames the Wheels and Parts therof and so setts them together and so applys the Weight or Springe therunto that they shall all Cooperate and Complete the Engine for that Use and the Production of that Effect which he had Designed and as Art which is the Nature of Man doth thus work by Artificial and External Application of Natural and Internal Principles Powers and Virtues so doth Nature which is the Art of God Act and Effect the like and more Curious Engines whoâ— by them Naturaly and Internaly whereby not only the Weight or Springe but also the very Plastical Figuration Gravity Motion and mutual Application is so Caused and Produced though without any such Artificial Wisedom or Will in any Automatous Compositum
only Diaphanous or fitt to Receiv it into itself as Matter doth Spirits which it may also represent unto us And itself is sometimes Actualy and sometimes Potentialy Produced and Reduced by a most Momentaneous Generation for if the Lucid Body be in a Diaphanous Body the Emanant Light will be as Actual as the Inherent and if it be Obnubilated with an Opacous Body it is in the same Moment Reduced to Potentiality which also sensibly discovereth Actuality and Potentiality And so in a Moment it passeth from Heaven to Earth though I do not affirm or conceiv that Motion to be Instantaneous which is through so vast a Space wheras no Motion can be through any Space or Extension which hath Part beyond Part though it be never so little Properly in an Instant becaus it is from one Part or Term to another as I have said yet it is so Momentaneous that to us it is as it were Instantaneous so as no Mathematical Science or Human Wit whatsoever can perceiv and assigne any Difference and yet we must acknowledg that it is vastly Different in itself which is also another very wonderfull Contemplation if it be Curiously consydered and may well be Reposited among the other Mathematical Mysterys which I have formerly mentioned Certeinly there is not nor Possibly can be any Physical Discrimination or Dissection therof as of a Body or Bodily Substance for it is Impossible by any other the quickest Motion in Nature of any Opacous Body Interposed to cutt off any Part of a Ray or to prevent the Reflection therof which also Sensibly proves it not only to be no Corporeal Substance but of another Nature farr Different from it and also Different from Inherent Light for it doth not thereby Return or Recoil into it but Reflect itselâ— and continue still in its Actual Emanation though in another way to preserv itself in its own Different Actuality as every thing Naturaly doth and this also shews the Specifical Oeconomy of such Different Natures and that Accidents can not be Annihilated more then Substances or Matter itself and consequently not Created and therefore a Ray of Light can not Possibly be Dissected for then it neither Subsisting Actualy nor Potentialy in the Diaphanous Body wheriâ— it doth Localy Exist but in the Inherent Light and Lucid Substance as I have said if it could be Dissected and cutt off from them it could neither Subsist in itself nor in the Diaphanous or Lucid Body nor in any other Actualy nor Potentialy nor in any maner whatsoever and so should not only Vanish or Disappear to us but totally Perish and not be any thing either Actualy or Potentialy or in any maner whatsoever and consequently be Annihilated wheras if the Inherent Light be Obnubilated it returns into it and into its Potentiality therin out of which it will as suddenly proceed and flow forth again into Actuality when the Obstruction is removed or if the Inherent Light be Extinct it also is Reduced thereby into its Potentiality as well as Emanant Light and so both into their Potentialitys in the Substantial Spirit wherin their Accidental Essences do Originaly Subsist nor doth either Inherent or Emanant Light add â—ny Material Density or Gravity to the Lucid Body for no Spiritual Qualitys though never so much Conspissated Spiritualy and though as I have said such Spiritual Conspissation be Analogous to Material Condensation do add any Gravity to the Body as an Iron Candent which is very Fervid and Lucid yet is not Heavier then when it is Cold nor is the Air unles it be also Condensated in the very Body therof more Grave by Night then by Day or in Summer then in Winter and therefore Planets do not fall through Aether though they have more Inherent Heat and Light Much less is any Body Heavier when it hath more Heat and Light Emanant in it and the same may be Curiously tried by any Opacous Body poised in Water which will not rise by any sudden admission of the greatest or most Spiss Light into the Water though it will afterward Sink by Heat which is not becaus the Heat doth Levitate or Light Gravitate the Water by Impregnating it with any more Rare or Dens Matter in themselvs but Heat doth Spiritualy Rarefy the Water itself and so consequentialy Levitate it wheras Light doth neither Levitate nor Gravitate it and yet if it were Matter Impregnating the Water or Penetrating the supposed Pores of any Diaphanous Body it should thereby Gravitate but indeed there is no such Penetration of Pores by Emanant Light which certeinly is not a Body becaus though it be not Mist with it yet it Penetrateth the very Diaphanous Body itself per omnia Punctae for turn an Equaly Diaphanous Globule against the Light which way you pleas it will be Equaly as Diaphanous one way as another which could not be if the Rays did pass only through Pores as some suppose unles we should also suppose it to be all Pores and consequently no such Globulous Body Also this is most apparently contrary to all the Laws of Refraction which are always in Direct Lines from one Point to another within the Diaphanous Body itself and by most Regular Inflections as I shall shew heerafter and not through any such Porous Meanders and Diverticles and indeed Diaphanous Bodys as Aether itself through which the Sun doth Eradiate are of all others least Porous and if the Light did only Penetrate through some more Rare Matter in these Pores then that being therefore Diaphanous it must Penetrate through the very Bodily Matter therof which no Body can do or through other Pores of that Porous Matter and so Infinitely as I have shewed or through Interspersed Vacuitys which is as Impossible as the other and if it were Possible yet it should be no Diaphaneity but only a plain Phaneity as when we look through a Sive or Silk we do not therefore say that the Sive or Silk is Diaphanous as the Air and the Air could not be so Totaly Diaphanous as it is unles it were a Diaphanous Body throughout in the whole and not only in the Pores therof And as several Specifical Qualitys may be in the same Place per omnia as Heat and Light so also several Individual Lights Emanant which must necessarily Dâ—ffer Individualy becaus they Subsist in several Lights Inherent to which they belong and to their several Lucid Bodys and which doth also appear by the several Shadows that they cast which being several Privatives do evidently prove the Positives to be several So if the fower Walls of a Room be painted with fower several Colors Black White Blew and Yellow though the Rays of Light Reflected from them Penetrate one another per omnia becaus they fill the whole Room whereby the several Colors may be seen in every Point therof yet we see them several and Distinct and not Mist or Confounded By all which it plainly appears that Local Union per
can be no Privative as Darknes which Light alway overcomes for such Contrariety is between Positives nor any thing which is not Active in itself as Density or any other Affection of the Matter which as they are not thus Actively Contrary to Heat so neither to Light or to any other Spiritual Qualitys whatsoever though according to the Universal Polity and Consociation of Nature they may be more or less Symbolical or Asymbolical And particularly Density is thus a Symbolical Affection of the Matter with that which is Contrary to Light as Rarity is with it and other Qualitys of Aether which as I have said requireth a very Rare Body and so Density is a Corporeal Affection Requisite and Analogous to the one and Rarity to the other but as there may be less Inherent Light in a more Rare Body then in a more Dens as in the Flame of Spirit of Wine then of Pitch which certeinly is a more Dens and Fuliginous Fume then the other so more of Emanant Light in a more Dens Body as Glass is more Diaphanous then thick Water through which it will sink and yet is more Opacous Wherefore there is somthing besides Density that is Contrary to Light which hath been well observed by others and acquired a Name whereby it may be known and is called Opacity which is a Quality of Earth as I shall shew heerafter And this is one of the other Qualitys of the Elements besides those commonly called the Fower First Qualitys which are to be Consydered and Regarded by Philosophers as well as them and as we may not Invent any new fictitious Qualitys which God hath not Created so neither may we lose any of them which he hath made to be in Nature nor Confound any Simple Qualitys with Compound nor Compound with Simple which God Created in the Begining before there was any such Composition and though indeed Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine Necessâ—â—ate yet whatsoever God hath Created Necessarily is becaus he hath Created it and therefore it is and whatsoever is is Necessarily while it is and none can Annihilate the Entity therof by any Finite Power of Nature and much less by Opinion and Fansy For at it is said of the Divine Word so we must also Consyder and Discours of the World as it is and none can Add to it or Diminish from it And God in his Infinite Wisedom did so Create the Heavens and the Earth in the Begining with all their Various Furniture of several Simple Essences becaus as it is his Infinite Perfection to be One in Himself so it is also the Perfection of Finite Nature to be Many in One whereby all the Various Perfections therof are Variously Expressed which could not be only by One. Wherefore I shall sett the same Bound to my self which God himself hath sett in Nature neither to go beyond the Begining of the World nor any thing which he Created therin nor to fall short therof or fear to affirm these Original Entitys to be such becaus God who is the First Caus hath so Created them without seeking any farther Caus or Reason therof or to deny any Natural Mistions or Compositions to be any such Simple Principles or Original Essences though he hath also joined them together with others so that we can not sett them asunder Localy by any Chymical Separation And such an Original Quality I find expressly Light to have been Produced into Actuality in the First Day which lay hid before in the Dark Chaos of Potentiality and by the same Reason I know that Opacity was also Produced together with Light and Mist with it in the Mistion of Aether with Earth as well as with the other Elements becaus there is neither Pura Lux nor Purae Teneâ—rae Actualy in Nature neither can I conceiv that any such Actual Qualitys can Exist Naturaly in their greatest Intension and Extremity and therefore probably might not so Actualy Exist in the Chaos before their Mistion and Contemperation which seems to be as Necessary to their Existence as the present Mistions of the fower Elements according to the first Works of God in the Six Days and Original Institution and Law of Generation and so must continue as long as any Successive Generation and Corruption and present Cours of Nature And this Opacity is a Terrene Quality wherunto the Density therof is Assistant and so Earth itself is most Opacous and Water less yet having some Opacity that causeth Refraction which is a Partial Reflection and so Air and Aether and all Diaphanous Bodys for there is no Pure Diaphaneity without any Opacity And this Opacity doth not only Reflect and Refract but is also Mist with Light in Colors and in Light itself which hath some Desultory Color and is not simply Visible of itself as I shall shew heerafter Thus the more fixed Qâ—alitys of Earth do fix the more Agile and Volatile Qualitys of the rest of the Elements being as an Alloy to Metall which makes it more Malleable And so particularly is Terrene Opacity to Aethereal Light for as Owls can not see by Daylight so the strongest Sight could not see the Pure Light nor can it Exist in its own Simple Vehemence without the Mâ—sture of Opacity And these Elementary Mistions are the Natural Perfections of the Simple Substances and Accidents which do therefore require it as well as Matter and Material Spirits do Consubstantiation as I have shewed Now Diaphaneity being only a less Degree of Opacity as Rarity is of Density it is also Partly Opacous and therefore as I have said doth Refrâ—ct which is a Partial Reflection or rather Inflection of the Rays from their own Natural Direction and there is no Diaphanous Body which doth not Refract more or less and none that doth Refract but doth also Reflect But in all Refraction and Reflection the Perpendicular Rays pass through the Diaphanous Body Perpendicularly and all Emanations Immediately are Perpendicular and neither A Perpendiculo nor Ad Perpendiculum as in Refraction or Reflection which as we commonly Intend by those Terms are always Oblique Lines Wherefore I suppose that the Rays of any Lucid Body are not so Refracted in the Immediate Medium wherin it is as of the Sun in the Aether or of the Flame of a Candle in the Air for as I have said the Flux or Eradiation of the Rays therof issues forth Immediately from the Inherent Light in most direct Rays and so they must Circumferentialy every way Penetrate their Immediate Medium with all their Rays Directly and not Obliquely as well as the Perpendicular Ray doth any Diaphanous Body which doth Refract the rest But we must also observ that as Opacity doth caus Refraction and Reflexion of the Rays so the Density of Diaphanous Bodys doth Ampliate or Distend the Rays of Expansion whereby it also weakens them So I conceiv that Refraction and Reflection are when the Rays having passed their Immediate Medium do meet with another
Popular Expressions such as are according to false Apprehensions of Common People or Deceptions of Sens and the like and I suppose they can not shew any one such in all this Narration and indeed it is great Impiety to conceiv that there should be any such in it which doth so Historicaly and Intentionaly declare and describe the Genesis of the World though in other parts of the Scripture which are not so Historical and Intentional I also acknowledg that there are all the Varietys of Human Language and so there are many Expressions which are spoke as we say Rotunde and so indeed Popularly for common Use and such as are allowed in all Arts and Sciences even Mathematical and many Figurative Expressions yea Hyperbolical and Ironical in some more Poetical and Rhetorical parts therof which yet may as easily be discerned as in any ordinary Discours but certeinly the Divine Verity doth not any where offer any thing of Falsity or Deception but Expresseth most Infallible Truth in the common Language of Mankind and particularly according to those Tongs wherin it is writ and most Wisely Ordereth and Varieth the Expressions according to the Occasion and Intention therof and so heer concerning the Genesis of the World it speakâ—th not only most truly but also as Narratively and as Philosophicaly as any Philosopher whatsoever and therefore none may justly neglect it upon any such preâ—ension of Popularity neither do I suppose that to be the very reason therof as is pretended but rather that it speaketh too Expressly and Exactly those things which are Contrary to the Private Opinions of such Pretenders who becaus they can not Evade the Divine Authority therof would Elude it by supposing that it neither doth nor can speak any thing against their own preconceived Opinions and therefore as they esteem all the World of Mankind besides themselvs Popular and to be in a Popular Error so they most Profanely and Presumptuously Interpret Scripture itself rather according to Common Errors as they suppose then will endure it to Contradict their own greater Errors which yet they will maintein as Oraculous and I find this Humor to prevail not only with such who do wholy exclude Scripture from all Philosophical Discourses but also in many Commentators who rather correct Moses by Heathenish Philosophers in any such Points as are not Articles of our Creed as the Creation and the like then them by Moses in their Timid and Partial Explications yea even Translators who should strictly embrace the very Letter of the Text yet do thus Warp and Incline as farr as they may in their very Expressions as I have observed and I know not how among them all this Divine Philosophy hath hitherto been Rejected Neglected or Abused whereby Mankind haâ—h received litle more satisfaction from it then from any other Human Philosophy though it be the only Standard of Truth and the first Sentence therof In the Begining c. the very Alpha of all Divine Letters and the Foundation of all that Divinity and Morality or our whole Duty toward God and Man that is conteined in the whole Scripture whereby it plainly appears how firm a Connexion there is between Theology Morality and Natural Philosophy and of what Consequence and Concernment according to Divine Wisdom a right and sound Knowledg therof is both in Church and State and I dare affirm that there never was extant in the World any other Writing that hath more firmly and plainly laid the Foundations of these three most Noble and Profitable Sciences and as it is my Designe to Demonstrate it even in Natural Philosophy which perhaps men may least expect so I may suppose if I shall perform and obtein this they will easily grant it of the others And I hope though I may fall short of mine own Intention and their Satisfaction yet I shall discover so much Light therof that others will begin to believ that more may be derived from this Fountain and so proceed to perfect what I have begun Certeinly whatsoever is in this Sacred History is Truth and all that Truth is Fundamental wherupon Human Reason to which God hath left the rest for the Exercitation and Improvement therof may proceed to build but other Foundation then this can no Man lay And though the Divine Spirit in Inditing it did not intend to satisfy the more Curious and Impertinent yet such things as no Memory of Man hath otherwise Preserved and Delivered nor our Reason and Judgment could have Retrived are heer clearly Reveled and faithfully Recorded As not only that there was a Creation and a Begining but how many Thousand Years since and all the Succeeding Chronology of the World and the whole Order and Process of Created Nature how it was first Ordained and Instituted in Six several Days and the like and as all Christian Historians have rectified the Fabulous Chronology of Pagans by the former so should Christian Philosophers their Contradictory and Unsatisfactory Philosophy by the latter But again on the other hand we must carefully avoid all Cabalistical and Allegorical Interpretations therof and satisfy our selvs with the plain and simple Sens of the Text according to the Subject Matter therof and Context of Scripture And thus wheras the Rabbins from those former Expressions God said and God called it and the like have asserted the Hebrew Language wherin this History of the Creation was writ by Moses and the Names of Day Night Heaven Sea Earth and the like which are said thus to be Named by God to be therefore the Primitive Language Instituted by God and Original of all others I dare not so affirm though I otherwise grant it to be the most antient of all Languages now Extant becaus that Book is the most antient of all Books now Extant But God is also said to call the Starrs by their Names though all of them be not Expressed for their Names to him who is the Creator of all things are their Created Natures by which he knows them Immediately and Essentialy and so he speaks by Real Language or by his Works which as I have said are the Extrinsecal and Artificial Words of the Divine Mind and his Word is only a Comment therupon and so the Heaven and Earth were Denominated by their Created Natures and when he made Day and Night he so denominated them by making them to be such And heerin Divine Language and Human Differ for wheras Adam afterward gave Names unto the Creatures he only Verbaly called them by some Instituted Names Expressive of such Natures as God had made them but did noâ— nor could Realy make them to be such And the Primitive Language whatsoever it was may rather be referred to him for it is Mans Creature and of Human Institution and possibly he might speak that Language and so it is said Adam called his wife Chevah and she her son Sheth However it is certein they both spake some Language which also declares the great Perfection of
a Phaeton Burning and Consuming them in the Torrid Zone therof And therefore is farthest Removed from them and Diverted by its own Perpetual Motion and Tempered by the Mediation of the Frigid Air or Drowned with the Clammy Water or Imprisoned in the Consistent Earth untill at last this Firstborn and Strength of Nature shall Destroy them all with an Universal Conflagration and turn the very Original Chaos into an Everlasting Gehennâ— Also Light the other of those Aethereal Gemini is as Amiable at Heat is Powerfull Actuating all the Visible Beautys of Nature and is farr more Beautifull in itself Discovering all that is between us in any of the other Elements and its own Profundity Adorning Culinary Fire with a Golden Flammeum so that Infants newly born are ravished with the Lustre and fix their Eys on the Beauty therof and all Domestical and Savage Beasts both Love and Dread the Majesty therof Which opening the Shopwindows of the World setts forth all the Wares therof with no fals Lights Inriching Gold itself with its Brightnes and Irradiating Jewells with its Rays Which maketh Day by its desired Presence and Night by its deplored Absence And is in itself the most Excellent Sensible of the most Excellent Sens and the Visible Hieroglyphike of Invisible Spirits and of all other Elementary Natures affordeth most both of Contemplation and Conversation to Sensitive and Intellective Animals SECTION VIII And God said Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it Divide the Waters from the Waters And God made the Firmament and Divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament And it was so And God called the Firmament Heaven And the Evening and the Morning were the Second Day EXPLICATION God having Perfected the Aether did by the Heat therof caus the Vapors of Water to Ascend into the Air when it also was fitly Expanded between the Aether and the Waters and thereby the Vapors of Water which were above were Divided from the Waters beneath And this Aereal Expansum was another Heaven and so Perfected in the Second Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Air. 2. Of the Elasticity therof 3. Of Cold. 4. Of Sounds 5. Of Meteors therin 1. THe Air is the next Element to Aether and seemeth to be Continuous with it becaus it is also Diaphanous and doâ—h not Terminate the Sight And so it is called Firmament or Expansum as well as the Aether and also Heaven as well as the Superaether And becaus it is the next and Immediate Heaven to us therefore the general Name of Heaven is according to Hebraical Etymology most Proper and Peculiar to it though the Superaether be the most Stupendous Excellent Heaven in its own Nature as I have said And as we generaly call all that is above us Heaven so in that respect this is the First Heaven Aether the Second and Superaether the Third But it is in itself very Different from both them above it and also from Water and Earth below it and as Different from all the other Elements as they are generaly one from another becaus they are several Elements though particularly as they are neerer in Situation so also in Nature one to another And Air is of a Midle Nature between Aether and Water as Water is between Air and Earth and so consydered with the Aethereal Rays Emanant into it may be called an Aeriaethereous Sphere and with the Vapors and the Effluvia therof Ascending into it an Aquaereous Sphere as Water and Earth are a Terraqueous Globe And though becaus it hath Spiritualy less Sensible Qualitys then Aether and a less Dens or Gross Body then Water so that any Vessel filled with it is Comparatâ—vely said to be Empty and Poeticaly it is called the Inane aâ—â— Chymists in their most Curious Separations can not well discern it yet God who Created it hath discovered it to be a particular Element and one of the three Heavens and the Fowls of that Heaven feel and find it to be such in their flying therin and though it be in Rarity next to Aeâ—her yet both of them have some Density and a Proportionable Weight as I have said Also though it be farr more Rare then Water which is supposed to be about a thousand times more Dens then the Atmosphere according to the Common Temper therof and may be many times more Dens then Air Rarefied or Expanded yet perhaps as Water and Earth do more agree in Density so also Air and Aether which are both called Expansa in Rarity But as Air is thus Rare so it is not only capable of Compression more then Water but also of Dilatation or Expansion more then Aether which Expansion therof is now made famous by the Name of Elastâ—city wherof I shall purposely treat afterward and therefore not now prevent my self As Astronomers have devifed several Spheres and Regions in the Aether so have others also in the Air wheras indeed they have both only their own Proper Regions which are several becaus they are both of several Density and Rarity and of several Elementary Natures and so with the other two Divide the whole Elementary Globe into their fower several Provinces as I have shewed and if any could shew us any such Division Corporeal and Spiritual or either of them in the Aether or Air themselvs they should Prove what they Say and not only Say what they Imagin But though no Colorable Caus be offered to make such Partitions in Aether except the Various Motions of the Sydereous Bodys which Move in the Aether and are Moved with the Aether and need no such Proper Spheres as I have shewed yet there is a more Sensible Pretension to prove Three several Regions in the Air which will be also found to be like them in the Aether only in Notion and not in Nature for wheras they assigne the First Region to be and extend so farr as the Emanant Rays of Aether are Reflected from the Earth the Midle to be where that Reflection endeth and wherin the Meteors are and the Third above them and so Immediately Contiguous to the Aether I find no such Partition therof neither in the Text nor in Nature For themselvs do not apprehend the First Region to be many Miles high nor indeed can it be of any great Hight if it be below all Meteors Vapors Dews and the like which continualy Ascend into it from the Terraqueous Globe and are not very high but certeinly the Rays are Reflected much farther then any hath yet assigned the utmost Hight of the whole Air to be It is reported that the Pike of Teneriff and some such other Eminences of the Earth may be seen at the Distance of about three Degrees from them which can not be by the Direct Rays therof being no Lucid Bodys and therefore must be by the Reflected Rays of Aether which are Reflected so farr through the Air otherwise there could be no Vision
of the Object at such a Distance though indeed Reflection be farr shorter then Direct Emanation and perhaps there may be some such Proportions therof as there are of the Descent and Reflected Motion of any Ball or Stone from a Paviment And therefore we can not see so farr by the Reflected Rays of a Candle in the Night as we may see the Candle itself by the Direct Rays therof Now Heat is a Congenerous Quality of Light and Emanant with it in the same Aethereal Rays as appears by the Bâ—rning Glass and though the Heat of the Sun beams doth Penetrate farther into the Earth then the Light therof becaus it is not resisted by the Opacity therof which is not Contrary therunto but to Light and is only hindered by the Density and so may not be Reflected altogether so much becaus it Penetrates more which also proves Heat and Light to be several Qualitys yet certeinly Heat can not so farr fall short of the Light but rather there is some Degree of Heat Reflected with the Light unto the very Aether though Proportionably less and then according to their own assignment there is but one Region of the Air. Again the Vapors of Water are said to Ascend above the Airy Expansum Indefinitely which may be to the utmost Hight therof as well as all over it and as there are Bright and Dry Clouds above the Moist and Stellae Cadentes and Comets and the like above them so probably other Tenuious and Invisible Vapors above them and then also according to their own assignment there is but one Region of the Air and they who assigne must prove that there are not any Meteors or Vapors above their Second Region assigned which they can never do But the truth is that though the Aethereal Rays be Reflected from Earth to Aether yet that Reflection both of Light and Heat as all others is stronger and longer as it is neerer and weaker and shorter as it is farther from the Body Reflecting as well as Emanation is stronger as it is neerer and weaker as it is farther from the Body of the Inherent Quality which doth Emitt it and so the Reflection of the Aethereal Rays from the Terraqueous Globe back again to the Aeâ—her is Gradual and of different Degrees and thereby doth Produce Different Degrees of Vapors and several sorts of Meteors in several parts of the Air and accordingly they attein several Situations therin and by the Variation of many Circumstantial Causalitys the same Meteors poised therin almost as Glass Bubbles in Water are sometimes higher and sometimes lower and have no such Planetary Position in themselvs as Starrs in Aether nor is the Air so Invariable as it The Spirit of Air is not Exprest by any known Name and I know not therefore well how to Express it unles we should call it Aura or the like And indeed Philosophers generaly have so much attended the Gross Matter and so litle regarded Subtile Spirits that they have not so much as found out any Vocabuâ—a of the very Elementary Spirits except only Fire which is most Sensible both by the Heat and Light therof though all the other Spirits be also Substantial Activitys and have their Sensible Qualitys which yet hath not been Determined concerning all the Elements what are their first Proper Qualitys as I shall heerafter shew and particularly prove Cold to be the Proper Quality of Air as Heat is of Aether Also Air hath apparently another Quality which is Sound and that is very Sensible almost as much as Light but is not so much consydered becaus it is not so Permanent and indeed Sound is farr more Desultory then Color as I have said for though Desultory Color is not and can not be Fixed as an Image can not be fixed on a Speculum which if it could be would Excuse and Exceed the Art of any Painter yet it may be Continued in the same Poâ—ition as long as you pleas wheras Sound is alway Transient and Fugitive as I shall shew heerafter and can not be Continued one Moment but is still in Succession like Flame and almost like the very Instants of Time And yet as all the other Heavens are Hebraicaly Denominated from this first Heaven Air so also all Spirits from the Spirit therof almost in all Languages Air hath also a Mistion with all the other Elements as well as Aether and perhaps more as Water hath more then it and Earth most of them all and so it hath more of the Terrene Qualitys then Aether and less then Water as it hath more Refracting Opacity then the one and less then the other and so also more Consistence then the one and less then the other and therefore is probably less Fluid then Aether as it is apparently more Fluid then Water II. The Aether as I have said is most Rare and probably can not be more Rarefied then it is in its own Element and so the Earth most Dens and can not be more Densified And though I know not whether Aether may be more Densified yet certeinly Earth may be very much Rarefied as in Soot Camphire Salts Volatilised and the like But Water is most notably capable of Rarefaction into Vapors and they are as much Condensated again into Waters though I suppose it can not be so much Violently Expanded or Comprest and that Air can not be so much Condensated or Rarefied as it may be Comprest or Expanded And of all other Elements Air is most capable of Compression as in the Windgun and of Expansion as in the Airpump which from thence may be rightly termed the Expansor and from this Compression and Expansion therof there follows a Natural Motus or Nisus ad Restitutionem or Resilience which is now Superscribed with a new Title of Elasticity though the Term properly signify rather Abaction or Pulsion then any such Return or Restitution as is or ought to be Intended thereby and in plain English is better termed Springines which is more Proper to Compression then Expansion though as it is Confusedly used for both I am forced also so to use it only for more clearnes and distinction I shall rather ascribe Elasticity to Fluid Bodys as Air and the like and Springines to Consistent as Steel and the like But heer I must Remind what I have formerly Observed that there is a very great Difference between Rarefaction and Condensation which are Spiritual and by Intrinsecal Generation and Expansion and Compression which are Corporeal by Extrinsecal Violence which Difference doth most plainly appear by this very Elasticity for no Elasticity and Motion or Nisus to Restitution doth ensue from the former becaus they are so Intrinsecaly Altered by Natural Generation whereby the Predominant Spirit having in the Generation reduced the Body to a fit Rarity or Density for itself doth so continue it as long as it doth Predominate but only from the latter when only the Body is by any External Violence so Expanded or
was more Earth And as the Winds are thus caused by Vapors so the Southern parts of the World being more Watery are therefore as I have said more Tepid or Warm and Rainy or Misty and the Northern parts being more Terreous and Emitting more of the Terreitys therefore the Northwind is contrarily more Cold and Dry. And the Sun in the Diurnal Motion of the Aether being carried from East to West and so better Concocting the Vapors which he hath before raised and passed over in such his Diurnal Cours therefore generaly Eastern Winds are also more Cold and Dry and Western Warmer and Moister and some Winds are observed to Rise and Fall with the Rising and Setting of the Sun But if any Wind or Weather be so Copious and Durable as to be carried about the whole Terraqueous Globe then the same Wind may be of a Contrary Temper from the same Caus and so many times Rains come from the North and East and commonly they are very great becaus they are so Copious and Durable and so in Africa and other hot Climes there are Infrequent Rains but when they happen they are Excessive becaus the Sun doth very Copiously rais Vapors and if it happen by any Circumstantial Causality that he can not Concremate and Desiccate them as much they all turn into Rain And so the Hot Meteor of a Thunder-cloud draws very Copious and Dark Vapors which when the Heat breaks forth in Lightning are presently Resolved into Rain though otherwise when there are few other such Vapors in the Air neer to it there are also dry Lightnings without any great Nois becaus they are not Exploded out of such Clouds as the others and Thunder-clouds may go against the Wind as we say becaus they are Moved and Impelled by their own Heat and by their great Commotion after the Explosion of the Lightning they commonly turn the Wind. And Concurrent Causes may Move and Impell the Mobile Air every way and when it cannot Move fast enough Progressively then as I have said it must Move Circularly whereby it becomes a Turbo or Whirlwind which I conceive rather to be such then all the Winds blowing against one another Ignes fatui are Inflamed Exhalations more Lucid and less Fiery having some Fatt and Viscous Corpuscles of Earth in their Misture and arise generaly from such Soils And if they be more Igneous and more Rarefied thereby they are better Concocted and Ascend higher and become Stellae Cadentes and the lâ—ke which fall down again when that Heat is Extinct But these Fiery Meteors which last longer are not comparably Igneous like Fulgur or Lightning which having a most Rare and Subtile Fomes and being also pent in and Condensated in the Cloud when it breaks forth doth not only make a Terrible Nois by the sudden Collision of the Cloud every way against the Air but also by that sudden Eruption as well as by the Spiritual Power therof doth wonderful Execution and is strangely Influential and I suppose of all Culinary Fire is most like to Aethereal but I cannot conceiv that it can so Calcine any part of the Cloud as to forge a Fulmâ—n Thunderbolt or Stone though I acknowledg that there is much Earth also in it wherof as well as of the Water some Insects as Tadpols and others are found to be Produced after Rain All which Violent and Excessive Meteors are as I have said general Effects of the Divine Curs and so Thunder is called the Voice of God and ought to be regarded but I do not apprehend these general Effects to be any such special Prodigys and Portents as some would have them to be The Iris and the like are Properly no Meteors but only Reflections of the Sun-beams from a Vaporous Cloud like a Prism being also more Opacous then the Bright Clouds And I doubt not but that there were Rainbows before the Deluge though not before the Fall as well as Lambs before the Pass-over Water and Bread and Wine before Baptism and the Lords Supper for all such Sacramental Elements are in themselvs Natural and only supernaturaly Instituted to be Symbolical Signes and so was the Rainbow which signifys Sunshine after Rain and doth very fitly declare the Covenant that God made with Noah that as he and his Family were then saved from the Deluge so it should never after come upon his Posterity and as God said I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting Covenant between God and every Living Creature of all flesh that is upon the Earth so should we when we behold this his Bow in the Clouds thankfully remember his wonderful Deliverance both that which is past wherin we all who were then in the loins of Noah's Sons were preserved and also future concerning which God hath given us such an everlasting Covenant and this Signe therof SECTION IX And God said Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered into one place and let the Dry Land appear And it was so And God called the Dry Land Earth and the gathering together of the Waters called he Seas And God saw that it was Good And God said Let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding Seed and the Fruit Tree yielding Seed after his kind whose Seed is in itself upon the Earth And it was so And the Earth brought forth Grass and Herb yielding Seed after his Kind and the Tree yielding Fruit whose Seed was in itself after his Kind And God saw that it was Good And the Evening and the Morning were the Third Day EXPLICATION God having before caused part of the Water to ascend in Vapors into the Air did afterward caus the rest to subside and be derived into certein Canales in the Earth which he had also prepared for it and so made the Surface of the Earth which before was covered with Water to appear together with it in one Terraqueous Globe wherof the Dry Land was Earth and the Confluvia of Waters Seas And this Ordination of all these three Elements was their Goodness and Perfection And when God had thus prepared all the fower Elements he caused the Earth being pregnant with Vegetative Principles accordingly to bring forth Grass Herbs and Trees above the Surface therof after their several Kinds and the Herbs and Trees had also their several Seeds and Seminal Virtues in themselves whereby to Propagate and Multiply afterward And this was their Goodness and Perfection And all these were the Works of the Third Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of Water 2. Of Moisture 3. Of Odors and Sapors 4. Of the Flux and Reflux of Waters 5. Of Earth 6. Of Drines 7. Of Consistence 8. Of Magnetical Virtue and Electricity 9. Of the Immobility of the Earth 10. Of Vegetatives 11. Of the Goodnes of the Works of the Second and Third Days I. THe Water which is Elementary and more properly such and wherof Vapor and Ice are only Various is next to Air above it both in Situation and Nature as may
appear by Vapor and to Earth beneath it as may appear by Ice And though Earth and Water were in this Third Day made and still are one Terraqueous Globe yet as they were Created in the Begining so they still are several and different Elements aswell as Air and Aeâ—her are several and dâ—fferent Heavens And though they are thus Composed into one Globe yet they have their several Provinces therin as well as the others though not in the same maner or Figure And so it is said not only that Dry Land did appear which was before covered with the Sphere of Water as that was with Air and Air with Aether but also that there was a gathering together of the Waters into one place generaly wherunto all Rivers do run though branched out into several Canaleâ— and though standing Ponds Lakes and perhaps some Gulphs or Seas as the Caspian Sea may not communicate with the Ocean yet they are also Confluvia and Seas and so termed distributively afterward and all of them distinguished from the Waters which first covered the Earth all over wheras now the main Ocean covereth and compasseth it about only in one place And as these Waters beneath flow from the Earth so they are still above it as the Waters above floating in the Air are also said to be above or upon it for so the word signifies upon or above and so Fowl are said to fly above or upon the Heavens and as they are thus distinguished from Waters beneath so are also those Waters above the Earth from Waters beneath the Earth that is Subterraneous Fountains or depths of the Seas for neither are any Waters under the whole Earth which is most Dens and consequently lowest nor above any of the whole Heavens Superaether Aether or Air itself which are more Rare and consequently Higher as I have shewed but these Expressions concerning the Vapors and Fountains are Respective according to the Subject Matter and not to be understood Absolutely and they do indicate several Regions of the Waters wheras we have no such indication of any several Regions in the Air or Aether as I have observed Also though the Evaporation of Waters by Heat be Natural and only Supernaturaly produced by God in the Second Day as his other Works of Improper Creation were in other Days yet this Distribution of Earth and Waters in the Terraqâ—eous Globe therof which was so Composed in this Third Day seems more Extraordinary and Artificial and such as doth most plainly declare the Immediate Operation of God in this and all the other Days for by what Natural Power could the Earth and Isles be raised above the Waters or the Mountains and Vallys be so ordered and Indented or who could cast those great Banks of the Shores and cut those vast Chanells of the Seas and Rivers or say unto them thither shall ye go and no farther which therefore God is said Originaly to do by Line and Levell as in Waterworks we so set them out that they may run to their Levell this way or that way in the Cutts prepared for them And though men may make such less alterations therin and some greater have been made by accidental Breaches and Inundations yet as God saith I brake up for it my Decreed place or as it is Originaly established my Decree upon it and sett Barrs and Dâ—ors so generaly and in the main it continues the same and since that Great and Universal Deluge yet Cosmographers can still find out those Seas Rivers and Isles which Moses declareth to have been before it And thus the Divine Psalmist describeth both the Proper and Improper Creation of Waters and Earth Thou coveredst it with the Deep as with a Garment the Waters stood above the Mountains At thy rebuke they fled at the Voice of thy Thunder they hasted away They go up by the Mountains they go down by the Vallys unto the place that thou hast founded for them Thou hast sett a Bound that they might not pass that they turn not again to cover the Earth and so proceeds to shew the great Usefulness therof which thereby God prepared both for Vegetatives and Sensitives in the whole Oecumene or Habitable Earth But though the Earth generaly is thus raised above the Waters not only in the Mountains and Summits therof but in its whole Campus which lys above the Levell of the Waters yet the Water in its own Province is above the Earth on which it flows and so the Earth is very elegantly expressed standing out of the Water and in the Water And wheras it is said that God founded it upon or above the Seas and established it upon or above the Flouds it is very true and proper according to the Subject Matter wherof the Psalmist there speaks that is of the Oecumene or Habitable Earth as it was so raised above the Waters which before were above it and thereby was made fruâ—tfull and Habitable which the precedent Context doth plainly declare The Earth is the Lords and the fulnes therof the World and all that dwell therin nor do I apprehend that the whole World of Spheres Aereal Aethereal and Superaethereal is there intended though the Author of Esdras saith also that the Heavens are founded upon the Waters but I rather conceiv that by World is there meant Orbis Terrae as it is usually so taken Hebraicaly and in all other Languages because the Earth is our present World and so more restrictively we say the Christian World and the like But how farr the Waters are beneath the Levell or Campus of the Earth is not particularly expressed yet we read of a great Deep or Ocean and of Fountains therof or therin as we so say Fons Blundusii and the like not that there is besides the Ocean any Fountain therof beneath it which feeds and supplys it for it is called the Deep becaus it is the deepest of all Waters and so Fountains and Depths of Waters are used indifferently as it is said A Land of Brooks of Water of Fountains and Depths that spring out of Vallys and Hills and both are said to be under the Earth wherefore becaus Rain and Waters in those dry Countrys were accounted great Blessings Iacob blesseth Ioseph with Blessings of Heaven above and Blessings of the deep that lieth under which Moses also repeateth nor is it said that there is a Deep and also Fountains therof beneath and besides it but they are alway termed the Fountains of the Deep not only in respect of itself but also of all Vapors Rain and Rivers wherof the Deep or Sea is the Fountain to which that expression seems to refer for so they are joined together as it is said that there were the Fountains of the Great Deep broken up and the Windows of Heaven were opened and indeed they are so made to be Fountains one unto another mutualy and reciprocaly as I shall shew heerafter and in the Deluge the Conflux of all the Waters was gathered
Created and so we read of Gold Bdellium and Onyx but this general System mentioneth only such grand Mista as Elements and Planets which in the Whole are Ingenerable and Incorruptible and therefore are particularly mentioned as they were so specialy Created IX The Earth being such as I have described doth plainly declate itself to be Immovable that is not apt to Move itself if possible to be Moved by any others Yet there are some who not by any Natural Power nor by Faith but Fansy can remove not only Mountains but the whole Earth not by heaping and raising it up to Heaven as the Poets report of the Giants but as if they had obtained the Victory for it can place it among those Idol Gods Saturn Iupiter Mars and others which I shall now disprove having already shewed how the Earth is one whole Element in itself Naturaly and only Localy United with Water in the surface therof and so made one Terraqueous Globe in this Third Day but not with the Aery Expansum which was made in the Second Day and how in the First Day the Aether was made to Move about the Earth with the Light therin Diurnaly which made Day and Night and that the Earth was not made to Move about it but remained in its Chaos untill this Third Day Wherunto I shall add one Text more as a Comment upon the other being part of that Divine Hymn of Creation Who laid the Foundations of the Earth or founded the Earth upon its Basis that it cannot be Moved And so where it is said The World also is stablished that it cannot be Moved it is to be understood of this Orbis Terrae particularly as I have shewed or if any may conceiv otherwise then it shews that the Circumferential Superaether as well as the Centrical Earth is Immovable like the Roof and Foundation of an Hous which are both Immovable though other Bodys Move and are Moved therin between them and though the Roof also may be supposed to be Mobile as some very great Amphitheaters have been turned about yet the Foundation must be Immobile otherwise it should not be such a Foundation and so it is expressly said that the Earth is so founded upon her Bases that it may not be Moved Now as the Earth hath no Heat Planetary Virtâ—e or the like Active and Motive Qualitys which might Move it as Aether so it hath such as serv to found and fix it which are therefore called the Bases therof and Pillars of the Earth whence it is also by others rightly termed Bruta tellus Thus as I have shewed it is the most Dens of all Bodys and consequently most Grave and therefore possesseth the Center of the World to which it is united as to another thing by its own Gravity wherefore as the Universal Center is Immobile otherwise it should not be such a Center so the Gravity of the Earth doth Indissolubly unite it thereunto unless there can be assigned any other Body in Nature more Grave then it which might extrude it Again as by its own Gravity it is thus united to the Center so by its own Consistence it doth unite all its Parts together whereby they will not nor cannot Move in the Whole as Motes in Water and though it should be supposed to have more Consistent Parts one way then another yet becaus they are all Consistent they do not flow every way to fill the Sphere but all weigh Perpendicularly downward upon the same Center without any Fluctuation Trepidation or Inclination any other way And to keep it from being Moved in the Whole about the Center any way it hath Magnetical Virtue to fix it in one determinate Polar Position North and South so that it can neither be Moved out of its Place nor in its Place but is wholy Immobile And becaus this Magnetical Virtue of the Earth is the only colorable Caus offered to prove it Motive and so the Planets are also said to be Magnets and both confounded together which are most different in Nature I shall now more largely disprove that Assertion and thereby plainly prove the Earth not to Move I have granted the Earth to be Magnetical and I do also grant the Aether to be Planetary and shall observ a wonderfull Analogy between them that is that the Poles of the Earth do so Correspond with the Poles of the Aether that if the Magnetical Axis of the Earth were produced it would Intersect the Poles of the Aeâ—her so as it should seem to Move round upon and about them for so the Poles of the Earth are North and South and the Motion of the Aether East and West but though both Earth and Aether have their Axis Poles Aequator and Meridian and the rest not only Mathematicaly but Physicaly as I shall shew heerafter yet they are not Univocal as some suppose becaus they have the same Names but Equivocal in Nature and Physicaly different for the Earth hath them all for Fixation and Rest and the Aether to direct the Motion therof as I shall now shew I suppose we all agree that the Verticity of a Magnet is a Motion from Pole to Pole that is from North to South or from South to North Meridionaly according to the Magnetike Axis therof and not from East to West or from West to East about the Axis and according to the Aequator therof and also that if the Earth did Move Diurnaly it must Move from East to West or West to East becaus it is so Illuminated Now I say that no Magnet doth or can so Move but only from North to South or from South to North as may be tried by any Magnet or Terrella which hath Verticity Wherefore they greatly err who affirm any such Motion of the Earth or of any Magnet about its Axis for indeed if it should so Move about its Axis according to the Aequator it could not also Move from Pole to Pole according to the Meridian as I shall also shew heerafter Nor did the Antients so express the Earth to Move about its Axis but Circa Medium or about its Center which yet as I have shewed it cannot do Diurnaly becaus that Motion is according to the Aequator Again Verticity which is the only Motion of one and the same Magnet by itself is not Circular but only from Pole to Pole Semicircularly and Concursion of one Magnet to another is not Circular but Directly Progressive and therefore it may not be Imagined that the Earth or Planets do so Magneticaly Move one about another as I shall shew heerafter And though the Verticity of the Earth be Potentialy in it yet it never is nor shall be Actual for unless it could be Moved from its Polar Position there is no need nor use therof and such Potentialitys though they be never reduced into Act are not vain becaus they are Hypothetical and first suppose a violence which Nature abhorreth and so Superaether as it is Matter hath Motion as well as
by their greater Magnitude which renders them Visible proportionably according to the distance and by the farr greater and swifter Motion and so let the Man in the Ship sailing with full Sail though against the pretended Motion of the Earth behold the Moon and Starrs Transversly and observ whether they do not seem to Move otherwise then when he standeth on the Earth or when the Ship wherin he is doth not sail There is one who saith that both the Earth and also the Aether do Move becaus as he supposeth while one Moveth from the other the other also Moveth from it and so that it is all one and the same whether we affirm the Earth or Aether to Move whereby he can solv this very Phaenomenon of their Motion either way which I have already reâ—uted and I know none besides himself that did ever maintein it but generaly others affirm the Earth to Move and Aether not to Move becaus they suppose all the consequent Phaenomena may be solved either way who if they can find out any Error which they think is Tenible though it be not Truth they affect and embrace it rather then Truth and can pleas themselvs in amusing the World therewith which is a very Falsarious and Disingenuous Humor and more proper to Juglers and Impostâ—rs then Philosophers And becaus I scarcely know any Opinion wherin they more exercise this Art then this of the Motion of the Earth as I have already disproved it so I shall also heerafter prove the Motion of the Aether and Sun and therin shew how all the Phaenomena can only be solved thereby and shall now proceed to refute that other grand Error which is indeed more Fundamental and Universal that is their Doctrine of Matter and Motion Wherefore having discoursed of the Terraqueous Globe I shall review it and consyder whether only Matter and Motion could produce the Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys therof certeinly not Moisture which is the same whether the Water be Stagnant or Fluent nor Drines which is generaly Consistent and so of the rest which to prosecute particularly were supervacaneous but I will now only alter the Scene and transfer it from Air and Aether to Water and suppose it to be Tepid that is partly Hott and partly Cold and also Luminous as it is Diaphanous and we will admitt it Sonorous and Saporous and if you pleas Odorous besides Moisture and the other Simple Qualitys therof all which may be in the same Instant per omnia Puncta of the Water and if all these which are so Specificaly different in their own Nature could be only so many several Motions of the same Matter and we might Microscopicaly behold them we should see a most strange Moorish dance not only of every dancing Corpuscle but even in every Joint and Point therof so many several different and advers ways as must be assigned to make all their several Natures Specifical and Individual Simple and Compound which is indeed Impossible and so ridiculous as needeth no farther refutation Again once more we will alter the Scene from Water to Earth which becaus I have affirmed to be Immovable in the whole Body of the Matter therof and also the Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys therof to be least Active I will likewise inquire into one thing more which I doubt our new Philosophers had forgott and that is whether as Motion in others so also Rest in the Matter of Earth may not produce the Spirit and Spiritual Qualitys therof as Drines and others which though they be indeed less Active then others yet they are Active and Motive in themselvs and so Consistence though it be most like the Rest of Matter yet hath a Strength and Center therof very different from that of the Matter which also of itself is Fluid as I have shewed and Magnetike Virtue though it affect Polar Rest yet hath also an Intrinsecal Motion of Verticity in itself to restore it unto it Nor can all the Terreous Qualitys be only less Active Motions of the Matter becaus they are all in the same Instant per omnia Puncta in the same Matter and cannot be so made severaly by one and the same Motion of the Matter nor can there be so many several Motions therof together whether more or less Active wheras all the Terreous Qualitys may be Actualy together in the same Matter as I have before sufficiently declared of all the other Elements and their Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys and I now shall conclude that even Elementary Spirits and Qâ—alitys are somwhat more and other then either Mater and Motion or Matter and Rest. X. As Matter is Subordinate to the Elementary Spirits which do Immediately Consubstantiate it so are they with the Matter to Vegetative Spirits as I have shewed in the Scale of Nature and so Vegetatives were not produced untill the Elements were all Perfected becaus Vegetatives require an Elementary Mistion of them all and indeed a proper Mistion therof which every Spirit ordereth and governeth both as Subordinate and Subservient to itself but they are not governed by the special Influence of any Planet or Starr as the Rabbins say there is not a Starr in Heaven which doth not point to an Herb on Earth and bid it grow for as the Globe of Light in the First Day sufficed to make Day and Night so also the Heat therof was sufficient for Vegetation as may plainly appear in that Vegetatives were produced before the Sun Moon or Starrs and so also Metalls though others ascribe the Production therof to Planets which yet are more particularly Inservient and Beneficial to them as they do also more particularly vary Days and Nights and all the Seasons of the Year But Vegetatives were and still are produced out of the Earth or Terraqueous Globe as it is moistned with Water for the Earth is the Region both of Vegetatives and Sensitives and also of Man and so it is said The Earth brought forth Grass c. and it is observed that the first Produxit is of Vegetatives for the Elements which Immediately Consubstantiate the Matter were not produced but so Created in and with it in the Begining whereby they were then Denominated Heavens and Earth and so are Inseparably united unto it though they were afterward Perfected in their Mistions and production of their Qualitys thereby as I have shewed and so there is no Produxit of Planets becaus they also are Elementary wheras though Vegetative Spirits were Created in the Begining as it is said God made every Plant of the field before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew yet they were only Latent in their Elements and not produced before the Elements were Perfected in their Mistions and Qualitys which was previous and requisite to their production as they also were to the production of Sensitives as I shall shew heerafter and though Vegetatives are of a farr higher and more excellent nature then Elements yet they were
and Thistles and the like Thus I have briefly and generaly discoursed of Vegetatives as before of the fower Elements according to this Divine History which is an Universal System of the World both in the Proper and Improper Creation therof nor do I intend any particular Historys of them as Solomon spake of them all from the Ceder of Lebanon to the Hysop that is on the wall But heer before I conclude I shall again desire any who will rightly consyder the Nature of Vegetatives to try whether they also may be made only by Matter and Motion without their own proper Plastical Spirits which the Earth did bring forth and as I have observed the fower Elements were before perfected and prepared in order therunto without which the Matter alone as so consydered in itself though indeed it can never be without the Consubstantiation of Elementary or the Superaethereal Spirit hath no Automatous Motion of itself nor when it is dislocated any other then to Union and Station as I have shewed which is only to recover its due Rest and Position and therefore certeinly it cannot also Move from Rest which is Naturaly contrary therunto as Verticity is to Polar Position and therefore cannot be from it nor hath it any such Plastical Virtue of itself which may guide the Motions therof but would be only Equidens and Orbicular wheras Plastical Formation of all Vegetative Bodys and much more of the Bodys of Sensitives is constantly so Symmetrical Organical and Curious according to every Kind and Species and the successive Propagation therof and they so very various and different that he who will not believ Divine Authority nor Natural Reason heerin may satisfy himself by his own Sensation and making use of his Microscope Inspect the most admirable Structure and Mechanism of the least Vegetative or Sensitive which is composed farr otherwise and beyond the most admired workmanship of any Bezaleel Daedalus Apelles or Arâ—hytas and all the Mechanical Borcherys of Art which yet is all that some will allow to Nature itself and when he shall have consydered the most exact and Mathematical Conformitys of the one and Enormitys of the other which also shews that Mathematical Exactnes is not nor cannot be of Common Use he may easily judg with himself that since the Intellective Spirit of the most Ingenious Man cannot effect the like certeinly it must either still be Immediately Digitus Dei and so deny this whole History of Creation in the Six Days and all the Works of God therin whereby he did sett in order the Cours of Nature and consequently deny all Created Nature or otherwise acknowledg it to be the continual Succession of the same Natural Causalitys which also lead us back again to the Acknowledgment and Adoration of the Supernatural Creator who is the only Author and Institutor therof XI Wherefore let us prais the great Creator of Heaven and Earth as for the Aethereal so also for the Aereal Heaven and for the Water and the Earth And heer we must sing his praises in Consort for them all together as it is once said of them all that they were Good though they be in themselvs several Elements and were perfected in two several Days Nor is the Goodnes of Vegetatives which is another Classis of Creatures though also perfected in the last of these two Days pronounced of them which were before declared Good but becaus these three Inferior Elements Air Water and Earth being separated from the Aether by the rapid Motion and Circumvolution therof about them and more conjunct among themselvs were not perfected one without the other and the Water which is the midle Element and contributed to the Perfection both of the Air and of the Earth by ascending in Vapors into the Air and descending itself into the Canales and Pâ—res of the Earth was noâ— perfected untill this last Day nor in that alone but in both these two Days therefore this Proclamation of their Goodnes and Perfection was reserved for the Consummation of the whole Work of both the Days and then Relatively to be distributed to all the three Elements which were so perfected therin and so they now continue to be Severaly and also Mutualy Good And the Aether which was before made Good in itself yet had not been Good to others without the Goodnes of the Air whose Refrigerating Cold doth Temper the vehement Heat and Refracting Pellucidity the Lucidity of all the Aethereal Luminarys whereby not only as a common Thorough-fare but also as a Cooperator therin it both adapts and conveys the Aethereal Blessings of Rays above and also the Spirituous Vapors of the Waters beneath which as an Alâ—mbic it distills and refunds to the Terraqueous Globe Nor is it only thus Concurrent with Aether and Water and the Influences therof but hath in itself the Ventos of Winds both to Cool and Purify the Atmosphere and all the Organs of those admirable Sounds which it doth propagate continualy and successively and which as so many Cursores or swift Messengers make their Reports through the whole Sphere therof and all the Surface of the Earth and so is made to be the Cymbal of Nature which with its Inchanting Musike ravisheth or affrighteth all Sensitive Spirits and whereby Men Discours and Convers one with another and in Sacred Hymns render their gratefull praises of the whole Creation to the Divine Creator Also the Atmosphere therof is the very Breath and Life of Animals Neither doth the more Dens Water intercept all the Benefits of Aether and Air but partly transmitt them to the Earth which it contempers with its own Moisture and is as the Bloud Circulating through the Veins and Arterys therof by constant Reciprocations conveying Nutriment to all the Cortical Body therof being both the Inexhaustible Fountain of Drink to all Sensitives and also conditing their Meats with most gratefull Sapors and perfuming them with varietys of most delicate Odors And though both these Elements of Air and Water seem very Weak and Infirm in comparison of the Rapid Aether and Robust Earth yet being provoked and armed to execute Divine Revenge they so mutualy assist and fortify one another with unusual and unexpected Rage that Conflagrations and Earthquakes do not much exceed their furious Herricans and violent Inundations The Earth though last and lowest of all the Elements is not only their most Dens and Consistent Fulciment and Center of their Situation but also of all their Offices and Services Circumferentialy tending unto it being the Foundation of the whole Univers and another Orb in itself and Epitome of the great Globe wherof all the rest are only Concave Spheres having only some particular Orbs in themselvs and on which all those Luminous Orbs cast their smiling Aspects and the Sun Illustrateth all the other Luminarys that so they together with himself may give Light unto it which the nimble Air fanneth and refrigerateth with the Wings of Wind and watereth the great Garden therof
with Dâ—ws and Rains and the officious Water runeth up and down to wash the face of the dusty Cortex and to bath and supple all the Limbs therof and also floweth forward and backward to carry and recarry the greatest Burdens from Shore to Shore Thus all the other more Active Elements as so many Circumsistent Servitors in their several Courses and Orders minister unto Earth which sitting still and resting in itself receiveth all their Homages and Tributes not Moving nor being Moved with all their Disorders and Confusions but founded on the Solid Base of its own Density and Gravity and strengthned by its own Consistence and fixed by its own Polarity doth also by its other Qâ—alitys fix all the more subtile and volatile Elementary Spirits Which covereth its own Nakednes with the Daedalous Embroidery of Leavs and Flowers and enricheth itself not only with the Stock of all the hid Treasures of Jewells Metalls and Minerals but also with all the Rents and Revenues of Annual Fruits and Profits both producing and mainteining all Vegetatives and the chief of Sensitive Animals yea Man himself whose Body is also formed of the Congenerous Dust and so the Earth which is given to the children of Men is the Stage of this great Amphitheater of the World wherin all the present Affairs therof are transacted and as all the other Elements are now subservient therunto so heerafter also the Superaether or Heaven of Heavens shall be the everlasting Mansion of Blessed Souls And now again let us tune our praises to an higher Note and bless God for the Creation of Vegetatives Grass Herbs and Trees and let us contemplate their several Kinds and Virtues which yet are Innumerable and Unknown to us their Curious Formations and Oeconomical Administrations the careless Comlines of their Leavs and Beautys of their Flowers the general conformity of their Greennes to our Sight and the delightfull varietys of all their other Colors how wonderfully they Compose Nourish and Augment their own Bodys and Generate others and having neither Sens nor Intellect in themselvs yet by their own Innate Plastical Virtues perform such works as no Sens or Intellect can Imitate or sufficiently Admire The Microscopical perfection wherof doth exactly correspond with the most Critical Sens and Organical usefulnes with the most Political Intellect And as God in the Begining Immediately Created the Heavens and the Eartâ— and the great Building of the whole World so they Mediately build all the Domicils and Officines of their own and all Superior Bodys as the Architects therof and Vulcans of all their Organs and Instruments and are themselvs together with the Subordinate Elements and Matter the Immediate Bodys of all Sensitive Spirits wherin they Reside and Operate and both Dress and Digest for them all their Nutriment wherof a great part is of the same Vegetative Nature which affordeth not only Salads for delight but solid food for strongest Animals Horses Bulls and the great Behemoth furnishing also Mans Table with Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man and Oil to make his Face to shine and Bread which strengthneth Mans Heart Renewing the Annual Fruits of the Earth as fast as all the Animals can devour them which in Mans better State were his sole Diet and since he tasted of their only forbidden Fruit are his Physick or Natures Tree of Life for healing of the Nations SECTION X. And God said Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to divide the Day from the Night And let them be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years And let them be for Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth And it was so And God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night He made the Starrs also And God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth and to rule ober the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes And God saw that it was Good And the Evening and the Morning were the Fourth Day EXPLICATION God having in the First Day made the Light and by it one Hemisphere of the Aether more Luminous then the other and thereby Day and Night Artificial in that first Day Natural which did accordingly succeed in the two following Days now in this Fourth Day did more particularly distinguish them by the several Luminarys which he made therin for that purpose and also for Signfications of Times and Seasons Months and Years and all the variations therof And he made two chief Lights the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night Also he severaly made all the Starrs according to their several natures And so sett all these Heavenly Luminarys in their several Positions in the Aether to run their several Courses therin and thereby to Illuminate the Earth and to make all the said Divisions and Distinctions of Time which was their Goodnes and Perfection And these were the Works of the Fourth Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Aethereal Luminaâ—ys 2. Of the Sun 3. Of the Moon 4. Of the Starrs 5. Of Comets 6. Of the Goodnes of the Works of the Fourth Day I. WE now proceed to discours of the Second Part of Creation wherin when God had before perfected and prepared all the â—ower Elements and planted the Earth which was the last with Vegetatives which he produced out of it he began now to Introduce into them all their more Locomotive Inhabitants and to shew the Connexion of both these two Parts of Creation it is again said of the first Created Light Sit or Fiat Luminaria wherunto as I suppose the Singular Number doth referr and that it must be so understood Lux fiat Luminaria for it is afterward Sint or Fiant Pluraly And I also observ that wheras it is said of all the other Days Works when they were finished and perfected generaly God saw that it was Good it is said of that first Created Light more particularly God saw the Light that it was Good though also afterward in the same Day he divided the Light from the Darkness but as I have before observed of the three Inferior Elements Air Water and Earth that it is not said God saw that it was Good untill they were all perfected and the whole Work finished so though Day and Night Artificial were made generaly by the division of the Light from the Darknes in the First Day Natural yet becaus they were also to be more particularly distinguished by the Luminarys and to be so ruled by the two great Lights expressly made for that purpose that is the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night therefore the Goodnes is not pronounced of Day and Night in the First Day but in this Fourth Day wherin the whole perfection therof was consummated so accurately exact is God the Author of Nature and Scripture both in his Operation and
Expressions And though the common Light and Day and Night thereby in Aether and the ascent of Vapors in Air and eduction of Earth above the Waters and madefaction therof by them was sufficient for the productâ—on of Vegetatives which therupon were Immediately produced as I have shewed yet before the Introduction of Fishes and Fowls into the Water and Air and Beasts and Man into Earth it was requisite that the Aether which Sensitive Animals only can behold and by the Lighâ— therof all other Spectable things should be made perfect and complete and adorned with all the various Luminarys 〈◊〉 in their various Positions and runing their several Courses and so ordered and disposed as might best serv both for the Sensation of Sensitive Animals and Contemplation of Intellective Man And though these Luminarys were made after Vegetatives yet they are not therefore Vegetative or of a Superior Nature above Vegetatives as Vegetatives are above all that were made before them and as Man the chief of all was made last for though indeed this Order is observed in each of the Parts of the Creation and so the Creatures made in the last were respectively more excell ent then they which were made in the first Part therof yet the Luminarys which were made in the first of the last three Days are much Inferior to Vegetatives which were made in the last of the three first Days for they are Elementary and of the Elementary Classis though chief Composita of the chief Element Aether but all Elements and Elementary things are Classicaly below Vegetatives and though Planets have Locomotion out of their places which Vegetatives have not but only in their places being all Rooted in the Earth yet Locomotion is also in the Matter when it is dislocated and indeed no Material Spirit can so elevate their Bodys and caus them to ascend as Matter doth necessarily to Union and to prevent Vâ—cuâ—ty as I have shewed and much less are the Planets Sensitive or Intellective in themselvâ— or any such Deitys or Daemons as the Idolatry of Heathens made them and their Philosophy durst not contradict nor yet Moved by Intelligences or Angels as the Rabbins and Scholemen suppose for they can be only External Movers therof wheras Planets Move by their own Natural Power and Intrinsecal Virtue like the Verticity of Magnets and are not Moved like Studds fixed in solid Spheres as I have proved and as the Eccentrical Motions of the Planets therin do thereby plainly disprove and therefore others affirm them to be Magnets and the Earth which is the great Magnet to be a Planet but certeinly Aether and Earth are two different Elements having different Elementary Spirits wherin the same Qualitys cannot Subsist as I have shewed and so the Aether cannot be Magnetical nor the Earth Planetary unles we can also make the Aether to be Terrestrial and the Earth Aethereal wheras Heaven and Earth are generaly contradistinguished in the Begining and particularly Aether and Earth were made two several Elements in two several Days and Aether being as I have shewed Fluid cannot possibly be Magnetical which requires a very solid Consistence certeinly the whole Aether which is a Concave Sphere cannot be so Magnetical as Earth which is an Orbicular Globe for it cannot have an Axis and consequently Magnetical Poles as if a Ring of Iron be touched with a Loadstone it will have only one Pole and though the Aethereal Planets be Orbs yet they also are Fluid and Sensibly all Aethereal Motions are Circular and Perpetual wheras Magnetical Verticity is only Polar or to a Pole and not round about the Center nor about an Axis like Motion of Planets but to the Poles therof when by Trepidation it passeth beyond them and so Moving its own Axis the same way that is Meridionaly and not according to the Aequator of its own Body as I have shewed wheras if Earth and Water and Air as they say and also Aether and the Planets were all Magnetical they should make one Magnetical Orb and all Move one and the same way which plainly they do not or if otherwise one be Moved about another as they say the Moon is about the Earth it should observ the Magnetike Law which it doth not as I shall heerafter demonstrate of the Moon Thus the Magnetical Planetary Motions are very different and indeed opposite in their very Natures and Ends for Planetary Virtue makes the Planets to abhorr all Rest and Magnetical Verticity is to reduce Magnets to their Polar Rest. Wherefore we may not confound them though they are both Elementary Motions and not only Motions of the Matter or only by the Pondus therof as the Flux and Reflux of Water nor by Impuls like Winds in the Air wherof I have formerly discoursed nor yet any Vegetative Sensitive or Intellective Motions wherof I shall discours heerafter as indeed all things are Motive or Mobile one way or other within the whole Globe of the World and the Circumferential Superaether and Centrical Earth are only Immobile and as we are Sensibly satisfied concerning Magnetical Verticity so thereby we may conceiv of these other Planetary Virtues which God produced in this Fourth Day in the Planets as he did before the Magnetical Virtue in the Earth and Magnets Whereby also it plainly appears that Motion is not only of the Matter but also that Elementary Spirits may have a Motive and Directive Power in themselvs as well as any other Superior Spirits and from their different kinds and ways of Motion we may collect the very different Motive Powers and Virtues of the several Movers wherof Matter is most general and only tending unto a State of Rest in the whole Body therof and Center of itself wheras Magnets have a more particular Position of their Bodys which is Polar Rest North and South and a Verticity particularly to reduce them to it and Planets have their several and various Positions and Courses and an answerable Planetary Virtue which so setts them and Moves them and makes them to abhorr all Rest and Vegetative Spirits are more Plastical but Involuntary and Sensitive Spontaneous or Voluntary Movers and more indifferent either to Motion or Rest. And thus as Magnetical Bodys may Move from Pole to Pole Semicircularly by their Magnetical Verticity so we may very well conceiv how also Planets may Move Circularly which is only a continuation of Motion through the whole Circle whereby also they may so Move Perpetualy and as the Needle doth leap to the Loadstone by the Magnetical Virtue Actuated in itself which Motion is Progressively Locomotive so may also Planets by their Planetary Virtue which is always Actual in them Move Progressively in the Circles which they describe but though the Magnetical Virtue which setts the Magnetical Body in one determinate Polar Position may be removed as I have shewed and pass from that part of the Magnet wherin it now seats itself and which thereby becomes Polar unto any other part
so many several Composita made therof whereby they are all thus different and several one from another as they are all from the Planetary Aether as it is said God divided between their Light and the other Aethereal Light and that every one of them is a Specificaly different Compositum in itself and that every Individual Planet is such a Phoenix in its kind that it is also a whole Species in itself wherefore it is said that God particularly made not only the two great Lights but the Starrs also and so it is said There is one Glory of the Sun and another of the Moon and another Glory of the Starrs for one Starr differeth from another Starr in Glory And therefore their Creation is thus specialy mentioned and was the whole Work of this Fourth Day and so I conceiv there are no such Aethereal Compositae as Stones Metalls Minerals are Terrestrial Composita and wherof no such special Creation is mentioned as I have observed but neither that there is a Simple Spirit of every one of them Created in the Begining by a Proper Creation And I conceiv that these vast Individua which are also so many Species in themselvs made Immediately by God as I said can neither be Naturaly diminished nor multiplied as Comets which are Anomalous may be for so the Starrs are said to be for ever and it is said of God their Creator and Preserver He telleth the number of the Starrs he calleth them all by their Names though Supernaturaly and Miraculously he may compose a new Starr as probably that which appeared at our Saviours Birth was such an extraordinary Starr and so is specialy called His Starr which yet did not continue but after it had performed the End for which it was made was again dissolved for otherwise the Ordinances of Heaven which are said to be Unchangeable should be changed and the Constellations therof disordered And though the Starrs be every one such a several Species yet there is also a Combination of them all generaly as they are all one Host and of some more specialy which are called Constellations and are not only such in Name but also described to be such in Nature so wheras it is heer said that God made the greater Light that is the Sun to rule the Day and the less that is the Moon to rule the Night the Psalmist saith To him that made great Lights c. The Sun to rule by Day c. The Moon and Starrs to rule by Night c. where he divideth the Moon and all the Starrs as a Separate Constellation from the Sun alone and attributeth unto them their several Offices to rule by Day and by Night for though all the Starrs do not attend the Moon every Night yet they do by turns and therefore she alone is said to rule the Night becaus she doth so every Night more or less and though as I said the common Aethereal Light divided from the whole Globe of Light which was the Stellant Light and wherof the Planets and Starrs were all made afterward did make the first Night as that Globe of Light did the first Day and that Nocturnal Light is therefore called Darknes Comparatively which had neither Moon nor Starr in it yet in order to Sensitives who need more Nocturnal Light the Moon and Starrs or a great part of them were added in this Fourth Day to rule the Night whereof therefore there is also such an Additional Expression To rule over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes Thus also more specialy there are said to be Courses of the Starrs and many of their Constellations particularly named and their Cooperations denoted Canst thou bind the sweet Influences of Pleiades or loos the Bonds of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season or Canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons Now wheras some have Curiously inquired in what time of the Year the World was Created which the Poets fansy to have been in the Spring becaus that indeed is the time of Renovation and the Rabbins in the Autumn becaus then all Fruits and the like are in their Perfection as they were first Created certeinly neither of their Computations can be true of the very first Creation in the Begining for then there was no Year nor any Commencement therof but only Day and Night generaly in the three first Days and in the Fourth Day the Planets were made for Days and for Years and then they must also calculate their Computation for the Meridian of Paradise otherwise when it was Spring in one part of the Earth it was Autumn in the other as it is now to us and our Antipodes But such is our Human Vanity that we will Curiously pry into those things which God hath thought fitt to Concele and yet not acquiesce in those things which he hath pleased to Revele II. In the History of the Creation of the Planets and Starrs it is farther said of them that God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth Wherefore certeinly they are all Lucid not only as all Aether is in itself but so as to give Light upon the Earth otherwise they could not so give Light upon it and so certeinly the Earth is not Lucid in itself otherwise it should not need to be Illuminated by these Heavenly Luminarys Thus as the Apostle saith There are Bodys Celestial and Bodys Terrestrial but the Glory of the Celestial is one and the Glory of the Terrestrial is another and so neither are the Planets any Magnets nor the Earth a Planet but as several Elementary Natures they differ Genericaly and have their several Generical Glorys that is their different Goodness described and expressed in the History of their Creation severaly in several Days and which also evidently appeareth in Nature as may satisfy any except such who being confounded in their own Understandings can also confound Heaven and Earth which differ farr more and otherwise then the Aether and Planets differ one from another for they are Bodys Terrestrial and Bodys Celestial wheras these are all Genericaly Bodys Celestial though they also Specificaly differ one from another in Glory And of all these Celestial Bodys the Sun is incomparably most Glorious who as I observed alone is opposed to the Moon and all the Starrs and also preferred before them all for they with his Solar Illustrations and Secundary Light only make Night in the backside of the Earth which is but as the Shadow of his Diurnal Presence and therefore is still called Darknes and so he is said to rule by Day and they to rule by Night Whose darting Rays penetrate through all the Spectable World and are bounded only by the two common Bounds of Nature Superaether and Earth and in all the Elementary World there is Nihil simile aut secundum Wherefore Heathen generaly worshiped him as a God who yet in the Scale of Nature is farr Inferior
to the Vegetative Deitys of Egypt but they who place him in the Center of the World and fasten him to it though otherwise they almost Idolise him yet heerby they even deprive him of that true Glory which God and Scripture ascribe unto him and therefore as I promised and becaus it is so pertinacious a Controversy I shall now again prove the Earth not to Move about the Sun but the Sun and Aether about the Earth and that the Glory of the Celestial Bodys is to Move about the Terrestrial and to bestow their Influences upon them and of the Terrestrial to Rest and receiv all their Benefits Thus the Text saith expressly God made the Luminarys to give Light upon the Earth whereby they Rule Day and Night and all the Seasons and therefore they are called Ordinances of Heaven and not of the Earth as God saith Knowest thou the Ordinances of Heaven Canst thou sett the Dominion therof on the Earth Now where the Rule and Dominion is there is also the Motion and Action whereby it is exercised and so thereby the Planets are said to divide the Light from the Darknes which the Earth should rather do if it did Move about the Sun and the Sun should only minister and as it were hold a Candle to the Earth Moving about it and it is also said in the First Day that God himself so divided the Light from the Darknes before Sun or Moon were made and thereby made Day and Night and as the Sun doth now divide the Diurnal Light from the Nocturnal Darknes by his Light so doth the Moon divide the Nocturnal Darknes from the Diurnal Light by her Light and so she was made to rule the Night as well as the Sun to rule the Day which certeinly she doth by her Motion about the Earth and therefore so doth also the Sun by his Motion about the Earth wherefore Ioshua who was the Disciple and next Successor of our Divine Philosopher Moses saith Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon in the vally of Ajalon Which conjunction of Sun and Moon had been very incongruous if the Sun did not Move as well as the Moon Diurnaly as he doth also Annualy and she Menstrualy but Ioshua should rather have said Earth and Moon stand still or only Sun stand thou still for so he had spoke either properly and truly or Popularly as they term it that is falsly wheras it is most absurd to conceiv him to speak both properly and Popularly truly and falsly at the same time and in the same words And wheras they say this was only Popular speaking they thereby do acknowledg that Mankind was antiently of this Opinion before Pythagoras Leucippus and other Graecian Wits fansied the contrary and therefore propounded it as their Novell Invention though I am not satisfied that they affirmed any more then the Diurnal Motion of the Earth about its own Center to save as they supposed the vast Aether so great a labor but I conceiv that they allowed the Sun also to Move Annualy aswell as the Moon Menstrualy wheras our new Philosophers whose Inventions are only Additions and their Additions some greater Absurditys will Move the Earth not only Diurnaly but also Annualy which is both contrary to Reason and Sens as I shall shew heerafter and also most contradictory to Scripture the Authority wherof no Christian should contemn much less oppose and that saith expressly The Sun stood still and the Moon staid and though it is true that the Sun doth not Move Diurnaly by his own Planetary Virtue as he doth about his Axis and Annualy but is carried about by the Diurnal Motion of the Aether which so Moves by its own Planetary Virtue as I have shewed yet even so the Sun Moves together with the Aether Diurnaly for Motion being as I said only a Transition from Place to Place though the Sun doth not so change his Place in the Aether by the Diurnal Motion therof yet he doth in and with the Aether thereby change his Place in the whole Body of the World and consequently Move as Rare Bodys do Move Localy in ascending upward though they are Moved Virtualy by the elevation of more Dens Bodys as I have shewed and so also the Sun and Moon and Starrs and Aether itself staid in all their Motions according to the Context So the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole Day whereby as Siracides interpreteth it One Day was as long as two and afterward the whole Chorus of Heaven proceeded to Move again according to all the several Motions therof as it did before and certeinly the other is Maledicta expositio quae corrumpit Textum and destroieth the very Literal meaning of such an Historical and Memorable Matter of Fact and though I hope such Interpreters of Scripture may be true Believers of Matters of Faith yet the wild Liberty of such Interpretations doth so farr render Scripture no Scripture by an acknowledgment only of the Letter which they dare not deny and yet by denying the Sens which they will not admitt Wherefore plainly I will proceed to deal with them as I would with Heathen or any others that is by Reason and Sens Now wheras they affirm three Motions of the Earth I will accordingly examin them and first clearly explain them becaus I doubt they are not sufficiently understood nor indeed the very Doctrine of Motion generaly which some make only to be Remotion or Distancing of one Body from another and so confound the Motion of one Body with the Rest of others as I formerly observed and others confound opposite Motions from East to West and from West to East and generaly all confound Locomotive Action and Passion which are very different that is one a Moving and the other a being Moved as I said the Sun Moveth Actively in his Annual Motion and Passively in his Diurnal Motion and though both these be only Motions or Transitions in themselvs yet clearly one is an Active Motion and the other a Passive Motion which though they may not differ as Motions yet do so differ as they are Active or Passive and as they confound Motions so also the Terms of Barocenter and Center and Poles Axis and Aequator and the like as I have shewed which are Aequivocal Names according to the several Natures of the Things wherof they are expressed for so they may be either only Mathematical as all these may be painted and described on any Globe of Wood or Stone or the like Indifferently becaus there are no such things Physicaly in the Bodys therof or also Physical either in Terrestrial Bodys as Magnets wherin the Magnetical Virtue doth caus them all to be Physicaly to fix the Magnetical Body accordingly in one determinate Polar Position or in Celestial Bodys as Planets wherin the Planetary Virtue doth caus them also to be Physicaly to Move the Planetary Body accordingly in such a determinate
the other Annualy as I have said whereby it should Move both slower and faster about its own Cenâ—er at the same time which is Impossible otherwise then by an Epicyclicous Motion as I shewed in a Quern and that this is an Amechanon I appeal to any Mechanike or to any who shall Mechanicaly try to make a Terrestrial Globe so to Move the three several supposed ways or indeed any two several ways about any two several Axes of its own Body at the same time as certeinly none can Move by two several Progressive Motions at the same time without several Movers as is aforesaid so that though all the Relative Phaenomena of Aether or Earth may be solved by the Motion of either of them yet the three supposed Motions of the Earth itself cannot be solved wheras the Motion of the Sun about his Axis and also Progressively in the Zodiak Annualy and his being Moved and carried about Diurnaly by the Aether which is another Mover and so of Venus and Mercury Moving about him as any other Satellites about other Planets Progressively and being also Moved and carried about Diurnaly with him by the Aether are easily solved Primo Intuitu and according to the plainnes and facility of Nature without such Inconceivable and Impossible Inclining and Distorting of the Earth or their Brains as others have vainly done and can never approve unless they also find out some other Mover to carry about the Earth as the Aether doth the Sun which certeinly may not be the Aether becaus they affirm it to be Immovable nor the Air nor Water which have no such Diurnal Motions themselvs Wherefore though Scripture and the Verdict of all Mankind generaly besides themselvs were sufficient to turn the Balance and determin against such an Hypothesis wherof they can never be satisfied that it is so but only suppose that it may be so yet consydering that I have to deal with such Empirical Philosophers who make Sens alone to be both their Text and Topikes I have doubly and thus largely proved it against them that it is not nor cannot be so and though this last Ratiocination be also a Sensation or a Mathematical and Mechanical Demonstration yet I shall add one Sensible Experiment more which is agreed by all and that is the Motion of the Sun about its own Axis by his own Planetary Power whereby it plainly appears to be Actively Motive in itself and as a Wheel that may be Moved round by another Passively may by the same Passive Motion be also Moved Progressively and so all Coaches and Carts are Moved or drawn by Beasts so the Sun may and doth by the same Planetary Virtue whereby he Moveth himself about his Axis Move also Progressively in the Zodiak though not in like maner or by such proportionable Circumvolutions by his own Motive Power which apparently he hath in himself and so the Moon also Moveth about the Earth and the Satellites about a principal Planet and other Planets about the Sun which plainly shews that these Aetheruli are Motive and so indeed are all the rest and Aether itself wheras Magnets or Terrellae as I have shewed though they have Verticity yet cannot thereby Move once round about their Center nor at all about their Magnetical Axes and though they have a Magnetical Concursion yet one of them cannot thereby Move once round about the other by the Magnetical Virtue of one or both of them Wherefore the Earth is only a Magneâ— which cannot Move round by its own Magnetical Virtue and the Aether and Aetheruli Planets which do so Move round by such several Motions perpetualy and therefore we ought to ascribe these Motions to Aether and not to Earth becaus the Motion of either may solv the Phaenomenâ— and most Sensibly and confessedly the Aetheruli are so Motive and the Terrellae are not and so the Motion of the Aether and Aetheruli doth sufficiently solv them without any Motion of the Earth and wheras others would therefore ascribe Motion to the Earth becaus the Motion of that alone may suffice without the several Motions of all the Aether and so many Aetheruli they plainly contradict the Text which saith God sett them in the Firmanent of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth that is that both the Firmament of Heaven and all the Luminarys therin thus by Moving about this one Terraqueous Globe might give Light upon it by their Rays passing through the Diaphanous Air unto it as so many Lines from the Circumference to the Center and also the Reason of their very Nature which is most Motive of all the Elementary Bodys and likewise Sens itself which discovers them to be Mobile Others suppose the Earth should be more Mobile becaus it is less then most of the Luminarys which I believ was the first occasion of this Error but they consyder not also that it hath the least Motive Virtue which in the Aethereal Bodys is more proportionable to their Bulk and so the Sun is fitly compared to a Strong man or Giant runing his Race which he can do more swiftly then the Dull and Dwarfish Earth But their grand Argument and that which they esteem their most beautifull Helena though it be as fals and adulterine is the Orderly and Circumferential Situation of the Planets in their Spheres about the Sun as the Center wherof they make the Earth to be one but heer again the Moon doth break the Chorus becaus she Moves about the Earth and not about the Sun as the rest and so the Sun with them also about the Earth and therefore it is said that God made these two great Lights to rule the Day and Night upon the Earth as they principaly so Move about the Earth and all others about the Sun and they and all the others were sett by him in such Positâ—ons and to run such Courses whereby they might be most serviceable to the Earth nor are there any such several Spheres in the Aether as I have shewed but the true Spheres of the Elementary Globe are most Orderly and Circumferentialy situated about the Terraqueous Globe as the Center of them all without any Eccentricitys Epicyclicitys Hemitrochoids or the like and so the Air doth encompass it and the Aether the Air and the Superaether the Aether and thus Spheres properly and most conformably relate to their inmost Orb and not all or any one Orb in the Aether to the Orb of the Earth for so one Orb doth not relate unto another nor can Convex Orbs so comply as Concave Spheres with any Orb nor can they otherwise be Centers either of Gravity or Extension one to another becaus there can be but one Center to which all Gravia do tend as I have shewed and Orbs applied one to another make the greatest Chasms between them in their Extension And thus there is the greatest Conformity both of the Situation of the Elementary Bodys according to their more or less Density downward and of the Elementary Spirits
both of Vegetatives and Animals have no Use nor Inspection therof it must conformably have its own proper Inhabitants to use and enjoy it otherwise it should be so made in vain Again the Moon cannot be any such Magnet as the Earth which appears plainly by her Motions so often about the Earth without Moving once about her own Axis for such are not Magnetical nor in any respect like unto â—he Motion of any Terrella about the Earth or Needle about a Terrella which maketh two Revolutions about its own Axis while it Moveth once round about the other like one Wheel with Teeth so Moving about another whereby also the South Pole therof doth alway comply with the Noth Pole of the other and the North Pole with the South Pole of the other and so all the other Intermediate Points and if we say that the Moon hath any other Magnetical Virtue different from that of the Earth which doth so regulate her own Motions I grant that both the Moon and all the others have such proper Specifical Virtues as I have shewed and which I Genericaly call Planetary and though others may more Genericaly call them all Magnetical yet I must affirm them Subalternately to differ as I have said and shewed that the Poles Axis and Aequator of Aether do from them in the Earth though they be both so Denominated Equivocaly Also it is Sensibly evident that the Moon is not an Earth nor the Earth a Moon becaus the Moon is Luminous but the Earth Opacous though very much Illustrated by the Sun which becaus it is denied and will also concern all the other Starrs therefore I more willingly undertake to prove it though it be only a Superfoetation of the former Error It is expressly said that God made two great Lights that is the Sun and the Moon wherefore the Moon is a Light or Luminary as well as the Sun and greater or less Light doth not deny but affirm the less to be a Light as well as the greater and so they are both termed Synonymously and Univocaly Luminaria and not the Sun Luminare and the Moon Speculare as some men would make her to be and so it is said generaly of them and of all the other Planets and Starrs Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven and so indeed is the whole Aether both Calid and Luminous though yet less then the Moon or Starrs becaus Heat and Light are the common Aethereal Qualitys though there may be farr more in one Aethereal Body then another becaus their Composita are Specificaly different but as they are all more Genericaly Aethereal so they must all have their Generical Qualitys without which they should not be Genericaly what they are as well as all Vegetatives and Sensitives though they differ Specificaly one from another in their Sâ—mple Substances and so have their Specificaly different Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys yet must also have such as are Genericaly Vegetative and Sensitive otherwise they should not be what they are Vegetatives or Sensitives and thus indeed they make the Moon to be a Terrella and not Aethereal which they may as well affirm of the Sun and all the Aetheruli and Aether itself and so make it to be no Aether And wheras we Sensibly see the Moon to shine the Question is whether she shâ—ne by her own Light or only by the Solar Rays Reflected from the Earth whereby the Earth should give Light upon her which I have before refuted nor can it be so according to Optike Law if we consyder the very great distance between the Earth and Moon for though Direct Rays pass from the Center Circumferentialy to the utmost Sphere of their Activity as the Solar Rays so Illuminate the Earth and the whole opposite Hemisphere yet Reflex Rays are much shorter though very Vivid and quick becaus they are so Reduplicated and Conspissated like the Horns of a Snail when they are touched and they are proportionably stronger as they are neerer to the Reflecting Angle or Point as we see a Candle much farther by the Direct Rays then any Object Illuminated thereby by the Reflex Rays therof and the neerer we are to the Object we see it better And so though it is said that the Pike of Teneriff may be seen at the distance of two or three Degrees as any Eminences of the Earth may be seen so farr as a Line drawn from the Summit therof will be Tangent upon the Globe of the Earth and perhaps somwhat farther by the advantage of Refraction which may suffice to render an Object Visible about such a distance as three Degrees yet at the first Degree it will be seen very Dull and Obtuse and much more at the Second and he that can see it at the third Aut videt aut vidisse putat though he look upon it at Sunrising or setting when the Rays are most Directly Reflected or with a Telescope which doth Magnify rather then Prolong the Reflected Rays or though the Object be of the greatest Magnitude as the Alps or Apennine or Rock of Lisbon and the like which yet will never be seen very Lucid or Colorate but Confused like a Cloud or Fume yea though it be Specular at so great a distance wheras plainly we see the Moon walking in Brightnes as it is said of her with our naked Ey yea her very Fâ—gure and Spotts Nor is it only by Reflection of the Solar Rays from the Moon herself though that be neerer to the Truth being only by a single Reflection wheras the other must be double first from the Earth to the Moon and then from the Moon back again to us on the Earth wherefore to find out the Mystery of so clear a Phaenomenon we must consyder the Moon in her own Native Light which is so great in herself that thereby she is also Visible unto us in an Eclips in her whole Disk and that part of her Disk which is not Illustrated by the Sun is Visible sometimes or with some advantages and wheras this Visibility is imputed to the Secondary Light of the Sun I have shewed that an Object cannot be so farr seen by his Principal Light Reflected and much less by any Secondary Light Wherefore certeinly she hath some Light in herself and such as is farr greater then the common Light of Aether becaus she may be so seen thereby in the Aether and yet this Light is farr less Lucid or Visible then when and where she is Illustrated by the Principal Solar Light which to explain we must consyder that she also is Aethereal and Connatural with the Sun and so was made one of those Luminarys which were Created in the Firmament of Heaven and sett there to give Light upon the Earth not only generaly as all the rest of the vulgar Starrs but more speciaâ—y and principaly as she is so called the Queen of Heaven and so we must conceiv that they all had not only their own Native Light produced in
Mists commonly rise when the Sun is sett and in the colder Night so the Moon by a more Moderate and Insensible Tepor doth draw up more gross Vapors which presently return into Dews and Water and chiefly when she is in her Apogaea as I have said formerly of Tides which are then highest whereby the Vapors are not drawn up so high but the Water which as I have observed doth Naturaly Evaporate and again return to Water by her less Heat is less Desiccated and Suspended and so the Vapors are lower and sooner return into Water again for though Internal Heat in the Water itself by Rarefying it doth help Evaporation yet any greater External Heat doth reduce the Moisture of the Vapors which it raiseth to Potentiality in Fume which is prevented by the less Heat of the Moon and â—y this or some other way unknown to us the Moon doth very notably Predominate over Moisture And thus as Heat and Moisture are the chief Instruments in Elementary Generations wherin Cold serveth to temper Heat and Drines to fix Moisture so these two chief Luminarys do most notably Predominate over them that is the Sun over Heat and the Moon over Moisture as well as the Sun doth rule the Day and the Moon the Night IV. Besides these two there are five other Principal Planets as they are termed to distinguish them from the other Starrs which are contrarily termed Fixed though heer they are all comprehended under the common Name of Starrs and so indeed they are in Nature though men taking more notice of the Planets as neerest to us and most sensible by us have formerly Deified them and still dote upon them and so have assigned them their several Spheres and only one Eighth Sphere for all the rest which are Innumerably more and yet among the Planets themselvs there are found out some Satellites and perhaps more may be found out heerafter though we know them not yet as others before us did not know these and wheras men also have fansied such several Regions of Aethereal Spheres as are not to be found in Nature so also such an Orderly and Uniform Position of the Aetheruli therin as is indeed contrary to the very End and Intention of these Luminarys which as I have shewed was for the greatest Variety of Seasons and Influences and that could not be without their various Positions and Motions which I do rather suppose to be so very various and difform that like the Motions of Fâ—sh Fowl and Beasts not any one of them is like to any other but every one most Regular in its kind as I have observed of Mathematical Figures that is the Circle and all Regular Polygons which therefore are Asymmetrous and so are the Aetheruli becaus they are all several Specifical Natures purposely Created to express such Varietys and Conform in their very Difformitys Certeinly their Positions are all very different and distant the next to them is the Menstrual Motion of the Moon which maketh Months and that also is Incommensurable with either of them according to which besides the Sabbath Day which was made for Man or Mankind generaly and so Instituted first in Paradâ—se and is still kept and observed by virtue of that first Command and only the Circumstance of Time varied whereby it is exalted from a Rest of Creation to a Rest of Redemption and also the Annual Feasts and Jubiles according to the Motion of the Sun there were also Monthly Feasts in the New Moons and the like according to the Cours of the Moon appointed by God for the Iews And becaus as we cannot work according to Mathematical Exactnes so also we cannot know Astronomical scrupulosity therefore the Priests were to blow with the Trumpets as it is said In the Day of your gladnes and in your Solemn Days and in the Beginings of your Months to call the Assemblys and give notice to the People when they should begin them And so also there were Weights and Measures of the Sanctuary or there reposited as Sacred things as it is said A just Weight and Balance are the Lords and therefore the Standards therof were kept by the Priests but certeinly these Measures could not Commensurate that which is Naturaly Incommensurable and so it is supposed that wheras it is said of the Lavacre or Brasen Sea that it was Ten Cubits from Brim to Brim or from Lip to Lip round in Compass and a Line of Thirty Cubits did compass it about that it was so not Exactly but Rotunde according to the common Mechanical Account which becaus more Curious Mathematicians will not accept and therupon insult over Scripture and from this one Expression would prove all others therin to be Popular and themselvs to be the only Exact men I shall heer farther examin it and desire them to reconsyder how it was a Vessel having Brims or Lips and so is said to be Ten Cubits from Lip to Lip Inclusively as A Capite ad Calcem is also so rendred Inclusively Talos a Vertice pulcher ad imos and the Compass of the Body of the Vessel itself was under the Lips Exclusively as it followeth and under the Brim of it round about Knops compassing it ten in a Cubit compassing the Sea round about whereby also we may understand what was the particular Breadth of the Brim or Lip that is almost a quarter of a Cubit but never according to Mathematical Exactnes and therefore the Measure therof is not otherwise particularly mentioned as it is of the Body that the Thicknes of it was an Hands breadth But I shall leav these Disquisitions to more learned Criticks who if they pleas to understand Scripture not according to such Maligne but Benigne Interpretations shall find therin not only Verity but the greatest Curiositys couched in the most Mysterious Expressions and so I profess and hope to shew through this whole Dâ—scours that when Scripture and Nature are throughly examined and sifted to the utmost they will be found to be most Concordant one with another and all Scripture as well as Nature with itself V. Though as I have shewed there are no new Starrs Created nor any Annihilated as some affirm of the Pleiades or Seaven Starrs as they are commonly called but as Ovid observed of them in his time Quae septem dici sex tamen esse solent so long before him in Scripture they are called only by the Name of their Constellation and no where Numericaly Seaven as Translators render them yet since the Heavens as well as the Earth were cursed for Mans sake there are also some Anomala and Meteors in Aether and such as are not like the Starr of our Savior which was made by a Miraculous production but Monstrous and Prodigious wherof the Antients make mention as that which appeared at the death of Iulius Caesar to celebrate his Exit as the other did our Saviors Intrat which was some extraordinary Comet in the Aether where they denied any Comets to be
Virtue in itself be so supposed to Move in the most Rare and Fluid Aether as that it should not Sink therin by supposing also such a rapid Motion therof Annualy as must be admitted according to the Zodiak and Circle which it is said to describe and which according to the Phaenomena one way or other must be the same with that wherin the Sun doth Realy Move whereby that Motion will be found to be as I said almost fifty Miles in a Minute and then unless we can also suppose that the Earth would sink and fall so fast through the Aether in the very first Degree of the Velocity of the Motion of Descent which must be swifter then the aforesaid Motion it will not so fall or sink which to estimate more exactly I leav to the Curious But wheras Judicial Astrologers pretend to foretell by the Starrs and especialy by Comets the Fates and Fortunes of Men yea their very Imaginations Affections and Inclinations and which is yet more Divine Counsels and Intentions it is certeinly most Unchristian and Intolerable for Originaly God made the Starrs to be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years which is therefore so Emphaticaly repeated not as Ostents or Portents wherof there could be no use in that State of Perfection but for Signification and Indication as well as Causation of Seasons Days and Years which were certein constant and orderly when there were yet no Meteors in Earth or Air and much less any Changes Confusions and Disorders in the Superior Natures nor did they then portend that greatest Change and most Dire Event that ever was or shall be in the World which was the fall of Angels and Men otherwise themselvs might easily have forseen it wherefore certeinly they were not first Created to signify any such Contingencys but only Natural Futuritys and now wheras they affirm that the Starrs do by their Influences govern the Bodily Humors and by them the Minds and Spirits of Men let them shew us the Experiment of that which they make to be the Foundation of their Art and as it is said of Thales foretell what will be dear next year wheras their Prognostications of any such Contingent things in their yearly Almanaks are generaly as fals as true though I grant as our Savior saith that such who are weatherwise may probably foretell what shall so ensue the next Day or some such short time after In the Evening ye say it will be fair weather for the Sky is red and in the Morning it will be foul weather to day for the Sky is red and lowring Thus also they represent Eclipses as very Prodigious things which yet they know are most Natural otherwise they could not so foretell them and if Man had still continued in Paradise they must naturaly have been yea it were the greater Monster and Prodigy if they should not so constantly happen And though Comets which are Extraordinary may produce Extraordinary Effects as other Meteors Thunders Earthquakes and the like and are sure Signes of what is past thaâ— is the Fall of Man which hath been the Caus and Occasion therof and so are to be regarded and may be also Extraordinary Ostents of Gods future Judgments yet it is also as true that we cannot read this Hand-writing on the Wall of Heaven without a Supernatural Revelation or Indigitation as the Magi were directed by Angels of whom it is also said they were warned in a Dream otherwise by all their Art they could never have found out the very Town yea the very Hous in the Town yea the very Place in the Hous where the Child lay and over which the Starr is said to have stood so neither could the most Curious or Cabalistical Judgment of any Man have foretold the Retrocession of Hezekiah's Sicknes by the Retrogradation of the Sun ten Degrees on the Dial of Ahaz and the Signes in Heaven and Earth at our Saviors Death probably were as Miraculous as the Starr at his Birth and that Darknes no common Eclips of any Luminary but an Obtenebration of the Aether itself over all that Land as the Earthquake was also therin and all the Signification therof was plainly declared by his present Suffering which made the Centurion cry out Truly this was the Son of God! Wherefore though I honor Natural Astronomy and only wish that it were rectified according to this Dâ—vine Rule of Scripture as I would also gladly be corrected by it in any mistakes of the Natural Phaenomena or any Expressions therof so with the Scripture and all Christianity I must conclude against all such Judicial Astrology as an Heathenish Artifice wherof we are expressly forewarned that we should not be dismaied at the Signes of Heaven for the Heathen are dismaied at them and Let now the Astrologers the Starrgazers the Monthly Prognosticators stand up and shew how they can maintein the Veracity of their Art against the Divine Verity And now I shall return again to such Materialists who though they cannot affirm that becaus a whole Body is Moved up or down this way or that way therefore it ceaseth to be the same yet can suppose that if the parts in the Body be Moved in such a maner as neither they nor we can discern them there being a new Corporeal Texture Schematism and Mechanism therof it shall therfore acquire a new Individual Spirit and Spiritual Qualitys by such Local Motion as it doth by Physical Generation and Corruption which may be best Experimented in the vast Body of Aether wherin there are also so many Orbs continualy Moving so many several ways and yet they do not therefore ceas to be the same Aether and the same Orbs that they were before and so will any other Compositum be the same though the Parts in it Move this way or that way or any way whatsoever unless there be a new Generation to alter it otherwise only the Figure and Situation of the Parts in the Whole will be altered but not the Physical Nature of the Whole or Parts and so though their Hypothesis be of less Corpuscles and not of such great Bodys which as they propound the others becaus they are Indiscernible so I propound these becaus they are more discernible for the reason will be the same in these Elementary Natures though the Parts be never so minute as every part of Water is Water though it be never so small and though it be Moved any way whatsoever and so suppose the Parts of any one Orb to Move in the Orb as all the Orbs do in the Aether they will no more alter the Orb then the Orbs do the Aether and if Matter and Motion cannot thus make or alter Elementary Natures which are Inferior much less any others that are Superior and I suppose that the Superaether is altogether Immovable both in the Whole and in all the Parts therof Wherefore since this and all the other Heavens are so Stupendous that as some suppose
they are therefore so Named let us not conceiv that we or any Angel could Mechanicaly form those Glorious Bodys by any the most curious Artifice and much less by our own Imaginations but acknowledg the Divine Creation and Original Institution of Aether and all the Luminarys therin which have been from this Begining therof and so shall continue and persevere untill the dissolution of this present Elementary World Ingenerable and Incorruptible in the Whole though not in all the Parts therof VI. Now let us prais the Father of Lights for all the Luminarys of Heaven the Sun and Moon and Starrs which the Heathen World formerly adored and which we ought all to admire and to adore him who is the Creator therof whose Gâ—ory the Heavens declare and the Firmament his handiwork which though we behold them according to their seeming Aspects yet we perceiv not their Real Magnitudes and Altitudes and much less their wonderfull Motions and Iâ—fluences and though they are but small Portions of one Element yet are many of them greater then any other and some of them then all the rest whose Positions are higher above us then the Center of the Univers is beneath us and whose Motions are without any Rest and yet swifter then of any other Bodys and stronger then of Spontaneous Spirits And they are all such Locomotive Automata in themselvs and every one Moved by his own proper Power going on in his own Path both distant and different from another but never from itself either in Space or Time which are the grand Horologes of Nature without any Weight Springe or Pendulum and yet farr more constant and certein not only marking and dividing by Lines and Numbers but making Day and Night and all the Seasons in the Year and such long Secula and Revolutions as probably shall never attein any Natural Period but be Violently prevented by the Final Conflagration which shall be effected by their own Aether and Element of Fire and all these Firebrands therof who as they were Supernaturaly Generated so shall also be Supernaturaly Corrupted And yet while this Elementary Globe doth stand it is Preserved and Governed by their Progresses and Circuits about the Inferior Orb who as they pass along scatter the Missilia of their various Influences And though they being a very great Multitude to us seem to be in a continual Rout yet every one of them marcheth in his own Rank and File and they are all severaly distributed into Troops and Partys of Constellations and the whole Host of them formeth one most Orderly and Powerfull Militia wherof Sol is the great General and Imperator who himself alone is able to conquer all the Inferior World not only by encountring it with his Victorious Presence which would burn up all before him but by his very Flight and Absence which would otherwise destroy them through their own Indigence and want of his Vital Heat who as the true Adonis brings along with him in his Accesses all the Fruits of the Year and Foetus of Animals and again carrieth away all that is Annual in his Recesses who is Sponsus Naturae As a Bridegroom coming out of his Chamber and rejoicing as a strong man to run his Race His going forth is from the end of the Heaven and his Circuit to the ends therof And there is nothing hid from the Heat therof SECTION XI And God said Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the Moving Creature that hath Life and Fowl that may fly above the Earth in the open Firmament of Heaven And God Created great Whales and every Living Creature that Moveth which the Waters brought forth abundantly after their Kind and every winged Fowl after his Kind And God saw that it was Good And God blessed them saying Be fruitfull and multiply and fill the Waters of the Sea and let the Fowl multiply on the Earth And the Evening and the Morning were the Fifth Day EXPLICATION God having prepared the Elements Vegetatives and Aethereal Luminarys in order to the production and for the use and service of Sensitives did then caus the Waters to bring forth Fishes whose Spirits were before latent in them according to their several Kinds and particularly Whales the greatest of all Animals and so also caused flying Fowls according to their several Kinds to be produced And this was their Specifical Goodnes and Perfection And after God had thus made them Good and Perfect in themselvs he added the Blessing of Procreation whereby Fishes should multiply in the Waters and Fowls on the Earth according to their Kinds And these were the Works of the Fifth Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of Fishes and Fowls 2. Of Sensation 3. Of the five Senses 4. Of Imagination 5. Of Appetite 6. Of the Goodnes of the Works of the Fifth Day I. WE now ascend into the Region of Life which is not only above all Elementary and Vegetative Nature but also so farr different from them as the same Living Animal is from its own Dead Carcass and though I have termed them all generaly Spirits whereby I intend only Substantial Activitys though they do not breath and Live as Sensitives and the Soul of Man which â—herefore to distinguish from others I shall only call Souls or Psychâ— and so Hebraicaly they only are termed Living Spirits or Souls though as the Poets termed Water Stone Turf and the like Vive so both they and Philosophers conceived that Vegetatives did indeed Live as appears by their Fabulous Transmigrations of Animals into Flowers and Trees and their Anima Vegetativa wheras Scripture thus speaketh only Metaphoricaly when it mentioneth Living Water Stone Bread and the like or that Trees and Corn Dy and I shall never differ about Terms but only contend that Elementary or Vegetative Spirits are also Substantial Spirits which Expression they who also call them Vive may very well allow but I also affirm that they do not Live as these Living Spirits nor have any Perception or Appeâ—ite which is properly and truly Life as I shall shew heerafter to defend my self and all my Expressions from the Opinion of them who either affirm both Vegetatives and Elements yea Matter itself to be Sensitive becaus they have such Affections Inclinations and Principles Created together with their Substances and Imprinted in them by God according to which they Act and Operate and produce such Effects Naturaly as Sensitives do Ingeniously Spontaneously and Artificialy with Perception and Appetite Knowing Affecting and Intending what they do which those Inferior Natures do not nor cannot becaus they have no such Perception nor Appetite properly and truly though Metaphoricaly they are also ascribed unto them in respect to such Effects and also of ot hers who becaus these Inferior Natures have not any such Perception or Appetite therefore deny them to have any such Natural Principles so Created or Imprinted in them whereby according to their several Natures thus Originaly Instituted and setâ— in order they proceed to Act and
we see it double though it be single in itself so if we turn our Bodys round the Object seems to turn round or the Object may seem to be round when only the several Axes make a Circle as in the Firewheel and so also the round Earth seemeth Plane to us becaus our Ey cannot comprehend the vast Globosity therof while we stand upon it wheras all these Infirmities may be easily Rectified not only by Faith and Reason but by right Sensations and right Sens is true as well as right Reason or Faith and what is true to one of them is true to them all nor is there any Falshood in them or Fallacity in Nature but only Infirmity or such a Finite Perfection as it is in itself which we may otherwise Rectify or Correct our selvs by the right exercise of all those Facultys wherof God and Nature hath made us partakers to instruct us and not to deceiv us Now as these five Senses have their proper Objects and several Sensibles as I have shewed so there are many Common Sensibles which by them and together with them may be sensed and they are such Common Sensibles not only becaus they are so sensible by and with others but also becaus many of them may be sensed by several Senses as all Quantity and Affections of the Matter and the like and there is indeed nothing in this Spectable or Sensible World which is not sensible one way or other for so all other things which cannot enjoy themselvs were made to be enjoyed by Sensitives who thus enjoy themselvs and all other Sensible things whereby also Intellective Man understandeth Intelligible things in this Conjunct State with his Sensitive Body as I shall shew heerafter IV. Having thus farr passed through the Insensible and almost Inextricable Labyrinth of the Sensorys I now arrive at the Brain where as I said the Sensation is performed and which may evidently appear by what I have said for so this is the reason why Sight by the two Eys or Hearing by the two Ears is not double though the Organs be double becaus the Sensible Species meeâ— in the Brain where the Sensation is performed where also if they do not so meet the Sensation will be double as in distorting one of the Eys as I said and so if we putt one hand into cold Water and the other into â—ott and the like and it is well known that if a Nerv be bound in any part of the Body there is no Sensation by it below but only above that is between the Ligature and the Brain so also the Gutta serena which is in the Optike Nervs causeth Blindnes though the Ey which is the Organ of Sight be sound and perfect and in Seing we seem not to see any thing Intermediate between the Object and the Brain but as it were by a continued Visive Line or Radius Opticus reaching from one to the other both through the Medium and Organ And most certeinly all the Nervs are rooted in the Brain and Medulla and from thence all the Nerval Succus both in the Spina and in all the Nervs doth flow forth Wherefore indeed it was an inexcusable Error in them who would derive the Nervs from the Heart though that as I have shewed by its Motion be the first Operator and Refiner of the Sanguineous Liquor which is afterward Concocted in and by the more Moderate Temper of the Brain and there first made a Nerval Succus and from thence diffused into the Nervs and Spinalis Medulla And so the Scripture which as I said speaks Comprehensively doth only mention the Heart as the Original of all Sensation and Intellection as it doth only mention Bloud generaly which so passeth through the Heart and is afterward distinguished into Arterial and Nerval and though some who will as we say correct Magnificat may cavill and be offended or judg this Expression to be Popular yet they ought to consyder that such Comprehensive Expressions are not Popular but exactly true in their Comprehensive sens and thus Heart in Scripture is never Contradistinguished from Brain nor to be understood so as to Exclude but Include it as Bloud doth all kinds of Bloud nor is there therefore any mention particularly of any Nerval Succus or of any Brain or any such thing in Scripture becaus according to the Language therof such general Names as Bloud and Heart do Comprehend all the rest wheras we read of Liver Kidneys Gall and such other Instruments of Vegetative Nutrition rather then of Sensation and so of Seed and Milk which are for Generation and Nutrition of others Now that the fivefold Sensations of the five several Senses are performed in the Brain as well as the Sensation of the very Imagination itself I shall farther most plainly prove becaus the Sensitive Facultys do all Subsist in the Imagination as may sensibly appear by the maner of their Sensation which is not nor can it be without Animadversion as we rightly term it becaus it is the Adverting or applying of the Imagination to Contemplate the Sensible Species and also the Irradiation therof by its own Animal and Sensitive Light which makes the Sensation otherwise though the Object Organ Sensorys and all the Apparatus therof be ready and never so well instructed Seeing we See not and Hearing we hear not or we see and hear not or hear and see not or see or hear this or that Visible or Audible Object and not another or one more then another accordingly as we Intend it or apply our Imagination to it as I have shewed and I have heard of one who being to shoot at a Mark for a Wager professed that he thought he neither saw Heaven nor Earth nor any thing besides the Mark which most vehement Intention did very much conduce to his hitting of the Mark and wining the Wager and this Contemplation of the Imagination is that as I conceiv which we commonly call Common Sens whereby the Imagination which is one and the same Faculty in itself doth thus Contemplate all the several Sensibles as also one and the same Appetite doth Affect or Disaffect them and one and the same Understanding understand them and Will will or nill them For it is not the variety of Objects but the several maner of Sensation that doth distinguish the Facultys and make them Realy to differ and thus the Senses according to their fivefold Organs and Sensorys whereby their several Sensible Objects or Species therof are received severaly and in a several maner are several but though their Objects that is their Proper and Common Sensibles may be several yet as they both are so received in the same maner they do not distinguish the Sens nor make it several in itself Also we may heer observ the very Spiritual Nature of the Sensitive Soul and Imaginative Faculty therof that though the gross Sensible Objects be not only different but contrary one unto another and such as will
themselvs be Mist one with another as Heat and Cold will be Contemperated into a Tepor or otherwise there will be a great Conflict between them when they meet together yet the same Imaginative Faculty doth apprehend them both together as when one hand is in cold Water and the other in hott distinctly and inconfusedly Also this sheweth the reason of that Sympathy and Consent that is between some parts more specialy and the whole Body generaly in Feeling wherof the whole Body is capable as I said that is becaus the Imaginative Faculty is one and the same which resideth in the Brain from whence all the Nervs are dispersed through the Body and therefore the whole Body is so affected yet so as a Wound in the Toe doth not Corporealy affect the Brain or Imagination therin but Spiritualy and though the feeling in the Toe that is wounded being in the Standard doth caus a Principal Sensation therof in that Part and so in the Brain and from thence in the rest of the Body yet that is only a Secondary Sensation as I may so call it wherof it is said if one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it that is only by the Imaginative Faculty of the Sensitive Spirit therof which is one and the same though no other Part be Corporealy affected And wheras I have often mentioned two such several Kinds of Sensation that is one by the outward Organs and Sensory and by the Corporeal or Elementary Mutation made in the Standard within the Body and Irradiation of the Elementary Animal Spirits in the Nervs which is Primary and the other by Species Actuated only by the Vegetative Spirit in the Elementary Animal Spirits in the Brain itself as I have formerly shewed which is Secondary wherof we call one Sens and the other Imagination I shall now shew the Sensible difference therof in Sleep when all the Senses are bound up and obstructed and yet then the Imagination doth thus operate in Dreaming and the Senses are so bound up and obstructed by the Vaporous Bloud which ascendeth from the Heart through the Carotides whence they are so called the Sleepy Arterys to the Brain and it is said that if they be stopped Sleep will presently ensue though I rather conceiv that to be an Apoplectical then Soporous Effect for it is not the obstructing of them and thereby hindring the Sanguineous Vapors to ascend which causeth Sleep but rather the contrary that is an ascent therof more copiously which doth obnubilate the Basis of the Brain and reacheth as farr as the Roots of the Nervs and the Animal Spirits therin which are most Pure and Spiritual and the fitt Instruments of the Sensitive Spirit are clouded by such gross and unconcocted Vapors and thereby rendred unfitt and so the Imagination cannot operate by them wherupon that kind of Sensation ceaseth untill those Vapors be again rectified and refined in the Brain and so pass into the Nervs and then Sleep ceaseth and that Sensation begineth to operate thereby again But the Imagination being seated in the very Brain itself and probably in the upper Region therof and Fore-brain which we accordingly feel to grow most hott by the working therof the Cloud of those ascending Vapors being there weaker as the Vapors are which ascend higher in the Atmosphere and the Concoctive Power of the Brain there being greater the Imagination may Contemplate the Species in the Animal Spirits which are in the Brain itself and there Actuated by the Vegetative Spirit which doth concoct and prepare them as I have shewed and which is sufficient for this Secondary Operation by the Imagination and needeth no such Irradiation by the Species of External Objects as is required in the Primary Sensation And so this Secondary Operation by by the Imagination in Dreaming is also much weaker then it is when we are Waking or at least farr more Wild and Irregular either becaus those ascending Vapors are not yet so purely defecated in the upper Region of the Brain or otherwise becaus the Imagination then wants the Archetypes of the Primary Sensation whereby to rectify its own Contemplations And it is evident that in Sleep even the Animal Spirits of the Nervs are not so Consopited or as we say in a dead Sleep ordinarily but that any Vehement Sensible doth soon awake them and the Spirits by degrees are rowsed up and the Vaporous Cloud dispersed yea while we are asleep as the Cloud is more or less gross in ascending or sooner or longer in being purified in the Brain so is our Sleep greater or less or shorter or longer and sometimes the Soporous Cloud is so small and very Rare that we are as we say between Sleeping and Waking Now that it is so may plainly appear by the Causes of Sleep which are either Expens of Spirits that induceth a Lassitude wherupon Sleep Naturaly ensueth becaus Nature requireth a Recruit therof and the Bloud then ascendeth more copiously to the Brain which is the part affected and indigent therof or Satiety and a full Stomach whereby the Vapors so ascend of themselvs and Drinking commonly causeth Sleep more then Eating becaus Drinks are more Vaporous and Spirituous then Meats or Dejection of the Spirits by Stupidity and Sorrow and the like and so Narcotike Medicines by their Stupifying Quality induce Sleep or Idlenes and Cessation from Exercise of Body or Mind may be another Caus therof as it removeth the Impediment of Sleep or indeed the very Contrary therof for so all Exercise is a Waking and therfore a man cannot well sleep if he do but stand upright and Sleep as I may so say unbendeth the Bow and relaxeth not only the Perceptive but also the Motive Spirits and thus as Exercise and Lassitude so Waking and Sleeping do follow and indeed mutualy caus one another by Expens and Recruit of the Animal Spirits both Perceptive and Motive which heerby appear to be very Connatural for as much Study is a Wearines to the Flesh as the Wise man saith so wearines of the Flesh is also an Impediment to the Study of the Mind Now as I have shewed that all Perceptive Sensation both Primary and Secondary is in the Imagination so if any require that I should also shew what is that Specifike Imaginative Power whereby the Sensitive Spirit so Operateth wherof I have thus farr traced the Operations or maner of working from the Sensible Object to this Sensitive Faculty as I have shewed that the Sensitive Spirit itself is an Active Spiritual Substance Created by God in the Begining and first produced with this and all other the Innate Qualitys therof so Actuated by God in this Fifth Day so I can only affirm thaâ— this Imaginative Power is such becaus God so Created it as Matter is Matter and Spirit Spirit Heaven Heaven and Earth Earth Extension Extension Heat Heat and the like becaus God so Created them in the begining and as no man can go beyond that Begining so neither
same Sensitive Classis and yet very farr Different one from another not only in their whole Composita but also in their very Sensitive Spirits which Specificaly Differ and the Piscine Spirits are much Inferior to the Bestial so also are Angelical and Human Spirits in the same Intellective Classis and not only Spirits Genericaly as they are distinguished from Matter and as all Elementary Vegetative and Sensitive are Spirits as well as Angels as I have shewed but Classicaly Coordinate one with another and though the Spirits of Men be Inferior to Angelical as it is said Thou hast made him little lower then the Angels yet certeinly they are not Subordinate unto them as Fishes though Inferior to Beasts are not Subordinate unto them so as all the Sensitive Classis is unto Man and the Vegetative to the Sensitive and the Elementary to the Vegetative and Matter to the Elementary becaus they are not of an Inferior Classis but of the same Classis wherin all are Coordidinate as I have shewed and so are the Intellective Spirits of Men with Angels and as our Savior saith in this Future State they shall be Isangeli not only like but equal to them and indeed if we should not be in the same Intellective Classis with them Man should not be a Microcosm as he is and Christ in our Human Nature should not have Assumed all the several Classes of Nature as he did And becaus we are so Coordinate with them therefore we need not their Mediation and Intercession but only his who is the Mediator God-Man And as the highest Excellence of their Nature is to Know Love and Enjoy God so we are capable heerof as well as they and as we and they are Moral Creatures so we are Mutualy obliged one to another but neither of us to Brutes and so the Angel said to Iohn I am thy fellow-servant and we are yet more united in Christ who shall also make us partakers of their Superaether and in whom all things are Recapitulated as the Apostle saith both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him Whereby as it is also said we Come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Ierusalem and to an Innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven Now wheras I have shewed that in this present Conjunct State we cannot Operate without or beyond the Body that is we cannot Understand without Phantasms which we Irradiate with the Spiritual Light of our Understanding nor Localy Move the Body without the Motive Spirits which we Move by the Spiritual Power of our Will whereby we Command and Govern the Sensitive Imagination and Appetite Immediately and so the whole Body Mediately and that Angels need no such Instrumentalitys but may Intuitively Contemplate all things by the Irradiation of their own Mental Light and Move them by the Eradiation of their own Spiritual Heat as I may so term them thus our Human Spirit as well as they shall also then have the same Intuitive and Motive Qualitys Actuated therin which aâ—e now in it Potentialy for so Intelligences as well as all other Natures have their proper Potentialitys and Actualitys otherwise they should not be Mutable for Alteration is by production of Potentiality into Actuality and reduction of Actuality into Potentiality as I have said and though they are not Generable or Corruptible in their Substances which are Simple and without any Mistion or Composition and such as always Subsist in themselvs and are neither Generable nor Corruptible as I have also shewed yet they have their Accidental Qualitys by which they Operate and not by their Essences or Substances Immediately more then other Natures and all such Accidents do Subsist in their Substances and thereby and therin have their Actualitys and Potentialitys and are therefore Generable and Corruptible in themselvs and so Mutable Also all Simple Substances of the same Species have all the same Specifical Qualitys therof either Actualy or Potentialy becaus they are of the same Species as they are such Simple Substances though their Mista or Composita may otherwise Differ Specificaly as such for so though the Cortical Stones Metalls Minerals and Subcortical Magnet differ Specifically as Mista yet as all of them are of the same Predominant Element Earth so that being a Simple Substance in it self hath all the Terrene Qualitys in it self Actualy or Potentialy and thus the Magnetical Virtue which is a Terrene Quality is Actuated in Iron and so as is said may be in Brick-earth and the like And so though Aethereal and Culinary Fire may differ Specificaly as Mista yet the Elementary Fire which is Predominant in both is Specificaly one and the same Simple Substance and hath all the Aethereal Qualitys in it self either Actualy or Potentialy and so Planetary Virtue might be Actuated in Culinary Fire as well as in Comets and so also all Simple Substances of the same Classis have the same Classical or Generical Qualitys as every Grass Herb and Tree hath Vegetation and the like though in their own several Specifical maners and every Fish Fowl Beast hath Sensation and the like though in their own several Specifical maners And thus the Human Spirit and the Angelical Spirit being both Intelligences which may Live and Operate separately have also such Generical Qâ—alitys both Intuitive and Motive whereby they may so Live and Operate Separately in themselvs though in their own several Specifical maner either Actualy as the Angels or Potentialy as we also now have them And as an Embryon in the Womb hath many Facultys Potentialy which yet are not Actuated untill it be born and brought forth into the Light so have also our Souls while they are as Embryons in the Egg as it were of our Bodys and as we have now many Actual Qualitys which shall in that Separate State be reduced to Eternal Potentiality as Nutrition Tasting and the like so shall we then have others Actuated in us which we never had Actualy before And certeinly in the Palingenesy of the Body there shall be such a great and wonderfull change of Qâ—alitys that the Apostle calleth it a Spiritual Body as I have shewed which shall not be only a Platonical Vehicle of the Soul but Organical and most Glorious as the Apostle saith The Lord Iesus Christ shall change our Vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself Whereby also we may understand that Separate Spirits are not so vastly Diffusive or Atomicaly Retractive as some fansy but have their Bounds as other Finite Natures for so certeinly our Separate Soul after the Resurrection shall be confined within the Body as well as in this Conjunct State And that the Separate State of the Soul is such may somewhat Sensibly appear in our selvs who seem to have some Common
Notion therof Imprinted in our very Souls which made the Heathen Philosophers so much complain of the Prison of their Body and Bondage of this Conjunct State as expecting a better afterward And Christian Divines have a Problem Whether if Adam had stood he should not have been at length Translated to a better that is this other State and if we seriously consyder it there must probably have been some such ground of that wonderfull and otherwise inconceivable Tentation of Adam in Paradise which was not to any thing he then had nor to any thing which he was not capable to have especialy if it were Absolutely Impossible as to be a God or so to be like to God for though now the Corrupt Mind of Man may as I have said apprehend or affect Nonentity as Entitative and Impossibility as Possible yet we may not suppose any such thing of him in that State of Perfect Understanding and Will but it was a most obvious and prevalent Tentation that he having this Common Notion which we have now only Implicitely and Confusedly in his Perfect Mind most Explicitely and Distinctly and thereby knowing that he had such Angelical Facultys Potentialy in himself might covet to have them Actuated that so he might be like the Gods knowing Good and Evil. And though this be a farther and higher Perfection of the Human Spirit yet Adam was not therefore made Imperfect but Good and Perfect according to that Conjunct State wherin he was Created which was his Original Perfection and whereby he was so made a most Perfect Microcosm or Epitome of the preseâ—t World as he shall be also in his future State of the other World when not only these Angelical Perfections shall be Actuated in his Soul but his very Body shall be more Spiritualised as the Apostle termeth it or made fiâ—t for that more Spiritual State of an Immortal Life which yet shall still be a Body having all Corporeal Propertys and Affections such as the Body of our Savior was after his Resurrection which though not Sensible as before to present Sens for so he was not Visible or Tangible otherwise then as he so pleased to appear sometimes unto some yet heerafter when our Sensitive Bodys shall be also refined and sublimated and made like unto his Glorious Body every Ey shall see him as Iob saith I shall see for my self and my Eys shall behold him that is Iesus Christ his Redeemer who shall Eternaly be the Visible Deity and Image of the Invisible God Nor could Christs Spiritual Body penetrate any other Body as some have supposed from that Text wherin it is said that he entred when the Doors were shutt or the Doors being shutt which yet it doth neither express nor import but only that he did not enter into the hous so as our gross Bodys now do by Doors open which is their usual Avenue wheras his more Spiritual Body might enter in by a Window or other Aperture of the hous without any Penetration And this Renovation both of Soul and Body shall be generaly Conformable unto his and so made by his Divine Power as it is said The first Man Adam was made a Living Soul the last Adam is made a Quickning Spirit And as we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly VII Thus the Heavens and Earth were finished and all the Host of them which Consummation plainly refers to the first Inception In the Begining God Created the Heaven and the Earth or as it is Originaly these Heavens and this Earth which were the same that were afterward so finished in the several Works of the Six Days and which as it is also said God Created to make and particularly it is so expressed not only of Elements but also of Vegetatives These are the Generations of the Heavens and the Earth in the day that the Lord made the Earth and the Heavens and every Herb of the Field before it grew as I have formerly observed and now observ again how this Doctrine of Creation of all Generable and Corruptible things first in the Chaos of their Potentialitys and of their several Generations afterward in the Six Days is so plainly and cumulatively expressed and repeated that none may doubt of the Truth therof Again as not only Heavens and Earth heer are mentioned but also an Host therof or orderly Militia and thus God is called the Lord of Hosts or of the Armys of all the Creatures so as I have observed there is both a Scale of Nature and also an Oeconomy of the Composita and Polity of the whole Univers and that therefore it is declared of them all that they were Valde bona or as it is Originaly Valde bonum Singularly as of One and an Epitome heerof is every Man in himself as I have shewed and becaus as I have said he is such a Microcosm now in respect of this World and so shall be of the World future therefore God doth still continue to Create the Souls of men from the end of the first Created World which was thus consummated in Man as the Summ of all the rest untill the begining of the other World And if we rightly estimate the many Millions of men living together on the Earth probably he doth Create Human Souls every Minute and so though he rested from making the great World yet he maketh many such litle Worlds continualy for though it is said He had rested from all his Works which God had Created to make that is to be Generated or to make by Generation first Originaly which was Supernatural and their Improper Creation and since Successively by Natural Generation as I have shewed yet he rested not from Proper Creation of Human Spirits in their several Individualitys according to the same Specifike kind which he had Originaly Instituted and expressed in the Protoplast or first Mâ—n and so to be Composited with Human Bodys according to that very Institution and first Law of Human Generation as I have also shewed Nor doth he so Immediately Generate or Improperly Create the Human Compositum of any other Man as he did the first Adam except only Iesus Christ who was thereby declared to be the Theanthropus as it is said The Lord himself· will give you a Signe Behold a Virgin shall conceivâ— and bear a Son and call his Name Immanuel which being interpreted is God with us And when God had thus Originaly made Man that is both man and woman as it is said Male and Female Created he them and probably woman of whom Christ was to be born and so is called the Seed of the woman being made after man was also the last of all these Works of God then he pronounced of them all Universaly that they were very Good not only in respect of the Univers but also of Man as the Compendium of all and Consummation of his whole Work of Creation in order to his ensuing Work of Redemption
Wherupon he Instituted and made for Man his first Sabbath of Rest And on the Seaventh Day God ended his Work which he had made that is as he began in the very first Instant so he continued to work untill and in the very last Instant of the Six Days and therefore he rested not before but proceeding continualy to work in all the Six Days as it is said at first that the Spirit of God Moved on the face of the Deep he ended or Hebraicaly had ended on the very first Instant of the Seaventh Day or Sabbath of Rest wheras it could not be rightly said that he ended or had ended before for in the very last Instant of the Six Days he still continued to work so exact and proper is Divine Language and though men cannot discern between Instants of Time or Points of Extension which therefore are so Indiscernible that the Fluxes and Augments of Created Nature may appear Intire and Continuous to us yet known unto God are all his Works even Instants and Points as well as Numbers and accordingly he doth declare them in his Word as exactly and properly as Human Understanding can apprehend Again though it be said that He rested on the Seaventh Day from all his Work which he had made yet it is not said that he rested in it but this Work of Creation was Corrupted very soon after it was finished Wherefore as there remaineth a Rest to the People of God by the Redemption of the World through Iesus Christ so that is called also the Rest of God himself and shall be the Everlasting Sabbath and Consummation of all his Works both of Creation and Redemption wherin he will rest for ever Thus I have delineated the true System of the World which God himself who made it hath declared and reveled unto us in this Divine History of the Creation of the Heavens and the Earth that is the Superaether and utmost Circumference therof and within that Concave Sphere the Aether and within that the Air and within them all the Orb of the Terraqueous Globe and inmost Center therof which certeinly is the most Symmetrical and Uniform Chorography of the whole Body of Matter and of these several Members therof most exactly according to the greater or Less Density of their Matter and more or less Activity of their Spirits And therin I have also described the Scale of Nature and all the Classes therof Subordinate and Subservient one unto another that is Matter to Elementary Spirits and Elements to Vegetatives and Vegetatives to Sensitives and Sensitives to Intellective Man and Man to Iesus Christ the Head of all things and other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid by God himself Monendus est misellus Philosophus ut desinat esse Conditor Mundi and I confidently suppose that if Plato and Aristotle had enjoied the benefit of this Divine Light they had farr more improved Philosophy by building upon this Foundation then Christian Philosophers have done by building upon theirs and that we may enjoy the benefit of their great Learning and yet diâ—engage our selves wholy from their Errors we must reduce all their Opinions and Human Inventions to this most Infallible Rule which if we rightly consider it will not only rectifie their Errors but also instead therof present such Divine Truths as they did never conceiv or apprehend as may particularly appear by a short Recapitulation of what we have formerly discoursed Thus first we have proved a Begining and consequently a Creation of the World which no Heathen Philosophy so understood as it is declared by God in his Word but either imagined an Eternal Creation without a Begining in any certein Time removing it perpetualy backward by supposition of many Deluges Conflagrations and general Devastations and Indefinite Revolutions or though they may sometimes seem to acknowledg an Improper Creation from some precedent Principles of Matter Atoms Mens Anima Mundi Ideae and the like yet they do not express any Proper Creation from Absolute Nonentity to which Heathen Philosophy never did subscribe nor do I know any Word in any other Human Language but only Hebraical which doth import such a Proper Creation Though if any conceiv otherwise and can collect any such Acknowledgment from their doubtful and confused and sometimes contrary Sentences I shall not hinder him from subjoining their Human Testimony to Divine Authority But certeinly Moses doth most plainly and clearly affirm a Creation of the World in a certein Begining and so proceeds to declare the first Age of the World as particularly and expresly as if himself had been Contemporary and lived in the same Time and Places and the Affairs therof which all Heathen Historiographers esteemed Fabulous and termed Ogygia more exactly and truly then they do relate the Transactions of later Ages And thus wheras other Nations dated their Writings so many years ab Urbe Condita or in such an Olympiad or the like the Jews both antient and modern date them ab Orbe condito Nor is the whole Age of the World so very large or vast but that every man may according to Divine Chronology easily comprehend it And indeed there are not probably above 150 Generations between us and Adam who was the Common Ancestor of all Mankind for the Scripture doth exactly enumerate them all from the first Adam to the Second that is to Iesus Christ 76 Generations Inclusively as Enoch is so reckoned from Adam and the Brazen Lavacre so to be measured as I have shewed for so Luke declares his Seculum as Matthew doth his proper Linage and if we allow fower Generations to every Century since the Nativity of our Savior yet the Total will not exceed that Number Nor is the whole World and System therof so Indefinite but that the Mind of Man may comprehend it and by the Light of the Divine Word look through it as a transparent Globe for so it is said He hath set the World in their Heart and his Word plainly sheweth us how all Generable and Corruptible things were first educed out of a Chaos of Potentialitys wherin all their Primitive and Simple Essences were then latent and brought forth most orderly and successively in Six Days by God who Created them before by a Proper Creation from Absolute Nothing in a Supernatural maner by Improper Creation which was their Original Generation then Instituted by God himself and by his Divine Benediction so continuing Successively And this is a short plain and evident account therof wheras others instead of such Proper and Improper Creation have imagined a Potentia Materiae or Power in the Matter of producing out of itself other Active Substances farr more excellent then itself which yet were not before Realy in it or that the Matter is transpeciated and converted into them though an Angel who is the chief Being in the Scale of Nature cannot so produce out of himself any other then his own proper Qualitys and
of God and by Iacob are called the Everlasting Hills wherof others give us no account Nor doth he affirm Vegetatives to Live but as I have observed plainly distinguisheth between Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits which he afterward calleth Living Souls And in the description of the Works of the Fourth Day we find none of those Monsters and Figments which both Poetry and Philosophy have introduced in the Starry Heaven for neither doth he divide it into Spheres having plainly shewed before how the whole Aether was only one Sphere as well as the other Heavens nor indeed can such several Imaginary Spheres solv the Phaenomena of the Motions of Aeâ—herâ—al Comets and of all the Planetary Motions as of the Satellites which as I have observed move not in perfect Circles in the Aether but only about their principal Planet whereby their Motion in the Aether describes an Hemiâ—rochoid as I said as if a Qâ—ernstone were set upright like a Cartwheel on a declive Hill and a man with his hand on the Handle should thereby move it round about the Axis down the Hill Nor doth he assigne any Intelligences or Daemons and a Metratton or President over them all to move the several Spheres Certeinly the Scripture calleth 〈◊〉 Daemons Princes of the Air and not of the Aeâ—her though they were Originaly of the same Nature and Office with good Angels but as they were since ejected out of the Superaether so now probably they are confined within the Subaeâ—hereal Orb between which there is such a great Chasm Nor doth he distinguâ—sh the Luminarys into Planetary and Fixed but calleth them by one common Appellation Lights Originaly derived both in Name and Nature from the Primigenious Light wherof they were all composed And he particularly nameth only the two principal Luminarys which so give Light upon the Earth and according to which besides the common and Diurnal Motion of the Aether all the Sacred Feasts of the Jews were instituted And as the Sun is first named so probably he was first made of that Primigenious Light whereby he Illustrateth all the rest and therefore is sometimes called by thâ— same Name or the Light And as he hath Light so also Heat which is another Aeâ—hereal Quality in himself Formaly and not oâ—ly Eminently or Equivocaly as some would suppose and as indeed I conceiv that the Moon causeth Moisture which is no Aetâ—ereal Quality over which she doth yet manifestly Predominate as may appear most notably in Tides whether she then causeth more gross Uâ—pors when she is in her Apogaea because she is farthest from the Earth or generaly more Vapors because she is then more strong and Praepoent as the Sun in his Apogaeum or from some unknown Influence or Power But however those Vapors which she causeth do not make that whole Body of Water which floweth and refloweth in Tides nor doth every part of that whole Body of Water pass to the extremitys of the Floud and Ebb but only the Rivers in their Fall above the Floud of the Sea are supplied by the Vapors which causeth the Impuls of the whole Undulating Body of Water as farr as the Ebb like the two Handles of a Saw in sawing forward and backward not very farr though the Saw be never so long for plainly the Waters in the Floud toward the Rivers are not much more Salt nor in the Ebb toward the Ocean much more Fresh but in the middle where they meet and where a proportionable overplus of the River Water so caused by the Vapors doth mingle with the Seawater Also he plainly intimateth that as some of the Luminarys are manifestly Motive so they are all in that he doth not distinguish between them and it is elswhere expressly said of the Starrs generaly that they militate in their Courses or Originaly Paths and if the Fixed Starrs do move Uniformly together which is the last Residuum of the antient Error and Opinion of their Fixation yet however according to their Various Positions in the Aether they must move Difformly in Time in that very Uniformity in Position and either in Position or Motion or both they are all Asymmetrous certeinly no known Motion of any of them is Commensurable with the Motion of the whole Aether according to which we assigne the Propeâ— Day Natural to be as I have said fower and twenty hours neither more nor less otherwise they should not be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years and all the Variations therof And though many of them be farr greater then the Earth yet they all move about it becaus they were made to give Light upon it which they could not do at such a distance unless they were so great And their Number is Innumerable unto us and perhaps not fewer then of the Host of Israel in the Wildernes nor of that which Ioab gave up to the King Rotunde before he had compâ—eted it or of that which he still proceeded to complete untill he was hindred by the Plague Nor doth Moses lay any foundation of Judicial Astrology which is expressly condemned by Scripture Again in the Works of the Fifth and Sixth Day he describeth the Original Generations of Fishes Fowls and Beasts and most truly termeth them Living and afterward calleth their Bloud the Bloud of Life which our Learned Doctor hath lately discovered to be a most proper expression and citeth that Text in confirmation of his Discovery wheras formerly the Heart was termed Primum vivens ultimum moriens I have been informed by a Physician my Neighbor that having dissected an old Toad so farr as that he had taken out the Heart and afterward stepping aside before he returned again the Toad had crept away into his Garden where he found it aâ—ive and that it so lived some consyderable time In the last of all the Works of Creation that is of the little World Man he discovereth a new World of Mysterys not only as Man is the whole Scale of Nature and as there was another Proper Creation of his Intellective Spâ—rit but also how he was made in the Image of God in order unto Iesus Christ God-Man who by the Assumption of the Human Nature into the Divinity did also superadd and unite to this Scale of Created Nature the Creating Nature God himself which is the Anacephaleosis or Reduction of the Finite Creation to the Infinite Creator And I shall desire any Naturalist seriously to consyder this Natural Representation of the Messiah as he is thus the Infinite Completion and Consummation of Nature itself and Perfection of the Univers and so the Mediator both of Creation and Redemption that thereby God the Creator might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him for so indeed Christ hath united in himself not only the Intellective Spirit of Man but also his Body yea the very Matter therof as it is said In him dwelleth all the fulnes of
the Motion of the Earth if any should urge against me that Text which shaketh the Earth out of her place and the Pillars therof tremble I should answer him that if I wanted a Text to prove the contrary Truth this alone might suffice for both by it and the Context it plainly appears that it is spoken of a violent Commotion of the Earth by God in his anger and evidently imports that otherwise the Earth Naturaly resteth and hath a Place of Rest. And so their chief Reason to prove the Earth Mobile becaus it is Magnetical which I have grantâ—d doth as plainly prove the Immobility therof as I have shewed And the Sensible Experiment of an Arrow shot upright in a Ship sailing is a meer Fallacy though the Motion of the Ship and of the Archer in it while he dischargeth it may indeed caus some little Impuls that way in the very discharge which so directeth it But certeinly no man can believ that a Fly removing from an Horses head in travelling doth follow him with any less Nisus or labor by reason of any such Conjunct Motion then another Fly which freshly pursues the Hors for let an Hors that hath been washed in a River run swiftly on the Land certeinly the Drops that fall from him will not follow him There are many such fond Opinions and foolish Probations which serv only to render Philosophy ridiculous I am more confident of my Theses and hope I have offered no such Hypotheses but whatsoever they are I submit them to the several Masters in the respective Arts and Sciences and generaly all to learned Divines whose complete Province it is also to inspect this Divine Philosophy which God himself hath laid as the Foundation of Theology and as he doth delight to intitle himself the Maker of Heaven and Earth so Ieremy taught the Captive Jews that Chaldaike Sentence The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens to discriminate the only true God from all Idols nor do I remember that any Heathenish Religion did ever ascribe the Creation of the World to any of them nor indeed acknowledg any Proper Creation Wherefore since Errors in Philosophy are so dangerous in Divinity Theologists should affect the Genesis of Creation as well as the Exodus of Redemption as all the Sects of Graecian Philosophers did joyn Natural with Moral Philosophy Certeinly Theology only can teach us the right use and improvement of Natural Knowledg that is to Glorifie God and benefit Mankind and doth specialy admonish us that we should not so highly prize Curious and Costly Perierga or any vain Philosophy or Knowledg which only puffeth and edifieth not for indeed whosoever doth terminate in a Speculative Contemplation of the World is as much a Worldling as any Ambitious Covetous or Voluptuous men who seek a satisfaction therin VIII Let all men therefore prais and glorify their Creator who hath made this whole World and all things therin in Order Measure and Weight not only in all their own particular Natures but in the Univers and Polity therof since every man is himself a Created Module and Idea both of the Creation and of God the Creator who as a Melior Natura was made to represent God to all Inferior Creatures in his Dominion over them and them unto God in his Immediate Subordination unto him Wherefore as all the Works of God do prais him with the Echo of his own Goodnes and the whole Globe as a Cymbal doth sound forth his praises so should we sing and chant them out with Oral Voice and Mental Understanding And thus as blessed Angels who in Heaven behold the face of God continualy cry unto him Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts so we beholding the Reflections therof in the Speculum of Created Nature should subjoin in Consort the whole Earth is full of his Glory And more specialy we should prais him for our own Human Nature which is the Summ of all the rest and Completion of both the Sensible and Intelligible Worlds quartering all the Familys of Nature in the â—scutcheon of our Humanity whereby we of all others are most obliged to this Divine Service which is the very End of Creation and Divine Goodnes therof And every particular man should thus Personaly reâ—lect on himself becaus he is also an Abstract of Humanity singing the Doxology of the Divine Psalmist I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made and that my Soul knoweth right well my Substance was not hid from thee when I was made in seâ—ret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth Thine Eys did see my Substance yet being Imperfect and in thy Book were all my Members written which in continuance of time were fashioned when as yet there was none of them Thus I was Created through the most free Grace of my Creator and was not what I now am long since the World was made and which might still have continued without me who am a very Inconsyderable and Insignificant Portion of Mankind among all the Innumerable Millions of men who have been before me are now with me and shall be after me and yet as much concerned in my Creator and he as particularly regarding me as if there were none other man in the World And as I before I was so my Parents or any others could not designe or desire any such being for me nor foretell or imagin what I should be but only my Divine Father who did set down and prescribe in his Book of Eternity the Idea of my Personality and whole Compositum and accordingly formed me in my Mothers Womb molding my Body the Tabernacle of my Soul by a Vegetative Plastical Virtue and producing my Sensitive Spirit out of the common Clay and lowest part of the Earth inspired into it my Intellective Spirit as a Light Incensed that shall never be Extinguished an Intelligence Ingenerable and Incorruptible for ever And now I am my self and not another nor ever shall be any other then my self and so am put into the present possession of my own everlasting Being though my Soul living and dwelling in this Mortal Body for this short space of a Temporary Life hath this small Segment of its Eternity set out and appointed to be the sole opportunity of gaining my everlasting Welbeing and the Intellectual and Spiritual Welbeing of my Soul is only the Union and Communion therof with my Infinite Creator which is the true Apotheosis of Intellective Spirits In which Original State of Divine Perfection Human Nature was first Created but by the Apostacy and Defection of our first Parents did again sink down into the Mortality of the Body and the self-confounded Chaos of the Soul And now O Mankind admire and adore for ever the Infinite and Incomprehensible Glory of God and Mystery of his Spiritual Kingdom of Redemption farr exceeding all the Glory of his Natural Kingdom of Creation which was only the foundation or Scene of the other being so made in order therunto and wisely conâ—â—der how God Infinite in himself look'd through this Finite World as a Bubble of Diaphanous Air computing all Creatures therin only as so many Cyphars which though more or fewer greater or less before or after in or among themselvs yet all signify the same Nothing in Divine Account neither adding to nor diminishing from the Infinity of their Creator And therefore from all Eternity before the Foundations of the World were laid he designed and decreed to Invest his own Son the Uncreated Essential and Intrinsecal Image of himself with the Created Artificial and Extrinsecal Image of our Humanity and therin with the Universal Nature of the Created World By whom Finite is thus united to Infinity and Mutable to Immutability and in whom God Infinitely and Immutably enjoieth himself in the full Embraces both of his Essence and Operations And this is that new and better Creation which shall endure for ever wherof it is also said as of the first Creation In the Begining was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the Begining with God All things were made by him and without him nothing was made that was made And now I prais thee I bless thee I adore thee Lord God Creator of Heaven and Earth for thine own Uncreated Glory Eternaly Immanent in thy self and for the Transient manifestations therof in and to thy Creatures And as I admire thine own Infinite Incomprehensibility so also all those Finite Incomprehensibles in Nature and all the Comprehensibles therof which may be known by us for whatsoever we do or can truly know of thee or thy Works is most excellent and so is all that we cannot know And I thank thee for the discovery of the Initial Creation and Original Confabrication of the World by thy Word and the retrospective Revelation therof to thy Servant Moses and for any Revelation of that Primitive Apocalyps to me thy most unworthy and unable Servant by the Illumination of thy Divine Spirit And now I beseech thee to revele it more and more to the whole World that we may all know and acknowledg the only true Genesis of the World and thee the Creator who art both the Author and End therof And wherin I am Ignorant still teach thou me or wherin I have Erred discover it to others that neither thy Divine Truth may be dishonored by my Human Infirmity nor any honor therof ascribed to my Infirm Humanity but that we all may always and in all things Laud and Glorify the most Holy Name of thee the Infinite Iehovah and Creator through Iesus Christ the Messiah our Redeemer whom to Know is Life Eternal Amen FINIS
together to cover the whole Earth not as it did at first equaly cover the whole Surface therof but the Canales Campus and highest Hills as they then stood and continued fifteen Cubits did the Waters prevail and the Mountains were covered Whereby we may partly estimate the quantity of the whole Body of Waters which yet may be Rarefied or Condensated more or less nor can we exactly tell what is the Proportion of the Surface of the Waters to the Surface of Dry Land in the whole Terraqueous Globe The Author of Esdras saith Vpon the Third Day thou didst command that the Waters should be gathered in the Seaventh part of the Earth Six parts hâ—st thou dried up which might probably also have encouraged Columbus in his happy confidence of more Earth then was discovered before him and according to this account there should still be much Terra Incognita The Density of the Body of Air more then of Water hath been observed to be as about a Thousand to One and yet Waters beneath are Rarefied into Vapors or Waters above which are as Rare as Air itself for Vapors and Fumes do not ascend into the Air by Impulsion of one part after another as Water may be squirted upward out of a Syringe or as they are called Pillars of Smoak in respect of the Figure therof but if a Titiâ— or Brand be held downward in the open Air yet the Smoak therof will ascend upward or remain suspended and perhaps some Vaporous Meteors are Indefinitely in the Air or any Region therof even the highest Surface and so said to be upon it as I have shewed And I shall heer observ that as Vapors or Waters above were so made by special Creation in the Second Day so they are of special Use and Consideration being a very Subtile and Spirituous Effluvium and a notable Instrument of Nature and also a Menstruum carrying forth with it not only part of the Body but also much of the Spirit and this is indeed that which Chymists commonly call Spirit as it so carrieth forth the Spiritual Qualitys with itself being a very fitt Vehicle therof whence some have fansied a Conversion and Transpeciation in itself which I have already refuted but certeinly it causeth a very great Alteration of the Bodys out of which it is emitted and Translation of the Spirits therof being not so Dens or Consistent as Earth nor as Water out of which it is produced and almost as Rare as Air and Aether and so Intercedeth and Mediateth between all the Elements and doth Evoke the Spirits therof as is commonly observed of the firmest Timber that if it be often Wett and Dry again it soon Rotts which also takes away the State of Hay as Husbandmen say in their Chymical expression therof Yea I suppose that what is intended by the famous Chymical Term of Fermentation is only the Operation of a Hott Spirit on a Moist Intrinsecaly within the Body therof by Vaporation which plainly discovers itself accordingly by some Turgescence and Ebullition and whereby the Benigne and Homogeneous Spirits are better Concocted and more equaly Distributed which doth exceedingly Meliorate and Maturate and the more Maligne and Heterogeneous do Evaporate or otherwise the Spirits being in agitation by any Intemperate Excess or Defect become more Corrupt and Putrid Thus Heat and Moisture Operating and Fermenting within Bodys produce all Elementary Generation and Corruption and are thereby also very subservient to Vegetation and Vivification Now as I said before of Air so the very Spirit of Water is unknown to us nor have we any apt Vocabulum therof or if we had yet we could not thereby know the Substantial Spirit itself or the Nature therof but only by those Accidents or Spiritual Qualitys wherof I shall now proceed to discours II. The first or principal Quality of Water is Moisture as I have already proved and indeed unless Water be Moist I neither know what is Water nor what is Moisture And I suppose that Elementary Water is most Moist that is it doth Moisten most strongly though Vapor being more Rare and Subtile may sooner penetrate as Fixed Fire doth certeinly Heat most though Volatile Flame doth most penetrate and yet when Vapor hath thus penetrated it doth most Moisten by being Condensated again into Water but Vapor may be also Adusted and turned into Smoak which is Actualy Dry as I have shewed and that cannot be supposed of Water Immediately untill it be first turned into Vapor And Oil seemeth to Moisten more then Elementary Water becaus it is more Unctuous and Evaporateth less whereby it reteins the Moisture longer as a boiling pot of Water being covered doth retein the Vapor and Moisture more then uncovered and therefore that Water is longer in boiling away and so is Oil then Water thus though pure Water doth as I said Moisten most becaus Moisture is the Proper Quality therof and all others Moisten only by participation of Water yet it doth also Evaporate most whereby it becomes Vapor and Water above which is also another Proper Quality therof and thereby drys away soonest Also though it moisten most yet in Washing it may be advantaged by other Bodys as pure Water doth not Rens or Scowr so well as if it be mingled with Earthy particles of Chalk Marl Bran or the like which render it more Abstersive and make it as Huswives say bear Soap better becaus those Terreous Corpuscles do Imbibe Unctuous Bodys better then Water and thereby reconcile them together yet not without heating beating laving or the like and so Water and Milk mingle together the Oleous parts of the Butyrum being reconciled to the Water by the Serum wheras Butter itself Oil Turpentine Mercury and the like will not so easily mingle with Water becaus they are not so Aqueous which appears by their less Evaporation nor will Water easily mingle with Vapor while they continue such because God hath so vastly differenced them in their Creation that they shall be either Waters beneath or Waters above whose different Density is as a Thousand to One and they can hardly continue in any of those thousand Degrees between them though they pass from one to the other by them all as may appear by the Motion of Water boiling in a pott which first is scarcely seen to Move and then Simpers as they say and so boils up more and more though they will continue in some Degrees beyond that proportion as Meteors in any Region of the Air. And Evaporation is such a notable Property of Water and Symptom of the Aqueous Nature that I suppose all Elementary Water if it be not frozen with Cold will Evaporate always with any Degree of Heat or Tepâ—r as certeinly it will in a Cold Still though proportionably less with less and more with more Heat and so even those winds which we call Cold from that Predominant Quality do Dry notably by carrying away the Vapors which even then do arise whereby others
themselvs but also adapted so as to Colluminate together and give Light upon the Earth as it is so said of them all together as well as particularly of the Sun to rule the Day and of the Moon to rule the Night and thus they were made one general Constellation or Host of Heaven wherof the Sun who was made to rule the Day which is called Light and in respect wherof the Night and all the Nocturnal Lâ—ght is Comparatively termed Dâ—rknes not only as they were so Divided and Denominated in the First Day before there were any Moon or Starrs to rule the Night but now also again in this Fourth Day wherin the Luminarys were made to rule over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes was made also to be Fountain of Light generaly as the Ocean and the rest as Rivers or Streams of Light and as all the Luminarys and Constellations have their Influences so every other Planet and Starr and the whole Aether had their own Native Light more or less Actualy produced in themselvs and likewise an aptitude or Potentiality of production of a greater Lucidity and Emanation therof as well as of their Influences by the Sun whereby they also might give Light upon the Earth And thus as I have observed Univocal Generators do most Effectualy Generate and produce as Heat is so said to draw forth Heat and particularly Colors which are composed as I said of Lucidity and Opacity though they be Inherent in the Colorate Bodys wherin they are so Mist and do Subsist yet being so Mist with Opacity their Lucidity is thereby also so Imprisoned or fixed and confined to the Colorate Body that it is only Actualy Inherent therin and cannot issue forth in Emananâ— Rays whereby it becomes Visible unto us until it be Evoked Excited and Assisted by the External Light and the more Lucid the Color is as White and the like the more it is so produced as Whites are best Marks at a distance and a White Horse a better Mark or Guide in a dark Night then a Black and the more Light or Rays therof are cast upon any Colorate Object the more are the Visible Species therof produced wheras Culinary Lucid Bodys which of themselvs do Emitt their own Rays are not Assisted but rather have their Visibility Obscured by External Light especialy if it be greater as a Candle in the Sun and so the Starrs and Moon itself above the Horizon before Sun rising or setting are not so Visible as afterward as Water doth quench the flame of an Haystack which it before Incensed Wherefore I thus conceiv that the Native Light of the Moon being not a Culinary but an Aethereal Light Inherent in the Moon itself is like Color yet farr more Lucid and so farr more Evoked Excited and Assisted by the Solar Light as a White Color is thereby rendred more Visible then Black and that the Inherent Light of the Moon and External Light of the Sun so concurring by their more Connatural Homogeneitys do produce and draw forth themselvs together to so great a distance and with so great a Splendor and though the Sun doth so produce the Inherent Light of the Moon Positively by his Principal Rays when they are both above the Horizon yet the Moon doth not then appear so Visible and Splendid becaus Comparatively she is thereby made farr less Visible and Splendid then he is in himself for certeinly this Lucidity cannot be only from Reflection of the Solar Rays whether we suppose the Moon to be Cortical having Earth and Seas like the Terraqueous Globe which Sensibly doth not Reflect very farr or specular which may Reflect farther becaus the Rays penetrate less and more Splendidly in a fitt Position to the Ey being Reflected thereby more equaly but it must be also by some Inherent Light which is in the Moon itself that is so Collustrated by the Solar Light and by the Connatural Quality therof nor is it to be Imagined that the highest Planets and Starrs which are at the farthest distance and yet Emitt such a Splendid and Vivid Light should so shine only by the Reflection of the Solar Light Now though there are Spotts in the midle and seeming Gibbi in the Circumference of the Moon which I rather conceiv so to appear by such Intervenient Spotts therin yet this may not be from any Concavitys in the Body of the Moon and the unequal Reflection of the Solar Light thereby for there are Spotts also in the Sun whereby his conversion about his Axis is noted and yet he shines by his own Light but I suppose them to be only less Luminous parts and such defects of their Native and Inherent Light as I doubt much whether they were so Created in this Fourth Day and though Earth which is a Consistent Body may have such Constant Eminences and Water some Temporary Waves yet it hath been observed that as Flame of a Candle which is somwhat more Rare is rendred Pyramidal by Compression of the Ambient Air so if it be defended by another Intermediate Flame as of Spirit of Wine Inflamed or the like it will Conglobate within that Flame And wheras Saturn is commonly represented Oval it is said by a very curious Inspector that indeed he appears so if you behold him through a less Telescope but if through a larger you may discern two litle Aetheruli on each side of him and very neerly distant from him which make him so to appear when they are beheld together with him Confusedly and Indistinctly Though I shall not determine this or how they might be Composed and Constituted by the Divine Creator certeinly all the Planets do not Move in exact Circles but some of them describe Circles Indented with such Hemitrochoids as I have shewed but it shall suffice to have proved that the Moon and consequently the Starrs have their own Inherent Light as well as the Sun though perhaps not Emanant without his Collâ—â—tration and so plainly they have their several Influences and every one it s own Planetary Vâ—rtue Inherent in themselvs which Moves their own Bodys becaus there are such various and several Motions therof which therefore must be caused by various and several Motive Virtues The Moon as I have said doth not Move about her own Axis but she doth Move very notably and rapidly in her Zodiak Progressively and if we compute that Motion according to all her Revolutions perhaps as fast as the Sun which are the two swiftest Movers Progressively And the Moon as she is neerest to us so probably she is least Calid and Lucid wherefore her chief Influence is observed to be over Moisture not that she is Moist in herself which is a Quality of Water but as the Sun doth by his Heat draw up Vapors and also Desiccate or Concremate them whereby they do not presently return again into Water but turn into Dry Exhalations Clouds and Motes wheras more Moist Vapors and