force to make him consider better of his own Doctrine and sometimes brought him to the acknowledgment of the Truth But other punishment they could inflict none that being a right appropriated to the Civil Power So that all the punishment the Church could inflict was only Ignominy and that among the Faithful consisting in this that his company was by all the Godly avoided and he himself branded with the name of Heretick in opposition to the whole Church that condemned his Doctrine So that Catholick and Heretick were terms relative and here it was that Heretick became to be a Name and a name of Disgrace both together The first and most troublesome Heresies in the Primitive Church were about the Trinity For according to the usual curiosity of Natural Philosophers they could not abstain from disputing the very first Principles of Christianity into which they were baptized In the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Some there were that made them allegorical Others would make one Creator of Good and another of Evil which was in effect to set up two Gods one contrary to another supposing that causation of evil could not be attributed to God without Impiety From which Doctrine they are not far distant that now make the first cause of sinful actions to be every man as to his own sin Others there were that would have God to be a body with Parts organical as Face Hands Fore-parts and Back-parts Others that Christ had no real body but was a meer Phantasm For Phantasms were taken then and have been ever since by unlearned and superstitious men for things real and subsistent Others denyed the Divinity of Christ. Others that Christ being God and Man was two Persons Others confest he was one Person and withal that he had but one Nature And a great many other Heresies arose from the too much adherence to the Philosophy of those times whereof some were supprest for a time by St. John's publishing his Gospel and some by their own unreasonableness vanished and some lasted till the time of Constantine the Great and after When Constantine the Great made so by the assistance and valour of the Christian Souldiers had attained to be the only Roman Emperor he also himself became a Christian and caused the Temples of the Heathen Gods to be demolished and authorized Christian Religion only to be publick But towards the latter end of his time there arose a Dispute in the City of Alexandria between Alexander the Bishop and Arius a Presbyter of the same City wherein Arius maintained first That Christ was inferiour to his Father and afterwards That he was no God alleadging the words of Christ My Father is greater than I. The Bishop on the contrary alleadging the words of St. John And the Word was God and the words of St. Thomas My Lord and my God This Controversie presently amongst the Inhabitants and Souldiers of Alexandria became a Quarrel and was the cause of much Bloodshed in and about the City and was likely then to spread further as afterwards it did This so far concerned the Emperors Civil Government that he thought it necessary to call a General Council of all the Bishops and other eminent Divines throughout the Roman Empire to meet at the City of Nice When they were assembled they presented the Emperor with Libels of Accusation one against another When he had received these Libels into his hands he made an Oration to the Fathers assembled exhorting them to agree and to fall in hand with the settlement of the Articles of Faith for which cause he had assembled them saying Whatsoever they should decree therein he would cause to be observed This may perhaps seem a greater indifferency than would in these dayes be approved of But so it is in the History and the Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation were not thought then to be so many as afterwards they were defined to be by the Church of Rome When Constantine had ended his Oration he caused the aforesaid Libels to be cast into the fire as became a wise King and a charitable Christian. This done the Fathers fell in hand with their business and following the method of a former Creed now commonly called The Apostles Creed made a Confession of Faith viz. I believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things visible and invisible in which is condemned the Polytheism of the Gentiles And in one Lord Iesus Christ the only begotten Son of God against the many sons of the many Gods of the Heathen Begotten of his Father before all worlds God of God against the Arians Uery God of very God against the Valentinians and against the Heresie of Apelles and others who made Christ a meer Phantasm Light of Light This was put in for explication and used before to that purpose by Tertullian Begotten not made being of one Substance with the Father In this again they condemn the Doctrine of Arius for this word Of one substance in Latine Consubstantialis but in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Of one Essence was put as a Touchstone to discern an Arian from a Catholick And much ado there was about it Constantine himself at the passing of this Creed took notice of it for a hard word but yet approved of it saying That in a divine Mystery it was fit to use divina arcana Verba that is divine words and hidden from humane understanding calling that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine not because it was in the divine Scripture for it is not there but because it was to him Arcanum that is not sufficiently understood And in this again appeared the indifferency of the Emperor and that he had for his end in the calling of the Synod not so much the Truth as the Vniformity of the Doctrine and peace of his People that depended on it The cause of the obscurity of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 proceeded chiefly from the difference between the Greek and Roman Dialect in the Philosophy of the Peripateticks The first Principle of Religion in all Nations is That God is that is to say that God really is Something and not a meer fancy but that which is really something is considerable alone by it self as being somewhere In which sence a man is a thing real for I can consider him to be without considering any other thing to be besides him And for the same reason the Earth the Air the Stars Heaven and their Parts are all of them things real And because whatsoever is real here or there or in any place has Dimensions that is to say Magnitude and that which hath Magnitude whether it be visible or invisible finite or infinite is called by all the Learned a Body It followeth that all real things in that they are somewhere are Corporeal On the contrary Essence Deity Humanity and such-like names signifie nothing that can be considered without first considering
Doctrine of Nestorius that there were two Persons in Christ. The fourth held at Chalcedon condemned the error of Eutyches that there was but one Nature in Christ. I know of no other Points condemned in these four Councils but such as concern Church-Government or the same Doctrines taught by other Men in other words and these Councils were all called by the Emperors and by them their Decrees confirmed at the Petition of the Councils themselves A. I see by this that both the calling of the Council and the Confirmation of their Doctrine and Church-Government had no obligatory force but from the Authority of the Emperor How comes it then to pass that they take upon them now a Legislative Power and say their Canons are Laws That Text All Power is given to me in Heaven and Earth had the same force then as it hath now and conferred a Legislative Power on the Councils not only over Christian Men but over all Nations in the World B. They say no for the Power they pretend to is derived from this that when a King was converted from Gentilisme to Christianity he did by that very submission to the Bishop that converted him submit to the Bishops Government and became one of his Sheep which Right therefore he could not have over any Nation that was not Christian. A. Did Sylvester which was Pope of Rome in the time of Constantine the great converted by him tell the Emperor his new Disciple before hand that if he became a Christian he must be the Popes Subject B. I believe not for it is likely enough if he had told him so plainly or but made him suspect it he would either have been no Christian at all or but a counterfeit one A. But if he did not tell him so and that plainly it was foul play not only in a Priest but in any Christian and for this derivation of their Right from the Emperors consent it proceeds only from this that they dare not challenge a Legislative Power nor call their Canons Laws in any Kingdom in Christendome farther than the Kings make them so But in Peru when Atabalipa was King the Frier told him that Christ being King of all the World had given the disposing of all the Kingdoms therein to the Pope and that the Pope had given Peru to the Roman Emperor Charles the 5 th and requir'd Atabalipa to resign it and for refusing it seized upon his person by the Spanish Army there present and murdered him you see by this how much they claim when they have power to make it good B. When began the Popes to take this Authority upon them first A. After the Inundation of Northern People had overflowed the Western parts of the Empire and possessed themselves of Italy the People of the City of Rome submitted themselves as well in Temporals as Spirituals to their Bishop and then first was the Pope a Temporal Prince and stood no more in so great fear of the Emperors which lived far off at Constantinople In this time it was that the Pope began by pretence of his Power Spiritual to encroach upon the Temporal Rights of all other Princes of the West and so continued gaining upon them till his Power was at the highest in that 300 years or thereabout which passed between the 8 th and 11 th Century that is between the time of Pope Leo the third and Pope Innocent the third For in this time Pope Zachary the first deposed Chilperic then King of France and gave the Kingdom to one of his Subjects Pepin and Pepin took from the Lombards a great part of their Territory and gave it to the Church Shortly after the Lombards having recover'd their Estate Charles the Great retook it and gave it to the Church again and Pope Leo the third made Charles Emperor B. But what Right did the Pope then pretend for the creating of an Emperor A. He pretended the Right of being Christ's Vicar and what Christ could give his Vicar might give and you know that Christ was King of all the World B. Yes as God and so he gives all the Kingdoms of the World which nevertheless proceed from the consent of People either for fear or hope A. But this Gift of the Empire was in a more special manner in such a manner as Moses had the Government of Israel given him or rather as Joshuah had it given him to go in and out before the People as the High-Priest should direct him and so the Empire was understood to be given him on condition to be directed by the Pope for when the Pope invested him with the Regal Ornaments the People all cried out Deus dat that is to say 't is God that gives it and the Emperor was contented so to take it And from that time all or most of the Christian Kings do put into their Titles the words Dei gratia that is by the Gift of God and their Successors use still to receive the Crown and Scepter from a Bishop B. 'T is certainly a very good Custom for Kings to be put in mind by whose Gift they Reign but it cannot from that Custom be inferr'd that they receive the Kingdom by mediation of the Pope or by any other Clergy for the Popes themselves receiv'd the Papacy from the Emperor The first that ever was elected Bishop of Rome after Emperors were Christians and without the Emperors consent excused himself by Letters to the Emperor with this That the People and Clergy of Rome forced him to take it upon him and prayed the Emperor to confirm it which the Emperor did but with reprehension of their proceedings and prohibition of the like for the time to come The Emperor was Lotharius and the Pope Calixtus the first A. You see by this the Emperor never acknowledged this Gift of God was the Gift of the Pope but maintained the Popedom was the Gift of the Emperor but in process of time by the negligence of the Emperors for the greatness of Kings makes them that they cannot easily descend into the obscure and narrow Mines of an ambitious Clergy they found means to make the People believe there was a Power in the Pope and Clergy which they ought to submit unto rather than to the Commands of their own Kings whensoever it should come into controversie And to that end devised and decreed many new Articles of Faith to the diminution of the Authority of Kings and to the disjunction of them and their Subjects and to a closer adherence of their Subjects to the Church of Rome Articles either not at all found in or not well founded upon the Scriptures As first that it should not be lawful for a Priest to marry B. What influence could that have upon the Power of Kings A. Do you not see that by this the King must of necessity either want the Priesthood and therewith a great part of the Reverence due to him from the most religious part of his Subjects or
were not only a sinful Scandal in respect of other Christian Mens Consciences but a perfidious forsaking of his Charge In which words I distinguish between a Pastor and one of the Sheep of his Flock St. Peter sinned in denying Christ and so does every Pastor that having undertaken the Charge of Preaching the Gospel in the Kingdom of an Infidel where he could expect at the undertaking of his Charge no less than Death And why but because he violates his Trust in doing contrary to his Commission St. Peter was an Apostle of Christ and bound by his voluntary undertaking of that Office not only to Confess Christ but also to Preach him before those Infidels whom he knew would like Wolves devour him And therefore when Paul and the rest of the Apostles were forbidden to preach Christ they gave this Answer We ought to obey God rather than Men. And it was to his Disciples only which had undertaken that Office that Christ saith he that denyeth me before Men shall be denyed before the Angels of God And so I think I have sufficiently answered this place and shewed that I do not allow the denying of Christ upon any colour of Torments to his Lordship nor to any other that has undertaken the Office of a Preacher Which if he think right he will perhaps in this case put himself into the number of those whom he calls merciful Doctors whereas now he extends his severity beyond the bounds of common equity He has read Cicero and perhaps this Story in him The Senate of Rome would have sent Cicero to treat of Peace with Marcus Antonius but when Cicero had shewed them the just fear he had of being killed by him he was excused and if they had forced him to it and he by terror turned Enemy to them he had in equity been excusable But his Lordship I believe did write this more valiantly than he would have acted it J. D. He Deposeth Christ from his true Kingly Office making his Kingdom not to Commence or begin before the day of Judgment And the Regiment wherewith Christ Governeth his Faithful in this Life is not properly a Kingdom but a Pastoral Office or a right to Teach And a little after Christ had not Kingly Authority committed to him by his Father in this World but only Consiliary and Doctrinal T. H. How do I take away Christs Kingly Office He neither draws it by Consequence from my Words nor offers any Argument at all against my Doctrine The words he cites are in the Contents of Chap. 17. de Cive In the Body of the Chapter it is thus The time of Christ's being upon the Earth is called in Scripture the Regeneration often but the Kingdom never When the Son of God comes in Majesty and all the Angels with him then he shall sit on the seat of Majesty My Kingdom is not of this World God sent not his Son that he should Judge the World I came not to Judge the World but to save the World Man who made me a Judge or Divider amongst you Let thy Kingdom come And other words to the same purpose out of which it is clear that Christ took upon him no Regal Power upon Earth before his Assumption But at his Assumption his Apostles asked him if he would then restore the Kingdom to Israel and he Answered it was not for them to know So that hitherto Christ had not taken that Office upon him unless his Lordship think that the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Christ be two distinct Kingdoms From the Assumption ever since all true Christians say daily in their Prayers Thy Kingdom come But his Lordship had perhaps forgot that But when then beginneth Christ to be a King I say it shall be then when he comes again in Majesty with all the Angels And even then he shall Reign as he is Man under his Father For St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 15.25 26. He must Raign till he hath put all Enemies under his feet the last Enemy that shall be destroyed is Death But when shall God the Father Raign again St. Paul saith in the same Chapter verse 28. When all things shall be subdued unto him then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all And verse 24. Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God even the Father when he shall have put down all Rule Authority and Power This is at the Resurrection And by this it is manifest that his Lordship was not so well versed in Scripture as he ought to have been J. D. He taketh away his Priestly or Propitiatory Office And although this Act of our Redemption be not alwayes in Scripture called a Sacrifice and Oblation but sometimes a Price yet by Price we are not to understand any thing by the value whereof he could claim right to a Pardon for us from his Offended Father but that Price which God the Father was pleased in mercy to demand And again Not that the Death of one Man though without sin can satisfie for the Offences of all Men in the rigour of Justice but in the mercy of God that ordained such Sacrifices for sin as he was pleased in mercy to accept He knoweth no difference between one who is meer man and one who was both God and man between a Levitical Sacrifice and the All-sufficient Sacrifice of the Cross between the Blood of a Calf and the precious Blood of the Son of God T. H. Yes I know there is a difference between Blood and Blood but not any such as can make a difference in the Case here questioned Our Saviour's Blood was most precious but still it was Humane Blood and I hope his Lordship did never think otherwise or that it was not accepted by his Father for our Redemption J. D. And touching the Prophetical Office of Christ I do much doubt whether he do believe in earnest that there is any such thing as Prophecy in the World He maketh very little difference between a Prophet and a Mad-man and a Demoniack And if there were nothing else says he that bewrayed their madness yet that very arrogating such inspiration to themselves is Argument enough He maketh the pretence of Inspiration in any man to be and always to have been on opinion pernicious to Peace and tending to the dissolution of all Civil Government He subjecteth all Prophetical Revelations from God to the sole Pleasure and Censure of the Soveraign Prince either to Authorize them or to Exauctorate them So as two Prophets prophecying the same thing at the same time in the Dominions of two different Princes the one shall be a true Prophet the other a false And Christ who had the approbation of no Soveraign Prince upon his grounds was to be reputed a false Prophet every where Every man therefore ought to consider who is the Soveraign Prophet that is to say who it is
that should drive them back B. For my part I believe the cause of their descending is not in any natural appetite of the bodies that descend but rather that the Globe of the Earth hath some special motion by the which it more easily casteth off the Air than it doth other bodies And then this descent of those we call heavy bodies must of necessity follow unless there be some empty spaces in the world to receive them For when the Air is thrown off from the Earth somewhat must come into the place of it in case the world be full and it must be those things which are hardliest cast off that is those things which we say are heavy A. But suppose there be no place empty for I will defer the Question till anon how can the Earth cast off either the Air or any thing else B. I shall shew you how and that by a familiar Example If you lay both your hands upon a Basen with water in it how little soever and move it circularly and continue that motion for a while and you shall see the water rise upon the sides and fly over by which you may be assured that there is a kind of circulating motion which would cast off such bodies as are contiguous to the body so moved A. I know very well there is and it is the same motion which Country people use to purge their Corn For the Chaff and Straws by casting the Grain to the side of the Seive will come towards the middle But I would see the Figure B. Here it is There is a Circle pricked out whose Center is A and three less Circles whose Centers are B C D let every one of them represent the Earth as it goeth from B to C and from C to D always touching the uttermost Circle and throwing off the Air as is marked at E and F. And if the world were not full there would follow by this scattering of the Air a great deal of space left empty But supposing the world full there must be a perpetual shifting of the Air one part into the place of another A. But what makes a stone come down suppose from G B. If the Air be thrown up beyond G it will follow that at the last if the motion be continued all the Air will be above G that is above the stone which cannot be till the stone be at the Earth A. But why comes it down still with encreasing swiftness B. Because as it descends and is already in motion it receiveth a new impression from the same cause which is the Air whereof as part mounteth part also must descend supposing as we have done the plenitude of the world For as you may observe by the Figure the motion of the Earth according to the Diameter of the uttermost Circle is progressive and so the whole motion is compounded of two motions one circular and the other progressive and consequently the Air ascends and circulates at once And because the stone descending receiveth a new pressure in every point of its way the motion thereof must needs be accelerated A. 'T is true For it will be accelerated equally in equal times and the way it makes will encrease in a double proportion to the times as hath heretofore been demonstrated by Galileo I see the solution now of an Experiment which before did not a little puzzle me You know that if two plummets hang by two strings of equal length and you remove them from the perpendicular equally I mean in equal angles and then let them go they will make their turns and returns together and in equal times And though the arches they describe grow continually less and less yet the times they spend in the greater arches will still be equal to the time they spend in the lesser B. 'T is true Do you find any Experiment to the contrary A. Yes For if you remove one of the plummets from the perpendicular so as for example to make an angle with the perpendicular of 80 degrees and the other so as to make an angle of 60 degrees they will not make their turns and returns in equal times B. And what say you is the cause of this A. Because the arches are the spaces which these two motions describe they must be in double proportion to their own times which cannot be unless they be let go from equal altitudes that is from equal angles B. 'T is right and the Experiment does not cross but confirm the equality of the times in all the arches they describe even from 90 degrees to the least part of one degree A. But is it not too bold if not extravagant an assertion to say the Earth is moved as a man shakes a Basen or a Seive Does not the Earth move from West to East every day once upon his own Center and in the Ecliptick Circle once a year And now you give it another odd motion How can all these consist in one and the same body B. Well enough If you be a Shipboard under sail do not you go with the Ship Cannot you also walk upon the Deck Cannot every drop of bloud move at the same time in your veins How many motions now do you assign to one and the same drop of bloud Nor is it so extravagant a thing to attribute to the Earth this kind of motion but that I believe if we certainly knew what motion it is that causeth the descent of bodies we should find it either the same or more extravagant But seeing it can be nothing above that worketh this effect it must be the Earth it self that does it and if the Earth then you can imagine no other motion to do it withal but this And you will wonder more when by the same motion I shall give you a probable account of the causes of very many other works of Nature A. But what part of the Heaven do you suppose the Poles of your pricked Circle point to B. I suppose them to be the same with the Poles of the Ecliptick For seeing the Axis of the Earth in this Nation and in the annual motion keeps parallel to it self the Axis must in both motions be parallel as to sense For the Circle which the Earth describes is not of visible magnitude at the distance it is from the Sun A. Though I understand well enough how the Earth may make a stone descend very swiftly under the Ecliptick or not far from it where it throws off the Air perpendicularly yet about the Poles of the Circle methinks it should cast off the Air very weakly I hope you will not say that bodies descend faster in places remote from the Poles than nearer to them B. No but I ascribe it to the like motion in the Sun and Moon For such motions meeting must needs cast the stream of the Air towards the Poles And then there will be the same necessity for the descent there that there is in other places though perhaps
an exceeding great number of Men of the better sort that had been so educated as that in their Youth having read the Books written by famous Men of the ancient Grecian and Roman Common-wealths concerning their Politie and great Actions in which Books the Popular Government was extoll'd by that glorious Name of Liberty and Monarchy disgraced by the Name of Tyranny they became thereby in love with their Forms of Government and out of these Men were chosen the greatest part of the House of Commons or if they were not the greatest part yet by advantage of their Eloquence were always able to sway the rest Fifthly The City of London and other great Towns of Trade having in admiration the prosperity of the Low-Countries after they had revolted from their Monarch the King of Spain were inclin'd to think that the like change of Government here would to them produce the like prosperity Sixthly There were a very great number that had either wasted their Fortunes or thought them too mean for the good Parts they thought were in themselves and more there were that had able Bodies but saw no means how honestly to get their Bread These long'd for a War and hoped to maintain themselves hereafter by the lucky choosing of a Party to side with and consequently did for the most part serve under them that had greatest plenty of Money Lastly The People in general were so ignorant of their duty as that not one perhaps of 10000 knew what right any man had to command him or what necessity there was of King or Common-wealth for which he was to part with his Money against his will but thought himself to be so much Master of whatsoever he possess'd that it could not be taken from him upon any pretence of common safety without his own consent King they thought was but a Title of the highest Honour which Gentleman Knight Baron Earl Duke were but steps to ascend to with the help of Riches and had no Rule of Equity but Presidents and Custom and he was thought wisest and fittest to be chosen for a Parliament that was most averse to the granting of Subsidies or other publick Payments B. In such a constitution of People methinks the King is already outed of his Government so as they need not have taken Arms for it for I cannot imagine how the King should come by any means to resist them A. There was indeed very great difficulty in the business but of that Point you will be better inform'd in the pursuit of this Narration B. But I desire to know first the several Grounds of the Pretences both of the Pope and of the Presbyterians by which they claim a Right to govern us as they do in chief and after that from whence and when crept in the Pretences of that long Parliament for a Democracy A. As for the Papists they challenge this Right from a Text in Deut. 17. and other like Texts according to the old Latin Translation in these words And he that out of pride shall refuse to obey the Commandment of that Priest which shall at that time minister before the Lord thy God that Man shall by the Sentence of the Judge be put to death And because as the Jews were the People of God then so is all Christendome the People of God now they infer from thence that the Pope whom they pretend to be the High-Priest of all Christian People ought also to be obeyed in all his Decrees by all Christians upon pain of death Again whereas in the New Testament Christ saith All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth go therefore and teach all Nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and teach them to observe all these things that I have commanded you From thence they infer that the Command of the Apostles was to be obeyed and by consequence the Nations were bound to be govern'd by them and especially by the Prince of the Apostles St. Peter and by his Successors the Popes of Rome B. For the Text in the Old Testament I do not see how the Commandment of God to the Jews to obey their Priests can be interpreted to have the like force in the Case of other Nations Christian more than upon Nations Unchristian for all the World are Gods People unless we also grant that a King cannot of an Infidel be made Christian without making himself subject to the Laws of that Apostle or Priest or Minister that shall convert him The Jews were a peculiar People of God a Sacerdotal Kingdom and bound to no other Law but what first Moses and afterwards every High-Priest did go and receive immediately from the mouth of God in Mount Sinai in the Tabernacle of the Ark and in the Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple And for the Text in St. Mathew I know the Words in the Gospel are not Go teach but Go and make Disciples and that there is a great difference between a Subject and a Disciple and between Teaching and Commanding And if such Texts as these must be so interpreted why do not Christian Kings lay down their Titles of Majesty and Sovereignty and call themselves the Popes Lieutenants But the Doctors of the Romish Church seem to decline that Title of Absolute Power in their distinction of Power Spiritual and Temporal but this distinction I do not very well understand A. By Spiritual Power they mean the Power to determine Points of Faith and to be Judges in the Inner Court of Conscience of Moral Duties and of a Power to punish those Men that obey not their Precepts by Ecclesiastical Censure that is by Excommunication and this Power they say the Pope hath immediately from Christ without dependence upon any King or Sovereign Assembly whose Subjects they be that stand Excommunicate But for the Power Temporal which consists in judging and punishing those Actions that are done against the Civil Laws they say they do not pretend to it directly but only indirectly that is to say so far forth as such Actions tend to the hindrance or advancement of Religion and good Manners which they mean when they say in ordine ad spiritualia B. What Power then is left to Kings and other Civil Sovereigns which the Pope may not pretend to be his in ordine ad spiritualia A. None or very little and this Power the Pope pretends to in all Christendome but some of his Bishops also in their several Diocesses Jure Divino that is immediately from Christ without deriving it from the Pope B. But what if a Man refuse obedience to this pretended Power of the Pope and his Bishops What harm can Excommunication do him especially if he be the Subject of another Sovereign A. Very great harm for by the Pope's or Bishop's signification of it to the Civil Power he shall be punish'd sufficiently B. He were in an ill Case then that adventured to write or speak
that is Gods Vicegerent upon Earth and hath next under God the Authority of governing Christian Men and to observe for a Rule that Doctrine which in the Name of God he hath Commanded to be taught and thereby to examine and try out the truth of those Doctrines which pretended Prophets with miracle or without shall at any time advance c. And if he disavow them then no more to obey their Voice or if he Approve them then to obey them as Men to whom God hath given a part of the Spirit of their Soveraign Upon his Principles the case holdeth as well among Jews and Turks and Heathens as Christians Then he that Teacheth Transubstantiation in France is a true Prophet he that Teacheth it in England a false Prophet He that Blasphemeth Christ in Constantinople a true Prophet he that doth the same in Italy a false Prophet Then Samuel was a false Prophet to Contest with Saul a Soveraign Prophet So was the Man of God who submitted not to the more Divine and Prophetick Spirit of Jeroboam And Elijah for Reproving Ahab Then Michaiah had but his deserts to be clapt up in Prison and fed with Bread of Affliction and Water of Affliction for daring to Contradict God's Vice-gerent upon Earth And Jeremiah was justly thrown into a Dungeon for Prophecying against Zedekiah his Liege Lord. If his Principles were true it were strange indeed that none of all these Princes nor any other that ever was in the World should understand their own Priviledges And yet more strange that God Almighty should take the part of such Rebellious Prophets and justifie their Prophesies by the Event if it were true that none but the Soveraign in a Christian the Reason is the same for Jewish Commonwealth can take notice what is or what is not the Word of God T. H. To remove his Lordships doubt in the first place I confess there was true Prophesie and true Prophets in the Church of God from Abraham down to our Saviour the greatest Prophet of all and the last of the Old Testament and first of the New After our Saviour's time till the Death of St. John the Apostle there were true Prophets in the Church of Christ Prophets to whom God spake Supernaturally and Testified the truth of their Mission by Miracles Of those that in the Scripture are called Prophets without Miracles and for this cause only that they spake in the Name of God to Men and in the name of Men to God there are have been and shall be in the Church Innumerable Such a Prophet was his Lordship and such are all Pastors in the Christian Church But the Question here is of those Prophets that from the Mouth of God foretell things Future or do other Miracle Of this kind I deny there has been any since the Death of St. John the Evangelist If any Man find fault with this he ought to Name some Man or other whom we are bound to acknowledge that they have done a Miracle cast out a Devil or cured any Disease by the sole Invocation of the Divine Majesty We are not bound to trust to the Legend of the Roman Saints nor to the History written by Sulpitius of the Life of St. Martin or to any other Fables of the Roman Clergy nor to such things as were pretended to be done by some Divines here in the time of King James Secondly he says I make little difference between a Prophet and a Mad-man or Demoniack To which I say he accuses me falsly I say only thus much That I see nothing at all in the Scripture that requireth a belief that Demoniacks were any other thing than Madmen And this is also made very probable out of Scripture by a worthy Divine Mr. Meade But concerning Prophets I say only that the Jews both under the Old Testament and under the New took them to be all one with Mad-men and Demoniacks And prove it out of Scripture by many places both of the Old and New Testament Thirdly that the pretence or arrogating to ones self Divine Inspiration is argument enough to shew a Man is Mad is my opinion but his Lordship understands not Inspiration in the same sence that I do He understands it properly of God's breathing into a Man or pouring into him the Divine Substance or Divine Graces and in that sence he that arrogateth Inspiration into himself neither understands what he saith nor makes others to understand him which is properly Madness in some degree But I understand Inspiration in the Scripture Metaphorically for Gods guidance of our minds to Truth and Piety Fourthly whereas he says I make the pretence of Inspiration to be pernicious to Peace I answer that I think his Lordship was of my Opinion for he called those Men which in the late Civil War pretended the Spirit and New Light and to be the only faithful men Phanaticks for he called them in his Book and did call them in his Life time Phanaticks And what is a Phanatick but a Mad-man and what can be more pernicious to Peace than the Revelations that were by these Phanaticks pretended I do not say there were Doctrines of other Men not called Phanaticks as pernicious to Peace as theirs were and in great part a cause of those troubles Fifthly from that I make Prophetical Revelations subject to the examination of the Lawful Soveraign he inferreth that two Prophets prophecying the same thing at the same time in the Dominions of two different Princes the one shall be a true Prophet the other a false This consequence is not good for seeing they teach different Doctrines they cannot both of them confirm their Doctrine with Miracles But this I prove in the page 232 he citeth that whether either of their Doctrines shall be Taught Publickly or not 't is in the power of the Soveraign of the Place only to determine Nay I say now further if a Prophet come to any private Man in the Name of God that Man shall be Judge whether he be a true Prophet or not before he obey him See 1 John 4.1 Sixthly whereas he says that upon my grounds Christ was to be reputed a false Prophet every where because his Doctrine was received no where His Lordship had Read my Book more negligently than was fit for one that would confute it My ground is this that Christ in right of his Father was King of the Jews and consequently Supream Prophet and Judge of all Prophets What other Princes thought of his Prophesies is nothing to the purpose I never said that Princes can make Doctrines or Prophesies true or false but I say every Soveraign Prince has a right to prohibite the publick Teaching of them whether false or true But what an oversight is it in a Divine to say that Christ had the Approbation of no Soveraign Prince when he had the Approbation of God who was King of the Jews and Christ his Vice-Roy and the whole Scripture Written Joh. 20.31 to prove it
of the Jus Divinum of Bishops a thing which before the Reformation here was never allowed them by the Pope Two Jus Divinums cannot stand together in one Kingdom In the last place he mislikes that the Church should Excommunicate by Authority of the King that is to say by Authority of the Head of the Church But he tells not why He might as well mislike that the Magistrates of the Realm should execute their Offices by the Authority of the Head of the Realm His Lordship was in a great error if he thought such incroachments would add any thing to the Wealth Dignity Reverence or Continuance of his Order They are Pastors of Pastors but yet they are the Sheep of him that is on earth their soveraign Pastor and he again a Sheep of that supream Pastor which is in Heaven And if they did their pastoral Office both by Life and Doctrine as they ought to do there could never arise any dangerous Rebellion in the Land But if the people see once any ambition in their Teachers they will sooner learn that than any other Doctrine and from Ambition proceeds Rebellion J. D. It may be some of T. H. his Disciples desire to know what hopes of Heavenly joyes they have upon their Masters Principles They may hear them without any great contentment There is no mention in Scripture nor ground in reason of the Coelum Empyraeum that is the Heaven of the Blessed where the Saints shall live eternally with God And again I have not found any Text that can probably be drawn to prove any Ascention of the Saints into Heaven that is to say into any Coelum Empyraeum But he concludeth positively that Salvation shall be upon earth when God shall Raign at the coming of Christ in Jerusalem And again In short the Kingdom of God is a civil Kingdom c. called also the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Glory All the Hobbians can hope for is to be restored to the same condition which Adam was in before his fall So saith T.H. himself From whence may be inferred that the Elect after the Resurrection shall be restored to the estate wherein Adam was before he had sinned As for the beatifical vision he defineth it to be a word unintelligible T. H. This Coelum Empyraeum for which he pretendeth so much zeal where is it in the Scripture where in the Book of Common Prayer where in the Canons where in the Homilies of the Church of England or in any part of our Religion What has a Christian to do with such Language Nor do I remember it in Aristotle Perhaps it may be in some Schoolman or Commentator on Aristotle and his Lordship makes it in English the Heaven of the Blessed as if Empyraeum signified That which belongs to the Blessed St. Austin says better that after the day of Judgment all that is not Heaven shall be Hell Then for Beatifical vision how can any man understand it that knows from the Scripture that no man ever saw or can see God Perhaps his Lordship thinks that the happiness of the Life to come is not real but a Vision As for that which I say Lev. pag. 345. I have answered to it already J. D. But considering his other Principles I do not marvel much at his extravagance in this point To what purpose should a Coelum Empyraeum or Heaven of the Blessed serve in his judgment who maketh the blessed Angels that are the Inhabitants of that happy Mansion to be either Idols of the brain that is in plain English nothing or thin subtil fluid bodies destroying the Angelical nature The universe being the aggregate of all bodies there is no real part thereof that is not also body And elsewhere Every part of the Vniverse is Body and that which is not Body is no part of the Vniverse And because the Vniverse is all that which is no part of it is nothing and consequently no where How By this Doctrine he maketh not only the Angels but God himself to be nothing Neither doth he salve it at all by supposing erroneously Angels to be corporeal Spirits and by attributing the name of incorporeal Spirit to God as being a name of more honour in whom we consider not what Attribute best expresseth his nature which is incomprehensible but what best expresseth our desire to honour him Though we be not able to comprehend perfectly what God is yet we are able perfectly to comprehend what God is not that is he is not imperfect and therefore he is not finite and consequently he is not corporeal This were a trim way to honour God indeed to honour him with a lye If this that he say here be true That every part of the Vniverse is a Body and whatsoever is not a Body is nothing Then by this Doctrine if God be not a Body God is nothing not an incorporeal Spirit but one of the Idols of the Brain a meer nothing though they think they dance under a Net and have the blind of Gods incomprehensibility between them and discovery T. H. This of Incorporeal substance he urged before and there I answered it I wonder he so often rolls the same stone He is like Sysiphus in the Poets Hell that there rolls a heavy stone up a hill which no sooner he brings to day-light then it slips down again to the bottom and serves him so perpetually For so his Lordship rolls this and other questions with much adoe till they come to the light of Scripture and then they vanish and he vexing sweating and railing goes to 't again to as little purpose as before From that I say of the Universe he infers that I make God to be nothing But infers it absurdly He might indeed have inferr'd that I make him a Corporeal but yet a pure Spirit I mean by the Universe the Aggregate of all things that have being in themselves and so do all men else And because God has a being it follows that he is either the whole Universe or part of it Nor does his Lordship go about to disprove it but only seems to wonder at it J. D. To what purpose should a Coelum Empyraeum serve in his Judgment who denyeth the immortality of the Soul The Doctrine is now and hath been a long time far otherwise namely that every man hath eternity of life by nature in as much as his Soul is immortal Who supposeth that when a man dyeth there remaineth nothing of him but his Carkase who maketh the word Soul in holy Scripture to signifie always either the Life or the Living Creature And expoundeth the casting of Body and Soul into Hell-fire to be the casting of Body and Life into Hell-fire Who maketh this Orthodox truth that the Souls of men are Substances distinct from their Bodies to be an error contracted by the contagion of the Demonology of the Greeks and a window that gives entrance to the dark Doctrine of eternal torments Who expoundeth these words
condition he might have found some Ancients who are therefore called the merciful Doctors to have joyned with him though still he should have wanted the suffrage of the Catholick Church T. H. Why does not his Lordship cite some place of Scripture here to prove that all the Reprobates which are dead live eternally in torment We read indeed That everlasting Torments were prepared for the Devil and his Angels whose natures also are everlasting and that the Beast and the false Prophet shall be tormented everlastingly but not that every Reprobate shall be so They shall indeed be cast into the same fire but the Scripture says plainly enough that they shall be both Body and Soul destroyed there If I had said that the Devils themselves should be restored to a better condition his Lordship would have been so kind as to have put me into the number of the Merciful Doctors Truly if I had had any Warrant for the possibility of their being less enemies to the Church of God than they have been I would have been as merciful to them as any Doctor of them all As it is I am more merciful than the Bishop J. D. But his shooting is not at rovers but altogether at randome without either President or Partner All that eternal fire all those torments which he acknowledgeth is but this That after the Resurrection the Reprobate shall be in the estate that Adam and his Posterity were in after the sin committed saving that God promised a Redeemer to Adam and not to them Adding that they shall live as they did formerly Marry and give in Marriage and consequently engender Children perpetually after the Resurrection as they did before which he calleth an immortallity of the kind but not of the persons of men It is to be presumed that in those their second lives knowing certainly from T. H. that there is no hope of Redemption for them from corporal death upon their well-doing nor fear of any Torments after death for their ill-doing they will pass their times here as pleasantly as they can This is all the Damnation which T. H. fancieth T. H. This he has urged once before and I answered to it That the whole Paragraph was to prove that for any Text of Scripture to the contrary men might after the Resurrection live as Adam did on earth and that notwithstanding the Text of St. Luke chap. 20. verse 34 35 36. Marry and propagate But that they shall do so is no assertion of mine His Lordship knew I held that after the Resurrection there shall be at all no wicked men but the Elect all that are have been and hereafter shall be shall live on earth But St. Peter says there shall then be a new Heaven and a new Earth J. D. In summ I leave it to the free judgment of the understanding Reader by these few instances which follow to judge what the Hobbian Principles are in point of Religion Ex ungue leonem First that no man needs to put himself to any hazzard for his Faith but may safely comply with the times And for their Faith it is internal and invisible They have the licence that Naaman had and need not put themselves into danger for it Secondly he alloweth Subjects being commanded by their Soveraign to deny Christ. Profession with the Tongue is but an external thing and no more than any other gesture whereby we signifie our obedience And wherein a Christian holding firmly in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman c. Who by bowing before the Idol Rimmon denyed the true God as much in effect as if he had done it with his Lips Alas why did St. Peter Weep so bitterly for denying his Master out of fear of his Life or Members It seems he was not acquainted with these Hobbian Principles And in the same place he layeth down this general Conclusion This we may say that whatsoever a Subject is compelled to in obedience to his Soveraign and doth it not in order to his own mind but in order to the Laws of his Country that action is not his but his Soveraign's nor is it he that in this case denyeth Christ before men but his Governor and the Law of his Country His instance in a Mahometan commanded by a Christian Prince to be present at Divine Service is a weak mistake springing from his gross ignorance in Case-Divinity not knowing to distinguish between an erroneous Conscience as the Mahometans is and a Conscience rightly informed T. H. In these his two first instances I confess his Lordship does not much be lye me But neither does he confute me Also I confess my ignorance in his Case-Divinity which is grounded upon the Doctrine of the School-men Who to decide Cases of Conscience take in not only the Scriptures but also the Decrees of the Popes of Rome for the advancing of the Dominion of the Roman Church over Consciences whereas the true decision of Cases of Consciences ought to be grounded only on Scripture or natural Equity I never allowed the denying of Christ with the Tongue in all men but expresly say the contrary Lev. pag. 362. in these words For an unlearned man that is in the power of an Idolatrous King or State if commanded on pain of death to worship before an Idol he detesteth the Idol in his heart he doth well though if he had the fortitude to suffer death rather than worship it he should do better But if a Pastor who as Christ's messenger has undertaken to teach Christ's Doctrine to all Nations should do the same it were not only a sinful scandal in respect of other Christian mens Consciences but a perfidious forsaking of his charge Therefore St. Peter in denying Christ sinned as being an Apostle And 't is sin in every man that should now take upon him to preach against the power of the Pope to leave his Commission unexecuted for fear of the fire but in a meer Traveller not so The three Children and Daniel were worthy Champions of the true Religion But God requireth not of every man to be a Champion As for his Lordship's words of complying with the times they are not mine but his own spightful Paraphrase J. D. Thirdly if this be not enough he giveth licence to a Christian to commit Idolatry or at least to do an Idolatrous act for fear of death or corporal danger To pray unto a King voluntarily for fair weather or for any thing which God only can do for us is divine Worship and Idolatry On the other side if a King compel a man to it by the terror of death or other great corporal punishment it is not Idolatry His reason is because it is not a sign that he doth inwardly honour him as a God but that he is desirous to save himself from death or from a miserable life It seemeth T. H. thinketh there is no divine Worship but internal And that it is
just disposition of Almighty God this Policy turned to a sin and was the utter destruction of Jeroboam and his Family It is not good jesting with edge-tools nor playing with holy things Where men make their greatest fastness many times they find most danger T. H. His Lordship either had a strange Conscience or understood not English Being at Paris when there was no Bishop nor Church in England and every man writ what he pleased I resolved when it should please God to restore the Authority Ecclesiastical to submit to that Authority in whatsoever it should determine This his Lordship construes for a temporizing and too much indifferency in Religion and says further that the last part of my words do smell of Jeroboam To the contrary I say my words were modest and such as in duty I ought to use And I profess still that whatsoever the Church of England the Church I say not every Doctor shall forbid me to say in matter of Faith I shall abstain from saying it excepting this point That Jesus Christ the Son of God dyed for my sins As for other Doctrins I think it unlawful if the Church define them for any Member of the Church to contradict them J. D. His sixth Paradox is a rapper the Civil Laws are the Rules of good and evil just and unjust honest and dishonest and therefore what the Lawgiver commands that is to be accounted good what he forbids bad And a little after before Empires were just and unjust were not as whose nature is Relative to a Command every action in its own nature is indifferent That it is just or unjust proceedeth from the right of him that commandeth Therefore lawful Kings make those things which they command Just by commanding them and those things which they forbid Vnjust by forbidding them To this add his definition of a sin that which one doth or omitteth saith or willeth contrary to the reason of the Common-wealth that is the Civil Laws Where by the Laws he doth not understand the Written Laws elected and approved by the whole Common-wealth but the verbal Commands or Mandates of him that hath the Soveraign Power as we find in many places of his Writings The Civil Laws are nothing else but the Commands of him that is endowed with Soveraign Power in the Common-wealth concerning the future actions of his Subjects And the Civil Laws are fastned to the Lips of that man who hath the Soveraign Power Where are we In Europe or in Asia Where they ascribed a Divinity to their Kings and to use his own Phrase made them Mortal Gods O King live for ever Flatterers are the common Moths of great Pallaces where Alexander's friends are more numerous than the King's friends But such gross palpable pernicious flattery as this is I did never meet with so derogatory both to piety and policy What deserved he who should do his uttermost endeavour to poyson a common Fountain whereof all the Common-wealth must drink He doth the same who poisoneth the mind of a Soveraign Prince Are the Civil Laws the Rules of good and bad just and unjust honest and dishonest And what I pray your are the Rules of the Civil Law it self Even the Law of God and Nature If the Civil Laws swerve from these more authentick Laws they are Lesbian Rules What the Lawgiver commands is to be accounted good what he forbids bad This was just the garb of the Athenian Sophisters as they are described by Plato Whatsoever pleased the great Beast the Multitude they call holy and just and good And whatsoever the great Beast disliked they called evil unjust prophane But he is not yet arrived at the height of his flattery Lawful Kings make those things which they command just by commanding them At other times when he is in his right wits he talketh of sufferings and expecting their reward in Heaven And going to Christ by Martyrdome And if he had the fortitude to suffer death he should do better But I fear all this was but said in jest How should they expect their reward in Heaven if his Doctrine be true that there is no reward in Heaven Or how should they be Martyrs if his Doctrine be true that none can be Martyrs but those who conversed with Christ upon earth He addeth Before Empires were just and unjust were not Nothing could be written more false in his sence more dishonourable to God more inglorious to the humane nature That God should create Man and leave him presently without any Rules to his own ordering of himself as the Ostridg leaveth her Eggs in the sand But in truth there have been Empires in the World ever since Adam And Adam had a Law written in his heart by the finger of God before there was any Civil Law Thus they do endeavour to make goodness and justice and honesty and conscience and God himself to be empty names without any reality which signifie nothing further than they conduce to a man's interest Otherwise he would not he could not say That every action as it is invested with its circumstances is indifferent in its own nature T. H. My sixth Paradox he calls a Rapper A Rapper a Swapper and such like terms are his Lordships elegancies But let us see what this Rapper is 'T is this The Civil Laws are the Rules of Good and Evil Just and Unjust Honest and Dishonest Truly I see no other Rules they have The Scriptures themselves were made Law to us here by the Authority of the Common-wealth and are therefore part of the Law Civil If they were Laws in their own nature then were they Laws over all the World and men were obliged to obey them in America as soon as they should be shown there though without a Miracle by a Frier What is Injust but the Transgression of a Law Law therefore was before Unjust And the Law was made known by Soveraign Power before it was a Law Therefore Soveraign Power was antecedent both to Law and Injustice Who then made Injust but Soveraign Kings or Soveraign Assemblies Where is now the wonder of this Rapper That Lawful Kings make those things which they command Just by commanding them and those things which they forbid Vnjust by forbidding them Just and Unjust were surely made if the King made them not who made them else For certainly the breach of a Civil Law is a sin against God Another Calumny which he would fix upon me is That I make the King 's verbal Commands to be Laws How so Because I say the Civil Laws are nothing else but the Commands of him that hath the Soveraign Power concerning the future Actions of his Subjects What verbal Command of a King can arrive at the ears of all his Subjects which it must do ere it be a Law without the Seal of the Person of the Common-wealth which is here the Great Seal of England Who but his Lordship ever denyed that the command of England was a Law to English
you say that other things come to the Earth And therefore the like motions in the Sun and Moon and Stars casting off the Air should also cause all other things to come to every one of them From whence it will follow that the Sun Moon and Earth and all other bodies but Air should presently come together into one heap B. That does not follow For if two bodies cast off the Air the motion of that Air will be repress'd both ways and diverted into a course towards the Poles on both sides and then the two bodies cannot possibly come together A. 'T is true And besides this driving off the Air on both sides North and South makes the like motion of Air there also And this may answer to the Question How a stone could fall to the Earth under the Poles of the Ecliptick by the only casting off of Air B. It follows from hence that there is a certain and determinate distance of one of these bodies the Stars from another without any very sensible variation A. All this is probable enough if it be true that there is no Vacuum no place empty in all the World And supposing this motion of the Sun and Moon to be in the plain of the Aequinoctial methinks that this should be the cause of the Diurnal motion of the Earth And because this motion of the Earth is you say in the plain of the Aequinoctial the same should cause also a motion in the Moon on her own Center answerable to the Diurnal motion of the Earth B. Why not what else can you think makes the Diurnal motion of the Earth but the Sun And for the Moon if it did not turn upon its own Center we should see sometimes one sometimes another face of the Moon which we do not CHAP. III. Problems of Vacuum WHat convincing Argument is there to prove that in all the world there is no empty place B. Many but I will name but one and that is the difficulty of separating two bodies hard and flat laid one upon another I say the difficulty not the impossibility It is possible without introducing Vacuum to pull assunder any two bodies how hard and flat soever they be if the force used be greater than the resistance of the hardness And in case there be any greater difficulty to part them besides what proceeds from their hardness then there is to pull them further assunder when they are parted that difficulty is Argument enough to prove there is no Vacuum A. These Assertions need demonstration And first how does the difficulty of separation argue the Plenitude of all the rest of the world B. If two flat polish'd Marbles lie one upon another you see they are hardly separated in all points at one and the same instant and yet the weight of either of them it is enough to make them slide off one from the other Is not the cause of this that the Air succeeds the Marble that so slides and fills up the place it leaves A. Yes certainly What then B. But when you pull the whole Superficies assunder not without great difficulty what is the cause of that difficulty A. I think as most men do that the Air cannot fill up the space between in an instant For the parting is in an instant B. Suppose there be Vacuum in that Air into which the Marble you pull off is to succeed shall there be no Vacuum in the Air that was round about the two Marbles when they touched Why cannot that Vacuum come into the place between Air cannot succeed in an instant because a body and consequently cannot be moved through the least space in an instant But emptiness is not a body nor is moved but made by the act it self of separation There is therefore if you admit Vacuum no necessity at all for the Air to fill the space left in an instant And therefore with what ease the Marble coming off presseth out the Vacuum of the Air behind it with the same ease will the Marbles be pulled assunder Seeing then if there were Vacuum there would be no difficulty of Separation it follows because there is difficulty of separation that there is no Vacuum A. Well now supposing the world full how do you prove it possible to pull those Marbles assunder B. Take a piece of soft wax Do not you think the one half touches the other half as close as the smoothest Marbles yet you can pull them assunder But how still as you pull the wax grows continually more and more slender there being a perpetual parting or discession of the outermost part of the wax one from another which the Air presently fills and so there is a continual lessening of the wax till it be no bigger than a hair and at last separation If you can do the same to a Pillar of Marble till the outside give way the effect will be the same but much quicker after it once begins to break in the Superficies because the force that can master the first resistance of the hardness will quickly dispatch the rest A. It seems so by the brittleness of some hard bodies But I shall afterward put some Questions to you touching the nature of hardness But now to return to our subject What reason can you render without supposing Vacuum of the effects produced in the Engine they use at Gresham Colledge B. That Engine produceth the same effects that a strong wind would produce in a narrow room A. How comes the wind in You know the Engine is a hollow round pipe of brass into which is thrust a Cylinder of wood covered with Leather and fitted to the Cylinder so exactly as no Air can possibly pass between the leather and the brass B. I know it and that they may thrust it up there is a hole left in the Cylinder to let the Air out before it which they can stop when they please There is also in the bottom of the Cylinder a passage into a hollow Globe of Glass which passage they can also open and shut at pleasure And at the top of that Globe there is a wide mouth to put in what they please to try conclusions on and that also to be opened and shut as shall be needful 'T is of the nature of a Pop-gun which Children use but great costly and more ingenious They thrust forward and pull back the wooden Cylinder because it requires much strength with an Iron screw What is there in all this to prove the possibility of Vacuum A. When this wooden Cylinder covered with leather fit and close is thrust home to the bottom and the holes in the hollow Cylinder of Brass close stopped how can it be drawn back as with the screw they draw it but that the space it leaves must needs be empty For it is impossible that any Air can pass into the place to fill it B. Truly I think it close enough to keep out Straw and Feathers but not to keep out Air nor
empty space in the Vial before it was sucked And then why does not the water rise to fill that when a man sucks the Vial he draws nothing out neither into his Belly nor into his Lungs nor into his Mouth only he sets the Air within the glass into a circular motion giving it at once an endeavour to go forth by the sucking and an endeavour to go back by not receiving it into his mouth And so with a great deal of labour glues his lips to the neck of the Vial. Then taking it off and dipping the neck of the Vial into the water before the circulation cease the Air with the endeavour it hath now gotten pierces the water and goes out And so much Air as goes out so much matter comes up into the room of it CHAP. IIII. Problems of Heat and Light A. WHat is the cause of Heat B. How know you that any thing is Hot but your self A. Because I perceive by sense it Heats me B. It is no good argument The thing Heats me therefore it is Hot. But what alteration do you find in your body at any time by being Hot A. I find my skin more extended in Summer than in Winter and am sometimes fainter and weaker then ordinary as if my Spirits were exhaled and I sweat B. Then that is it you would know the cause of I have told you before that by the motion I suppose both in the Sun and in the Earth the Air is dissipated and consequently that there would be an infinite number of small empty places but that the World being full there comes from the next parts other Air into the spaces they would else make empty When therefore this motion of the Sun is excercised upon the Superficies of the Earth if there do not come out of the Earth it self some corporal substance to supply that tearing of the Air we must return again to the admission of Vacuum If there do then you see how by this motion fluid bodies are made to exhale out of the Earth The like happens to a mans body or hand which when he perceives he says he is Hot. And so of the Earth when it sendeth forth Water and Earth together in Plants we say it does it by Heat from the Sun A. 'T is very probable and no less probable that the same action of the Sun is that which from the Sea and moist places of the Earth but especially from the Sea fetcheth up the water into the Clouds But there be many ways of Heating besides the action of the Sun or of Fire Two pieces of Wood will take Fire if in Torning they be prest together B. Here again you have a manifest laceration of the Air by the reciprocal and contrary motions of the two pieces of wood which necessarily causeth a coming forth of whatsoever is Aereal or fluid within them and the motion pursued a dissipation also of the other more solid parts into Ashes A. How comes it to pass that a man is warmed even to sweating almost with every extraordinary labour of his body B. It is easie to understand how by that labour all that is liquid in his body is tossed up and down and thereby part of it also cast forth A. There be some things that make a man Hot without sweat or other evaporation as Caustiques Nettles and other things B. No doubt But they touch the part they so Heat and cannot work that effect at any distance A. How does Heat cause light and that partially in some bodies more in some less though the Heat be equal B. Heat does not cause Light at all But in many Bodies the same cause that is to say the same motion causeth both together so that they are not to one another as cause and effect but are concomitant Effects sometimes of one and the same motion A. How B. You know the rubbing or heard pressing of the Eye or a stroke upon it makes an apparition of Light without and before it which way soever you look This can proceed from nothing else but from the restitution of the Organ pressed or stricken unto its former ordinary situation of parts Does not the Sun by his thrusting back the Air upon your eyes press them Or does not those bodies whereon the Sun shines though by reflection do the same though not so strongly And do not the Organs of Sight the Eye the Heart and Brains resist that pressure by an endeavour of restitution outwards Why then should there not be without and before the Eye an apparition of Light in this case as well as in the other A. I grant there must But what is that which appears after the pressing of the eye For there is nothing without that was not there before or if there were methinks another should see it better or as well as he or if in the dark methinks it should enlighten the place B. It is a fancy such as is the appearance of your face in a Looking-glass such as is a Dream such as is a Ghost such as is a spot before the Eye that hath stared upon the Son or Fire For all these are of the Regiment of Fancy without any body concealed under them or behind them by which they are produced A. And when you look towards the Sun or Moon why is not that also which appears before your Eyes at that time a fancy B. So it is Though the Sun it self be a real Body yet that bright Circle of about a foot Diameter cannot be the Sun unless there be two Suns a greater and a lesser And because you may see that which you call the Sun both above you in the Skie and before you in the Water and two Suns by distorting your Eye in two places of the Skie one of them must needs be Fancy And if one both All sense is Fancy though the cause be always in a real Body A. I see by this that those things which the Learned call the Accidents of Bodies are indeed nothing else but diversity of Fancy and are inherent in the Sentient and not in the Objects except Motion and Quantity And I perceive by your Doctrine you have been tampering with Leviathan But how comes Wood with a certain degree of Heat to shine and Iron also with a greater degree but no Heat at all to be able to make water shine B. That which shineth hath the same Motion in its parts that I have all this while supposed in the Sun and Earth In which Motion there must needs be a competent degree of swiftness to move the sense that is to make it visible All Bodies that are not fluid will shine with Heat if the Heat be very great Iron will shine and Gold will shine but water will not because the parts are carried away before they attain to that degree of swiftness which is requisite A. There are many fluid Bodies whose parts evaporate and yet they make a flame as Oyl and Wine and other
in pieces A. 'T is like enough to be so And if nature have betrayed her self in any thing I think it is in this and in that other experience of the Cross-bow which strongly and evidently demonstrates the internal reciprocation of the Motion which you suppose to be in the internal parts of every Hard body And I have observed somewhat in Looking-glasses which much confirms that there is some such Motion in the internal parts of Glass as you have supposed for the cause of Hardness For let the Glass be AB and let the Object at C be a Candle and the Eye at D. Now by divers Reflections and Refractions in the two superficies of the Glass if the Lines of Vision be very oblique you shall see many images of the Candle as E F G in such order and position as is here described But if you remove your Eye to C and the Candle to D they will appear in a situation manifestly different from this Which you will yet more plainly perceive if the Looking-Glass be coloured as I have observed in Red and Blew Glasses and could never conceive any probable cause of it till now you tell me of this secret Motion of the parts across the grain of the Glass acquired by cooling it this or that way B. There be very many kinds of Hard bodies Metals Stones and other kinds in the bowels of the Earth that have been there ever sence the beginning of the World and I believe also many different sorts of Juices that may be made Hard But for one general cause of Hardness it can be no other then such an internal Motion of parts as I have already described whatsoever may be the cause of the several concomitant qualities of their Hardness in particular A. We see water Hardened every Frosty day It 's likely therefore you may give a pribable cause of Ice What is the cause of Freezing of the Ocean towards the Poles of the Earth B. You know the Sun being always between the Tropicks and as we have supposed always casting off the Air and the Earth likewise casting it off from it's self there must needs on both sides be a great Stream of Air towards the Poles shaving the superficies of the Earth and Sea in the Northern and Southern Climates This shaving of the Earth and Sea by the Stream of Air must needs contract and make to shrink those little Circles of the internal parts of Earth and Water and consequently Harden them first at the superficies into a thin skin which is the first Ice and afterwards the same Motion continuing and the first Ice co-operating the Ice becomes thicker And this I conceive to be the cause of the Freezing of the Ocean A. If that be the cause I need not ask how a Bottle of water is made to Freeze in warm weather with Snow or Ice mingled with Salt For when the Bottle is in the midst of it the Wind that goeth out both of the Salt and of the Ice as they dissolve must needs shave the superficies of the Bottle and the Bottle work accordingly on the water without it and so give it first a thin skin and at last thicken it into a solid piece of Ice But how comes it to pass that water does not use to Freeze in a deep Pit B. A deep Pit is a very thick Bottle and such as the Air cannot come at but only at the top or where the Earth is very loose and spungy A. Why will not Wine Freeze as well as Water B. So it will when the Frost is great enough But the internal Motion of the parts of Wine and other Heating Liquors is in greater Circles and stronger then the Motion of the parts of water and therefore less easily to be Frozen especally quite through because those parts that have the strongest Motion retire to the center of the Vessel CHAP. VI. Problems of Rain Wind and other WEATHER A. WHat is the original cause of Rain and how is it generated B. The motion of the Air such as I have described to you already tending to the dis-union of the parts of the Air must needs cause a continual endeavour there being no possibility of Vacuum of whatsoever fluid parts there are upon the face of the Earth and Sea to supply the place which would else be empty This makes the water and also very small and loose parts of the Earth and Sea to rise and mingle themselves with the Air and to become mist and Clouds Of which the greatest quantity arise there where there is most water namely from the large parts of the Ocean which are the South Sea the Indian Sea and the Sea that divideth Europe and Africa from America over which the Sun for the greatest part of the year is perpendicular and consequently raiseth a greater quantity of water Which afterwards gathered into Clouds falls down in Rain A. If the Sun can thus draw up the water though but in small drops why can it not as easily hold it up B. It is likely it would also hold them up if they did not grow greater by meeting together nor were carried away by the Air towards the Poles A. What makes them gather together B. It is not improbable that they are carried against Hills and there stopt till more overtake them And when they are carried towards the North or South where the force of the Sun is more oblique and thereby weaker they descend gently by their own weight And because they tend all to the center of the Earth they must needs be united in their way for want of room and so grow bigger And then it Rains A. What is the reason it Rains so seldom but Snows so often upon very high Mountains B. Because perhaps when the water is drawn up higher then the highest Mountains where the course of the Air between the Aequator and the Poles is free from stopping the Stream of the Air Freezeth it into Snow And 't is in those places only where the Hills shelter it from that Stream that it falls in Rain A. Why is there so little Rain in Egypt and yet so much in other parts nearer the Aequinoctial as to make the Nile overflow the Countrey B. The cause of the falling of Rain I told you was the the stopping and consequently the collection of Clouds about great Mountains especially when the Sun is near the Aequinoctial and thereby draws up the water more potently and from greater Seas If you consider therefore that the Mountains in which are the springs of Nile lye near the Aequinoctial and are exceeding great and near the Indian Sea you will not think it strange there should be great store of Snow This as it melts makes the Rain of Nile to rise which in April and May going on toward Egypt arrived there about the time of the Solstice and overflow the Countrey A. Why should not the Nile then overflow that Countrey twice a year For it comes twice
directly but as the Rudder inclines to the stern so will the Ship turn But this is too well known to insist upon you have observed that the Rudders of the greatest Ships are not very broad but go deep into the Water whereas Western Barges though but small Vessels have their Rudders much broader which argues that the holding of Water from passing is the office of a Rudder and therefore to a Ship that draws much Water the Rudder is made deep accordingly and in Barges that draw little Water the Rudders as less deep must so much the more be extended in breadth A. What makes Snow B. The same cause which speaking of Hardness I supposed for the cause of Ice For the Stream of Air proceeding from That both the Earth and the Sun cast off the Air and consequently maketh a stream of Air from the Aequinoctial towards the Poles passing amongst the Clouds shaving those small drops of Water whereof the Clouds consist and congeals them as they do the Water of the Sea or of a River And these small frozen drops are that which we call Snow A. But then how are great drops frozen into Hailstones and that especially as we see they are in Summer B. It is especially in Summer and hot weather that the drops of Water which make the Clouds are great enough but it is then also that Clouds are sooner and more plentifully carryed up And therefore the current of the Air strengthned between the Earth and the Clouds becomes more swift and thereby freezeth the drops of Water not in the Cloud it self but as they are falling Nor does it freeze them throughly the time of their falling not permitting it but gives them only a thin coat of Ice as is manifest by their suddain dissolving A. Why are not somteimes also whole Clouds when pregnant and ready to drop frozen into one piece of Ice B. I belive they are so whensoever it Thunders A. But upon what ground do you believe it B. From the manner or kind of noise they make namely a crack which I see not how it can possibly be made by Water or any other soft Bodies whatsoever A. Yes the Powder they call Aurum Fulminans when throughly warm gives just such another crack as Thunder B. But why may not every small grain of that Aurum Fulminans by it self be heard though a heap of them together be soft as is any heap of Sand. Salts of all sorts are of the nature of Ice But Gold is dissolved into Aurum Fulminans by Nitre and other Salts And the least grain of it gives a little crack in the fire by it self And therefore when they are so warmed by degrees the crack cannot chuse but be very great A. But before it be Aurum Fulminans they use to wash away the Salt which they call dulcifying it and then they dry it gently by degrees B. That is they exhale the pure Water that is left in the Powder and leave the Salt behind to Harden with drying Other Powder made of Salts without any Gold in them will give a crack as great as Aurum Fulminans A very great Chymist of our times hath written that Salt of Tarter Salt-peter and a little Brimstone ground together into a Powder and dryed a few grains of that Powder will be made by the fire to give as great a Clap as a Musquet A. Me thinks it were worth your tryal to see what effect a Quart or a Pint of Aurum Fulminans would produce being put into a great Gun made strong enough on purpose and the Breech of the Gun set in hot Cinders so as to heat by degrees till the Powder fly B. I pray you try it your self I cannot spare so much Money A. What is it that breaketh the Clouds when they are frozen B. In very hot weather the Sun raiseth from the Sea and all moist places abundance of Water and to a great height And whilst this Water hangs over us in Clouds or is again descending it raiseth other Clouds and it hapens very often that they press the Air between them and squeeze it through the Clouds themselves very violently which as it passes shaves and hardens them in the manner declared A. That has already been granted my question is what breaks them B. I must here take in one supposition more A. Then your Basen it seems holds not all you have need of B. It may for all this for the supposition I add is no more but this that what internal motion I ascribe to the Earth and other the Concrete parts of the World is to be supposed also in every of their parts how small soever for what reason is there to think in case the whole Earth have in truth the motion I have ascribed to it that one part of it taken away the remaining part should love that motion If you break a Load-stone both parts will retain their vertue though weakened according to the diminution of their quantity I suppose therefore in every small part of the Earth the same kind of motion which I have supposed in the whole and so I recede not yet from my Basen A. Let it be supposed and withall that abundance of Earth which I see you aim at be drawn up together with the Water What then B. Then if many pregnant Clouds some ascending and some descending meet together and make concavities between and by the pressing out of the Air as I have said before become Ice those Atomes as I may call them of Earth will be by the straining of the Air through the water of the Clouds be left behind and remain in the Cavities of the Clouds and be more in number then for the proportion of the Air therein Therefore for want of liberty they must needs justle one another and become as they are more and more streightened of room more and more swift and consequently at last break the Ice suddenly and violently now in one place and by and by in another and make thereby so many claps of Thunder and so many Flashes of Lightning For the Air Recoiling upon our Eyes is that which maketh those Flashes to our Fancy A. But I have seen Lightning in a very clear Evening when there has been neither Thunder nor Clouds B. Yes in a clear evening because the Clouds and the Rain were below the Horison perhaps 40 or 50 Miles off so that you could not see the Clouds nor hear the Thunder A. If the Clouds be indeed Frozen into Ice I shall not wonder if they be sometimes also so scituated as like Looking-Glasses to make us see sometimes three or more Suns by Refraction and Reflection CHAP. VII Problems of Motion Perpendicular Oblique of Pression and Percussion Reflection and Refraction Attraction and Repulsion IF a Bullet from a certain point given be shot against a wall Perpendicularly and again from the same Point Oblique What will be the proportion of the Forces wherewith they urge the wall