have appointed other Laws and indeed framed another Geometry than we have and made the power of the Hypotenusa of a Right-angled Triangle unequal to the powers of the Basis and Cathetus This piece of Drollery of Des Cartes some of his followers have very gravely improved to what I said above of the Whole and Part. As if some superstitious Fop upon the hearing one being demanded whether he did believe the real and corporeal presence of Christ in the Sacrament to answer roundly that he believed him there booted and spurred as he rode in triumph to Jerusalem should become of the same Faith that the other seemed to profess and glory in the improvement thereof by adding that the Ass was also in the Sacrament which he spurred and rid upon But in the mean time while there is this Phrensie amongst them that are no small pretenders to Philosophy this does not a little set off the value and usefulness of this present Discourse of Truth to undeceivâ—… them if they be not wilfully blind Pag. 167. Therefore the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two right ones namely Because a Quadrangle is that which is comprehended of four right lines It is at least a more operose and ambagious Inference if any at all The more immediate and expedite is this That the two internal alternate Angles made by a right line cutting two parallels are equal to one another Therefore the three Angles of a Triangle are equal to two right ones P. Ram. Geom. Lib. 6. Prop. 9. Is the reasoning had been thus A Quadrangle is that which is comprehended of â—…our right lines Therefore the three Angles of a Triangle are not equal to two right ones as the Conclusion is grosly salse so the proof had been egregiously aliâ—…n and impertinent And the intention of the Author seems to be carried to Instances that are most extravagant and surprizing which makes me doubt whether equal was read in the true MS. or not equal but the sense is well enough either way Sect. 4. pag. 168. The Divine Understanding cannot be the fountain of the Truth of things c. This seems at first sight to be a very harsh Paradox and against the current Doctrine of Metaphysicians who define Transcendental or Metaphysical Truth to be nothing else but the relation of the Conformity of things to the Theoretical not Practical Intellect of God His Practical Intellect being that by which he knows things as produced or to be produced by him but his Theoretical that by which he knows things as they are but yet in an Objective manner as existent objectively not really And hence they make Transcendental Truth to depend upon the Intellectual Truth of God which alone is most properly Truth and indeed the fountain and origine of all Truth This in brief is the sense of the Metaphysical Schools With which this passage of our Author seems to clash in denying the Divine Intellect to be the fountain of the Truth of things and in driving rather at this That the things themselves in their Objective Existence such as they appear there unalterably and unchangeably to the Divine Intellect and not at pleasure contrived by it for as he says it is against the nature of all understanding to make its Object are the measure and fountain of Truth That in these I say consists the Truth in the Object and that the Truth in the Subject is a conception conformable to these or to the Truth of them whether in the uncreated or created Understanding So that the niceness of the point is this Whether the Transcendental Truth of things exhibited in their Objective Existence to the Theoretical Intellect of God consists in their Conformity to that Intellect or the Truth of that Intellect in its Conformity with the immutable natures and Relations or Respects of things exhibited in their Objective Existence which the Divine Intellect finds to be unalterably such not contrives them at its own pleasure This though it be no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or strife about mere words yet it seems to be such a contest that there is no harm done whethersoever side carries the Cause the two seeming sides being but one and the same Intellect of God necessarily and immutably representing to it self the natures Respects and Aptitudes of all things such as they appear in their Objective Existence and such as they will prove whenever produced into act As for example The Divine Understanding quatenns exhibitive of Idea's which a Platonist would call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does of its infinite pregnancy and fecundity necessarily exhibit certain and unalterable Idea's of such and such determinate things as suppose of a Cylinder a Globe and a Pyramid which have a setled and unalterable nature as also immutable properties references and aptitudes immediately consequential thereto and not arbitrariously added unto them which are thus necessarily extant in the Divine Intellect as exhibitive of such Idea's So likewise a Fish a Fowl and a four-footed beast an Ox Bear Horse or the like they have a setled nature exhibited in their Idea's and the properties and aptitudes immediately flowing therefrom As also have all the Elements Earth Water and Air determinate natures with properties and aptitudes immediately issuing from them Nor is a Whale fitted to fly in the Air nor an Eagle to live under the Water nor an Ox or Bear to do either nor any of them to live in the Fire But the Idea's of those things which we call by those names being unchangeable for there are differences indeed of Idea's but no changing of one Idea into another state but their natures are distinctly setled and to add or take away any thing from an Idea is not to make an alteration in the same Idea but to constitute a new one As Aristotle somewhere in his Metaphysicks speaks of Numbers where he says that the adding or taking away of an Unite quite varies the species And therefore as every number suppose Binary Quinary Ternary Denary is such a setled number and no other and has such properties in it self and references immediately accrewing to it and aptitudes which no other number besides it self has so it is with Idea's the Idea's I say therefore of those things which we call by those names above-recited being unchangeable the aptitudes and references immediately issuing from their nature represented in the Idea must be also unalterable and necessary Thus it is with Mathematical and Physical Idea's and there is the same reason concerning such Idea's as may be called Moral Forasmuch as they respect the rectitude of Will in whatever Mind created or uncreated And thus lastly it is with Metaphysical Idea's as for example As the Physical Idea of Body Matter or Substance Material contains in it immediately of its own nature or intimate specifick Essence real Divisibility or Discerpibility Impenetrability and mere Passivity or Actuability as the proper fruit of the Essential Difference and intimate Form thereof
have no bodies at all Not to add that at the Resurrection we become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we have bodies then which is a shrewd intimation that the Angels have so too and that there are no created Spirits but have so Thirdly Mr. Baxter pag. 6. wrongfully blames the Doctor for being so defective in his studies as not to have read over Dr. Glisson De Vita Naturae and says he has talk'd with diverse high pretenders to Philosophie and askt their judgment of that Book and found that none of them understood it but neglected it as too hard for them and yet contemned it His words to Dr. More are these I marvel that when you have dealt with so many sorts of Dissenters you meddle not with so subtile a piece as that of old Dr. Glissons De Vita Naturae He thinks the subtilty of the Book has deterred the Doctor from reading it as something above his Capacity as also of other high Pretenders to Philosophie This is a Book it seems calculated onely for the elevation of Mr. Baxters subtile and sublime wit And indeed by the benefit of reading this Book he is most dreadfully armed with the affrightful terms of Quoddities and Quiddities of Conceptus formalis and fundamentalis of Conceptus adaequatus and inadaequatus and the like In vertue of which thwacking expressions he has fancied himself able to play at Scholastick or Philosophick Quarter-staff with the most doughty and best appointed Wits that dare enter the Lists with him and as over-neglectful of his flock like some conceited Shepherds that think themselves no small fools at the use of the Staff or Cudgil-play take Vagaries to Fairs or Wakes to give a specimen of their skill so he ever and anon makes his Polemick sallies in Philosophie or Divinity to entertain the Spectators though very oft he is so rapt upon the knuckles that he is forced to let fall his wooden Instrument and blow his fingers Which is but a just Nemesis upon him and he would do well to interpret it as a seasonable reproof from the great Pastor of Souls to whom we are all accountable But to return to his speech to the Doctor I will adventure to answer in his behalf That I marvel that whenas Mr. Baxter has had the curâ—…osity to read so many Writers and some of them sure but of small concern that he has not read that sound and solid piece of Dr. More viz. his Epistola altera ad V. C. with the Scholia thereon where Spinozius is confuted Which if he had read he might have seen Volum Philosoph Tom. 1. pag. 604 605 c. that the Doctor has not onely read that subtile Piece of Doctor Glissons but understands so throughly his Hypothesis that he has solidly and substantially confuted it Which he did in a faithful regard to Religion For that Hypothesis if it were true were as safe if not a saâ—…er Refuge for Atheists than the mere Mechanick Philosophie is And therefore you may see there how Cuperus brought up amongst the Atheists from his very childhood does confess how the Atheists now-a-daies explode the Mechanick Philosophie as not being for their turn and betake themselves wholly to such an Hypothesis as Dr. Glissons Vita Naturae But God be thanked Dr. H. More in the fore-cited place has perfectly routed that fond and foul Hypothesis of Dr. Glisson and I dare say is sorry that so good and old a Knight errant in Theologie and Philosophie as Mr Richard Baxter seems to be should become benighted as in a wood at the Close of his daies in this most horrid dark Harbour and dismal Receptacle or Randevouz of wretched Atheists But I dare say for him it is his ignorance not choice that has lodged him there The fourth Disingenuity of Mr. Baxter towards the Doctor is in complaining of him as if he had wronged him by the Title of his Answer to his Letter in calling it an Answer to a Psychopyrist pag. 2. 82. As if he had asserted that materiality of Spirits which belongs to bodies pag. 94. In complaining also of his inconsistency with himself pag. 10. as if he one while said that Mr. Baxter made Spirits to be Fire or material and another while said he made them not Fire or material But to the first part of this Accusation it may be answered That if it is Mr. Baxter that is called the Learned Psychopyrist how is the thing known to the world but by himself It looks as if he were ambitious of the Title and proud of the civil treating he has had at the hands of the Doctor though he has but ill repai'd his civility in his Reply And besides this there is no more harshness in calling him Psychopyrist than if he had called him Psycho-Hylist there being nothing absurd in Psychopyrism but so far forth as it includes Psycho-Hylism and makes the Soul material Which Psycho-Hylism that Mr. Baxter does admit it is made evident in the Doctors Answer Sect. 16. And Mr. Baxter in his Placid Collation as he mis-calls it for assuredly his mind was turbid when he wrote it pag. 2. allows that Spirits may be called Fire Analogicè and Eminenter and the Doctor in his Preface intimates that the sense is to be no further stretched than the Psychopyrist himself will allow But now that Mr. Baxter does assert that Materiality in created Spirits that belongs to bodies in the common sense of all Philosophers appears Sect. 16. where his words are these But custom having made MATERIA but especially CORPUS to signifie onely such grosser Substance as the three passive Elements are he means Earth Water Air I yield says he so to say that Spirits are not Corporeal or Material Which plainly implies that Spirits are in no other sense Immaterial than Fire and Aether are viz. than in this that they are thinner matter And therefore to the last point it may be answered in the Doctors behalf that he assuredly does nowhere say That Mr. Baxter does not say that Spirits are Material as Material is taken in the common sense of all Philosophers for what is impenetrable and discerpible Which is Materia Physica and in opposition to which a Spirit is said to be Immaterial And which briefly and distinctly states the Question Which if Mr. Baxter would have taken notice of he might have saved himself the labour of a great deal of needless verbosity in his Placid Collation where he does over-frequently under the pretence of more distinctness in the multitude of words obscure knowledge Fifthly Upon Sect. 10. pag. 21. where Mr. Baxters Question is How a man may tell how that God that can make many out of one cannot make many into one c. To which the Doctor there answers If the meaning be of substantial Spirits it has been already noted that God acting in Nature does not make many substances out of one the substance remaining still entire for then Generation would be Creation And
no sober man believes that God assists any creature so in a natural course as to enable it to create And then I suppose that he that believes not this is not bound to puzzle himself why God may not as well make many substances into one as many out of one whenas he holds he does not the latter c. These are the Doctors own words in that Section In reply to which Mr. Baxter But to my Question saies he why God cannot make two of one or one of two you put me off with this lean Answer that we be not bound to puzzle our selves about it I think saies he that Answer might serve to much of your Philosophical disputes Here Mr. Baxter plainly deals very disingenuously with the Doctor in perverting his words which affirm onely That he that denies that God can make two substances of one in the sense above-declared need not puzzle himself how he may make one of those two again Which is no lean but full and apposite Answer to the Question there propounded And yet in this his Placid Collation as if he were wroth he gives ill language and insinuates That much of the Doctors Philosophical Disputes are such as are not worth a mans puzling himself about them whenas it is well known to all that know him or his Writings that he concerns himself in no Theories but such as are weighty and useful as this of the Indiscerpibility of Spirits is touching which he further slanders the Doctor as if it were his mere Assertion without any Proof As if Mr. Baxter had never read or forgot the Doctors Discourse of the true Notion of a Spirit or what he has writ in the further Defence thereof See Sect. 26 28 30 31. Thus to say any thing in an angry mood verily does not become the Title of a Placid Collation Sixthly The Doctor in Sect. 11. of his Defence of his Notion of a Spirit writes thus I desire you to consider the nature of Light throughly and you shall find it nothing but a certain motion of a Medium whose parts or particles are so or so qualified some such way as Cartesianism drives at To this Mr. Baxter replies against the Doctor pag. 59. Really saâ—…es he when I read how far you have escaped the delusions of Cartesianism I am sorry you yet stick in so gross a part of it as this is when he that knoweth no more than motion in the nature of Fire which is the Active Principle by which Mental and Sensitive Nature operateth on Man and Brutes and Vegetables and all the Passive Elements and all the visible actions in this lower world are performed what can that mans Philosophie be worth I therefore return your Counsel study more throughly the nature of Ethereal Fire Satis pro imperio very Magisterially spoken and in such an igneous Rapture that it is not continuedly sense Does Mental and Sensitive Nature act on Brutes and Vegetables and all the Passive Elements But to let go that Is all the Doctors Philosophie worth nothing if he hold with Des Cartes touching the Phaenomenon of Light as to the Material part thereof It is the ignorance of Mr. Baxter that he rejects all in Des Cartes and Judiciousness in the Doctor that he retains some things and supplies where his Philosophie is deficient He names here onely the Mechanical Cause of Light viz. Motion and duly modified Particles But in his Enchiridium he intimates an higher principle than either Fire or Aether or any thing that is Material be it as fine and pure as you please to fancie it See his Enchirid Metaphys Cap. 19. where he shews plainly that Light would not be Light were there not a Spiritus Mundanus or Spirit of Nature which pervades the whole Universe Mr. Baxters ignorance whereof has cast him into so deep a dotage upon Fire and Light and fine discerpible Corporeities which he would by his Magisterial Prerogative dubb Spirits when to nothing that Title is due but what is Penetrable and Indiscerpible by reason of the immediate Oneness of its Essence even as God the Father and Creator of all Spirits is one Indiscerpible Substance or Being And therefore I would advise Mr. Baxter to studie more throughly the true nature of a Spirit and to let go these Ignes Fatui that would seduce him into thick mists and bogs For that universal Spirit of Nature is most certainly the Mover of the matter of the world and the Modifier thereof and thence exhibits to us not onely the Phaenomena of Light and Fire but of Earth and Water and frames all Vegetables into shape and growth and Fire of it self is but a dead Instrument in its hand as all is in the hand of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Synesius if I well remember somewhere calls him in his Hymns Seventhly That is also less ingenuously done of Mr. Baxter when the Doctor so friendly and faithfully puts him in a way of undeceiving himself Sect. 17. touching the Doctrine of Atoms that he puts it off so slightly And so Sect. 18. where he earnestly exhorts him to studie the nature of Water as Mr. Baxter does others to studie the nature of Fire he as if he had been bitten and thence taken with that disease the Physicians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which signifies the fear of Water has slunk away and quite neglected the Doctors friendly monition and is so small a Proficient in Hydrostaticks that pag. 68. he understands not what greater wonder there is in the rising of the Dr.'s Rundle than in the rising of a piece of Timber from the bottom of the Sea Which is a sign he never read the 13th Chapter of the Dr.'s Enchiridion Metaphysicum much less the Scholia thereon For if he had he would discern the difference and the vast usefulness of the one above that of the other to prove a Principium Hylarchicum distinct from the matter of the Universe against all evasions and tergiversations whatsoever But these things cannot be insisted on here Eighthly Mr. Baxter pag. 76. charges the Doctor with such a strange Paradox as to half of it that I cannot imagine from whence he should fetch it Tou seem says he to make all substance Atoms Spiritual Atoms and Material Atoms The latter part of the charge the Doctor I doubt not but will acknowledge to be true But may easily prove out of Mr. Baxter pag. 65. that he must hold so too For his words there are these That God is able to divide all matter into Atoms or indivisible parts I doubt not And can they be Phyâ—…ically divided into parts of which they don't consist But Mr. Baxter by the same reason making Spirits divisible by God though not by any Creature makes them consist of Spiritual Atoms for they cannot but consist of such parts as they are divisible into And if they be divisible by God into larger shreds onely but not into
neither he being no created Spirit and being more absolutely perfect than that any such properties should be competible to him And it is reasonable to conceive that there is little actually of that propertie in the Spirit of Nature it being no particular Spirit though created but an Universal one and having no need thereof For the corporeal world did not grow from a small Embryo into that vast amplitude it is now of but was produced of the same largeness it now has though there was a successive delineation and orderly polishing and perfecting the vast distended parts thereof And to speak compendiously and at once That God that has Created all things in number weight measure has given such measures of Spiritual Essence and of the facultie of contracting and dilating the same as also of Spiritual Subtilty of substance as serves the ends of his Wisdom and Goodness in creating such a species of Spirit So that it is fond unskilful and ridiculous to ask if the whole Spirit of the world can be contracted into a Nut-shell and the Spirit of a Flea extended to the Convex of the Universe They that talk at this rate err as Aliens from the Wisdome of God and ignorant of the Laws of Nature and indeed of the voice of Scripture itself Why should God make the Spirit of a Flea which was intended for the constituting of such a small Animal large enough to fill the whole world Or what need of such a contraction in the Spirit of Nature or Plastick Soul of the corporeal Universe that it may be contrived into a Nut-shell That it has such Spiritual subtiltie as that particular Spirits may contract themselves in it so close together as to be commensurate to the first Inchoations of a Foetus which is but very small stands to good reason and Effects prove it to be so As also this smalness of a Foetus or Embryo that particular Spirits are so far contracted at first and expand themselves leisurely afterwards with the growth of the bodie which they regulate But into how much lesser space they can or do contract themselves at any time is needless to know or enquire And there is no Repugnancie at all but the Spirit of Nature might be contracted to the like Essential Spissitude that some particular Spirits are but there is no reason to conceit that it ever was or ever will be so contracted while the World stands Nor lastly is there any Inconvenience in putting indefinite limits of Contraction in a Spirit and to allow that after such a measure of Contraction though we cannot say just what that is it naturally contracts no further nor does another so contracted naturally penetrate this thus contracted Spirit For as the usefulness of that measure of Self-Penetrability and Contraction is plain so it is as plain that the admitting of it is no incongruitie nor incommoditie to the Universe nor any confusion to the Specifick modes of Spirit and Bodie For these two Spirits suppose contracted to the utmost of their natural limits may naturally avoid the entring one another not by a dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Bodies or Matter but by a vital Saturitie or natural Uneasiness in so doing Besides that though at such a contracted pitch they are naturally impenetrable to one another yet they demonstrate still their Spirituality by Self-Penetration haply a thousand and a thousand times repeated And though by a Law of life not by a dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are kept from penetrating one another yet they both in the mean time necessarily penetrate Matter as undergoing the diverse measures of essential Spissitude in the same So that by the increase of that essential Spissitude they may approach near to a kind of Hylopathick disposition of Impenetrability and thence by the Matter of the Universe out of which they never are be curb'd from contracting themselves any further than to such a degree and I noted at first that spiritual Subtilty as well as Amplitude is given in measure to created Spirits So that Penetrabilitie is still a steadie Character of a Spiritual Essence or Substance to the utmost sense thereof And to argue against Impenetrability its being the propertie of Matter from this kind of Impenetrability of contracted Spirits is like that quibbling Sophistrie against Indiscerpibility being the propertie of a Spirit because a Physical Monad is also indiscerpible The ninth Objection is against the Indiscerpibility of Spirits and would infer that because the Doctor makes them intellectually divisible therefore by Divine Power if it imply no contradiction a Spirit is Discerpible into Physical parts But this is so fully satisfied already by the Doctor in his Discourse of the true Notion of a Spirit and its Defence to say nothing of what I have said already above to prove it does imply a contradiction that I will let it go and proceed To the tenth and last Allegation which pretends That these two terms Penetrable and Indiscerpible are needless and hazardous in the Notion of a Spirit But how useful or needful Peneâ—…rability is is manifest from what we have said to the eighth Objection And the needfulness of Indiscerpibility is also susficiently shewn by the Doctor in his Defence of the true Notion of a Spirit Sect. 30. But now for the Hazardousness of these terms as if they were so hard that it would discourage men from the admitting of the Existence of Spirits It appears from what has been said to the eighth Objection That Penetrability is not onely intelligible and admittable but necessarily to be admitted in the Notion of a Spirit as sure as God is a Spirit and that there are Spirits of men and Angels and that the Souls of men are not made of Shreds but actuate their whole grown bodie though at first they were contracted into the compass of a very small Foetus And that there is no Repugnancie that an Essence may be ample and yet indiscerpible Mr. Baxter himself must allow who pag. 51. plainly declares That it is the vilest contradiction to say that God is capable of division So that I wonder that he will call Penetrable and Indiscerpible hard and doubtful words and such as might stumble mens belief of the Existence of Spirits when they are terms so plain and necessary Nor can that Unitie that belongs to a Spirit be conceived or understood without them especially without Indiscerpibilitie And indeed if we do not allow Penetrability the Soul of a man will be far from being one but a thing discontinued and scatter'd in the pores of his corpcreal consistencie We will conclude with Mr. Baxters Conceit of the Indivisibleness of a Spirit and see how that will corroborate mens faith of their Existence and put all out of hazard Various Elements saith he pag. 50. vary in Divisibility Earth is most divisible Water more hardly the parts more inclining to the closest contact Air yet more hardly and in Fire no doubt the Discerpibility is
A Bucket of water while it is in the water comes up with ease to him that draws it at the Well but so soon as it comes into the Air though there be the same earth under it that there was before it feels now exceeding more weighty Of which I conceive the genuine reason is because the Spirit of Nature which ranges all things in their due order acts proportionately strongly to reduce them thereto as they are more heterogeniously and disproportionately placed as to their consistencies And therefore by how much more crass and solid a body is above that in which it is placed by so much the stronger effort the Spirit of Nature uses to reduce it to its right place but the less it exceeds the crassness of the Element it is in the effort is the less or weaker Hence therefore it is that a stone or such like body in those subterraneous depths seems less heavy because the air there is so gross and thick and is not so much disproportionate to the grossness of the stone as our air above the earth here is nor do I make any doubt but if the earth were all cut away to the very bottom of any of these Mines so that the Air might be of the same consistency with ours the stone would then be as heavy as it is usually to us in this superioor surface of the earth So that this is no certain Argument for the proving that the crust of the earth is of such thinness as this Author would have it though I do not question but that it is thin enough Pag. 131. And the mention of the Fountains of the great Deep in the Sacred History c. This is a more considerable Argument for the thinness of the crust of the earth and I must confess I think it not improbable but that there is an Aqueous hollow Sphaericum which is the Basis of this habitable earth according to that of Psalm 24. 2. For he hath founded it upon the seas and established it upon the flouds Pag. 131. Now I intend not that after a certain distance all is fluid matter to the Centre That is to say After a certain distance of earthly Matter that the rest should be fluid Matter namely Water and Air to the Centre c. But here his intention is directed by that veneration he has for Des Cartes Otherwise I believe if he had freely examined the thing to the bottom he would have found it more reasonable to conclude all fluid betwixt the Concave of the Terrestrial Crust and the Centre of the Earth as we usually phrase it though nothing be properly Earth but that Crust Pag. 131. Which for the most part very likely is a gross and foetid kind of air c. On this side of the Concave of the Terrestrial Crust there may be several Hollows of foetid air and stagnant water which may be so many particular lodgings for lapsed and unruly Spirits But there is moreover a considerable Aqueous Sphaericum upon which the earth is founded and is most properly the Abyss but in a more comprehensive notion all from the Convex thereof to the Centre may be termed the Abyss or the Deepest place that touches our imagination Pag. 131. The lowest and central Regions may be filled with flame and aether c. That there was the Reliques of a Sun after the Incrustation of the Earth and Aqueous Orb is according to this Hypothesis reasonable enough And a kind of Air and Aether betwixt this diminished Sun and the Concave of this Aqueous Orb but no crass and opake concamerations of hard Matter interposed betwixt Which is an Hypothesis the most kind to the ingenious Author of Telluris Theoria Sacra that he could wish For he holding that there was for almost two thousand years an opake earthy Crust over this Aqueous Orb unbroke till the Deluge which he ascribes to the breaking thereof it was necessary there should be no opake Orb betwixt the Central Fire and this Aqueous Orb for else the Fishes for so long a time had lived in utter darkness having eyes to no purpose nor ability to guide their way or hunt their prey Onely it is supposed which is easie to do that they then swam with their backs toward the Centre whenas as now they swim with their bellies thitherward they then plying near the Concave as now near the Convex of this watry Abyss Which being admitted the difference of their posture will necessarilly follow according to the Laws of Nature as were easie to make out but that I intend brevity in these Annotations Onely I cannot forbear by the way to advertise how probable it is that this Central Fire which shone clear enough to give light to the Fishes swimming near the Concave of this Watry Orb might in process of time grow dimmer and dimmer and exceeding much abate of its light by that time the Crust of the Earth broke and let in the light of the Sun of this great Vortex into this Watry Region within which viz. in the Air or Aether there there has been still a decay of light the Air or Aether growing more thick as well as that little Central Fire or Sun being more and more inveloped with fuliginous stuff about it So that the whole Concavity may seem most like a vast duskish Vault and this dwindling over-clouded Sun a Sepulchral Lamp such as if I remember right was found in the Monuments of Olybius and Tulliola An hideous dismal forlorn Place and sit Receptacle for the Methim and Rephaim And the Latin Translation Job 26. 5. excellently well accords with this sad Phaenomenon Ecce Gigantes gemunt sub Aquis qui habitant cum eis Here is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Symmachus translates the word And it follows in the verse Nudus est Infernus coram eo Hell is naked before God And Symmachus in other places of the Proverbs puts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together which therefore is the most proper and the nethermost Hell And it will be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the highest sense whenever this lurid Light as it seems probable to me it sometime will be is quite extinct and this Central Fire turned into a Terrella as it may seem to have already happened in Saturn But we must remember as the Author sometimes reminds us that we are embellishing but a Romantick Hypothesis and be sure we admit no more than Reason Scripture and the Apostolick Faith will allow Pag. 132. Are after death committed to those squalid subterraneous Habitations c. He seems to suppose that all the wicked and degerate souls are committed hither that they may be less troublesom to better souls in this air above the earth But considering the Devil is call'd the Prince of the Air that he has his Clients and Subjects in the same place with him we may well allow the lower Regions of the
ease and safety of those of the Kingdom of Light Not out of any good-will to them but that themselves may not further smart for it if they give license to such and such exorbitancies For they are capable of pain and punishment and though they are permitted in the world yet they are absolutely under the power of the Almighty and of the Grand Minister of his Kingdom the glorious Soul of the Messiah Pag. 137. The internal Central Fire should have got such strength and irresistible vigour c. But how or from whence is very hard to conceive I should rather suspect as I noted above that the Fire will more and more decay till it turn at last to a kind of Terrella like that observed within the Ring of Saturn and the Dungeon become utter Darkness where there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth as well as in the furnace of Fire Pag. 141. And so following the Laws of its proper motion shall fly away out of this Vortex c. This looks like an heedless mistake of this ingenious Writer who though he speak the language of Cartesius seems here not to have recalled to mind his Principles For the Earth according to his Principles is never like to become a Sun again Nor if it had so become would it then become a Comet Forasmuch as Comets according to his Philosophie are incrustated Suns and Planets or Earths in a manner and so to be deemed so soon as they settle in any Vortex and take their course about the Centre thereof Nor if the Earth become a Sun again is it like to leave our Vortex according to the Cartesian Principles but rather be swallowed down into the Sun of our Vortex and increase his magnitude the ranging of the Planets according to Des Cartes Mechanical Laws being from the difference of their solidities and the least solid next to the Sun Whither then can this Sol redivivus or the Earth turned wholly into the Materia subtilissima again be carried but into the Sun it self This seems most likely especially if we consider this Sol Redivivus or the Earth turned all into the Materia subtilissima in itself But if we take into our consideration its particular Vortex which carries about the Moon the business may bear a further debate which will require more time than to be entred upon here But it seems plain at first sight that though this Sol Redivivus should by vertue of its particular Vortex be kept from being swallowed down into the Sun and Centre of the great Vortex yet it will never be able to get out of this great Vortex according to the frame of Des Cartes Philosophy So that there will be two Suns in one Vortex a Planetary one and a fixt one Which unexpected monstrositie in Nature will make any cautious Cartesian more wary how he admits of the Earths ever being turned into a Sun again but rather to be content to let its Central Fire to incrustrate it self into a Terrella there seeming to be an example of this in that little Globe in the midst of the Ring of Saturn but of an Earth turned into a Sun no example at all that I know of Pag. 142. So that the Central Fire remains unconcerned c. And so it well may it being so considerable a distance from the Concave of the Aqueous Orb and the Aqueous Orb it self betwixt the Crust of the Earth and it But the Prisoners of this Gaol of the Rephaim will not be a little concerned This Hell of a suddain growing so smothering hot to them all though the Central Fire no more than it was And whatever becomes of those Spirits that suffer in the very Conflagration it self yet Ab hoc Inferno nulla est redemptio Pag. 147. Those immediate births of unassisted nature will not be so tender c. Besides the Air being replenisht with benign Daemons or Genii to whom it cannot but be a pleasant Spectacle to behold the inchoations and progresses of reviving Nature they having the Curiositie to contemplate these births may also in all likelihood exercise their kindness in helping them in their wants and when they are grown up assist them also in the methods of Life and impart as they shall find fit the Arcana of Arts and Sciences and Religion unto them nor suffer them to symbolize overmuch in their way of living with the rest of their fellow terrestrial Creatures If it be true that some hold that even now when there is no such need every one has his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Genius or Guardian Angel it is much more likely that at such a season as this every tender Foetus of their common Mother the Earth would be taken into the care of some good Daemon or other even at their very first budding out into life Pag. 148. But all this is but the frolick exercise of my Pen choosing a Paradox And let the same be said of the Pen of the Annotator who has bestowed these pains not to gain Proselytes to the Opinions treated of in this Discourse but to entertain the Readers Intellectuals with what may something inlarge his thoughts and if he be curious and anxious help him at a pinch to some ease of mind touching the ways of God and his wonderful Providence in the World Pag. 149. Those other expressions of Death Destruction Perdition of the ungodly c. How the entring into the state of Silence may well be deemed a real Death Destruction and Perdition that passage in Lucretius does marvelously well set out Nam si tantopere est animi mutata potestas Omnis ut actarum exciderit retinentia rerum Non ut opinor ea ab letho jam longiter errat Quapropter fateare necesse est quae fuit ante Interiisse c. De Rerum Natura Lib. 3. And again in the same book he says though we were again just as we were before yet we having no memory thereof it is all one as if we were perfectly lost And yet this is the condition of the soul which the Divine Nemesis sends into the state of Silence because afterwards she remembers nothing of her former life His words are these Nec si materiam nostram collegerit aetas Post obitum rursúmque redegerit ut sita nunc est Atque iterum nobis fuerint data lumina vitae Pertineat quicquam tamen ad nos id quoque factum Interrupta semel quom sit retinentia nostri Pag. 150. In those passages which predict new Heavens and a new Earth c. I suppose he alludes especially to that place in the Apocalypse Chap. 21. where presently upon the Description of the Lake of Fire in the precedent Chapter which answers to the Conflagration it is said And I saw a new Heaven and a new Earth But questionless that passage as in other places is Politically to be understood not Physically unless this may be the ingenious Authors meaning That the
But whither am I going I would conclude here according to promise having rescued the Doctors Definition of a Spirit from Mr. Baxters numerous little Criticisms like so many shrill busie Gnats trumpeting about it and attempting to infix their feeble Proboscides into it and I hope I have silenced them all But there is something in the very next Paragraph which is so wrongfully charged upon the Doctor that I cannot sorbear standing up in his justification The Charge is this That he has fathered upon Mr. Baxter an Opinion he never owned and nick-named him Psychopyrist from his own â—…ction As if says he we said that Souls are â—…re and also took Fire as the Doctor does for Candles and hot Irons c. onely But I answer in behalf of the Doctor as I have a little toucht on this matter before That he does indeed entitle a certain Letter which he answers to a Learned Psychopyrist as the Author thereof But Mr. Baxters name is with all imaginable care concealed So that he by his needless owning the Letter has notched that nick-name as he calls it of Psychopyrist upon himself whether out of greediness after that alluring Epithet it is baited with I know not but that he hangs thus by the gills like a Fish upon the Hook he may thank his own self for it nor ought to blame the Doctor Much less accuse him for saying that Mr. Baxter took Fire in no other sense than that in Candles and hot Iron and the like For in his Preface he expresly declares on the Psychopyrists behalf that he does not make this crass and visible Fire the Essence of a Spirit but that his meaning is more subtile and refined With what conscience then can Mr. Baxter say that the Doctor affirms that he took Fire in no other sense than that in Candles and hot Iron and the like and that he held all Souls to be such Fire whenas the Doctor is so modest and cautious that he does not affirm that Mr. Baxter thinks any to be such though even in this Placid Collation he professes his inclination towards the Opinion that Ignis and Vegetative Spirit is all one pag. 20 21. I have oft professed saith he that I am ignorant whether Ignis and Vegetative Spirit be all one to which I most incline or whether Ignis be an active nature made to be the instrument by which the three spiritual natures Vegetative Sensitive and Mental work on the three passive natures Earth Water Air. And again pag. 66. If it be the Spirit of the world that is the nearest cause of illumination by way of natural activity then that which you call the Spirit of the World I call Fire and so we differ but de nomine But I have saith he as before professed my ignorance whether Fire and the Vegetative nature be all one which I incline to think or whether Fire be a middle active nature between the spiritual and the mere Passive by which Spirits work on bodie And pag. 71. I doubt not but Fire is a Substance permeant and existent in all mixt bodies on Earth In your bloud it is the prime part of that called the Spirits which are nothing but the igneous principle in a pure Aereal Vehicle and is the organ of the Sensitive faculties of the Soul And if the Soul carry any Vehicle with it it 's like to be some of this I doubt you take the same thing to be the Spirit of the world though you seem to vilifie it And pag. 74. I suppose you will say the Spirit of the world does this But call it by what name you will it is a pure active Substance whose form is the Virtus motiva illuminativa calefactiva I think the same which when it operateth on due seminal Matter is Vegetative And lastly pag. 86. I still profess my self in this also uncertain whether Natura Vegetativa and Ignea be all one or whether Ignis be Natura Organica by which the three Superiour he means the Vegetative Sensitive and Intellective Natures operate on the Passive But I incline most to think they are all one when I see what a glorious Fire the Sun is and what operation it hath on Earth and how unlikely it is that so glorious a Substance should not have as noble a formal nature as a Plant. This is more than enough to prove that Mr. Baxter in the most proper sense is inclined to ' Psychopyrism as to the Spirit of the world or Vegetative soul of the Universe that that Soul or Spirit is Fire And that all created Spirits are Fire analogicè and eminenter I have noted above that he does freely confess But certainly if it had not been for his ignorance in the Atomick Philosophie which he so greatly despiseth he would never have taken the Fire it self a Congeries of agitated particles of such figures and dimensions for the Spirit of the world But without further doubt have concluded it onely the instrument of that Spirit in its operations as also of all other created Spirits accordingly as the Doctor has declared a long time since in his Immortalitas Animae Lib. 2. Cap. 8. Sect. 6. And finding that there is one such universal Vegetative Spirit properly so called or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the world he could not miss of concluding the whole Universe one great Plant or if some obscure degree of sense be given to it one large Zoophyton or Plant-animal whence the Sun will be endued or actuated as much by a Vegetative Nature as any particular Plant whatsoever whereby Mr. Baxter might have took away his own disficultie he was entangled in But the truth is Mr. Baxters defectiveness in the right understanding of the Atomick Philosophy and his Aversness therefrom as also from the true System of the world which necessarily includes the motion of the Earth we will cast in also his abhorrence from the Pre-existence of Souls which three Theories are hugely necâ—…ssary to him that would Philosophize with any success in the deepest points of natural Religion and Divine Providence makes him utter many things that will by no means bear the Test of severer Reason But in the mean time this Desectiveness in sound Philosophie neither hinders him nor any one else from being able Instruments in the Gospel-Ministrie if they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a due measure If they have a firm Faith in the revealed Truths of the Gospel and skill in History Tongues and Criticism to explain the Text to the people and there be added a sincere Zeal to instruct their Charge and that they may appear in good earnest to believe what they teach they lead a life devoid oâ—… scandal and osfence as regulated by those Goâ—…pel-Rules they propose to others this though they have little of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly so called that reaches to the deepest account of things but instead thereof Prudence and Ingenuity will
call the Intellectual World as the Author has observed above in this Section A Circle is a Circle and a Triangle a Triangle there nor can be otherwise without a Contradiction And so of a Globe Cylinder Horse Eagle Whale Fire Water Earth their Ideal fixt and determinate natures habitudes aptitudes and respects necessarily and immutably there exhibited are such as they are nor can be otherwise without a contradiction And because it is thus in the Divine Nature or Essence which is the root and fountain of the exteriour Creation the same is true in the created Beings themselves Things are there also what they are nor can they be a Globe suppose or a Cylinder and yet not be a Globe or a Cylinder at once or be both a Globe and Cylinder at once and so of the rest As this is a contradiction in the Intellectual World so is it in the Exteriour or Material World and so because it is so in the Intellectual For the steadiness and immutableness of the nature of all things and of their respects and habitudes arise from thâ—… necessity immutability and unchangeableness of the Divine Essence and Life which is that serene unclouded undisturbed and unalterable Eternity where all things with their respects and aptitudes their order and series are necessarily steadily and immutably exhibited at once P. 195. As they conform agree with the things themselves c. 〈◊〉 The more Platonical sense and more conformable to that we have given of other passages of this learned and ingenious Author is if we understand the things themselves at least primarily to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Plato which is the term which he bestows upon his Idea's which are the Patterns or Paradigms according to which every thing is made and is truly such so far sorth as it is found to agree with the Patterns or Originals in which all Archetypal Truth is immutably lodged All created things are but the Copies of these these the Original the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Writing it self from whence Plato calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if those Archetypal Forms were the forms or things themselves but the numerous created Beings here below only the Copies or Imitations of them Wherefore no Conception or Idea's that we frame or any Intellect else as Conceptive merely and Speculative can be true but so far as they agree with these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that sense we have declared or with creâ—…ted things so far as they are answerable to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Archetypal things themselves And from hence is sufficiently understood the nature of Truth in the Subject These few cursory Notes I thought worth the while to make upon these two learâ—…ed and ingenious Writers the Subjects they have written on being of no mean importance and use and the things written in such a time of their age as if men be born under an auspicious Planet best fits their minds for the relishing and ruminating upon such noble Theories For I dare say when they wrote these Discourses or Treatises they had neither of them reached so much as half the age of man as it is ordinarily computed Which has made them write upon these Subjects with that vigour and briskness of Spirit that they have For the constitution of Youth in those that have not an unhappy Nativity is far more heavenly and Angelical than that of more grown age in which the Spirit of the World is more usually awakened and then begins that Scene which the Poet describes in his De Arte Poetica Quoerit opes amicitias inservit honori their mind then begins to be wholly intent to get wealth and riches to enlaâ—…ge their Interest by the friendship of great Persons and to hunt after Dignities and Preferments Honours and Imployments in Church or State and â—…o those more heavenly and Divine Sentiments through disuse and the presence of more strong and filling Impressions are laid asleep and their Spirits thickened and clouded with the gross fumes and steams that arise from the desire of earthly things and it may so fall out if there be not special care taken that this mud they have drawn in by their coarse desires may come to that opaque hardness and incrustation that their Terrestrial body may prove a real dungeon cast them into an utter oblivion of their chiefest concerns in the other State Nec auras Respicient clausi tenebris carcere coeco Which I thought sit to take notice of as well for the instruction of others as for a due Appretiation of these two brief Treatises of these florid Writers they being as it were the Virgin-Honey of these two Attick Bees the Primitioe of their intemerated Youth where an happy natural complexion and the first Rudiments of Christian Regeneration may seem to have conspired to the writing of two such useful Treatises Useful I say and not a little grateful to men of refined Fancies and gay Intellectuals of benign and Philosophical tempers and Lovers of great Truths and Goodness Which natural constitution were a transcendent priviledge indeed were there not one great danger in it to those that know not how to use it skilfully For it does so nearly ape as I may so speak the Divine Benignity it self and that unself-interessed Love that does truly arise from no other seed than that of real Regeneration which Self-mortification and a serious endeavour of abolishing or utterly demolishing our own will and quitting any thing that would captivate us and hinder our union with God and his Christ does necessarily precede that too hastily setting up our rest in these mere complexional attainments which is not Spirit but Flesh though it appear marvellous sweet and goodly to the owner if there be not â—…ue care taken to advance higher in that Divine and Eternal Principle of real Regeneration by a constant mortification of our own will there may be a perpetual hazzard of this Flesh growing corrupt and fly-blown and sending up at lâ—…st no sweet savour into the nostrils of the Almighty That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit And all flesh is grass and the beauty thereof as the slower of the field but that which is born of the eternal Seed of the living Word abideth for ever and ever And therefore there is no safe Anchorage for the Soul but in a perpetual endeavour of annihilating of her own Will that we may be one with Christ as Christ is with God Otherwise if we follow the sweet enticing Counsels of mere Nature though it look never so smugly on it it will seduce us into a false liberty and at last so corrupt our Judgment and blind us that we shall scarce be able to discern him that is that great Light that was sent into the world but become every man an Ignis Fatuus to himself or be so silly as to be led about by other