neither do we read nor can we reasonably suppose that any new Matter was Created afterward Nor was it Created in the very Begining only Matter or one Homogeneous Mass therof but one Body expressly distinguished into several Heterogeneous Members Celestial and Terrestrial or Heaven and Earth Nor was the Heaven and Earth thus only Different in Nature in their First Creation but also Distinct and separate in their Situations and not Confounded together but Created such several Members of the great Body of the World And as the Heaven is named before the Earth so were the Celestial Bodys above or without the Terrestrial incompassing them as now they do for neither do we read nor can we reasonably suppose that there was any other Separation or Disposition of the Celestial Bodys afterward as is expresly mentioned of the Terrestrial or Terraqueous Globe wherof and of all their several Situations I shall further discours heerafter II. The word Heaven Hebraâ—caly is Heavens not only Grammaticaly as the word God in this Text but Phisicaly and in the nature of the thing it self And so generaly the Hebrews distribute Heaven into three several Heavens of three several Natures Wherof the highest is also called the Third Heaven becaus it is Utmost and the last above us and encompasseth both the others and this I shall therefore call the Superaether The midst or Second is the Aether or Starry Heaven The lowest or First is the Air which Immediately encompasseth the Terraqueous Globe And these are all the Celestial Spheres wherof we read and therefore I can acknowledg no more however Astronomers have pleased to multiply them These three Heavens are thus built one upon another and all upon the Terraqueous Globe which is the Habitation of all Corporeal Animals as Amos elegantly expresseth it He that builded the Storys of the Heavens and founded his Troop on the Earth Of all the three Heavens the Third which is the Supreme is most Properly Heaven and therefore also is called the Heaven of Heavens by way of Excellency and so is specialy called the Temple of the most high God and is the Native Region and Province of Blessed Angels or Caelum Angelicum and shall be the Everlasting Habitation of the Spirits of Just Men or Sedes Beatorum Wherof we have no farther discoverâ— then only that it was Created together with the other two Heavens and so is Comprehended uâ—der one Common Name with them and probably because it was made Perfect in the Begining or first Instant of the Creation therof and so must continue for ever without any Elementary Mistion Generation or Corruption therefore we have no other account therof among all the Works of the Six Days wherein the Elements and whole Elementtary Nature and the Cours of Generation and Corrupti on therin was Set in order And accordingly I observ that wheras the other two Elementary Heavens Aether and Air are called Expansa and Firmaments this Superaether is never so termed but only Heaven probably becaus it is not capable of Expansion or Compression But as the Divine Wisedom hath conceled any farther notice therof and also given us very little Knowledg of the nature of Angels the proper Inhabitants therof as Impertinent for us to know in this present State so I shall not presume farther to inquire therinto or discours therof and indeed if the Hebraical Word Heavens be dualy rendred it must be intended only of Aether and Air. III. As the Aether and Air are Elementary and both of them Heâ—erogeneous from the Superaether and every of them one from another So are all of them from the Earth and Terraqueous Globe And as Heaven generaly Comprehendeth all the three Heavens so heer also Earth Comprehendeth both Earth and Water which were afterward formed into one Terraqueous Globe and by that general Name in this Text is not only to be Understood Earth particularly which was not so termed untill the Third Day and then also is called Dry Land nor the Terraqueous Globe such as it was made afterward but the Orb of Earth and the Water above it which is also mentioned afterward Thus we have a Discovery of what was Created in the Begining that is Superaether which is also Superelementary and Aether Air Water Earth which are the fower Elements as God the Creator hath declared and Moses reveled them unto us both in this Text and in the Context whom I shall believ before all Athens or any Modern Conceptions whatsoever and shall accordingly prove them heerafter And now upon this Subject Matter proceed to discours and first enter upon such Philosophical Consyderations therof as may concern them all and all Creatures Generaly and so according to the order of this History of the Creation Expatiate into more Particular Contemplations of their several Natures afterward The first and most Universal Consyderation of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures whatsoever is that they are Entitys for since Creation is of Being from Absolute Nothing whatsoever is Created must necessarily Be otherwise it should not be Created So that an Entity is any Thing that Is which I confess is no more in effect then that an Entity is Entity whose Subject and Praejudicate Genuâ— and Difference is and must necessarily be the same becaus it is the same Genus Generalissimum of all Things without any Specifical Difference And heer I must also premise that in every Perfect and Proper Definition of any Specifical or more Particular Thing the Specifical or particular Differences therof must be Identical becaus the Specifical or particular Essence or Entity is the only true Specifical or Particular Difference of every thing But becaus we cannot know Essences as they are in themselvs therefore we declare things by their Propertys which is rather Description then Definition As in the Common Instance Homo est Animal Rationale Rationality is not the true Specifical Difference of Humanity though it be most Proper to Man becaus it is not his Specifical Essence and therefore doth not Define the Humanity it self Nor doth it indeed Comprehend all the Properties therof as Risibility and the like but only Describe it by one Proper Faculty So that the most Proper Definitions are only Vocabularys and Nomenclatures which yet are of good use to explain one Term by another whereby we may avoid all needless Caption and Contention about Terms and when the Thing intended thereby is clearly understood it shall suffice me And I have now made this Digressive Parenthesis to save my Self the whole labor of Defining and the expectation of any who otherwise perhaps might exact it of me but I shall use as clear and pregnant Declarations or Descriptions as the Thing will afford Thus I affirm Created Entity to be a Creature or whatsoever is Created which is also Convertible with it Again becaus the Created World doth Consist of several Heterogeneous and different Entitys and Natures into which Differences we must also inquire I affirm such a Different
of God and by Iacob are called the Everlasting Hills wherof others give us no account Nor doth he affirm Vegetatives to Live but as I have observed plainly distinguisheth between Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits which he afterward calleth Living Souls And in the description of the Works of the Fourth Day we find none of those Monsters and Figments which both Poetry and Philosophy have introduced in the Starry Heaven for neither doth he divide it into Spheres having plainly shewed before how the whole Aether was only one Sphere as well as the other Heavens nor indeed can such several Imaginary Spheres solv the Phaenomena of the Motions of Aeâ—herâ—al Comets and of all the Planetary Motions as of the Satellites which as I have observed move not in perfect Circles in the Aether but only about their principal Planet whereby their Motion in the Aether describes an Hemiâ—rochoid as I said as if a Qâ—ernstone were set upright like a Cartwheel on a declive Hill and a man with his hand on the Handle should thereby move it round about the Axis down the Hill Nor doth he assigne any Intelligences or Daemons and a Metratton or President over them all to move the several Spheres Certeinly the Scripture calleth 〈◊〉 Daemons Princes of the Air and not of the Aeâ—her though they were Originaly of the same Nature and Office with good Angels but as they were since ejected out of the Superaether so now probably they are confined within the Subaeâ—hereal Orb between which there is such a great Chasm Nor doth he distinguâ—sh the Luminarys into Planetary and Fixed but calleth them by one common Appellation Lights Originaly derived both in Name and Nature from the Primigenious Light wherof they were all composed And he particularly nameth only the two principal Luminarys which so give Light upon the Earth and according to which besides the common and Diurnal Motion of the Aether all the Sacred Feasts of the Jews were instituted And as the Sun is first named so probably he was first made of that Primigenious Light whereby he Illustrateth all the rest and therefore is sometimes called by thâ— same Name or the Light And as he hath Light so also Heat which is another Aeâ—hereal Quality in himself Formaly and not oâ—ly Eminently or Equivocaly as some would suppose and as indeed I conceiv that the Moon causeth Moisture which is no Aetâ—ereal Quality over which she doth yet manifestly Predominate as may appear most notably in Tides whether she then causeth more gross Uâ—pors when she is in her Apogaea because she is farthest from the Earth or generaly more Vapors because she is then more strong and Praepoent as the Sun in his Apogaeum or from some unknown Influence or Power But however those Vapors which she causeth do not make that whole Body of Water which floweth and refloweth in Tides nor doth every part of that whole Body of Water pass to the extremitys of the Floud and Ebb but only the Rivers in their Fall above the Floud of the Sea are supplied by the Vapors which causeth the Impuls of the whole Undulating Body of Water as farr as the Ebb like the two Handles of a Saw in sawing forward and backward not very farr though the Saw be never so long for plainly the Waters in the Floud toward the Rivers are not much more Salt nor in the Ebb toward the Ocean much more Fresh but in the middle where they meet and where a proportionable overplus of the River Water so caused by the Vapors doth mingle with the Seawater Also he plainly intimateth that as some of the Luminarys are manifestly Motive so they are all in that he doth not distinguish between them and it is elswhere expressly said of the Starrs generaly that they militate in their Courses or Originaly Paths and if the Fixed Starrs do move Uniformly together which is the last Residuum of the antient Error and Opinion of their Fixation yet however according to their Various Positions in the Aether they must move Difformly in Time in that very Uniformity in Position and either in Position or Motion or both they are all Asymmetrous certeinly no known Motion of any of them is Commensurable with the Motion of the whole Aether according to which we assigne the Propeâ— Day Natural to be as I have said fower and twenty hours neither more nor less otherwise they should not be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years and all the Variations therof And though many of them be farr greater then the Earth yet they all move about it becaus they were made to give Light upon it which they could not do at such a distance unless they were so great And their Number is Innumerable unto us and perhaps not fewer then of the Host of Israel in the Wildernes nor of that which Ioab gave up to the King Rotunde before he had compâ—eted it or of that which he still proceeded to complete untill he was hindred by the Plague Nor doth Moses lay any foundation of Judicial Astrology which is expressly condemned by Scripture Again in the Works of the Fifth and Sixth Day he describeth the Original Generations of Fishes Fowls and Beasts and most truly termeth them Living and afterward calleth their Bloud the Bloud of Life which our Learned Doctor hath lately discovered to be a most proper expression and citeth that Text in confirmation of his Discovery wheras formerly the Heart was termed Primum vivens ultimum moriens I have been informed by a Physician my Neighbor that having dissected an old Toad so farr as that he had taken out the Heart and afterward stepping aside before he returned again the Toad had crept away into his Garden where he found it aâ—ive and that it so lived some consyderable time In the last of all the Works of Creation that is of the little World Man he discovereth a new World of Mysterys not only as Man is the whole Scale of Nature and as there was another Proper Creation of his Intellective Spâ—rit but also how he was made in the Image of God in order unto Iesus Christ God-Man who by the Assumption of the Human Nature into the Divinity did also superadd and unite to this Scale of Created Nature the Creating Nature God himself which is the Anacephaleosis or Reduction of the Finite Creation to the Infinite Creator And I shall desire any Naturalist seriously to consyder this Natural Representation of the Messiah as he is thus the Infinite Completion and Consummation of Nature itself and Perfection of the Univers and so the Mediator both of Creation and Redemption that thereby God the Creator might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him for so indeed Christ hath united in himself not only the Intellective Spirit of Man but also his Body yea the very Matter therof as it is said In him dwelleth all the fulnes of
or End according to the Fixed Order and Succession of the Parts And as certeinly as this Present Instant is now the Last or End of all Time Past or Present which hath hitherto Actualy Existed or doth Exist so certeinly there was some determinate Instant which was the first or Begining therof And so this Conclusion also is most true and evident Ubi Prius Posterius ibi Primum et Postremum III. Lastly as Bodys and Time so Number or Quantity Discrete which hath Part Discreted and severed from Part is also Finite in it self and doth most Discernibly manifest the Finite Nature both of Bodys as in the Scale and also of Time as in the Dial whereby their Continuous Parts being Arithmeticaly Divided into Numerable Proportions are rendred most apparently Numerable and Finite And so also this Conclusion is most true and evident Nullum Multiplex est Innumerum From all which Conclusions drawn from every kind of Quantity Corporeal Successive and Discrete it most Necessarily follows That whatsoever is Quantitative is Finite for it must be granted under the highest pain of Contradiction That Actualy Mensurable cannot be Actualy Immense nor Temporary Eternal nor Numerable Innumerable IIII. Nor is this plain Probation concerned in those more Curious Disquisitions Whether Quantity be any Real thing in it self or only a Mode or Relative Respect or I know not what others pleas to term it Since it is most evidently the Geometrical Chronical or Arithmetical Measure of all Quantitative things which are within the Virge therof and Measurable by it Nor of what Parts it doth Consist or how it is Divisible into them since it is most evident that it hath Parts Nor yet whether any Whole Quantity hath Physical Parts since it is most evident that it hath Mathematical Parts and is Divisible into them And though I shall heerafter inquire into all these yet I will neither now prevent my Self nor intangle this Probation which as it is most firm and solid in it self so I desire to render it most clear and free from all Impertinencys with any such Curiositys Nor do I begg any therof before hand but only insist upon these most reasonable and undeniable Postulations That an Inch is the twelfth Part of a Foot not more nor less and a Foot twelve Inches not more nor less That an Hour is the fower and twentieth Part of a Day not more nor less and a Day fower and twenty Hours not more nor less That an Unit is the hundredth Part of a Century not more nor less and a Century an hundred Units not more nor less Or yet more plainly That an Inch is an Inch a Foot a Foot an Hour an Hour a Day a Day an Unit an Unit and a Century a Century And so any greater or less Part or Whole whatsoever which are all Identical Propositions and neither need nor are indeed capable of Probation Nor are these Sections of Continuitys only Imaginations or the Institutions of Reason but Realitys in Nature And so God Created the Heaven and the Earth distinct Parts of the whole Body of the World and made the Evening and Morning a distinct Day and consequently the Cardinal Numerations therof And he made the Heaven to be above or without the Earth and the Earth to be beneath or within the Heaven and the First day to be before the Second and the Second before the Third and consequently the Ordinal Numerations therof And heerin I suppose no Human Reason or Sens will or can dissent from Divine Authority becaus these are things also Rationaly and Sensibly evident in themselvs however some may doubt or dispute what I have evidently proved heerby That there was a Begining of the World Nor do I labor or care to prove when that determinate Begining was which I leav to Chronologists but only that there was such a Begining whensoever it was which sufficeth my present Intention V. For as in a great Wast or Common though only the learned Artist can give an exact account of all the Acres Rodes and Perches therof yet every Vulgar Ey can discern that it is Measurable and Finite and can estimate it more or less And as every Traveler though he hath not an Itinerary to instruct him in the just Distances between one City or Country and another yet knows that there is a certein Space between them otherwise such and so many Paces could never bring him from one to the other so though it be the Work of Geometricians and Astronomers to measure Heaven and Earth yet we all know that the Earth on which we tread hath a Surface and a Diameter which are Finite because the Surface on which we tread doth end and terminate it self under our feet and that doth also determinate the Diameter which is Proportionable unto it and because the Diameter is Finite therefore also the Circumference which must be Proportionable therunto is Finite And so is every Sphere of the World Air Aether and any higher Heaven or whatsoever we can Imagine to be the utmost Circumference of the whole World for to whatsoever Circumference our Imagination can extend it self it can only be Proportionably greater then the Circumference of the Earth which it encompasseth and must also have a Diameter proportionable to it self both which evidently prove it to be Finite as well as the Earth becaus there is no Greater nor Less in Infinite as I have already proved VI. And so though we may dispute the Nativity or certein Begining of the World yet it is most evident and indisputable that it had a Begining for none can deny it to be this Day or Hour or the like one Day or Hour or the like elder then it was the last and so backward as far as he pleaseth therefore he must also confess that there was some First Day Hour and the like and consequently some First Instant and Begining therof for the Duration and Age of every thing must necessarily be computed from a Begining or Nativity otherwise it should be incapable of any Addition or Succession which is apparently in all time becaus it already exceedeth all Number for Precedency of Part before Part without any Begining renders the Precedent Parts Innumerable and consequently incapable of any Succession or Addition VII So also in Number there must necessarily be a First and no Number can precede an Unit though you may still add to it and possibly multiply it to any Summ Imaginable which yet being once Stated will be found as Numerable as a Single Unit becaus it is only the Addition of so many Units for as a Day or Hour or any other Part of Time Actualy Past is only a Day or Hour or such Part of Time as it is and not greater nor less so every Day or Hour or other Part of Time whatsoever is only One Day or Hour or One such Part of Time as it is and not more nor fewer and therefore so many Days or Hours or
is a double Negation which as I have said is only the Affirmation of it self So God cannot Contradict Himself either in Essence as not to be God or not to be Infinite which is the same or in Operation as to make the same Thing to Be and Not be Absolutely for then he should undo what he doth And so God cannot make Absolute Nothing or Notbeing to Be for then it should Be and Not be Absolutely which is an Absolute Contradiction Neither can he Convert Absolute Nothing into Somthing or Extract Somthing out of Absolute Nothing for then it should not be Absolute Nothing out of which there is Nothing which may be so Converted Extracted or Made in any kind or maner whatsoever II. So that if to Create were any of these Operations as the Objection doth import then it should be confessedly Impossible And I suppose some such Misapprehension hath been the ground of that Error Wheras Creation rightly understood is only a Causing Finite Being to be from Absolute Notbeing as the Negative Term from which it doth Commence and not of which or out of which it is Made in any kind or maner whatsoever Now becaus Absolute Nothing or Notbeing is only a Negative Term or pure Negation it can neither resist Creation nor contribute any thing to or toward it becaus it is Absolute Nothing III. And becaus Absolute Nothing cannot resist in the least therefore Creation is Infinitely Possible to Infinite Power because there is Nothing to resist it And also becaus whatsoever is Possible to Infinite Power is Infinitely Possible to it and not Partialy or Gradualy becaus Infinite hath no Parts or Degrees Nor doth the Creation of Finite Being Contradict or Alter Augment or Diminish Infinite Being or Notfinite Not being And so the present Finite Being which is Created as we have already shewed doth not Contradict Alter Augment or Dâ—minish either of them which are Eternaly the same in themselvs IIII. But because Absolute Notbeing cannot contribute any thing to or toward Creation therefore it is Impossible to any Finite Power for Absolute Nothing doth afford no Matter Principle Preparation Inclination Capacity or any Somthing whatsoever wherupon or whereby Finite Power may begin to work and where there is no Begining there cannot Possibly be any Progress or Perfection therof by any Finite Power but only by Infinite Power which can Create Being and the very Begining therof from Absolute Notbeing Also all Finite Power it self before it was Created was absolutely Null and so had no Power in it Self to Create it self or any other Being from Absolute Notbeing Nor could God himself Delegate this Infinite Power to Angels or Daemons or any Rabbinical or Platonical Subcreators which must be either Totaly or Partialy not Totaly for then God should ceas to have or be Infinite Power in Himself and consequently to be God which is an Infinite Contradiction nor Partialy for Infinite hath no Parts Certeinly no Angel nor Man the chief of Natural Operators did ever arrogate unto himself a Creating Power Nor have we any Instances of Creation in the whole History of Nature among all those Monstrous Relations which the Writers therof have inserted Nor hath any Poetical Fansy ever Invented or Imagined a Metamorphosis of Being from Notbeing Much less hath any Philosophy ascribed this Creating Power to Nature her self but rather denieth a Creation and yet to solv it is forced to substitute an Impossible Eternity of Finite Nature and certein Fictitious Powers Eminences and Equivocal Causalitys which I shall also examin heerafter V. As Creation is a Causing to be from Notbeing so Annihilation is a Causing Not to be from Being which is most Possible to the Infinite Creator becaus it is only the withdrawing his own Infinite Power whereby he doth continualy Caus the Creature to Be but Impossible to any Finite Power becaus it cannot resist the Infinite Creating Power which doth so continualy Cause the Creature to Be. And as there can be no Annihilation by any Finite Power So we never read of any by Infinite Power Nor probably will God ever Annihilate any thing which he hath Immediately Created for he doth nothing in vain but continueth and reserveth all things which he hath made by Proper Creation for his own Everlasting Glory VI. Thus to Caus to Be or Continue to Be from Absolute Notbeing is Proper Creation But there are also Improper Creations which do not produce or preserv any Being from Absolute Notbeing but only alter the Created Being in such a Supernatural maner as is beyond all Natural Generation or any other Natural Power of the Creature which being Finite and no more then it is as it cannot Create without Infinite Power which it hath not so neither can it Act any thing beyond that Finite Power which it hath And thus though it is the Opinion of Divines that God Originaly Created nothing after the Begining except Souls of Men or Angels if they were not Originaly Created in and with their Heaven by Proper Creation Yet God is said to Create in all the Six days and expressly in the Fifth day to Create great Whales though it be also said that the Waters Produced them aswell as others by Improper Creation which was his Immediate Ordination of the whole Frame and Cours of Nature and Original Generation of them all which the several Creatures in their First Chaos before their Active Qualitys and Mist Forms were Produced and all other previous and requisite Matters Powers and Instruments were prepared and adapted by God could not perform in or by themselvs nor Generate others untill they were so fitted and instructed and the Divine Blessing of Multiplication added therunto as I shall shew heerafter and therefore all those Works of the Six Days which did Succeed the Original and Proper Creation in the Begining were Improper Creations So also all Positive Miracles which are Preternatuâ—al or beside the Natural Course and Order are Improper Creations VII Proper Annihilation is a Causing any Being not to be Absolutely and improper Annihilation only a Preternatural Alteration therof And as God in Positive Miracles doth work beyond Natural Power so in other Privative Miracles he doth obstruct and suspend it As in causing Iron to swim by suspending the Gravity therof or fire not to burn by Suspending the Heat therof and the like SECTION IIII. The Heaven and the Earth c. EXPLICATION The whole Body of the World consisting of Several Heterogeneous Members Heaven and Earth which were Created together in the Begining ILLUSTRATION I. Of Heaven and Earth 2. Of Heaven 3. Of Earth 4. Philosophical Consyderations of Entity and the Differences therof 5. Of Substances and Accidents 6. Of Matter and Forms 7. Of Common and Proper Accidents I. WE have heer a brief Description and Map of the World and of the whole Globe of the Matter therof from the utmost Circumference to the inmost Center which was all Created in the Begining for
Entity to be whatsoever God hath Created Different in Nature from another for as whatsoever he hath Created must Necessarily Be so whatsoever he hath Created Different must necessarily Differ Now heer we must Consyder a Difference which Scholemen have made of Entity it Self which is that it is either Entity Real or Entity of Reason Entity Real is in the Thing it Self and Nature therof as Heaven and Earth and all things therin Entity of Reason is in our Reason or Mind as the whole Poetical World and all things therin Hircocervs Hippocentaurs and the like which are therefore also called Entitys becaus our very Imaginations and Fictions therof are Creatures and Entitative though the Imaginary Figments themselvs are as it were our Creatures and Objectively Nothings And so also there are Entitys of Sens as all Deceptions of the Senses for though there be no such Objects yet there is Realy and truly such a Sensation as well as when the Objects are Real and true as I shall shew heerafter Now as Entitys Real and of Reason are both Entitative So there is such a Diversity of Entity it Self Respectively and Improperly But as Entitys of Reason are Objectively Nonentitative So also there is Absolutely and Properly no Difference but a plain Contradiction between them and Real Entity as a Number and a Null or Cyphar do not Properly Differ but Contradict one another becaus one is and the other is not Wherefore all Real and true Difference must be between things that are truly Real and again whatsoever things are Real may Realy Differ from others in the Things themselvs and Natures therof So that Real Difference is not only Corporeal or of things wherof there is or may be a Local Separation but also of any other Thing or Entity though not Separated or Separable Localy for though Entity it self be only Generical yet there are also Specifical and Particular Essences and Differences Thus an Angel in a Body and the Body are Realy Different Specificaly in the Things themselvs and Natures therof though not Localy Separated yet as truly as when they are Localy Separated So that their Difference is not only from their several Localitys but from their several Specifical Natures So also the Soul and Body of Man are now Different though not yet Separated but only Separable by Death and shall be Different after the Resurrection when they shall be Inseparable as well as after Death and before the Resurrection when they shall be Localy Separated and So Heaven and Earth also Differ not only becaus they are Loâ—aly Separated but also becaus they are Heaven and Earth that is Several Natures Specificaly Different Also there may be an Individual Difference where there is no Specifical Difference as in a Legion of Angels or Men Lastly there is a Numerical Difference where there is no Individual Difference as all the Members of a Body are so many as they are Numericaly but yet do not Differ Individualy otherwise it should not be one Body or Individual Composition therof but so many several Individuals as there are Members But whatsoever doth Differ in any other kind doth also Differ Numericaly becaus Number or Quantity Discrete is Comprehensive of all Differences Diversitys or Discretions whatsoever And now I shall Conclude that whatsoever God hath Created and is in Nature and Not only in our Reason or Mind Realy is and whatsoever God hath Created Different and doth Differ in Nature and not only in our Reason or Mind is Realy Different which I suppose None can Deny and according to these Undeniable Rules I shall proceed VI The first Real Difference of Entity is that it is either Substance or Accident And now becaus I know I must fight out my way by Inches against all Sceptical Disputers I shall proceed as clearly and firmly as I can And first I shall explain my Terms By Substance I intend an Entity Naturaly Subsisting in it Self and from which other Accidental Entitys do Naturaly Flow and Subsist therin By Accident I intend an Entity which doth Naturaly Flow from and Subsist in a Substance So that Substance is both the Original Fountain and Continual Foundation of any Accident Cujus Esse est Inesse which some cavill against becaus they do not Understand it though it is very true and rightly said of an Accident that it is the Accident of a Substance and in respect of the Substance as it may be also said of Substance in respect of Accidents Cujus Esse est Subesse But as all particular Substances Matter and Forms have their own Specifical Essences or Entitys So also have all particular Accidents Extension Figure Density Gravity Motion Heat Light and the rest Also though all Accidents do Originaly Subsist in their Substances yet Derivatively one Accident may Subsist in another as Figure in Extension Gravity in Density and 〈◊〉 Imâ—mediately and the others Mediately in Matter 〈◊〉 Several Accidents may Subsist Immediately in the 〈…〉 as Extension and Density in Matter which is one 〈…〉 Substance And one Accident doth so Subsist in 〈◊〉 if it be a particular Product Property or Affection therof as Figure is of Extension or Gravity of Density and the like Now Accidents are therefore so called becaus they are Adventitious to the Substance wherof the Specifical Essence as I have said is in it Self and doth not consist in any or all the Accidents therof nor is or can be Altered or made More or Less by the Variations therof and also becaus Accidents in themselvs do sometimes Actualy Exist Appear and Exert their Operations and sometimes only Subsist Potentialy and are Latent and Quiescent in their Substances as may evidently appear by all the several Variations of Accidents the Substance remaining the same becaus it doth alway Subsist in it Self and therfore always is Actualy what it is in it Self for if it should be Potential then the Potentiality therof not Actualy Subsisting in it Self should Subsist in another and Consequently be an Accident and not a Substance And thus every Entity which is Created and cannot be Annihilated must necessarily alway Subsist either in it Self or in another Actualy or Potentialy But becaus Accidents Affect and indeed Perfect the Substance therefore they are also called Affections Now that there are Substances I Suppose none will Deny who acknowledg any Actual Entitys and that there are Accidents none can deny who hath the use of his Senses wherof all Sensible Accidents are the Proper Objects and Objects of Intellect are only understood by Objects of Sens. So that indeed all our Conversation is Immediately with and by Accidents and we neither know Essences of Accidents nor Substances otherwise then by their Actual Phaenomena or Appearances Nor can Substances Operate any thing without the Actual Operations of Accidents Wher efore that I may not fight as beating the Air nor Contend for that which will and must be yielded I shall more directly oppugn that wherin I conceiv the greatest
commonly exprest as well as Formâ— Mistorum And therefore I do not term them Forms but I rather reserv Form to express that which is otherwise called Formae Misti or Compositi by which I intend only the Generative Complexion and Compagination of those simple Created Spirits and Matter which are Ingenerable and Incorruptible in themselvs and wherof Generation and Corruption are only the Confabrication or Demolition as I shall shew heerafter and consequently every Formâ— Misti or Compositi is Generable and Corruptible and so these Forms are as far Different from the others which I therefore term Spirits as they are from Matter and are called Substantial only becaus they are the Complexions of the others which are Substances as also Material Spirits are so called only becaus they are so Unâ—ted to the Matter as I said before Having thus explained my Terms I shall proceed as before concerning Substances and Accidents to prove that Matter and these simple Created Spirits Realy Differ whereby I shall also prove that there Realy are both such Matter and Such Spirits And wheras it is now generaly granted that there are such Angelical and Human Spirits Realy Different from Matter for which I suppose we may thank Christianity I shall accept iâ— and apply my Self only to prove the same of the rest and then I presume no Heathen can deny it of the others Now in our present History of the Creation it is said that the Water brought forth Fishes after their Kinds and Fowls after their Kinds and the Earth Beasts after their Kinds and Creeping things after their Kinds Whereby it appears that these Creatures were of Several Kinds and Heterogeneous one from another and Consequently all of them from the Matter which being one Homogeneous Substance in it Self can never Produce any Heterogeneous Substances and therefore all this Heterogeneity must necessarily be from some other Substantial Principles that is their Spirits which were Created thus Specificaly Heterogeneous one from another and all of them more Genericaly Heterogeneous from the Common Matter And so it is also expresly said concerning Vegetatives and must be reasonably understood of Heaven and Earth and all the Elements for the Matter of them all being one and the same could not Constitute and Denominate them Heaven or Earth neither could they be so Denominated from their own Proper Qualitys which were not yet Actualy Produced but afterward in the Three first Days Wherfore there were such several Heterogeneous Substantial Principles which I call Elementary Spirits Created in the Begining and then Actualy Subsisting in and with the Matter which did so Denominate the Heaven and Earth and the rest And if they together with the Matter could not Produce their own Proper Qualitys without such a Supernatural though Improper Creation much less could the Matter of it Self Produce any Such Substantial Spirits and Activitys farr more excellent then it Self Again if Accidents of the same Substance being Several must therefore Realy Differ from the Substance as I have before proved then certeinly Accidents of Several Substances which are not only Several but also Contrary do necessarily prove that they can not proceed from one and the same Substantial Principle such as Matter is for then the same Nature should destroy it self by its own Natural Contrarietys And though in Mist Bodys which are Composed of all the Elements there be the Substantial Principles of Contrary Qualitys Heat Cold Moisture Driness and the like Mist and Contemperated together or though the same thing may Produce Contrary Effects in Several Subjects as Motion may excite Heat in Fire and Cold in Air or the same Faculty may exercise Contrary Actions toward Contrary Objects as the Will or Appetite doth Affect that which is Pleasant and Disaffect that which is Displeasant Yet Matter which is one and the same cannot Produce Contrary Activitys and Exercise Contrary Operations in it Self which destroy one another and so consequently should Corrupt it self by such Contrary Qualitys Wherefore all Generation and Corruption and all Menstrua and the like do plainly prove that there are Several Substantial Principles of Such Contrary Qualitys not only Realy Different from the Matter but also Difform one from another And therefore unless we affirm Heat Cold Moisture Driness and all other Contrary Qualitys and Consequently Aeâ—her Air Water Earth Vegetatives and Sensitives to be all one and the same and not Different and thereby Confound Heaven and Earth and all things therin and our own Notions therof we must Necessarily grant that there are such Several Accidental Qualitys and also such Substantial Principles therof Different one from another and consequently all from the Matter And this may appear most clearly by many Sensible Distinctions and Differences between them which I shall now only generaly mention and heerafter more particularly discover in the ensuing Discourses As that Matter hath Pondus and the Products therof which Spirits have not but there are Active Potentiae of Spirits and all the various Operations and Effects therof which Matter hath not And the Pondus of Matter tendeth from the Circumference to the Center but the Potentia of Spirits from the Center to the Circumference And Matter being only one Homogeneous Body hath only one Center but Spirits being Many and Several have every one of them in their Composita a several Center Also all Matter is Continuous becaus it is one Homogeneous Body but the Contiguity of several Bodys is only from the several Spirits Also Matter tendeth Naturaly to Rest but Spirits intend their Acts and Exercises to the Utmost Also Matter hath only Different Degrees of More or Less but Spirits have their Actively Contrary Qualitys and the like Now though I cannot Sensibly Produce and Present such a Genius of things or Spirit as it is in it Self not only becaus it is a Spirit but also becaus it is a Substance which as I have said that it is only Intelligible as none can discover Pure Matter or Materia prima as it is in it Self but both may be discerned by their Sensible Accidents wherof the Accidents of Spirits which are Proper Sensibles are more Sensible then of Matter which are only common Sensibles and Sensed by the others so I have proved Matter and Spirits by their Different Accidents to be several Substantial Principles and Realy Different one from another And though none can affirm that there is any Matter Separate from Spirits yet it is granted that there are Spirits Separate from Matter as Angels Nor may it seem strange that two such Substances should be Consubstantiated into one since there is no Matter without some Spirit to Diversify it and it is also granted that there is a Spirit of Man which doth Inform or Inspirit his Body and not only Possess it as an Angel Wherefore certeinly Material Spirits which are Connatural may also Consubstantiate the Matter And we must understand that as all Created Entitys are Creatures or Created by God
best suffice to contein it and less Matter of more Extension which is more Rare should be in a larger Sphere which is more fitt to contein it And thus the Globe of Earth and Water which is most Dens is seated in the Inmost Orb of the World which is least and the Air which is more Rare in a Sphere next above it which is more large and the Aether which is yet more Rare in the next above that which is still more large and the Superaether which is most Rare in the the uppermost which is largest And this most Proper and Connatural Situation of the Terraqueous Globe and of all the Spheres doth rightly constitute both the Circumfereâ—ce and the Center of the whole World and the most Symmetrical Chorus of all the Bodys therof as I shall shew heerafter And certeinly as there is but one Circumference of the whole Body therof so also but one Center for those two do mutualy Relate one to the other as there can be but one Circumference and one Center in any one Body Now that all this Body is Matter we all grant and I suppose no Materialist will or can deny it Also it must be granted as I have shewed of Density and Rarity that Gravity or Pondus is the Proper Affection of the Matter and not of Spirits becaus it Subsists in the Density of the Matter and that more Dens and Grave Bodys Naturaly do sink through more Rare and Light And that Sinking is to this Universal Center of all the Matter which is Lowest and Inmost as the Circumference is Highest and Utmost Wherefore if any Particular Body which is and must be a Part of this Universal Body of Matter be more Dens and consequently more Grave it must Naturaly sink through any other Bodys beneath it which are more Rare and consequently more Light toward this Universal Center of the whole Body of Matter which is the Center of the whole Body of the World and consequently of all Particular Bodys which are only Parts therof and no Parts of any such Particular Bodys which are also Matter as well as their whole Bodys can sink Inwardly to any Center of Gravity in themselvs as to any such Particular Center for then they should Ascend in departing from the Universal Center of Extension which is exactly Centrum Gravium to which all tend And though more Dens and Heavy Bodys may sometimes Ascend to prevent Vacuity yet that is not as to any such Particular Center but only to fill the Universal Globe when more Rare cannot succeed as I shall shew heerafter Or if they be supported by any Consistent Body though more Rare that is only a Fulciment and Tanquam a Natural Center unto them Wherefore as all Pondus is of the Matter and Matter only one Homogeneous Body in itself so there can be but one Center of the Pondus therof though as Potentiae are of the Spirits and they are several and Heterogeneous so there may be several Spiritual Centers therof which are all of another Nature and very farr Different from this one Universal Center of Matter and though they be Radicaly most Dens and Strong in those several Centers yet their Motion tendeth Outward every way from the Center to the Circumference of their Particular Sphere of Activity and not as the Matter Inward or only Downward from the Circumference to the Center of Rest becaus Spirits are Active and Energetical but Matter Passive and Torpid as I have shewed And now I shall proceed to prove this Center of the Universal Body of the Matter of the whole World which as I have said is also both the Center of the Extension of the Gravity therof to which all tend or the Universal Center to be in the Earth which will also comprehend that other Question concerning the Center of the whole World Certeinly this is the constant Language of Scripture and so it is said that the Waters which covered the Earth were Beneath and the Vapors in the Air Above and the Royal Philosopher saith expresly The Heaven for Highâ— and the Earth for Depth and I suppose none can shew any one Expression in the whole Bible which may seem in the least to color or favor the contrary Opinion And the Reason therof is as apparent which I have before sufficiently declared that Earth being most Dens and consequeâ—tly most Grave and Gravity being one and the same Affection of all Matter and having but one principal Motion which is Direct must therefore tend to one and the same Term which cannot be Outward or Upward for then Grave Bodys should Ascend but must necessarily be Inward or Downward which therefore must be to one Inmost Point or Center of that Gravity And I shall confirm this Motion of Descent by clearing a common mistake concerning the Ascent of Rare or Light Bodys for as all Dens and Heavy Bodys do Descend so also do Rare Proportionably becaus they are only less Heavy as I have said As if a Pound Weight be put into one Scale and two Pounds into the other which will caus its one Scale to Descend and thereby the other to Ascend yet apparently the Pound Weight is also Heavy becaus it weighs one Pound though the two Pounds be more Heavy and so caus that Scale Proportionably to Descend and the other to Ascend Thus the Motion of Ascent of Rare Bodys is indeed rather a being Moved and their Ascent only a Violent Elevation by more Dens and Heavy Bodys which crowding more strongly or swiftly to or toward the Center do Elevate and Extrude the more Rare and Light from it Also Earth only is Consistent and cannot be prevented in the Descent therof by any other Bodys which might be Fulciments unto it as it may be to others and all this doth Sensibly appear by any Terreous Body Descending through Water and through Air and so it would also through Aether if it were in it not particularly as to its Proper Element by any Potentia of the Elementary Spirit therof but generaly as to the Universal Center of all Matter by the greater Density and Pondus therof For so if a Hole were made in the Earth from the Surface therof to the Center Water would Descend thereby to it as well as Earth if there were neither Earth nor Water therin Air would Descend likewise and so if their were neither Earth Water nor Air Aeâ—her or Superaether would Descend likewise though some pleas to phansy otherwise and would make all the Planetary Orbs so many Worlds of themselvs having their own Proper Centers not respecting this Universal Center of the whole World to which all tend but only consyder it as the Universal Center of Extension wheras as I have said the Gravity or Pondus of the Matter is an Universal Affection of the Matter Subsisting in it as well as Extension which Absurdity they have Excogitated only to defend some others which I shall also disprove heerafter And though
noâ— yet Inwardly for it hangs upon nothing besides itself on which it might so Press and it doth not Press upon itself the whole Body and all the Parts therof being in their Proper Place as I have said And heer again I must clear one Vulgar and common Error which may be the caus of the contrary Apprehension that is That the Earth and consequently the whole Globe of the World doth Press upon the Center every way as upon a Foundation that bears it up or as two Bodys of equal Spiritual Strength or Potentia Pressing one against another with all their Power by such mutual Encounter and Resistance do forcible fix and setle each other Immovably in some midle Point between them wheras though there be such particular Combats between Contrary Qualitys and the like Opponents in Nature and so there are also particular Dislocations of Members in the Body therof yet generaly the whole Structure of the Body of the World and so of the Atmosphere is so Composed that there is no such Pressure which Properly is not Nature but Violence and the Descent of Heavy Bodys every way to the Center is only as to a Point or Term which they do not desire to pass and therefore do not Press beyond it and becaus Violence doth not long continue there is therefore an Innate Principle of Motion in Bodys to reduce them to their Proper Place whereby they may obtein that Rest which Nature Intendeth and Abhorreth all such Pressure Pain or Burden And heerin the Pondus of Matter and Potentiae of Spirits do manifestly Differ for wheras generaly the Powers of Spirits Act to the utmost Incessantly and without any Rest becaus they are Qualitys of Active Principles and so the Heavenly Bodys Move Indesinently the Weight of Matter which is a Passive Principle affecteth Rest and only tendeth unto it and when and where it obteineth it then and there it Resteth and the Actual Weight and Motion therof is thereby again reduced to Potentiality as I have said And I can not conceiv any Reason nor frame any Notion in mine own Mind why or how the Body of the World should Press rather or more Inwardly then it doth Outwardly which is not at all And if we could suppose any such Pressure it must be either every way which would accordingly Press and Squeez or only downward and then every one of the Terricolae should be Pressed Downward with a Proportionable Pyramid of the whole Body of the World so Inverted as I have shewed and according to Mathematical Rule inlarging itself from his Head or Back or Hand on which it doth so superpend as the Cone to the Utmost Circumference of the Superaether as the Basis for it is all Matter and there is no Consistent Body Intervening to prevent that Pressure and so if one part of that Pyramid Press all must Press and if we compute the Inestimable Burden therof it will be found Insupportable and at the Atmosphere also to be so Comprest in itself as would render it no Atmosphere or fit place of Breathing But let us descend farther and consyder the midle Point of the Earth and Center of the whole World certeinly no Poet can Imagin such an Atlas or Hercules as might so bear the whole Burden of the whole Body of the World being farr greater then of the Heavens only which they feigned them to bear up though indeed the Imaginary Pressure therof be the greater Fiction And I appeal to the common Experience of all men who with their own Hands can feel no such Pressure of the Atmosphere wheras it should Press the Area of the Hand Proportionably as much as 29 Inches of Mercury and of every Diver who can testifie the Nonpressure of the Deepest Water lying upon him and whosoever will not accept these for Experiments but seek to evade them I know not how he doth plainly thereby Invalidate the Testimony of all Experiment and render it as Sceptical as some would make both Reason and Faith since none can be more Sensible and Notorious then this which is by feeling the Fundamental and least Fallible Sens But I shall plainly clear by a whole Galaxy of Experiments which I shall therefore collect into this one Sâ—atike Rule That in any Body Internaly Consistent in itself or made Externaly to Consist together the more Rare Parts therof being duly placed above the more Dens do not Actualy Weigh or Press the more Dens Parts below them nor the Equidens Parts one another Perpendicularly Whereby it shall plainly appear how a Particular Body so disposed is a Module of the Universal Body of the World in this particular respect Thus in the highest Column of Timber or Stone or Coloss of Brass or Pyramid of Brick Perpendicularly Erected as they ought to be no one Part therof doth Press another supposing them all to be Equidens or only so farr Proportionably as they are not so Equidens for otherwise all must Press the very lowest and thinest Physical Area therof and then let all the Incumbent Weight be computed and compared with that Area and the Strength therof and I suppose the Impossibility of such a vast Weight and Pressure to be born by by such a slender Fulciment will easily be granted when we see a whole Brick to be broken and battered only by a Cart-wheel going over it Again let us consyder other Bodys sometimes Actualy Fluid and sometimes Consistent as a Firkin or any larger Cask of Butter Tallow or the like if it be uncased and the Upper and Lateral Parts of the Cask taken off from the Mass of Butter or Tallow yet it shall stand as firm as it did before though there is at least an half hundred Weight Incumbent upon the Area therof Wheras if you lay an Equal Plate of Lead or any more Dens Body of the same Weight upon a thicker Area of the Butter or Tallow it will not be able to bear it but be squeezed Outward becaus the Equidensity and Equiconsistency of all the Parts of its own Body make them all to be at Rest but the greater Density of the Lead doth Press them and so if the Cylinder of Butter or Tallow were much higher yet the upper Parts would not Press the neather until the Weight therof did overcome the Consistence as the Lead doth by its Unequal Density And if the Butter and Tallow were Melted and Fluid in the Cask and then should be uncased as before they would Press and flow every way but yet while they are conteined Externaly within the Cask no Part therof doth Weigh or Press another So in a Cistern of Water while it hath no Vent no one Part of the Water doth Weigh or Press another nor would Oil or the like upon the Water Press it But though the Parts in these and the like Cases do not Weigh or Press one another yet the Whole Body whether Internaly or Externaly Consistent doth Weigh and Press the next Body beneath it not
into the Actuality then there is a Generation therof and when again that Actuality is Reduced into the Potentiality then there is a Corruption therof But Simple Substances which subsist in themselvs therefore always are Actualy in themselvs and are Ingenerable and Incorruptible Thus in the Begining there was not only the Matter nor only the Spirit of the Superaether Actualy Subsisting but also of Aether Air Water and Earth which did so Denominate those first Elementary Composita of the Matter and their several Spirits the Heavens and the Earth as I have shewed And so there were also in them and with them all the Substantial Simple Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits Subsisting Actualy in themselvs though there were yet no such Mist Composita of the Elements themselvs as afterward which might Denominate them Stone Metall and the like nor any Composition of the Elementary Spirits with the Vegetative or of Elementary and Vegetative with Sensitive which might so Denominate them Trees Beasts and the like untill such Composita were Produced in the Six Days afterward And so also there were all the Intrinsecal Created Essences or Entitys of Simple Accidents aswell as Substances which were also Created together in the Begining in and with their Substances though only the Universal Accidents of Matter Extension Orbicular Figure Density Rest and the like did then Actualy and Extrinsecaly Exist in the Matter and there were yet none of those Particular Variations therof which were afterward superinduced by the Spiritual Qualitys of Spirits becaus those Spiritual Accidents did not yet Exist themselvs and so not only Substantial Composita but also such Simple Accidents were in their Chaos of Potentiality As there was no Actual Light but Darknes and so of the rest but yet the Intrinsecal Essence or Entity of Light and the Rest was in the Chaos Pâ—tentialy which is therefore termed Inform and Inaâ—e becaus they were not yet in it Actualy and Extrinsecaly but were afterward so Produced in the Six Days And all the Previous and Requisite Principles Substantial or Accidental wherin any of their Produced Composita did Subsist Mediately or Immeâ—iately were first Produced themselves without which the other could not have been Produced as Mist Elements before Vegetative Composita and Vegetatives before Sensitive Composita And so doth the Natural Generation and Corruption botâ— Suâ—stantâ—al and Accidental still continue as doth plainly appear by all Generative Mistion and Composition and production thereby of the Composita which are so Confabricated Naturaly aswell as Artificialy As a Hous is Potentialy in all the Materials before it be built and every particular Figure in the Extension of the Materials before it is framed and when it is so Prepared and Eâ—ected it may be said to be Artificialy Generated and when it is Demolished to be Corrupted the Materials like Substances still remaining the same and the whole Compositum and every Figure therof being first Potentialy and afterward Actualy therin and so again Reduced from Actuality to Potentiality by Demolition and there is no other Difference heerin between them but only that Natural Generation and Corruption are Intrinsecal Consubstantâ—ations or Compositions of Proper Principles of Nature which are both the Materials and Architect therof and Artificial Generation and Corruption are Extrinsecal which only can be by Application and Apposition of the Intrinsecal Principles of Nature so applied and conjoined by the Architecture of Art And as all these Mistions Compositions Figures and Virtues which were afterward Produced in the Six Days were Potentialy in this first General Chaos so every thing now in the Cours of any Generation or Corruption while it is in Potentiality is so farr forth in the Particular Chaos therof and when it is Actuated is Produced out of it and there is no other difference heerin between them but that the first Production was by the Supernatural Power of the Divine Spirit and the others by the Power of Instituted Nature or Application of Art so that this Potentiality is not Relative to Essence or Entity as if it were only a Possibility of something which yet hath no Essence or Entity in any maner whatsoever but only to Actuality of the Essence or Entity therof which is not yet in such a maner as Potentialy it may be not only by Divine Power which may Create it Properly or Improperly but according to the ordinary Cours of Nature or Art which may so Generate it Naturaly or Artificialy And so the Existence itself or this Realy Difâ—erent maner of Being is an Entity Potentialy in the Essence before it Exists and Actualy when it doth Actualy Exist And whatsoever is not so Actualy Existent must necessarily Be before in the Essence therof Potentialy otherwise it could never be Produced or made Actualy to Exist by any Power of Nature or Art And these Essences or Entitys which are yet in their Chaos of Potentiality do then Actualy Exist when as I may so say they come forth upon the Stage of Nature and there Appear and Act or might so Appear and would so Act if there were no Violent Impediment as Accidents which are the Emissarys and Instruments of Spirits do Exist when they are Actualy so Emitted and Instructed and consequently Actuated whereby the Spirits of Sensible Composita do Immediately Act or Operate upon our Senses or Sensitive Facultys which are also Accidents and thereby Mediately upon our Substantial Spirits and yet there may be such a Violent Impediment whereby like Substantial Spirits which always Exist though sometimes Latent they may not so Appear and Act unto or upon us though they Exist Actualy in themselvs as a Picture under a Curtain or the like And so there may be also an Erupturient Endeavour which we call Nisus when they can not Appear and Act as otherwise they might and would by reason of some more immediate Obstruction like Retention by any Spontaneous Power with some Strife and Difficulty which plainly shews them to be so far Actual becaus there is no Actual Contention of or between any Accidents while they are in Potentiality though their Essential Natures be most Contrary one to another And I conceiv that all Mistion and Contemperature of Contrary Qualitys is first begun while they are in the Chaos of their several Potentialitys as they were so Prepared and Predisposed by the Divine Spirit in the Universal Chaos as I have before shewed and then there being no Actual Contrariety between them they are easily Mist at first and so by Degrees are more and more Actualy Mist as their Contrary Essences are more and more Actuated and Produced into Existence by a mutual Contemperation and Gradual Process therof Thus I have more largely explained what I intend by Actuality and Potentiality becaus the right Understanding therof is as I conceiv and shall shew heerafter the Fundamental Knowledg of the whole Doctrine of Generation and Corruption And now I shall proceed to prove it accordingly It is said of the first
of the Object at such a Distance though indeed Reflection be farr shorter then Direct Emanation and perhaps there may be some such Proportions therof as there are of the Descent and Reflected Motion of any Ball or Stone from a Paviment And therefore we can not see so farr by the Reflected Rays of a Candle in the Night as we may see the Candle itself by the Direct Rays therof Now Heat is a Congenerous Quality of Light and Emanant with it in the same Aethereal Rays as appears by the Bâ—rning Glass and though the Heat of the Sun beams doth Penetrate farther into the Earth then the Light therof becaus it is not resisted by the Opacity therof which is not Contrary therunto but to Light and is only hindered by the Density and so may not be Reflected altogether so much becaus it Penetrates more which also proves Heat and Light to be several Qualitys yet certeinly Heat can not so farr fall short of the Light but rather there is some Degree of Heat Reflected with the Light unto the very Aether though Proportionably less and then according to their own assignment there is but one Region of the Air. Again the Vapors of Water are said to Ascend above the Airy Expansum Indefinitely which may be to the utmost Hight therof as well as all over it and as there are Bright and Dry Clouds above the Moist and Stellae Cadentes and Comets and the like above them so probably other Tenuious and Invisible Vapors above them and then also according to their own assignment there is but one Region of the Air and they who assigne must prove that there are not any Meteors or Vapors above their Second Region assigned which they can never do But the truth is that though the Aethereal Rays be Reflected from Earth to Aether yet that Reflection both of Light and Heat as all others is stronger and longer as it is neerer and weaker and shorter as it is farther from the Body Reflecting as well as Emanation is stronger as it is neerer and weaker as it is farther from the Body of the Inherent Quality which doth Emitt it and so the Reflection of the Aethereal Rays from the Terraqueous Globe back again to the Aeâ—her is Gradual and of different Degrees and thereby doth Produce Different Degrees of Vapors and several sorts of Meteors in several parts of the Air and accordingly they attein several Situations therin and by the Variation of many Circumstantial Causalitys the same Meteors poised therin almost as Glass Bubbles in Water are sometimes higher and sometimes lower and have no such Planetary Position in themselvs as Starrs in Aether nor is the Air so Invariable as it The Spirit of Air is not Exprest by any known Name and I know not therefore well how to Express it unles we should call it Aura or the like And indeed Philosophers generaly have so much attended the Gross Matter and so litle regarded Subtile Spirits that they have not so much as found out any Vocabuâ—a of the very Elementary Spirits except only Fire which is most Sensible both by the Heat and Light therof though all the other Spirits be also Substantial Activitys and have their Sensible Qualitys which yet hath not been Determined concerning all the Elements what are their first Proper Qualitys as I shall heerafter shew and particularly prove Cold to be the Proper Quality of Air as Heat is of Aether Also Air hath apparently another Quality which is Sound and that is very Sensible almost as much as Light but is not so much consydered becaus it is not so Permanent and indeed Sound is farr more Desultory then Color as I have said for though Desultory Color is not and can not be Fixed as an Image can not be fixed on a Speculum which if it could be would Excuse and Exceed the Art of any Painter yet it may be Continued in the same Poâ—ition as long as you pleas wheras Sound is alway Transient and Fugitive as I shall shew heerafter and can not be Continued one Moment but is still in Succession like Flame and almost like the very Instants of Time And yet as all the other Heavens are Hebraicaly Denominated from this first Heaven Air so also all Spirits from the Spirit therof almost in all Languages Air hath also a Mistion with all the other Elements as well as Aether and perhaps more as Water hath more then it and Earth most of them all and so it hath more of the Terrene Qualitys then Aether and less then Water as it hath more Refracting Opacity then the one and less then the other and so also more Consistence then the one and less then the other and therefore is probably less Fluid then Aether as it is apparently more Fluid then Water II. The Aether as I have said is most Rare and probably can not be more Rarefied then it is in its own Element and so the Earth most Dens and can not be more Densified And though I know not whether Aether may be more Densified yet certeinly Earth may be very much Rarefied as in Soot Camphire Salts Volatilised and the like But Water is most notably capable of Rarefaction into Vapors and they are as much Condensated again into Waters though I suppose it can not be so much Violently Expanded or Comprest and that Air can not be so much Condensated or Rarefied as it may be Comprest or Expanded And of all other Elements Air is most capable of Compression as in the Windgun and of Expansion as in the Airpump which from thence may be rightly termed the Expansor and from this Compression and Expansion therof there follows a Natural Motus or Nisus ad Restitutionem or Resilience which is now Superscribed with a new Title of Elasticity though the Term properly signify rather Abaction or Pulsion then any such Return or Restitution as is or ought to be Intended thereby and in plain English is better termed Springines which is more Proper to Compression then Expansion though as it is Confusedly used for both I am forced also so to use it only for more clearnes and distinction I shall rather ascribe Elasticity to Fluid Bodys as Air and the like and Springines to Consistent as Steel and the like But heer I must Remind what I have formerly Observed that there is a very great Difference between Rarefaction and Condensation which are Spiritual and by Intrinsecal Generation and Expansion and Compression which are Corporeal by Extrinsecal Violence which Difference doth most plainly appear by this very Elasticity for no Elasticity and Motion or Nisus to Restitution doth ensue from the former becaus they are so Intrinsecaly Altered by Natural Generation whereby the Predominant Spirit having in the Generation reduced the Body to a fit Rarity or Density for itself doth so continue it as long as it doth Predominate but only from the latter when only the Body is by any External Violence so Expanded or
by their greater Magnitude which renders them Visible proportionably according to the distance and by the farr greater and swifter Motion and so let the Man in the Ship sailing with full Sail though against the pretended Motion of the Earth behold the Moon and Starrs Transversly and observ whether they do not seem to Move otherwise then when he standeth on the Earth or when the Ship wherin he is doth not sail There is one who saith that both the Earth and also the Aether do Move becaus as he supposeth while one Moveth from the other the other also Moveth from it and so that it is all one and the same whether we affirm the Earth or Aether to Move whereby he can solv this very Phaenomenon of their Motion either way which I have already reâ—uted and I know none besides himself that did ever maintein it but generaly others affirm the Earth to Move and Aether not to Move becaus they suppose all the consequent Phaenomena may be solved either way who if they can find out any Error which they think is Tenible though it be not Truth they affect and embrace it rather then Truth and can pleas themselvs in amusing the World therewith which is a very Falsarious and Disingenuous Humor and more proper to Juglers and Impostâ—rs then Philosophers And becaus I scarcely know any Opinion wherin they more exercise this Art then this of the Motion of the Earth as I have already disproved it so I shall also heerafter prove the Motion of the Aether and Sun and therin shew how all the Phaenomena can only be solved thereby and shall now proceed to refute that other grand Error which is indeed more Fundamental and Universal that is their Doctrine of Matter and Motion Wherefore having discoursed of the Terraqueous Globe I shall review it and consyder whether only Matter and Motion could produce the Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys therof certeinly not Moisture which is the same whether the Water be Stagnant or Fluent nor Drines which is generaly Consistent and so of the rest which to prosecute particularly were supervacaneous but I will now only alter the Scene and transfer it from Air and Aether to Water and suppose it to be Tepid that is partly Hott and partly Cold and also Luminous as it is Diaphanous and we will admitt it Sonorous and Saporous and if you pleas Odorous besides Moisture and the other Simple Qualitys therof all which may be in the same Instant per omnia Puncta of the Water and if all these which are so Specificaly different in their own Nature could be only so many several Motions of the same Matter and we might Microscopicaly behold them we should see a most strange Moorish dance not only of every dancing Corpuscle but even in every Joint and Point therof so many several different and advers ways as must be assigned to make all their several Natures Specifical and Individual Simple and Compound which is indeed Impossible and so ridiculous as needeth no farther refutation Again once more we will alter the Scene from Water to Earth which becaus I have affirmed to be Immovable in the whole Body of the Matter therof and also the Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys therof to be least Active I will likewise inquire into one thing more which I doubt our new Philosophers had forgott and that is whether as Motion in others so also Rest in the Matter of Earth may not produce the Spirit and Spiritual Qualitys therof as Drines and others which though they be indeed less Active then others yet they are Active and Motive in themselvs and so Consistence though it be most like the Rest of Matter yet hath a Strength and Center therof very different from that of the Matter which also of itself is Fluid as I have shewed and Magnetike Virtue though it affect Polar Rest yet hath also an Intrinsecal Motion of Verticity in itself to restore it unto it Nor can all the Terreous Qualitys be only less Active Motions of the Matter becaus they are all in the same Instant per omnia Puncta in the same Matter and cannot be so made severaly by one and the same Motion of the Matter nor can there be so many several Motions therof together whether more or less Active wheras all the Terreous Qualitys may be Actualy together in the same Matter as I have before sufficiently declared of all the other Elements and their Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys and I now shall conclude that even Elementary Spirits and Qâ—alitys are somwhat more and other then either Mater and Motion or Matter and Rest. X. As Matter is Subordinate to the Elementary Spirits which do Immediately Consubstantiate it so are they with the Matter to Vegetative Spirits as I have shewed in the Scale of Nature and so Vegetatives were not produced untill the Elements were all Perfected becaus Vegetatives require an Elementary Mistion of them all and indeed a proper Mistion therof which every Spirit ordereth and governeth both as Subordinate and Subservient to itself but they are not governed by the special Influence of any Planet or Starr as the Rabbins say there is not a Starr in Heaven which doth not point to an Herb on Earth and bid it grow for as the Globe of Light in the First Day sufficed to make Day and Night so also the Heat therof was sufficient for Vegetation as may plainly appear in that Vegetatives were produced before the Sun Moon or Starrs and so also Metalls though others ascribe the Production therof to Planets which yet are more particularly Inservient and Beneficial to them as they do also more particularly vary Days and Nights and all the Seasons of the Year But Vegetatives were and still are produced out of the Earth or Terraqueous Globe as it is moistned with Water for the Earth is the Region both of Vegetatives and Sensitives and also of Man and so it is said The Earth brought forth Grass c. and it is observed that the first Produxit is of Vegetatives for the Elements which Immediately Consubstantiate the Matter were not produced but so Created in and with it in the Begining whereby they were then Denominated Heavens and Earth and so are Inseparably united unto it though they were afterward Perfected in their Mistions and production of their Qualitys thereby as I have shewed and so there is no Produxit of Planets becaus they also are Elementary wheras though Vegetative Spirits were Created in the Begining as it is said God made every Plant of the field before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew yet they were only Latent in their Elements and not produced before the Elements were Perfected in their Mistions and Qualitys which was previous and requisite to their production as they also were to the production of Sensitives as I shall shew heerafter and though Vegetatives are of a farr higher and more excellent nature then Elements yet they were
therof and so render that Polar as may be sensibly seen in any Terrella whereby it is plainly proved that the Magnetical Virtue is a Spiritual Quality which can so remove itself from any part of the Body of the Matter to another and not any fixed Affection of the Matter itself yet Planetary Virtue being seated in the whole Orbicular Body of the Planet doth not nor can it so remove itself becaus it always possesseth the whole Body not Polarly or Ovaly but Orbicularly or at least it is therefore not to be discerned so to vary its own Situation in the Planetary Body Now as God in the First Day did Actuate that proper Aethereal Virtue which also may be termed Planetary causing it thereby to Move about the Inferior Globe from East to West in fower and twenty hours or therabout whereby he made Day and Night which could not otherwise be without such a Circumgyration of the Aether and of the Globe of Light therin as now the Aether doth still Move with all the Planets and Starrs in it whose Planetary Virtue is diversified into several other Motions which yet are all only Planetary Motion Genericaly as if wheras the Polar Position of the Magnetike Earth is only North and South God should have diversified it in other Magnets or Terrellae and made some East and West and so to any other Points so it is also said that in this Fourth Day he made Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to divide the Day from the Night that is to caus more particular Variations therof longer or shorter sooner or later and the like which must be by their Planetary Virtues Actuated in them whereby they Move respectively in the Aether as the Aether doth about the Inferior Globe and so they were not only for Days but also for Years Months and the like which though more or less then the Solar Year are the respective Years of their particular Planets Lunar Jovial or the like as we commonly call them And so God made not only the two great Lights to rule the Day and the Night that is the Sun and Moon as both Scripture and Nature do declare but it is said He made the Starrs also And God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven so as to perform these several Offices by all their various Courses Thus I conceiv that the Aether having the Planetary Virtue therof Actuated in it in the First Day when God said Let there be Light a great part of that Aethereal Light was divided from the common Light of Aether which was left and still is in the whole Body therof though not so Visible to us and that Globe of Light as it was generaly Connatural with the Aethereal Light being in one Hemispere of Aether was carried about Diurnaly by it and with it and not any other way by any special Planetary Virtue in itself which was not Actuated before this Fourth Day but that this common Globe of Light so divided and wherof we have no other account was the Chaos of the Potentialitys of all the Planetary Virtues which were afterward educed out of it and that then they were not only Moved in and with the common Aether Diurnaly but by their own special Planetary Virtues Predominant in them and directing every one of them to Move according to their several Courses for though Locomotive Virtue be common to Aether and all Aethereal Bodys yet the Motion of Aether from East to West Diurnaly was by a proper Planetary Virtue as I have said Actuated in it when God so divided it from that Globe of Light which is eminently called Light and made Day and so mutualy that Globe of Light from the rest of the Aether and Aethereal Light which is Comparatively called Darknes becaus it made only Night as I have shewed And so this particular Chaos of all the Planetary Potentialityâ— being so divided from the common Aether and not having any Planetary Virtue Actuated therin was carried about in and with the common Aether in the three First Days and then it was again divided into all the particular Planets and all their particular Planetary Virtues were respectively Actuated therin and by those special Planetary Virtues they perform all their several Planetary Motions and Courses Nor is it less wonderfull if we rightly consyder it how they Move in their several Zodiaks being indeed no such Gemmeous Studds or Bullae fixed in the Aether as some have imagined for both the Aether and they also being Aethereal Bodys are Fluid nor do they Fly or swim therin by any Spontaneous Power like Fowls in the Air and Fishes in the Sea becaus they are not Spontaneous but they are all Aetheruli as I may so term them and so their Original Globe of Light was only such a particular Portion of the common Body of Aether not differing from the rest but only as it was more Lucid for so it is said of the formation therof that God divided the Light from the Darknes in the Aether but not any part of the Aether from the Light or the Light from it nor is the Body of the Sun or any Planet more Condensated as I have shewed though they shall heerafter sink through the Fluid Aether to the Air and Earth at the Last Day when they shall be discomposed and disordered wheras now they are Connaturaly adapted to the Aethereal Heaven and so it is said of the Light Fiat Luminaria in Expanso and they are all equaly Expanded in it but their Light is farr more Conspissated as it was in their Original Globus and yet such Conspissation of a Spiritual Quality doth not make the Lucid Body to be more Dens or Grave which also proves Light not to be Corporeal but a Spiritual Quality as I have said and indeed as all Heat doth Naturaly Rarefy so should they be rather made more Rare and Light thereby but that Aethereal Bodys are already as Rare as any Elementary Power can make them to be and yet though we may easily conceiv them being Equirare with the common Body of Aether to be poised therin as Glass Bubbles in Water it is also to be consydered why or how they should still Move in their Regular Circularitys and not to be diverted or removed as such Glass Bubbles may very easily be and we have the true account heerof in the Text Posuit he sett them so at first and so they are still continued not by an Immediate Manutenence as he doth not Move them by an Immediate Manuduction but by the same Planetary Virtue Actuated in them and causing them Naturaly so to Move in their own Zodiaks Now becaus as I have observed there is no Produxit of any of these Planets as there was before of Vegetatives and afterward of Sensitives and indeed becaus there was such a Globe of Light decided before from the Aether which was the common Chaos of them all and wherof they were so many particular Decisions I conceiv that they were
so many several Composita made therof whereby they are all thus different and several one from another as they are all from the Planetary Aether as it is said God divided between their Light and the other Aethereal Light and that every one of them is a Specificaly different Compositum in itself and that every Individual Planet is such a Phoenix in its kind that it is also a whole Species in itself wherefore it is said that God particularly made not only the two great Lights but the Starrs also and so it is said There is one Glory of the Sun and another of the Moon and another Glory of the Starrs for one Starr differeth from another Starr in Glory And therefore their Creation is thus specialy mentioned and was the whole Work of this Fourth Day and so I conceiv there are no such Aethereal Compositae as Stones Metalls Minerals are Terrestrial Composita and wherof no such special Creation is mentioned as I have observed but neither that there is a Simple Spirit of every one of them Created in the Begining by a Proper Creation And I conceiv that these vast Individua which are also so many Species in themselvs made Immediately by God as I said can neither be Naturaly diminished nor multiplied as Comets which are Anomalous may be for so the Starrs are said to be for ever and it is said of God their Creator and Preserver He telleth the number of the Starrs he calleth them all by their Names though Supernaturaly and Miraculously he may compose a new Starr as probably that which appeared at our Saviours Birth was such an extraordinary Starr and so is specialy called His Starr which yet did not continue but after it had performed the End for which it was made was again dissolved for otherwise the Ordinances of Heaven which are said to be Unchangeable should be changed and the Constellations therof disordered And though the Starrs be every one such a several Species yet there is also a Combination of them all generaly as they are all one Host and of some more specialy which are called Constellations and are not only such in Name but also described to be such in Nature so wheras it is heer said that God made the greater Light that is the Sun to rule the Day and the less that is the Moon to rule the Night the Psalmist saith To him that made great Lights c. The Sun to rule by Day c. The Moon and Starrs to rule by Night c. where he divideth the Moon and all the Starrs as a Separate Constellation from the Sun alone and attributeth unto them their several Offices to rule by Day and by Night for though all the Starrs do not attend the Moon every Night yet they do by turns and therefore she alone is said to rule the Night becaus she doth so every Night more or less and though as I said the common Aethereal Light divided from the whole Globe of Light which was the Stellant Light and wherof the Planets and Starrs were all made afterward did make the first Night as that Globe of Light did the first Day and that Nocturnal Light is therefore called Darknes Comparatively which had neither Moon nor Starr in it yet in order to Sensitives who need more Nocturnal Light the Moon and Starrs or a great part of them were added in this Fourth Day to rule the Night whereof therefore there is also such an Additional Expression To rule over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes Thus also more specialy there are said to be Courses of the Starrs and many of their Constellations particularly named and their Cooperations denoted Canst thou bind the sweet Influences of Pleiades or loos the Bonds of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season or Canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons Now wheras some have Curiously inquired in what time of the Year the World was Created which the Poets fansy to have been in the Spring becaus that indeed is the time of Renovation and the Rabbins in the Autumn becaus then all Fruits and the like are in their Perfection as they were first Created certeinly neither of their Computations can be true of the very first Creation in the Begining for then there was no Year nor any Commencement therof but only Day and Night generaly in the three first Days and in the Fourth Day the Planets were made for Days and for Years and then they must also calculate their Computation for the Meridian of Paradise otherwise when it was Spring in one part of the Earth it was Autumn in the other as it is now to us and our Antipodes But such is our Human Vanity that we will Curiously pry into those things which God hath thought fitt to Concele and yet not acquiesce in those things which he hath pleased to Revele II. In the History of the Creation of the Planets and Starrs it is farther said of them that God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth Wherefore certeinly they are all Lucid not only as all Aether is in itself but so as to give Light upon the Earth otherwise they could not so give Light upon it and so certeinly the Earth is not Lucid in itself otherwise it should not need to be Illuminated by these Heavenly Luminarys Thus as the Apostle saith There are Bodys Celestial and Bodys Terrestrial but the Glory of the Celestial is one and the Glory of the Terrestrial is another and so neither are the Planets any Magnets nor the Earth a Planet but as several Elementary Natures they differ Genericaly and have their several Generical Glorys that is their different Goodness described and expressed in the History of their Creation severaly in several Days and which also evidently appeareth in Nature as may satisfy any except such who being confounded in their own Understandings can also confound Heaven and Earth which differ farr more and otherwise then the Aether and Planets differ one from another for they are Bodys Terrestrial and Bodys Celestial wheras these are all Genericaly Bodys Celestial though they also Specificaly differ one from another in Glory And of all these Celestial Bodys the Sun is incomparably most Glorious who as I observed alone is opposed to the Moon and all the Starrs and also preferred before them all for they with his Solar Illustrations and Secundary Light only make Night in the backside of the Earth which is but as the Shadow of his Diurnal Presence and therefore is still called Darknes and so he is said to rule by Day and they to rule by Night Whose darting Rays penetrate through all the Spectable World and are bounded only by the two common Bounds of Nature Superaether and Earth and in all the Elementary World there is Nihil simile aut secundum Wherefore Heathen generaly worshiped him as a God who yet in the Scale of Nature is farr Inferior
to the Vegetative Deitys of Egypt but they who place him in the Center of the World and fasten him to it though otherwise they almost Idolise him yet heerby they even deprive him of that true Glory which God and Scripture ascribe unto him and therefore as I promised and becaus it is so pertinacious a Controversy I shall now again prove the Earth not to Move about the Sun but the Sun and Aether about the Earth and that the Glory of the Celestial Bodys is to Move about the Terrestrial and to bestow their Influences upon them and of the Terrestrial to Rest and receiv all their Benefits Thus the Text saith expressly God made the Luminarys to give Light upon the Earth whereby they Rule Day and Night and all the Seasons and therefore they are called Ordinances of Heaven and not of the Earth as God saith Knowest thou the Ordinances of Heaven Canst thou sett the Dominion therof on the Earth Now where the Rule and Dominion is there is also the Motion and Action whereby it is exercised and so thereby the Planets are said to divide the Light from the Darknes which the Earth should rather do if it did Move about the Sun and the Sun should only minister and as it were hold a Candle to the Earth Moving about it and it is also said in the First Day that God himself so divided the Light from the Darknes before Sun or Moon were made and thereby made Day and Night and as the Sun doth now divide the Diurnal Light from the Nocturnal Darknes by his Light so doth the Moon divide the Nocturnal Darknes from the Diurnal Light by her Light and so she was made to rule the Night as well as the Sun to rule the Day which certeinly she doth by her Motion about the Earth and therefore so doth also the Sun by his Motion about the Earth wherefore Ioshua who was the Disciple and next Successor of our Divine Philosopher Moses saith Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon in the vally of Ajalon Which conjunction of Sun and Moon had been very incongruous if the Sun did not Move as well as the Moon Diurnaly as he doth also Annualy and she Menstrualy but Ioshua should rather have said Earth and Moon stand still or only Sun stand thou still for so he had spoke either properly and truly or Popularly as they term it that is falsly wheras it is most absurd to conceiv him to speak both properly and Popularly truly and falsly at the same time and in the same words And wheras they say this was only Popular speaking they thereby do acknowledg that Mankind was antiently of this Opinion before Pythagoras Leucippus and other Graecian Wits fansied the contrary and therefore propounded it as their Novell Invention though I am not satisfied that they affirmed any more then the Diurnal Motion of the Earth about its own Center to save as they supposed the vast Aether so great a labor but I conceiv that they allowed the Sun also to Move Annualy aswell as the Moon Menstrualy wheras our new Philosophers whose Inventions are only Additions and their Additions some greater Absurditys will Move the Earth not only Diurnaly but also Annualy which is both contrary to Reason and Sens as I shall shew heerafter and also most contradictory to Scripture the Authority wherof no Christian should contemn much less oppose and that saith expressly The Sun stood still and the Moon staid and though it is true that the Sun doth not Move Diurnaly by his own Planetary Virtue as he doth about his Axis and Annualy but is carried about by the Diurnal Motion of the Aether which so Moves by its own Planetary Virtue as I have shewed yet even so the Sun Moves together with the Aether Diurnaly for Motion being as I said only a Transition from Place to Place though the Sun doth not so change his Place in the Aether by the Diurnal Motion therof yet he doth in and with the Aether thereby change his Place in the whole Body of the World and consequently Move as Rare Bodys do Move Localy in ascending upward though they are Moved Virtualy by the elevation of more Dens Bodys as I have shewed and so also the Sun and Moon and Starrs and Aether itself staid in all their Motions according to the Context So the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole Day whereby as Siracides interpreteth it One Day was as long as two and afterward the whole Chorus of Heaven proceeded to Move again according to all the several Motions therof as it did before and certeinly the other is Maledicta expositio quae corrumpit Textum and destroieth the very Literal meaning of such an Historical and Memorable Matter of Fact and though I hope such Interpreters of Scripture may be true Believers of Matters of Faith yet the wild Liberty of such Interpretations doth so farr render Scripture no Scripture by an acknowledgment only of the Letter which they dare not deny and yet by denying the Sens which they will not admitt Wherefore plainly I will proceed to deal with them as I would with Heathen or any others that is by Reason and Sens Now wheras they affirm three Motions of the Earth I will accordingly examin them and first clearly explain them becaus I doubt they are not sufficiently understood nor indeed the very Doctrine of Motion generaly which some make only to be Remotion or Distancing of one Body from another and so confound the Motion of one Body with the Rest of others as I formerly observed and others confound opposite Motions from East to West and from West to East and generaly all confound Locomotive Action and Passion which are very different that is one a Moving and the other a being Moved as I said the Sun Moveth Actively in his Annual Motion and Passively in his Diurnal Motion and though both these be only Motions or Transitions in themselvs yet clearly one is an Active Motion and the other a Passive Motion which though they may not differ as Motions yet do so differ as they are Active or Passive and as they confound Motions so also the Terms of Barocenter and Center and Poles Axis and Aequator and the like as I have shewed which are Aequivocal Names according to the several Natures of the Things wherof they are expressed for so they may be either only Mathematical as all these may be painted and described on any Globe of Wood or Stone or the like Indifferently becaus there are no such things Physicaly in the Bodys therof or also Physical either in Terrestrial Bodys as Magnets wherin the Magnetical Virtue doth caus them all to be Physicaly to fix the Magnetical Body accordingly in one determinate Polar Position or in Celestial Bodys as Planets wherin the Planetary Virtue doth caus them also to be Physicaly to Move the Planetary Body accordingly in such a determinate
Notion therof Imprinted in our very Souls which made the Heathen Philosophers so much complain of the Prison of their Body and Bondage of this Conjunct State as expecting a better afterward And Christian Divines have a Problem Whether if Adam had stood he should not have been at length Translated to a better that is this other State and if we seriously consyder it there must probably have been some such ground of that wonderfull and otherwise inconceivable Tentation of Adam in Paradise which was not to any thing he then had nor to any thing which he was not capable to have especialy if it were Absolutely Impossible as to be a God or so to be like to God for though now the Corrupt Mind of Man may as I have said apprehend or affect Nonentity as Entitative and Impossibility as Possible yet we may not suppose any such thing of him in that State of Perfect Understanding and Will but it was a most obvious and prevalent Tentation that he having this Common Notion which we have now only Implicitely and Confusedly in his Perfect Mind most Explicitely and Distinctly and thereby knowing that he had such Angelical Facultys Potentialy in himself might covet to have them Actuated that so he might be like the Gods knowing Good and Evil. And though this be a farther and higher Perfection of the Human Spirit yet Adam was not therefore made Imperfect but Good and Perfect according to that Conjunct State wherin he was Created which was his Original Perfection and whereby he was so made a most Perfect Microcosm or Epitome of the preseâ—t World as he shall be also in his future State of the other World when not only these Angelical Perfections shall be Actuated in his Soul but his very Body shall be more Spiritualised as the Apostle termeth it or made fiâ—t for that more Spiritual State of an Immortal Life which yet shall still be a Body having all Corporeal Propertys and Affections such as the Body of our Savior was after his Resurrection which though not Sensible as before to present Sens for so he was not Visible or Tangible otherwise then as he so pleased to appear sometimes unto some yet heerafter when our Sensitive Bodys shall be also refined and sublimated and made like unto his Glorious Body every Ey shall see him as Iob saith I shall see for my self and my Eys shall behold him that is Iesus Christ his Redeemer who shall Eternaly be the Visible Deity and Image of the Invisible God Nor could Christs Spiritual Body penetrate any other Body as some have supposed from that Text wherin it is said that he entred when the Doors were shutt or the Doors being shutt which yet it doth neither express nor import but only that he did not enter into the hous so as our gross Bodys now do by Doors open which is their usual Avenue wheras his more Spiritual Body might enter in by a Window or other Aperture of the hous without any Penetration And this Renovation both of Soul and Body shall be generaly Conformable unto his and so made by his Divine Power as it is said The first Man Adam was made a Living Soul the last Adam is made a Quickning Spirit And as we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly VII Thus the Heavens and Earth were finished and all the Host of them which Consummation plainly refers to the first Inception In the Begining God Created the Heaven and the Earth or as it is Originaly these Heavens and this Earth which were the same that were afterward so finished in the several Works of the Six Days and which as it is also said God Created to make and particularly it is so expressed not only of Elements but also of Vegetatives These are the Generations of the Heavens and the Earth in the day that the Lord made the Earth and the Heavens and every Herb of the Field before it grew as I have formerly observed and now observ again how this Doctrine of Creation of all Generable and Corruptible things first in the Chaos of their Potentialitys and of their several Generations afterward in the Six Days is so plainly and cumulatively expressed and repeated that none may doubt of the Truth therof Again as not only Heavens and Earth heer are mentioned but also an Host therof or orderly Militia and thus God is called the Lord of Hosts or of the Armys of all the Creatures so as I have observed there is both a Scale of Nature and also an Oeconomy of the Composita and Polity of the whole Univers and that therefore it is declared of them all that they were Valde bona or as it is Originaly Valde bonum Singularly as of One and an Epitome heerof is every Man in himself as I have shewed and becaus as I have said he is such a Microcosm now in respect of this World and so shall be of the World future therefore God doth still continue to Create the Souls of men from the end of the first Created World which was thus consummated in Man as the Summ of all the rest untill the begining of the other World And if we rightly estimate the many Millions of men living together on the Earth probably he doth Create Human Souls every Minute and so though he rested from making the great World yet he maketh many such litle Worlds continualy for though it is said He had rested from all his Works which God had Created to make that is to be Generated or to make by Generation first Originaly which was Supernatural and their Improper Creation and since Successively by Natural Generation as I have shewed yet he rested not from Proper Creation of Human Spirits in their several Individualitys according to the same Specifike kind which he had Originaly Instituted and expressed in the Protoplast or first Mâ—n and so to be Composited with Human Bodys according to that very Institution and first Law of Human Generation as I have also shewed Nor doth he so Immediately Generate or Improperly Create the Human Compositum of any other Man as he did the first Adam except only Iesus Christ who was thereby declared to be the Theanthropus as it is said The Lord himself· will give you a Signe Behold a Virgin shall conceivâ— and bear a Son and call his Name Immanuel which being interpreted is God with us And when God had thus Originaly made Man that is both man and woman as it is said Male and Female Created he them and probably woman of whom Christ was to be born and so is called the Seed of the woman being made after man was also the last of all these Works of God then he pronounced of them all Universaly that they were very Good not only in respect of the Univers but also of Man as the Compendium of all and Consummation of his whole Work of Creation in order to his ensuing Work of Redemption
ought to believ whatsoever this Noble Person declareth that he hath done in all those manifold Experiments wherewith he hath enriched the World Now let this be the Conclusion and Summ of the whole matter That as the End of all Created Nature is the Divine Glory of the Creator which the whole World as a Mirror was made to Represent to us Naturaly so should all Spiritualy Render it unto him And thus we Christians being taught by God the Author both of Scripture and Nature truly to know the Creation and System of the World which Heathen Philosophers groped to find out all their days and have disputed in all Ages should with the Primitive Hebrews and their Divine Doctors Moses David Solomon and the rest Glorify the Infinite Iehovah Creator of Heaven and Earth And I have very much wondered that not only in Spirituals but also in Naturals Seing we should not See and Hearing we should not Hear and Understand with our Hearts the things which are writ in such large Characters and Proclaimed to us with so loud a Voice Wherefore I beseech the Divine Spirit so to Illuminate us in the true Knowledg of his Word and Works that henceforth they may be no longer hid from our Eys but that it may now be said of Holy Scripture and of the Nativity of the World therin Nota Mathematicis Genesis tua THE Divine History OF THE GENESIS OF THE WORLD SECTION I. In the Begining c. EXPLICATION In the very First Being of Heaven and Earth or of any Thing therin or of any Originals therof from Absolute Not being And in the very First Instant of their Duration or Time it self then also commencing from Non-time or an Absolute Nullity therof ILLUSTRATION 1 That the World is Finite Proved by the Corporeal Quantity therof 2 By Successive Quantity 3 By Discrete Quantity 4 Rejection of Impertinencys and what Postulations only are required 5 Sensible Demonstration of the first Proof 6 Of the Second 7 Of the Third 8 The Possibility of the Worlds being Ab Aeterno disproved 9 The Possibility of being In Aeternum or Immortality in what Sens granted 10 The Summ of the whole Discours That there was a Begining of the World I. THat there was a Begining of the World besides the Divine Authority of the Text is as Rationaly Demonstrable as it is Sensibly evident That there is a Heaven and Earth for it is also evident that they are Bodys Extended by Part beyond Part and therefore Finite or bounded with Extremitys of that Extension which we call First or Begining and Last or End becaus we may begin to measure at one and end at the other for that very Extension which renders them Bodys by Extending Part beyond Part doth also Terminate them that is Extend them so far and no farther Thus the whole Body of the World hath two great Parts Heaven and Earth And whatsoever hath Parts is Finite becaus every Part is Finite or Limited to a Proportion not so great as the Whole otherwise it should not be a Part of the Whole And as one Part is Finite so are all the Parts of the Whole becaus they are all Parts And so Consequently is the Whole becaus it is equal to all the Parts otherwise it should not be the Whole of all the Parts therof And thus Heaven which is one Part of the whole Body of the World is a less Whole in it self becaus it is the whole Heaven And so likewise Earth which is the other Part of the whole Body of the World is also a less Whole in it self becaus it is the whole Earth Now either of these two less Wholes is Finite in it self becaus it is only a Part of the whole Body of the World and becaus both these less Wholes are Finite therefore the whole Body of the World is also Finite though it be a greater Whole for there is no Greater nor Less in Infinite which is Infinitely beyond any Proportion and without any Parts whatsoever becaus a greater Whole is that which hath greater Parts or more equal Parts and a less Whole is that which hath less Parts or fewer equal Parts And since whatsoever hath Parts is Finite therfore whatsoever hath greater or more or less or fewer Parts is also Finite and cannot be Infinite Again every Part is such a certain Proportion of the Whole as it is otherwise it should not be such a Part therof and therefore hath such a certein Measure of it self whereby it is such a certein Proportion as it is and not greater nor less And as all the Proportions of all the Parts are the Whole Proportion of the Whole so all the Measures of all the Parts are the whole Measure of the Whole And whatsoever is Mensurable is Finite becaus it is Mensurable and not Immens Wherefore the whole Body of the World is Finite as well as Heaven and Earth or any less Part or the least Particle therof whatsoever wherof there is the same reason Otherwise the Whole should be greater then all the Parts or the Parts greater or more then they are which is Impossible And the contrary therof So Mathematicaly true and evident according to Common Sentence that every Part is less then the Whole and the Whole greater then any Part and equal to all the Parts therof that it cannot be further proved by any thing more evident then it self Wherefore this Conclusion is most true and evident Omne Sectile est Finitum II. Now as Corporeal Quantity which is Consistent and hath Part beyond Part is therefore Finite So also Time which is Successive and hath Part after Part is also Finite And though Part beyond Part may be Inverted and the First become Last or the Last First or Circulated and the Begining United to the End and so every Consistent Quantity is Finite becaus it hath such Parts Yet Part after Part Succeed and follow one another in a most direct Line and by Such an Immutable Law and Order as can neither be Inverted nor Circulated otherwise there should not be Part after Part which must necessarily be in Temporary Succession for Past can never be Present nor Present Future nor all together Wherefore Time cannot possibly be Circular for in a Circle all the Parts must Consist together as in Circular Motion all the Parts must Move together Though probably the Opinion of the Eternity of the World was grounded on some such Imaginary Circulation of Time and Revolution of Platonical Years Whereas though all things measured by Time might be supposed to return again into the same State in all other respects yet Time it self can never return to be the Same becaus it is as Impossible to recall Past as to anticipate Future So that where there is such a fixed Priority and Posteriority runing still forward in a most Direct and Immutable Succession of Part after Part which is Finite there must necessarily be a Finite and Fixed First or Begining and Last
other Parts of Time as are Actualy Past are only so many Ones as they are and not more nor fewer which though never so many must necessarily be all Numerable by Addition of so many Ones as they are and not more nor fewer And consequently all Time Actualy Past which may be Numbred by them is Numerable and Finite and therefore had a Begining becaus the Number therof is Ordinal or Successive wherof there must be a First Thus if we should compute the whole Age of the World according to the particular Ages or Secula of Men or Brutes or if you pleas according to the Revolutions of Platonical years yet there must necessarily have been a First Second and Third Seculum or Revolution or so many as we will suppose to have been Actualy Past and Precedent and not more nor fewer nor other then Successive All which summed up together will be found as Finite as a single Unit and must have a First and Last aswel as One and One Ordinaly and Successively Nor indeed can we Rationaly Imagin any Time whatsoever Actualy Past and Precedent not to be Actualy Finite And if it cannot be otherwise in Imagination much less in Reality VIII Yet the World might Possibly have Existed before it did Exist or Actualy was and as long before as you pleas to Imagin and so it may still be continued Perpetualy in Possibility which yet will be alway Possible and can never be Actual for no such Precedent or Subsequent Perpetuity ever was or shall be nor can reasonably be Imagined to be Actual Neither is it properly a Possible Perpetuity but rather a Perpetual Possibiliâ—y of such a supposed Precedency or Subsequent Futurity which can never be Actual otherwise it should not be Perpetualy Possible for as Possible while it is Possible cannot be Actual otherwise it should not be Possible but Actual so Perpetualy Possible can never be Actual becaus then it should ceas to be Perpetualy Possible As it is said of Corporeal Quantity that it is alway Divisible into alway Divisibles ever Possibly but never Actualy becaus if it should once be Actualy Divided into all its Divisibles then it should ceas to be alway Divisible which is a most true and evident Ratiocination supposing such a Perpetual Divisibility therof wherof I shall heerafter discours But no Possibility whatsoever either Precedent or Subsequent doth militate against this present Discours concerning the Actual Existence of the World IX This Perpetual Possibility in Futurity is the Duration of Immortal Spirits which though it may not seem to be the same with Time in a restrained sens as Time may be distinguished from Duration yet is the same with it in a general sens And so the Soul of Man both in this Mortal Life and also in his Immortal Life heerafter shall continue to be under the same Duration though his Time may be restrained to this Mortal Life which hath an End and is computed according to the Chronology of the Hours Days and Years therof and so we commonly distinguish between Temporal and Eternal or Everlasting Thus Plato makes all Time to be the Measure of Duration according to the Motion of the Heavenly Bodys which divide it into such Parts or Sections therof and therupon I suppose grounded his Opinion of the Circular Revolutions of Time like the Circular Motions of the Heavens But as Duration was Coetaneous with the first Chaos for there was an Evening before any Morning or Illumination of the Aether and three several Days before the Sun and Stars so the same Duration shall continue when they shall be dissolved and when Time in that sens shall be no more And yet in all the Perpetual Possibility of this Duration so farr as it shall ever heerafter become Actual it shall likewise be Actualy Finite as I have already proved Wheras Proper Eternity is neither in any Precedent nor Subsequent Possibility but always Actual and alway Present or one Perpetual Instant which is Divine Infinite and Incomprehensible and of another nature Infinitely and Incomprehensibly Different from any Finite Duration Actual or Possible whatsoever which it doth Comprehend but not in any maner Confound or Chaâ—ge the Temporary nature therof as I shall shew in the next Section X. Wherfore I Conclude upon the whole precedent matter That every Quantity that hath Existed or doth Actualy Exist is Actualy Finite And so is every Quantitative thing measured thereby And that no Imagination nor Possibility it Self can make it to be otherwise Because all Quantity and Quantitative things have Parts and all Parts are Finite and therefore whatsoever hath Parts is Finite and whatsoever is Finite is Terminated or bounded with Extremitys or First or Begining and Last or End Respectively according to the Parts otherwise it should not be Finite And particularly that time and Duration which is Successive and all Temporary and Durable things had a Realy Precedent and fixed First or Begining Now that the force of this most Cogent Argument may not be lost or spent in so large a Dilatation I will briefly Summ it up in these few and short Propositions which I shall present to any Man of Reason most strictly to examin and consider whether he can deny any one of them or the Consequence of them all without forfeiture of his Rationality I. That every Day is One Day and of no more nor greater Number nor Duration II. That Yesterday was One Day Actualy Past and Precedent to this Day and so all the Days Actualy Past and Precedent one unto another III. That the whole Number and Duration of all the One Days Actualy Past and Precedent is as Finite or bounded with first or Begining and Last or End as of any One Day IV. Therefore there was a First or Begining of the whole Duration of all the One Days Actualy Past and Precedent aswel as of the particular Duration of any One Day Wherefore I Conclude according to that right and true Sentence Vim inferunt Humano Intellectui qui Mundum affirmant Infinitum ex Finitis Partibus Constantem SECTION II. God c. EXPLICATION The Infinite Creator of Heaven and Earth ILLUSTRATION 1. That God is Infinite 2. Of Infinite 3. That Absolute Nothing is Not finite 4. Of Proper and Improper Infinite 5 Of Proper and Improper Not finite I. WE have proved that Heaven and Earth and Consequently the whole World had a Begining of Being from Absolute Not being or was Created becaus it is Finite Wherefore the Creator of all Finites must necessarily be Infinite for if he were Finite he must also be Created by another and so Infinitely But there can be no such Process Infinite becaus it is Successive from one to another and therefore must be finite as I have already proved II. But becaus our Understanding also is Finite and not Infinite therefore the proper Object thereof must be Finite and not Infinite and all the knowledg we can have of Infinite is only
strength of opposition to ly and accordingly address my Self to prove that Accidents are Realy Different from their Substances whereby I shall also prove that both Substances and Accidents Realy are becaus any Real Difference is only between Real Entitys Now as I have said before God in the Begining Created Heaven and Earth and all other their Primitive Entitys therin which yet did not then all Actualy Exist Appear and Operate for it is said expresly that there was yet no Light in the Heaven but Darkness was upon the face of the Deep and of the Earth that it was without form and void and if they had been otherwise Created in the Begining all the ensuing Works of God in the Six Days had been needless and Superfluous Wheras Elementary Substances and the Essences of their Accidents in their Potentialitys being Created together in the Begining the work of the Three first Days was to Produce their Accidents out of Potentiality into Act as I shall particularly shew heerafter And though this was not Properly Creation of any New Entity from Nonentity yet as it was the Production of the Actualitys of the Accidents and not of the Substanceâ— of the Elements it plainly Discovers a Real Difference between Substances and Accidents Certeinly as it was the Production of Several Actualitys therof in several Days it declares the Accidents so severaly Actuated to be several and Different in themselvs and much more all of them to be Different from the Substances from which they all Differ more Genericaly and consequently more then one from another Again if Substances and Accidents did not Realy Differ then no Accidents of the same Substance should Realy Differ one from another but all should be one and the same with themselvs as well as with their Substance For as the Mathematical Rule is most true That if each of two Lines be Equal to a third one of them must necessarily be Equal to the other So if each of two Entitys could be one and the same with a third the one must Necessarily be one and the same with the other and so if Extension Figure Density Gravity Motion Heat Light and the rest and all the Several Variations therof were one and the same with the Aethereal Substance then they must also be one and the same in themselvs Yea if they were only Accidents of the Matter as some affirm all Contrary Qualitys Heat and Cold and the rest must be one and the same with the Matter which is most Absurd and Irrational for then Heat should be Cold and Cold Heat and the like Also if we Consyder the Continual Sensible Variations of Accidents and their Productions out of Potentiality into Actuality and Reductions from Actuality to Potentiality whereby they so often Appear and Disappear unto us and their Desultory and Exile Nature which to some scarcely seems to be Real we may not Imagin them to be Realy the same with their Substances which Subsist in themselvs and are Fixed Solid and Substantial Entitys and therefore always are Actual and never Potential as I shall particularly shew heerafter in all the ensuing Discourses Wherefore I Conclude that Since there are such Substantial and Accidental Entitys and that they Differ one from another in Nature and not only in our Mind and Reason that they both Realy are and that Accidents Realy Differ from Substances and also one from another VII Substance is either Matter or Forms for I must use that Common Term untill I can substitute another And becaus as I have said we know Substances only Intelligibly by their Sensible Accidents I shall accordingly by them declare what I intend by Matter and what by Forms Matter is known by Corporeal Quantity which is the Proper Accident therof And this Quantity is either Extension and the Products or Propertys therof Figure Porosity and the like or Density and the Products or Propertys therof Gravity Corporeal Motion and the like Also Matter hath a Common Receptivity of Forms and is Passively apt to be Consubstantiated with them and is as the Body therof being in it Self one Homogeneous and Uniform Moles or Mass and is also the Passive Subject of all its own Corporeal Variations which are Superinduced in it by the various Activitys of Forms Whence it is rightly called Materia which the Forms as Architects do severaly Mold and Fashion into fit Bodys for themselvs And therefore I Describe Matter to be One Passive Substantial Entity or Common Body of Forms Again Forms are known by their Qualitys which are Generaly Active as Heat Cold Moisture Drines and the like and are not only Various and Innumerable to us but also many of them Contrary one to another whereby I know their Substantial Forms also to be Several Heterogeneous and Difform wherof some are apt to Consubstantiate themselvs Subordinately with the Passive Matter which they as Spirits do Actively Inform or InSpirit as all Inferior Forms or Spirits and some do not Consubstantiate but only Inform it as the Human Spirit and some neither Consubstantiate nor Inform it as Angels and though all Exist in it yet none Subsist in it as Accidents do in Substances And so these Forms are Several Active Substantial Entitys or Spirits And I shall henceforth generally call them Spirits Wherby I do not intend Spirit Grammaticaly that is Breath nor yet with Physicians and others those Igneous Aereous Aqueous and Terreous Natural Vital or Animal Spirits which indeed are only such Qualitys of the Elementary Spirits but Substantial Spirits Distinct or Different from the Matter as I have before discoursed them And so there are not only Angelical Spirits which Exist Separate from the Matter Naturaly though in it Localy and Human Spirits which are also Immaterial and such as may so Exist separately as well as Angelical and yet are apt to Inform or InSpirit the Human Body wherwith they are Composited But also Material Spiritâ— which cannot so Exist Separately or as Separate Substances without the Matter and therefore are called Material though they are in themselvs neither Matter nor Homogeneous with the Matter as I shall shew heerafter And so the Wiseman mentioneth The Spirit of a Beast that goeth downward to the Earth as well as the Spirit of Man that goeth upward And so also there are Vegetative Spirits and the Spirit of the Heaven as the Author of Esdras saith of the Firmament and of all the Elements which are more Properly Material becaus they Immediately Consubstantiate Matter that is such Active Substantial Entitys as I have before Described And there are also Accidental Spirits or Spiritual Activitys Powers and Virtues mentioned in Scripture Which yet are no Substantial Spirits but Subsist in them And I suppose this general Name Spirit doth better express all simple Substantial Activitys which were Immediately Created by God as well as Matter and can never be Annihilated or Altered as they are in themselvs any more then Matter it Self then Forms by which they are
the Created Substantial Spirits of the fower Elements and others did then so Actualy Exist in the Begining when they were first Created and the Heavens or Aether and Air and Earth or Water and Earth were thereby then so Denominated as I have already shewed yet their first Simple Qualitys Heat Cold Moisture Drines and others which are Accidents and Subsist in their Substances and were then also Created first in their Potentiality did not Actualy Exist but were afterward Produced out of their Potentiality into Act in the Six Days And the Elements though Created Pure and Unmist severaly in themselvs and separately in their own Spheres yet were Miscible and their Natural Perfection was to be Mist and so it was accordingly performed afterward and by that very Mâ—stion and Temperature their Proper Qualitys were Produced out of Potentiality into Act which otherwise could not Actualy Exist severaly by reason of their own Vehemence and Extremity And certeinly there are such Contrary Qualitys which are not only Degrees or More or Less of the same Mist Quality as there are Degrees of Corporeal Quantity which very Contrariety by a fit Mistion and Temperature doth mutualy Qualify them and so Produce them by Degrees out of their Potentiality in Generation and the Excess of either of them doth again destroy the other in Corruption and thereby also would destroy itself if it were not so Tempered by the Contrary And I thus judg therof becaus otherwise there could be no Mistion or Temperature of Contrary Qualitys in their Actual Extremitys which would destroy one another but they are not so Actualy Contrary in their Potentialitys becaus then they are only Potential whereby they are easily Mist at first and so proceed by degrees to be both Actuated together in their mutual Mistion and Temperature And this Order of Generation and Corruption is the very Cours of Nature that was ordeined in the Six Days And as in the Begining none of these Qualitys did Actualy Exist in their own Vehemence and Extremity so never since can either of such Contrary Qualitys Actualy Exist without the other which should so Temper and Qualify it Also all Secondary Qâ—alitys which are Compounded of such first Simple Qualitys cannot possibly Exist without such Composition and Mistion becaus their Compound Nature is to be Mist of others But though the first Chaos was thus Inform and Inane without any such particular Figures of Bodys or Spiritual Qualitys or any such Substantial or Accidental Mistion or Composition yet as the Matter and several Elementary Spirits were severaly Consubstantiated therin whereby they were then Actualy Heaven and Earth though not such as afterward and as now they are So also we may not conceiv them to have been without any Actual Accidents whatsoever for they must necessarily have those Common Accidents which were Concreated with them wherof I have formerly discoursed Actualy Existing becaus no Created Substance whatsoever can Exist or Be without them and the matter had the general Accidents therof Actualy Existing in it And of these and the Products therof both Common and Proper to Matter as they were Concreated with it or wherof it was capable I shall now proceed to discours III. And first I shall consyder Quantity generaly which though it be severaly and Specificaly Threefold Number Time and Extension yet all of them are Genericaly One or that which we by one common Name call Quantity and they are so One not only Nominaly or Notionaly but Realy and Physicaly as shall appear by the Real and Physical Analogy and Confederacy that is between them which as it is most Proportionable and Regular in itself so if it were rightly consydered in all Statike Machins or Engines any Artist might thereby without the trouble and charge of Experiment set down in his Mind or Paper before hand what the Effect and Execution will be and all particular Errors in that Art proceed from the Universal Error or Ignorance heerof As one saith of their various Essays of a Perpetual Motion that they have all proved vain and ineffectual Non rite observatis Proportionibus for what is gained by one Quantity will be lost by others as what is gained by Distances from the Center Multiplication of unequal Wheels and the like is again lost in the Total Summ of the whole Account of Proportions in Time Number longer or more Circumvolutions aâ—d the like which at last cast up together will amount to no more then a Balance or Aequipondium and these several ways are only several Variations of the Quantitys which â—et may be very useful and advantagious accordingly as we have more or less Weight or Power or more or less Time and the rest to imploy and lay out in the Operation Such are the Romana Statera or French Beam the Leaver the Skrew the Pâ—lley the Snake Wheel Cranes and the like And the common Culinary Jack may plainly discover the use and advantage therof in Diminishing the Burden of the Weight by Multiplication of the Distances and Revolutions as if the Weight were divided into so many several Parts or less Weights as it hath such Proportions in the Whole and one of them only were to be Moved at one Distance and by one Revolution Or the Burden of the Weight in a contrary way may be Multiplied by Diminishing the Distances and Revolutions Or there may be a delivery of all at once as in Catapults Balists and the like And of all these the whole Account will ever be Equal as I have said allowing only for Frictions and Attritions and the like And this wonderful Analogy of Quantity is not only thus useful in Mechanical Practice but also in Philosophical Contemplation which I shall now accordingly Improve And becaus as I have formerly observed Number is the Discerner of both the other Quantitys and most Discernible in it self I shall heer begin with it and thereby endeavor to Explicate the most Indiscernible Mysteries of Time and Extension though I esteem no Quantity Mystical or Cabalistical in Virtue or Signification but only intend such Natural Mystery's therin as are Incomprehensible to us and our Reason IIII. The first Principle of Number is an Unit which is Unity in it self and Disunity from others wherof all Number doth consist but it is no Number in it self being only an Imperfect Principle therof for all Number is Quantity Discrete and such Discretion must necessarily be of more then One Yet all other Numbers are only so many Ones but One is most Intirely and Individualy One in it self having both the same Root and Square And it is Analogous to an Instant or Point but Different from both and each of them one from another For an Unit may either severaly Exist as in one Instant or Coexist as in many Points but an Instant can only Exist severaly and Successively for Past Present and Future cannot be otherwise then several and Successive and a Point can only Coexist for it cannot be
I might if I pleas believ a Traveller who hath been in Africa concerning any Monster therin yet certeinly I should not much believ him who had never been there himself Neither can I more believ any such Assertors concerning Aether which being so Remote is commonly made Amplissâ—â—us fingendi Campus but shall proceed in the known and beaten Road of Scripture Reason and Sens so far as they extend and as we can know or judg thereby and leaving these fansys of vain men to themselvs shall heer inquire into a more solid and true Secret of Nature and such as deservs a more Curious Search which is this That as God hath placed all the Spheres in their most Proper and Connatural Situations by such Directive Principles in themselvs and Symmetry of Nature so in that Natural Position the whole Vast and Indefinite Body of the World and all the Inconceivable Weight of the whole Matter therof doth support itself thereby withal Facility and Suavity without any suspending Funicles above or under-propping Columns beneath and so without any Force or Pressure whatsoever For though when any Particular Body or Part of the Universal Body therof is Dislocated and removed from its Proper Station and Natural Situation therin which is when any more Dens Bodys are above others more Rare they then Move or Press toward their Proper Place by their own Gravity and Motion of Descent being thereby Actuated to reduce them therunto as the Magnetical Virtue doth Move the Body therof being displaced towards the Poles of the Earth yet when they have atteined it their Motion which was Actuated before for that end being now useles and needles is again reduced to Potentiality and they then neither Move nor Press Actualy any more or any farther nor have any Actual Nisus therunto but having obteined their End are thenceforth in Peace and Rest and their very Gravity is also suspended and reduced to Potentiality as the Magnetical Needle doth Rest in the North Point which plainly shews what I said before that though Gravity flow Immediately from Density and Subsist in it and Motion of Descent in the Gravity yet they are Realy Different becaus though the Body continue to be the same and hath the same Density Actualy both when it is out and when it is in its Proper Place yet when it is our it hath Actual Gravity and Gravitation and when it is in it only Potential And thus neither the Superaether doth Press upon the Aether nor that upon the Air nor that upon the Water nor that upon the Earth nor the Earth upon itself becaus they are already in their Proper Places and therefore tend no farther for the more Dens Bodys are Natural Fulciments and so farr Centers to the more Rare And so the Proper Place of any Body is when being more Rare it is above more Dens or being more Dens beneath more Rare as I have said or also being among Equidens whether above or beneath any other parts therof yet it is in its Proper Place becaus it hath such a Natural Fulciment or Center sufficient for it and there are none more Rare beneath it through which it may or ought to Move according to this Statike Law of Nature but the other Equidens Parts whether above or beneath it are also in their Proper Sphere which is the Proper Place of them all and they can not otherwise be all in one and the same Point Again I shall observ that these Spheres being all Rotund that Spherical Roâ—undity must be filled and so the Sphere Completed to render it the Proper Place of those Bodys wherof it is the Sphere otherwise the Bodys will flow or fall every way to fill the Sphere or any Chasm therin becaus the lower parts of that Chasm will be beneath or neerer to the Center of the World then the others wherefore being Equidens they will all contend for one Equality or Spherical Community of Situation which must Equaly relate to the Center and Circumference of the World Also heerby it appears that these Spherical greater Bodys do not Move to the Center nor respect it in Regular Cylinders as less particular Bodys Plummets or Bullets falling through the Air which seem to us to Descend in a most Directly Perpendicular Line and serv for Measures therof well enough becaus any such requisite Pyramidal Confirmity therof to the Center is not discernible by reason of their smalnes as smooth Water in a Pond seems to us Exactly Plane and that Planities therof servs well enough to make a Water level wheras any Quadrant or Semiquadrant or the like of those Proportionable greater Bodys respect the Center as Pyramids Inverted with their Cones Downward and Bases Upward which is their Exact Conformity therunto and the way of their Gravitation and Motion of Descent as we may easily understand if we duly consyder the Relation of any Circumference to the Center And therefore such Quadrants and Semiquadrants do not Superpend nor consequently Superincumb in such their Pyramidal Bases beyond their Cones Yet I do not conceiv of such Proper Places and Spheres that they are Magical Circles or any such Phantastical Houses as Astronomers fansy to be in Heaven but only as I have said Proper Localitys of the whole Body of Matter and Extension of such several Spherical Bodys according to the more or less Density and Gravity therof Much less do I conceiv that the Center hath any such Magical Virtue or Attractive Power nor that it is any Cavity or the like but only a Term which is the Midst and Inmost Point and consequently the Lowest of the whole Body of the Matter of the World Immovable and Inalterable and relating to the Circumference therof that is the Utmost Superficies of the Superaether which is Ingenerable Incorruptible and Invariable being the Universal Bound and Limit of Nature and of all Bodys and of the whole Matter and Extension therof Having thus premised I shall now examin the Pressure of the Atmosphere which is so confidently asserted by some though evidently there be no such thing nor can there be any Rational Supposition therof without a supposed Dislocation of the Body of the World and offering Violence to Nature as I shall now prove God Created the Heaven and the Earth and nothing beyond or without them wherefore certeinly they Press upon nothing or do not Press Outwardly becaus there is no Outward thing to support them or on which rhey might Press but only they tend to Union Inwardly And as the several Spherical Bodys of the Elements do not Press upon the Superaether nor one upon another Outwardly so neither Inwardly as Iob saith He hangeth the Earth upon nothing that is it doth not hang or Press at all either Outwardly wherof he spake before He stretcheth out the North which is the most Terreous part of the Globe over the empty place that is the Air as a Vessel is said to be Comparatively empty when it is filled only with Air
the Plastike Virtue therof and other Internal Spiritual Powers which God first Created in and with the Spirits in the Begining and were afterward Actuated and sett in Order by the Divine Spirit who was the Supernatural and Universal Protoplastes of them all as I have shewed And so they still continue in their Successive Generations and Corruptions wherin though the Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys be the chief Operators and Architects yet the Matter is the Body and all the Accidents and Affections therof are accordingly Instrumental therin and so are also all Common Accidents as Number wherof the chief Instrumentality is Unity which doth Fortify and reduce several Principles into one Compositum Oeconomy and Individuality Nor indeed can I conceiv any other Power to be in Number which is only so many Units and the very Multiplication therof or Duality is rather Instrumental in Corruption then in Generation Also Time is very requisite in the Process of Generation as I have shewed And so likewise Extension for no Body either Elementary or Vegetative or Sensitive can possibly be only a Point which can not Exist severaly And though every Part or Particle of Water be Water and the like yet Organical Bodys must have several Organs or so many Members or less Corpuscles wherof the Whole must be Composed and that according to the Species therof must be of some requisite Magnitude for though Oaks and less Trees may be of several Sâ—zes yet none of them can be so small as some Herbs and Grass and so though there be Dogs of very Different Bignes yet none can be so little as a Mite or some almost Atomical Animals Also Figure is very Instrumental heerin as well as in Mechanical Tools or in the Body of an Army where the Globus or Orbicular Figure is for Safety round about the Square Phalanx for Strength the Cuneus or Wedg to make Impressions and the like And so they and others are also requisite in Nature and Natural Operations especialy in Organical Composita which require Bodys fitt for such Operations of Various Figures and most Symmetricaly Composed And no Art of Statuary or Painter can so farr Imitate them as to endure the Criticism of a Microscope And the whole Feature and Beauty of Organical Bodys is only the Symmetrical Conformity of their Various Figures Porosity serveth for Excerning and thereby for Preservation of the Compositum and also for Corruption by more easie admission of any Dissolvent or Menstruum being a Partial Comminution or Dissolution of the Body in itself as Perfect Continuity doth fortify And therefore also Density doth Preserv not only in Proportion to the Parts but in the Whole as it is more United in itself and in all the Parts therof and hath Proportionably more of the Spirit and more United And as Maceration doth weaken so also Rarefaction And every Specifical Spirit doth require a Body of a Proper Density or Rarity wherof there are Innumerable Degrees and it can hardly be supposed that any two Bodys of Spirits Specificaly Different are of the same Degree of Density exactly but either more or less And as the Compositum is Varied by a new Predominating Spirit so the Density or Rarity of the Body therof is Varied likewise as may appear by Impregnating and Superimpregnating and the like And so likewise Gravity and Levity and the Motion therof to Station but especialy the Principal Motion to Union or Contact are very Instrumental in Generation and Corruption as appears by the Local Union of Emanant Rays Yet Matter and all these Various Affections therof are no Formal Causalitys of Spirits or Spiritual Qualitys or of the whole Composita Consubstantiated and fitted thereby as I have shewed But when the Compositum is thus Composed Mâ—terialy and Spiritualy and Invested and Instructed with all the requisite Accidents both of the Matter and Spirits then is the Generation therof Perfected and then it doth Appear and Operate being thus Produced out of Potentiality into Actuality with all the Furniture therof and so continues Naturaly untill it be again Corrupted And so were the Original Composita Produced by the Divine Spirit in the Six Days and have ever since and still do continue according to that Instituted Cours of Nature From which when God himself doth Vary it is Miraculous and when Nature doth Aberr it is Monstrous and yet even those particular Monstrositys are generaly Comprehended within this Universal Law of Generation and Corruption as all Equivocal Productions and the like being otherwise generaly Conformable therunto as I have shewed And as Nature doth only work by those Ingenerable and Incorruptible Principles Powers and Virtues which God first Created in the Begining and then sett in Order in the Six Days so Art can only work by Application of these Natural Principles Powers and Virtues which is also Monstrous and Disorderly in respect of the Constant Cours of Nature that was Produced in the Six Days though it be according to the Nature of Intellectives and Sensitives being External Operators so Ingeniously and Artificialy to Apply them by their Natural Wit and Art which is somthing more Divine and more like to the Operation of the Divine Spirit even thus by Disordering to Order and Improve Nature for their own Use and Service But neither Nature nor Art can work Miracles much less Create or Annihilate any thing Nor hath God himself ever since Created any new thing Generable and Corruptible nor ever wrought any such Miracles or added any thing to the Chaos oâ— Elementary World which he first Created in the Begining and Made in the Six Days as I have shewed and then Rested from all that Work of such Improper Creation Nor probably will he ever Annihilate any thing therof more then of Superaether or the Intelligences though the first Chaos may afterward become an everlasting Gehenna and many present Actualitys be for ever Reduced into Potentiality However the Created Essences shall remain Eternaly for the Eternal manifestation of the same Divine Glory as the Wise man hath said I know that whatsoâ—ver God doth shall be for ever Nothing can be putt unto it nor any thing taken from it V. Now as the Divine Spâ—rit did thus Prepare and Predispose the Chaos and out of it Produce the whole Frame and Cours of Naâ—ural Generation and Corruption so I shall from the Review therof Deduce the whole Scale and Order of all Generable and Corruptible Natures Wherof Matter is the Lowest which is the Common Body of all such Spirits as do Consubstantiate it Immediately or Mediately and Mansion of others which do only Inhabit it And no Matter can be without some Spirit Consubstantiating it being only an Imperfect Substance in itself and therefore in the Begining had a Superaethereal Spirit to Consubstantiate the Superaethereal Body of Matter whence it is Denominated Heaven as well as Aether and Air and therefore also Superaether though it be not Elementary yet is of the same Classis
Aether is not Solid or Firm. And the Reason assigned why the Aether should be Solid and Firm is more Vain then the Hypothesis which is becaus it Moves one way and the Planets therin another way and therefore there must be Seaven Spheres of them and an Eighth of the Fixed Starrs and to these is since added a Ninth and a Tenth which must be the Primum Mobile to solv these Phaenomena Wheras in the First Day there was only one Circumvolution of the whole Aether one and the same way to make Day and Night and so untill the Fourth Day and then we do not read of any such Division therof into Spheres as of the Disposition of the Water and Earth into a Terraqueous Globe but only of the Creation of the Starrs Nor is this Supposition of Aethereal Spheres any Solution of the several Advers Motions for perhaps the slower Motions of the Fixed Starâ—s as they are therefore so termed Comparatively which are also Advers to the Motion of the Aether may be as several and then they must also allow as many several Spheres for every one of them and so for any of the Planetary Satellites about another Planet Also the Circumvolution of them by the Primum Mobile must be either by a Corporeal and External Impuâ—s and then they must Cohere to it like the Circular Spheres of an Onion which is the usual Comparison which Cohesion will also make the Circumvolution Conjunct and one and the same way as if you turn an Onion so about otherwise if they do not so Cohere no Motion of the Inferior Spheres will be Caused by the Circumvolution of the Superior or Primum Mobile as if you turn a Wheel about an Axis without any Contact much less can it Move all the others so many several ways Or it must be by some Spiritual Potentia which must be either of another Spirit and so Infinitely or of itself as indeed it is and then the several Planets and Starrs may also aswell have such several Potentiae in themselvs as the Primum Mobile and so many several Spheres Moving themselvs and their several Planets in them by such several and Advers Motions Also firmnes or Consistence is a Proper Quality of Earth as I shall shew heerafter and not of Aether and though the Aether be Mist with all the other Elements in some small Proportion yet the Consistence which it haâ—h thereby is very Inconsyderable and less then of Air and Water which yet are Denominated Fluid Bodys and not Consistent and is rather like the Terrene Opacity therof which doth not fix any Color in Aether nor Reflect like Earth or Water though very much Assisted by the vast Profundity therof which is somwhat Analogous to Opacity as well as Density as may appear by Deep Water which seems more Black and Specular then Shallow The Spirit of Aether is Fire as the very Name therof doth Import which also plainly declareth the common Opinion of the Antient Graecians though they who deny the Thing would also elude the Etymology And so the Persiaâ—s who worshipped the Sun therefore Consecrated Fire and used it in their Mysterious Ceremonys And all Language both Sacred and Profane hath ever stiled the Sun Hott which all Sens doth likewise attest though this also and any thing whatsoever will be evaded by a resolved Error and instead therof Fire is placed in a new Invented Sphere or Province which it must have in Conformity to the great Bâ—dys of the other Elements and which is termed Concavum Lunae or Caelum Incognitum All which Absurditys were only Philosophical Inventions to preserv the Idolatrous Reverence and Religion of Hâ—aven which is now together with them to be Exploded by Christianity Nor do I suppose Aeâ—hereal and Culinary Fire to be several Elements Genericaly Different becaus they have the same Proper Qualitys Heat Light and others though they may perhaps Dâ—ffer more Specificaly becaus Aether hath other Proper Qualitys as Circular Motion and Inflâ—ential Virtues which may not be in the other or at least not Actualy as the Eâ—eâ—entary Earth hath Magnetical Virtue whâ—ch is not Actualy in all Terrene Bodys and there is certeinly a greaâ—er Mistion of the other Elements in Culinary Fire which renders it more Impure then Aethereal But there is Heat very notably in Aether which is Instrumental in the Rapid Motion therof for Heat being a most Active Quality is also very Motive I know not whether any Actual Heat can â—e without Actual Motion though Heat be not only Motion nor Motion Heat as I shall shew heerafter And this Motion of Aethereal Heat must necessarily be Circular becaus as I have shewed if there be more Motion then the Body Moving can Exercise and Expend Directly it will Move it Circularly and Aether can not Move any other way for being more Rare then Air it will not Move Downward into it and being more Dens then Superaether which is also Superelementary and most Heterogeneous it can not Move Upward into it but being already in its own Proper Sphere and Station it Moves only in it which must be Circularly and therefore also it Moveâ— Perpetualy becaus it is Moved by its own Proper Potentia which is alway Actual in itself and not Corrupted or Obstructed by any other and it therefore Moves Equaly becaus there is none other Causality to make any Increments or Decrements therof And it is by a Spiritual Qâ—ality in itself which is not to Rest as the Motion of Matter Nor is it Invaded by the Supeâ—aeâ—her and it is Defended from the Ambient Air by that Rapid Motion which affordeth no Time requisite for the Air to Operate upon it and therefore it is more Ingenerable and Incorruptâ—ble then the Inferior Elements and probably doth not Emitt aâ—y of its own Matter and yet by its Emissary Rays is itself the greatest Operator of them all and doth Generate and Corrupt them and so generaly all Superior Elements do most Operate upon the Inferior and the Inferior less upon the Superior Nor doth it need any Fuel becaus it is not continualy Incensed and Extinguished like Flame whose Individuality is therefore Varied as Successively as the Fâ—me but Aeâ—her hath its own Spiritual Potentia always Actual in iâ—self whicâ— is not Corrupted nor Oâ—structeâ— by any otherâ— But I conceiv that the Regularity of the Aetâ—ereâ—l Circâ—mvolution Exactly in every Day Natural is from a Special Quality which was also Actuâ—ted therin in this first Day and so continuâ—th and is a Natural Motion therof Anâ—â—ogous to the Vâ—rricity of the Mâ—â—net whereby it reduceth â—tself to the Regularity of â—ts Polar Position And this I colleâ—t from the Text wherin 〈◊〉 said that God so made Day and Night theâ—in and though the Proper Aethereal Virtue according to that general Power therof doth so carry it about with a Perfect Regularity yet since it hath been Accursed and Blasted as well as Earth for the Sin of Man there are many particular
Alterations Generations and Corruptions appearing in it such as Maculae Comets and the like as I shall shew heerafter which plainly prove both that it was Mist with the other Elements and was a Generated Compositum in the first Perfection therof and that now it is Imperfect and yet the Diurnal Motion therof is still as Regular as before as well as the constant and Immovable Position of the Earth and therefore most probably there is some other Special Quality which doth Preserv it in that Regularity as Verticity doth the Earth and Magnets in their Polar Positions And as this Element is most Active and Operative so God who doth nothing in vain and is stiled The God of Order and not of Confusion did therefore first Perfect it and Produce the Active Qualitys therof as the Chymical Instruments of Nature whereby it was first sett on work and so at last when he shall Dissolv this whole Elementary World it shall be by Fire both Aethereal and Culinary Congregated and Condensated as before the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up and also the Cataracts of Heaven opened and shall thereby again Melt down this whole Inferior Globe if I may so speak with a Deluge of Fire as he did formerly overflow the Terraqueous Globe with a Deluge of Water wherof he hath thus farr declared unto us the maner but not the Time for Of that Day and Hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels in Heaven nor may we compute it by any Motions of the Heavenly Bodys or of any of them for this Dissolution not being Natural but Violent doth therefore attend no Natural Causality but may be at one Time as well as another II. The Spirit of Aether being Fire the most Proper Qualitys therof are apparently Heat and Light which are neither one and the same in themselvs nor do Immediately Subsist or Proceed in or from one another but both in and from the Substantial Spirit For apparently one may be Actualy without the other as Heat without Light in Fume and if there be not also Light without Heat as in the Gloworm and other such Bodys yet certeinly the Actual Heat is not Proportionable to the Actual Light therof and heer in the Text Light only is Named and not Heat though they are partly Synonymous in their Original Etymology and very Congenerous and Social Qualitys in Nature Proceeding from the same Substantial Spirit But I can not conceiv Drines as I have said to be any Second Quality Proceeding from Heat nor indeed very Symbolical or Homaeogeneous with it but rather another Collateral Quality of Earth and Indifferent between Heat and Cold for Vapors Oils and the like which are very Moist Bodys are more Inflammable then Salts and Ashes which are very Dry and all Heat doth Melt or prepare for Fusion which doth Actuate Moisture wherefore all Consistent Bodys generaly are Actualy Cold and Actualy Dry or at least Indifferent to either Heat or Cold to be Actuated in them But the Proper Action of Heat is to Heat or Univocaly to Generate or Produce Heat out of other Inflammable Bodys which thereby it doth also Move becaus as I have said it requires a most Rare Body and so when Heat begins to be Actuated it begins to Rarefy the Body Heated which being an Expansion therof necessarily causeth some Local Motion and so it Melteth and prepareth for Fusion by Rarefaction and even Iron Heated doth Swell before it Melt and in order therunto it doth Convell and Corrode the Parts of the Bodys as may appear by the Operation of Aqua fortis in Dissolution of Metalls and as it thus Operateth in respect of Corporeal Rarefaction or Comminution which is Preparatory therunto so it is Spiritualy Active in itself and Causeth Motion as a fitt and Analogous Instrument therof aswell as in its own Aether as I have shewed though that be probably as Rare as it can Naturaly be becaus it is the most Rare Element and can not be more Rarefied by any other Elementary Quality and hath already Produced the greatest Rarity that it can in itself But though Motion be such a notable Instrument of Heat as generaly it is also of all the Operations of Material Spirits upon the Matter yet neither Heat nor any others are only Motion as I have formerly shewed generaly and shall now shew particularly concerning Heat which is not so much Caused Originaly by Motion as it is a Caus therof though the Generator may Generate Heat which was Potentialy before in the Body wherin it is Actuated by Motion as I have said Mediately but more Immediately by Rarefaction and it s own Aethereal Motion is Caused by its own Natural Heat and not Heat by Motion for so Light and Heat were Created in it first at least in order of Nature beâ—ore there was any such Motion or Circumvolutâ—on of the Aether which followed therupon and whereby God Dâ—vided the Dâ—â—rnal Light from the Nocturnal Darknes and so made Day and Niâ—â—t Artificial Also if Motion be Formaly Heat and Heat Motion then Cold which is the Contrary therof mâ—st be Rest and Rest Colâ— which it is not for it doth both Expand Ice and also Compress Water in the Sealed Weather Glass and certeinly Expansion and Compression are not without Mâ—tion becaus they Vary the Extension and consequently the Locality of Bodys so Expanded or Comprest Nor are Motion and Rest Contrary Actively but only Advers Localy for Rest is not Active and thereâ—ore Motion cannot be Activeâ—y Contrary to Rest aâ— I have shewed but Heat and Cold are both Active and Activâ—â—y Contrary And if any can suppose that Heat is a Motion one way and Cold another way I desire them to assigne the different Local Motions of these or any other Spiritual Qualitys which they never yet have done nor indeed can do becaus they are no such Motions Naturaly Certeinly Heat and Cold which are most Contrary Qualitys require answerably Contrary Motions but as there is no such Contrariety between Rest and Motion so neither is there in Motion itself wherof there is only a Local Opposition as I have said for Motion is only one and the same Principle from which no such Active Contrariety can Possibly proceed though it may be an Indifferent Instrument of Contrary Agents as of Heat and Cold. Again Heat and Cold may be Mâ—st together into one Temperature which we call Tepor and that is both Hott and Cold though Mist and more Remiss thereby wheras Opposite Motions can not be so Mist for if Heat should be by Local Motion one way and Cold by it another way which though not Properly Contrary yet must be Diametricaly Opposite and Advers then one such Motion must necessarily stay and stop the other mutualy whereby there should be no Motion at all and consequently neither Heat nor Cold and this Tepor is as I have said per omnia and not only per minima much less by any Imaginary Parallel or
only Diaphanous or fitt to Receiv it into itself as Matter doth Spirits which it may also represent unto us And itself is sometimes Actualy and sometimes Potentialy Produced and Reduced by a most Momentaneous Generation for if the Lucid Body be in a Diaphanous Body the Emanant Light will be as Actual as the Inherent and if it be Obnubilated with an Opacous Body it is in the same Moment Reduced to Potentiality which also sensibly discovereth Actuality and Potentiality And so in a Moment it passeth from Heaven to Earth though I do not affirm or conceiv that Motion to be Instantaneous which is through so vast a Space wheras no Motion can be through any Space or Extension which hath Part beyond Part though it be never so little Properly in an Instant becaus it is from one Part or Term to another as I have said yet it is so Momentaneous that to us it is as it were Instantaneous so as no Mathematical Science or Human Wit whatsoever can perceiv and assigne any Difference and yet we must acknowledg that it is vastly Different in itself which is also another very wonderfull Contemplation if it be Curiously consydered and may well be Reposited among the other Mathematical Mysterys which I have formerly mentioned Certeinly there is not nor Possibly can be any Physical Discrimination or Dissection therof as of a Body or Bodily Substance for it is Impossible by any other the quickest Motion in Nature of any Opacous Body Interposed to cutt off any Part of a Ray or to prevent the Reflection therof which also Sensibly proves it not only to be no Corporeal Substance but of another Nature farr Different from it and also Different from Inherent Light for it doth not thereby Return or Recoil into it but Reflect itselâ— and continue still in its Actual Emanation though in another way to preserv itself in its own Different Actuality as every thing Naturaly doth and this also shews the Specifical Oeconomy of such Different Natures and that Accidents can not be Annihilated more then Substances or Matter itself and consequently not Created and therefore a Ray of Light can not Possibly be Dissected for then it neither Subsisting Actualy nor Potentialy in the Diaphanous Body wheriâ— it doth Localy Exist but in the Inherent Light and Lucid Substance as I have said if it could be Dissected and cutt off from them it could neither Subsist in itself nor in the Diaphanous or Lucid Body nor in any other Actualy nor Potentialy nor in any maner whatsoever and so should not only Vanish or Disappear to us but totally Perish and not be any thing either Actualy or Potentialy or in any maner whatsoever and consequently be Annihilated wheras if the Inherent Light be Obnubilated it returns into it and into its Potentiality therin out of which it will as suddenly proceed and flow forth again into Actuality when the Obstruction is removed or if the Inherent Light be Extinct it also is Reduced thereby into its Potentiality as well as Emanant Light and so both into their Potentialitys in the Substantial Spirit wherin their Accidental Essences do Originaly Subsist nor doth either Inherent or Emanant Light add â—ny Material Density or Gravity to the Lucid Body for no Spiritual Qualitys though never so much Conspissated Spiritualy and though as I have said such Spiritual Conspissation be Analogous to Material Condensation do add any Gravity to the Body as an Iron Candent which is very Fervid and Lucid yet is not Heavier then when it is Cold nor is the Air unles it be also Condensated in the very Body therof more Grave by Night then by Day or in Summer then in Winter and therefore Planets do not fall through Aether though they have more Inherent Heat and Light Much less is any Body Heavier when it hath more Heat and Light Emanant in it and the same may be Curiously tried by any Opacous Body poised in Water which will not rise by any sudden admission of the greatest or most Spiss Light into the Water though it will afterward Sink by Heat which is not becaus the Heat doth Levitate or Light Gravitate the Water by Impregnating it with any more Rare or Dens Matter in themselvs but Heat doth Spiritualy Rarefy the Water itself and so consequentialy Levitate it wheras Light doth neither Levitate nor Gravitate it and yet if it were Matter Impregnating the Water or Penetrating the supposed Pores of any Diaphanous Body it should thereby Gravitate but indeed there is no such Penetration of Pores by Emanant Light which certeinly is not a Body becaus though it be not Mist with it yet it Penetrateth the very Diaphanous Body itself per omnia Punctae for turn an Equaly Diaphanous Globule against the Light which way you pleas it will be Equaly as Diaphanous one way as another which could not be if the Rays did pass only through Pores as some suppose unles we should also suppose it to be all Pores and consequently no such Globulous Body Also this is most apparently contrary to all the Laws of Refraction which are always in Direct Lines from one Point to another within the Diaphanous Body itself and by most Regular Inflections as I shall shew heerafter and not through any such Porous Meanders and Diverticles and indeed Diaphanous Bodys as Aether itself through which the Sun doth Eradiate are of all others least Porous and if the Light did only Penetrate through some more Rare Matter in these Pores then that being therefore Diaphanous it must Penetrate through the very Bodily Matter therof which no Body can do or through other Pores of that Porous Matter and so Infinitely as I have shewed or through Interspersed Vacuitys which is as Impossible as the other and if it were Possible yet it should be no Diaphaneity but only a plain Phaneity as when we look through a Sive or Silk we do not therefore say that the Sive or Silk is Diaphanous as the Air and the Air could not be so Totaly Diaphanous as it is unles it were a Diaphanous Body throughout in the whole and not only in the Pores therof And as several Specifical Qualitys may be in the same Place per omnia as Heat and Light so also several Individual Lights Emanant which must necessarily Dâ—ffer Individualy becaus they Subsist in several Lights Inherent to which they belong and to their several Lucid Bodys and which doth also appear by the several Shadows that they cast which being several Privatives do evidently prove the Positives to be several So if the fower Walls of a Room be painted with fower several Colors Black White Blew and Yellow though the Rays of Light Reflected from them Penetrate one another per omnia becaus they fill the whole Room whereby the several Colors may be seen in every Point therof yet we see them several and Distinct and not Mist or Confounded By all which it plainly appears that Local Union per
Properly Created both in Adam and Eve whom he called Flesh of his Flesh but not Soul of his Soul is still Created by God and not Generated by the Parents as God himself testifieth All Souls are mine as the Soul of the Father so also the Soul of the Son is mine and Elihu acknowledgeth the same of himself The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life And it is so Rational that unless we also acknowledge it we must affirm that our very Intellective and Rational Souls were partly in the Seed of our Father and partly in the Seed of our Mother and so by their mingling together Mist into one as the fower Elementary Spirits or the Muline Spirits and the like and so that half an Human Soul was lost by the sin of Onan And if the Soul of Man be thus Miscible then it may be also Unmist again and is Divisible and consequently Corruptible as well as Generable with many other such Absurditys which do necessarily follow this Erroneous Opinion Wheras we may Sensibly perceiv that though as I have said the Sensitive Body of Man that is the Matter and Elementary Vegetative and Sensitive Spirit be so Generated by the Parents and accordingly are conformable more or less to their Bodily part as an Aethiopian or Negro begets a Nâ—gro a Moor a Moor and an European an European according to the several Shapes and Colors of the Parents Bodys not only in their Native Climes of Aethiopia Mauritania Europe and the like but also in any others so long and untill the habits of the Parents Bodys be afterward altered by degrees and several Successive Generations and so Hereditary Diseases happen commonly in Familys yet there can be no such certein Observation made of any Intellectual or Moral Endowments of the Soul descending from the Parents to their Children notwithstanding the Inclinations from all those Bodily Humors which may so be derived unto them and the great advantages of Education and Conversation with them and the like which Virgil had very wisely consydered and so affirmed to Augustus that therefore he could not judg of the Race of Men as of Horses and Dogs and it is a common Observation of Historians that in Hereditary Kingdoms seldom two Princes of like Disposition succeed one another But it is most observable in the Foetus of Sodomitical Copulaâ—ion that though iâ— may in the Bodily part retein and represent something of either Parent Human and Belluine yet the Predominant Spirit or Soul is not so Mist as in a Mâ—le which is both Equine and Asinine but is either Human or Belluine that is Intellective or not Intellective and having or not having Rational Discours and the like though I rather suppose that it is never Human but alway Belluine and that though God doth generaly Create and Infuse an Human Soul into a Foetus begott by Adulterous or Mâ—retricious Copulation which are only against the Law of Matrimony between two Individua yet he doth not so assist in Sodomy which is against the Generical Law of Nature and the Classical Difference therof And as Sensitive Animals of the same Classis that are very Heterogeneous will not so copulate as Beast and Bird nor Hors and Kine and the like as an Hors and Ass will which are more Homogeneous so though Man whose very Sensitive Spirit is more Heterogeneous from all Beasts then any of them is from another may through his most Unnatural and Abominable Lust perpetrate such Infand Villany which cried to heaven and to the God of Nature for Vengeance against the first Denominators therof yet commonly the Foetus is strangely Biform and Monstrous and no fitt Receptacle for an Human Spirit and so it is said It is Confusion Now though Human Parents do not nor can they as I have shewed so Generate or produce the Intellective Spirit of the Child as they do the Sensitive Spirit and others yet Homo generaâ— Hominem or the Human Compositum which is the Man that is Generated aswell as any other Sensitive Animal doth Generate its like Sensitive Compositum which may evidently appear if we remind what Generation truly and rightly is that is no Creation of any Possible Non-entity nor Transpeciation or Conversion of one Entity into another or Production from not such an Entity Actual or Potential and only Possible which is tantamount to a Creation but only a Composition Aedification or Confabrication of Simple Essences before Created into one Compositum whereby there is Generated a Forma Compositi which was not before Actualy but only Potentialy in all the simple Essences wherof it is Composited and which also have their own Simple Formalitys whereby they are such as they are and were so Created by God in themselvs otherwise they should not be such as they are and indeed Absolutely not be in themselvs and when they are so Composited there is no new Creation or Conversion of them or any of their own Simple Essences or Formalitys as they are every one in themselvs into any other but only the Composition of them all together in such or such a maner which was Potentialy before in them all otherwise they could not be so Composited is now made Actualy to be such a Compositum as it was not before as any Accident Potentialy Subsisting in the Substance is so afterward Actuated as well as an Hous is so Built as I have shewed and this is the Generation that is Generatio Compositi by such Composition and Confabrication of simple Entitys for there can be no Composition of Non-entitys And thus as the Original Generation of Adam or the whole Man by God was such a Composition and Confabrication as he is so said to be the Son of God and of the Woman by such Aedification as it is termed so is every Man still Generated by his Parents in all Successive Generation and the only Difference between the Generation of Man and any other Animal is in the Creation of the Principles or Simple Essences wherof they are Composited that is whereas the Matter Elementary Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits of Brutes which are their Principles were all before Created by God and are afterward Composited by the Parents which is their Generation so only the Matter Elementary Vegetative and Sensitive Spirit of Man were so before Created and his Intellective Spirit which is one Principle is Created by God Immediately in and with the Composition and Generation by the Parents according to the Law of Nature which different Creation of the Principles by God doth not at all concern the Generation by the Parents that is the Composition or Confabrication therof which according to the Law of his Nature is the same in Man as in any other Animal and therefore there is one and the same Blessing of Procreation to Man and Beasts wheras indeed if Generation were any such Conversion or Transpeciation as is supposed then Man should not Generate Man as
And though I believ this Opinion of the Immortality of the Soul as also the other that there is a God to be Explicitely Exerted and Exercised by few yet certeinly they are both Implicitely Radicated in the Minds of all men which Renders their Lives and Conversations such as if sometimes and in some respects they did seem so to believ and at other times and in other respects as if they did not and it may appear so to be in themselvs and to themselvs in that they have such a continual strife and endeavor to cast and keep these Opinion out of their Minds which is commonly done either by not regarding or resolving against them wherof the very fear or doubtfull apprehension which no Brute can have doth approve to the Soul itself what it may expect and which if men begin at any time to think therof will return upon them though some more learned study to confute themselvs by Contrary Opinions and that they may make way for the denial of the Immortality of the Soul therefore also deny all Separate Spirits both of Men and Angels Good and Bad as the Sadduces and others with Epicurus deny all Inferior Spirits whatsoever hudling all things and themselvs together in the common Matter which is such a Physical Libertinism as though it may gratifie us at present yet is indeed no less then the Eternal Self-murder of the Soul And so likewise others though they will not reduce all Spiritual Substances to the gross Matter yet affirm their Soul to be only Pars Animae Mundi as they term it into which when it dieth it returns again as into another Spiritual Chaos and so though the Substance remain therin Confounded and Coagulated with others yet the Personality and Individuality therof is thereby Corrupted and destroyed like the Sensitive Spirits of Brutes which is only another more subtle Denial of the Immortality therof that is of the very Individuality and Personality of every Human Spirit as I have shewed Wherefore becaus they cannot deny the Immortality of the Soul Absolutely they thus deny the same Personal future Condition therof and any such Intensive or Extensive Rewards or Punishments in Heaven or Hell which to mitigate and moderate they have invented and appointed a Transmigration for all Souls into better or wors Bodys after Death accordingly as they have behaved themselves while they Lived in the former Whereas they must also affirm that they are still Human Spirits which are so detruded into Brutes or Vegetative Bodys as the Poets plainly do acknowledg and so the Man in the Buck would have said to his Hounds and Huntsmen Actaeon ego Sum as the Tree did to Aeneas Nam Polydorus ego which yet certeinly is contrary to all Philosophy and Nature for every Specifical Spirit must have its own proper Organical Body and if any of the more Noble and Necessary Parts of its own Body while it Lives in it be Discontinued Dissocated or Disordered it will Live no longer in it much less could the Human Spirit of Actaeon Live in a Buck or of Polydorus in a Tree for Bodys are nor only Vehicles of the Spirits but Domicils and Officines as I have shewed and as Sensitive Spirits cannot Live in any other besides their own Element so much less can they or the Intellective Spirit of Man live in any other then their own proper Bodys which are therefore so Effigiated and Formed for them by their proper Vegetative Spirits as I have also shewed Or if they could be Transpeciated into other Sensitive or Vegetative Spirits then their Substances being so Specificaly changed their Faculties and Qualities and all their Ideae and Notions subsisting therin must also be changed and alâ—ered whereby they should no longer remember who they were nor what they did formerly and so they should suffer for they know not what after such an Act of Oblivion not only of him that so forgiveth and forgetteth the Crime but also in him who forgetteth the Fact And though others say we be all born with some Reminiscentiae as they term them yet certeiâ—ly they are no such Acquired Notions of any Matter of Fact or thing Good or Evil that we formerly did or learned but only such Common Iâ—nate Notions which God and Nature have Imprinted in us and so taught us to know them which are only Natural and not Sinful and there are also certein Special Innate Notions of Specifical Spirits which are only proper to that Species and to none others as I have shewed all which should be lost by such Transmigration or Transpeciation which therefore is not nor can there be any such Metempsychosis as Philosophers would have it nor yet any such Metamorphosis as the Poets more rightly term iâ— and as both of them are contrary to all Reason or Sens so we have no other Authority but only Ipse dixit for such Assertions And yet this Opinion being apprehended as a Midle way between the Mortality and Immortality of the Soul though not according to the Excellent and Spiritual Nature of an Intelligence and also between no Reward or Punishment heerafter and the true Heaven and Hell and all the Glorious Transactions therof though not worthy the Majesty and Perfection of the Divine Creator hath very much prevailed antienâ—ly among the more Learned Heathen and generaly with the Common People and is still reteined by the Banians and some others But the most difficult Point that I know among Christians concerning the Immortality of the Soul is â—haâ— whiâ—h is called by some the Sleep therof and by others more rightly Psychâ—pannychia or the Pernoctation of the Soul between Death and the Resurrection for in Sleep there is some Opâ—ration both of the Sensitive and Intellective Spirit of Man though Wild and Irregular as I have shewed and iâ— is noâ— intended that in this State there is any Operation whatsoever but a total Vacatâ—on and Cessation therof like Rest of the Body or Bestial part of Man which is said to Sleep in the Grave and that is theâ—efore called a Coemeterium or Dormitory But certeinly the Soul when it deparâ—eth fâ—om â—he Body carrieth along with it all its own Innate and acquired Notions though as the Mâ—n himself so alâ— his Thoughts perish â—s to this world and I doubt not but that also it hath others and farr higher and better in that State and Blessed Souls are sâ—id to be in Paradise which import Pleasure and Delight and that cannot be wiâ—hout Contemplation and Enjoiment also they are now stiled Spirits of Iust Men madâ— Perfect which cannot be without Perfect Operation and since they are Separate from the Body and all Iâ—strumentality therof we must consyder how and in what maner they may probably Operate And heer I must explicate what I intend by terming the Intellective Spirit of Man an Intelligence and affirming that and Angels to be in the same Intellective Classis whereby I conceiv that as Fishes Fowls and Beasts are all in the
same Sensitive Classis and yet very farr Different one from another not only in their whole Composita but also in their very Sensitive Spirits which Specificaly Differ and the Piscine Spirits are much Inferior to the Bestial so also are Angelical and Human Spirits in the same Intellective Classis and not only Spirits Genericaly as they are distinguished from Matter and as all Elementary Vegetative and Sensitive are Spirits as well as Angels as I have shewed but Classicaly Coordinate one with another and though the Spirits of Men be Inferior to Angelical as it is said Thou hast made him little lower then the Angels yet certeinly they are not Subordinate unto them as Fishes though Inferior to Beasts are not Subordinate unto them so as all the Sensitive Classis is unto Man and the Vegetative to the Sensitive and the Elementary to the Vegetative and Matter to the Elementary becaus they are not of an Inferior Classis but of the same Classis wherin all are Coordidinate as I have shewed and so are the Intellective Spirits of Men with Angels and as our Savior saith in this Future State they shall be Isangeli not only like but equal to them and indeed if we should not be in the same Intellective Classis with them Man should not be a Microcosm as he is and Christ in our Human Nature should not have Assumed all the several Classes of Nature as he did And becaus we are so Coordinate with them therefore we need not their Mediation and Intercession but only his who is the Mediator God-Man And as the highest Excellence of their Nature is to Know Love and Enjoy God so we are capable heerof as well as they and as we and they are Moral Creatures so we are Mutualy obliged one to another but neither of us to Brutes and so the Angel said to Iohn I am thy fellow-servant and we are yet more united in Christ who shall also make us partakers of their Superaether and in whom all things are Recapitulated as the Apostle saith both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him Whereby as it is also said we Come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Ierusalem and to an Innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven Now wheras I have shewed that in this present Conjunct State we cannot Operate without or beyond the Body that is we cannot Understand without Phantasms which we Irradiate with the Spiritual Light of our Understanding nor Localy Move the Body without the Motive Spirits which we Move by the Spiritual Power of our Will whereby we Command and Govern the Sensitive Imagination and Appetite Immediately and so the whole Body Mediately and that Angels need no such Instrumentalitys but may Intuitively Contemplate all things by the Irradiation of their own Mental Light and Move them by the Eradiation of their own Spiritual Heat as I may so term them thus our Human Spirit as well as they shall also then have the same Intuitive and Motive Qualitys Actuated therin which aâ—e now in it Potentialy for so Intelligences as well as all other Natures have their proper Potentialitys and Actualitys otherwise they should not be Mutable for Alteration is by production of Potentiality into Actuality and reduction of Actuality into Potentiality as I have said and though they are not Generable or Corruptible in their Substances which are Simple and without any Mistion or Composition and such as always Subsist in themselvs and are neither Generable nor Corruptible as I have also shewed yet they have their Accidental Qualitys by which they Operate and not by their Essences or Substances Immediately more then other Natures and all such Accidents do Subsist in their Substances and thereby and therin have their Actualitys and Potentialitys and are therefore Generable and Corruptible in themselvs and so Mutable Also all Simple Substances of the same Species have all the same Specifical Qualitys therof either Actualy or Potentialy becaus they are of the same Species as they are such Simple Substances though their Mista or Composita may otherwise Differ Specificaly as such for so though the Cortical Stones Metalls Minerals and Subcortical Magnet differ Specifically as Mista yet as all of them are of the same Predominant Element Earth so that being a Simple Substance in it self hath all the Terrene Qualitys in it self Actualy or Potentialy and thus the Magnetical Virtue which is a Terrene Quality is Actuated in Iron and so as is said may be in Brick-earth and the like And so though Aethereal and Culinary Fire may differ Specificaly as Mista yet the Elementary Fire which is Predominant in both is Specificaly one and the same Simple Substance and hath all the Aethereal Qualitys in it self either Actualy or Potentialy and so Planetary Virtue might be Actuated in Culinary Fire as well as in Comets and so also all Simple Substances of the same Classis have the same Classical or Generical Qualitys as every Grass Herb and Tree hath Vegetation and the like though in their own several Specifical maners and every Fish Fowl Beast hath Sensation and the like though in their own several Specifical maners And thus the Human Spirit and the Angelical Spirit being both Intelligences which may Live and Operate separately have also such Generical Qâ—alitys both Intuitive and Motive whereby they may so Live and Operate Separately in themselvs though in their own several Specifical maner either Actualy as the Angels or Potentialy as we also now have them And as an Embryon in the Womb hath many Facultys Potentialy which yet are not Actuated untill it be born and brought forth into the Light so have also our Souls while they are as Embryons in the Egg as it were of our Bodys and as we have now many Actual Qualitys which shall in that Separate State be reduced to Eternal Potentiality as Nutrition Tasting and the like so shall we then have others Actuated in us which we never had Actualy before And certeinly in the Palingenesy of the Body there shall be such a great and wonderfull change of Qâ—alitys that the Apostle calleth it a Spiritual Body as I have shewed which shall not be only a Platonical Vehicle of the Soul but Organical and most Glorious as the Apostle saith The Lord Iesus Christ shall change our Vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself Whereby also we may understand that Separate Spirits are not so vastly Diffusive or Atomicaly Retractive as some fansy but have their Bounds as other Finite Natures for so certeinly our Separate Soul after the Resurrection shall be confined within the Body as well as in this Conjunct State And that the Separate State of the Soul is such may somewhat Sensibly appear in our selvs who seem to have some Common
becaus it doth Immediately Consubstantiate the Matter as well as Elementary But though the Matter can not be without some Material Spirit so Consubstantiating it yet as I said they are not Ingaged to any particular Matter but may Remove from one part of Matter to another as Matter may from one Place to another in the Universal Body therof and clearly Immaterial Spirits which do not Consubstantiate the Matter need no Consubstantiation by it and may be in this or that Extension of the Matter but can not pass beyond it into any Imaginary Inanity or Nonentity becaus they also are Entitys and within one and the same Universal Province and Law therof Much less can any Matter wander beyond the Utmost Limits of itself which is the Circumferential Superficies of the Highest Orb therof beyond which it can not Ascend as it can not Descend below the Center Wherefore that Fansy of Lucretius is very Futile and Vain that if an Arrow were shott forth beyond that Circumference it would fly forward Perpetualy for then it must always Ascend from the Center of the World and never attein any other Center of Rest which is most contrary to the Law of Motion to Station and also might Exist Localy beyond the Universal Extension of the whole Body of the World and be another less World or Univers in itself which is most contrary to the Law of Motion to Union whereby as I have said the whole Body of Matter is Naturaly Constituted such an Orbicular Body by such a Perfect Circumference and Center and is not Protuberant in any Part of itself or other then a most exact Globe becaus that is the most United Figure wherunto the most Universal Law of Union doth Oblige the whole Matter therof and even Spirits themselvs do Exist only within the Universal Coextension and Locality becaus beyond it there is no Place or Ubi or Entity wherin they may Possibly Exist for as they have no Extension of themselvs so also no Place or Vbi whatsoever but only in the Extension and Body of Matter wherof and wherin they are Such Active and Operative Substances and Spirits The next in this Scale of Nature are the fower Elements Aether Air Water and Earth which none can deny to be and I shall now prove them to be Elements when I have first explained the Term which will plainly Elucidate the Thing and I shall do it Exemplarily by Matter itself which is indeed the most Common Element or Praeelement therof and Immediately Consubstantiated by them and the Superaetheral Spirit and so Matter is their first Body or Element which is the true Notion of an Element and so I intend it to be a Natural Substratum of some other Superior and more Active Substance and which may be so Composited or United with it as a Body with a Spirit but not that the Spirit is Produced out of any Potentia or Equivocal Causality therof which I have already sâ—fficiently refuted or that it is Generated thereby more then the Body is Generated by the Spirit but that both are Composited or United Naturaly together inâ—o one Compositum which is the very Generation therof And these fower Elements are commonly so called in respect of the Superior Spirits wherof they with the Matter become a Second Matter or Prepared Body therof as the Matter was of them for they only and the Superaethereal Spirit can Immediately Inform the Matter and the Superior Spirits only Mediately by them and so one by another according to their Classes and Ranks in the Scale of Nature as I shall now shew And though any one Elementary Spirit might Consubstantiate the Matter in the first Chaos as well as the Superaethereal Spirit yet until they were all Prepared and Predisposed by the Divine Spirit and fitly Mist together in the Three first Days no Vegetative or other Superior Spirit could be Produced or Inform any one of them alone and also the Matter becaus not any one of them alone together with the Matter is a fitt Body of the Superior Spirits more then the Superaether which is Superelementary and no such Elementary Body of any other Spirit whatsoever But these Fower Elements must be all Mist together as they were in the Three first Days and never since were nor shall be untill the Dissolution of the World wholy Unmist and Separate as they were in the first Chaos though that Mistion is and must be Varied by continual Generation and Corruption to make them more particularly fitt Bodys for the several Superior Spirits wherof probably every Species doth require a Various Mistion aswell as some Variation of the Figure and Density of the Matter which is so Varied by the Various Mistion of these Elementary Spirits Now that they are fower such Elements as I have described doth plainly appear by their Denominations in the first Chaos and their orderly Preparation in the Three first Days for the Production of the Superior Spirits Vegetative and Sensitive which I shall more fully discover in my ensuing Discourses therof And as I have proved that they are not only Matteâ— nor any Diversifications therof but do so diversify the Matter as their Body for themselvs and much less are they Produced out of any Potentia of the Matter so also are the Superiour Spirits no Diversifications of them but do so Diversify them for themselvs in their Various Mistions By all which precedent Discourses I have sufficiently proved that there are such Inferior Substances and Spirits which are the Bodys or Elements of the Superior otherwise all Material Spirits should only be Matter or they should be without their Bodys and consequently Immaterial wherefore if they have such Bodys and yet are not the same with those Bodys then plainly they are the Spirits or more Active and Operative Substances which Inform or Inspirit those Bodys and Reside and Operate therin as their Domicils and Officines which I therefore call their Element or Subordinate and Preparatory Substance or Elementary Principle of the Compositum which together with the Predominant Spirit therof doth Constitute it such a Compositum as it is by which Composition and Constitution it is Generated and so Denominated by the Predominant Spirit therof to be of this or that Classis in the Scale of Nature And this is all that I intend by Element generaly and whosoever frames any other Notion therof may thereby doubt and dispute it and fight with his own shadow though more particularly we call these first and lowest Spirits which Immediately Consubstantiate the Matter Elementary and so the fower Elements becaus they are the first and lowest of Spirits and the first Elements therof And sensibly in all Dissolutions of any Material Composita as we may still deprehend Matter which is the Praeelement of all others so also these fower Elements which can not now Naturaly Exist Pure as they did in the first Chaos though we call them this or that Element as any of them is more Predominant
by some kind of Vegetative Expansion and Compression as I shall shew afterward As Fishes are expressly said to be produced out of the Waters wherin their Spirits were before latent so they require a Body Aqueous wherin they Reside and Operate and they were accordingly formed of the Water as it was then Mist with the other Elements and thereby prepared for such productions and formations and though some may wonder as I have formerly at this strange formation of the Bodys of Fishes how their Flesh and Bones which are Firm and Consistent though not so much as of Fowls and Beasts should be made of Fluid Water which could not be Transmuted into Earth since there is no such Transpeciation as I have before proved yet heer also we may see how these Mysterys of Scripture and Nature do Consist and Correspond together for so it is found by Experiment that some Trees and Fruits as Willows Pumpions and the like may be as much Augmented thereby and so the whole Sensitive Body is still formed of Bloud for every Mistum conteineth all the Elements and their Virtues and there is in Water or Bloud also sufficient Matter and so drink if not so Nutritive yet may be as Augmentative as Meat as appears in such who drink much and eat litle and Sensitive Bodys as of Tadpols may be formed of Water and if we consyder the Mistion of all the fower Elements and the Doctrine of Potentialitys which I have before deduced from the Chaos of all these Potentialitys and already approved by many other Instances as also it may be clearly confirmed heerby we may understand how as I have said it is indeed the Clavis of all Generation and Corruption for thus all the Terraqueous Composita are Terraqueous having also some Misture though less of Air and Aether in them and so in their Generation or Corruption if the Terreous Qualitys be Actuated they appear to be and so indeed Actualy are Terreous Bodys and have a proportionable Firmnes or Consistence which as I said is a Terreous Quality as Smoak is turned into Soot and the like and if the Aqueous Qualitys be Actuated and the Terreous reduced to their Potentiality then the same Bodys will be no longer Firm and Consistent Actualy but Fluid as in Fusion and Corrosion of Metalls whereby it is said that even Gold itself may be reduced to an Oil or to some such Aqueous Body and others affirm the like of any Terreous Bodys whatsoever and so though Aereous Qualitys according to the less Misture of that Element in Terraqueous Bodys are not so easily and commonly Actuated yet thereby or by Vapor or both Camphire and Salts may be Volatilised as Meteors may be in the Air like Amurca oâ— Mudder standing in the top of Water yea by Actuating the Aethereous Qualitys therin the Terraqueous Body may seem to be all Fire as Iron Candent Pitch Wax Tallow Oil Spirit of Wine and the like Inflamed But the Bodys of Fishes are not so Terreous as to Sink to the bottom nor so Aereous as to Swim and float above the Water being most fitly poised and prepared for their Moving in their Native Element Water As the Spirits of Fishes are Sensitive so the more Perfect have all Senses except Hearing which some deny and also that they have any Auditory Nervs certeinly they do not hear themselvs becaus they are generaly Mâ—te and yet I rather conceiv that they have also the Sens of Hearing becaus they have the more excellent Sens of Seing though perhaps their Hearing may be very Dull as their Element of Water is no very fitt Medium of Sound Yet Oisters and such Imperfect Fishes have neither of these Scientifical Senses Seing or Hearing but only Feeling and Tasting and perhaps Smelling which as I have said is Concomitant and Assistant to Tast though the distinct Organs of any Sens are not discernible in them nor any Brain or Heart but they seem to be one Lump with something like a Bloud in it which all Sensitives have and also as I suppose something Analogous to the Organs in more perfect Animals of such Senses as they have and so of Imagination and Appetite which are the common Sensitive Fountains of all the Senses and wherin they Subsist though they have no Imaginative Ingeny as I shall shew afterward and therefore no Sensitive can be without them and consequently not without some apt Organs therof And heer I must observ that as every Specifical Nature is most excellent in its own Specifical Difference becaus it is the very Specifical Difference therof so in the same Classis the lower Species may have some Inferior Qualitys more Excellent or at least more Vehement and Notorious then the Superior Thus Fishes are generaly more Voracious and less Valetudinary then other Sensitives and Augment vastly and Procreate abundantly especialy such as Generate by Ejection and Superinjection of their Seeds and not by Copulation as is reported of Whales and their Fecundity is expressly mentioned in the Text that the Waters brought them forth abundantly and so again Emphaticaly repeated and therefore I do not conceiv as some that this Difference happened by the Deluge which indeed did not concern Fishes becaus it is so intimated in their very Creation But in all these and many other Piscine Qualitys and Facultys the Whale and such other grand Animals of the Sea do excell and such Thynni Balaenae and immania Cete are therefore called Sea-monsters not becaus they are Anomalous but from their vast and terrible Greatnes and the chief of them which is supposed to be the Whale is termed Leviathan whom God himself hath largely described elsewhere and saith of him Vpon all the Earth there is not his like he is King over all the children of Pride I suppose in respect of his great Bulk and Strength generaly though his strength in proportion to his Bulk be not so great as of many Terrestrial Animals especialy the Elephant which is also termed Behemoth and who in that respect is said to be Chief of the ways of God But Fowls are of the least Bodily Magnitude though their Spirits be of an higher Kind then Fishes and yet more allied to them then to Beasts and therefore made in the same Day with them and so it is also observed that their Brains are more Conformable to the Brains of Fishes and the Brains of Beasts to the Brain of Man The Bodys of Fowls are less becaus the Air in which they were made to fly is a more Rare and weaker Fulciment then Water though otherwise their flying is Analogous to Swiming and such a kind of Sliding or Creeping and their Wings and the Motion therof to Fins and the Motion therof and as they were not produced out of the Air nor their Bodys formed of it for as I said all Animals as well as Vegetatives are Terraqueous so neither of the Water as Fishes for it is not so said of them but as it
is Originaly Let Fowls fly in the Firmament of Heaven and the other words following and every winged Fowl after his Kind seem rather to refer to Gods Creation of them both in that Day then particularly to their Creation out of the Waters and it is said afterward of them as well as of Beasts And out of the Ground God formed every Beast of the Earth and every Fowl of the Air but wheras plainly it is said that Fishes were produced out of Water and Beasts out of the Earth and neither is so before particularly expressed of Fowls I suppose they were made of some more equaly Mist Terraqueous Substance wherin neither Water did so much Predominate as in the Bodys of Fishes nor Earth as in the Bodys of Beasts and accordingly the Bodys of Fowls are of a midle Substance not so Tender as of Fishes nor yet so Fi m and Solid as of Beasts But Fowls though they be generaly Oviparous as well as Fishes yet also Procreate by Copulation and not by Exclusion of the Seed Immediately as Vegetatives and as Fishes generaly are Procreated nor yet by Gestation in the Womb untill there be a Formation of the Foetus as Beasts which is a more perfect Birth and proper to Superior Animals Certeinly they excell Fishes in their Spiritual Facultys of Sens and Imagination as in their Singing Nidification and the like as they are Inferior to Beasts in Imaginative Ingeny and Act generaly And wheras there are some flying Fishes as they are commonly called so indeed they are not Fowls but Fishes which generaly live in the Water as others and only fly above it so long as their Wings are wett which maketh them to be more stiff and strong as Sails are stifned by wetting and so Water-fowls are not Fishes but Fowls that generaly fly in the Air though they can also dive in the Water and continue there so long as their Breath lasteth as we say and so Otters and the like Amphibia are Beasts and no Fishes and though there be Aquatical Insects which afterward prove Flys yet this is no Transpeciation but the Worm both in Earth and Water is only the Embryo or Inception of such flying Insects as the Vegetative Embryo is of a Sensitive Animal II. Having thus farr discoursed of these two Kinds of Sensitives Fishes and Fowls generaly according to my Intention which is only to Elucidate the general System of the World as God himself hath declared it unto us in this Divine History of Creation and to conferr Scripture and Nature together I shall now proceed to discours of Sensation in the same general maner having already declared what I intend thereby that is a Life with Imaginative Perception and Spontaneous Appetite whereby the Animal doth not only Act and Opeâ—ate as all other Inferior Natures but Perceivs what it doth and Consents to do it and so also Contemplates and accordingly Affects or Disaffects the Object about which it is conversant and Exerciseth its Operations which is a Double Operation and not such a Simple Imperceptive and Involuntary or Non Spontaneous kind of Operation as there is in other Inferior Agents but also with a Sensitive Enjoyment therof and of itself and its own Operations in a Living maner by Perception and Appetite as I said which are the proper Facultys of the Sensitive Spirit and that denominateth the Animal Sensitive becaus Sensitive Spirits wherof Perception and Appetite are the proper Facultys are of an higher Classis and farr other Nature then the other Subordinate Spirits Vegetative and Elementary and the Matter which they so Subordinate to themselvs according to that Scale of Nature as I have formerly shewed and as according to that Scale Sensitive Spirits are Sensitive in themselvs and Subordinate the others Immediately or Mediately according to the several Degrees therof to themselvs so also their Operations are either such as they can Act and Exercise of themselvs and by their own Intrinsecal Power or such as they only Command and Govern but are Executed and Performed by the Inferior Spirits Vegetative and Elementary but how the Sensitive Spirit doth thus Command and Govern the Vegetative Spirit and that the Elementary and the like is not so easily Intelligible becaus these several Natures are Classicaly different and therefore also though the Sensitive Spirit Perceiveth what it doth as I said generaly becaus it is Sensitive yet it Perceiveth not how any Vegetative or Elementary Operations are done and performed by those Subordinate Spirits in its own Compositum becaus they are not Sensitive nor can they or the Sensitive Spirit by them Perceiv what they do or how the Work is done farther then as it may have some Sensation therof in itself which is a manifest Evidence to me that there are such several Spirits Classicaly distinct and which as I have said are never Mist together in the same Sensitive or Intellective Compositum becaus there are evidently in it such distinct and different Operations wherof some are Sensible and Perceptible and others are not concerning which I shall discours heerafter and now Inquire into these Mysterys of Sensation which though they be performed within us yet are less obvious then other things without us as any may better see how a Chick is formed in the Egg then how Augmentation is performed within his own Body Also the higher any Nature is the more Excellent and Curious and Difficult it is to be understood And being now entred into this Region of Life I am very conscious in what a dark Adytum I am and how litle Light others do afford me but dabiâ— Deus his quoque finem Wherefore grounding my self upon his Word I shall proceed It is said The Life of all Flesh is the Bloud therof or as it is in the precedent words the Bloud of it is for the Life therof And heer we shall see again how Scripture and Nature do mutualy Interpret one another And I shall first collect from these words that all Flesh that is all Sensitive and Living Bodys have a Bloud or something Analogous of whatsoever Color or Crassitude it may be and that this Bloud is not only the Aliment or Nutriment but the very Rudiment of the Life therof and indeed of the Flesh itself and all other Parts of the Body Potentialy as every thing is Nourished by that wherof it is Constituted and thus it is well observed that in the Formation of the Foetus there is a Bubble of Vital Liquor which first Moves and so forms itself and its own Coat or Canale by a Vital Heat Operating upon it whereby in the Fermentation therof the more Pure and Subtile parts are Congregated in and toward the midle and the more Gross and Viscid are Segâ—egated and amandated to the outsides and there as Milk heated when it begins to cool hath a litle Skin in the Superficies so this Congenerous Liquor which is the Rudiment of Bloud and also of Milk doth begin thereby to form a