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
with Dâ—ws and Rains and the officious Water runeth up and down to wash the face of the dusty Cortex and to bath and supple all the Limbs therof and also floweth forward and backward to carry and recarry the greatest Burdens from Shore to Shore Thus all the other more Active Elements as so many Circumsistent Servitors in their several Courses and Orders minister unto Earth which sitting still and resting in itself receiveth all their Homages and Tributes not Moving nor being Moved with all their Disorders and Confusions but founded on the Solid Base of its own Density and Gravity and strengthned by its own Consistence and fixed by its own Polarity doth also by its other Qâ—alitys fix all the more subtile and volatile Elementary Spirits Which covereth its own Nakednes with the Daedalous Embroidery of Leavs and Flowers and enricheth itself not only with the Stock of all the hid Treasures of Jewells Metalls and Minerals but also with all the Rents and Revenues of Annual Fruits and Profits both producing and mainteining all Vegetatives and the chief of Sensitive Animals yea Man himself whose Body is also formed of the Congenerous Dust and so the Earth which is given to the children of Men is the Stage of this great Amphitheater of the World wherin all the present Affairs therof are transacted and as all the other Elements are now subservient therunto so heerafter also the Superaether or Heaven of Heavens shall be the everlasting Mansion of Blessed Souls And now again let us tune our praises to an higher Note and bless God for the Creation of Vegetatives Grass Herbs and Trees and let us contemplate their several Kinds and Virtues which yet are Innumerable and Unknown to us their Curious Formations and Oeconomical Administrations the careless Comlines of their Leavs and Beautys of their Flowers the general conformity of their Greennes to our Sight and the delightfull varietys of all their other Colors how wonderfully they Compose Nourish and Augment their own Bodys and Generate others and having neither Sens nor Intellect in themselvs yet by their own Innate Plastical Virtues perform such works as no Sens or Intellect can Imitate or sufficiently Admire The Microscopical perfection wherof doth exactly correspond with the most Critical Sens and Organical usefulnes with the most Political Intellect And as God in the Begining Immediately Created the Heavens and the Eartâ— and the great Building of the whole World so they Mediately build all the Domicils and Officines of their own and all Superior Bodys as the Architects therof and Vulcans of all their Organs and Instruments and are themselvs together with the Subordinate Elements and Matter the Immediate Bodys of all Sensitive Spirits wherin they Reside and Operate and both Dress and Digest for them all their Nutriment wherof a great part is of the same Vegetative Nature which affordeth not only Salads for delight but solid food for strongest Animals Horses Bulls and the great Behemoth furnishing also Mans Table with Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man and Oil to make his Face to shine and Bread which strengthneth Mans Heart Renewing the Annual Fruits of the Earth as fast as all the Animals can devour them which in Mans better State were his sole Diet and since he tasted of their only forbidden Fruit are his Physick or Natures Tree of Life for healing of the Nations SECTION X. And God said Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to divide the Day from the Night And let them be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years And let them be for Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth And it was so And God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night He made the Starrs also And God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth and to rule ober the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes And God saw that it was Good And the Evening and the Morning were the Fourth Day EXPLICATION God having in the First Day made the Light and by it one Hemisphere of the Aether more Luminous then the other and thereby Day and Night Artificial in that first Day Natural which did accordingly succeed in the two following Days now in this Fourth Day did more particularly distinguish them by the several Luminarys which he made therin for that purpose and also for Signfications of Times and Seasons Months and Years and all the variations therof And he made two chief Lights the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night Also he severaly made all the Starrs according to their several natures And so sett all these Heavenly Luminarys in their several Positions in the Aether to run their several Courses therin and thereby to Illuminate the Earth and to make all the said Divisions and Distinctions of Time which was their Goodnes and Perfection And these were the Works of the Fourth Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Aethereal Luminaâ—ys 2. Of the Sun 3. Of the Moon 4. Of the Starrs 5. Of Comets 6. Of the Goodnes of the Works of the Fourth Day I. WE now proceed to discours of the Second Part of Creation wherin when God had before perfected and prepared all the â—ower Elements and planted the Earth which was the last with Vegetatives which he produced out of it he began now to Introduce into them all their more Locomotive Inhabitants and to shew the Connexion of both these two Parts of Creation it is again said of the first Created Light Sit or Fiat Luminaria wherunto as I suppose the Singular Number doth referr and that it must be so understood Lux fiat Luminaria for it is afterward Sint or Fiant Pluraly And I also observ that wheras it is said of all the other Days Works when they were finished and perfected generaly God saw that it was Good it is said of that first Created Light more particularly God saw the Light that it was Good though also afterward in the same Day he divided the Light from the Darkness but as I have before observed of the three Inferior Elements Air Water and Earth that it is not said God saw that it was Good untill they were all perfected and the whole Work finished so though Day and Night Artificial were made generaly by the division of the Light from the Darknes in the First Day Natural yet becaus they were also to be more particularly distinguished by the Luminarys and to be so ruled by the two great Lights expressly made for that purpose that is the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night therefore the Goodnes is not pronounced of Day and Night in the First Day but in this Fourth Day wherin the whole perfection therof was consummated so accurately exact is God the Author of Nature and Scripture both in his Operation and
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
themselvs but also adapted so as to Colluminate together and give Light upon the Earth as it is so said of them all together as well as particularly of the Sun to rule the Day and of the Moon to rule the Night and thus they were made one general Constellation or Host of Heaven wherof the Sun who was made to rule the Day which is called Light and in respect wherof the Night and all the Nocturnal Lâ—ght is Comparatively termed Dâ—rknes not only as they were so Divided and Denominated in the First Day before there were any Moon or Starrs to rule the Night but now also again in this Fourth Day wherin the Luminarys were made to rule over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes was made also to be Fountain of Light generaly as the Ocean and the rest as Rivers or Streams of Light and as all the Luminarys and Constellations have their Influences so every other Planet and Starr and the whole Aether had their own Native Light more or less Actualy produced in themselvs and likewise an aptitude or Potentiality of production of a greater Lucidity and Emanation therof as well as of their Influences by the Sun whereby they also might give Light upon the Earth And thus as I have observed Univocal Generators do most Effectualy Generate and produce as Heat is so said to draw forth Heat and particularly Colors which are composed as I said of Lucidity and Opacity though they be Inherent in the Colorate Bodys wherin they are so Mist and do Subsist yet being so Mist with Opacity their Lucidity is thereby also so Imprisoned or fixed and confined to the Colorate Body that it is only Actualy Inherent therin and cannot issue forth in Emananâ— Rays whereby it becomes Visible unto us until it be Evoked Excited and Assisted by the External Light and the more Lucid the Color is as White and the like the more it is so produced as Whites are best Marks at a distance and a White Horse a better Mark or Guide in a dark Night then a Black and the more Light or Rays therof are cast upon any Colorate Object the more are the Visible Species therof produced wheras Culinary Lucid Bodys which of themselvs do Emitt their own Rays are not Assisted but rather have their Visibility Obscured by External Light especialy if it be greater as a Candle in the Sun and so the Starrs and Moon itself above the Horizon before Sun rising or setting are not so Visible as afterward as Water doth quench the flame of an Haystack which it before Incensed Wherefore I thus conceiv that the Native Light of the Moon being not a Culinary but an Aethereal Light Inherent in the Moon itself is like Color yet farr more Lucid and so farr more Evoked Excited and Assisted by the Solar Light as a White Color is thereby rendred more Visible then Black and that the Inherent Light of the Moon and External Light of the Sun so concurring by their more Connatural Homogeneitys do produce and draw forth themselvs together to so great a distance and with so great a Splendor and though the Sun doth so produce the Inherent Light of the Moon Positively by his Principal Rays when they are both above the Horizon yet the Moon doth not then appear so Visible and Splendid becaus Comparatively she is thereby made farr less Visible and Splendid then he is in himself for certeinly this Lucidity cannot be only from Reflection of the Solar Rays whether we suppose the Moon to be Cortical having Earth and Seas like the Terraqueous Globe which Sensibly doth not Reflect very farr or specular which may Reflect farther becaus the Rays penetrate less and more Splendidly in a fitt Position to the Ey being Reflected thereby more equaly but it must be also by some Inherent Light which is in the Moon itself that is so Collustrated by the Solar Light and by the Connatural Quality therof nor is it to be Imagined that the highest Planets and Starrs which are at the farthest distance and yet Emitt such a Splendid and Vivid Light should so shine only by the Reflection of the Solar Light Now though there are Spotts in the midle and seeming Gibbi in the Circumference of the Moon which I rather conceiv so to appear by such Intervenient Spotts therin yet this may not be from any Concavitys in the Body of the Moon and the unequal Reflection of the Solar Light thereby for there are Spotts also in the Sun whereby his conversion about his Axis is noted and yet he shines by his own Light but I suppose them to be only less Luminous parts and such defects of their Native and Inherent Light as I doubt much whether they were so Created in this Fourth Day and though Earth which is a Consistent Body may have such Constant Eminences and Water some Temporary Waves yet it hath been observed that as Flame of a Candle which is somwhat more Rare is rendred Pyramidal by Compression of the Ambient Air so if it be defended by another Intermediate Flame as of Spirit of Wine Inflamed or the like it will Conglobate within that Flame And wheras Saturn is commonly represented Oval it is said by a very curious Inspector that indeed he appears so if you behold him through a less Telescope but if through a larger you may discern two litle Aetheruli on each side of him and very neerly distant from him which make him so to appear when they are beheld together with him Confusedly and Indistinctly Though I shall not determine this or how they might be Composed and Constituted by the Divine Creator certeinly all the Planets do not Move in exact Circles but some of them describe Circles Indented with such Hemitrochoids as I have shewed but it shall suffice to have proved that the Moon and consequently the Starrs have their own Inherent Light as well as the Sun though perhaps not Emanant without his Collâ—â—tration and so plainly they have their several Influences and every one it s own Planetary Vâ—rtue Inherent in themselvs which Moves their own Bodys becaus there are such various and several Motions therof which therefore must be caused by various and several Motive Virtues The Moon as I have said doth not Move about her own Axis but she doth Move very notably and rapidly in her Zodiak Progressively and if we compute that Motion according to all her Revolutions perhaps as fast as the Sun which are the two swiftest Movers Progressively And the Moon as she is neerest to us so probably she is least Calid and Lucid wherefore her chief Influence is observed to be over Moisture not that she is Moist in herself which is a Quality of Water but as the Sun doth by his Heat draw up Vapors and also Desiccate or Concremate them whereby they do not presently return again into Water but turn into Dry Exhalations Clouds and Motes wheras more Moist Vapors and
Accidents nor can he Realy transmute himself or be converted into any other Inferior Nature whatsoever and much less can Matter which is the lowest and basest of all others convert itself or be coverted into any Superior Nature Certeinly that which they so affirm to be in Potentia must be either Ens or Non-ens while it is so in Potentia and if it be Nonens then Non est in Potentia as I have shewed of Vacuity and if it be Ens then as I have said it is also an Entity Created by God in its Potentiality or Chaos and so produced by Natural Generation into Actuality as if Vacuity could be any Ens then it must also be Created by God or Concreated with the World and should not be before nor beyond nor any where out of the Created World and Body of the Matter therof as others have vainly supposed of such an Imaginary Space Nor is their Forma Misti or Compositi any other thing then the Result of the very Mistion and Composition of those Primitive and Simple Entities according to their own Natural Coordinations and Subordinations in the Scale of Nature which God hath so erected and ordered that they have in themselvs all the Natural Principles therof and an Aptitude and Appetite to be so Mist and Composited in all Successive Generation according to that Law of Original Generation and therefore Forms are no such things as are formed or ordered by I know not what Cholchodea or come I know not whence aliunde extrinsecus into the prepared Bodys but as I have shewed there are also other Substances or Substantial Activitys besides the Body of Matter Created by God in and with the Matter that do Consubstantiate Inform or Inspirit it and fabricate and fit it for themselves and also mingle and compose themselvs in and with it into one Mistum or Compositum according to the Order and Oeconomy of Nature by their own Internal Principles and Powers which God hath also Created in them Which Substantial Activitys or Active Substances I therefore call Spirits as the Scripture also doth so call not only Substantial put also Accidental Aâ—tivitys as the Spirit of Wisedom Jealousie Meekness and the like and they may well admit it who say Omnia Animarum sunt plena and particularly that there is a Vegetative Soul which yet as the Scripture doth not so express I can not admitt for Soul is more special and proper to Living Animals but Spirit though Eminently it signifies the chief of Spirits that is the Intellective and so Soul and Spirit are sometimes distinguished yet more generaly it signifies any Substantial or Accidental Activity whatsoever and is so commonly used by Chymists Physicians and others as I also use it in a more Spiritual sens And though I dispute not about Terms yet certeinly such a Proper and Improper Creation of the Primitive and Simple Entitys both of Matter which is a Passive and Receptive Substance and of the Accidents and Affections therof and of all those other Substantial Activitys or Active Substances which I call Spirits and of all their Accidents and Affections Created in the first general Chaos and the Original Generation or Production of them by Mistions Compositions Actuations and Perfections in the Six several Days and accordingly all Successive Generation by Production out of any particular Chaos of the same Entitys or Essences which are so Generated or Produced are such Real Veritys that I am perswaded no Philosopher whatsoever can Realy satisfie himself or others concerning the first Principles and Origines of all things and all the Alterations by Generation and Corruption by any such supposed Potentia Materiae Eminencâ—s and Equivocal Causations Transpeciations and Conversions or the like which are only Terms and Notions and no Realitys in Nature nor can ever confute or disprove this Divine History of Creation either in the general System therof or in any of the particulars which Moses proceedeth afterward to declare And thus wheras the Antients generaly conceived the Aether and Aethereal Bodys to be Superelementary and Sacred he sheweth us plainly how Aether is one of the Fower Elements and so was first prepared in the first Day wherin Light which is a principal Quality therof is said to be so produced for the Substantial Spirit of Fire or Aeâ—her was Created before whereby it is denominated one of the Heavens and afterward termed Expansum as well as the Air nor doth he affirm it to be solid or firm but such a Fluid Expansum as Aâ—r also is and plainly implieth that it was moved with the Light in it about the Inferior Orb whereby God made Day and Night before the Earth or Water or Air were so made or fitted or that there was any Motion therof or therin And the Air which is Naturaly an Expansum cannot be Naturaly a Compressum whereby in its own Element or Atmosphere it should Naturaly seek to expand itself more and thereby Elasticaly press as some would have it Also both Aether and Air are called Heavens as one is the Fountain and Immediate Medium of Aethereal Light and the other the Vehicle and Immediate Medium of Sight and so I suppose that Air doth Refract or Reflect very little nor are either Objects in the Air nor Starrs in the Aether thereby seen Intersected and Inverted as through a Convex Lens in the Air nor so much magnified and distended as Divers see Objects in the Fundus of Water Again in this Second Days Work Moses declareth Vapors in the Air to be only Waters above and thereby intimateth the Special Instrumentality therof in Nature for so indeed Vapor is almost as Chymical an Instrument as Fire Nor yet doth he affirm these Waters to be above all the three Heavens or any of them as some suppose but only in or upon or all over that Heaven wherof he treateth in this Second Days Work or more Criticaly as it is Originaly from above and certeinly we cannot suppose any Water to descend from above but only that whiâ—h first ascended from beneath Nor is this ascent of Vapors the necessary and only caus of Winds wherof we have no mention in the Creation and if any Wind then were it was probably some very tender and gentle breath but greater Winds and Storms which are effects of the Curs are also caused by grosser Vapors which whether moist or dry are not Formaly the very Wind for that as such is only Aer motus but may be the Efficient Causes therof as any other Impuls or Ventilation of Blasts or Ventiducts and generaly moist Vapors Caus more Rain and dry more Wind as appears by Herricans in more hot Countrys And in the Third Days Works he shews how wonderfully God formed and prepared the Oâ—cumene or Hâ—bitable Globe by causing the Waters to Subside in all the Chanells of Seas and Rivers which he cut out for them and by raising the mighty Mountains which may be therefore rightly termed the Mountains
Formalities of all Elementary Vegetative yea even sensitive Natures to be only Matter and Motion as Aaron said of his Materials I cast them into the fire and there came out this Calf and so to set up several Figures of things as the Jews did the Figures which they had made and Heathenish Idolaters their Idols and Images Wheras indeed it is rather the Art of a Statuary than of a Philosopher thus to make Mercurius Ex quolibet ligno or as he who having only an Hercules of Wax in his shop when one came to buy of him a Mercury could presently turn his Beard into a Galerus his Club into a Caduceus and his Buskins into Talaria and so he might as well have made thereof a Iupiter Iuno Venus Man Beast or Tree or as we say Quidlibet ex quolibet Which yet shou'd be only Wax varied Thus our new Philosophers not acknowledging all those several Primitive Natures which God in his Infinite Wisedom pleased to Create like Etymologists can derive one thing from another so far as scarcely to leav any Primitives Cartacean Philosophy which describes the World in Paper otherwise then God hath made it to be in Nature beginning Cogito Ergo Sum and so proceeding Cogito Ergo Est as though becaus the Operation doth indeed prove the Essence of the Cogitant it did therefore also prove the Real Entity of any thing Cogitated and yet this is all the Argument it can afford us to prove that First and Fundamental Truth That there is a God Cogito esse Deum Ergo Est. Whereas the most Judicious and Ingenious Father long before had Invented the first Argument when disputing with a Sceptike he first proves that he Is because he doubts whether he Is or not and because he is a Creature thereby also proves that there is a God the Creatour whom I shall rather chose to follow than any such Neophytes who when God saith in the Beginning he made Heaven and Earth say he made only Matter and Motion and professing that they had deliberated and tried to deduce all this Spectable World from a Chaos or from Matter only diversified by its own Motion Figure and the like have asserted it to be Matter whereas God expresly declareth that he Produced it out of a Chaos in the Six Days Works and who make Sol and the Planets and the Starrs to be the Centers and Foundations of all the Vortices of Matter and Corpuscles about them whereas the whole Aether Air Water Earth and Vegetatives were made in the Three first days before them Whereupon I may very truly and safely pronounce Aut haec non est Scriptura aut iâ—ta non est Philosophia For mine own part I must here profess that having long since studied Philosophy in the University and read over several Philosophers both Antient and Modern I could never find a satisfaction in any of them and if I had not reflected on this Divine History should have been tempted as others to Invent some new Philosophy suitable to mine own Fansy For now he is no Philosopher who willnot attempt to make a new Philosophical World and produce his Module therof shewing how it might be best made and with least Charges but certainly it is most Ridiculous and Impious thus to presume that God must therefore have made the World according to our Module becaus we judge it best rather than acknowledge that to be best which he hath made becaus he who made it is Infinitely Wiser than us Wherefore to find out how God made the World I had recours to his Word reading over this first Chapter of Genesis again and again and also many Commentators in whom generaly besides the first Article of our Creed concerning God the Maker of Heaven and Earth I found more of Aristotle than of Moses yea even Translators seem to incline that way but the Cabalistical Rabbins and Scholastical Philosophers by their Jewish and Heathenish Interpretations have so Confounded and Obnubilated this Divine Light that almost all Christians fear to approach it and seem rather to dread and adore it at a distance as some Inscrutable Mystery and some think they greatly favor Scripture by restraining it to Theology and Morality and not intitling it to Natural Philosophy and so as it were going backward cover it with the Mantle of their Indulgence that the Philosophical Nakedness thereof may not appear to themselves or others Whereas considering for what end this Divine History of Created Nature was writ and being sufficiently confident of the Intrinsecal Verity and Extrinsecal Evidence thereof I adventured to look into the Naked Simplicity of the Text and endeavored first to discover the plain and true System of the World which God the Creator hath described therin and therby reveled unto us Which I have accordingly expressed in my Explications being only a brief Philosophical Paraphrase upon the Text and yet while I thus Explicate the Text by my Paraphrase I still submit my Paraphrase to be judged by the Text and I therefore set these Explications as a Partition or Cancelli between the Divine Word and my Human Illustrations therof which I have also deduced from the Created Nature as the Counterpart of Scripture and have hearkned to the Voice therof as to the Echo of the Creating Voice of God Nor do I dissent from Pagan Philosophy Animo Contradicendi or to flatter Christianity which is far above it but shall also retein any thing of Truth that I have found therin and all advantages therof either Platonical Speculations Peripatetical Ratiocinations or Epicurean Sensations yea even Sceptical Caution it self and am Dogmatical only in such Theses which according to the Law that I impose on my self I shall first prove by the Concurrence of Divine Authority Human Argument and Sensible Experiment and if I knew any more ways of Probation should not decline but most gladly embrace them Neither do I thus offer any thing to the World wherof I have not first satisfied my self after so long trial and strict examination wher in I could never yet find any thing considerable either of Reason or Sens which I could not fairly reconcile to the Divine Authority of the Text. Also I have adventured to propound many Hypotheses which though I dare not so confidently Assert yet I should not Insert them if I did not esteem them very Probable for indeed it is the most proper and a sufficient Task for any Philosopher to Inquire only what God hath Created and I ever reputed it a great Vanity in any who presume to go farther and will also offer to shew what he might have Created not without some Insinuation of what one most Profanely Expressed That if he had stood at Gods elbow when he made the World he could have shewed him how to have made it better as though whatsoever Hypothetical Natures or Poetical Worlds they please to fansy and describe Natura aut facit haec quae legis aut faceret Possibility
or End according to the Fixed Order and Succession of the Parts And as certeinly as this Present Instant is now the Last or End of all Time Past or Present which hath hitherto Actualy Existed or doth Exist so certeinly there was some determinate Instant which was the first or Begining therof And so this Conclusion also is most true and evident Ubi Prius Posterius ibi Primum et Postremum III. Lastly as Bodys and Time so Number or Quantity Discrete which hath Part Discreted and severed from Part is also Finite in it self and doth most Discernibly manifest the Finite Nature both of Bodys as in the Scale and also of Time as in the Dial whereby their Continuous Parts being Arithmeticaly Divided into Numerable Proportions are rendred most apparently Numerable and Finite And so also this Conclusion is most true and evident Nullum Multiplex est Innumerum From all which Conclusions drawn from every kind of Quantity Corporeal Successive and Discrete it most Necessarily follows That whatsoever is Quantitative is Finite for it must be granted under the highest pain of Contradiction That Actualy Mensurable cannot be Actualy Immense nor Temporary Eternal nor Numerable Innumerable IIII. Nor is this plain Probation concerned in those more Curious Disquisitions Whether Quantity be any Real thing in it self or only a Mode or Relative Respect or I know not what others pleas to term it Since it is most evidently the Geometrical Chronical or Arithmetical Measure of all Quantitative things which are within the Virge therof and Measurable by it Nor of what Parts it doth Consist or how it is Divisible into them since it is most evident that it hath Parts Nor yet whether any Whole Quantity hath Physical Parts since it is most evident that it hath Mathematical Parts and is Divisible into them And though I shall heerafter inquire into all these yet I will neither now prevent my Self nor intangle this Probation which as it is most firm and solid in it self so I desire to render it most clear and free from all Impertinencys with any such Curiositys Nor do I begg any therof before hand but only insist upon these most reasonable and undeniable Postulations That an Inch is the twelfth Part of a Foot not more nor less and a Foot twelve Inches not more nor less That an Hour is the fower and twentieth Part of a Day not more nor less and a Day fower and twenty Hours not more nor less That an Unit is the hundredth Part of a Century not more nor less and a Century an hundred Units not more nor less Or yet more plainly That an Inch is an Inch a Foot a Foot an Hour an Hour a Day a Day an Unit an Unit and a Century a Century And so any greater or less Part or Whole whatsoever which are all Identical Propositions and neither need nor are indeed capable of Probation Nor are these Sections of Continuitys only Imaginations or the Institutions of Reason but Realitys in Nature And so God Created the Heaven and the Earth distinct Parts of the whole Body of the World and made the Evening and Morning a distinct Day and consequently the Cardinal Numerations therof And he made the Heaven to be above or without the Earth and the Earth to be beneath or within the Heaven and the First day to be before the Second and the Second before the Third and consequently the Ordinal Numerations therof And heerin I suppose no Human Reason or Sens will or can dissent from Divine Authority becaus these are things also Rationaly and Sensibly evident in themselvs however some may doubt or dispute what I have evidently proved heerby That there was a Begining of the World Nor do I labor or care to prove when that determinate Begining was which I leav to Chronologists but only that there was such a Begining whensoever it was which sufficeth my present Intention V. For as in a great Wast or Common though only the learned Artist can give an exact account of all the Acres Rodes and Perches therof yet every Vulgar Ey can discern that it is Measurable and Finite and can estimate it more or less And as every Traveler though he hath not an Itinerary to instruct him in the just Distances between one City or Country and another yet knows that there is a certein Space between them otherwise such and so many Paces could never bring him from one to the other so though it be the Work of Geometricians and Astronomers to measure Heaven and Earth yet we all know that the Earth on which we tread hath a Surface and a Diameter which are Finite because the Surface on which we tread doth end and terminate it self under our feet and that doth also determinate the Diameter which is Proportionable unto it and because the Diameter is Finite therefore also the Circumference which must be Proportionable therunto is Finite And so is every Sphere of the World Air Aether and any higher Heaven or whatsoever we can Imagine to be the utmost Circumference of the whole World for to whatsoever Circumference our Imagination can extend it self it can only be Proportionably greater then the Circumference of the Earth which it encompasseth and must also have a Diameter proportionable to it self both which evidently prove it to be Finite as well as the Earth becaus there is no Greater nor Less in Infinite as I have already proved VI. And so though we may dispute the Nativity or certein Begining of the World yet it is most evident and indisputable that it had a Begining for none can deny it to be this Day or Hour or the like one Day or Hour or the like elder then it was the last and so backward as far as he pleaseth therefore he must also confess that there was some First Day Hour and the like and consequently some First Instant and Begining therof for the Duration and Age of every thing must necessarily be computed from a Begining or Nativity otherwise it should be incapable of any Addition or Succession which is apparently in all time becaus it already exceedeth all Number for Precedency of Part before Part without any Begining renders the Precedent Parts Innumerable and consequently incapable of any Succession or Addition VII So also in Number there must necessarily be a First and no Number can precede an Unit though you may still add to it and possibly multiply it to any Summ Imaginable which yet being once Stated will be found as Numerable as a Single Unit becaus it is only the Addition of so many Units for as a Day or Hour or any other Part of Time Actualy Past is only a Day or Hour or such Part of Time as it is and not greater nor less so every Day or Hour or other Part of Time whatsoever is only One Day or Hour or One such Part of Time as it is and not more nor fewer and therefore so many Days or Hours or
other Parts of Time as are Actualy Past are only so many Ones as they are and not more nor fewer which though never so many must necessarily be all Numerable by Addition of so many Ones as they are and not more nor fewer And consequently all Time Actualy Past which may be Numbred by them is Numerable and Finite and therefore had a Begining becaus the Number therof is Ordinal or Successive wherof there must be a First Thus if we should compute the whole Age of the World according to the particular Ages or Secula of Men or Brutes or if you pleas according to the Revolutions of Platonical years yet there must necessarily have been a First Second and Third Seculum or Revolution or so many as we will suppose to have been Actualy Past and Precedent and not more nor fewer nor other then Successive All which summed up together will be found as Finite as a single Unit and must have a First and Last aswel as One and One Ordinaly and Successively Nor indeed can we Rationaly Imagin any Time whatsoever Actualy Past and Precedent not to be Actualy Finite And if it cannot be otherwise in Imagination much less in Reality VIII Yet the World might Possibly have Existed before it did Exist or Actualy was and as long before as you pleas to Imagin and so it may still be continued Perpetualy in Possibility which yet will be alway Possible and can never be Actual for no such Precedent or Subsequent Perpetuity ever was or shall be nor can reasonably be Imagined to be Actual Neither is it properly a Possible Perpetuity but rather a Perpetual Possibiliâ—y of such a supposed Precedency or Subsequent Futurity which can never be Actual otherwise it should not be Perpetualy Possible for as Possible while it is Possible cannot be Actual otherwise it should not be Possible but Actual so Perpetualy Possible can never be Actual becaus then it should ceas to be Perpetualy Possible As it is said of Corporeal Quantity that it is alway Divisible into alway Divisibles ever Possibly but never Actualy becaus if it should once be Actualy Divided into all its Divisibles then it should ceas to be alway Divisible which is a most true and evident Ratiocination supposing such a Perpetual Divisibility therof wherof I shall heerafter discours But no Possibility whatsoever either Precedent or Subsequent doth militate against this present Discours concerning the Actual Existence of the World IX This Perpetual Possibility in Futurity is the Duration of Immortal Spirits which though it may not seem to be the same with Time in a restrained sens as Time may be distinguished from Duration yet is the same with it in a general sens And so the Soul of Man both in this Mortal Life and also in his Immortal Life heerafter shall continue to be under the same Duration though his Time may be restrained to this Mortal Life which hath an End and is computed according to the Chronology of the Hours Days and Years therof and so we commonly distinguish between Temporal and Eternal or Everlasting Thus Plato makes all Time to be the Measure of Duration according to the Motion of the Heavenly Bodys which divide it into such Parts or Sections therof and therupon I suppose grounded his Opinion of the Circular Revolutions of Time like the Circular Motions of the Heavens But as Duration was Coetaneous with the first Chaos for there was an Evening before any Morning or Illumination of the Aether and three several Days before the Sun and Stars so the same Duration shall continue when they shall be dissolved and when Time in that sens shall be no more And yet in all the Perpetual Possibility of this Duration so farr as it shall ever heerafter become Actual it shall likewise be Actualy Finite as I have already proved Wheras Proper Eternity is neither in any Precedent nor Subsequent Possibility but always Actual and alway Present or one Perpetual Instant which is Divine Infinite and Incomprehensible and of another nature Infinitely and Incomprehensibly Different from any Finite Duration Actual or Possible whatsoever which it doth Comprehend but not in any maner Confound or Chaâ—ge the Temporary nature therof as I shall shew in the next Section X. Wherfore I Conclude upon the whole precedent matter That every Quantity that hath Existed or doth Actualy Exist is Actualy Finite And so is every Quantitative thing measured thereby And that no Imagination nor Possibility it Self can make it to be otherwise Because all Quantity and Quantitative things have Parts and all Parts are Finite and therefore whatsoever hath Parts is Finite and whatsoever is Finite is Terminated or bounded with Extremitys or First or Begining and Last or End Respectively according to the Parts otherwise it should not be Finite And particularly that time and Duration which is Successive and all Temporary and Durable things had a Realy Precedent and fixed First or Begining Now that the force of this most Cogent Argument may not be lost or spent in so large a Dilatation I will briefly Summ it up in these few and short Propositions which I shall present to any Man of Reason most strictly to examin and consider whether he can deny any one of them or the Consequence of them all without forfeiture of his Rationality I. That every Day is One Day and of no more nor greater Number nor Duration II. That Yesterday was One Day Actualy Past and Precedent to this Day and so all the Days Actualy Past and Precedent one unto another III. That the whole Number and Duration of all the One Days Actualy Past and Precedent is as Finite or bounded with first or Begining and Last or End as of any One Day IV. Therefore there was a First or Begining of the whole Duration of all the One Days Actualy Past and Precedent aswel as of the particular Duration of any One Day Wherefore I Conclude according to that right and true Sentence Vim inferunt Humano Intellectui qui Mundum affirmant Infinitum ex Finitis Partibus Constantem SECTION II. God c. EXPLICATION The Infinite Creator of Heaven and Earth ILLUSTRATION 1. That God is Infinite 2. Of Infinite 3. That Absolute Nothing is Not finite 4. Of Proper and Improper Infinite 5 Of Proper and Improper Not finite I. WE have proved that Heaven and Earth and Consequently the whole World had a Begining of Being from Absolute Not being or was Created becaus it is Finite Wherefore the Creator of all Finites must necessarily be Infinite for if he were Finite he must also be Created by another and so Infinitely But there can be no such Process Infinite becaus it is Successive from one to another and therefore must be finite as I have already proved II. But becaus our Understanding also is Finite and not Infinite therefore the proper Object thereof must be Finite and not Infinite and all the knowledg we can have of Infinite is only
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
and Spirits and their Spiritual Qualitys which are all conteined within the same Extension of the whole Body of Matter and the several Figures therof are the Hieroglyphical Images of the Various Spirits and may have some kind of Signature therof and so Condensation is Analogous to Intension and Rarity to Remission of Qualitys and Pondus to Potentia and the rest but especialy Motion is Analogous to the very Activity of Spirits and yet as Matter and Spirit so all Material and Spiritual Accidents are Genericaly Different and particularly Local Motion from the Active and Generative or Corruptive Motion of Elementary Spirits and much more from Vegetation Sensation and Intellection which are Motions of a farr other Nature as I shall shew heerafter Again as Matter and Material Accidents are not nor can not be Formaly the very Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys so neither are they Potentialy as others have supposed and so would Educe them all out of I know not what Potentia Materiae and some Christian Philosophers in compliance therwith have supposed the first Chaos to be only such a Materia Prima though God saith expresly that in the very Begining he Created Heaven and Earth Comprehending Superaether and all the fower Elements as I have said and that the Matter had not only as a Materia Prima the first and common Affections therof that is one Extension one Orbicular Figure Equidensity and Equigravity and the like but particular Diversifications and Variations of Spheres of several Figures Densitys and Gravitys and the like and the Superaether then probably was Created Perfect and adorned with all the Furniture therof whatsoever it is and the Elements were Created in such a maner as did Denominate them Aethereal and Aereal Heavens Earth and Water yea the very Heavens and the very Earth as some have Criticaly observed though Inform and Inane and without Motion which is Secondary and Subordinate to Rest and wherof there was no Need nor Use before Generation and Corruption were Ordeined afterward in the Six Days Of all which I shall now proceed to discours SECTION VI. And the Spirit of God Moved upon the face of the Waters EXPLICATION The Spirit of God Moving in the Chaos by Supernatural Incubation did Prepare and Predispose it for the Producing and Perfecting all things that were before Created in it afterward in the Six Days ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Incubation of the Divine Spirit 2. Of Actuality and Potentiality 3. Of Generation and Corruption 4. Of the Process therof 5. Of the Scale of Nature 6. Of the Oeconomy therof I. GOd who in the Begining or very first Instant Created Heaven and Earth could also have Perfected them and all Creatures therin in the very same Instant as most probably he did so Perfect the Superaether and Angelical Nature which are the highest Sphere and highest Nature for the manifestation of his Infinite Power yet also to manifest his Infinite Liberty and Absolute Sovereignty over Created Being and the Subordination and Subjection therof to himself and how the Creatures as they could not Caus themselvs to Be from Notbeing so also after they had a Being could not of themselvs Perfect themselvs nor attein any farther Degree of Welbeing without him and his Creating Causality did first let this Elementary World ly in the Chaos therof and afterward in such a Space of Time as seemed fitt to his Divine Wisedom that is in Six several Days proceed Gradualy and Orderly to Perfect them And though the first Creation which was from Absolute Notbeing to Being must therefore have been in an Instant becaus there is only one Affirmative Term therof that is Being which must necessarily be in the same Instant assoon as it was yet all these Works of the Six Days which were Productions from Potentiality to Actuality or Original Generations from not such a Being to such a Being which are several Affirmative Terms of Being and the first only Negative of such a Being which yet implys Being was Gradualy in Time according to Natural Generation and the Process and Cours therof which was then Instituted as I shall shew heerafter And this Original Generation was another Improper Creation and Pâ—rfective of the Primitive and Proper Creation and such as could not be perâ—ormed by Nature until the Natural Cours therof was sett in Order by the Divine Spirit who before it was so Produced and until it was Perfected did from the Begining Effectively Move or Incubate in or upâ—n the Created Chaos as it were hatching the Egâ— or Embryo therof in the midst of all the Elements that is upon or above the Face of the Waters and Earth beneath them and under the Aereal and Aehereal Heavens Preparing and Predisposing them for the Production of all their Apparatus and Inhabitants out of their first Created Potentâ—alitys Latent in the first Chaos into their Actualitys in the Six Days And all those Productions were also the Immediate Works of the same Divine Power as it is said God said Let there be Light and so of the rest which were not tâ—e same Creations with the first for that had been Vain and Superflâ—ous nor in the same maner for that was in the Begining or first Instaâ—t but these in Six several Days Gradualy and Orderly according to the Natural Process of Generation which was then fiâ—st Instituted as I have said and wherin as all their Primitive Enâ—itys were first Created in the Chaos and then Prepared and Predisposed by the Divine Spirit so every Production in every one of the Six Days was Previous and Preparatory in Nature to and for the Succeeding Productions as I aâ—so shall shew heerafter Aâ—d Angels probably being Createâ— Perfect in and with their Superae her in the Begining though they migâ—t be Spectators yet neither did Operate nor Assist in this Improper Creation which though Improper in respect of the former yet is only Proper to God himself who is expressly said so to Create in all the Six Days as well as in the Begining But I presume rather that as God made all things for himself and the manifestation of his own Glory to his Intellective Creatures Angels and Men so Angels were Created in the Begining in and with their Native Region of the Highest Heaven that they who can Intuitively behold all things and needed no Created Light to Inspect the Dark Chaos and so I suppose the whole World and Frame of Nature is Transparent to them might Contemplate all the Works of God in the Improper Creations of the Inferior Elementary World which was to be the Region of Man as he who is the other Intelligence was made last to Review as God himself afterward did all the Works which he had made and to celebrate that Sabbath of Rest which God Instituted and as it is said made for him And as the Divine Spirit was the only Creator and Angelical Spirits no Subcreators so much less was there or is there any such Archaus Faber or
therof to Sens then Emananâ— Light which is more as I have said in Statu Separato then Inherent and more Visible then Magnetike Virtue and though Light be not it self a Substance but an Accident yet Accidents are Real Entitys aswell as Substances and have as Real Propertys and Real Coextension which may be according to their Nature Analogous to the like Propertys of Substances And as Heat is the most Chymical Instrument in Nature and therefore some Chymists have stiled themselvs Philosophers by Fire so Light is a most Philosophical Instrument and a more exact Study of Optike Dioptrike and Catoptrike that is of Physical rather then Mathematical might render us Philosophers by Light wherefore as I recommend the more Curious and particular Inquisition therof to others so I shall now generaly and occasionaly heerafter make some Philosophical Observations therupon in my ensuing Discourses But though Light be such a Conspicuous and Consyderable Quality yet I do not therefore suppose it to be any Substance much less a Body or having any Corporeity in itself and shall prove it to be no more a Corporeal Substance then Heat and yet I do not remember that ever any hath affirmed Heat to be any such Substance though Heat and Light be very Homogeneous and Analogous and which is yet more strange not Inherent Light but only Emanant is thus esteemed Corporeal though Inherent be farr more like to such a Substance then Emanant but becaus Inherent is already in a Body we look upon it and the Body in Gross and so take them both together wheras Emanant is Emitted out of the Body and is not Inherent in any other Body and therefore some suppose it to be a Bodily Substance in itself becaus they do not distinguish between Substances and Accidents whose Difference nothing can more discover unto us then this Emanant Quality which is so far Different from the Substance that it is even Localy Separated from it though Originaly and Continualy Radicated and Subsisting in it I have already shewed that the whole Work of the Six Days was no Creation of any new Elementary Entitys either Substances or Accidents but only a Production of Substantial Composita or of the Actualitys of Accidents out of their Potentialitys and such none other was this Production of Light in the First Day as I have also more particularly shewed in my former Enumeration of all the Six Days Works wheras the Substantial Aether was one of the Heavens expressly mentioned to have been Created in the Begining and so the Air was another and both were then totaly Dark and afterward Illuminated by this Production of Light out of Darknes as a Lamp is now Lighted by Successive Generation or Production of Light as an Accident out of the Potentiality therof into Actuality which also declareth the Original Generation therof to have been none other though Incension seem to be as like to a Creation and Extinction to Annihilation as any other Instances I know in Nâ—ture Also the first Light was only Inherent in the Aether or Emanant from that Part therof wherin it was Inherent into other parts of it but not into the Air which was not yet Expanded or made Diaphanous and fitt to Transmitt it still in the Chaos of itself as well as Water and Earth untill the Second Day for if the Light then also the Heat of Aether should have been Emanant into it and that should have been Transmitted to the Water and so caused the Vapors to Ascend in the First Day which plainly was not untill the Second Day Wherefore if this Light were a Substance in the Air and Water and not only an Emanant Quality flowing from the Inherent Light of Aether then either God must have Created more parts of that Luminous Substance in the Air and Water in the Second and Third Days which is Fals or Produce it out of them as he did before out of Aether and so we must affirm the Air and Water to be Inherently Luminous in themselvs which they are not otherwise there should be no Day and Night Artificial in them as there is or they must produce out of themselves a new Substance which was not in them before that is Create it which is Impossible wherefore it must necessarily be only such an Emananâ— Quality of Aether as I have declared of the Inherent Aethereal Light Produced in the First Day and then flowing into other Parts of the Aether which was Prepared and Perfected in the First Day and afterward into the Air and Water in the Second and Third Day when they were Prepared and Perfected and thereby made Diaphanous and the Obstruction of their Informity and Inanity removed And the very maner and way of Emanation being a Transition Localy from the Inherent Quality which is Localy in the Substance into the Diaphanous Body which is Localy Distant from it doth plainly prove it to be an Accident or Accidental Quality both Realy and Localy Different from the Inherent Light and also from the Lucid Substance becaus it is Originaly and Continualy Radicated in the Inherent Light Immediately and Mediately in the Lucid Substance wherin it doth Subsist and not in the Diaphanous Body into which it is Emanant nor is it any Part therof nor Mist or in any kind Congenerous with it which doth plainly shew Emanant Light and all other such Emanant things not only to be Accidents and of an Inferior and Different Nature from Substances but also from Inherent Qualitys for though Emanant Qualitys do Spiritualy according to their Spiritual Nature Subsist in their Lucid Substance by the Mediation of their Inherent Qualitys yet Coextensively and Localy they Exist in the Diaphanous Body wherin they do not so Subsist as in the Lucid Body neither do they so subsist in themselvs but are Instantly Removed with the Lucid Body wherefore they are neither Substances in themselvs nor Mist with the Diaphanous Body wherin they Localy are but do not Spiritualy Subsist And conformable heerunto are all the Phaenomenae and Sensible Experiments of Emanant Light for so it is Moved and Altered in the very Locality therof according to any Local Alteration of the Inherent Light and Lucid Substance and not according to any Local Alteration of the Diaphanous Body though it be Localy in it as an Ubâ— only Definitively that is where it is and in so much therof as it is and not elsewhere nor in any more Place then it is but not Circumscriptively and much less Subsistentialy as it is in the Lucid Body to which nothing doth Unite it but such a Spiritual Subsistence therin And this Locality therof in another Body Coextensively doth Sensibly represent the Coextension of Spirits in Matter And as it is never Actualy in the Inherent Quality of Light or Substance of the Lucid Body becaus it is Emanant out of them both so it is never Potentialy in the Diaphanous Body as it is such becaus as such it is
appear by Vapor and to Earth beneath it as may appear by Ice And though Earth and Water were in this Third Day made and still are one Terraqueous Globe yet as they were Created in the Begining so they still are several and different Elements aswell as Air and Aeâ—her are several and dâ—fferent Heavens And though they are thus Composed into one Globe yet they have their several Provinces therin as well as the others though not in the same maner or Figure And so it is said not only that Dry Land did appear which was before covered with the Sphere of Water as that was with Air and Air with Aether but also that there was a gathering together of the Waters into one place generaly wherunto all Rivers do run though branched out into several Canaleâ— and though standing Ponds Lakes and perhaps some Gulphs or Seas as the Caspian Sea may not communicate with the Ocean yet they are also Confluvia and Seas and so termed distributively afterward and all of them distinguished from the Waters which first covered the Earth all over wheras now the main Ocean covereth and compasseth it about only in one place And as these Waters beneath flow from the Earth so they are still above it as the Waters above floating in the Air are also said to be above or upon it for so the word signifies upon or above and so Fowl are said to fly above or upon the Heavens and as they are thus distinguished from Waters beneath so are also those Waters above the Earth from Waters beneath the Earth that is Subterraneous Fountains or depths of the Seas for neither are any Waters under the whole Earth which is most Dens and consequently lowest nor above any of the whole Heavens Superaether Aether or Air itself which are more Rare and consequently Higher as I have shewed but these Expressions concerning the Vapors and Fountains are Respective according to the Subject Matter and not to be understood Absolutely and they do indicate several Regions of the Waters wheras we have no such indication of any several Regions in the Air or Aether as I have observed Also though the Evaporation of Waters by Heat be Natural and only Supernaturaly produced by God in the Second Day as his other Works of Improper Creation were in other Days yet this Distribution of Earth and Waters in the Terraqâ—eous Globe therof which was so Composed in this Third Day seems more Extraordinary and Artificial and such as doth most plainly declare the Immediate Operation of God in this and all the other Days for by what Natural Power could the Earth and Isles be raised above the Waters or the Mountains and Vallys be so ordered and Indented or who could cast those great Banks of the Shores and cut those vast Chanells of the Seas and Rivers or say unto them thither shall ye go and no farther which therefore God is said Originaly to do by Line and Levell as in Waterworks we so set them out that they may run to their Levell this way or that way in the Cutts prepared for them And though men may make such less alterations therin and some greater have been made by accidental Breaches and Inundations yet as God saith I brake up for it my Decreed place or as it is Originaly established my Decree upon it and sett Barrs and Dâ—ors so generaly and in the main it continues the same and since that Great and Universal Deluge yet Cosmographers can still find out those Seas Rivers and Isles which Moses declareth to have been before it And thus the Divine Psalmist describeth both the Proper and Improper Creation of Waters and Earth Thou coveredst it with the Deep as with a Garment the Waters stood above the Mountains At thy rebuke they fled at the Voice of thy Thunder they hasted away They go up by the Mountains they go down by the Vallys unto the place that thou hast founded for them Thou hast sett a Bound that they might not pass that they turn not again to cover the Earth and so proceeds to shew the great Usefulness therof which thereby God prepared both for Vegetatives and Sensitives in the whole Oecumene or Habitable Earth But though the Earth generaly is thus raised above the Waters not only in the Mountains and Summits therof but in its whole Campus which lys above the Levell of the Waters yet the Water in its own Province is above the Earth on which it flows and so the Earth is very elegantly expressed standing out of the Water and in the Water And wheras it is said that God founded it upon or above the Seas and established it upon or above the Flouds it is very true and proper according to the Subject Matter wherof the Psalmist there speaks that is of the Oecumene or Habitable Earth as it was so raised above the Waters which before were above it and thereby was made fruâ—tfull and Habitable which the precedent Context doth plainly declare The Earth is the Lords and the fulnes therof the World and all that dwell therin nor do I apprehend that the whole World of Spheres Aereal Aethereal and Superaethereal is there intended though the Author of Esdras saith also that the Heavens are founded upon the Waters but I rather conceiv that by World is there meant Orbis Terrae as it is usually so taken Hebraicaly and in all other Languages because the Earth is our present World and so more restrictively we say the Christian World and the like But how farr the Waters are beneath the Levell or Campus of the Earth is not particularly expressed yet we read of a great Deep or Ocean and of Fountains therof or therin as we so say Fons Blundusii and the like not that there is besides the Ocean any Fountain therof beneath it which feeds and supplys it for it is called the Deep becaus it is the deepest of all Waters and so Fountains and Depths of Waters are used indifferently as it is said A Land of Brooks of Water of Fountains and Depths that spring out of Vallys and Hills and both are said to be under the Earth wherefore becaus Rain and Waters in those dry Countrys were accounted great Blessings Iacob blesseth Ioseph with Blessings of Heaven above and Blessings of the deep that lieth under which Moses also repeateth nor is it said that there is a Deep and also Fountains therof beneath and besides it but they are alway termed the Fountains of the Deep not only in respect of itself but also of all Vapors Rain and Rivers wherof the Deep or Sea is the Fountain to which that expression seems to refer for so they are joined together as it is said that there were the Fountains of the Great Deep broken up and the Windows of Heaven were opened and indeed they are so made to be Fountains one unto another mutualy and reciprocaly as I shall shew heerafter and in the Deluge the Conflux of all the Waters was gathered
and Thistles and the like Thus I have briefly and generaly discoursed of Vegetatives as before of the fower Elements according to this Divine History which is an Universal System of the World both in the Proper and Improper Creation therof nor do I intend any particular Historys of them as Solomon spake of them all from the Ceder of Lebanon to the Hysop that is on the wall But heer before I conclude I shall again desire any who will rightly consyder the Nature of Vegetatives to try whether they also may be made only by Matter and Motion without their own proper Plastical Spirits which the Earth did bring forth and as I have observed the fower Elements were before perfected and prepared in order therunto without which the Matter alone as so consydered in itself though indeed it can never be without the Consubstantiation of Elementary or the Superaethereal Spirit hath no Automatous Motion of itself nor when it is dislocated any other then to Union and Station as I have shewed which is only to recover its due Rest and Position and therefore certeinly it cannot also Move from Rest which is Naturaly contrary therunto as Verticity is to Polar Position and therefore cannot be from it nor hath it any such Plastical Virtue of itself which may guide the Motions therof but would be only Equidens and Orbicular wheras Plastical Formation of all Vegetative Bodys and much more of the Bodys of Sensitives is constantly so Symmetrical Organical and Curious according to every Kind and Species and the successive Propagation therof and they so very various and different that he who will not believ Divine Authority nor Natural Reason heerin may satisfy himself by his own Sensation and making use of his Microscope Inspect the most admirable Structure and Mechanism of the least Vegetative or Sensitive which is composed farr otherwise and beyond the most admired workmanship of any Bezaleel Daedalus Apelles or Arâ—hytas and all the Mechanical Borcherys of Art which yet is all that some will allow to Nature itself and when he shall have consydered the most exact and Mathematical Conformitys of the one and Enormitys of the other which also shews that Mathematical Exactnes is not nor cannot be of Common Use he may easily judg with himself that since the Intellective Spirit of the most Ingenious Man cannot effect the like certeinly it must either still be Immediately Digitus Dei and so deny this whole History of Creation in the Six Days and all the Works of God therin whereby he did sett in order the Cours of Nature and consequently deny all Created Nature or otherwise acknowledg it to be the continual Succession of the same Natural Causalitys which also lead us back again to the Acknowledgment and Adoration of the Supernatural Creator who is the only Author and Institutor therof XI Wherefore let us prais the great Creator of Heaven and Earth as for the Aethereal so also for the Aereal Heaven and for the Water and the Earth And heer we must sing his praises in Consort for them all together as it is once said of them all that they were Good though they be in themselvs several Elements and were perfected in two several Days Nor is the Goodnes of Vegetatives which is another Classis of Creatures though also perfected in the last of these two Days pronounced of them which were before declared Good but becaus these three Inferior Elements Air Water and Earth being separated from the Aether by the rapid Motion and Circumvolution therof about them and more conjunct among themselvs were not perfected one without the other and the Water which is the midle Element and contributed to the Perfection both of the Air and of the Earth by ascending in Vapors into the Air and descending itself into the Canales and Pâ—res of the Earth was noâ— perfected untill this last Day nor in that alone but in both these two Days therefore this Proclamation of their Goodnes and Perfection was reserved for the Consummation of the whole Work of both the Days and then Relatively to be distributed to all the three Elements which were so perfected therin and so they now continue to be Severaly and also Mutualy Good And the Aether which was before made Good in itself yet had not been Good to others without the Goodnes of the Air whose Refrigerating Cold doth Temper the vehement Heat and Refracting Pellucidity the Lucidity of all the Aethereal Luminarys whereby not only as a common Thorough-fare but also as a Cooperator therin it both adapts and conveys the Aethereal Blessings of Rays above and also the Spirituous Vapors of the Waters beneath which as an Alâ—mbic it distills and refunds to the Terraqueous Globe Nor is it only thus Concurrent with Aether and Water and the Influences therof but hath in itself the Ventos of Winds both to Cool and Purify the Atmosphere and all the Organs of those admirable Sounds which it doth propagate continualy and successively and which as so many Cursores or swift Messengers make their Reports through the whole Sphere therof and all the Surface of the Earth and so is made to be the Cymbal of Nature which with its Inchanting Musike ravisheth or affrighteth all Sensitive Spirits and whereby Men Discours and Convers one with another and in Sacred Hymns render their gratefull praises of the whole Creation to the Divine Creator Also the Atmosphere therof is the very Breath and Life of Animals Neither doth the more Dens Water intercept all the Benefits of Aether and Air but partly transmitt them to the Earth which it contempers with its own Moisture and is as the Bloud Circulating through the Veins and Arterys therof by constant Reciprocations conveying Nutriment to all the Cortical Body therof being both the Inexhaustible Fountain of Drink to all Sensitives and also conditing their Meats with most gratefull Sapors and perfuming them with varietys of most delicate Odors And though both these Elements of Air and Water seem very Weak and Infirm in comparison of the Rapid Aether and Robust Earth yet being provoked and armed to execute Divine Revenge they so mutualy assist and fortify one another with unusual and unexpected Rage that Conflagrations and Earthquakes do not much exceed their furious Herricans and violent Inundations The Earth though last and lowest of all the Elements is not only their most Dens and Consistent Fulciment and Center of their Situation but also of all their Offices and Services Circumferentialy tending unto it being the Foundation of the whole Univers and another Orb in itself and Epitome of the great Globe wherof all the rest are only Concave Spheres having only some particular Orbs in themselvs and on which all those Luminous Orbs cast their smiling Aspects and the Sun Illustrateth all the other Luminarys that so they together with himself may give Light unto it which the nimble Air fanneth and refrigerateth with the Wings of Wind and watereth the great Garden therof
the other Annualy as I have said whereby it should Move both slower and faster about its own Cenâ—er at the same time which is Impossible otherwise then by an Epicyclicous Motion as I shewed in a Quern and that this is an Amechanon I appeal to any Mechanike or to any who shall Mechanicaly try to make a Terrestrial Globe so to Move the three several supposed ways or indeed any two several ways about any two several Axes of its own Body at the same time as certeinly none can Move by two several Progressive Motions at the same time without several Movers as is aforesaid so that though all the Relative Phaenomena of Aether or Earth may be solved by the Motion of either of them yet the three supposed Motions of the Earth itself cannot be solved wheras the Motion of the Sun about his Axis and also Progressively in the Zodiak Annualy and his being Moved and carried about Diurnaly by the Aether which is another Mover and so of Venus and Mercury Moving about him as any other Satellites about other Planets Progressively and being also Moved and carried about Diurnaly with him by the Aether are easily solved Primo Intuitu and according to the plainnes and facility of Nature without such Inconceivable and Impossible Inclining and Distorting of the Earth or their Brains as others have vainly done and can never approve unless they also find out some other Mover to carry about the Earth as the Aether doth the Sun which certeinly may not be the Aether becaus they affirm it to be Immovable nor the Air nor Water which have no such Diurnal Motions themselvs Wherefore though Scripture and the Verdict of all Mankind generaly besides themselvs were sufficient to turn the Balance and determin against such an Hypothesis wherof they can never be satisfied that it is so but only suppose that it may be so yet consydering that I have to deal with such Empirical Philosophers who make Sens alone to be both their Text and Topikes I have doubly and thus largely proved it against them that it is not nor cannot be so and though this last Ratiocination be also a Sensation or a Mathematical and Mechanical Demonstration yet I shall add one Sensible Experiment more which is agreed by all and that is the Motion of the Sun about its own Axis by his own Planetary Power whereby it plainly appears to be Actively Motive in itself and as a Wheel that may be Moved round by another Passively may by the same Passive Motion be also Moved Progressively and so all Coaches and Carts are Moved or drawn by Beasts so the Sun may and doth by the same Planetary Virtue whereby he Moveth himself about his Axis Move also Progressively in the Zodiak though not in like maner or by such proportionable Circumvolutions by his own Motive Power which apparently he hath in himself and so the Moon also Moveth about the Earth and the Satellites about a principal Planet and other Planets about the Sun which plainly shews that these Aetheruli are Motive and so indeed are all the rest and Aether itself wheras Magnets or Terrellae as I have shewed though they have Verticity yet cannot thereby Move once round about their Center nor at all about their Magnetical Axes and though they have a Magnetical Concursion yet one of them cannot thereby Move once round about the other by the Magnetical Virtue of one or both of them Wherefore the Earth is only a Magneâ— which cannot Move round by its own Magnetical Virtue and the Aether and Aetheruli Planets which do so Move round by such several Motions perpetualy and therefore we ought to ascribe these Motions to Aether and not to Earth becaus the Motion of either may solv the Phaenomenâ— and most Sensibly and confessedly the Aetheruli are so Motive and the Terrellae are not and so the Motion of the Aether and Aetheruli doth sufficiently solv them without any Motion of the Earth and wheras others would therefore ascribe Motion to the Earth becaus the Motion of that alone may suffice without the several Motions of all the Aether and so many Aetheruli they plainly contradict the Text which saith God sett them in the Firmanent of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth that is that both the Firmament of Heaven and all the Luminarys therin thus by Moving about this one Terraqueous Globe might give Light upon it by their Rays passing through the Diaphanous Air unto it as so many Lines from the Circumference to the Center and also the Reason of their very Nature which is most Motive of all the Elementary Bodys and likewise Sens itself which discovers them to be Mobile Others suppose the Earth should be more Mobile becaus it is less then most of the Luminarys which I believ was the first occasion of this Error but they consyder not also that it hath the least Motive Virtue which in the Aethereal Bodys is more proportionable to their Bulk and so the Sun is fitly compared to a Strong man or Giant runing his Race which he can do more swiftly then the Dull and Dwarfish Earth But their grand Argument and that which they esteem their most beautifull Helena though it be as fals and adulterine is the Orderly and Circumferential Situation of the Planets in their Spheres about the Sun as the Center wherof they make the Earth to be one but heer again the Moon doth break the Chorus becaus she Moves about the Earth and not about the Sun as the rest and so the Sun with them also about the Earth and therefore it is said that God made these two great Lights to rule the Day and Night upon the Earth as they principaly so Move about the Earth and all others about the Sun and they and all the others were sett by him in such Positâ—ons and to run such Courses whereby they might be most serviceable to the Earth nor are there any such several Spheres in the Aether as I have shewed but the true Spheres of the Elementary Globe are most Orderly and Circumferentialy situated about the Terraqueous Globe as the Center of them all without any Eccentricitys Epicyclicitys Hemitrochoids or the like and so the Air doth encompass it and the Aether the Air and the Superaether the Aether and thus Spheres properly and most conformably relate to their inmost Orb and not all or any one Orb in the Aether to the Orb of the Earth for so one Orb doth not relate unto another nor can Convex Orbs so comply as Concave Spheres with any Orb nor can they otherwise be Centers either of Gravity or Extension one to another becaus there can be but one Center to which all Gravia do tend as I have shewed and Orbs applied one to another make the greatest Chasms between them in their Extension And thus there is the greatest Conformity both of the Situation of the Elementary Bodys according to their more or less Density downward and of the Elementary Spirits
both of Vegetatives and Animals have no Use nor Inspection therof it must conformably have its own proper Inhabitants to use and enjoy it otherwise it should be so made in vain Again the Moon cannot be any such Magnet as the Earth which appears plainly by her Motions so often about the Earth without Moving once about her own Axis for such are not Magnetical nor in any respect like unto â—he Motion of any Terrella about the Earth or Needle about a Terrella which maketh two Revolutions about its own Axis while it Moveth once round about the other like one Wheel with Teeth so Moving about another whereby also the South Pole therof doth alway comply with the Noth Pole of the other and the North Pole with the South Pole of the other and so all the other Intermediate Points and if we say that the Moon hath any other Magnetical Virtue different from that of the Earth which doth so regulate her own Motions I grant that both the Moon and all the others have such proper Specifical Virtues as I have shewed and which I Genericaly call Planetary and though others may more Genericaly call them all Magnetical yet I must affirm them Subalternately to differ as I have said and shewed that the Poles Axis and Aequator of Aether do from them in the Earth though they be both so Denominated Equivocaly Also it is Sensibly evident that the Moon is not an Earth nor the Earth a Moon becaus the Moon is Luminous but the Earth Opacous though very much Illustrated by the Sun which becaus it is denied and will also concern all the other Starrs therefore I more willingly undertake to prove it though it be only a Superfoetation of the former Error It is expressly said that God made two great Lights that is the Sun and the Moon wherefore the Moon is a Light or Luminary as well as the Sun and greater or less Light doth not deny but affirm the less to be a Light as well as the greater and so they are both termed Synonymously and Univocaly Luminaria and not the Sun Luminare and the Moon Speculare as some men would make her to be and so it is said generaly of them and of all the other Planets and Starrs Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven and so indeed is the whole Aether both Calid and Luminous though yet less then the Moon or Starrs becaus Heat and Light are the common Aethereal Qualitys though there may be farr more in one Aethereal Body then another becaus their Composita are Specificaly different but as they are all more Genericaly Aethereal so they must all have their Generical Qualitys without which they should not be Genericaly what they are as well as all Vegetatives and Sensitives though they differ Specificaly one from another in their Sâ—mple Substances and so have their Specificaly different Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys yet must also have such as are Genericaly Vegetative and Sensitive otherwise they should not be what they are Vegetatives or Sensitives and thus indeed they make the Moon to be a Terrella and not Aethereal which they may as well affirm of the Sun and all the Aetheruli and Aether itself and so make it to be no Aether And wheras we Sensibly see the Moon to shine the Question is whether she shâ—ne by her own Light or only by the Solar Rays Reflected from the Earth whereby the Earth should give Light upon her which I have before refuted nor can it be so according to Optike Law if we consyder the very great distance between the Earth and Moon for though Direct Rays pass from the Center Circumferentialy to the utmost Sphere of their Activity as the Solar Rays so Illuminate the Earth and the whole opposite Hemisphere yet Reflex Rays are much shorter though very Vivid and quick becaus they are so Reduplicated and Conspissated like the Horns of a Snail when they are touched and they are proportionably stronger as they are neerer to the Reflecting Angle or Point as we see a Candle much farther by the Direct Rays then any Object Illuminated thereby by the Reflex Rays therof and the neerer we are to the Object we see it better And so though it is said that the Pike of Teneriff may be seen at the distance of two or three Degrees as any Eminences of the Earth may be seen so farr as a Line drawn from the Summit therof will be Tangent upon the Globe of the Earth and perhaps somwhat farther by the advantage of Refraction which may suffice to render an Object Visible about such a distance as three Degrees yet at the first Degree it will be seen very Dull and Obtuse and much more at the Second and he that can see it at the third Aut videt aut vidisse putat though he look upon it at Sunrising or setting when the Rays are most Directly Reflected or with a Telescope which doth Magnify rather then Prolong the Reflected Rays or though the Object be of the greatest Magnitude as the Alps or Apennine or Rock of Lisbon and the like which yet will never be seen very Lucid or Colorate but Confused like a Cloud or Fume yea though it be Specular at so great a distance wheras plainly we see the Moon walking in Brightnes as it is said of her with our naked Ey yea her very Fâ—gure and Spotts Nor is it only by Reflection of the Solar Rays from the Moon herself though that be neerer to the Truth being only by a single Reflection wheras the other must be double first from the Earth to the Moon and then from the Moon back again to us on the Earth wherefore to find out the Mystery of so clear a Phaenomenon we must consyder the Moon in her own Native Light which is so great in herself that thereby she is also Visible unto us in an Eclips in her whole Disk and that part of her Disk which is not Illustrated by the Sun is Visible sometimes or with some advantages and wheras this Visibility is imputed to the Secondary Light of the Sun I have shewed that an Object cannot be so farr seen by his Principal Light Reflected and much less by any Secondary Light Wherefore certeinly she hath some Light in herself and such as is farr greater then the common Light of Aether becaus she may be so seen thereby in the Aether and yet this Light is farr less Lucid or Visible then when and where she is Illustrated by the Principal Solar Light which to explain we must consyder that she also is Aethereal and Connatural with the Sun and so was made one of those Luminarys which were Created in the Firmament of Heaven and sett there to give Light upon the Earth not only generaly as all the rest of the vulgar Starrs but more speciaâ—y and principaly as she is so called the Queen of Heaven and so we must conceiv that they all had not only their own Native Light produced in
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
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
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
with this Republike of Entitys which we call Nature and so Nature doth accordingly Effect not only for his own Use and Service but also for his Contemplation whereby he doth neither acknowledg God to be the God of Nature nor indeed Nature to be Nature nor her Mundus any Mundus and so renders his own Philosophy no Philosophy which are such Absurditys that I doubt he who only reads this Discours may esteem it Idle and Superfluous but if he also read their Discourses he will find that they have made it Necessary And I rather fear that all this and much more that may be said will not be sufficient to convince them whose Delicate Witts are grown so Wanton that they can not be pleased with any thing unles it be some Curious Novelty and Ingenious Error and so much delight to wander in the wild Labyrinth therof that they care not to be brought out of it where I shall therefore leav them to themselvs and proceed in the beaten Path of Common and Solid Truth which God hath sett out and Reveâ—led in this History of Creation wherin he hath shewed us how it was his very Counsel and Designe thus to sett the whole Frame of Nature in Order in the Six Days whereby he did Perfect it and distinguish it from the first Chaos and as he did Proclaim the Particular Goodnes of his Particular Works in their several Days wherin they were so Ordered so when the whole System therof was finished God saw every thing which he had Made and behold it was Very Good which Valde and the Emphatical Addition therof plainly shews another Entity and Bonity of Universal Nature Subsisting in all the Particular Natures besides their Particular Entitys and Bonitys which were before declared And this is the Law and Order and Oeconomy of the whole Houshold and Family of Nature which indeed is Nature and was thus Setled and Fixed in the whole Series and Cours therof and so still Continued by virtue of the Divine Benediction in all Successive Generation and Corruption as the Psalmist saith He Commanded and they were Created He hath Stablished them for ever and ever He hath made a Decree which shall not pass whereby all things are thus Constituted and United into one great Compositum of the Univers wherin they are all either Coordinate and Inservient or Subordinate and Subservient one unto another And particularly this whole Visible World unto Man as I shall shew heerafter and Men and Angels Immediately unto God the Author and End of the whole Creation SECTION VII And God said Let there be Light and there was Light And God saw the Light that it was Good And God Divided the Light from the Darknes And God called the Light Day and the Darknes he called Night And the Evening and the Morning were the First Day EXPLICATION God Produced out of the Aether the Proper Qualitys therof and particularly Light whereby it was Perfected and which was the Goodnes therof Conformable to the Divine Wisdom and Will of the Creator and Law of Crâ—â—tion And he made Diurnal Light to be in one Hemisphere of the Aether which was Divided from Nocturnal Darknesin the other And so made Day and Night Artificial And the Evening which Commenced from the Begining and the Morning of Diurnal Light were together the First Day Natural ILLUSTRATION 1. Of Aether 2. Of Heat 3. Of Light 4. Of Color 5. Of Day and Night 6. Of the Goodnes of the Works of the First Day I. HAving before discovered and declared the General System of Nature I shâ—ll now more Particularly discours of the several Kinds of Creatuâ—es as they were in the Six Days wherof Aether is the First being that Firmament of Heaven mentioned in the Fourth Day and so made before which is Supreme of all the Elements and next to Superaether which is Superelementary as I have said and probably was Perfected when it was Created in the Begining and yet Aether hath been esteemed to be the very Highest and Utmost Sphere of the whole World by Heathen who made it to be their Superaether or Caelum Daemoniacâ—m wherin they placed all their chief Idols which were the Planets and Starrs therof being indeed not only the Highest but also the the Greatest and most Glorious of all Spectable Creatures And some of their Philosophers induced therunto or in compliance with the Popular Religion did not only deny the Aether to be Elementary and Igneous but also seemed to doubt whether the very Matter therof were Common and Homogeneous with Elementary Matter as certeinly it must be if it be Mâ—tter which is one most Common and Homogeneous Substance in itself and only Diversified according to the several Accidents and Affections therof that are indeed Common to all Matter and it must be Matter otherwise it could not be a Body And so is also the very Superaether and all Bodys whatsoever But the Matter and Body of Aeâ—her is most Rare of all the Elements becaus the Spirit therof doth so Require it and Caus it to be and therefore as I have said it is Highest of all Elements though not so Rare as the Superaether which is therefore the Highest of all Bodys And so Rarity of Matter becaus it hath less Matter in the same Extension hath therefore some fitnes and Analogy to a more Spiritual Substance and is as it were a more Spiritual Body as more gross Spirits are more Material and this chief Elementary Spirit of Aether requireth a more Rare Matter then the rest and so also doth Culinary Fire Rarefy as I shall shew heerafter but yet as I have said the most Rare Matter is Matter as well as the most Dens and not Spirit but of another Different Classis And as the Body therof is very Rare so also it is very Fluid though Rarity and Fluidity be not one and the same more then Density and Consistence yet as Density is Analogous to Consistence so is Rarity to Inconsistence or Fluidity And therefore an Adamantine Golden Brazen or Specular Aether or Planets therin are rather Poetical then Philosophical And wheras Elihu saith Hast thou with him spread out the Sky which is strong and as a molten Looking Glass or Speculum The word Sky also signifieth Upper Clouds in the Original and if it were to be rendred Sky might be aswell understood of the Air which is an Expansum and spread out as well as Aether and that very Expansion seems to imply no Consistence in either of them and the Comparison is not of a Consistent but a Molten or Fusile Speculum such as Water or the like Now plainly the Text intendeth the Upper Clouds wherof the precedent Discours is in the Context and which being Anhydrous do so Reflect the Light like such a Molten Looking Glass And yet Translators render Expansum as it is Originaly Firmament in favor and compliance with Graecian Philosophy wheras certeinly the Air which is also termed Expansum as well as
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
Popular Expressions such as are according to false Apprehensions of Common People or Deceptions of Sens and the like and I suppose they can not shew any one such in all this Narration and indeed it is great Impiety to conceiv that there should be any such in it which doth so Historicaly and Intentionaly declare and describe the Genesis of the World though in other parts of the Scripture which are not so Historical and Intentional I also acknowledg that there are all the Varietys of Human Language and so there are many Expressions which are spoke as we say Rotunde and so indeed Popularly for common Use and such as are allowed in all Arts and Sciences even Mathematical and many Figurative Expressions yea Hyperbolical and Ironical in some more Poetical and Rhetorical parts therof which yet may as easily be discerned as in any ordinary Discours but certeinly the Divine Verity doth not any where offer any thing of Falsity or Deception but Expresseth most Infallible Truth in the common Language of Mankind and particularly according to those Tongs wherin it is writ and most Wisely Ordereth and Varieth the Expressions according to the Occasion and Intention therof and so heer concerning the Genesis of the World it speakâ—th not only most truly but also as Narratively and as Philosophicaly as any Philosopher whatsoever and therefore none may justly neglect it upon any such preâ—ension of Popularity neither do I suppose that to be the very reason therof as is pretended but rather that it speaketh too Expressly and Exactly those things which are Contrary to the Private Opinions of such Pretenders who becaus they can not Evade the Divine Authority therof would Elude it by supposing that it neither doth nor can speak any thing against their own preconceived Opinions and therefore as they esteem all the World of Mankind besides themselvs Popular and to be in a Popular Error so they most Profanely and Presumptuously Interpret Scripture itself rather according to Common Errors as they suppose then will endure it to Contradict their own greater Errors which yet they will maintein as Oraculous and I find this Humor to prevail not only with such who do wholy exclude Scripture from all Philosophical Discourses but also in many Commentators who rather correct Moses by Heathenish Philosophers in any such Points as are not Articles of our Creed as the Creation and the like then them by Moses in their Timid and Partial Explications yea even Translators who should strictly embrace the very Letter of the Text yet do thus Warp and Incline as farr as they may in their very Expressions as I have observed and I know not how among them all this Divine Philosophy hath hitherto been Rejected Neglected or Abused whereby Mankind haâ—h received litle more satisfaction from it then from any other Human Philosophy though it be the only Standard of Truth and the first Sentence therof In the Begining c. the very Alpha of all Divine Letters and the Foundation of all that Divinity and Morality or our whole Duty toward God and Man that is conteined in the whole Scripture whereby it plainly appears how firm a Connexion there is between Theology Morality and Natural Philosophy and of what Consequence and Concernment according to Divine Wisdom a right and sound Knowledg therof is both in Church and State and I dare affirm that there never was extant in the World any other Writing that hath more firmly and plainly laid the Foundations of these three most Noble and Profitable Sciences and as it is my Designe to Demonstrate it even in Natural Philosophy which perhaps men may least expect so I may suppose if I shall perform and obtein this they will easily grant it of the others And I hope though I may fall short of mine own Intention and their Satisfaction yet I shall discover so much Light therof that others will begin to believ that more may be derived from this Fountain and so proceed to perfect what I have begun Certeinly whatsoever is in this Sacred History is Truth and all that Truth is Fundamental wherupon Human Reason to which God hath left the rest for the Exercitation and Improvement therof may proceed to build but other Foundation then this can no Man lay And though the Divine Spirit in Inditing it did not intend to satisfy the more Curious and Impertinent yet such things as no Memory of Man hath otherwise Preserved and Delivered nor our Reason and Judgment could have Retrived are heer clearly Reveled and faithfully Recorded As not only that there was a Creation and a Begining but how many Thousand Years since and all the Succeeding Chronology of the World and the whole Order and Process of Created Nature how it was first Ordained and Instituted in Six several Days and the like and as all Christian Historians have rectified the Fabulous Chronology of Pagans by the former so should Christian Philosophers their Contradictory and Unsatisfactory Philosophy by the latter But again on the other hand we must carefully avoid all Cabalistical and Allegorical Interpretations therof and satisfy our selvs with the plain and simple Sens of the Text according to the Subject Matter therof and Context of Scripture And thus wheras the Rabbins from those former Expressions God said and God called it and the like have asserted the Hebrew Language wherin this History of the Creation was writ by Moses and the Names of Day Night Heaven Sea Earth and the like which are said thus to be Named by God to be therefore the Primitive Language Instituted by God and Original of all others I dare not so affirm though I otherwise grant it to be the most antient of all Languages now Extant becaus that Book is the most antient of all Books now Extant But God is also said to call the Starrs by their Names though all of them be not Expressed for their Names to him who is the Creator of all things are their Created Natures by which he knows them Immediately and Essentialy and so he speaks by Real Language or by his Works which as I have said are the Extrinsecal and Artificial Words of the Divine Mind and his Word is only a Comment therupon and so the Heaven and Earth were Denominated by their Created Natures and when he made Day and Night he so denominated them by making them to be such And heerin Divine Language and Human Differ for wheras Adam afterward gave Names unto the Creatures he only Verbaly called them by some Instituted Names Expressive of such Natures as God had made them but did noâ— nor could Realy make them to be such And the Primitive Language whatsoever it was may rather be referred to him for it is Mans Creature and of Human Institution and possibly he might speak that Language and so it is said Adam called his wife Chevah and she her son Sheth However it is certein they both spake some Language which also declares the great Perfection of
themselvs be Mist one with another as Heat and Cold will be Contemperated into a Tepor or otherwise there will be a great Conflict between them when they meet together yet the same Imaginative Faculty doth apprehend them both together as when one hand is in cold Water and the other in hott distinctly and inconfusedly Also this sheweth the reason of that Sympathy and Consent that is between some parts more specialy and the whole Body generaly in Feeling wherof the whole Body is capable as I said that is becaus the Imaginative Faculty is one and the same which resideth in the Brain from whence all the Nervs are dispersed through the Body and therefore the whole Body is so affected yet so as a Wound in the Toe doth not Corporealy affect the Brain or Imagination therin but Spiritualy and though the feeling in the Toe that is wounded being in the Standard doth caus a Principal Sensation therof in that Part and so in the Brain and from thence in the rest of the Body yet that is only a Secondary Sensation as I may so call it wherof it is said if one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it that is only by the Imaginative Faculty of the Sensitive Spirit therof which is one and the same though no other Part be Corporealy affected And wheras I have often mentioned two such several Kinds of Sensation that is one by the outward Organs and Sensory and by the Corporeal or Elementary Mutation made in the Standard within the Body and Irradiation of the Elementary Animal Spirits in the Nervs which is Primary and the other by Species Actuated only by the Vegetative Spirit in the Elementary Animal Spirits in the Brain itself as I have formerly shewed which is Secondary wherof we call one Sens and the other Imagination I shall now shew the Sensible difference therof in Sleep when all the Senses are bound up and obstructed and yet then the Imagination doth thus operate in Dreaming and the Senses are so bound up and obstructed by the Vaporous Bloud which ascendeth from the Heart through the Carotides whence they are so called the Sleepy Arterys to the Brain and it is said that if they be stopped Sleep will presently ensue though I rather conceiv that to be an Apoplectical then Soporous Effect for it is not the obstructing of them and thereby hindring the Sanguineous Vapors to ascend which causeth Sleep but rather the contrary that is an ascent therof more copiously which doth obnubilate the Basis of the Brain and reacheth as farr as the Roots of the Nervs and the Animal Spirits therin which are most Pure and Spiritual and the fitt Instruments of the Sensitive Spirit are clouded by such gross and unconcocted Vapors and thereby rendred unfitt and so the Imagination cannot operate by them wherupon that kind of Sensation ceaseth untill those Vapors be again rectified and refined in the Brain and so pass into the Nervs and then Sleep ceaseth and that Sensation begineth to operate thereby again But the Imagination being seated in the very Brain itself and probably in the upper Region therof and Fore-brain which we accordingly feel to grow most hott by the working therof the Cloud of those ascending Vapors being there weaker as the Vapors are which ascend higher in the Atmosphere and the Concoctive Power of the Brain there being greater the Imagination may Contemplate the Species in the Animal Spirits which are in the Brain itself and there Actuated by the Vegetative Spirit which doth concoct and prepare them as I have shewed and which is sufficient for this Secondary Operation by the Imagination and needeth no such Irradiation by the Species of External Objects as is required in the Primary Sensation And so this Secondary Operation by by the Imagination in Dreaming is also much weaker then it is when we are Waking or at least farr more Wild and Irregular either becaus those ascending Vapors are not yet so purely defecated in the upper Region of the Brain or otherwise becaus the Imagination then wants the Archetypes of the Primary Sensation whereby to rectify its own Contemplations And it is evident that in Sleep even the Animal Spirits of the Nervs are not so Consopited or as we say in a dead Sleep ordinarily but that any Vehement Sensible doth soon awake them and the Spirits by degrees are rowsed up and the Vaporous Cloud dispersed yea while we are asleep as the Cloud is more or less gross in ascending or sooner or longer in being purified in the Brain so is our Sleep greater or less or shorter or longer and sometimes the Soporous Cloud is so small and very Rare that we are as we say between Sleeping and Waking Now that it is so may plainly appear by the Causes of Sleep which are either Expens of Spirits that induceth a Lassitude wherupon Sleep Naturaly ensueth becaus Nature requireth a Recruit therof and the Bloud then ascendeth more copiously to the Brain which is the part affected and indigent therof or Satiety and a full Stomach whereby the Vapors so ascend of themselvs and Drinking commonly causeth Sleep more then Eating becaus Drinks are more Vaporous and Spirituous then Meats or Dejection of the Spirits by Stupidity and Sorrow and the like and so Narcotike Medicines by their Stupifying Quality induce Sleep or Idlenes and Cessation from Exercise of Body or Mind may be another Caus therof as it removeth the Impediment of Sleep or indeed the very Contrary therof for so all Exercise is a Waking and therfore a man cannot well sleep if he do but stand upright and Sleep as I may so say unbendeth the Bow and relaxeth not only the Perceptive but also the Motive Spirits and thus as Exercise and Lassitude so Waking and Sleeping do follow and indeed mutualy caus one another by Expens and Recruit of the Animal Spirits both Perceptive and Motive which heerby appear to be very Connatural for as much Study is a Wearines to the Flesh as the Wise man saith so wearines of the Flesh is also an Impediment to the Study of the Mind Now as I have shewed that all Perceptive Sensation both Primary and Secondary is in the Imagination so if any require that I should also shew what is that Specifike Imaginative Power whereby the Sensitive Spirit so Operateth wherof I have thus farr traced the Operations or maner of working from the Sensible Object to this Sensitive Faculty as I have shewed that the Sensitive Spirit itself is an Active Spiritual Substance Created by God in the Begining and first produced with this and all other the Innate Qualitys therof so Actuated by God in this Fifth Day so I can only affirm thaâ— this Imaginative Power is such becaus God so Created it as Matter is Matter and Spirit Spirit Heaven Heaven and Earth Earth Extension Extension Heat Heat and the like becaus God so Created them in the begining and as no man can go beyond that Begining so neither
same Sensitive Classis and yet very farr Different one from another not only in their whole Composita but also in their very Sensitive Spirits which Specificaly Differ and the Piscine Spirits are much Inferior to the Bestial so also are Angelical and Human Spirits in the same Intellective Classis and not only Spirits Genericaly as they are distinguished from Matter and as all Elementary Vegetative and Sensitive are Spirits as well as Angels as I have shewed but Classicaly Coordinate one with another and though the Spirits of Men be Inferior to Angelical as it is said Thou hast made him little lower then the Angels yet certeinly they are not Subordinate unto them as Fishes though Inferior to Beasts are not Subordinate unto them so as all the Sensitive Classis is unto Man and the Vegetative to the Sensitive and the Elementary to the Vegetative and Matter to the Elementary becaus they are not of an Inferior Classis but of the same Classis wherin all are Coordidinate as I have shewed and so are the Intellective Spirits of Men with Angels and as our Savior saith in this Future State they shall be Isangeli not only like but equal to them and indeed if we should not be in the same Intellective Classis with them Man should not be a Microcosm as he is and Christ in our Human Nature should not have Assumed all the several Classes of Nature as he did And becaus we are so Coordinate with them therefore we need not their Mediation and Intercession but only his who is the Mediator God-Man And as the highest Excellence of their Nature is to Know Love and Enjoy God so we are capable heerof as well as they and as we and they are Moral Creatures so we are Mutualy obliged one to another but neither of us to Brutes and so the Angel said to Iohn I am thy fellow-servant and we are yet more united in Christ who shall also make us partakers of their Superaether and in whom all things are Recapitulated as the Apostle saith both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him Whereby as it is also said we Come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the Living God the Heavenly Ierusalem and to an Innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven Now wheras I have shewed that in this present Conjunct State we cannot Operate without or beyond the Body that is we cannot Understand without Phantasms which we Irradiate with the Spiritual Light of our Understanding nor Localy Move the Body without the Motive Spirits which we Move by the Spiritual Power of our Will whereby we Command and Govern the Sensitive Imagination and Appetite Immediately and so the whole Body Mediately and that Angels need no such Instrumentalitys but may Intuitively Contemplate all things by the Irradiation of their own Mental Light and Move them by the Eradiation of their own Spiritual Heat as I may so term them thus our Human Spirit as well as they shall also then have the same Intuitive and Motive Qualitys Actuated therin which aâ—e now in it Potentialy for so Intelligences as well as all other Natures have their proper Potentialitys and Actualitys otherwise they should not be Mutable for Alteration is by production of Potentiality into Actuality and reduction of Actuality into Potentiality as I have said and though they are not Generable or Corruptible in their Substances which are Simple and without any Mistion or Composition and such as always Subsist in themselvs and are neither Generable nor Corruptible as I have also shewed yet they have their Accidental Qualitys by which they Operate and not by their Essences or Substances Immediately more then other Natures and all such Accidents do Subsist in their Substances and thereby and therin have their Actualitys and Potentialitys and are therefore Generable and Corruptible in themselvs and so Mutable Also all Simple Substances of the same Species have all the same Specifical Qualitys therof either Actualy or Potentialy becaus they are of the same Species as they are such Simple Substances though their Mista or Composita may otherwise Differ Specificaly as such for so though the Cortical Stones Metalls Minerals and Subcortical Magnet differ Specifically as Mista yet as all of them are of the same Predominant Element Earth so that being a Simple Substance in it self hath all the Terrene Qualitys in it self Actualy or Potentialy and thus the Magnetical Virtue which is a Terrene Quality is Actuated in Iron and so as is said may be in Brick-earth and the like And so though Aethereal and Culinary Fire may differ Specificaly as Mista yet the Elementary Fire which is Predominant in both is Specificaly one and the same Simple Substance and hath all the Aethereal Qualitys in it self either Actualy or Potentialy and so Planetary Virtue might be Actuated in Culinary Fire as well as in Comets and so also all Simple Substances of the same Classis have the same Classical or Generical Qualitys as every Grass Herb and Tree hath Vegetation and the like though in their own several Specifical maners and every Fish Fowl Beast hath Sensation and the like though in their own several Specifical maners And thus the Human Spirit and the Angelical Spirit being both Intelligences which may Live and Operate separately have also such Generical Qâ—alitys both Intuitive and Motive whereby they may so Live and Operate Separately in themselvs though in their own several Specifical maner either Actualy as the Angels or Potentialy as we also now have them And as an Embryon in the Womb hath many Facultys Potentialy which yet are not Actuated untill it be born and brought forth into the Light so have also our Souls while they are as Embryons in the Egg as it were of our Bodys and as we have now many Actual Qualitys which shall in that Separate State be reduced to Eternal Potentiality as Nutrition Tasting and the like so shall we then have others Actuated in us which we never had Actualy before And certeinly in the Palingenesy of the Body there shall be such a great and wonderfull change of Qâ—alitys that the Apostle calleth it a Spiritual Body as I have shewed which shall not be only a Platonical Vehicle of the Soul but Organical and most Glorious as the Apostle saith The Lord Iesus Christ shall change our Vile Body that it may be fashioned like unto his Glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself Whereby also we may understand that Separate Spirits are not so vastly Diffusive or Atomicaly Retractive as some fansy but have their Bounds as other Finite Natures for so certeinly our Separate Soul after the Resurrection shall be confined within the Body as well as in this Conjunct State And that the Separate State of the Soul is such may somewhat Sensibly appear in our selvs who seem to have some Common
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