and uses For although the Almighty Wisdom and Power could have made all this Fabrick of the World in its full complement and perfection in one moment and although he produced and perfected Vegetables Brutes and Man in one moment without the gradual procedures through those several stations and degrees which Nature now observeth and so he could have done in the production of all other the Integrals of the Universe yet he seems in some parts of this Processus formativus of the Universe to use sometimes such Methods Means and Instruments and such Times Periods and Orders as might seem to bear in some measure a congruity to a Natural Procedure thus he used that Motion or Agitation of the Spirit for the ripening and influencing of the vast Mass he first begins with the production of those more simple constituent Particles of Matter which might yield Matter suited and prepared to Mixt Natures And it is not unreasonable for us to think that this great flaming Light in the first three days of the Creation was used as a most suitable Instrument for the Rarefaction Digestion Separation and Distribution of the remaining part of the Chaotical Matter in those greater Agitations that it had in the production of the Aether the separation of the Water and the arefaction of the Earth which Processes required a more severe and violent active Instrument than was necessary or indeed suitable to those smaller Mutations which were after made and probably if that piercing and great Lucid Nature had continued its Revolutions about the World it would have been too strong and violent either to the production or conservation of those Animals and Mankind that were now to be produced And so the diffused Light that circulated about the Universe is now this fourth day distributed into these several Heavenly Bodies 1. Because now its use in that former state and method of its existence ceased 2. It was now for the use of the Universe to have it distributed and ordered into those several Vessels the Sun and Stars that might with a gentler and better regulated Heat and Motion influence the World 3. It was now more for the Beauty Order and Ornament of the Universe for the Glory and Honour of the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness to distribute this Light into several Vessels and according to various measures and proportions and accommodated with several Motions than to keep it in one vast and terrible Body circulating the Universe which unrefracted might have been too penetrating and violent to the other parts of Nature And this seems to be the Method of the Origination of the Heavenly Bodies For though the firt Verse tells us that In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth we have no reason to suppose that the Etherial Bodies and the Heavenly Luminaries were completed in the moment of Time whatever may be conjectured touching the Coelum Empyraeum for it is evident that Light the first-born of the Universe was not made till the first day the Expansum or Aether till the second day nor the Heavenly Host the Planetary and Fixed Stars till the fourth day I shall not here contend much touching the System of the Universe whether the Earth be the Center thereof or the Sun whether it consist of so many several Systems or Vortices whether every Fixed Star hath its Vortex and the Sun the Center of the Planetary Vortex only thus much I shall say 1. That this Diving Hypothesis delivered to us by the hand of Moses seems wholly to contradict the Supposition of Solid Orbs and strongly concludes that the Heavenly Bodies are moved in liquido Aethere 2. It seems rather to countenance that System of the Universe that supposeth the Earth to be the common Center thereof than 〈◊〉 the imaginary Hypothesis of Copernicus Galileus Kepler or Des Cartes 3. That it utterly contradicts the Hypothesis of Aristotle and Ocellus and the Pythagoreans touching the Eternity of the World or of the Heavens and likewise the Fiction of Democritus and Epicurus of the casual Coalition of the Universe by the motion or interfering of Atoms 3. I come to consider of the Fifth Days Work touching the production of Fish and Fowls Vers 20. And God said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven and God created great whales and every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind and every winged fowl after its kind and God saw that it was good The great Engin of the Heavenly Bodies being now constituted in that excellent state and order for the use and conservation of animal Life God Almighty proceedeth in a most exquisite order for the production of Animals and because the Waters were in themselves a more ductile and possibly a more fertil Body than the Earth and also because caeteris paribus the Fowls and Fishes are not of an equal perfection in their natures to the Brutes or Terrestrial Animals for these have certainly a more digested constitution greater variety and curiosity in their bodily texture and a higher Spirit and Soul of nobler Instincts and more capable of Discipline than the Fowl or Fishes Therefore as the production of Vegetables anteceded the production of Animals so the production of Animals aquatil and volatil preceded the production of terrestrial Animals What may else be said in relation to this Days Work I shall deliver in the Consideration of the next first Part of the sixth Days Work Therefore 4. The first Part of the sixth Days Work comprized the production of Terrestrial Animals Vers 24. And God said Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind and cattel and every creeping thing and beast of the earth after his kind and it was so The Reasons why Terrestrial Animals had their production after the Fowls and Fishes have been partly before intimated and shall be here somewhat farther considered And they are these 1. Although Almighty God be not bound or straitned in his Operation to the sequaciousness of the Matter yet it is not improper for us to suppose that he may pursue the Laws of his own making where it consists with his design and intention The production of Vegetables by the Earth was indeed earlier but then the energy of his Instrument the Light perchance was stronger than after the distribution thereof into the Receptacles of the Heavenly Luminaries 2. Ad plurimum the nature of Terrestrial Animals was a more refined nature than that of Fowls and Fishes and therefore as the Matter might reasonably expect a longer mora for its Concoction so the Method of Creation caeteris paribus proceeded from the less elaborate Integrals of Mixt Bodies to the more elaborate concluding with Man And this preference of the Brutes above Fowls and Fishes appears 1. In the manner of their natural procreation the Brutes being ad plurimum vivipara the
World especially in the Work of the third day was the dividing of the Earth and Waters Vers 9. And God said Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together and let the dry land appear and it was so and God called the dry land earth and the gathering together of the waters he called seas The Divine Historian herein brings us to the Formation of this lower Globe of Water and Earth and the distinction thereof This portion of the lower World seems to be the whole residue of the visible Chaotical Mass which by the former Rectification was reduced to a small portion like the Caput mortuum after Distillation for out of it had been before drawn those two mighty and large portions of Matter namely the Fiery and Flammeous and Lucid Nature imbodied in a Vehicle sufficient to contain and receive it in the Work of the first day and secondly the Expansum the vast Body of the Air and Aether in the Work of the second Day So that this Elementary portion of Earth and Water seems to be as it were the sediment and relique of the Massa Chaotica And those other two vast Extractions being drawn from it it seems this lower Region of Nature consisting of an aggregation of Water and Earth by the Divine Disposition of things either immediately or partly by the instrumentality either of the ambient Fire or by the implanted tendency of the grosser Particles to one common Center of this residue of a Chaotick Mass the gross Terrestrial parts subsided into the middle of the Water and though it was in bulk far greater than the Water yet it had there two concomitants with it 1. The Water by reason of its fluidity and penetration mingled it self as far as it could at least with the superficies of the Terrestrial Sediment to some considerable depth into it so far as it could pierce until it were excluded by the denser coagulation of the Earth 2. The Water did encompass the whole Terrestrial Globe to some proportionable depth or thickness though not equal to the quantity of the Earth So that as the circular Scales of a Pearl incompass one another so did the several extâ—racted great Integrals cover one another The first extracted Nature was the Light the Fiery or Luminous Body which must needs be uppermost because first drawn off from the Chaotick Mass The second the Aether and Air drawn off encompassing the remaining part of the Chaotick Mass The third the Watry Consistence left in a circular subsistence by the subsiding of the Ball of Earth into the common Center of the Universe And by this means the Earth was not at all conspicuous but involved in an involucrum of Water so that it must necessarily be 1. That hereby the whole Superficies of the Earth was covered with Water 2. That the upper part of it must needs be a moist muddy substance fluid and lubricous like Slime or Mud. The appearance therefore of the dry Land was by the excavation of certain Sinus and Tracts of the Earth and exaggerating or lifting up other parts of the Terrestrial Matter and by this means the Water subsided into those Caverns and Valleys prepared for its reception Whether this excavation of the Terrestrial Body or elevation of other parts thereof whereby the Water subsided were immediately by the immediate Power of God or whether he did it by the instrumentality of the Water working room for it self in the more soft and penetrable part of the Earth and exaggerating and raising Islands and Continents in other parts by such exaggeration as we see is done at this day by the Ocean producing Islands and enlarging Continents Or whether by the instrumentality of the Fire either subterraneous or ambient raising up the Earth or what other immediate way it was done most certainly it was done by the Will Direction and Regiment of the Divine Wisdom and Power so that it is truly said Job 38.10 He brake up for it its decreed place Prov. 8.28 He gave the sea its decree that the waters should not pass his commandment Hitherto the Divine History hath given us an account 1. Of the Materia prima of all Corporeal Beings the Massa Chaotica 2. The Materia proxima or secunda of all other Corporeal Beings being the simple Elements and the next Matter of all Mixtions or Composition 3. The Natura ignea calefactive lucid and penetrating the Elementary Matter 4. The Natura aetherea and aerea the Expansum 5. The Natura aquea or the Water 6. The Natura terrestris or the Earth And then he proceeds to those mixed or compounded Natures drawn out of those or some of those simpler Existences the Furniture of the Earth and Heaven I shall therefore now proceed to his Description of the Production of Mixt Natures and Vegetables in part of the third day Celestial Bodies in the fourth day Fish and Fowls in the fifth day Brutes and Man in the sixth day 1. Therefore touching the production of Vegetables Vers 11. And God said Let the earth bring forth grass the herb yielding seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after her kind whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so Here we have the beginning of the Vegetable Nature and mark what I say concerning this will be applicable with some variation to the Brutes and Fish We have three sorts of Vegetables here described 1. Some that seem to be of the lowest rank and such as we do find oftentimes sponte orta the Grass 2. Those Herbs that are of a more perfect nature which as they bear Seed so they do not usually arise but by it 3. Trees bearing Fruit and Seed being the nobler sort of Trees but this includes all kind of Vegetables as well Trees that bear not Fruit or Seed as those which do In the production of these Vegetables these things are observable 1. The Supreme Efficient the Word of Command of the Divine Will was that which was the Supreme productive Efficient 2. The subordinate Instrument germinet terra wherein we have these two great Truths delivered 1. That the Earth yielded the Matter of Vegetables 2. That the Earth was now impregnated to be an active Instrument to this production and concurred therein at least instrumentally with the Supreme Efficient and that Activity that was in the Earth did not arise meerly from the Matter for that in the beginning was purely passive but 1. by the Fecundating Principle the Spirit of God moving upon the Face of the Chaotick Matter 2. by the powerful Energy of the Fiery and Luminous Principle that partly resided in the Earth partly incompassed it 3. but principally by the Efficacy of the Word of the Divine Command which was no other but the determination of His Efficacious Will 3. But though the more solid Matter of these Vegetable Productions was the Earth yet it was the Earth conjoined with that vigorous Fire which was mingled with that active Air or Aether that was
immediate reach of our Sense we may have such an evidence as in reason we ought as reasonable Men to acquiesce in though the evidence be still in its own nature but moral and not simply demonstrative or infallible And the variety of circumstances renders the credibility of such things more or less according to the various ingredients and contributions of credibility that are concentred in such an evidence It is impossible to demonstrate by evidence infallible or which is all one by evidence that is impossible to be false that there was such a Man as Julius Caesar or Augustus that there was such a Man as William the Conqueror or King Henry the Eighth or that such a Man was his Father or such a Woman his Mother or that there is such a City as Venice or Rome to me that never saw it for all these I have but by relation from others and it is not impossible but those Histories or informations or relations by which I am informed of these things may be false And they are such matters as have in them a less evidence than my own Sense of Sight for the evidence of my Sense is simple and immediate and therefore I have but a shorter cut thereby to the assent to the truth of the things so evidenced But in things that I have by relation from others my evidence is of greater distance for first I see them not by my own Eyes but it is others that must first see the thing they relate and secondly though I should think that whatsoever might be believed if obvious to the Sense of others might have as great a credibility as if obvious to my own yet I must have a second postulation that must have an ingredient to elicit my assent namely the veracity of him that reports and relates it And hence it is that that which is reported by many Eye-witnesses hath greater motives of credibility than that which is reported by few that which is reported by credible and authentick witnesses than that which is reported by light and inconsiderable witnesses that which is reported by persons disinteressed than that which is reported by persons whose interest it is to have the thing true or believed to be true that which hath the concurring testimony of real existing monuments than that which is without them and finally that which is reported by credible persons of their own view than that which they receive by hear-say from those that report upon their own view So that it is not with Evidences of Fact as it is with Logical or Mathematical Demonstrations which seem to consist in indivisibles for that which thus is demonstratively true is impossible to be false but Moral Evidence is gradual according to the variety of circumstances Yet such a man would be exploded as an irrational man that will not believe there was such a man as Julius Caesar because the Historians that write of him might possibly conspire to deceive the World with a Romance or that the Books may be supposititious or corrupted or will not believe that such a Man was his Father or such a Woman his Mother because he might be supposititious or will not believe there is such a City as Rome which he never saw because Travellers are wont to love to tell strange things and so may many as well as one So that as eternal Truths may have one kind of certainty by Logical Demonstration and as Mathematical Conclusions have an infallible certainty by Mathematical Demonstration and as matters objected immediately to our Sense have another kind of certainty by sensible evidence so matters simply of fact not objected immediately to our Sense have another kind of certainty though not altogether equal to the former nor simply infallible yet so highly credible that may justly elicit the assent of reasonable men and such as is proportionate to the nature of the thing and therefore more cannot be reasonably expected for the proof of the fact In the pursuance of this Argument namely Evidences of Fact touching the Origination of Mankind I must therefore say that the Evidences thereof are not of an infallible certainty and so much the rather because it relates to a matter that at the nearest that can be supposed is near six thousand years distant from us and some suppose more therefore the Evidences of Fact are as it were percolated through a vast Period of Ages and many very obscure to us And therefore all Proofs of this kind except that of Divine Revelation which though true and infallibly true we must not by the Laws of Argumentation bring in here because at one word it determins the Question will arise to no higher than Moral and therefore fallible in their own nature We rest upon what hath been before said for Evidences and Reasons that to me seem demonstrative But yet the Evidences of Fact which we shall produce must be considered also with these Advantages for their credibility 1. They are such as bear a great congruity and consonancy with and subservience to those former Arguments that ex natura rei and intrinsecè prove an impossibility of an eternal duration of Mankind à parte ante which though it doth not cannot evince that Mankind must have their Origination or Beginning in hac vel ista hora yet they do evince that Beginning it must have and the evidences of fact are as so many testes contestes or suffragiales that bear witness to that Truth that the former sort of Arguments do plainly evince 2. Though these Evidences of Fact taken singly and apart are not without their Objections that may seem to weaken them yet juncta juvant That evidence at Law which taken singly or apart makes but an imperfect proof semiplena probatio yet in conjunction with others grow to a full proof like Silurus his twigs that were easily broken apart but in conjunction or union were not to be broken Truths especially of Fact are not made Truths by Arguments or Evidence If there were once such a man as Caesar it is most certainly true that he was though no Historian ever mentioned him and therefore if there were ten thousand Authors that mention him kept sacredly and inviolably in certain Archives unto this day all this evidence doth not make him to be but only gives us a light and evidence of great probability that he was The Stars in the Milky-way and those Asseclae Jovis are not therefore in the Heavens or Aether because the Telescope hath discovered them for they were there before but the position of those Glasses present them to our perception and evidence their being which cannot be discovered without them And so it is with Evidences of Fact they do not make the thing to be but evidence them to be and because if to any one quaesitum of fact there be many but probable evidences which taken singly have not perchance any full evidence yet when many of those evidences concur and concenter in
the instituted nature of Corporeal Beings he did observe the same method or order still in the Generation of things Wherein we may observe that the greater and more comprehensive Rudiments and Stamina are laid and in some good measure formed before the lesser and derivative parts are formed and compleated as we shall have occasion to observe when we come to consider the processus generationis of Man and Brutes And now to come to those greater Productions which are principally these the Light the Aether the Air the Water the Earth First therefore touching the Light Vers 3. And God said let there be light and there was light and God divided the light from the darkness and the light he called day and the darkness he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day Herein it might be fit to examin 1. What this Light was 2. How it was produced 3. How it was disposed or ordered 4. In what order and character of time it was so produced and ordered Touching these briefly and first touching the nature of this Light We may observe in Fire two great operations or effects first Heat secondly Light It should seem that active Element as it is commonly called or rather that powerful vigorous Entity or Vis ignea lucida calefactiva was produced by the Incubation of the Spirit of God upon the face of the Abyss and diffused through the confused Particles of the Materia Chaotica and that it was the great Instrument which that Spirit did both communicate and use for the preparation digestion and agitation of that Matter but this fiery nature being mingled and dispersed through the Matter though it had one of its useful effects namely Heat yet it neither had nor could have Light at least till it were in some measure disintangled and severed from the Moles of gross Matter with which it was confounded and mingled and till the lucid and flammeous particles or rather Vis ignea lucida were lodged in a fit Vehicle for its emission So that in the work of this day Light was not created but only a considerable part thereof separated from the grosser Matter and disposed into an apt Vehicle to contain it 2. And this answers partly the second Inquiry namely How it was produced not as it seems by Creation but the powerful Fiat of Almighty God called the Light out of Darkness that is separated and severed the most lucid fiery nature and invested them with fit Vehicles desumed out of the Materia Chaotica whereby great part of that flammeous and lucid fiery nature which was created by the Incubation of the Spirit of God was in a great measure discharged from the bond and incumbrance of the grosser Matter and rendred useful for the beauty and service of the Universe but yet so that there remained still in the parts of the Moles a sufficient stock of connatural Fire and fiery Particles for the heating agitating and digesting of their several parts for their several uses and ends As to the Third it should seem that 1. This luminous nature was lodged in a suitable Vehicle to derive its Light and Influence to the exteriour Superficies of this Moles Chaotica 2. That it was put into a circular Motion whereby in the space of a Natural Day it visited the whole Expansum by successive rotation so that as by its presence in any part of the Chaotical Horizon it made Day so by its absence there-from it caused Night as the Sun doth at this day And this diurnal Rotation of this luminous Body was really such because there could not be otherwise that which the Text supposeth viz. separation of the Light from the Darkness and thereby the distribution of Day and Night so it was convenient for the better digestion and preparation of the remaining indigested parts of Nature For doubtless that Light was of a very great and penetrating Influence being as it were the Flos and Elixir of that most active and powerful Element 4. The Time and Order wherein this production of Light was is said to be the first Day what portion of duration the disorderly Chaos had before this first production is utterly uncertain because not revealed possibly it might be a very long time but the perfecting of the World in its formal order and constitutum seems to be in the compass of six Natural Days and the first Days Work is this of Light And although we must finally resolve the ordering and methodizing of all things to the Divinum beneplacitum whose Wisdom and Ways are unsearchable and past finding out farther than he is pleased to reveal them yet it should seem to be very consonant to the reason of things that this eduction and circulation of the Light should begin and be continued at least for the first three Days of the World without parcelling or distributing into those Luminaries of the Sun and Stars For doubtless the collection of this lucid fiery active nature into so great a Body as probably it was had even naturally a most forcible energy influence and penetration into the subjected Chaos and strangely prepared it for its ensuing offices and uses Although we must ever with all humility acknowledge that the Great and Omnipotent God needed not the subsidiary Instrumentalities of Nature to compleat his Work but could do all things immediately as he did most evidently in many of the productions of Nature yet if he were pleased to use this order in things we have reason to believe that though he needed it not yet when we see it done it was certainly so done with most exquisite Wisdom and Reason He could in the first moment have produced the whole World compleat in all particulars but he chose not so to do but did things in a successive order of six Days and in such a Method as was most agreeable to his good pleasure and infinite Wisdom What became of this Fiery Luminous Nature and Body we shall see in the fourth Days Work 2. The Second great Integral seems to be that great and vast Body consisting of the Air and Aether called the Firmament Vers 6. And God said Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water and God made the firmament and divided the waters which are above the firmament from the waters that are under the firmament and it was so and God called the firmament heaven and the evening and the morning were the second day This word that is translated in our English Firmament is rendred by Linguists understanding the propriety of the word to be Expansum or Expansio and much controversie hath been what is meant by the Waters above the Heavens some supposing a real existence of Waters above the Starry Heavens to cool the heat contracted by them or their rapid motion others conjecturing it to be the Clouds which are above the middle region of the Air both improbable enough the former a meer imagination the latter little more for at
this time it is apparent there were no Clouds neither had it rained upon the Earth Gen. 2.6 It seems therefore that this Expansum rendred here Firmament is nothing else but that limit or boundary between the more refined liquid nature which we usually call Air and Aether and the grosser or fluid Element properly called Water So the Firmament was nothing else but that Expansum of Air and Aether that are contiguous to the Superficies of the Water The Reasons that induce me so to think which also explicate the Notion of the Supposition are these 1. Because frequently both in the Language of the Holy Scripture and of divers of the ancient Heathen Authors the whole Diaphanum of the Air and Aether is in one common appellation called Heaven which is the denomination here given to this Expansum God called the Firmament or Expansum Heaven thus we have frequent mention of the Fowls of the Heavens the Clouds of Heaven which yet are situated in that part of Heaven which is the Aiery Region And again here Vers 14. the Sun and Moon are said to be great Lights placed in the Firmament of the Heaven which are yet placed in a Region of the Aether though above the Atmosphere and the region of the common Air yet are far below that liquid region of the Aether wherein the Stars move and Vers 20. the Fowls habitation is said to be in the open Firmament of Heaven which yet fly no higher than the lower region of the Air. So that the Heaven and the Expansum here called the Heaven seems to be that great Expansum of the Diaphanum including the more sublime and pure part thereof called the Aether and the grosser and lower part thereof called the Air and the Waters above the Firmament were that refined rarified liquid Matter which was Aether and Air and the 〈◊〉 Waters below the Firmament were those gross and fluid parts of Nature called ordinarily Water 2. Because it appears Vers 9. that the Waters which were gathered together in the Constitution of the Air were the Waters under the Heavens Waters that were next contiguous to that common Expansum consisting of Air and Aether called Heaven there was nothing interposed between that fluid Water which constituted the Sea and that common Expansum called Heaven consisting of Air and Aether 3. It seems that the great Moles Chaotica was in its appearance and external consistency of a waterish nature for it is said that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the Waters which though it contained the confused Mass of all things as well those that grew into a more solid consistence as the more reformed or subtil Matter yet in its first deformed exhibition of its appearance it had the shape of Water and therefore Plutarch de placitis Philosophorum lib. 1. cap. 3. tells us that Thales Milesius held that Water was the common Principle of all things which Position he learned partly by the Analogy that he found therewith in things existing whose first Rudiments and last Resolution seems to be a watry or fluid substance and partly by Tradition from the Egyptians or rather from the Hebrews whose first habitation was in that Country And the manner of the resolution of this Aqueous appearance into Aether and Air seems to be this This great aqueous Chaotical Mass contained in it Particles of various natures some more feculent and gross as the Earthy Particles which floated up and down in it till they were driven down by the Fire and Heat or otherwise by some disposition 〈◊〉 or agitation of that Incubation of the Spirit of God were disposed and subsided in the middle of this Aqueous substance which became in time the Moles terrestris Other parts less feculent than these resided in a Region or Circle next to that grosser and more feculent Sediment but by virtue of the Divine Disposal the Incubation of the Spirit and the Energy and Efficacy of that great circulating Fiery Nature which was maintained in a continued rotation about the Massa Chaotica called Light and that internal hot and fiery Nature that still resided within the Body of the Massa Chaotica the more subtil and pure particles of this Watrish Matter were separated divided and exhaled from it and constituted that Consistency that is called the Air and Aether here called Heaven And this diaphanous Body of the Air and Aether thus extracted from the Water varied in degrees of Subtilty or Rarity according to the degrees of its elevation the more high and elevated parts being more pure according to the degrees of their ascent and the lower more feculent and thick and filled with more gross Exhalations and Vapours arising from the contiguously subjected parts and therefore it is said Gen. 2.6 There went up a mist from the earth and watered the face of the ground And I am farther induced to think that those Waters above the Firmament or Expansum were no other than this Aether and Air raised and separated from the Massa Chaotica upon these Reasons 1. Because there seems to be a great congruity between the Water and the Air in their quality of liquidity or moisture 2. Because there seems to be a more connatural Transmutation of either into other the Air and for ought I know the Aether which is but a purer sublimated Air by condensation easily re-assuming the nature of Water and the Water by heat and rarefaction easily assuming the nature of Air and by the continuance and constancy of that heat containing it self in that consistency And from hence it is that the Waters were the common material Principle of both the Fishes and Fowls And if we may conjecture that great Inundation Gen. 7.1 was not by a new Creation of Water but by the wonderful and powerful Condensation of the Region of the Air which seems to be that opening of the Windows of Heaven whereby great portions of the Aerial and Etherial Matter discovered themselves to be Water 3. Because we have no other part of Holy History that gives us an account of the production of that vast Continent of the Air and Aether out of the Chaotick Mass but this place And here we must observe once for all That there was no Creation of Matter after the Beginning it was all created in that moment of Beginning 2. That from that Creation till the first Day wherein Light was produced there was that continued preparation impregnation disposition and agitation of Matter by the Spirit of God 3. That all the Productions of the Six Days except the Creation of the Soul of Man and Angels were not by any new Creation but by separation of the parts of that pre-existing Matter formation of them and composition and effection of Beings out of the first created disposed and ordered Matter by the Power of Almighty God and the influencing them with those active Principles which we usually call Forms Energies and Active Qualities 3. The Third great Integral of this lower
If a Flea or a Fly hath as exact a symmetry organization and diversity of Faculties as an Ostridge or an Elephant the curiosity of the Art is more admirable by the smalness of the Volume And yet these do every day arise spontaneously and it may be propagate their kind after their spontaneous production or it may be have only the existence of a Day neither is it reasonable to think that all these Insects thus spontaneously arising were first produced in the fifth or sixth Day or that the Semina formata of every Worm or Fly that hath arisen this day or yesterday were created in the first Creation of things and lay concealed and unactive for above 5000 Years and yet in these sponte nata we see no necessity nor evidence of any immediate Divine Efficiency for some are every day produced ex putri sine praeexistente semine Why therefore is so much weight laid upon the first Origination of Man or perfect Animals as if it must needs require the immediate interposition of Almighty God when we are content to referr the Origination of Works possibly of as wonderful a fabrication as many at least of perfect Animals to a lower Cause I Answer It is true that there is a great curiosity in the Texture and Faculty of Insects and that there are very many that arise not ex praeexistente semine but either of Vegetables or of that which we usually call Materia putris and it will be too hard a task for any to maintain that all Insects do arise of univocal Seeds derived from their own Species or that all the Species of Insects were created the fifth or sixth Day neither shall I with Scotus affirm that the Forms of such Insects are derived from Heaven and diffused into Matter whereby they mould themselves into their distinct Existences But as the God of Nature gave a seminal prolifick power to perfect Animals and unto Men and did bind and connex this Method of their future Generations unto their Nature without which though they had been constituted otherwise in a most perfect Constitution they could never have multiplied their kind So as to the production of many Insects Almighty God hath given such a prolifick nature to the Earth and Waters in a certain due mixture irradiated and influenced by the Sun to produce divers sorts of Insects by virtue of these two great Benedictions given to the Water Gen. 1.20 and to the Earth Gen. 1.24 as the two great prevailing Elements in spontaneous generations and as by virtue of the Divine Benedictions given to Animals and Men Increase and multiply and replenish the Earth and the Waters Gen. 1.22 28. so by virtue of that first Command to the Waters and Earth Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind and the cattel and creeping thing and the beast after his kind The spontaneous propagation of Insects by the Earth is by virtue of this Command as effectual and in its kind as natural by virtue of this established Law as the production of Animals per mixtionem though not so perfect And from the Efficacy of this Divine Institution it comes to pass 1. That their Textures and Faculties are curiously disposed for the Elementary Nature in conjunction with the Heavenly Influence doth produce them as Instruments and in the virtue of the first Institution of the Glorious God 2. That though there is a great variety and multiplicity in their Species yet they are not infinite but determinate 3. That according to the variety of Climates and various disposition of Matter Insects are variously produced this Climate produceth that Insect that another doth not and this Herb this Wood this Flesh that Insect that another doth not and the same is observed in Herbs and spontaneous Plants And hence it is that all the Art in the World can never make the meanest Insect out of any other Matter or any otherwise disposed or any otherwise irradiated than what would of it self naturally produce an Insect of that kind But this shall be farther illustrated in the Answer to the next Objection But although it be true that these little Insects discover the wonderful Wisdom and Power of God in their vicarious productions by the commissionated and influenced Elementary Nature yet they come exceedingly short of those perfect Animals who have a nobler and more elaborate production by univocal generation and infinitely short of the excellency of the Humane Nature And therefore there is no parity of Instance in the first formation of an Insect ex non genitis and the first formation of the Humane Nature Every Year gives us Instances of a new spontaneous production of Insects and this by virtue of that primitive commission and vital vigour thereby concredited to the Earth and Waters irradiated by the Sun But never any Age gives so much as a shadow of an Instance of the production of any perfect Animals much less of Man by any such spontaneous Method and that the latter gives a greater and more eminent Specimen of a Divine Power in its primitive formation than the former in its spontaneous production 3. Object It is evident that the malignant Spirits have power to produce Insects as appears by the Magicians producing of Frogs in Aegypt by their Enchantments Exod. 8.7 and therefore the resolution of the spontaneous productions of Insects into the Energy of the Divine Command seems unwarrantable And if he may produce those which are really endued with an Animal Life why not those Animals that have their ordinary production by univocal Generation and why not also Mankind And the Satyrs and Fauns whereof some of the Ancients write seems to be productions out of the common road of humane production I Answer 1. Touching the supposed Fauns and Satyrs they were either Fables or Illusions and no credit to be given to the Histories of them 2. Admitting it should be within the power of good or evil Angels to produce Insects yet it would be no consequence from thence to their efficacy of producing perfect Animals much less Humane Nature which is in another superior rank of Being above the noblest Brutes and excessively above the rank of Insects We might as well conclude because a Man can make a Candle he can make a Star But 3. As to the efficacy of good or evil Angels in effecting of Insects 1. It is of no great difficulty to suppose that good or evil Angels may bring or transport the Semina or Spawn of Insects to other places and possibly thus it might be done by the Egyptian Magicians 2. It is very true that the Angelick Natures have a very great knowledge of Natural Efficacies and Virtues and a great power of transporting uniting and applying Actives to Passives whatsoever therefore is effectible by the most congruous and efficacious application of Actives to Passives is effectible by them And since there are