Ratiocination by them Touching the thing called Reason we must consider that it hath a double acceptation 1. It is taken for every conduct of any thing by fitting means to fitting ends or the due and convenient ordering and adapting of one thing to another and this again seems to be of three kinds viz. Active Passive or Mixt i. That I call Active Reason which from an inward intellective principle orders and disposeth as the Watch-maker contrives orders and disposeth the several parts of the Watch so that it excites a regular and useful motion 2. The Passive Reason which is more properly Reasonableness is that order and congruity which is impressed upon the thing thus wrought as in the Watch I see every thing moves duly and orderly and the reason of the motion of the Ballance is by the motion of the next Wheel and that by the motion of the next and that by the motion of the Fusee and that by the motion of the Spring the whole frame order and contexture of the Watch carries a reasonableness in it the passive impression of the Reason or intellectual Idea that was in the Artist 3. The Mixt sort of Reason seems to be when a thing concurrs actively and from an internal principle and in things that have life vitally to the production of a reasonable effect but yet per modum instrumenti and in the virtue of a superiour direction of a reasonable agent Thus when I plow my ground my Horse is harnessed and chained to my Plough and put in his track or surrow and guided by my Whip and my Tongue and so draws on my Plough and this reasonable work is performed actively and vitally by my Brute in the virtue of my direction And certainly this kind of latter Reason is evident not only in the brute Beasts in their instincts and operations but also in Vegetables and almost in all things in Nature for they are all indued with a certain inherent activity which is nevertheless implanted directed ordered and determined by the great Creator in the Laws of their several constitutions The process of nutrition and generation not only in Animals but even in Vegetables is done with the highest Reason exceeding the imitation of the Humane Reason the Birds making their Nests ordering their Eggs and moving them in incubation feeding and disciplining their young is done with the most exquisite reason and congruity thereunto beyond the artifice of the most ingenious man And it must needs be so for though they concur actively from an internal Principle to the production of the effect yet they are determined therein and thereunto and their track ordered for them and to them by the Laws of their nature instituted and imprinted on them by the unimitable Wisdom of the highest intellectual Being This mixed or instrumental Reason as I may call it therefore all must agree to belong not only to Brutes but almost to all things in Nature and herein differs from Reason or Reasonableness which I before call simply passive in that it immediately proceeds from the internal active Principles implanted by God in their natures 2. But there is another kind of Reason which we call Ratiocination or Discursus rationalis which consists principally in these three things though the two former without the latter make not up a compleat Ratiocination 1. The simple apprehension of things themselves which is done by images or representations thereof made either by the Intellect or by the representations made thereunto by the Phantasie 2. The compounding of the images or representation of things with an affirmation or negation this makes a Proposition 3. The composition of several Propositions among themselves and drawing from them Conclusions and this is called Syllogismus Ratiocination or Discourse But though this be the analysis of Ratiocination into which by a careful attention it may be resolved we are not to think all sort of reasoning or ratiocination even in Men themselves is presently by way of explicit or formed Syllogisms or artificial Moods and Figure Some consecutions are so intimately and evidently connexed to or found in the premisses that the conclusion is attained quasi per saltum and without any thing of ratiocinative process and as the Eye sees his object immediately and without any previous discourse so in objects intellectual many evident truths or principles are primo intuitu assented unto as in objects of Sense the action is elicited per saltum as many times when a Horse is hungry and comes to a good pasture he falls to his food immediately without forming Mr. Chambre's Syllogism This green is grass This grass is good to eat Therefore this green is good to eat But the transitus from the Sense to the Phantasie and from that to the Appetite and from that to the motion of Eating is immediate momentaneous and per saltum In brief as the vegetable nature as hath been observed hath a kind of shadow of the sensible nature so the sensitive nature hath a kind of shadow of the truly rational nature their Reason is but a low obscure and imperfect shadow thereof as the Water-gall is of the Rain-bow and proportionable to their imaginative Reason is their animal Language which though it be a kind of natural sign of their Imagination and Passions yet it is infinitely below the perfection of humane Language For we see that those Birds who by reason of the analogy of their organs by use are taught some words or sentences yet they never proportion those words to an explication of any distinct conception signified by them nor can use or apply those words they learn to the things they signifie nor can they connex their words or sentences in coherence with the matter which they signifie and commonly have recourse to their wild natural notes when they would express their imaginations or passions which notes are at the best but like natural interjections framed by Nature not by Art to discover their passions or impressions and their artificial language or notes are no other than impressions upon their sensitive Memory by iterated use and drawn out from them upon the strength of such impression or by repetition of Objects that excite that Memory Thus much I thought good to premise concerning the vegetable and sensitive natures which may be of some use in the consideration of the rational or humane nature partly to instance what this latter includes namely the whole perfection of the vegetable and animal faculties and partly to discover the preference that the Humane Nature hath above the Animal Life in these most perfect faculties of Intellect intellectual Reason and Will I shall not here distinctly and fully examine the nature of Man in the whole compass and extent thereof but shall reserve it to a fuller inquiry I shall only instance in so much thereof in this place as may be apposite to my purpose namely to shew that he is a Creature of most admirable constitution and such as deserves our
latitude such as are moral and supernatural Good 3. The Acts of this Faculty are generally divided into Volition Nolition and Suspension That division that herein better suits with my purpose are these Election and Empire 1. Election or choice and this in reference both to means and end for though the Schools tell us that Electio is only mediorum non finis this is to be intended of the general end or good at large and in its universal conception for when several particular ends are in proposal there is belonging to the Will a power of Election of these as well as of the means to attain them 2. The Imperium voluntatis over the Body and the Faculties We may observe in the humane as well as the animal Body two kinds of motions or exertions of Faculties some are stiled natural or involuntary such is the motion of the Heart the Circulation of the Blood the perception of the Senses when the Organs are open and the Object applied these natural though vital Faculties and Motions are not under the command of the Will immediately for whether I will or will not while I live my Heart beats my Blood circulates my Ventricle digests what is in it my Eye sees when open But there be other Motions in the humane and also in the animal Nature that are subject to the command of the Will in Man and to the appetite in Brutes as local motion which in Animals is under the regiment of the Appetite in Man under the regiment of the Will Now this Imperium voluntatis may be considered in relation 1. To it self It can suspend its own acting either of electing or rejecting 2. To the Understanding Though it cannot suspend its perception omnibus ad percipiendum requisitis adhibitis yet it may suspend its decision or determination or at least its obsequium to such decision 3. The Passions which are as it were the Satellites voluntatis and follow the command of the Will where the Will acts according to its power and authority 4. To the animal Spirits and the Vessels in which they are received when designed to Motion namely the Nerves and Muscles those are all subject to the Empire of the Will as to Local Motion of the whole Body or any part thereof when the Spirits Nerves and Muscles are in their due and natural state 5. To the sensual Appetite And indeed herein is evident both the Empire and Sovereignty of the Will and also the visible discrimination between the Humane Nature and the Animal or Brutal Nature and its preference before it In the animal Nature it is evident that the sensual Appetite is that which hath and exerciseth the sovereignty and dominion over the spontaneous actions of the animal Nature that commands the Foot to go the Mouth to eat and all other the spontaneous motions in order to a sensible good But in Man the sensual Appetite is Regimen sub graviere regimine the government of the Appetite is under the government of the Will and controlled by it at least where the reasonable Faculty is not embased and captived by ill custom or disorder And this appears two ways 1. Sometimes the very motion of the Appetite it self is restrained by the Empire of the Will so that a man doth not appetere that sensible good which otherwise he might or would because he will not and this is the most natural and noble regiment of the Will over the sensual Appetite 2. Though it may fall out that the sensual Appetite may appetere bonum sensibile yet the Will may and doth controll the empire of the Appetite in the execution of that appetition As for instance A man sees delicious fruit and he desires it in so much that were there not a controll over the empire of his Appetite it would command the Hand to reach it and the Mouth to eat it But the contrary command of the Will supersedes the command of the Appetite the Appetite desires it but the Hand is forbidden by the Will to reach it Now if any man shall say this contradiction appears not only in the reasonable Nature but even in the sensible The sensible Appetite is checked in its execution oftentimes by sensual Fear as in Dogs and Horses and other Brutes yea sometimes by the remembrance of a former suffering for the like attempt to gratifie his sensual Appetite and yet they are destitute of any superior faculty of Will to interpose a prohibition upon the Appetite I answer this is true for in such cases the impendent Fear is either present or in memory and so expected and it being of a sensible evil hath the same influence upon the sensual Appetite as the present good and therefore if the evil feared or impendent be a greater sensible evil than the good it over-rules the Appetite to aversation as the Fish that loves the bait yet feareth the hook which it discerns as a greater sensible evil the very Appetite is thereby determined to aversation But the controll of the Will upon the Appetite in the reasonable Nature is many times and indeed most often done not upon the account of a sensible evil felt or feared which of it self were sufficient to determin the Appetite but sometimes upon the account of such hopes or fears as fall not under a sensitive notice as of the command or prohibition by God yea many times upon a bare Moral account of the indecorum unreasonableness unseasonableness or utter unfitness of the thing it self without any other motive of fear either of a present or future sensible inconvenience thereby which Moral consideration can no way move the sensible Appetite were it not for the Will which being a rational Faculty is moved by it And this is all that I shall say touching the two great Faculties of the Soul the Understanding and Will I shall not add any thing here touching Passions or Affections of the Mind 1. Because they are but a kind of appendices to the Will the Satellites voluntatis those of the concupiscible kind being as it were the flowers of the motion of Volition those of the irascible kind the flowers of the motion of Aversation 2. Because the Passions for the most part are found in the sensible Nature namely those of love hatred delight grief expectation and fear and therefore I shall not here treat of them 3. I come now to consider of those rational Instincts as I call them the connate Principles engraven in the humane Soul which though they are Truths acquirable and deducible by rational consequence and argumentation yet they seem to be inscribed in the very crasis and texture of the Soul antecedent to any acquisition by industry or the exercise of the discursive Faculty in Man and therefore they may be well called anticipations prenotions or sentiments characterized and engraven in the Soul born with it and growing up with it till they receive a check by ill customs or educations or an improvement and advancement
and Punishments that which acts out of coaction as bare Instruments or out of necessity as bare Natural Causes or a determined Instinct as Brutes are not properly capable of a Law but only analogically and what they do is not properly an act of Obedience because they cannot ordinarily do otherwise Therefore as his Intellective Faculty gives him the power to know his duty so the liberty of his Will is that which gives him the power truly to obey 2. The second property of the Will is that it is moved and drawn to that which is good or at least what appears to be so The sensitive Appetite is a power subservient to a sensitive Nature and carried to a sensible Good but the Will is a rational Faculty a Faculty of an intellectual Nature and carried to an intellectual Good as its proper Object and therefore with most earnestness to the most noble and supreme Good which is Almighty God So that as by the liberty of his Will Man is capable to be an active Instrument to serve and obey his Maker so by this property of his Will he is by a just suitableness drawn to will and desire and in enjoyment to delight in God as the chiefest Good the most noble and suitable Object of its choice and motion And we may observe that the Divine Goodness and Wisdom to promote and advance this act of the Will in choosing and loving Almighty God as his chiefest Good hath exhibited himself unto Mankind in all the manifestation of Goodness and Beneficence imaginable hath made him Lord of this inferior World provides for him supplies him and endears him to himself with all those manifestations of Mercy Goodness and Bounty that his nature is capable of whereby he may be won to love God not only as the chiefest Good but also as his chiefest Benefactor And thus by the due consideration of both these Faculties of Understanding and Will we may reasonably conjecture that the End of Almighty God in creating Man was to make such a Creature as might actively know serve glorifie love and obey his Creator and in that his Service and Obedience and Love enjoy the Love and Favour of that God whom he thus loves and obeys because we find his Faculties admirably fitted for such an end and use and certainly the wisest Agent must needs be supposed to design such an End to any Work as is suitable and commensurate to the thing he makes And these seem to be those Ends for which the wise God created this noble Creature Man which do more specially relate unto God 5. I shall now consider the Ends of Man as they mutually relate one to another There are these particularities in the Humane Nature that singularly commend Man each to other namely 1. A great love and propensity to Communion and Society Aristotle somewhere in his Politicks tells us that among Animals Bees seem to be the most sociable but that Man is by nature more sociable than Bees 2. That there are implanted certain connatural tendencies or moral Principles that do most naturally suit with humane society such as the first Rudiments of natural Justice Charity and Benignity without which it is impossible that humane society can be upheld And this appears hereby that though it is apparent that evil Educations and Customs have much defaced and weakned the Principles of Morality among Men yet they could never extinguish it but even among the Briars and Thorns the Rudiments of natural Justice and Morality have arisen and all the Order and Government and common Regiment of Societies have been maintained and preserved by it Naturam expellas furca licet usque recurret 3. That the benefit of Speech and those other instituted Signs peculiar only to Mankind are of great and principal use in maintaining and upholding Society and Communication between Mankind by these each Man communicates his Thoughts and Conceptions to another each Man instructs directs and adviseth another and makes another partaker of his own Knowledge Wisdom Counsel and Advice by this Contracts and mutual Commerce are upheld the mutual Faith of each other given and taken and infinite other advantages by all which particularities and accommodations of Humane Nature subservient to mutual Society and Love it seems reasonable to conclude That the wise God intended as one of his Ends of the Creation of Man that Man should be beneficial to Man should be instrumental for the good of humane Society 4. There appears in Man besides the speculative power of his Intellect a certain admirable ingeny and dexterity in discovering and perfecting divers Arts as well Mechanical as Liberal for the benefit delight and convenience of the Humane Nature The great Arts of Government Political Civil and Oeconomical the Arts of Husbandry and Improvements of Nature for Food Clothing Medicine the Arts of Geometry Arithmetick and artificial Measuring and Partition of Time the Arts of Architecture Navigation the Art of contriving Letters Writing Printing the Arts of Musick and Observations of the Laws Orders and Rules of the Motions and Positions of the Celestial Bodies or Astronomy and infinite more which by the Ingeny and Industry of Man have been invented discovered or perfected in all succession of Ages for the use benefit and delight of Mankind And although we may observe an admirable sagacity and dexterity in many Animals in certain kind of artifices convenient for their use and the use of Mankind as in the nidification of Birds Bees Silk-worms and divers others yet Man hath still the prelation 1. In respect of the variety and multiplicity of his Artificial Inventions and Effections commonly the Artifices of Irrational Natures are single and determinate but the Arts invented and effected by Man are multifarious various and almost infinite 2. Besides his rational Faculty is more excellent and perfect than the Faculties of other Creatures in relation to Arts and more fruitful in it 3. That one Instrument his Hand which Aristotle well calls Organum organorum is admirably suited and fitted to all variety of Artificial effections more than any of the Organs of other Creatures as our own Experience without the induction of many particulars may easily demonstrate and evince By all which and many other peculiar and distinguishing adaptations and accommodations of the Humane Nature we may reasonably conclude That the wise God in lodging of these particularities in the Humane Nature had one End and Design to make Humane Nature beneficent and useful to Mankind and to humane society And therefore that Precept so often inculcated by Christ and his Apostles of Love Charity and Beneficence from Man to Man was no other than the re-enacting of that old Commandment and directing Man to one of those Ends for which he was made and which hath so many Indications of it self by the peculiar Constitution Make and Accommodations of our Faculties 6. But yet farther the Creation of Man seems to have a farther End even in relation to this
by the due exercise of the Faculties I shall shew first what they are Secondly what moves me to think that such are connatural 1. Touching the former I think those implanted and connatural anticipations are these namely That there is a God that he is of greatest Power Wisdom Goodness and Perfection that he is pleased with good and displeased with evil that he is placable that he is to be feared honoured loved worshipped and obeyed that he will reward the good and punish the evil a secret sentiment of the immortality of the Soul or that it survives the Body to be capable of rewards and punishments according to its deportment in this life certain common notions of Moral good and evil of decorum and turpe that faith and promises are to be kept that a man must do as he would be done by that the obscene parts and actions though otherwise natural are not to be exposed to publick view obvelatio pudendorum that a man must be grateful for benefit received These and some such common notions or intimate propensions seem to be con naturally engraven in the Soul antecedently to any discursive Ratiocination and though they are not so distinct and explicite yet they are secret Byasses inclining the humane Nature primarily to what is useful and convenient for it in proportion to the state of an intellectual Nature That as we see in Brutes besides the exercise of their Faculties of sensitive Perception and Imagination there are lodged in them certain sensible Instincts antecedent to their imaginative Faculty whereby they are pre-determined to the good and convenience of the sensible Life So there are lodged in the very crasis and constitution of the Soul certain rational Instincts whereby it is pre-disposed inclined and byassed to the good and convenience proportionable to a rational and intellectual Life a certain congenite stock of rational Sentiments and Inclinations which may go along with him and fairly incline him to such a trade and way as is suitable to the good of his Nature so that he is not left barely to the undetermination incertainty and unsteadiness of the operation of his Faculties without a certain secret and gentle pre-disposition of them to what is right decent and convenient for their manage and guidance by these common anticipations inclinations and connatural Characters engraven in the Soul 2. And that which inclines me to believe this is not only the congruity of the supposition to the convenience of the humane Nature and the instance of the sensible Instincts in the animal Nature proportionate to their convenience and the great importance of them to the convenience thereof But also that which is observable in the attentive consideration of the manners of Mankind in general which seems to have those common sentiments in them and to accord in them in a very great measure and though evil Customs and Education much prevails among men yet it doth not wholly obâ—…literate these sentiments at least from the generality of Mankind It must be agreed that these rational Instincts as I call them are not always so vigorous and uniform in their actings as the animal Instincts of Brutes are in their kind which partly proceeds from that liberty of Will that is in the humane Nature which many times suspends or interrupts their energy and operation partly from that mixture of the sentient Appetite with the actings of the reasonable Soul which oftentimes transport it Even the more simple and uncompounded any Nature is the more uniform are its motions and actings the natural Instincts and Pro-portions even of things inanimate as of heavy Bodies to descend are more uniform than the very Instincts of Brutes who have a more complicated form or nature But as this accidental interruption of rational Instincts doth not disprove their existences so Man hath a greater advantage by the exercise of his Reason and intellective Faculties to remove those interruptions and improve those connatural Sentiments or rational Instincts to his singular use and benefit which abundantly recompenceth those Interruptions And if any shall say that there are or may be other means of propagation of those motions and inclinations in Men namely 1. A Traditional traduction of them into the World and 2. The Exercise of the humane Intellectual Faculties upon the occurrence and observation of external Objects and Events I answer 1. As touching Traditional communication and traduction of those Truths that I call connatural and engraven I do not doubt but many of those Truths have had the help of that derivation But first such a Tradition possibly hath not been without interruptions by evil Education and yet these Sentiments have obtained almost in all Ages and Places though not without interspersion of certain corrupt additaments obtained likewise by evil Custom or Education But secondly it cannot reasonably be supposed that a Tradition could so constantly and universally prevail and obtain among Mankind unless there were some common consonancy and congruity of somewhat inherent in Nature which suits corresponds and suffragates to that Tradition and closeth with it and accepts it 2. As to the other concerning the Exercise and Actings of our Intellectual Faculties it must needs be agreed that those that I call Connatural Principles are in themselves highly reasonable and deducible by a strong process of Ratiocination to be most true and most convenient and consequently the high exercise of Ratiocination or intellective Discourse might evince their truth and excellency though there were no such originally inscribed in the Mind But this no more concludes against the supposition than it would conclude against the supposition of implanted Instincts in Brutes which as they are in themselves highly reasonable and useful to their ends and evincible by true Reason to be such as it may be any thing we know So also many though not all the actings of those Instincts might possibly in the Brutes themselves be elicited by a strong intention and exercise of their Phantasie and sensible Perception Ratiocination and Connatural Implantation are but several means or discoveries of the same thing which in it self is most highly reasonable only the latter is for the most part less difficult and readier at hand But to the Objection 1. Let any man but duly consider how few men there are in the World that are capable in respect of the meanness of their Parts and Education to act and improve their Intellects or Faculties to so high a strain as the eliciting of those that I call Connatural Principles by the strength of their Intellectual Operation this requires very choice Parts great attention of Mind sequestration from the importunity of Secular employments and a long advertent and deliberate connexing of Consequents which falls not in the common road of ordinary men but of Philosophers Metaphysical heads and such as have had a more refined education which is not the thousandth part of Mankind Other men require a more easie and familiar access to these Truths
of Sense either immediately or at least mediately and therefore are not proportioned to the nature of Eternity and Infinitude And therefore our Reasoning touching these matters is as if he that were born blind should Philosophize touching Light or Colours whereunto he hath not nor never had a Faculty accommodate I answer It is true that there is something which I may call Positive in the conception of Eternal or Infinite which the Understanding cannot master But since it is very plain that all things in the World come under the distribution of finite or infinite or that which hath a beginning or that which hath not a beginning and is consequently eternal If I can as most certainly I may have a conception of what is finite and what are the Laws and necessary Connexions of it I can by that Notion conclude that whatsoever is finite or that must be under the Laws and Rules of finite Beings cannot be infinite I have a Globe in my Hand though I know not the Eternity yet I know that whatsoever hath or must necessarily have limits or fines is not cannot be infinite and therefore this Globe cannot be infinite And if I can find in any other thing a parity of Reason I do and may remove infiniteness from it as reasonably and evidently as I do from this Globe I hold or this Hour I write or this Life I live I do therefore certainly know that whatsoever is limited or bounded by somewhat that necessarily anteceded it cannot be eternal I do not determin what Eternal or Infinite is in the Positive nature of it only I remove Infinitude from what I find to be necessarily finite and determin that whatsoever hath bounds or limits to it is quid finitum and not quid non finitum and whatsoever hath necessarily a beginning is quid temporale and not quid aeternum And all my endeavour hath been to shew that the things before disputed are and needs must be of such a nature as comes under the notion of what I know namely finitum or temporale and not under the negation thereof namely infinitum or non finitum or fine principio 2. Object That by denying the possibility at least of Eternity to created successive Beings I put a restraint to the infinite Goodness of God who thereby is straitned in the communication of his Goodness coeternal to his being which is part of his Divine Perfection and also to the extent of his Power and Omnipotence which is too bold and adventurous I answer Touching the Goodness of God and the necessity of his communication thereof I have before said enough in the Second Chapter I shall not repeat it But as touching the other restraint upon his Omnipotence I say the denying of Power in God to make a Creature especially a successive created Nature as ancient as himself is no more a derogation from his Power than to deny him Power to make a Creature as great and as good and as powerful as himself The Infiniteness of his Duration is a part of the Divine Perfection in my judgment incommunicable to any created Being and it is part of the eminence and excellence and transcendence of that Divine Perfection as well as others that are not communicable to any created Being But secondly Suppose that Eternity might be communicated to any created Being as for the purpose to the more pure Mental Natures yet I do not disparage the Omnipotence of God when I say it is not communicable to a successive Being that is in fluxu not for want of Power in God but for want of Capacity in the nature of the thing to sustain such a duration upon the intrinsecal discongruity of the one to the other It would not be a derogation to the Divine Omnipotence to deny that the Diagonal of a Square should be commensurate in length to the Sides for the nature of the thing will not bear it 3. Object But a late Author hath with ostentation enough produced an Argument whereby all those Reasons and Instances concerning the impossibility and absurdity of infinite Generations infinite Individuals and infinite Motion supposed to have actually existed are easily discharged and therefore he concludes that notwithstanding all that hath been said the Generations of Men might have been actually eternal and that there may be infinite numbers of successive Men Generations and Revolutions and that consequently it is not repugnant that infinite may be greater than infinite that there be infinite Days and Years and Men and yet in that infinite 365 times more Days than Years yet both infinite the number of Men infinite and yet the number of their Hands or Eyes double to the number of the Men That the Supposition that these are contradictions are but mistakes and delusions of our Understanding not able well to digest the business of Eternal Immense or Infinite And this he thinks he proves by two principal Instances which he thinks are unquestionable 1. That there is and would be such a thing as Duration and that duration would be successive though there were no being in rerum natura which he calls tempus aeternum 2. That there is unquestionably an infinite Space actually And yet all these imaginary consequences and absurdities follow upon that Supposition which are urged as the Reasons against the successive eternal duration of Individuals above mentioned For in that infinite space there are infinite Miles and infinite Leagues and yet thrice so many Miles as Leagues The extent at both the extremes of East and West infinite yet each extreme divided infinite and many such the like Instances which yet notwithstanding avoid not the truth of an infinite extension To this I answer briefly in this place for I have elsewhere examined at large the truth of both these Hypotheses I do in the first place premise That as the excess as I may call it of Being namely Infinitude is difficult to apprehend so the defect of Being namely Nothing is very difficult to apprehend When we go about to apprehend simple Nothing yet our Imagination clothes it with something like Existence and gives imaginary being to Nothing before we can come to shape a thought concerning it And certainly Duration and Space are in themselves relative to something that doth durare and something that is spatiatum namely something extended And if any thing I cannot say but if any Conceptible is more nothing than another Duration without a thing that dureth and Space without a thing that is extended in it is the veriest the absolutest Nothing that can be While they are in conjunction with the thing that sustains them they are the meanest Being that is for they are but modes of being and therefore when the things that must sustain them are not they are the purest nothing that can undergo the notion of Nothing To say there is a duration whether successive or permanent or indivisible when there is nothing that doth sustain that duration is a Phantasm
and fitted for this production which could not be but after some great and long continuing Flood or Inundation that might prepare and dispose the Matter for the Activity of that great Revolution and if these should not meet together or in some convenient nearness the production of Mankind and perfect Animals would be frustrated 3. That in as much as provident Nature hath had for many Ages and yet hath a sufficient Seminium and stock for the preservation of the Species of Men and perfect Animals raised by propagation and the mutual conjunction of Sexes Nature is not necessitated to have recourse to this extraordinary way of peopling and furnishing the World and therefore it cannot be expected but after some vast devastation that may endanger at least the extinguishing of the species of things To these things I say first in general That if Men shall upon such a Method of Arguing go about to establish a Supposition that neither they nor any else have ever known or experimented and make a Conclusion of a thing as natural upon such Suppositions as never any Man knew or heard to produce such effects Men may assume any thing to be natural which yet hath not footsteps in Nature bearing any analogy to it But to the particulars As to the first it is unreasonable to make such a Supposition for since it is not possible for any Man to know whether there be any such Influence of the Heavens to effect such productions unless by Experience and Observations of some Men or some other way the notice thereof were given to Mankind it being a Matter of Fact that can no other way be known but by Experience or Revelation and since the bare beholding of those Heavenly Bodies being of that distance can never without Observation of Events give us any natural estimate of their Effects what they are or may be and since it must needs be granted that such imagined Conjunctions as may be effectual for such productions are at vast unknown distances and such as no Age before hath or indeed can leave us any Memorial of it must needs be a vain and precarious assumption to attribute any natural Efficacy to any Conjunction whatsoever for such a production The Ancient and Divine Historian Moses gives us indeed an account of the Origination of Man and all other Animals but not upon any natural causation or activity of the Heavens or Heavenly Bodies but as he gives us the History of the Things so he gives us the true Resolution of the Cause not a natural but a supernatural Cause namely the Intention and Volition of the Great and Wise God and to exclude any imagination of a natural or necessary Cause of these productions doth not only tell us in express terms that the production of them was by the Energy of the Divine Fiat but also that the production even of Vegetables themselves that seem to have the greatest dependance upon Celestial Influences was antecedent to the Constitution of those Heavenly Bodies 1. As the Supposition of such a Natural Causality in the Heavens is meerly precarious so it seems even to our Sense apparently false for we see every year without any other than an ordinary Conjunction by the Access of the Sun Insects and Plants sponte nascentia do arise and we know that ordinarily in the compass or revolution of 800 or 1000 years very great and considerable mutations happen in the Position and Conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies and we know that within the compass of Authentick History these Revolutions have happened above thrice and since the latest Epocha of the Worlds Inception above five times yet none of these great Revolutions have for any thing we ever knew or heard produced any one Horse or Lion or Wolf much less any one Man as a Terrigena And therefore Experience the best means to settle such an Hypothesis doth not only not warrant it but is evidently contrary to it and denies it 2. As to the second the Mosaical History gives us an account of an Universal Deluge about 4000 years since which lay long upon the whole Earth and the Grecian History gives us an account of two very great Floods namely the Ogygian and the Deucalian Floods and every Year gives us an account of the Inundation of Nilus in Egypt a most fruitful Continent and near the Sun whereby the Soil is made admirably fruitful and there is scarce any Age but some great portions of Land are laid dry by the recess of some parts of the Ocean which had lain covered for many thousands of years before with the sea And as the universal Deluge was as great a preparation of the whole Earth so these particular Inundations and Recesses of the Sea left particular Spots of Land as well prepared for such productions as can well be imagined and yet in no Age have we any Instance of any such production abating the Story of the Egyptian Mice which concrete after the recess of Nilus which yet of most hands are agreed to be Insects and sponte nascentia ex putredine Indeed Beregardus tells us ubi supra out of Camerarius that about Cayro after the reflux of Nilus there are often seen divers Limbs or Parts of Mens Bodies whether this be true or no or if true whether they are not only relicks of some Bodies swept away by the Inundations of Nilus out of their Graves or Sepultures and torn asunder by the furious Cataracts of Nilus is not clearly evident But be they what they will or whether the Lusus naturae yet they make nothing to this matter unless Camerarius or some other had seen those divulsa membra come together and configured into an humane Shape and animated with a humane Life which neither he nor any other have yet affirmed or pretended 3. As to the Third I say 1. If by Nature they intend the great and glorious God that most wise intelligent powerful Being they do indeed in effect affirm what I have designed to prove but do not make good their Supposition of such a Natural Cause as they declare in their Hypothesis wherein they mean only that natural connexion and series of Causes whereby Natural Effects are naturally produced And if they intend by Nature that unintelligent series or order of Natural Causes or the blind and determinate Cause of Natural Productions How comes that Nature to know when and where this necessity of Spontaneous Productions doth happen or in what proportion measure limits or place it is necessary to be done Such a provisional care requires a knowing and perfectly intelligent Being that operates ex cognitione intentione voluntate which is not to be affirmed of Agents purely natural who do therefore act according to a Law of necessity and determination non ex consilio cognitione 2. It is plain that Insects and Vegetables spontaneously produced are produced every Year and their production is as natural as the access of the Sun and the constitution
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
again some of the superior sort especially of Terrestrial Animals have quandam imaginem umbram rationis and are advanceable by Industry and disciplinable Acts to a great perfection and seem to be the next rank of natures below the animal nature of Man as Elephants Horses and some others but the nature of Man though in the animal part of him he is the highest rank of visible Animals yet in his intellectual nature he seems to participate of the angelick nature and is next below them in the specifical existence of Soul Psal 8.5 He was made a little lower than the Angels and participates of the highest degree of Animals and the lowest degree of Intelligences participating of both natures to keep as it were a continuity between the upper World and the lower and to maintain a communion with them and between them 3. We have here also the Idea or Model according to which the Humane Nature was framed namely after the Image and Similitude of God wherein we are to take in Man constituted in his full and compleat nature namely in the union of his two Essential Parts his Animal Nature and his Intellectual What this Image and Similitude of God was or wherein it consisted is variously disputed I shall first consider what it was and then what it is and was 1. It was not 〈◊〉 any corporeal Similitude or Image for the Divine Nature is incorporeal and invisible and therefore hath no Image or similitude of that kind 2. It was not any Image adequate to the Divine Perfection and Excellence as the Impression in the Wax is the adequate Image or Representation of the Seal and as large as it for God's Perfections are infinite both in extention and intention and no finite Being can be an adequate Image of an infinite Being or Perfection 3. It was not an Image that takes in all the resemblance of the Parts of Divine Perfections or Excellences as the little Image upon Caesar's Coyn resembled Caesar's Effigies or a new born Infant resembles a full grown Man for neither the Perfections nor the Being of God do convenire in uno aliquo genere univoco with those of Man the Perfections of God are not representable by any created Being in a true propriety of their nature no more than in their degree of intention or perfection 4. Neither do I take it that this Image or Similitude is only meant of that Idea of the Humane Nature in the Divine Understanding conformable to which Man was made for though this be true yet it is not all it says nor all that is meant because it would give Man no greater preference than the very Vegetables that were made the Third Day which were made according to the Ideal Image thereof in the Divine Intellect 5. Neither do I think it was meant of the Second Person in the Trinity who was the express Image of the Father the brightness of his Father and the express Image of his Person for although Christ assumed Humane Flesh yet it was many Ages after and in the Language of the Scripture and the Ancients in the Creation Man was made like unto God but in the Work of Redemption the Son of God became like unto Man Phil. 2.7 Made in the likeness of Man 6. Neither do I think that the Image of God here meant was the greater World the Universe which though it be an excellent Image of the Divine Excellency namely of his Majesty Power Wisdom and Goodness and sets it out far more than any single created Nature can especially if we take the Universe in its full comprehension both of the visible and intellectual World And though it be true that Man is a kind of Abridgment a little Abstract of that greater World in his Intellectual Nature resembling in his Soul the Mundus intelligibilis of created Intelligences and in his Animal Nature bearing an admirable Analogy to the Mundus aspectabilis and so in both Natures conjoyned being the little Image or Portraiture of the great and universal World for though this is a Truth yet it seems it was not the Truth intended 7. Neither do I think it was intended of that resemblance which in his Intellectual Part he bore to the good Angels who of any particular created Natures best resemble Almighty God being pure immaterial intellectual powerful immortal wise and benevolent Beings though this be also a Truth that the Soul of Man seems to be the lowest rank of Angelical Natures yet it seems not the Truth that is here intended for it is plain that the Image of God here meant is spoken with respect to the intire Humane Nature and of the whole Compositum as appears in the reason after given by God upon the interdiction of Murder Gen. 9.6 which had been an improper reason if applied to the Soul which is immortal and uncapable of death But the meaning of this Image of God seems to be this That as all Excellency comes from that most Excellent Author of all Beings in whom all Excellencies are lodged formally or essentially or virtually so this Excellent Author did these things in relation to the Humane Nature viz. 1. He gave him a capacity greater than any other visible single created Being to receive the noblest Excellencies 2. That he gave him as great a Capacity as possibly might be consistent with such a nature to receive Divine Excellencies 3. That he filled that Capacity with all those Excellencies that he was thus capable of saving only that of a necessary immutability in the fruition of all those Excellencies Now these Excellencies with which the Humane Nature was filled and which made him as much as was possible for such a created Being to resemble his Maker were these 1. In the structure of his Body and Animal Nature most singular Majesty Beauty Strength and Usefulness 2. In his Soul a whole Constellation of Divine Excellencies viz. in the Nature of it Immortality and Spirituality in the Faculties of it a light and clear Intellect a free and incoacted Will in all which he highly resembled the most intellectual and freest Being in the Habits of it Knowledge in the Understanding enabled by the noblest Object God himself and all other Objects of use and conveniency to him in his Will rectitude 3. In his whole Compositum perfect fruition of all that sutable good to his nature wherein he consisted in Happiness Immortality or a possible persevering in Life without dying Power and Authority over this inferior World and all things therein as God's Vicegerent upon Earth in which respect Governours are said to be Gods a sufficient power and strength as well in the Frame of his Animal Life as in the sagacity and advantage of his Understanding to exercise that Dominion and Sovereignty and lastly a due Order Subordination and Regiment of all his Faculties Of these Perfections some were accidental or adventitious to the Humane Nature by the Benignity of Almighty God and concredited thereunto upon
conformable unto that Nature which Mankind now hath and as we have no reason to believe they were any way inferior to the present Perfection of Humane Nature so we have very great reason to suppose them constituted in a greater degree of Beauty and Perfection than the most perfect Man that hath been ever since their Formation except the incarnate Son of God Although I do not intend in this place to take a large Survey of the Perfection of the Humane Nature because it is in part done already and I shall reserve it God willing for its proper place and season yet because my Scope here is to evince that the Supposition of the first production of Mankind is an unquestionable Evidence of the Existence of a most Wise and Intelligent Being and that the strength of that Evidence rests in the due Contemplation of the Excellence of the Humane Nature and Faculties and those other Appendices thereunto and that it is not possible to conceive any other but an Intelligent Efficient working by Choice Wisdom and Appropriation should be the first Producent Former and Constituent of such a Nature I shall take a short Survey of the Humane Nature Perfections and Appendices which may give any Man a handle to improve it farther to the same end leaving the fuller Discourse of the Humane Nature as a Reserve also whereupon a fuller Improvement may be made of this Consideration and Conclusion And upon the diligent Observation of this Argument it will evidently appear That the modelling framing compounding ordering and endowing the first Prototype and first Copy of the Humane Nature was neither an Act or Event of Chance or of a Surd Inanimate Unintelligent Nature but was a Contrivance and Work of Design Skill and Intention a Transcript of that Idea which resided in an intelligent Being a Work of a wise and powerful Being yea such a Work as could never have been made by any less than the most intelligent wise and powerful Being exceeding the more single Wisdom and Activity of any created Intelligence at least unless acting in and by the Commission Virtue and Strength of the Almighty God Now these Excellencies in Man that demonstrate an Intelligent Efficient are of two kinds 1. Such as immediately concern his nature 2. Such as are distinct from it but relating to it 1. Therefore concerning those Excellencies that concern immediately his Nature and these discover themselves and the Wisdom of their Efficient And these Excellencies are considered either simply in themselves or 2. Compositè and with the several Subserviences and Accommodations to their Ends and Uses As to the first Consideration there are many Excellencies in the Humane Nature which manifest a far more eminent Excellency in his first Efficient The Symmetry Beauty Majesty and admirable Composure of his Body to which there can be nothing added nor detracted without a blemish to it The admirable Faculties of his Soul those that concern him in his lowest rank of Life the Faculty by which he is nourished those that concern him in his middle rank of Life Soul and Sensation Memory and Appetite those that concern him in his supreme rank of Life Intellect and Will those that concern him in his whole Compositum the Generative Faculty The admirable Union of his Soul to his Body whereby he becomes one Intellectual Being though consisting of Principles of differing natures These and such as these would be largely prosecuted for they do evidence an intellectual most wise Efficient that could thus erect and thus endow such a Fabrick But that which I most reckon upon is that admirable Accommodation that is found in the nature of Man which doth most undeniably demonstrate an intellectual and wise Efficient working by Intention and Design for instance It is indeed a very great evidence of an Artist that can make the Wheel of a Watch or the Spring or the Ballance but the destination of the Spring to the String and the String to the Fusee and the accommodation of every Wheel and their position and fabrick one to another and the Ballance to correct and check the excess of the Motion and the Index to the Table and to fit the Table with Divisions suitable to the Hours and to put all into such a regular Motion as demonstrates the Hour of the Day This adaptation of things of various and several Natures and Structures one to another and all to some common End or Design is so great an evidence of an Intellectual Being that works by Intention by Election by Design and Appropriation that nothing can be opposed against it And therefore I rather choose to prosecute this compound Consideration of the Humane Nature the adaptation and appropriation of things therein one to another and to common Use which is the most evident Argument of such an Efficient as I have before described in the first Fabrication of Humane Nature It were the business of a Volume to pursue all the Particulars of this kind I shall only instance in some 1. The admirable accommodation of the several Parts of the Humane Body to make up one Continuum yet consisting of divers Parts distinct in their individuals and kinds the mortising of the Bones one into another the binding them together by Nerves and Muscles and Tendons the Veins and Arteries for the carrying of the Blood diffused by several Ramifications from their Roots to the uttermost extremities of the Body their differing Coats Anastomoses and means of Communication for the Circulation of the Blood the distributions and ramifications of the Nerves indeed the whole Frame of the Humane Body is an Engin of most admirable contrivance and mutual accommodation of Parts which is so much the more admirable because many of the Parts are distinct not only in the Roots and Numbers but in their Nature and Constitution yet make up one most beautiful Continuum by the mutual accommodation and admirable contignation of the several Integrals thereof 2. The admirable accommodation of Faculties to the convenience and use of Humane Nature for Instance the Digestive Faculty to preserve Life the Generative Faculty to preserve the Species his Faculties of Sense are accommodated to a Sensible Being for as much as he is to converse in a Corporeal World and with Corporeal Beings there is no one quality of Corporeal Nature that he hath occasion to use or converse with but he hath a Faculty by one of his five Senses to receive and discern Again in his Intellective Faculty it admirably serves him for the Ends and Uses of his Being he was appointed to govern direct and rule other Animals and therefore he hath the advantage of a superior Faculty above them whereby he is able to exercise that Direction and Government He was made to be the Spectator of the great Work of God to consider and observe them to glorifie and serve that God that made them and he is accordingly furnished with an Intellective Faculty answerable to his condition 3.
beautiful Piece of the Furniture of this lower World In these things therefore or by them we are not to seek that special End for which man was made because under these and the like Considerations he seems to have a common parity with other created Beings But our search must be 1. Whether there be not some peculiarities in the Humane Nature some Faculties and Powers something in his Constitution and some adaptations and appropriate accommodations therein peculiar to his nature and of a far more advanced use and perfection than those of the best of other inferior Animals For if we find such in Man we have just reason to believe that the most wise Efficient of the Humane Nature as he raised Man to a greater eminence not only of gradual but of specifical perfection above the common Animal Nature so he designed a more excellent and noble End for this more excellent and noble Work For thus it became the greatest Wisdom to design a more noble End to that which he constituted a more noble Being 2. We are also to search wherein this excellency and preference of the Humane Nature above the Animal consists For as the former Consideration gives us a general Conclusion That because the Humane Nature is more excellent than the common Animal Nature therefore the End or Design of the Constitution of the former is of a nobler kind than the Design of the Constitution of the latter So this particular Consideration of the excellencies of the Humane Nature above the Animal gives us some Estimate Crises or Indications what those Ends may be which the wise Creator intended in the making of Man namely such Ends as hold proportions to those eminencies and excellencies wherein the Humane specifically exceeds the Animal Nature Plato though a great Assertor of the Creation of Man by the Wisdom and Power of Almighty God yet in his 7 th Book De Legibus seems to have too light an Expression concerning the End of the making of Man and of those many excellencies in the Humane Nature namely Hominem Dei ludo esse fictum atque id verè ipsius optimum esse It is below the Dignity of the Divine Wisdom to think that he made Men and endued them with those excellent Faculties only to behold them as a Play or a Scorn or as the inconsiderate part of Mankind please themselves with beholding of Interludes or Cock-fighting or Bear-baiting the Comical part of the Lives of Men are too full of Sin and Vanity and the Tragical part thereof too full of Sin and Misery to be a delightful Spectacle unto the pure and wise God who certainly propounded more serious Ends than such for so noble a Structure The Saying therefore of Plato must be understood only analogically and Epictetus may be his Scholiast who wisheth every Man to remember Te esse actorem talis fabulae qualis Magistro probata fuerit si brevis brevis si longa longa si mendicum agere te voluerit fac eam quoque personam ingeniosè repraesentes ita si claudum si principem si plebeium hoc enim tuum est datam personam benè effingere eam autem eligere alterius Teaching us by the similitude that every Man's Station is subject to the Divine Providence and every Man's Duty is to be contented with it But to return to the Consideration of the specifical Excellence of the Humane Nature above the Animal Nature and the deduction of those Ends which we may from thence reasonably conclude to be specifical to him and intended by his wise Creator 1. It is apparent that Man is the noblest of all the visible Creatures at least of this inferior World the Complement and chiefest Ornament thereof without which it would be destitute of the most glorious Integral thereof that all the visible Creatures of this inferior World as it were concenter in him and are directed to him or his use as their immediate End that he is an Abstract or Compendium of the greater World as might easily be evidenced by the induction of particulars that he hath complicated in him all the excellencies of the Elementary Vital and Animal Natures that he hath superadded thereunto a singular beauty and majesty and usefulness in the Structure of his Body the admirable Faculties of Intellect Reminiscence and Ratiocination the Faculty of Speech institution of Signs to express his inward Conceptions Principles and Habits Intellectual and Moral liberty and empire of Will whereby he may if he please govern his sensitive Appetite Passions and inferior Faculties So that he is nexus utriusque mundi the common Angle wherein the highest and noblest of Material and Corporeal Nature is joyned to the Spiritual and Intellectual By all which and many more Perfections he is the noblest Instance of the Divine Power Wisdom and Goodness in this inferior World The Universe indeed is the great and goodly Type and Image of the Excellency and Glory of its Creator but it is a vast and comprehensive Volume not comprehensible by any Understanding but his that made it But this lesser World Man is a more compendious Abridgment nearer unto us and more discoverable by us and though yet it hath exercised the investigation of most industrious Minds and Searches without a full and perfect discovery of the least part of all its Eminencies yet in respect of its vicinity and obviousness to Observation it yields a distinct and perceptible Evidence to us of the Wisdom of its Maker Thus the Humane Nature objectively and passively exhibits unto intelligent Beings a wonderful and admirable manifestation of the incomparable Wisdom Goodness Power and Excellency of him that first created it and this was one End of Almighty God in the Creation of Man And although it be true that such is the Self-sufficiency and Happiness of Almighty God that it is not capable of any accession by all the Instances of his Wisdom and Goodness in the Works he hath made nor by any Glory or Praise that from them can return unto him yet it is not an End unworthy of the most perfect Being to render his Magnificence and Goodness conspicuous and to receive that deserved Honour and Praise of his Works that is the just Tribute due unto him 2. The Divine Essential and Eternal Goodness is inseparable from him and this is the root of the Divine Beneficence which latter though in its effluxes and emanations it be under the regiment of his own most holy and wise Will yet it is diffusive and communicative That the World was at all made is the Effect of this Divine Beneficence which when it had nothing besides it self unto which it might communicate it self it made all things that according to their different natures and receptivities might participate of the Divine Beneficence To things vegetable he hath given the Faculty of Life Vegetation and Growth this is one participation of the Divine Goodness per modum else viventis and again he communicates
have their proper gust and relish with him yet he is under the fear of Sickness Pain and Discomposure which fear renders the Disease in a manner present before it comes and so gives a distast and disrelish to even his present fruition And now if it be said That as this sagacity and foresight sometimes gives a disadvantage under Enjoyments by the Passion of Fear so it makes an amends under sensible Inconveniences by the Affection of Hope I answer It is true it doth make some amends but yet it is not answerable For first the anticipations of Fear are ever more vigorous than the anticipations of Hope 2. The objects means and occasions of our fears in relation to sensuals are ever more and greater than the objects of our hopes because we are obnoxious more to dangers and those of divers kinds than we are to deliverances and recoveries from sensible evils 3. But that which is instar omnium is this Death puts a period to all sensual Comforts and this Death is certain will overtake us and we know not how soon and this foresight of Death is a certain foresight and a continual object of certain fear And this fear of Death and the anticipation thereof is always present with us and we cannot deliver our selves from the fear and foresight of it no more than we can deliver our selves from the thing it self and commonly the anticipation and fear of Death is more terrible and dressed up in a more hideous prospect than Death it self And this one provision and anticipation of Death is that which makes all sensual Goods utterly incompetible to be a suitable end of fruition to a Man upon these two accounts viz. First that this presensation and anticipation of Death doth sadly allay all sensible enjoyments makes them weak and renders them ungrateful The Expression is excellent Heb. 3.15 Who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage the delicacies of a Man in Bondage lose their tast and relish Again secondly it presents all our enjoyments as determined or determinable in a short time which takes off the value of any sensible enjoyment It must needs be that sensual enjoyment must be abated when he that enjoys it doth in the very enjoyment thereof know it must not last long a Beast enjoys his full Pasture with greater contentment that yet shall be taken from him or he from it to morrow than any Man can enjoy the sweetest Provision for his Sense while he is under the actual sense that he must dye to morrow The advantage of the anticipation of Death is that which renders it impossible that a sensual good can be the ultimate good of fruition to Man since it is by that very advantage rendred a less good to him than to the Beasts that perish The Proof of the Immortality of the Soul of Man belongs to some of the following Discourses I shall not now launch out into that Deep But to me this very Consideration that the very excellence of the humane Faculties especially that whereby he hath a prospect and considerate anticipation of Death renders the good of Sense less good delightful and pleasant to this excellent Creature Man than it is to the very brute Beasts hath been a strong Moral Evidence that there is an immortal Soul in Man for which an immortal Good is reserved Because it seems not suitable with Divine Wisdom and Oeconomy that the Brutes should have a greater felicity than Man yet so it must be if the end of Man's fruition were only a sensible Good or a Good suited only to the Life of Sense 2. And surely if the good of Sense be not the adequate end of humane fruition then much less can those things be the end of fruition intended for Man which are but provisional and subservient only to the good of Sense and such are Honours Grandeur Power and Wealth they are but so many subservients to the acquiring or performing of the good of Sense or the fruition of a sensible Life to him that hath them and therefore lower and less valuable than those things for whose sake and use they serve And thus far I have gone in the Negative whereby I have endeavoured to evince that the good of Sense the fruition of those good things that serve for a sensible Life Meat Drink Clothing the Pleasures and Delights of the Senses the expletion of the Faculties of the Sensible Nature their motions are not the peculiar end of fruition designed by the wise God to the Intellectual Nature of Man I come to consider it Positively That there is an end of Fruition and what we may reasonably conjecture it may be That Man was created for an end of fruition appears 1. From the nature of the Efficient It is as before is observed the property of every intelligent and wise Efficient in all his Works and Actions to intend an End and an end suitable to the value of the work but that is not always an end of fruition to the work it self it is sufficient that there is an end in the work Many times a wise Agent produceth a work or effect in order to something else an instrument subservient to some other thing and thus he might have made Man only to serve glorifie and honour his Maker as a Man makes a Saw or a Watch as an Instrument for his own use without any communication of a Good of fruition to the thing thus made But as Almighty God is a most wise Efficient so he is a most benign and bountiful Efficient He made all things not only for the glory of his Wisdom but for the communication of his Goodness to the things He thus made according to the measure and capacity of their participation He made the inferior Animals for the glory of his Wisdom and Power and for the service of Man and yet he communicated to them so much of fruition and enjoyment and of such a Good as was suitable to their nature namely a sensible Good There is not the meanest Insect in the World but hath a Good of fruition proportionate to its nature namely of a sensible Good in which it delights and which it endeavours to preserve And thus as the Wisdom of this great Efficient made Man the most excellent of Visible Natures for an end and such an end as was suitable to the excellence of the Nature he thus made namely actively to serve and glorifie his Maker so the Goodness and Beneficence of this bountiful Efficient designed an end of fruition to this Creature and designed unto him also such a fruition and of such a good as is proportionate to the excellence of that Nature he thus made And otherwise he should have been proportionally less beneficent to the noblest of sublunary Creatures than he is to the meanest of living Animals which together with the end designed in them in ordine ad aliud have an end of fruition of such a Good as is
proportionate to their being nature and capacity 2. And as thus the contemplation of the Efficient and his Beneficence to other created Beings induceth us to conclude an end of fruition designed to Man so the contemplation of the Work it self concludes the same Man hath in the peculiarity of his nature these two great Powers and receptive Faculties whereby he is rendred amply capable of a great enjoyment namely his Understanding whose proper Object is Truth and the noblest Truth that is and its proper action is directed to that Object namely Intellection and Will whose proper Object is Good and the greater and more sovereign the Good is the more suitable it is to this power and the proper act of this power is to reach after and desire and embrace and delight in its Object and the filling of these two receptive powers with the chiefest intellectual Truth and with the chiefest and intellectual Good is that which perfects advanceth and enableth these Faculties or Powers And this doth lead us to a just discovery of what that end of fruition is for which Man was designed by his beneficent Creator namely such as is suitable answerable and proportionate to those Powers or Faculties in Man whereby he excells all inferior Animals his Understanding and his Will and herein consists his happiness his end of fruition or enjoyment 1. As to his Understanding the great and general fruition of Good therein is Knowledge Now I shall distinguish these Objects of Knowledge or Scibilia into two kinds 1. The Scibilia subordinata which being united to the intellective Power by that act or habit which we call Knowledge do advance and perfect this Power or Faculty in a subordinate way measure or degree such is the knowledge of Natural Causes and Effects of Arts Liberal or Manual of Rules of justum and decorum of Moral Truths and the like this gives a subordinate perfection and fruition to this Power varied and diversified according to the worth of the Objects and the perfection or clearness of their perception 2. The Scibile supremum which is the ever-glorious God his Perfection Attributes Wisdom Power Goodness his Will and Commands so far forth as that infinitely perfect Being is cognoscible by our finite Understanding This is the supreme Truth the highest fruition of the intellective Power and the greatest perfection of an intellective Nature as such 2. Again as to the power of the Will it hath likewise Objects of Good answerable to the former distribution 1. The subordinate Good of Moral Virtues Honesty Sobriety Justice Temperance and all the train of Moral Virtues these being united to the Will in their acts and constant habits the Will enjoys a great Moral Good tranquillity of Mind complacency and delight 2. The Sovereign Good which is the glorious God reached after by the Will as the chiefest Good and enjoyed in the manifestations of his Love Favour Presence Influence and Beneficence this fills the vastest motions of the Will fills it with Peace Contentation and Glory and keeps it nevertheless in a perpetual motion by returns of Gratitude humble Love Obedience and all imaginable extension of it self for the Service Honour and Glory of that God that hath thus bountifully given to the Soul a power in some measure receptive of his Infinite Self and fitted that power with a proportionate Good even the Goodness and Bounty of the ever-glorious God And now because Man hath a double state namely a state in this Life in conjunction of the Soul with the Body naturally dissolvible and a state of Immortality after this Life either in the Soul alone or in the Soul in conjunction with an immortal Body as shall be shewn in its due time therefore proportionable to this double state is that fruition which Almighty God designed for his End 1. In this Life the proportionable fruition of Man is that which is compatible to the state he hath here namely the knowledge of God and his Works in a measure suitable to the intellectual Capacity in this Life the sense of the Divine Love Favour Goodness and Protection the sense of his own Duty to God to Man to himself with a cheerful endeavour to observe it And from these arise dominion over his Passions and inferior Faculties and the due placing ordering and moderation of them a resignation of his Will to the Divine Will and a dependance upon his Goodness Power and All-sufficiency and from all these arise peace of Conscience contentation and tranquillity of Mind in which even the wisest of Heathens placed the greatest Happiness acquirable in this Life 2. After this Life an immutable state of everlasting Rest and Happiness in the Beatifical Vision of God and fruition of so much of his Goodness and Beneficence as a glorified Soul is capable of for it is reasonable that the end of fruition of an Immortal Nature should be an everlasting Good commensurate in its intention and duration to such an Immortal Nature And now if any Man shall enquire if this be the End of Almighty God in the Creation of Man How comes it to pass that all Men attain not this End or how comes it to pass that Almighty God comes to be frustrated of the End which he thus designed as well in relation to his own Glory as the Good of Mankind I Answer first in general That this Enquiry belongs to another way of Examination namely herein we must have the assistance of Divine Revelation both to answer this Enquiry and to guide us in it which in this place is not designed to be prosecuted 2. Yet more particularly thus much I shall say 1. That the wise God hath as it were twisted his own Honour and Glory with Man's Felicity and Happiness if Man decline to honour glorifie love and obey his Maker and casts off the primary and chief End of his Being it is just and necessary that he be deprived of the End of his own Fruition and Happiness which is the Reward of his Duty 2. The Liberty of the Will was the great Prerogative of the Humane Nature and Almighty God having furnished that Nature with all conducibles to enable him to obey and to continue him in that Obedience Man by the abuse of his own liberty deprived himself of his own felicity When we speak therefore of the End of Man we speak of it as God made him not as Man made or rather unmade himself But of this End of the means of his Restitution by Christ and the admirable System and Connexion of the Divine Providence in relation to Man in his Redemption belongs to another Discourse We are in this preceding Discourse but in the outward Court of the Temple where the Gentiles came or might come by natural Light or Ratiocination Therefore to conclude all Almighty God out of his abundant Wisdom Goodness and Beneficence as he hath made Mankind so he hath fitted him for a double End namely to glorifie his Maker and everlastingly to enjoy him and in order hereunto hath given him a double station and in each of these a differing kind of fruition of his Maker viz. a station in this lower World and a station in the glorious Heavens His station in this lower World is during the time of his mortal Life here below and in this station the glorious God hath furnished Mankind with all conveniencics and accommodations suitable to it as the comfortable Accommodations of his sensible Life the Comforts of humane Society the Use and Dominion of his Creatures the admirable Faculties of his Mind the Books and Instructions of his Word and Will the goodly Works of Creation and Providence the Tenders and Ayders of his Grace and Guidance the Effluxes and Manifestations of his Favours and Love the Anticipations and Hopes of Eternal Happiness these and many more such as these the Bountiful God affords to Mankind even in this state of Mortality which may and do render it in a great measure very comfortable But withall he lets us know and we must know That these are but as so many Bounties to render our passage through this Life the more easie and convenient to our selves and the more serviceable to our great Lord and Master This is not to be the place of our rest or final happiness but a place of exercise and probation a place of preparation for our future and more durable state we are here as it were but put to School to learn our Duty and our Lessons we are but as young Plants planted in a Nursery till we come to a convenient size and fitness to be removed and then we are to be transplanted into another and a richer Soil In this World we are as it were Seeds ripening upon the Trees or Stalks till they are fully digested and ripe and then as the Seeds drop into the Ground and become the Seminary of a new Plantation so by Death we drop into Eternity and become the Children the Embryones of the Resurrection and then we come into that second and blessed station the Country of our Rest and Happiness our Home and the End of our Being where we shall ever behold the Glory of the Glorious God and glorifie him for ever where we shall have the perpetual sensible vigorous satisfactory Manifestation and Influences of his Love to all Eternity and enjoy that Blessedness which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath entred into the Heart of Man to conceive And this is the great End of the Glorious God in making this great goodly Creature called Man whose Body is but the Husk the Shell of that vital immortal Beam of Light Life and Immortality that Seminal Principle of Eternal Life the Soul irradiated and influenced by the Sacred Spirit of Life and Love and if God lend me Life and Strength shall in my next be handled FINIS A
his Words especially in Expressions of collateral things not being the principal Subject of the Discourse which though they may lye in his way yet are not much under his strict advertence but he thinks it is enough if he dresseth his Discourse so that it tend to what it principally aims and drives at And hence it is that in Chronological Computations which I sometimes make use of I content my self with a more lax and common Computation without any great curiosity or exactness because it equally serves my purpose as if my Computations were more critical and exact even usque ad minutias Chronologicas and so in some other mentions of Names and Times of Authors and the like and likewise in the choice of Words or Expressions wherein possibly I may sometimes be too lax and free using such as come next into my Mind without a curious or critical choice which is more excusable in a Discourse of this nature than in some Polemical and Controversial Discourses of other natures where Men usually catch at Words and Expressions and it is the greatest part of their Business 4. I must also desire my Readers pardon in that in my Transcripts of some entire Texts out of Aristotle Plato Plutarch and others I use the Latin Translation and not the Original Greek wherein the Authors wrote I was a better Grecian in the 16 th than in the 66 th Year of my Life and my application to another Study and Profession rendred my skill in that Language of little use to me and so I wore it out by degrees And thus thou hast this Book presented to thy view I wish thee as much Contentment in Reading as I had in Writing it If there be any thing therein that may be useful to thee as I suppose there may be there is matter for my Contentment and thy Benefit if all be not answerable thereunto and to thy expectation the former Considerations give thee reasonable Motives of Charity to excuse it The Contents SECT I. CAP. I. THE Introduction declaring the Reason of the Choice of this Subject and the Method of the intended Discourse CAP. II. Touching the Excellency of the Humane Nature in General CAP. III. A brief Consideration of the Hypotheses that concern the Eternity of the World CAP. IV. Concerning the Origination of Mankind and whether the same were Eternal or had a Beginning CAP. V. Concerning the Supposition of the first Eternal Existence of the common Parents of Mankind and the production of the succeeding Individuals from them CAP. VI. Certain Objections against the Truths formerly delivered and against the Reasons given in proof thereof with their Solutions SECT II. CAP. I. The Proofs of Fact that seem with the greatest Moral Evidence to evince the Inception of Mankind and first touching the Antiquity or Novity of History CAP. II. Concerning the first Evidence the Antiquity of History and the Chronological Account of Times CAP. III. The Second Evidence of Fact namely the apparent Evidences of the first Foundation of the Greatest and Ancient Kingdoms and Empires CAP. IV. The Third Instance of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely the Invention of Arts. CAP. V. The Fourth Instance of Fact seeming to evince the Novity of Mankind namely the Inceptions of the Religions and Deities of the Heathens and the deficiency of this Instance CAP. VI. A Fifth Consideration concerning the Decays especially of the Humane Nature and whether there be any such Decays and what may be collected concerning the Origination of Man upon that Supposition CAP. VII The Sixth Evidence of Fact proving Novitatem generis humani namely the History of the Patres familiarum and the original Plantation of the Continents and Islands of the World CAP. VIII The Seventh Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Man namely the Gradual Increase of Mankind CAP. IX Concerning those Correctives of the Evils of Mankind which may be thought to be sufficient to reduce it to a greater Equability CAP. X. The farther Examination of the precedent Objection CAP. XI The Consequence and Illation upon the premisses against the Eternity of Mankind CAP. XII The Eighth Evidence of Fact proving the Origination of Mankind namely the Consent of Mankind SECT III. CAP. I. The Opinions of the more Learned part of Mankind Philosphers and other Writers touching Man's Origination CAP. II. Touching the various Methods of the Origination of Mankind CAP. III. Touching the Second Opinion of those that assert the Natural Production of Mankind ex non genitis or the possibility thereof CAP. IV. Concerning Vegetables and especially Insecta Animalia whether any of them are sponte orta or arise not rather ex praeexistente semine CAP. V. If it be supposed that any of those Insects at this day have their Original ex non genitis or spontaneè whether yet the same may be said a Natural or Fortuitous Production CAP. VI. Supposing the Production of Insects were totally spontaneous equivocal and ex putrido whether any Consequence be thence deducible for the like Production of Perfect Animals but especially of Men. CAP. VII Touching the Matter of Fact it self whether de facto there hath been any such Origination of Mankind or of any Perfect Animal either Natural or Casual SECT IV. CAP. I. Concerning the last Opinion attributing the Origination of Mankind to the immediate Power and Will of Almighty God CAP. II. The Mosaical History touching the Production of the World and of Mankind and the Congruity and Reasonableness of the Mosaical Hypothesis CAP. III. Concerning the Production and Formation of Man CAP. IV. The Reasonableness of this Hypothesis of the Origination of the World and particularly of the Humane Nature and the great Advantages it hath above all other Hypotheses touching the same CAP. V. Concerning the Nature of that Intelligent Agent that first formed the Humane Nature and some Objections against the Inferences above made and their Answer CAP. VI. The Reasonableness of the Divine Hypothesis touching the Origination of the World and particularly of Man and the preference thereof before all the other precedent Suppositions CAP. VII A Collection of certain evident and profitable Consequences from this Consideration that the first Individuals of Humane Nature had their Original from a Great Powerful Wise Intelligent Being CAP. VIII A farther Enquiry touching the End of the Formation of Man so far as the same may be collected by Natural Light and Ratiocination DE HOMINE CAP. I. The Introduction declaring the reason of the choice of this Subject and the Method of the intended Discourse IT is an admirable evidence of the Divine Wisdom and Providence that there is that sutable accommodation and adaptation of all things in Nature both to their own convenience and exigence and to the convenience use and exigence of one another which evidenceth 1. That all things are made governed and disposed by a most intelligent and wise and powerful Being 2. That that governing Being is but one and that all this
Diligence and Industry and exercise of the Intellective Faculty therein doth not only exercise imploy habituate and enlarge the Faculty but enrich and enable it by the worth of the Object wherewith it is furnished There is so great variety of Intelligibles in the World so much objected to our Senses so much deducible from them by Ratiocination and Discourse and every several Object so full of subdivided multiplicity and complicateness And on the other side the life of Man so short and the approaches of the Understanding to the knowledge of things is for the most part so slow and gradual and difficult that it is not to be hoped that a Man should ever attain the full comprehension even of any small inconsiderable Insect with all its connexions dependences relations deductions and consequents much less can it be expected that any Man should ever attain the full knowledge of that stupendious multiplicity and variety that appears in all or any considerable part of those Objects of our Senses that occur in that mundus aspectabilis which every day we behold And yet even the World we see is the smallest part of that which we neither do nor can see Therefore it seems to be worth the care of a Man that hath a desire to improve those two great Talents that God hath lent us namely his Time and his Faculties that he not only exercise his Faculty to keep him from sloth and idleness but out of this great multiplicity of Objects to chuse some such for the exercise of his Faculties that by their worth and value may improve and advance them and such as may be profitable for this use and exercise and in some measure attainable with competent certainty and satisfaction There be certain qualifications that do much commend an Object to a Man's Enquiry which are principally these First the nobleness and worth of an Object Secondly the usefulness of this Object being known or of the knowledge of it Thirdly sufficient certainty touching the Object or of the knowledge of it Fourthly that the Object be such as may be large enough to satisfie the Intellective Faculty and yet not distract it through its multiplicity vastness or extent Something I shall say of each of these I. The first qualification in the choice of an Object is that it be noble and worthy of the Faculty that is employed about it There is not only a congruity herein between the nobleness of the Faculty and the Object but also the Faculty is enriched and advanced by the worth of the Object It was the reproach of Domitian a great Emperour that he busied himself in hunting of Flies Yet I do not blame the pursuit of the Works of Nature even in the Contemplation of the smallest Works thereof for though the things themselves are comparatively low and inconsiderable yet even in the smallest Vegetable or Animal even in the very little Insects there appears the excellent Work of the Divine Wisdom and therefore there is a worth and excellency in the Contemplation of them especially when that Contemplation is directed to the search and admiration of the great Wisdom and Skill of the great Creator who in many small Insects that in respect of their minuteness almost escape the Sight hath placed and digested as great a variety and excellency of Organs Faculties and Instincts as in the Whale or Elephant And therefore the Labours herein of Aristotle Fortunius Licetus Muffetus Aldrovandus Goddart and others that have written whole Volumes concerning the generation production alteration and variety even of small Insects Flies and Worms are not without their worth and use seeing in the least of these the curious Wisdom Skill and Power of the great Maker of all things is conspicuous and though they are but little Rills yet if they be closely followed they are and may be Manuductions to lead us to that Ocean of Wisdom Power and Goodness of the God of Nature from which they had their original II. The second qualification that commends an Object or Subject of Enquiry is the usefulness of its knowledge It is true that there is scarce any kind of knowledge of any Object but is grateful and useful in some measure to the Understanding But among the Scibilia or Intelligibilia in the World there are several degrees some are not only useless to be known but seem to be meer impertinencies as for instance many Grammatical Criticisms and how this Word was written by one Author how by another what fashion Cloaths the Roman Officers Military Civil or Sacred used and very many Curiosities relating to Languages It is true so far forth as Words and Languages are means to derive unto us the memory relation or understanding of the things contained under them so far the knowledge of them is useful in order to that end but Languages simply in relation to themselves are but a narrow piece of speculation and consequently those great expences of time and study that some have taken about little useless Criticisms and trifles of that nature hath been an improvident expence and misemployment of their time and faculties Again some things there are which are yet of more value but yet but of little use they are known only that they may be known or inquired into only for the exercise of Wit Invention and Subtilty What great pains hath been taken concerning the Quadrature of a Circle and the Duplication of a Cube and some other Mathematical Problems And many Men have spent much time and written great Volumes touching those matters which yet were they attained the knowledge rests in it self and is never applicable to any use answerable to the pains of their acquest Again there be many things touching Matters Physical which though they are full of contentation to be known and have their use thus far that they are an inquiry and discovery of things that are the Works of God and of his Wisdom and serve to explain many Phaenomena in Nature yet they are otherwise of little use to Mankind as concerning the degrees of acceleration of Motion the gravitation of the Air the existence or non-existence of empty spaces either coacervate or interspersed and many the like which have taken up the thoughts and times and exercised the Wits and even the Passions of Men in Disputes concerning them and yet though the knowledge of them is curious and contenting in it self yet it is not much ordinable or applicable to the use and benefit of the Man that knows them or of others And therefore though the knowledge of these Objects be commendable unto us upon an account of their contentation and curiosity yet they do not commend their knowledge to us upon the account of their usefulness and beneficialness Again some Objects there are that are not only noble in themselves but they have also at least a mediate and preparatory usefulness to Mankind though perchance in themselves and immediately they have not that commodation Thus the knowledge of divers
parts in Natural Philosophy and the rules motions and variety of Qualities and Operations of divers Natural Objects the connexion of Causes and Effects the observation of the Order of things in Nature are of singular use to carry the Mind up to the acknowledging and admiration of the Great Efficient and Governour of the World of His Wisdom Power Goodness Bounty and consequently to raise up the Heart to veneration of Him dutifulness and gratitude unto Him dependance upon Him and a deep impression of Natural Religion towards Him and of all those consequents that arise in the Mind and Life from this habit of Religion So true is the Saying of an excellent Naturalist of our own A little knowledge in Philosophy may perchance make a proud empty Man an Atheist but it is impossible that Atheism can lodge in a Mind well studied and acquainted with Natural Philosophy And as thus the knowledge of Nature is useful to Mankind to bring him to and confirm him in the knowledge of the Glorious God so it is preparatively useful and indeed necessary to many useful things in this Life as to make a Man a good Physician ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus where the Philosopher ends the Physician begins which next to the knowledge of Almighty God is of great necessity and use to Mankind And touching Geometry Astronomy and Arithmetick though in the knowledge of them there be many things that are nice and curious and not so much in order to use as to speculation and exercise of Wit yet they are such Objects the knowledge whereof is in many things very beneficent to Mankind as we see in the construction of all Mechanical Engins in the measuring of Bodies Superficies and Distances in the Rules and Exercise of Architecture Fortifications and ordering of Battalia's Computations and Reckonings in Contracts and Merchants Affairs in Navigation in the Measure and Computation of Time and the right knowledge of several Seasons these Mathematical Subjects and Sciences have great use in relation to humane affairs and concerns And as thus those more curious Sciences have their use in the Affairs of Mankind and are commended unto us not only upon the account of the nobleness but also of the usefulness thereof so the knowledge of History of Humane Laws of Moral Philosophy and of Political and Oeconomical regiments of the various Modes Temperaments and Qualifications of Governments with their Appendages are upon the account of their usefulness to Humane Society and the Peace Tranquillity and Order of the World and of the particular Societies Relations and Persons therein commended to our knowledge and contemplation as things without which the World of Mankind would soon be in disorder and confusion And although these Studies are not so pleasing and grateful to the Understanding as those other more curious Contemplations either Physical or Mathematical yet they recompence it with the excellency and necessity of their use in relation to the noblest visible Creature Man and in relation to his noblest and most useful posture and station in this World namely a state of regulated Society and Government Now according to the kind or degree of the usefulness of the Objects to be known so the knowledge thereof is more or less commended unto us upon the account of the various degrees of usefulness Some Objects and their knowledge are of greatest value because their use is of more universal concern and important necessity and such is the true knowledge of Almighty God His Greatness Power Wisdom Goodness and Will especially as He hath revealed Himself in His Word and those noble habits that upon that account are ingenerated in the Soul as Religion Gratitude Obedience and Tranquillity of Mind Regularity of the Soul and Life And upon the same account there is a great value in knowledge of Morals and of those Duties that we owe to our selves and others and a conformity of Minds and Lives to the Dictates of Religion and Morality And the excellence of their use and consequently the commendation of that knowledge upon that account is evident in these particulars 1. The right and true knowledge of those things do not only perfect our Souls and Natures by the excellency of the knowledge it self but they perfect our Souls and Natures with Goodness They do not only perfect the Intellectual Faculty but they also perfect the Volitive Faculty they make the Man not only more knowing but more wise and they also make him the better more just sober temperate religious A Man may know very much in Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy and yet be a bad Man but a Man truly acquainted with the knowledge of God and with the due sense of his Duty to Him in matter of Religion and his Duty to others in points of Morality which is a part also of the Divine Will is not only a knowing Man but becomes also a good Man if indeed his knowledge be sound and true Again 2. All other knowledge meerly or principally serves the concerns of this Life and is fitted to the meridian thereof They are such as for ought we know will be of little use to a separate Soul at least we do not know whether the Soul in its state of separation will be much concerned in the knowledge of Physical or Mathematical Learning or the Rules or Methods of Political Regiment But this we are or may be sure that the Soul will carry with it into the other World that knowledge of God which it acquires here and receive an unspeakable improvement thereof by a nearer union to Him and it will carry with it those improvements and advances of Piety Goodness Righteousness Holiness those Habits and Graces that it began here and as the Soul is improved and made the better in this Life by this knowledge and those effects and meliorations that it here acquired by them so it will carry along with it those advantages to the next World for there is a connaturality and congruity between that knowledge and those habits and that future estate of the Soul So that this kind of knowledge is not only serviceable and useful for the present Life in via but is proportioned to that state that is in patria And as touching the knowledge of things that are meerly accommodate to the present Life they receive their disparity of value in this respect according to the disparity or different degrees of usefulness Some are useful for nobler ends some for lower and more inferior ends some are in a greater degree useful for the same ends than others and according to the varieties of ends uses and their degrees the knowledge of them as in reference to this part of the commendation of an Object namely usefulness is more or less eligible But this is too large a Subject particularly to prosecute in this place III. The third commendation of a Subject of Contemplation and that renders it eligible is Certainty Where the Subject is uncertain and
the evidences touching it doubtful although perchance the speculation that it affords be very high and sublime yet such a Subject is not in this respect so eligible as what is more certain for it leaves an impartial and serious Mind full of doubt and dissatisfaction and where it meets with a Man of a busie phantasie self-conceited and partial to himself and his own thoughts and that would be thought to know beyond the common standard of other Mens Reason it puts him upon the confident framing of Hypotheses built meerly upon Imagination and from these weak foundations he deduceth Systems of Consequences and Conclusions which being built upon meer fanciful and inevident Suppositions fall to nothing but dust and smoke as soon as their evidence is impartially examined Some Subjects are so remote from us that we are strangers to them and our knowledge concerning them is meerly conjectural and those very conjectures for the most part wanting competent media to make them tolerably probable Concerning the Extent of the Universe the Plurality of Worlds the State of Heavenly Bodies whether they are inhabited and with what kind of Inhabitants whether they are animate Bodies whether they are moved by Intelligences or by their own Forms or by the motion of the Body of the Aether or those imaginary Vortices wherein they are placed These and many such Speculations touching things at this distance may gratifie the Imagination but never satisfie the Mind Again some things though they are or may be near unto us yet are of that subtilty that they escape our Senses and thereby we cannot make our approaches to their discovery As concerning the Nature of Spirits their ubi motus the manner of their Intellection and mutual communication of Notions by what means or in what manner actual Intellection is effected in the Soul how the Species Order and Circumstances of things are preserved in the Memorative Faculty or Organ or where else these and many other hidden parts of Nature even of a far lower form are unaccessible to us The Contemplation of the Universe and of the Natural Causes and Effects therein is indeed an excellent Contemplation For first it exerciseth the Intellectual Faculties keeps them in motion and employment and thereby perfecteth them Secondly It is full of delight and contentation to the Mind Thirdly Although the Understanding attains not a perfect discovery of what it searcheth after yet many times undesigned and unthought of discoveries of many excellent things recompenceth the loss of the principal intention as those that have bent their endeavour to attain the Philosophers Stone though they never attain their end yet in their process towards it do many times light upon excellent discoveries which they never thought of or designed which in a great measure recompenseth their disappointment in the Particular sought after Fourthly It gives a great discovery of the admirable Wisdom and Power of God in framing and ordering of the World and so becomes a manuduction to the knowledge acknowledgement and adoration of Him But yet when we consider how short and weak our best discoveries are in the most accessible obvious particulars and narrowest Integrals of the Universe When we consider how many things in Nature escape our Senses and the discoveries thereof and yet how much we stand in need of the discoveries of Sense and sensible and experimental observation to bottom any sound conjecture concerning the Nature Causes and Effects of the things in Nature and how uncertain fanciful and imaginary our Suppositions are without it whereby it comes to pass that we many times frame suppositions and conclusions concerning things supposed to be in Nature before we have any certain evidence whether in truth the very things about which we frame our suppositions or conclusions have at all any real existence or if they have yet for want of a clear and sensible and experimented observation of them our positions and conclusions touching their Causes Effects Order and Methods of their procedure are but fictions and imaginations accommodated to our Inventions rather than to the things themselves and such as we rather project we would have them be if we had the making of them than what in truth they are And lastly if we consider the vast extent and multiplicity of the whole Compass of the Universe and the things therein contained the many parts thereof that either in respect of their tenuity or distance escape the reach of our Senses the infinite complications and combinations of several concurrences causes and contributions to the constitution and operation of almost every Integral in Nature the shortness of our Lives and the many necessary diversions that we have and must necessarily have from those Contemplations I say when we consider these things it seems a thing utterly to be despaired of to attain a full certain evident knowledge of the whole Universe or of any considerable portion thereof And hence it is that if we consider the various Hypotheses of the ancient and modern Philosophers touching the general Systeme of the World and those more Universal and Cardinal Solutions of the common and great Appearances in Nature we shall find them or the greatest part of them to be little else than excogitated and invented Models not so much arising from the true Image of the things themselves or resulting from the real Existence of them as certain instituted and artificial Contrivances of mens Wits and Fancies And these Suppositions being thus invented they distort stretch and reduce the Orders of things in a conformation to those pre-conceived Suppositions and then by the Inventers of them and those that are their followers and would seem to be men of quicker sight than others and not to come too short of the perceptions of their Leaders they are in a little time magnified into the true Solutions of the Arcana Naturae and then all or most of their Argumentations Positions Superstructions and Conclusions are founded upon and conformed unto and deduced from these excogitated Hypotheses as if they were the true and only and real frame and constitution of things when they have as little reality and less evidence than the imaginary solid Spheres in the Heavens or their Musick the Horses of the Sun or any other Poetical Fictions And if at any time some one Phaenomenon of Nature appears that crosseth any of these Suppositions or Hypotheses or suits not with them or is not salved by them presently great pains is taken to supply that Defect with some subsidiary Supposition that may stop that Leak and piece up the Hypothesis which must be presently granted to be true not because there is any evidence of it from the things themselves but because it suits with that artificial and precarious Hypothesis which was before taken up and made much of This we may easily observe to be true if we should examine all the various Suppositions of leading men in their several Sects The Chymical Philosophers make their Tria prima
Salt Sulphur and Mercury the great constituent Principles of all Bodies others add two more And their evidence that they are so are because they find by their solutions by Fire some things which they call by these Names to be that whereinto Bodies are dissolved when for ought can be evidently made out many of these are not so much really in the constitution of the Bodies themselves as the very alterations or changes of them by the force and energy of that active Element or at least though after their solution they assume the shapes of Salt Sulphur and Mercury yet there are even in those Consistences very various Contextures differing extreamly in each Body from other though they seem to assume some analogy of shape And possibly there may be a thousand Constituents of different Natures from any of these supposed Principles in Bodies both before and after their solution by Fire or Heat The Aristotelians have excogitated another sort of Suppositions of Principles Matter Form and Privation And yet it is very difficult to conceive that any such thing should be as Matter undetermined by something called Form and as difficult to conceive what many sorts of these Forms are which they call substantial whence they arise what becomes of them whether some of those they call Substantial are any other than the various Modifications of Matter whether others of them are not some middle Nature neither Bodies nor Accidents but Powers of a different nature from Bodies Accidents or Qualities or Substances though not so obvious to our perception This Hypothesis therefore seems for the most part to be a kind of artificial contrivance not wholly taken from the natures of things but fitted to give some kind of explication of them and for the most part an Engine to guide our Conceptions as the Figures in Logick or the artificial Schemes for the finding out a Medium used by them Barbara Celarent Darii c. Napcas Cipinis vel Nipis Again if we look upon the Supposition of Epicurus and his Explicator Lucretius and his Advancer Gassendus how many things must be taken for granted that are not only perfectly inevident to our sense but altogether improbable The multitude of physically indivisible Atoms their strange Figures acommodated to their Motion Adhesion and Coagulation their declined Motions and the means of their Coalition And when all this will not serve to contain things within any possible certainty or specifical determination to patch up that defect certain Moleculae Seminales must be supposed to make up that Defect and to keep the World and its Integrals from an Infinitude and Extenâ—lesness of excursions every moment into new Figures and Animals and yet made up meerly by chance and by the contexture of those Atoms which have neither quality nor energy nor any thing else besides their small and imperceptible Moles to make them operative and that Local Motion which they there have but they teach us not from whence they have it Again If we look upon Des Cartes his Supposition who was not altogether content with the former but gave it some Correctives though the main Substratum be of Epicurus what colour of evidence have we of the various Configurations of his Atomes the grinding of them round by their mutual attritions the coalition of the Globular Atomes into the Heavenly Bodies the filling of Chinks and Interstices by the Ramenta of the greater whereby a Materia Subtilis is diffused through the Universe which is invisible performs most of those motions that we see in things that the Animals are only Engins and actuated by the mobility of this subtil matter These and infinite more artificial Inventions of his there are that neither Sense nor Reason could ever acquaint him or us with but they are an ingenious Creature of his own fruitful Invention wittily framed to explicate not so much the Nature of things but those Conceptions he entertained thereof and to reduce and range them into an Order contrived by him not by Nature This Excursion I have used to shew how great a difficulty there is for a man to have a suitable conception of the great Fabrick of the World with any tolerable certainty whereby it hath come to pass that the readiest and most exercised Wits have fallen into so great varieties of explication thereof and yet all of them so full of unevidence and incertainty so full of precarious and imaginary Postulata so full of unreasonableness and improbability and impossibilities in themselves and one with another that a man that is not imposed upon by the Veneration of the Authors or his own Phantasie cannot tell how to fix in any of them but must cry out upon them with the Comedian Probè fecistis incertior sum nunc quà m dudum Ye have mended the matter well I am now more in doubt than before Neither are we ever likely to attain any certain or satisfactory knowledge in the Physical Causes Effects and Appearances in their largest extent and latitude 4. The fourth commendation of an Object of Knowledge is that if it be meerly Physical or Mathematical it bears some proportion to the Intellective power neither too narrow and circumscribed into a small compass nor yet too full of multiplicity The former satisfies not the Understanding for it soon exhausts all that is in it and leaves the Understanding no work to exercise it self withal The latter surchargeth and oppresseth the Understanding with its multiplicity And upon this latter account it is that although the whole Universe and every part thereof are Objects full of excellency and worth yet the multiplicity thereof is so great and various that the Understanding falls under a kind of despondency of getting through so great a Task and those that have undertaken the full speculation of all the parts of the visible World have done it but superficially lightly and in Generals the time of Life and the Intellective faculty that moves but gradually and successively have not been sufficient for an exact account of all things visible And therefore they that have designed exactness and deep scrutiny into things have taken some one part of Nature for that purpose and even in those single Objects there is most commonly a connexion of such various Appendances or Incidents that they that have set themselves upon such seemingly narrow Enquiries have found it a business enough to take up a greater portion of Time and Enquiry than our short Lives will afford us as may easily appear by the great and large Tractates of them that have written concerning the little Organ of the Eye or the Visive Faculty the Magnetick Motions and Variations or some other single Organ or Faculty of the Reasonable or Sensitive Nature Among the many Objects of Knowledge there seem to be two especially which upon the most part of the before-mentioned accounts most commend themselves to our contemplation and enquiry namely the knowledge of the ever-glorious God and the knowledge of our selves
and the Humane Nature Almighty God is the highest and most excellent and soveraign Object of the Intellectual Faculty It is true he falls not under the last qualification Though he is but one and one most simple uncompounded Being yet his Nature and Perfections his Power Wisdom Goodness and all other Excellencies are infinite and incomprehensible by any intellectual Nature but himself and therefore he is an Object infinitely too large for the comprehension of any created Understanding He is a Light too bright for our Intellective eye to see but by reflexion or through the Vail of his Word or Works The more we know of him and the more we draw near unto him by serious and humble contemplation the more we discover an endless and unsearchable Ocean and Perfection in him so that we must not cannot expect to find out the Almighty to perfection his ways are unsearchable and past finding out and much more his Essence and Perfections so that though he be the most natural and the most desirable Object of created Understandings he is an Object infinitely too large for it But although in respect of the measure of his Perfection he be an Object unproportionate to a created Understanding a Light too bright and an Ocean too large and too deep for it yet there is so much of his knowledge attainable by us as is sufficient for use nature and everlasting happiness and the knowlede of Almighty God so far as it is attainable by our narrow created Understanding highly advanceth the humane Understanding upon all accounts and infinitely excels the knowledge of any other Object in the world upon these ensuing accounts among many others First It is a knowledge of such an Object that hath the greatest and most convincing certainty in the world a certainty that he is and in a good measure a certainty what he is for though it be impossible for any or all the created Beings in the world to attain a distinct perfect and full Idaea of the Divine excellencies in their full adequate distinct perfections yet that Image that he hath given of himself in the admirable Frame of so much of the world which we know doth with all imaginable certainty evince That he is that he is but one one most intelligent wise powerful free good simple eternal infinite and most perfect Being the Fountain of Being and the first Cause of all things though we cannot attain the full comprehension of that perfection And truly it is no small evidence of the Divine Wisdom and Goodness That that great and important Truth of the being and perfection of Almighty God the Principle and Object of the greatest importance in the world to the good of Mankind and for the advance and perfecting of humane Nature should be written in such plain clear and evident Characters in the Works of Nature and evinced by Evidences rising from thence as are obvious to any person that hath but the common use of Reason and the honesty to use and exercise it sincerely Secondly It is the most noble and excellent Object in the world and that may and doth most enoble and advance the intellective Faculty he is the Fountain of all Being and of all Perfection Those Excellencies that are in the noblest created Natures in the world are but shadows of that perfection that is in him Though a created Understanding can never take in the fulness of the Divine Excellencies yet so much as it can or doth receive thereof is of greater extent use and value and doth more advance and enrich the Faculty than any other Object in the world though that other Object were fully and adequately known Thirdly Although the Understanding can never search out the Almighty to perfection by reason of the infinite excess of this Object beyond the capacity of a created Faculty yet there is that congruity between this Faculty and this Object that connatural ordination as it were of Intellective Faculty to this Object as if it were if not only yet principally lodged in the humane Nature for the sake of this Object so that though there is no commensurableness between this Object and a created Understanding yet there is a congruity and connaturality between them And hence it is that so much as we do or can know of God is delightful and grateful to the Understanding And though this abyss of excellency be infinite yet it doth not confound nor disorder nor overwhelm the Understanding in its modest and due searches into it And besides although the perfection of his Essence and many of his Attributes as Infinitude Immensity Indivisibility c. do dazle our Understandings yet some of his Attributes and the Manifestations thereof are not only highly delectable to the Intellective Faculty but are sutable and easily conceptible by us because apparent in his Works as his Goodness Beneficence Wisdom Power c. if we attend to it And certainly it was the great Goodness and Condescention of the Glorious God unto his Creature Man that when he knew all his own Excellencies were too great and too bright for us to see he hath Been pleased to discover so much of himself as was fit and necessary for us to know by means that our Faculties might use without dissipation distraction or too great astonishment namely first By his Works reflecting his Greatness and Goodness Secondly By his Word by Divine Revelation discovering his Goodness Mercy Power and Truth Thirdly By his Son through the Vail of our Flesh by all which that Brightness and Splendor of the Divine Excellence that by an immediate intuition or exhibition would-have overwhelmed our Intellective Faculty as it stands united to our Bodies is presented to us more proportionately to our Capacities and Faculties by a kind of refraction and a more easie and familiar manifestation Fourthly It is the most useful Object of our Knowledge that can be and in comparison of this all other Knowledge is vain light and impertinent and indeed all other knowledge is valuable upon this single account by how much it gives us a manifestation of the Divine Excellencies and leads and conducts to the knowledge of Almighty God and his Attributes If I consider my self in this Life there is not a moment which I live or wherein I have any contentation or comfort or convenience but all this I have from his Influence and Bounty and certainly it concerns me highly to know my Benefactor from whom I receive my Good that I may depend upon him be thankful unto him probitiate him and make my applications to him for what I want Again the wisest men that have searched after happiness in this Life though they have missed of the place where it is to be found have with great reason placed the best happiness that can be found on this side Death either in Virtue and the exercise thereof or in Tranquillity of mind or in both for they are rarely asunder Now I may be an excellent Mathematician a
man well seen in Natural Causes and Effects an excellent Statesman and Polititian and yet be without that Goodness that may denominate me justly a good man and without that tranquillity of mind that may make me a happy man but the true knowledge of God seriously and really dwelling and digested in the Soul makes a man a good man and a happy man it makes a man to love fear honour and obey him that he thus knows A man cannot truly know him but he must know that in him which by a moral necessity raiseth in a man those Habits and Dispositions namely of Religious Piety towards God Justice and Righteousness to men Sobriety in relation to himself for in knowing this God he knows that these things are well-pleasing to him and the contrary displeaseth him and he knows him to be a God that knows all things in the world and that is a bountiful Lord to them that love and obey him and a just Judge of them that despise or forsake him And as thus it makes him good so it makes him happy by giving him the highest and most firm Tranquillity of Mind that can be for he knows that this most gracious and powerful God orders and governs all the things in the world with irresistible power exquisite and infinite wisdom and abundant goodness and that he is well pleased with them that love fear and obey him and upon all these accounts a man rejoyceth in his Favour depends upon his Power Goodness Wisdom and All-sufficiency resignes himself to his Will is contented and patient under all conditions and so doth enjoy perfect tranquillity of Mind But this is the lowest portion of the usefulness of Divine Knowledge There is another Life after this a Life of eternity and the influx of the knowledge of God in relation to this everlasting Life is infinitely of more moment it fills the Soul with a capacity of it with a sutableness and state of congruity to it with those preparations dispositions and habits that are necessarily pre-requisite for it and gives him the fruition and perfect enjoyment of it That measure of the knowledge of God that we attain is the best happiness we enjoy in this Life and the perfection of our happiness in the Life to come where we shall have a more perfect intellectual Vision of the Glorious God and as full a fruition of the Goodness of God as that elevated Nature which we shall then have can be capable of Then that measure of the knowledge of God which we here acquire shall be refined and advanced to a degree of perfection sutable to the advance that this Intellective Faculty shall then receive and that measure of goodness that by the means of that knowledge is wrought in the Soul in this Life shall then be improved to a higher degree of excellence and rewarded with a weight of Glory This Knowledge therefore of all other Knowledge is to be preferred And in all our busie inquisitions touching other things we must remember our selves as our Lord remembred Martha in the Gospel We are busie about many things and trouble our selves with many Enquiries but there is one thing one Object and the knowledge thereof necessary namely the knowledge of the glorious God This is life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 17.3 Whatever therefore we endeavour to know it must be with subordination to the endeavour after this knowledge And as far as is possible all other knowledge and desire thereof should be directed to the improvement of this Knowledge or in order to it and to the end acquirable by it The second profitable and useful Object of our Knowledge is the 〈◊〉 Knowledge of our selves And next to the Knowledge of Almighty God and his Will and his Son this Knowledge of our selves seems most worthy of our endeavour And therefore I have chosen this Subject for my search and examination at this time For in this Subject we shall find all those Qualifications or Requisites before-mentioned that commend any Subject to our Enquiry or Knowledge Of any one visible Subject in the compass of created Nature there is none that we know and are acquainted with that hath more worth and excellency next to the great Creator of all things and the holy Angels and that which seems to be most noble the Image of the glorious God namely the Universe as it comprehends the Systeme Order and Excellencies of all created Beings digested into their several Ranks and Orders and collected and put together into that glorious Frame of the Universe But as it is impossible for us at least in this Life by any means to be acquainted with all the Integrals of that glorious Structure some are in their nature imperceptible by our Sense namely the Spiritual Beings yea and the more refined parts of material Existences which by reason of their subtilty escape our perception Other parts thereof are so remote that although they might in their own nature be perceived by Sense yet they are at that remote distance from us that they escape our Sight though the most active Sense we have And again the vast extent of the Universe is such that though we might successively see the parts of it yet it is not physically possible to see it at one view and consequently impossible to see at once that beautiful and glorious Image of the more beautiful and glorious God in its full complement represented in the entire Frame of the Universe Again we cannot but suppose that there are divers Ranks of created Beings intermediate between the glorious God and Man which far surpass man in perfection of Nature and Operations as the glorious Angels and created Intelligences nay possibly there may be material Beings of a more refined substance and endued with more advanced Forms than ours Who knows whether the Stars are not furnished with intellectual Creatures more excellent for their Substance and Forms than we Mortals Yea and for ought we know the Stars themselves may have Forms appropriate to them of a more excellent frame than ours though as I have before said this exceeds our determination But although these things may be yet we know not that they are and if they were yet we are unacquainted with their natures and kinds only the reality of existence of Angelical Creatures and created separate Intelligences and the possibility of Nobler Creatures or Natures than ours residing in some parts of the Universe may teach us not to be so over-prizing and over-valuing our selves as to think that there are no other Creatures intermediate between God and Man of a greater perfection than Man We see a multitude of Creatures between us and the lowest rank of Animals specifically and gradually one below another and doubtless there are or may be many ranks of Beings intermediate between the glorious God and Mankind that have specifical gradations one above another But whatever may be said touching
these yet certainly of all the visible Creatures that we are acquainted with Man seems to have a very great Prerogative of excellence And though he may not bear so fair and so noble an Image of the Divine Glory as the Universe in its full Systeme and Order or as those nobler Beings that are of a Rank and Nature above him yet certainly he bears a greater measure of the Divine Image than any one visible Creature we know and so far forth as we know God himself affirms thus much of Man that he created him after his own Image which he sayes not of any of the Celestial Bodies themselves Gen. 1. Man therefore is a Creature that of all visible Creatures that we know is the noblest We may observe in the Creatures of a subordinate rank to us how the more inferiour and ignoble bear somewhat of the Image of the superiour a kind of shadow or adumbration of those perfections that in the superiour are more perfect not only by a gradually but specifically differing perfection We see in some Metals an Analogical resemblance of those vital effects of Vegetables growth digestion and augmentation that is more perfectly in Plants and perfect Vegetables We see in Vegetables a resemblance of Appetition Election Generation and in some of them an imperfect Image of that universal sense of Feeling which we find more perfectly in Animals We find in Animals especially some of them as Foxes Dogs Apes Horses and Elephants not only Perception Phantasie and Memory common to most if not all Animals but something of Sagacity Providence Disciplinableness and a something like unto a Discursive Ratiocination bearing an analogy image or imperfect resemblance of what we find though in a degree specifically more excellent in the humane Nature insomuch that Porphiry Plutarch Sextus Empericus Patricius and some others have been bold to make reasonableness not the specifical difference of the Humane Nature and some latter persons would not have the Definition of a man to be Animal Rationale without the addition of Religiosum wherein he seems particularly to exceed the Brutal Nature Although in truth that which seems to be Reason in the Brutes is nothing else but the Image and Analogical representation of that true Reason that is in Man as the Water-gall is the Image Shadow or weak Representation of the Rainbow And we have reason to think that that intellective and volitive power which is in Man bears an Image and Representation of the like power that is in Angels and separate Intelligences though neither of equality to that perfection that is in them either in degree or kind And although it were too great presumption to think that there is any thing in any created Nature that can bear any perfect resemblance of the incomprehensible perfection of the Divine Nature very Being it self not predicating univocally touching him and any created Being and Intellect and Will as we attribute them to God are as we may reasonably think not only of a Perfection infinitely transcending any created Intellect and Will but of another kind and nature from it yet though we are not able to comprehend the excellence of the Divine Nature we cannot frame unto our selves a conception of him without the notion of Intellect and Will though infinitely perfect It seems that those two great Faculties in us bear a weak Analogy with and Representation of the Divine Nature And therefore in that respect Man is the Image and Representation of the Glorious God though the disproportion between him and this his Image be infinitely more than the disproportion between Caesar and his Image upon his Coin or the Sun in the Heaven and the Shadow of him in a Bason of Water And in this respect the Humane Nature is a worthy and noble Object of our Enquiry and Knowledge because here is the best visible Image of Almighty God that we can fully acquaint our selves with next to him that was the Brightness of the Fathers Glory and express Image of his person Christ Jesus our Lord. And besides this relative consideration of the Humane Nature with relation to those Beings that are above him Man is an excellent Object of contemplation so if we look upon him either absolutely in himself or with relation to Creatures of an inferiour nature he is a worthy and noble object of our contemplation If we consider him absolutely in himself he is an Object worthy of our contemplation he is admirable in excellent composure and figuration of his Body and in every part apart and in the whole structure put together admirable in the Nature Faculties and Excellence of his Soul admirable in the conjunction of both together admirable in all the operations of Life Sense Intellect and Will which he exerciseth in this state of conjunction and union admirable in his production and generation and admirable as to the condition of his Soul in its state of disunion and separation The speculations concerning him are all full of great variety curiosity and worth because the Subject it self is such If we consider him with relation to other created Beings of an inferiour nature First he comprehends all the excellencies that are in the inferiour ranks of Being and that for the most part in a more excellent and perfect manner The Life that is in Vegetables and the operations of that Life the Life and Sense that is in Sensibles and the excellent operations of them all Sensation Perception Memory Phantasie Nutrition with its several process the faculties of Appetition Passion Generation The disposition of Parts and Organs that are best in any Animal are to be found in the disposition order and texture of the Body of man and wherein it differs it differs with much advantage and prelation over the structure of the Bodies of Animals so that the knowledge of Man gives us a full account of the excellence of others either Animals or Vegetables He that well knows Man knows whatsoever is excellent in the Animal or Vegetable Nature Secondly Besides these Excellencies common either to the Vegetable or Animal Nature and Man there are certain excellencies superadded to the Humane Nature certain specifical prelations in his Body the Structure Posture Beauty and Majesty thereof certain specifical excellencies and usefulness in some of his Organs the disposition of his Hand Brain Nerves and other Integrals Again the specifical Excellencies of his Soul in those great and admirable Faculties of Intellect and Will Of all which in their due time So that he that is well acquainted with and knows Man knows whatsoever is excellent in the Vegetable and Animal Nature and much more So that upon the whole account we have a Noble and Worthy Object of our Contemplations in the contemplation of Man 2. In the contemplation of Man we have an Object that doth not overmuch confound us with its excessive multiplicity and yet it doth not satiate nor proves ingrateful for want of sufficient variety Touching the former of these
it hath been before observed that he that goes about to make the whole Universe and all the several parts thereof the business of his Enquiry as he shall find that there are many things therein that he cannot come at or make any discovery of so among those parts of the Universe that are objected to a greater discovery of our Senses the multiplicity is so great that a man of the most equal and firm constitution must despair of Life enough to make a satisfactory particular and deep enquiry into them But the Object in hand is but one it is Man and the Nature of Man I confess it is true that he that shall make it his business to take in as it were by way of a common place all those things that may be taken up under this consideration and follow all those Lines that concenter in this or almost any other the most single piece of Contemplation will make this Subject large enough and upon that account may be drawn in almost all things imaginable We find in the consideration of the Humane Nature a Substance a Body a Spirit We find the several Objects of his Senses Light Colour Sound and infinite more He that upon this account will take in the distinct and large considerations of these and the like Appendices to Humane Nature in their full amplitude will have a large Plain that will more than exhaust his Life before he come to the Subject it self which he designes Again there is an infinite multitude of collateral considerations that yet are relative to man hither comes all the considerations of Theology Physick Natural Philosophy Politicks the considerations of Speech Government Laws of History Topography of Arts of those Sciences that relate to the Senses of Opticks Musick and infinite more for all these have a relation to Man and are like so many Lines drawn from several Objects that some way relate to him and concenter in him and he that shall make it his business to follow all those Lines to their utmost shall make the contemplation of Man almost as large as the contemplation of the whole Universe When I say therefore the contemplation of Man is the contemplation of a single Object I mean when it is kept into those single bounds of Man in his own specifical Nature and under the physical contemplation of his Nature Parts and Faculties as they are appropriate unto him And then it is a Subject that we may possibly make some progress in its contemplation and conception within the period of the time that by the ordinary time of Life and the permission of necessary avocations a man may employ in such a contemplation And yet secondly though in this restrained notion the Subject seems to be restrained and single we shall find it no very narrow Subject but there will be business enough in it to employ our Faculty and to take up that time which either more necessary or more imporunate thoughts or employments will allow us and variety enough to entertain our thoughts with delight contentation and usefulness 3. The Third Commendation of this Object to our contemplation is this that therein we have more opportunity of certainty and true knowledge of the Object enquired into than we can have in any other Object at least of equal use worth and value Many excellent things there are in Nature which were very well worth our Knowledge but yet as hath been said either by reason of their remoteness from us unaccessibleness to them subtilty and imperceptibleness to us either are not at all suspected to be or are not so much as within any of our Faculties to apprehend or discover what they are or in case we have any conception that there may be something of that kind yet our Notions touching them are but products of Imagination and Phantasie or at best very faint weak ungrounded and uncertain conjectures and such as we can never prove to the satisfaction of others or our selves Our Sense is the best evidence that we have in Nature touching the existence of corporeal things without us and where that is not possibly to be exercised we are naturally at a great uncertainty whether things are or what they are Now the Understanding perceives or understands things by the assistance of Sense in a double manner 1. It either perceives them immediately as being immediately objected to and perceptible to the Sense as I perceive the Sun and the Stars by my sight I find that there is a Body hard or gentle or hot or cold by my Touch and accordingly my Understanding judgeth of them Or secondly though the Sense perceive not the Object immediately yet it doth represent certain sensible effects or operations and though by those effects or operations the Understanding doth not immediately conclude anything else to be but what the Sense thus feels or sees yet the Understanding sometimes by ratiocination and sometimes by the Memory doth infer and conclude something else to be besides what the Sense immediately represents either as the cause or the concomitant of it and doth as forcibly and truly conclude the thing to be and also sometimes what the nature of that cause or concomitant is as if it were seen by the Eye or felt by the Hand I do not see nor by any Sense perceive the quiet undisturbed Air yet because I do see that a Bladder that was before flaccid doth swell by the reception of that which I see not I do as truly and certainly conclude that there is such a subtil Body which we call Air as if I could see it as plain as I see the Water I do not see the Animal or Vital Spirits neither can they by reason of their subtilty and volatileness be discovered immediately to the Sense yet when I see that forcible motion of the Nerves and Muscles I do as certainly conclude there are such Instruments which the Soul useth for the performance of those motions as if I saw them I come into a Room where there is no visible or tangible Fire yet I find by my Sense the Smoke ascending I do as forcibly conclude that Fire is or hath been near as if I saw it because my sensible experience and memory tells me they are concomitant Upon the same account it is that when my Sense and sensible experience shews me that these and these effects there are and that they are successively generated and corrupted though my eye sees not that God that first made those things yet my Sense having shewed me these sensible Objects and the state and vicisstude of them my Understanding doth truly conclude that all this vicissitude of things must terminate in a first cause of things with as great evidence and conviction as if my Sense could immediately see or perceive him So that in the ordinary way of Nature and without the help of divine Revelation all our certainty of things natural begins at our Senses namely the immediate sense of the things themselves
operations I sensibly see and feel that my Hand or Foot moves upon the command of that principle within me And when that principle is removed by a total deprivation as Death or by a partial deprivation as in a mortified Limb or Member or by a temporary suspension as in an Apoplexy or Deliquium Animi I am sure there is no such motion because that principle is absent in Death or its operation suspended in case of such Diseases It was therefore a principle that was within distinct from my Body that while it was there exerted this Empire and was obeyed in it Secondly In those actings of my Soul which are not in themselves perceptible by any sensible effect yet I have as firm and certain an evidence that they are such as if I had a sensible perception of them When I think or understand or remember or abstract or divide or define or purpose or will it is most certain these effects or intrinsick operations of my mind are not possibly perceptible by my sight or hearing or taste or smell or feeling they are objects of such a nature that fall not under any perception of any of those Senses yet I am as certain if not much more certain that I do think or remember or abstract or reason or resolve or will as that I hear or see or feel and I do as certainly know before I write what I am now writing that I think or reason touching the things I am writing or that I resolve or purpose to write them as I am certain that I have written them when I have written them for the motions of my mind are as certainly obvious to a perception in me answerable to them which I call the reflex act of the Soul or the turning of the intellectual eye inward upon its own actions as the motions or rather passions of my Sense are certainly obvious to my Sense I see the Object and I perceive that I see it And therefore though he was a little too positive that said Ego cogito was as it were primum cognitum yet certainly herein he was irrefragably true that there cannot be any thing more certain and evident to a man that thinks than that he doth think and yet that Thinking is not perceptible by any of our five Senses Thirdly But there is yet a farther opportunity of very much certainty in that knowledge that a man may have of himself and of those things concerning himself by that conversation by the help of speech or signs that he hath or may have with other men Man only of all visible Creatures having this priviledge of communicating his thoughts and conceptions by instituted signs of speech or writing and by this a man acquires a threefold superadded certainty of what he may or doth know concerning himself Namely 1. He thereby knows that there is a specifical Identity between him and other men and that they agree in one common rational Nature for by mutual speech we find that we have both alike an intellective discursive Faculty as I do reason so doth he as I divide define abstract purpose determine will so doth he use the like operations of his Mind and although oftentimes interest and misapprehension make us differ in our conclusion yet he endeavours to maintain his Conclusion by the like method of Reason and discursive Ratiocination as I do and most times when prejudice and misapprehensions are removed that which seems reasonable to him seems so to me whereby it appears that we concenter in one common Nature and that the Principle of Reason and Reasonable Soul is common to us both and that we meet in one common rational Nature 2. He likewise knows that as they concenter in one common rational Nature so every one of that Species hath yet an individual Principle of his own that individuates and personally discriminates one from another For till we mutually communicate our thoughts by instituted signs he knows not what I think or purpose nor I what he thinks or purposeth 3. This adds a certainty to me that I am not deceived in those reflections that I make upon my self and the collections I make from them for as I do find I think I reason abstract divide define purpose so I find by the help of Speech and Signs that he hath the very like internal operations and as I do find that those do arise from a principle different and distinct from that moles Corporea which I have so I find that he hath the same perception of the original of these internal operations and attributes them to a Principle in him distinct from the Body So that if I might have any imaginable doubt of those reflexed perceptions which I have touching those appropriate operations of my own Mind I am confirmed in them because I find the like perceptions in all the men I converse with And thus far touching the third Commendable in the search of our selves namely Certainty and Evidence 4. The fourth advantage of this subject and the knowledge thereof is the profit and usefulness thereof Next to the knowledge of Almighty God and our Blessed Saviour and the Sacred Scriptures there is not any subject in the World that is more necessary and useful to be known than the Humane nature with those incidents that do necessarily fall into that consideration and of all the knowledge that relates to man there is nothing of greater moment or use to be known than Man under the Physical notion of his Body and Soul and both united together And the usefulness of this Consideration distributes it self into these two kinds Usefulness in reference to Speculation or Knowledge and Usefulness in relation to Practice or Exercise 1. Touching the Speculative Usefulness there is this to be said that there is in the contemplation of Man a means of discovery and explication of very great and momentous truths And although possibly the very same truths may be elicited and in some measure explicated by parallel Phaenomena in the contemplation of Animals yet they are more clearly and eminently evidenced in the contemplation of Man who by how much the more excellent and noble a Creature he is above Brutes and by how much he is the more observable to himself than they can be by to much the more useful and excellent is the knowledge of himself Now these Speculative truths which I shall chuse to instance in shall be these 1. The due contemplation of the Humane nature doth by a necessary connexion and chain of Causes carry us up to the unavoidable acknowledgement of the Deity because it carries every thinking man to an original of every successive individual thereof by a course of generation till it come to a common Parent of the whole Species the immediate workmanship of the Glorious God 2. Consequently it gives every considering man a sound and full conviction that the efficient of this first Parent of Mankind is a most wise most powerful and beneficent Being
Soul from the Body As the Body could not be reduced into that orderly frame in which it is constituted without the Plastick and Formative power of the Soul so it could never be upheld in that state of Order and Convenience without the continued Influence of the Soul The latter is as absolutely necessary for its continuance and conservation as the former for its constitution I easily foresee two Objections against the Method proposed 1. That the Hypothesis it self is not sufficiently evidenced How do we know that this Oeconomy is the effect of a Power or Nature or Being distinct from the Body and why may it not be the result of this Disposition Harmony or Contemperation of qualities or parts of that Matter that constitutes the Body 2. And if it be what need we magnifie the Humane Nature as the great Instructer in this business since we may with a little observation find very much the like in Brutes as well as Men For there we find a sensible Perception and Phantasie answering the Intellect in Man an Estimative or Judicial faculty an Appetition or Aversation and Locomotive faculty answering the Will and the very Oeconomy of the animal Soul or Spirits managing as well their spontaneous actions as these natural or involuntary exertions of Digestion Egestion Circulation and the rest of those Motions called Involuntary or Natural To the First of these I say That this is not the place for a large reduction of these Operations to the regiment of the Soul as a distinct active Faculty distinct from the Corporeal Moles and its contemperation that shall God willing in its due place be at large discussed which I am not here willing to anticipate In the mean time let the Objector but honestly and impartially examine and observe Himself and he will need no other evidence of this truth but his own experience to satisfie him that all those effects proceed from an active regnant Principle within him distinct from the Moles corporea or the contemperation thereof The distemper of the humours of the Body cause sometimes such sickness as disorders the Phantasie and Reason but sometimes though it distempers the Body the Intellective faculty and operations are nevertheless free and sound as Experience shews If this Objector was ever under a Sickness or Distemper of the latter kind let him give an account what it is that gives him under such a Disease the use of his Reason To the Second I need not say more than what I have before observed namely 1. That although the Inferiour Natures have a kind of Image of the Humane Nature yet it is less perfect and therefore no equal Instance in order to the explication of what I herein design 2. As it is less perfect so it is more distant and less evident to us than our selves are or may be to our selves the Regiment and Oeconomy of our own Souls in our Bodies and of them are more evident to us and perceptible by us than that Regiment and Oeconomy that the Souls of Brutes exercise in them and therefore fitter to be made our Instance of that which I go about thereby to illustrate namely the possibility necessity and explication of the Divine Providence in the governing and influencing of the Universe and all the parts thereof which I shall in the next place prosecute in the Analogy that this small Regnant Principle bears within its little Province to the Divine Regiment of the Universe Sic parvis componere magna I come therefore to the illustration of the Divine Providence and Regiment of the World by the foregoing Emblem thereof 1. By this smaller Instance of this Regiment of this lesser World by the immediate presidency of the Soul it seems evident that it is no way impossible but that the greater World may be governed by the Divine Wisdom Power and Providence It is true there are these two disparities between these namely the greater World and the lesser The greater World is of a more vast extent and again the Integrals and Parts thereof are of greater multiplicity and variety but neither of these are any impediment because the Regent thereof is of an infinite immensity more than commensurate to the extent of the World and such as is most intimately present with all the Beings of the World and of an infinite Understanding Wisdom and Power that is able to apply it self to every created Being and therefore without any difficulty equally able to govern the whole and every part thereof This we see in Natural agents that little spark of Life the Soul that exerciseth its regiment upon an Infant of a span long when the Body is grown to its due stature and together with the extension of the Body this little Vital particle evolves and diffuseth it self to the extent of the enlarged Body governs it with the same facility as it did before that extension And the sensible Soul of a vast Whale exerciseth its regiment to every part of that huge structure with the same efficacy and facility as the Soul of a Fly or a Mite doth in that small and almost imperceptible dimension to which it is consigned For the Soul is expanded and evolved and present to every part and the uttermost extremity of the greater as well as the lesser Animal And therefore if my Soul can have its effectual energy and regiment upon my Body with ease and facility with how much more ease and facility can a Being of immense Existence and Omnipresence of infinite Wisdom and Power govern and order a great but yet a finite Universe and all the numerous yet not infinite parts thereof 2. As there is a possibility of such a regiment of the Divine Wisdom Power and Influence in the Government of the World so there is a necessity of it It is not enough for the Soul of the Humane Nature to form and mould its Corporeal Vehicle if it gave over its work when that were done it would soon dissolve dissipate and corrupt There is the same necessity for the Divine Influence and regiment to order and govern conserve and keep together the Universe in that consistence it hath received as it was at first to give it before it could receive it The intermission of that Regiment and Divine Providence and Influx but a moment after the constitution of this World would have dissolved its order and consistence if not annihilated its Being And indeed he that observes the great variety of things in the World the many junctures and contributions of things that serve to keep up its consistence the want of any of which as the disorder of a little Nerve Vein or Artery in the Body would bring it into a great disorder the continual strife between contrary qualities the strange activity of the active Fiery Nature that involves it or at least is disseminated up and down in it the vast and irregular concretions of Meteors and those strange and various Phaenomena that are in the World which
as they proceed from or are found in the Integrals of the Universe are devoid not only of Reason but of Sense And he that after all this shall see the World upheld without any considerable decay or defect in the same state and order as it hath been for many Thousands of years will upon a due and impartial search find that it were far more impossible that this could be without the Wisdom Power and Influx of a most Infinite Omnipresent Omniscient and Omnipotent Fixed Being than for the Humane Body to be kept without dissolution and putrefaction being destitute of the influx and regiment of its Vital Principle the Soul And therefore some of the Ancients that were willing to solve the Phaenomena of the World have though erroneously thought that the World was Animate and that all these Operations in the World proceeded from that Anima Mundi as the Operations in the Bodies of Men proceeded from that Anima Humana that lodged in it and at length finding so great effects that are and may be done by this supposed Anima Mundi according to their Hypothesis have at last proceeded in plain terms to determine that this Anima Mundi was in truth no other than the Glorious God whereas they might with much more ease and truth have attributed all the great Oeconomy of the Universe to the most Glorious God without dishonouring him into the existence of a Forma informans or a constituent part of that World which he made Others to amend that absurdity and yet out of a piece of mannerliness and respect as they think to God though they deny this Universal Soul or Form informing of the whole Universe yet without any sufficient ground have devised several Systems of the Universe and assigned several Souls to each System or Vortex at least which should be the immediate Regent in every such System as the Soul is in the Body This as it supposeth something without evident ground so it doth without any necessity For the Divine Wisdom and Power is sufficient for the management and government of the whole Universe and if such Animae Systematum should be granted yet still there must be some one common Regent of all these Systems and their respective Souls or otherwise disorder would follow between the Systems themselves But thus far even those suppositions bear witness to the necessity of a Providential Regiment of the parts of the Universe that bare Matter Motion and Chance cannot perform this business but that there is a perfect necessity of a Regent Principle besides it which may govern and dispose it as the Soul of Man doth his Body And even that supposed regiment of these particular Souls of every System as they must needs have it if they had it at all from the institution and efficiency of the Wise God so they are all continually influenced from him and the whole College of them governed guided and ordered by him as their sovereign Regent 3. The Third thing that I design is this That although it is impossible for any Created Being or the Operations thereof to hold a perfect Analogy or adequate Representation of the Divine Wisdom Power and Providence in the governing of the World because the Wisdom and the Ways of Almighty God are unsearchable and past finding out they are of such a perfection that no Created Being or Operation thereof can be a just Parallel or adequate Resemblance of them yet there seems to be such an instance in the regiment which the Humane Soul exerciseth in relation to the Body that with certain correctives and exceptions may give some kind of Explication or Adumbration thereof whereby though we can never get a complete Idea of the Divine Regiment yet we may attain such a notion thereof as may render it evidently credible and in some kind explicable 1. The first act of the Divine Nature relating to the World and his administration thereof is an immanent act The most wise counsel and purpose of Almighty God terminated in those two great transeunt or emanant acts or works the works of Creation and Providence The Divine Counsel relating to the work of Creation is that whereby he purposed to make the World and all the several Integrals thereof according to that most excellent Idea or Exemplar which he had designed or chosen according to his infinite Wisdom in those several ranks and methods and in that order and state wherein they were after created and made The Divine Counsel relating to his Providence or Regiment of the World seems to consist in these two things 1. A purpose of communication of an uncessant influence of his power and goodness for the support and upholding of things created according to the several essential states and conditions wherein they were made some being created more durable some less some in one rank of being or existence some in another 2. A purpose of instituting certain laws methods rules and effluxes whereby he intended to order and rule all the things he had made with the greatest wisdom and congruity and according to the natures and orders wherein he had created them And this is that which I call the law rule and regiment of Divine Providence and seems to be of two kinds namely general Providence and special Providence The general Providence I call that whereby every created Being is governed and ordered according to that essential connatural implanted method rule and law wherein it was created And thus the state and several motions and influences of the Heavenly Bodies is that general providential law wherein they were created and according to which they are governed and the susceptibility of those influences and the effects thereof and of that motion is the general providential law whereby other physical Beings are governed in relation thereunto the activity of the active Elements and the passiveness of the passive the methods and vicissitudes of generation and corruption the efficacy of natural causes and the proper effects consequential to them the natural properties or affections of Bodies according to their several constitutions as motion alteration ascent of light descent of heavy Bodies These and the like are the general providential Laws relating to them Again that things indued with sense should have a sensible perception and certain instincts connatural to them that rational and free Agents should move rationally and freely These and infinite more are the standing and ordinary Rules and Laws of general Providence and the wise God who sees all things from the beginning to the end and therefore can neither be disappointed nor overseen in any of his Counsels hath with that great and admirable Wisdom so ordered these Laws of his general Providence that he thereby governs most excellently the World and they are never totally changed and but rarely altered in particular and that only to most wise ends and upon most eminent occasions And the reason is because the Infinite Wisdom of God hath so instituted and modelled
give rain Jer. 14.22 Thus the wise God who doth nothing vainly or unnecessarily nor infringeth the more constant Laws of Nature when those parts thereof that are more anomalous and more easily applicable to his imperate acts and ends of Providence may serve more ordinarily chuseth those parts of Nature to execute his special Providences that may do it without any great fracture of the more stable and fixed parts of Nature or the infringment of the Laws thereof Again as the Empire of the Divine Will doth exercise its imperate acts in the Methods of special Providence upon things simply in themselves natural so it doth upon Agents or Natures intellectual and free Sometimes immediately by Himself sometimes by the Instrumentality of Angels or proposed Objects This Exercise of the imperate Acts of the Divine Providence may be upon the Understanding or Will Upon the Understanding principally these ways 1. By immediate afflatus or impression as anciently was usual in prophetick Inspirations 2. By conviction of some Truths and this may be either by a strong and over-bearing presenting of them to the Understanding with that light and evidence that it is under a kind of necessity of believing them which was often seen in the primitive times of Christianity wherein God was pleased many times irresistibly and by immediate overpowering the Understanding by the powerful impression of the Object or Truth propounded to conquer as it were the Understanding into an assent Or 2. By advancing and enlightning the understanding Faculty with a superadded light and perception whereby it was enabled to discern the truth of things delivered For as the Understanding receives some Truths proposed by reason of the congruity between the Faculty and the Object as the Eye sees some visible Objects by reason of the congruity between it and them so the reason why it perceives not all Objects of Truth is because of some defect of the Faculty whereby it holds not a full and perfect congruity with them either by reason of the remoteness or sublimity of the Object or some deficiency of light in the Faculty which is aided by the Collyrium of the Divine Assistance Rev. 2. Or else 3. By some extraordinary concomitant moral evidence such was that of the Miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles the Seals and Credentials of the Truths they delivered And as thus the imperate acts of the Divine special Providence are exercised upon the Understanding so they are exercised upon the Will and that either immediately or mediately Immediately 1. By an immediate determining of the Will For although the Will be naturally free yet it is naturally and essentially subject to the imperium divinae voluntatis when He is pleased to exercise that empire upon it This although he rarely doth yet he may do it and sometimes doth it irresistibly determining the Will to chuse this or that good and yet this without any such force or violence as is simply contrary to the nature of it because as there is no Power in the World but owes most naturally an obediential subjection to the Lord of Nature so even the Will it self is naturally and essentially subject to the determination of the Lord and Author of it 2. By immediate inclining and inflecting it to determin of it self This is that secret striving of the Spirit of God with the Will inflecting and perswading it to this or that good It differs from the former way because that it is irresistible this though potent yet in its own nature resistible by the Will of Man though it many times prevails by its efficacy V. Gen. 6.3 Eph. 4.30 Again 2. Sometimes it is done Mediately more humano and yet not without the mediate special Empire and Regiment of the Divine Will and thus it is done two ways viz. 1. By an irresistible or at least powerful conviction of the Understanding that the thing in proposal is fit and necessary to be done or omitted for although some think that the Will hath a power of choosing or refusing or suspending notwithstanding the final decision of the practical Understanding yet certain we are that ordinarily and when the Will acts as a Rational faculty it is or ought to be determined by the last decision of the practical Understanding and 2. By proposing Moral objects that do more humano guide the Will to determine it self accordingly and these are various sometimes Intervention Perswasion or Examples of others and sometimes even the junctures of Natural occurrences For as I shall have occasion to shew and is partly touched before even the Natural occurrences of things are under the guidance and conduct of the Divine Providence even when to us they seem to be either Accidental or to be the meer product of Natural Causes And surely if we should deny the intervention of Imperate Acts of Divine Providence in relation to actions Natural or Moral that appear in the World we should exclude his Regiment of the World in a great measure and chain up all things to a fatal necessity of Second Causes and allow at most to the glorious God a bare prospect or prescience of things that are or shall be done without any other Regency of things but meerly according to the instituted nature and operations of things And thus far of the Imperate Acts of the Divine Providence Only this farther I must subjoyn as a certain truth That neither the Empire of the Divine Providence or his mediate or immediate determinations perswasions or inflexions of the Understanding or Will of Rational Creatures doth either naturally morally or intentionally deceive the Understanding or pervert the Will or necessitate or incline either to any falshood or moral evil 3. The third Analogy that is between the regiment of the Soul over the Body and the Divine regiment of the Universe is in relation to the acts of general Providence or that ordinary Law wherein Almighty God governs ordinarily the Universe and the things in it without the particular mixture of those that I have called the Imperate Acts of special Providence which seems to consist of two parts 1. The institution of certain common Laws or Rules for all created Beings which without a special intervention of his Will to alter or change they should regularly observe as that the Heavenly Bodies should have such Motions and Influences that the Inferiour or Elementary World should have its several Mixtures and Transmutations by the application of the active principles and particles in it to Passives and by the virtue of the Heavenly Motions and Influences That there should be vicissitudes of generations and corruptions that Vegetables should have the operation of vital vegetation increase duration and productions according to their several kinds that Sensible Natures should enjoy a life of Sense and those several powers or faculties of Sensation Phantasie Memory Appetition Digestion Local Motion Generation and those several instincts whereby they should be managed and governed according to the conveniencies of a
thus I have gone through the Speculative consideration of the Divine Providence resulting from the contemplation of a Souls regiment of the Body wherein I have been the longer because the contemplation of the Divine Providence is a Subject that delights me and I am contented to dwell upon it as much as I may and to take up this or any the like occasion to lead me to the contemplation of it And thus far touching the Usefulness of the Contemplation of the Humane Nature in relation to truths Speculative II. The Usefulness of it in relation to matters Practical wherein I shall be shorter This Contemplation hath these useful Advantages namely 1. Physical 2. Moral 3. Theological or Divine 1. For Physical by which I mean that practical part of Physical knowledge that is called Medicinal The due consideration and knowledge of the structure fabrick and parts of the Humane Body is necessarily conducible to that excellent Faculty for the preservation of life and health no one thing being more conducible to the advance and perfection of that Science or Faculty than the knowledge of the Humane Body wherein the Experience of Anatomy and dissection and the Observations of the ancient and modern Physicians hath given a large evidence and testimony 2. The Moral Practical consequences deducible from the knowledge of the Humane nature are many and useful For instance when I consider the admirable Frame of the Humane Nature made by the Wisdom and according to the Image of the Glorious God 1. How careful should it make me that I do not injure that goodly Structure in others by offering violence to the life of another or to corrupt him either by evil example or evil counsels 2. How careful should it make me in relation to my self not to embase that excellent Frame either of my Body or Soul or both into the image of a Brute by sensuality luxury or intemperance or into the image of a Devil by malice envy or irreligion How careful should it make me to improve and ennoble those excellent and comprehensive faculties of my Understanding and Will with such Objects as are worthy to be known and desired The intellectual Faculty is a goodly field capable of great improvement and it is the worst husbandry in the world to sow it with trifles or impertinencies or to let it lye fallow without any seed at all 3. The Theological uses that arise from the knowledge of our selves are great and many When I consider the admirable Frame of my Body made up in that elegant stately and useful composure and when I consider the usefulness amplitude and nobleness of my Faculties an Understanding capable of the knowledge of all things necessary for me to know accommodate and fitted to the perception and intellection though not to the full comprehension of a World full of variety and excellency of a God full of all conceivable perfection and goodness a Memory able to retain the notions of what I understand a Will endued with freedom whereby I am a subordinate Lord of all my actions and endued with a connatural propension and appetite unto rational good Reason and Conscience to guide and direct me in all the enquiries and actions of my life and besides all this a Soul the stock and root of all those Faculties endued with immortality and capable of everlasting blessedness When I consider that this Soul of mine is not only endued with faculties admirably fitted to the life of Sense which I enjoy in this World but find in it certain secret connatural rudiments of goodness and virtue and a connatural desire and endeavour after a state of immortal happiness And when I consider that this Frame both of Body and Soul had its primitive origination immediately from the great Creator of all things and although my own immediate origination was from my Parents yet that very productive virtue was implanted in the primitive Nature by Almighty God and the derivation of the same specifical Nature to me was by virtue of his original Institution and Benediction and by virtue thereof that excellency and perfection of Humane Nature in its essential which was first formed by the glorious God is handed over to me abating only those decays which Sin brought into my nature I say when I deeply and intimately consider these things I cannot but be sensible that that Being from whom I thus derive this being and such a being is a most wise powerful and bountiful Being that could thus frame the Humane Nature and thus freely bestow and confer this constitution upon me 2. And upon this sense of his Wisdom Power and Goodness I must needs entertain it with all imaginable admiration of it and with all possible gratitude for so great and so free a gift 3. And consequently I cannot choose but exercise the choicest affections I have towards him of reverence and fear of his Greatness and Majesty of dependance and rest upon his Power and Goodness of love to the excellency of his Essential Perfection and Communicative Goodness and Beneficence 4. And consequently of entire subjection unto him that upon all the rights imaginable hath the most just sovereignty over me 5. And consequently of all due inquisitiveness what is the Will and good pleasure of that God that I owe so much gratitude love and subjection to that I may serve and please him 6. A resolved entire hearty obedience of that Will of his in all things thereby to testifie to him my love gratitude and subjection 7. An external manifestation to Men and Angels of that internal love and gratitude I owe him by continual praise and thanksgiving to him invocation of him reverence of him and all those acts of Religion Duty and Obedience which are the natural Proceed of that internal frame of my Soul towards him 8. A constant desire of my Soul to enjoy as much of this bountiful glorious blessed Being as it is possible for my nature to be capable of 9. And because my estate and condition in this life is but a state of mortality and a temporal life an earnest endeavour to have my everlasting Soul fitted and qualified to be an everlasting partaker of his presence and goodness in a state of nearer union to him and fruition of him in that future life of glory and immortality 10. And consequently abundance of circumspection care and vigilance that I so behave my self in this state of probation here that I neither lose his favour from whom I expect this happiness nor render my self unworthy unfit or uncapable to enjoy it And thus this deep serious and comprehensive Consideration of our selves and the Humane Nature in its just latitude doth not run out barely into Notions and Speculations but is operative and practical teacheth a man Virtue and Goodness and Religion and Piety as well as Knowledge and is operative to make a man such as it teacheth him to be perfects his nature enricheth it with practical as well as
speculative habits and fits and moulds and accommodates a man to a conformity to the End of his being And these be the Reasons that have especially put me upon the search and enquiry into this Subject MAN I am not without excellent helps and patterns in this Inquiry nor without the due fruits and effects that it hath had upon the Minds of them that have been exercised in it Galen though he spoke darkly and doubtfully of the Soul being destitute of much of that light which we now have yet upon the bare contemplation of the structure of the Body and the parts thereof in that excellent Book of his De Usu Partium resolves the whole Oeconomy thereof into the Power Wisdom Goodness and Efficiency of the Glorious God and is transported both with the admiration of the Divine Wisdom appearing therein and with indignation against the perversness and stupidity of Epicurus and his disciples which would attribute this one Phaenomenon to Chance And had he or should any else apply himself to the search of that Intellectual Principle in Man his Soul he will find a greater evidence of the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Power as will easily appear in a little consideration thereof CAP. II. Touching the Excellency of the Humane Nature in general ALthough I intend a more distinct Consideration of the Humane Nature and the Faculties of the Humane Soul and the Parts of the Humane Body yet it may be necessary before we come to the discussion of the origination of Mankind to premise something concerning the Nature of Mankind and its preheminence and excellence above all other sublunary Creatures that we may have a little tast touching that Being whose origination we inquire This Consideration will be of use to us in the enquiry touching the origination of Man to evidence that neither Chance nor surd or inanimate Nature could be the Efficient of such a Being but a most Wise Powerful and Excellent Author thereof I shall not at large discuss those Faculties and Organs which he hath in common with Vegetables and Brutes but those only that belong to him specifically as Man and those also but briefly The Corporeal Beings of this lower World are divided into these two ranks or kinds such as are Inanimate or not living and such as are Animate or living Life according to Aristotle in 1. De Anima cap. 1. is described by its effects viz. Nutritio auctio diminutio quae per seipsum fit and the lowest rank of such things as have life are Vegetables for though Minerals have a kind of analogical nutrition and augmentation yet it is such as ordinarily non fit per seipsa but rather by accession and digestion from external Principles and coagmentation The Principle from whence this Life flows in all Corporeal Natures that have it is that which they call Anima or at least vis Animastica The Faculties or Operations of this Anima vegetabilis are these 1. Attractio alimenti 2. Fermentatio assimilatio nutrimenti sic attracti in succum sibi congenerem 3. Digestio vel dispersio alimenti sic assimilati in diversas partes individui vegetabilis 4. Augmentatio individui vegetabilis ex unione consolidatione succi vegetabilis diversis partibus individui 5. Conformatio hujusmodi particularum unitarum specificae naturae ejusdem individui cujus est augmentatio ut in trunco ramis cortice fibris foliis fructu c. 6. Seminificatio propagatio ex semine vel partibus seminalibus 1. Attraction of aliment 2. Fermentation and assimilation of the nourishment so attracted into a juice of the same kind with it self 3. Digestion or dispersion of the aliment so assimilated into the divers parts of the vegetable individual 4. Augmentation of the vegetable individual from the union and consolidation of the vegetable juice to the divers parts of the individual 5. The conformation of these united particles to the specifical nature of the same Individual which is augmentation as in the trunk of a Tree the bark fibres leaves and fruit 6. Seminification and propagation from the seed or seminal parts These seem to be the process of the Vegetable Nature Soul and Life 2. The next rank of living Creatures is that which hath not only a vegetable life and a vegetable principle of life but hath also superadded a life of sense and a sensitive Soul or Principle of that life of Sense which nevertheless as one specifical Principle exerts the acts as well of the vegetable as sensitive life And this nature 1. Includes all those powers and faculties of the Vegetable Nature as Attraction Assimilation Digestion Augmentation Conformation and Propagation or Seminification 2. It includes them in a far more curious elegant and perfect manner at least in the more perfect Animals As for instance the first assimilation of the attracted nourishment in Vegetables converts it into a watry humor or juice but the assimilation thereof in Animals rectifies this alimental juice into Chyle and then into Blood The propagation of Vegetables is without distinction of Sexes but that of Animals usually with distinction of Sexes and many more such advances hath the animal nature above the vegetable in those faculties or operations which for the main are common to both 3. It superadds a greater and higher perfection to the animal nature by communicating to it certain essential Faculties and Powers that the vegetable nature hath not And those are these 1. Sense It is true that Campanella in his Book De Senfu rerum and some others that have written de Perceptione substantiae attribute a kind of Sense to all created Beings and therefore much more to those that have a vegetable life And in some Vegetables we see something that carries a kind of analogy to Sense they contract their leaves against the cold they open them to the favourable heat they provide teguments for themselves and their seeds against the injury of the weather as their cortices shells and membranes they seem to be carried with a complacency in the propagation of their kinds as well as Brutes and therefore many of them being impeded therein they germinate again though later in the year And some Plants seem to have the sense of Touch as in the Sensitive Plant and some others which seems to be an advance of the Vegetable Nature to the very confines or a kind of contiguity to the lowest degree of those Animals that are reckoned in the rank of Sensibles But this notwithstanding we deny a real and true sense to Vegetables indeed they have a kind of umbra Sensus a shadow of Sense as we shall hereafter observe that Sensibles have a kind of umbra Rationis a shadow of Reason but it is only a shadow thereof 2. There are also in their natures by the wise God of Nature implanted even in their vegetable natures certain passive Strictures or Signatures of that Wisdom which hath made and ordered all things with the highest reason even
the least inconsiderable Herb and these Signatures are bound to their natures by certain connatural instincts planted in them but still they want the active principle of Sense in them Now this Sense or Sensitive Faculty in Animals is of two kinds the external Senses and the internal The external Senses are five all which belong to the more perfect Animals and that of the Soul to all Animals viz. Seeing Heiring Tasting Smelling and Touching And it is admirable to consider that the great Lord of Nature hath so disposed of sensible Beings that although for ought we know there may be many more impressions or motions of external Bodies that we know not by their communication unto Sense because we have not Faculties receptive of them Yet the Faculties of the five Senses are adequate and proportioned to all those impressions of Objects from without that are conducible to the use and well-being of Animals in a sensible station or nature The internal Senses are of two kinds viz. 1. Such as concern perception of Objects 2. Such as concern the motion to them as useful or from them as noxious Those of the first sort have some adumbration of the Rational Nature as Vegetables have of the Sensible and they seem to be these the Common Sense the Phantasie the Estimative Faculty and the Memory The Common Sense or Commune Sensorium which receives the several reports of the several Senses by their several Nerves into that common receptacle or seat of this useful office the Brain where it distinguisheth the Objects of the several Sensories The Phantasie that in a way unsearchable unto us 1. Creates the 〈◊〉 Images of the things delivered from the several Senses to the Commune Sensorium 2. Compounds those Images into some things not unlike Propositions though confusedly and indistinctly 3. Makes particular applications of them one to another though still darkly and confusedly whereby it excites the Appetite either to prosecute their attainment or fly from them The Estimative Faculty which is indeed no other than the last operation or composition of the Phantasie before-mentioned whereby it concludes that this is a sensible good or a sensible evil that it is attainable or feasible or not attainable that though it be good yet sometimes it is not safe to be attempted by reason of the impendence of a greater sensible evil This seems to be the dark and confused shadow of the decision of the practical Intellect in Man The Memory which is an impression of the Image of some sensible Object made by the Phantasie which remains some time after the impression and by the return of a like Objedt again is sometimes revived and reinforced But how this Image is made where it is imprinted how conserved are things we cannot at all attain the knowledge of they are wonderfull though common effects of a most wise and stupendious Wisdom and Power that hath thus constituted even the Faculties of the Animal Nature Only it seems to me that these Images are not made in the Brain it self as the Pencil of a Painter or Engraver makes the Image in the Table or Metal but are imprinted in a wonderfull method in the very Soul it self For it is plain that Sounds and Voices are remembred and yet no real configurations are possible to be made thereof in the Brain for what Image can there be of a Sound Now as to that Faculty or those Faculties that concern the pursuit or flight of what is thus propounded by the Phantasie or Estimative Faculty they are generally two The Appetitus naturalis which bears some analogy to the Will in the Reasonable Nature and the acts thereof are either prosecution of the Sensible Object propounded if presented by the Phantasie and Estimative Faculty as good or else aversation from it if presented as evil This is the Faculty of Empire or Command for in conformity to the determination of the Appetite the motion of the Body follows The other Faculties that concern pursuit or aversation are the Passions the Satellites appetitus serving either in the prosecution of the good propounded as Love Desire c. or in opposition of the evil presented as Anger Revenge c. And thus far touching the Senses in Animals both External and Internal 2. The second superadded prelation of the sensible nature above the vegetable is the faculty and exercise of animal and local motion whereas Vegetables have naturally no other motion but that which is determined and natural and what is within it self as the motion of Attraction Digestion Nourishment Augmentation and Increase Animals have the faculty and power of animal motion which hath these accessions 1. It is or may be spontaneous for though the object moves objectively yet the faculty or power moves ab intrinseco and spontaneously 2. It moves the parts spontaneously the Leg the Eye the Ear or any other part which cannot be done by Vegetables 3. Again it can move the whole Compositum from one ubi to another at least in all Animals except those that are almost in the nature of Plants called Zoophyta or Plantanimali a which cannot be done by Plants who are mancipated and fixed to the place of their station or growth unless removed by an extrinsecal agent 3. The third superadded advantage of Animals is their Instincts It is true Vegetables have their instincts radicated in their nature as we have before observed yea even things Inanimate have certain simple instincts as in the motions of ascent of light bodies and descent of heavy bodies But the instincts of Animals are sensible instincts of a more noble kind and nature than those of Vegetables and such as seem to savour more of an active principle as sagacity of Brutes in taking their prey defending themselves providing against the inclemency of the weather care for their young building their nests and infinite more which are too long to name These are the superadded Faculties of the Animal Nature and proportionate and accommodate to their faculties are their organizations of their Bodies And in as much as there is great varieties in the temperaments dispositions faculties and uses of several Animals of several kinds their organizations are not only fitted to the common natures uses and powers of sensible Creatures but every several Species hath its several accommodation as well of his Organs as of his Faculties to the exigence use and convenience of his proper specifical nature Thus the ranks of the vegetable perfections are not only included within the rank of sensible Beings but these have greater perfections in what is common to both and superadditions of other more noble Faculties and Organs not communicable to the former The Vegetable Nature is indeed like a curious Engin but it hath but some simple and single motions like a Watch that gives the hour of the day or a Trochea with one Wheel But the Animal Nature is like an Engin that hath a greater composition of Wheels and more variety of motions and
appearances as one of the compound Engins of Archimedes or as a Watch that besides the hour of the day gives the day of the month the age of the Moon the place of the Sun in the Zodiack and other curious Motions wrought by multiplication of Wheels Now touching the Sensitive Natures there have been two extreme opinions both of them extremely contrary one to another and yet both of them as they are delivered by their Authors untrue 1. That Opinion that depresseth the natures of sensible Creatures below their just value and estimate rendring them no more but barely Mechanisms or Artificial Engins such as were Archytas his Dove Regiomontanus his wooden Eagle or Walchius his iron Spider that they have no vital Principle of all their various Motions but the meer modifications of Matter or at least the elementary Fire mingled with their other Matter that they have no other form or internal principle of Life Motion or Sense but that which is relative and results from the disposition texture organization and composition of their several Limbs Members or Organs This fancy began by Des Cartes in his Fundamenta Physica and hath been followed and improved by some of his admirers and particularly much favoured by Honoratus Faber in his Book De Generatione Animalium and herein they think they have given a fair solution to all the Phaenomena of the Sensitive Nature and given a fair prelation to the Soul of Man which they agree to be a substantial Principle of humane actions But in both these they have been disappointed for this supposition as it gives not at all a tolerable explication of the Phaenomena of sense and animal motions so if it did it would easily administer to a little more confidence and boldness a temptation to resolve all the Motions of the reasonable Soul into the like supposition only by advancing the Engin or Automaton humanum into a more curious and complicated constitution For he that can once suppose that the various modifications of Matter and Motion and the due organization of the Bodies of Brutes can produce the admirable operations of Sense Phantasie Memory Appetite and all those instincts which we find in Brutes is in a fair way of resolving the operation of the Reasonable Nature into the like supposition only by supposing the organization of the latter somewhat more curiously and exactly disposed and ordered as much above that of Brutes as theirs is above that of Vegetables It is true the organization of the humane and animal Body with accommodation to their several functions and offices is certainly fitted with the most curious and exact Mechanism imaginable as appears by the structure of the Heart the Lungs the Brain the Tongue the Hand the Nerves the Muscles and all other parts and the several orders and methods of their motions and adaptations to their several offices and the exercise by them of those Faculties to whose service they are consigned This must needs be acknowledged by every man that observes them or that takes the pains to read the Tracts of those that have written of them and especially Galen his divine Book De Usu Partium Des Cartes and Fabritius concerning the structure of the Eye the same Fabritius and Steno De motu Musculorum and divers others But that the Principle that sets on work these Organs and worketh by them is nothing else but the modification of Matter or the natural motion thereof thus or thus posited or disposed or the bare conformation of the Organs or the inclusion and expansion of any natural inanimate particles of elementary Fire is most apparently false even to the view of any that observes or considers impartially It is impossible to resolve Perception Phantasie Memory the sagacities and instincts of Brutes the spontaneousness of many of their animal motions into those Principles nor are they explicable without supposing some active determinate power force or virtue connexed to and inherent in their Spirits or more subtil parts of a higher extraction than the bare natural modification or texture of Matter or disposition of Organs or as they are often pleased to stile them their plexus partium Again it is visible to the Eye that that power or virtue or principle whatever it is that in the generative process first immediately formeth and organizeth the parts of the Body is that which guides orders and governs all the animal motions of it after That power which first forms the Brain the Heart the Liver the Eye is that which afterward increaseth augmenteth exerciseth and employeth them after And no man living can force himself to imagin that that Principle which forms organizeth disposeth and modifieth the parts is any thing that results from the organization or modification of those parts which are not yet moulded or framed but must have its modification from that Principle which is antecedent to any manner of organization or texture of parts into an animal composition No man therefore that hath not abjured his Reason and sworn allegiance to a preconceived fantastical Hypothesis can undertake the defence of such a supposition if he have but the patience impartially to consider and look about him 2. The other extreme Opinion seems to advance the Animal Nature too high at least without a due allay of their general expression namely those who attribute Reason and a reasoning faculty or power to Animals as well as to Men though not altogether in the same degree of perfection so that they will not have Reason to be the specifical or constitutive difference of the Humane Nature but common to them and Brutes This Opinion seems generally to be favoured by the Pythagoreans that held Transmigration of Souls by Plutarch in Grillo and his second Oration De Esu Carnium by Sextus Empiricus Contra Mathematicos by Porphyry Lib. 3. de Abstinentia ab Esu Animalium which he endeavours to prove and illustrate by divers reasons and instances and among the latter by Patricius in his fifth Book de Animis irrationalibus but above all by the ingenious and learned De Chambre in his Book of the Knowledge of Beasts wherein he asserts not only the simple apprehension of Beasts by phantasms or images wrought by the Phantasie but the conjunction of images with affirmations and negations which make up Propositions and the conjunction of Propositions one to another and illation of Conclusions upon them which is Ratiocination or Discourse And that in farther evidence thereof there is a certain kind of Language whereby Beasts or Birds especially of the same Species communicate their conceptions one to another only this discursive Ratiocination of Brutes he calls Ratio imaginativa and differenceth it from Ratio intellectualis which belongs properly to Men principally in this That the imaginative or brutal Ratiocination keeps still in particulars and within the verge of particular propositions and conclusions but intellectual Reason hath to do with universals and for the most part grounds and directs its
inquiry and such whose first composure and origination requires a higher and nobler Constituent than either Chance or the ordinary method of meer Natural causes and concurrences and that it is such a piece as in its first constitution and ordination requires an Efficient of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness This is the end and scope of my present Inquiry Now to give a brief Inventory of the Excellence of the Humane Nature I shall observe as near as I can this order First I will briefly consider those Excellencies that he hath in common with the vegetable and sensible nature Secondly I shall consider those specifical or appropriate Excellencies that he hath above the former both vegetable and animal nature Under the Second general I shall consider Man singly with relation to himself and then with relation to other things without him In relation to himself I shall briefly consider these particulars 1. The excellency of his Soul or intellectual nature in its nature faculties acts and habits 2. The peculiar excellency of his Body 3. The peculiar excellency of the Compositum consisting of both his former essential parts In relation to things without him I shall consider him with relation 1. To God 2. To Mankind 3. To the other integrals of the World and therein 1. Of their serviceableness and accommodation to him 2. Of his dominion and soveraignty over them and the means and instruments thereof This is the brief Scheme that I intend of those specifical and appropriate preheminences that the Nature of Man hath above other visible Creatures First therefore touching those Excellencies that the humane Nature hath above the vegetable and animal Nature I shall subjoin these ensuing Positions 1. There is no excellent vegetable or animal Faculty in the vegetable or animal Nature as such but it is found in the humane Nature such as are attraction nutrition digestion conformation of parts digested proportionable augmentation generation sensible perception common sense estimative faculty sensible appetite locomotive faculty and animal motion I meddle not herein with all those smaller sort of Faculties which are peculiarly appropriate to Vegetables or Animals as swiftness sagacity strength and special artifices which belong not to them in the common nature of Vegetables or Animals but by certain specifical Instincts or Faculties because though it may be some of them are not found in the same kind and degree in the humane Nature yet they are such as are abundantly recompensed by that art and ingeny which appropriately belongs to the humane Nature 2. There are no Organs in the sensible Nature which yet are more perfect than those of the vegetable Nature subservient to the Faculties of Life and Sense which are wanting in the constitution of the humane Body at least in substance and equivalence 3. Those very Faculties and Organs subservient unto them in the vegetable or sensible Nature which are found in them are lodged in the humane Nature in far more excellency and perfection than they are in the vegetable or animal Nature So that if the Faculties or Organs subservient to the vegetable or animal Life in Man do differ in their state or composure from those of Brutes it differs for the better as obtaining a more exquisite perfection usefulness beauty and contexture than those of Brutes as may appear in the Hand of Man compared with the Foot of Beasts or Birds the Foot the Leg the Thigh of Man with those of Beasts and the like It is true the constitution of some Faculties and Organs of Sensibles is more accommodate to their fabrick and use than the like Organs of Man would be to the use of Brutes but simply comparing one with another the Organs of the humane Body are more curious and excellent than the Organs of the bare animal Nature And from hence it comes to pass that the full knowledge of the humane Faculties and Organs subservient to the animal Life in Man comprehends in effect all the like Faculties and Organs in the animal Nature though differing in some particular textures and positions with a proportionable advance by the access of excellence of the humane Nature 2. As to the specifical or appropriate Excellencies of the humane Nature above the most perfect Animals they come next to be considered It is true that Animals in proportion to the length of their Life attain their complement of their specifical perfection sooner in proportion than the humane Nature The animal Soul sooner expands and evolves it self to its full orb and extent than the humane Soul Therefore the Horse that lives naturally about thirty years comes to his full growth and perfect exercise of its animal Faculties in four years but Man that lives not ordinarily above seventy yeas comes not to the ripeness of his Intellectual Life 'till two and twenty or three and twenty years at least nor even to his full growth 'till nineteen or twenty So that what we say concerning Man in relation to the actings of his Mind must be applied to that state and age wherein his Soul hath fully as it were evolved it self and its Organs fully mature and disposed for the actings of his Soul He is long ripening but then his maturity and the complement thereof recompenseth the flowness of his maturation Now the Excellencies appropriate to the humane Nature are as before observed of two kinds 1. such as immediately concern the humane Nature it self or 2. such as are extrinsecal but yet relating to it Those things that are immediately residing in or part of the humane Nature come first to be considered And they are three 1. His Soul or intellectual and volitive Principle 2. His Body or corporeal part 3. The Compositum or Coalitum of both those Principles which complete the humane Nature The Soul comes first to be considered and therein these four things 1. It s Constitution or Nature 2. It s Original 3. Its Faculties 4. It s congenite Habits or rational Instincts 1. Touching the Constitution of the Intellectual Soul of Man I shall not in this place enter into a large discourse concerning it but reserve that consideration to its proper place only in general it is 1. An active principle 2. It is a substantial principle 3. It is not corporeal or material 4. It is not corruptible or mortal 2. Touching its Original whether it be by traduction or creation or participation I shall not here dispute but reserve it to its proper place for a fuller disquisition But whether the one way or the other it had its original there is no inconsistency but that it hath those essential qualifications above-mentioned 3. Touching its Faculties they are two the Understanding and the Will And here I shall not concern my self in the Inquiry whether the Faculties are the same with the Soul it self or the same one with the other and only distinct in notion whether the Will be any more than the complete or ultimate act of the Understanding determined
Memory retaining the series of propositions argumentations and a long tract of historical narratives 3. In that it is more distinct and unconfused than the sensitive Memory 4. In that it is firmer and more fixed and permanent than the sensitive Memory 5. In that it can resuscitate and stir up it self to remember and call together other Images or media to retrive what it once remembred which is Reminiscence an act of intention which therefore Aristotle in his Book De Memoria Reminiscentia makes an act peculiar to Man whereas the Memory of Brutes is either conserved by the Images impressed by the Imagination and there continued or revived and reinforced by the occurrence of external Objects bearing an identity or resemblance to the Images at first impressed by the Phantasie 4. Deliberation a staid and attentive consideration of things to be known and their media and of their several weights conclusiveness or evidence and of things to be done and their media their congruity suitableness possibility and convenience and of the several circumstances aptly conducible thereunto which is an act far above the animal actings which are sudden and transient and admit not of that attention mora and propendency of actions 5. Judgment either concerning things to be known of the weight and concludency of them and ends in decision or of things done or to be done of their congruity fitness rightness appositness and this if it refers to things to be done ends in determination or purpose if in relation to things already done then in sentence of approbation or disapprobation And hither that which we call Conscience is to be referred namely if by a due comparison of things done with the rule there be a consonancy follows the sentence of Approbation if discordant from it the sentence of Condemnation And this act of the Judgment in relation to things to be done and the determination thereupon is that which is usually stiled the last decision of the practical Understanding immediately antecedent to the decree of the Will which it must follow by a kind of moral necessity when it acts as a reasonable Faculty and in the due state and order of its nature though by its liberty and empire it sometimes suspends its concurrence And thus far concerning the Acts of the Understanding 3. Concerning intellectual Habits or the genuine effects of these acts in the understanding Faculty and they are divers and diversly expressed by those that have treated thereof 1. Opinion when the assent of the Understanding is so far gained by evidence of probability that it rather inclines to one perswasion than to another yet not altogether without a mixture of incertainty or doubting 2. Science or Knowledge effected by such evidence cui non potest subesse falsum as in case of demonstrative evidence 3. Fides or Faith or Belief which rests upon the relation of another that we have no reasonable cause to suspect and upon this account we believe Divine Revelation when we are sufficiently convinced that it is Divine Revelation we also believe our Senses because we have the greatest Moral evidence that we can reasonably have of the truth of their reports when they are not controlled by apparent Reason impossibility or improbability We believe good and credible persons and this principally referrs to matter of fact which we cannot or do not controll by our Senses or other weighty evidence as that there was such a man as Julius Caesar that there is such a place as Rome though we never saw the one or the other because delivered over to us by credible persons and such who could probably have no end to deceive us 4. Wisdom which is a complicated habit referring to all things to be known and done the due comparison of things and actions and the preference of them according to their various natures and degrees 5. Prudence which is principally in reference to actions to be done the due means order season method of doing or not doing 6. Moral Virtues as Justice Temperance Sobriety Fortitude Patience c. for these begin in the Intellect though their exercise belong principally to the faculty of the Will 7. Arts Liberal or Mechanical for though the exercise of those in which the formal nature of an Art consists be external yet the Ideal notion and habit of them begins in the Understanding and a man is first a Geometrician in his Brain before he be such in his Hand And all these habits of the intellectual Faculty are far advanced above what is found in Sensible Natures take the last for instance It is true we find a rare dexterity in the Spider and Silkworm in framing of their threads but this proceeds not from any Intellectual principle in them but from an Instinct connatural to them and whereunto they are determined by the Law of their nature again we find in the Fox the Hawk and other Animals admirable sagacities wiles and subtilties in getting their prey and in defending themselves But when we consider the sagacity of the Humane Understanding although the particular Instincts of some Animals are scarce imitable by it yet it exceeds them in other things almost of the same nature and so by way of equivalence or rather prelation in those very Instincts witness the Arts of Painting Tapestry Fortification Architecture the Engins whereby noxious and subtil Animals are subdued and infinite more arising from the fruitfulness of the Understanding and the dexterity of the Hand And thus much touching the Intellective Faculty the seat of intellective Perception and Counsel I come to consider of that other Faculty the Will the seat of Empire and Authority The Will therefore is that other great Faculty of the Reasonable Soul and it is not a bare appetitive power as that of the sensual appetite but is a rational appetite and is considerable 1. In its Nature 2. In its Object 3. In its Acts. 1. The Nature of this Faculty is that it is free domina suarum actionum free from compulsion and so spontaneous and free from determination by the particular Object wherein it differs from the sensitive appetite which though spontaneous because moving from an inward principle yet is if not altogether yet for the most part determined in its choice by the external Object But how far forth the Will is determined by the last act of the practick Understanding or how far such a determination is or is not consistent with the essential or natural liberty of the Will is not seasonable here to dispute This liberty of Will together with that other Faculty of Understanding is that which renders the humane Nature properly capable of a Law and of the consequence of Law Rewards and Punishments which doth not properly belong to the animal Nature because destitute of these two Faculties 2. The Object of the Will is not confined to a sensible Good but is much larger namely such a Good as is compatible to an Intellectual Nature in its full
and Inclinations and yet we see that these Sentiments are not confined to the Literati of mankind 2. Again I appeal to the most knowing men in the World that have but had the leisure to think seriously and converse with themselves and that have kept their Minds free from the fumes of intemperance and excess passion and perturbation whether next under Divine Revelation their best and clearest sentiments of Morality at least have not been gathered from the due animadversion and inspection of their own Minds and the improving of that stock of Morals that they there find and the transcribing of that Original which they found first written there It is true that it is with the connatural Principles inscribed in our Minds as it is with our Faculties they lye more torpid and inactive and inevident unless they are awakened and exercised like a spark involved in ashes and being either suppressed or neglected they seem little better than dead but being diligently attended inspected and exercised they expand and evolve themselves into more distinction and evidence of themselves And therefore it was not without some kind of probability that some of the Ancients thought that Science was little else than Memory or Reminiscence a discovery of what was in the Soul before But whatever may be said of other matters certainly the first draughts and strictures of Natural Religion and Morality are naturally in the Mind And hence some thinking men have thought that the specifical difference of the humane Nature is Propension to Religion and therefore define Man to be Animal religiosum which could not be from any habit barely acquisite by the exercise of Faculties unless the same were radically engraven in the very texture of his Soul I shall add but this one thing more It is plain that the existence of a Deity as a Being of infinite Perfection and consequently of infinite Goodness and Justice to reward and punish and of infinite Power and Wisdom is a truth that is highly rational and demonstrable by the exercise of intellectual Faculties upon the consideration of the Universe and its several parts and possibly the Immortality of the Soul is evincible by very great reason But these great truths are not communicated barely by one kind of means and it is needful in respect of their use they should all have all contributions and not only Brains to pursue a long train of consequences And yet we shall find in the generality of mankind especially when death begins to draw towards them a very quick and active demonstration of these convictions and possibly many times more vigorous and active than that rational conviction that is wrought by Speculation and Syllogisms which evidenceth that these Principles of the existence of a most righteous and powerful God and a state of rewards and punishments after death are more universally engraven in the Crasis of the Soul by Almighty God in its natural constitution than barely by the exercise of Faculties in Speculation and Ratiocination And herein it must be remembred that I am in this Discourse still in the outward Court of the Gentiles discoursing only as a reasonable Man and not taking in the assistance of the Christian Doctrine and those subsidia divinae gratiae that relate thereunto Therefore to conclude this point There seems to be two means of communicating and preserving in the Soul and Conscience these great speculative and moral Principles whereof I have even now treated viz. 1. That which I here call Connatural or a certain rational Instinct engraven in the very Make and constitution of it And as those that write of Conscience tell us it hath three offices or acts Synteresis Syneidesis and Epicrisis so those Principles are lodged in that Chest of the Conscience called Synteresis 2. A second means of attaining and keeping and improving these connatural Sentiments or rational Instincts both speculative and moral is that admirable adaptation of the Faculties of the humane Soul to those Principles and Sentiments that as the Eye discerns light and colour by a congruity between the visive Faculty and the visible Object and as the Palate tasts and relisheth its meat by the congruity between the Faculty and the Object whereby it judgeth of what is good and embraceth it and what is evil to it and rejects it So in the humane Faculties those of his Intellect and Will there is a proportionating of the Faculties to the Object whereby the former discerns truth from falshood and moral good from moral evil honestum decorum from indecens turpe and accordingly the Will when it acts regularly and as it should accepts or rejects it But as the estimative Faculty in Brutes is nevertheless consistent with their connatural Instincts which latter have still excellent use in the sentient Province so this adaptation of the Faculties in Man to their Objects doth not exclude those connatural implanted rational Instincts in the humane Nature but both consist together and are of admirable use to the humane Soul And thus far concerning the Soul of Man its Faculties and Instincts I come now to consider of the structure and fabrick of the humane Body and that not at large for that will be for another place but briefly and summarily to give an account of some of those appropriate and discriminating notices wherein it differs from and hath preference above the most perfect brutal Nature And they are such as either concern the entire Fabrick of the Body or such as concern some special Parts or Integrals thereof but I shall mingle them together as followeth 1. There is in the humane Fabrick a greater Majesty and Beauty than in any Animal in the World besides and that appears 1. In the erectness of his posture all other Animals have transverse Bodies as Birds and Beasts and though some do raise themselves upon their hinder legs to an upright posture yet they cannot endure it long it is unnatural and uneasie to them neither are the figures or junctures or order of their Bones Nerves and Muscles fitted to such a posture And it is observable that the structure of Man's Body is with that equilibration notwithstanding divers prominences therein the composure of his Nerves and Muscles for the due motion of his Spirits the structure of his Feet are so singularly accommodated that he maintains this erect posture standing or walking though his Feet the Basis of the Pillar of his Body be much narrower than the latitude of his Body 2. In the Majesty of his Face and Eyes 3. In the Beauty of his Face Beauty consists principally in these things Figure Symmetry and Colour No Bird or terrestrial Animal exhibits its Face in the native colour of its Skin but Man all others are covered with Feathers or Hair or a Cortex that is obduced over the Cutis as in Elephants and some sort of Indian Dogs and though in the torrid Climates the common colour is black or swarthy yet the natural colour of the
temperate Climates is more transparent and beautiful 2. There is no Animal hath any Organ of equal use to the Arm and Hand of a Man that Organum organorum an Organ accommodate to all the useful motions operations arts and uses of his life Man is born without any offensive or defensive weapons like to those of other Animals but by the usefulness and accommodation of this Organ and his Intellective faculty he maketh weapons and useth them he forgeth and mouldeth Metals builds Houses and Ships makes his Cloaths and Ornaments and exerciseth all Arts for use and ornament 3. There is no Creature that I know of hath the like structure of his Leg and Foot the former being only two to support his Body have greater and larger Muscles than any Animal of no greater proportionable bigness and the latter being the Basis of those Pillars are admirably fitted by their length and figure for his gressus progressivus 4. Since the Brain is the great Organ of Intellection in Man and of Imagination in Brutes which are the two noblest Faculties of either Nature it will not be amiss to examine the differences between the Brain of either and the Nerves proceeding from either wherein none that I know hath given more light than Doctor Willis in his Anatomy of the Head all therefore that I shall do herein shall be to gather up the most of those observable differences that lye dispersed in that Book 1. The humane Brain is in proportion to the Body much greater and larger than the Brains of Brutes having regard to the size and proportion of their Bodies and fuller of anfractus or sinuations and so more capable of greater diversity of employments and uses in the Perceptive Faculties 2. There are in the Brain certain portions called protuberantia annularis nates testes and that in those Brutes wherein this protuberantia annularis is largest in proportion those Brutes are of greatest sagacity and subtilty as Foxes Apes c. that though in Man those prominences called nates and testes are the least yet the protuberantia annularis is greater in proportion in Man than in any Animal the structure of this Organ being fitted to a greater degree of natural sagacity 3. That whereas in Brutes the only communication of the Brain with the Heart is by the nervus paris vagi derived from the Cerebellum and spreading its branches into the Muscle of the Heart in Man there is not only the same communication of that Nerve but a ramification of the nervus intercostalis is also inserted into the Muscle of the Heart whereby a greater communication between the Brain and Heart is maintained in Man than in Brutes 4. That other ramifications of this nervus intercostalis are derived into the Chest and Diaphragma whereby principally that peculiar affection of Laughter is excited more appropriate to Man together also those others of Sternutation and other natural actions common to Men and Beasts are excited but not from the like communication of that Nerve in Brutes And thus much shall serve to be spoken of the peculiarities of the Humane Body though what I before said touching the Faculties of the Animal Nature in Man must also be remembred touching the organical parts of his Body There is no Organ in the Brutal Body subservient to the Animal Faculties which is not found in the Humane Body with such variations and additions as render them more curious perfect useful and admirably accommodate to his Animal Life and Faculties But of this more fully hereafter 3. I shall now subjoin a Consideration of Man in his whole Compositum consisting of both his essential parts of Body and Soul and of the aggregation of the Faculties and Organs belonging to either so far forth as they evidence his appropriate and specifical Excellency above the Animal Nature The appropriate or specifical acts of the humane compositum are the capacity and faculty of instituted Signs expressive of the inward conceptions of the Mind which are of two kinds 1. Audible 2. Visible Signs The Audible Signs are instituted Speech or Language the formal nature whereof consists in two things 1. Articulate Voice 2. The accommodation of the Articulate Voice to the rendring or expressing of the inward thoughts or intentions of the Mind And herein is the great preference of the language of Man above that of Brutes or Birds who though they have audible signs that express something of their Imaginations or Appetites yet they extremely differ from humane speech 1. They are but short and transient like Interjections in speech whereby though they express the sudden motions of their Phantasie Appetite or Passions yet they carry not with them any distinct series or long train of their Imaginations they are short and sudden somewhat like Sighs or Ejulations in Man 2. They are not articulate nor orderly but short natural and broken 3. When Birds especially by the fabrick of their Tongue and Palate are taught to use articulate words yet they understand not their import nor do render any conceptions of their Phantasie by them nor can answer a question by them but use them insignificantly as the Organ or Pipe renders the Tune which it understands not And by the help of significant and articulate speech one Man expresseth the notions or conceptions of his Mind to another instructs another mutual commerce and society is maintained which could never be without instituted signs And this Act of instituted signs especially those of Speech or Language proceeds from the entire compositum the Mind instituting the signs and communicating its notions and desires by it and the Palate Larinx Tongue and Lips forming the Voice according to such institution whereunto they are most admirably accommodated by their Apertures Nerves and Muscles 2. The instituted visible Signs are Writings Gestures Tears Motions of the Eye Mouth and Face which were long to enumerate By means of writing former Ages transmit the Memorials of ancient times and things to posterity Men understand the sentiments purposes and desires of one another though absent and the living converse with those ancient Philosophers and others that are long since dead And now in this composition of the humane Nature we have these things observable 1. That in this contexture of the Humane Body and Intellectual Soul we have a Creature made up that is nexus utriusque mundi intellectualis scilicet corporei The next Range of Beings above him are the pure and immaterial Intelligences the next below him is the sensible Nature Man is as it were the Comes limitaneus of each Nature participating of both And we may observe that in the process of Natural Beings there seem some to be Creatures placed as it were in the Confines of several Provinces and participating something of either as in things that have life and that have not there is placed the Minerals between the inanimate and vegetable Province participating something analogical to either Between the vegetable
and sensitive Province there are Plant-animals and some kind of Insects arising from Vegetables that seem to participate of both Between the animal and rational Province there seem to be some Animals that have a dark Image or resemblance of the Influxes of Reason So between the corporeal and intellectual World there is constituted Man participating much of both Natures It a quod non transitur ad extreme nisi per media 2. That Man in his constitution seems admirably fitted to the convenience of his Nature a little World accommodated with Faculties and Organs admirably convenient to it self a kind of entire State Kingdom or Republick within himself fitted with all accommodations and requisites for the due Regiment of himself as a Sensible and Intellectual Being He hath the Council or Senate of his Intellect and her subservient Acts and Faculties to advise him the Empire and Regiment of his Will to command the Satellites and Ministers of his Passions and Animal Spirits to execute his Conscience for his Tribunal There wants nothing within this little Circle of himself which may be requisite to order that little compacted Province for its Political Regiment And thus far concerning Man as relating to himself his Parts Faculties and entire Composition It remains that we take a little survey of him as he stands in relation to things without him which is the last Consideration that I promised in this brief Inventory of the Humane Nature and Excellencies The Humane Nature thus fitted with these Faculties is admirably accommodated to a threefold relation to somewhat without him namely To Almighty God To the rest of Mankind And to this mundus aspectabilis wherein he lives 1. To Almighty God for being a Creature endued with an Immortal Soul endued with those great Faculties of Understanding and Will and those Facultates Ancillares of his Affections he is rendred into a capacity 1. Of knowing Him 2. Of knowing his Will and what is acceptable to Him for it is in a great measure inscribed in his Soul 3. Of being a fit Subject to Him and to obey Him 4. Of loving and trusting in Him 5. Of glorifying of Him especially in the Contemplation of His Works which are proposed to his Sense and Understanding 6. Of Invoking and Worshipping And 7. Finally to enjoy the Blessed Vision of Him by reason of the congruity of his Immortal and Intellectual Nature to such a fruition And thus we have him in his Duty Religion and in his Happiness Immortal Life 2. To the rest of mankind he is accommodated with Moral principles inherent in his Nature and improvable by the exercise of his Faculties as is before shewn he is accommodated with Speech and Intellectual signs to maintain intercourse and mutual communion and commerce and his very disposition and the mutual necessitudes of humane Nature necessarily maintain mutual offices and correspondence between them and the accommodations of Government and Laws are the fruit and productions of his Intellectual nature and the support of society 3. To the rest of the visible World there is an admirable accommodation of the humane Nature and Faculties to the Mundus aspectabilis and of the several parts of it and of them to it 1. Of the Faculties of the humane Nature to the visible Universe especially the vegetable and animal Natures which by means of the admirable advantage of his Intellect and that singular Engin of the Hand he hath skill and power to subdue and bring under whereby he exerciseth dominion over them and protection of them as the Vicegerent and Deputy of Almighty God 2. Of the Universe and parts thereof to the humane Nature and Faculties which were infinite to enumerate I shall only insert some of them 1. A kind of awful subjection and fear of the greatest part of the animal Nature of him and to him and though some be so hardy and unruly as to resist him yet he wants not power by the advantage of his Understanding and Hand to subdue and master them 2. An accommodation of most of the things within the compass of the visible Universe to his use and convenience which though I cannot say it is the only or the prime end of their being yet they are singularly accommodated to the use delight and benefit of mankind as might easily appear by an enumeration of particulars The light motion and influence of the Sun and Stars the nature position and frame of Elements the variety and concurrence of the Meteors the fertility of the Land the position of the Ocean the interspersion of the Rivers the various Minerals Vegetables and Animals some serving for his food some for his clothing some for his labour and travel some for his delight the whole compass of Nature affording infinite variety of Instances of this kind 3. An admirable accommodation of all the things in the World to his Faculties and for their delight advancement and improvement He hath the perception of Sense to which all the visible Objects of the World are presented and he hath the light and searching Faculty of his Understanding which as it is qualified for such an employment of Contemplation so it hath a fruitful exhibition of Objects of great variety and excellency the knowledge whereof doth not only delight and enrich his Faculties but are so many manuductions to the knowledge and admiration of the infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness of the Creator and Upholder of them And thus I have given a short and brief estimate of the peculiar Excellencies of the Humane Nature I did not design a large or exact enumeration or description of them There is not any one particular above-mentioned but would take up the business of a just Volume and I am easily conscious that I have omitted many things that possibly might be of as great importance as any that I have mentioned But this brief Inventory I have here given as preparatory to what follows and to pre-possess the Reader 1. That a natural Indagation according to the light of natural Reason touching the Origination of such a Creature as this is no contemptible or unworthy enquiry 2. That surely such a Creature as this thus accommodated could not have his Origination from any less than an Intellectual most Wise Powerful and Beneficent Being the great God Creator and Governour of Heaven and Earth And this is the scope and end of my business in this Tract the short Synopsis whereof is as followeth There are two grand Opinions among the Ancients touching the Origination of Man The first is That Humane Species had no beginning but was Eternal the second That it had a beginning In the first place I examin the supposition of the Eternity of Mankind in their successive Generations And in order thereunto I take up the consideration of the Eternity of the World as it is now constituted and whether it be in Nature possible that it should be so I then descend to the particular consideration of the Eternity of
Mankind whether although there should be a possibility of an eternity of some permanent created Beings whether yet there be a possibility in Nature or any probability of evidence that Mankind can be eternal à parte ante or without beginning This I oppose by Arguments of two kinds 1. From the very repugnancy in Nature of successive Beings to be without an inception or eternal and upon these kind of evidences I do indeed lay the principal weight and stress of my Conclusion because though these kind of Arguments may seem more obscure yet upon a due consideration of them they are highly consequential and concludent to my purpose 2. The second sort of evidences are Moral evidences wherein I take into consideration most of those Moral evidences that have been collected by others or thought of by my self against the Eternity of Mankind Whereupon I do conclude 1. That singly and apart many of them are subject to exception yet collectively they make up a good moral evidence touching a temporary inception of the humane Nature 2. I do consider the particular deficiencies of those moral evidences taken singly and apart 3. I substitute other moral evidences that even singly and apart have each of them a great moral and topical evidence of this truth and are not capable of any considerable Objection against them though taken sigillatim and apart But when all is done I lay the great stress of my Conclusion upon the first sort of Evidences natural or metaphysical which seem to me no less than demonstrative and therefore if no other moral evidences were added thereunto or if those moral evidences should be capable of exception as some of them are yet the truth of the Conclusion against the eternity of Mankind is sufficiently supported by those that I offer in the first place which I call Physical and Metaphysical 2. Again I then come to consider that Opinion which supposeth an Inception of the Humane Nature I consider the various Hypotheses that the Ancients entertained touching the manner of that Origination and shew the absurdity of them in their several orders I then consider the Mosaical Hypothesis and the great reasonableness thereof upon a bare Natural or Moral accompt without taking in the Infallibility of Divine Revelation In order to that I consider the whole Mosaical Systeme or History of the Creation of the World the admirable congruity it hath both with it self and with a due and unprejudiced and considerate Reason And lastly I deduce certain Corollaries or Consequences from the whole Discourse both Theoretical and Moral and this is in effect the whole Method of what these Papers contain Wherein I proceed meerly upon an account of Natural Reason and Light because in this Discourse I deal with such as are either only or most commonly guided and governed by such Sentiments and therefore I do not call in to my assistance the Authority of Divine Revelation though that of it self doth and ought to carry the full and unquestionable Assent of all good Men that are acquainted therewith CAP. III. A brief Consideration of the Hypotheses that concern the Eternity of the World ALthough I intend not a large Discourse touching their Suppositions that hold the Eternity of the World yet it will be convenient a little to consider it for the better application of what follows in the ensuing Discourse touching the Eternity of the Successions of Mankind and the possibility or impossibility thereof The Supposition of the Eternity of the World is considerable under a double relation 1. With relation to the Notion of Eternity 2. With relation to the Subject it self which they would have eternal namely the World either wholly or in some parts thereof In relation to Eternity it self two things are to be premised 1. What it is 2. What its Kinds are 1. As to the former in all this Discourse I call that Eternal which is without beginning or eternal à parte ante 2. Things thus supposed Eternal may be of two kinds either such as have an Eternity simply independent upon any thing without it or from which it should derive that Eternal Being as we and all good Men say that Almighty God is Eternal Or else such an Eternity as yet supposeth its dependence upon Almighty God as its Cause And they that attribute the first kind of Eternity to the World must do it upon one of these two grounds viz. That there is no other first Being no first Cause no God upon whom the World should depend or from whom it should derive this its Eternal Existence And this is the grossest and most irrational Supposition as well as the foulest Atheism that can be imagined Or else That although there be in truth such a Being as God yet the World had not this its Eternal Existence by any derivation or influx from Him but hath it absolutely and independently This is the Epicurean Atheism which though it oppose the Eternity of the World in that consistency that now it hath yet it asserts the Eternity of those small and infinite particles of Matter and the coalition of them into that state wherein they now are in process and succession of time and motion yet without any dependence of the one or the other upon Almighty God whom he totally secludes from the concerns of the World Others there are again that attribute an Eternity to the World but yet withall acknowledge Almighty God and also Him to be the Efficient thereof And therefore though they attribute an Eternity to it yet it is but a dependent Eternity and so though it be Eternal yet it is but an Eternal Effect of an Eternal Cause These are much more tolerable than either of the former for they assert a God and likewise the dependence of the World in its Eternal Existence and Duration upon Almighty God as the Cause and Root of that Being of the World But among those that thus assert this dependent Eternity of the World upon Almighty God as its Cause or Efficient there seems to be two Parties namely 1. Such as suppose Almighty God the Necessary Cause of the World as his Necessary Effect 2. Such as suppose Him meerly the Voluntary Cause of the World and of its Eternity Of the former sort that suppose Almighty God the Necessary Cause of the World and of its Eternal Existence there seem to be these two Parties or different Opinions 1. Such as suppose the World a meer natural and necessary Emanation from God as its necessary Cause without any manner of intrinsecal freedom in Himself to do or be otherwise and consequently it being a necessary and connatural Effect of the first Cause it must be necessarily as ancient as Himself and if Almighty God be as He is most necessarily so upon the same necessity He is the Cause of the World and the World a necessary and consequently Eternal Production necessarily flowing from the same as if the Sun be Eternal his Light which necessarily
by the necessity of his Beneficence First therefore concerning the supposition of the Eternity of the World in general I shall not in this place dispute whether there be an utter impossibility of any material Being to be either independently or dependently eternal enough may be said against it from the incapacity of any material Being to sustain such a kind of duration à parte ante and yet without any derogation to the Divine Omnipotence or Goodness which though infinite yet cannot communicate such a duration to that which in its own intrinsick nature is not capable of it Nor secondly shall I dispute whether there be any such material or corporeal Being or Beings within the compass of the Universe that hath or may have such a kind of permanence or fixedness in being that may be capable of an eternal existence à parte ante either dependently or independently upon Almighty God admitting by way of argument but not granting it possible that in the nature of the thing some material or corporeal Being may be of such a fixed permanent consistence as may sustain such an eternal existence and I here omit this dispute not because I make the least doubt of the beginning thereof by Creation but because these are matters that require a longer and stricter process of enquiry and debate than I intend in this place and therefore I shall descend to things that are more plain and evident and yet such as will abundantly serve my design in the inquiry in hand And therefore for the present I shall gratia argumenti admit or suppose 1. That there are or may be some corporeal things in the compass of the Universe that may possibly be of such a fixedness stability and permanent nature that may sustain an eternal existence at least dependently upon the supreme Cause 2. And that possibly Matter it self undetermined to any particular form or under any particular constitution the Heavenly Bodies the Elementary Bodies and such as seem to have a simple nature and possibly their figure position and situation may be such as might have this eternal existence as the Sun the Stars the Aether the four Elements we will for avoiding dispute touching it for the present admit them to have been or that possibly they might have been of that nature quality distance each from other eternally as now they are like the great integrals and contignations figure and concamerations of a goodly Palace These things I say though in themselves most certainly untrue I shall for avoidance of difficult disputes admit at present Yet I farther say that though all these things were admitted yet there are some great and considerable parts and integrals and appendications unto the Mundus aspectabilis that we see that are purely impossible to be eternal and do de facto appear so to be and consequently it is apparent that the World in its full latitude and comprehension cannot be eternal And herein I shall not fix upon little or inconsiderable things but upon such as highly contribute to the excellency beauty and usefulness thereof neither shall I fix upon individuals which are apparently transient and necessarily have their beginning duration and end in certain known determinate portions of time as is evident in the individuals of all kinds or species of mixed sublunary Natures But I shall apply my self to the species themselves which most that assert the eternity of the World assert to be eternal or to such individuals as are the single Conservators of their own species And in this debate I shall take my measure from things in Nature as I find them and it is reasonable I should do so especially considering that this Discourse concerns principally the Judgments or Opinions of those men that are the great assertors of Nature and the eternity of those Laws Rules Orders or Methods of Nature which they now find and observe in it And it were a great vanity and rashness especially for such men to reject those reasons which are drawn from the nature of things as now they appear or for them to go about to answer those reasons by suppositions of a variety in things from what they now appear If therefore the state and method of things to be instanced in as they now appear do involve a repugnancy to an eternal existence the Arguments drawn from that Supposition must be conclusive at least to those great Priests and Venerators of Nature and its appearances Those things therefore that I would instance in as in their own nature uncapable of eternal existence à parte ante are these 1. All things that are of all hands agreed to be concreted of other things and necessarily in their own nature require a pre-existence of those more simple Bodies out of which they are concreted and a pre-existence of some preparatory antecedent motion for their coalition mixtion and concretion as Animals Vegetables Minerals Meteors and regularly all mixt Bodies 2. All things that are in their own nature successive as all Motion Alteration Generations Corruptions and all things that in their own constitution have as it were intrinsecally annexed to them or at least necessarily belonging to them in respect of their situation and position and juxta-position to other things a necessary subjection to alteration or corruption 3. All things that do not nor their nature considered cannot persist in one immutable state but have variety in the nature and manner of their existence necessarily by the laws of their nature annexed to them These things constituted and being in that state we find them cannot without a total alteration of their nature and being from what in truth they are nor in the state of nature wherein they are placed can they be eternal or without beginning And these are very considerable and momentous parts or appendices of the World and if it had been eternally without these it had been a very lame and defective World and such as the wisest man under Heaven could hardly understand for what use it would be or why it should have continued in such a defective condition from the endless period of Eternity Or at least if it had its use and beauty certainly it had not had the same use that now it hath nor the same beauty that now it hath And the consequence thereof is of great moment and importance viz. If these great accessions to the World whereof I am speaking could not be eternal and yet without them the World would have been greatly deficient from what it is the greatest Arguments for the Eternity of the rest of the World will necessarily fall off for the same reason that concludes for the necessity of an eternal existence of the World would as effectually conclude for the eternal existence of that which highly conduceth to the beauty use and ends of the Universe which yet we shall find cannot be eternally existing as it concludes for the eternity of such integrals of the World which possibly might be eternal
Again if it be inconsistent with the nature of many of those things eternally to be which yet contribute much to the glory beauty usefulness and excellency of the World as mixt Bodies motion and alteration how can we think that there is a necessity in the Divine Nature to have made that Case or Sceleton of the World from eternity which should have been in so great a measure useless and wanting that beauty order use and perfection which it obtains from the contribution of mixt Bodies motions and alterations And what could be thought a sufficient motive to have had an eternal Carcass of an Universe wherein the materials and positions of it were eternally laid together and to consist infinite millions of Ages and yet that which gives it its beauty and ornament and use at least in a great measure must be brought to a beginning five or six or ten thousand years since and not before The nearness or novity therefore that is necessarily required in these great contributions to the beauty and use of the Universe is a great evidence of the novity of all the rest And therefore although the House must be built some time before it be furnished and the Watch must be made the materials formed adapted and fitted and the whole put together before it be put in motion yet it were unnecessary and vain to suppose the Case or Fabrick of the House or the Fabrick and Composition of the Watch were an infinite time before its furnishing and setting into motion But to the business it self and the Instances above given 1. It seems inconsistent with the Nature of mixed Bodies that they should be eternal for then they must be as ancient as those simple Bodies out of which they are taken That there are in our inferior World divers Bodies that are concreted out of others is beyond all dispute We see it in the Meteors the Clouds are attracted out of moist and watry and also earthy Vapours Stones and Minerals do grow and arise in the Earth out of the succus terrestris digested by the heat of the Sun Divers Vegetables and some Animals sponte nata arise from the temperament of the terrestrial and watry Matter the insinuations of the Aether and Air into it and the influence of the Sun Other Animals and some Vegetables have a more regular production from Seed as some of the perfecter sort of Vegetables and the nobler Animals and Men which seminal Principle is a mixture of the divers particles of Matter and Spirits derived and elicited from the Plant or Animal And as it is apparent that there are such mixt Concretions so it is apparent that before the actual concretion of these mixt Bodies there must be pre-existent to it 1. The Matter or more simple Bodies out of which they are concreted Again 2. There must be antecedent to it that Ethereal or Solar heat that must digest influence irradiate and put these more simple parts of Matter into motion and coalition And 3. Before the full and perfect formation of this concrete there must be a preparation and digestion and formation of this Matter before it come into a perfect Concrete be it of what kind soever and this preparation digestion and formation requires a competent mora or time antecedent to its complete and full constitution All these are evident in a more special and eminent manner in the production of Animals and Vegetables but I shall at present take the Instance that is obvious every day in our Gardens in the production of a common Flint or Pebble First there is the more simple Matter out of which it borrows its substance namely the Earth and the Water or Moisture then there is the heat of the Sun that digests and concocts both then there is the conjunction and cohesion of the Matter into a more loose or indigested and softer consistency like Mortar or Clay and thereby it is prepared to the concrement of a Pebble or Flint which possibly in a week or a month it perfectly obtains Every Man must needs see that in the natural course of things this Pebble doth suppose as pre-existent to it the more simple Matter out of which it is desumed the heat and influence of the Sun and the due preparation of the Matter which takes up a competent time and that necessarily before this Pebble had its complete Being And consequently in the course of Nature it is impossible that any Pebble was eternal for it necessarily required these things to have been before it could be and yet if it were eternal it must have been as ancient as that Earth and that Water which was its material constituent and as that Sun whose heat digested it or coagulated it or as that preparation which preceded its consistence And though this Instance be of one Individual and that of the basest nature yet the very same reason holds in all mixed Bodies as in Meteors Comets Minerals Vegetables Animals their Seeds and Productions The consequence of this is that it is impossible that mixed or compounded Bodies can be eternal because there is necessarily according to the Rules of Nature a pre-existence of the simple Bodies out of which they are desumed and an antecedence of their constitution preceding the existence of mixed Bodies If any Man shall object against this Reason and say That it destroyeth my own Foundation which supposeth a creation or concrement of those very Bodies which I suppose to be mixed as Animals Vegetables c. without all this preliminary process or orderly antecedency of such circumstances as are now in the course of Nature as it stands settled necessary to their production And that as I do suppose all created Beings had at first their primitive production by the Fiat of the Divine Will and Power so in the defence of that Supposition or Conclusion I must suppose another method of production of mixed Bodies than what we now find in Nature as it stands settled I answer That it is true I must and do suppose another kind of method in the first and primitive Constitution of things by Creation But it stands and consists with and is consonant to my whole Supposition and indeed my general Supposition cannot possibly be or consist without a Supposition also That the first constitution and coalition of mixed Bodies was quite of another frame or method than what now obtains in settled Nature But the Objector must consider against whom and what kind of Opinators the Reason above given is levelled who take all their Measures from things as they now see them in settled Nature and do thereupon assert That the order and method of the existence and production of all things was eternally the same as now it is And therefore certainly this Reason is fully concludent against those persons that would suppose an Eternity in all things in the World independent upon the first Cause and Efficient For certainly those of their Principles do and must needs suppose
that things had no other method of their production than what we now see they have and therefore they must if they hold to their Principles agree that they had their production always as now they have The necessary consequence whereof is that if such a kind of production of mixt Bodies cannot in the nature of the thing be eternal they cannot have an eternal production But it is true that this doth not answer the Supposition of those that though they suppose an Eternity in mixt Bodies do attribute even that Eternity to an eternal Creation and therefore to another kind of production than what we now suppose to be natural and consequently as they suppose at first in an eternal moment Almighty God created simple Bodies as the Heavenly or Elementary Bodies so in the same instant He might and did create other Bodies which though in their constitution they were or might be composed of such particles as had they been asunder and divided might have been of the simple nature of those simpler Bodies yet they were in the same eternal moment or instant created and put together without any priority of existence in those simple Bodies whereof they might otherwise consist nor were such mixt eternal Bodies successively desumed or compounded out of the pre-existing simple Bodies but con-created and put together in the same eternal and indivisible moment or instant so that a Mineral for the purpose might be created in the same moment wherein the elementary Earth was created And although after the completing of the whole Frame of Nature in that eternal indivisible intelligible moment the production of mixt Bodies either by spontaneous or contingent coalition of various particles of Matter or by an univocal generation the course that is now held in Nature might be observed and that Priority of particles of simple Matter Influx of the Heavens and Preparation of Matter might be antecedent and precedaneous not only in order but in time to their ordinary productions yet at first it might be and was otherwise in the primitive constitution of such mixt Bodies as had their original by Creation I do confess this Supposition may evade the illation made upon the Natural production of mixt Bodies but then we must remember that this quite departs from the method of things as they now stand in the course of Nature neither can any man conclude that it was or could be so from the observation of the Order or Cause of Nature or any rational deduction from the same but must have recourse either to bare Notion or Conjecture or else to Divine Revelation the former seems somewhat too light soundly to ground any Hypothesis and the latter namely Divine Revelation though it doth discover unto us that things had their production in a different way in their first Constitution or Origination namely by the almighty Power of God creating them yet withall it informs us that that origination was not from Eternity but in the beginning of Time which wholly overthrows the Hypothesis of an Eternal Creation of the World If therefore they will appeal to Revelation for their Creation they must be concluded by it not to say it was eternal 2. My second Reason is this Because all things that are in their nature successive must have a first beginning of their being and cannot be eternal But there are in the World many things of great note and moment and without which the Order and Usefulness of the Universe would be deficient which have a successive nature and therefore such things cannot be eternal or without beginning And this reason concludes forcibly as well against that independent Eternity supposed by some of the Ancients as that Eternity dependent upon Almighty God whether as a necessary Cause or as a free voluntary intellectual Cause determined by the necessary Goodness and Beneficence of his nature or as a perfectly free Agent determining his Will by his own beneplacitum thus eternally to produce the World The Assumption or minor Proposition That there are many things in the World of great moment and importance to it that are in their own nature successive is apparent such are all the Individuals of Species of corruptible things that yet notwithstanding have a continued succession in their individuals as Vegetables Animals and Men that successively propagate their kind 2. All kinds of Motions to which all natural Bodies are in some kind or other subject as the motions of Generation and Corruption Augmentation Diminution and Alteration that are uncessantly incident to all sublunary Bodies and they must change their nature and cease to be what they are before they can cease to be actually subject to alterations such is also Local motion communicable not only to the inferior and sublunary Bodies but also to celestial Bodies and this motion even of the Heavenly Bodies themselves seems to be partly continued and unintermitted as that motion of the First Moveable partly interpolated and interrupted as some affirm of that Motus trepidationis sometimes of access and recess as the Annual motion of the Sun wherein some have thought there is a small though impeceptible rest in the very point of returning which we call Solstices The major Proposition namely that such successive things cannot be eternal includes two Affirmations viz. 1. That the motions or successions themselves cannot be eternal or without beginning 2. That the things that have necessarily and inseparably these motions or alterations annexed to their nature cannot be eternal so long as we suppose them necessarily accompanied with these alterations The former of these is considerable in this place the other is considerable under the next Reason Now touching the impossibility of the eternal succession of the Species whether of Men Animals or Vegetables by natural propagation or prosemination the same and the Reasons thereof shall be fully delivered when we come to the particular consideration of the Origination of Mankind and the necessity of fixing in some common Parents of the individuals of Mankind and thither I shall refer my self As touching the eternity of any kind of Motion especially even of that of the Heavenly Bodies I shall say somewhat briefly in this place which will be easily reducible to any other of the motions in the World as namely the motions of Generation Corruption or Alteration all which are in some respect but the effects of Local motion of one kind or another And there seem to be two special Reasons even from the intrinsecal nature of the things that encounter the possibility of an eternal successive duration in them The first concludes against all imaginable eternity of Motion of the Heavenly Bodies whether independent or dependent upon Almighty God the latter indeed principally concludes against the possibility of the created or dependent eternity thereof And they are these 1. If the circular motion of the Sun or Heavens were eternal then there must be two circulations of the Heavens immediately succeeding on the other Eternal the consequence
since we see that all bodily alterations are effected in certain portions of measured duration or time we cannot upon any reasonable account allow to those alterations an infinite antecedent duration but if any Body or Thing in that imaginary period of Eternity allotted to it had any such alterations as we see now are incident to them they could not possibly be of an eternal duration no more than they are now for that were wholly to alter the state of the World and of those things that are in it 5. And consequently whatsoever thing it is that hath or can have an eternal being à parte ante must persist in that eternal being without any change alteration or corruption or if it have any alteration or corruption the first alteration change or corruption that it can have must be in time and after an eternal unchanged unaltered estate precedaneous to such alteration for if we should suppose it to be eternal then of necessity that alteration or corruption which it hath must be subsequent to that eternal state which it had before it was altered or corrupted and consequently must have had a persistence in that unaltered uncorrupted estate infinite Ages before such alteration or corruption If it were eternally altered or eternally corrupted then it was eternally and eternally was not it was eternally without alteration and eternally altered The thing must be before it can be altered or corrupted and consequently its alteration and corruption must be subsequent and after that existence which it had unaltered or uncorrupted and consequently the alteration and corruption must needs be younger than that estate which it had unaltered or uncorrupted and consequently cannot be eternal Again we cannot by any means suppose that any commencement of alteration in the first moment or degree of it could be coeternal to it for as is before evident then that alteration would of necessity be perfected within the like portion of time as the like alteration is perfected Now suppose it were a corruptive alteration it may be that is perfected in the space of three or six months from its first inception the consequence whereof would be that the like alteration of that eternal alterable or corruptible Body if it began with the thing it self would be perfected in the like space viz. six months And should that perfected alteration fall within the compass of Eternity or out of it If it should then the thing was eternally unaltered and uncorrupted and was yet eternally altered or corrupted was eternally and yet that Eternity was but a space of six months for so long only it had its being uncorrupted If the alteration or corruption was not eternally perfected but perfected in time then an addition of six months the more of that alteration added unto a finite duration or time succeeding after such alteration should make it infinite and eternal 6. And yet the supposition of an eternal state of any corruptible or alterable Being in a state of incorruption or unalteration were utterly to change the very nature of things and to give them an eternal state we must be forced to gratifie them with a nature not only preter-natural to what they had but quite of a distinct nature For the purpose That man that is even upon the intrinsick constitution of his nature dissolvible must by being in an eternal duration continue immortal unalterable and not for a year or a million or two of years but for an eternal duration antecedent to his dissolution Nay it is inconceptible how any such man that hath stood the shock of an eternal duration without corruption or alteration should after be corrupted or altered from any internal principle of corruption or alteration it could not be for then he could never have ridden out an eternal period but it must be if at all by the power of a more powerful Being than himself that must violently de novo introduce his change and dissolution The Supposition therefore of an eternal existence of any thing corruptible is to alter their very nature and make that to be incorruptible which is corruptible And to suppose that imaginary eternal state of things corruptible to be utterly of another nature kind and condition than what we now see them to be which is an unreasonable Supposition unworthy of an admirer of Nature which should be constant in his Supposition and yet is the necessary consequence of the granting of an Eternity of corruptible Beings But particular Instances of the several kinds of alterations and corruptions of things either ab intrinseco or ab extrinseco will make the thing more plain 1. Touching things alterable or corruptible from an intrinsecal Cause as Vegetables Animals Men. If any Vegetables were eternal as an Oak or an Elm then some Oak was eternal if it were then if it were of the same nature as Oaks are now it was first a slender Plant and then gradually grew to his just dimensions perhaps in two hundred years and in about two hundred years more decayed and was corrupted to dust so that his duration exceeded not four hundred years and in that period of time he grew perchance from an inch in diameter to six foot in diameter and from a foot high to a hundred foot high These alterations and augmentations were gradual and successive he was not in the same moment one inch and six foot in the diameter nor in the same moment was a Plant and dissolved and turned to dust and yet if this Oak were eternal in all this portion of his duration he must be eternally one inch in diameter and yet eternally six foot in diameter eternally one foot high and yet eternally a hundred foot high he must have eternally been a Plant eternally a Tree and yet eternally corrupted his duration must have lasted but four hundred years and yet he must be eternal though his first being were but four hundred years before utter dissolution And yet it is most certain that this Tree could not have been eternal for being but of four hundred years standing somewhat must have anteceded that period and so somewhat more ancient than what had been eternal But let us suppose this eternal Oak had not been bound to the laws of duration of other Oaks but to have lasted eternally and probably would have lasted to this day had not external force either violently or accidentally corrupted or destroyed him yet did this Oak ever grow bigger or taller than what he once was or did he put off his leaves in the Winter and gather others in the Spring Did he put forth new branches which before he had not If he did none of these things surely he was not a vegetable Being he was not like those Oaks that are now growing but quite of another nature and we have nothing to do with him he is a perfect stranger to this World If it did grow from lesser to greater and did put forth new branches certainly the increment could not be
eternal but must be done gradually and successively and from one degree of bigness to another and since that augmentation could never be of an infinite procedure but being successive we must come to the beginning of that increase within the measure of such a portion of time as we now find sufficient for such a production or increase it may be two or three hundred years which being but a finite duration can never be eternal And this necessary Supposition of a successive alteration or increase utterly destroys the possibility of an eternal duration in any thing capable of such alterations 1. Because it necessarily supposeth somewhat precedent to that state wherein it is namely a precedent alteration of it whereby it is now become what it now is and what before it was not so that it had somewhat before its present state which stateth it to be what it now is namely that alteration or augmentation which so preceded its present state and consequently that present state wherein it is could not be eternal for it had somewhat before it 2. Because that very alteration that anteceded that state which it hath cannot possibly be eternal but must be perfected within a certain portion of time destined to it and consequently must have beginning within the compass of a determinate time and cannot be eternally moving to its accomplishment And as this Instance gives the impossibility of an eternal Existence in any thing essentially alterable or corruptible so it would be possibly more conspicuous in the Contemplation of the Humane Nature If we should suppose a Man to have been eternal Was that Man ever an Embryo a Child a Youth a ripe Aged Man Did he grow from a smaller stature to a greater had he vicissitudes of temperaments and distempers did he eat digest c. If he did not then those eternal Men were not of the same Make with the Men that are now but quite another thing which we know not what it was or where to find it But if he had all those changes he could not be eternal he should be eternally a Child and eternally a Man eternally young and eternally old yea eternally living and yet eternally dead for all these must fall within the compass of Eternity 2. But let us now consider how the Case falls out in relation to alterations and corruptions occasioned ab extrinseco and we shall find 1. That as the World is framed and as those that suppose it eternal must suppose it to have been always so framed there must necessarily be incessant mutations alterations generations and corruptions by the invasion and juxta-position of contrary Natures Agents Patients Qualities Motions the Earth naturally dry is moistned by the vicinity of the Water and again dryed by the heat of the Sun the Earth obstructs the fluidity of the Water by mingling its grosser parts with it all things as it were in continual motion and agitation and mutual preying as it were one upon another which as necessarily occasioneth mutations alterations generations and corruptions as the very intrinsecal dissolubility of the natures of mixt Bodies 2. And as we find this now so we must suppose that this hath been always so since the World had a being unless we shall suppose as I have often said another kind of World than what we see And although we are not acquainted with the state of things out of or beyond this sublunary World in which we see this vicissitude of alterations yet whether there may not be some such mutations in the Ethereal World we know not but there may be such though we cannot certainly know them 3. And yet it is most certain that it is impossible that any thing that is capable of these mutations and changes can be eternally under them but must of necessity if it were eternal consist in such a state of fixedness and permanency that were not obnoxious to these changes 4. And since it is not possible for the inferior World at least to be de facto one moment of time without these changes and variations alterations generations and corruptions which as before are not at all consistent with an eternal duration à parte ante of that that is so subject to changes we have just reason to deny and disesteem this imaginary Eternity can belong at least to the sublunary World The late Author of a Book De Aetate Mundi hath given us an Instance herein that if it would hold we need not go farther namely That the great Rocks in the Sea are yet many of them eminently visible to this day and yet daily experience shews us that those Rocks are gradually diminished by the beating of the Sea against them which had they been so dealt with from Eternity though they lost but one grain in a million of millions of years they would not have been but would have been consumed an indefinite time long since elapsed But the Supposition fails because it may be that these Rocks have at least vicissitudes of increase and diminution by the very alluvion of the Sea or which seems far more easily supposed that the Earth and Seas might notwithstanding have been eternal but yet the Sea might not have kept the same Channel where these Rocks now are from eternity but gained it in time the Ancients telling us that the great Atlantick Sea was for the most part of it anciently a Continent or at least a great Island as big as Europe and Asia and after swallowed up and corroded into that vast Sea called the Atlantick Ocean leaving behind it only those reliques now called the Canary Islands I will therefore take my Instance in some other things 1. It is evident that divers Minerals are bred in the Earth from an earthy consistence by the heat of the Sun and other concurrent causes successively as may appear to any man's observation touching Coals Rocks especially of Stone which from a sandy kind of Earth gradually concoct into Free-stone when they were before Earth as may be seen in many Quarries by those pieces of unconcocted Earth not yet perfectly digested into Stone If the Body of the Earth were eternal either these concretions were also as eternal as the Earth gradually and successively digested into these concretions or else the Earth must have had an eternal permanency in that state of simple natural Earth without any such concretions or alterations in it If we shall say the latter we make the Earth another thing than what in truth it now is which by the aid of the Sun hath these concretions and alterations even by a kind of necessity of Nature wrought in it And besides if in that portion of eternal duration wherein the Earth and Sun were in that very same natural state wherein they now are the one active piercing and digestive by its heat the other passive receptive and stored with materials for such a production What should hinder but that there should be such production gradually and successively
prepared and at length generated by the conjunction of these active and passive Principles And yet if it be duly considered supposing the Sun and the Earth to be both eternal the Earth and its parts must of necessity persist in an eternal unchangeable state in that period of Eternity antecedent to the first alteration thereof to any such production For if the production of these Minerals should be eternal and consequently infinitely distant from us the productions must be eternal and yet there must necessarily antecede those productions a successive and gradual alteration of those parts of the Earth which were to be moulded in succession of time to Coals or Stone or Minerals And though perchance that alteration might take up a long preparation and disposition yet it could not be eternal but must be absolved though in a long yet in finite time and consequently the Earth if eternal must be before that preparation or alteration and must have continued in an eternal state destitute of such alteration or preparation and in an eternal disposition thereunto which yet had been to suppose the Earth in that eternal period quite destitute of that mutation that upon the Supposition of the agency of the Sun had been connatural to it So that upon the whole matter it seems plain That neither successive natural Beings nor corporeal Beings that are corruptible or necessarily subject to alteration either from an intrinsick Principle or from an extrinsick natural Cause necessarily contiguous or approximate to it in situation or virtue cannot be eternal which will deprive the greatest part of the sublunary World at least of that possibility and must leave only such parts of the visible Universe as are incorruptible unalterable and unsuccessive if any such be capable of this priviledge of the very possibility of an eternal existence à parte ante And consequently the whole Universe cannot be eternal It remains then they who assert the Eternity of the World must content themselves with such parts thereof as are capable of that duration And accordingly there seem to have been three Opinions which although they assume not the Assertion of the Eternity of the whole World yet they endeavour to come as near to it as they can which I shall distinctly set down and examin 1. The first Opinion is of such that although they suppose the sublunary World not to be eternal in its Frame and Constitution yet they assert the Matter thereof eternal though undigested and not perfected till afterwards But yet the Celestial or Ethereal World the Stars and Planets they will have eternal and that these were used as the great Engins in the subsequent formation of the inferior â—r sublunary Worâ—d Touching the Eternity of Matter whether Celestial or Sublunary I mean not in this place to meddle but as to the Supposition of the eternal existence of the Celestial or Ethereal World this shall be all I shall say 1. We are not acquainted with the Constitution of them and whether they are in their nature corruptible or subject to alterations if they are such they are as equally uncapable of an eternal existence as the sublunary World 2. But suppose them to have a radical incorruptibility and immutability in their natures yet their Motion cannot be eternal upon the Reasons before given 3. And therefore though they are a goodly Fabrick yet they are not in a state of Permanency of so great use beauty and perfection as in a state of Motion which is a great part of their excellency and that which accommodates the several parts thereof one to another and all to the advantage and good of the inferior World and therefore it seems not probable that they should have an eternal existence in Rest and Permanence and afterwards in a process or period of time be endued with that which is their great perfection namely their Motion which neither was nor could be eternal It rather seems more agreeable to the nature of the thing and to the Divine Wisdom whose Works are full of wisdom excellence and perfection to respite the Fabrick till it were capable of its most useful and beautiful perfection namely Motion which must either be natural to them and then it were marvellous they should yet enjoy an infinite duration destitute of what was natural to them and yet not capable to be enjoyed by them in an eternal duration à parte ante Or if it were adventitious from the immediate power of God or by the instrumentality of Intelligences yet surely it was foreseen by him that knew all his Works from the beginning and therefore was not likely to ordain an eternal consistence of those Bodies to which he intended to give Motion their great perfection not sooner than time And therefore though the Heavenly Bodies were admitted capable of an eternal Permanency yet it is not probable they had their Being before or at least not so long before their Motion 2. The second Opinion is of those that although they allow not the Mundus aspectabilis to be eternal yet do suppose that besides that Eternal Generation of the Second and the Eternal Procession of the Third Person of the Sacred Trinity Almighty God eternally created a World of Intelligences whereunto he might and did communicate the emanations of his Bounty and Benignity and that in the beginning of Time he Created this Mundus aspectabilis which we see for the farther communication of his Bounty and Goodness and this they suppose more congenious and suitable to the Order of things and of his own Goodness and the communication thereof than to suppose the Creation of a material World either eternally or quasi per saltum or at the same time with the Creation of those purer Beings who had a greater similitude and proximity to his own most Divine and Spiritual Nature This though it might possibly be so yet we are without any sufficient Evidence that it was so and such Conjectures of things without our knowledge or those media that we are capable to exercise for the acquest thereof are uncertain and endless Upon such conjectural Congruities the Platonists had their Dii ex Deo the Manichees their Aeones and Origen his Mundus Animarum and therefore I leave it as a Conjecture 3. The third Opinion is of those who though they suppose the World not to be eternal and perchance think with reason enough that the duration of Eternity à parte ante is such as is only competible to the Eternal God and not communicable to any Created Being at least such as is in its own nature either corruptible alterable or compounded yet to the end that they may carry the Communication of the Divine Goodness and Benignity as far as is possible are not contented to suppose the World to be sempiternal or eternal à parte post or to be as ancient as the Sacred Scriptures inform us but will carry up the Creation of the World to an immense antiquity long before Six
more are the thoughts of the unsearchable God higher than our thoughts The more sober and weighty part of the Schoolmen do conclude this Question in the negative and assert That Almighty God by one eternal act knew all things from all Eternity and by the like eternal act willed from all Eternity what he any way willed and though the termination of that Will respected Objects that neither were nor could be eternal yet his Knowledge and Will was eternally the same as ever and he begins not to know any thing which he did not eternally know nor to will any thing which he did not eternally will though the execution of that Will respects things to be done in time and futurity And certainly as this is the most probable Opinion so it takes away the pretence of the Objection the immanent Acts and Operations of the glorious God being eternal and without change It is true some late Schoolmen and after them Clara in his 4 th Problem seems to assert that Divina voluntas potest velle aliquid novum sine mutatione sui But suppose that this Supposition were admissible yet this would not any way be inconsistent with the Eternity of the Divine Nature and Essence 1. This is no Physical change in Almighty God but a voluntary and free operation of his Will which possibly was so at first willed by him to be changed according as he saw cause in his infinite Wisdom 2. That this which is here called a change of his Will is not in truth a change of his Will but a change in the Object which only seems to make a diversification of the Will but indeed is the same Will diversified only in the habitude to the Object The Will of God is like a straight unalterable Rule or Line but the various comportments of the Creature either thwarting this Rule or holding conformity to it occasions several habitudes of this Rule unto it We need no better explication hereof than that of the Prophet Ezechiel Chap. 33. from the twelfth to the twentieth Verse 4. A change of Actions and Operations in relation to some external Object or terminated therein and such a change as this is consistent with an Eternal Being though the change happen in any given portion of Time Thus the Almighty and Eternal God created the World by his Power and Will in the beginning of Time and orders governs and disposeth of the things by his Providence in all the Periods of Time and yet without any Physical or real change in himself And thus he began to be a Creator when before he was not a Creator and began to be a Governour of the World after it was made and exerciseth divers external acts of his Providence daily which before he did not For those various acts of his are terminated in such Objects as neither were nor could be eternal namely the World and the Government thereof And although he thereby gain a change of relation or relative denomination yet it is no real or Physical change in himself For all relations arise from the supposition of existence of both the terms of relation as between the Creator and the thing created and the Governour and thing governed and therefore although one of the terms of that relation namely the Eternal God had an eternal existence in his own absolute nature yet the World that was the other term of relation had no eternal existence but was created in the beginning of Time and the relation of a Creator or Governour must necessarily therefore arise in Time and not from Eternity because one of the terms of the relation namely the World had not any existence before Time began But in the eternal Generation of the Son and Procession of the Holy Spirit the termini relationis were all eternal and consequently the relation of Paternity and Filiation between the First and Second Person and the relation between the Sacred Persons of the Trinity and the denomination thereof must needs be eternal because the terms of relation between whom that relation ariseth were eternal But it is not so between the Eternal God and a temporary World for the relation could not arise till the World had an existence and a change or acquest of a new relation is not at all any real change in God but is an accident resulting from the existence of both the termini and can be no ancienter than the coexistence even of the latest and newest of those terms which if began in time must necessarily produce a new relation yet without any real change in the pre-existing and eternal God And thus I have done with those Physical and Metaphysical Evidences of the Inception of the World and of Mankind and against the Eternity of both And although I shall descend in the ensuing Section to Moral Evidences of probability strongly perswading the same Truth yet I lay the principal weight and stress of this Argument upon what is said in the preceding Chapters of this First Section which though perchance they may have something of obscurity as being bottomed upon and fetched from the true nature of the things themselves and therefore not so obvious and plain to all Capacities yet they have a concludency in them not inferior or at least little inferior to Demonstrations SECT II. CAP. I. The Proofs of Fact that seem with the greatest Moral evidence to evince the Inception of Mankind And first touching the Antiquity or Novity of History I Have now done with those Evidences that in my Understanding seem quasi ab intrinseco to evince the Inception of Mankind from that intrinsecal incompossibility and inconsistency that the Supposition of the eternal existence thereof bears with his Nature I now descend to the examination of those Evidences of Fact which do or may seem to contribute to the proof of what is designed namely Novitatem generis humani And although that Evidences of Fact of things remote from our Sense cannot be said infallible and demonstrative because the nature of such matters of fact simply as they are matters of fact is not capable as such of Demonstration yet they may be Evidences of high credibility and such as no reasonable Man can with any just reason deny his assent unto them That which hath been hath as certainly and infallibly yea and as necessarily been as that which is Omne quod est dum est necessariò est omne quod fuit cum jam preteriit necessariò fuit quando fuit in praeteritis non est contingentia Only that which is and is obvious to Sense hath this advantage of evidence which that which hath been wants namely the immediate evidence of Sense wherein though it is not universally impossible but that Sense may be deceived yet because it is the best evidence that we have of matters of fact we give credit to it as a sensible evidence and we have reason so to do But of things transacted before our time and out of the
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 evidence of the same thing their very multiplicity and consent makes the evidence the stronger as the concurrent testimonies of many Witnesses or many Circumstances even by their multiplicity and concurrence make an evidence more concludent Now these Evidences of Fact I shall cast into these ranks 1. We have no authentical History of former Ages extant but what hath been written within the compass of four thousand years 2. The subject matter of those Histories give us no account of the Original of great Monarchies Kingdoms or Commonwealths but what appear thereby to have begun within the compass of about five thousand years 3. The original Invention and Inventors of most considerable Arts had their Origination as far as we can find by Monuments of ancient times within the compass of about six thousand years 4. The Original of the Apotheoses of most of the Heathen fictitious Deities appears by the ancient Monuments of former times to have had their beginning within the compass of five thousand years 5. The most authentick Histories and Monuments of Antiquity give us an account of the first Fathers or Capita familiarum and of the Plantation of the known Parts Continents and Islands of the World within the compass of five thousand years 6. The Inhabitants of the World do daily increase and their increment surmounts daily their decrease which could not be unless the World of Mankind had their original within some proportionate time and could not consist with such a vast excess of duration which some would assign much less with an eternal duration or such as never had a beginning 7. There hath in all Ages and among all People been a constant tradition retained and believed touching the Origination of Mankind ex non genitis vel per generationem propagatis These are the Heads of those Evidences of Fact which I shall use in this Argument touching the Origination of Mankind whereunto possibly other occasional Topicks of the like nature may be added And touching these Evidences of Fact this I shall subjoyn 1. That I do not lay the weight of this Argument upon those Evidences of Fact because they have or may have their several allays and fallibilities which I shall impartially subjoyn to every particular Topick But I lay the weight of the Argument upon what hath been before said which to me seems to be little less than demonstrative drawn from the intrinsick nature of the thing and from that absurdity which would arise upon the Supposition of the Eternity of Mankind and the incompossibility of an eternal duration à parte ante to successive Natures 2. That although singly and apart these Evidences of Fact are not so conclusive but have their allays and exceptions yet they have these advantages that advance their evidence as very credible 1. In that the Supposition which they are produced to prove is not impossible to be true 2. That there is nothing of probability of Reason or Instance that can be produced against the truth of that Supposition which is contended to be proved by them 3. They have so much the more weight and evidence in that they do suffragate and bear witness to the truth of that Supposition namely the Inception of Mankind which holds so great a congruity with the intrinsick reason and nature of the thing the contrary whereof namely the Eternity of Mankind is apparently contradictory to a strict and true reason 3. That although these Evidences of Fact taken singly and apart possibly may not be so weighty yet the very concurrence and coincidence of so many Evidences that contribute to the Proof of the thing designed carries with it a great weight even as to the point of Fact it is not probable that that Supposition should be false which hath so many concurrent Testimonies bearing witness to it And therefore although I shall impartially subjoyn those Allays and Abatements which may be brought against the several Instances whereby if single they might seem of less weight and moment yet I do not thereby take off that Evidence which in consort and conjunction they give to the truth of the Supposition intended to be proved by them 4. That it cannot be expected in an Argument of this nature which is touching a matter of Fact that Evidences of Fact can be no more than topical and probable and therefore though there may be Allays and Abatements that may take away a necessary or infallible concludency in these Evidences of Fact yet it is sufficient that they be probable and inductive of Credibility though not of Science or Infallibility Aristotle as I remember in the beginning of his Politicks tells us that all Truths have not the same kind of Evidence neither indeed can have and therefore it is unreasonable to expect such an Evidence as the thing cannot possibly bear though it be a real Truth 5. That among these Evidences of Fact though all contribute to the Proof of the Supposition yet the three last seem to be of that nature that they are of greatest weight and less subject to exception 6. That in as much as in this Argument I design only the use of Reason and Reasonable Evidence and endeavour to make my Supposition evident to Reasonable Men as such I do not therefore make use of the divine and irrefragable Authority of the Holy Scriptures For they that subscribe to the Infallibility and Divine Authority of them need none of this Method of Ratiocination that I use to prove this Supposition of the Origination of Mankind which is so plainly and distinctly delivered in the Holy Scriptures and therefore where I have recourse to the Holy Scriptures I use it but as a Moral Evidence a History highly credible and I demand of my Reader◠this equal Justice That he would at least give it that credit that the Antiquity Congruity and Moral Evidence of it deserves which certainly would be much more than what the most do ordinarily allow to the History of Thucydides Herodotus Livy Tacitus Manethon Xenophon Ctesias or Berosus 7. Though in this large Discourse I may seem to lose time by proving of that which is not questioned by sober Men that in a laborious Discourse of this nature I do rather raise a Question that would be at quiet if let alone at least I lose time and magno conatu nihil efficiam yet I hope in the Conclusion it will be of use to confirm our Faith to magnifie the value of the Holy Scriptures and to give some stop to those Atheistical and Epicurean Opinions that begin more than formerly to obtain in the World CAP. II. Concerning the first Evidence the Antiquity of History and the Chronological account of Times BUT before I begin I shall prefix a short Chronological Scheme of Times to which I shall have occasion oftentimes to refer wherein I shall not be over-sollicitous for great curiosity or exactness For although there is scarce any one Chronological Writer that differs not from another in
discovered ex praenotis per viam rationalis discursus Thus probably Men by the Signatures Tasts and Colours of Herbs bearing analogy to other things they knew concluded fairly touching their Nature and Use which by Tryal and Experience they improved into more fixed and stable Theorems and Conclusions And upon this account also many Practical Arts especially relating to Numbers Weight Measure and Mechanism had their production for the Rudiments of Proportion being lodged in the Mind they seem to have grown intentionally and ex industria into those various practices of Arithmetick Geometry and Mechanicks resulting from those principles per media processus rationalis and thus those practices of the Rules of Proportion Mechanical Motions Staticks Architecture Navigation Measuring of Distances and Quantities and infinite more did arise 4. Some things in their first discovery seem purely accidental and although possibly the operation of Reason and Tryal and Experiment might or may carry on the Invention into farther Improvements and Advances yet in the very first primo primum of the Discovery it may be accidental The old whether true or fabulous Discovery of Fire may serve to explain my conception wherein it is supposed that one sitting upon a Hill and tumbling down Flint stones upon the collision thereof he observed sparks of Fire which nevertheless he after improved by adding combustible materials to it and doubtless upon such and the like occurrences many Chymical and other accidental Discoveries have been made besides and beyond and without the intention of the Operator And I well knew a Person that had not capacity enough to deduce any thing of curiosity per processum rationalem yet by accidental dealing with Water and some Canes did arrive to a most admirable excellence in some Mechanical Works of that nature though he never had the Wit to give a reason of his performance of them 5. Some things have been found out by a kind of necessity and exigence of Humane Nature such as Clothes Societies Places of Defence and Habitation and possibly much of the plainer sort of Tillage and Husbandry Venter magister artis ingeniÃque largitor and commonly these were the earliest Inventions because Nature stood early in need of them And hence it came to pass that they who had Coelum clementius that afforded them necessaries without the assistance of considerable Industry continued longest rude and uncultivated And therefore if the Husbandry of Ceres or Triptolemus came late into the World it was because those Eastern Countries then inhabited abounded with plenty of Fruits which supplied the defect of Husbandry till the World grew more dispersed and fuller of Inhabitants and transmigrated into parts of less natural fertility 6. Some things have been discovered not only by the Ingeny and Industry of Mankind but even the inferior Animals have subministred unto Man the invention or discovery of many things both Natural and Artificial and Medicinal unto which they are guided and in which they are directed by secret and untaught instincts which would be infinite to prosecute The Fable or History of Glaucus observing Fishes to leap into the Sea upon tasting an Herb by the shore the Weasel using Plantane as an Antidote the wounded Stag using Dittany to draw out the Arrow if true and divers others give us some Analogical Instances And these are ordinarily the Methods of Discoveries The Things or Objects discovered are principally of two kinds viz. 1. Such things as are already lodged in Nature as Natural Causes and Effects and those various Phaenomena in Nature whereof some lye more open to our Senses and daily observation others are more occult and hidden and though accessible in some measure to our Senses yet not without great search and scrutiny or some happy accident others again are such as we cannot attain to any clear sensible discovery of them either by reason of their remoteness distance and unaccessibleness as the Heavenly Bodies and things closed up in the bowels of the Earth or by reason of their subtil and curious texture escaping the clear and immediate access of Sense as Spiritual Natures the Soul and its various Faculties and Operations and the Reasons or Methods of them wherein for the most part our acquests touching them are but Opinion and Conjecture wherein Men vary according to the variety of their Apprehensions and Phantasies and wherein because they want that manuduction of Sense which is our best and surest Guide in the first Instance in matters Natural Men range into incertain inevident and unstable Notions 2. Such things as are Artificial wherein some Discoveries are simply new others are but accessions and additaments to things that were before mentioned Some things are of convenience utility or necessity to Humane Nature or the condition of Mankind some things are of curiosity some things are found out casually or accidentally some things intentionally and out of those Principles or Notions that seem to be lodged originally in the Mind Now upon these Considerations premised it seems that the late Discovery of many things in Nature and many Inventions in Art are not a sufficient Evidence of the Origination or late Origination of Mankind at least taken singly and apart 1. In things Natural the variety is so great and the various combinations therein so many that it seems possible that there should not have been a full discovery of the whole state of things Natural unto the Minds of Men although there were supposed an eternal duration of Mankind We may give our selves a Specimen hereof if we look but back upon that one Piece of Nature with which we have reason to be best acquainted namely our selves which by reason of our vicinity to our selves our daily conversation with our selves and others of the same Species our daily necessities and opportunities of inquiring into our selves and the narrowness of our own nature in comparison of the vast and various bulk of other things seems to render us a Subject capable of being very fully discovered And besides all this the more inquisitive and judicious part of Mankind have industriously set themselves for many Ages to make the best discovery they could of the nature of Man Hippocrates the Father of Physicians who lived in the 82 d Olympiad and above 2000 years since busied himself much and profoundly in this Enquiry and a succession of industrious observing and learned Physicians and Naturalists have pursued the Chase with all care and vigilancy and by the help of Anatomical Dissections have searched into those various Maeanders of the Veins Arteries Nerves and Integrals of the Humane Body Yet for all this in this sensible and narrow part of Humane Nature the husk and shell thereof how much remains after all this whereof we are utterly ignorant So that notwithstanding all the Discoveries that have been made by the Ancients and those more curious and plentiful Discoveries by the latter Ages there still remains so much undiscovered that leaves still room for Admiration
had its successive Alterations and Seasons according to certain Periodical Revolutions of the Planets to the first Ages of the World he assigns the Presidency of Saturn in matters of Religion and so downward according to several successive assigned Periods These are vain Conjectures but they serve to explain what I mean namely That there may be successive Alterations and Changes in the professed Religion of the World in successive Ages and successively in the same and other places of the World whereby it will be hard to determin the Epocha of the Commencement of Mankind by any one Form or Shape of Religion professed in the World for there may be some Religion antecedent to that which to us in this Age appears to have been the ancientest but still with this probable Conclusion That since Truth is more ancient than Errour it seems that if there were any Religion that was Primitive in the World it was the true Religion and true Worship of the true God and not Idolatry or worshipping of Men or Idols or the Works of Nature and consequently that although we had no Monuments extant of any Religion ancienter than Idolatry yet we had no reason to conclude that that Idolatrous Religion was the most ancient or coeval to the Origination of Mankind but rather that Mankind had an Existence in the World much antecedent to such Idolatrous Worship wherein the true God was for many Ages and Generations truly worshipped and that partly by the subtilty of the Enemy of Mankind partly by the apostacy and corruption of Humane Nature and partly by the gradual decay of that true and ancient Tradition of the true Worship of the true God Idolatry and Superstition prevailed and obtained in the World So that although it be a most certain Truth that Mankind had an Origination and was not without Beginning yet the Evidence of the Origination of their Idolatry and Idolatrous Deities is no sufficient Proof or Evidence of the Origination of Mankind CAP. VI. A Fifth Consideration concerning the Decays especially of the Humane Nature and whether there be any such Decays and what may be collected concerning the Origination of Man upon that Supposition THis Argument hath been excellently handled by Dr. Hakewell I shall therefore be the shorter in it yet somewhat I shall say concerning it Some of those that have been inquisitive into the Nature of Man have observed two things which if they were true would certainly give us an irrefragable Argument against the Eternal Succession of Mankind viz. 1. That the Ages of Men grow gradually shorter and shorter 2. That the Quantity of Humane Bodies was ordinarily heretofore much larger than they are now and by a kind of gradual decay of that Natural Vigour and Strength they decline to a smaller Stature Thus Plutarch inter placita Philosophorum tells us out of Empedocles Nostrae aetatis homines priscis comparatos infantium instar esse and yet Empedocles lived upon the point of 2000 Years since and Plutarch near 1500 Years since and Pliny in the 7 th Book of his Natural History cap. 16. tells us the same In plenum autem cuncto mortalium generi minorem indies fieri propemodum observatur rarósque patribus proceriores consumente ubertate seminum exustione in cujus vices nunc vergat aevum and some Instances are given there and by the Additional Notes thereupon of the great Sceletons of Mens Bodies found in several Ages and that Jam ante annos mille vates ille Homerus non cessavit minora corpora mortalium quam prisca conqueri And indeed if this natural Decrease of the Ages of Mens Lives and their Bodily Statures had held such a proportion it would not only avoid the possibility of an Eternal Succession of Mankind but would also give us a very late Epocha of their first Origination For a very ancient Original accompanied with such a natural Decrease of Age and Stature by reason of that insensible but unintermitted decay of the strength and stature of Nature would have long since reduced Mankind to be but Ephemeraes in duration and little other than Insects in extent or rather wholly determined and put a Period to the whole Species infinite Ages past But it seems that these are mistaken complaints both of Empedocles and Homer for surely in so great a Period as 2000 or 1500 Years elapsed since the death of those Men the experiment of that Decrease would have been much more obvious and observable than we find it at this day And although the nature of Mankind and of other Creatures subject to corruption if left to it self without the continued Subsidium and Influence of the Divine Providence would soon have faln into dissolution per saltum and without the incessant and corroding invasions of so long a time yet that same Power that first gave Being to things hath supported their successive Generations in the same state and natural vigour that it ever had abating those accidental occurrences that Sin Excess and other occurrences have brought into things First therefore as touching the Decays of the Age of Man's Life we do indeed learn from the Sacred Scripture for no Humane History reacheth so high That the Lives of the Ancients were very long especially before and for some time after the Flood and this the Divine Wisdom Providence and Goodness ordered for most excellent Ends namely the Peopling of the New World and that without any other means than his own Will or at least by means unknown to us in Arphaxad the Son of Shem the great Age of the Ancients was cut to halves namely to 440 Years and in his Grand-child Peleg it was again cut to halves for he lived but 242 Years and it is also true that afterwards gradually to the days of Moses the Lives of Men became shorter and shorter till they fixed in that common Period of the Life of Man of 70 or 80 Years and although it be true that the Histories of former times give us some account of longer Lives of Men as the Lives of Moses Aaron Phinehas and some others and those mentioned by Pliny lib. 7. cap. 48. and some in our own Experience yet Moses himself states the ordinary Standard of the Life of Man to be 70 or at most 80 Years Psal 90.10 2 Sam. 19.32 35. And this we shall find true upon the consideration of the Chronological Account of the Years of the ancient Patriarchs and Kings that succeeded Moses as likewise of the time that the Israelites lived in the Wilderness all which that were twenty Years old and upwards at the coming into the Wilderness when the Spies were sent into Canaan which was shortly after their coming thither all these I say except Joshua and Caleb dyed within the 40 Years Peregrination in the Wilderness and at this stay the ordinary Age of Men hath been for these 4000 Years abating those casualties either of Diseases or other Accidents that have shortned the ordinary complete
the Seas and established it upon the Floods So that there are greater Store-houses of Water than appear visible to the World If we could suppose that the incumbent Superficies of the Earth should subside and press upon those Store-houses of Water within its bowels it might afford a competent store to drown the Earth without a new Creation 2. Again we may easily compute that the quantity or extension of the Body of the Air even that which is commonly called the Atmosphere which at the lowest account extends seven Miles in height might by condensation into Water afford a competent store for the drowning of the World and yet be again rarified into the same dimension and consistence which before it obtained for there is that vicinity of Nature between those two Elements that we daily see considerable proportions of the one by condensation changed into the other 3. When we consider those immense Inundations that are Annually and with some constant equality occasioned by great Rains as for Instance in the River Nilus which by the Annual Rains in Ethiopia is raised almost every Year twenty Cubits and overflows a considerable part of Egypt yearly between the Months of June and October and the like Inundations yearly hapning by Periodical Showers in the great River of America called Orenoque between May and September whereby it riseth upright above 30 Foot so that many of the Islands and Plains at other times inhabited are 20 Foot yearly at that time under Water And when we see that even the Ocean it self in its daily Tides especially those that happen about the Equinoxes caused as the Copernicans say by the Intersections of the Annual and Diurnal Motions of the Earth we need not have recourse to a new Creation of Waters to perform this Office of the Divine Providence and Justice He might by a stronger elevation of Vapours or by an extraordinary motion of the Seas perform his purpose which though probably it might not at the same time drown Asia and America yet by the successive peragration of these Waters they might drown the whole Earth as the Inundation of Nilus by the Showers of Ethiopia make the Flood there a Month sooner than it happens in Egypt 2. As to the Second Objection I do confess it to be most true that the Universal Deluge was a Judgment upon the Old World for their intolerable degeneration from their Duty to God But I do not think that was the only Reason thereof for the Infinite Power of God might have destroyed those Evil Men by a Pestilence as well as by a Flood without detriment to the harmless Brutes or Birds But as God Almighty is of Infinite Wisdom so it is the high Prerogative of that Wisdom to have variety of Excellent Ends in the same Action I do really think that this Universal Deluge was not only an act of his Vengeance upon Evil Men but possibly an act of Goodness and Bounty to the very Constitution of this Inferior World though the particulars thereof be hid from us And if as some would have it it should be coextended only to the places that were then inhabited and so the Flood particular yet most certain it would be even in such a particular Flood many great Spots of Ground would be necessarily drowned where never any Men were or inhabited 3. And it seems it is too hastily concluded That in the Period of 1656 or as the Septuagint whom he follows 2256 Years between the Creation and the Flood that only Palestine Syria or Mesopotamia were inhabited For considering the longevity of Mens Lives in that Period a small skill in Arithmetical Calculation will render the Number of coexisting Inhabitants of the Earth more than six times as many as would have hapned in 5000 Years when Mens Ages were abridged to that ordinary dimension which now they have and the strait bounds of Syria and Mesopotamia would not have held one fortieth part of the Inhabitants all Europe Asia and Africa were not more than sufficient for them So that as the World grew full of Sin so it grew full of Men and Beasts and stood in need of a Deluge to make room for its future Inhabitants And this is as much as I shall say in this place for the Vindication of the Possibility and Reasonableness of the Universality of that Deluge recorded by Moses And if any shall doubt of the Capacity of the Ark of Noah for the Reception of Brutes Birds and the Family of Noah with the necessary Provisions of Livelihood for them let him but consult Mr. Poole's Synopsis and he will find that which may reasonably satisfie him touching it And now I shall briefly consider the Method and Means and Manner of the Peopling of America and storing that vast Countrey with Men and Beasts and Birds so far forth as we may reasonably conjecture And herein I must confess that I only make an Abstract or brief Collection of what hath been done to my hands by those that had better Opportunities and Abilities to do it as namely Grotius Laetius Breerwood Hornius Josephus Acosta Mr. John Webb Martinius and others who have professedly written De origine gentium Americanarum First therefore I shall consider the Manner of Traduction of Men into America Secondly The Manner of Traduction of Brutes into America Touching the Traduction of Mankind into America I do suppose these things following 1. That the Origination of the common Parents of the Humane Nature hapned in some part of Asia 2. That though the Origination of the common Parents of Mankind were in Asia yet some of their Descendents did come into America 3. That such Migration into America by the Descendents from Adam was not only possibly but fairly probable notwithstanding all the objected Difficulties 4. That the Migrations of the Descendents of Adam and Noah into America was successive and interpolated 5. That although we cannot certainly define the Time or Manner of all these Migrations yet many of them were long since or as we may reasonably conjecture some Thousands of Years since but yet after the Universal Deluge The Means of Transmigration of the Children or Descendents of Adam and Noah from Asia into America must be either by Land or by Sea or by both and if by Sea then it must be designed and ex proposito or casually I think it probable it may be all of these ways but especially by Sea Touching the Transmigration by Land it seems very difficult because though it may be possible that there may be some junctures between the North Continent of America and some part of Tartary Russia or Muscovy yet none are known unless the Frozen Seas in those Parts might be a means to transport Men thither which is difficult to suppose those Parts being unpassable by reason of the great Snows that happen so far Northward though some have thought that Groenland is one Continent with America and that in its farthest North-east extent it is joyned to
Ray ubi supra pag. 114. seqq wherein he gives us an account of these Petrified Shells found in great quantities within Continents at a vast distance from the Sea and some Shells that are found in the Continent which are strangers in the Ports of the Sea conterminous to those Continents There are two Opinions concerning the Origination of these Petrified Shells 1. Of those that have thought and with great probability that these were left in those places by the Sea either by the Universal Deluge or that really the Sea did possess those places where it left these Relicks and Memorials of it self upon its recess to a more setled Channel And certainly if this be so we must needs suppose anciently another Face of the Sea and Earth than what now is possibly many of these Vallies and lower grounds might be entirely Sea and the Hills and Mountains and other Prominences of the Earth where these Petrified Shells are often found being the Shoars of that great Ocean in those elder times those Shells were there cast up as they are at this day upon the Shoars The second Opinion is of those that think that these Conchae or Petrified Shells were no other than the Lusus naturae the Effects of the Plastick power of the Earth 1. Because they are found at such great distances from the Sea 2. Because they are many times of such a kind of Fabrick as are not to be found in those parts of the Sea that is conterminous to those Continents where they are found some are found in the middle of Germany 200 Miles distant from the Sea at the nearest Scallop-shells are found in the Ditches of Antwerp and yet they are rarely to be gotten on the Sea or Sea-shoar nearer than Gallicia in Spain 3. Because these Shells are ordinarily filled with Stone suitable to the Stone of those places where they are found These and the like Reasons though not evidently concludent against the former Supposition yet have induced many Learned Men to attribute these Phaenomena to the Plastick power of the Earth For my own part I have seen such apparent Evidences in and near the place where I live of things of this nature that I am satisfied that many of them are but the Relicks of Fish-shells left by the Sea and there in length of time actually Petrified and the Instance of the great Fish-sceleton found at Cammington seems an undeniable Evidence thereof And I remember in my youth in the Lisne of a Rock at Kingscote in Glocestershire I found at least a Bushel of Petrified Cockles actually distinct one from another each near as big as my Fist and at Adderly mentioned by Mr. Cambden about 40 or 50 Years since those Configurations of great Shells in Stones were frequently found and for their curiosity as many as could be found were taken up by several persons and carried away since which time for above 20 Years last past there are none or very few found which nevertheless if they had been the Product of the Plastick power of the Earth would have been Annually re-produced And yet I do think that all these Petrifications are not always necessarily the Monuments of the Sea possessing those places as its constant or usual Seat but that many of those Shells arise de novo not barely from the Plastick power of the Earth as some Insects and Vegetables arise spontaneously but from certain Seminal Ferments brought thither which are as it were the Seminium of their production And these Seminal Ferments were first in the Sea and Sea-Waters and might by many means by brought into those new parts of firm Land 1. By the Universal Deluge 2. By the various mutable stations of the Land and fluxes of the Sea 3. By elevation of those Seminal Ferments from the Sea or some desiccated places thereof by the heat of the Sun and discharging them by Rain upon several parts of the dry Land and where possibly those Seminal Ferments might be digested and ripened gradually into these Configurations But touching these kinds of Seminal Ferments and their Energy more will be said hereafter By this digression I mean but thus much namely That we can by no means reasonably suppose the Face Figure Position and Disposition of the Sea and dry Land to be the same anciently as now but there might then be Sea where there is now dry Land and dry Land where there is now Sea and that there might have been in former times Necks of Land whereby communication between the parts of the Earth and mutual passage and re-passage for Men and Animals might have been which in long process of time within a Period of 4000 Years may have been since altered That those parts of Asia and America which are now dis-joyned by the interluency of the Sea might have been formerly in some Age of the World contiguous to each other and those Spots of Ground namely the Philippine Islands and others that are now crumbled into small Islands might anciently have been one entire Continent And if in places that have been long inhabited and observed by Men these mutations have happened as are apparent to our very Senses yet the precise Times Manner and Circumstances thereof are wholly lost to us as in divers parts of Europe is apparent much more the like Changes may happen in those remote and vast Marine Tracts which have been long unknown and unobserved and scarce possible to be observed by Mankind as in the Scythian Atlantick Pacifick and other Northern and Southern parts of the Seas Touching the Second Means namely the Passage by Sea It seems very probable that the greatest and readiest means of the migration of Colonies or Plantations into the Western World from the Eastern was by Sea and the help of Navigation whereof much might be casual by Tempests or contrary Winds but some and the more principal might be ex instituto industria Navigation and the use of Ships is of that great Antiquity that it is difficult to assign when it began to be in use It seems probable that it was not unknown to the Old World before the Flood and yet not in that perfection that it was after their Vessels being not reduced to that perfection as to endure a wide Sea such as the Universal Deluge was neither were they probably fitted with such Stores as might be requisite for so long and unexpected a Navigation as the Flood lasted But the Ark of Noah was certainly a most exact piece of Architecture and might give a Pattern or Instruction for Vessels of great burthen and very probably since that time the skill of Making and Navigating of Ships was much ripened and improved If we consult the Heathenish Histories we shall find Navigation very ancient among the Grecians but especially among the Phenicians Tyrians and Carthaginians Polydore Virgil de Inventione Rerum l. 3. cap. 15. and before him Pliny in his Natural History lib. 5. cap. 57. gives us an Account of
exhaust the numbers of Men than Woman Therefore we will allow to Productions of five Couples about 16 Males and 14 Females which though not exactly answering either of those proportions yet comes near to them namely 16 Males to 14 Females And because partly through the weakness of Infancy and those Diseases that happen to Youth either by reason of intemperance indiscretion want of of care and the ebullition and fermentation of Blood more dye before 20 Years than between that age and 50 we will suppose of those six Procreations only two attain to the state of future Nuptials and procreation of succeeding Generations therefore we will allott only two of these six to attain to the state of Men and Women and consequently in an ordinary course of Nature live to the common age of Mankind And although the common age of Mankind when they are passed the danger of Childhood and Youth is 70 Years yet because I would have my Supposition as easie and general as may be I shall allow 60 to be that ordinary Age abating great Casualties and Epidemical Diseases And upon this account we may justly suppose these things 1. That these two Children may be coexisting with their Parents for near 30 Years for if the eldest be born at 27 Years of the age of the Father and the other at 30 Years of his age and live till the Father be 60 Years old the youngest is 30 Years old at the extremity of his Father's age which we suppose 60 Years and 2. These two Children by Intermarriage may have likewise two three or more Children by that time the Father attains 60 Years So that in the compass of about 34 Years the number of two namely the Father and Mother is increased to the number of eight namely the Father and Mother their two Children and four Grand-children so that in 34 Years they become increased in a quadruple proportion and all coexisting and although by that time we suppose the Father and Mother dye yet in the like Period of thirty four by a Geometrical Proportion their Increase is multiplied proportionnable to the Excess of their number above Two But if we shall suppose that the Technogonia began sooner as at 17 or 18 Years and continued longer viz. until 65 and that the Ages of Mens Lives were protracted generally to 70 Years the Increase would be very much greater And upon this account it is that considering the long Lives of the Ancients shortly after the Flood and the long continuance of their strength of Procreation Petavius in his 9 th Book De doctrina Temporum cap. 14. and before him Temporarius in his Chronology gives us a plain Demonstration That within the compass of 215 Years after the Flood the Sons of Noah and their Descendents might without a Miracle increase to prodigious and incredible multitudes The number of coexisting Individuals is by one of these Authors with very clear evidence computed to 1219133512 descended from one of the Sons of Noah And therefore that allowing the beginning of the Syrian Monarchy to have been about 153 Years after the Flood it might shortly after the beginning of Ninus his Empire which is supposed to have been about 215 Years after the Flood have grown to that greatness that might easily render credible the mighty Cities that were built by him and the great Armies that he raised and the Battles that he fought and vast Slaughters that he made and suffered But if we should follow the Account of the Septuagint which gives us a far greater Period of Time from the Flood to Abraham the advantage of the Increase would be signally greater although the common Account of the Jews render the Increase easily credible without the help of a Miracle And because that there can be no greater evidence of this Truth of the Increase of Mankind than Experience and Observation neither can there be any Observation or Experience of greater certainty than the strict and vigilant Observance of the Calculations and Registers of the Bills of Births and Deaths and because I do not know any one thing rendred clearer to the view than this Gradual Increase of Mankind by the curious and strict Observations of a little Pamphlet entitled Observations upon the Bills of Mortality lately printed I shall not decline that light or evidence that this little Book affords in this matter wherein he plainly evinceth 1. That the number of Males to Females is regularly as 14 to 13 or as 16 to 15. Cap. 8. 2. That supposing the number of breeding Couples to be 48000 in about the space of 7 Years in a healthy time or in 8 Years if there be Plagues the great City of London which is not so healthy as the Countrey will double without the help of the access of Foreiners and therefore Adam and Eve doubling themselves every 64 Years would in the Period of 5610 Years the supposed distance from the Creation of Man produce a far greater number of Mankind than are now in the World Cap. 11. 3. That in the Countrey which is generally more healthy than London upon a medium of Observation of 90 Years there are five Births for four Burials sometimes three to two and seldom in any Year these Burials equalled or exceeded the Births or if they did yet the succeeding Years ballanced it to that proportion of 5 to 4 for in the space of 90 Years 1059 were Born in one Parish more than were Buried Cap. 12. 4. That this Redundance did not much increase the place or Parish it self because by transmigrations to London to Forein Plantations and other places of Trade they disburthened the proportion of their increase and added to the greatness and amplitude of other places especially London 5. That considering the small excess of the number of Males above the number of Females and considering the redundancy of the number of Males is only sufficient to make good that decay of Males above Females by Wars and Navigation and other Accidents more incident to Males than Females there is very near a parity of Males and Females in the World to keep it in a consonancy and congruity to the first institution of Matrimonial society between one Man and one Woman 6. That consequently Polygamy doth not in the general conduce to the Increase of Mankind because the natural or ordinary proportion between the number of each is equal But in as much as by reason of the great Consumption of Males among the Turks by divers Accidents especially that of their great Wars between them and the Persians Tartars Christians and Moors whereby there is or at least in some Ages was a great redundance of the number of Woman above the number of Men The use of Polygamy allowed among them gives a greater increase of People than otherwise would be because of the excess of the number of Women above the number of Men by such Accidents These are some of those plain and evident Observations of the seemingly inconsiderable
Pamphlets which give a greater Demonstration of the Gradual Increase of Mankind upon the face of the Earth than a hundred notional Arguments can either evince or confute and therefore I think them worthy of being mentioned to this purpose Upon all which and much more that might be said it is evident That according to the ordinary course of Nature though those common and usual Accidents of common Sicknesses ordinary Casualties and common Events are incident to Humane Nature the number of Mankind doth and must necessarily increase in the World and the Natural Supplies of Mankind are greater and more numerous than the Decays thereof I now therefore come to the Second Consideration namely The Examination of the extraordinary or more universal Correctives of the Multiplication of Mankind which because it will be large I shall allow unto it a distinct Chapter CAP. IX Concerning those Correctives of the Excess of Mankind which may be thought to be sufficient to reduce it to a greater Equability I Come now to the Second premised Consideration and Inquiry viz. Whether there may not be found some extraordinary Occurrences and Correctives that may reduce that otherwise Natural and ordinary Increase of Mankind to an Equability And I call them Extraordinary not simply in respect of themselves but in opposition to those daily and ordinary Casualties which happen to Humane Nature and in respect of those great Distances and Periods whether certain or casual wherein they may be supposed to happen And I shall improve this Objection against the Increase de facto of Mankind with the greatest impartiality and advantage that may be It is certain that the Increase of Brutes and other Animals which are perfect and univocally generated is very great in the World Aristotle that inquisitive Searcher into Nature in his 4 th Book of the History of Animals hath given us an Account touching most Animals of the length of their Lives times of their Breeding intervals of their Birth wherein though possibly there may be variation in several Climates yet his Account may give a near estimate proportionable also to other places For Instance the Cow breeds in the second Year brings forth the tenth Month lives 15 or 20 Years the Mare breeds the third Year brings forth in the twelfth Month lives 25 30 and sometimes 40 Years the Sheep and Goat bear in the second Year bring forth in the beginning of the sixth Month sometimes two ordinarily but one lives 10 12 or 13 Years Sows breed in the second Year bring forth after four Months their Young numerous Bitches breed in the latter end of the first or beginning of the second Year bring forth after threescore Days or in the ninth Week their Young many 5 6 or sometimes 12 they live 10 or 12 sometimes 15 or 20 Years Wolves breed and bring forth as Dogs only their number fewer sometimes 2 sometimes 3 sometimes 4 the Doe brings forth after eight Months complete but one and sometimes two and live long the Fox breeds 4 the Cat 5 or 6 and lives 6 Years many times more the speedy and numerous increase of Mice is prodigious Aristotle mentions 120 produced of one Female in a very little time Pliny in his 11 th Book Cap. 63. hath in effect transcribed Aristotle herein By this it appears That the Natural Increase of these Animals is much greater than of Men yet their numbers have not arrived to that great excess because those that are for food have their reduction by their application for that purpose those that are domestical and not for food as Cats and Dogs are kept within compass by drowning or destroying their Young and those that are noxious as Wolves and Foxes are reduced by that common destruction that Men pursue them with Touching Birds their Increase seems to be much greater than of Men or Brutes but they have those reductions that bring them to a fair equability unless it be in those Islands and Rocks in the Sea unaccessible by Men where Sea-Fowls breed First their number is reduced by Man for food 2. For destruction as in Birds that are noxious 3. By the natural shortness of the Lives of many that are yet numerous breeders 4. By the mutual destruction of the weaker by Birds of prey whereof more particularly hereafter 5. By the Winter cold which starves very many either for want of heat or food and of this more hereafter Fishes are infinitely more numerous or increasing than Beasts or Birds as appears by the numerous Spawn of any one Fish though ordinarily they breed but once a Year and if all these should come ro maturity even the Ocean it self would have been long since over-stored with Fish Now the Correctives and Reductions of these are very many 1. Aristotle observes in his 6 th de Historia Animalium cap. 13. Those Eggs that are not sprinkled aspergine seminis genitalis maris prove unfruitful a great part are devoured by the Male and much more by other Fish some of their Eggs are buried in the slime and corrupted 2. Many are taken by Men and employed for food 3. As among Birds and Beasts they are Beasts and Birds of prey which are less numerous than others so especially among Fish And though the Wisdom of Providence hath given certain Expedients to Animals especially Fishes of the weaker nature to escape the voracious as swiftness to some smalness to others whereby they escape to Shallows and Shoars unaccessible to the greater and to those that are not able to move or at least not to move swiftly the protection of Shells as Oysters Escalops Crabs Lobsters and other Shell-fish yet a very great number are devoured by the voracious kind I do remember that a Friend of mine having stored a very great Pond of 3 or 4 Acres of ground with Carps Tench and divers other Pond-fish of a very great number and only put in two very little small Pikes at 7 Years end upon the draught of his Pond not one Fish was left but the two Pikes grown to an excessive bigness and all the rest together with their millions of Fry devoured by those pair of Tyrants 4. Birds also of prey as Storks Herons Cormorants and other Fowl of that kind destroy many both in the Sea Rivers Ponds and Lakes 5. Extreme Frost especially in Ponds and Lakes make a great destruction of Fish partly by freezing them partly by the exclusion of the ambient Air which insinuates it self into the Water and is necessary for the preservation of the Lives of those watry Inhabitants 6. By great Heats and Droughts not only drying up Lakes Ponds and Rivers but also tainting the Water with excessive heat and though these two do not so much concern Sea-fish who have more scope and room yet they have a great influx upon Rivers Ponds and Lakes Again to say something of Insects whether aiery terrestrial or watry they seem to be more numerous than the common sorts of univocal Animals who have
that is analogal to the state of the Elementary and mixed Inanimate Bodies that there are some more active and vigorous Qualities that seem continually to exercise a Sovereignty and Tyranny over the more passive and weak Natures and prey upon them Thus Heat and also in some degree Cold are always persecuting and foyning at the weaker and more unactive parts of Nature So among Brutes Birds Fishes Insects there is a continual invading and prevalence of the more powerful active and lively over the more weak flegmatick and unactive Creatures the Bear Lion Wolf Dog Fox c. pursue the Sheep Oxen Hare Coney c. and prey upon them the like is evident among Birds and Fishes and generally Insects being the weaker and more inconsiderable parts of Nature 2. That the vicissitudes of Generation and Corruption are by a kind of standing Law in Nature fixed in things and the Notions and Qualities of Natural things are so ordered to keep always that great Wheel in circulation and therein the Accesses and Recesses of the Sun the Influxes of the Heat thereof and of the other Heavenly Bodies and the mutual and restless Agitation of those two great Engins in Nature Heat and Cold are the great Instruments of keeping on foot the Rotation and Circle of Generations and Corruptions especially of Animals and Vegetables of all sorts 3. That yet these Motions of Generations and Corruptions and of the conducibles thereunto are so wisely and admirably ordered and contemperated and so continually managed and ordered by the wise Providence of the Rector of all things that things are kept in a certain due stay and equability and though the Motions of Generations and Corruptions and the Instruments and Engins thereof are in a continual course neither the excess of Generations doth oppress and over-charge the World nor the defect thereof or prevalence of Corruptions doth put a Period to the Species of things nor work a total Dissolution in Nature And upon this seemingly impertinent Diversion touching the Reductions and Correctives of these inferior Animals there may seem to be collected reasonably an analogical Inference of the like means of the Correctives of the Generations of Mankind and that although in an ordinary course of Humane Productions the Increase surmounts the Decay yet there may be reasonably supposed such Periodical Corrections as might fairly keep the state of Mankind in a mediocrity and equability although it should be supposed the Generations of Mankind had been Eternal And although these Correctives may not happen every Day or every Year in the ordinary course of things and therefore may be called extraordinary because they are less ordinary than the common Casualties of Mankind as Sickness or Accident that happens to this or that individual Person promiscuously yet they are in truth no more extraordinary than a cold Winter is extraordinary which although it is not every Day nor doth it happen every Year possibly in an equal Degree yet it is no extraordinary thing in Nature if it happens once in 5 or 10 or 20 Years Having therefore considered these Correctives in the inferior Animal Nature I shall now search out what may be those Correctives that may be applicable to the Reductions of the Generations of Mankind to an Equability or at least to keep it within such bounds as may keep it from surcharging the World whereby if in the Period of 2 or 3 or 4000 Years it may grow too luxuriant yet it may in probability be so far abated as may allow it an Increase of the like number of Years to attain its former proportion So that by these Prunings there may be a consistency of the Numbers of Mankind with an eternal succession of Individuals Those Reductions that may be supposed effectual for these Ends and such as the course of Mankind seem to have had great Experiences of are 1. Plagues and Epidemical Diseases 2. Famines 3. Wars and Internecions 4. Floods and Inundations 5. Conflagrations 1. Concerning Plagues and Epidemical Diseases the Histories of all times give us Accounts of the great Devastations that they have made in many places and sometimes it hath been it is true only in some particular Regions or Cities but at other times it hath been more universal and although at the same time in some Seasons it hath not universally prevailed yet it hath gradually and successively moved from place to place The ancient Plagues of former Ages in Forein Parts have been very terrible and cut off multitudes of People See a Collection of some of them by D r Hakewill lib. 2. sect 3. as namely That Plague in Ethiopia and also in most parts of the Roman Empire in the Year of Christ 250 which continued 15 Years and left not so many People in Alexandria as there were formerly aged Men that under Justinian in Constantinople and the parts adjacent wherein there dyed 10000 in a Day that in Africa whereby according to Procopius in the Country of Numidia there dyed 800000 Persons that in Greece under Michael Duca which so prevailed that the living were not sufficient to bury the dead and that in Italy in the Year 1359 whereby there were not left ten of a thousand this possibly may be the same mentioned by Walsingham but referred to the Year of Christ 1349 that prevailed over the World beginning in the Northern and Southern parts that the living were not able to bury the dead Existimabatur à pluribus quod vix decima pars hominum fuisset relicta ad vitam and presently after followed a great Murrain of Cattel so that he concludes Tanta ex his malis miseria secuta est quod mundus ad pristinum statum redeundi nunquam postea habuit facultatem Vide Lipsium de Constantia lib. 2. cap. 23. And if we look upon our own Country besides those great Plagues that have been in a manner universal there have been very many such in England sometimes more general sometimes more circumscribed to particular Cities or places As that Plague in the North parts of England mentioned by Walsingham in the beginning of R. 2. that in a manner depopulated those Parts that mentioned by the same Author Anno 7 H. 4. whereby there dyed in one Year 30000 in London which was considerable then considering the narrowness of the City in those days comparatively to what it now is besides the great desolation it made in the Country If we come to latter Years both in England and in Forein Parts the Observator of the Bills of Mortality before mentioned hath given us the best Account of the Number that late Plagues have swept away for Instance In London Anno Dom. 1592 of the Plague 11503 Anno Dom. 1593 10662 Anno Dom. 1603 30562 Anno Dom. 1625 35400 Anno Dom. 1636 10400 Anno Dom. 1665 68596 We have also Accounts of the great Devastations made by the Plague in late Years in Forein Parts In Amsterdam between 1622 and 1664 84564 And in the Year 1664
of Mankind if Partial they would be perchance weak and insignificant Reductives of the excess of Mankind When all therefore is done though it be plain that these and the like Calamities are certain Reductives of the excess of Mankind yet they are incompetent of themselves and upon a bare Supposition of Natural or Accidental Effects But it is true as they are either brought and inflicted or managed and governed by a most wise and intelligent Being they are useful and wisely applied to this End among others But in the whole management and conduct of these Events and Occurrences whereby Mankind hath been reduced and corrected we shall observe very easily that Mankind hath still increased and the World grown fuller even to manifest Sense and Experience which was the second thing I propose to be considered 2. Therefore I do affirm That notwithstanding all these Ordinary and Extraordinary Occurrences that have afflicted Mankind as shortness of Life divers Casualties and common Diseases loss of Men by Navigation the Intemperance and Luxury of Mankind the Weaknesses and destructive Sicknesses incident especially to Infancy Childhood and Youth Abortions voluntary or accidental and all those ordinary Casualties incident to our nature And notwithstanding also those great and vast Consumptions by Famine by Pestilence by strange and Epidemical Diseases by Wars and Battels Sea-fights Internecions Massacres and Persecutions Earthquakes Floods Inundations Conflagrations or what other extraordinary or terrible and universal Accidents that have happened to Mankind in any or all the Ages past since the Flood of Noah Mankind hath notwithstanding all these increased and grown fuller the Generations of Mankind have exceeded their Decays And because this is an Assertion of Fact it is impossible to be made out but by Instances of Fact And although it be impossible for any Man to give an Account of all the Nations of the World collectively and so to make out the Fact yet if the Instance can be made out in one or two Nations whereof a true and clear Account may be given it will be more than a common probability that the same may be concluded concerning the generality of Mankind And therefore I shall single out the Instances of two Nations touching whom the clearest Account of their Original and Increase may be given and such also as had as great an Experience of the severest of these Correctives and possibly much greater than any determinate People or Nation in the World besides The first Instance I shall give is the Nation of the Jews and I choose this People for my Instance 1. Because their first Original and the time wherein it began is most clearly evidently and unquestionably known and the time wherein it was 2. Because their several Increases and Abatements and Successions with the several times thereof even down to the last Dissolution of their City under Titus is most clearly by a continued History plainly and authentically discovered 3. Because by the strange and admirable Providence of God even since the Dissolution of their State and Republick they have been to this day continued a separated People from the rest of the World notwithstanding their remarkable dispersion among all Nations among whom they have yet remained distinct as a signal Monument of the Divine Truth and Justice and for what other secret ends and purposes is best known to the Divine Wisdom 4. Because this People hath been in all Ages exercised with as many Plagues and Slaughters and Devastations of all sorts as ever any People under Heaven were And 5. Because the particulars of these Devastations and the several Times and Ages wherein they happened and oftentimes the Numbers cut off thereby are Recorded by the several Authentical Histories of that People which are extant to this day And 6. Because their Increase even at this day as in their several antecedent Periods is signal and evident to all the World So that what is verified touching the Increase of that People may in all congruity of Reason be assumed and determined much more touching any other People and all the People in the World since none had ever greater Instances of Abatements or Correctives of the Excess of their Number than this People Lastly Because there can be no pretence that their decays or diminutions by those Occurrences were supplied by the accession and conjunction of others of other Nations to them Since it was their Priviledge in which they gloried and which they strictly and religiously observed To keep themselves separate and distinct from the rest of Mankind I shall not be scrupulous or curious in the Chronological niceties touching their several Periods because in this and other Computations that I have used I do not aim at curious or precise Computations but only to shew the Order and Series of Things for the discovery of what I intend and therefore shall take the Account of Helvicus as being plainest and readiest at hand for my purpose Isaac and Rebecca were the two next immediate Parents of all the Families of Esau and the Edomites and Jacob and the Israelites In the Year of the World 2108 were Jacob and Esau Born I shall leave the Families of Esau and carry down that of Jacob. In the Year of the World 2238 Jacob goes down into Egypt having then 70 Persons descended from him which Increase was in the compass of about 130 Years after the Birth of Jacob and about 70 Years after his Marriage with Leah Gen. 46.27 The Israelites increase in Egypt yet not without a great destruction of them by their severe Bondage and by the Slaughter of their Males Exod. 1. In the Year of the World 2453 the People of Israel came out of Egypt which was about 215 Years after the going down of Jacob to Egypt In a short time after the Migration of the Israelites out of Egypt they were numbred and the Number of their Males that were above 20 Years old then amounted to Six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty besides the Levites from a Month old amounting to 22000. Numb 1.46 and 2.32 and 3.39 and if we should take into the number of the Eleven Tribes Women and Children under 20 Years old we should reasonably have more than triple the number viz. above two Millions From this time to the time of Phinehas we have no certain estimate of their Numbers yet in this Interval they had very great Abatements and Diminutions as will appear by these Instances That all this number of People above 20 Years old except Joshua and Caleb died in the compass of their 40 Years wandering in the Wilderness Num. 26.65 yet some of them could not exceed 60 Years of age Of the Plague 34000 in the Wilderness besides the Complices of Corah Numb 16.49 and 25.49 besides those that died of Fiery Serpents Numb 21. After the death of all that were before numbred they were again numbred all except the Levites and the Number of all the Males from 20 Years old
and like itself which could not be such if Mankind had any other Method of Origination than now it hath And in Natural Appearances Causes and Effects they thought it not becoming the Genius or Spirit of a Philosopher to call in any other Assistant or Producent than what was and is the ordinary Rule Course and Law of Nature as they now find it And by this means they thought that they proceeded consonantly both to Nature and to themselves 2. Because that among those ancient Philosophers that either supposed the Origination of Mankind to be either casual as Epicurus Democritus c. or to be natural from the Earth and conjunction of the Influences of Heavenly Bodies in some Periodical Aspects or partly natural and partly fortuitous or at least spontaneous as Insects arise I say in and among these various Suppositions of an Origination of Mankind yea and perfect Animals ex non genitis they found so much incertainty improbability and repugnancy that they threw them all aside together also with the Beginning or Origination of Mankind and took up that more compendious and more sutable as they thought to the Laws which they observed in Nature and concluded That the Generations of Mankind and of perfect Animals were without beginning but always obtained in the same manner as now they are Of this Opinion was Ocellus Lucaenus and likewise Aristotle though in some places he seems to be doubtful and although Plato in his Timaeus seems to assert an Origination of Mankind yet in some other places his Expressions are doubtful and therefore Censorinus in his golden Book de Die Natali reckons as well Plato as Aristotle Ocellus Lucanus Architas Tarentinus Xenocrates Dicearchus Pythagoras Theophrastus to be Assertors of the Eternity of Mankind And this Opinion I have examined in the Chapters of the Second Section of this Book and offered Reasons Physical Metaphysical and Moral against it The last Moral Reason which I offered was The received Opinion of Mankind asserting the Origination of Man and that as well of the common sort of People as of the Tribe of the Learned Philosophers The former I dispatched in the last Chapter but the Suffrage of the Gens literata I reserved to this Section because thereby at once I may with the same labour shew the Opinions of Learned Men among the Heathen asserting the Origination of Mankind and what their several Sentiments were concerning the manner of it And therefore I shall be constrained herein to mention the Opinions of some of those Learned Philosophers above-mention and to add some others of the contrary Perswasion which out-ballance the former 2. The second general Opinion was of those Learned Philosophers that held an Origination of Mankind ex non genitis and the Reason moving them to this Perswasion was not only the great Tradition that obtained generally in favour of it and the great reasonableness of the Supposition it self but also the many absurd Consequences and indeed irreconcilable Contradictions that they found in the Hypothesis of an Eternal Succession of Humane Generations without beginning Insomuch that the Assertors themselves of Eternal Generations were doubtful of the truth of their own Perswasions as will hereafter appear And those of this latter sort were even Epicurus himself Anaximander Empedocles Parmenides and Zeno Citicus the great Founder of the Sect of the Stoicks with those that followed or favoured it But above all the great Law-giver Moses who was divinely inspired and yet if he had not that advantage of Divine Infallibility but stood barely upon the great credibility both of his Person his Learning and the Hypothesis it self which he delivered he hath as great a weight even upon a natural moral and rational account as any or all the rest put together But because I intend a particular Explication of the Hypothesis Mosaica I shall not mingle this among the other Opinions but reserve it for the next Section The Heathen Philosophers that held the Origination of Mankind ex non genitis have these things in general wherein they agree one with another and with the Truth it self and some things wherein they differ among themselves and in some things from the Truth 1. They herein agree both among themselves and with the Truth and with that excellent and divine Relation of Moses Gen. 1. That Mankind is not Eternal but had a Beginning ex non genitis 2. They herein also agree among themselves and with the Truth That it is most absolutely necessary if Mankind had a Beginning or Origination it must needs be in a differing kind and manner from that common course whereby Mankind is now propagated This is asserted by those that hold the Origination of Mankind by the Efficiency of Almighty God consonant to the Mosaical Hypothesis either immediately or partly by the Instrumentality of Angels as Zeno Citicus Plato and others it is also asserted by them that hold the Origination of Mankind to be at first fortuitous as Epicurus and Democritus And therefore as to these Perswasions and Suppositions it is not only necessary that they should suppose a differing manner of the first Origination of Mankind from what now obtains but it is consonant also to their Principles and the grounds of their Supposition that it must be so This is also asserted by those that suppose the Origination of Mankind to be purely natural and according to the constituted Rule of Nature But yet this Supposition though most necessarily true where an Origination ex non genitis is once supposed yet it seems less sutable to the Principles of those Men that assert such a natural Production of Mankind as is by them asserted because they mancipating all Productions and Effects to the Laws of Nature and governing their thoughts and taking their measures barely by it have no reason to think or believe any other Method of Production of Mankind to have at any time been any otherwise than as they see it now to be which as is before shewn was the reason why Aristotle inclined to the Opinion of the Eternity of Humane Generations because Nature is presumed to be consonant to it self and always to have been what once it was 3. But in the Explication of the Cause and Manner of this Origination of Mankind therein they differed very much among themselves This difference consisted principally in two great Considerations 1. In the true stating of the efficient Cause of this Origination of Mankind 2. In the Manner Method and Order of such Origination As to the difference touching the Cause of such Origination and the nature of that Cause thereof 1. Some assigned a bare fortuitous Cause of the first Origination of Mankind as Epicurus and his Explicator Lucretius for although in some places they are driven to assert some determinate Semina of Mankind and perfect Animals to avoid that indefinite and unlimited excursion of Atoms yet they that suppose these Semina do suppose a fortuitous Coalition of Atoms to the
the Person of Socrates commending the Country of Attica Altera ejus laus erit quod eo tempore quo tellus omnia animalia omnigena producebat feras armenta omnia tellus duntaxat nostra ad hoc sterilis erat agrestibúsque animalibus vacua propriè verò ex omnibus animalibus hominem genuit qui caeteris intelligentia praestat solúsque jus ac deos colit And again in his Timaeus in the Person of Timaeus he gives us an Account of the Original of Mankind and the manner of it to this effect That when Almighty God had made and set in order the great World and endowed it with a living Soul and thereby it became a great Animal and had also made a sort of inferior Deities dii ex Deo and endowed them also with Immortality he brings in the great God bespeaking these inferior Deities Accedite vos secundùm naturam ad animalium generationem ita ut vim imitemini meam qua in ortu vestro sum usus Atque ejus quidem animalis quod in ipsis tale futurum est ut cum immortalibus appellatione conveniat divinúmque vocetur principatúmque teneat justitiam simul ac vos ultro colat Ego vobis semen initium tradam vos caetera exequi par est ut immortali naturae mortalem attexentes faciatis generetÃsque animalia subministrantésque alimenta augeatis consumpta rursum recipiatis Haec fatus in eodem cratere in quo mundi totius animam permiscens temperavit superioris temperationis reliquias miscendo perfudit c. Satis autem quasi sparsis animis per singula singulis convenientia temporum instrumenta fore ut animal nasceretur quod omnium animalium maximè esset divino cultui deditum Thus he now gives us an account of the Creation of Man namely of his Soul by the great God Therefore Plato seems not to be reckoned among the firm Assertors of the Eternity of Mankind nor of the World and accordingly his follower Proclus herein agrees with his Master 3. Touching Aristotle and the Peripateticks that were his followers as Simplicius Averroes and others except Philoponus their Opinion seems to be for the Eternity not only of the World but of Mankind and of the perfect Animals so that in l. 3. de Generatione Animalium cap. 1. he determins Quod non fuit primus leo c. and in his way of reasoning follows Ocellus Lucanus who was a more ancient Philosopher and tenaciously asserted the Eternity of the World Yet Aristotle himself seems not to be over-confident of this Opinion but holds it as a Problem and in some places seems to give Intimations to the contrary 2. Politic cap. 6. Putandum est primos homines sive ex terra geniti fuerunt sive ex corruptione aliqua servati ignaros fuisse c. and in his 3 d de Generatione upon the various Productions of the Earth and Water Ut animae quodammodo plena sunt omnia and in his 10 th Problem sect 15. Qui de natura disserunt animantia in principio orta esse dicunt ingenti aliqua mundi universÃque mutatione and in his 64 th Problem of his 10 th Section Quam ob causam animantium alia non solum coitu sed etiam sponte naturae procreantur alia ex coitu duntaxat proveniunt ut Homo Equus etsi non ob aliam causam tamen quod aliis gignendi tempus breve statutum est Itaque fieri non potest ut tempus quod vim obtinet generandi amplificetur prorogetúrque sed temporum vicissÃtudine prorogationéque ut prorogetur contingit aliis multò generatio ampliari solet etenim vel anno vel decem mensium spatio confici assolet quo pacto vel nullo pacto vel ex coitu procreari illa necesse est So that he attributes the reason of the new production of Men and great Animals only to the time that they are to be perfected in utero And l. 1. Topicor cap. 11. he states the Question Whether the World had a Beginning or not to be a Problem wherein probabilities are on either side By these passages of Aristotle himself he seems not to be so positive in his Opinion touching the Eternity of Mankind at least but rather inclines to that for the Eternity of Generations upon these Reasons 1. Because he was not willing to suppose any other state of things in the World than what he found and since he never found any production of Mankind or the perfect Animals ex non genitis he therefore concluded them to have been ever produced in that method that he found them in the ordinary and setled course of Nature 2. Because as he was not satisfied with the strange and improbable Hypotheses of Empedocles Anaximander and Democritus touching the Production of Mankind so he could not excogitate any of his own which had any clearness or certainty to him being utterly unacquainted for ought we know with the Mosaical Hypothesis 3. Because he being a great admirer of Nature and the ordinary proceeding thereof he was not willing to entertain any such Supposition as was not evident according to the ordinary method of Nature which he so much venerated especially such as might seem dissonant to his great Hypothesis of the Eternity of the general Frame of the rest of the Universe And therefore lib. 3. de Generatione Animalium cap. 11. upon a Supposition of a first Production of Men or Animals he conforms his Thesis concerning them to his general Doctrine Quamobrem de prima hominum atque quadrupedum generatione si quando primum terrigenae oriebantur ut aliqui dicunt non temere existimaveris altero de duobus his modo oriri aut enim ex verme constituto primum aut ex ovo quippe cum aut intra se habeant cibum ad incrementum necesse sit qui quidem conceptus vermis est aut aliunde accipere ìdque aut ex parente aut ex parte conceptus Itaque si alterum fieri non potest ut effluat ex terra quomodo caeteris animalibus ex parente relinquitur necessario ut ex parte conceptus accipiatur Talem autem generationem esse ex ovo aut verme fatemur Ergo si initium ullum generationis omnium animalium fuit alterutrum de his fuisse probabile esse apertum est Sed minus rationis est ut ex ovo prodierint nullius enim generationem animalem talem videmus sed alterum tum sanguineorum quae diximus tum exanguium qualia sunt insectorum nonnulla ea quae testa operiuntur de quibus agitur Non enim ex parte aliqua oriuntur ut ea quae ovo nascuntur Thus he conforms his Position to his general Doctrine upon a Supposition of the spontaneous Origination of Animals 4. I come to the general Doctrine of the Epicureans under which I include that of Anaximander and Empedocles who though they differ something in the
Position of Cardanus and contends not only that it is possible but that de facto it is true The sum of his Opinion seems to be this That although the Soul of Man be of a higher nature and extraction yet the Body and these Powers or Faculties of Life and Sense may be and have been formed ex putredine without the conjunction of Sexes as Weeds Vegetables and Insects And that he meaneth such a Production to be by an ordinary course of Nature he largely insists upon that Axiom of Aristotle Sol homo generant hominem which he understands in sensu diviso and that there is in the heat of the Sun an active generative Principle which in Matter prepared for its operation commonly called Putrefaction produceth a Seminal Formative Seed sufficient of it self for the production of the Humane Nature as also of the nature of other Animals That the Species of Animals are eternal not upon the account of an eternal succession by ordinary propagation but by that succession that would arise in certain great Conjunctions of the Heavens and the heat of the Sun which would be productive of the Individuals of the several Species though all the Species of Animals were destroyed by Floods or other accidents as possibly they might be That although the ordinary Method of preserving the Species of Men and Animals by ordinary Generation be fitted for the ordinary continuation of the Species yet without this Method of production out of prepared Earth Nature were defective and wanted a sufficient Expedient for the preservation of Species upon great Occurrences That although this production of Men and perfect Animals ex putri be not obvious to our ordinary Experience it is not because the Supposition wants truth but because 1. Every place is not fit for such a production but where there is a constant and sufficient heat duly to prepare and digest the Matter But the likeliest place for such production is some unknown place between the Tropicks where the heat is great and constant 2. Because the maturation and ripening of such Productions require longer time than that which is sufficient for the production of Insects for we see greater Animals even with all the advantages of the calor uterinus require a longer time for their formation and maturation as a Man nine months an Elephant two years and consequently their productions without this auxilium uterinum must require longer time Then he gives us a large account touching Insects that arise ex putredine and yet are of the same Species with those that are produced per coitum and that when they are produced ex putri materia yet they propagate successively Individuals of the same kind and that if greater Animals were thus produced they would be of the same Species with the like Animals propagated per generationem ordinariam and would accordingly propagate their kind as many Herbs and Trees arise spontaneously yet are of the same Species with others that are per seminationem and produce Seed and thereby continue their Species as well as others that arise per proseminationem This I take to be the effect of his Position and his Reasons which are very learnedly and smartly refuted by Fortunius Licetus in his first Book de Spontaneo Ortu But yet there was one difficulty which Caesalpinus doth not at all as I remember obviate which yet renders his Supposition utterly inexplicable namely since the Heat and Influences of the Heavens even in their supposed extraordinary Conjunctions must needs be uniform at those times and in or near those Climates wherein they happen how comes it to pass that the same univocal Heat doth produce at that time any variety of Animals why should it not produce only Men as the best of Animals rather than Horses Tigers Lions c. Again on the other side since the disposition of all the parts of Terrestrial Matter is so divers and qualified with infinite combinations of Qualities and Particles how it comes to pass that in these great Conjunctions there are not infinite varieties of things produced but they are determinate in certain Ranks and Species of Being whereas the modifications of the Matter are so various and infinite that the Species of things would be infinite irregular Humano capiti cervicem equinam So that there seems necessary some superintendent Intellectual Nature that by certain election and choice determined things in those determinate Ranks and contained them within it For the heat and influence of the Heavenly Conjunctions and of the Sun being common and universal and the various Particles of the Earth variously modified and qualified there could never only by these means be any determining or containing the Species of Animals within any determinate constant figures or bounds And this we shall hereafter find necessary when we come to consider the determination of Insects also in their several Species Again he gives us not any reasonable Explication by this Hypothesis how the discrimination of Sexes happen how all things thus produced come to propagate their kind and to contain their Productions within the specifick limits of the natures of such Animals all which were necessary to be done to render his Supposition of this natural production of Men or Animals ex putredine to be any way tolerable Beregardus therefore in his 10 th Circulus Pisanus hath refined and rectified this Hypothesis of Caesalpinus and of Pomponatius that went before him and though he can never make out the truth or probability of his Supposition yet he hath rendred it more tolerably explicable especially in relation to the forementioned deficencies I will give the sum of his Supposition briefly as I understand it And it seems thus That the Calidum innatum is that Altrix anima and Princâ—pium seminale sine quo nihil gignitur and is the Basis of Life in all things that have it but yet it is never single and by it self but is the first Rudiment of Life and determined by the particular Species of Life in every Individual that hath Life for there is no vivens that is not either Equus or Canis or Vitis or some other determinate Vegetable or Animal That there are three kinds of this Life wherein it is specifically determined viz. Vegetable Sensible and Rational That at least the two former he means the latter also if he durst speak out are raised out of certain Seminal Principles whereby the Calidum innatum is specifically determined to this or that Specifical Life That these Semina are not eternal because made up of things or Principia that are pre-existing this seems perfectly to agree with the Doctrine of Epicurus before mentioned whose Patronage he seems to take in the Person of Aristaeus yet with some Correctives as is hereafter shewn That there were in Nature various kinds of Calida or Fiery Particles or Spiritus ignei and various kinds of Humida and Frigida these were eternally floating up and down in small Particles and
of species yet they were at first determinate 2. That it seems the production of the first Insects was like to that of perfect Animals they were not produced ex semine or per processum seminalem whether ex Ovo or ex Verme but were produced in the complement of their specifical and individual existence For it is much more suitable to Reason and to the nature of things that the Animal should have an antecedence to the Seed and that the semen should be rather the effect of an Animal at first than an efficient or according to Plutarch's Discourse that the Hen should be before the Egg rather than the Egg before the Hen. 3. That yet if we should suppose that in the first production of Insects at least they should arise ex praeexistente semine or that at this day they should arise de novo yet bare Matter were not possibly sufficient for its production without some Seminal Principle that might determin the Insect to its kind and advance in it that formation and organization of Parts and effect those admirable Faculties of Sense and Imagination which we see in them For it were exceedingly above the bare activity of Elementary qualities though the most active as that of Heat to raise so curious and admirable a Fabrick as the Bodies of those little Animals much less the Faculties of Life Sense and Imagination And if it were possible that some of the qualities and dispositions or modifications or temperament of Matter could arrive to the production of any such little sensible Being yet it could never be contained nor contain it self within any determinate species or kinds but as the modifications temperaments and qualities of Matter are infinite and various according to its various Mixtures and Combinations so the Productions would be ever irregular monstrous and never colligated or contained in any certain species It remains therefore that in the first production of Insects whether at this day or in the first eduction of their species if they were not produced in the complement of their individual and specifical nature they must necessarily be produced ex aliquo semine congruo determinante materiam And certainly the Constitution of such a semen is as I have before observed a work of great Wisdom Intelligence and Power no way less than such a Power that must have made an Individual of the same kind in his complete existence For the semen of every thing contains in it the small idea of that Nature which it is to produce which is as it were minted and stamped upon it and contains an admirable power of evolving and dilating it self and bringing forth that admirable Fabrick and that singular Conformation of Parts and those wonderful Faculties of Life Sense and Imagination and the several Organs and Operations belonging to it Some there are that have said and with very great truth That the smallest Animal in the World sets forth the Wisdom and Excellence of the great Architect of the World more conspicuously than the Fabrick of the greatest Whale or Elephant as the smaller an excellent Watch is if it have all its parts motions order and constancy it more sets forth the skill of the Artist than a greater Fabrick When a Man shall see in that Animal that well near escapes his sight by reason of its smalness as the Acarus the Cyro or Hand-worm yet he shall plainly by the help of a Microscope behold in it all the conformation of its little Limbs useful for its being all the Operations of Senses and Organs thereof the several Faculties Offices and Parts subservient to it the several Viscera that serve for the exercise of Life and Sense it must needs render the Skill of the Author thereof admirable But yet again when possibly the Seminal Principle of this little Animal bears it may be as small a proportion to it as the Insect it self doth to greater Animals it may be a little imperceptible Egg and yet in that little Body all the Ideal parts of this Animal and that Principle that immediately conforms the several Faculties and Organs of this little Animal The Power and Wisdom that conforms such a little semen is no less wonderful than if it had immediately conformed the Animal without the intervention of such a Seminal Particle And therefore most certainly the Conformation of these little Moleculae seminales if any be antecedent to the production of these Insects is a work of intelligence choice election design and that of a most wise and intelligent Being and cannot be the production either meerly of Chance as the Epicureans would have it nor of that which little differs namely an ignorant unknowing unelective Principle for such is barely Nature unless they that use that denomination mean by it Almighty God And when I assert that these Moleculae seminales antecedent to the production of any living or sensible nature if there be any such are produced by Almighty God it is not my meaning that they are therefore immediately created or immediately put together or compounded by the immediate Finger of God if I may use that Expression to render the sense I intend But it is sufficient that the great and supreme intellectual Being having in his infinite Wisdom the Prospect of all things hath so set and ordered the Motion of Second Causes to bring together and mingle the constituent Materials of these semina and he by his Almighty Fiat hath annexed to such Compositions and imprinted upon them the stamp and efficacy of a Seminal Principle it will be equally the Work of Almighty God if these Compositions be brought together by the Motion and Heat of the Sun or by the powerful Motion and Determination of various kinds of Ferments some possibly originally created and dispersed in the Earth Air and Waters others accidental arising from the corrupted and mingled Matter of dissolved Animals and Vegetables whereof I shall in due time God willing give a more distinct Account as if they were immediately created out of nothing But the Mint the Stamp the Signature the Seminal Efficacy of this Molecula seminalis is the Intention Election and Fiat of the glorious God and can never be the bare production of a surd unintelligent nature So that although it should be granted that the excrescence of those Insecta animalia is not at this day from the semina insectorum but that both in the first production of them in Nature and the yearly or daily production of them now they were ex seminibus non ex insectis decisis yet those seminia or seminales moleculae were not meerly natural as Nature imports a surd production of things but were the Work and Intention of the great and glorious God of Nature So then we may hereby see what would be purely natural in these semina what not 1. It were thus far natural that the material Particles thereof possibly might have an existence in Nature before their Composition whether these
Particles were partly those Ignei spiritus and partly those Humores primogenii that were interspersed in Nature or possibly the constituent Essentials both of the semina themselves and of the Individuals produced by them Again 2. They might be thus far natural that the immediate Instruments of the conjunction of these Particulae seminales might be the Heat or Influence or Motion or Agitation of the Heavenly Bodies or what other natural Instrument the Divine Power might employ in their Coagmentation 3. They would be thus far natural that when these Particulae seminales were conjoyned together and made up into their Moleculae seminales and when they had received their Signature their Energy by the Divine Fiat they would naturally produce their Effect viz. the production of an Insect when they had obtained a convenient Menstruum to lodge it and the kindly Heat to ripen them this would be as natural as any Operation of Heat or Cold or other things are natural which though they had their first existence by the Supernatural Power and Will of God yet when they are in their existence they move and act according to that nature which is put into them which is the Law of their Being given them by Almighty God But the Virtue that gives these Moleculae seminales their Energy of Productiveness of Life and Sense their Determination in their several species and Ranks that mints and stamps them as it were with their Esse specificum seminale is the Institution and Fiat of the Divine Will and Ordination So that if there be at this day any semina of Insecta animalia ex non insectis which gives them their several determinate species and natures though I am not of the mind of scotus that they have an immediate Creation by God yet I am not of the mind of Beregardus who thinks they are meerly natural and made up and put together without the Pre-disposition Ordination or Signature of the God of Nature as the first power communicated to the primogenial natures of Animals and Men to have a Vis Seminativa and Prolifica was in the first Creation of Mankind communicated to them by virtue of the Divine Institution and Benediction though the way of exerting that Power when produced was natural But possibly much of what is in this Chapter is needless if in truth the individual natures of Insects were at first created by God without any pre-existing semen as we are sufficiently taught Gen. 1.20 25. and that the Seminal and Prolifick Power was given to them as other Animals and consequently the seminia viventium were subsequent and not antecedent to the first Institution of the Animal Nature and an effect thereof CAP. VI. Supposing the Production of Insects were totally spontaneous equivocal and ex putrido whether any Consequence be thence deducible for the like Production of perfect Animals but especially of Men. IT is true that Insects and those equivocal Generations have an admirable perfection in their kind not much unlike to those that we find in the more perfect Animals and indeed they are so much the more admirable because their little and almost imperceptible moles renders their distinction of Faculties and Organs the more curious and artificial They have their several Faculties the Senses of Sight Hearing Touch and Taste they have the digestive egestive and other parts of the Nutritive Faculty and though their individual production may seem equivocal and of no univocal Seed of the same kind yet they have the Generative Faculty and propagate their species as well as perfect Animals and have therein distinction of Sexes as appears by frequent experience notwithstanding the doubt or contrary Opinion of Aristotle and although their Phantasie is more lubricous and sickle than perfect Animals yet it is evident that they have a Phantasie as appears by their Motions and little Operations and as they have Phantasie so they have Memory as appears by the Returns of Bees and Pismires to their homes from great distances And as they have these Faculties of Life and Sensation so they have Organs accommodate and admirably fittted to those several Faculties namely to Nutrition Augmentation Generation Sense Local Motion Phantasie Appetite which are so far from being contemptible in respect of the smallness and petiteness of these little Animals that indeed in some respect they are the more admirable as a small Watch is an evidence of greater skill and artifice than a greater or as a small Picture drawn to the Life commends the skill of the Painter sometimes more than a great Draught But yet for all this we must not think that these little Animals are of an equal perfection with the greater and nobler Caesar's Image drawn upon a Cherry-stone is a piece of great curiosity but not of an equal perfection to his lively Statue in Brass or that a Fly is of an equal perfection with an Eagle Therefore I shall not fetch Arguments against the like spontaneous Productions of the greater Animals from any contemptible valuation of these smaller and these little Models of sensible Life for certainly they are curious and elaborate automata in respect of their admirable minuteness and accuracy But yet upon other Reasons it seems utterly inconsequential that because these smaller Particles of sensible Nature may be thus spontaneously produced therefore these greater Animals may be so for it is apparent that in things of an equality of perfection there is by the Laws and fixed Rules of their several Natures several manners of their productions If we should compare Vegetables among themselves some will arise ex surculo as well as ex radice or ex semine others will not if we compare Sensible Natures among themselves that seem to have an equality of perfection as some sorts of Brutes and Birds it will be hard to say which have the perfecter Nature yet the production of the latter are ex ovo the former ex verme the former oviparous the latter viviparous in the ordinary course of their natural production and as at this day the former is not producible ex Ovo so the latter not producible without it The several natures of things have distinguished them as in their kinds so in the manner of their production and whatsoever the perfection of Insects sponte orientia may be there is no Consequence to be drawn from the same to other more noble Animals But again as there is no Consequence to be drawn from the one to the other so there is in the very nature of the one kind and the other and in the natural order of their production a great disparity and disproportion so that in truth by the very Constitution and Frame of their Natures the perfect Animals that we see only produced by the conjunction of Sexes and univocal Generation cannot by any course or consistency in Nature without the Supposition of Divine Power and Ordination arise spontaneously And that appears 1. In the disparity of the natural Productive
Principle of the one and the other 2. In the disparity of the natural Method of the perfecting of the one and the other 3. In the disparity of the Natures of the Animals of the one kind and the other having arrived to their complement and perfection First touching the disparity of the natural Productive Principle of the one and the other although it be admitted that Insects and spontaneè orta do or may arise from a Semen or Principle that is not univocal or formal yet it must needs be agreed that the Natural Principle of such their production must be some analogal Semen or some Seminal Principle that is suitable to such a Production otherwise quidlibet orietur ex quolibet there must be something that must determin the Matter to be an apt Seminium for such a Production or else the Matter must determin it self either there must be some determinate Vital or Spiritual Principle that is determined in it self and determins the Matter which Paracelsus seems to hold that Bodies were first Spirits and Aristotle seems to intimate when he tells us that Animarum omnia plena and when the Matter is fitly prepared there is an illapse of this Vital Formative Spirital Principle into it or else the inherent qualities or dispositions of Matter it self must be of force to mould it self up into these Moleculae seminales the Formative Principles of these sponte orta I speak in the Language of those that erroneously hold no higher Principles but such as are purely Natural But although such Seminal Particles as these may be sufficient for the production of Insects yet they are not naturally accommodated for the perfection of the perfect Animals For the Semen prolificum for the production of perfect Animals must receive its specifical conforming Principle either by the Supernatural Power of Almighty God or from the Specifical Nature of the Individuals of both Sexes and if we could suppose an Anima vaga of the Sensible Nature not confined to any Individual of the same nature nothing could be a Matter fitly prepared for its reception but the Materia seminalis ex individuis elicita neither is there any Matter extra compositum animale capable to advance it self to the nature of such a perfect Animal for if either of these could be done we had as much reason daily to expect the like spontaneous productions of Horses and Sheep as we find of Frogs and Worms Again the Vis conformatrix and Seminal Particles of Insects is most plainly in Insects not confined to the semina formalia utriusque sexus commixta for we see almost all their parts are seminal and will by putrefaction advance to the production of their kind Their productive power is not so strictly and severely bound to the semen utriusque sexus Many have told us by experience and observation that the Excrements of Flies without any mixtion will produce immediately Flies that the Resolution or Maceration of Frogs and Worms will reproduce Individuals of the same species as Kercher lib. 12. Mundi subterranei tells us But there are no parts of perfect Animals that are productive of their species but the same is confined by the Laws of their Nature to a semen formale ex utroque sexu decisum It is true that their parts corrupted as their Blood Flesh or Veins will produce Insects and living Creatures of a different and baser kind than themselves as Worms Lice Fleas Flies but they can never advance to the production of their own kind And the Reason is because there is not possibly any transmission of that specifical vital formative Principle to any other part but the semen formale of the Individuals of that species and that Vis formatrix activa vitalis sensibilis must be communicated either by virtue of a participation of all the parts of the Producents or by a kind of a specifical Idea naturally produced by that Nature from whence it is derived which evolves and expands it self being produced or which is more intelligible and probable than either of the former by a participation of the vital and sensible Soul to the semen prolificum from the Producents and there is no way of communication thereof in perfect Animals but only to that natural and genuine Semen constituted mixed and ordered according to the Law of its Being so that we cannot suppose any seminal Principle of perfect Animals but this semen prolificum utriusque parentis unless we shall gratis and without either Reason or Example wholly invert the natural order of things and substitute a Semen contrary to the nature of the things that must be produced or admit that which those great Assertors of Nature think below them to grant and will rather suppose a thousand Absurdities than admit namely the Interposition of the Divine Power And 2. As the Semen formativum of perfect Animals is greatly differing from that of Insects and therefore not capable of a spontaneous production as these so it is apparent that at least in animalibus viviparis it is impossible to be preserved sine receptaculo naturae congruo scilicet utero foemineo The vital particles thereof are more fiery and volatile and higher advanced than that Semen that is or may be sufficient for Insects sine convenienti receptaculo avolabunt spiritus vitales ex interventu vel minimi frigoris mortuum infoecundum evadet but the Semina of Insects are more viscous and less volatile in so much that their Semina will remain all the Winter in caverns and holes and yet be fruitful the next Spring 3. Again the Semen Insecti being so small a Particle and having as I may say so small a portion of Soul in it is soon formed and brought to maturity We may learn this in their univocal productions or ex coitu Scaliger tells us Exercitat 191. l. 2. that the Gloworm brings forth his Eggs postridiè post coitum Malpighius in his curious Disquisition touching the Silkworm tells that quarto post coitum die the Female brings forth ordinarily above 300 sometimes above 500 Eggs and these will lie all the Winter and with the warm heat of the Spring and some other assistance will prove vital the next Spring and Aristotle Hist Animal l. 5. cap. 27. tells us that Araneae statim post ova parta incubant triduo peragunt quatuor septenis diebus justa accipiunt incrementa ibid. l. 6. cap. 37. tells us that Mures si salem lambunt pariunt sine coitu and that even their young have been found with young before they saw the light By all which it is evident That although these little Moleculae seminales will retain their fecundity longer than the Eggs of Birds even a whole Winter and possibly longer yet when they have obtained a convenient Matrix and the warm cherishing heat of the Spring the formation production and maturation of Insects and of that Semen prolificum which they univocally yield in their regular
Summer will remain fruitful and produce the Insect this Spring and possibly some time after so that they are in the next degree above Vegetables and have a nature very analogal to them But these things are not so in greater Animals of an univocal generation this also appears in the great disparity of these degrees at least of perfection in the perfect Animal above that of Insects of a spontaneous production For though as before is said these little Animals have Faculties conformable to the Sensitive Life so that we may plainly discover at least in many of them the Faculties as well as the Organs of Sense Phantasie Memory Common Sense Appetite Passion Local Motion yet the more perfect and univocal Animals have greater strength and perfection in these Faculties their Phantasie and Memory more exact their Appetite more perfect and free if I may so call it they are capable of Discipline which these smaller Animals are not There is greater variety complication and curiosity in the state frame and order of their Faculties and a greater distinction and variety of operation in them than in the smaller Pieces of Nature There are more Wheels more variety and curiosity in their motions more variety of ingredients into the Constitution of the Automata of the more noble Animals than in the Insects that are sponte orta so that for the Constitution of their Souls the Principle of their Faculties and Motions there is required a more curious elaborate and elevated Composition and Fabrick than in these minute Animals And hence it is that though it be not only possible but frequent that these Insects and minute Animals may thus spontaneously arise yet it hath never been known so according to the setled Laws and Order of Nature It is impossible these greater and nobler Animals can arise spontaneously nor otherwise naturally than by the mixture of both Sexes and a Semen formatum and prolificum received and united in utero foemineo and impregnated as it were with that Specifical Idea and Formative Power derived from the Parents and those other accessions which may elaborate rectifie and advance the Soul and its Faculties and the Body and its Organs to their due proportion and perfection And therefore there is no parity Reason in the production of Insects and perfect Animals nor any Consequence to be drawn from the spontaneous production of one to the like production of the other in any natural course without the intervention of a Supernatural free Cause effecting the same besides and out of the road and course of Nature And what may be said upon this account against the Consequence of the spontaneous production of other Animals from the spontaneous production of Insects may with much more advantage be said against the Consequence of the production of Mankind by any natural spontaneous production because the perfection of his nature and the specifical excellence thereof doth exceed the greatest excellence of other Animals far more than the noblest Animals exceed the Insects And therefore as the spontaneous production of these Insects no way concludes the like production naturally possible in greater Animals so if it were naturally possible and de facto true that the greater Animals themselves were sponte producibilia producta it were not at all conclusive nor deducible from thence that Mankind were producible naturally upon the like account The nobleness of the structure of the Humane Body the great curiosity and usefulness of most of his Organs especially of his Tongue and Hand the curious and useful configuration and disposition of his Nerves and Brain the admirable variety and quickness of his Phantasy the great retentiveness of his Memory but especially the admirable power of his Intellect Reason and Will give him a far greater specifical perfection above the most perfect Brutal Nature than that hath above the meanest Insects And therefore certainly according to the ordinary Observations in Nature and the Rules and Methods observable therein requires the noblest and most advanced Method to produce it that Nature can afford But against these Reasons it may be and is urged That all these Observations and Inferences are bottomed upon the state and course of Nature wherein we see things are in the state of things already setled but in the first production of things it might be otherwise and must be otherwise if we admit an Origination of Mankind ex non genitis And though in the ordinary course of Nature as now things are constituted the production of Mankind is ex semine formato ab utroque parente deciso that his nourishment is per venam umbilicalem that it cannot be otherwise now but in utero foemineo that the state of Infancy now requires those adventitious helps that are above remembred Yet in the first state of Humane Production all these Suppositions must be laid aside as unaccommodate to that state another Seminal Principle another method of Nutrition another state and habit of the Foetus must be and may be supposed in the first production of Mankind than now is to be found in the World wherein the order of things is setled in a regular Method If it should be supposed that a Mouse or a Rat were produced ex putri we cannot suppose any such Semen or Vena umbilicalis or that it lived upon the Dams Milk all which are notwithstanding supposable and necessary when that equivocal Animal afterward propagates its kind I answer That as it is true that Mankind and other Animals had an Original and an Original in quite another way than now it is and ex non genitis so it is unquestionably true that those Processes Principles and Methods which now serve in the production of Humane Nature or other perfect Animals are no way conceptible or applicable unto the first production of Man or Animals And therefore I must not only grant that these Modes of Production Nutrition c. are utterly ineffectual and unapplicable to the first Origination of Humane Nature But I must suppose quite contrary that in truth it is impossible they should be the Modes or Order of that first Origination But it must be remembred whom it is that I am here contending against namely not against those that do and that truly referr the Origination of Man to the Divine Power and Will and a Supernatural production but against them that are the great Venerators of established Nature that think it below their Gravity and Wisdom to recognize any other Efficient but what they find in Natural Causes and Effects nor any other Rule of things but what they see that take their Measures of their Conceptions and Sentiments from what is obvious to Sense and the common Observation of things as they now appear and for the most part frame all their Conclusions accordingly And therefore that which I herein contend for by these Arguments is this That a Man that duly considers the natures of things and makes the course of Nature and the Observation
thereof to be the Rule and Guide of his Sentiments though he be drawn by the necessity of Reason to grant and conclude that Man must needs have an Origination and that in another way than now he hath namely ex non genitis yet it is not reasonable for him to conclude that he had this Origination upon a bare natural account as the Insects and sponte orta have because it quite thwarts and crosses all the appearances of Nature and is wholly incongruous to the nature of things as they now stand And a Man that makes such a Conclusion must needs offer violence to his own Reason and Experience and depart from those Laws and Rules of Nature which he makes his Guide and the Compass by which he steers his Judgment touching things and suppose that natural which is wholly different from what it seems And consequently if the reason and nature of things compel a Man to assert that Mankind had their Origination another way than that in which it now is the same reason and nature of things duly and impartially considered must needs evince that it had not its Origination from any either casual or meer natural course of things But by the Power and Will of a most wise intelligent bountiful free and powerful Being who according to his Wisdom and Goodness first gave being to Man yea and all other things secundùm intentionem beneplacitum suae voluntatis And since it is apparently necessary for any Man that will admit the first production of Mankind to be totally in another Method than now and since they that will suppose a natural production of Man at first must necessarily suppose a different production from that which now obtains And since no more is asserted by those that suppose its Origination by the Will Power and Institution of Almighty God this latter Supposition is much more reasonable and explicable than theirs that suppose the first Origination natural yet totally different from what now it is which is the great thing I intend in this long process touching the Origination of Man CAP. VII Touching the Matter of Fact it self whether de facto there hath been any such Origination of Mankind or of any perfect Animal either Natural or Casual THis I propounded as a distinct Inquiry at the first namely Whether or how far forth we have any Evidence of Fact touching any such casual or natural production of perfect Animals but especially of Man But the truth is that this is but an Appendix to the former Chapter for if there be any credible Instance of any such Production all or any reasoning against the possibility thereof is but vain for what hath been naturally or casually may be again But on the other side if in all the Successions of the Ages of the World there hath not been any Experience or credible Instance of any such Production but contrarywise since Mankind was first upon the Earth both Mankind and all perfect Animals have had their being by natural Procreation and Generation by conjunction of Sexes it is a frenzy for any Man that pretends to Reason to suppose a natural possibility of that to be either from a casual or meer natural Cause which never had any Instance of its being or existence in such a manner The World hath now upon the shortest Account lasted above 5600 Years and within the compass of these Ages of the World there have been in many Nations especially among the Egyptians and Grecians Men of great Wisdom and Understanding and singular Industry to search into the History of Nature and many of them have had great opportunities to know very much therein and since their times especially the generality of the wiser and more inquisitive sort of Men being allarmed by the Writings of those that went before them have made it their business to search yet farther and the Learned in all Ages have left the Essays of their Learning Reason and Observation to succeeding Ages and if any Prodigy or considerable Production hath happened in their times they have sent us the News of it But never in all the Ages of the World since those 5600 Years hath there been any credible Relation either of the casual or natural production of a Horse or a Dog much less of a Man or a Woman happening within the compass of that time abating some Poetical Fictions and Fables that have no colour of any Authentick History or Authority And therefore Scaliger well saith Exercit. 193. Si bos aliquando ex putri ortus cur post hominum memoriam ex ejusmodi procreatione nullus extitit and therefore Aristotle the wisest Pagan Philosopher that ever wrote and the strictest observer and searcher into Nature even upon the account of Experience and Reason tells us Lib. 3. de Gen. Animal cap. ult that there never hath been nor can be according to the Rules of Nature any such Production though by way of Supposition that it some times had been he gives us that Hypothesis of it that seemed to him most likely And upon this very account and partly because he was not acquainted with the Truths of God or at least because he was not willing to acknowledge any other Original of things but by Nature he took up the Opinion of his Predecessor Ocellus touching the Eternity of the World and of Mankind in it and so absolved the difficulty of the Manner of the Origination of Mankind by denying it And therefore we have no reason to believe any such thing since we find nothing in any Authentick History of any Man or perfect Animal since the first Being of Man upon the Earth hath been thus produced abating the Fables of Poets touching the production of Men and Women out of Stones by Deucalion and Pyrrha cast over their heads the Serpents Teeth sowed by Cadmus the production of Castor and Pollux out of an Egg and those forlorn Fables of Beregardus of the Green Man found in England in the Den of a Wolf 500 years since the Blew and Red Men of Rabbi Elcha that came out of the Mountains of Armenia And therefore for want of any credible or particular Instances of any such production Caesalpinus supposeth that they are in some unknown Mountains between the Tropicks where the Heat of the Sun is more constant fervent and equable than in Climates remoter from the Equinoctial though he neither doth nor can give any Instance of such a production there or elsewhere To excuse this unexperienced Notion and the difficulty of assigning any Instance thereof they allude these ensuing Apologies 1. That these Productions cannot be but under some notable Conjunction or Position of the Heavenly Bodies which may be accommodate to such Productions which Positions or Conjunctions not happening but after vast and distant Revolutions the Experiment it self can rarely happen and by length of time before the like Revolution return it is forgotten 2. That those Productions could not be but in Matter excellently prepared
of the Earth These are procured every Year whether there be any need of them or not and possibly sometimes in greater numbers than is convenient for this inferior World And although it be true that the Divine Power doth intend or remit or manage these Productions secundùm regimen consilium voluntatis yet it is most evident these Productions are ordinary animal and natural without choice or design in inanimate Nature If therefore these Productions be natural and periodical every Year why should there not be as well productions of Men or perfect Brutes if it were purely natural as well as Frogs and Flies since the former may be of more use especially in many desolate places than always the latter How many great and vast Islands and Continents are there especially in Armenia which have no considerable number of Inhabitants if any at all to people them In Ireland there are great store of Wolves and so there were anciently in England till they were destroyed by the Industry of the Inhabitants in Ireland their increase is by propagation without any new production in England they cannot increase by propagation because here are none How comes it to pass that Nature doth not produce new Wolves in England as well as Frogs Adders Hornets and Wasps If it be said that Nature neglects it because they are noxious as this is to make Nature an intelligent Agent so it answers not the difficulty For why doth she then not destroy the Species in Ireland upon the same account But this is but a vanity Nature as well intends the existence of a Wolf as of a Sheep where the means of its production is equal though Mankind prefer the latter as more useful to him If any thing therefore of this deliberative nature be to be found in the voluntary and intentional Regiments of things of this kind it is to be attributed to the great and supreme Rector of the World who doth work according to Counsel Wisdom and Will Upon the whole matter therefore I conclude That as well by the reason of the thing and upon true natural congruity as also de facto and upon experimental Observations Mankind no nor the perfect Animals are not produced nor producible by any meer natural Cause as at this day or in any Age or Time since their first Creation otherwise than by a natural production which is the Truth asserted by the Great Verulam in his 9 th Century in fine As for the Heathen Opinion which was That upon great Mutations of the World perfect Creatures were first ingendred of Concretion as well as Frogs Worms and Flies and such like we know it to be vain but if any such thing should be admitted discoursing according to Sense it cannot be except you admit a Chaos first and a commixture of Heaven and Earth for the Frame of the World once in order cannot effect it by any Excess or Casualty And as thus neither Casualty nor bare Nature cannot originate Mankind or any perfect Animal ex putri so much less can Art The Chymists tell us that by re-union of separate Principles of Vegetables they will in a Glass revive a Vegetable of the same species at least in figure and effigies this hath been pretended but I could never hear any Man speak it that saw it done But never was any so mad except Paracelsus that could ever pretend to make up a Sensible Being much less the Humane Nature Paracelsus vainly and falsly pretended to the raising of an Homunculus but yet not without the help of those Naturales geniturae utriusque sexus wherein notwithstanding he lyed as he did in many things else which he never could effect notwithstanding his vain boasting of his Skill Upon the whole Matter therefore I conclude That the Origination of Mankind or of the inferior perfect Animals neither was nor could be the Effect of Humane Art or Skill as Paracelsus nor of Chance or Casualty as Epicurus nor of Nature as Cardanus Caesalpinus and some other Recreants in Religion and Philosophy But it was the free powerful and wonderful Work of the God of Nature who made all things by his Power and Wisdom and having made them lodged in them and for them that pre-ordained Law of their Creation and Existence which we commonly call Nature That Nature indeed is the Law or Rule instituted and implanted by the wise and glorious God in things when made but in the first Effection of Mankind God Almighty not Nature was the Author As in my Watch the Law and Rule of its Motion is the Constitution and Position of its Parts by the Hand and Mind of the skilful Artist but the Author or Efficient of my Watch is the Artist himself and not that Motion that is as it were the Law or Rule of the Engin. SECT IV. CAP. I. Concerning the last Opinion attributing the Origination of Mankind to the immediate Power and Will of Almighty God IN the foregoing Section and Chapters I have performed these things 1. I have removed the Supposition of an Eternal Existence of the Humane Species as altogether incredible and indeed impossible 2. I have established consequently this Truth That the Species humana had a beginning and this I have done principally upon natural Evidence of the incompossibility of an Eternal Existence of successive Generations 3. I have considered those Evidences of Fact or Moral Evidences of the Inception of Mankind and removed such as seem more fallible and less concludent and subjoined such as seem to be of greater weight 4. Among these of the latter sort I have considered the general Tradition thereof both of the unlearned and learned part of Mankind wherein among others I have considered the Opinion of those Famous Sects of Philosophers the Platonists Epicureans Peripateticks and Stoicks 5. Though I have made use of their common Suffrage in order to the Proof of the Origination of Mankind yet I have not allowed all their several Notions or Hypothesis touching the Method or Manner of their admitted Origination of the Humane Nature And therefore 6. I having thus established the Thesis in general I have descended to the Examination of the particular Hypotheses taken up by various Philosophers touching the same Origination And those I have distributed into these three Ranks 1. Those that suppose an accidental or casual Production of Mankind which was principally the Opinion of the Epicureans This Opinion I have examined and rejected as vain 2. Those that suppose this Production to be Natural or by the bare Concurrence of Natural Causes as Avicen Cardan and some others which I have likewise examined and rejected as utterly inevident and false 3. There remains therefore the third Opinion that attributes the Origination of Mankind to the immediate Power and Beneplacitum of the Supreme Intellectual Being namely Almighty God and this was the Opinion of divers of the Platonists and Stoicks This Opinion is in the general true and agreeth not only with the Divine
Doctrine of Moses but with the exactest Measure and Rule of Reason and the Light of Nature it self and as it is utterly impossible that Mankind should be without a beginning so it is utterly inconceptible that he should have any other Original but this But although this general Supposition be thus consonant to Truth and the Light of Reason yet since the Manner of this Origination of Mankind by the Power of God depends meerly upon His own Beneplacitum which might put forth and exert this Act of His Power Wisdom and Goodness in the production of Mankind according to His good Pleasure and the Arbitrium of His own Will And since Mankind having their Existence after this production could never by his own Sense perceive or understand perfectly the Manner of his own production and consequently the particular Method or Manner thereof could neither be attained by Humane Experience nor Ratiocination we must necessarily either be utterly ignorant of the Manner and Order of the Divine Procedure in the Origination of Mankind or we must know it only by Divine or at at least Angelical Revelation and not otherwise So that though the general Thesis of the Origination of Mankind by Almighty God be a Conclusion deducible by Reason partly by the remotion of all other means as incompatible and insufficient for such a production and partly by the observation of the Events and Effects in Nature yet that this production of Mankind was in this or that particular manner is a Truth distinctly cognoscible only by Revelation And hence it came to pass that those great Searchers into Truth among the Heathens being either not acquainted with the History of Moses or not acquainted with the Divine Authority by which it was written either delivered their Thesis generally that Almighty God produced Mankind by His Power and Will not explicating the particular manner thereof or if they attempted a particular Explication of the manner they ran out into very uncertain various and contradictory Explications thereof which must necessarily be the consequence of such particular determinations where Man hath not sufficient light to guide and direct him Zeno Citicus the Founder and Prince of the Sect of the Stoicks a wise and a good Man contented himself with this general Assertion touching this matter as it is delivered us by Censorinus in Die natali cap. 4. Zenon Citicus Stoicae sectae conditor principium humano generi ex novo mundi constitutum putavit primosque homines ex solo adminiculo Divini ignis id est Dei providentia genitos Plato as far as we can collect his Opinion out of his Timeus attributes the Origination of Mankind to the immediate Causality of an Intelligent Nature But going further into particulars falls into conjectures attributing the Effection of the Soul unto the Great God but the Fabrication of the Body to the Dii ex Deo or Angels it seems according to the Tradition of the Egyptians And this hath been ordinarily the unhappiness of Mankind without the light and guidance of Divine Revelation that if they have at any time happened upon some sound and substantial Truth they commonly fix unto it Explications and Additions of their own which many times by their inevidence absurdity or incongruity draw in question the Truth it self to which they are appendicated Therefore to settle and fix and quiet the Minds of Men touching their own first Origination and the Origination of this World it hath pleased the Divine Wisdom and Goodness by the Hand of Moses to reveal unto Mankind not only that the World and Mankind had their Original and that they had their Original from Almighty God as its Efficient both of the Matter and Form thereof but also he hath therein declared the Series Order and Method of the production of all Things It is true the two former namely That the World had an Inception and had an Inception from God is a Truth that by the diligent Improvement of natural Light and Reason is attainable but the Manner and Order of this Effection is as before is said discoverable only by Divine Revelation But yet though the Manner thereof is not discernable barely by the light of Nature or Reason without the help of Divine Revelation yet that Method and Manner once revealed as it stands so revealed to us by Moses carries a very great congruity to Reason which though it cannot at first discover the Method or Order yet it cannot choose but suffragate to the reasonableness and convenience thereof being so discovered I shall therefore in what follows do these things 1. I shall give an Account of that Method of the Formation of all things and particularly of Mankind as it is rendred to us by Moses 2. I shall shew the reasonableness and congruity of the Scheme of Moses touching the Effection of Mankind both in the general and particular notion thereof and the prelation that it justly hath above all other the Hypotheses of other Men. 3. I shall deduce from the whole certain evident and necessary Conclusions against those that deny the Existence and Providence of Almighty God 4. I shall also deduce some Conclusions evincing the Reasonableness of an intended End for Mankind or the Design of Almighty God in his Creation and what may be reasonably concluded touching the same CAP. II. The Mosaical History touching the production of the World and of Mankind and the Congruity and Reasonableness of the Mosaical Hypothesis IN that short yet admirable History of the Creation delivered by Moses in the first Chapter of Genesis he gives us an exact Account of the Origination both of Mankind and of the whole World and therein and thereby he resolves all the Doubts and Difficulties which troubled the Heads of the wise and learned Heathen touching the same and resolves and extricates all those inconveniences and perplexities under which the various Hypotheses of the Heathen World infinitely laboured 1. He resolves us That the World in that Constitution as now it is was not Eternal no not that part to which the Ancients attributed Eternity most namely the Heavens whereby all the Foundations of Aristotle Ocellus Lucanus and others touching the same and all their subtilties and struglings to support that Eternity and to deliver themselves from those inconveniences that attended that Supposition are in a few words rendred vain and frivolous 2. He resolves us That as the World in its present form and structure was not eternal so neither was the matter thereof eternal which troubled Plato so much who though he supposed an inception of the formation of things into their present order yet could not digest an origination of Matter 3. He gives us an account That Time or successive Duration was not eternal but had a beginning and that Motion whose Measure Time was had a beginning before which it was not because no Mobile was more ancient than the beginning of Time 4. He gives us an account of a kind of production that
the learned Philosophers knew not a production ex nihilo by Creation by the Almighty God which breaks and tears in pieces all those petite Axioms and superstructions thereupon which they had been long time in weaving and by which they formed much of their Philosophical Speculation As the necessity of eternal Matter because nothing is made of nothing the necessity of eternal Motion because every Motion must have some Motion anteceding the nature of possibilities which and many more being desumed from Generation as it stood in the setled course of Nature and fitted and appropriated to it are no way applicable to the first Origination and Production of Being by Creation 5. He gives us the true Efficient of Being and the manner of his Operation namely Almighty God a most wise intelligent and free Efficient and one that in the first production of things did not work per modum naturae or necessarily or as a natural or necessary Cause as the Sun produceth Light but per modum intentionis volitionis electionis for he was before he created his Creation of the World was in the beginning namely of Time and created Nature but he was before that beginning namely without all beginning But to pursue a little more distinctly the order of the Creation of things positively and not barely negatively the Mosaical History touching the Creation seems to be as followeth 1. That in the beginning the first Apex of Time which began with the Being of Matter Almighty God created in one indivisible moment the first and common Matter of all this Mundus aspectabilis the Heaven and Earth Vers 1. 2. That in that first Creation and for some continuance of time or duration after this common Matter of all things lay indistinct and confused together without any order or distinction expressed by those words Gen. 1.2 And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep And in this common Mass and Chaos were contained the constituent Matter of the Celestial and Elementary World Which salves the Dispute touching the disparity of the Matter of the Heavenly and Elementary World which appears here to be the same in kind 3. That this common Matter had these deficiencies in it in and for some time after its production 1. It was without Form and Order 2. It was without Light 3. It was without Activity Life or Motion and 4. All that Superficies which it had bore the greatest analogy to Water though in that vast Abyss there was a confused mixture of other Matter 4. That the Spirit of God moved upon the face of this great Abyss incubavit super abyssi faciem What this Spirit of God was whether the essential Spirit the Third Person in the Holy Trinity or whether it were a created Spirit the Spirit of Nature or as some will have it the Anima mundi created by God to digest inspire and communicate an active nature to this confused Moles as some earnestly contend or whether this Spirit of God were any other than the emanation of his Power I shall not determin But whatever it was this Motion of the Spirit upon the face of this Abyss had these great Intentions and Effects upon this confused Moles 1. It derived into it motive Powers or Energies whereby the parts of it were agitated or moved or at least rendred more obsequious to the agitation and motion of that active nature which was afterward created namely Light or Fire 2. It did gradually digest and separate its parts whereby they became more capable of disposition and order according to their several designed and destined places positions and uses 3. It did transfuse into this stupid dead and unactive Moles certain activity and vital influence whereby it did in general affect that which Aristotle calls the common Life of Bodies namely Motion and the several parts thereof were impregnated with several kinds of vital influence varied and diversified according to their several parts and uses As the gentle heat of the Hen seems to communicate a vital influence to the Egg only with this difference that the heat of the Hen seems to excite a pre-existing vital principle in the Egg rather than to give it But the incubation of this Spirit of God did not so much excite as give a new vital power to the several parts of the Chaos as the vital Soul in Nature communicates vitality and activity to the Seminal Particles And this gives us an account how Activity and active Forms Powers or Qualities were derived into Matter namely not from Matter it self or such which is meerly unactive and passive but from another Principle namely the vigorous influx of this Spirit that moved upon the face of the Water Whereby it is apparent that the Vis Vigor Activity or Energy that is in Natural Bodies and in the Universe as it came from no other Principle than Matter so it is an Entity of a distinct nature from Matter or material Substance simply as such and indeed an Entity of a nobler extraction and nature than bare Matter or material Substance So that in this Description hitherto containing the first Stamina or Rudiments of the Universe we have 1. The Efficient thereof Almighty God 2. The manner of his efficiency herein namely Creation ex non praeexistentibus 3. The Matter of the Universe thus by Creation produced the confused Moles containing in it self the Matter of all things 4. The disposition or rather indisposition of this Matter dark stupid and unactive 5. The plastick formative digesting Principle that pervaded it the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the Waters Totósque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem The first Rudiments of the World being thus laid and thus prepared and influenced by the powerful Energy and Incubation of this Spirit of God this divinely inspired Historian gives us in the next place the next succeeding order of Almighty God producing and effectually raising out of this Matter the greater Integrals of the Universe namely the Etherial and Elementary Nature Vers 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. As in the order of Reason it was but fit and convenient that the production and influencing of the Matter should precede the division and distribution and orderly disposing thereof so it was equally reasonable and convenient that the greater and more extensive parts thereof should be first laid out and disposed into their several stations and orders before the smaller and lesser portions of Nature should be either produced or setled and that the simple parts of this great Chaos should be first extracted before the mixed and compounded Existences should be setled For as the Chaos and common Lump of Matter was as it were the first Matter of all things so the more simple and uncompounded parts thereof the Etherial and Elementary Natures were as it were the Materia secunda or proxima of the ensuing Productions and in conformity to this first Divine Ordination of things
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
interspersed in it and that fruitful Water which remained conjoined with it 4. That this Production was not by any formed antecedent Seed dispersed in it but immediately the Vegetable Individuals were antecedent to any Semina that might be productive of it and according to the true Method of Existence of Things in their first Origination the Herb and Tree were the Cause the Original of the Seed the Seed was not the Original of the Herb or Tree though in the secondary production by generation the Semen precedes the thing generated according to the Order settled after the first production of things which doth reasonably solve the Dispute of Plutarch Whether the Hen were before the Egg or the Egg before the Hen And as the Supposition that the first Principle in the Origination either of Vegetables or Sensitives to be ex praeexistente semine seems incongruous and unreasonable I mean as to perfect Vegetables or Animals so it is idle and needless For certainly the same Infinite Power that could form a Semen univocum to be the immediate Principle of an Animal or Vegetable in the primordial Origination of them could with equal facility form perfect Individuals of the several Species and endue them with a prolifick power of propagation of their kinds by seminal Principles decised from them and no lesser Power and Wisdom was required to mold up a specifical operative Semen than to frame the Individual or Species to be produced by it 5. The Supreme Power of the Great Efficient of Vegetables as well as Animals was seen in this in that it determined their Species which Matter alone nor any Universal Cause purely natural could never have done in respect of their universal common indeterminate Nature which could never fix nor settle in any determinate specifick production Therefore in that the Individuals of Vegetables Fish Fruits and Birds as well as Men were made after their kinds it ascertains us that this Origination of things was by a Wise Free Intelligent Being full of Power and Wisdom acting secundum intentionem electionem voluntatem 6. By virtue of this Divine Intention Ordination and Command these three things were settled touching Vegetable Natures which is also true concerning Animals as to the two latter of them at least 1. The Earth was endued with prolifick vital Energy whereby it was enabled with the vigorous assistance of the Fiery Nature included in it and accompanying it to put out many spontaneous productions of some ordinary Vegetables and probably of some Insects and to exhibit a succus nutritionis to support all kind of Vegetables and many Animals in their vital existence 2. The Individuals of Vegetables of all sorts as also of Animals Fishes Fowls Insects and Man were in a moment of time produced in their full and perfect complement laden with their Fruit and Seed without ruining the natural gradual process of Maturation which was to ensue in the course of future Generations and this could not be done either by force of any natural fecundity that was then in the Earth or the bare strength of the formed natural accommodation of Light or Heat for though it be true that the natural fecundity and heat of some Climates and also artificial fecundations of Matter may conduce much to the acceleration of Maturity yet it is hot imaginable that these could be ripened into the full growth and burden of Fruit in the period of a Day but by virtue of a supernatural Efficient and Power namely the Energy of the Divine Command Germinet terra c. 3. The third admirable Demonstration of the Immediateness of the Divine Power Wisdom and Ordination is this That Vegetables as also Animals and Mankind were endued with a Power Faculty and a certain Law fixed and radicated in them to transmit their specifical Nature to succeeding Individuals by propagation and seminal traduction whereby their Species might be preserved and this was done by force of the Divine Institution and Benediction the Vegetables were produced with their various Semina in them ready formed for their several specifical productions in their full and perfect stature quasi per saltum and endued with a prolifick power of multiplication of their kind by virtue of that Soveraign Institution and Commission Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the Earth Gen. 1.22 28. 2. I come now to the Fourth Days Work Verse 14 15 16 And God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser to rule the Night and he made the Stars also It is true what I before observed that first Matter of all things corporeal was made and this only was properly Creation or making out of nothing and all corporeal things that were made within the compass of the Six Days was Creation only per analogiam for it was only separation and distribution of that Matter which before existed in the Materia Chaotica or else an elevation or rectification of some parts of that Matter or a composition out of it or of some parts of it it was effectio or creatio secunda not creatio prima and though the Word Create be applied to some things that were thus effected as Vers 21. yet it is not purely creatio prima or ex nihilo but creatio secunda ex praeexistente materia Now What was the Matter of these Heavenly Bodies the Sun the Moon the Stars for in this Fourth Day all the Matter of the Chaos was before distributed into these four Simpler Natures Light or Fire Air or Aether Water and Earth The first Matter of these Heavenly Luminaries therefore was the common Chaotica materia but the Materia proxima out of which they seem to be constituted were principally those two great Natures which were separated from the Chaos the first day viz. The Fiery Nature imbodied in a suitable Vehicle and the second day the Aether or Aery part these two great Integrals of the first Universe were far greater than all the rest of the Chaotick Matter and therefore might very well subminister the principal and predominant Matter for those great and vast Luminaries the fixed Stars the most whereof are far greater than the Globe of Earth and Water But to the Constitution of the Planetary Bodies which seem to be more gross than the Stars there was a greater proportion of more gross and feculent Matter added to the Fiery and Aerial Particles in their coagulation though in some of them more in some less according to the various degrees of subtilty and grosness of their constitution And these goodly Bodies being formed and molded it should seem that that great and mighty flaming Light which was made or produced the first day and for the two ensuing days had rolled about the rest of the Chaotick Mass was by the Glorious God distributed into those several Heavenly Vessels of the Sun and Stars who succeeded unto and as it were inherited that primitive Light now divided among them according to their several measures
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
others arising ad plurimum ex ovo 2. In the great variety of their bodily composure the texture of the Bodies of Brutes being far more curious and fuller of variety than others 3. Ad plurimum the animal Faculties of the brutal Soul are far more perfect than those of others their Phantasies and Memories refined they have greater and more lively Images of Reason and more capable of Discipline than either Fowls or Fishes Now touching the production of Animals whether Terrestrial Aquatil or Volatil we may observe that they are in the ordinary course of Nature of two kinds Some which arise among us no otherwise nor in any other manner than ex semine which we usually call perfect Animals and arising by univocal generation others there are that be imperfect arising spontaneously in the Earth Air and Water as Worms Flies and some sort of small Fishes and watry Insects This being premised I shall now set down some Suppositions which seem to me truly to explicate the production of these Animals which are these that follow 1. Although the predominat Matter in the constitution of Fowls and Fishes were Water and in the constitution of Terrestrial Animals were Earth yet that Water nor that Earth were not simply such but were mixed and impregnated with the other Elementary Principles 2. That all the Species of perfect Animals of all kinds were constituted in their several Sexes in the fifth and sixth day of the Creation but yet we must not think that all those kinds which we now see were at first created but only those primitive and radical Species How many sorts of Animals do we now see that yet possibly are not of the same Species but have accidental diversifications as we may observe in the several Shapes and Bodies of Dogs Sheep Pyes Parots which possibly at first were not so diversified some variation of the same Species happen by mixt Coition some by diversity of Climates and other accidents 3. That the first Individuals in their distinction of Sexes were not produced according to those Methods of Nature which they now hold nor ex aliquo praeexistente semine but by the immediate efficiency of Almighty God out of the Matter prepared or designed for their Constitution 4. That they were made in the first instant of their Constitution in the full perfection and complement and stature of their individual and specifical nature and did not gradually increase according to the procedure of animal augmentation at this day and the reason is because those gradual augmentations arise from the Seminal Principle which gradually expands it self to the full growth but here they arose not from any such Seminal Principle but the Hen was before the Egg. 5. There was no mean portion of Time between their Formation and Animation but both were together they were living Beings and living Souls and living Creatures as soon as they were formed 6. That consequently the Formation of the Body of these Animals was not as now it is by the Formative Power of the Soul which must needs be gradual and successive as we see it is and must be at this day in all natural Generations but the Formation and Information of them was by virtue of the immediate Fiat Determination or Ordination of the Divine Will 7. That in their Origination the Species of these Animals were determined neither from the Matter nor from the universal Cause the Celestial Heat but by the Divine Intention and Ordination 8. That by the same Divine Ordination and Intention the Faculties specifically belonging to every Individual were annexed and alligated to it especially the power conficiendi semen prolificum speciei propagandae ex mutua utriusque fexus conjunctione 9. That although by the Divine Power and Ordination all these perfect Animals did arise from the Earth yet that Prolifick Power of propagating of them was never delegated or committed to the Earth or any 〈◊〉 other Casual or Natural Cause but only to the Seminal Nature derived from their Individuals and disposed according to that Law of propagation of their kind alligated as before to their specifical and individual nature And therefore it its perfectly impossible that any of these perfect Animals can be casually or naturally or accidentally produced by any Preparation of Matter or by any Influence of the Heavens without the miraculous interposition of Almighty Power because the Earth or those Influences have not this power concredited to them but their production is irresistibly alligated to the Semen innatum and conjunction of Sexes the Earth can as naturally produce a Sun or a Star as it can a Man or a perfect Animal 10. Whether those imperfect or equivocal Animals were created or no it is not altogether clear possibly some might be then produced whose kinds were likewise producible spontaneously after but it seems beyond contradiction that all were not 11. As by virtue of that general Commission or intrinsick Prolifick Power given to the Earth to produce spontaneous Herbs as Grass c. it doth naturally produce such Herbs so by virtue of that common Commission given by Almighty God to the Earth and Water and to that Spirit of Nature diffused in it it doth naturally produce those equivocal insect Animals which arise out of them The same Law of the Creator that hath eternally excluded or rather not committed to the Earth or Water the power of producing perfect Animals hath given and committed to them by concurrence of that Vital Heat of the Sun and the common Spirit of Nature residing in them a Productive Power of some equivocal insect Animals in Matter fitly prepared Touching therefore the Origination of Insects I shall declare my thoughts as followeth 1. That by virtue of the Divine Fiat the Earth at first did produce some Individuals of several kinds which is imported under the words Every creeping thing after its kind 2. That as I have before shewn the greatest part of the Insects that are commonly produced and seem to be spontaneous productions are yet the univocal and seminal productions of Insects of the same kind 3. That yet it is a certain Truth that some Insects are and have an Origination since the first Creation without any formal univocal seminal production some out of Putrefaction some out of Vegetables some by very strength and fracedo of the Earth and Waters quickned by the vigorous Heat of the Sun which infuseth into some Particles of Matter well prepared and digested a kind of Vital and Seminal Principle Some have thought the very Sun and Earth are endued with a Vital yea and with a kind of Sensitive Nature and thereby enabled as it were to spin some prepared Matter into vital and sentient Semina for those insect Animals But we shall not need to trouble our selves with that incertain Speculation we are sure that the greatest part of the Superficies of the Earth being daily and hourly impregnated with the corrupted and dissolved Particles of Vegetables and Animals is
falsis habeas ea quae vera sunt vice versa pro veris ea quae falsa sunt and gives this Example Suppose a Child of a ready Wit whose Mother died shortly after his Birth should go alone with his Father into some uninhabited Island where he was bred up without the sight of any Beast or Woman and there should inquire of his Father Quomodo qua ratione facti sumus existentiámque nostram accipimus cui pater Unusquisque nostrum generatur in ventre cujusdam individui speciei nostrae nobis simillimi quod foemina vocatur in ventre autem existentes exiguum admodum primo corpusculum habemus movemus nutrimur paulatim crescimus vivimus donec ad certam quandam magnitudinem venimus tum aperitur inferius in ventre porta quaedam eximus nec tamen postea crescere desinimus usque dum ad hanc circiter quam vides quantitatem pervenimus Puer ille orbus statim iterum quaeret dum ibi parvi fuimus ibi viximus nos movimus crevimus an quoque comedimus bibimus ac per nares respiravimus an excrementa ejecimus respondetur ei quod non ipse sine dubio hoc incipiet negare demonstrationes extruere ex impossibilibus argmentando ab ente perfecto dicet quilibet nostrum si per unicam horam careat respiratione mori cogimur quomodo credi potest aliquem in utero clauso per tot menses vivere potest And so goes on with the young Man forming very strong Arguments against this most certain Truth meerly by the misapprehension of Inferences from the nature of things in their perfect Existence to the nature of things in their Original It is true Men must be wary and considerate before they conclude against the Frame and Order of things as they appear in Nature because otherwise Men may take liberty to conjecture any thing which is certainly unbecoming a Philosopher especially who pretends to govern himself by the Phaenomena of Nature and it is that which we have before condemned But on the other side to suppose that impossible in the Origination of things which we find not in things already setled is too hasty and rash a Conclusion especially when we are driven to confess another kind of Origination of Mankind than now is and do not find any so probable and so free from absurd Consequences so ancient so convincingly delivered as that by the Divine Historian Moses And this is so much the rather credible because it is impossible to conceive that Man could have his first Origination but from an intelligent most wise and powerful Efficient unless a Man shall offer violence to his own Reason and certainly to such an Efficient such a Production is not only possible but sutable to be supposed 5. We have here prescribed and determined the Law and Means of the natural production of the Individuals of Mankind in their future production according to that Method and Mode which hath in all Ages ever since by the course of Nature been observed namely by Propagation by mutual Conjunction of their Sexes though this could not be the Method of their first production And this Prolifick Power of production of Mankind by successive natural generation was by the Virtue and Efficacy of the Divine Institution and Benediction given to Mankind in his first Creation and by virtue thereof that Power and Faculty is continued in them and traduced to the succeeding Individuals to this day and accordingly Virtute divinae ordinationis institutionis uterque sexus appetitum illum procreandi innatum habent membra vasa huic facultati subservientia hucusque obtinent diversitate sexuum eidem officio necessariâ gaudent quod non vel cafus vel stupida coeca natura obtinere potuerunt sine ordinatione appropriatione institutione summi sapientissimi numinis ejúsque volitionis determinationnis And as this Law of future Generations was thus given to Mankind and quasi alligata to them so it is exclusive of any other either casual or natural way of Generation except it be by Miracle and therefore we must now suppose a possibility of an utter abrogation of this natural Law if we should suppose any other kind of natural production of Mankind should after this first production of the Humane Nature be possible We may with as fair a Supposition imagin that a Man should be produced by the natural conjunction of Sheep or of Lions or a Star be produced ex putri materia terrestri as to suppose a Man to be produced accidentally casually or naturally in any other Method than this Divine Law of Nature fixed in the Humane Nature by the Divine Institution hath determined unless as great a supernatural Miracle should happen by the Divine immediate Power as did in the Conception of the Messias 6. As subservient and necessary to this Law of future Generation we have here the distinction of Sexes Male and female created he them This distinction and conjunction of Sexes in order to the propagation of Mankind was part of that Law and Order that the Wise God instituted for this end And certainly there needs not any clearer Argument that the production of Mankind was not a Work of Chance or blind necessary Nature but a Work of a most Wise Intelligent Powerful Being that adapted the discrimination of Sexes to the propagation of Mankind either Sex without the other being in Nature utterly unprofitable and unuseful to that end without which the succession of Mankind must have been determined in the first Individual And it is no less evidence of the continual active Providence of that Great and Wise God that the succession of both Sexes is continued in that equal proportion as that there is no grand disparity in the propagation of Individuals of either Sex This diversity of Sexes was not in the same Individual as if Adam had been Androgyna or one double Person conjoyned or continued consisting of both Sexes till they were after divided and severed as Plato in Symposio and many of the ancient and modern Jews have thought but the first Creation of Adam in virili sexu being perfected the production of Eve ex latere Adami was the very same Day of his Creation miraculously performed by Almighty God for the Words Male and female created he them referr to the whole entire complement of the Creation of Man which was not till the Formation of Eve There may be something mysterious in this business of the Manner of Eves Formation which may be hard to unriddle It is enough that God Almighty before the end of the Sixth Day formed both Sexes of Mankind in order to the common help of each other and the propagation of the future Generations of Mankind the History therefore of the Formation of Eve though mentioned in the second Chapter and after the Benediction of the Seventh Day must necessarily be referred to the Sixth Day wherein
it is expresly affirmed that both Sexes in distinct Persons were then created Male and female created he them and such transpositions are not unusual neither in the Holy History nor in other Histories The first Chapter gives the brief and orderly Relation of the whole Series of Times and Things done in them and the second Chapter is only a fuller and more explicit Declaration of some things that are briefly and compendiously delivered in the first Chapter as appears not only by the Relation of the Formation of Eve but divers other passages relating to what was transacted in the first Chapter 7. The Formation of Man was the last Work of the Creation the last Work of the last Day and the Reasons of this Order seem to be these 1. Because in the Method of the Creation of Sublunary Natures Almighty God proceeded from the less to the more perfect and curious Parts of the visible Creation as first he made Vegetables then Fishes and Birds then Brutes and Man in the last place as the most perfect and containing not only the Faculties of Vegetables and Animals and that in a more perfect nature but also a superadded intellectual spiritual Soul So he was the noblest part of the Creation at least of this lower World 2. Because Mankind should be furnished to his hand with all things convenient and useful to his existence and operation as the Grass was provided before the Brutes were created so before the Creation of Mankind Fruits of the Earth were provided for his food and delight a Paradise for his entertainment and employment of his Senses and Industry Idleness being not indulged even in Paradise and the goodly Furniture of the visible World both Celestial and Sublunary to raise his Admiration Contemplation and Delight 3. Because God Almighty intended him a liberal Patrimony which he would furnish and compleat in all its numbers before Man was created and as soon as he had created him gave him this inferior World as his Usufructuary and Steward at least but yet withall gave him a subordinate dominion of that whereof he made him his Steward and this great Benefactor prepared this Gift of this inferior Terrestrial World to be ready for his Creature Man's reception as soon as he had a Being and accordingly gave it him with all its Furniture Gen. 1.28 29. 8. That Man was by Almighty God in his first Creation in a state of perfect Felicity and Immortality but under a condition of Obedience to the Divine Will Command and Law that he had implanted in his Mind and Conscience certain Principles of Moral Goodness and Righteousness which are the Original of those common Notions of Good and Evil as so many secret Byasses and Inclinations to the observance of the Good and avoidance of the Evil. And as even the inferior Animals have implanted in them secret Instincts and Tendences for the preservation and advance of their sensible individual and specifical natures so these implanted Notions and Moral Inclinations in the Mind of Man were therein lodged to guide and lead him in a conformity to his excellent Constitution and for the attainment of an intellectual and eternal Good and these though the vigour and brightness of them were much abated by his Fall yet were transmitted with his nature to his Descendents And this is the Original of those common Notions which yet remain in the Humane Nature though refracted and abated by the Fall of Man this is that common Light and Law of Nature which to this day in some measure prevails in the generality of Mankind to the Acknowledgment Adoration and Reverence of a Deity and Moral Righteousness this is that Law of Nature mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 1. written in the Hearts of Men wherby they do by Nature the things contained in the Law But of this I shall write somewhat fuller in the ensuing Chapter 9. Besides this Moral inscribed Law God Almighty for the tryal of Man's Obedience gave him a positive Law prohibiting the eating of the forbidden Fruit under pain of temporal and eternal Death and Curse and Man was left in the hands of his own liberty to obey or disobey it 10. That Man being left to the free liberty of his own Will though furnished with sufficient abilities to have obeyed Almighty God yet by the temptation of Satan his own sensual appetite and ambitious affectation violated his Maker's Law and broke that Condition upon which much of his Perfection and Happiness was conferred upon him and although he retained his Essentials namely his Essential Constitution this Spirituality and Immortality of his Soul his Faculties of Understanding and Will he thereby incurred these unhappy deprivations 1. A loss of the immortal state of his Composition being now obnoxious to the separation of Soul and Body 2. A very great abatement of that temporal Felicity he had in this Life and obnoxious to the everlasting separation from God with the Death of the Soul 3. An abatement and diminution of those Habits of Knowledge and Rectitude of Soul and a great weakning and decay of the vigour and activity of connatural implanted Notions or Inclinations 4. A great disorder in the due subordination of his Faculties and a great confusion and corruption prevailing upon his noble Faculties and weakning disordering and abasing them 5. An impair of that Sovereignty and Dominion over the Creatures who rebelled against Man as soon as he forsook his Maker 6. Diseases Disorders Weaknesses Sicknesses Harbingers and Forerunners of Death attaquing his Bodily Constitution 7. A transmission of these Hereditary Imperfections and Decays to his Posterity And herein and hereby we have an Account of that great Quaesitum among the Learned Heathen where yet for want of this Discovery by the Holy Scriptures they could never attain the full knowledge and reason namely the Original of Sin and Evil and those many Corruptions Defections and Miseries of Mankind And thus much concerning the Divine History of the Creation and Defection of Man CAP. IV. The Reasonableness of this Hypothesis of the Origination of the World and particularly of the Humane Nature and the great Advantages it hath above all other Hypotheses touching the same THat the World had a beginning of its Being at least in that order and consistence that it now holds I have shewed in the beginning of this Book Again if there could be any imaginable doubt or question whether the great Integrals of the World were eternal and without beginning yet I have shewed that Mankind or the successive Generations thereof ex ante genitis is in Nature and Reason impossible and in Fact and Experience apparently improbable and therefore that there were some common Parents of Mankind who had their beginning of existence and that in some other way than they are now produced All that have supposed an Origination of Mankind ex non genitis have admitted something either of Matter analogous to it out of which Mankind hath had such his Origination
been formed according to the established Law of the successive production of Mankind ex mixtione seminis utriusque sexus Nay the more considerate Pythagoreans and those Jews that held the Transmigration of Souls never supposed any transmigration into any spontaneous production of Man or Animal but only into such as proceeded ex univoca generatione and what hath never been done yea never supposed to have been done we have no reason to suppose possible to be done by any natural and finite Efficient for such these Souls must be whether they pre-existed or not And therefore though in the Resurrection the separated Soul is supposed to reassume his own Body again yet this seems not to be by any natural power residing in the Soul to form the Body and reunite it self to it but must be attributed to that Almighty Power of the Glorious God and to the working of His Mighty Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself and by the very self-same excess of power whereby he first created Man upon the Earth shall he form raise and reunite the Humane Nature in the Resurrection vid. 1 Cor. 15.1 Thess 4. Mat. 13. Mat. 24. Christ the Son of and raised himself but in the Resurrection the Dead shall be raised by the Power and Command of the Glorious God Secondly It is not supposed by those that the Souls of perfect Brutes had any existence antecedent to their first production for their Souls are not of a self-subsisting nature they cannot exist out of them but begin with them and dye with them so these in their first production could not arise by any such illapsus animarum into elementary Matter but we must attribute their primitive Formation or Creation to the Command of the Divine Will and so if we give them any Origination we shall upon this Supposition give them a nobler Origination and by a more immediate interposition of the Divine Power and Will than to that of Man which seems unreasonable As to the Second It is true the Platonists attributed an Universal Soul to the Universe the Anima mundi which though they sometimes suppose it a created Intelligent Nature yet in other places we shall find them attributing so great power and energy to it that it seems they made it to be no other than God himself But when they held their Supposition of an Anima mundi as a created Existence subordinate to Almighty God although they attribute many of the great Appearances of Nature both in their production and government to this Universal Spirit yet they dare not assert unto it the Efficiency of the first Original of Humane Nature by it and if they should yet this their Supposition would have this flaw in it that they take greater pains and run the hazard of more difficulties by supposing the Origination of Man from this Anima mundi than if they should with us suppose the immediate Origination by the Divine Power neither do they gain any thing by it But this I may possibly resume again hereafter But the Supposition whereof we took notice before is this That there is a threefold created Universal Nature viz. a Natura mentalis common to Men and Angels a Natura sensitiva common to Animals and a Natura ignea which is the common Principle of Vegetation And therefore as the communis natura ignea is dispersed through the Universe and by participation thereof to particles of Matter gives an existence to the Vegetables of several natures so the communication of the communis natura sensitiva might at first give an original to perfect Sensitives as perchance it now doth to insecta sponte nascentia so the participation of the Natura mentalis to some portions of elementary Matter may also give the origination of the first Men and Women in the World Two things I should say to this First Although it be true that the abstraction of the Understanding ranging the Souls of living things under these Distinctions and generical Notions hath given us the Notion of one common Mentalis natura and one common Sensitiva natura and one common Ignea natura yet it will be hard to prove that there are any such real common Natures really existing but in the Individuals thereof We have the common Notion of Natura animalis and yet never any Man could make out that there was any Animalis natura but what existed in the Individuals or that here ever was or can be really existing any Animal with it not determined in some more contracted existence than an Animal Secondly I must needs confess there is a fair probability of Reason offered by many Learned Men of this triplicity of existing common Natures and it carries a great analogy with many other Phaenomena in Nature and therefore I dare not generally deny it though the explication of the manner of their Existences their particular Natures and Uses be difficult But if it be admitted as possibly it may be that there is some common Element of Mental Nature another common Element of Sensitive Nature and another common Element of Ignea Natura and that the several Ranks of Beings Rational Sensitive and Vegetable participate of these respective Natures as their common Store or Element from whence they are derived and therefore for instance the Rational Soul in Man were a participation of that common Element or Stock of the Mentalis natura yet still we must go higher for the Origination of Mankind for this would be no other than as it were the Materia prima or communis of the Souls of Men. 1. Either this Natura mentalis is indivisible and communicated intirely without any distribution of several divided parts of it to all Men as the common Heat of the Sun is communicated to a thousand Men together and then all Men will have one common Soul and there will be no individuation nor principle of individuation between Mankind for the same universal indivisible Soul reasons and wills in every Man which would be unintelligible and absurd 2. Or to uphold Individuation in the Persons and Souls of Men this common Natura mentalis must be either truly several divided Souls with Origen's Mundus animarum or else though this common Nature be actually one at first yet it is divisible and potentially many and so the several Souls of several Men must be so many several Particles or Ramenta of this Universalis natura and either this portion thereof must be by the superior Activity of Almighty God or else it must have a kind of natural division of it self according to the division of Matter qualified and organized to receive it If the former still there is dignus vindice nodus for God Almighty must be called in to distribute and participate the portions of this Mental Nature if the latter then what shall become of the Individuation of the Soul after Death It will return back and be drowned as it were in the Natura mentalis or be
The admirable accommodation of Faculties with subministring Faculties and Organs subservient appropriate and convenient for their exercise For Instance Local Motion is necessary to Mankind and accordingly he is furnished with Animal Spirit Nerves Muscles Tendons and Limbs admirably contrived and destined and fitted to Local Motion The Intellective Faculty is furnished with the organical Fabrick of the Brain and the subordinate Power of Sense Phantasie and Memory to assist it in its exercise while it is in the Body Facultati generativae prolisicae subministrans facultas seminificationis ac organa eidem deservientia appetitus naturalis voluptas quaedam alliciens organa generationi dicata distinctio sexuum sine qua juxta legem in natura post primam humanae naturae formationem insitam hujusmodi speciei propagatio fieri nequivit The Digestive Faculty furnishing the Blood the Blood increasing the Body and supplying the Treasuries of the Spirits the Spirits again supplying and maintaining the Offices of the Faculties So that not only the Blood but the whole Corporeal and Animal Nature is in continued motion and mutual subserviency I might be endless in this Contemplation but because it is evident to any Man that considers and I design a larger discussion of this Business when I come to consider the Parts and Faculties of the Humane Nature I shall not give farther Instances therein And the Use that I make of it is this That although it might be supposed possible that either Chance or Nature might in some simple narrow things produce very curious Appearances as the Configurations of Asterites of Crystals of Salts in their several shapes yet when in such a complicated Nature as Man is consisting of so many various Parts various in their position nature and use there shall be found such an exact adaptation of every thing one to another as to serve the whole and every part this in the primordial Constitution and Formation must needs be the Work of a most wise intelligent powerful Being that operates secundùm intentionem appropriationem intelligentiam 2. Let us come then to those Appendices and relative Respects of other things to the Humane Nature we shall easily find in it this Consideration also the Footsteps and Evidences of an Intelligent Nature in the Constitution of him by that admirable accommodation of things without him of different nature from him to his use and convenience In the Operations or Works of Intelligent Agents we may easily see that according to the degree or perfection of such Intelligence there is variety in their Work or Production An Intelligent Agent that is but of a narrow Intelligence as his Prospect is commonly short and weak so his Work seldom attains more than a narrow and single End But if the Agent be of a large and comprehensive Intelligence and Wisdom his ends are great and most times various and complicated and the same Operation or Work may have divers many 〈◊〉 Ends and Uses Almighty God therefore being of infinite Wisdom and Power foresees and effects great and various Ends in one and the same Work or Operation Take for Instance that goodly Creature the Sun What a complication of excellent Ends and Uses there are in that glorious Body It is the Fountain communicating Light to the Earth the Air and all the Planetary Bodies it is that which derives Heat and is the great Instrument of deriving Fruitfulness and Fertility to the inferior World it distinguisheth Times and Seasons by its Motion it raiseth and digesteth and distributeth the Watry Meteors for the benefit of this inferior World and infinite more advantages of this kind And therefore it is the narrowness of our Understanding that when we see one excellent End or Usefulness in any thing to conclude that God Almighty intended no other And therefore it is too hasty and vain a Conclusion to think that the glorious Bodies of the Celestial Host were made meerly for the service of Man and it is also folly and presumption to conclude that even the things of this inferior World though principally designed for the use of Man were meerly and only destined for the service of Man Almighty God hath the Glory of his own Greatness and the Communication of his own Goodness as the great End of all his Works Yea and we have reason to think that even in these inferior Beings of this lower World which are delivered over to the use and service of Men God Almighty had other Ends that possibly we know not nay possibly in the Effection of the least minute Animal Almighty God intended a Communication of so much of his Goodness and Beneficence to it as might give it a kind of complacency and fruition suitable to the capacity of its Existence though subordinate to other Ends. And yet not only in these inferior Existences of this lower World but even in the Fabrick Order and Oeconomy of the superior World there is to be found an admirable accommodation of them one to another and to this Steward and Tenant of Almighty God of this inferior World called Man 1. If we look upon the Celestial World we have an admirable accommodation thereof to the convenience of Mankind it presents to his View and thereby to his Understanding the most noble Spectacle of the Celestial Bodies their Order Beauty Constancy Motion Light conducting to the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God it gives him an account of the progress and parts and succession of Time these are advantages that no Irrational Nature can make use of But the Influence of the Heavens are a common Benefit to Man and all Sublunary Natures but yet the inferior World seems in a great measure directed for the benefit of Mankind some in common to him and the Brutes as the Air for Respiration the Fire for Warmth the Water for Drink the Earth for Fruit and Habitation But in this lower World there seems many things directed to the special use of Mankind for besides Domestick Animals especially allowed for his Food there are some that serve for his Employment Motion Exercise and Food as the Tillage and Planting of the Earth for his Food some for his Medicine as Herbs and Gums and Minerals some for his Clothing as the Furrs Wool and Skins of Beasts some for his Habitation as the Timber and Stone some for his Fewel as Wood Coals and Turf some for his Defence and Manufacture as Iron and Steel some for Commerce as the Metals of Silver Gold Copper the very Situation of the Seas the Magnes some for his Ornament as Silk and Jewels some for his Journey and Labour as Horses Oxen Camels some for his Necessity some for his Delight Infinite more Instances may be given whereby it will evidently appear that this lower World is accommodated to the use and convenience of Mankind in a special and remarkable manner whereby it may be evident to any considerate Man that the Formation of the World and
of Mankind was by the same wise and provident Power and that as the Humane Nature is accommodated to it self so this World is accommodated to the exigence and convenience of the Humane Nature When I have considered the admirable Congruity of all the Parts of Christian Religion and how it corresponds and is adapted to the convenience and condition of the Humane Nature and how those antecedent Prophesies Promises and Directions of Religion in the Old Testament bear an admirable congruity to the Model of Religion in the New Testament notwithstanding the vast distances between the manifestations of them and how all the Scheme of Divine Dispensations from the beginning of the World bear an admirable accommodation each to other and to the Evangelical Doctrin it gives us a strong Moral Evidence that the same one God was the Author of this Religion that although there seem a diversity and variety in the Administrations yet when I look upon them together compare the congruity of what goes before to what follows it seems one most beautiful Piece fitted and accommodated in every part to the other and hereby I satisfie my self that it is the true Religion that it is all of one piece and one common Author of it namely the God of Truth And so when I consider the Humane Nature and the admirable accommodation that one part thereof hath to the other and also look upon the Mundus aspectabilis especially this lower World wherewith we are by reason of its vicinity best acquainted and observe how admirably the same is accommodated to the Animal Life of Man And although the Parts thereof are distinct various distant yet there are drawn from it Lines of Accommodations and Communication to the Use of the Humane Nature so exactly and appositly that I cannot choose but acknowledge one common Author both of the greater and lesser World and such an Author as made and disposed all things by the highest Wisdom and the wisest Choice If there had been divers Authors of the greater and lesser World there could never have been an accommodation of things so disparate one to another unless both had acted in subordination to one common third Being or by one common Counsel Again it was not possible that Casualty or Chance could have accommodated things of various kinds one to another If Chance could make a Beam of a House and could have made Tenents at either end yet it is not possible to conceive that Chance could cast it to be just of a fit length to answer the congruity of its contignation to another piece of Timber or fit the Mortises of other pieces of Timber to those Tenents or fit the particles and scantlets to answer just one another this must of necessity require a Workman that works by Understanding Choice and Appropriation because it requires accommodation of several things of several kinds to one End by several Means Thus therefore when I see the admirable accommodation of Humane Nature to its own existence and conveniences the admirable accommodation therein of things of different natures one to another as Organs to Faculties Sinews to Bones Nerves to Muscles Spirits to Nerves when I see the excellent accommodation of this lower World especially to the Humane Nature although they are in themselves several and heterogeneal I cannot without violence to my own Observation Experience and Reason I say I cannot but attribute the first Formation of Humane Nature yea and of all the Universe to one most Wise Intelligent Powerful Being who did all things according to the counsel of his Will after the most wise and excellent Idea of his unsearchable Understanding CAP. V. Concerning the Nature of that Intelligent Agent that first formed the Humane Nature and some Objections against the Inferences above made and their Answer HAving in the foregoing Chapter reduced the Origination of Mankind to an Intelligent Efficient effecting it per modum efficientis voluntarii per intentionem I shall in this place inquire what kind of Intelligent Efficient this was for among Intelligent Beings there is one Primum the Glorious God whose Understanding Power and Goodness is infinite there are also acknowledged by the Heathen Intelligentiae à primo those which Aristotle calls by the Name of Separate Intelligences Plato calls Dii ex Diis and we commonly call Angels very glorious and powerful Creatures which Plato takes into the Business of the Creation of Man as to the Corporeal Frame And it seems to be that the Effection of the Humane Nature in any part thereof is not attributable to the Angels neither as instrumental much less as principal Causes 1. As to the Soul of Man it seems beyond dispute for that was a created Substance and Creation of any new Substance being an infinite Motion is not within the power of any Finite Nature the Pretence therefore rests only as to the Corporeal or at least Animal Nature 2. Therefore I say that the Formation of the Bodily much less the Animal Nature of Man in order to the reception of the Soul was neither coordinately nor instrumentally the Work of Angels And the Reasons that seem sufficient to make out this Truth are these 1. It seems utterly above an Angelical Power to organize the Body of the Humane Nature for though it is true that in the established way of Generation the Parents who are inferior in nature to Angels do organize the Body at least mediante semine yet that is done in the virtue and strength of the Ordination and Institution of Almighty God So that as well Man as the Semen genitale are the Instruments deputed by Almighty God in virtue of his Supreme Power to propagate the Humane Nature And therefore since the first Formation of the Humane Nature was a new Formation not according to the Laws established after in Nature the first Production of Mankind was immediately by the Almighty Power and not by the Power of any subordinate Intelligence 2. Again it could not possibly be but that the Humane Nature must be completed in an instant For how is it conceptible that first there should be Corpus formatum with all the Organs Vessels Blood and Spirits disposed and ordered in their several Cells and Motions unless Man had been then at the same time animated as well as organized For the outward shape or stature of a Man is no more a fit Receptacle of an Animal much less of a Rational Life than a Statue of Wax or Stone The same Hand therefore that animated formed and fashioned also the same Humane Body in the same moment by virtue of the Volition Determination or Faciamus of the Divine Will 3. As we have no manner of evidence of the Angelical concurrence or instrumentality in the Formation of Man or of any of the lower Animals so there is no necessity at all of such a Supposition And we are not to multiply Causes without necessity for as the bare determination of the most powerful and efficacious
Will of God was sufficient to bring Being out of Nothing so the like determination of the same Will was sufficient to form Man out of the Dust of the ground without taking in a subordination or instrumentality of Angels Again if we should suppose the cooperation of Angels in the Formation of the Body of Man it must be in the strength virtue and efficiency of the first Cause which as it gave the Angels their Being so it must give them the efficacy power and virtue to be instrumental in this Formation which as we have no warrant so we have no probable reason to admit since the first Cause was all sufficient for this Effect without their assistance 4. The admirable Structure of the Body of Man the accommodation of it to Faculties the furnishing of it with Faculties accommodate to it even as its Animal Nature though we take not in the reasonable intellectual Soul imports in it a Wisdom Power and Efficacy above the Power of any created Nature to effect If it should be in the power of an Angel by applying actives to passives to produce an Insect nay a perfect Animal yet the Constitution and Frame of so much of that in Man that concerns his Animal Nature were too high a Copy for an Angelick Nature to write unless thereunto deputed and commissionated by the Infinite God which Commission we no where find and I am very sure a bare Naturalist will not suppose 5. Again there is that necessity of a suitableness and accommodation of the Parts of the Body to the Faculties of the Soul and è converso that any the least disproportion or disaccommodation of one to the other would spoil the whole Work and make them utterly unserviceable and unapplicable one to the other It was therefore of absolute necessity that the same skill and dexterity that was requisite to the first Formation of the Soul must be used and employed in the Formation of the Body and if an Angel were unequal to the making up and ordering of the Soul he could never be sufficient to make a fit organical Body exactly suitable to it Upon the whole matter I therefore conclude That not only the Soul but the very Animal Nature in Man and not only that but the Formation and Destination of his Bodily Frame was not only the Work of an Intelligent Being but of the Infinite and Omnipotent Intelligent Being who in the same moment formed his Body and organized it with immediate Organs and Instruments of Life and Sense and created his Intellectual Nature and united it to him whereby Man became a living Soul And this as the necessary Evidence of Reason doth first drive us to acknowledge a Being or first Formation of the Humane Nature ex non genitis and secondly to acknowledge that this first Formation of the Nature of Man was not by Chance Casualty or a meer Syntax of Natural Causes but by an Intelligent Efficient so we are upon the very same and a greater Evidence of Reason driven to acknowledge that Intelligent Efficient to be the Great and Wise and Glorious God no other Cause imaginable being par tali negotio And indeed if once we can bring Men but to this one Concession That the original Efficient of the Humane Nature was an Intelligent Being any Man pretending to Reason will with much less difficulty admit that Efficient to be the Almighty God than any other invisible intelligent Efficient which we usually call Angels or Intelligences And the Reasons are these 1. Because though we that are acquainted with the Divine Truths do as really believe that there are Angels as well as Men yet the Natural Evidences of the Existence of Almighty God are far more evident and convincing even upon a Rational and Natural account than that there are Angels for the former being a Truth of the highest moment and importance to be believed by all hath a proportionable weight and clearness of evidence even to Natural Light more and greater than any other Truth And hence among the Jews the Sect of the Sadduces believed the Existence of God yet denied or doubted the Existence of Angels or separated Intelligences 2. Because the very Supposition of an Angelical Nature doth necessarily suppose the Existence of a Supreme Being from whom they derive their Existences 3. Because the great occasion of Infidelity in relation to Existence of Almighty God is that sensual Men are not willing to believe any thing whereby they have not a sufficient Evidence as they think to their Sense The Notion of a Spiritual and Immaterial Being is a thing that they cannot digest because they cannot see or by any Sense perceive it nor easily form to themselves a Notion of it He therefore that can so far master the stubborness of Sense as to believe such a Spriritual Intelligent Being as an Angel hath conquered that difficulty that most incumbers his belief of a God and we that can but suppose or admit the former cannot long doubt of the latter He therefore that can once bring his thoughts to carry the first Origination of Mankind to the efficiency of an Angel must needs in a little time see a greater evidence not only to believe a Supreme Deity but to attribute the Origination of Mankind and of the goodly Frame of the Universe to the Supreme Being as necessarily best fitted with Power Wisdom and Goodness to accomplish so great a Work and that without the help or intervention of Angels or created Intelligences who must needs derive their Being Power and Activity from him There remains two or three Objections against the force of the Consequence of the Existence of Almighty God and his Efficiencies in the production of Mankind in their first Individuals which I shall propound and answer 1. Object What need there be laid so great a stress upon the Primitive Formation of Man as that it could not be done but by the Power and Wisdom of an Almighty Intelligent Being since every day's experience lets us see that by the mixture and coition of Man and Woman Et ex semine ab utroque deciso in utèro muliebri per spatium decem mensium ad plurimum producitur hujusmodi natura humana quem tot elogiis magnificamus that which we every day see to be an effect of finite Creatures in the daily production of Individuals of Humane Nature Why must we needs call in no less than the Wisdom and Power of God himself to be the immediate Efficient of the first Formation of the Individuals of that nature which we see every day produced by the common efficacy of Nature and efficiency of the Parents Vel ad minus seminis utriusque sexus in utero foemineo conclusi In Answer hereunto I shall not at this time or in this place enter into the dispute how far the Divine Efficiency concurrs immediately in the ordinary Generation of Mankind nor how far the entire Humane Nature as well his Rational Soul as his
Body and Animal Nature is attributable to Parental Generation these will be proper for another place but for a full Answer hereunto I say 1. That there is not the same measure to be taken of the competency or sufficiency of an Efficient in the production of the Humane Nature as it stands now established and in the first formation of the first Individuals of that nature ex non genitis It is true it is in setled and established Nature within the compass of the immediate efficiency of both Sexes seminis prolifici ab eisdem decisi to form the Humane Nature in that gradual process and method that is now consonant to Nature but if all the Men on Earth and Angels in Heaven should now go about to form the Humane Nature ex non genitis either out of the Elementary Material or by the help and direction of the Celestial Influences or by any Irradiation even from an Angelick Nature it could not be done It was therefore a vain piece of madness Paracelsus to pretend to the formation of a Homunculus when by all his pretended Skill he could not protract his own Life being already constituted to the common period of an ordinary old age But 2. This Potestas generativa in the Humane Nature is part of that admirable Efficiency which Almighty God exercised in the first Formation of Mankind and of other perfect Animals and this Faculty is performed in the Humane Nature and traduced from one to another by the immediate efficacy virtue and energy of that first Divine Efficiency In this Generative Faculty therefore though the Parents are not simply passive Instruments the Semen prolificum is not meerly a passive Instrument in the production of Humane Nature yet both are Instruments and Efficientes vicariae subordinatae in respect of Almighty God and the activity that either of these Instruments have they have from that God that first formed the Humane Nature and implanted and alligated this activity to them In the first formation of the first Individuals of Humane Nature this Vis prolifica was immediately constituted in them by Almighty God with power not only to produce their kind but to transmit this Vis prolifica to those they so produced and although the immediate production now seems to be by the immediate efficiency of the Parents and their prolifick Semen yet it is done by virtue and in the power of the first efficiency of Almighty God Qui cum hanc indidit primis individuis in eorum prima formatione ac perpetua quadam lege successivis individuis quasi alligavit connexit So that as when I behold a Man at this day his corporeal Figure his Faculties I see but as it were a Copy or Transcript of the first created nature of Man in the first Individuals I mean as to their Essentials so I look upon the successive Generations of Mankind to be but a continuation of that first generative Faculty concreated with the first Man and protracted or extended unto all succeeding descendents from him And therefore I have all the reason imaginable when I behold the successive Generations of Men and the actuating of that Faculty retro trahere ad primam originem and to acknowledge it to be no less the Efficacy of the Divine Efficiency in the thousandth Generation from Adam than it was in Adam himself Just as if I should take a Wedge of Silver of one Inch square and gild it over with Gold and should after draw it by Art into a Wire as small as a Hair to a Mile in length every Inch of that silver Wire hath the very same tincture which the first Wedge had Though this resemblance holds not in all things it serves to explicate what I mean namely the Facultas generativa which was by God Almighty given to the first Parents of Mankind and was bound to their Species And though it be now at a remoter distance from its first efficiency yet it hath its continuance and efficacy by virtue of that First Efficiency and the Institution and Ordination of that most Wise and Powerful Being So that even at this day the univocal generation of Man yea and of all perfect Animals is no less the Efficiency of Almighty God than it was in the first production of it though it be more remote in respect of the intervenience of more successive instrumental Causes And therefore we are mistaken if we think that the generation of Men or Animals is purely by virtue of the instrumental Causes without regard to the first Efficiency of Almighty God which though it perpetuates it in a setled regular way now called therefore Natural yet it is by the Force Virtue and continuing Energy of the first wise powerful and efficacious Institution of Almighty God And so nothing is gotten by this Objection but to re-mind us to acknowledge and admire the admirable Wisdom Power and Goodness of God in the first establishment and continued protraction of this Law of Seminal Propagation And this is the true reason of the constancy and fixedness of the Methods of Generation and why they do not transire ultra limites why those Animals that are produced per ovum do not cannot produce viviparous as Birds and some sorts of Fishes and why those that produce vivipara or per vermem do not produce per ovum why without extreme accidents all perfect Animals produce Individuals conformable to their own similitude and specifick nature and likeness namely this is the true reason In the first formation of the Individual of these Species the most Wise God who foresaw what was most fit and convenient did engrave these several Laws and inviolable Constitutions in the natures of the things first produced and chained and connected them to their Species by an inviolable Law not regularly changeable by any Power but by his Power that Enacted them And therefore it is not in the power of an Angel to alter the established Method of the Generation of things because it is a Law instituted by the Supreme Lord. And although Monstrous Births may casually arise as in due time may be observed yet the production of vivipara per ovum or of ovipara per vermem or of Men or perfect Animals aliter quam per conjunctionem maris foeminae are prohibited by the setled and fixed Laws established by the God of Nature in the first formation of Individuals 2. Object You lay much stress upon the admirable Fabrick not only of Man but of perfect Animals the regular and excellent order and composure of their Parts the accommodation of their Organs to their Faculties and of their Faculties to the convenience of their Nature and yet there is scarce the smallest Insect but hath the same Faculties and Organs as exquisitly accommodated to their use as the greatest Animal nay they are so much the more curious and the Art of the Artificer so much the more commendable by how much the smaller they are
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
Revelation to Moses there was a Divine Manifestation thereof to the first created Man in that fulness of his first illuminated and perfect state of created Nature and from him that Tradition was derived and preserved in that Line of the Patriarchs in which the most important Divine Truths were conserved and traduced from Adam to Moses That which may illustrate my meaning in this preference of the revealed Light of the Holy Scriptures touching this matter above the Essays of a Philosophical Imagination may be this Suppose that Greece being unacquainted with the curiosity of Mechanical Engins though known in some remote Region of the World an excellent Artist had secretly brought and deposited in some Field or Forest some excellent Watch or Clock which had been so formed that the original of its Motion were hidden and involved in some close contrived piece of Mechanism that this Watch was so framed that the Motion thereof might have lasted a Year or some such time as might give a reasonable Period for Philosophical Conjectures concerning it and that in the plain Table there had not been only the description and indication of Hours but the configurations and indications of the various Phases of the Moon the Motion and Place of the Sun in the Ecliptick and divers other curious indications of Celestial Motions and that the Scholars of the several Schools of Epicurus of Aristotle of Plato and the rest of those Philosophical Sects had casually in their walk found this admirable Automaton what kind of work would there have been made by every Sect in giving an account of this Phaenomenon We should have had the Epicurean Sect have told the by-standers according to their pre-conceived Hypothesis that this was nothing else but an accidental concretion of Atoms that haply faln together had made up the Index the Wheels the Ballance and that being haply faln into this posture they were put into Motion Then the Cartesian falls in with him as to the main of their Supposition but tells him that he doth not sufficiently explicate how this Engin is put into Motion and therefore to furnish this Motion there is a certain Materia subtilis that pervades this Engin and the moveable parts consisting of certain globular Atoms apt for Motion they are thereby and by the mobility of the globular Atoms put into Motion A third finding fault with the two former because these Motions are so regular and do express the various Phaenomena of the distribution of Time and of the Heavenly Motions therefore it seems to him that this Engin and Motion also so analogical to the Motions of the Heavens was wrought by some admirable Conjunction of the Heavenly Bodies which formed this Instrument and its Motions in such an admirable correspondency to its own existence A fourth disliking the Suppositions of the three former tells the rest that he hath a more plain and evident Solution of the Phaenomenon namely the Universal Soul of the World or Spirit of Nature that formed so many sorts of Insects with so many Organs Faculties and such congruity of their whole Composition and such curious and various Motions as we may observe in them hath formed and set into Motion this admirable Automaton and regulated and ordered it with all these congruities we see in it Then steps in an Aristotelian and being dissatisfied with all the former Solutions tells them Gentlemen you are all mistaken your Solutions are inexplicable and unsatisfactory you have taken up certain precarious Hypotheses and being pre-possessed with these Creatures of your own Fancies and in love with them right or wrong you form all your Conceptions of things according to those fancied and pre-conceived Imaginations The short of the business is this Machina is eternal and so are all the Motions of it and in as much as a Circular Motion hath no beginning or end this Motion that you see both in the Wheels and Index and the successive indications of the Celestial Motions is eternal and without beginning And this is a ready and expedite way of solving the Phaenomenon without so much ado as you have made about it And while all the Masters were thus controversing the Solution of the Phaenomenon in the hearing of the Artist that made it and when they had all spent their philosophizing upon it the Artist that made this Engin and all this while listened to their admirable Fancies tells them Gentlemen you have discovered very much excellency of Invention touching this piece of Work that is before you but you are all miserably mistaken for it was I that made this Watch and brought it hither and I will shew you how I made it first I wrought the Spring and the Fusee and the Wheels and the Ballance and the Case and Table I fitted them one to another and placed these several Axes that are to direct the Motions of the Index to discover the Hour of the Day of the Figure that discovers the Phasis of the Moon and the other various Motions that you see and then I put it together and wound up the Spring which hath given all these Motions that to see in this curious piece of Work and that you may be sure I tell you true I will tell you the whole order and progress of my making disposing and ordering of this piece of Work the several materials of it the manner of the forming of every individual part of it and how long I was about it This plain and evident discovery renders all these excogitated Hypotheses of these Philosophical Enthusiasts vain and ridiculous without any great help of Rhetorical Flourishes or Logical Confutations And much of the same nature is that disparity of the Hypotheses of the Learned Philosophers in relation to the Origination of the World and Man after a great deal of dust raised and fanciful Explications and unintelligible Hypotheses The plain but Divine Narrative by the hand of Moses full of sence and congruity and clearness and reasonableness in it self doth at the same moment give us a true and clear discovery of this great Mystery and renders all the Essays of the generality of the Heathen Philosophers to be vain inevident and indeed inexplicable Theories the creatures of Phantasie and Imagination and nothing else 1. This therefore is the first Advantage of the Mosaical Hypothesis of the Origination of things above the Philosophical Theories touching the same the latter are inevident conjectural and indeed apparently false the former contains an Evidence of it self by its consonancy to the only manner that can be sufficient for such a Discovery and the plain evident and congruous relation of it 2. All the Philosophical Theories except that which carries the Origination of things up to Almighty God are full of infinite intanglements difficulties and inconsistencies that ever and anon break out and discover themselves whereby they are enforced by a continual substitution of new Suppositions to piece up and mend the breaches that arise upon such
inconsistencies and so avoid those intollerable absurdities that their Suppositions do necessarily occasion And again sometime are fain utterly to lay aside some of their former Positions as utterly undisciplinable and ungovernable by any subsidiary Explication by reason of their gross absurdities and apparent impossibilities This appears by some of the former Debates touching the Epicurean and Aristotelian Suppositions and many more may be given in this matter But the first Chapter of Genesis as it is perfectly consonant to it self so it labours under no difficulties or absurdities but all parts thereof are easily and apparently reconcilable one with another and with the common reason of the things delivered upon the account of that common Supposition upon which the whole is bottomed namely the Efficiency of the most Wise and Powerful Intelligent Being Since therefore it is evident that Truth is ever consistent with it self and that which contains any irreconcilable absurdity or contradiction with it self or any other Truth can never be true we have all the reason imaginable to give the preference to the Mosaical Hypothesis as consonant to it self and to all other Truths that are and on the other side to reject the Epicurean and Aristotelian Theories in this matter each of which contains irreconcilable difficulties in themselves and contradictions to evident and demostrable Truths 3. The third observable is this That the Holy History gives us such an Efficient and such an Efficiency of things that gives us a plain and clear and evident Solution of all those admirable Phaenomena that we see both in the Universe in the Motions Orders Positions Influences and Conveniences of the whole Universe and of the several great Integrals thereof and likewise of that admirable Beauty Order Symmetry Usefulness of Parts and Organs of Faculties and Powers that are to be found in Animals and especially in Man of these admirable congruities of Powers Motions and Instincts not only in the Animal and Vegetable Province but also in the very inanimate Bodies by giving us the Almighty most Wise most Bountiful God to be the first Author of the World and of Mankind and to be the Contriver and Institutor of that Law in things created which we usually call the Law of their Nature which is nothing else but the Will the Rule the Institution of the most Wise Powerful and Intelligent Being And let Men toyl themselves till their Brains be fired and study and invent from Age to Age to give us any other Explication of most of the observable Phaenomena in Nature they will toyl in vain and substitute unto us nothing but empty watrish and unsatisfactory Solutions or meer Whimsies Chimaera's and Falsities instead of Truth and Reality And this is the admirable preference of the Divine History of the Origination of Things that it gives us a solid plain evident congruous Solution of all the admirable Phaenomena in universal and particular Beings wherein our Minds may rest and quiet themselves which those Philosophers neither do nor can do that use any other Method of the Origination of Things What reason can there be assigned of the position of the Elementary and Heavenly Bodies in that most convenient position and situation the usefulness order and regularity of their Motions Heat and Influence Why the Motions of every thing are directed with the most suitableness to the convenience of the Universe and to its own Why a Stone or a Bar of Iron moves downward what is within it or without it that excites or directs it What reason can there be assigned of that admirable accommodation of Meteors the Wind and Rain nay the very Thunder and Lightning to the use and benefit of the Elementary World What reason can be assigned of the admirable Fabrick of the Body of Man that singular beauty destination and symmetry and convenience of Parts and Organs that admirable constitution and ordination of his Faculties especially that of his Intellect What reason can be assigned of the wonderful order and procedure of the generation of Men yea and of common Animals All done with that order and uniformity with that convenience and regularity that it exceeds the imitation and even the the comprehension of the wisest Man in the World Touching these and infinite more of these admirable Appearances in Nature the first of Genesis gives us a plain reasonable evident Explication by letting us know that these were the Works of the most Intelligent Being the Works of the most Wise and Glorious God And the reason why they are so admirably wisely and excellently framed and ordered is because they were made and ordered by the great Skill Wisdom Power and Design of the Glorious God But now if we come to demand of these wise Philosophers a Solution of the admirableness of these Phaenomena we shall have such Solutions as must make us first unreason and unman our selves before we can subscribe to them or at least we shall have such a Solution as no way countervails the value of the Work or else shall give a Solution of Idem per idem or else by somewhat else that is utterly unintelligible Ask Democritus and Epicurus and by their favour some of their late the Atomists will tell us that all or the greatest part of this is by chance casual position and mode and motion and figure and texture of Atoms and he that believes this whiles he hears it or says it is in a full capacity of believing any thing though never so unreasonable Let any Man but ask his own Reason fairly whether he can believe this that he thus saith I appeal to that Man whether he doth or can really believe himself when he says it Ask another sort of Philosophers for their Solution of it they will tell you that Nature is the Cause and a sufficient Solution of all these things But what is that Nature where is it is it the nature or disposition of the things themselves Then it explicates it no otherwise but thus That things have this excellency and order because it is their nature to be so or they are so because they are so But if by Nature they mean some separate Existence what then is it Is it a Body or Spirit is it a reasonable an intelligent Being or is it a surd and stupid Existence or else is it a Law or a Rule self-subsisting If it be a reasonable intelligent Existence we differ but only de nomine that which I call God they will call Nature at least unless they suppose it an inferior intelligent Being and then the difficulty is only made somewhat more that a subordinate intelligent Being was able to produce such Effects which appear to all Men to be Works of the greatest Power and Wisdom imaginable On the other side if they suppose it to be a meer surd unintelligent Being how comes it to pass that they carry in them the greatest evidence imaginable of the most perfect and consequently of the most intelligent efficient Agent Again
will they suppose it a Norma Rule or Law of a most excellent frame and order and indeed in so conceiving they conceive truly that Nature is such a Law or Rule but still this doth not explicate the Phaenomena of Nature without supposing somewhat more A Law or Rule is not in it self effective or active neither can it subsist or exist without an Agent that either gave it or works by or according to it The Laws of a State are the Rules of its Government but this Law must be given by some Power and some Power there must be that must act according to it otherwise a Law is a stupid dead unactive and unconceivable thing And therefore a Law or Rule singly explicates not any the Phaenomena of Nature without a Being that gives this Law to things or acts or makes things act according to it and then we are in a great measure where Moses brings us only with this difference the Law by which this great World was made was no other but the Determination and Beneplacitum of the Divine Will determined or qualified if we may use that improper word with the highest and most sovereign Wisdom and Power And the Law by which things thus made were for the future to be governed was that instituted Rule and Order which this Sovereign Lord contrived and placed in created Beings and thus indeed Opus naturae est opus intelligentiae Nature therefore may have these various acceptations viz. 1. As it signifies that Principium activum that gave every thing its Being and thus it imports no other than Almighty God that Supreme Intelligent Being though improperly called Nature viz. Natura narans 2. As it imports the Things or Effects principated or effected by this intelligent active Principle or the Effects or Creatures of God or Natura naturata and this hath a double import viz. i. For the first and immediate Productions of that Principle namely not only created Matter which was the Productum primo primum but also the things first produced in their several kinds or natures or Producta secundo prima as the first Vegetable Animal and Humane Individuals or 2. For those Mixtions and Productions which afterwards had their productions in the World by successive mixtions and generations which include all Productions which though in relation to their dependence and first production of their kind are still the Creatures of God yet in relation to their immediate Causes are productions of second Causes 3. As it imports the Law and Rule and Method and Order of the production and government and process of created Beings and this of two kinds 1. The Law and Rule of the first Creation or Production of Beings as the production of the first Individuals of Animals Vegetables and Men and herein though Almighty God proceeds with admirable Wisdom and Order yet he used no other Law or Rule than the immediate Determination of his own most wise and perfect Will suitable to the Business he had in hand wherein there was necessary and fit another kind of Regiment and Order than was afterwards instituted 2. The Laws or Rules instituted and appointed by the same most wise God to things already constituted this is the common and ordinary and regular Law of instituted Nature and these two Laws or Rules were different and necessary that they should be so In the first Constitutions of Beings God Almighty proceeded by a Law suitable to that Work namely according to the wise Counsel of his own Will that was best and fittest for that Work he proceeded more suddenly and by the immediate interposition of his own Power the Vegetables constituted in a moment or very speedily and within the compass of a Day came to their full and perfect maturation and growth so also did the Fowls and Fishes and Brutes and Man without any considerable mora between their first formation and complement or individual perfection But the Law instituted for things already formed and setled was of another kind Vegetables Animals and Men are in the Laws of their future existence to pass through those gradations and steps and methods which we see now in use for the formation production increase and perfection thereof Again in the first production of things though sometimes the wise God used in some measure the order of second or instrumental or effective Causes yet he bound not himself to that Rule though as we have formerly observed the instrumentality of Heat might be used in separating the Expansum and the arefaction of the Earth and the production of Vegetables and though the instrumentality of the perfected Celestial Bodies might be some way instrumental towards the maturation of Nature towards the production of Animals and though he used the Matter which he had created to be the substratum of the Corporeal Natures even of Man himself yet the great Energy and Power whereby he compleated all things was above and beyond the activity of second Causes yea when he used the instrumentality of second Causes his own Powerful and Omnipotent Hand was engaged in the advancing of the efficacy of the second Causes which he used beyond their natural strength and efficacy there was much that was supernatural and miraculous as well in the first separation distribution and formation of things as in the first Creation of the Corporeal Matter out of nothing But in the succeeding process and procedure of created Nature he fixed and established certain powers and activities in things and a certain order and connexion between them and their effects and governed and regulated the motions and productions of things according to those implanted powers and connexions and this we call the instituted Law of Nature namely the activities and powers placed in created Beings and the mutual connexions and concatenations of things to such activities and powers which Law was at first instituted by the God of Nature to be the common and standing ordinary Rule for things setled and fixed in their created station And therefore we are far from denying a Law of Nature or Calling in the immediate efficiency of the great God or a miraculous interposition in all the ordinary procedures of things already fully setled and statuminated by the first Divine Efficiency That which we only say in relation to Nature already setled is but this that 1. The primitive and fundamental powers and activities of things were placed in them by the immediate Will and Efficiency of God it is this that gives the power to Heat and Fire to dissolve dissipate rarifie and consume to Cold to condense to heavy Bodies to descend to all the Celestial Bodies their Motions Influences and Positions that gave the Generative Faculty to Men to Brutes to Fishes the Productive Faculty to the Earth and Waters the Receptivity to Semen and Intellection c. 2. That he by a continuing Influx doth support and preserve all things in their being order and activity 3. That this which we call the Law of
instituted and statuminated Nature is his Law and his Institution and the connexion of natural Effects to their natural Causes is his Institution his Law his Order And therefore we do neither deny a Law of Nature or a connexion between natural Causes and Effects but that which we justly blame in these Men that pretend themselves to be the great Priests of Nature and admirers and adorers of it is 1. That they do not sufficiently consider and observe that this which they and we call Nature and the Law of Nature and the Power of Nature is no other but the wise instituted Law of the most wise powerful and intelligent Being as really and truly as an Edict of Trajan or Justinian was a Law of Trajan or Justinian Sic parvis magna and 2. That they do not warily distinguish between that first Law in rebus constituendis and this second Law of Nature in rebus constitutis but inconsiderately misapply that Law and Rule and Method which is ordinary and regular constituted and fitted and accommodate to Nature already setled as if the same were and ought to be necessarily the Rule and Law in the first formation and setling of things which is an Errour that proceeds from the over-much fixing of our Minds to that which in the present course of things is obvious to Sense and not adverting that the first Constitution and Order of things is not in Reason or Nature manageable by such a Law which is most excellently adequated and proportioned to things fully setled Therefore besides that Law which the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness hath fixed in Nature fully statuminated we must also suppose a Law and Order of the Divine Wisdom not rigorously bound either to second Causes or present stated Methods in the first production of things And this the due Consideration of the different nature of the state of things in fieri and in facto esse will easily perswade that the most wise God that hath established a fixed regular ordinary Law in things already setled which he rarely departs from yet used another kind of order namely the regiment of his own Will and Wisdom and if I may with humility speak it a dictatorian power more accommodate to the first production of things And thus much for the comparison between the Mosaical and Philosophical Theories touching things and the great advantage and preference of the former as most suitable to the true nature state and reason of things And now I draw towards a conclusion of this long Discourse and shall therefore in the last place give an account of those Consectaries Consequences and Corollaries which are evidently deducible from this Consideration of the Origination of Mankind by the immediate Efficiency of this Supreme Intelligent Being Almighty God and indeed principally for the sake of these Consequences and Corollaries hath all been written that precedes in this Book and it is the Scope End and Use of the whole Book which I shall absolve in the next Chapter CAP. VII A Collection of certain evident and profitable Consequences from this Consideration That the first Individuals of Humane Nature had their Original from a Great Powerful Wise Intelligent Being I Now come to that upon which I had my Eye from the first Line that was written touching this Subject namely the Consequences and Illations that arise from this great Truth contained in these Conclusions 1. That Mankind had an Original of his Being ex non genitis 2. That this Origination of Mankind was neither casual nor meerly natural 3. That the Efficient of Man's Origination was and is an Intelligent Efficient of an incomparable Wisdom and Power First therefore we have here a most evident sensible and clear conviction of a Deity and a confirmation of Natural Religion which consists principally in the acknowledging of Almighty God to be a most perfect Eternal Being of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power and a due habitude of Mind Life and Practice arising from that Principle It hath been commonly observed that the particular or instituted Religions since the Creation have had their Proofs by Miracles which were as it were the Credentials to subdue the Minds of Men to assent to it Thus the instituted Religion of the Jews given by the hand of Moses was confirmed by the great Miracles done by God by the hand of Moses in Egypt and in the Wilderness and the Christian Religion had its Confirmation by the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles who did wonderful things beyond the reach and power of created Agents or Activities which were therefore Miracles such as were governing of the Winds and Seas healing of the Sick by a touch or word raising the Dead c. But it is farther said That Almighty God never used Miracles to evidence the truth of his own Existence Power Wisdom Goodness or for the establishing of Natural Religion or the confuting of Atheism But I take it that there are really as many Miracles for the evincing of the truth of Natural Religion viz. the Existing of Almighty God as there are Works in Nature For although it be a great truth that the Laws of Nature as the Positions of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies their Motion Light Influence Regularity Position propagation of Vegetables Animals Men and the whole Oeconomy of the Universe is by the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness setled in a regular course so that now we call things Natural and Works and Laws and Order of Nature and being so setled and fixed cease to be Miracles yet in their first Institution and Constitution they were all or many Miracles Works exceeding the activity of any created or natural power and accordingly ought to be valued and really are so and it is nothing else but their commonness and our inadvertence and gross negligence that hinders the actual estimate of them as great and wonderful Miracles As I have often said if at this moment all the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies should cease or there should be a general stop of the Propagation of Animals Vegetables or Men if Mens Reason should generally fail them and for the most part they should become like Brutes if the Light of the Sun were darkned or the great Luminous or Planetary Bodies should bulge and fall foul one upon the other or that disorder or confusion should generally fall upon the Works of Nature and break that excellent Order that now obtains among them we should be full of admiration of such a Change and account them Miraculous And the reason is because the sense of the Change is at present incumbent upon us and we cannot choose but take notice of them as strong unusual miraculous Prodigies When all this while Natures course holds regularly the Wonder and Miracle is ten times greater in the state of things as they now stand than it would be in such a discomposure of Nature The Motion and Light and Position and Order of the Heavenly and Elementary Bodies is a greater
Evidence of the Divine Power that put them and keeps them in Motion than if they all rested And it is a greater Miracle that a Man was constituted upon the Earth that he hath a power given him to propagate his kind that he lives ordinarily such a portion of time in the World that he hath the use of Reason and Understanding I say there is more of Miracle in it than in the want of it Only there are these three things that abate the value of it among Men 1. The commonness of the benefit and wonder renders the Observation thereof little 2. Mankind is negligent in improving his Observation he never rubs the Corn out of the Ear and so by inadvertence supineness and negligence suffers things of this nature to slip away without notice 3. We rarely carry things to their Original but take them as we find them whereas if we did as by a Clew follow the Works of Nature to their Original we should find the Divine Omnipotence and infinite Wisdom at the upper end of the Chain and the Worms themselves no other than Miracles in their first constitution He that considers the admirableness of the Frame of Humane Nature especially of his intellectual power and that is but acquainted with himself will without arrogance or vain-glory conclude that Man is the most admirable Creature that this lower World affords a Creature to which all the visible Creatures of this lower World seem in a great measure to point at as their End And therefore if the first Individuals the common Parents of Mankind were at some one time constituted there was a very great deal of Power Wisdom and Intelligence employed to the making up of such a Piece as this If we see an excellent Picture to the Life or a Statue there will not need much Rhetorick or Logick to perswade or evince that surely it was not done without an excellent knowing and intelligent Artist And certainly that Efficient who ever he was that did at first compose and make up the admirable Structure of the Humane Body all the Organs Nerves Veins Arteries Viscera Bones and other Integrals thereof that endowed it with the Faculties of a vegetable and sensible Nature that gave him a reasonable intellectual self-moving Soul with all its subordinate Faculties that so strangely and stupendiously united two such different Essentials of a reciprocal and intellectual nature was some intelligent Being and such an intelligent Being that was not only of a far more admirable Wisdom and Power than Man now the best of the visible Creatures appears to be but of such an excess of Wisdom and Power as cannot be found in any known Being besides him that we call Almighty God And if any Man shall say as needs he must that surely it must be granted that he was of a Power and Wisdom far more excellent and perfect than that Work he thus made but how are we sure that he must be God May it not be some Being that admirably surpasseth the perfection of Humane Nature and yet may it not be something less than infinite somewhat inferior to God may it not be some Angel some separated Intelligence To this I say 1. That Man that can be forced by this Work to acknowledge an Intelligent Being transcendently beyond the Power and Wisdom of a Man a Power that he never saw but only collected from the eminence of an Effect which surpasseth the activity of any Being that he hath ever seen with his Eyes a Being that acts by choice election and intention I say that Man that can once admit an invisible Being of an efficiency equal to such a Work hath broken the strength of Atheism since whatsoever can be alledged to evince such an Existence as the Objection supposed doth may be alledged efficaciously to prove the Existence of a God since all that can be said for the Existence of the former that and much more may and must be said and granted for the Existence of the latter namely God 2. But again since the measure of any Man's conception touching the infinite sovereign excellence of an Efficient must needs be the excellence of the Work if therefore a Man doth not cannot know any more admirable created Existence than himself he cannot expect a greater Evidence of a more transcendent Power Wisdom or Goodness than he that was the Efficient of such a Being as himself is 'T is possible he may suppose some more excellent Inhabitants of the Heavenly Bodies than he himself is but this is more than he knows and 't is true the Sun and Stars are goodly beautiful Bodies but he doth not know that they are any more than fiery Balls that naturally give light and heat but as he hath no evidence so he hath no evident reason to satisfie that they are animate much less intellectual and consequently for any thing a Man knows he himself is incomparably a more excellent Being than they it is true they last longer and so doth a piece of Marble I speak not to disparage those beautiful Beings but to enforce the Argument ad hominem that to the first formation of a living Intelligent Nature there is as great a Power requisite and conspicuous as to the formation of the noblest Creature that we see or know And I should not question but that that Power and Wisdom which were equal to the first formation of the Reasonable Nature were equal to the formation and efficiency of the Sun or the brightest Star in Heaven Since therefore I can judge of the measure or excess of the Power and Wisdom of any Efficient by the nobleness and value of the Effect and I know not any sensible Being of greater worth value and wonder than Man I have reason to believe that he that first formed Man is a Being of the greatest and most transcendent Power Wisdom and Goodness that is imaginable and that Being which I have reason to believe to be of the greatest Power Wisdom and Goodness I have reason to believe to be Almighty God who is Optimus Maximus And if it be said that the conviction by this Argument is so much the more infirm because I see daily that Man begets a Man and so the efficiency no more proves the Existence of God than it proves the Father to be God that begets a Son of his own likeness and species I say the Instance is so far from weakning the Inference that it rather enforceth it For the first formed Parents of Mankind were also endued with this generative power by virtue of that first efficiency upon the first individual pair of Mankind so that the generative power in Man is but an effect of that redundance of Power that was in the first Efficient of the Humane Nature Indeed if any Man or all the Men in the World could constitute a Man in any other way than by natural propagation it were an Instance that would sufficiently confute the Inference But the generative power and
Volitive Faculty seem to be two the first more primitive and radical in the Soul the second not altogether so radical and primitive yet such as have also a natural connexion with and to the Soul First therefore as to the first of these The Soul of Man as it came out of the hands of the Glorious God so it had engraven in it these Impressions and Characters of some great and intellective Principles and rational Propensions that serve secretly to direct and incline him to these common Notions and Sentiments So that whether the Souls of the Descendents from Adam were traduced from him or whether they are immediately created and infused by God a Dispute not seasonable in this place yet those real Characters Impressions and rational Noemata and Instincts though weakned by the Fall and the contracted Corruption of Humane Nature are brought with us into the World and grow up with us whereby Mankind hath not only those great excellencies of his Faculties Understanding and Will but a certain congenit stock of Rational Tendencies and Sentiments engraven and lodged in his Soul which if duly attended and improved are admirable helps to the perfecting and advancing of a Rational Life And therefore as the Divine Goodness did not only give the Faculties of Sense and Perception to the Sensitive and Animal Nature but also lodged in their sensitive Souls certain connatural and congenit sensitive Instincts not acquired by Experience but congenit with them whereby they are directed and inclined to what is conducible to the sensitive good of their Sensitive Nature so the Rational Nature is furnished with certain congenit Notions Inclinations and Tendencies born with him but improved and perfected by the exercise of Reason and Observation whereby he is inclined and directed antecedently to the good of a Reasonable Life or Nature These differences seem to be in those congenit Inclinations and Instincts of Animals and Men 1. In the nature of them those anticipations that are in Animals are meerly sensible those in Men intellectual moral and suitable to the Operations of a reasonable Being 2. In their end those of Animals are only in order to a sensible good and the regiment of a sensual Life those in Men are directed to the use and benefit of a rational Life and not only so but in order to the acquest of a supernatural and eternal Life 3. In as much as the Sensible Nature is not endued with Intellection and Will and therefore not properly capable of a Law in the true and formal nature of a Law therefore those Instincts that are lodged in their nature are meerly Inclinations or natural Propensions or Biasses But the Humane Nature being endued with Intellection Reason and Liberty and therefore capable of a Law in its true propriety and formal nature those rational Propensions and Inclinations in the Humane Nature are lodged in him by the great Governour and Law-giver of Heaven and Earth per modum legis obligantis and the insition and engraving of those Notions Propensions and rational Tendencies are in nature of a promulgation of that Law the inscription thereof in their Hearts and means helps and assistances to their observance thereof And herein lies the true Root of the Obligation of the natural Law and natural Consciences so excellently decyphered by the Apostle in the two first Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans and this I call the primitive and radical Insition of the Law of Nature in the Soul 2. But besides this primitive Insition there is a secondary yet natural Insition of the Law of Nature in the humane Soul which expands and improves it self as the exercise of Reason increaseth which is a certain congruity between the Faculties of the Soul the Intellect and Will and those Truths of indisputable importance in the Understanding especially that of the Existence and Regiment of Almighty God and those moral Sentiments of Good and Evil that in their discovery concern immediately the Understanding or Synteresis but in their exercise concern more immediately the Will That as we see by a certain connatural congruity between the visive Faculty and the visible Object and as we tast by a connatural congruity between the Faculty and the Object of Tast so there is a connatural congruity between the intellective and volitive Faculties in the Soul and those communia noemata of these great important Truths both intellective and moral whereby the Soul perceives and relisheth and tasteth true and good and inclines to it 8. From the Consideration of this Effection of Man by the Power and Goodness and Wisdom of the glorious God we have the discovery of that infinite obligation of Duty Love and Gratitude of all Mankind unto Almighty God To give a benefit to a Being already existing carries in it an Obligation of the person benefited to his Benefactor juxta modum mensuram beneficii But God Almighty is the Benefactor of Mankind in the greatest imaginable amplitude and comprehension he gave him Being the vastest and most unlimited Gift and he gave him such a Being so advanced so excellent and perfect and accommodate with all the conveniences that his nature was possibly capable of and although Man wilfully threw away a great measure of his Happiness yet he hath still so much left as binds him to an eternal Gratitude and Duty to God both as his Maker and as his Benefactor and the Posterity of Adam hath still continued upon them the same reason of Duty and Gratitude I shall not here as I said enter into the Consideration of the propagation of the Humane Nature If the Soul of every person propagated be created and infused by God then every person seems related unto Almighty God in a way little different from that of the first formed Man But if the Soul be also propagated as Light or Fire from Fire or Light by a kind of Irradiation from the Soul of the first Man yet still we are all his Off-spring every Man owes more of his Being to Almighty God than to his natural Parents whose very Propagative Faculty was at first given to the Humane Nature by the only virtue efficacy and energy of the Divine Commission and Institution and the Parents of our Nature are but vicaria instrumenta Numinis in the propagation and formation of our Nature 9. From hence we learn the true Foundation and Root and Extent of that Subjection that the Created Nature owes to Almighty God namely on the part of Man there is dependence upon God as the root and support of his existence there is the obligation of love gratitude and duty as to his greatest and most sovereign Benefactor But this is not all the foundation of Subjection on the part of Man and Authority on the part of God but there are certain radical foundations of the Divine Authority and Sovereignty over Man namely 1. A right of Propriety nothing can be more a Man 's own than that which he gives a
Being to But the propriety that any Man can have in what he makes is still limited and qualified first because he is not himself his own he owes his Being to God and therefore without the help of Divine Indulgence his acquests are like the acquests of a Servant acquirit domino And besides the Matter is not his own whatsoever he makes he makes out of that Matter that was not his own But the propriety that Almighty God acquires in his Creatures is absolute because he himself is a Supreme and Sovereign Efficient none is above him and because the Matter out of which he effected Man and all Corporeal Existences was perfectly his own it was Matter of his own making 2. A right of absolute Dominion and Sovereignty over his Creature where the property is circumscribed limited or qualified the dominion is so too but an absolute sovereign property carries with it an absolute sovereign dominion in the Proprietor 3. An infinite irresistible power to exert the right of his Dominion according to his Will The two former Considerations give him a sovereign authority over his Creature a right jus disponendi but authority or right being divided from power to execute that authority and exact obedience to it is lame but the glorious God hath not only an absolute right of propriety and dominion over his Creature but an infinite irresistible power to rule order and dispose it according to his Will Almighty God tells us Jerem. 18. that as the Clay is in the Potter's hand so are Mankind in his hand yea and in a far greater subordination and subjection to his Power the power of the Potter over his Clay is a finite limited power we see in the same place it resisted and disappointed his intention by its untractableness But the power of God over his Creature is an infinite power he that by his power made him in an instant can in an instant dissolve or annihilate him And yet this infinite Power of God is under the management of a most wise and holy and pure and gracious Will and therefore though his Propriety be absolute his Dominion boundless his Power infinite yet the exercise of his Dominion and Power is full of Goodness suitable to the most perfect nature of God I am God and not man therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed Here therefore we have that great Question among some of the Ancients satisfactorily answered namely What is the Root of all Obligation in Mankind whence comes the Obligation in the Consciences of Men what is it that binds Men to keep their Faith their Promises It is the Law and Command of him that hath sovereign Authority to command and infinite Power to exact Obedience and to punish the want of it all other foundations of Obligation are but weak and deficient without this or in comparison to it 10. In this History of the primitive state of Man and his defection we have the Solution of that great Quaesitum that troubled the ancient Philosophers especially the Stoicks namely Whence or how came it to pass that not only that great disorder happens in things of this World especially in the nature and practices and customs of Mankind some would have it from Matter some from one thing some from another we see here a plain Solution of the Quaere That it came not from God no nor from Matter but by the defection and disobedience of the first Man which brought Death into the World and Sin and Corruption and Depravation and Disorder into the Humane Nature and brought disorder and discomposure upon the greatest part of this lower World which as it was principally made for the service of Man so it suffered a great Concussion and Breach by the Disobedience and Apostacy of Man and from this unhappy root ariseth all the Disorders and Confusions in the humane World for although the Fall of Man did neither alter the essential Constituents of Mankind nor wholly raze out the Engravings of those common Notions Sentiments and rational Instincts that were in them yet it did in a great measure impair and weaken them and brought in a very great deordination and discomposure setting up the lower Faculties in rebellion against the superior so that the wiser and more morate part of Mankind were forced to set up Laws and Punishments to keep the generality of Mankind in some tolerable order 11. This reasonableness congruity and consonancy to common Light and Reason in the Hypothesis of the Formation of the World and Mankind and the great preference that it hath above those Inventions of the ancient Philosophers touching the same the admirable Solution of many of those difficulties which are hereby solved doth give a very great valuation and esteem to the truth and Divine Authority of the Scriptures It is true their Authority is above the contribution of Humane Reason or any Supplies it can bring either to its Truth or Authority but yet when a Man shall see so great a clearness and plainness and reasonableness in the Holy Scripture touching this great Truth so many difficulties and absurdities thereby avoided so great a suffrage and attestation of Reason and common evidence bearing witness to this Truth and to such a Truth as could never be at first particularly discovered without Divine Revelation yet being discovered carries in it nothing of absurdity but a singular congruity both to it self in the several parts of it and to the common Reason It is true a great though a Ministerial and Humane Suffrage to the truth and excellency of the Holy Scriptures strengthens our Faith which God knows stands in need of all the contributions that may be to bear up our Souls against that root of Infidelity that is in us and may be instrumental and preparative to bring those to the belief and veneration of the Scriptures who are without and hardly perswadible but by those media that bear a congruity to their natural Light and Reason 12. And therefore we have infinite reason to bless and magnifie the gracious God that hath lent us his Holy Scriptures to inform us in things to be believed and to be done and to contain and preserve us infra cancellos certitudinis The Lord knows and we cannot choose but daily observe in our selves a strange mobility and instability in our Imaginative and Intellective Faculty roving after every thing and in many things that we know and much more in things we know not framing strange Chimaera's finding out many Inventions was the first effect of the departure of Mankind from a revealed Truth and searching after unknown and forbidden Knowledge And this hath been the course and walk and disease of our restless moveable unstable Mercurial Brains ever since in matters of Philosophy in matters of Religion The merciful and wise God therefore to keep in and regulate the extravagant and witless Spirit of Man and to give us the clear knowledge of things necessary and useful and to prescribe and
Fish playing and Birds of several kinds some flying some swimming some perching yea various Flies and Worms and Insects and all contribute to the beauty and ornament and variety of the entire piece though each hath a particular beauty of its own So in this great and glorious Frame of the Universe not only the Celestial Bodies but all the Animals and Vegetables even to the least Fly or Worm or Flower or Herb contribute to the beauty glory ornament and variety of the whole and make up one common demonstration of the admirable Wisdom of that great God that made it valde bonum And certainly under this Consideration it is apparently evident that Man contributes no small portion of beauty and ornament to this goodly Frame of the Universe For if we should suppose that all the Integrals of the inferior World were as now they are only destitute of the Creature called Man it would soon appear that it wanted much of that beauty and comeliness and perfection which it now hath by the accession of this excellent Integral of the Universe which though it hath its residence in the lower region thereof yet in the common compute and estimate of the whole it contributes to its beauty and integrity The second Accommodation of every thing is to some other part or parts of the Universe and this though it may be single or a respect only between some one single part and some other single part of Nature yet for the most part we shall find every thing in Nature hath an accommodation unto very many other things the Wisdom of Almighty God being multifaria sapientia hath admirably evidenced it self in giving almost every thing in its nature a complexed and complicated accommodation to various other things of differing kinds and natures This is more eminently conspicuous in the Heavenly Bodies for Instance the Sun is accommodated to the use and convenience of the Planetary Bodies and of this inferior World and of every part thereof by his Position by his Light by his Heat by his Motion it procures Generation for the replenishing of the Earth raiseth Clouds and Vapours to irrigate and water it it occasioneth Winds to move and communicate those Irrigations it gives variety of Seasons measures of Times and infinite more accommodations to other things If we come lower to the Elementary World the Air is accommodated as a fit medium for the derivation of Light and Influence from the Celestial Bodies it is the vehicle of the Meteors the means of Respiration the food and life of the vital and animal Spirits and many the like accommodations If we consider of Animals we shall find admirable accommodations in them one to another and especially to Man the Horse high-spirited yet very docible fitted for swiftness carriage and agility by the make of his Body his Neck his Mouth his Back his Hoof the Ox patient painful strong fitted for draught the Camel fitted for strength and a natural Saddle for Burthen the Cow for yielding Milk the Sheep for Cloathing the Beasts and Birds of greatest use being most commonly made tame and affecting a spontaneous subjection to Man among the Vegetables some are for Food some for Medicines some for Smell some for Tast nay that seemingly most abject part of Nature the Insects even the worst as well as the best of them have their accommodation to other things some for Food to the more perfect Animals as Flies Worms c. some for Medicines both for Men and Animals nay the very venemous Insects are accommodated to the salubrity of the Earth and Waters collecting the unwholsom Juyce of either into their own consistency and many that are poisonous and hurtful yet carry with them Antidotes and Remedies as Vipers Scorpions and divers others Although in the lower World there are various accommodations of things one to another yet the chief and ultimate accommodation of things seems principally to terminate in Man The Grass of the Field is accommodate to the use of Animals for their food and so are the Insects for the food of Fish and Fowl but these in their last particular accommodation are for the food or other use of Man On the other side Man is accommodate to the convenience and use of the Vegetables and Animals but not in a way of Subservience or Service but in a way of Regiment Order Empire and Protection which he is enabled to exercise over the Creatures of greater strength and bodily force by the advantage of his Faculties wherein he exceeds them Thus he is accommodate to the Vegetable Nature by Planting and Husbandry to the Animal Nature by subduing the unruly and hurtful by the disciplining and managing the docible by protecting the domestick by providing for their wants The accommodation of Brutes to Men is an accommodation of an Inferior to a Superior the accommodation of Man to Brutes is an accommodation of a Superior to an Inferior an accommodation of Regiment and Protection The third sort of Accommodation is of every thing unto it self either in relation to its proper Species by propagation of its kind or in relation to its individual nature which is that which I principally mean to speak of We may observe at least in every Animal 1. An accommodation of Faculties suitable to his nature use and convenience which are principally these Cogitation Sensation Phantasie or Imagination Appetite and power to Move it self though in various degrees of perfection 2. That all these Faculties are terminated in a sensitive Life or Life of Sense and go no farther 3. That all those Faculties are exactly fitted with Organs proportionate to their Faculties and the specifical perfection of them the Organs subservient to the Faculties of the meanest Insect are as exquisitly accommodated and fitted thereunto as the Organs of a Horse or an Elephant are accommodate to the specifical Faculties of that Animal 4. That the wise God hath proportioned Objects of the Appetites of every Animal exactly suitable to those Appetites and a connatural prosecution and dexterity in the assecution of them so that no natural Desire or Appetite is in vain or notional only but really fitted and accommodated with an Object proportionable to it 5. That every Animal hath its highest complacency and contentment in the attainment of the suitable Object of its Appetite and this is its commensurate Happiness the Fox or the Lion or the Otter hath no greater dexterity in the getting of his Prey nor greater contentation in his acquest than the Bee hath in getting Honey or the Spider in catching his Fly These things being thus premised we have therein generally included the natural Method whereby we may by the Light of Nature search out the true and special End for which we have reason to believe the great and wise Efficient made Man It is true that some things Man hath in common with the rest of created visible Beings as that he is a corporeal Being hath Life and Sensation and is a
to these Faculties suitable Objects answering those Vital Faculties to Sensitive Nature his Beneficence hath communicated those Faculties of Sense as well as Life and then communicates to them a farther efflux of his Beneficence by communicating to them the Objects grateful and useful both for Life and Sense thus his Beneficence is communicated to them per modum boni sensibilis but to Man his Beneficence is communicated not only per modum boni vitalis sensibilis which yet he enjoys as other Creatures but per modum boni intellectualis voliti First by giving him those nobler Faculties of Intellection and Will and then by communicating to those Faculties Objects suitable to those Powers or Faculties namely Intellectual Truths to his Understanding and Moral Rational and Divine Good to his Will and among all those vera bona that are communicated to these Faculties by the Divine Beneficence God himself his Goodness Truth Will Perfection are the chiefest verum and the chiefest bonum So that no Creature below Man is capable formally to know to love to enjoy God as the chiefest Truth and chiefest Good And this also seems to be another End of the Creation of Man that being made a Creature endued with Understanding and Will he might be receptive of the Effluxus of the Divine Beneficence in a nobler way than the other visible Creatures of this lower World 3. As under the first Consideration Man is more eminently an objective manifestation of the Divine Glory than other visible Creatures and as under the second Consideration Man is more receptive of the Divine Beneficence than other visible Creatures So upon farther examination we shall find that Man was made in a capacity to be a more active Instrument to serve and glorifie his Maker than other visible Creatures which was another End of his Creation specifically different from the End of other visible created Natures which will appear by the farther consideration of those two great distinguishing Faculties his Understanding and Will I shall not go about to make a large Description of those Faculties or the Operation but only observe so much touching them as may reasonably evidence the preference that Man hath therein above the inferior Animals and the Inferences that arise thereupon touching the End of Almighty God in the making Man And first for the Intellective Faculty As in Animals the Faculties of Sense internal and external especially the Visive Faculty placeth Animals in a rank of Being far above the insensible Creatures and accommodates them exquisitly to a Life of Sense so the Intellective Faculty placed in Man puts him into a rank of Beings far above the most perfect Animals and accommodates the Humane Nature to an Intellectual Life And the preheminence of this Faculty above the Faculty of Sense will appear if we consider the Operations thereof I shall instance but in two namely intellective Perception and intellective Ratiocination or Discourse 1. For the intellective Perception the Understanding perceives many things which are not perceptible by Sense or sensitive Phantasie or Imagination for Instance it hath the perception of Substance or Being abstracted from all sensible qualities it hath the perception of the truth or falsity of a Proposition it perceives the Conclusion and the Evidence thereof in the Premises and many more intellectual Objects which never did nor can fall under the perception of Sense or Imagination And although we cannot clearly understand all the Operations of the Brutal Phantasie because we are distinct from them and they have not the instrument of Speech intelligible by us to express their perceptions yet we may know that this is true by our selves for we may perceive that we do perceive these Objects not to be perceptible by our Faculties of Sense but by some other Faculties distinct from that of Sense or sensitive Imagination Again in those Objects that are objective to Sense the intellective perception discovers somewhat that is apparently unperceived by the Sense or sensitive Imagination for Instance the Heavenly Bodies the Sun Moon and Stars are equally objected to the view as well of Animals as Men but yet by the help of intellective perception Man perceives that in those Objects which neither the Brutes no nor Man himself by the bare perception of Sense or sensitive Phantasie doth not cannot perceive The perception of Sense gives us the Sun no bigger than a Bushel and the Stars than a Candle cannot discover an inequality of their distance from us judgeth the body of the Moon to have as many changes in figure and quality as it hath various Phases or Appearances the Sun really to set the Limb of the Heavenly Horizon to be contiguous to the Earth but the intellective perception finds the quantity of the Sun and Stars bigger than the Earth and by the Parallaxes and Eclipses finds the Stars more distant from us than the Sun and that than the Moon perceives distinctly their several Motions Orders Positions and makes distinctions and computations of Time and Duration by them and over-rules and confutes the perception of Sense and Imagination by another kind of perception above the perception of Sense 2. Touching Ratiocination or Discursive Operation the precedure thereof is above the reach of the sensitive Phantasie though this seems to carry some weak and imperfect Image thereof For Instance sometimes not only the media discursûs and the processus discursivus are out of the reach of Sense but the very subjectum discursûs is imperceptible to Sense such are that processus discursivus of the Understanding touching complexed Notions or Universals touching the abstracted Notions of Being Substance Entity and transcendents in Metaphysicks such are also the discursives of moral good and evil just unjust which are no more perceptible to Sense than Colour is to the Ear and yet touching these Subjects the Intellect forms Discourses deduceth Illations and Conclusions Again in matters Mathematical and Physicall though in the concrete and in their subjects they are objective to Sense yet the media and processus discursivus whereby the Understanding makes Conclusions and Inferences and Illations touching them are of a range and kind quite above the range of Sense or sensitive Imagination thus upon certain data or postulata in Geometry the Intellect forms Conclusions which though Mechanically and Experimentally true yet are elicited by a Processus discursivus quite above the activity of sensitive Phantasie And though matters Physical Bodies and Tangible qualities and their several powers manner of production and divers other things relating to them are sensible Objects yet the Intellect useth a Processus discursivus whereby it investigates Truths and draws Conclusions that are quite above the scantlet of Sense or Phantasie ascending up from the Effect to the next Cause and thence to the next and thence gradually to the First Cause of all things So that though oftentimes the foot or root of the Discursus intellectivus be bottomed in some sensible Object perchance
of no great moment and importance yet by this Processus discursivus the Intellect riseth higher and higher and quickly taketh a flight out of the ken or reach of Sense in Consequences Discursive Inferences and Conclusions and follows the Chain higher and higher till it come to the uppermost ring thereof fastened as the Poets wittily feign to the Throne of Almighty God And thus far of these two excellent Operations of this Intellective Faculty namely Intellective Perception and Discourse But besides these operations and active exertions of the Understanding there seems to be two kinds of accommodations to it which are admirably serviceable to the improving and perfecting of its operations the one internal the other external The internal is this As we find in the Sensitive Nature certain congenit or connatural Instincts whereby they are secretly and powerfully biassed and inclined and carried to their proper sensitive Good either individual or specifical such as are their inclination to that Food that is suitable for them their Appetitus procreativus their care for their Young and infinite more so there seems to be lodged in the Intellective and Rational Nature certain Rudiments and Tendencies whereby they are carried to the good of an intellectual Life certain communes notitiae lodged and connaturally implanted in the Intellect which serve as a kind of connatural inward stock for the Understanding to work upon and also as a secret biass and inclination to carry him on to the good of an intellectual Life Such as are a secret inscribed Notion that there is a God that he is to be worshipped honoured served and obeyed and certain inscribed common Notices of Moral Good and Evil that make him propense to Justice Honesty to do as he would be done by and the like And although evil Customs and the prevalence of the sensual Appetite may in a great measure weaken and impair those common Notions when they come to particulars and particular applications yet it is evident in all Ages and Nations by a kind of connaturality Mankind hath ever retained these two great and noble and discriminating denominations namely first to be Animal religiosum arising from the energy of those infinitae notitiae relating to God and to be Animal politicum sociale arising from these insitae notitiae of Moral Good and Evil and those connatural insitions of Morality implanted in his nature which are the great and chief support of humane Society The external accommodation of the Intellective Faculty is that admirable Wisdom and Goodness of God that hath so ordered things that first of all Mankind is accommodated with those Faculties of Sense especially that of Sight whereby he may perceive all sensible Objects that arrive within the distance of their activity And secondly in that he hath exposed a very considerable part of his admirable Works to that Sense of his Had Man been born blind though his intellective Faculty had been excellent yet that Faculty had been very unactive in this Life at least because the Basis or Root of much of its operation depends upon the reception of sensible visible Objects and had he been endued with Sense yet if the excellent Works of God had been at so great a distance that they had not been perceptible by him he had wanted a great contribution to the perfecting of his intellective Faculty The Divine Wisdom and Goodness hath so ordered things that he hath not only that receptive Faculty of Sense especially that of Sight but hath also presented to his view a great and considerable part of the Universe with great advantage beauty and clearness the inferior or Elementary World with all its variety and store and the prospect of the goodly Celestial Bodies their positions motions beauty order and excellence And this goodly Apparatus of the Universe thus objectively derived to his Understanding furnisheth it with an outward Stock upon which it may trade and exercise it self with great delight and advantage viz. 1. The knowledge of things Physical and Natural the State Order and Oeconomy of Nature the Virtue Efficacy and Energy of Second Causes and their Effects herein he hath a vast extent of the Inferior and Celestial World to exercise himself in and certainly this bare knowledge is a thing of excellent improvement and contentation of the Intellect and far exceeds all sensible Delights in so much that many wise and knowing Men have chosen to sequester themselves from the common Employments and Contents of Mankind for the sake of a Life of Philosophical Speculation But this is the lowest part of that knowledge that is hereby acquirable there is yet a more noble and excellent knowledge acquirable hereby that advanceth and improveth the Intellectual Nature to a very great and high perfection 2. Therefore that knowledge that is hereby acquirable is the knowledge of the Glorious God the first Creator and great Conserver and Governour of all things I have before said that the Goodness of God had lodged an inward Stock in Man whereby to improve his Intellectual Nature namely those communes notitiae of the Existence of a God and that he is to be worshipped served and obeyed the common Root of Religion in Mankind these are in him like the first Rudiments of the Foetus the Embryo of Religion or the Egg as it were out of which it is hatched The contemplation of the admirable Works in the World doth exceedingly fortifie and improve those first Rudiments of Natural Religion digests them into their just formation In these we see and admire and glorifie the Power the Wisdom the Goodness the Presence of God from these we learn his Unity his Eternity his Immensity his Providence his Justice his Mercy And as thus ascendendo we learn to know God by his Works so again descendendo we learn our duty to praise glorifie magnifie honour love fear and obey him to depend upon him to delight in him and by this means Natural Religion arrives to a great advance and the Intellectual Nature mightily perfected and improved and Man becomes not only a passive a receptive Instrument to glorifie his Maker but an active Instrument of his Glory which was as is premised another End of Almighty God in the making of Man namely That he might be an active intellectual Instrument to glorifie God and in glorifying him the more fully to enjoy him and his favour love and goodness 4. As thus the Intellective Faculties render Man fit actively to serve and glorifie his Maker so also that other Faculty of his Will contributes also in like manner to render him fit for that employment We shall for this purpose only consider these two Properties in the Will 1. The liberty of the Will whereby it hath power to determin it self and is free from all force and coaction and upon this account namely that Man is not only an intellectual Creature but also hath liberty of Will he becomes a Creature properly susceptive of a Law and capable of Rewards
inferior World and the Animals and Vegetables themselves which deserves to be observed First We may easily observe among the Creatures of this lower World inferior to Man that there are several Ranks of Beings like so many several Provinces but especially the Animal and Vegetable Province Among Animals some are fierce strong and untameable as Lions Tigers Wolves Foxes Dragons Serpents and these stand in need of some coercive power over them that they destroy not the Species of more profitable and yet weaker Animals Again there are some Animals that are more useful and serviceable to Man which are more obnoxious to be preyed upon and depredated and their Species to be utterly destroyed by the invasion of the more fierce voracious and unruly Animals as Sheep Cows and divers others which stand therefore more in need of protection and preservation and those of the more voracious and fierce nature are less subject to be disciplined tamed and brought into subjection the other are by their very nature more domitable domestick and subject to be governed and the like we may observe in many kinds of Fowls as there are Beasts of prey so there are Birds of prey and others more manageable and obnoxious to injury Again if we look into the Vegetable Province some Herbs and Plants are more tender and delicate and stand in continual need of cultivation and their very Seeds stand in need of a more than ordinary care both in reference to their preservation and prosemination without which in a little time their very Species would be lost or at least strangely degenerate such are many sorts of Fruit-Trees Herbs and choice Flowers Again on the other side there are multitudes of spontaneous productions of Vegetables or such as are so hardy and prolifick though less profitable or useful that without a superintendent industry to correct their excess would usurp the whole face of the Earth and make it a Wilderness as some sorts of hardy Trees Weeds Thorns Briars and other more unprofitable excrescences nay the very Superficies of the Earth without a superintendent Cultivation would grow either marshy and boggy by the defluxion of Waters or altogether weedy and over-grown with excessive excrescences And though much of this either infertility or unprofitable excrescence might be the fruit of the Sin of Man yet the Wise God that foresaw this Sin and the Effect thereof was not wanting in providing a fit provisional Remedy against it that so this part of the Work of his Creation might retain its beauty and use And though after the Fall of Man this difficulty of this Employment was greater by reason of the Curse that thereby befell the Earth yet even before the Fall the nature of his Employment was the same He put the Man into the garden of Eden to dress and to keep it Gen. 2. In relation therefore to this inferior World of Brutes and Vegetables the End of Man's Creation was that he should be the Vice-Roy of the great God of Heaven and Earth in this inferior World his Steward Villicus Bayliff or Farmer of this goodly Farm of the lower World and reserved to himself the supreme Dominion and the Tribute of Fidelity Obedience and Gratitude as the greatest Recognition or Rent for the same making his Usufructuary of this inferior World to husband and order it and enjoy the Fruits thereof with sobriety moderation and thankfulness And hereby Man was invested with power authority right dominion trust and care to correct and abridge the excesses and cruelties of the fiercer Animals to give protection and defence to the mansuete and useful to preserve the Species of divers Vegetables to improve them and others to correct the redundance of unprofitable Vegetables to preserve the face of the Earth in beauty usefulness and fruitfulness And surely as it was not below the Wisdom and Goodness of God to create the very Vegetable Nature and render the Earth more beautiful and useful by it so neither was it unbecoming the same Wisdom to ordain and constitute such a subordinate Superintendent over it that might take an immediate care of it And certainly if we observe the special and peculiar accommodation and adaptation of Man to the regiment and ordering of this lower World we shall have reason even without Revelation to conclude that this was one End of the Creation of Man namely To be the Vicegerent of Almighty God in the subordinate Regiment especially of the Animal and Vegetable Provinces 1. The Earth and Vegetables and Animals stand in need of such a Superior Nature to keep them in a competent order an ordinary Observation lets us see how soon those Regions uninhabited by Mankind become rude Forests and Wildernesses how destitute they are of those mansuete Animals being exposed without a protector to be the prey of savage Beasts 2. Man by the advantage of his intellectual sagacity and contrivance is fitted for this Regiment For although there be many Beasts much stronger than he as Lions Tigers Wolves and others yet he is by the advantage of this Faculty enabled to avoid and over-match and subdue them and by the advantage of this Faculty hath power to reclaim those that are reclaimable though of greater strength than himself as Horses Elephants Camels and to protect and provide for the safety and food of those that are either by Art or Nature rendred mansuete as Horses Sheep Oxen and to make them subservient to his ends and uses 3. Though of all other visible Creatures Man seems the least provided with natural offensive Organs yet by the advantage of his intellectual Faculty and that admirable Organum organorum his Hand he is infinitely advantaged with artificial helps to defend himself and subjugate the most contumacious and furious Brute The Lion the Bear the Tiger the Wolf the Horse the Elephant the Bull are furnished with natural offensive and defensive Munition but by the advantage of the Hand Man is able to provide himself more serviceable Artillery as Swords Pikes Arrows Darts Nets Trapps Toyls and to use them with greater security and advantage 4. We may also observe a kind of connatural necessity imposed upon Man to exercise this Oeconomy and Regiment over Animals and Vegetables for his own preservation and defence without the exercise of this Regiment he would be over-run with savage and noxious Animals he would want the speed of the Horse the industry of the Ox the Clothing of the Sheep the Milk of the Cow without this Regiment he would be without Corn to feed him Wine to refresh him Medicine to recover him the Earth would become a barren Forest or Wilderness over-run with Bryars and Thorns And it is observable That as the wise God hath put all things in motion and action the Heavenly Bodies the Elementary Natures the Meteors the Animals so it is his Wisdom to preserve Man also in bodily as well as mental motion and by a kind of necessity driven him from sloth and idleness if
Vocal Command given out to the Matter but the secret Command and Determination of the Divine Will governed the Matter into an immediate conformable Production according to the Idea residing in the Divine Understanding He spake and it was done be commanded and it stood fast This best became the Majesty and Sovereignty of the Lord of all things CAP. III. Concerning the Production and Formation of Man HAving taken the former brief Survey of the History of the Creation and Formation of the rest of the Universe I shall now proceed to what I principally intended in the discussion of that History namely the Formation of Mankind Gen. 1.26 And God said Let us make Man in our own image after our likeness and let him have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth so God made man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them and God blessed them and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fishes Touching the Creation of Man I shall observe these things 1. The Efficient of this first Production of Mankind was Almighty God by the counsel and determination of his own Will The Creation of Man is ushered in with a Prologue unlike the Creation of other things viz. by a kind of deliberation not as if the Divine Wisdom stood in need of counsel advice or concurrence of others or of a mora deliberativa with himself for known unto him were all his Works from the beginning and by one simple instantaneous and indivisible Act he foresees what is fit to be done and judgeth and determineth the same but it is added as a Mark of Attention and an Elogy of Prelation of this Work of the Creation of Mankind above the rest of the visible Creatures Some of the Ancients have thought this Deliberation was real and to have been made with the superior World of Heavenly Intelligences Nec si fas sit ita loqui Deus quicquam fecerit donec illud expenderit in familia superiori and it should seem that the Opinion of Plato in his Timaeus That Almighty God did advise with the Dii ex Diis or the Intelligences or Angelick Natures and used their assistance in the Creation of the Bodies of Men though he himself formed their Souls seems to be derived from the inspection of the Mosaical History or Tradition of it whereof he gave us his Sense or Exposition that this faciamus hominem was by the concurrence or subordinate cooperation of Angels Others with far greater evidence do think it was the Deliberation and Conclusion of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity And some again interpret it to be only a Majestick Expression touching Almighty God more regali in the Plural Number but touching these Conjectures I shall say no more but only this That the first Origination and Production of Man was by the immediate Efficiency of Almighty God not as if God Almighty used any Manual or Physical Plasmation of a Man as the Statuary makes his Statue or as the Poets feign Prometheus moulded up his molle lutum into the Humane Shape and animated him by diffusion of Fire into him fetcht from Heaven but by the Word or Determination or Fiat of his Omnipotent Will Man was formed and made 2. The constituent Components out of which he was made were of two kinds 1. His Corporeal and Animal Nature was the same with the Matter of other Terrestrial Animals namely the Elementary Matter whereof Earth was the predominant 2. His Spiritual Constituent as I may call it though in union with the Sensible Power it be his constituent Form was a Spiritual Substance created and infused by Almighty God Gen. 2.7 And God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul This Text gives us briefly 1. The Matter of his Corporeal and Animal Constitution the Dust of the Ground or as elsewhere Red Clay 2. The Nature or Kind of this other constituent part the Breath of Life a Vital Spiritual Intellectual Substance or Nature 3. The Union thereof to the Body and Animal Nature breathed into him 4. The result from that Union Man became a living Soul the whole Composition taking denomination from his nobler essential Constituent And this short History gives us the best account that can be of the true Nature of Man namely that he consists of two essential constituent Parts 1. His corporeal and animal nature which though it were not only gradually but specifically different from and advanced above the Brutal Nature both in the Elegance and Usefulness and Majesty of his corporeal Fabrick and in the excellency and perfection of his animal Faculties as in due time shall be shewn Yet in his essential part he seemed to have a nature in some way common with them both being material and both their Faculties of the Animal Nature directed and subservient to a Life of Sense and therefore corruptible and mortal in it self 2. His Intellectual Nature which is spiritual immortal created immediately by Almighty God that as in his Animal Natureâ— he was the highest of living corporeal and visible Creatures so in his Soul or Intellectual Nature he seems to be constituted in the lowest rank or range of Intellectual and Immaterial Beings by this means he seemed to be Nexus utriusque orbis I have before observed in the Order of Natural Beings with which we are acquainted that there seems to be an admirable gradation in things and the lower rank of Natural Existences have some rough draughts and strokes and shadows of those perfections which are in the superior Minerals are a degree below Vegetables yet they seem to have some shadow of the Vegetable Life in their growth increase and specifick configurations The lowest degree of Life seems to be the Vegetables yet in many of them and their Faculties they seem to have some kind of rough strokes or draughts of the Sensitive Nature and the highest advances of the Vegetable Nature seem to come up to the confines and borders of the lowest Form of Sensible Beings and to participate of somewhat of Sense which appears not only in the natural production of Insects out of the finest parts and effluxes of most Vegetable Natures but also that some such things there are that seem in their very nature of Plants to have a kind of lower connexion of the Animal Nature in them as appears in the Sensitive Plant or Planta modesta and those Canes in the Kingdom of Angola that are filled with a Worm growing from and continuous with it called Trombe Again in the Animal Province there are divers sensible Insects both aquatil volatil and terrestrial that seem to be in the very next Rank of Nature to Vegetables and
annihilated and if it keeps its Individuation it must be by the Power and Interposition of Almighty God 3. But be it what it will suppose it be the common Matter as it were of the Souls of Men and therefore now in the ordinary course of Propagation by a kind of setled Law in Nature may communicate it self or any portion of it self to the natural productions of Mankind yet where do we find that either it ever did or can of its self form a Body out of Elementary Nature and unite it self unto it Or how could that be done without the ordinary method of Generation to dispose and organize the Recipient or organized Body or the interposition of a superior Intelligent Nature that must form and unite it and if it ever did or could do the same by its own immediate Activity why do we not see the same thing done daily without the course of ordinary Generation ex Semine since this commune Elementum mentale still is supposed to exist and of the same efficacy as ever it was 4. It is observable that in all these kinds of Suppositions either of one Mundus animarum individualium with Origen or of a common Elementum mentale whether divisible or indivisible nothing can be done without taking in the Power of an Omnipotent God either in the first Creation of these Souls or Elements or in the direction ordering and governing of their illapses into Matter or of the preparing and organizing of Matter in the first Origination of Men or in the separating or individuating of these Elements or in the uniting of them to Matter or in giving the Law and Rule and Institution of their future Regiment or indeed in all of these And so Men have needlesly and without sufficient evidence multiplied Entia and yet such as are not effectual to the solution of the Phaenomena nisi Deus intersit and all this plainly expedited with the same ease and less perplexity and multiplicity by the immediate Command of the Divine Will and Power in the first production of Things according to the plain explicable and intelligible System given us by God by the hand of Moses namely an immediate Formation of Man an immediate Creation of an Immortal Intellectual Soul and an immediate Union of both Parts of the Compositum by Almighty God 5. Indeed if it be supposed that one common Mental Nature may be specifically appropriate to the Humane Nature not taking in the Angelical the difficulty of the specification of Humane Nature by that common Mental Principle may be removed because the Humane Nature is but one Species yet the Supposition of one common Sensitive or Vegetable Nature as the common Constituent of Animals and Vegetables leaves us under this perplexity and difficulty namely How from that common Sensitive Nature there ariseth diversity of Species of Animals and Vegetables or since the Principles are but of one kind how comes the Species to be several And on the other side if the variety of Species arise from the different modification or qualification of the Matter How comes it to pass that there is any fixedness and determination of the Species of Animals or Vegetables or that they are contained and conserved in the same Species since the modifications and qualifications of Matter are various and irregular and infinite neither do they keep in one fixed modification or qualification but the same is hourly changed It remains therefore that although we should admit such a Natura sensitiva or ignea either in some common Masses or interspersed and diffused through the whole Mass of Elementary mixed Matter we must be fain to suppose something else that must determin these common and Homogeneal Principles into determinate Species or at least that there are as many Sensitive Natures specifically distinct as there are Species of Animals in the World These Suppositions therefore are not sufficient to explicate the first productions of perfect Animals at least without multiplication of inevident and unexplicable Suppositions 6. I therefore come to that true and plain and necessary Conclusion That the first production of Mankind yea and of perfect Animals was wrought immediately by the Efficacy of an Intelligent Wise and Powerful Being distinct from the things produced and this is the great Truth that in all this Discourse I aimed at and am now arrived at And I shall not need go any farther for the evidence of this Truth than the Contemplation of the Thing it self Man in which we shall find so many clear Evidences of an Intelligent Efficient that we need no other and the common Instances will evidence the Reasonableness of such a Consequence If I should behold a House with several Rooms and Stories excellently contrived with all Offices and Conveniences for Use Doors Windows Chimneys Stairs and every thing placed and digested with Order Usefulness and Beauty a little Logick will induce me to conclude that it was the Work of an intelligent and skilful Architect though I did not see him building or finishing it If I should see a curious Watch curiously wrought graved and enameled and should observe the exact disposition of the Spring the String the Wheels the Ballance the Index and by an excellent orderly regular Motion described discovering the Hour of the Day Day of the Month and divers other regular and curious Motions Or if I should see such a goodly Machina as some ascribe to Archimedes whereby in distinct Spheres or Orbs the situation of the Elementary and Celestial World were represented and all these put into their several Motions consonant to that we see in the Heavenly Bodies by the means of Springs or Weights artificially placed I should most reasonably conclude that these were neither Casual not simply Natural Productions but they were the Work of some intelligent curious Artist that by design intention and appropriation wrought and put in order and motion these curious Automata And certainly if I or any Man of Reason should in this moment behold a parcel of red Clay and in a moment should see that arise into the Figure of a Man full of Beauty and Symmetry endued with all those Parts and Faculties which I see in my self and possibly far more glorious exquisite and beautiful and I should observe him presently after this Formation use all the Operations of Life Sense and Reason and this kind of production never seen before That common Reason which should tutor me to think that that Watch that Machina before mentioned was the Work of an Intelligent Nature would much more enforce me to believe that this admirable and stupendious production of such a Nature unexampled before would enforce me to believe and confess that this were the immediate Work not only of an Intelligent Being but of a most Wise and Powerful Being that could thus in a moment frame animate and endow such an excellent Creature as this And yet certainly the first created Parents of Mankind were constitute in a Nature specifically