torch that some great secrets of Nature and very obscure places of Scripture the reason of which I knew not before were now plain as it were of their own accord to the exceeding great content of my mind For now with those that have lighted upon a more sound way of Philosophie in this age I saw and rested in it I That the onely true genuine and plain way of Philosophie is to fetch all things from sense reason and Scripture II That the Peripatetick philosophie is not onely defective in many parts and many ways intricate full of turnings and windings and partly also erroneous so that it is not onely unprofitable for Christians but also without correction and perfection hurtfull III That philosophie may be reformed and perfected by an harmonicall reduction of all things that are and are made to sense reason and Scripture with so much evidence and certainty in all such things as are of most concernment and have any necessity that any mortall man seeing may see and feeling may feel the truth scattered every where Of all and every of which observations least we should seem to have dreamed somewhat there will be some thing to be said more at large And for the first we make three principles of Philosophy with Campanella and his happy Interpreter Tobie Adams Sense Reason and Scripture But so joyntly that whosoever would not be left in ignoraÌ„ce or doubt should rest on no one of these without the others otherwise it wil be a most ready precipice into errors For Sense though it make an immediate impression upon us of the truth imprinted upon things yet because it is very often confounded either by reason of the multitude of things in a manner infinite and the strange complications of formes or else wearied and tired sometimes with the distance of the objects and so consequently dazeled and deceived Reason must of necessity be imployed which may conclude alike of like things and contrarily of contrary things by observing their proportion and so supply the defect of sense and correct its errours But then because many things are remote both from sense and reason which we cannot in any sort attein unto by sense nor yet by reason firmly enough we are indepted to the grace of God that he hath by his Word revealed unto us even some secrets which concern us to know Therefore if any one desire the true knowledg of things these three principlâ—s of knowing must of force be conjoyned Otherwise he that will follow the guidance of sense onely will never be wiser then the common sort nor be able to imagine the Moon lesse then a starre the Sun greater then the earth and that again sphaericall and every way habitable On the contrary if a man contemplate on abstract things and consult onely with reason without the testimony of sense he will be rapt away with meer phantasines and create himself a new world like the Platonicall and Aristotelicall c. Lastly they that heed the Scripture onely and hearken neither to sense nor reason are either carried away beyond the world by the sublimity of their conceptions or else involve things they understand not with the Colliers faith or following the letter propound unto themselves things though never so absurd and superstitious to be believed as Papists do in that most absurd transubstantion of theirs c. So then the principles of knowing must be conjoyned that divine Revelation may afford us belief Reason Understanding Sense Certainty And they must be used in this order in naturall things I say as that we begin with sense and end in revelation as it were the setting to the seal of God for by this order every subsequent degree will receive receive from the antecedent both Evidence and also Certainty and Emendation For as there is nothing in the understanding which was not first in the sense so there is nothing in the belief which not first in the understanding For he that believes must know what is fit to be believed Hence the Scripture frequently invites us to hear see tast consider And affirmes that faith too comes by hearing I said Certainty too For by how much the neerer Reason is to sense that is by how many the more experiments of the senses it may be demonstrated it is so much the more reall and on the contrary again the further it recedes from sense by so much the more vain speculation and naked imagination it hath But by how much the neerer divine Revelation may be reduced to understanding and the testimonies of experience so much the more strength it findes I said further that the precedent degrees were corrected by the subsequent and so it is For where sense fails or mistakes it is supplied and corrected by reason And Reason by Revelation For example when the sense judgeth the Moon to be bigger then Saturn or an Oare to be broken under the water c. Reason rectifies it by certain documents of experience So when Reason hath gathered any thing falsely of things invisible it is amended by divine Revelation Yet that emendation is not violent and with the destruction of the precedent principle but gentle so that that very thing which is corrected acknowledgeth and admits it of its own accord and with joy and soon brings something of its own whereby the same corrected truth may become more apparent For example Reason brings nothing to correct sense whereof it is not soon ascertained by sundry experiments and affirmes it self that so it is as that an Oare is not broken under water the Touch teacheth as also the sight it self looking on it after it is drawn out Faith holds out nothing which is contrary and repugnant to Reason though it bring that which is beyond and above Reason But all things such as Reason not onely yields being overcome by authority but also finds of a truth to be in things and so seeks and finds out some thing of its own which may serve to confirme and illustrate the same truth Therefore let it be taken for true That Sense is not onely the fountain of knowledge but also of certainty in naturall things But that the understanding is the Organ not onely of knowledge but also of certainty in revealed things Let us come then to the purpose Some deny that holy Scripture is to be drawn to Philosophie because it teacheth not the speculation of outward things but the way of eternall life I confess that the Scripture was given by inspiration of God to teach reprove correct and instruct in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. 3. I confess I say that this is the ultimate end of the Scripture Yet who knows not that there are for the most part more ends of one thing even in humane things much more in divine where the wisdom of our adored God hath wholly wound up it self with an artifice scarce to be found out of us Truly
lime Lastly great fires are nourished with water We see also that there is sometime hot sometime cold water not onely in rivers but also breaking out of fountains according as it is affected yet it may not be dissembled in the mean time that air is more prone to heat by reason of its rarity water to coldnesse by reason of its thicknesse XXVII The water at first covered the earth round about but on the third day of the creation it was gathered into certain channels which are called Seas Lakes Pooles Rivers c. That this was done at the command of of God Moses testifies in these words Let the waters be gathered together into one place that the dry land may appear Gen. 1. v. 9. but David relating the processe of the creation describes the manner also Ps. 1â—4 v 6 7 8 9. That thunders were raised by which the Mountains ascended the valleys descended but the waters were carried steep down into their channels and that in this sort a bound was set them that they might not return to cover the earth Whence it is very likely that that discovery of the surface of the earth was made by an earthquake but that the earthquake was produced by the fire sunk into the earth which giving battle to the cold there conglobated shook the earth and either caused it to swell variously or rent it asunder Whence those risings aâ—â— fallings in the surface of the earth that is mountains and valleys were made but within caves and many hollow places This done the waters of their own accord betook themselves from those swelling eminencies to thc low and hollow places This pious conjecture will stand so long as no more probable sense can be given of this Scripture And what need many words common sense testifies that mountains are certainly elevated valleys and plains depressed therefore of necessity that was sometime so ordered but not in the first foundation of the earth the second day for then the grosser parts of the matter flowing about poised themselves equally about the center therefore it was about the third day when the face of the earth appeared and the waters flowed into their channels But besides perhaps God doth therefore permit earthquakes yet to be sometimes and by them mountatains and valleys and rivers to be changed that we may not be without a pattern how it was done at the first XXVIII The water then is divided into Seas Lakes Rivers and Fountains XXIX The sea is an universall receptacle oâ—â—â—aters into which all the rivers of the earth unburthen themselves Which uery thing is an argument that the sea is lower then the earth for rivers run down not up again XXX The sea is one in it self because it insinuates it self into the Continent here and there as it were with strong arms it hath gotten severall names in severall places That great Sea encompassing the earth is called the Ocean those armes dividing the Continent Bayes or Gulfs For all those gulfes are joyned to the Ocean except the Caspian or Hyrcanian Sea in Asia yet that is thought to have channells within the earth whereby it joyned to the Ocean XXXI The Sea is cf unequall depth commonly srom an hundred to a thousand paces yet in some places they say that the bottome cannot be found Hence the sea is called an Abysse It is probable that the superficies of the earth covered with the water is as unequal as this of ours standing out of the water namely that in some places are most spacious plaines in other places valleys and depths and in other places mountains and hils which if they stand above the water are called Islands but if they be hidden under the water shelves XXXII The water of the Ocean faileth not because huge rivers and showres continually flow into it neither doth it cverflow becruse it doth always evaporrte upwards in so many parts of it Of the earth XXXIII The earth is the most dense bedy of the world as it were the dregs and setling of the whole matter And therefore gross opacous cold heavy XXXIV It hangeth in the middle of the universe encompassed with air on every-side For being that it is on every side encompassed with the heaven and is forced by the heat thereof on every side it hath not whither to go or where to rest but in the aequilibrium of the universe XXXV The earth is every way round For the forme which at the first it received from the light of heaven wheeling about it it yet retaineth except that in some places it is elevated into mountains and hils by the thunder which was sent into its bowels the third day in other places again it is pressed down into valleys and plains for the running down of the rivers but that doth not notably hinder the globosity thereof XXXVI The better part of the superficies of the earth is yet covered with water the lesser part stands out of the water where it is called dry land or continent or if it be a small portion an Island There are seven Continents of the earth Europe Asia Africa America Peruviana America Mexicana Magellanica or Terra Australis and Terra Borealis but there are Islands innumerable XXXVII The earth is in its outward face in some places plain in others mountainous but within in some places solid in others hollow That appears in Mountains and Mines of metal where is to be seen here stones or clay very close compact there dens and most deep caves and endlesse passages which must needs be thought to have been the work of the thunder sent into the earth the third day of the creation which penetrating and piercing its bowels so tore them Now there are in the earth not only spacious caves and holes but an infinite number of straighter veins and as it were pores which is plain enough by experience XXXVIII The cavities of the earth are full of water air fire For being that there are cavernes passages and pores they must needs be filled and that with a thin matter Of air no man will doubt But that there are waters in the cavernes under ground appeares in the mines of mettall and is proved by the testimony of the Scripture which in the history of the deluge saith that all the fountains of the great deep were broken up Gen. 7. v. 11. Lastly that there is fire under the earth we have already seen Aphorism 16. which it is credible is the relicks of the lightning raised within the bowels of the earth the third day of the Creation Psalm 1â—4 v. 7. left there for the working of minerals but nourished with sulphureous and bituminous matter spread through the bowels of the earth CHAP. VII Of Vapours IF the Light of Heaven had wrought nothing else upon the matter but melt it together into the formes of the Elements as it was variously rarified or densified the world had remained void of other living creatures But it ceaseth not passing through the
return unto dust Job 34. v. 13 14. So if God should take his spirit out of the World every living thing would die 2 By reason and sense it is certainly evident that herbs and animals spring out of a humide matter even without seed But whence had these life I pray you but from that diffused soul of the World wee finde by experience that bread wine and water yea aire are vitall to those that feed upon them but whence have they that vital force I pray you if not from this diffused soule but now if a certaine spirit be diffused in that manner through all things it follows necessarily that it was created in the begining in its whole masse even as the matter the light were first produced in that its great and undigested masse so that there was no need that any thing should be created afterwards but be compounded of those three and distinguished with forms which God intimated in Esay 42. v. 5. where declaring himself the Creator of all things he divides them into three parts namely into the heavens that is light the earth that is matter and a quickning spirit and just so in Zachary 12. v. 1. let us therefore hereafter beware so great an absurdity that I may not say blasphemy as to put the person of the Holy Ghost amongst the creatures Now there may three reasons of this thing be given why Moses called that quickning spirit produced in the beginning the Spirit of God Namely that it is taken in that sense wherein els-where it is spoken of â—he mountains of God Psal. 36. v. 7. and trees of God Psal. 104. v. 16. and Ninive was called a citie of God that is by reason of their greatness and dignity 2. Because it was produced immediatly by God not as now it is when that spirit passeth from one subject to another 3 Because it was a peculiar act of the holy Ghost For the Analogie of our Faith teacheth us to believe that the production of the matter out of nothing is a work of Gods Omnipotencie and is attributed to the Father that the production of light by which the World received splendour and order is a work of wisdome attributed to the Son John 1. v. 3 4. and lastly that the virtue infused into the creatures is a work of his goodnesse which is attributed to the Holy Ghost Psal. 143. v 10. and so must that place Psal. 33. v. 9 6. be altogether understood for it will not bear any other sense he spake and they were made he commanded and they came forth the heavens were established by the Word of God and all the virtue of them by the spirit of his mouth Also wee must note Gen. 1. v. 1 2 3. that three words are added to the three principles he created he said and he moved himself that they may be signs of his absolute Power of his Word and of his spirit Also we must note this that in both those places the Holy Ghost with his work is placed in the midst as also in Esay 40. v. 13. because he is the spirit the love and the mutuall bond of both but this we speak after the manner of men Let it stand therefore for certain that all the principles were created the first day every one in its masse and that all things were afterwards composed out of them which may be declared to children for their more full understanding by a similitude thus an Apothecary or Confectioner being to make odoriferous Balls takes Sugar in stead of matter Rose-water or Syrrup or some other sweet liquour for tincture or conditure last of all taking some of this lumpe thus made hee imprints certain shapes upon his work So also God first prepared his matter then tempered it with a living spirit then brought light into it which by its heat and motion might mix and temper both together and bring it to certain forms also even as a Mechanick must have matter and two hands to work withall the one hand to hold and the other to work with so in the framing of the world there was need first of matter then of a spirit to frame the matter and lastly of light or heat to inactuate the matter under the hand of the spirit and what need many words we see in every stone hearb and living creature first a certain quantity of matter secondly a certain inward virtue whereby it is generated it groweth it spreads abroad its savour and its odour and its healing virtue thirdly a form or a certain disposition of parts with divers changes which come from the heat working within For Matter is a principle meerly passive Light meerly active Spirit indifferent for in respect of the matter it is active in respect of the light passive The difinitions of the principles Matter is a corpulent substance of it self rude and dark constituting bodies Spirit is a subtile substance of it self living invisible and insensible dwelling and growing in bodies Light is a substance of it self visible and moveable lucid penetrating the matter and preparing it to receive the spirits and so forming out the bodies Therefore by how much the more Matter any thing hath it hath somuch y e more Dulnes obscurity immobility as the earth Vigour and durability as an Angell Form mobility as the Sun Spirit Light Note also that matter is the first entitie in the World ' Spirit the first living thing Light the first moving thing so that every body in the World is of the matter by the light in the spirit which he would have to be his image from whom by whom in whom are all things blessed for evermore Amen Rom. 11. v. 36. Of the nature of matter TRuly said one No diligence can be too much in searchingout the beginning of things for when the principles are rightly set down an infinite number of conclusions will follow of their own accord and the science wil encrease it self in infinitum which the creation of things doth also shew For God having produced the principles the first day and wrought them together with most excellent skil made afterward so great variety of things to proceed from them that both men and Angels may be astonished Therefore let us not thinke over much to frame our thoughts yet of all the principles of the World apart Let the following Aphorisms be of the matter I The first matter of the World was a vapour or a fume For what means that description of Moses else when he calls it earth waters the deep darkness a thing void and without form and it appears also by reason for seeing that the lesser bodies of the World Clouds Water Stones Metals and all things growing on the earth are made of vapours coagulated as shall appeare most evidently hereafter why not the whole World also certainly the matter of the whole can be nothing else but that which is found to be the matter of the parts II The first matter of the
if wee finde that artifice all over nature and so it is that every creature and part of a creature and part of a part serves for severall uses I see no reason why we should deprive the Book of God of this character of the highest Wisdome But I see reason why we ought to determine that most sufficient complements of all things whereunto Sense and Reason were insufficient and yet wee were concerned to know them are extant in that most holy Book For did not God bring man into the School of the World to contemplate his manifold Wisdome Did not hee command him to behold his invisible things by these things that are seen Rom. 1. v. 20. Surely this must be acknowledged to be the end both of making the World and placeing man therein Now it is cleere through all Nature that to whatsoever end God hath ordained any thing he hath conferred means upon it to be tein it Hee hath therefore conferred means upon man to contemplate his wondrous things Which as wee must acknowledge that they are sense and reason so we must needs acknowledge that they are not every where sufficicient For our senses leave us in the knowledge of eternall things and those things which are placed quite out of sight and done when we are not present But where Sense fails Reason fails also Being that this is nothing but an universall knowledge of things gathered from particulars acts of sense that this or that is or is done either so or so When as therefore both Sense and Reason doe very ordinarily fail us shall we believe that the most gracious Father of Lights would not supply this defect some other way His most liberall and in every respect approved bounty towards us will not permit us to suspect that But if God have some way or other provided for us let it be shewen what it is or where it is to be sought for if not in that sacred volume of Oracles And I pray was it in vain or onely in respect of our eternall salvation that God said of his Law This is your wisdome and understanding in the sight of the Nations which shall heare all these statutes and say Surely this is a wise and understanding people Deut. 4. 6. Or did David boast in vain I have more under standing then all my teachers because thy testimonies are my meditations Psal. 119. 99. Or the sonne of Sirach say in vain The Word of God most High is the fountain of wisdom Eccles. 1. 5. Or was it in vain that Salomon call'd God the guide unto wisdome and the corrector of the wise Wisd. 7. 15. see here a correctour But how doth he correct but by dashing over our vain cogitation with his word And to what purpose I pray is all that is frequently meÌ„tion'd concerning the beginning of the World and the order of the Creation and properties of the creatures If the parent of nature who is also the Dictatour of the Scriptures meant to teach us nothing of nature They say it is to this end that we may learn to know and admire love and fear the Maker of all things Right But how the Maker without his work Does not any one so much the more admire and praise the ingenuity of the Painter if he be excellent by how much the better he understands the art of painting Surely yes A superficiall knowledge will never raise either love or admiration And then I demand those things which wee meet with in the Scriptures concerning the creatures by similitudes also drawn thence are they true or false If true for who can determine otherwise without blasphemie why may we not conferre them with those things that are manifest by sense reason that so we may finde out that harmony of truth which is in things and in the mouth of the Author of things Truly if the words of the wise are as goades and nails fastened as Salomon testifies Eccles. 12. 11. What shall we think of the words of the all-wise God But this that though they raise us up with another end and by the by yet they contein nothing but most solid truth and all manner of-wisedome In vain therefore may some one say I finde no mention in the Scriptures much less precepts of Grammar Logicke Mathematicks Physicks c. For there is as much distance betwixt divine writings and humane as betwixt God himself and man Man that is limited with time place and objects at one time and in one place can do but one thing but God that is aeternall omnipresent and omniscient at once sees rules and governs all things always and every where And the same Character do their writings retein on either part Humane writings do some one thing with expresse endeavour handling one object in one place and that in such a way as is most pleasing to mans understanding but divine writings like an universal treasury of wisdome stay not upon one particular matter unlesse it be in things pertaining to Theologie but contein variety of matter under severall sayings Whence a Divine a Moralist a Politician a Housholder a Philosopher a Philologer c. may take out every of them what each hath use of And this breadth depth of the Scripture is its prerogative before humane writings that so it may be in truth an inexhaustible fountain of all wisdome For whatsoever matter is to be handled the Scripture affords always either a rule or some sayings or examples as John Henrie Alsted sometimes my honoured Master shews in his Triumphus Biblicus and much more might be discovered by a very accurate diligence which that so it is for a good part of it shall appear also in these our Physicall meditations Rightly therefore said Cassiodorus the Scripture is an heavenly school wherein we learn whatsoever we are either to learn or to be ignorant of And piously T. Lydiat It is most absurd that heathen Philosophers should seek for the principles of all arts in one Homers posie and that we Christians should not do the same in the Oracles of God which are a most plentifull and most clear fountain of wisdome About the end of his Physiological disquisition Those most Christian Philosophers are therefore deservedly to be praised who have endeavoured to render unto God the Parent of things that praise that is due unto him Franc. Valesius Lambert Danaeus Levinus Lemnius Thomas Lydiat Conradus Asâ—acus Otto Casmannus who have not doubted to asseverate that the seeds of true Philosophy are conteined in the holy Book of the Bible and to derive their maximes of Philosophy from thence though with different successe Let it stand therefore that Philososophy is lame without divine Revelation Whence wee have this consequence that Aristotle is not to be tolerated in Christian schools as the onely Master of Philosophie But that we should be free Philosophers to follow that which our senses Reason and Scripture dictate For what Are not we placed as wel as they in Natures
to wonder why the like hath not been yet assayed in Metaphysicks Physicks and Theologie for Ethicks and Politicks concern more contingent things I am not ignorant that there is more evidence in Numbers Measures and Weights then in Qualities by which Nature puts forth its strength after a hidden manner yet I will not say that there is greater certainty in them seeing that all things are done alike not without highest reason in a continued order and as it were by an aeternall law And yet in Mathematicks all things are not alike plain yet they are assayed sundry wayes till they can be reduced to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or very sight as I said before and delivered scientifically For he sayes nothing in Philosophicall matters that proves nothing and he proves nothing that doth not so demonstrate it that you cannot contradict it And now I beseech you let this be our businesse that the schools may cease to perswade and begin to demonstrate cease to dispute and begin to speculate cease lastly to believe and begin to know For that Aristotellicall maxim Discentem oportet credere A learner must believe is as tyrannicall as dangerous and that same Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipse dixit Let no man be compell'd to swear to his Masters words but let the things themselves constrain the intellect Nor let a Master have any more credit given him then hee can demonstrate in very deed that hee is to have For in a free Common-wealth there ought to be no Kings but Dukes or Generalls no Dictators but Consuls And those that profess the art of instructing men are the Fathers of men not the carvers of Statues O when shall we see that day that all things which ought to be known shall offer themselves so to a mans understanding that there wil be nothing but what may be understood for the very cleerness of it nothing call'd in doubt for certainty the truth of things making such an impression upon the senses with its light For hee doth not see truly who must yet be perswaded by arguments to make him believe that hee sees as wee have been hither to dealt with for the best part I could not choose because I seemed to see light in the light of God but assay calling God to my aid to reduce these new hypotheses of naturall things into a new method and dictate them to the schollers of this school And thence sprang this which I now offer representing a draught of the lineaments of some new and as I hope truly Christian Philosophie Not that I would crosse the design of great Verulam who thought it the best way to abstein from Axiomes and method till full inductions could be made of all and every thing throughout all nature but to make an experiment in the mean time whether more light might be let into our minds by this means to observe the secrets of nature the more easily that so praise might be perfected to God out of the very mouth of infants and confusion prepared for the gain saying enemie as David having comprised the summe of Physicks in a short hymne for the use of the unlearned speaks Psal. 8. I have entituled it a Synopsis of Physicks reformed by divine light because Philosophy is here guided by the lamp of divine Scripture and all our assertions are brought to the attestation of the senses and reason with as much evidence as could be possible Now both those come under the name of divine light For as David said THY WORD is ALANTHORNE unto my feet so said Salomon THE SPIRIT or mind OF A MAN is THE CANDLE of the Lord searching all things Psalm 119. 105. and Proverbs 20. 27. If any one object That these things here delivered are not yet of that certainty or evidence as to be preferred before Aristotles so long received doctrine I will answer that is not my drift at present but onely I propound this as an example that a truer way of Philosophie may be set out by the Guidance of God the Light of Reason and the Testimonie of Sense if Philosophers would labour more after God and the Truth then after Aristotle and Opinion In the mean time these should be the more acceptable and had in more reverent esteem of us if it were for nothing but this that they are taken from the Oracles of God and aime at a more abundant knowledg of God For my part truly I had rather in that mind I now am and that it may so continue strengthen me ô God I had rather I say erre having God for my guide then having Aristotle that is I had rather follow the voice of God though not throughly understood yet so I follow it then be carried away from the sacred testimonies of my God to the devices of the brain of man I confesse my self that something more were to be desired here yet to that rule of certainty and evidence which I spake of before yet because I trust that these things may be brought to a fuller 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exactnesse by reiterated meditations of mine own or some others I doubted not to follow the counsell of great Acontius If thou hast made any rare observation sayes he which never any one before made whither the thing be a new invention or some new way of former inventions although much be wanting as yet which is above thy strength neverthelesse if thou shouldest not make it publick it would argue either too much cowardize or too much haughtinesse of thy mind and however that thou art no lover of the Common Wealth And why should not these things be accounted as new inventions That ternarie of principles so clearly demonstrated from Scripture Reason and Sense Why not that admirable scale of substances by a septenarie gradation Why not the doctrine of spirits as well separate as incorporate of motions also and qualities laid down more accurately and plainly then ever before letting in a quite new light into the knowledge of natur all things To say nothing of smaller matters scattered all over the book Every of which in particular though I dare not defend tooth and nail for some things perhaps are still the reliques of common tradition and others it may be not yet sufficiently established upon the foundations w ch we have laid down yet I am perswaded that they are the groundworks of unmoved truth and avail much to the more exact observation of particular things And that I may speak in a word I hope there is so much light in this method of Physicks here delivered that very little place is left to doubts and disputations so that it makes something towards the taking away the controversies of Authours the opinions of all whatsoever of truth either Aristotle hath or Galen the Chymicks Campanella and Verulamius do reasonably alledge against him being reduced to an harmony which may be made plain by the example of the principles of which they make bodies to consist
the knowledg of great things but by the knowledg of lesser things which the following Aphorisme will teach us VI Nature unfolds her self in the least things and wraps up her self in the greatest things That is in the more excellent creatures many things are wound up and woven together with such an occult artifice that neither the beginning nor the endings of actions and accidents can easily be discerned but in all courser creatures all things are clearly manifest which is the cause why the nature of compounds cannot be knowne unlesse the nature of simples be first known so consequently we are to begin with these speculations and to proceed by degrees from simpler things to the more compound which very order we shall see that the Creator himself observed in producing and twisting together the nature of things VII Wee are to studie naturall Phylosophie by the guide of sense and light of the Scripture For sense is the beginning not onely of knowledge but of certainty and wisdome for as there is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the sense so if there be any thing obscurely or doubtfully in the intellect we are to have recourse to the sense for evidence and certainty but wheresoever sense or reason faileth as in things remote either in place or time we are indebted to the grace of God that he hath deigned to reveale many things unto us exceeding sense and reason For example the first production of the world and the constitution of things invisible He that neglecteth either of these principles is easily intangled in errours for by how much the more of imagination any thing hath by so much the more vanitie it hath and is the more remote from the truth again by how much the lesse any thing participates of revealed wisdome by so much the lesse it partakes of the truth and such for the most part is the Philosophy of the Gentiles and therefore vain and barren we will follow the guidance of Moses who described the generation of the world by the command of God yet always heedfully observing the attestation of the senses and of reason For wisely doth Lud. Vives as we have set down under the title of this book recall Christians from the lamp of the Gentiles which yeilds an obscure and maligne light to that torch of the Sun which Christ the light of the World brought into the world attributing much wit indeed but little profit to the inventions of Aristotle nay further Campanella and Verulamius most Christian Philosophers that are acquainted with that way of Philosophy from sense and Scripture have demonstrated that all Aristotles doctrines are nothing but a nurserie of disputations that is of obscurities haesitancies contradictions strifes and wranglings and fighting hood-winckt and that they hinder rather then advance our meditation of things and withall have afforded us a light whereat we may kindle more clear torches of inquiring out the truth following vvhose footsteps yet laying strong foundations from the Scripture vve vvill dresse out a little Theatre of nature not for disputation but for speculation and vve vvill go through nature silently yet not vvithout our eyes and that again according to the counsel of great Vives Here is no need of disputations saith he but of a silent contemplation of nature the Scholars shal enquire and ask rather then contend If any be more slow they wil need more ful commonstration not disputation and a little after again I say here is no need of wrangling but of looking on so this study wil be the delight of the rich and a refreshing of the mind to those that deal either in publike or in private affairs for when shal we easily find any other delight of the senses to be compared with this either in the greatness or in the variety or in the continuance of it for when we bestow our labour upon this contemplation wee need not seek for any other recreation nor desire sawce for this meat the walk it self and the quiet contemplation is both a School and a Master as that which always affords something which thou mayest admire wherein thou mayest delight which may increase thy knowledge Therefore let us resolve upon this vve that vievv naturall things to rest upon no other authority besides that of the Work-master of nature and of nature her self as she holds forth her self to be touched and felt the Scriptures sense and reason shal be our Guides Wìtnesses and Dictators to the Testimonies of vvhich he that assents not shevvs himselfe very foolish and vain CHAP. I. An Idea of the World to be created and created THE eternall Deitie our God that is to be adored after the infinite glories which hee enjoyes in his immense eternity was of his exceeding goodnesse propense to communicate himselfe out of himself and by his exceeding Wisdome saw that his invisible things might be expressed by certain visible images and to execute that had his Omnipotencie at hand he decreed not to envie entitie to those things wherein he might be expressed and wherein his Power Wisdome and Goodness might be revealed therefore he produced intelligent creatures by whom he might be known praised Angels and men both after his own image but the first pure minds the other clothed with bodies for whom he built a dwelling place and as it were a school of wisdome this universall World with other creatures of inferiour degree almost infinite all and every of which cry out after their manner hee made us and not wee our selves Now then we go about to unfold in what order so great a work proceeded and with what art all things were contrived and with what strength they are held together yet by his guiding who alone is able to testifie of himself and of his works for thus says he by his Secretary Moses Gen. 1. I In the beginning God created the heaven v. 1. That is the heaven of heavens with the Angels whom as morning stars first produced he made spectatours of the rest of his works Joh. 38. v. 7. II And the earth that is this visible world which notwithstanding he did not finish in the same moment therefore it is said III And the earth was void without form and darknesse was upon the face of the deep v. 2. that is the matter of this world was first produced a certain Chaos without form and darke like a black smoake arising out of the bottomlesse pit of nihilitie by the beck of the Almighty and this was matter the first principle of this visible Woâ—ld IV And the Spirit of God moved upon the water that is a certaine strength was introduced by the spirit or breath of God into that same darke and of it selfe confused matter whereby it began to stirre hereby then is understood the second principle of the World that is the spirit of life diffused throughout whereof the Universal World is hitherto ful which insinuating it selfe every where through all the parts of the
this Moses intimated adding touching animals XV And God said increase and multiply v. 22. by the virtue of which command and words let there be made let it produce let it put forth c. Things are made and endure hitherto and would remain if God would without end unto aeternity Gods omnipotency concurring no longer immediately unto particular things as before but nature it self always spreading forth her vertue through all things which thing derogates nothing from the Providence of God nay rather it renders his great power wisdome goodnes more illustrate for it comes from his great goodness that the greatest and the least things are so disposed to their ends that nothing can be or be made in vain from his wisdome that such an industry is put into nature to dispose all things to their eâ—ds so that it never happens to erre unlesse it be hindred lastly from his power that such an immutable durability can be put into the universe through such a changeable mutabilitie of particulars so that the World is as it were aeternall Therefore the veins of the strength artifice and order of this nature must be more throughly searched that those things which we have here in few words hinted out of Moses may be more illustrated by the constant testâ—mony of Scripture reason and senses and a way made to observe one thing out of another An Appendix to the first Chapter We have said that it may be gathered out of those words of Moses In the beginning God created the heaven that the invisible World was the beginning of the works of God that is the heaven of heavens with the Angels Now that by this heaven is to be understood the heaven of heavens and the Invisible or Angelicall World appeares plain I. Out of Scripture which 1 mentions the heaven of heavens every where but their production no where unlesse it be here 2 Moses testifies that the invisible heavens were stretched out the second day and the fourth day adorned with starres therefore another heaven must necessarily be understood in this place namely a heaven that was finished in the same moment for that the particle autem inferres hee created the heavens and the earth terra autem but the earth was without form c. III This reason evinces the same those things which are made by God are made in order now an orderly processe in operation is this that a progresse be made from more simple things to compound things therefore as the most compound creature man was last produced so the most simple and immateriall creatures Heaven and the Angels first of all III And what would we have more God himself testifies expresly that when he made the earth the Angels stood by him as spectators for so saith he to Job Where wast thou when I founded the earth when the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted Job 38. 4 7. calling the Angels morning starres because they were a spirituall beam and that newly risen sonnes of God because they were made after the image of God therefore when we hear that the earth was founded the first day it must needs be that the Angels were produced before the earth And if the Angels then certainly the dwellings of the Angels the heaven of heavens and that in full perfection with all their hosts as it were in one moment aud this is the cause why Moses speaks no more of that heaven but descends to the forming of the earth that is the visible World how the Creator took unto himself six dayes to digest it as we will also now descend CHAP. II. Of the visible Principles of the World matter spirit and light WE have seene God shewing us how the World arose out of the Abysse of nihilitie let us now see how it standeth that so by seeing we may learn to see and by feeling to feel the very truth of things And here are three principles of visible things held out unto us matter spirit and light that they were produced the first day as three great but rude Masses and out of those variously wrought came forth various kinds of creatures therefore we must enquire further whether these three principles of all bodies have a true being and be yet existent least any errour be perhaps committed at the very entrance by any negligence whatsoever but now seeing that no more doubts of matter and light this onely comes to be prooved that by that spirit which hovered upon the face of the waters a certain universall spirit of the world is to be understood which puts life and vigour into all things created for the newnesse of this opinion in physicks and the interpretation of that place by Divines with one consent of the person of the holy spirit give occasion of doubting But Chryâ—ostome as Aslacus cites him and Danaeus acknowledgeth that in this place a created spirit which is as it were the soul of the world is more rightly to be understood and it is proved strongly I By Scripture which testifieth that a certain vertue was infused by God through the whole world susteining and quickening all things and operating all things in all things which he calleth both a spirit and a soul and sometimes the spirit of God sometimes the spirit of the creatures For example Psal. 104. v. 29. 30. David saith thus when thou receivest their spirit that is the spirit of living creatures and of plants they die and return to their dust but when thou sendest forth thy spirit that is the Spirit of God again they are recreated and the face of the earth is renewed but Job 27. 3. says thus as long as my soul shall be in me and the spirit of God in my nostrils see the soul of man and the spirit of God are put for the same which place compared with the saying of Elihu the spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Omnipotent hath put life into me c. 33. v. 4. opens the true meaning of Moses namely that the spirit of God stirring upon the waters produced the spirit or soul of the world which puts life into all living things Now that this is disposed through all things appears out of Ezechiel where God promising the spirit of life unto the dry bones Ezech. 17. v. 5 14. which he cals his Spirit bids it to come from the four Winds v. 9 therefore Augustine lib. imperf sup Gen. ad lit and Basil in Hexamero call this spirit the soule of the world And Aristotle as Sennertus testifies says that the spirit of life is a living and genitall essence diffused through all things but the testimony of Elihu is most observable who speaks thus Who hath placed the whole World If he namely God should set his heart upon it and should gather unto himself the spirit thereof and the breath thereof or his spirit and his breath For the Hebrew affix is rendred both ways all flesh would die together and man would
matters we could have no fire but Solar on the earth for nothing would be kindled and then what great defects would the life of man endure Of the accidentary or extrinsecall qualities of bodies So much of the substantiall qualities the accidentary follow VII An accidentall quality is either manifest or occult VIII A manifest quality is that which may be perceived by sense and is therefore to be called sensible As heat cold softnesse roughnesse IX An occult quality is that which is known only by experience that is by its effect as the love of iron in the loadstone c. therefore it is called insensible N. The manifest qualities proceed from the diverse temperatures of the elements substantificall qualities the occult immeditely from the peculiar spirit of every thing X The sensible quality is five fold according to the number of the senses visible audible olfactile gustatile tangible that is colour sound odour savour tangour Let not the unusuall word tangor offend any it is feigned for doctrines sake and analogy admits it for if we say from Caleo Calor from Colo Color from sapio sapor from amo amor from fluo fluor from liquo liquor from clango clangor from ango angor why not also from tango tangor Of the tangible quality XI The tangible quality or tangor is such or such a positure of the parts of the matter in a body XII The copulations thereof are twelve for every body in respect of touch is 1 rare or dense 2 moist or dry 3 soft or hard 4 flexible or stiffe 5 smooth or rough 6 light or heavy 7 hot or cold Of every of which we are to consider accurately what and how they are XIII Rarity is an extension of the attenuated matter through greater spaces density on the contrary is a straighter pressing together of the matter into one For all earth water air and spirit is sometime more rare sometime more dense and we must note that there is not any body so dense but that it hath pores neverthelesse though insensible That appears in vessels of wood and earth which let forth liquors in manner of sweat also in a bottle of lead filled with water which if it be crushed together with hammers or with a presse sweats forth a water like a most delicate dew XIV Humidity or humour is the liquidnesse of the parts of the body and aptnesse to be penetrated by one another siccity on the contrary is a consistency and an impenetrability of the parts of the body So a clot hardned together either with heat or cold is dry earth but mire is moist earth water is a humid liquour but ice is dry water c. XV Softnesse is a constitution of the matter somewhat moist easily yeilding to the touch hardnesse is a drynesse of the matter not yeelding to the touch So a stone is either hard or soft also water spirit air c. XVI Flexibility is a compaction of the matter with a moist glue so that it will suffer it self to be bent stifnesse is a coagulation of the matter with dry glue that it will not bend but break So iron is stiffe steel flexible so some wood is flexible other stiffe but note that the flexible is also calld tough the stiffe brittle XVII Smooth is that which with the aequality of its parts doth pleasantly affect the touch rough is that which with the inequality of its parts doth distract and draw asunder the touch Note in liquid things the smooth is called mild the rough tart so marble unpolished is rough polished it is smooth Water is rough oile is mild a vehement and cold wind is rough and sharp a warm air is mild So in our body humours vapours spirits are said to be mild or sharp XVIII Lightnesse is the hasting upwards of a body by reason of its rarity and spirituosity heavinesse is the pronenesse of a dense body downwards as that appears in flame and every exhalation this in water and earth N. W. I how this motion is made upwards and downwards by a love of fellowship or of things of the same nature hath been said cap. 3. 2 The inaequality of heavinesse or ponderosity is from the unequall condensation of the matter For look how much the more matter there is in a body so much the more ponderous it is as a stone more then wood metals more then stones and amongst these gold quicksilver and lead most of al because they are the most compacted bodies 3 Amongst all heavy things gold is found to be of greatest weight spirit of wine or sublimated wine of least and the proportion of quantity betwixt these two is found not to exceed the proportion of 21 parts so that one drop of gold is not heavier than one and twenty drops of spirit of wine XIX Heat is a motion of the most minute parts of the matter reverberated against it self penetrating and rending the touch like a thousand sharp points but cold is a motion of the parts contracting themselves N. W. 1 It appears that heat and cold are motions and fixed qualities 1 because there is no body found amongst us perpetually hot or cold as there is rare and dense moist and drie c. but as a thing heats or cools the which is done by motion 2 because sense it self testifies that in scorching the skin and members are penetrated and drawn asunder but in cold they are stopped and bound therefore it is a motion 3 because whatsoever is often heated though it be metall is diminished both in bignesse and in weight till it be even consumed and whēce is that but that the heat casting forth a thousand atomes doth weare and consume away the matter Now it is called a motion of parts and that reverberated against it self for that which is moved in whole and directly not reflexedly doth not heat as wind a bird flying c. but that which is moved with reverberation or a quick alteration as it is is in the repercussion of light in the iterated collision of bodies in rubbing together friction c. 3 But we must distinguish betwixt Calidum Calefactivum and Calefactile Calidum or Calefactum is that which is actually hot and scorcheth the touch as flame red hot iron seething water or air which also receiveth amost violent heat c. N. W. among all things that are known to us fire is most hot wee have nothing that is most cold but ice which notwithstanding is farre off from being opposed in its degree of cold to the degree of heat in fire Calefactivum is that which may stirre up heat as motion and whatsoever may procure motion namely fire and pepper and all sharp and bitter things taken within the body for motion is from fire and fire from motion and heat from them both For as fire cannot but be moved else it presently goes out so motion cannot but take fire as it appears by striking a flint and rubbing wood something long
it selfe vvhatsoever it perceiveth that is too grosse and earthy in the bloud and by little veins sends it again into the entrals and by that means disburdens it selfe of that dreggy humour and last of all the gall attracteth those parts of the bloud that are too sharp and fiery vvhose little bag hangs at the liver and by strings sends them again mixt into the entrals whence the bitternesse and ill sent of dung XXI The vessels of membrification are 1 veins 2 every particular member 3 pores For the veins proceeding from the liver spread themselves over all the parts of the body like boughs and sending forth little branches every way end in strings that are most tenacious from which every member apart sucketh and by a slow agglutination assimilates it to it selfe so that the bloud flowing into the flesh becomes flesh that in the bones turns into bone in a gristle to a gristle in the brain to brains just after the same manner as the juice of a tree is changed into wood bark pith leaves fruits by meer assimilation The excrements of this third most subtle concoction are subtle also namely sweat and vapour which alwayes breaths out through the pores If any more grosse humour remains especially after the first and second concoction not well made it breeds scabs or ulcers or the dropsie XXII For the furthering of nourishment there is a spur added that is appetite or hunger and thirst which are nothing but a vellication of the fibres of the stomack arising from the sharp sucking of the Chylus For the members being destitute of the juice wherewith they are watered solicite the veins of bloud and the veins by the motion of continuity sollicite the liver the liver the Mesenterie that the entrals the entrals the stomack which if it have nothing to afford contracts and wrinkles it selfe and the strings of it are sucked dry from whence proceeds first a certain titillation and that we call appetite simply and afterward pain and this we call hunger and if solid meat be taken but dry because coction or vaporation cannot be made by reason of drinesse there is a desire that moisture should be poured on and this vve call thirst It appears then why motion provokes appetite and why the idle have but little appetite c. XXIII The whole body is nourished at once together by the motion of libration To vvit after the same manner as the root in a plant doth equally nourish both it selfe and the stock and all the boughes Therefore no member nourisheth it selfe alone but others vvith it selfe and so all preserved Otherwise if any member rob the rest of their nourishment or again refuseth it there follows a distemperature of the vvhole body and by and by corruption at length death XXIV A living creature being 〈◊〉 nourished is not onely vegetuted but also as long as his members are soft and extensive augmented the superficies of the members yielding by little and little and extending it selfe but as soon as the members are hardened after youth the living creature ceaseth to grow yet goes forward in solidity and strength so long as the three concoctions are rightly made But when the vessels of the concoctions begin to dry up also the living creatures begins to wither away and life grows feeble till it fail and be extinguished Of the vitall faculty XXV Life in a living creature is such a mixture of the spirits with the bloud and members that they are all warme have sense and move themselves Therefore the life of living creatures consists in heat sense and motion and it is plain for if any creature hath neither motion nor sense nor heat it lives not XXVI Therefore every living creature is full of heat sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker For every living creature is nourished How it appears out of that which went before the nourishment is not made but by concoction but reason teacheth that concoction is not made but by heat and fire It comes therefore to be explained whence a living creature hath heat and fire and by what means it is kindled kept alive and extinguished which the two following Aphorismes shall teach XXVII The heart is the forge of heat in a living creature burning with a perpetuall fire and begetting a little flame called the spirit of life which it communicates also to the whole body Hence the heart is said commonly to be the first that lives the last that dies XXVIII The vitall spirit in the heart hath for its matter bloud for bellowes the lungs for channels by which it communicates it selfe to the whole body the arteries Our hearth fire hath need of three things 1 matter or fuell and that fat 2 of blowing or fanning whereby the force of it is stirred up 3 free transpiration whereby it may diffuse it selfe the same three the maker of all things hath ordeined to be in every living creature For the heart seated a little above the liver drinketh in a most pure portion of bloud by a branch of the veins which being that it is spirituous and oily conceives a most soft flame and left this should be extinguished there lies near to the heart the lungs which like bellowes dilating and contracting it selfe blowes upon and fans that fire of the heart perpetually to prevent suffocation Now being that that inflammation of the heart is not without fume or vapour though very thin the said lungs by the same continuall inspiration exhaleth those vapours through the throat and drawing in cooler air instead thereof doth so temperate the flame of the heat whence the necessity of breathing appears and why a living creature is presently suffocated if respiration be denied it And that flame or attenuated and most hot bloud is called the spirit of life which diffusing it self through the arteries that accompany the veins every way cherisheth the heat both of the bloud that is in the veins and all the members throughout the whole body Now because it were dangerous to have this vitall spirit destroyed the arteries are hid below the veins only in two or three places they stand forth a little that so the beating of that spirit as well as of the heart it selfe when the hand is laid upon the breast may be noted and thence the state of the heart may be known Of the sensitive faculty XXIX Sense in a living creature is the perception of those things that are done within and without the living creature XXX That perception is done by virtue of a living spirit which being that it is most subtle in a living creature is called the Animall spirit XXXI That perceptive virtue consists in the tendernesse of the animall spirit for because it is presently affected with whatsoever thing it be wherewith it is touched For all sensation is by passion as shall appear hereafter XXXII The seat and shop of the animall spirits is the brain For in the brain there is not only greatest store of that spirit residing but