in Hungary where if Barley be sown Wheat springs up instead thereof but in other places more barren and especially in Rocky Places such as are found in Germany if Wheat be sown Barley cometh up and Baâ—ley in other places becomes mere Grass And in Animals Worms are changed into Flies and Beasts and Fishes that feed on Beasts and Fishes of a different kind do change them into their own Nature and Species And doth not also a corrupted Nature or the Body of Earth and Water produce Animals without any previous Seed of those Animals And in the Creation of this World did not the Waters at the Command of God produce Birds and Fishes And did not the Earth also at the same Command bring forth Beasts and Creeping Things which for that Cause were real and proper Parts of the Earth and Waters And as they had their Bodies from the Earth so likewise they had their Spirits or Souls from the same for the Earth brought forth Living Souls as the Hebrew Text speaketh but not mere Corporeal Figures wanting Life and Soul wherefore there is a very remarkable difference between Humane Creatures and Brutes Of Man it is said God made him after his own Image and breathed into him the Breath of Life and he became a Living Soul so that from hence Man received his Life that principal part of him by which he is become a Man which is really distinct from that Divine Soul or Spirit which God breathed into him And seeing the Body of Man was made out of the Earth which as is proved had therein divers Spirits and gave Spirits to all Brute Beasts then unto Man no doubt she committed the best and most excellent Spirits whom he was to contain but all these Spirits were of a far inferiour Species in regard of the Spirit of Man which he received from above and not from the Earth And the Spirit of Man ought to have Dominion over these Spirits which were all but Earthly so as to subdue them to himself and exalt them to an higher degree viz. into his own proper Nature and that would have been his true Increase and Multiplication for all this he suffered the Earthly Spirits existing within him to get Dominion over him and so became like them wherefore it is said Earth thou art and unto Earth thou shalt return which hath no less a Spiritual than a Literal Signification § 7. NOW we see how gloriously the Justice of God appears in this Transmutation of Things out of one Species into another and that there is a certain Justice which operates not only in Men and Angels but in all Creatures is most certain and he that doth not observe the same may be said to be utterly Blind For this Justice appears as well in the Ascension of Creatures as in their Descension that is when they are changed into the better and when into the worse when into the better this Justice distributes to them the Reward and Fruit of their Good Deeds when into the worse the same punishes them with due Punishments according to the Nature and Degree of the Transgression And the same Justice hath given a Law to all Creatures and written the same on their Natures and every Creature whatsoever that transgresseth this Law is punished for it But that Creature that observes and keeps it hath this Reward viz to become better So under the Law which God gave to the Jews if a Beast killed a Man that Beast was to be slain and the Life of Man is said to be required at the Hand of every Beast Gen. 9. 5. And if any one had to do with a Beast not only the Man but the Beast was to be slain so not only the Woman and her Husband did receive Sentence and Punishment from God after their Transgression but the Serpent also which was the brutish part in Man which he took from the Earth God hath also put the same instinct of Justice in Man towards Beasts and Trees of the Field for whosoever he be that is a good and just Man the same loves his Beasts that serve him and taketh care of them that they have their Food and Rest and what else is wanting to them and this he doth not do only for his own profit but out of a Principle of true Justice for should he be so cruel to them as to require their Labour and yet deny them their necessary Food then certainly he transgresseth that Law which God hath written on his Heart and if he kills any of them only to fulfil his own pleasure he acts unjustly and the same measure will again be measured unto him so likewise a Man that hath a certain Fruitful Tree in his Orchard that prospereth well he dungs and cleanses the same that it may wax better and better but if it be barren and incumbers the ground then he heweth it down with an Ax and burns it with Fire And so here is a certain Justice in all these as in all the Transmutation of Things from one Species into another whether it be by ascending from the Ignobler or Baser unto the Nobler or by descending into the contrary there may be found the same Justice For Example Is it not just and equitable if a Man on Earth liveth a pure and Holy Life like unto the Heavenly Angels that he should be exalted to an Angelical Dignity after Death and be like unto them over whom also the Angels rejoice But if a Man here on Earth lives so wickedly and perversly that he is more like a Devil raised from Hell than any other Creature if he dies in such a State without Repentance Shall not the same Justice tumble him down to Hell and shall not such deservedly become like Devils even as those who led an Angelical Life are made equal with the Angels But if a Man hath neither lived an Angelical nor Diabolical but a Brutish or at least-wise an Animal or Sensual Life on Earth so that his Spirit is more like the Spirit of a Beast than any other thing Shall not the same Justice most justly cause that as he is become a Brute as to his Spirit whilst he hath left the Dominion of his more excellent Part to that Brutish Part and Spirit within him that he also at least as to his External Form in bodily Figure should be changed into that Species of Beasts to whom he was inwardly most like in Qualities and Conditions of Mind And seeing this Brutal Spirit is now become Superior and Predominant in him and holds the other Captive is it not very probable when such a Man dies that the very same Brutish Spirit shall still have Dominion in him and carry the Human Soul with it whithersoever it pleaseth and compel it to be subservient unto it And when the said Brutish Spirit returns again into some Body and hath now Dominion over that Body so that its Plastick Faculty hath the Liberty of forming a Body after its own Idea
Magnet thereof whence also God is above all the most to be loved because he is the best which Goodness is in some measure in Creatures either really or apparently wherefore such are loved of their Fellow-Creatures I Answer It must be granted indeed that Goodness is a great yea the greatest Cause of Love and the proper Object of it but this Goodness is not a distinct Cause from those before laid down but is comprehended in them Wherefore do we call a Thing Good But because it either really or apparently pleases us for the unity it hath with us or which we have with it Hence it comes to pass that Good Men love Good Men and not otherwise for Good Men cannot love Evil nor Evil Men Good Men as such for there is no greater similitude than between Good and Good For the reason why we call or esteem a Thing Good is this that it benefits us and that we are made Partakers of its Goodness and so here the First Cause of Similitude is still Militant So likewise when one Thing gives being to another as when God and Christ give Being to Creatures as from whom have every true Essence proceeded here is in like manner a certain Similitude for it is impossible that the Creatures should not in some Things be like their Creator and agree with him in some Attributes or Perfections This being supposed a Touch-stone we shall now return to our subject matter i. e. to examine whether Spirits and Bodies are of one Nature and Substance and so convertible one into another Therefore I demand What is the reason That the Spirit or Soul so loveth the Body wherewith it is united and so unwillingly departs out of it that it has been manifestly notorious the Souls of some have attended on and been subject to their Bodies after the Body was dead until it was corrupted and dissolved into dust That the Spirit or Soul gave a distinct Being to the Body or the Body to the Spirit cannot be the reason of this Love for that were Creation in a strict sence but this viz. to give Being unto Things agrees only to God and Christ therefore that necessarily comes to pass by reason of that similitude they have one with another or some Affinity in their Natures Or if it be said there is a certain Goodness in the Body which moves the Spirit to love it certainly this Goodness must necessarily answer to something in the Soul which is like it otherwise it could not be carried unto it yea let them inform us what that Goodness in the Body is for which the Soul doth so servently love it or in what Attributes or Perfections a Body is like a Spirit if a Body is nothing but a dead Trunk and a certain Mass which is altogether uncapable of any degree of Life and Perfection if they say a Body agrees with a Spirit Ratione entis or in respect of Being that is to say as this hath Being so that hath the same this is already refuted in the former Argument for if this Being hath no Attributes or Perfections wherein it may agree with the Being of a Spirit then it is only a mere Fiction for God created no Naked Ens or Being which should be a mere Being and have no Attributes that may be predicated of it besides also Ens is only a Logical Notion or Term which Logicians do call Genus generalissimum or the most General Kind which in the naked and abstracted Notion of it is not in the Things themselves but only in the Conception or Humane Intellect And therefore every true Being is a certain single Nature whereof may be affirmed such and such Attributes Now what are those Attributes of Body wherein it resembles a Spirit Let us examine the principal Attributes of Body as distinct from a Spirit according to their Opinion who so much dispute that Body and Spirit are so infinitely distant in Nature that one can never become the other The Attributes are these That a Body is impenetrable of all other Bodies so that the parts thereof cannot penetrate each other but there is another Attribute of Body viz. to be discerpible or divisible into parts But the Attributes of Spirit as they define it are penetrability and indiscerpibility so that one Spirit can penetrate another also that a thousand Spirits can stand together one within another and yet possess no more Space than one Spirit Moreover that a Spirit is so simple and one in it self that it cannot be rent asunder or actually divided into separate parts If now the Attributes of Body and Spirit are compared together they are so far from being like one another or having any Analogy of Nature in which nevertheless the true Foundation of Love and Unity doth consist as before was said that they are plainly contrary yea nothing in the whole World can be conceived â—o contrary to any Thing as Body and Spirit in the opinion of these Men. For here is a pure and absolute contrariety in all their Attributes because Penetrability and Impenetrability are more contrary one to another than black and white or hot and cold For that which is black may become white and that which is hot may become cold But as they say that which is impenetrable cannot be made penetrable yea God and Creatures do not so infinitely differ in Essence one from another as these Doctors make Body to differ from Spirit For there are many Attributes in which God and the Creatures agree together but we can find none wherein a Body can any way agree with a Spirit and by consequence nor with God who is the chiefest and purest of Spirits wherefore it can be no Creature but a mere Non-entity or Fiction But as Body and Spirit are contrary in the Attributes of Penetrability and Impenetrability so are they no less contrary in Discerpibility and Indiscerpibility But if they alledge that Body and Spirit do agree in some Attributes as Extension Mobility and Figurability so that Spirit hath Extension and can reach from one place to another and also can move it self from place to place and form it self into whatsoever Figure it pleaseth in which cases it agrees with a Body and a Body with it To this I Answer Supposing the first that a Spirit can be extended which yet many of them deny yea most who teach that Body and Spirit are essentially distinct yet the Extension of Body and Spirit as they understand it do wonderfully differ for the Extension of Body is always impenetrable yea to be extended and impenetrable as pertaining to Body is only one real Attribute proposed in two Mental and Logical Notions or ways of speaking for what is Extension unless the Body wheresoever it is be impenetrable of its own proper parts But remove this Attribute of Impenetrability from a Body and it cannot be conceived any longer as extended Moreover also the Extension of Body and Spirit according to their Notion infinitely differ for
difference as if a Man should go to demonstrate how a Carpenter builds a Ship or an House by an Example of God creating the first Matter or Substance wherein certainly there is as great a disparity or disproportion for God gave Being to Creatures but a Carpenter doth not give Being to the Wood whereof he builds a Ship But no Man can think because I have said All Motion of Creatures is of God that therefore he is or can be the Author or Cause of Sin For although the moving Power be of God yet Sin is not in the least of God but of the Creature who hath abused this Power and determined to some other end than it ought So that Sin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an inordinate determination of Motion or the power of moving from its due place state or condition unto some other as v. g. a Ship is moved by the Wind but governed by the Mariner that it goes to this or that place where the Mariner is not the Author or Cause of the Wind but the Wind blowing he makes either a good or a bad use of the same whereby he either brings the Ship to the place intended and so is commended or else so manages her that she suffers Shipwrack for which he is blamed and worthy of Punishment Moreover Why is the Spirit or Soul so passible in corporal Pains For if when it is united with the Body it hath nothing of Corporeity or a bodily Nature Why is it grieved or wounded when the Body is wounded which is quite of a different Nature For seeing the Soul can so easily penetrate the Body How can any Corporeal Thing hurt it If it be said the Body only feels the pain but not the Soul this is contrary to their own Principles because they affirm that the Body hath neither Life nor Sense But if it be granted that the Soul is of one Nature and Substance with the Body although it is many degrees more excellent in regard of Life and Spirituality as also in swiftness of Motion and Penetrability and divers other Perfections then all the aforesaid difficulties will vanish and it will be easily conceived how the Body and Soul are united together and how the Soul moves the Body and suffers by it or with it What the Opinion of the Hebrews is appears from a place in Kabbal denud Tom. 1. Part. 3. Dissert 8. Cap. 13. p. 171. seq § 3. FOR we may easily understand how one Body is united with another by that true agreement that one hath with another in its own Nature and so the most subtile and Spiritual Body may be united with a Body that is very gross and thick sc by means of certain Bodies partaking of subtilty and grossness according to divers degrees consisting between two Extreams and these middle Bodies are indeed the Links and Chains by which the Soul which is so subtile and Spiritual is conjoined with a Body so gross which middle Spirits if they cease or are absent the Union is broken or dissolved so from the same Foundation we may easily understand how the Soul moves the Body viz. as one subtile Body can move another gross and thick Body And seeing Body it self is a sensible Life or an intellectual Substance it is no less clearly conspicuous how one Body can wound or grieve or gratifie or please another because Things of one or alike Nature can easily affect each other And to this Argument may be reduced the like difficulties viz. how Spirits move Spirits and how some Spirits strive and contend with other Spirits also concerning the Unity Concord and Friendship which good Spirits reverence among themselves for if all Spirits could be intrinsecally present one with another How could they dispute or contend about place And how can one expel or drive out another and yet that there is such an expulsion and conflict of Spirits and especially of the Good against the Evil some few who have been acquainted with their own Hearts have experimentally known If it be said the Spirit of God and Christ are intrinsecally present in all Things contends with and makes War against the Devil and his Spirit in the Heart of Man I Answer That this is also a very unfit similitude viz. when God and Creatures are compared in their Operations For his Ways are infinitely Superiour to ours yet nevertheless in this case also here remains a strong Objection For the Spirits of God and Christ when they strive against the Devil and the Evil Spirits in the Heart of Man do unite themselves with certain good Spirits whom they have sanctified and prepared for this Union and by these as a Vehicle or Triumphant Chariot they contend against and encounter those Malignant and Wicked Spirits And in as much as these Evil Spirits contend against those Good Spirits in the Heart of Man they contend against God and Christ and these Good Spirits are the Spirits of this faithful and pious Man who is become Good when as before he was Evil For God and Christ do help every pious Man to prevail over the Evil Spirits in this Conflict but suffers the Wicked and Unfaithful to be captivated and overcome for God helps none but those that fear love and obey him and trust in his Power Goodness and Truth for with such he is united and the good Spirits of such Men are as so many Swords and Darts whereby those dark and unclean Spirits are wounded and repulsed But if it be demanded how the Soul of Man can be united with God though it were in a State of the highest Purity because he is a mere Spirit but the Soul even in its greatest Purity always partakes of Corporeity I Answer It is done by Jesus Christ who is the true and proper Medium between both for Christ and the Soul may be united without a Medium by reason of that great Affinity and Similitude between them which those Doctors cannot demonstrate between Spirit and Body who say they are of a Nature so contrary one to another § 4. I shall draw a Fifth Argument from what we observe in all visible Bodies as in Earth Water Stones Wood c. What abundance of Spirits is in all these things For Earth and Water continually produce Animals as they hath done from the beginning so that a Pool fill'd with Water may produce Fishes though none were ever put there to increase or breed and seeing that all other Things do more originally proceed from Earth and Water it necessarily follows that the Spirits of all Animals were in the Water and therefore it is said in Genesis that the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters viz. that from hence he might produce whatsoever was afterwards created § 5. BUT if it be said this Argument doth not prove that all Spirits are Bodies but that all Bodies have in them the Spirits of all Animals so that every Body hath a Spirit in it and likewise a Spirit
parts and that without end yet I would not hereby determine what the Absolute Power of God will or can do as some do vainly and grosly dispute but only hint what the Power of God probably may do or will do so far as he operates in and with his Creatures to wit in as much as in all Productions and Generations as also in all Resolutions and Divisions in the Nature of Bodies or the Creature he never divides nor never can divide any Body into such small parts that each of these is not always capable of a farther division for the Body of no Creature can ever be reduced into its least parts yea into such that it cannot be reduced back again either by the most subtile operation of any Creature or created Power And this Answer may suffice to our present purpose For God makes no division in any Body or Matter but so far as he co-operates with the Creatures and therefore he never reduces Creatures into their least parts because then all Motion and Operation in Creatures would cease for it is the Nature of all Motion to wear and divide a thing into subtiler parts for to do this would be contrary to the Wisdom and Goodness of God for if all Motion and Operation should cease in any particular Creature that Creature would be altogether unprofitable and useless in the Creation and so would be no better than if it were a mere non ens or nothing But as was said before God cannot do that which is contrary to his Wisdom and Goodness or any of his Attributes Mathematical Division of Things is never made in Minima but Things may be Physically divided into their least parts as when Concrete Matter is so far divided that it departs into Physical Monades as it was in the first State of its Materiality Concerning the Production of Matter see Kab denud Tom. 1. Part 2. pag. 310. following and Tom. 2. the last Tract pag. 28. Numb 4 5. then it is again fit to resume its Activity and become a Spirit as it happens in our Meats § 10. MOREOVER the consideration of this Infinite Divisibility of every thing into parts always less is no unnecessary or unprofitable Theory but a thing of very great moment viz. that thereby may be understood the Reasons and Causes of Things and how all Creatures from the highest to the lowest are inseparably united one with another by means of Subtiler Parts interceding or coming in between which are the Emanations of one Creature into another by which also they act one upon another at the greatest distance and this is the Foundation of all Sympathy and Antipathy which happens in Creatures And if these things be well understood of any one he may easily see into the most secret and hidden Causes of Things which ignorant Men call occult Qualities CHAP. IV. § 1. Whether God Created all Creatures together orin Succession of time § 2. That in the Man Christ all things consist and have their Being § 3. That Christ according to his Humanity is the First Born of all Creatures § 4. But no Creature can ever reach so far as to be equal with him § 1. FROM what hath been already said it is easie to Answer to that intricate Question viz. Whether God Created all Creatures together or one after another If the Word Create hath respect to God himself or the Internal Command of his Will it is made altogether but if unto Creatures that is done successively for as it is the Nature and Essential Attribute of God to be unchangeable and without succession so the Nature of Creatures is to be changeable and successive But if the Word Create respects the Universals Seeds and Principles of all Things which in subordination to God who is the Principal Beginning of all Things are as it were Springs and Fountains from whence Creatures did flow in the order of their succession so it may be said all Creatures were Created together and especially if regard be had to the Messias or Christ who is the First Begotten of all Creatures by whom all Things are said to be made as John declares it and Paul expresly affirms that by Jesus Christ all Things were made both visible and invisible § 2. JESUS CHRIST also signifies whole Christ who is God and Man as he is God he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Essential Word of the Father as he is Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word expressed or brought forth the perfect and substantial Image of that Word which is in God and eternally or for ever united with him so that this is its Vehicle and Organ as the Body is in respect of the Soul of which Word brought forth which is the Wisdom of God mention is made in divers places as well of the New as of the Old Testament as Prov. 8. 22. 31. and Prov. 3. 19. Psal 33. 6. Psal 22. 2. Psal 110. p. 1. Joh. 11. 1 2 3 c. Ephes 3. 9. Col. 1. 15 16 17. Which place viz. of Col. 1. 15 16 17 contains in it an Explication of the former to wit that by Son by Word or Wisdom or by any of his Attributes God is not simply and nakedly understood for how can any of his Attributes be called the invisible Image of God seeing this is equally as invisible as himself whence Image denotes something that is brought into visibility and which after a peculiar manner reveals and represents the invisible God more than any Creature § 3. AND for the same reason he is called of Paul in the place above-cited the First Begotten of all Creatures wherein is signified the relation he hath to Creatures which were all in their Primitive State as it were Sons of God whereas he is the First Begotten of all those Sons who as I may so say are as it were the Sons of this First Begotten Son of God And therefore in him all Things are said to consist or have their Existence for that they did arise from him as Branches from the Root yet so as that they still remain in him after a certain manner § 4. NOT as though they were equal to him or of the same Nature with him because then none of them could ever have degenerated and been changed from Good into Evil wherefore they are of a Nature far inferior in respect of the First Begotten so that to speak properly they can never be changed into him nor he into the Father The highest pitch they can reach unto is this that is to become more like unto him as the Scripture declares Whence our Sonship who are but mere Creatures is called Adoption CHAP. V. § 1. That the Ancient Cabbalists acknowledged such a First Begotten Son of God whom they called the Heavenly Adam the First Adam and great Priest § 2. That Christ is a Medium between God and all Creatures § 3. That there is such a middle Being is as demonstrable from the Principles of sound
and Inclination which before in the Humane Body it had not it necessarily follows that the Body which this Vital Spirit forms will be Brutal and not Humane for the Brutal Spirit cannot produce and form any other Figure Because its Plastick Faculty is governed of its Imagination which it doth most strongly imagine to its self or conceive its own proper Image which therefore the External Body is necessarily forced to assume § 8. HEREIN the Justice of God marvellously appears whilst he assigns to every Kind and Degree of Transgression its due and proper Punishment neither doth he sentence every Sin and Transgression to Hell-Fire and the Punishment due unto Devils for Christ hath taught the contrary in that Parable where he sheweth the Third Degree only is Doom'd to Infernal Punishment viz. if one say to his Brother Thou Fool What can be here objected against the Justice of God If it be said it doth too much lessen and disparage the Dignity and Nobility of Humane Nature to suppose the same with respect to Body and Soul convertible into the Nature of a Brute To this I Answer according to the common Maxim Corruptio optimi fit pessima The best Things by Corruption become the worst For seeing Man by his voluntary Transgression hath so exceedingly polluted and brought down his own Nature which was so Noble into a far worse State and Condition that the same could wax as vile and base in Spirit as the most unclean Beast or Animal so that he is become as subject to Earthly Concupiscences and Desires as any Beast yea is become worse than any Beast What Injustice will this be if God should also compel him to bear that Image outwardly in his Body into the which he hath inwardly transformed himself Or which thinkest thou is the worst Degeneration to bear the Image of a Beast in Spirit or in Body Certainly every one will say to be like a Beast in Spirit is far the greatest Degeneration and there is not one who is indued with true Nobility of Mind who will not confess that to be like a Beast inwardly is worse than to be like the same outwardly for to be one with him in Spirit is far worse than to be one with him in External Form and Figure of Body But if any one shall say this Punishment is too little for such a Man who hath lived all his Days a Brutish Life if after Death he shall only return to the State or Condition of some Beast let such know that the most just Creator and Maker of all Things is wiser than he and knows best what Punishment is due unto every particular Sin who hath also so most justly and wisely disposed all Things that no Man that lives carnally and after the manner of Beasts can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and so also the Doctrine of Christ expresly informs us that all Sins are not to be punished with the pains of Hell And that where the Treasure is there is the Heart also and the Spirit of Man Also if a Man is joyn'd or united with any Things that then he becomes unum quid or one with the same and that he that cleaves to the Lord is one with him in Spirit and he that cleaves to a Harlot is one Flesh with her Why then doth not he that cleaves to a Beast by the same reason become one with a Beast And so in all other cases For to whom any one yields himself in obedience the same is his Master so far as he obeys him as the Scripture saith Moreover also it is said With what measure soever ye mete the same shall be meted unto you As if it should have said All Kinds and Degrees of Sin have their proper Punishments and all these Punishments tend to the Creatures Advantage so that Grace prevails over Judgment and Judgment is turned into Victory to the Salvation and Restoration of the Creature For seeing the Grace of God is extended over all his Works Why should we think God a more severe and rigid Master to his Creatures than indeed he is Seeing this doth wonderfully obscure and darken the Glory of the Divine Attributes neither doth it beget a Love towards God and an Admiration of his Goodness and Justice in the Hearts of Men as it ought to be but the plain contrary § 9. FOR that common Notion of the Justice of God that every Sin how small soever it be shall be punished with Hell Fire and that without all end begets in Men an horrible Idea or Conception concerning God to wit as though he were a cruel Tyrant towards all his Creatures rather than a Gracious Father But if the lovely Image of God was more known unto Men such as indeed he is and manifesteth himself in all his Dispensations to his Creatures and if our Souls could inwardly feel and tast him viz. as he is Charity and Goodness it self and as he inwardly reveals himself by the Light and Spirit of Christ Jesus our Lord in the Hearts of Men then indeed and not till then would Men come to Love God above all things and acknowledge him to be beyond all the most Lovely Just and Merciful who may not punish all Sinners with an equal Punishment § 10. AND moreover also Why did he drown the old World with Water and hath purposed to destroy this with Fire Such as was that of Sodom but that he would show that for diverskinds of Sin divers sorts of Punishment are to be inflicted And that the old World was indeed wicked but that which is to be destroyed with fire is worse which for that reason will have the greater Judgment But the different nature of these transgressions for which those different punishments are prepared seem to consist in this that the sins of the old World were more brutish and carnal as the word of God doth seem to point out when he saith My Spirit shall not always strive with Man because he is become Flesh that is he is become perfectly Brutish or Bestial by obeying the desires of the Flesh So that unless this Generation had been cut off all Mankind except Noah and his Family in the succeeding Generation would have become Bestial which Evil God would prevent by drowning them with the Waters that by this Punishment they might be reduced from the Brutish Nature to the Nature of Men But the Sins of this World which like Sodom is to be destroyed with Fire seâ—â—â— their own Nature to be more like the Sins of Devils than any thing else viz. by reason of Craft Deceit Malice Hostility and Cruelty and therefore their proper Punishment is Fire which also is the Original Principle of those Noble Spirits so greatly degenerated and so they ought deservedly by the same to be restored and regenerated For what is Fire but a certain kind of imperfect Aethereal Substance shut up in combustible Bodies as we observe the same still to mount upwards and by reason of
least diminished according to the present dignity or indignity capacity or incapacity thereof CHAP. VIII § 1. That Spirit and Body as they are Creatures differ not essentially is farther proved by three other Reasons And a Fourth is drawn from that intimate Bond or Vnion between Body and Spirit § 2. That would be altogether an unfit comparison to go about to illustrate the manner how the Soul moves the Body by an Example of God moving his Creatures § 3. The Vnion and Sympathy of Soul and Body may be easily demonstrated as also how the Soul moves the Body from the aforesaid Principle that Spirit is Body and Body Spirit § 4. A Fifth Argument is taken from Earth and Water which continually produces Animals of divers Kinds out of putrified or corrupted Matter § 5. How a gross Body may be changed into Spirit and become as it were the Mother of Spirits where an Example is laid down of our Corporal Aliment which by various Transmutations in the Body is changed into Animal Spirits and from these into Subtiler and more Spiritual § 6. Of the good or bad Angels of Men which are properly the Angels of a Man and proceed from him as Branches from the Root § 7. A sixth and last Argument is drawn from certain places of Scripture § 1. TO prove that Spirit and Body differ not essentially but gradually I shall deduce my Fourth Argument from the intiment Band or Union which intercedes between Bodies and Spirits by means whereof the Spirits have Dominion over the Bodies with which they are united that they move them from one place to another and use them as Instruments in their various Operations For if Spirit and Body are so contrary one to another so that a Spirit is only Life or a living and sensible Substance but a Body a certain Mass merely dead a Spirit penetrable and indiscerpible but a Body impenetrable and discerpible which are all contrary Attributes What I pray you is that which doth so join or unite them together Or what are those Links or Chains whereby they have so firm a connexion and that for so long a space of Time Moreover also when the Spirit or Soul is separated from the Body so that it hath no longer Dominion or Power over it to move it as it had before What is the cause of this separation If it be said that the vital agreement the Soul hath to the Body is the cause of the said Union and that the Body being corrupted that vital Agreement ceaseth I Answer We must first enquire in what this vital Agreement doth consist for if they cannot tell us wherein it doth consist they only trisle with empty Words which give a sound but want a signification For certainly in that sence which they take Body and Spirit in there is no Agreement at all between them for a Body is always a dead Thing void of Life and sense no less when the Spirit is in it than when it is gone out of it Hence there is no Agreement at all between them and if there is any Agreement that certainly will remain the same both when the Body is found and when it is corrupted If they deny this because a Spirit requires an organized Body by means whereof it performs its vital Acts of the external Senses moves and transports the Body from place to place which Organical Action ceases when the Body is corrupted Certainly by this the difficulty is never the better solved For why doth the Spirit require such an organized Body ex gr Why doth it require a Corporeal Eye so wonderfully formed and organized that I can see by it Why doth it need a Corporeal Light to see Corporeal Objects Or why is it requisite that the Image of the Object should be sent to it through the Eye that it may see it If the same were entirely nothing but a Spirit and no way Corporeal Why doth it need so many several Corporeal Organs so far different from the Nature of it Furthermore how can a Spirit move its Body or any of its Members if a Spirit as they affirm is of such a Nature that no part of its Body can in the least resist it even as one Body is wont to resist another when 't is moved by it by reason of its Impenetrability For if a Spirit could so easily penetrate all Bodies Wherefore doth it not leave the Body behind it when it is moved from place to place seeing it can so easily pass out without the least resistance For certainly this is the cause of all Motions which we see in the World where one Thing moves another viz. because both are impenetrable in the sence aforesaid For were it not for this Impenetrability one Creature could not move another because this would not oppose that nor at all resist it an Example whereof we have in the Sails of a Ship by which the Wind drives the Ship and that so much the more vehemently by how much the fewer holes vents and passages the same finds in the Sails against which it drives When on the contrary if instead of Sails Nets were expanded through which the Wind would have a freer passage certainly by these the Ship would be but little moved although it blew with great violence Hence we see how this Impenetrability causes resistance and this makes Motion But if there were no Impenetrability as in the case of Body and Spirit then there could be no resistance and by consequence the Spirit could make no motion in the Body § 2. AND if it be objected That God is altogether incorporeal and intrinsecally present in all Bodies and yet doth move Bodies whethersoever he pleaseth and is the First Mover of all Things and yet nothing is impenetrable to him I Answer This Motion by which God moves a Body doth wonderfully differ from that manner by which the Soul moves the Body for the Will of God which gave Being to Bodies gave them Motion also so that Motion it self is of God by whose Will all Motion happens For as a Creature cannot give Being to it self so neither can it move it self for in him we Live Move and have our Being so that Motion and Essence come from the same cause sc God the Creator who remains immoveable in himself neither is he carried from place to place because he is equally present every where and gives Being to Creatures But the case is far different when the Soul moves the Body for the Soul is not the Author of Motion but only determines it to this or that particular Thing And the Soul it self is moved together with the Body from place to place and if the Body be imprisoned or held in Chains it cannot free or deliver it self out of Prison or out of Chains Wherefore it would be a very unfit comparison if one should go about to illustrate that Motion the Soul makes in the Body by an Example of God moving his Creatures yea so great is the