to give such power to Matter as to an other Incorporeal substance But I suppose this opinion of natural Immaterial Spirits doth proceed from Chymistry where the extracts are vulgarly called Spirits and from that degree of Matter which by reason of its purity subtilty and activity is not subject to our grosser senses However these are not Incorporeal be they never so pure and subtil And I wonder much that men endeavour to prove Immaterial Spirits by corporeal Arts when as Art is not able to demonstrate Nature and her actions for Art is but the effect of Nature and expresses rather the variety then the truth of natural motions and if Art cannot do this much less will it be able to express what is not in Nature or what is beyond Nature as to trace the Visible or rather Invisible footsteps of the divine Councel and Providence or to demonstrate things supernatural and which go beyond mans reach and capacity But to return to Immaterial Spirits that they should rule and govern infinite corporeal matter like so many demy-Gods by a dilating nod and a contracting frown and cause so many kinds and sorts of Corporeal Figures to arise being Incorporeal themselves is Impossible for me to conceive for how can an Immaterial substance cause a Material corporeal substance which has no motion in it self to form so many several and various figures and creatures and make so many alterations and continue their kinds and sorts by perpetual successions of Particulars But perchance the Immaterial substance gives corporeal matter motion I answer My sense and reason cannot understand how it can give motion unless motion be different distinct and separable from it nay if it were yet being no substance or body it self according to your Authors and others opinion the question is how it can be transmitted or given away to corporeal matter Your Author may say That his Immaterial and Incorporeal spirit of Nature having self-motion doth form Matter into several Figures I answer Then that Immaterial substance must be transformed and metamorphosed into as many several figures as there are figures in Matter or there must be as many spirits as there are figures but when the figures change what doth become of the spirits Neither can I imagine that an Immaterial substance being without body can have such a great strength as to grapple with gross heavy dull and dead Matter Certainly in my opinion no Angel nor Devil except God Impower him would be able to move corporeal Matter were it not selfmoving much less any Natural Spirit But God is a Spirit and Immovable and if created natural Immaterials participate of that Nature as they do of the Name then they must be Immovable also Your Author Madam may make many several degrees of Spirits but certainly not I nor I think any natural Creature else will be able naturally to conceive them He may say perchance There is such a close conjunction betwixt Body and Spirit as I make betwixt rational sensitive and inanimate Matter I answer That these degrees are all but one Matter and of one and the same Nature as meer Matter different onely in degrees of purity subtilty and activity whereas Spirit and Body are things of contrary Natures In fine I cannot conceive how a Spirit should fill up a place or space having no body nor how it can have the effects of a body being none it self for the effects flow from the cause and as the cause is so are its effects And so confessing my ignorance I can say no more but rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOur Author having assigned Indivisibility to the Soul or Spirit that moves and actuates matter I desire to know how one Indivisible Spirit can be in so many dividable parts For there being Infinite parts in Nature they must either have one Infinite Spirit to move them which must be dilated infinitely or this Spirit must move severally in every part of Nature If the first then I cannot conceive but all motion must be uniform or after one and the same manner nay I cannot understand how there can be any dilation and contraction or rather any motion of the same spirit by reason if it dilate then being equally spread out in all the parts of Matter it must dilate beyond Matter and if it contract it must leave some parts of matter void and without motion But if the Spirit moves every part severally then he is divisible neither can I think that there are so many Spirits as there are Parts in Nature for your Author says there is but one Spirit of Nature I will give an easie and plain example When a Worm is cut into two or three parts we see there is sensitive life and motion in every part for every part will strive and endeavour to meet and joyn again to make up the whole body now if there were but one indivisible Life Spirit and Motion I would fain know how these severed parts could move all by one Spirit Wherefore Matter in my opinion has self-motion in it self which is the onely soul and life of Nature and is dividable as well as composable and full of variety of action for it is as easie for several parts to act in separation as in composition and as easie in composition as in separation Neither is every part bound to one kind or sort of Motions for we see in exterior local motions that one man can put his body into several shapes and postures much more can Nature But is it not strange Madam that a man accounts it absurd ridiculous and a prejudice to Gods Omnipotency to attribute self-motion to Matter or a material Creature when it is not absurd ridiculous or any prejudice to God to attribute it to an Immaterial Creature What reason of absurdity lies herein Surely I can conceive none except it be absurd and ridiculous to make that which no man can know or conceive what it is viz. an immaterial natural Spirit which is as much as to say a natural No-thing to have motion and not onely motion but self-motion nay not onely self-motion but to move actuate rule govern and guide Matter or corporeal Nature and to be the cause of all the most curious varieties and effects in nature Was not God able to give self-motion as well to a Material as to an Immaterial Creature and endow Matter with a self-moving power I do not say Madam that Matter hath motion of it self so that it is the prime cause and principle of its own self-motion for that were to make Matter a God which I am far from believing but my opinion is That the self-motion of Matter proceeds from God as well as the self-motion of an Immaterial Spirit and that I am of this opinion the last Chapter of my Book of Philosophy will enform you where I treat of the Deitical Centre as the Fountain from whence all things do flow and which is the supream Cause Author
it is nevertheless I do verily believe that the body of the Sun is far brighter then the light we see and that the substance of light and the patterns taken from light are not one and the same but very different And thus much of light As for Penetration I conceive it to be nothing else but division as when some parts pierce and enter through other parts as Duellers run each other thorow or as water runs through a sieve And this is the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIV MADAM HAving given you my opinion both of the substance and perception of Light in my last Letter I perceive your desire is to know how Shadows are made Truly Madam to my sense and reason it appears most probable that shadows are made by the way of patterning As for example when a Man 's or Trees or any other the like Creature 's shadow is made upon the Ground or Wall or the like those bodies as the Ground or Wall do in my opinion pattern out the interposing body that is between the light and them And the reason that the shadow is longer or shorter or bigger or less is according as the light is nearer or further off for when the light is perpendicular the interposing body cannot obscure the light because the light surrounding the interposing body by its brightness rather obscures the body then the body the light for the numerous and splendorous patterns of light taken from the body of the Sun do quite involve the interposing body Next you desire to know Whether the light we see in the Moon be the Moons own natural light or a borrowed light from the Sun I answer that in my opinion it is a borrowed light to wit that the Moon doth pattern out the light of the Sun and the proof of it is that when the Sun is in an Eclipse we do plainly perceive that so much of the Sun is darkned as the Moon covers for though those parts of the Moon that are next the Sun may for any thing we know pattern out the light of the Sun yet the Moon is dark on that side which is from the Sun I will not say but that part of the Moon which is towards the Earth may pattern out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth which may make the Moon appear more dark and sullen But when the Moon is in an Eclipse then it is plainly perceived that the Moon patterns out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth Besides those parts of the Moon that are farthest from the Sun are dark as we may observe when as the Moon is in the Wane and enlightened when the Sun is nearer But I will leave this argument to observing Astrologers and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXV MADAM IF acording to your Authors opinion In every particular world such as Man is especially his own Soul which is a Spirit be the peculiar and most perfective architect of the Fabrick of his Body as the Soul of the world is of it Then I cannot conceive in my reason how the separation is made in death for I see that all animals and so man-kind have a natural desire to live and that life and soul are unwilling to part And if the power lies in the Soul why doth she not continue with the Body and animate move and actuate it as she did before or order the matter so as not to dissolve But if the dissolution lies in the body then the body has self-motion Yet it is most probable if the soul be the architect of the body it must also be the dissolver of it and if there come not another soul into the parts of matter the body must either be annihilated or lie immoved as long as the world lasts which is improbable for surely all the bodies of men or other animals are imployed by Nature to some use or other However it is requisite that the soul must stay so long in the body until it be turned into dust and ashes otherwise the body having no self-motion would remain as it was when the soul left it that is entire and undissolved As for example when a man dies if there be no motion in his body and the soul which was the mover be gone it cannot possibly corrupt for certainly that we call corruptton is made by motion and the body requires as much motion to be dissolved or divided as it doth to be framed or composed Wherefore a dead body would remain in the same state continually if it had no self-motion in it And if another soul should enter into the body and work it to another figure then certainly there must be much more souls then bodies because bodies are subject to change into several forms but if the animal spirits which are left in the body after the soul is gone are able to dissolve it without the help of the soul then it is probable they could have fram'd it without the help of the soul and so they being material it must be granted that matter is self-moving But if corporeal matter have corporeal self-motion a self-moving Immaterial Spirit by reason of their different natures would make great obstruction and so a general confusion for the corporeal and incorporeal motions would hinder and oppose each other their natures being quite different and though they might subsist together without disturbance of each other yet it is not probable they should act together and that in such a conjunction as if they were one united body for it is in my opinion more probable that one material should act upon another material or one immaterial upon another immaterial then that an immaterial should act upon a material or corporeal Thus the consideration or contemplation of immaterial natural Spirits puts me always into doubts and raises so many contradictions in my sense and reason as I know not nor am not able to reconcile them However though I am doubtful of them yet I can assure your self that I continue MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM BY reason the Soul is a Spirit and therefore Contractible and Dilatable your Authors opinion is That it begins within less compass at first in organizing the fitly prepared matter and so bears it self on in the same tenour of work till the body hath attained its full growth and that the Soul dilates it self in the dilating of the Body and so possesses it through all the members thereof Truly Madam as for the contraction and dilation of an immaterial Spirit if I heard never so many arguments I should hardly be able to conceive the possibility of it For in my opinion dilating and contracting are motions and actions of Nature which belong to natural material Creatures and to none else for dilation and contraction cannot be without extension but extension belongs to parts which an immaterial Spirit hath not But suppose it be so then the Soul must contract and dilate
at a far distance as well as the Eye can see for it may hear the noise of a troop afar off perception being very subtil and active Also there may several Copies be made from the Original and from the last Copy nearest to the Ear the Ear may take a pattern and so pattern out the noise in the organ without any strokes to the Ear for the subtil matter in all Creatures doth inform and perceive But this is well to be observed that the figures of objects are as soon made as perceived by the sensitive motions in their work of patterning And this is my Opinion concerning the Perception of Sound which together with the rest I leave to your Ladyships and others wiser Judgment and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIII MADAM I Perceive by your last that you cannot well apprehend my meaning when I say that the print or figure of a Body Printed or Carved is not made by the motions of the body Printing or Carving it but by the motions of the body or substance Printed or Carved for say you Doth a piece of Wood carve it self or a black Patch of a Lady cut its own figure by its own motions Before I answer you Madam give me leave to ask you this question whether it be the motion of the hand or the Instrument or both that print or carve such or such a body Perchance you will say that the motion of the hand moves the Instrument and the Instrument moves the Wood which is to be carved Then I ask whether the motion that moves the Instrument be the Instruments or the Hands Perchance you will say the Hands but I answer how can it be the Hands motion if it be in the Instrument You will say perhaps the motion of the hand is tranferred out of the hand into the instrument and so from the instrument into the carved figure but give me leave to ask you was this motion of the hand that was transferred Corporeal or Incorporeal If you say Corporeal then the hand must become less and weak but if Incorporeal I ask you how a bodiless motion can have force and strength to carve and cut But put an Impossible proposition as that there is an Immaterial motion and that this Incorporeal motion could be transferred out of one body into another then I ask you when the hand and instrument cease to move what is become of the motion Perhaps you will say the motion perishes or is annihilated and when the hand and the instrument do move again to the carving or cutting of the figure then a new Incorporeal Motion is created Truly then there will be a perpetual creation and annihilation of Incorporeal motions that is of that which naturally is nothing for an Incorporeal being is as much as a natural No-thing for Natural reason cannot know nor have naturally any perception or Idea of an Incorporeal being besides if the motion be Incorporeal then it must needs be a supernatural Spirit for there is not any thing else Immaterial but they and then it will be either an Angel or a Devil or the Immortal Soul of man but if you say it is the supernatural Soul truly I cannot be perswaded that the supernatural Soul should not have any other imployment then to carve or cut prints or figures or move in the hands or heels or legs or arms of a Man for other animals have the same kind of Motions and then they might have a Supernatural Soul as well as Man which moves in them But if you say that these tranferrable motions are material then every action whereby the hand moves to the making or moving of some other body would lessen the number of the motions in the hand and weaken it so that in the writing of one letter the hand would not be able to write a second letter at least not a third But I pray Madam consider rationally that though the Artificer or Workman be the occasion of the motions of the carved body yet the motions of the body that is carved are they which put themselves into such or such a figure or give themselves such or such a print as the Artificer intended for a Watch although the Artist or Watch-maker be the occasional cause that the Watch moves in such or such an artificial figure as the figure of a Watch yet it is the Watches own motion by which it moves for when you carry the Watch about you certainly the Watch-makers hand is not then with it as to move it or if the motion of the Watch-makers hand be transferred into the Watch then certainly the Watch-maker cannot make another Watch unless there be a new creation of new motions made in his hands so that God and Nature would be as much troubled and concerned in the making of Watches as in the making of a new World for God created this World in six days and rested the seventh day but this would be a perpetual Creation Wherefore I say that some things may be Occasional causes of other things but not the Prime or Principal causes and this distinction is very well to be considered for there are no frequenter mistakes then to confound these two different causes which make so many confusions in natural Philosophy and this is the Opinion of MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXIV MADAM IN answer to your question What makes Eccho I say it is that which makes all the effects of Nature viz. self-moving matter I know the common opinion is that Eccho is made like as the figure of a Face or the like in a Looking-glass and that the Reverberation of sound is like the Reflection of sight in a Looking-glass But I am not of that opinion for both Eccho and that wich is called the Reflection in a Looking-glass are made by the self-moving matter by way of patterning and copying out But then you will ask me whether the glass takes the copy of the face or the face prints its copy on the glass or whether it be the medium of light and air that makes it I answer although many Learned men say that as all perception so also the seeing of ones face in a Looking-glass and Eccho are made by impression and reaction yet I cannot in my simplicity conceive it how bodies that come not near or touch each other can make a figure by impression and reaction They say it proceeds from the motions of the Medium of light or air or both viz. that the Medium is like a long stick with two ends whereof one touches the object the other the organ of sense and that one end of it moving the other moves also at the same point of Time by which motions it may make many several figures But I cannot conceive how this motion of pressing forward and backward should make so many figures wherein there is so much variety and curiosity But say light and air are as one figure and like as a seal do
Castle conveigh the intire shape of himself and his Horse thereby such as we find our selves able to imagine of a man on Horse-back which is a Truth as demonstrable as any Theorem in Mathematicks I answer first That there is no Particle single and alone by it self Next I say It is more easie for the rational matter to put it self into such figures and to make such encounters then for an Immaterial mind or sustance to imagine it for no imagination can be without figure and how should an Immaterial created substance present such Figures but by making them either in it self or upon matter For S. George and the Castle are figures and their encounters are real fighting actions and how such figures and actions can be in the mind or memory and yet not be is impossible to conceive for as I said those figures and actions must be either in the incorporeal mind or in the corporeal parts of matter and if the figures and motions may be in an incorporeal substance much more is it probable for them to be in a corporeal nay if the figures and their actions can be in gross corporeal matter why should they not be in the purest part of matter which is the rational matter And as for being made known to the whole body and every part thereof it is not necessary no more then it is necessary that the private actions of every Man or Family should be made known to the whole Kingdom or Town or Parish But my opinion of self-corporeal motion and perception may be as demonstrable as that of Immaterial Natural Spirits which in my mind is not demonstrable at all by reason it is not corporeal or material For how can that be naturally demonstrable which naturally is nothing But your Author believes the Mind or rational Soul to be individable and therefore concludes that the Parts of the same Matter although at great distance must of necessity know each Particular act of each several Part but that is not necessary for if there were not ignorance through the division of Parts every man and other creatures would know alike and there is no better proof that matter or any particular creature in nature is not governed by a created Immaterial Spirit then that knowledg is in parts for the hand doth not know what pain the head feels which certainly it would do if the mind were not dividable into parts but an individable substance But this is well to be observed that some parts in some actions agree generally in one body and some not as for example temperance and appetite do not agree for the corporeal actions of appetite desire to join with the corporeal actions of such or such other parts but the corporeal actions of temperance do hinder and forbid it whereupon there is a faction amongst the several parts for example a Man desires to be drunk with Wine this desire is made by such corporeal actions as make appetite the rational corporeal motions or actions which make temperance oppose those that make appetite and that sort of actions which hath the better carryes it the hand and other parts of the body obeying the strongest side and if there be no wine to satisfie the appetite yet many times the appetite continues that is the parts continue in the same motions that make such an appetite but if the appetite doth not continue then those parts have changed their motions or when by drinking the appetite is satisfied and ceases then those parts that made the appetite have altered their former motions But oftentimes the rational corporeal motions may so agree with the sensitive as there may be no opposition or crossing at all but a sympathetical mutual agreement betwixt them at least an approvement so that the rational may approve what the sensitive covet or desire Also some motions of the rational as also of the sensitive matter may disagree amongst themselves as we see that a man will often have a divided mind for he will love and hate the same thing desire and not desire one and the same thing as to be in Heaven and yet to be in the World Moreover this is to be observed That all rational perceptions or cogitations are not so perspicuous and clear as if they were Mathematical Demonstrations but there is some obscurity more or less in them at least they are not so well perceivable without comparing several figures together which proves they are not made by an individable immaterial Spirit but by dividable corporeal parts As for example Man writes oftentimes false and seldom so exact but he is forced to mend his hand and correct his opinions and sometimes quite to alter them according as the figures continue or are dissolved and altered by change of motion and according as the actions are quick or slow in these alterations the humane mind is setled or wavering and as figures are made or dissolved and transformed Opinions Conceptions Imaginations Understanding and the like are more or less And according as these figures last so is constancy or inconstancy memory or forgetfulness and as those figures are repeated so is remembrance but sometimes they are so constant and permanent as they last as long as the figure of the body and sometimes it happens not once in an age that the like figures are repeated and sometimes they are repeated every moment As for example a man remembers or calls to mind the figure of another man his friend with all his qualities dispositions actions proprieties and the like several times in an hour and sometimes not once in a year and so as often as he remembers him as often is the figure of that man repeated and as oft as he forgets him so often is his figure dissolved But some imagine the rational motions to be so gross as the Trotting of a Horse and that all the motions of Animate matter are as rude and course as renting or tearing asunder or that all impressions must needs make dents or creases But as Nature hath degrees of corporeal matter so she hath also degrees of corporeal motions Matter and Motion being but one substance and it is absurd to judg of the interior motions of self-moving matter by artificial or exterior gross motions as that all motions must be like the tearing of a sheet of Paper or that the printing and patterning of several figures of rational and sensitive matter must be like the printing of Books nay all artificial Printings are not so hard as to make dents and impresses witness Writing Painting and the like for they do not disturb the ground whereon the letters are written or the picture drawn and so the curious actions of the purest rational matter are neither rude nor rough but although this matter is so subtil and pure as not subject to exterior human senses and organs yet certainly it is dividable not onely in several Creatures but in the several parts of one and the same Creature as well as
extend nor can the Idea it self dilate and contract being immaterial for contraction and dilation belong onely to bodies or material beings Wherefore the comparisons betwixt Nature and a particular Creature and between God and Nature are improper much more betwixt God and Natures particular motions and figures which are various and changeable although methodical The same I may ask of the Mind of Man as I do of the Idea in the Mind Also I might ask them what they conceive the natural mind of man to be whether material or immaterial If material their opinion is rational and so the mind is dividable and composable if immaterial then it is a Spirit and if a Spirit it cannot possibly dilate nor contract having no dimension nor divisibility of parts although your Author proves it by the example of Light but I have exprest my meaning heretofore that light is divisible and if it have no dimension how can it be confined in a material body Wherefore when your Author says the mind is a substance it is to my reason very probable but not when he says it is an immaterial substance which will never agree with my sense and reason for it must be either something or nothing there being no medium between in Nature But pray mistake me not Madam when I say Immaterial is nothing for I mean nothing Natural or so as to be a part of Nature for God forbid I should deny that God is a Spiritual Immaterial substance or Being neither do I deny that we can have an Idea notion conception or thought of the Existence of God for I am of your Authors opinion That there is no Man under the cope of Heaven that doth not by the light of Nature know and believe there is a God but that we should have such a perfect Idea of God as of any thing else in the World or as of our selves as your Author says I cannot in sense and reason conceive to be true or possible Neither am I against those Spirits which the holy Scripture mentions as Angels and Devils and the divine Soul of Man but I say onely that no Immaterial Spirit belongs to Nature so as to be a part thereof for Nature is Material or Corporeal and whatsoever is not composed of matter or body belongs not to Nature nevertheless Immaterial Spirits may be in Nature although not parts of Nature But there can neither be an Immaterial Nature nor a Natural Immaterial Nay our very thoughts and conceptions of Immaterial are Material as made of self-moving Matter Wherefore to conclude these opinions in Men proceed from a Vain-glory as to have found out something that is not in Nature to which I leave them and their natural Immaterial Substances like so many Hobgoblins to fright Children withal resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XIX MADAM THere are various opinions concerning the seat of Common Sense as your Author rehearseth them in his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul But my opinion is That common sense hath also a common place for as there is not any part of the body that hath not sense and reason so sense and reason is in all parts of the body as it is observable by this that every part is subject to pain and pleasure and all parts are moveable moving and moved also appetites are in every part of the body As for example if any part itches it hath an appetite to be scratched and every part can pattern out several objects and so several touches and though the rational part of matter is mixt in all parts of the body yet it hath more liberty to make variety of Motions in the head heart liver spleen stomack bowels and the like then in the other parts of the body nevertheless it is in every part together with the sensitive but they do not move in every part alike but differ in each part more or less as it may be observed and although every part hath some difference of knowledg yet all have life and knowledg sense and reason some more some less and the whole body moves according to each part and so do all the bodily Faculties and Proprieties and not according to one single part the rational Soul being in all parts of the body for if one part of the body should have a dead Palsie it is not that the Soul is gone from that part but that the sensitive and rational matter has altered its motion and figure from animal to some other kind for certainly the rational Soul and so life is in every part as well in the Pores of the skin as in the ventricles of the brain and as well in the heel as in the head and every part of the body knows its own office what it ought to do from whence follows an agreement of all the parts And since there is difference of knowledg in every part of one body well may there be difference between several kinds and sorts and yet there is knowledg in all for difference of knowledg is no argument to prove they have no knowledg at all Wherefore I am not of the opinion that that which moves the whole body is as a Point or some such thing in a little kernel or Glandula of the Brain as an Ostrich-egge is hung up to the roof of a Chamber or that it is in the stomack like a single penny in a great Purse neither is it in the midst of the heart like a Lady in a Lobster nor in the bloud like as a Menow or Sprat in the Sea nor in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain as a lousie Souldier in a Watch-tower But you may say it is like a farthing Candle in a great Church I answer That Light will not enlighten the by Chappels of the Church nor the Quest-house nor the Belfrey neither doth the Light move the Church though it enlightens it Wherefore the Soul after this manner doth not move the corporeal body no more then the Candle moves the Church or the Lady moves the Lobster or the Sprat the Sea as to make it ebb and flow But this I desire you to observe Madam that though all the body of man or any other Creature hath sense and reason which is life and knowledg in all parts yet these parts being all corporeal and having their certain proportions can have no more then what is belonging or proportionable to each figure As for example if a Man should feed and not evacuate some ways or other he could not live and if he should evacuate and not feed he could not subsist wherefore in all Natures parts there is ingress and egress although not always perceived by one creature as Man but all exterior objects do not enter into Man or any other Creature but are figured by the rational and some by the sensitive parts or motions in the body wherefore it is not rational to believe that exterior objects take up any more room then if
all diseases and not the Rational although the Rational are many times the occasion that the sensitive do move into such or such a disease for all those that are sick by conceit their sicknesses are caused by the rational corporeal motions But being loth to make tedious repetitions hereof having discoursed of diseases and passions in my mentioned Book of Philosophy I will refer you thither and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVIII MADAM COncerning Dimness of Sight which your Author will have to proceed from the deficiency of the Animal Spirits My meaning in short is That when sight is dim though the sensitive organs are perfect this dimness is caused by the alteration onely of the sensitive motions in the organs not moving to the nature of sight And so is made Deafness Dumbness Lameness and the like as also Weariness for the Relaxation of strength in several parts is onely an alteration of such sorts of motions which make the nerves strong and if a man be more dull at one time then at another it is that there are not so many changes of motions nor so quick motions at that time as at another for Nature may use more or less force as she pleases Also she can and doth often use opposite actions and often sympathetical and agreeable actions as she pleases for Nature having a free power to move may move as she will but being wise she moves as she thinks best either in her separating or uniting motions for continuance as well as for variety But if according to your Author the Immaterial Soul should determinate matter in motion it would in my opinion make a confusion for the motions of the Matter would often oppose and cross the motions of the Immaterial Soul and so they would disagree as a King and his Subjects except God had given the Soul an absolute power of command and restrained matter to an irrisistible and necessitated obedience which in my opinion is not probable By which disagreement Nature and all that is in Nature would have been quite ruined at this time for no kinds sorts or particulars would keep any distinction if Matter did not govern it self and if all the parts did not know their own affairs abilities offices and functions Besides it would to my thinking take up a great deal of time to receive commands in every several action at least so much that for example a man could not have so many several thoughts in so short a time as he hath But concerning the Animal Spirits which your Author calls the Instruments Organs and Engines of the Incorporeal Soul I would fain know whether they have no motion but what comes from the Soul or whether they have their own motion of themselves If the first then the Soul must in my opinion be like a Deity and have a divine Power to give and impart Motion if the second then the spirits being material it follows that Matter hath motion of it self or is self-moving But if the Immaterial natural Soul can transfer her gifts upon corporeal matter then it must give numerous sorts of motions with all their degrees as also the faculty of figuring or moving figuratively in all corporeal Matter Which power in my judgment is too much for a Creature to give If you say the Immaterial Soul hath this power from God I answer Matter may have the same and I cannot imagine why God should make an Immaterial Spirit to be the Proxy or Vice-gerent of his Power or the Quarter-master General of his Divine Providence as your Author is pleased to style it when he is able to effect it without any Under-Officers and in a more easie and compendious way as to impart immediately such self-moving power to Natural Matter which man attributes to an Incorporeal Spirit But to conclude if the Animal Spirits be the Instruments of the Incorporeal Soul then the Spirits of Wine are more powerfull then the Animal Spirits nay then the Immaterial Soul her self for they can put them and all their actions quite out of order the same may be done by other material things Vegetables Minerals and the like And so leaving this discourse to your better consideration I take my leave for this time and rest MADAM Your faithful and affectionate Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM TOuching the State or Condition of the Supernatural and Divine Soul both in and after this life I must crave your excuse that I can give no account of it for I dare affirm nothing not onely that I am no professed Divine and think it unfit to take any thing upon me that belongs not to me but also that I am unwilling to mingle Divinity and Natural Philosophy together to the great disadvantage and prejudice of either for if each one did contain himself within the circle of his own Profession and no body did pretend to be a Divine Philosopher many absurdities confusions contentions and the like would be avoided which now disturb both Church and Schools and will in time cause their utter ruine and destruction For what is Supernatural cannot naturally be known by any natural Creature neither can any supernatural Creature but the Infinite and Eternal God know thorowly everything that is in Nature she being the Infinite servant of the Infinite God whom no finite Creature of what degree soever whether natural or supernatural can conceive for if no Angel nor Devil can know our thoughts much less will they know Infinite Nature nay one finite supernatural Creature cannot in my opinion know perfectly another supernatural Creature but God alone who is all-knowing And therefore all what is said of supernatural Spirits I believe so far as the Scripture makes mention of them further I dare not presume to go the like of the supernatural or divine Soul for all that I have writ hitherto to you of the Soul concerns the natural Soul of Man which is material and not the supernatural or divine Soul neither do I contradict any thing concerning this divine soul but I am onely against those opinions which make the natural soul of man an immaterial natural spirit and confound supernatural Creatures with natural believing those spirits to be as well natural Creatures and parts of Nature as material and corporeal beings are when as there is great difference betwixt them and nothing in Nature to be found but what is corporeal Upon this account I take all their relations of Daemons of the Genii and of the Souls after the departure from humane Bodies their Vehicles Shapes Habitations Converses Conferences Entertainments Exercises Pleasures Pastimes Governments Orders Laws Magistrates Officers Executioners Punishments and the like rather for Poetical Fictions then Rational Probabilities containing more Fancy then Truth and Reason whether they concern the divine or natural Soul for as for the divine Soul the Scripture makes no other mention of it but that immediately after her departure out of this natural life she goeth either to Heaven or
him to have such a familiar conjunction and make such contracts with Man as to impower him to do mischief and hurt to others or to foretell things to come and the like for I believe that all things Immaterial as Spirits Angels Devils and the divine Soul of Man are no parts of Nature but Supernatural Nature knowing of no Creature that belongs to her but what is material and since incorporeal Creatures are no parts of Nature they neither have natural actions nor are they concerned as copartners or co-agents in the actions of Nature and natural Creatures but as their substances so their actions are supernatural and beyond our conceivement As for Faires I will not say but there may be such Creatures in Nature and have airy bodies and be of a humane shape and have humane actions as I have described in my Book of Poems for there are many things in Nature whereof Man hath no knowledg at all and it would be a great folly for any one to deny what he doth not see or to ascribe all the unusual effects in Nature to Immaterial Spirits for Nature is so full of variety that she can and doth present sometimes such figures to our exterior senses as are not familiar to us so as we need not to take our refuge to Immaterial Spirits nay even those that are so much for Incorporeal Spirits must confess that they cannot be seen in their own natures as being Invisible and therefore have need to take vehicles of some grosser bodies to manifeft themselves to men and if Spirits cannot appear without bodies the neerest way is to ascribe such unusual effects or apparitions as happen sometimes rather to matter that is already corporeal and not to go so far as to draw Immaterial Spirits to Natural actions and to make those Spirits take vehicles fit for their purposes for Nature takes sometimes delight in unusual Varieties Concerning those stories which your Author relates of the strange effects of Food received into a mans body how they did work upon the Imagination and change and transform the humors of those that did feed upon them those I say seem very probable to me As for example of a Wench who being struck into an Epilepsy upon the seeing of a Malefactors Head cut off was advised to drink Cats-blood which being done she not long after degenerated into the nature and property of that Animal cried and jump'd like a Cat and hunted Mice with the same silence and watchfulness as they do Then of a Man being long fed with Swines-blood which took a special pleasure in wallowing and tumbling himself in the mire Also of a Girle which being nourished up with Goats-milk would skip like a Goat and brouze on Trees as Goats use to do And of a Man who by eating the brains of a Bear became of a Bear-like disposition All these stories I believe to be true for naturally the motions of a Man may sometimes sympathize so much with the received food as to make an alteration in his humour or disposition But although it be natural yet it is not regular at least not usual but proceeds from an irregular and unusual change of motions like as the conception and generation of a Monster For if it were ordinary then those which drink much of the blood of beasts would also degenerate into a beastly nature the contrary whereof is sufficiently known Likewise those that drink much of Cows-milk would change into their humors and natures But certainly some kinds of meats do not onely cause sickness but madness and strange Imaginations all which unnatural or unusual accidents are caused by Matter 's irregular motions Whereof I have declared my opinion in other places and so I rest MADAM Your faithful and constant Friend to serve you XXXIII MADAM YOu will have my opinion of the Book that treats of the Pre-existence of Souls and the Key that unlocks the Divine Providence but I have told you heretofore that there are so many different opinions concerning the Soul as I do not know which to embrace for the multiplicity confounds my choice and the cause of these various opinions in my simple judgment is that most men make no difference between the Divine and Natural Soul As for the Natural Soul humane sense and reason may perceive that it consists of Matter as being Material but as for the Divine Soul being not material no humane sense and reason is able naturally to conceive it for there cannot possibly be so much as an Idea of a natural nothing or an immaterial being neither can sense and reason naturally conceive the Creation of an Immaterial substance for as the Creation of material Creatures as of this World belongs to Faith and not to Reason so doth also the Creation of Immaterial substances as Spirits nay it is more difficult to understand a Natural Nothing to be made out of nothing then a Natural Something out of nothing And as for the Progress of Immaterial Souls which the same Author mentions I cannot conceive how No-thing can make a Progress and therefore I suppose it is an Improper or Metaphorical expression The truth is what is Immaterial belongs not to a Natural knowledg or understanding but is Supernatural and goes beyond a natural reach or capacity Concerning the Key of Divine Providence I believe God did never give or lend it to any man for surely God who is infinitely Wise would never intrust so frail and foolish a Creature as Man with it as to let him know his secret Counsels Acts and Decrees But setting aside Pride and Presumption Sense and Reason may easily perceive that Man though counted the best of Creatures is not made with such infinite Excellence as to pierce into the least secrets of God Wherefore I am in a maze when I hear of such men which pretend to know so much as if they had plundered the Celestial Cabinet of the Omnipotent God for certainly had they done it they could not pretend to more knowledg then they do But I Madam confess my Ignorance as having neither divine Inspirations nor extraordinary Visions nor any divine or humane learning but what Nature has been pleased to bestow upon me Yet in all this Ignorance I know that I am and ought to be MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XXXIV MADAM SInce in my former Letters I have discoursed of Immaterial Spirits and declared my meaning that I do not believe them to be natural Creatures or parts of Nature you are of opinion as if I did contradict my self by reason that in the first Edition of my Book called Philosophical Opinions I name the rational and sensitive Matter rational and sensitive Spirits To which I answer first That when I did write my first Conceptions in Natural Philosophy I was not so experienced nor had I those observations which I have had since Neither did I give those first Conceptions time to digest and come to a maturity or perfect growth but
will say air may be cooled by moving it with a Fan or such like thing which can make wind wherefore it follows that air must needs be naturally cold I answer That doth not prove Air to be in its nature cold for this moving or making of wind may contract or condense the air into cold motions which may cause a cold wind like as Ventiducts where the air running thorow narrow Pipes makes a cold wind The same may be done with a mans breath for if he contract his lips close his breath will be cold but if he opens his mouth wide his breath will be warm Again you may say that rain is congealed by the coldness of the air into Snow Hail and Ice I answer Frost Ice Snow and Hail do not proceed from the coldness of the air but rather the coldness of the air proceeds from them for Ice Snow and Hail proceed from cold contraction and condensation of a vaporous or watery substance and as Frost and Snow cause air to be cold so Thunder and Lightning cause it to be hot so long as they last Thus Madam though Air may be altered either to heat or cold yet it is neither hot nor cold in it self And this is all for the present that I can say concerning the Temper of Air I conclude and rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant VIII MADAM HAving hitherto considered your Authors Elements or Principles of Natural things you will give me leave to present you now with a short view of his Opinions concerning Wind Vacuum Rainbows Thunder Lightning Earth-quakes and the like which I will do as briefly as I can lest I betray my Ignorance for I confess my self not to be well versed in the knowledg of Meteors nor in those things which properly belong to the Mathematicks as in Astrology Geography Opticks and the like But your Author says in the first place That Natural Wind is nothing but a flowing Air moved by the Blas of the Stars Certainly Madam if this were so then in my judgment when the Stars blaze we should have constant Winds and the more they blaze the more violent winds there would be But I have rather observed the contrary that when the Stars blaze most apparently we have the calmest weather either in Summer or Winter Perchance your Author will say he doth not mean this apparant and visible Blas but another invisible Blas I answer I know not nor cannot conceive any other Blas in the Stars except I had seen it in a Vision neither do I think that Nature her self knows of any other But your Author doth refer himself upon the Authority of Hypocrates who says That not onely the Wind is a blast but that all Diseases are from blasts and that there is in us a Spirit stirring up all things by its Blas which Spirit by a Microcosmical Analogy or the proportion of a little World he compares to the blasts of the world As for my particular Madam I dare say I could never perceive by my sense and reason any such blazing Spirit in me but I have found by experience that when my mind and thoughts have been benighted with Melancholy my Imagination hath been more active and subtil then when my mind has been clear from dark Melancholy Also I find that my thoughts and conceptions are as active if not more in the night then in the day and though we may sometimes dream of several Lights yet I cannot perceive a constant light in us however Light Blazes and all those effects are no more then other effects of Nature are nor can they have more power on other Creatures then other Creatures have on them Neither are they made otherwise then by the corporeal motions of Natural Matter and are dissolved and transchanged as other Creatures out of one form or figure into another Next your Author discoursing whether there be any Vacuum in Nature doth incline to the affirming party that there is a Vacuum in the Air to wit There is in the air something that is less then a body which fills up the emptinesses or little holes and pores in the air and which is wholly annihilated by fire It is actually void of all matter and is a middle thing between a body and an Incorporeal Spirit and almost nothing in respect of bodies for it came from Nothing and so may easily be reduced to nothing All this Madam surpasses my capacity for I can in no ways conceive any thing between something and nothing as to be less then something and more then nothing for all that is corporeal in Nature is to my reason something that is some really existent thing but what is incorporeal in Nature is nothing and if there be any absolute vacuum in Nature as your Author endeavours to prove then certainly this Vacuum cannot be any thing whatsoever for a Vacuum is a pure Nothing But many ingenious and learned men have brought as many arguments and reasons against Vacuum as others bring for it and so it is a thing which I leave to them to exercise their brains withal The like is the opinion which many maintain concerning Place viz. that there is a constant succession of Place and Parts so that when one part removes another doth succeed in its place the truth and manner whereof I was never able to comprehend for in my opinion there can be no place without body nor no body without place body and place being all but one thing But as for the perpetual Creation and annihilation of your Authors Vacuities give me leave to tell you Madam that it would be a more laborious work then to make a new World or then it was to make this present World for God made this World in six days and rested the seventh day but this is a perpetual making of something out of nothing Again concerning Rainbows your Author says That a Rainbow is not a natural effect of a natural Cause but a divine Mystery in its original and that it has no matter but yet is in a place and has its colours immediately in a place but in the air mediately and that it is of the nature of Light This is indeed a great mystery to my reason for I cannot conceive as I said before a place without a body nor how Light and Colours can be bodiless But as for Rainbows I have observed when as water hath been blown up into the air into bubles that by the reflexion of light on the watery bubles they have had the like colours of the Rainbow and I have heard that there hath been often seen at the rising and setting of the Sun Clouds of divers colours Wherefore I cannot be perswaded to believe that a Rainbow should not have a natural cause and consequently be a natural effect For that God has made it a sign of the Covenant between him and mortal men is no proof that it is not a natural effect Neither can I believe that
stories in brief is this My Sense and Reason doth inform me that there is Natural Witchcraft as I may call it which is Sympathy Antipathy Magnetisme and the like which are made by the sensitive and rational motions between several Creatures as by Imagination Fancy Love Aversion and many the like but these Motions being sometimes unusual and strange to us we not knowing their causes For what Creature knows all motions in Nature and their ways do stand amazed at their working power and by reason we cannot assign any Natural cause for them are apt to ascribe their effects to the Devil but that there should be any such devillish Witchcraft which is made by a Covenant and Agreement with the Devil by whose power Men do enchaunt or bewitch other Creatures I cannot readily believe Certainly I dare say that many a good old honest woman hath been condemned innocently and suffered death wrongfully by the sentence of some foolish and cruel Judges meerly upon this suspition of Witchcraft when as really there hath been no such thing for many things are done by slights or juggling Arts wherein neither the Devil nor Witches are Actors And thus an English-man whose name was Banks was like to be burnt beyond the Seas for a Witch as I have been inform'd onely for making a Horse shew tricks by Art There have been also several others as one that could vomit up several kinds of Liquors and other things and another who did make a Drum beat of it self But all these were nothing but slights and jugling tricks as also the talking and walking Bell and the Brazen-Head which spake these words Time was Time is and Time is past and so fell down Which may easily have been performed by speaking through a Pipe conveighed into the said head But such and the like trifles will amaze many grave and wise men when they do not know the manner or way how they are done so as they are apt to judg them to be effected by Witchcraft or Combination with the Devil But as I said before I believe there is Natural Magick which is that the sensitive and rational Matter oft moves such a way as is unknown to us and in the number of these is also the bleeding of a murdered body at the presence of the Murderer which your Author mentions for the corporeal motions in the murthered body may move so as to work such effects which are more then ordinary for the animal Figure being not so quickly dissolved the animal motions are not so soon altered for the dissolving of the Figure is nothing else but an alteration of its Motions and this dissolution is not done in an instant of time but by degrees But yet I must confess it is not a common action in Nature for Nature hath both common and singular or particular actions As for example Madness natural Folly and many the like are but in some particular persons for if those actions were general and common then all or most men would be either mad or fools but though there are too many already yet all men are not so and so some murthered bodies may bleed or express some alterations at the presence of the Murtherer but I do not believe that all do so for surely in many not any alteration will be perceived and others will have the same alterations without the presence of the Murtherer And thus you see Madam that this is done naturally without the help of the Devil nay your Author doth himself confess it to be so for says he The act of the Witch is plainly Natural onely the stirring up of the vertue or power in the Witch comes from Satan But I cannot understand what your Author means by the departing of spiritual rays from the Witch into Man or any other animal which she intends to kill or hurt nor how Spirits wander about in the Air and have their mansions there for men may talk as well of impossibilities as of such things which are not composed of Natural Matter If man were an Incorporeal Spirit himself he might perhaps sooner conceive the essence of a Spirit as being of the same Nature but as long as he is material and composed of Natural Matter he might as well pretend to know the Essence of God as of an Incorporeal Spirit Truly I must confess I have had some fancies oftentimes of such pure and subtil substances purer and subtiler then the Sky or AEthereal substance is whereof I have spoken in my Poetical Works but these substances which I conceived within my fancy were material and had bodies though never so small and subtil for I was never able to conceive a substance abstracted from all Matter for even Fancy it self is material and all Thoughts and Conceptions are made by the rational Matter and so are those which Philosophers call Animal Spirits but a material Fancy cannot produce immaterial effects that is Ideas of Incorporeal Spirits And this was the cause that in the first impression of my Philosophical Opinions I named the sensitive and rational Matter sensitive and rational Spirits because of its subtilty activity and agility not that I thought them to be immaterial but material Spirits but since Spirits are commonly taken to be immaterial and Spirit and Body are counted opposite to one another to prevent a misapprehension in the thoughts of my Readers as if I meant Incorporeal Spirits I altered this expression in the last Edition and call'd it onely sensitive and rational Matter or which is all one sensitive and rational corporeal motions You will say perhaps That the divine Soul in Man is a Spirit but I desire you to call to mind what I oftentimes have told you to wit that when I speak of the Soul of Man I mean onely the Natural not the Divine Soul which as she is supernatural so she acts also supernaturally but all the effects of the natural Soul of which I discourse are natural and not divine or supernatural But to return to Magnetisme I am absolutely of opinion that it is naturally effected by natural means without the concurrence of Immaterial Spirits either good or bad meerly by natural corporeal sensitive and rational motions and for the most part there must be a due approach between the Agent and the Patient or otherwise the effect will hardly follow as you may see by the Loadstone and Iron Neither is the influence of the Stars performed beyond a certain distance that is such a distance as is beyond sight or their natural power to work for if their light comes to our Eyes I know no reason against it but their effects may come to our bodies And as for infectious Diseases they come by a corporeal imitation as by touch either of the infected air drawn in by breath or entring through the Pores of the Body or of some things brought from infected places or else by hearing but diseases caused by Conceit have their beginning as all alterations have from
that those words express nothing else but the variety of motions in Nature for men are apt to make more distinctions then Nature doth Nature knows of nothing else but of corporeal figurative Motions when as men make a thousand distinctions of one thing and confound and entangle themselves so with Beings Non-beings and Neutral-beings Corporeals and Incorporeals Substances and Accidents or manners and modes of Substances new Creations and Annihilations and the like as neither they themselves nor any body else is able to make any sense thereof for they are like the tricks and slights of Juglers 't is here 't is gone and amongst those Authors which I have read as yet the most difficult to be understood is this Author which I am now perusing who runs such divisions and cuts Nature into so small Parts as the sight of my Reason is not sharp enough to discern them Wherefore I will leave them to those that are more quick-sighted then I and rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXIV MADAM YOur Author relates how by some the Immortal Soul is divided into two distinct parts the Inferior or more outward which by a peculiar name is called the Soul and the other the Superior the more inward the which is called the bottom of the Soul or Spirit in which Part the Image of God is specially contained unto which is no access for the Devil because there is the Kingdom of God and each part has distinct Acts Proprieties and Faculties Truly Madam I wonder how some men dare discourse so boldly of the Soul without any ground either of Scripture or Reason nay with such contradiction to themselves or their own opinions For how can that be severed into parts which in its nature is Individable and how can the Image of God concern but one Part of the Soul and not the other Certainly if the Soul is the Image of God it is his Image wholly and not partially or in parts But your Author has other as strange and odd opinions as these some whereof I have mentioned in my former Letters viz. the Souls being a Light her Figure her Residence and many the like Amongst the rest there is one thing which your Author frequently makes mention of I know not what to call it whether a thing or a being or no-thing for it is neither of them not a substance nor an accident neither a body nor a spirit and this Monster sor I think this is its proper name since none other will fit it is the Lacquey of the Soul to run upon all errands for the Soul sitting in her Princely Throne or Residence which is the orifice of the stomack cannot be every where her self neither is it fit she should as being a disgrace to her to perform all offices her self for want of servants therefore she sends out this most faithful and trusty officer your Author calls him Ideal Entity who being prepared for his journey readily performs all her commands as being not tied up to no commands of places times or dimensions especially in Women with Child he operates most powerfully for sometime he printed a Cherry on a Child by a strong Idea of the Mother but this Ideal Entity or servant of the Soul hath troubled my brain more then his Mistress the Soul her self for I could not nor cannot as yet conceive how he might be able to be the Jack of all offices and do Journies and travel from one part of the body to another being no body nor substance himself nor tyed to any place time and dimension and therefore I will leave him Your Author also speaks much of the Inward and Outward Man but since that belongs to Divinity I will declare nothing of it onely this I say that in my opinion the Inward and Outward man do not make a double Creature neither properly nor improperly properly as to make two different men improperly as we use to call that man double whose heart doth not agree with his words But by the Outward man I understand the sinful actions of flesh and blood and by the Inward man the reformed actions of the Spirit according to the Word of God and therefore the Outward and Inward man make but one Man Concerning the Natural Soul your Author speaks of her more to her disgrace then to her honor for he scorns to call her a substance neither doth he call her the Rational Soul but he calls her the Sensitive Soul and makes the Divine Soul to be the Rational Natural Soul and the cause of all natural actions for he being a Divine Philosopher mixes Divine and Natural things together But of the Frail Mortal Sensitive Soul as he names her which is onely the sensitive Life his opinions are that she is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral Creature and a Vital Light which hath not its like in the whole World but the light of a Candle for it is extinguished and goes out like the flame of a Candle it is locally present and entertained in a place and yet not comprehended in a place Nevertheless although this sensitive soul is no substance yet it has the honor to be the Inn or Lodging-place of the Immortal Soul or Mind and these two souls being both lights do pierce each other but the Mortal soul blunts the Immortal soul with its cogitation of the corruption of Adam These opinions Madam I confess really I do not know what to make of them for I cannot imagine how this Mortal soul being no substance can contain the Immortal soul which is a substance nor how they can pierce each other and the Mortal soul being substanceless get the better over an Immortal substance and vitiate corrupt and infect it neither can I conceive how that which in a manner is nothing already can be made less and annihilated Wherefore my opinion is that the Natural Soul Life and Body are all substantial parts of Infinite Nature not subsisting by themselves each apart but inseparably united and co-mixed both in their actions and substances for not any thing can and doth subsist of it self in Nature but God alone and things supernatural may for ought I know T is true there are several Degrees several particular Natures several Actions or Motions and several Parts in Nature but none subsists single and by it self without reference to the whole and to one another Your Author says the Vital Spirit sits in the Throne of the Outward man as Vice Roy of the Soul and acts by Commission of the Soul but it is impossible that one single part should be King of the whole Creature since Rational and Sensitive Matter is divided into so many parts which have equal power and force of action in their turns and severall imployments for though Nature is a Monarchess over all her Creatures yet in every particular Creature is a Republick and not a Monarchy for no part of any Creature has a sole supreme
for I am in all respects MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XXV MADAM YOur Command in your last was to send you my opinion concerning the division of Religions or of the several opinions in Religions I suppose you mean the division of the Religion not of Religions for certainly there is but one divine Truth and consequently but one true Religion But natural men being composed of many divers parts as of several motions and figures have divers and several Ideas which the grosser corporeal motions conceive to be divers and several gods as being not capable to know the Great and Incomprehensible God who is above Nature For example Do but consider Madam what strange opinions the Heathens had of God and how they divided him into so many several Persons with so many several bodies like men whereas surely God considered in his Essence he being a Spirit as the Scripture describes him can neither have Soul nor body as he is a God but is an Immaterial Being Onely the Heathens did conceive him to have parts and so divided the Incomprehensible God into several Deities at least they had several Deitical Ideas or rather Fancies of him But Madam I confess my ignorance in this great mystery and honour and praise the Omnipotent Great and Incomprehensible God with all fear and humility as I ought beseeching his infinite mercy to keep me from such presumption whereby I might prophane his holy Name and to make me obedient to the Church as also to grant me life and health that I may be able to express how much I am MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM SInce I spake of Religion in my last I cannot but acquaint you that I was the other day in the company of Sir P. H. and Sir R. L. where amongst other discourses they talk'd of Predestination and Free-will Sir P. H. accounted the opinion of Predestination not onely absurd but blasphemous for said he Predestination makes God appear Cruel as first to create Angels and Man and then to make them fall from their Glory and damn them eternally For God said he knew before he made them they would fall Neither could he imagine from whence that Pride and Presumption did proceed which was the cause of the Angels fall for it could not proceed from God God being infinitely Good Sir R. L. answer'd That this Pride and Presumption did not come from God but from their own Nature But replyed Sir P. H. God gave them that Nature for they had it not of themselves but all what they were their Essence and Nature came from God the Creator of all things and to suffer that which was in his power to hinder was as much as to act Sir R. L. said God gave both Angels and Man a Free-will at their Creation Sir P. H. answered that a Free-will was a part of a divine attribute which surely God would not give away to any Creature Next said he he could not conceive why God should make Creatures to cross and oppose him for it were neither an act of Wisdom to make Rebels nor an act of Justice to make Devils so that neither in his Wisdom Justice nor Mercy God could give leave that Angels and Man should fall through sin neither was God ignorant that Angels and Man would fall for surely said he God knew all things past present and to come wherefore said he Free-will doth weaken the Power of God and Predestination doth weaken the power of man and both do hinder each other Besides said he since God did confirm the rest of the Angels in the same state they were before so as they could not fall afterwards he might as well have created them all so at first But Sir R. L. replied That God suffered Angels and Man to fall for his Glory to shew his Justice in Devils and his Mercy in Man and that the Devils express'd God's Omnipotency as much as the Blessed To which Sir P. H. answered That they expressed more God's severity in those horrid torments they suffer through their Natural Imperfections then his power in making and suffering them to sin Thus they discoursed And to tell you truly Madam my mind was more troubled then delighted with their discourse for it seemed rather to detract from the honour of the great God then to increase his Glory and no Creature ought either to think or to speak any thing that is detracting from the Glory of the Creator Wherefore I am neither for Predestination nor for an absolute Free-will neither in Angels Devils nor Man for an absolute Free-will is not competent to any Creature and though Nature be Infinite and the Eternal Servant to the Eternal and Infinite God and can produce Infinite Creatures yet her Power and Will is not absolute but limited that is she has a natural free-will but not a supernatural for she cannot work beyond the power God has given her But those mystical discourses belong to Divines and not to any Lay-person and I confess my self very ignorant in them Wherefore I will nor dare not dispute God's actions being all infinitely wise but leave that to Divines who are to inform us what we ought to believe and how we ought to live And thus taking my leave of you for the present I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVII MADAM YOu are pleased to honor me so far that you do not onely spend some time in the perusing of my Book called Philosophical Opinions but take it so much into your consideration as to examine every opinion of mine which dissents from the common way of the Schools marking those places which seem somewhat obscure and desiring my explanation of them All which I do not onely acknowledg as a great favour but as an infallible testimony of your true and unfeigned friendship and I cannot chuse but publish it to all the world both for the honour of your self as to let every body know the part of so true a friend who is so much concerned for the honour and benefit of my poor Works as also for the good of my mentioned Book which by this means will be rendred more intelligible for I must confess that my Philosophical Opinions are not so plain and perspicuous as to be perfectly understood at the first reading which I am sorry for And there be two chief reasons why they are so First Because they are new and never vented before for they have their original meerly from my own conceptions and are not taken out of other Philosophers Next because I being a Woman and not bred up to Scholarship did want names and terms of Art and therefore being not versed in the Writings of other Philosophers but what I knew by hearing I could not form my named Book so methodically and express my opinions so artificially and clearly as I might have done had I been studious in the reading of Philosophical Books or bred a Scholar for then I might have dressed
Infinite degrees of softness hardness thickness thinness heat and cold c. also Infinite degrees of Motion and so Infinite Creations Infinite Compositions Dissolutions Contractions Dilations Digestions Expulsions also Infinite degrees of Strength Knowledg Power c. Besides there is Infinite in Time which is properly named Eternal Now when I say that there is but one Infinite and that Infinite is the Onely Matter I mean infinite in bulk and quantity And this Onely matter because it is Infinite in bulk must of necessity be divisible into infinite Parts that is infinite in number not in bulk or quantity for though Infinite Parts in number make up one infinite in quantity yet they considered in themselves cannot be said Infinite because every Part is of a certain limited and circumscribed Figure Quantity and Proportion whereas Infinite hath no limits nor bounds besides it is against the nature of a single Part to be Infinite or else there would be no difference between the Part and the whole the nature of a Part requiring that it must be less then its whole but all what is less hath a determined quantity and so becomes finite Therefore it is no absurdity to say that an Infinite may have both Finite and Infinite Parts Finite in Quantity Infinite in Number But those that say if there were an Infinite Body that each of its Parts must of necessity be Infinite too are much mistaken for it is a contradiction in the same Terms to say One Infinite Part for the very Name of a Part includes a Finiteness but take all parts of an Infinite Body together then you may rightly say they are infinite Nay Reason will inform you plainly for example Imagine an Infinite number of grains of Corn in one heap surely if the number of Grains be Infinite you must grant of necessity the bulk or body which contains this infinite number of grains to be Infinite too to wit Infinite in quantity and yet you will find each Grain in it self to be Finite But you will say an Infinite Body cannot have parts for if it be Infinite it must be Infinite in Quantity and therefore of one bulk and one continued quantity but Infinite parts in number make a discrete quantity I answer it is all one for a Body of a continued quantity may be divided and severed into fo many Parts either actually or mentally in our Conceptions or thoughts besides nature is one continued Body for there is no such Vacuum in Nature as if her Parts did hang together like a linked Chain nor can any of her Parts subsist single and by it self but all the Parts of Infinite Nature although they are in one continued Piece yet are they several and discerned from each other by their several Figures And by this I hope you will understand my meaning when I say that several Infinites may be included or comprehended in one Infinite for by the one Infinite I understand Infinite in Quantity which includes Infinite in Number that is Infinite Parts then Infinite in Quality as Infinite degrees of Rarity Density Swiftness Slowness Hardness Softness c. Infinite degrees of Motions Infinite Creations Dissolutions Contractions Dilations Alterations c. Infinite degres of Wisdom Strength Power c. and lastly Infinite in Time or Duration which is Eternity for Infinite and Eternal are inseparable All which Infinites are contained in the Onely Matter as many Letters are contained in one Word many Words in one Line many Lines in one Book But you will say perhaps if I attribute an Infinite Wisdom Strength Power Knowledge c. to Nature then Nature is in all coequal with God for God has the same Attributes I answer Not at all for I desire you to understand me rightly when I speak of Infinite Nature and when I speak of the Infinite Deity sor there is great difference between them for it is one thing a Deitical or Divine Infinite and another a Natural Infinite You know that God is a Spirit and not a bodily substance again that Nature is a Body and not a Spirit and therefore none of these Infinites can obstruct or hinder each other as being different in their kinds for a Spirit being no Body requires no place Place being an attribute which onely belongs to a Body and therefore when I call Nature Infinite I mean an Infinite extension of Body containing an Infinite number of Parts but what doth an Infinite extension of Body hinder the Infiniteness of God as an Immaterial Spiritual being Next when I do attribute an Infinite Power Wisdom Knowledge c. to Nature I do not understand a Divine but a Natural Infinite Wisdom and Power that is such as properly belongs to Nature and not a supernatural as is in god For Nature having Infinite parts of Infinite degrees must also have an Infinite natural wisdom to order her natural Infinite parts and actions and consequently an Infinite natural power to put her wisdom into act and so of the rest of her attributes which are all natural But Gods Attributes being supernatural transcend much these natural infinite attributes for God being the God of Nature has not onely Natures Infinite Wisdom and Power but besides a Supernatural and Incomprehensible Infinite Wisdom and Power which in no wayes do hinder each other but may very well subsist together Neither doth Gods Infinite Justice and his Infinite Mercy hinder each other for Gods Attributes though they be all several Infinites yet they make but one Infinite But you will say If Nature's Wisdom and Power extends no further then to natural things it is not Infinite but limited and restrained I answer That doth not take away the Infiniteness of Nature for there may be several kinds of Infinites as I related before and one may be as perfect an Infinite as the other in its kind For example Suppose a Line to be extended infinitely in length you will call this Line Infinite although it have not an Infinite breadth Also if an infinite length and breadth joyn together you will call it an Infinite Superficies although it wants an infinite depth and yet every Infinite in its kinde is a Perfect Infinite if I may call it so Why then shall not Nature also be said to have an Infinite Natural Wisdom and Power although she has not a Divine Wisdom and Power Can we say Man hath not a free Will because he hath not an absolute free Will as God hath Wherefore a Natural Infinite and the Infinite God may well stand together without any opposition or hinderance or without any detracting or derogating from the Omnipotency and Glory of God for God remains still the God of Nature and is an Infinite Immaterial Purity when as Nature is an Infinite Corporeal Substance and Immaterial and Material cannot obstruct each other And though an Infinite Corporeal cannot make an Infinite Immaterial yet an Infinite Immaterial can make an Infinite Corporeal by reason there is as much difference in the
Ruler and Governor of all Perhaps you will say it is because I make Matter Eternal T is true Madam I do so but I think Eternity doth not take off the dependance upon God for God may nevertheless be above Matter as I have told you before You may ask me how that can be I say As well as any thing else that God can do beyond our understanding For I do but tell you my opinion that I think it most probable to be so but I can give you no Mathematical Demonstrations for it Onely this I am sure of That it is not impossible for the Omnipotent God and he that questions the truth of it may question Gods Omnipotency Truly Madam I wonder how man can say God is Omnipotent and can do beyond our Understanding and yet deny all that he is not able to comprehend with his reason However as I said it is my opinion That Matter is self-moving by the power of God Neither can Animadversion and Perception as also the variety of Figures prove that there must be another external Agent or Power to work all this in Matter but it proves rather the contrary for were there no self-motion in Matter there would be no Perception nor no variety of Creatures in their Figures Shapes Natures Qualities Faculties Proprieties as also in their Productions Creations or Generations Transformations Compositions Dissolutions and the like as Growth Maturity Decay c. and for Animals were not Corporeal Matter self-moving dividable and composable there could not be such variety of Passions Complexions Humors Features Statures Appetites Diseases Infirmities Youth Age c. Neither would they have any nourishing Food healing Salves soveraign Medicines reviving Cordials or deadly Poysons In short there is so much variety in Nature proceeding from the self-motion of Matter as not possible to be numbred nor thorowly known by any Creature Wherefore I should labour in vain if I endeavoured to express any more thereof and this is the cause that I break off here and onely subscribe my self MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIII MADAM COncerning the comparison your Author makes between an Immaterial Spirit and Light That as Light is contractive and dilative and yet not divisible so is also an Immaterial substance Give me leave to tell you that in my opinion all that is contractive and dilative is also dividable and so is light As for example when a Candle is snuff'd the Snuffers do not onely clip the wick but also the light The like when a dark body is interposed or crosses the rays of the Sun it cuts those rays asunder which by reason they cannot joyn together again because of the interposed body the light cut off suddenly goeth out that is the matter of light is altered from the figure of light to some other thing but not annihilated And since no more light can flow into the room from the Fountain or Spring of Light the Sun because the passage is stopt close the room remaineth dark For Light is somewhat of the nature of Water so long as the Spring is open the Water flows and whatsoever is taken away the Spring supplies and if another body onely presses thorow it it immediately joyns and closes its severed parts again without any difficulty or loss The same doth Light onely the difference is that the substance of Light is extraordinary rare and pure for as Air is so much rarer then Water so Light is so much rarer and purer then Air and its matter may be of so dilating a nature as to dilate from a point into numerous rayes As for ordinary Fire-light it doth not last longer then it hath fuel to feed it and so likewise it is with the light of the Sun for Light is according to the substance that feeds it and though it is a substance it self yet it increases and decreases according as it hath something that succours or nourishes it But some may object that if Light were a body and did contract and dilate as I say it is impossible that it could display it self in so great and vast a compass and remove so suddenly and instantly as it doth To which objection I answer first That although I say Light is a real corporeal substance and doth contract and dilate it self from a point into numerous rayes as also in another Letter I sent you before That Light and Darkness do succeed each other nevertheless as for the perception of Light I am not so eager in maintaining this opinion as if it was an Infallible Truth and impossible to be otherwise but I say onely That to my sense and reason it seems very probable that it may be so that the light of the Sun doth really dilate it self into so vast a compass as we see and that light and darkness do really succeed each other as all other Creatures do But yet it seems also probable to mee that the parts of the Air may onely pattern out the figure of light and that the light we see in the Air may be onely patterns taken from the real figure of the light of the Sun And therefore if it be according to the former opinion to wit That the light of the Sun doth really dilate it self into so vast a compass My answer is That contraction and dilation are natural corporeal actions or motions and that there is no alteration of motion in Nature but is done in Time that is successively not instantly for Time is nothing else but the alteration of motion Besides I do not perceive any so sudden and swift alteration and succession of light but that it is done by degrees As for example in the morning when it begins to dawn and grow light it appears clearly to our sight how light doth come forth and darkness remove by degrees and so at night when it grows dark how light removes and darkness succeeds nay if there be any such sudden change of the motions of Light I desire you to consider Madam that light is a very subtil rare piercing and active body and therefore its motions are much quicker then those of grosser bodies and cannot so well be perceived by our gross exterior senses But if it be that the Air doth pattern out the light of the Sun then the framed objection can prove nothing because there is not then such a real dilation or succession of light but the corporeal figurative motions of the Air do make patterns of the light of the Sun and dissolve those patterns or figures again more suddenly and quickly then man can shut and open his eyes as being more subtil then his gross exterior senses But it may be said that if Air did pattern out the light of the Sun the light would increase by these numerous patterns I answer that cannot appear to our Eyes for we see onely the pattern'd figure of light and that a great compass is enlightned also that the further the air is from the Sun the darker
extend and shrink together and so grow less and bigger according to the extension of the body and when the body dies the soul in my opinion must contract to a very point and if one part of the body die before the other the soul must by degrees withdraw out of those parts also when a part of the body is cut off the soul must needs contract and grow less the like when a man is let blood Which contracting of the soul by your Authors leave doth seem to my imagination just like the contracting of Hodmandod into her shell Besides if the soul be individable and equally spread all over the body then to my opinion she must necessarily be of a human shape and if the body be deformed the soul must be deformed also and if the body be casually extended as by taking Poyson into the body the soul must be so too as being individable and filling every part and if a man be born with six fingers or toes the soul must be so too or if a dwarf the soul must be a dwarf also and if he be born deaf and dumb the soul must be so too But if two Twins as it may fall out should be born united in one body I would fain know then whether they would have two souls or but one As for example if they should have but one body and one stomack liver heart spleen lungs bowels and yet have four legs four hands and two heads It seems to my opinion that then two Immaterial Souls must be joyned as into one neither do I know yet how this could well be the monster having but one body nor how that Immaterial Soul can be divided being inseparably double when the body dies But Madam all this I speak of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul which is not subject to natural imperfections and corporeal errors being not made by Nature but a supernatural and divine gift of the Omnipotent God who surely will not give any thing that is not perfect Wherefore it is not probable this Divine Soul being not subject to Nature should be an architect of the body as having an higher and more divine imployment viz. to fix her self on her Creator and being indued with supernatural faculties and residing in the body in a supernatural manner all which I leave to the Church for I should be loth to affirm any thing contrary to their Doctrine or the Information of the holy Scripture as grounding my belief onely upon the sacred Word of God and its true Interpretation made by the Orthodox Church but not upon the opinions of particular persons for particular mens opinions are not authentical being so different and various as a man would be puzled which to adhere to Thus Madam I avoid as much as ever I can not to mix Divinity with Natural Philosophy for I consider that such a mixture would breed more confusion in the Church then do any good to either witness the doctrine of the Soul of Man whereof are so many different opinions The onely cause in my opinion is that men do not conceive the difference between the Divine and Natural material Soul of Man making them both as one and mixing or confounding their faculties and proprieties which yet are quite different thus they make a Hodg-podg Bisk or Olio of both proving Divinity by Nature and Faith by Reason and bringing Arguments for Articles of Faith and sacred Mysteries out of Natural Arts and Sciences whereas yet Faith and Reason are two contrary things and cannot consist together according to the Proverb Where Reason ends Faith begins Neither is it possible that Divinity can be proved by Mathematical Demonstrations for if Nature be not able to do it much less is Art Wherefore it is inconvenient to mix supernatural Spirits with Air Fire Light Heat Cold c. and to apply corporeal actions and qualities to them and the Divine Soul with the Brain Blood Flesh Animal Spirits Muscles Nerves Bones c. of Man all which makes a confusion betwixt the Mind or Natural Soul of Man and the Supernatural and Divine Soul inspired into him by God for both their faculties and proprieties are different and so are their effects as proceeding from so different causes And therefore Madam as for Divinity I pray devoutly and believe without disputing but as for Natural Philosophy I reason freely and argue without believing or adhering to any ones particular opinion which I think is the best and safest way to choose for MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVII MADAM YOur Author in the continuation of his discourse concerning the Immaterial Soul of Man demonstrating that her seat is not bound up in a certain place of the body but that she pervades all the body and every part thereof takes amongst the rest an argument from Passions and Sympathies Moreover says he Passions and Sympathies in my judgment are more easily to be resolved into this hypothesis of the Soul 's pervading the whole Body then in restraining its essential presence to one part thereof But it is evident that they arise in us against both our will and appetite For who would bear the tortures of fears and jelousies if he could avoid it Concerning Passions Madam I have given my opinion at large in my Book of Philosophy and am of your Authors mind that Passions are made in the Heart but not by an Immaterial spirit but by the Rational soul which is material and there is no doubt but that many Passions as Fear Jealousie c. arise against our will and appetite for so may forreign Nations invade any Kingdom without the will or desire of the Inhabitants and yet they are corporeal men The same may be said of Passions and several parts of matter may invade each other whereof one may be afraid of the other yet all this is but according as corporeal matter moves either Generally or Particularly Generally that is when many parts of Matter unite or joyn together having the like appetites wills designs as we may observe that there are general agreements amongst several parts in Plagues as well as Wars which Plagues are not onely amongst Men but amongst Beasts and sometimes but in one sort of animals as a general Rot amongst Sheep a general Mange amongst Dogs a general Farcy amongst Horses a general Plague amongst Men all which could not be without a general Infection one part infecting another or rather one part imitating the motions of the other that is next adjoyning to it for such infections come by the neer adhesion of parts as is observable which immaterial and individable natural Spirits could not effect that is to make such a general infection in so many several parts of so many several Creatures to the Creatures dissolution Also there will be several Invasions at one time as Plague and War amongst neighbouring and adjoining Creatures or Parts But this is to be observed That the sensitive corporeal motions make
Hell either to enjoy Reward or to suffer Punishment according to man's actions in this life But as for the Natural Soul she being material has no need of any Vehicles neither is natural death any thing else but an alteration of the rational and sensitive motions which from the dissolution of one figure go to the formation or production of another Thus the natural soul is not like a Traveller going out of one body into another neither is air her lodging for certainly if the natural humane soul should travel through the airy regions she would at last grow weary it being so great a journey except she did meet with the soul of a Horse and so ease her self with riding on Horseback Neither can I believe Souls or Daemons in the Air have any Common-wealth Magistrates Officers and Executioners in their airy Kingdom for wheresoever are Governments Magistrates and Executioners there are also Offences and where there is power to offend as well as to obey there may and will be sometimes Rebellions and Civil Wars for there being different forts of Spirits it is impossible they should all fo well agree especially the good and evil Genii which certainly will fight more valiantly then Hector and Achilles nay the Spirits of one sort would have more Civil Wars then ever the Romans had and if the Soul of Caesar and Pompey should meet there would be a cruel fight between those two Heroical souls the like between Augustus's and Antonius's Soul But Madam all these as I said I take for fancies proceeding from the Religion of the Gentiles not fit for Christians to embrace for any truth for if we should we might at last by avoiding to be Atheists become Pagans and so leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire as turning from Divine Faith to Poetical Fancy and if Ovid should revive again he would perhaps be the chief head or pillar of the Church By this you may plainly see Madam that I am no Platonick for this opinion is dangerous especially for married Women by reason the conversation of the Souls may be a great temptation and a means to bring Platonick Lovers to a neerer acquaintance not allowable by the Laws of Marriage although by the sympathy of the Souls But I conclude and desire you not to interpret amiss this my discourse as if I had been too invective against Poetical Fancies for that I am a great lover of them my Poetical Works will witness onely I think it not fit to bring Fancies into Religion Wherefore what I have writ now to you is rather to express my zeal for God and his true Worship then to prejudice any body and if you be of that same Opinion as above mentioned I wish my Letter may convert you and so I should not account my labour lost but judg my self happy that any good could proceed to the advancement of your Soul from MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM I Sent you word in my last I would not meddle with writing any thing of the Divine Soul of Man by reason it belongs to Faith and Religion and not to Natural Philosophy but since you desire my opinion concerning the Immortality of the Divine Soul I cannot but answer you plainly that first I did wonder much you made question of that whose truth in my opinion is so clear as hardly any rational man will make a doubt of it for I think there is almost no Christian in the world but believes the Immortality of the Soul no not Christians onely but Mahometans and Jews But I left to wonder at you when I saw Wise and Learned Men and great Divines take so much pains as to write whole Volumes and bring so many arguments to prove the Immortality of the Soul for this was a greater Miracle to me then if Nature had shewed me some of her secret and hidden effects or if I had seen an Immaterial Spirit Certainly Madam it seems as strange to me to prove the Immortality of the Soul as to convert Atheists for it impossible almost that any Atheist should be found in the World For what Man would be so senceless as to deny a God Wherefore to prove either a God or the Immortality of the Soul is to make a man doubt of either for as Physicians and Surgeons apply strengthening Medicines onely to those parts of the body which they suppose the weakest so it is with proofs and arguments those being for the most part used in such subjects the truth of which is most questionable But in things Divine Disputes do rather weaken Faith then prove Truth and breed several strange opinions for Man being naturally ambitious and endeavouring to excel each other will not content himself with what God has been pleased to reveal in his holy Word but invents and adds something of his own and hence arise so many monstrous expressions and opinions that a simple man is puzzled not knowing which to adhere to which is the cause of so many schismes sects and divisions in Religion Hence it comes also that some pretend to know the very nature and essence of God his divine Counsels all his Actions Designs Rules Decrees Power Attributes nay his Motions Affections and Passions as if the Omnipotent Infinite God were of a humane shape so that there are already more divisions then Religions which disturb the peace and quiet both of mind and body when as the ground of our belief consists but in some few and short Articles which clearly explained and the moral part of Divinity well pressed upon the People would do more good then unnecessary and tedious disputes which rather confound Religion then advance it but if man had a mind to shew Learning and exercise his Wit certainly there are other subjects wherein he can do it with more profit and less danger then by proving Christian Religion by Natural Philosophy which is the way to destroy them both I could wish Madam that every one would but observe the Command of Christ and give to God what is Gods and to Caesar what is Caesars and so distinguish what belongs to the actions of Nature and what to the actions of Religion for it appears to my Reason that God hath given Nature his eternal Servant a peculiar freedom of working and acting as a self-moving Power from Eternity but when the Omnipotent God acts he acts supernaturally as beyong Nature of which devine actions none but the holy Church as one united body mind and soul should discourse and declare the truth of them according to the Revelation made by God in his holy Word to her Flock the Laity not suffering any one single person of what profession or degree soever indifferently to comment interpret explain and declare the meaning or sense of the Scripture after his own fancy And as for Nature's actions let those whom Nature hath indued with such a proportion of Reason as is able to search into the hidden causes of natural effects
Likewise do not Fruits Roots Flowers and Herbs produce Worms And do not Stones produce Fire witness the Flint And doth not Earth produce Metal 'T is true some talk of the seed of Metals but who with all his diligent observations could find it out as yet Wherefore it is in my opinion not probable that Minerals are produced by way of seeds Neither can I perceive that any of the Elements is produced by seed unless Fire which seems to my sense and reason to encrease numerously by its seed but not any other of the Elements And thus productions are almost as various as Creatures or rather parts of Creatures are for we see how many productions there are in one animal body as the production of flesh bones marrow brains gristles veines sinews blood and the like and all this comes from Food and Food from some other Creatures but all have their original from the onely matter and the various motions of Nature And thus in my opinion all things are made easily and not by such constrained ways as your Author describes by Gas Blas Ideas and the like for I am confident Nature has more various ways of producing natural things then any Creature is able to conceive I 'le give another example of Vegetables I pray you but to consider Madam how many several ways Vegetables are produced as some by seeds some by slips some by grafts c. The graft infuses and commixes with the whole stock and the branches and these do the like with the graft As for example an Apple grafted in Colewort produces Apples but those Apples will have a taste and sent of the Colewort which shews that several parts of several Creatures mix joyn and act together and as for seeds they are transchanged wholly and every part thereof into the produced fruit and every part of the seed makes a several production by the help of the co-working parts of the Earth which is the reason that so many seeds are produced from one single seed But Producers that waste not themselves in productions do not produce so numerously as those that do dissolve yet all Creatures increase more or less according to their supplies or assistances for seeds will encrease and multiply more in manured and sertile then in barren grounds nay if the ground be very barren no production at all will be which shews that productions come not barely from the seed but require of necessity some assistance and therefore neither Archeus nor seminal Ideas nor Gas nor Blas would do any good in Vegetables if the ground did not assist them in their generations or productions no more then a house would be built without the assistance of labourers or workmen for let the materials lie never so long surely they will never joyn together of themselves to the artificial structure of an house Wherefore since there is so much variety in the production of one kind of Creatures nay of every particular in every kind what needs Man to trouble his brain for the manner and way to describe circumstantially every particular production of every Creature by seminal or printing Ideas or any other far-fetched termes since it is impossible to be done And as for those Creatures whose producers are of two different sorts as a Mule bred of an Asse and a Horse and another Creature bred of a Cony and a Dormouse all which your Author thinks do take more after their mother then their father more after the breeder then the begetter I will not eagerly affirm the contrary although it seems to me more probable But this I can say that I have observed by experience that Faunes and Foales have taken more after the Male then after the Female for amongst many several colour'd Deer I have seen but one milk white Doe and she never brought forth a white Faun when as I have seen a white Buck beget white and speckled Faunes of black and several coloured Does Also in Foals I have observed that they have taken more after the Male then after the Female both in shape and colour And thus I express no more but what I have observed my self others may find out more examples these are sufficient for me so I leave them and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XI MADAM YOu will cease to wonder that I am not altogether capable to understand your Authors opinions in Natural Philosophy when you do but consider that his expressions are for the most part so obscure mystical and intricate as may puzzle any brain that has not the like Genius or the same Conceptions with your Author wherefore I am forced oftentimes to express my ignorance rather then to declare to you the true sense of his opinions In the number of these is his discourse of a Middle Life viz. That the qualities of a middle life do remain in things that are transchanged For I cannot understand what he means by a middle life whether it be a life that is between the strongest and weakest or whether he means a life between the time of production and dissolution or between the time of conception and production or whether he means a life that is between two sorts of substances as more then an Animal and not so high and excellent as an Angel or whether he means a middle life for places as neither in Heaven nor in Hell but in Purgatory or neither in nor out of the world or any other kind of life Wherefore I 'le leave this Hermaphroditical or neutral life to better understandings then mine Likewise I must confess my disability of conceiving the overshadowing of his Archeus and how it brings this middle life into its first life For concerning Generation I know of none that is performed by overshadowing except it be the miraculous conception of the blessed Virgin as Holy Writ informs us and I hope your Author will not compare his Archeus to the Holy Spirit But how a middle life may be brought again into the first life is altogether unconceivable to me And so is that when he says that the first life of the Fruit is the last of the seed for I cannot imagine that the seed dies in the fruit but in my opinion it lives rather in the fruit and is numerously increased as appears by the production of seed from the fruit But the most difficult of all to be understood are his Ideas which he makes certain seminal Images Formal Lights and operative means whereby the soul moves and governs the body whose number and variety is so great as it transcends my capacity there being Ideas of Inclination of Affection of Consideration or Judgment of Passion and these either mild or violent besides a great number of Archeal and forreign Ideas Truly Madam I cannot admire enough the powerful effects of these Ideas they themselves being no substances or material Creatures For how that can pierce seal and print a figure which hath neither substance nor matter my
change and alteration of the motions But to conclude the motions of the exterior Agent and the motions of the Patient do sometimes joyn and unite as in one action or to one effect and sometimes the motions of the Agent are onely an occasion but not a co-workman in the production of such or such an effect as the motions of the Patient do work neither can the motions of the Agent work totally and meerly of themselves such or such effects without the assistance or concurrence of the motions of the Patient but the motions of the Patient can and there is nothing that can prove more evidently that Matter moves it self and that exterior agents or bodies are onely an occasion to such or such a motion in another body then to see how several things put into one and the same fire do alter after several modes which shews it is not the onely action of fire but the interior motions of the body thrown into the fire which do alter its exterior form or figure And thus I think I have said enough to make my opinions clear that they may be the better understood which is the onely aim and desire of MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XIX MADAM YOur Author is not a Natural but a Divine Philosopher for in many places he undertakes to interpret the Scripture wherein to my judgment he expresseth very strange opinions you will give me leave at this present to note some few First in one place interpreting that passage of Scripture where it is said That the sons of God took to wives the daughters of men He understands by the Sons of God those which came from the Posterity of Adam begotten of a Man and a Woman having the true Image of God But by the Daughters of Men he understands Monsters that is those which through the Devils mediation were conceived in the womb of a Junior Witch or Sorceress For when Satan could find no other ways to deprive all the race of Men of the Image of God and extinguish the Immortal mind out of the stock of Adams Posterity he stirr'd up detestable copulations from whence proceeded savage Monsters as Faunes Satyrs Sylphs Gnomes Nymphs Driades Najades Nereides c. which generated their off-springs amongst themselves and their posterities again contracted their copulations amongst themselves and at length began Wedlocks with Men and from this copulation of Monsters and Nymphs they generated strong Gyants Which Interpretation how it agrees with the Truth of Scripture I will leave to Divines to judg But for my part I cannot conceive how or by what means or ways those Monsters and Nymphs were produced or generated Next his opinion is That Adam did ravish Eve and defloured her by force calling him the first infringer of modesty and deflourer of a Virgin and that therefore God let hair grow upon his chin cheeks and lips that he might be a Compere Companion and like unto many four-footed Beasts and might bear before him the signature of the same and that as he was lecherous after their manner he might also shew a rough countenance by his hairs which whether it be so or not I cannot tell neither do I think your Author can certainly know it himself for the Scripture makes no mention of it But this I dare say that Eves Daughters prove rather the contrary viz. that their Grandmother did freely consent to their Grandfather Also he says That God had purposed to generate Man by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit but Man perverted the Intent of God for had Adam not sinned there had been no generation by the copulation of a Man and Woman but all the off-springs had appear'd out of Eve a Virgin from the Holy Spirit as conceived from God and born of a woman a virgin To which I answer first That it is impossible to know the Designs and secret Purposes of God Next to make the Holy Spirit the common Generator of all Man-kind is more then the Scripture expresses and any man ought to say Lastly it is absurd in my opinion to say that frail and mortal Men can pervert the intent and designs of the Great God or that the Devil is able to prevent God's Intent as his expression is in the same place But your Author shews a great affectioin to the Female Sex when he says that God doth love Women before Men and that he has given them a free gift of devotion before men when as others do lay all the fault upon the Woman that she did seduce the Man however in expressing his affection for Women your Author expresses a partiality in God And as for his opinion that God creates more Daughters then Males and that more Males are extinguished by Diseases Travels Wars Duels Shipwracks and the like Truly I am of the same mind that more Men are kill'd by Travels Wars Duels Shipwracks c. then Women for Women never undergo these dangers neither do so many kill themselves with intemperate Drinking as Men do but yet I believe that Death is as general and not more favourable to Women then he is to Men for though Women be not slain in Wars like Men although many are by the cruelty of Men who not regarding the weakness of their sex do inhumanely kill them yet many do die in Child-bed which is a Punishment onely concerning the Female sex But to go on in your Authors Interpretations His knowledg of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin reaches so far as he doth not stick to describe exactly not onely how the blessed Virgin conceiv'd in the womb but first in the heart or the sheath of the heart and then how the conception removed from the heart into the womb and in what manner it was performed Certainly Madam I am amazed when I see men so conceited with their own perfections and abilities I may rather say with their imperfections and weaknesses as to make themselves God's privy Councellors and his Companions and partakers of all the sacred Mysteries Designs and hidden secrets of the Incomprehensible and Infinite God O the vain Presumption Pride and Ambition of wretched Men There are many more such expressions in your Authors works which in my opinion do rather detract from the Greatness of the Omnipotent God then manifest his Glory As for example That Man is the clothing of the Deity and the sheath of the Kingdom of God and many the like which do not belong to God for God is beyond all expression because he is Infinite and when we name God we name an Unexpressible and Incomprehensible Being and yet we think we honour God when we express him after the manner of corporeal Creatures Surely the noblest Creature that ever is in the World is not able to be compared to the most Glorious God but whatsoever comparison is made detracts from his Glory And this in my opinion is the reason that God forbad any likeness to be made of him either in Heaven or
Man which he calls the Frail Mortal Sensitive Soul Next all his knowledg of this Immortal Soul is grounded upon Dreams and Visions and therefore it is no wonder if his opinions be somewhat strange and irregular I saw in a Vision says he my Mind in a humane shape but there was a light whose whole homogeneal body was actively seeing a spiritual substance Chrystalline shining with a proper splendor or a splendor of its own but in another cloudy part it was rouled up as it were in the husk of it self which whether it had any splendor of it self I could not discern by reason of the superlative brightness of the Chrystal Spirit contain'd within Whereupon he defines the Soul to be a Spirit beloved of God homogeneal simple immortal created into the Image of God one onely Being whereto death adds nothing or takes nothing from it which may be natural or proper to it in the Essence of its simplicity As for this definition of the Soul it may be true for any thing I know but when your Author makes the divine Soul to be a Light I cannot conceive how that can agree for Light is a Natural and Visible Creature and in my opinion a corporeal substance whereas the Soul is immaterial and incorporeal But be it that Light is not a substance but a neutral Creature according to your Author then nevertheless the Immortal Soul cannot be said to be a light because she is a substance He may say The Soul is an Incomprehensible Light But if the Soul be Incomprehensible how then doth he know that she is a light and not onely a light but a glorious and splendorous light You will say By a Dream or Vision Truly Madam to judg any thing by a Dream is a sign of a weak judgment Nay since your Author calls the soul constantly a light if it were so and that it were such a splendorous bright and shining light as he says then when the body dies and the soul leaves its Mansion it would certainly be seen when it issues out of the body But your Author calls the Soul a Spiritual Substance and yet he says she has an homogeneal body actively seeing and shining with a proper splendor of her own which how it can agree I leave to you to judg for I thought an Immaterial spirit and a body were too opposite things and now I see your Author makes Material and Immaterial Spiritual and Corporeal all one But this is not enough but he allows it a Figure too and that of a human shape for says he I could never consider the Thingliness of the Immortal Mind with an Individual existence deprived of all figure neither but that it at least would answer to a human shape but the Scripture as much as is known to me never doth express any such thing of the Immortal Soul and I should be loth to believe any more thereof then it declares The Apostles although they were conversant with Christ and might have known it better yet were never so inquisitive into the nature of the Soul as our Modern divine Philosophers are for our Saviour and they regarded more the salvation of Man's Soul and gave holy and wise Instructions rather how to live piously and conformably to God's Will to gain eternal Life then that they should discourse either of the Essence or Figure or Proprieties of the Soul and whether it was a light or any thing else and such like needless questions raised in after-times onely by the curiosity of divine Philosophers or Philosophying Divines For though Light is a glorious Creature yet Darkness is as well a Creature as Light and ought not therefore to be despised for if it be not so bright and shining as Light yet it is a grave Matron-like Creature and very useful Neither is the Earth which is inwardly dark to be despised because the Sun is bright The like may be said of the soul and of the body for the body is very useful to the soul how dark soever your Author believes it to be and if he had not seen light with his bodily eyes he could never have conceived the Soul to be a Light Wherefore your Author can have no more knowledg of the divine soul then other men have although he has had more Dreams and Visions nay he himself confesses that the Soul is an Incomprehensible Light which if so she cannot be perfectly known nor confined to any certain figure for a figure or shape belongs onely to a corporeal substance and not to an incorporeal and so God being an Incomprehensible Being is excluded from all figure when as yet your Author doth not stick to affirm that God is of a humane figure too as well as the humane Soul is For says he Since God hath been pleased to adopt the Mind alone into his own Image it also seems to follow that the vast and unutter able God is of a humane Figure and that from an argument from the effect if there be any force of arguments in this subject Oh! the audacious curiosity of Man Is it not blasphemy to make the Infinite God of a frail and humane shape and to compare the most Holy to a sinful Creature Nay is it not an absurdity to confine and inclose that Incomprehensible Being in a finite figure I dare not insist longer upon this discourse lest I defile my thoughts with the entertaining of such a subject that derogates from the glory of the Omnipotent Creator Wherefore I will hasten as much as I can to the seat of the Soul which after relating several opinions your Author concludes to be the orifice of the stomack where the Immortal Soul is involved and entertained in the radical Inn or Bride-bed of the sensitive Soul or vital Light which part of the body is surely more honoured then all the rest But I for my part cannot conceive why the Soul should not dwell in the parts of conception as well as in the parts of digestion except it be to prove her a good Huswife however your Author allows her to slide down sometimes For The action of the Mind says he being imprisoned in the Body doth always tend downwards but whether the Soul tend more downwards then upwards Contemplative Persons especially Scholars and grave States-men do know best certainly I believe they find the soul more in their heads then in their heels at least her operations But to conclude if the Soul be pure and single of her self she cannot mix with the Body because she needs no assistance nor joyn with the Body though she lives in the Body for she needs no support and if she be individable she cannot divide her self into several Parts of the Body but if the Soul spread over all the Body then she is bigger or less according as the Body is and if she be onely placed in some particular part then onely that one part is indued with a Soul and the rest is Soul-less and if she
move from place to place then some parts of the Body will be sometimes indued with a Soul sometimes not and if any one part requires not the subsistence of the Soul within it then perhaps all the Body might have been able to spare her neither might the Soul being able to subsist without the body have had need of it Thus useless questions will trouble men's brains if they give their fancies leave to work I should add something of the Production of the Soul but being tyred with so tedious a discouse of your Author I am not able to write any more but repose my Pen and in the mean while rest affectionately MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIII MADAM YOur Authors comparison of the Sun with the immaterial or divine Soul in Man makes me almost of opinion that the Sun is the Soul of this World we inhabit and that the fixed Stars which are counted Suns by some may be souls to some other worlds for every one man has but one immaterial or divine soul which is said to be individable and simple in its essence and therefore unchangeable and if the Sun be like this immaterial soul then the Moon may be like the material soul. But as for the Production of this immaterial and divine Soul in Man whether it come by an immediate Creation from God or be derived by a successive propagation from Parents upon their Children I cannot determine any thing being supernatural and not belonging to my study nevertheless the Propagation from Parents seems improbable to my reason for I am not capable to imagine how an immaterial soul being individable should beget another Some may say by imprinting or sealing viz. that the soul doth print the Image of its own figure upon the spirit of the seed which if so then first there will onely be a production of the figure of the soul but not of the substance and so the Child will have but the Image of the soul and not a real and substantial soul. Secondly Every Child of the same Parents would be just alike without any distinguishment if not in body yet in the Faculties and Proprieties of their Minds or Souls Thirdly There must be two prints of the two souls of both Parents upon one Creature to wit the Child for both Parents do contribute alike to the Production of the Child and then the Child would either have two souls or both must be joyned as into one which how it can be I am not able to conceive Fourthly If the Parents print the Image of their souls upon the Child then the Childs soul bears not the Image of God but the Image of Man to wit his Parents Lastly I cannot understand how an immaterial substance should make a print upon a corporeal substance for Printing is a corporeal action and belongs onely to bodies Others may say that the soul is from the Parents transmitted into the Child like as a beam of Light but then the souls of the Parents must part with some of their own substance for light is a substance dividable in my opinion and if it were not yet the soul is a substance and cannot be communicated without losing some of his own substance but that is impossible for the immaterial soul being individable cannot be diminished nor increased in its substance or Nature Others again will have the soul produced by certain Ideas but Ideas being corporeal cannot produce a substance Incorporeal or Spiritual Wherefore I cannot conceive how the souls of the Parents being individable in themselves and not removeable out of their bodies until the time of death should commix so as to produce a third immaterial soul like to their own You will say As the Sun which is the fountain of heat and light heats and enlightens and produces other Creatures But I answer The Sun doth not produce other Suns at least not to our knowledg 'T is true there are various and several manners and ways of Productions but they are all natural that is material or corporeal to wit Productions of some material beings or corporeal substances but the immaterial soul not being in the number of these it is not probable that she is produced by the way of corporeal productions but created and infused from God according to her nature which is supernatural and divine But being the Image of God how she can be defiled with the impurity of sin and suffer eternal damnation for her wickedness without any prejudice to her Creator I leave to the Church to inform us thereof Onely one Question I will add Whether the Soul be subject to Sickness and Pain To which I answer As for the supernatural and divine Soul although she be a substance yet being not corporeal but spiritual she can never suffer pain sickness nor death but as for the natural soul to speak properly there is no such thing in Nature as pain sickness or death unless in respect to some Particular Creatures composed of natural Matter for what Man calls Sickness Pain and Death are nothing else but the Motions of Nature for though there is but one onely Matter that is nothing but meer Matter in Nature without any co-mixture of either a spiritual substance or any thing else that is not Matter yet this meer Matter is of several degrees and parts and is the body of Nature Besides as there is but one onely Matter so there is also but one onely Motion in Nature as I may call it that is meer corporeal Motion without any rest or cessation which is the soul of that Natural body both being infinite but yet this onely corporeal Motion is infinitely various in its degrees or manners and ways of moving for it is nothing else but the action of natural Matter which action must needs be infinite being the action of an infinite body making infinite figures and parts These motions and actions of Nature since they are so infinitely various when men chance to observe some of their variety they call them by some proper name to make a distinguishment especially those motions which belong to the figure of their own kind and therefore when they will express the motions of dissolution of their own figure they call them Death when they will express the motions of Production of their figure they call them Conception and Generation when they will express the motions proper for the Consistence Continuance and Perfection of their Figure they call them Health but when they will express the motions contrary to these they call them Sickness Pain Death and the like and hence comes also the difference between regular and irregular motions for all those Motions that belong to the particular nature and consistence of any figure they call regular and those which are contrary to them they call irregular And thus you see Madam that there is no such thing in Nature as Death Sickness Pain Health c. but onely a variety and change of the corporeal motions and
the lines or beams of light which are straight small even and parallel do contract in their entrance through the glass into the figure of the colour the glass is stained or painted with so that the light passes through the glass figuratively in so much as it seems to be of the same colour the glass is of although in it self it is white lucent and clear and as the light appears so the eye receives it if the sight be not destructive The fourth question is Whether as your Authors opinion is kisses feel pleasing and delightful by the thinness of the parts and a gentle stirring and quavering of the tangent spirits that give a pleasing tact I answer If this were so then all kisses would be pleasing which surely are not for some are thought very displeasing especially from thin lips wherefore in my opinion it is neither the thinness of the parts of the lips nor the quavering of the tangent spirits but the appetites and passions of life reason and soul that cause the pleasure Nevertheless I grant the stirring up of the spirits may contribute to the increasing heightning or strengthning of that tact but it is not the prime cause of it The fifth question is Whether the greatest man have always the greatest strength I answer Not for strength and greatness of bulk doth not always consist together witness experience for a little man may be and is oftentimes stronger then a tall man The like of other animal Creatures As for example some Horses of a little or middle size have a great deal more strength then others which are high and big for it is the quantity of sensitive matter that gives strength and not the bigness or bulk of the body The sixth question is Whether this World or Vniverse be the biggest Creature I answer It is not possible to be known unless Man could perfectly know its dimension or extension or whether there be more Worlds then one But to speak properly there is no such thing as biggest or least in Nature The seventh question is Whether the Earth be the Center of Matter or of the World As for Matter it being Infinite has no Center by reason it has no Circumference and as for this World its Center cannot be known unless man knew the utmost parts of its circumference for no Center can be known without its circumference and although some do imagine this world so little that in comparison to Infinite Matter it would not be so big as the least Pins head yet their knowledg cannot extend so far as to know the circumference of this little World by which you may perceive the Truth of the old saying Man talks much but knows little The eighth question is Whether all Centers must needs be full and close as a stufft Cushion and whether the matter in the Center of the Vniverse or World be dense compact and heavy I answer This can no more be known then the circumference of the World for what man is able to know whether the Center of the world be rare or dense since he doth not know where its Center is and as for other particular Centers some Centers may be rare some dense and some may have less matter then their circumferences The ninth question is Whether Finite Creatures can be produced out of an Infinite material cause I answer That to my sense and reason an Infinite cause must needs produce Infinite effects though not in each Particular yet in General that is Matter being Infinite in substance must needs be dividable into Infinite parts in number and thus Infinite Creatures must needs be produced out of Infinite Matter but Man being but a finite part thinks all must be finite too not onely each particular Creature but also the Matter out of which all Creatures are produced which is corporeal Nature Nevertheless those Infinite effects in Nature are equalized by her different motions which are her different actions for it is not non-sence but most demonstrable to sense and reason that there are equalities or a union in Infinite The tenth question is Whether the Elements be the onely matter out of which all other Creatures are produced I answer The Elements as well as all other Creatures as it appears to humane sense and reason are all of one and the same Matter which is the onely Infinite Matter and therefore the Elements cannot be the Matter of all other Creatures for several sorts of Creatures have several ways of productions and I know no reason to the contrary but that Animals Vegetables and Minerals may as well derive their essence from each other as from the Elements or the Elements from them for as all Creatures do live by each other so they are produced from each other according to the several ways or manners of productions But mistake me not Madam for I speak of production in General and not of such natural production whereby the several species of Creatures are maintained As for example Generation in Animals for an Element cannot generate an Animal in that manner as an Animal can generate or produce its like for as Nature is wise so her actions are all wise and orderly or else it would make a horrid confusion amongst the Infinite parts of Nature The eleventh question is What is meant by Natural Theology I answer Natural Theology in my opinion is nothing else but Moral Philosophy for as for our belief it is grounded upon the Scripture and not upon Reason These Madam are the Questions which I have pickt out of your new Author together with my answers of which I desire your impartial Judgment But I must add onething more before I conclude which is I am much pleased with your Authors opinion That Sound may be perceived by the Eye Colour by the Ear and that Sound and Colour may be smell'd and tasted and I have been of this opinion eleven years since as you will find in my Book of Poems whose first Edition was printed in the Year 1653. And thus I take my leave of you and remain constantly MADAM Your Faithful Friend to serve you XVI MADAM COncerning your question of the ascending nature of fire I am absolutely of Aristotle's Opinion that it is as natural for Fire to ascend as it is for Earth to descend And why should we believe the nature of one and doubt the nature of the other For if it be granted that there are as well ascending as descending bodies in Nature as also low and high places according to the situation of Particulars and Circumferences as well as Centers considering the shape of bodies I cannot perceive by humane reason but that the Nature of fire is ascending and that it is very improbable it should have a descending or contracting nature as to tend or endeavour to a Center But Madam give me leave to ask what sort of Fire you mean whether a Celestial or a Terrestrial Fire viz. that which is named an Elemental fire or any
being without weight but their natural and proper motion which keeps them constantly in their spheres and it might as well be said a Man lives not or is not because he doth not fly like a Bird or dive and catch fish like a Cormorant or dig and undermine like a Mole for those are motions not proper to his nature And these Madam are my answers to your objections which if they do satisfie you it is all I desire if not I shall endeavour hereafter to make my meaning more intelligible and study for other more rational arguments then these are to let you see how much I value both the credit of my named Book and your Ladiships Commands which assure you self shall never be more faithfully performed then by MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble Servant XXXII MADAM SInce my opinion is that the Animate part of Matter which is sense and reason life and knowledg is the designer architect and creator of all sigures in Nature you desire to know whence this Animate Matter sense and reason or life and knowledg call it what you will for it is all one and the same thing is produced I answer It is eternal But then you say it is coequal with God I answer That cannot be for God is above all Natural sense and reason which is Natural life and knowledg and therefore it cannot be coequal with God except it be meant in Eternity as being without beginning and end But if Gods Power can make Man's Soul as also the good and evil Spirits to last eternally without end he may by his Omnipotency make as well things without beginning You will say If Nature were Eternal it could not be created for the word Creation is contrary to Eternity I answer Madam I am no Scholar for words for if you will not use the word Creation you may use what other word you will for I do not stand upon nice words and terms so I can but express my conceptions Wherefore if it be as in Reason it cannot be otherwise that nothing in Nature can be annihilated nor any thing created out of nothing but by Gods special and all-powerful Decree and Command then Nature must be as God has made her until he destroy her But if Nature be not Eternal then the Gods of the Heathens were made in time and were no more then any other Creature which is as subject to be destroyed as created for they conceived their Gods as we do men to have Material Bodies but an Immaterial Spirit or as some Learned men imagine to be an Immaterial Spirit but to take several shapes and so to perform several corporeal actions which truly is too humble and mean a conception of an Immaterial Being much more of the Great and Incomprehensible God which I do firmly believe is a most pure all-powerful Immaterial Being which doth all things by his own Decree and Omnipotency without any Corporeal actions or shapes such as some fancy of Daemons and the like Spirits But to return to the former question you might as well enquire how the world or any part of it was created or how the variety of creatures came to be as ask how Reason and sensitive corporeal Knowledg was produced Nevertheless I do constantly believe that both sensitive and rational Knowledg in Matter was produced from God but after what manner or way is impossible for any creature or part of Nature to know for Gods wayes are incomprehensible and supernatural And thus much I believe That as God is an Eternal Creator which no man can deny so he has also an Eternal Creature which is Nature or natural Matter But put the case Nature or natural Matter was made when the World was created might not God give this Natural Matter self-motion as well as he gave self-motion to Spirits and Souls and might not God endue this Matter with Sense and Reason as well as he endued Man Shall or can we bind up Gods actions with our weak opinions and foolish arguments Truly if God could not act more then Man is able to conceive he were not a God of an infinite Power but God is Omnipotent and his actions are infinite supernatural and past finding out wherefore he is rather to be admired adored and worshipped then to be ungloriously discoursed of by vain and ambitious men whose foolish pride and presumption drowns their Natural Judgment and Reason to which leaving them I rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXIII MADAM IN obedience to your commands I here send you also an explanation and clearing of those places and passages in my Book of Philosophy which in your last Letter you were pleased to mark as containing some obscurity and difficulty of being understood First When I say Nature is an Individable Matter I do not mean as if Nature were not dividable into parts for because Nature is material therefore she must also needs be dividable into parts But my meaning is that Nature cannot be divided from Matter nor Matter from Nature that is Nature cannot be Immaterial nor no part of Nature but if there be any thing Immaterial it doth not belong to Nature Also when I call Nature a Multiplying Figure I mean that Nature makes infinite changes and so infinite figures Next when I say There are Infinite Divisions in Nature my meaning is not that there are Infinite divisions of one single part but that Infinite Matter has Infinite parts sizes figures and motions all being but one Infinite Matter or corporeal Nature Also when I say single parts I mean not parts subsisting by themselves precised from each other but single that is several or different by reason of their different figures Likewise when I name Atomes I mean small parts of Matter and when I speak ofPlace and Time I mean onely the variation of corporeal figurative motions Again when I say Nature has not an absolute Power because she has an Infinite power I mean by absolute as much as finite or circumscribed and in this sense Nature cannot have an absolute power for the Infiniteness hinders the absoluteness but when in my former Letters I have attributed an absolute Power onely to God and said that Nature has not an absolute power but that her power although it be Infinite yet cannot extend beyond Nature but is an Infinite natural power I understand by an absolute Power not a finite power but such a power which onely belongs to God that is a supernatural and divine power which power Nature cannot have by reason she cannot make any part of her body immaterial nor annihilate any part of her Creatures nor create any part that was not in her from Eternity nor make her self a Deity for though God can impower her with a supernatural gift and annihilate her when he pleases yet she is no ways able to do it her self Moreover when I say That one Infinite is contained within another I mean the several
places which in my Philosophical Opinions you did note as being obscure but I am resolved to bestow so much time and labour as to have all other places in that Book rectified and cleared which seem not perspicuous left its obscurity may be the cause of its being neglected And I pray God of his mercy to assist me with his Grace and grant that my Works may find a favourable acceptance In the mean time I confess my self infinitely bound to your Ladyship that you would be pleased to regard so much the Honour of your Friend and be the chief occasion of it for which I pray Heaven may bless prosper and preserve you and send me some means and ways to express my self MADAM Your thankfull Friend and humble Servant ETernal God Infinite Deity Thy Servant NATURE humbly prays to Thee That thou wilt please to favour Her and give Her parts which are Her Creatures leave to live That in their shapes and forms what e're they be And all their actions they may worship thee For 't is not onely Man that doth implore But all Her parts Great God do thee adore A finite Worship cannot be to thee Thou art above all finites in degree Then let thy Servant Nature mediate Between thy Justice Mercy and our state That thou may'st bless all Parts and ever be Our Gracious God to all Eternity FINIS * Part. 1. ch 1. * Leviathan Part. 1. c. 2. * Leviathan part 1. c. 2. * Leviathan Part. 1. c. 2. a Leviathan part 1. c. 3. b part 1. c. 2. c Ibid. c. 3. d ibid. * Leviathan part 1. c. 4. Ch. 5. * Leviathan part 1. c. 4. * Ch. 4. * In his Elements of Philosophy part 1. c. 1. art 1. * Leviathan part 1. c. 6. Art 7. * Elem. of Philos. c. 7. a. 12. P. 1. c. 8. * Elem. of Philos c. 8. â—rt 2. Art 3. * Art 20. a Art 2. b Art 21. Part. 2. c. 8. a. 5. Art 10. Art 8. Art 5. C. 25. a. 1. Art 2. * Ch. 27. C. 28. â— 1. * Ch. 29. a. 1. * Ch. 29. art 12. * C. 30. a. 1. * Art 2. Art 3. Art 14. Art 6. Philos. p. 2. Art 2â—â— Art 40. Philos. part 2. a. 54. * Part. 1. c. 5. Philos. p. 2. a. 10 11 12 13 14. Philos. part 3. a. 46. Philos. part 2. a. 6 7. Philos. part 4. a. 189. Diopt. c. 1. a. 2 3. c. 4. a. 1. Of Meteor 1. a. 3. C. 3. a. 1. Of Meteor c. 2 4 5 6. P. 4. art 97. Art 107. * Antidote Book 1. c. 10. a. 5. Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 1. a. 4. Antid Book 2. Ch. 2. a. 1. Antid Book 2. c. 2. * C. 3. Antid 1. 3. c. 15. a. 3. Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 1. c. 12. Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 2. c. 1. a. 3. a In the Append to the Antid c. 3. a. 10. In the Preface before the Imm. of the Soul Antid Book 2. c. 4. Append. to the Antid c. 11. Antid l. 2. c. 1. Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 1. c. 7. Of the Imwortality of the Soul l. 2. c. 2. Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 2. c. 1. a. 1 6 7. In the second Book of the Immortality of the Soul ch 6. In the Pref. of the Imm. of the Soul Antid lib. 1. c. 11. Lib. 2. c. 4. Antid Book 1. c. 5. Ch. 3. Append. to the Antid ch 3. Antid lib. 2. ch 2. In the Append to the Antid c. 3. and Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 1. c. 5. Sect. 1. Let. 20. Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 2. c. 10. Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 2. c. 10. Immort of the Soul Book 2. c. 10. Immort of the Soul Book 2. 6b 8. Immort of the Soul Book 3. c. 13. Of the Immortality of the Soul l. 1. c. 3. Lib. 2. c. 2. Antid lib. 3. In his discourse of Euthusiasm esct Van Helm in his Book intituled Physick Refined ch 4. of the Causes and begining of natural things In his ch called The Fiction of Elementary Complexions and Mixtures In the ch Of the Birth and Original of Forms In the ch Of the Ideas of Diseases See his ch called The Seat of Diseases in the Soul is confirmed Ch. Of Archeal Diseases Ch. called The Subject of inhering of Diseases is in the point of life c. a In the ch Of the Gas of the Water b In the ch Of the Fiction of Elementary Complexions and Mixtures c In the ch Of the Blas of Meteors d In the ch Of the unknown action of Government e In the ch Of the Blas of Man f Of the Causes and beginnings of Natural things g Of the Ideas of Diseases a Of the Magnetick cure of wounds b Of things Conceived or Conceptions In his Treatise called A passive deceiving of the Schools of the Humourists Ch. Of the Gas of Water Ch. The Fiction of Elementary Complexions and Mixtures In the ch of Air. Ch. Of the Blas of Meteors a Ch. Of Vacuum a Ch. Of an Irregular Meteor a Ch. Of the Earthquake a Ch. Of the Birth or Original of Forms a In the Ch. the Position is demonstrated and in the ch called the Authority of the Duumvirate a Ch. called Magnum oportet Of the Ideas of Diseases a Ch. Narure is ignorant of Contraries b In the Hist. of Tartar c Ch. Disease is an unknown guest d Nature is ignorant of Contraries e Ch. The Image of the Ferment begets the Mass with Child a Ch. Called The Essay of a Meteor b Ch. Heat doth not digest efficiently but excitingly c Ch. The ignorant natural Philosophy of Aristotle and Galen d Ch. A modern Pharmacapoly and dispensatory e Ch. Of the Power of Medicines f Ch. Heat doth not digest efficiently bnt excitingly a Ch. The first Principles of the Chymists nor the Essences of the same are of the Army of Diseases a In the Ch. Of Life Eternal and in the Ch. Of the Tree of Life a Of the Disease of the Stone Ch. 9. a Ch. Of Sympathetical Mediums b In the Plague-Grave * In the Magnetick cnre of Wounds * Ch. Of the Magnetick Power a Ch. Of the Magnetick cure of wounds * In his Treatise of Time a Of the disease of the Stone Ch. 9. a Ch. The Position is demonstrated b Gen. 6. 2. a Ch. Of the Image of the Mind a Ch. Of the Magnetick cure of wounds a Ch. Of the Image of the Mind a Of the Spirit of life a Of the seat of the Soul It. Of the Image of the Mind Ch. Of the Image of the Soul Ch. Of the Magnetick cure of wounds a Of the seat of the Soul a Ch. Of the Image of the Mind Heb. 11. 14. a Ch. The hunting or searching out of Sciences It. Of the Image of the Mind a Ch. Call'd the Authors answers b Ch. Of the subject of inhering of diseases Ch. The subject of inhering of diseases is in the point of life It. Ch. Of the knowledg of diseases a Ch. Of the knowledg of diseases a Ch. Called the Position a Ch. Of the knowledg of diseases * In his Promises Column 3. a Ch. Of a Six-fold digestion * See The passive deceiving of the Schools the humorists C. I. Ch. Heat doth not digest efficiently a Ch. Call'd The Erring Watchman or Wandring Keeper a Ch. call'd The Spirit of Life In his Treatise of Fevers c. 4. a In his Treatise of Fevers c. 5. a Of Cauteries a Of Fevers Ch. 12. a Ch. 14. b In the Ch. named Butler a Ch. Of the manner of entrance of things darted into the body a Ch. Of things injected into the body a Of the disease of the Stone c. 3. a Ch. Of the reason or consideration of diet In the Plague-grave ch 17. a Ch. Call'd The Lunar Tribute a Of the Stone ch 6. See the ch called A Numero-Critical Paradox of supplies a Ch. 7. a Ch. 8. a Of the disease of the Stone c. 9. b Of the subject of inhering of diseases in the point of life c Of the Spirit of Life a In the ch call'd Butler Ch. 61. called The Preface * Part. 1. e. 14. Pag. 7. in the second Impression Pag. 9. Pag. 22. Pag. 24. * Part. 1. c. 4. * Ch. 8. * Part. 4. c. 10. Ch. 20. Ch. 21. Part. 3. e. 13. Ibid. Part. 1. c. 11. Part. 1. c. 13 14. P. 1. c. 8. P. 6. c. 3. P. 3. 6. 10. P. 1. Ch. 3. P. 4. â— 3 32. P. 1. c. 22. P. 3. c. 15. Ibid. P. 6. c. 11 P. 3. c. 27. C. 14. P. 5. c. 51. P. 6. c. 8. P. 4. c. 34. Ibid. P. 5. c. 4. P. 5. c. â—3 P. 5. c. 27. Ibid. T. 5. c. 45. P. 7. c. 11. P. 3. c. 2. P. 5. c. 23. P. 6. c. 13. P. 7. c. 12. P. 6. c. 13. P. 6. c. 29.