who are subject to those Laws For since those Laws are the Causes of the Common Practice and the Common Practice is the Effect of those Laws hence the sence of the Laws is demonstrated by the Common Practice a posteriori 20. But the very best and most assured way to detect and avoid Equivocation in all words whatever is to observe and examin whether the same Definition agrees to the word as found in diverse places For since the Definition consists of a Determinate Genus and its Intrinsecal or Proper Differences it must needs give us the precise Notion or Meaning of the Word since if it be either under any Other Genus or constituted by any Other Differences the Essence which they constitute must needs be a different Essence and therefore the Word which signifies it must necessarily have another Meaning or Notion Corol. V. Words being invented to express Sense or Meaning it follows that those Words that have many Senses and all of them True and coherent to one another have the highest perfection that Words can possibly have Wherefore those passages in Holy Scripture that bear both a Literal Tropological or Moral Analogical and Anagogical sence or several of them are of a more sublime nature than other Words are and argue that they were endited by a Divine Author BOOK II. OF THE SECOND Operation OF OUR Understanding or Judgments LESSON I. Of the Nature of Judgments or Propositions in Common of their Parts of the Ground of their Verification and of the several Manners of Predicating 1. HAving treated of Notions and of their Clear Distinction and Expression to that degree as may be sufficient for Science it follows of course that we treat next of Cognition or the putting together of Notions and this not joyning them together on any fashion by rote as it were in our Memory as a School-boy gets a Latin Sentence without book the meaning of whose words he understands and revolves in his Mind but regards not whether it be True or no nor yet the putting them together according to Grammatical Congruity as is this Sentence Virtue and Vice are both equally Laudable in which the Words do Cohere indeed according to Grammar Rules but the Sence is False and Incoherent But as the word Cognition imports it must be the Connecting or Joyning them together in order to Knowledge that is with an Application of our Knowing Power to see whether they ought to be thus put together or no or which is the same whether the Proposition be True 2. Wherefore since we cannot know any thing to be so but what is truly so it follows that all Knowledge must be of some Verity or Truth and this not of a Truth which is materially such or repeated in our Mind for this amounts to no more but a Complex Notion or Apprehension but to make up the Notion of Knowledge we must see the Notions of which that Truth does Formally consist to be truly and indeed Connected As when we say A Stone is Hard we must see that what 's meant by Stone and by Hard are some way or other Connected in the Thing or otherwise all Truths being taken from the things we cannot be said to Know it to be True 3. Judging in proper speech is not meerly and precisely the Seeing or Knowing that the Notions are Connected but the Saying Interiourly or Assenting heartily that they are so Otherwise since nothing can be Known to be so but what is so it would follow that there would be no False Iudgments Wherefore Judging adds to the meer notion of Knowledge that it is the subduing of all Hesitation or the Fixure of our Intellective Faculty about the Verity or Falsity of any thing Whence Judging is the Effect immediately and necessarily resulting from our Knowledge that the Notions are really Connected when 't is a True Iudgment or else from our only Conceiting them to be Connected when the Judgment is False Whence this is a right consequence I see or know the Notions cohere therefore I judge the Saying or Sentence that signifies they are connected to be True which is the Method that all Rational or Judicious men take Whereas Passionate or Ignorant men who are blindly addicted to their own Sentiment take the Contrary way and will have the Notions to cohere and the Proposition to be True because they had prejudg'd it so upon some other Motive than the seeing that the Terms themselves were indeed connected It will be objected that Knowledge also fixes our Understanding and therefore Knowing is Judging I answer That to fix the Understanding so as to acquiesce to what it sees is to make it Judge but the Notion of Knowing is compleated in the bare Seeing the Terms Connected and is terminated in regarding the Object or the Proposition that is Known But Judging superadds to it that it is moreover the yielding to reject all farther disquisition and adhering firmly to that Knowledge which tho' the distinction between them be nice and delicate is another Consideration superadded to meer Knowing and sinks and rivets the Object more deeply and unremovably in the Soul Lastly the Intuitive Knowledge of Pure Spirits is True Knowledge but it is not made by our way of Judging in regard they neither Abstract nor Compound or Divide Notions 4. Hence is seen that to make Judgments of things out of True Knowledge is the Greatest Natural Perfection our Soul is capable of For since nothing can be Known to be so but what is so or True all Judgments resulting from True Knowledge not onely fill our Mind with Truths but are moreoever a Firm Adhesion to Truths and the Secure Possession of those incomparable Endowments which are the Best Perfections of our Understanding and make us like the God of Truth Nor ends the Advantage we gain by Truth in meer Speculation but Truth excluding from its notion all Possible Errour it makes it Impossible we should ever embrace any Errour while we thus Judge Which since Omnis peccans ignorat and that every Sinner as the Proverb is has his blind side must therefore if Truth be Express in our Understanding and kept awake there Preserve such a mind from Sin and by making right and Lively Judgments of our Present and Future State and of our several Duties here most certainly bring us to Eternal Happiness hereafter 5. That Speech that Connects Notions in order to Knowledge or Expresses a Judgment is call'd a Proposition that is such a Speech as proposes the Notions and puts them into such a Frame or Posture of Connexion as best serves for us to Judge whether they are really Connected or no. Whence it must consist of three parts viz. that which is Affirm'd or Deny'd of another which in an Artificial term we call Predicated and that notion the Predicate That of which 't is Affirm'd or Deny'd call'd the Subject and that Notion which signifies their Connexion call'd the Copula The two first are also call'd the Terms
fill'd by knowing many Truths but is Enlarged and Enabled to know still more and being clear of the Body she is not distracted by Objects working upon the Senses and the Fancy but intimately and necessarily present to her self and consequently to what is in her self and so is Addicted Apply'd and Naturally Necessitated to know the Nature of her Body and consequently of her self as being the Form of that Body and fitted for it and by her self to know all the Truths Connected with the Knowledge of her self that is as was shown all Nature and this not Successively one Truth after another as she did when she was in the Body and needed the Fancy and so accommodated her manner of working to its slow pace but being now a Pure Spirit and Indivisible and so not commensurable to Time or to before and after which are the Differences of Time she is to know all she could know in the first instant she was a Pure Spirit that is at the Instant of her Separation These things being evidently so it follows that every Soul separated from the Body that knew any one Natural Truth knows all Nature and this all at once in the first instant of her Separation But of this more hereafter Corol. I. Hence we may frame some imperfect Conception how our Science differs from that of Angels and how Angels must know things Intuitively For since they have no Senses they can have no Abstracted Notions by different Impressions from the Objects on the Senses nor consequently can they Compound any two Notions to frame a Proposition much less can they Discourse or Compare Two Notions to a Third and so deduce thence New Knowledges call'd Conclusions It is left therefore that they must a tone view comprehend entirely the Metaphysical verity of the whole Thing and all that is in it which we express by an Identical Proposition Whence this Knowledge or Intuition of theirs abating the Composition found in an Identical Proposition which too is the least that is Imaginable is the nearest a-kin to that which we have of these Identicals By which we see that the Supremum Infimi in respect of an Angel's and Man's manner of Knowledge is as the Order of Entities requires contiguous as it were to that which is Superiour to it Corol. II. Hence also is seen how a Separated Soul knows all things after a different manner than Angels do For though the Substance of a Separated Soul's Operation be Intuitive as is the Angels yet because her natural Genius led and forced her here to dâ—scourse and gather one Truth by another that is to see one Truth in another hence she retains a modification or a kind of tang of the Discoursiveness she had here though she cannot in that State exercise it and that though she cannot then actually deduce new Truths yet she sees all Truths as Deducible from one another or following one another by Consequence We may frame some imperfect conception how this passes by this course Similitude When we look upon a Picture call'd a Prospective all the parts of it are equally near our Eye in themselves and we see them too all at once yet they appear to us as if one of them were farther of than another even to a vast distance observing still a perfect Order and decorum in their greater Propinquity or Remoteness according as those parts are more or less Shadowed or Luminous So the Soul knows all at once whatever is Knowable by her and they are equally near the Eye of her understanding yet because of her acquiring them here by way of Discourse that is by proceeding from more-Clear to less Clear Truths she sees them as following one another or as it were beyond one another because they were not to her in this state so clear as the other in themselves but depending on the others for their Evidence LESSON V. Of other Mediums for Demonstration taken from the Four Causes 1. THere must necessarily be Four Causes concurring to every Effect in Nature For since Nothing can do Nothing it follows that Nothing can be Done unless there be something that Does or Acts that is unless there be an Efficient Cause Which Efficient must act upon something or some Patient which is the Matter on which it works or the Material Cause And it must work something in that Matter which being Received in it must be some Form either Substantial or Accidental which must consequently concurr to that Action Formally or be the Formal Cause of it And since the Orderer of all Nature or the First Cause is an Intelligent Being and not Blind Chance for whà t's Blind can Order nothing and this First Cause is the Adequate Governour of the World and being an Intelligent Being acts Seeingly or with design that is with prospect of some End in every thing that is done how great or minute soever and eâ—ery Intelligent Creature that administers the World in their several Stations under him whâ—â—her they be Angels or Men do for the same reason act Designingly too that is do propose to themselves some end Good Reason or Moâ—ive for which they Act and without â—hich 't is against their Nature to Act and since Metaphysicks do clearly Demonstrate that the Immediate action of the First Cause is only to give Being and * the Oeconomy of the World is administred Immediately by other Intelligent Beings under him hence there must be a Final cause too for every Effect that is done in the World how small and inconsiderable soever it may seem Wherefore there must necessarily be Four Causes concurring to evâ—ry Effect in Nature viz. The Efficient Maâ—â—rial Formal and Final For Example in my Action of Writing a Letter the Efficient Cause is my self the Material Cause is the Paper the Formal the Characters drawn in the Paper and the Final to gratify my friend acquaint him with News c. 2. Hence we can demonstrate the An est of those Four Causes in the whole Mass of Corporeal Nature how Remote soever it is from us and that they must concur to every Effect tho' we do not know the Quid est of them The first part of our Thesis is proved For since the An est of all those Causes or that there must be such four Causes necessarily concurring to every Effect follows out of the nature of Action from the Subjectâ—s being Quantitative and consequently variable Substantially or Accidentally and from the Supreme Agent 's being Intelligent and these are equally found in all parts of the Universe how Remote soever they be or in the whole Mass of Bodies it follows that the same Causes do concur to every Effect all over the World as they do in those Bodies near us and with whose Operations we are acquainted The Second part is evident since the knowledg of the An est or that there is something may it be known by Experience tho' we know not what that thing is as we experience when we hit
Affection of the Soul which is spiritual and known only by Reflexion should have a Different Appearance The two Manners of Existing with which the same Nature is vested differing toto genere that is as far as Body and Spirit their subjects can distance them To explicate this more fully and to shew the difference between Corporeal and Spiritual Idea's I offer to their thoughts this Reflexion concerning the distinct nature of a Phantasm which is a Corporeal Resemblance and the nature of the thing in the Mind that is its Nâ—tion express'd by a Dâ—finition which is Intellectual and Spiritual The Phantasm or Corporeal Resemblance of a Man is a kind of Picture of a thing with two Legs two Arms such a Face with a Head placed uprightly that grows moves itself c. Let us regard next the Definition of a Man or rather which is abating the Expression the same the Notion of him which is that he is a Rational Creature and we shall easily discern of how different a shape it is from the other how it abstracts from many Corporeal Qualities Figures of the Parts and other Considerations which were Essential Ingredients to the Picture or Phantasm and not at all Essential to It nor found in the Definition and how some Considerations too are added in the Definition or imply'd in it as to Apprehend Iudge Discourse c. which no more belong to the Phantasm than it did to Zeuxis's Grapes to have the Definition of the Fruit of such a Vegetable predicated of them In a word one of them is a kind of Portraicture outwardly resembling the other speaks the most Intrinsecal Essence of the thing Defin'd The one signifies Bodily Parts belonging to such an Animal and therefore is Corporeal the other does not signifie but is the Nature signified and this too by Words which denote to us the Mind or Meaning that is the Notion of the speaker which is therefore Spiritual at least in part Whence the Compleat Essence of Man could not be understood nor a Definition of it fram'd without making use of some of these Notions or Idea's which are made by our Understanding reflecting upon its own Spiritual Operations LESSON III. How these Common Heads of Notions are to be Divided 1. THE Differences that divide each Common Head must be Intrinsecal to it For since we cannot discourse of two Disparate Notions at once and since were those Heads divided by Differences that are Extrinsecal to the Common Genus or taken from another Head each Species of it would consist of two Disparate Notions hence it is absolutely necessary to Science that the Differences which divide these Common Heads be such as belong to no other Common Head but be within the Limits of that Head or Intrinsecal to it Again since the Difference is most Formal in constituting the Species and the Genus only Material were the Differences Extrinsecal or Borrow'd from another Head it would follow that all the Species of the Head divided by such Differences would belong to another Head viz. to that Head whence those Differences are taken Which would put all our Notions into Confusion and involve a direct Contradiction as making Substances to be Quantities Qualities c. 2. Intrinsecal Differences can be no other but more and less of the Common Notion For since being Intrinsecal they cannot be taken from any other Head it follows that they must partake of the Common Notion of their own respective Heads Again since if they did partake of the Common Notion Equally they would not differ in that Notion and so would not be Differences of it it follows that they must partake of it Vnequally that is they must be more and less of the Common Notion 3. Hence the Common Notion of Ens Thing or Substence being that which is capable of Existence is Immediately Intrinsecally or Essentially divided into what 's more and less capable of Existence Wherefore 4. Divisible and Indivisible which constitute Body and Spirit are the proper and intrinsecal Differences of the Common Head of Substance For since Actual Division of the Entity makes the thing to be no longer indivisum in se that is to be unum that is to be Ens that is to be capable of Existence it follows that that Ens which is Divisible or Body is less capable of Existence that is has less of the nature of Ens or Substance and the Ens that is Indivisible or Spirit has more Again since Things Divisible or Bodies can only have their own Being or Existence whereas Things indivisible or Spirits are capable of being Other things also or of having in them the Natures and Existences of all the things they know hence they have a greater Capacity of Existence than Bodies have since they have enough for themselves and can impart it to Millions of Other things besides and consequently Body and Spirit are constituted by Divisible and Indivisible as by the proper immediate and Intrinsecal Differences that divide Substance or Ens. 5. The Divisibility and Indivisibility that are the Intrinsecal Differences of Ens are not those of being Quantitative and not Quantitative For were it so it would follow that some Intrinsecal Differences of Ens in Common would be taken from some other Head viz. that of Quantity and so the Differences being what 's most Formal in the Species hence those Species of Ens would rather be under that Head than its own Again that Divisibility which is of Quantity may oftentimes be put into Act and yet the same Ens remain v. g. a Man may lose the Quantity of an Arm a Tree of a Branch c. and yet remain still the same Things whereas if Quantitative Divisibility were the Intrinsecal Difference which constituted it such an Ens Quantitative Division must by consequence make it cease to be that Ens. Moreover since Quantity as will be shortly seen is Divisibility and Divisibility in Vnity in case Quantity did Intrinsecally divide Ens and constitute Body where-ever there were Quantity there would be Vnity under that notion and so all Quantitative things would be but one Ens or one Body which is the highest absurdity Therefore the Divisibility and Indivisibility which are the intrinsecal Differences of Ens are not those of being Quantitative and not Quantitative 6. Therefore the Divisibility and Indivisibility which divide Ens Intrinsecally must be the Divisibility and Indivisibility of the Constituents of Ens as such that is the Divisibility of it into Matter and Form and Indivisibility of it into such Constituent parts Which differences do Essentially divide the Genus of Ens and constitute the species of Body and Spirit For since we see Bodies chang'd into one another and therefore the former Body had really somewhat in it determining it to be actually what it was which we call the Form and somewhat by which it could be Another which we call the Power to be another or Matter Again since we see that the
some Body viz. to Animal as one of the Proper and Intrinsecal Differences of that Genus as is shewn above 3. Notwithstanding Man cannot be both Body and Spirit formally For then he must necessarily be Two Entities in distinct Lines of Substance the one under the Genus of Body the other of Spirit Whence he would be Vnum and non-Vnum in the same regard or according to the same Formal Notion that is he would be Ens and non Ens and consist formally of two Things as perfectly distinct as an Angel and an Ape and even be more monstrous than a Hircocervus or Chimaera because he would be formally that is essentially made up of two more-generically-opposit Things than these are conceiv'd to be Wherefore the Notion of Man being deduced by Intrinsecal Differences from the Genus of Body he is formally a Body tho' his Soul be of a spiritual Nature which makes him virtually a Spirit Whence also the manner of Existence following from what 's Formal in the Thing he has in this State a Corporeal Manner of Existence as appears by his gleaning Knowledge by the Senses his being Measurable by Quantity Alterable by Corporeal Qualities nay even his peculiar and proper Action of Discourse attends the slow pace of Fancy and Bodily Motion none of which could be competent to a Pure Spirit that exists after a Spiritual and Indivisible manner Nor does this more prejudice the Spiritual Nature of a Soul that it exists and works in some regards after the manner of a Body than it does prejudice the Nature of a Body a Stone for example that it exists in us spiritually as it does when we know it or have the Notion or Nature of it in our Understanding 4. Hence is seen what Notions do formally belong to the Line of Substance or to Ens as Ens viz. the several species of it descending downwards from the Common Head till we come to the Iâ—dividuum which therefore is a compleat Ens as including all those Superiour or partial Notions and * therefore it only is in proper speech an Ens or Thing in regard It onely being ultimately determin'd to be This or That only It is by consequence capable of existing which is the Definition of Ens. Whence all Potential or Indeterminate Notions of Ens such as are Ens Corpus Vivens or Animal in Common are for the same reason incapable of Existing otherwise than as they are Parts of the compleat Ens or Individuum and therefore they are phras'd by the Schools Substantiae Secundae and the Individuum Substantia Prima Lower than the Individuum in the Line of Ens we cannot go nor can any Notion be superadded to it that belong Properly to Ens but that of Existence of which Ens is a Capacity Whence we do not call Existence a Form or Act for This joyn'd with the Matter or Power does constitute that compound Ens call'd Body and therefore are both presuppos'd to Existence but we call it the last Formality of every created Ens because it has no Potentiality at all in that Line but is Pure Actuality and therefore most resembles GOD our Creator and the sole Giver of It whose very Essence is Self-Existence 5. All those Notions before said taking them precisely as determining the common Notion of Ens and belonging to it even to the last Actuality of it Existence inclusively are Metaphysical Notions The proper Object of which Science is Ens not taken as it abstracts from Existence but as it abstracts from all the other Predicaments or common Heads of Notions that is from all Matter and Motion and all Modes or Manners of them For which Reason Existence which more perfectly abstracts from both does more formally belong to the Object of Metaphysicks LESSON IV. Some Considerations belonging to those Ten Heads of Notions or to the Ten Predicaments in Common 1. THE last Nine Predicaments call'd Accidents are not truly Things nor of themselves capable of Existence and therefore they are onely Capable of Being by their Identity with Substance For since we cannot clearly know any thing but by framing diverse Notions or Considerations of it and all the Notions we have are divided into Ten common Heads and it hinders the way to Science if we keep not the Distinction of those Heads unmingled Wherefore it being manifest and undeniable that among those Heads there is one which is truly the Notion of Ens or Thing that is of apable of Existing viz. that of Substance Hence in case we should conceive or put all the rest to be also Entities or Things or of themselves capable of Existence we should confound and jumble all the Common Heads of our Notions together which would fundamentally destroy all possibility of Science even while we are laying it 2. Notwithstanding this the Notions or Natures of those Nine Heads are not Fictitious or fram'd gratis by our Understanding but real Affections or Modifications of the Thing For since we cannot comprehend all that is in the thing at once but are forced to make diverse Considerations of it nor could we do this unless the thing were diversly Considerable it follows that these Nine Heads as well as the First are diverse Considerabilities of the same Thing that is the real Thing it self as diversly consider'd or conceiv'd by us and therefore since they are not Things by virtue of their distinct Notions and yet are really the Thing diversly consider'd which takes nothing from their Reâ—lity it is left that they must be Real Affections Modifications Respects or Determinations of it and not meer Nothings or Fictitious but as we may say somewhat of the Thing or belonging to it which Logicians phrase to be a Thing in an Analogical or Secondary sense 3. The Distinction of these Considerabilities is partly taken from the Vnderstanding partly from Nature it self For since the diverse Considerabilities of the Thing are not so many little Entities found in it but the same thinâ— diversly conceiv'd the distinction of them cannot be taken from the Thing it self singly consiâ—â—red On the other side since our Understanding is naturally apt to make diverse Abstract Notions of the Thing nay is forced to do it because it cannot discourse clearly of more of them toâ—ether much less of the whole suppositum and that the Impressions on the Senses which cause those Notions are naturally diverse and that the Causes in Nature do often work upon the suppositum or thing according to some one Notion or Considerability of it and not according to another for example on its Figure and not on its Colour on its Locality or Situation and not on its Substance hence ample occasion is ministred to the Understanding to consider it diversly that is to make diverse Conceptions or Notions of it Wherefore the distinction of these Considerabilities is partly taken from the Vnderstanding partly from Nature it self Nature affording Ground and Occasion for the Understanding
upon the Fourth but to be chang'd by the Second and this was done as was now shown in the First Instant the Causes of changing the Fourth were adequately put in the same Instant too and consequently the Effect And since how far soever we proceed the same reason holds viz. that the Effects are still Indivisible and all the Causes of each immediately succeeding Effect still adequately put in the first Instant it will follow that the Effects will still be put in the same Instant by the same necessity that the Effect of the First up on the Second was put in the First Instant of their Being Therefore all whatever any Multitude of Angels how great soever can work upon one another is perform'd in the First Instant of their Being Proposition VII 19. That 't is Infinitly more Impossible an Angel should be chang'd by God after the first Instant than by any other Spirit For since the Angel is in the same manner capable of Change as far as concerns it's self or it 's own power to be changed whether God or any other Spirit be to change it on that side precisely there is a perfect Equality Wherefore seeing on the other side 't is infinitly more Impossible that GOD should not have Power to change her in the First Instant than that any other Spirit should not have such a Power and Infinitly more Impossible that GOD should not of himself be ultimately dispos'd to act where the nature of the thing is capable of it his Nature being Pure Actuality Also since 't is Infinitly more Impossible that GOD should after some Duration receive any Change in himself fitting him to produce that Effect than that any other Spirit should And lastly since 't is Infinitly more Impossible his Active Power should not be Apply'd to the Patient both in regard he most necessarily and comprehensively knows it and most intimately by himself conserves it in Being Wherefore since from these Considerations or Reasons however Infinitly short in Creatures it is concluded to be Impossible that even any Other Spirit if it should change an Angel at all should not change it in the First Instant and these Considerations or Reasons are found to be in GOD with Infinitly greater Advantage it is Evident that 't is Infinitly more Impossible that GOD if he change an Angel at all should not change it in the first Instant that is should change it in the Intermediate Duration than that any other Spirit should Proposition IX 20. That 't is absolutely Impossible an Angel should be Changed after the First Instant of it's Being For since no Change can be made without â—he working of Some Cause and no Body can work upon an Angel and all that it self or any other Created Spirit can work upon it must necessarily be in the very First Instant of it's Being and 't is much more Impossible GOD should work upon it unless in the First Instant than that any Created Spirit should and there can be no Cause possible or Imaginable besides GOD Created Spirits or Bodies it follows that there can be no Cause at all to work upon an Angel or to Change it after the First Instant of it's Being and therefore it can undergo no Change after that First Instant ADVERTISEMENT 1. THIS last Conclusion may seem a strange Paradox to some Readers whose Reason and Principles have not rais'd them above Fancy But not to insist farther on the Evidence of our Consequences from Undeniable Principles which have forced the Necessity of our Conclusion such men are desirâ—d to reflect that Ens being divided as by it's Proper Differences by Divisible and Indivisible and these Differences being Contradictory to one another it follows that Body and Spirit which are the Species constituted by those Differences do agree in nothing at all but in the Common and Generical notion of Ens or in this that they are both of them Capable of Being Whence 't is Logically demonstrated that they must Differ nay contradictorily disagree in every thing else so that whatever else is Affirm'd literally of the one must be deny'd of the other Wherefore since we can truly and literally Affirm that Body is Quantitative Corruptible in Place mov'd Locally Chang'd by Time or Subject to it Capable of Succession or of Before and After which are the Differences of time c. we must be forced with equal Truth Literally to Deny all these of Pure Spirits or Angels because none of these do belong to the Common Generical Notion of Ens but to that Difference which constitutes that Species call'd Body and therefore the Contradictory to all these and amongst them to be Vnsuccessive in it's Operations must be predicated of the other Species call'd Spirit It will I doubt not be much wonder'd at too that the Devils should be Damn'd in the First Instant of their being which looks as if they were Created in the state of Damnation A thing certainly most Unworthy GOD who is Essentially and Infinitly Good But their wonder will cease if they reflect that those Bad Angels had far more Knowledg and consequently more perfect Deliberation such as they can have in that one Single Instant than We could have had tho' we have been a thousand years Considering and Deliberating e'er we had made our Choice of our last End and fix our Resolution to adhere to it Finally So that it never lay in the power of any Man to have so Clear a Knowledg of his Duty and so perfect and full sight of all the Motives to continue in that Duty as the Devil and his Angels had in that one Instant Whence the Crime of Lucifer and his Adherents was a Sin of pure Malice and not mere Frailty or mixt with Frailty much less of Inadvertence Speculative Ignorance or suggested by the Soul 's deprav'd Companion the Body as are the Sins of the Generality of Mankind some Inconsiderable number of them excepted whose Souls are thorowly poison'd with Spiritual Sin 's peculiar to the Devil such as are Spiritual Pride Malice Envy or such like which wicked Sinners are therefore even while here so many Limbs as it were of the Devil and very difficult to be brought to any Repentance And this is the reason why GOD's Wisdom Goodness and Justice laid so many Miracles of Mercy to save poor weak Mankind and left the Faln Angels in the sad condition in which they had so wilfully and desperately engulft themselves Wisely and Justly placing it in the Order of Causes that that Sin which was so perfectly and in despite of all Motives to the contrary so Wilfully Resolute should be Irretractable whereas on the other side Sins of mere Frailty are not hard to be repented of when the alluring circumstance is past and gone The same Faculty which permitted them to fall leaving them likewise in a Pliableness to reform and retract what their Reason abus'd by Passion had perhaps either by surprize or after much
struggling that is half unwillingly yielded to Corol. I. Hence abstracting from Faith and Theology 't is Demonstrated against the Originists by Reason reflecting on the nature of Things that the Devils are to be Eternally Damn'd and how and why 't is Impossible their Hell should have an End For they cannot be saved without Repentance nor repent without having some new Motive which they either knew not of before or did not well consider of it Neither of which can have place here for since they acquire no New Knowledg either by the Senses or by Discourse it follows that they have all in the first Instant that is due to their Natures that is they know all they could possibly know and out of that Knowledg made their Full and Final Choice Nor can there be Consideration in a Knower that sees all things by Simple Intuition For Consideration is the Comparing one Motive with another and therefore 't is an Operation Proper to that Knower that works by Abstracted Notions or Considerations of the Thing Whence it is most Improper and Incompetent to such an Intelligent Being as knows all as once by way of Simple Intuition Corol. II. Tho' all that can concern the Internal Operations of Angels was finished in an Instant yet we may for all that conceive certain Priorities of Nature in the Course or Process as it were of what belongs to them in that First Instant v. g. We can conceive them to be and to be Good according to thâ—ir Essence and Existence as coming Immediately out of God's hand ere we conceive their own Depraved Will made them Bad. We can conceive them to know Themselves ere they knew in and by Themselves the whole Angelical Order and the whole Course of Nature We can conceive them to know Themselves as most fit under God to preside over Humane Nature ere they knew that a Man by the Incarnation of the Word was to be their Head and as it were take their office out of their hands and be Lord of themselves too We can conceive them to know This which was the cause of their Aversion from GOD ere we can conceive them to have had that Aversion from him for his thus Ordering things We can conceive Lucifer their Ring-leader to have had that Aversion ere he propos'd his Seditious thoughts to other Angels to debauch them from their Allegiance We can conceive him to have Debaucht them ere we conceive the Contrast and Battle was between Michael and his Loyal Angels and Lucifer with his Rebellious Troops Lastly we can conceive this Battel fought ere the latter black Squadrons were cast down from their Sublime Height into Hell All these I say may be Conceiv'd to have had certain Priorities of Nature to one another such as those Causes and Effects use to have which are in the same Instant So that this Single Instant of theirs is tho not Formally yet virtually and in order to the many Indivisible Effects producible in it Equivalent or as we use to say as good as a Long Series of our Time Not by way of Quantitative Commensuration of one to the other but by the Eminency of the Angelical Duration or Aeviternity which is of a Superiour Nature to Body and consequently Bodily Motion or Time and Comprehending it all Indivisibly and Instantaneously Corol. III. Hence it follows that the Several Instants which Divines put in Angelical Actions and particularly in Lucifer and his Fiends before their Fall can be no way Solidly explicated and conformably to the nature of Pure Spirits but by those Priorities of Nature For since Comparisons can only be made of those Natures which are ejusdem generis we cannot Compare or Commensurate those Actions which are Spiritual to the Succession found in the Actions of Bodies which are Measurable by Time any more than we can their Essence to the Nature of a Body and it would be an odd Comparison to say an Angel is as Knowing as a Horse is Strong or as a Wall is Hard Wherefore Before and After which are Differences of Time or Successive Motion can never be with good Sense apply'd to the Operations of Pure Spirits Again should we allow such Instants Succeeding one another it would avail nothing For since one Indivisible added to another cannot make a thing Greater nor consequently a Duration Longer the putting many of them advances no farther than the First Indivisible or the First Instant Add that even those Divines who put diverse Instants do all owe our Principles that Angels are Indivisible Substances for did they hold them Corporeal as some of the Fathers did I should not wonder at their Inconsistency but they are frightned from the Conclusions that Naturally and Necessarily follow thence either because they vainly fear Scripture-Texts expressing things humano more or in Accomodation to our low Conceptions cannot otherwise be verified or else because those Conclusions too much shock their Fancy by their seeming Extravagancy or lastly because they are willing to gratifie and please the Fancy of the Vulgar which is startled at such uncouth propositions And this is one mane Hindrance to the Advancement of Science when men are afraid of their own Conclusions because the herd of vulgar Philosophers will dislike and decry them A Fault which I hope I have not been Guilty of in this former Treatise but have both avoided it my self and have Indeavour'd to prevent it in others by holding firmly and directing others to hold to the right Notions or Natures of the things and to pursue steadily the Consequences that do naturally Issue from them how Aukward soever the Conclusions may seem to those who take their Measures from Fancy how to frame their Rules of Logick which are to direct their Reason LESSON VIII Of Opinion and Faith 1. SCience being grounded on Intrinsical Mediums and on such as are Proper or Immediately Connected with the Extrems whence it has to be Evident it follows that those Mediums which are either Extrinsical to the thing or Common ones cannot beget Science but some Inevident or Obscure kinds of Light call'd Faith and Opinion The former of which is grounded on an Extrinsical Medium call'd Witnessing Authority or Testimony the Later on Remote or Common Mediums which seem to bend or lean towards the Conclusion but do not by any Maxim of true Logick reach it or inferr it Examples of both may be these 2. That which is Attested unanimously by such a Multitude of Witnesses and so Circumstanc'd that they can neither be Mistaken in it Themselves nor Conspire to deceive others is true But That there is such a City as Rome is attested by such a multitude of Witnesses and so Circumstanc'd that they can neither be Mistaken in it Themselves nor Conspire to deceive others therefore That there is such a City as Rome is True What 's Promis'd will be but That my Debtor will pay me money to morrow is what 's promis'd therefore That my Debtor will pay me
Physicks to give us a piece of meer Mathematicks for bare Extension fits it for no other Science Nor are we mistaken in thinking so for he tells us expresly that Natural Philosophy is one part of the Mathematicks Tho' the Abstraction which in the place now mention'd he assigns to Quantity as a Genus is very odd and Illogical For the Abstraction of Quantity from the Thing or from Motion is an Abstraction of the Accident from the Subject or from Another Accident and therefore is quite another kind of Abstraction than that of the Genus from the species and it looks as if they hanker'd after Plato's exploded conceit of a Subsistent Vniversal and that they would have their First Matter contrary to all Logick and good sense to be a Body in Common and therefore the Genus to all particular Bodies Nor can any thing sound more awkwardly then to make a Mathematical Treatise of Physicks But Cartesius was a Greater Master of Mathematicks than he was of Physicks and therefore had a vast Design to reduce all Nature and all Philosophy within the Purlew of his own Art in which it must be confest he was very Excellent 39. But to lay yet a Greater Force upon their backwardness to admit a Formal Change in Bodies we come now to more Palpable and Plain Instances not fetch'd from Metaphysicks but from obvious Effects in Nature which every man sees and themselves cannot but acknowledg Let us then take into our consideration a young lately-planted Oak growing in a Nursery which in the space of a hundred years spreads it self into a vast Tree dilating it's large and massy Branches on all sides and over-shadowing a spacious Extent of Ground Can any man deny but that this is the same Thing or the same Tree it was at first And yet 't is most evidently not the same in Quantity it being now a thousand times Greater than it was formerly 'T is manifest then that here is a Real Divisibility between it's Quantity and it's Entity or Substance and a Real Mutation according to the Form of the Quantity and not according to the Notions of Ens or Thing The same may be said of an Infant grown up to be a Man which when 't is now Bigger in Quantity should they deny to be the same Thing or the same Man it would make mad work in the World by taking away Titles of Inheritances and altering the Right of Succession The Infant might perhaps retain his Title for some very small time but the Identity of it being lost by the accruing of new Matter and new Quantity he has forfeited his Estate e'er he comes at age to understand or manage it by losing his Essenee 41. I know that our late Philosophers will hope to evade this last Instance by alledging that the Numerical Identity of a Man springs from his having the same Soul Which Tenet were it proper to confute it here would prove as Unreasonable and ill-grounded as any of the rest I only note on the by that as it becomes God's Wisdom as he is Author of Nature to carry on the Course of Causes by fitting Dispositions to the Production of farther and more Noble Effects and consequently to sute and proportion what Supervenes to what Prae-exists and the Embryo in our case Praeexists and by having such Dispositions in it as made it fit to concur on it's part to work Rationally to such a Degree made it require to have for it's Form such a Rational Soul joyn'd with it and thence determin'd the Author of Nature to infuse it it follows that the thing is quite contrary to what they imagin viz. that the Soul was to be adjusted and proportion'd to the Exigency of the Bodily part and that therefore the Soul is Determinately such or of such a Determinate Degree of Rationality which Essentially and Numerically distinguishes Souls and Men from one another as was fit to be infus'd into and work with such a Body And were not this so it would be impossible to explicate how Original Sin is connaturally transfus'd from Adam or how the Soul becomes tainted by being united to a Body made ex immundo semine But this is not the only ill Consequence that springs from this Extravagant Tenet of the Soul 's being a Distinct Thing from the Body or that Man is in reality compounded of Two Actual Things and therefore not to be placed in any one Line of the Predicament of Ens or Substance For that odd Opinion does besides very much favour at least very well consist with the Praeexistence of Souls Because if the Soul be not proportion'd to the Disposition of the Corporeal part of Man and so be truly the Form of it but a kind of Assistant Spirit only apt to joyn with it and promote it in it's Operations it might as well Exist before the Body as after it Whence it will be very hard for them to assign any solid Reason from the Nature of such a Spirit since it might indifferently fit other Bodies or assist more of them why there might not be also a Transmigration of Souls from one Man to another for it would be in that case no more but shifting their Office and assisting now one of them then Another Not to mention how this Doctrin as is discourst in the Preface tends to introduce a kind of Fanaticism into the Philosophy Schools by making all their thoughts run upon nothing but Spiritual Conceits and Innate Ideas and having a Spiritual communication with God when they know any Natural Truth after an unintelligible manner Not considering that Man in this Mortal State here is truly one part or piece of Nature and subject to the Impressions of Natural Causes affecting him both as to his Corporeal and Spiritual Capacity according to the Different Natures of those Different Recipients 41. But to return whence we diverted Letting Man and his Individuality alone what can they say to the former Instance of a young Oak or of any other Vegetable or Animal increast to it's Full Growth which all Mankind agrees to be still the same Thing and yet not the same in Quantity It is not hence unanswerably Evident that there is a Formal Mutation according to it's Quantity and not according to it's Entity and therefore a Formal Composition and Divisibility in it according to those two Respects They cannot say they are the same Physically or the same Physical Compound For since all Natural Bodies according to their Doctrin are made solely of their First Matter or of the Particles made of it where there is incomparably more Matter there must be a New-Compound or a New Body in regard more and less must be the Differences of every Notion in the same Line as has been demonstrated Wherefore more or less of the Matter it being inform'd and so truly an Ens or a Body ought to outweigh in constituting Particular Bodies or Entities all consideration of Accidental Notions or Modifications of