VVhat an alteration or accidental change is That the differences of Temperament are as many as there are Minima's of the Elements excepting four p. 119. CHAP. XIX Of the Division of Temperaments 1. VVhat an equal and unequal Temperament is That there never was but one temperament ad pondus That Adams Body was not tempered ad pondus That neither Gold nor any Celestial bodies are tempered ad pondus p. 120. 2. That all temperaments ad Justiriam are constantly in changing That there are no two bodies in the world exactly agreeing to one another in temperature p. 121. 3. The Latitude of temperaments How the corruption of one body ever proves the generation of another p. 122. 4. That there is no such unequal temperament as is vulgarly imagined That there is an equal temperament is proved against the vulgar opinion That where Forms are equal their matters must also be equal p. 123 124. 5. VVhat a Distemper is That Galen intended by an unequal temperature p. 125. 6. VVhen a man may be termed temperate That bodies are said to be intemperate ib. 126 127. 7. The combination of the second Qualities of the Elements in a temperature Their Effects p. 128. CHAP. XX. Of Alteration Coction Decoction Generation Putrefaction and Corruption 1. VVhat Coction and Putrefaction is The Difference between Putrefaction and Corruption p. 130. 2. The Authors Definition of Alteration The effects of Alteration ib. 3. The Division of Alteration p. 131. 4. That the first Qualities of the Peripateticks are not intended by the acquisition of new Qualities without Matter Wherein Alteration differs from Mixtion or Temperament ib. 5. The Definition of Coction Why a man was changed much more in his youth than when come to maturity p. 132 133. 6. The Constitution of women Which are the best and worst Constitutions in men That heat is not the sole cause of Coction p. 134 135. 7. The kinds of Coction What Maturation Elixation and Assation are p. 136. 8. VVhat Decoction is and the manner of it p. 137. 9. The definition of Putrefaction 139 10. VVhat Generation imports in a large and strict acception Whether the Seed of a Plant or Animal is essentially distinguisht from a young Plant or new born Animal That heat is not the sole efficient in Generation p. 139. 11. VVhether the innate heat is not indued with a power of converting adventitious heat into its own nature Whether the innate heat be Celestial or Elementary p. 140 141 142. 12. The Definition of Corruption Why the innate heat becomes oft more vigorous after violent Feavers Whether Life may be prolonged to an eval duration What the Catochization of a Flame is By what means many pretend to prolong life That the production of life to an eval duration is impossible Whether our Dayes be determined The ambiguity of Corruption Whether Corruption be possible in the Elements p. 143 to 149. CHAP. XXI Of Light 1. VVhat Light is The manner of the production of a Flame p. 150. 2. The properties and effects of Light p. 151. 3. That Light is an effect or consequent of a Flame Whence it happens that our Eyes strike fire when we hit our Foreheads against any hard Body That Light is not a quality of fire alone That Light is not fire rarefied That where there is Light there is not alwayes heat near to it How Virginals and Organs are made to play by themselves p. 152 153. 4. That Light is a continuous obduction of the Ayr. That Light is diffused to a far extent in an instant and how Why the whole tract of Air is not enlightned at once p. 154 155. 5. The manner of the Lights working upon the Eye-sight That sight is actuated by reception and not by emission p. 156. 6. The reason of the difference between the extent of illumination and calefaction That Light cannot be precipitated ib. 7. That Light is not the mediate cause of all the Effects produced by the Stars That Light hath only a power of acting immediately and per se upon the optick spirits How the Air happens to burst through a sudden great light That a sudden great Light may blind kill or cast a man into an Apoplexy p. 157. 8. How Light renders all Objects visible Why a peice of Money cast into a Basin filled with water appears bigger than it is The causes of apparent Colours Why a great Object appears but small to one afar off The difference between lux and lumen What a Beam is What a Splendour is That the Lights begot by the Stars and other flames are not distinguished specie How the Coelum Empyreum is said to be Lucid p. 158 159. CHAP. XXII Of Colours 1. The Authors Definition of a Colour That Light is a Colour Aristotles Definition of colour examined p. 160 161 162. 2. Scaligers Absurdities touching Colours and Light p. 163. 3. What colour Light is of and why termed a single Colour That Light doth not efficienter render an Object visible How a mixt Colour worketh upon the sight and how it is conveyed to it ib. 164. 4. The Causes of the variations of Mercury in its colour through each several preparation p. 165. 5. That Colours are formally relations only to our sight That a mixt colour is not an intentional quality That besides the relation of colours there is an absolute foundation in their original Subjects How the same fundamental colours act p. 166. 6. That there are no apparent colours but all are true p. 167. 7. The Differences of colours What colour focal fire is of The fundamental colours of mixt bodies p. 168 169 170 171. 8. What reflection of light is What refraction of colours is Aristotles Definition of colour rejected The Effects of a double reflection The Reasons of the variations of Colour in Apples held over the water and Looking-glasses The variation of Illumination by various Glasses p. 172. 9. The Division of Glasses The cause of the variation of colour in a Prism ib. 173 174. 10. The Nature of Refraction Why colours are not refracted in the Eye p. 175 176. CHAP. XXIII Of Sounds 1. The Definition of a Sound That the Collision of two solid Bodies is not alwayes necessary for to raise a Sound p. 177. 2. Whether a Sound be inherent in the Air or in the body sounding The manner of Production of a Sound p. 178. 3. Whether a Sound is propagated through the water intentionally only That a Sound may be made and heard under water p. 179. 4. That a Sound is a real pluffing up of the Air. How a Sound is propagated through the Air and how far Why a small Sound raised at one end of a Mast or Beam may be easily heard at the other end Why the Noise of the treading of a Troop of Horse may be heard at a far distance p. 180 181 182. 5. The difference between a Sound and a Light or Colour That it is possible for a man to hear with his eyes
Phys. Fernel and others oppose it To decide a Controversie agitated by the greatest of Philosophers and Physitians needs a deep inspection Wherefore I demand what they understand by a fifth quality whether a quality really or modally only differing from the four single qualities of the Elements 2. Whether the Authors of the contrary opinion intend by Harmony or Concord any thing distinct from the single qualities of the Elements There is none I find answereth to this which compels me to handle the Question in supposing the one party to mean by a fifth quality a quality really distinct and the other by Harmony of the Elements to intend nothing distinct from the elements being united in a proportion A temperament is not a fifth quality really distinct from the qualities of the elements because a temperament cannot exist without the four qualities of the elements for take away but one of those qualities and you take away the temperament A temperament formally is not a Harmony or Concord only because a Harmony or Agreement of the four qualities is an Accident or condition following or attending the union of qualities Wherefore a harmony of the said qualities is an Accident or Mode differing modally from a temperament for when we conceive a temperament we do not conceive a harmony although we conceive a harmony to be a conditio sine qua non of a temperament because without it they could not be united A temperament is not a proportion of the Elements but the union of the Elements in a proportion A temperament is a fifth quality modally distinct from the elementary single qualities but not really for a temperament is the union of four qualities in one wherefore this one quality is the same really with the four united although modally different 2. A totum is modally only and not really distinguisht from its parts united but a temperament is a totum and the qualities united are the parts united Ergo. I cannot but strange at many Physitians defining a temperament to be a harmony and yet asserting the first qualities to be contrary A Contradiction For if the first qualities be contrary they expel one another out of the same Subject but if they are harmonical they will embrace and preserve one another in their beings which that they do is abundantly demonstrated above Others again assert that a temperament doth include an union not only of the first qualities but also of the substances of the elements A Dulness Wherein would a temperament then differ from Mistion Had they affirmed that mistion did imply or include a temperament it would have been an Heroick Saying not to be expected from them Whether from the congress of the four qualities there result two temperaments one out of the active qualities the other of the passive is a further doubt objected by them In the first place they are deceived in distinguishing the first qualities into active and passive qualities because among them the one is no more active or passive then the other they being equally active and passive 2. It is a contradiction to define a temperament to be the four qualities united into one harmony and afterward to conceive one harmony to be two that is two temperaments IV. Properly and absolutely there is no distemperament or intemperies because the form of every mixt body is a temperament Wherefore a distemperament sounds nothing else but a non-temperament and consequently there is no distemper I confess a mutation or change of the proportion of the Elements there may happen in a mixt body yet notwithstanding that change the temperament remaines a temperament If then you intend by an Intemperies nothing but such a change it may be defined to be the alteration of the form of a mixt being Alteration is the intention or remission of one or more of the vertues powers or forms of the Elements as they are temperated Intension and Remission take in the senses formerly set down Although in a strict sense every intention or remission of a first quality in a mixt body changeth the Form of it yet because that every change is not durable but many are soon expelled again through which a mixt body returnes to its former form wherefore such changes are only counted substantial changes or mutations whereby a body is so much changed that it is irreducible to its pristine Form and whereby it produceth Accidents altogether sensibly differing from those that were produced by its foregoing Form for example when the temperament of a man is so much subverted and changed by the appulse of another temperament that it is rendered uncapable of reduction to its former temperament or form and the accidents produced by it are altogether sensibly differing from those that were produced by the foregoing temperament as when a mans Heat is subverted by the appulse of Cold so as he is deprived thereby of Life Sense and Motion then his form is changed into the form of a Cadaver dead Corps because now other accidents are produced being altogether sensibly different from the former and the lost Accidents are irreducible This is a substantial change or mutation because the entire essence of the thing is changed V. An Accidental change or Alteration is when the temperament of a body is so far changed as that its Modes or Accidents appear to be sensibly changed yet not totally but partially and when the change is gone no further then it is expulsible and the former temperament reducible I said sensibly changed because it is not every insensible increase or decrease of any of the first qualities of a mixt body deserveth the name of Alteration although in a large sense it doth It will not be amiss to give you an Instance A man when he is feaverish is alterated because fire is intended more then it was in his precedent temperament which therefore produceth a sensible burning pains and weaknesses but since his old temperament is reducible it is only to be counted an Alteration or Accidental Change Another distinction between a substantial change and an Alteration is that a body by a substantial mutation is so much changed as that you do not know it to be the same thing it was but an alterated body although it is somewhat changed yet it is not so much changed but that you may know what it was If there be any Infinitum in the world none is liker to be it then the number of temperaments for there are as many temperaments possible as there are Elementary Indivisibles excepting four to which one indivisible being added changeth the temperament and again another and another and so on until all the indivisible be apposed admitted to that changeth the temperament again and again CHAP. XIX Of the Division of Temperaments 1. What an equal and unequal Temperament is That there never was but one temperament ad pondus That Adams Body was not tempered ad pondus That neither Gold nor any Celestial bodies are tempered ad
pondus 2. That all Temperaments ad Justitiam are constantly in changing That there are no two bodies in the world exactly agreeing to one another in temperature 3. The Latitude of Temperaments How the corruption of one body ever proves the generation of another 4. That there is no such unequal temperament as is vulgarly imagined That there is an equal temperament is proved against the vulgar opinion That where Forms are equal their matters must also be equal 5. What a Distemper is What Galen intended by an unequal temperature 6. VVhen a man may be termed temperate VVhat bodies are said to be intemperate 7. The combination of the second Qualities of the Elements in a temperature Their Effects I. A Temperament is divided into an equal temperament or a temperamentum ad pondus or unequal otherwise called by Philosophers a temperamentum ad justitiam An equal temperament is constituted out of an equal proportion of the forms of the Elements and therefore it is called a temperamentum ad pondus because it is so equally tempered that if it were weighed one Element would not over-balance the other This Temperament consisteth of an Arithmetical proportion It is otherwise called an anatick temperament An unequal temperament is where the elementary forms are united in an unequal proportion It is called temperamentum ad justitiam because there is just such a proportion of the forms of the Elements as to fit it to act such an act or to exercise such Offices The proportion observeable in this temperament is a Geometrical proportion whereby one Element overtops the other or is elevated above the other in such a degree or measure as to produce such certain effects Nature never appeared in more then in one temperament ad pondus but ever after in temperaments ad justitiam as I have shewed a little before I have proved that the Chaos was the only temperament ad pondus which its nature and end did require thereby it was rendered capable of existing in a vacuum void space and needed no external place to contain it because it contained it self The body of Adam in his Innocency was not temperated ad pondus because it would have rendered him immoveable for the Elements being supposed to be in an equal proportion and counterpoysing one another local motion must have been impossible Celestial bodies although of so long a duration or Gold whatever Alchymists say to the contrary are neither tempered ad pondus because the one could then not be heavy or the others light II. Since that a temperament ad justitiam ever obtaines one Element or two or three predominating over the others its force being greater then the others doth by that means free it self daily from their detention by which a temperament is constantly in changing increasing in one and decreasing in another quality this experience tels us viz. that every being after its first production in a sensible time undergoeth a sensible change of its Temperament and consequently undergoeth an insensible change of temperature in an unsensible time in such a manner that there is no body but doth at least change every minute of time in the detraction of a Minimum Hence we are supplied with a reason why there are not two bodies to be found exactly like unto one another in temperament because bodies are alwaies a changing You may object That many substances produce effects diametrically like to one another ergo their temperament must be alike withal I deny the Antecedence for although their Effects are alike according to their appearance to our senses notwithstanding Reason perswades us that there must be an insensible dissimilitude between their temperaments and consequently between their Effects III. The degrees of Changes or Latitude of Temperaments in bodies are these 1. There is an insensible change or alteration which our senses cannot discern but it is only discoverable through Reason 2. The second degree is a sensible alteration which is evidently discernable by sense in that its effects are sensibly different yet they must not be so far deviated from the wonted preceding effects as to be judged entirely unlike to them 3. A total change and mutation of Form to the reception of which the two forementioned alterations are previous dispositions This degree of change in respect to the expulsion of the preceding form is taken for a Corruption in regard of the subsequent form it is accounted a Generation Hence derives this Maxime Generatiounius est corruptio alterius vice versa The Generation of one is the corruption of another I cannot resemble the expulsion of a form out of a body and a reception of another into the same subject to a better example then to a Ship in sight to one standing on the Pierhead at Dover but out of sight to those that are at Calice whither the Ship is bound now the further this Ship sailes the more it appeares in sight to them at Calice and the less to the others at Dover until it is come quite into sight to them at Calice and then it is quite gone out of sight from the others Even so it is in alteration for as the Ship fore-instanced groweth insensibly less and recedes from one Coast to another so an alteration likewise is insensible But after a sensible time the ship appears sensibly less and more remote so after a sensible time an Alteration groweth sensible and as the Ship at last after these insensible and sensible diminutions and recesses is suddenly quite gone out of sight and vanished so a mix body after all these insensible and sensible alterations is suddenly changed into another form and become another substance the former being vanished The same is observeable in man who altering insensibly every day in his temperament draweth nearer and nearer to his Bed of rest and after some years expiration findes sensibly that he is altered in his temperament both which alterations dispose him to his last sudden change and substantial mutation Galens delineation of the Latitude of temperaments doth tend to the confirmation of what I have proposed Lib. 1. de Temper he writes thus If a quality is exuperant it becomes an Intemperies if it be yet more augmented it turnes to a Disease if it be most increased it is Death or a substantial mutation IV. A Temperament is vulgarly likewise divided into equal or a temperament ad pondus and unequal or a temperament ad justitiam They define an equal temperament to be that which is equally and exquisitely tempered and an unequal temperament to be that which is unequally and inexquisitely mixt If this be their meaning of equal and unequal then their division is illegal because a temperament ad justitiam is as exquisitely and equally mixt as a temperament ad pondus for Gold is tempered ad justitiam but none will deny that Gold is equally tempered in particles although not in great pieces That it is equally tempered in Particles its equal colour equal consistence of
most rational spirit p 88. 2. That Man by means of his first and second Light understood all beings perfectly in their proper natures as they were p. 89 3. That the first man did not sleep during his incorrupt estate ib. 4. That the first man did eat and drink ib. 5. That the first man would have generated in the same manner and through the same parts as he did afterwards but without that shame and sinfull lust That there were no co-Adamites The absurdity of that blasphemous opinion touching prae-Adamites ib. 6. That the first man was beyond danger of erring in any action proceeding from his soul. p. 90 7. A rational inquiry into the first sinne and knowledg of the first Commandment ib. 8. The manner of man's fall proved by reason His punishment for the breach of the first Commandment p. 91. 9. A further collection of man's pupunishment for his first sinne That a present unavoidable temporal death was part of man's punishment and not a present unavoidable eternal death ib. 10 That man after his fall was not become utterly evil p. 92. 11. An enumeration of the relicts of Good in man p. 93. CHAP. XVIII Of the manner of the Suppression Extinction Predominance and Triumph of the Habit of Good 1. The repetition of some of the principal principles of this Treatise 94. 2. What it is that hindreth the Habit of Good ib. 3. How the good Habit happens to be deaded and overcome by the evil habit How the good Habit happens to suppresse and vanquish the evil habit ib. 4. That we are apt to incline most to those things that are forbidden p. 95. 5. A proof inferring darkness to proceed from the prevalence of the corporeal appetite ib. 6. Why it is that a man must necessarily die The ground detected upon which the Papists were induced to state a Purgatory Their error rejected p. 96. 7. That the propertion of these two Habits is various in every individual subject ib. CHAP. XIX Of Original Sinne. 1. How it is possible for two contrary Habits to inhere in one subject 97. 2. The absurdities that follow this Assertion viz. That the evil habit inheres in the soul perse ib. 3. In what manner the Habit of good is taken to inhere per se in the soul. p. 98. 4. That God created every man theologically good Several Objections relating to the same assertion answered ib. 5. How the soul partaketh of the guilt of Original Sinne. The opinion of the Synod of Rochel upon this matter p. 99. c. CHAP. XX. Of the manner of Man's Multiplication 1. The state of the controversie 101. 2. That the Rational Soul is not generated or produced by generation That there are three kinds of productions out of nothing ib. 3. That the Soul is not propagated either from the Father or Mother ib. 102. 4. That impious opinion concluding the Rational Soul to be generated tanquam ex traduce confuted 103. 5. An Objection against the Authors opinion answered ib. 6. That the foetus before the advent of the Rational Soul is informated with a form analogal to a sentient form p. 104. 7. That God is the remote cause of man's generation ib. 8. That man doth generate man naturally and perse ib. 9. The opinion of Austin Jerome and others upon this matter p. 105. CHAP. XXI Of Practick Natural Faith 1. What a man is to consider to prevent his downfall p. 207. 2. Man's danger and folly the Devils policy A certain means whereby to be delivered from this imminent danger The whole mystery and summe of man's salvation ib. 108. 3. The main Question of this whole Treatise decided p. 109. 4. Scripture proofs accidentally proposed inferring implicit faith in a natural man to be justifying ib. 5. The general Rules of Practick faith p. 110 6. The occasion of man's fall briefly repeated ib. 7. Fifteen Reasons against all passions p. 111 112. 8. Arguments against all bodily pleasures p. 113. 9. The military discipline of a natural man instructing him to warre against all his enemies that oppose him in his way to his greatest happiness p. 114 115. 10. The greatest and most necessary rule of this military art A scandal taken off from Physicians p. 116. 11. Another great measure of the said Art p. 117. 12. Whence a natural man is to expect assistance in case he is weakned by his enemies p. 118. 13. Whether the soul expiring out of the body is to be an Angel or for ever to abide without office What the office of a separated soul is 119. 14. How long she is to continue in office The consummation and description of the change of the world The resurrection proved by reason The description of the second Paradise concluded by reason ib. 15. To what objects the faculties of men when possest of the second Paradise will extend That they shall remember and know one another That they shall eat and drink that they shall not generate that the same person who redeemed man from his misery shall reign over him in Paradise p. 120 121. CHAP. XXII Comprizing a brief account of the Religion of the Heathen Philosophers 1. Socrates his belief of God p. 122. 2. What God is according to Homer p. 123. 3. What Plato thought God to be ib. 4. Thales his saying of God ib. 5. Instances proving the Heathens to have known Gods Attributes particularly that Thales believed God's Omniscience and God's unchangeable Decrees ib 6. That Socrates asserted God's Omniscience Omnipotence his creating of the world in time his Iustice and Mercy God's Omnipresence ib. 7. The Articles of Plato 's Faith p. 124 125. 8. Aristotle 's Belief p. 126. 9. Virgil's opinion of divine things ib. 10. The divine Song of Orpheus p. 127. 11. Trismegistus upon the Creation of the world ib. 128. Natural Philosophy The SECOND PART The First Book CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Natural Philosophy 1. THe Etymology and Synonima's of Natural Philosophy p. 1. 2. The Definition of Natural Philosophy p. 2. 3. An Explanation of the said Definition ib. 4. What a Natural Being is ib. 5. What a Natural Essence is ib. 6. What Nature is ib. 7. The various Acceptions of Nature ib. CHAP. II. Comprehending an Explanation of the Definition of a Natural Being 1. What is meant by Disposition p. 3. 2. An Objection against the Definition of a Natural Being answered p. 4. 3. What it is to act according to Truth ib. 4. That the Subject of this Science is more properly named a natural Being than a natural Body ib. 5. Aristotles Definition of Nature rejected by several Arguments p. 5. 6. That Nature is a property of a natural Being p. 6. 7. The difference between Nature and Art ib. 8. That Nature in respect to God acteth constantly for an End p. 7. 9. The Division of Nature ib. CHAP. III. Of the Principles of a Natural Being 1. That Privation is no Principle of a Physical Generation or of a Physical Being That
Essential or Modal Material or Formal c. CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Power according to the Author 1. The Analogal Concept of Power as it is common to all its Analogata 2. Whether there be Real Powers 3. Certain Conclusions touching Powers 4. That all Substances act immediately through themselves 5. That a Peripatetick Power is a Non Ens Physicum 6. That all Powers are really Identificated with their Subject 7. That Powers are distinguisht modally from their Subject 8. How Powers are taken in the Abstract 9. The Manner of the Remission and Intension of Powers 10. The Number of the Formal Acts caused by a Singular Substance 11. The Number of the Formal Acts caused by an Organical Substance 12. The Solutions of several Doubts touching Powers 13. That all Creatures have an absolute power secundum quid of acting 14. In what sense Hippocrates and Galen apprehended powers 1. TO make a safe Inroad into this large Channel of Acceptions of Power without being misled through its Ambiguities it is adviseable to pitch upon a single Mark which we shall do in stating a single Concept of Power common to all these Power as it is opposite to an Act is whereby a being can be that either in its Essence or Accidents which it is not This is the first Imposition and immediate signification of Power from which all the others are deduced and are so called so far as they have a resemblance to this single and immediate Concept of Power A Being is pronounced to be in power in that it can be that which it is not so active power is conceived to be a Power because it can act that which it doth not act c. I said Essence whereby I denote a substantial power by Accidents I intend a power befalling either to Quantity Quality Relation c. For in all these there may a Like power be discovered II. The first Doubt which we must sound into is whether there is really or ab extra and a parte rei such a power as was before-mentioned This is a Scruple which possibly at first sight may seem ridiculous especially to them who take it for a piece of Learning to receive with an undoubted assent whatever is proposed by their Master This supposed piece of Learning to me rather seemeth a piece of Ignorance for never to doubt is never to know knowing is but a discerning truth from falshood and how can this be performed without doubting Doubting exposeth truth and falshood equally to our view Since then it is so let no doubt seem ridiculous for fear we become ridiculous through not doubting But to the matter in hand we must repeat some of our Principles 1. That that is only real which moveth the understanding from without 2. That nothing moveth the understanding from without but what is either an Essence or Mode of an Essence If then a power whether of an Essence or Accident moveth the understanding from without it is to be accounted real if otherwise it is to be thought a non ens reale This premised I conclude 1. A Power is not a Real Being because a power doth not move the understanding from without I confirm the Argument Imagine your self to be alone it is possible that a Ghost may appear unto you in your Solitude This Possibility is the power of the Ghost its Existence or apearance to you Now I demand from you whether the power of a Ghost's Existence moveth your understanding before it doth actually exist You will Answer me Yes for you know that a Ghost can exist before it doth exist To the contrary you cannot imagine or know that a particular Ghost can exist before you have seen its shape figures modes or accidents but after it hath once appeared then you may imagine or know that a Ghost can exist in the same form and shape as it did heretofore and that but dubiously neither Now what followeth hence First That a power doth consecute a real being for before you had seen that particular Ghost you could not imagine or know that it could exist This makes against the received Opinions of Philosophers who say that a Power doth precede all Acts. Here you may reply that although you did not know the power of a being before you did perceive its actual existence through your sense yet this doth not infer but that when you do apprehend a beings actuation you can think that that being which you perceive to be actuated had a power of being actuated or how could it otherwise be actuated So that your knowing or not knowing doth not cut off the real power which doth precede its Act and so you deny my supposition to wit that a being is real through its cognoscibility from without To rectifie your Judgements in this Particular you are to observe that it is not your particular knowing or not knowing of a thing makes it real but it is the cognoscibility from without makes a thing real that is its being in a capacity of moving mans understanding in general That body which is existent without the world is it a real body or not Probably you say it is I ask you then what kind of body it is You tell me it is an imaginary body or that you do not know what body it is If then it is an imaginary body ergo it is no real body Again it is not an imaginary body for you say it is an unknown body How can you then imagine it But supposing you imagine Aristotle to be existent without the last Heaven Aristotle although existing there really is but an Ens Rationis or imaginary being as to you because he is not cognoscible to you from without but only from within 2. He is cognoscible to be like to an actual real being ergo he is no more then an Ens Rationis In the same manner why should an Ens in potentia be accounted to be more real then Aristotle actually and really existing without the world Wherefore a being in power is no more then an Ens Rationis and in no wise real If a being in power were real real beings would be infinite because beings in power are indeterminated and consequently must be infinite Lastly I would willingly know wherein a being in power is distinguisht from a Non Ens or nothing A being in power hath no Essence neither is it definible unless considered as an actual real and cognoscible being A poor man is a rich man in Potentia that is he may be rich but to may be rich doth include a Non Ens to wit Poverty or no Riches Besides all beings act but a being in potentia doth not act Power denoting an actual Vertue and Principle of acting is proper and adhering to all beings A Power in this sense is Synonimous to actual Strength Force or is an actual disposition through which a being doth operate and produce effects It is the same with the first Acception of Zabarel In this
This name doth in a large sense expresse Philosophy and in a strict sense denotes Theology as it is defined here above The wise Apostle James seemeth to impose this very name in that place of his Epistle Wisdome that is from above is c. What is wisdom from above but the wisdom of God II. The Genus of the Definition is a Habit which is a rooted disposition whereby we are inclined to operate with ease It is not the enjoyment of one single happiness which can make a man happy for one act is transitory and is not at all durable but it must be a rooted happiness the possession of which doth make us happy for ever Since we are to live for ever we must either be rooted in happinesse if we intend to be everlastingly happy or else rooted in evil whereby we continue in misery without end III. The happinesse which we reap from this Philosophy is not an ordinary happinesse but it is a happinesse in its highest degree and Perfection or it is a durable contentment accompanied with the greatest joy that is possible to be enjoyed by us in this world On the other side the misery which attends the habit of evil is no lesse tormenting dismall and dolefull than the other is joyfull IV. The Differentia of the Definition is to possesse the greatest good and to live in the greatest happinesse All Practick Sciences do operate for an end and therfore are to be defined by that End To live happily is to live in contentment and joy There seems to be a Medium between living in joy and living in misery which is to live for a Passe-time For there are many who do all things for a Passe-time they play at Cards Dice and Bowls they discourse and all for a Passe-time Some take Tobacco and drink themselves drunk for to passe away the time Certainly these can neither say that they are affected with joy or misery but seem to be in a neutral state Of these doth Sallust justly give his opinion Multi mortales dediti ventri at que somno indocti incultique vitam sicut peregrinantes tranfiere Quibus profecto contranaturam corpus voluptati anima oneri fuit Eorum ego vitam mortemque juxta aestumo quoniam de utraque siletur There are many men who being given to their gut and to sleep continuing unlearned and rude have passed away their dayes like unto Travellers To whom indeed against nature their body was a pleasure and their soul a burden These mens life and death I judge alike for there is no notice taken of either V. Theology is Natural or Supernatural VI. Natural Theology is a natural habit of possessing the greatest good and living in the greatest happinesse that a natural man may attain unto in this world and in the world to come Supernatural Theology is a supernatural habit of possessing the greatest good and living in the greatest happinesse that a man may supernaturally attain unto in this material and in the next spiritual world It is not my drift to treat of supernatural Theology in this volume neither do I pretend more in that than a Christian Disciple and not as a Teacher to which a special Call and an extraordinary spiritual disposition must concur but my chief design and aim is rationally to demonstrate a Natural Theology such which a man through his natural gifts of reason and understanding may reach unto without an extraordinary concurrence of God with him The benefit which is hence expected serveth to convince those desperate and carnal wretches from their affected Atheism yet must be lesse affected with it than to be rooted and confirmed in it In which if otherwise they are Reasoning will not take any effect upon them The first doubt or query which a natural man doth or may propose is Whether it is possible for him to know through his reasoning if his soul be immortal For saith he if my soul is mortal it will prove in vain to make further search after happinesse then is or can be enjoyed in this world The second scruple which a man or rather the Devil doth foolishly move to himself is Whether the soul now being demonstrated to him to be immortal there is a God For whence can he expect any happinesse after death but from God Thirdly Whether it is possible to a Natural man by his own power and Gods ordinary assistance or concurrence to procure the possession of the twofold before-mentioned Summum Bonum But before I apply my self to the solving of these Doubts I must explain what the greatest happinesse is which I intend to perform briefly and clearly in the next Chapter I need not adde many words to the illustrating of the eminence and worth of this Divine Science since the name it self doth speak it The eloquence of Cicero doth thus set forth the dignity of wisdom in his 2. Offic. By the immortal Gods what is there more to be desired than wisdome what is better to a man what is more worthy of a mans knowledge The same may be better applyed to the wisdome of God that is concerning God God saith Austin is wisdome himself through whom all things are made and a true Philosopher is a lover of God in that he is a lover of wisdom If we are ignorant of God we are no Philosophers and through that ignorance we fall into great Errors Lactantius in his third Book doth expresse himself much to the same tenour where speaking of Philosophers he saith It is true they have sought for wisdome but because they did not search after it as they should have done they fell further into such errors that they were ignorant of common wisdom CHAP. II. Of the end of Natural Theology 1. Wherein Moral Philosophy differeth from Natural Theology and wherein it agreeth with it That the Heathen Philosophers were no true Philosophers Aristotle his dying words Epicure his miserable Death after so pleasant a Life 2. A Description of the greatest Happinesse Queries touching the greatest Happinesse 3. Whether the greatest Happinesse is the neerest and principal end of Theology 4. How the greatest Happinesse is otherwise called 1. ONe or other may object against our Definition of Natural Theology that I do confound it with Moral Philosophy I answer Moral Philosophy is taken in a large sense for a habit of living in the greatest happinesse here and hereafter and then it is synonimous to Natural Theology Or in a strict sense for a habit of living in the greatest happinesse only in this world which may be tearmed an Epicurean Moral Philosophy and is such whose object vanisheth with the expiration of the soul out of the body This last is grounded upon a false maxime of its End to wit that the greatest happinesse which â—â—â— be enjoyed in this world is essentially different from 〈…〉 which we may enjoy hereafter It is essentially different because according to their folly there is no happinesse to be expected any where
follow his example 3. That to be taken up in merry discourses is not the greatest happiness 4. That it is not the greatest happiness to be merry twice or thrice a week at a mans country house 5. That honour is not the greatest good 6. That swearing is no happiness 7. The Author's ground why he was compelled to make use of so light a style in this Chapter 8. That all these enumerated instances are highly to be imbraced as good but not as the greatest Good That meat and drink are to be taken with temperance 9. That Riches are not absolutely to be rejected 10. That mutual converse is commendable 11. That a constant society is necessary to man 12. That we ought to give honour to whom honour is due 13. That we ought not to refuse an Oath tendred by the Magistrate THe Error and mistake of the Epicureans cannot but startle any one who is but irradiated with the least glimpse of the Summum Bonum They do foolishly conceit that the greatest good and happinesse consisteth in Pleasures that are taken by these two external senses of tasting and of the tact which pleasures primarily are gluttony and its companion What are these pleasures but momentany the enjoyment of them makes a man more restless than he was before A gluttons stomack is no sooner filled but his pleasures are past and vanished his next wish is that his stomack were empty again for to enjoy new pleasures This vice is endemick to some people whose custom it is to take it for an affront if their guests rise from the Table before they have filled their crop twice or thrice and discharged it as often by vomiting their lading up again which perhaps if it light into their neighbours lap is only taken for an act of necessity and an endeavour to make amends to the master of the feast for the greatest thanks he expects is to hear a man relate the next day that he did not spare to make himself a Beast yesterday through his noble and liberal entertainment A man who intends to follow the mode of these treatments is not to call simply for trincken drink at Table but zuzauffen for a draught rather for a traffe like hogs that is as much as he can well swallow down with an open throat or no lesse than will swell him to that bigness as forceth him to unbutton two or three buttons of his doublet and so drink as long untill all his buttons are dispatcht and by that time they are got to their greatest happiness which is to lie dead drunk one a top the other Wherein are these men different from so many hogs lying one upon the other they grunt in that dead sleep like hogs They be fowl kick and tumble over one another like hogs were there hogs among them they could not distinguish themselves from those hogs And is this then a happinesse to be a hog they are worse than hogs for hogs discern one another but they are blind dumb and deaf These men are more fit to receive the Devil than happiness like unto the herd of swine which the Devil enterd As for the other Summum Bonum of the Epicureans it is so far from an acquiessence and Joy that Aristotle makes a detestation of it Look in his Probl. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 II. No lesse are they mistaken who make their wealth their god oftentimes not regarding how they come to it whether by craft or overreaching of others These misers instead of imbracing a perfect Joy they precipitate themselves into a miserable and Tanteleon covetousnesse being tormented with insatiable pangs after more money thirsting with a fiery drought not to be quencht by the pouring all the West-India mines upon them If many in their tun-bellies were but sensible of the torments and unquietnesse which do accompany their Summum Bonum they would soon desist from grapling after their tuns of gold The experience of the great Moral Philosopher Seneca might well perswade them to imitate his dictates of competency for he although his estate was computed to the value of threescore hundred thousand Pounds as Justus Lipsius recordeth of him yet being sensible of the great weight in keeping of it and tormented with burning desires to increase it did contemn it all being fully perswaded that contentment was of greater worth than all his treasure III. In some Countreys the greatest accomplishment of a Gentleman is counted to be his breeding and good behaviour which in France is called bonne mine wherein the more a man can please his Madame the braver Gentleman he is accounted so that all their education as their dancing their study in pleasing discourses tends only to delight their Ladies and themselves insomuch that in their confabulations with them they imagine themselves to be possest of an unparalel happinesse which their having a countenance marked with smiles and joy their Eyes sparkling with lustre their Bodies being altogether transformed into an air the continual gesticulations of their Bodies and trepidation of their Voices do abundantly testifie The plurality of the world doth unanimously agree herein that it is a great happiness and no lesse contentment to passe away the time in mirth and pleasant discourses wherein a man's mind seemeth to be much satisfied wishing the night to be spent that his wonted mirth might be disclosed again through the presence of the ensuing day The whole troop of Poets seem to be sworn to bend their wits only to extoll the happinesse and joys with which this Bonum is endued and to make it analogal to the Summum Bonum for may they say here are persons taken up with a contemplation surprized by an admiration not only so but they receive thence great satisfaction and joy whence it appeareth that there is some resemblance and more than there is in any other Bonum This is the ground why Poets descant thus upon their gods in feigning to be ravished by one anothers discourses and to be stupified through amorous Joys This they assigne upon them as being the greatest happinesse and therefore worthy of Gods On the other side this Bonum may be numbred among transitory felicities and therefore is not the greatest for a man here is as it were in a dream wherein he phansieth multiplicity of Passages and when he awakes all is vanished The like is observable in this case we talk of sundry subjects successively which serveth only to drive away the time and therein it pleaseth the mind there being nothing more tedious to it than idlenesse This is fickle and alterable satisfying the soul at one time and not at another for a while only and not for always we may admire one person for his discourse to day to morrow we may admire our selves for admiring the same person yesterday The discourse being once ended the happinesse vanisheth and is the same with a dream for in a dream we seem to be as joyfull in discoursing with any pleasant person as we
Papists were induced to state a Purgatory Their error rejected 7. That the proportion of these two Habits is various in every individual subject I. BY what hath been proposed in the fore-going Chapter you may now fully comprehend the nature of Darknesse or habit of evil and how man fell into it You may further remember that man had no habit of Good because nothing resisted his natural powers wherefore it is no absurdity to assert That man acteth now good and evil through acquired or infused habits Moreover let me desire you to take notice how man fell into sinne viz. That it was through the inclination and enticement of his corporeal or sensual appetite and that thereby his reason was not drawn aside violentè or coactivè but inclinativè and dispositivè that through this the body as it were got the upperhand of the soul insomuch that after the soul had submitted her self once to the command of the body she thereby forfeited her superiority that the body after the fall being corrupted and grown lesse serviceable to the soul it had stronger influence upon the soul than ever That the habit of the soul is nothing else but an easinesse of working its acts whether good or evil which is attained through frequent repetitions of the same acts and through it at last makes the organs easie and the objects fitted II. Where as all habits presuppose a difficulty through which the former acts have been hindred that which hindreth the good habit is the forcible drawing and prevalence of the sensual appetite whereby it is set on and inclined to sensual acts which for the most part prove to be evil III. Wherefore this good habit is nothing else but the same principle of good somwhat deaded and diverted by the sensual inclinations of the body for as a flaming fire may be deaded and choakt through black smokes whereby it is hindred from flaming and yet continue a fire and may blaze again were the smokes but discussed in fire we see when it begins to blaze a little by degrees it blazes more and more untill at last it gets to a flame which keeps its life the better and expelleth the smoke more vigorously but if it begins to leave flaming and come to blazing and from blazing return to a deadish light then the smoke overcometh it and deads it again Even so it is with the habits of the soul man's light keeps blazing untill it is deaded and choakt through the dark smokes of his inordinate sensual appetite but if it be ventilated and stirred up by frequent repetitions of good acts it is vivified and lasteth This light if it is once come to an intyre flame it can never be totally darkned possibly it may now and then remit somewhat of its lustre but in case this light doth only blaze a little now and then or it may be flame a while yet if it rise not to burn clear quite through neverthelesse it will perish and is to be counted for a flash IV. It is then the inordinate appetite of the body which smothereth up the light of the soul because through it she is led aside by harkning altogether to its motion and suffering the understanding and will to bend to its pleasures and especially to such which are forbden Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata That which the Law doth most from us require Is most gain-said by our perverse desire Herein is the habit of the soul deaded and overcome by the evil habit of the body The soul may produce good acts although with difficulty because she is opposed by the evil habit of the body But the oftener those acts are repeated the more the soul doth triumph over the body and subdueth it under her command yet not so as to tie up its whole force because the body being once corrupted cannot be redintegrated in this world there remaining a debt to be paid to wit death which was contracted as hath been shewed through guilt of the first transgression You may here enquire Why God through his infinite mercy doth not forgive man this debt of death I answer That God through his justice cannot that requiring plenary satisfaction otherwise God's threatnings and ordinances might be supposed to be in vain V. From all this it appeareth that the darknesse of the soul proceeds from the predominance of the corporeal appetite misleading the soul and consequently that the good habit of man is per se and the evil habit per accidens for the same perfections which the soul of the first man was indued withall are also conferred upon every individual soul because each of these doth immediatly emanate from God and therefore is most perfect Ergo the perfection or good of every soul is inherent in her per se and the evil which doth assault her is per accidens for it is from the body By the way let me tell you in case you doe maintain originall sinne and assert it to be propagated through infection you must agree in this very tenent viz. that it is propagated through the infection of the body which is per accidens to the soul for it cannot be propagated through the infection of the soul for that was created pure and perfect or otherwise you must affirm that the soul is ex traduce which is impious and atheistical VI. The body since it is so corrupted must be purified which cannot be unlesse the soul leaveth it for a while but as for the soul if it deserteth the body with an assurance of and in God's mercy and goodnesse it needeth not to die because it was not essentially corrupted but accidentally and expiring out of the body arrives to God's presence in the same purity and perfection as it was indued with at her first infusion Wherefore the Papists do most heretically mistake in arguing that the soul for to be purified must abide a while in Purgatory Here may be objected If the soul remaineth good per se and the evil be per accidens then the soul of every wretch being dissolved from the body is entirely pure and holy I deny the consequence for as long as God's justice is not satisfied for their sin committed in the flesh both their body and soul must necessarily be damned but as for the soul of a regenerated man the guilt of his sins being taken away and God's justice satisfied in this world the soul when dissolved from the body remaineth essentially and naturally good without any further purification VII The proportion which there is between these two habits is very various and different in most persons for we see that some persons their bodies and appetites are more depraved than others and consequently their good habits more deaded and that some have much more ado to rebuke their sensual inclinations than others CHAP. XIX Of Original Sinne. 1. How it is possible for two contrary Habits to inhere in one subject 2. The absurdities that follow this Assertion viz.
is to expect assistance in case he is weakned by his enemies 13. Whether the soul expiring out of the body is to be an Angel or for ever to abide without office What the office of a separated soul is 14. How long she is to continue in office The consummation and description of the change of the world The resurrection proved by reason The description of the second Paradise concluded by reason 15. To what objects the faculties of men when possest of the second Paradise will extend That they shall remember and know one another That they shall eat and drink that they shall not generate that the same person who redeemed man from his misery shall reign over him in Paradise I. ARt thou not stupified or hast thou not lost thy reason through a confirmed Atheism then what hath been hitherto delivered may take place in thee and gain thee a full insight into thy past present and future state On the one hand you know your misery and pravity by comparing the course of your life with that rule which is imprinted in your heart On the other hand you may fadom your own strength and since that is decayed and weakned you may spie God ready to assist and succour you in this contention and strife against your enemies labouring all to pull him down But how to procure God's aid and succour 't is that which I am about to advise you in In the first place consider whose enemy thou art and ever hast been and what associates thou art adjoyned unto under whose banner it is thou fightest to what end or what victory it is you expect II. As to the first thou art God's enemy and hast been so from the minute thou wast conceived in The associates among whose company and number thou hast ranged and listed thy self are Infidels Atheists Wretches and Devils The Banner under which thou marchest and fightest is Satans or the Prince of Devils The end and victory which thou fightest for were it possible is to throw God out of his Throne Now bethink thy self art thou not a fool that fightest against the mighty one who is able to destroy thee in a moment Art thou not blinded to fight with such associates Were that mote but removed out of thy eye thou wouldst soon be astonisht at their wickednesse and detest their company The Banner is as a vail cast before thy eyes to keep thee ignorant of the Devils aim and craft which tends to lead thee into utter destruction The Design whereunto thou hast subscribed is the greatest piece of rebellion and treachery Now then is it not time for thee to flie and make thy escape Yet a moment and God soundeth his alarm and so ye are all laid in the ground and cast into an everlasting dungeon But whither canst thou flie but God will pursue thee Thou canst not cast thy self immediately upon God for his justice doth judge thy crime high treason and therefore unpardonable so that thou art condemned to execution First satisfie God's justice and then submit But how may you enquire Certainly O man if thou art to satisfie God's justice and to appease his wrath then thou art lost and cast away for ever and yet since man hath sinned man must surely expect God's wrath Now the means for thy escape is to cast thy self upon God's mercy which is infinite and therefore of an equal weight to balance his justice and believe assuredly that God's mercy will move his infinite-wisdome to find out some way or other whereby to satisfie his justice 'T is true we have all sinned in one man to wit the first man but if God doth send one righteous man into the world who through his perfect obedience to the Law doth intirely recover God's favour through his sufferings doth satisfie God's justice through his death acquit us from the guilt and punishment of and for the first or original sinne and he afterwards rise again from the dead as a Conquerour of Death and sinne this one man's satisfaction and obedience is sufficient to blot out all men's guilt and merit God's favour and acceptance for all men because as the sinne of one first man is the original cause of all our sinnes and as his sin is imputed to us so the satisfaction of one second man provided he be of the same stock that we are of is enough to satisfie for the sinne of that one first man and consequently also for the sinnes which we have committed through the participation of that first sinne and his plenar obedience if it be imputed to us as the first sinne was is sufficient to compleat and perfect all our imperfect good actions and to make them theologically good But some may reply That it is repugnant to man's nature if he be of the same stock that we are of to undergo death and rise again or to be born without sinne which is requisite for otherwise how can he be throughly righteous You have great reason to doubt of this for it is a mystery which doth exceed man's capacity and is impossible for a natural man to dive into or ever come to any particular knowledg of it unlesse immediatly revealed by inspiration to some men from whom it should descend to us Neverthelesse this very thing is possible with God and therefore we ought not to doubt of it in the least but according to that divine saying of Solon De Deo non est inquirendum sed credendum We are not to enquire of God but to believe in him and particularly in his mercy and wisdom This is the great mystery ground and summe of our salvation III. But the main Question that may be moved here is Whether this implicit faith may be termed justifying that is Whether man in believing inclusively in God's mercy and goodnesse as including that God is most wise and therefore can order or appoint a means for his restoration and redemption and that he is mercifull and therefore will order and appoint those means of salvation to such who earnestly desire it and believe in him Mark I said also Goodnesse for that is necessary to be believed into because although that through God's mercy we are redeemed and restored to our primitive perfection yet it is through his goodnesse or grace as Divines usually expresse it that we abide with him to all eternity To this may be answered that it is not improbable for since it would be impious to affirm that all children are damned because they have not an actual faith we may safely suppose that God being infinitely mercifull will save them as farre as they have an inclinative faith or a disposition to it an actual faith cannot be required because of their immaturity If then children are saved through their inclinative faith certainly this fore-mentioned actual faith doth counterpoize that of children Besides man in believing according to the state of this Question doth his uttermost and that from a good principle to a good
a Drunkards story I was yesterday saith he at such a Tavern and there I had my fill of the best Canary in Town and yet my head doth not ach a sign of its excellency come let us go and have another taste of it Surely the Devil did not neglect his opportunity in putting his paw into the cask to set off the wine with a relish and when he hath caught a man in drunkennesse how doth he serue blasphemy out of his mouth How doth the Devil then ride him leads him by the nose whither he list it may be directs him to a ditch and so he is drowned or leaves him in a dead sleep in the high-way and there he is robbed or murthered or puts a sword into his hand to kill one or other and so he comes to the gallows and thence home or sends him to a naughty house and there he is infected with the Devils leprosie How doth the Devil perfume womens looks to enchant mens nostrils or what a nitour doth he overshade their faces with to raise mens lusts As for the weaknesse of your appetite it is not hidden when you do every day feel its force and bending to evil objects and lastly how wickedly are mens thoughts for the most part imployed In all these lieth your weaknesse and there doth the Devil most attack you Now then the defensive part of this military Art will lie in making your sallies upon the Devil when you ever spie him moving towards you If your eye is enticed with any thing shut it or look another way go from it and so do in the case of the other senses For a retreat in these assaults is as honourable as a resisting Do not willingly or wittingly runne into these temptations for your strength is but weak at the strongest If neverthelesse thou art ex improviso encountred by any of the fore-mentioned accidents and that thou art forced to withstand a repulse direct your thoughts to the Summum Bonum and so undoubtedly you are in salvo Remember then that thou shunnest contemnest and goest back from all such objects and persist in contemplating the Summum Bonum untill the last for since the first man fell through waving this happinesse but for a moment thou must surely he open to thy enemies and be devoured by them if thou settest it aside Think that all bodily pleasures are torments in comparison to the enjoyments of the soul. X. Fifthly We must return to our first operation of mind which consists mainly as I hinted just now in contemplating God and admiring his Attributes either immediately or mediately through his wonderfull works so that what ever object we behold meditate or discourse of we must behold meditate and discourse of it as created from God and having a mark upon it of his Omnipotence Wisdom and Goodnesse If we consider our selves as first our bodies we cannot but remark its admirable structure and variety of organs one subserving the other which revealeth God's Omnipotence and Goodnesse and cannot but be a great happinesse if we do but reflect that this God who is so Omnipotent so Wise and so Good is our God When one heareth that another who is his friend and hath a kindnesse for him is promoted to great dignity and power how is he rejoyced at it because now he is assured he hath a friend in power but how much the more ought that man to be transported with joy who hath God for his friend whose friendship and power is infinite beyond expression Are we now so much astonisht at the formation of the body what may we then be at the soul by far exceeding the body this consideration will be enough to carry forth a man into an extasie So likewise there is nothing existent in the world but its nature is so admirable that we cannot but admire God in it Here you may take notice of the erroneous and hard opinion the vulgar harbours of those that study Nature and natural bodies meaning only Physicians What do they say of them They study Nature so much that they imagine that all comes by nature What a foolish saying They would speak truer if they said they study nature so little that they imagine that all things rise from themselves and not from Nature So that it is not the study of Nature but the ignorance of it protrudes them to Atheism I have likewise ever observed that such as asserted that blasphemy were rash foolish fellows having neither skill or learning in them This is a more frequent ignorance among Chirurgeons who thinking they know something yet obstinately affect ignorance What shall I say are there not some among them who have not thought it a crime to speak the greatest blasphemy of God and Christ that tongue can expresse Have the same Atheists spared of spitting out their venemous treason against their supream Magistrate and Countrey although afterwards excusing themselves by pretending it was out of policy The pestilence of these fellows breaks out in fiery heats and botches in their butcherly faces But God forbid all should be so many of that Profession being as knowing and religious as of any others XI Sixthly We are to persist herein untill we are arrived to a compleat habit for before we have attained to it every evil act although we have made some progresse sets us very much back yea sometimes renders us in as bad a condition as we were in before in the same manner as when we are a rolling up a great stone towards the top of a mountain if we slip but a little or do not continue in our strength and roll on the stone tumbles down again to the bottom Wherefore think that the least evil act which you commit sets you back and may endanger you of returning to your old condition for as a stone inclineth naturally contrary wayes to the force of the driver so do we naturally incline contrary wayes to the motion of the good that is yet remaining in us Be sure then to persist and persevere in your labour lest you do labour in vain Let what ever you think speak or do have a relation or a reflexion to God and so you shall soon come to the top of the hill where you shall have rest enough XII If you perceive your strength begins to fail which seldome is otherwise then pray to God and constantly implore his aid and assistance for without it all our labour is labour in vain Here you may enquire How one may know that God will be sought by prayer I answer Nature doth shew us as much for when ever misery doth surprize us we do naturally as if stirred through a necessary and forcing principle call upon God and what is Nature but God's intended work 2. It is consentaneous to the nature of misery for that needs relief and succour which is no other way procured than by zealous prayer Possibly you may suggest to your self that it is to be got by praising
God By no means God is not pleased with any praises but of such as are like to him as for others they are an abomination to him Praising denotes a gladnesse or joy which cannot he in any one who is yet detained by his original misery We must therefore desire God to help us in striving and resisting against all bodily pleasures and passions I say strive for we must labour hard or else God will scarce help us And this was not unknown to the worst of Heathens as their common saying doth witnesse Dii laboribus omnia vendunt The gods sell all things for labour When now you begin to feel your misery to be lessened then praise God with all your heart and with all gladnesse for his Mercy and Goodnesse extended towards you and herein you are to abide for ever for as God's Mercy is without end even so must you continue in praises without end Lastly Beg of God to illuminate your understanding that you may understand all things more distinctly thereby to admire God the more And now you do begin somewhat to resemble the first man in all his mental operations and felicities But the body still remaining unclean it is necessary for the soul to leave it for a while that it may be purified through fire with the rest of the Elements and so be made a fit palace to receive the soul in again The soul needs no purification and therefore ascendeth directly to God's bosome So that I do much agree herein that there is a Purgatory for the body but none for the soul. XIII Hereupon enquiry may be made Whether the soul expiring out of the body and carried to God if Good or to the Devil if evil is to be an Angel or to live with God for ever without any office Or Whether she is to be re-united to the body when purified It is probable that the soul deserting the body is to be immediately an Angel and to continue in office untill such time that the compleat number of souls have likewise finisht their course I prove it It is improbable that the soul should desist from serving God and professing its duty because she was created for the same end Secondly Her condition would exceed that of Angels were she exempted from all duty these being also created for God's service for Spirits are called Angels from their Office which is to serve God The word is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denoting a messenger which again from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I send The Office which the separated soul is capable of exercising is of taking care of souls yet in the body in helping and assisting them for as the Devil doth seduce us by depraving our appetites and fancies so to the contrary do Angels enlighten our understandings and suppress our immoderate appetites XIV This office they shall remain in untill the consummation of the world at which time every soul shall be re-united to its body now purified by fire and transformed into a splendid substance All the Elements shall then be sublimed into a pure nature and all other things else shall return to what they were at the time of the first man's innocency Beasts shall receive new natures their wild ones shall become tame and obedient to man as formerly The poisonous herbs shall be changed again into wholsome All flowers shall re-indue their primitive fragrancy Summarily all men that shall escape the terrour of that great day of judicature shall be placed in the same state and Paradice which the first man enjoyed and the same Law shall be imposed upon men as before Man shall abide eternally in Paradise he shall eat and drink but he shall not generate The great instrument and cause of man's redemption shall eternally reign over him Here I have described man's second Paradise there remains only the proof of its particulars 1. That the separated soul shall be re-united to its body is apparent because God created her at first with a natural propensity to the body and that she should be a perfection to it which propensity is yet remaining in her because God doth not recall any thing that he doth or hath done This propensity is a certain sign that God will raise up its body again otherways it would be in vain The body 't is likely will be the same Quoad formam accidentalem figuram according to its precedent form shape and figure because thereby the saved souls may know one another again when they meet in Paradise and rejoyce together alwayes praising God for his mercy and goodnesse XV. The soul being now returned to its body must be contained by a corporeal place This corporeal place must be a Paradise upon earth because God did first bestow it upon man as being agreeable to his integrity and perfection and of the other side as being consentaneous to God's infinite goodnesse through which he conferred a compleat and entire happinesse upon man The same now remaining to wit man's perfection and God's goodnesse it is certain that he will conferre the same happinesse upon man namely Paradise because God in his wisdom finding it to be suitable to man then will ordain the same again now his wisdom being the same If God then is pleased to conferre the same Paradise upon man it is evident that all the Elements shall be purified otherwayes how could it be a fit place for to imbrace so pure a substance The same Law 't is probable shall continue because the same obedience and duty will be required from man as before Beasts Herbs and Flowers the second Paradise shall abound with because God judged it convenient before and therefore his wisdome being unchangeable will judge the same then He shall eat and drink because otherwayes the fruits of Paradise and mans nutritive organs should be in vain He shall not generate because the number of men will be compleated The cause and instrument of our Redemption was an entirely righteous and effentially holy man yet more than a man for it was impossible for man alone to satisfie God's justice since then the chief instrument of our salvation was a man his body being of the same nature with others must require a corporeal place but of this little can be said since man through his reason cannot dive unto it neither is it revealed unlesse obscurely What shall I say more to you O that most splendid second Paradise abounding with innumerable springs of ineffable joys This is the Palace whither the victorious Soul shall be conducted by a number of glorious Angels to the greatest of Kings attended by myriads of Cherubims there in the sight of them all to receive the Laurel and to be installed into an everlasting dignity office and possession Thence she takes her place among those illustrious attendants and sings Hymns to the melodious ear of the chief Musician O hear their sweet noise ring Gloria Gloria Deo in excelsis Te Deum laudamus in
are causes of the constitution of others All things saith he are idle empty and dead without a vital principle Judge his absurdity What are all idle empty and dead things without a life but a materia prima Aristotelica For he himself affirms that there are but two principles Matter and a vital Principle yea those very words idle empty and dead square with these of Arist. Materia prima est nec quid nec quale nec quantum He allots only two causes Matter and her internal efficient to the generation of a being First as I have proved it is impossible for this internal efficient to be reduced in actum unless an extrinsick efficient be it the Sun or some other particular efficient excite it by contributing some of its own virtue to it Secondly Would not all Philosophers deride him for saying an intrinsick efficient since that all have consented to term an efficient extrinsick in contradistinction to intrinsick or internal which is ever a part of the being constituted by it whereas an efficient is named extrinsick because it doth not constitute a part of that being to whose production it was concurring Thirdly Wherein is his Archeus or internal efficient different from a form which he doth so much detest Is not this Archeus an effect also of its preceding cause Doth he not affirm that this internal efficient giveth life to its matter and what is a form but which giveth life or a being distinction and specification to its matter Here again he saith that Matter is a Co-agent and before he stated that she was idle and dead certainly idle and dead things do not use to act or to be agents or co-agents That matter is not a subject he asserts and before and afterwards he granted that she contained the Archeus What is a subject but that which doth contain a thing Here again he addes a Note of distinction to his Archeus which is to be per quod and is not this also an inseparable Attribute of a Form Dist. 23. Here again he delivers a new Foolosophy in stating water to be the sole material Principle although below he adjoynes earth to it the ferment to be the remote efficient and the semen to be the immediate efficient so then now there are three Principles yea four Water Earth and a double Archeus whereas before there were but two Besides here he vaunts out with a threefold matter a materia prima which is a co-agent with the fermentum or first Archeus a materia media a subject of the semen or second Archeus and a materia ultima quickned through life it self So now he is got beyond the number of the Peripateticks three distinct matters and three internal efficients make up just six Principles Surely the old man was climed up into one of his Raptures Well let us go on in making disquisition upon the 24 h. Dist. The Ferment is a created formal being Just now there were no forms and now the ferment or the prime Archeus is metamorphosed into a form Where was his Memory It is not a Substance or Accident saith he but neither in the manner of Light Fire c. How neither a Substance or Accident neither Spirit or Body neither quid quale or quantum Ergo it is nothing but a merum figmentum If it be in the manner of light or fire it is in the manner of a quality or substance Now I think I may let him run on in telling out his Tale. IV. Cartesius a great Proficient in the Mathematicks laboured much to reduce all Philosophical conclusions to demonstrations depending from certain Hypotheses but wherein they excelled the ordinary or Peripatetick ones either in truth certainty or evidence I have hitherto not yet learned If they may be comprehended within the limits of Demonstrations they must be a posteriori concluding only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things or their effects by improper and affinged Causes so that the causes remaining still under a cloud we cannot be satisfied in any such Science 'T is true did those forementioned suppositions appear to us as Phaenomena appearances like unto others in Astronomy there might thence some ground be afforded but they being mera figmenta and entiae rationis must necessarily prove very sandy for to build real truths thereon Neither do his suppositions cohere in all places he admitting many supposita non supponenda yea contradicentia to their number Besides to frame think or imagine that God like unto a Potter turning his Wheel round with a staffe and grinding the Clay thereon into many pieces figures and whirles should grind the materia prima into several pieces whirles figures and shapes is no small absurdity especially when Scripture doth so positively teach us the contrary Would a mans mind be carried forth to such Chimaera's furer and evidenter Principles might be proposed by the means of Numbers But tell me what satisfaction can any one expect from such Conclusions as long as their Premises are not granted but thought figments and falsities For it is not the effects we enquire into but into their real and adequate causes Doth he make any thing more plain or doth he thereby escape all falsities Certainly no for many of those Assertions that are thence deduced do manifestly partake of falsities and Errours as 1. That the nature of a body doth not consist in weight hardness colour or the like but alone in extension 2. He speakes a word or two only of rarefaction and condensation and so away I conceive the rest did surpass his Mathematical demonstrations 3. That a corporeal substance when it is distinguisht from its quantity is confusedly conceived as if it were incorporeal 4. He disproves a vacuum by an idem per idem thus there is no vacuum because the extension of all bodies is equal to their internal and external places The question is the same still viz. Whether all external places are filled up with extensions of internal places of bodies 5. He denies real Atomes 6. That motion taken properly is only to be referred to the contiguous bodies of that which is moved neither is it to be referred but to those contiguous bodies which seem to lie still A fundamental errour 7. That matter is infinite or divisible into infinite parts 8. That the world is of an indefinite quantity 9. That the second matter of Heaven and Earth is one and the same 10. That all matter is really single and obtaineth its diversity of Forms from local motion 11. That in one body innumerable motions are possible 12. That the Moon and the other Planets borrow their Light from the Sun 13. That the Earth is in nothing different from a Planet and consequently that the other Planets are inhabitable 14. That the Moon is illuminated by the Earth 15. He assumes most of the erroneous Opinions of Copernicus 16. That all the parts of the earth are light 17. That Water is convertible into Ayr. Neither are his Definitions
contradict him 2. He did mistake the nature of Essence and Existence as further apppears out of my Metaphysicks 3. It infers an absurd Definition of Creation to wit that it is the mutation of a being a non esse accidentali ad esse accidentale consequently an accident only is produced de novo and not a Substance 4. That the essences of things are eternal a great absurdity I grant they are from all eternity that is from an eternal being 5. Did God contain the essences of things in himself it followes that he also contained their matter in himself a great Blasphemy A mediate Creation is the production of a being a nihilo termini vel formae sed ex aliquo materiae a nihilo formae supple ultima This kind of Creation is expressed by two different words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or making is whereby God created a being ex aliquo materiae sed a nihilo formae ulterioris In this sense did God create the Fishes and Fowl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an artificial formation is whereby God formed man also a nihilo formae ulterioris Mediate Creation differs from Generation through that thereby a form is introduced in an instant hereby successively by a preceding alteration 2. Thereby a being is constituted a nihilo formae ulterioris hereby ab aliquo formae ultimae tanquam a termino a quo That is effected by the immediate causality of God this by a mediate one VIII The Chaos being so equally mixed and balanced abided in one place The place which did contain it was not corporeal because it would have been needless since its own balance did sufficiently preserve it in its own internal place It s magnitude was equal to the present magnitude of the world For although through its expansion and opening the fire and ayt were heaved up yet they were heaved up no further then the weighty Elements descended so that what space was left by the one was taken up by the other but had there been a vacuum left by any of their egressions then indeed it must have possessed a larger place As for the tangible quality which it had it must needs have been soft because it being temperated ad pondus could acquire no other then a temperate one and such is soft Colour it had none ex accidenti because there was no light to discern it nevertheless that doth not hinder but that it had a fundamental colour in it self which must have been red that being the only colour issuing out of a temperamentum ad pondus Tast is also detracted from it ex accidenti but in it self it must have been sweet for the same reason We cannot edscribe any smell to it per se because being close shut or not yet opened none can grant that it could have affected any supposed smell since it could not have emitted any Exhalations from it That it had a finite time Scripture testifieth Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning c. but the beginning is a distinction and Note of finite time Ergo. Reason proves no less That which was finite in all its other modes could not be capable of one single infinite mode But such was the Chaos and such is the world now Ergo. Whose parts are subject to a beginning and ending its whole must also have been subject to the same But our daily experience confirms to us that all things are subjected to a beginning and ending Ergo. It s figure is round we know from the form of the Elements Besides rotundity is a figure of the greatest equallest and perfectest extension but such is most sutable to the greatest equallest and perfectest body Ergo. The Chaos was also finite in its globosity and extent of parts I prove it The compleated world being finite in its globosity and extent of parts doth necessarily infer the finiteness of the Chaos in the same particular because the compleated world was framed out of it Now that the world is terminated in magnitude the circumvolutation of the Aplane and the Planets in a finite time to wit in 24 hours doth certainly demonstrate for were the world infinite in magnitude they must then also require an infinite time to rowl round about it the contrary of which is doubted by none Here that trite Axiom may be objected qualis causa taelis effectus Such as the cause is such also is its Effect But God is an infinite cause ergo his effect namely the world must also be infinite I answer That this Maxim holds only in univocis and naturalibus but not in their opposites 2. It is a Character of Gods infiniteness that he can act finitely and infinitely for could he act only infinitely then might he be supposed to act necessarily which is a note of finiteness and limitation in a cause 3. The action whereby he effected this finite work is infinite as I have observed before wherefore in this he acteth both finitely and infinitely And since I am about answering Objections it will not be amiss to insert some objected by Bodinus in Theatr. Nat. and Cajetan against the pre-existence of the Chaos before the compleated world 1. Eccles. 18. 1. Where God is said to have created all things at once Ergo there was no pre-existent Chaos I answer that Creation here doth imply an immediate creation through which God created the matter of all things at once 2. They resume the words of Austin asserting that to God there is nothing before or after another no past or future time but that all things are like as it were in one moment filling that which hath a most perfect being Wherefore say they Moses did distinguish the Creation into several sections and divisions to accomodate things created in an instant to our capacity I answer That had Moses writ that God had created all things in a moment we could have understood him as plainly as he hath writ otherwise for we know that Scripture containes many harder sayings then this would have been So that it is a great levity in them to retort the genuine sense of sacred words to their oblique brow As for that of Austin it hinders not but that all things past present and future are as in an instant to God and yet to us may be past present and future The Chaos is not only finite in duration and continuated quantity but also in discrete as they term it quantity or number It s quantity is the least and the greatest it is the least in discrete quantity for there was but one Chaos 2. But the greatest in continued quantity The proof of these depends reciprocally from one another The Chaos is but one because it is the greatest were there then more then one Chaos but two three or more or infinite it could not be the greatest but part of the greatest and so the whole must be greater then the part on the other side it is the greatest because
man The great errour committed in trying of Witches by casting them into the water 3. That a greater Condensation or Rarefaction is impossible in the Earth 4. In what sense the Author understands and intends Rarefaction and Condensation throughout his Philosophy 5. The third Respective quality of Fire What Driness is The Definition of Moysture The third respective qualities of Water and Ayr. Aristotles Description of Moysture rejected That water is the primum humidum In what sense Ayr is termed dry in what moyst 1. THe Second Respective quality of Ayr is a continuous expression towards the Circumference as we see in water viz. in bubbles within whose body ayr being contained doth express the water to the Circumference When water is thus expressed to the Circumference we say then it is water attenuated or rarefied and when ayr is contained within the body of water so as it is not strong enough to come forth we say it is ayr incrassated but these are no real transmutations For can any body imagine that ayr is really and essentially incrassated or condensed as they call it or that water is attenuated or essentially changed into a thin substance by ayr I prove that a real incrassation of the ayr is impossible Peripatecicks generally conceive the incrassation of the ayr to happen when that ayr having thinly or naturally filled up a cavity there is as much more impacted in that cavity upon the preceding ayr as the cavity contained before Through this impaction the former ayr must needs give way into it self for to admit that ayr which is last entred wherefore say they there must be a penetration of bodies whereby that former ayr doth introcede into it self The ayr then thus introceding into it self is called ayr incrassated Water is attenuated when a Pint of water is diducted to a Pint and a quarter or more without being insufflated by the ayr or any other admitted body So rarefaction of earth is when the earth possessing the space of a Pistol Bullet is diducted to the extent of space of a Musket Bullet without the admission of any other Element Fire is supposed to be condensed in the same manner as Ayr is incrassated This is the true and evident state of the Controversie touching Rarefaction and Condensation Attenuation Incrassation which never any among the Peripateticks did yet truly state They supposing and taking it for granted that such a Condensation Rarefaction Artenuation and Incrassation is possible and hapneth every moment do proceed in debating whether a penetration of bodies be not necessary in Rarefaction and Condensation As for insufflation that is not to be called in question because we stated Incrassation and Rarefaction to happen without the admittance of any other body Wherefore proving such an Incrassation and Attenuation to be impossible and absurd their further surmising of penetration will seem ridiculous Supposing that a Glass were filled with pure water all the Arts of the world could not distend it without the admission of another body through the force of which its parts might be divided and lifted up Since then that water is said to be attenuated because its parts are lifted up diducted through Ayr and Fire retained with their body this cannot be a natural and proper attenuation of the real parts of water but only a violent diduction of water through the ayr which is under it Here may be objected That water when it is thus lifted up and expanded is stretcht and through that stretching its parts are attenuated and its quantity is increased because after the retching it possesseth a larger place To this I Answer that the encrease of quantity about the Surface is not through a single extent of water without access of other parts of water to it but the encrease is from the access of those parts which did possess the Center and now are beaten away and impelled to the Surface where arriving they must be extended in greater quantity and possess a larger place So that what is encreased in the Surface is decreased from the Center and its adjacent parts A Chord of an Instrument is producted in length because it is diminished in thickness and not from a meer quality without the Access of other parts 2. Were the natural thickness of water transmutable into thinness then one extream contrary would be transmutable into the other for thinness and thickness are as much contrary as coldness and heat or dryness and moysture and who ever knew the same coldness changed into heat or the same heat into coldness That would be as if one said one and the same was both cold and hot at the same time I guess your Reply to wit that through Thinness is not meant an extream Thinness but a less Thickness only I answer That if a thick Element is transmutable into a less thick then certainly through the continuance and intention of the cause of that less thickning it might become least thick that is most thin wherefore your Reply is invalid 3. Were thickness transmutable into thinness then every rarefaction would be a creation secundi modi or a new generation because such a transmutation is a non esse vel a nihilo sui ad esse aliquid for thickness is a positive if I may be suffered to term it so privation and negation of thinness because when we affirm a thing to be thick it is the same as if we said it is not thin 4. Thickness is a property quarti modi of water but a proprium quarti modi is inseparable from its Subject and that to remain in being II. The same Arguments prove the impossibility of incrassating Ayr and such a supposition is so far absurd that it is impossible and contradictory to Nature that one Minimum more of Ayr should enter into a Cavity already filled up with it and the ayr would sooner break the world then admit incrassation although but in one Minimum If the nature of ayr is to be thin then in taking away tenuity you take away the nature of Ayr. And if ayr could be incrassated in one minimum it might be incrassated to the thickness of water Lastly was there any such incrassation there must of necessity a penetration of bodies be allowed but a penetration is impossible ergo Incrassation also I prove that a penetration is impossible Suppose a hundred minima's of ayr were through penetration incrassated to fifty and these fifty to possess but half the place which the hundred did fill up I conclude then that through continuance and intention of the same incrassating cause they could be reduced to one minimum and from one minimum to the essence of a spirit or to nothing for since they through penetration have lost the space of Ninety nine unities of points through the same reason they might the easier lose the last unity and so become spirits and thence nothing if there was a penetration of bodies then the less body into which the
a more convenient position of your hands So water when it is violently detained is intended in its gravity because its expansion which is a more convenient position doth intend its motion and yet the same strength and force of gravity was latent in the water when it was in its natural position Water doth alwaies affect and covet a globous figure now through this globosity the water is rendered disadvantageous to exert its weight because all its parts cannot joyn together in opposing the body which it is to depress but being in a Globe the undermost parts of that Globe do partly sustain the force of the uppermost and centrical parts and the same undermost parts being interposed between the other body and the other parts cause that the others parts cannot come at the body That this is so the trial of this Experiment will soon certifie you weigh some long pieces of Iron or Wood in a payr of Scales and observe the weight of them then divide them into less pieces so as they may lie closer and weigh them again you will find that the last shall be much lighter then the first besides I have tried it many other waies This Reason will also serve to illustrate the manner of intention of weight in earth when it is violently detained Ayr moveth stronger upwards when its parts are more divided and expanded for then every particle of the ayr contributes its motion and so in fire Nevertheless the same force was actually in the ayr and fire below In this sense it is I have made use of Intention of Qualities above in the Precedent Chapter Wherefore it appeares hence that there is no such refraction or intention of qualities as the Peripateticks imagine to themselves V. A mixt body is usually divided into a body perfectly mixed and a body imperfectly mixed and as usually received among the Vulgar but whether this Division be lawful is doubted by few An imperfectly mixed body they describe to be a body whose mixture is constituted only by two or three elements a great errour there being no body in the world excepting the elements themselves but their mistion consisteth of four Ingredients This I have proved before Others think to mend the matter by saying that an imperfect mixed body consists of Ingredients but a little alterated and therefore its form is not different from the element which predominates in it To the contrary the Ingredients in imperfectly mixed bodies are as much alterated as there is vertue in them to alterate one another and who will not assert the form of a Comet to be different from the form of fire or Snow from the form of water c. There is no mixed body but it is perfectly mixed for if it be imperfectly mixed it will not constitute a mixt body 'T is true some mixt bodies contain a fuller proportion of Elements then others and therefore are more durable and may be of a more perfect proportion yet the mixture of a body which lasteth but a moment is as much a mistion as that which lasteth an age and consequently as perfect in reference to mixture CHAP. XVIII Of Temperament 1. That Temperament is the form of Mixtion That Temperament is a real and positive quality 2. The Definition of a Temperament Whether a Temperament is a single or manifold quality VVhether a complexion of qualities may be called one compounded quality 3. VVhether a Temperament be a fifth quality A Contradiction among Physitians touching Temperament Whether the congress of the four qualities effects but one Temperament or more 4. That there is no such thing as a Distemper What a substantial Change is 5. What an Altsration or accidental change is That the Differences of Temperament are as many as there are Minima's of the Elements excepting four 1. THe Form of Mistion is Temperament I prove it That must be the Form of Mistion which doth immediately result out of or with the union of the elements but a temperament doth immediately result out of or with union of the Elements Ergo. 2. Since there is no deperdition or refraction of the absolute forms of the Elements that must needs be the form of Misture which the union of those absolute forms doth immediately constitute but that can be nothing else but a Temperament Ergo. 3. That is the form of Mistion which chiefly causeth all the operations and effects produced by a mixt body but the chief cause of all the operations and effects of a mixt body is the temperament ergo The Minor is asserted by all ingenious Physitians Hence we may safely infer that a temperament is not a relative only but a positive and real quality for were it only a relation its essence would wholly depend from the mind and be little different from an Ens Rationis II. A Temperament is the union of the forms of the Elements By union apprehend the forms of the Elements united into one quality The name of temperament soundeth a temperating or mixing yet not primarily of Matters but principally of Forms for none doubteth of its being a quality or formal power Kyper in his Medic. contract Lib. 1. Cap. 3. alledgeth this doubt whether a temperament be a simple or manifold quality but before I apply my self to the solution of it observe that simple may either have respect to the Matter materia ex qua out of which a temperament is constituted which are the four first qualities or forms of the Elements or to the form of a temperament which is one quality resulting out of the union of its materials Wherefore if simple be taken in the former respect doubtless a temperament is a manifold quality if in the latter it is simple I prove it simple in the latter respect is equipollent to unity but a temperament is but one quality and not manifold although out of many yet united into one ergo a temperament is a simple quality 2. Were a temperament formally a manifold quality its effects would be equivocal and manifold but to the contrary the effects per se of a temperament are univocal and simple the one not differing in specie from the other The said Kyper proposes the very words of my Solution for a doubt in the next Paragraph whether complexion of qualities may be called one compounded quality which he determines very well In Metaphysicks saith he there is not only allowed of an unity of simplicity but also of an unity of composition wherefore it is not repugnant that there should be an unum compositum of qualities since there is an unum compositum of substances III. This puts me in remembrance of another controversie which I have formerly read in Mercat his works Lib. 1. Part 2. de Elem. Class 2. Quaest. 39. whether a temperament be a fifth quality or rather a Concord or Harmony of the four Elements Avicen defines it a fifth quality to which the said Author subscribes but Fr. Vallesius Lib. 1. Cap. 6. contra Med.
of Magnitude or sometimes of the universal Center 4. None but the whole body of the Elements do tend to or strive for the universal Center but particular or mixt bodies for their own particular Center as you may read further in the Chapter of Local Motions II. The earth is and must necessarily be the Center of the world or of all the other Elements within which it is contained like the Yolk of an Egge within the White and the Shell I prove the Proposition If the nature of Earth be to move conically from the Circumference to its own Center through a contiguous gravity and the nature of Air Fire be to be equally diffused from the center through their levity ergo the earth must needs fall to the midst of them all its parts tending circularly and conically to their Center The earth being arrived to the center it resteth quiet and unmoveable the Reason you shall know by and by Return back to the explanation of the manner of the dissolution of the Chaos which cannot but demonstrate the evidence of this Point to you Nevertheless let us consider that old Phansie of Pythagoras Plato Aristarchus Seleucus Niceta and others upon this Matter revived by Copernicus in the preceding Centenary and weigh its probability 1. He imagineth the fixed Stars and their Region to be the extremity of the world and both to be immoveable 2. That the Figure of that Region doth appear to us to be circular but for what we know our Sense may be deceived 3. That the Sun is the Center of the aspectable world being immoveable as to its ex ernal place notwithstanding since through help of the Telescopium is observed by the discerning of the motion of its Spots to change his face about although still remaining in the same external place its own Axis in 27 daies 4. Between these two immoveables the Planets are said to move and among them viz. between Mars and Venus the Earth is imagined as a Planet to move about the Sun and to absolve her Circuit in twelve Moneths 5. That the Moon is seated between the Earth and Venus and is thought to move through its own particular motion about the earth between that space which there is granted to be between her and Venus and between her and Mars Besides the Moon doth also move with the Earth as if she were her Page about the Sun absolving her course much about the same time In like manner are the four Stars first discovered through a Telescopium by Galilaeus said to follow the motion of Jupiter and to move with it about the Sun in twelve years there being besides another motion adscribed to them whereby they move about the Same Jupiter between the space which is between it and Saturn and between it and Mars the innermost whereof absolves its course about it in a day and a quarter the next in three daies and a half the third in three daies and four houres the last in sixteen daies and eight houres besides these they have found out by the help of the said Telescopium Stars which are Concomitants to each Planet 6. That the space between Saturn and the fixed stars is almost immense That the Region of the fixed stars is immoveable he takes for granted without giving any probable proof for it for which notwithstanding may be urged Omne mobile fit super immobili that all moveables do move upon an immoveable which if granted doth not inferre that therefore the Region of the fixed starres must be immoveable since he hath stated one immoveable already namely the Sunne what need is there then of more Further if we do grant two universal immoveables we must also grant two universal contrary motions whereof the one is moved upon one immoveable the other upon the second but the universal diurnal motion of the stars we see is one and the same ergo but one universal immoveable is necessary Lastly He cannot prove it by any sense only that it must be so because it agrees with his supposition and what proof is that to another The holy words in Eccles. do further disprove his position where it is said that God moved the Heavens about within the compass of his Glory His second Position denotes him no great Naturalist The third Position infers the Sun to be the immoveable Center of the world 1. This doth manifestly contradict Scripture which doth oft make mention of the Suns rising and going down And in Isaiah 38. 8. the Sun is said to have returned ten degrees back And in another place Let not the Sun move against Galbaon 2. The Sun is accounted by most and proved by us to be a fiery body or a flame and therefore is uncapable of attaining to rest in a restless Region which if it did its flame would soon diminish through the continual rushing by of the fiery Element tearing its flames into a thousand parts whose effects would certainly prove destructive to the whole Universe but especially to all living Creatures 3. Were the Sun immoveable and enjoying its rest ergo that rest must either be a violent detention or a natural rest not the first because that could not be durable or what can there be thought potent enough to detain that vast and most powerful body of the Sun for that must also be sensibly demonstrated and cleared otherwise you do nothing Neither can it be the latter for were it natural it must not only have a natural principle of rest but also be contained in a vacuum or else in a Region whose parts have likewise attained to a natural rest through the enjoying of their Center It is a property of a Center to be as a point in comparison to the Circumference but nothing can be contracted to a point but Earth and water as I have shewed above whereas according to their own confession the Sun is a vast great body and its Beams spreading and dilating ergo it must be only Earth and Water Now what sign of predominance of Earth and Water is there apparent in the Sun for were it so the Sun would shew black and give no light The Moon is liker if any to be the Center it consisting by far of more earth then the Sun as her minority in body motion and degree of brightness do testifie Lastly Is it not more probable that our sight should hallucinate or be deceived in judging the Sun not to move then in judging it to move all Astronomical Phaenomena's being so consentaneous to this latter Judgment Besides how is it possible for us to judge whether the Sun doth move or rest since that according to this supposition we are carried about with that swiftness By the same reason we may doubt of the motion of all the other Planets The fourth Position concludes a most rapid motion of the earth What principle of motion can the earth consist of Of none certainly but of fire and air which are admitted into her body in
circular motion is evident in that the continuous effluvia of all bodies convert themselves into a like motion Doth not the thick smoak of Coales of Gunpowder of Boyling water in fine of all things in the World turn themselves round in the open air What is it you can cast up into the air but it will incline to a circular motion Do not those little Atoms that are seen by us in the Rayes of the shining Sun the same which some Author is pleased to term light it self probably because the Sun through its reflection and refraction upon them engrosses its light so as to render them to be light glistering bodies to the eye make choice of a turning and winding motion Which if so what reason is there to move us to detract the said motion from the continuous steames of the Heraclian stone Authors I remember as Gilbert Cabeus Kircher and others are accustomed to pronounce the Loadstone to contain a collection of all the properties of the Earth in her and reciprocally the Earth to partake of the qualifications of the Loadstone but without reason Nevertheless I may justly set down that the Loadstone is enricht with all the dignities and vertues of Fire and Air For as Fire and Air attract move circularly are diffused to the periphery even so doth this stone Here we may equally imagine Poles Axis Polar Circles AEquator Meridian Horizon a common and proper motion c. VII I shall begin with its Poles whose Axis in most places interfects the Axis of the fiery Heavens into oblique angles which in some Climates happen to be more or less obtuse or acute except that about the tenth degree beyond the Fortunate Islands and in some few other Meridians its Axis and Poles are coincident with those of the Firmament The stone may be justly compared to a Planet which as it doth in some stations of the Heaven seem to be eccentrical in others concentrical so this may be termed eccentrick or concentrick or rather conpolar and expolar It s greatest expolarity or declination from the Poles of the Firmament is by Mariners deprehended to be extended to seventeen degrees Dr. Gilbert makes them up 23. that is within 30 min. equal to the greatest declination of the Poles of the Zodiack but he omits the proof It s Center is the body of the stone about which the steames move round like the Wings of a Mill do rowl about their Axeltree It s polar circles may be conceived to be those that describe the distance of the Poles of the stone from those of the Firmament and of the Air. The AEquator is the middle circle imagined to divide the Orbe of the steams into two equal parts viz. of North and South It acquires a new Meridian in as many places as its Poles vary in their declination or ascension It s Horizon is the Circle equally dividing its upper Hemisphaere from the lower Next we will propose certain Theoremes of the Compass Needle 1. The Mariners Needle if gently rubbed against the Magnete throughout its length and especially about both the points doth imitate the nature of it particularly of attraction and of inclining towards the North and South 2. If the Needle be touched throughout its whole length it doth tend Northwards and Southwards with more force than if only rubbed at one end or point 3. The Needle being only touched at the South end will only in the Meridional plage incline towards the South and if at the North point it inclineth to the North in the Septentrional parts 4. The Needle being rubbed about the middle doth incline towards the North and South although very weakly and slowly IX These Theorems together with the foregoing ones we shall instantly endeavour to demonstrate You must observe that the motion of the emanating fumes of the Magnete is from East to West and from West to East and consequently its Poles or immoveable points must be North and South as you may more plainly understand by this Scheme where a is mark for the South Pole of the streames and b for the North γ for East and δ for the West That the Magnete moves circularly in the manner aforesaid is evidenced by its circular attraction for small pieces of Steel being placed about it are all obliquely attracted and forced to it and not directly which is an undoubted sign of the stones circular motion 2. These Effluvia issuing forth in great fumes are through a superabundance protruded into small bodies of steames which through an overforcing impulse of the air do as it were reverberate move back again but circularly towards the stone like as we see thick smoaks do in a Chimney still reserving their naturall motion from East to West Wherefore it is through their circular motion that Steel is impelled to them obliquely and through their reverberating impulse it is forced directly to the body of the Loadstone Likewise the extreme part of the Compass Needle being impregnated with the steames of the Magnete which in the foresaid manner affecting a circular motion from East to West make choice of the extreme point of the Needle N for one of its Poles viz. its North Pole which necessarily must remain immoveable and look towards the North supposing its motion to be from East to West But if those steames were rowled from South to North as Cartesius imagined then the Needle would constantly be shaken by a motion tending upwards and downwards which it is not To the contrary we see that the said Needle is very inclinable to move Eastward and Westward if but lightly toucht because of the steams moving from East to West and from VVest to East for the motion of the Needle excited by a conquassation moves circularly in raising it self and moving towards the East and thence depressing it self and returning to the VVest 3. How can it be rationally conceived that these steames should rowl from South to North since they cannot move the Needle that waies it being fastned at the middle 4. Hence you may be resolved why the Needle being only toucht at one extremity doth tend Northwards with a greater force because its rowling requiring a freedom of circulating Eastward and Westward fixes the point Northerly as being one of its Poles Besides this motion obversing about its extremity urgeth a greater force upon the whole Needle because there it and all other bodies viz. at the extremity are the weakest and least potent to resist Likewise the same Needle being affricted at its Southerly part in Southern Regions Verges to the South because of the Southern Pole of the air as that of the North point to the North in Northerly Countries because of its imitating the North Pole of the air But if touched about the middle its Vergency is the same although with less force because the weight of the Needle doth most resist the impulse of the Magnetical effluvia at its centrical parts Next for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit
we are to apply it as it relates to the other Elements and is the proper cause of her Commerce with them Water although appearing fluid yet naturally that is absolutely conceived by it self is void of all fluor but partakes of the greatest weight hardness crassitude smoothness and consistency that is imaginable I prove it Water the more it is remote from the intense heat of the Sun the more heavy thick hard smooth and consistent it is Have you not Mountains of Ice of great weight thickness c. in Greenland in the Summer much more in the Winter yet more directly under the Poles and most of all if apprehended absolute by it self and deprived from extrinsick air and fire when we cannot but judge it to be of the greatest weight thickness and consistency that is apprehensible The Scripture seems to attest the same Job 38. And the waters are hid as with a stone and the face of the deep is frozen By the deep here is meant the Chaos ergo the waters were naturally at their first creation thick and hard Lastly As there are two fluid Elements viz. fire and air So it is also necessary that they should be balanced and met with two opposite consistent ones namely Earth and Water The first being contiguous and hard responds to fire the other being continuous and hard responds to air being continuous and soft Whence we may safely conclude that it is the advent of the fire together with the air that renders the water thus thin and fluid as we see it is II. How Water first gained such a body together as the Sea is our exposition of the worlds creation will advise you The Sea is the greatest collection of water by the Latinists it is called Mare from Meare to go or to flow and not from amarum or the word Marath among the Caldeans signifying bitter as some have thought so it is likewise called Oceanus the Ocean from Ocior amnis a swift current It procures various distinctions from its beating against several shores from those of the East and West India it is surnamed the East and West Indian Ocean of the Mount Atlas the Atlantick Ocean from those of Sarmatia the Sarmatick Ocean near Madagascar the rough Sea from the quicksands that are frequently thereabout of Spain and Brittain the Spanish and Brittish Ocean c. And from the Plage whence it doth flow it is called the East West South or North Ocean The same spreads it self into many particular Seas or great Bayes whereof these are the more principal 1. The Mediterranean Sea so named because it flows through the middle of two great parts of the Earth viz. between a great part of Europe Africa and Asia Or more particularly between Spain France Italy Dalmatia Greece and Natolia of the one side and AEgypt and Barbary of the other Where it toucheth the Spanish coast it is called the Iberick sea and more forward the French Balearick Ligustick near Genoa Tyrrhenian or Tuscan about Sicily Sardinian Sicilian Adriatick Cretick Libyan Phoenicean Cyprian Syriack sea c. its mouth is called the Straits 2. Pontus Euxinus the Euxian sea otherwise named the black sea or Mare Majus whose mouth is called the Hellespont from its narrowness its throat Propontis and the Thracian Bosphor so called from bos an Oxe as if an Oxe were too big to pass through that narrowness 3. The Arabian and Persian sea 4. The Gangetican sea so named from the river Ganges which is disburdened into it 5. The Red sea deriving that name not from the colour of the Sea but of the red sand over which it floweth The Baltick Sea alias the Sinus Coddanus or Suevick Sea from the Suevi a Nation that formerly inhabited those coasts at the mouth it is called the Sound flowing 150 leagues far between Denmark Finland Sueden Prussia Liefland Pomerania and Saxony The pacifick sea is so called from the gentleness of the waves or the South sea because it lyeth to the Southward of the Line limited by the coasts of Asia America and terra Australis or the Country of Megallan III. A Lake is a great and perennal collection of water cirrounded by the Earth whereby it is cut off from the Sea It is distinguisht from a Pool in that the one is perennal the other is apt to be dryed up sometime by the heat of the Sun and driness of the earth and to be filled up again with rain Some of these being famous for their extent others for their admirable qualities I shall willingly insert 1. The greatest Lake in the Universe is the Caspian sea in Asia otherwise called the great sea the Albanian Hircanian Pontick Tartarian Sea the Sea of Sala Bachu Abachu Terbestan or Giorgian It diffuseth it self into three Bayes or Gulph viz. near the Mouth into the Hircanian on the right side into the Caspian and on the left side into the Scytick Gulph It bears the name of a Sea very improperly since it is incompassed by the Earth Nevertheless it is saltish and full of fish 2. The Lake Asphaltites in Judaea otherwise called the dead Sea from its immobility because as Corn. Tacit. relates that scarce any wind be it never so violent is strong enough to lift it up into Waves is noted for sustaining weighty bodies especially if anointed with Alume water that are cast into it in a manner that a man his hands and legs being tyed and cast into it shall swim it breeds no fish nor any other living creatures The Lake of the lesser Armenia and the Lake Aposcidamus in Africa and of Sicily are almost of the same strength On the contrary the Lake Avernum in Campania and that of AEthiopia are unable to sustain the weight of a leaf fallen into them from a tree and according to Pliny there is no fowl that flies over them but falleth dead into them There is a Lake near Lerna and another in Portugal which are so attractive and depressing that they do immediately draw and press down to the bottom whatever is cast into them in such a manner that a man having thrust his hand into either must use force to draw it out again Pomponius Mela and Solinus make mention of a Lake in AEthiopia which to the eye appearing crystalline and sweet to the pallat doth so besmear those that bath in it as if they had been duckt into a bath of oyl In the west of the Isle of Iseland travellers have discovered a great Lake fumous very cold in a short space changing whatever is cast into it into a stonish or rockish body a stick being thrust right up into the bottom that part which is under water is in two daies changed into an Iron substance the other above remaining what it was Hect. Boeth writes of another in Ireland which after some months renders that part of a stick that is thrust into the ground Iron the other part that is under water fliuty the upper part
water upon the Surface moveth but very slowly towards the side near the hole because the water moving so swiftly underneath doth cause that atop to sink upon it which prevents its swift motion towards the side and that which causeth the water underneath to spout so violently out of the hole is the weight of the water atop pressing violently and forcibly downwards This occasions me to call to memory that apposite Phrase of the Dutch sea-men who instead of saying the water ebbs say Het water sackt that is the water sinks as if they would signifie the water to move from underneath The Ocean then originally and primarily moving from underneath in a very swift current as the forementioned instance may easily confirm to us hath not that extent to overrun there which we might conceive it would have atop but is above the half shortened in its periphery through its depth and consequently through the deep excavation or extenuation of the Earth Wherefore observe 1. That the Ocean underneath doth well absolve so many degrees as we have writ down before but then they are much abbreviated and lessened in comparison to those degrees whereby the superficial circumference of the water is measured 2. I say that the Ocean absolves the foresaid course of 348 in 12 equal hours only in its lower parts But as touching its superficial ones it is certain they are slow absolving the same compass in no shorter time than six months which may be named a Marinal year This slow progress is evidenced to us by the slow drift of a piece of wood floating in the Ocean 3. Although the superficial parts of the Ocean do not slow with so rapid a course yet it hinders not but that they may tumefie as they do throughout their whole circuit about the Earth in the space of 12 hours 4. Since it must necessarily follow that where the water tumefieth in one place it must sink in another therefore the water tumefying once every 12 hours in the East 6 houres long in which space it arriveth to its height it must sink as much in the VVest because that moisture which causeth the intumescence in the East doth slow underneath from the VVest By the same rule the Eastern Ocean must also sink 6 hours in every 12 for to cause a tumefaction in the VVest VVhence it is that every 6 hours we perceive a change of the Tide in the Ocean 5. VVe are not to perswade our selves that the Eastern floud is occasioned by water returning from the VVest and the western floud through the refluxe of the same water from the East because the Ocean doth continually pass from east to west by way of the South not returning the same way through the South from west to east as appeareth by the quick Voyages of those who setting sail with a good wind and weather from Spain towards the West-Indies do usually make land in three or four weeks whereas returning from thence can scarce recover Spain although having the wind very favourable in less than three or four months Likewise a voyage from Moabar in the Indies to Madagascar otherwise called St. Laurences Island may be accomplisht in 20 daies but from Madagascar to Moabar scarce in less time although with a very prosperous wind than three months In the same manner one may much sooner make a voyage from this Island to Spaine lying hence more eastward than from Spain back again hither or in sailing from Alicant a City of Spaine situated upon the Mediterranean Coast towards Palestina they usually make less speed than in returning All which are undoubted marks of the perennal course of the Ocean from East to west VVherefore Philosophers have been misled in imposing the names of Fluxus and Refluxus upon the course of the Ocean as if returning the same way it went I have taken notice that as the Dutch used a fit word for to denote the Ebb so the French have imposed another no less elegant upon the floud viz. La Montè de la Marè or the rising of the Sea exactly squaring with our foregoing discourse Thus when it is floud they usually say Lamarè il monte that is the Sea rises The Latinists call it AEstus Maris or heat of the Sea because when the Sea begins to be filled with hot exhalations it is wonted to be hot through which it swelleth like hot bloud flushing into our faces and glowing causeth a puffing up and a rising whence it is impelled to flow some part of it one way and another another way which caused the floud observed through the rising of the waters upon the shores These exhalations being dissipated the Sea beginning to cool withdraws it self again into its former compass and leaving the shores puts them in mind of the Ebb. But this dictate being proved to be absurd doth justly advise us to reject the forementioned name 6. VVe need not to doubt being fully informed of this Doctrine but that every floud brings in new water that of the last Ebb flowing forwards with the course of the Sea towards the accomplishment of its annual period 7. Let none be offended at us for granting an internall cause of the Seas motion against Scalig. Exer. 52. asserting the Sea to be an Animal in case it should be moved from an internal cause were this a Paradox we must then believe that the Air Fire Heavens and Stars are Animals they all moving through an intrinsick principle IV. My method doth now lead me to demonstrate the several Phoenomena's of the Ocean by their proper causes 1. The Ocean flowing from East to West cannot be thought to be the sole cause of the diurnal intumescence and detumescence of the Sea since it may be supposed to slow equally over an equal ground Wherefore a second cause must concur to wit an unequal ground or an unequal grove through which it passeth The waters being through the second division of the Creation separated from the Earth which then lay in an equal round figure under the waters these consequently equally covering it in the same figure were afterwards through the third division collected into one place where they must have pressed their great weighty body into two great universal groves whereupon the Earth must necessarily be pressed up into two great universal eminences which are divided from one another through the said waters and consequently constitute two great Islands viz. of the New world or America and the Old world or Asia Africa and Europa The Sea after this working through its great weight deeper and deeper into the Earth must necessarily thereby have formed many other deep and great cavities within the sald universal groves The Earth through whose recess or giving way the said other Cavities were impressed must needs have been compressed to some other part not towards the center because the Earth was so very densely beset there that it was impossible it should give way Ergo towards the Surface where it was