owne bodies doe though wee were never so close shut up in a roome When the aire is inclined to raine bodies grow heavie and in a close room we see the water in weather-glasses ascend and descend as the aire changeth abroad although the water in the glasse hath no commerce with the aire abroad and so wee feele aches upon change of weather in our bodies and heavinesse of our heads after sun-set by reason of the heavinesse or gloomy heat of the aire caused not by your atomes but by vapors mists or fumes in the aire which we are continually sucking in by the lungs by which the two principall parts of our bodies are affected to wit the head and the heart and by them the rest of the bodie And as for spirits or atomes of snow and Pag. 87. salt-peter which you say passe thorow a glasse-vessell I know no such thing 'T is true that the outside of a glasse or pot being made wet will freeze to the boord though neere the fire if you put snow and salt-peter in the pot because the cold snow by antiperistasis becometh much colder in having the hot salt joyned with it and so shunning its enemy the salt fortifies it selfe which causeth the wet bottome to freeze So in great frosts the fire is most hot and scalding wells and deep cellars in summer are most cold without any penetration of atomes at all which were heretofore bodies and parts of light now by you are called spirits And as there is no concourse of atomes to presse downe the falling bullet in the aire neither is there of water to presse down the stone Pag. 88. falling in it as you say because both the aire and the water meet onely to fill up the place which the bullet and stone had that there may be no vacuity for lighter bodies presse not downward the heavier but support the lighter But it troubles mee to waste so much time and paper in refelling your Paradoxes of atomes which are as void of soliditie as the atomes themselves Hence wee see how easie it is to deviate from the truth and to lose our selves in the winding labyrinths and intricate Meanders of errour when we fall off from these knowne and generally received principles which have had the approbation of wise men for so many generations Is it not a shorter way and more consonant to reason to say that cork sinks not and iron doth because the one is porous and full of aire the other dense and more earthy because the one and the other are moved diversly according to their divers formes and the properties from them to wit gravity and levity then to devise phantomes of atomes which involve within them so many absurdities The elements doe weigh in their owne spheres for a ballone Sect. 29. Pag. 95 c. 11. stuffed hard with aire is heavier then an empty one Secondly more water would not be heavier then lesse Thirdly if a hole were digged in the bottome of the sea the water would not run into it I answer a stuffed ballone is heavier because the aire which is in it is separated from its own sphere in which it doth not weigh according to our principles Secondly more water is not in its owne sphere actually heavier then lesse for a man in the bottome of the sea feels no more weight then if hee were but halfe a yard from the superficies but potentially it is gravida est sed non gravitat Thirdly the sea would run downe and fill up the hole because it moves naturally as it is heavie towards the centre which weight appeares not actually in its sphere till it remove towards the centre Nature in her actions is not to be seen in all places and at all times There is life in seeds and fruit in trees though not alwaies actually seen So there is gravitie in water though not alwaies felt as you seeme afterward to confesse when you say that water in a Pag. 97. cap. 11. pale because it is thereby hindred from spreading abroad hath the effect of gravity predominating in it So one part of water in its own sphere doth not divide the other Shall we then say there is no power in water to divide water Yes there is for water powred out of an 〈◊〉 into a bason wherein is water will divide the water in the bason Your reason to prove that there is no inclination in Sect. 30. Pag. 98. cap. 11. heavie bodies to tend to the centre because the centre is as often changed as any dust lighteth unequally upon any one side of it is a weak one for let the centre change never so often every houre if you will yet a centre there must be still and to that centre in what place of the earth soever it be the heavie bodie hath its inclination And no lesse weaknesse is it to confound vis impressa or a violent motion with the naturall motion of gravitie as you do for gravitie is neither the mediate nor immediate cause of a violent but of a naturall motion Neither Pag. 99. is it impossible for any cause as you say to produce an effect greater then it selfe for the flame may produce a greater heat in iron then is in it selfe May not a little man beget a tall man Oftentimes the effect exceedeth the cause both in quantity and vertue A blind man begets a son with eyes the heat of an Egyptian oven hatcheth chickens and the Suns heat begets many sensitive creatures of putrefied matter Neither must you inferre That Pag. 99. gravity is no naturall quality of earthy bodies because a bullet can ascend out of the bottome of the barrell of a gun being suck't up by ones breath for this infers the bullet to be naturally heavie in that it doth not naturally ascend but is forced by the violent motion of traction which traction were needlesse if the bullet were not naturally heavie Neither doth this motion shew That gravity is an intellective entity as you say for though the naturall properties of things have not understanding yet they have that appetite given to them by the God of nature to preserve their owne unitie and the unitie of the universe and to shun their owne destruction and this is no determining of the qualitie by it selfe which is the act of an intelligent creature to wit to determine it selfe but it is a power given by the God of nature to every thing to preserve it selfe and to shun its owne hurt So the stomack which hath no understanding receives and concocts wholsome food the meseraick veines suck the purest part thereof prepare and fit it for the second concoction and send away the excrementitious and superfluous parts to the guts and the same stomack vomits out that which is hurtfull to it and all this is nature not understanding What understanding will you give to a load-stone when it drawes iron or to those senslesse creatures which by their sympathies and antipathies
must be done by natural heat and a vegetative soule and what is this but to make salt a plant As for the weight of it which you say encreaseth I doubt of it but if it were so as you say yet that weight is not encreased by turning the aire into its substance but rather by the losse and evaporation of the aire by its long lying So paper-books grow much heavier by beating the aire out of the paper But whereas you say That the nature of the Load-stone proceeds from the Suns operation Pag. 200. c. 22. on the torrid Zone which operation is contrary to the Load-stone as being of a fiery nature and therefore the torrid lands are not so magneticall as the polar is a riddle for how can the nature of the Load-stone be contrary to that which begets it and how can the Sun beget magnetick vertue by that heat which by reason of its fiery nature hinders or destroyes it Sect. 43. Pag 215. c. 23. You say 'T is as impossible for diversity of worke in the seed to proceed at one time and in the same occasions from one agent as it is for multiplicity to proceed immediatly from unity I will not now tell with what arguments Physicians prove that the seed is the epitome of the whole body and extracted from every part thereof and containeth potentially all the parts of the body which the plastick or formative power of the seed educeth unto act by degrees but this I must tell you that naturall agents can at the same time produce diversity of works for doth not the Sun at the same time produce multitudes of divers effects according to the multitudes of bodies it works upon doth not the fire at the same time rarifie condense soften harden doth not the same liver at the same time by its heat produce blood choler melancholy and phlegme even so may the same formative power of the seed at the same time fabricate and distinguish all the parts of the body The marrow being very hot drieth the bones and yet with Sect. 44. Pag. 226. c. 24. its moisture humecteth How the same naturall agent can at the same time on the same object worke contrary effects I know not Can the fire at the same time both harden and soften the wax 2. The braine comparatively is colder then any other of the soft parts of the body and consequently the marrow which groweth from thence 3. If heat be the cause of the bones drinesse then the heart which is the hottest part of the body should have the hardest bone about it 4. What the bones are in sensitive creatures that the stones are in vegetables but the hottest fruits have not the hardest stones for the stone of a cold Peach is harder then the kernels or stones of the hot Grapes 5. If marrow were the cause of drinesse or hardnesse it would follow that where there is most marrow there should be the hardest and driest bones but Philosophers tell us that those creatures whose bones are most solid and drie have least marrow 6. That drinesse then and hardnesse of the bones proceeds not from the heat of the marrow which is held to be lesse hot then the braine but from the innate heat of the bones themselves wasting the aeriall and oylie substance thereof which heat is not fiery but temperate as the naturall heat should be yet it causeth this hardnesse and drinesse because the matter on which it works is grosse and terrestriall and because of the heats continuall working on the bones You will not have us too irreverently ingage the Almighties Sect. 45. Pag. 227. c. 25. immediate handy-worke in every particular effect of nature We offer no irreverence to the Almighty if we call him the Creator even of the meanest creatures being no lesse admirable in Creatione vermiculorum quà m Angelorum in the creation of wormes then of Angels saies S. Austine and therefore Basil thinks it no irreverence Homil. 7. in Gen. to say That God in the beginning did not only create Fishes in the sea but Frogs also in the pooles nay Gnats and vermine Whose immediate handy-work were the Lice that were procreated of the Egyptian dust at the stretching out of Aarons and Moses his Rod Did not the Sorcerers acknowledge that the finger of God was there If it be no disparagement to the Almighty that the excrementitious haires of our head are the objects of his providence neither can it be any dishonour to him if we say the meanest creatures are the effects of his omnipotence The worke of generation you say is not effected by the Sect. 46. Pag. 231. c. 25. formative power except we meane by it the chaine of all the causes that concurre to produce this effect When wee speak of the proximate or immediate cause of things we exclude not the remote causes for Causa causae est causa causati He that saies that Isaac was begot of Abrahams seed denies not that Abrahams seed is begot of his blood and he that saies a man is a reasonable creature saies also that he is a sensitive vegetative corporeall substance but what ever the remote causes be the formative facultie in the spirits of the seed effects the work of generation which spirits are derived from all parts of the body otherwise how could they frame all the distinct parts and members in the seed but the grosse or materiall part of the seed is onely from the vessels You hold the heart to be first generated This is probable Sect. 47. Pag. 225. c. 24. but it may be doubted because whatsoever liveth must be nourished but nourishment is from the blood and blood from the liver therefore Galens opinion was that the liver is first generated which he also proveth by the umbelicall veine But indeed Hippocrates his opinion is most likely to be true that all the parts are formed at the same time by the spirits in the seed However it be this is certaine that fearfully and wonderfully are we made The touch converseth with none but with the most materiall Sect. 48. Pag. 244. c. 27. and massie bodies What think you of the aire the winde the flame are these masfie bodies and yet they are the objects of our touch the instrument of which is not only in the hands and fingers but diffused also through all the skin and if the flame touch your skin you shall as soone feele it though it be no massie body as you shall a stone But whereas you call heat and cold wet and drinesse affections of quantity you confound entities and the predicaments as you use to doe If by affections you meane properties then heat and cold are not the properties of quantities but of elementary bodies which are substances If by affections you meane effects much lesse can these be the affections of quantity for quantity is not operative Neither are rarity and density out of the degrees of which you will
and goe with the bodie Is not the understanding of a separated soule as capable to lodge and entertaine such guests as before Or are these little bodies made of dust that to dust they must returne Seventhly have all separated soules the same amplitude of knowledge then the soule of Iudas in hell hath as much knowledge as Abraham's soule in heaven but I see no reason for it Eighthly if life be a motion it is an imperfect thing consisting not in esse but in fieri and so the life of man both here and hereafter cannot be perfect no not in heaven And in a separated soule tell mee which is the mover the motion and the mobile Ninthly tell us what this Shee is that becomes an absolute spirit Is it the soule or is it life If the soule then she was before she was a spirit If life then motion may become a spirit I see it is not without cause you complaine of engulfing your selfe into the sea of contradiction Help your selfe out againe if you can But you plunge your selfe over head and eares when Sect. 17. Pag. 430. c. 10. you tell us That separated soules doe enjoy their knowledge without the help of externall objects phantasmes instruments or any other helps having all things requisite in themselves This is to deifie soules and to elevate them above the pitch of created entities For the Angels themselves have not such an eminent knowledge in that they stand in need of helps both externall to wit that supreme light and cleere looking-glasse of the Trinity in which they see all things as also of the innate species or idea both of universalities and of singularities without which they can have no knowledge therefore à fortiori if Angels stand in need of such helps much more must departed soules Secondly memorie remaines in departed soules but memory or recordation is by help of the species laid up in the mind to the understanding of which when the mind applies it selfe this is called recordation Thirdly though the intelligible species depend from the senses and phantasie in their fieri or being yet they have no dependence from them in their conservation For the sensible species in sleepe serve the phantasie though the common sense and all the outward are bound up and as it were dead Fourthly in Angels and departed soules there are divers habits both of love and knowledge and vertue yea of tongues also in respect of entitie though there be no use nor exercise but after a spirituall way of speaking now habits are the causes of action and in vaine should they be left in the soule if she by them did not worke and actually understand neither can the effect to wit actuall understanding subsist without its cause which is the habit for this is such an effect as depends in its conservation from the cause Fiftly understanding and the manner of understanding accompany the nature of the soule but the nature of the soule is the same here and hereafter therefore the manner of understanding must be the same to wit by the species Sixtly Whereas the soules departed do specifically differ from the Angels they must have a different manner of understanding to wit by discourse but this way needs help not of the phantasme or senses being all commerce with the body is taken away but of the species Hence then it is apparent that departed soules stand in need of helps and of objects of their understanding and that they have not all things requisite in themselves which objects are externall in respect of their essence though the species be inherent or adherent to the soules much more externall are these objects which they see in God although God himselfe is not intelligible by any species by reason of his immensity neither doth the soule understand it selfe by any species nor doth she know except by revelation what is done or doing here on earth which she must needs know if she had all things requisite for knowledge in her selfe but indeed Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel knows us not Nesciunt mortui quid hic agatur De cura pro mortuis nisi dum hic agitur saith S. Austin Our looking upon the phantasmes in our braine is not our Sect. 18. Pag. 430. c. 10. soules action upon them but it is our letting them beat at our common sense that is our letting them work upon our soule The phantasie being a corporeall sense cannot work upon the soul which is a spirit it is not then the phantasie that works upon the soule but the agent intellect refines purifies and makes more spirituall those phantasmes or species which are represented by the phantasie and so impresseth them in the passive intellect and this is called understanding The agent intellect is the force or quality of the soule mediating betweene the phantasie and passive intellect framing the intelligible species which the passive intellect receiveth and so by the one power the soule acteth and by the other suffereth but not at all by the phantasie whose hand cannot reach so high as to knock at the gates of the soule It must then be a spirituall power that must worke upon a spirit the passive intellect is rasa tabula like cleane paper having no innate species or images of objects in it selfe but what it receiveth from the active intellect so that the phantasie helps the understanding onely dispositivè not efficienter being rather the materiall then efficient cause of understanding furnishing those species which the active intellect refineth and impresseth in the passive If you should ask whether our understanding is an action or a passion I answer that it consists in both for not only doth it receive the intelligible species but also operats upon them And this is that action of the soule which you deny and what do you talke of letting our phantasmes beat at our common sense The phantasmes will beat whether you will or no. If you will not beleeve me beleeve your owne dreames in sleep I suppose your phantasmes then beat when you could be content they would spare their labour and be quieter But so long as the spirits do make their intercourse betweene the phantasie and the common sense there will be an agitation and beating of the phantasmes But it seemes you take the soule and common sense for the same thing when you say that to let the phantasmes beat upon the common sense is to let them work upon the soule They may beat upon the one and not work upon the other for the soul suffers not but by it selfe and her suffering is perfective not destructive as that of the matter is But she doth not worke upon or deduce her selfe out of possibility into act considered as the same thing but in respect of her divers faculties whereof the one is the efficient the other the patient and resembles the matter and if it were not so we should never actually understand for what should excite the
passive intellect to receive the species being purified and cleered from materiality and those accidents which neither conduce to the essence nor to the intellection if there were not an active power altogether impatible immateriall immortall using neither corporeall organs nor being mixed with corporeall senses which we call the active intellect and which irradiats illuminats intelligible things making them actually intelligible which before were potentially only as the light makes these colours actually aspectable which in the dark were invisible Sect. 19. Pag. 432. c. 10. In the state of a soule exempted from the body there is neither action nor passion which being so the soule cannot die for all corruption comes from the action of another thing This is but a weake argument to prove the soules immortality for actions and passions do neither hinder nor further it In departed soules there remaine loco-motive actions for they move from the body to their ubi where they remaine till the resurrection and then they shall move again to their bodies so the actions of understanding and will remaine in them Shall any then conclude that the soules are mortall because they are the subjects of action and of passion but their passion as I said is perfective The same actions are in Angels both in moving and removing Were the Angels that carried Lazarus his soule into Abrahams bosome mortall or that Angell that carried Habakkuk because of this action Are there not also in Angels the actions of intellect and will Nay action and passion do rather prove immortality and the cessation of these corruption For whilst the body is the soules patient it lives but when it ceaseth from suffering and the soule from acting in it and by it followes immediatly its corruption What think you of the first matter which is the first subject of passion and yet it is eternall à parte post And if you take away all action and passion from departed soules you must abridge them of the joyes they have in the fruition of Gods presence and of their duty in praising him so you rob God of his honour and them of their happinesse Againe we have shewed that habits remaine in departed soules but to what end if there be no action for Habitus est propter actionem and indeed actions are more excellent then habits Againe if there be neither action nor passion in the departed soules they are in the state of death rather then life for life consisteth in action though it selfe be no action and the soule is an act therefore cannot be without action but death is a cessation and rest from all action If you had said that some actions cease in the soule after her departure as generation nutrition and such as are the actions of the whole compound you had said somewhat but to exempt her from all action is to make her a dead body not a living soule and though corruption as you say is the effect of action or indeed rather of passion yet it will not follow that all action is the cause of corruption for there are actions of creation generation conservation c. Lastly you contradict your selfe for here you deny actions in separated souls but in the next Chapter cap. 11. p. 439. you say that the body hinders the soules operations and that her actions will be far greater and more efficacious when she shall be free from the burthen of her body To put forgetfulnesse in a pure spirit so palpable an effect Sect. 20. Pag. 433. c. 11. of corporiety and so great a corruption is an unsufferable errour I do not think oblivion to be an effect of corporietie for as the soul is the subject of memory which is one of her faculties of recordation which is the work of the intellect viewing over the species of reminiscence which is a disquisition or unfolding of the same species if they be clouded or confused so likewise is the same soule the subject of oblivion as the same eye is of sight and blindnesse the same aire of light and darknesse there being the same subject of habit and privation Now there are habits in the soule departed as I have said some actually there as the habit of knowledge some potentially as in their roote and originall such are the sensitive habits where the habit is actually there is the privation potentially but where the habit is potentially there the privation is actually as the habits of seeing hearing c. in the separated soule make it cleere And what we have said of the habits we may say of memory which is a power and faculty in the soule by which she retaines the species why then may there not be in her a deletion losse or abolition of such species the memory whereof will make her rather miserable then happy therefore the blessed soules in heaven remember not the vanities nor infirmities of their former life if they did they could not be truly happy and joyfull and so the oblivion of such things is not in them a corruption as you say but a perfection rather Therefore Albertus Magnus before his death prayed that he might obtaine the oblivion of all former vaine knowledge which might hinder his happinesse in the knowledge of Christ. Sect. 21. Your Rhetoricall descriptions which are both uselesse in and destructive of Philosophy make the soule sometimes equall with God sometimes no better then a corruptible body for to a separated soule you give those attributes proper to God as freedome of essence and subsisting in it selfe a comprehension of place and time that is of Pag. 439 440 441. c. 11. all permanent and successive quantity and the concurrence of infinite knowledge to every action of hers So you give to the soule independency ubiquity infinity which three are Gods due If you lay the fault of this upon your Rhetoricall expressions I must answer you that Rhetorick in such a subject may be well spared use your Rhetorick when you will work upon the affections but not when you will informe the understanding for in this regard you do but cloud not cleere the intellect Rhetorick is like fire and water a good servant but a bad master therefore ought not to be used but with great discretion especially in abstruse questions For this cause Logick was invented to curb and restraine the exorbitancy of Rhetorick If you will dispute like a Philosopher you must lay aside Rhetorick and use Philosophicall termes otherwise you 'l do as the fish Sepia to wit you 'l so thicken the waters of your discourse with that liquor that cometh out of your mouth that you will make your selfe invisible and delude the Reader which is the fashion of those who dare not confide in the strength of their arguments whereas naked truth cares not for such dressings nor seeks she after such corners And indeed you are too much in extremes for you do not more extol a separated then you do abase an incorporated
soule as you call it in saying that her being in a body is her being one thing with the body she is said to be in for if she be one thing with the body she hath the same essence and essentiall properties of a body which I beleeve you wil not subscribe to Sect 22. Pag. 441. c 1 1. Should a soule by the course of nature obtaine her first being without a body and be perfect in knowledge she must be a compleat substance not a soule whose nature is to acquire perfection by the service of the senses 1. You suppose what is not to be supposed for no soul can obtain her first being by the course of nature 2. If she did yet it were not repugnant to her nature to be perfect in knowledge 3. Perfection in knowledge will not make her a complete substance 4. Though the soule naturally acquires perfection by the service of the senses yet that hinders not her bringing in of knowledge with her Adams soul had perfect knowledge as it was fit being all the works of God were created in their perfection and Adam was to be the Doctor and instructor of his posterity and because he was created both in the state and place of happinesse which could not subsist without knowledge yet Adams soule ceased not therefore to be a soule or the forme of his materiall body nor did her knowledge make her a complete substance for in her substance she was no more complete then our soules are in our nativity Neither did that knowledge which Adam brought with him hinder his soule from acquiring by the service of his senses a fuller measure of understanding for hee neither had the knowledge of future contingencies nor of the secrets of mens hearts nor of every particular individuum of every species nor of every stone or sand in the world which belonged nothing to his perfection and happinesse If you 'l say that Adams soule obtained not her first being by the course of nature I grant it nor was it possible she should but by what course soever you imagine the soule to have her being shee may bring perfect knowledge with her and yet not cease to be a soule But when you say That no false judgements can remaine in a Pag. 442. miserable soule after her departure you make the damned soules in hell in farre better condition then wee are here upon earth who are subject to false judgements and erroneous opinions even the best of us but I am not of your mind for doubtlesse false judgements are a part of that punishment which the wicked soules suffer in hell But if there be no falshood or errour of judgement in them they must be in this point as happy as Adam was in Paradise If nothing be wanting but the effect and yet the effect Sect. 23. doth not immediately follow it must needs be that it cannot follow at all This inference will not follow at all for wee see many effects doe not immediately follow upon the working of the efficient and yet follow at last The fire melts not the metall presently nor the Carpenter builds the house nor the Sun produces corne grasse and fruits immediately nor doth the Physician presently cure diseases and yet all these are efficient causes and actually work the effects follow at leasure and at last though not immediately You should doe well to distinguish between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the working or operation and the work it selfe When the efficient is not only in its act of entity but of causality too there followes immediately operation but not opus the working not the work the effect in fieri not in esse Againe you must discriminate between voluntary and naturall agents the one operate freely the other of necessity The soule is doubtlesse a voluntary not a naturall agent so that the effect may follow though not immediately And if in naturall causes the effect followes still immediately it is where the effect is an essentiall property of the subject flowing immediately from the forme as heat from the fire which notwithstanding produceth not heat immediately in water or other subjects Lastly if your argument be good they are not to blame who held the eternity of the world for they reasoned as you doe that the cause being eternall the effect must immediately or eternally follow or else not follow at all But they should have knowne that God was no naturall but a voluntary agent and though from eternity hee did actually exist yet he did not from eternitie actually create The act of entity in him was eternall but not the act of causality In the conclusion of your discourse you make nature Sect 24. play the Smith for you say If the dull percussion which by natures institution hammereth out a spirituall soule from grosse flesh and bloud can atchieve so wondrous an effect by such blunt instruments as are used in the contriving of a man fifty or an hundred yeares time must forge out in such a soule an excellency above the forme of an abortive embryon You may with your Rhetorick as soon perswade me that Minerva was hammered out of Iupiters braine by the percussion of Vulcans hatchet as that the spirituall soule can by natures institution or any dull percussion of hers be hammered out from grosse flesh and bloud It is not nature but the God of nature that is the efficient cause of the soule It 's not natures dull percussion but Gods active inspiration that is the instrument It is not flesh and bloud out of which it is educed but into which the immateriall soule is introduced The soule is not framed either in or of the bodie by the work of nature but is inspired by the breath of the Almighty who in the beginning breathed into Adam the breath of life and so became a living soule Nature cannot hammer out such a piece as the soule is though shee had the help of Vulcans Cyclopes Brontesque Steropesque nudus membra Pyracmon She is of too pure a quintessence and of too sublimated an alloy to be extracted out of such grosse materialls as flesh and bloud are After the bodie is articulated the new created soule is infused accompanied with her perfections which she receives not from but communicates to the bodie and so that rude masse of flesh in the matrix becomes a man And the same soule which makes him a man makes him lord over all the workes of Gods hands by this he subdues the wilde beasts commands the earth masters the ocean measures the heaven searcheth into the nature of herbs trees metalls mineralls stones c. fore-tells celestiall changes inventeth arts and sciences and becomes the lively character and expresse image of the Almighty Can nature then hammer such a divine essence out of grosse flesh and bloud It is questioned whether God himselfe can doe it without implying a contradiction which is so repugnant to him Nature
affect or hate each other Though your atomes be but little bodies yet they Sect. 31. are your great servants for they help you still at a dead lift and doe you much service in all your actions they are your light-bearers they make all things move in their naturall courses upward and downward they are also the causes of violent motions as of projection for by their help the arrow flieth out of the bow as you say and Pag. 181. c. 12. the ball from the racket So these atomes are your archers slingers gunners or canoneers and they help you at your sports in the Tennis-courts Multitudo populorum sepidum as Apuleius calls them the Ants did not so much good service to Psyche in that intricate labour of dividing all sorts of graines enjoyned her by Venus as these atomes doe you By them the arrow flies out of the bow the stone out of the sling the bullet out of the gun or canon and if it were not for them we could not kill our enemies in the wars for the gun-powder could have no force to carry the heavie iron bullet so farre in the aire and to beat downe stone walls of townes and castles if these atomes did not put to their shoulders What Hercules is able to resist such Pigmies but wee who have been bred in the peripatetick schooles at the feet of Aristotle find the maine cause of projection to be the qualitie or force of the projicient impressed upon the bodie projected as the force of the gun-powder-fire impressed in the bullet carries it thorow the aire Neither is it more impossible for this impressed force and adventitious qualitie to carry a bullet violently then for the intrinsecall qualities of gravitie and levitie to carry bodies to their owne places naturally The generator impresseth a qualitie of gravitie in the stone to move naturally to its owne place the projicient impresseth the qualitie of projection in the same stone to move violently from its place If you aske why the stone returnes at last to its owne motion downward and continues not flying in the aire the reason is because the aire makes resistance which at length weakens the impressed force so that this growing weaker then the resistance yeelds and the stone falls downe Neither is it reasonable that an extrinsecall qualitie should have that continuance as a qualitie that is naturall which cannot receive any mutation except there be a change in the first qualities whose commixtion gravitie and levitie naturally followes but the force of the projicient makes no such change in the first qualities of the bodie projected Neither doth the stone lose its gravitie whilst it flies upward but hath it only suspended while the projicients impression lasts when this is spent downe falls the stone againe shewing the same gravitie it had before If any say that this impulse is contrary to the inclination of the bodie impelled I answer 'T is contrary to its inclination to locall motion but not to any inclination the stone might have to the active quality of levity which is not in the stone levity then expells gravity but projection doth not This impulse then is an accidentall forme and in respect of the impression it is in the third species of Quality but as this impression inclineth the stone to motion it is a naturall faculty in the second species of Quality I say naturall not as being the naturall forme or the property flowing from thence but because it moves like the naturall forme though not to the same place and because the stone in which the impression is made is a naturall subject and the projicient is a naturall agent You see then that this doctrine of impression is no shift as you call it but it is a shift to make Atomes carry a Canon bullet so farre in the aire for as the aire it selfe is passive having no other motion in projection but what it receives from the projicient even so be your Atomes if any such were which are dispersed by the wind and force of the bullet Wheresoever there is variety of bodies there must be the Sect. 32. Pag. 27. c. 14. foure elements then belike in the Heavens there must be the foure elements for there are variety of bodies one starre differing from another in glory But indeed there be no elements nor generation nor corruption nor alteration but such as belong to light and locall motion and therefore the heaven is but a naturall body analogically which proportion consisteth in this that as sublunary bodies have a nature which is the inward principle of motion so hath the heaven though in a far different way and for this cause we deny that the matter of the celestiall bodies is univocall to that of elementary for then there should be mutuall action and passion betweene them 2 Then the celestiall matter should have an appetite to being or not being 3. It should have an appetite to divers formes 4. It should be the subject of corruption and of transmutation into In comment de terrae motu circulari sublunary bodies all which are absurd as I have shewed elsewhere Why may we not as well say that fire warmes the Sect. 33. water or burnes the board by its quality of heat as to multiply entities to no purpose as you do in your innumerable Atomes which is your salve for all diseases for as if these had not done you service enough already you must make them your Cooks to boile and rost your meat You will have them to come out of the fire and pierce the bottome of the kettle and so up unto the water and Cap. 15. c. 16. being quickly weary there ascend in smoake and then descend in drops But if these Atomes be the smallest parts of the substance of the fire I wonder how they scape drowning when they are in the water and that they are not served as the Persian god was by the Egyptian Priest and so Canopus prove to be the better god Nay you will not have any occult quality in the Load-stone to draw the iron but these Atomes must doe it and your reason is because otherwise the whole body of Pag. 139. the agent must worke which it cannot do but by locall motion But what need is there to say that the whole body must worke if the Atomes do not It is not the whole body that works or at least not totally for the fire heats by its forme not by its matter and so the Load-stone draws but if we did yeeld that the whole body did work must it therefore worke by locall motion Cannot the fire warme you being within a fit distance except the fire come to you The Load-stone shall keep its distance from the iron and yet shall draw it without Atomes but they are little beholding to you in that after all their good service they have done you you set them together by the eares and makes all re-actions to
which we live and to avoid scandall to submit our thoughts and actions to Gods Word and not to practise such things as have no cause or reason in nature as to cure diseases by spells or words characters and knots which being artificiall and quantities cannot naturally operate The weapon-salve must be conserved in an equall temper Sect. 38. Pag. 164 c. 18. and the weapon which made the wound must be orderly dressed Paracelsus the inventor of this salve is ill reported of to wit to be a Magician Baptista Porta Goclenius D r. Floid some others have bin too credulous to beleeve him for if it be not magicall it is suspicious considering the author the superstitious ceremonies in gathering of the mosse from the dead skull with the other simples used in it besides the unreasonablenesse of their opinions who think that a wound can be cured by such a way whereas nihil agit in distans naturall agents work not but within a proportionable distance as the fire will not heat if the object be not within its reach neither will the load-stone draw except the iron be neer But the patrons of this salve will have it cure the wound though many miles distant and though there be an interposition of many dense bodies as of houses and hills What medium can carry this vertue so far thorow so many impediments whereas the Sun cannot conveigh his beames to us if the Moon or a thick cloud be interposed And what sympathy can wee conceive to be between a sword or a clout and a wound except you 'l say It is because the bloud touched it or as you say Because the steem or spirits entered into the pores of the weapon These are piercing spirits indeed that can passe thorow steele and stay there so long after the bloud is cold whereas the bloud which in phlebotomy is received into a dish loseth the spirits as soon as the bloud is cold though many ounces of bloud be there yet never a spirit left nor any sympathy at all between the dish and the wound Sure by this reason when the sword that wounds is kept in the same roome with the wounded man it must cure whereas it cures so farre off But no such cure is to be found for I was yet never cured by the knife that cut my finger though never so often dressed If any reply that some cures have been done by this salve I answer that I have heard so and they that write of it most of them write but upon report and suppose some cures had been done yet I will not impute them to the salve but to the washing and keeping of the wound cleane in which case nature will help it selfe The imagination also is sometimes a help to cure and sometime Sathan may concurre for his owne ends videlicet to confirme superstition and errour If any say that there is a sympathy between the pole and the needle touched with the load-stone which are farther distant then the sword and the wound I grant it because the influence of celestiall bodies upon earthy is not hindred by distance but we cannot say so of the actions of sublunary bodies whose matter is farre different from that of the heavens In a word the effects of this salve which you speak of are much like the effects that are said to be caused by images of wax made by Witches The like credit is to be given to those other reports you speake of to wit the curing of the kines swelled soles by a turffe cut from under their sore feet and hung upon an hedge the drying of which is the mending of the sore feet And the running over of the Cowes milk in boiling into the fire wil cause an inflammation in the Cowes udder and that this is cured by casting salt into the fiâ—e upon the milk I could tell you many such tales as those which I have partly read and partly heard but credat Iudaus Apella I will stick to that Philosophicall principle Ominis actio 〈◊〉 per 〈◊〉 but here is no contact and I will as soon credit Apuleius his Metamorphosis into an Asse by the anointing of his body as the curing of a wound by an ointment which is not at all applyed to the bodie If any will say that such cures are done by the influence of the Stars let him prove it wee may so salve all questions and not trouble our selves to search any further into the hidden causes of things These influences are the sanctuary of ignorance but Stars are universall agents whose operations are fruitlesse if they be not determined by the particular agents Lastly I like your supposition wel If the steem of bloud and spirits carry with it the balsamick qualities of the powder into the wound it will better it In this I am of your opinion for if Daedalus did flie in the aire wings doubtlesse would help him but there is great odds between the sents which the Deere or Hare or Fox leave behind them and this imaginary vertue of the weapon-salve this being altogether hid these other being manifest qualities quickly apprehended by the sagacious hounds You say that the heat of the torrid Zone drawes aire to Sect. 39. Pag. 176. c. 20. it from the Poles and rest of the world otherwise all would be turned into fire The aire about the Poles you confesse is very cold and the aire under the Line very hot Now that heat should draw cold to it is to contradict a sensible maxime for what is more plaine and sensible then that one contrary drives out another and like drawes its like The heat of the fire drawes out the heat of a burned finger or the heat of the stomack whereas the cold aire repells it Hence it is that we concoct better in Winter then in Summer The heat of the upper and lower region of the aire doth not draw to it the cold of the middle region but the cold fortifies and unites it selfe against its enemy Secondly the aire under the Line is carried about so fast by the motion of the primum mobile from East to West that there is a continuall trade-wind and a strong tide to the West So that the aire there will not give leave by reason of its swift motion for any other aire to come thither Thirdly the torrid Zone needs no refrigeration from the Poles for there are great lakes rivers and seas besides constant gales of wind which refresh the aire and make it no lesse temperate then Spain if you will beleeve Hist. Ameris Acosta Not to speak of the equalitie of the night there with the day so that the Sun is not so long above their Horison as hee is above ours in Summer And if there were such extreme heat there as is supposed there would not be such multitudes of all sorts of herbs fruits and trees green all the yeare as Lerius witnesseth in his In Brasil navigation You have found out
nothing else but the power Sect. 51. Pag. 262. which a body hath of reflecting light into the eye Then immediately you say Light is nothing else but the superficies of it and shortly after Colours are not qualities but tractable bodies With the same breath you contradict your selfe for you deny colour to be a qualitie and yet you will have it a power in the bodie to reflect light Are not naturall powers or faculties qualities Is not the power that water hath to coole a qualitie but in this you are also mistaken for colour is not such a qualitie as you make it to wit in the second species where only those powers are which can naturally produce their owne acts As in the eye there is a power to see a power I say which it can produce into act when occasion serves for the eye doth not alwaies actually see but colour is no such power for it cannot produce its owne act primarily as the former power did but in the second place For first it must affect the subject in which the colour is and secondly work upon the eye and so colour is in the third species of Qualitie Now if colour be a qualitie how can it be a superficies which is a quantitie The essence of colours is not in extension though they may be extended according to the extension of the subject in which they are Extension is the essence only of quantitie If colour then be not a quantitie but qualitie how can it be a tactable bodie Colours cannot subsist of themselves they admit degrees therefore cannot be substances You are angry with vulgar Philosophers who force you Sect. 52. Pag. 275. c. 22. to beleeve contradictions in that they say life consisteth in this that the same thing hath power to work upon it selfe Aristotle then and his learned Peripateticks are with you but vulgar Philosophers who teach us that those which move themselves by an internall principle have life in them and so because quick-silver seemes to move it selfe and fountaines or springs of water seeme also to move themselves hence the Latines call the one argentum vivum the other aquas vivas And because these created entities which wee call living actuate themselves either by perfecting themselves or by representing something within themselves by their knowledge or by enclining themselves to the things which they know by their appetite hence it is that we attribute life unto God in that hee actuates himselfe at least negatively so that hee is not actuated by any other and in that hee understands and wills himselfe and all things in himselfe But here is the difference between the life of the Creator and of the creature that our life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle sayes the abode or mansion of the vegetive soule in the bodie or naturall heat Or as Scaliger another of these vulgar Philosophers tells us unio animae cum corpore the union of the soule with the bodie And our life hath a dependance from a higher cause and our vitall actions depend from a causality as Understanding and Will from the essence of the soule but the life that is in God and his vitall actions are the same identically with his essence having no dependance or inhesion or connexion at all Tell us then where the contradiction lieth when wee say that the living creature can move it selfe Doth the Scripture teach contradictions when it tells us that Saul killed himselfe that Iudas hanged himselfe that we should accuse our selves condemne our selves convert our selves and many such like Neither doe we say that life consists in this that a thing can work upon it selfe as you would have it for wee make not the essence of life to consist in this wee only make this a propertie of life for the living creature to move it selfe Neither doe wee say that life is action but that life is the principle of action therefore we act because we live actiones sunt suppositorum Though the forme work upon the matter yet the suppositum or compound is the subject of action or motion The form worketh originally or as principium Quo the suppositum worketh subjectively denominatively or as principium Quod. The forme is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the suppositum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the act not the action but the efficient cause of five actions to wit of understanding sense motion nutrition and generation For if life were an action it should be the cause of these actions but actionis non datur actio Lastly life is in the soule originally in the bodie by participation and in the compound subjectively You challenge also Philosophers that they hold sensation Sect. 53. Pag. 275 ca. 32. to be a working of the active part of the same sense upon its passive part and yet will admit no parts in it but will have the same indivisible power work upon it selfe Philosophers distinguish between the organ the faculty and action of the sense The organ is a substance the faculty a qualitie which is properly called sense of which ariseth the action which is properly sensation The forme is the cause of sense God is the supreme cause of the forme and consequently of sense too for dans formam dat consequentia ad formam and sense is the cause of sensation And so they hold that there is in the sense an action and a passion but in a different respect for the passion is in respect of the object the species of which is received by the sense but reception is passion yet in the sense there is an action too but that 's in respect of the soule working by the sense its instrument which it animates and by it judgeth of those objects which are convenient or inconvenient not only for the bodie but for the soul too For the two noblest of the senses were made principally for the soule that by them she might gaine knowledge and in the second place for the bodie Now out of all that 's said tell us where this indivisible power workes upon it selfe or who holds any such thing The power of the soule in actuating the sense the power of the sense in receiving the species is not the same power no more then the power of the soule in moving the hand and the power of the hand in receiving a blow the one being an active the other a passive power the one being from the soule the other from the disposition of the matter whose propertie is to suffer as the formes is to act Therefore wee hold not active and passive parts in the sense but that the whole sense is passive in respect of the object the whole sense is active in respect of the soul working in it So the whole water is passive in regard of the fire which hears it and it 's wholly active in respect of the hand which is warmed by
cannot be a notion for Metaphysick tels us that identity is reall And what will you say of that similitude which Adam had with God or which a regenerated man hath consisting in righteousnesse and true holinesse Is this image of God in man which by us was lost and now by grace is repaired a bare notion then will our happinesse and joy and hopes and religion consist rather in conceit then in reality Dii meliora piis erroremque hostibus illum Sect. 4. Cap. 1. p. 360. BEING or a thing the formall notion of both which is meerly being is the proper affection of man This anigma would trouble Oedipus or Sphynx himselfe for in your margin by this word being you understand existence But is this the proper affection of man what becomes of other creatures have they no existence If they have then it is not proper to man quarto modo If they have not then they are but entities in possibility for existence is the actuating and restraining of the essence which in it selfe is indeterminate and in possibility to actuality which we call existence therefore existence is not the proper affection of man but of entity as it is in act or rather the formality of actuall entity Besides if existence be the proper affection of man what shall we say of Angels and other spirits nay of God himselfe Is there no existence in them Againe existence is not an affection or propertie for it is no accident but the very essence of the thing actuated which before was in possibility and therefore by Philosophers 't is called actus primus to distinguish it from properties and operations which are called second acts for a thing is first actuated by its existence and then by its properties and operations But what you meane by the formall notion of both Pag. 361. which and of their meerly being I know not Sibylla's leaves are not more obscure to which you may adde your stock of being and the grafts inoculated into it for Pag. 361. with such mists of metaphors you involve your Philosophy against the rules and custome of Philosophers and so you leave your Readers as Sibylla left hers unsatisfied thus Inconsulti abeunt sedemque odere Sibyllae I wish M r. White had helped you here whose aid hath not beene wanting to you at a dead lift hitherto I should trifle away too much time and paper if I should insist or name all your fancies of the tribes as you call them of predicaments whose office you will have to comprehend all the particular notions that man hath and how you will have all entities to be respective and all notions to be grafted on the stock of being c. Abundance of such stuffe with which your booke is fraughted I passe over as being not worth the expence of time and indeed they refute themselves As likewise that you make essence and existence the same whereas they are one and the same in God onely but not in the creatures in whom the essence and existence differ for whilst a thing is in its causes it hath an essence but no existence till it be produced by its causes and as it were quit of them All the knowledge we have of our soule is no more but that Pag 368. c. 2. it is an active force in us I hope you know more of the soule then this to wit that it is an immortall immateriall substance infused by God into the body created of nothing consisting of the intellect and will capable of beatitude You know also I hope that the soule had no being till it was infused into the body and that it is not in a place as bodies are by way of circumscription and that it is all in all and all in every part of the body and that after death it immediatly goeth to hell or heaven not lingring about the grave or sleeping in the dust till the resurrection But it seemes you have not very great knowledge of the soule when you say that a thing apprehended by the soule becomes a part or affection of the soule for neither hath the soule any parts nor can that be an affection of the soule which comes from without In your 5. Chapter you make 1. Being to have a very Sect. 6. Pag. 395. c. 5. neere affinity with the soule 2. To be the end of the soule 3. To be the soules patterne and Idea For the first there is small affinity betweene the soule which is a substance and Being which is neither substance nor accident but a transcendent Being or existence is the generall affection of entity so is not the soule the body hath existence before the soule is infused and when the soule is gone it hath existence still the body hath no more existence from the soule then the soule from the body 2. If being be the end of the soule then it moved God to create it for the end moveth at least metaphorically but sure nothing moved God except his owne goodnesse and glory and how can that existence which God gave to the soule in the creation be the end of its creation Is creation the end of creation and the giving of being the end why being is given what can be more absurd And wereas being is internall and essentiall to the soule how can it be the end which is an externall cause 3. Being is not the patterne or Idea of the soule for Being is intrinsecall to the soule so is not the patterne or Idea but extrinsecall As the Idea or patterne of a building is in the mind of the builder but not in the house which is built and if being is the end of the soule how can it be the Idea for the end excites the action of the agent but the Idea determinates that action and these are very different You will not have the understanding to be the objects it Sect. 7. Pag. 404. c. 6. understands by way of similitude but by way of respects Understanding is by way of similitude not of respect for your son who hath a neere respect or relation to you doth not the more for that understand this your Booke I beleeve he understands books written by strangers to whom he hath no respect better then these your intricate mysteries There are relations and respects between inanimate or senslesse creatures and yet no understanding it is not therefore the respect but the reception of the species into the intellect and its assimilation or similitude with the intellect that makes understanding Besides there are some respects grounded upon similitudes then I hope there are some things understood by way of similitudes I may truly say all things for nothing is understood but what is in the understanding and nothing can be there but by way of similitude every thing is intelligible actually if its similitude be in the intellect actually The amplitude of the soule in respect of knowledge is absolutely Sect. 8. Pag. 405. c. 6.
be performed by them you make an irreconcilable warre betweene the firy and watry Atomes like Homers Batrochomyamachia or like that battell in Ovids Chaos wher 's Frigida pugnabant calidis humentia siccis Mollia cum duris sine pondere habentia pondus When you hold ice in your hand you will not have the ice by its coldnesse to worke on your hand nor your hand by its heat to re-worke on the ice but Atomes to work one against another When you saw wood be there any Atomes that come out of the teeth of the saw which divide the wood or Atomes out of the wood which blunt the saw But seeing you will not have re-action to consist in qualities I desire to know whether in every re-action there is not an alteration this you cannot deny for when you put hot iron in cold water you make an alteration from heat to cold and from cold to heat but alterations consist in qualities as augmentation doth in quantity and generation in substances therefore re-action must consist in quality not in your Atomes which are substances Besides substances are not contrary to each other but in re-actions there be contrarieties which argues qualitie in which properly consists contrariety I know not what to make of your Atomes for sometime Sect. 34. Pag. 142. c. 16. Pag 143. you call them substances and here you will have them to be qualities Againe you say these Atomes are the pure parts of the elements and by and by that they are accidentall qualities It seems then that accidents are parts of substances by your Logick Besides you say the elements remaine pure in every compound and yet you Ibid. will not have their substantiall formes to remaine actually sure the elements remaine not if their formes are gone for it is by their formes that they are elements and if they remaine pure in the compound then the compound is not a physicall mixed body And if your Atomes be qualities then there is no mixture at all for mixture is of substances not of qualities and the body mixed differs specifically from the elements of which it is mixed We hold then that the elementary formes remaine in mixture but refractè remissè castigatè as they speake and in some degree onely which degrees the substantiall formes admit but not as the qualities doe for these admit degrees remaining the same they were before so do not the formes for as soone as there is any remission of degree in them the species is changed and so that which was the forme of the element becomes now the forme of a mixed body being of another species then the element Take any degree of the substantiall forme from fire and it s no more fire Sect. 35. Pag. 143. c. 16. It doth not appeare to what purpose nature should place store-houses of simples seeing mixed bodies can be dissolved into other mixed bodies Into what then shall these mixed bodies be dissolved Into mixed stil Must there not be a dissolution into simple bodies at last as well as there was a composition of them Sure if there were not store-houses of these simples the world could not be perfect for in this is its perfection that it consists of all sorts of bodies to wit as well simple as mixed and if there be foure prime qualities where shall they have their residence but in the foure prime simple bodies which we call elements hence the elements are eternall in the whole though they be perishing in their parts when they enter into composition The motion of Atomes we call a winde A winde is a Sect. 36. Pag. 152. c. 17. substance as afterward you confesse when you say winds are made up of bodies but motion is an accident therefore wind cannot be a motion I think your meaning is that winds are Atomes moved or moving but then you should have told us whether these Atomes move themselves or are they moved by some other these Atomes are unruly bodies which if they were not curbed by Aeolus Maria ac terras caelumque profundum Quippe ferent rapidi secum verrantque per auras Who would think there should be such strength in Atomes to over-turne trees and strong houses to move the Seas from the bottome to sink ships and to move the earth it selfe Was that a motion of Atomes which drove the Sea againe into its own place and dried the earth from Noahs Flood Are those Aetesii which blow continually under the Line motions of Atomes or those which blow constantly in Egypt forty daies together in the summer solstice 'T is strange there should be such strength in these bodies which are so weake that the light as you said before can support them and that there should be such spite and courage in them as to encounter in duels and trouble the world with their quarrels Saepe ventorum concurrere praelia vidi Were these Satans souldiers when he by the winds overthrew the house where Iobs children were Your best way will be to leave your Atomes and to acquiesce in the received opinion that the winde is an exhalation raised by the Sun out of moisture which exhalation by reason of its lightnesse mounting upward is repelled by the cold middle region of the aire and so moveth not directly downeward because 't is light but athwart and sidlings As for your Atomes leave them for Aeolus to bind up in a bagge who were so unruly before the took them to taske that they turned the sea upon the land and the land into the sea dividing Italy from Sicily and Spaine from Africa Is it not a wrong to God and his instruments to impute to Sect. 37. Pag. 164 ca. 18. the Divell the aides which to some may seem supernaturall True for there is a naturall magick by which you may doe strange things and anticipate the time prefixed by nature in producing of divers effects by applying activa passivis So you may produce a Rose in Winter and raise Parsly out of the ground within a few houres after the seed is sowne There is also a Mathematicall magick by which strange things are done as was that woodden Pigeon which Architas caused to flie and that brasen head which Albertus Magnus made to speak That worthy man Boëtius was very skilfull in this way Such things and many more may be done without witchcraft but withall there is a Diabolicall magick in working strange things by the power of Sathan by a contract which Witches make with them God permitting in his secret judgement the affectors of such evill things to be deluded and abused by the evill Angels Saith S. Austin De doct Christ. l. 2. cap. 22 23. 'T is fit that he who forsakes the fountaine of living waters digge to himselfe fountaines that will hold no water Therefore in all our actions wee ought to aime at Gods glory at the salvation of our owne and others soules at the honour of the Church and State in