in One most Simple Formality 46. Hence even the Names of our Best Virtues are not in every regard properly spoken of GOD. 47. Nor Omnipotent Creatour or such like All our Language having some Tang of Imperfection Annext to it 48. Nor yet Negative Words as Immense Infinite Immaterial c. 49. No Priority or Posteriority either Real or made by our Reason conceiving some Ground for it in the Thing can be attributed to GOD. 50. Notwithstanding all these are with some Impropriety spoken of GOD yet all of them but the Last are Truly said of Him 51. The Solid Ground of Mystick Theology 52. Hence is concluded that all the Names or Words we have whether they be Affirmative or Negative do fall short of reaching the Divine Essence MEDITATION How by considering the Visible Things of this World we have arriv'd at the Knowledge of the Invisible Things of GOD His Essence and Attributes That these have been Demonstratively Deduc'd and this with an Evidence beyond that of the Mathematicks That this will redound to our greater Disadvantage if we live not accordingly This Knowledge of GOD obliges us to the Duties following viz. Of most Profound Adoration and Respectful Attention when we address to him in Prayer Of a Firm Belief of what he has Reveal'd Of Endeavouring to dispose our selves to receive farther Influences of His Grace and to Hope with Full Assurance that He will most certainly give us all we are Capable or Dispos'd to receive Of Trembling at his Iustice if we wilfully break his Commands or carelesly run on sn Sin Of Hoping Unwaveringly we shall obtain his Pardon if we sincerely Repent Of Resignation in all sinister Contingencies to the Infinitely Wise Disposition of His Providence in the Government of His World Especially to Love Him who is our Only Happiness and True Good as we ought both for what He is in Himself and for what He is to Us. Lastly to the Duty of Imitating His Holy Moral Attributes which is the most Effectual Means to perfect us in all sorts of Virtue BOOK IV. Of the several OPERATIONS of Things and of the Manner in common how the First Being administers His World § 1. ALL Action springs Immediately from the Existence of the Cause 2. And the Acting in such a Manner from the Thing 's being of such a Nature 3. Therefore the Power of Operating thus or thus is refunded into the Essence of the Thing 4. Therefore all Causality is the Imparting to the Patient somewhat that was some way or other in the Agent or the Cause 5. Hence Motion only Applies the Natural Agent to the Patient 6. The First Operation among Bodies is DIVISION 7. The Next Operations are IMPULSE and ATTRACTION 8. The Reason of which Operations is not to be fetch'd from Physicks but from Metaphysicks 9. Nor in Metaphysicks from the Matter or Form 10. But from the Essence or Nature of the Common Modification of Body Quantity 11. This Disputable Point fully Clear'd 12. Hence is seen particularly the Reason of Attraction 13. Every Impulse does at first Condense and every Attraction at first does Rarify 14. All these Operations are either perform'd by Local Motion or concomitantly with it 15. All Motion comes at first from the Angelical Nature 16. Every Part of Motion is a New Effect 17. And therefore it requires a Continual Influx of some Moving Cause 18. This Moving Cause is some Chief Angel which Rarefies the Matter in the Solar Bodies 19. Angels are Pre-mov'd and Directed by GOD to move Matter in such a manner as is most sutable to His Eternal Decrees 20. The First-mov'd Bodies do Determine and Continue the Motion of the Others 21. Hence Angels and the Bodies which they move do as Second Causes determine the Individuation of all new-made Bodies 22. But 't is evidently beyond their Power to give Existence 23. Which therefore is Peculiar to GOD 24. As 't is also to Conserve them in Being 25. And to give to a Nobler Essence a Nobler Existence 26. For the same reason a Spiritual Form will be given to Matter connaturally Dispos'd for it 27. The same holds in Supernatural Gifts which also abstracting from Miracle are carry'd on by Dispositions 28. Hence GOD is not the Cause of any Defect much less of SIN 29. That all the foremention'd Sorts of Operations do spring from the Respective ESSENCES 30. That GOD does All that 's Good in All and in what Manner and by what Means MEDITATION That God's Ordinary Providence carries on the Course of Nature by Proper Causes still producing Proper Effects Demonstrated And Confirm'd because otherwise Mankind could not possibly have any Science nor know how to behave themselves or what to do in their Practice and ordinary Actions The same Great Truth Demonstrated a posterioriâ—… Hence the Course of GOD's Workmanship the Fabrick of Nature is Close and Indissoluble The Epicurean Tenet that the World is Govern'd by CHANCE shown most Absurd and Senseless What CHANCE truly is How Groundlessly some Christian Philosophers the Ideists do in part violate this Method of GOD's Ordinary Providence Demonstrated The Witty Folly of Stoical FATALITY confuted and exploded The Application of this Doctrine to our own Duties A Rational Explication OF The Mystery of the most Blessed TRINITY Trans-natural Philosophy OR METAPHYSICKS BOOK I. Of the ESSENCES of Compound Entities CHAP. I. Of POWER and ACT. 1. ALL Mankind must necessarily have the Notions of POWER and ACT or know what those Words POWER and ACT are Natural or Common Notions mean For since all Mankind do in their Common Language use to say that such a Thing which was not before can be or exist as also that Fire can be made of Wood that Water can be made Hot and such like and this in innumerable Occasions And 't is Evident that the word can does in those Speeches signifie the Power to Exist be made of Wood be made Hot c. and the other words do signify the Acts which answer to those Powers and by reason of which when they come to have those Acts they are truly said to be Actually such as the words which correspond to those Powers do import Also since all Mankind have in their Minds the Meaning of those Words which themselves do intelligently use and the Meaning of any Word iâ— the same with that which we cali their Notiâ—â— exprest by that Word which Notion we have in our Minds when we use that Word It follows evidently that All Mankind must necessarily have the Notions of POWER and ACT oâ— Know what those Words mean 2. Hence is gathered that there are three Soâ—â—â— of Power and Act For since That there are Three sorts of each we can truly say that such 〈◊〉 Thing newly generated was 〈◊〉 and now is and 't is most Self evident that could not be which had not a Possibility or Power to be 't is manifest that the Thing had a Possibility or Power to be that iâ— had
Regret Shameful Confusion Fruitless Repentance Black Desperation Cursings of themselves and all Creatures Blasphemings of the Holy Saints and of their Dread Creatour and Just Judge GOD Blessed for evermore Or as our B. Saviour in accommodation to our greatest Griefs here moderately expresses it Weeping and Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth The Gnawing Worm of Helpless Remorse â—ever dies there nor is the Vehement Fire of these Violent and Contrary Affections ever quenched Quis poterit habitare cum igne devorante Quis habitabit cum ardoribus sempiternis Isaiae Cap. 33. 14. 27. Hence is seen That GOD damns no Man For since by § 23. Inordinate Affection for Creatures addicts the Soul to a wrong Last End and at the GOD Damns no Man same time by doing so does Inâ—â—pose her for her True Happiness the Sight of GOD which she cannot when Separated but Naturally desire and long for and these Inordinate Affections if Unretracted here do still remain in the Soul by § 4. and when Separated she is Unchangeable in that State and consequently sees she must for ever Despair of â—â—taining her True Good she being Impure and Inâ—ispos'd for it and also of ever getting that False Good upon which she had here set her Chief Affection because it is impossible according to the Circumstances of things in the other Life and that hence she becomes incapacitated of having any kind of Good she can desire but has her Desire and Wish crost in every thing And the perpetual crossing her Voluntary and Natural Wishes in every thing especially in what 's of Infinite Concern to her must naturally cause in such a Soul Extreme Grief Torment and Desperation And this Tormenting Grief is enhanced by the Intenseness and Vehemency of her Acts when she is a Pure Spirit with which the greatest and most violent Grief in this life bears no proportion Lastly since it has been clearly shown that all these dismal Effects which induce and make up that wretched State we call Damnation do as is here shown spring originally as from their Sole Cause from her having by her own Free Choice pitchâ— her First Affections upon some Created or False Good and all the other bad Consequences do follow out of the very Nature of a Spirit thus Affected or Indispos'd It is manifest That GOD Damns no Man but that while a Sinner hugs and cherishes Inordinate Affections for Creatures in his Breast he is all the while connaturally kindling and adding Fuel to Hell-Fire in his own Soul to which effect of Damnation GOD contributes no otherwise than by preserving the Natures of things and carrying on the Course of Causes according to those Natures which Wisest Method he has no reason to alter miraculously for their sakes who have preferr'd a Creature before Him 28. It may be objected that these Affections for Creatures were Passions which either Spring from the Body or The Knowing all Truths Speculatively in the State of Separation does not alter the Predominant Affection for Creatures As the Tree falls so it lies from the Circumstances of the former World and therefore they do not remain in a State where neither of them have any Influence upon the Soul I Answer First That these are not Passions in our future State as that word imports Motion but they are far worse viz. the Termini or Effects of the most steadily fixt and worst Passion which we call Resolvedness in ill or Willfulness And this can and must remain in a Soul determin'd to a wrong Last End she having tho' no Motion of the Spirits or Passion a Power in her call'd a Will of it 's own Nature indeed determinable to Good and Bad but by her State of Separation fixt unchangeably in that Determination which she dy'd with Secondly Tho' those Passions did indeed spring here from our Material Compart the Body yet they did not stay in that Part but affected by means of material Impressions the Soul and were â—â—t in her by a deliberate and serious pitching her Chief Affections on them nay perhaps rivetted there by long-continu'd Habits and therefore they must still remain in her for ever unless they had been Retracted while she was in a Changeable condition in this Life 29. Corollary XI Hence one Actual Sin of a high Nature and done with Hence one Enormous Actual Sin Unrepented renders a Soul liable to Eternal Damnation perfect Deliberation of which the Man dies Unrepentant will make the Soul miscarry eternally such as are Self-Murther being kill'd in a Duel for a Puntilio and such like 30. It may be said that the Knowledge of all Truths will rectifie and alter the Soul as soon as she is separated That the State of Separation does not alter the First Affection of Souls farther demonstrated in regard that she sees then clearly the Vileness and Perniciousness of placing her Affection on a wrong Last End 'T is Answer'd First That the Soul as soon as Separated knows all Truths only Speculatively but that the Practical Judgments or Affections which had prepossest her as has been prov'd § 17. do more sway with her than all her Speculative Knowledge which her Choice did not give her but Nature forced into her Secondly There could be no Cause which was Competent to alter her Not her Separation For the whole Effect of that Action is to Divide the Potential Parts of a Compound that is to take from them the State of Potentiality and make them if they can exist separate Actual Wholes Actual Parts as it has been demonstrated being Impossible Wherefore Death being only the Separation of the Soul and Body terminates it's Agency in making them Two of One and has no Influence upon changing them Nor does their State of Separation or their remaining or becoming Separate alter their Natures or their Modes for this consists in the Soul 's existing now A Pure Act which has nothing to do with taking away what she had but only taking her as it found her to elevate her such as she was and consequently those Knowledges and Affections she actually had to a higher Perfection in the Line of Ens or to give her to exist after a Nobler manner than she did formerly Lastly Were this so the Order of the World would be quite perverted for in that case the Wickedest Livers would have equal Priviledge and Benefit in the next world as the greatest Saints since each of them as is presuppos'd to our question knowing all things as soon as Separated their Wickedness would be corrected and effaced which takes away all the dread of Hell evacuates all the Motives to good Life and even destroys the Notion of Virtue and Vice Punishment and Reward and consequently GOD's Attribute of Justice 31. Corollary XII Hence is seen that Sin does not consist meerly in the Hence Sin does not formally consist in the Falsity of the Practical Iudgment or Affection but in the Disproportion and Inordinateness of it Falshood of
inconsiderable in comparison of the Whole tho' it may change some Part or Parts of it yet it 's Activity which consists in it's Addiction to do that Effect or in it's Act of Volitiâ—â— and not in it's bare Knowledge of it is stinted to a certain Proportion of Matter according to the Greater or Lesser Excellency of it's Essence from which it's Activity springs and to which it goes parallel 25. An Angel can easily and in an Imperceptiâ—… Time order and alter that Quantity An Angel can move or change those Bodies which are of Matter or those Bodies that are within the Bounds of it Activity which generally speaking are only those which it superintends anâ—… also those material Causes which are requisite as fit Instruments for Holy Angels to do Men Good or Protect within the Sphere of it's Activity in an imperceptible Time them or for Bad Angels to do them Harm or Punish them as sutes best with GOD's Mercy or â—ustice For since all Motion proceeds from Angels as Second Causes and that by knowing all Nature Intuitively their Knowledge reaches not only to the Subject or Patient which is to be alter'd but to every imaginable circumstance either belonging to the said Patient or to those Material Agents which being apply'd are proper to work upon them It follows that this alone must needs wonderfully facilitate the Effect Again since those Acts of the Angel's Will which were the Efficient Causes of Altering those Bodies were of themselves Instantaneous It follows that tho' the Nature of the Patient which is Material or Quantitative would not permit the Effect or Change to be put by a â—…ite Power in an Instant yet all imaginable Requisites do concur to produce in it such or as little a Time as the perfect Subjection of the Patient can bear and as the Activity of the Agent which acts on it's part Instantaneously requires that is in a very Imperceptible Time And accordingly 1 Cor. 15. v. 51 52. the Holy Scripture tells us that the Change of those Bodies which survive at the Resurrection from a Corruptible to an Incorruptible Condition the â—…rangest Change Matter can possibly bear will be made in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye that is in the least time we are able to conceive 26. Corollary VIII Whence it being so consonant to the Natures of Things Hence the Wonderful Effects recorded in Holy Writ to have been done by Angels are Consonant to Metaphysical Principles viz. to the Activity of Angels and to the Passiveness of Matter our meer Naturalists need not wonder that the Prophet Habbacuc was carried so suddenly Dan. 14. 35. by an Angel impetu Spiritus sui as the Scripture expresses it to Daniel in the Lion's Den at Babylon a place unknown to the Prophet and therefore very far off so quickly which can scarce be conceiv'd possible to be done so suddenly without strangely disordering and even killing him without taking from the Air all power of Resistence Nor need it be wonder'd at that a Light shone so suddenly in St. Peter's Prison nor that his Chains fell off and that the Iron-Gate open'd to them of it's own accord Act. 12. nor that all the Guards were stupify'd with a dead Sleep Nor that Angels so suddenly make to themselves a Body of Air to appear in and as suddenly disappear again Nor at many other such like Effects related in Holy Writ None of these I say ought to appear Wonderful to any Solid Philosopher who attends to his Principles and True Reason For since the Motion of Bodie and therefore all Action springs from Angels as the Immediate Causes their Activity upon Bodily Substances so Inferiour tâ— them must needs be very Soveraign and Powerful Nor is there any thing in thâ— whole Discourse or in any of these anâ— such like Particular Actions which does not subsist upon Solid Grounds and is not built upon and is consonant to Evident Principles of Reason 27. Corollary IX From what has been deduced formerly we may Collect as most Agreeable to Rational That the Ordinary Ministring Spirits or the Guardian Angels of particular Persons are the Lowest sort of Angels Principles that those Angels or Ministring Spirits who by their Office are to work upon Matter and are with good reason hold to be those of the lowest Quire and particularly the Angel Guardians should at the General Resurrection be employ'd in Changing the Mass of pre-existent Matter for we cannot think Creation begins a-new when the World is near an end into Human Bodies fitted according to the respective Dispositions of the Holy and the Wicked Souls as is seen Mat. 13. where the Harvest is said to be the Resurrection and the Angels the Reapers gathering the good Seed to be eternally preserv'd and the Tares to be burnt We may hence also clearly gather that the Chief Overseeing that Grand Affair belongs to the Superiour Influence of an Arch-Angel signify'd Metaphorically 1 Thessal 4. 15. by the Voice of an Archangel and his Trumpet blowing to summon the Dead to appear before Christ's Dread Tribunal Which understood literally is the putting them or making them to appear in their Distinct Ranks according to their several Merits or Demerits that Christ may judge them by discriminating the Sheep from the Goats that is by Beatifying the Former and Establishing them in Sanctity and the Reward of it Glory and the Later as the Nature of their State requires unchangeably in Sin and consequently Damnation as is emphatically exprest in our Saviours Words Apoc. 22. 11. He that is Unjust let him be Unjust still and he that is Filthy let him be Filthy still and he that is Righteous let him be Righteous still and he that is Holy let him be Holy still Which Final Sentence forbids and precludes to the Damned all hope of Change or fruitful Repentance and fixes them Unalterably and for ever in their Sinful State and consequently in Eternal Death which is the Reward and Connatural Effect or Fruit of Sin Whence also we see the reason of that severe Saying Ex inferno nulla Redemptio and why their Bad and Unchangeable Affections which so strongly detain them there are called Rudentes Inferni 2 Pet. 2 4. 28. Corollary X. For the reason given above all the Affairs of very High moment are said to be done by But the Greater and Weightier Affairs are transacted by Archangels â— an Archangel Thus Michael made head against Lucifer and subdu'd him Thus Gabriel the Archangel was the Messenger of the Incarnation Nor can it be doubted but the Head of those Angels which gave the Law on Mount Sina as is written Acts 7. 38. and v. 53. was of the same Dignity Nor that those Intelligences which give and continue Motion to the Matter of ours and of all the other Suns if that opinion may be allow'd which holds all the Fixed Stars to be so many Corpora per se lucentia or so many Suns are all
they have their Essences from the Ideas in his Divine Understanding and their Existences by his Peculiar and Immediate Act of Creation He still conserves their Essence in Being by the same Continued Action and at the same time all their Faculties and Powers by which they act on one another He puts them forwards to exercise those several Faculties and actually to produce their Operations on one another according to their Natures by Motion which is given them by his Chief Officers in administring the World Angels and continues their Motions and Operations by their Incessant perpetuating of that Motion So that both their Essences their Actual Being their Power to act their Exercise of that Power and consequently whatever belongs to the Action it self as far as it is Positive or has Entity and Goodness in it and amongst the rest the Determination of our Will to what 's Good and Virtuous do all of them Entirely depend on GOD and are Deriv'd from Him Ipâ—â— Honor Gloria in saecula saeculorum Amen MEDITATION THe Essences of Things which give all Bodies their several Sorts of Operation being estaâ—…t by GOD and Vacuum being own Impossible from the Contiâ—â—ity That GOD's Ordinary Providence carries on the Course of Nature by Proper Causes still producing Proper Effects Demonstrated à priori of Quantity which is it's â—â—d of Unity or Entity It folâ—â—â—s that all the Bodies of the â—aterial World do immediately conâ—â— upon or touch one another â—â— therefore being set on work â—pusht forward by Motion which iâ— given and continu'd to them by the Angelical Nature they must necessarily affect or work upon one another and this according to their respective Essences or as we express it in Philosophical Language Proper Causes must still produce proper Effects And seeing this Reason holds in all Bodies whatever since the Creation was finisht and Natural Causes begun to move in a Regular Order â—â—sequently the whole Course of Nature to show and â—â—plain which is the Work of a Natural Philosopher â—â—sists in the Production of such Effects as are Proper â—d suteable to the Genius of their Causes Thus is the Providence of our Great GOD adâ—inistring the World after the Wisest â—anner Demonstrated a Priori Conâ—irm'd Because otherwise Mankind could not possibly have any Science nor know what to do in their ordinary Actions And that this way of Governing the Material World does most become His Divine Wisdom appears hence that as was lately said all our Acquir'd Wisdom in Natural things or all our Science is entirely grounded on our Knowing this Connexion of such Causes with such Effects insomuch that all Mankind would be a pack of Ignorant Fools if the Consequence of these later from the former were not Certainly establisht since in that case they could never know what things they were to make use of to compass any Effect they intended nor know what to eschew and what to pursue No Proportion of any Means to the End being Possible to be known in case such Determinate Causes were not apt to produce such Determinate and Proper Effects or which is the same if every thing did not Act as it Is but that Any thing might do or not do Any thing Nor is this Connected Tenour of managing the Material World by Proper Causes and Effects less Evident a posteriori The same Great Truth Demonstrated a posteriori For let us pitch our thought upon any one Effect done at present and let it be the Greatest or the most Inconsiderable one as it may seem to us for this alters not the case Plainest Reason will tell us that either it had some Cause or it had none If it had none and yet is it must have been Self-Existent Which is both against Experience for we see it lately produced and against our Reason too because to be Self-Existent is an Incommunicable Attribute of the DEITY If it had a Cause then that Cause was either Indifferent to produce this or any other Effect in which caâ—e it could produce Nothing since Ex indifferenti nihil sequitur Besides every Effect whether it be a Thing or a Mode of Thing is Determinate for whatever is produc'd â—s and whatever is is Determinate since nothing in common can be and an Indeterminate Cause cannot produce an Determinate Effect for in that Supposition it would work contradictorily to it's self It must then be Determinately apt or Proper to produce this kind of Effect and no other This Effect was therefore put because there was such a Determinate or Proper Cause to produce it This seen let us make the same Discourse concerning that which was the Proper Cause as we did now concerning its Effect now mention'd and so of all the Antecedent Causes in the World since Time first started into Motion Each of them Existed or was in it's Season None of them could exist of themselves therefore each of them had a Cause and that by our former Discourse a Determinate or Proper one Nothing therefore is or can be more Demonstrable nor more immediately reducible to Self-Evidence than it is that the whole Course of Nature is carry'd on by Proper Causes and Proper Effects This Consideration made that Great Aristotelian and truly Christian Philosopher Boetius begin his Devout Rapture in Hence the Course of GOD's Work manship the Fabrick of Nature is Close and Indissoluble these Words O qui perpetua Mundum Ratione gubernas The whole Current of our Reason runs upon this Ground and proceeds every step in this beaten Track that every Cause produces such Effects as are Agreeable and Proper to its peculiar Nature and this perpetually or thro' the whole Course of the World For were the Line of Causality interrupted by Chasms and Interstices our Reason would be at an utter Loss This it was also which made that Divine Writer the Author of Ecclesiasticus speaking of the Manner in which the World is Administer'd by the Divine Wisdom deliver his comprehensive Thoughts in these Emphatical Words Attingit a fine in finem fortiter disponit omnia suaviter It reaches from the Beginning to the End or carries it quite thorow Strongly for what stronger than the Infractile Chain of Causality establisht on this Great and Self-Evident Truth that Nothing can make it self or which is the same Nothing that is only Potential or meerly in power to work an Effect can reduce it Self to Act as to that Effect Or what Disposition more Sweet or farther from offering Violence to the Nature of any Cause than 't is to order that it should work connaturally or Act as it is Notwithstanding the Greatest and Clearest Truths can never want Enemies while there is Errour in the World Nor will The Epicurean Tenet of CHANCE Governing the World is most Absurd and Senseless there ever want Errour as long as Men either carelessly or wilfully decline the only Paths that lead to Truth which are to bottom their Discourse at
adds to it still more Indetermination and what 's Common to All and Indeterminate to Any Thing cannot particularize or constitute This or That Thing and only This or That Thing and not Thing in Common or what 's Indeterminate to every Thing can exist in Nature It follows that either there must be no Particular Bodies in Nature that is No One Body or which is the same No Body at all in the whole World or else it must be granted that there must be such an Act corresponding to this Sort of Power which so determines it as to constitute This or That Body in particular Which Second Sort of Act is call'd by the Schools the SUBSTANTIAL or ESSENTIAL FORM and this Second Sort of Power which answers to that Act and is Determin'd by it is call'd MAâ—TER 18. Hence those Things which include in their Natures this Second sort of In what Sence Bodies are said to be Compounded of this Power and its Act. Power and its correspondent Act which use to be call'd Matter and Form are said to be Compounded of them because such a kind of Thing involves in it self and consequently causes in us and verifies the Conceptions of somewhat according to which that Thing is Indeterminate and somewhat according to which it is Determinate under the Notion of Thing or Ens which two Considerations do comprehend all that can be conceiv'd belonging to the Nature of such a kind of Thing as to that Notion precisely which kind of Compound Thing we call a BODY 19. This Second sort of Power called Matter is the sole Ground of all Change and Mutability For since whatever This Second Power Matter is the sole Ground of all Mutability Thing is Determinate is Fixt by that which formally Determines it to be That Thing it is and no Other 't is manifest that from the nature of that Act or Form which by Determining the Matter makes that Thing be what it is no Change into another can proceed Wherefore since by § 17 18. there can be nothing else Conceivable belonging to such a particular Thing or Body but its Power to be such a Thing and its Act which Determines that Power and formally constitutes it such a Thing that is the Matter and the Form and from the Act or Form as far as is on it's part no Mutability or Change from what that Act made it â—…n proceed it follows necessarily that all Change and Mutability under the Notion of Thing must proceed from the Power or Matter Again since all Accidental Acts or Modes do no less in their way Determine and Constitute the Thing to be actually such as that Accident is apt to make it or to be after such a Manner as well as the Essential Act or Form did Determine and Constitute it to be This Thing and no other Thing and that their whole Notion or Nature is terminated in their making it Actually such it follows that from those Accidental Acts or those Modes precisely nothing can have any Ground to be Alter'd or to have Another Mode or Accident Wherefore all Change and Mutability whether Substantial or Accidental can be refunded into nothing but meerly into the Power or Matter as it 's only Ground 20. Corollary IX Hence is demonstrated that if there can be any Pure Acts which have no Power or Matter Hence Pure Acts are Immutable in them as will be shown hereafter there can such aâ— are Angels and Souls Separated they must be naturally Immutable both Substantially and Accidentally See Method to Science B. 3. L. 7. Thesis 6. and Raillery Defeated from § 49. to § 59. 21. The Third sort of Power is that which the Thingâ— consisting of Matter The Third sort of Power respects Accidental Acts. and Form and having over and above it 's Ultimate Act of Existing has to the Modes or Accidental Acts belonging to it as was mention'd § 2. and shown particularly in my Methodâ— B. 1. Less 2. 22. Tho' these Accidental Acts or Modes aâ— is shown above Coroll III. and in my METHOD B. 1. Less 4. § 1 2. Which tho' not properly Things have yet Analogical Essences are not Things in the First and Proper signification of the word Thing but only in a Secondary Improper and Analogical Sense yet they have notwithstanding their Improper and Analogieâ— Essences as has also every Abstract Notion of Conception we have of the Thing and consequently their Nature is sixt to be what it is and no other Whence they have also their Improper but yet Real Metaphysical Verity and First Principles peculiar to their Natures as well as Things properly so call'd or Substances have So that whoever in Discoursing of Quantity â— g. or Action makes Quantity by consequence 〈…〉 to be Quantity or Action not to be Action but destroys the nature of those Modes is as evidently convicted of Contradiction as if he had destroy'd the nature of a Man or an Animal or any other Substance and had made them by consequence not to be what they are as all False Discoursers do 23. Hence is clearly seen what is meant by Metaphysical Divisibility and Composition and that they are not What Metaphysical Divisibility and Composition are â—â—ch as are found between Thing â—â—d Thing in re for this kind of Composition and Division would destroy the Unity and Verity of the Thing beâ—…es that such a Composition is Proper to Artificial things and is contrary to the Constituâ—… of Natural Entities Natural Composition 〈…〉 was shown § 17 18. being made by the â—…eting of the Matter and Form in one such â—… or one Body That Composition and Divisibility then which we call Metaphysical is of the Parts as it were of the Thing as it is in â—our Understanding or of the Thing as concelv'd by us thus and the same Thing as concelv'd by us otherwise For out of our Conception or Understanding there is no Actual Distinction of Matter and Form of Substance and Accidents c. tho' there is Ground in the thing as it is the Object of our Imperfect pitch of Understanding not able to comprehend all that may be thought of it at once why we thus frame Abstract Partial and Inadequate Conceptions of it or which is the same why we thus Divide or Distinguish it And hence it comes that since there can be no Contradiction nor consequently Impossibility unless we Affirm and Deny in the same Respect therefore as there is no Contradiction in such a case in our Understanding because these Respects there are Diverse so there is no Impossibility in Nature but the Thing may be Chang'd Distinguisht Acted upon or Act according to some of those Respects or Conceptions and yet be not-Chang'd not-Act or Suffer according to others of them as will be seen by Instances hereafter 24. Corollary X. This Doctrine particularly this last Clause were the words Ens or Substance Nature Suppositum Person Existence and Subsistence exactly Distinguisht and
no where but in the Things whose Essences the GOD of Truth has made and Establisht and then thou mayst be confident thy Iudgments and Discourses will be Well-grounded and Solid not Airy and Fantastical Imaginations Which tho they flatter thee with fine Appearances counterfeiting Evidence will certainly prove most Obscure leave thee in the dark and be found to be no more but Airy Bubbles when thoy come to be graspt by the Strict Hand or Palma Contracta of Connected Discourse or Exact Reason CHAP. II. Of the ESSENCES of Bodies in in Common and of the First or Simple Bodies in particular 1. EVERY Notion that is not Abstract but Concrete must have some Form or Formal Cause by which it is constituted such This is Self-evident for All Concrete Notious include some Form that constitutes them such we call that a Concrete Notion which is compounded of the Subject which has such a Form in it and the Form which is had by it and which by being in it makes and denominates it to be This Kind of Concrete in particular 2. Wherefore the Notion of Ens it being not an Abstract but a Concrete is constituted by it's ESSENCE as it 's The Form of Ens is Essence Form or Formal Cause which makes it to be an Ens or Thing For since the word Essence imports somewhat that belongs intrinsically to Being and yet is not the Notion of Actual Being or Existence in Nature consequently it can only signifie a Capacity of Being or the Form of that which is Capable of Being that is by Ch. 1. § 5. of Ens. Wherefore as that which is White is made Formally such by having that Mode or Accidental Act in it call'd Whiteness and that which is Round becomes Formally such by having Rotundity in it so every Ens or Thing is formally constituted such by having that Formality in it call'd ESSENCE 3. The Essences of those Things call'd Pure Acts or Spirits consists in their Actual Knowledge For since being Pure The Essences of Pure Acts consists in Actual Knowledge Acts they have no Power â—â— Matter in them their Essence cannot consist in a Power to have what is Natural to them as Knowledge is therefore their Essences must consist in Actual Knowledge of what is due to their Natures to know Again if their Essences did consist only in a Power to Know it being evident that whatever is reduced from the State of Potentiality or Power to that of Actuality or Act is intrinsecally Chang'd and all Change or Mutability proceeds from Matter as is prov'd Ch. I. § 19. and Pure Acts are therefore call'd Pure because they have none of that Power call'd Matter in them it follows necessarily that the Essence of all Intelligences or Intellectual Things can only consist in Actual Knowledge 4. Notwithstanding that Actual Knowledge is Essential to Pure Acts this hinders Yet they are Potential to the Act of Existence not but that they have a Potentiality to that First sort of Act call'd Existence which as is shown Ch. 1. § 3. and 4. is Common and Essential to all Creatures For since to Know is to have the Thing in it intellectually and the Notion of Ens or Thing speaking of Created Things abstracts from Existence it follows that the Knowledge of those Things to which Existence is Accidental consists with the Power to Existence especially since all Knowledge even of the Existence of other Things as will be shown Ch. 6. consists in being those Things as Other or as Distinct from the Knower Wherefore tho' Angels by Actual Knowledge are those other Things with their Existences intellectually yet they being in them as Others they are still left Indifferent in their proper Natures to exist or not exist 5. The Essence of Body or of such an Ens as consists of Matter and Form is The Essence of Body is câ—â—â—â—ly taken from its Form chiefly taken from it's Proper Act or it's Form For since what distinguishes a Thing from all others does consequently make it This and no Other and Matter being of it self perfectly Indeterminate cannot distinguish or determine a Thing to be of this Kind much less to be this Individuum it follows that the Essence of all Bodies and consequently of Body in Common is chiefly taken from the Form or Act. 6. Yet the Compleat Essence of Body is not only taken from the Form but also Yet not only but from the Matter also from the Matter which together with the Form compounds the Nature of Body For since that constitutes the Notion of that Species of Ens call'd Body which distinguishes it essentially from the other Species of Ens call'd Pure Acts or Spirits and the not-being a Pure Act is that which distinguishes it from those Entities which are Pure Acts and the not-being a Pure Act does also out of the force of the very Terms import that it has Power or Matter mixt with it it follows that Body is essentially distinguisht from Spirit by it's being compounded of Power and Act or Matter and Form and consequently not by the Form only Again since Essence speaks the Total Form of any Ens as Humanitas does of Homo or Petreitas of Peter and not meerly that Partial Form which with thâ— other Part call'd Matter compounds Body it must necessarily import an Act of that whole Compound and consequently include a respect to to the Matter also and not to the Form only as is evident from the word Corporeity which signifies thâ— Total Form or Essence of Body 7. Hence Divisible and Indivisible taken as they signifie Quantitative and Not-Quantitative are not the Proper Quantitative and Not-Quantitative are not the Proper Differences that constitute Body and Spirit Differences which constitute the First Kinds of Ens Body and Spirit but the Metaphysical Divisibility and Indivisibility into Matter and Form as besides the Reasons here given is clearly demonstrated in my METHOD to Science B. 1. Less 3. § 4. and 5. In which Lesson if I do not flatter my self that most Useful Doctrine of assigning Proper and Intrinsecal Differences and of Dividing any Genus by such is more Solidly establisht and more clearly and largely deliver'd than has been hitherto The Knowledge of which is so necessary that without this 't is impossible to keep our Notions Distinct or preserve them from interfering and being confusedly jumbled which must forcibly in a high manner obstruct the Way to that Clear and Distinct Knowledge call'd SCIENCE 8. Corollary I. Hence those Philosophers are convicted of a Vast Errour in one of the First Principles The Essence of the FIRST MATTER of the Cartesians cannot consist in only Extension of Nature who make the Essence of their First Body to consist in Nothing but Extension For since as has been Evidently demonstrated in the place now cited § 1. and 2 all Proper and Intrinsecal Differences can be nothing but more or less of the Notion Divided
if Extension be the Essential Constitutive of that Matter of theirs which it not being pretended to be a Spiritual Substance must be some kind of Body then Difference in Extension or more and less of Extension must essentially constitute Distinct Things under the Notion of Body or Distinct Bodies By which Doctrine no Man living nor perhaps any Body in Nature while it continually sends out it's Particles or Effluviums would be the same Body or the same Thing one single moment Which quite destroys the Stability of Things and would alter all or most of the Actions Comportments Duties and even all the Discourse of Mankind since ere they could speak or think of any Thing it would no longer be the same Thing but Another in regard it is perpetually otherwise than it was according to it's Extension which is as they hold it 's Essential Constitutive Nor will it avail the Cartesians to say that this holds in every Simple Body such as are their Three Elements but not in a Mixt Body For no Mixt is according to them any thing but an Aggrâ—…gate of Many and not One Body and so the Subject of our Discourse is alter'd while we speak of One they of a Multitude None of their Mixts being One Thing as is shown Ideae Cartesianae Expensae from Pag. 240. to pag. 248. 9. Corollary II. Hence our Modern Ideists arâ—… equally Faulty while they Nor in Extension and Impenetrability together make the Essence of Body to consist in Extension and Impenetrability which they Nick-name Solidity for they leave out the Matter as not worth considering which as was shown § 6. is part of the Essenâ—… of Body Besides they reflect not thâ—… those Notions which are meerly Quantitative cannot be the Total Form of any Enâ—… nor consequently the Essence of that Enâ— call'd Body To show farther the Essential Distinction of Bodies I advance these following Positions 10. Every Particular Body in the World is essentially a Distinct Part of Nature For since the whole Complex Every Body is essentially a Distinct Part of Nature of Bodies call'd the Universe or the World does essentially consist of a Multitude of Things which are of many Distinct Natures as of it's Parts and their Essence as they are Parts of Nature does consist in their compounding or making up this Aggregate or Whole and all those Parts are such Things as we call Bodies it folâ—â—ws that every Body in the World is essentially such a Thing by it's being a Distinct Part in Nature 11. Wherefore every Body is also essentially ordain'd for some Distinct Proâ—â— and Primary Operation in Nature Wherefore 't is ordain'd for some Proper and Primary Operation in Nature For since the Course of Nature does essentially consist in the Motion of a great Variety of Things which are Agents and Patients in respect of one another and those Things are Bodies which being Distinct in their Individual Essences must consequently every â—hing acting as it is have also some distinct Oâ—â—â—â—tion primarily and properly belonging to them 〈◊〉 proceeding from them that is such as could 〈◊〉 proceed from any other Body It follows that â—â—â—â—y Body is essentially ordain'd for some Distinct Proper and Primary Operation in Nature 12. Wherefore whatever fits the Matter for the Performance of this Primary Operation does essentially constitute Wherefore whatever fits it for this Primary Operation constitutes it such a Thing in Nature or such a Body For since the Course of Nature consists in Moâ—â—â—â— carry'd on with that Reguâ—â—â—â—y and Exact Order that * See B. 4. Med. last every Distinct Thing acting as it is that is after a Distinct but Certain manner Proper Effects should still be produced by Proper Causes were there any Body or Part of Nature which had No Effect at all or which comes to the same no Proper Effect such a Body would be in Vain and Useless or Good for nothing Wherefore since it is impossâ—… that Infinite Wisdom which Created and Goveâ—… the World should make any thing that is in vâ—… and Good for nothing it follows that every Thinâ—… and every Body in Nature is constituted such 〈…〉 Part of it or such a Body by the Aptness it hâ—… to perform its Proper or Primary Operation aâ—… therefore whatever fits the Matter for the Pâ—â—formance of this Primary Operation does essentially constitute such a Thing in Nature or 〈…〉 a Body 13. Corollary III. Hence is seen in what coâ—sists the Metaphysical BONâ—… or GOODNESS of every body In this Fitness to perform its Primary Operation consists it's Metaphysical GOODNESS which is one of the Properties of it as it is an Ens 〈…〉 Thing viz. That it is Useâ—… for some Effect or other tâ—… proceeds from it as 't is such 〈…〉 Ens or for such an Operation as is Propeâ—… and Peculiar to it Whence those Cartesiâ—… who deny Bodies to be Causes of any Effect in Nature no not so much as Instrumentâ—… ones but only to be Occasions which themselves say are No Causes and consequently do put them to have No Operation do by making them Good for Nothing take away their Metaphysical Bonity and BONUM being a Property of ENS by consequence their ENTITY also Moreover 14. Every Body in Nature is essentially an Instrument For since the Definition of an Instrumental Cause is Every Body is essentially an Instrument that it can no otherwise Act than as it is Acted upon or mov'd by Another and no Body can actually move of it 〈…〉 but has only a Power to be mov'd by anoâ—…r because it is far from being a Pure Act â—…ich is essentially in Act according to it's Nature but having Matter in it which is a Power 〈…〉 the Notion of Thing it is a fortiori only Poâ—…ial in order to it's Operation which is Subseâ—…nt to the Notion of Thing Wherefore every â—…dy is only an Instrument put into Motion immediately by Angels or Intelligences which are Pure Acts in such a manner as best conduces to â—â—complish the Intention of the World 's Supreme â—overnour 15. The Essential Difference of Body is chiefly 〈…〉 from the Action it is orâ—…n'd for in Nature and not The Essential Difference of Body is chiefly taken from it's Action 〈…〉 it's Power to be acted on or â—…'d by Another For since â—…t which constitutes any Essence 〈…〉 be the most Formal and as it were the â—…st Noble consideration found in the Thing And Act let it be never so imperfect is far â—ore Formal and more Noble than the Power which corresponds to that Act It follows that the Essential Difference constituting Body must chiefly â—…ring from it's Activeness which belongs to Body 〈…〉 â—t has the nature of Act or Form in it and not â—…om it 's Passiveness or Aptness to be operated upon by others which it has from the Matter 16. Those Accidents or Modes which do make a Body fit for it's Primary Operation in Nature do constirute it
Essential Form and therefore their Consistency or Constancy of being such suppos'd must constitute them Distinct Agents in Nature of Distinct Bodies 9. Notwithstanding that these last-named Accidents do thus concur yet 't is chiefly their Rarity and Density Yet Rarity and Density are the Principal and most Intrinsecal which gives those Mixts and Demixts that Nature in which consists their most Intrinsecal Temperature and Constitution For since Rarity and Density are those Primary Qualities the partaking of which within some certain Degree did constitute the Simple Bodies and all the Mixt Bodies are essentially compounded of Simple ones those two First Qualities must needs be more Intrinsecal to them than are those others which acâ—ru'd to them by the Division of Matter tho they also concur each in his way to determine the Matter so that the Mixt or Compounds may have Different Operations in Nature and thence become Distinct Things or Distinct Mixt Bodies Conformably to what Aristotle asserts Lib. Physic 8. Cap. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Of all the Affections or Determinations of Matter Density and Rarity are the Principal or the Beginning and Origin of all others 10. Corollary I. Hence all the Followers of Democritus whether Epioureans Cartesians or others who Hence the Corpuscularians can give no account of the Intrinsecal Constitution of any Natural Body put no Parts of their Matter to be distinguisht by Rarity and Density which as is prov'd are most Intrinsecal and affirm that they have only in them these two Accidents Extension and Figure the former of which being Common to them all cannot without wronging clear Reason distinguish them and the Later of them it being only the Termination of Quantity is rather Extrinsecal or belonging to the Surface of the Bodies And is evidently impossible to give the Body which has it it 's Inward Constitution hence they cannot possibly give any account of the most Intrinsecal or Essential Constitution and Distinction of their Mixts and Demixts nor consequently of what it is in which the Essence of any particular Body which must certainly be most Intrinsecal to it does consist 11. Of this last sort of Demixts are all Minerals Gems Coral Clay Marl all the several sorts of Earths Of the several sorts of Demixts and such like Which are Differenced by the Proportion Size and Figures of their Rare and Dense particles and not a little by the Situation or Manner of their Texture Whence they come to be more or less Solid or Compacted Light Heavy Clammy Friable Porous Pellucid Fusible Malleable c. To treat of which particularly and reduce them into their Proper Causes belongs to Physicks or Natural Philosophy Nor is it very hard to do this were true Principles of Nature taken up at First and pursu'd home by Immediate Consequences 12. The same Accidents and particularly the Figure and Situation of Parts give Bodies their different manner The Ground of Sensible Qualities of affecting our Senses For 't is not hard to show that all Colour and it 's several kinds are chiefly produced by These as also the Qualities of Odoriferous Stinking Sweet Sharp Sowr Rough Smooth Bodies Tho' Sound and it's Varieties spring from the Greater or Lesser Tension Thickness or Smart Force of the Instrument that makes the Different Motions of the Air. 13. Corollary II. If the Duration of those Bodies be Transitory and Unconstant in comparison of others that seem Of Imperfect Mixts of the same sort they are call'd in a Common Appellation Imperfect Mixts such as are Winds Snow Hail Smoak Mists Meteors c. and therefore wanting that Constancy an Argument of their not being well united they are less properly Entia or Things than the Perfect Mixts are as is shown Ch. 2. § 17. And perhaps they are no more but Aggregates of more Distinct Bodies lighting together casually or approximated to one another and sticking together by virtue of some Physical Quality for some short time which is not enough to make those Compounds to be Constant and Distinct Agents in Nature or Distinct and Perfect Natural Bodies 14. When the Parts of a Demixt are exexceedingly Different in their several Temperaments and withall Of Living Bodies One of them the Common Causes of the World setting them on work is apt to move Another that Body is said to be LIVING For since the Notion of LIFE is A Principle of Self-Motion and there are no Actual Parts in any Compound whence we say All Actions and Passions are of the Suppositum it follows that the Action or Motion of each of those Parts is the Action or the Motion of the Whole Thing tho' consider'd particularly according to such a Part of it Hence such a Thing one Part of which moves another is truly said to move it self or to be LIVING 15. The Simplest Lowest and Ignoblest sort of Living or Self-moving Things are those which are meer Vegetables Of Vegetables For since all Proper Differences are more and less of the Generical Notion and Life is Self-Motion that is One sort of Motion and to move Swiftly and Slowly is to move more or less it follows that Velâ—city and Tardity are the First Differences of all Motions of which to move it self is one and consequently that to perform their Primary Operation more quickly and more slowly does essentially distinguish Living Things as they are Living Wherefore since Experience shows and it will be more clearly manifested hereafter that Vegetables or Plants do more slowly and more dully go about their Primary Operation than other Self-moving Things v. g. Brutes or Men do it follows that those Bodies we call Vegetables or Plants are the Simplest Lowest and Ignoblest of Self-moving of Living Things 16. The Primary Operation of meer Vegetables is to nourish the Compound For since as any attentive Speculater The Primary Operation of Vegetables may observe every Thing is ordain'd to preserve it's own Unity and Entity as much as it can this preserving it self is most Natural and Intrinsecal to it and therefore not a Secondary but it 's Primary Action Wherefore those Individual Vegetables which have a Power in them to concoct their Proper Juice or Sap and so make it fit Aliment for them which is the Preserving themselves from Withering or Decay must be ordain'd in the first place or primarily to perform this Operation Especially since whatever other or Secondary sorts of Actions they may be Useful for in Nature will be better accomplish'd by their being first nourisht duly and as they ought which by perfecting them in Being does make them more-perfect Agents 17. Wherefore the Form of Vegetables is that Complexion of Accidents as fits the Vegetable for that Operation The Form of Vegetables and it 's Essence consists in this that the Matter of it's Parts has such a Complexion of those Modes or Accidents in it as sits one of them to work upon or move another in order to the
Corrupted Much less in Man or totally Disabled that are necessary for Ratiocination which is the Primary Operation of his Species Man 24. Hence the Individuality of a Simple Body or Element if there be any such now would be alter'd if the Degree of Rarity When the Individuation is lost in Simple Bodies and Density be so notably chang'd that a vastly different Operation follows from it and that the Subject which is thought to succeed does enjoy that Degree not meerly successively or in transitu but with some kind of Constancy or for some time so that it will not be immediately reduced to it's former state by Natural Causes For in this case that Degree alters the Species it self of the Simple Body as is shown Ch. 2. § 21. and consequently the Individuation 25. Hence the Individuality of First-Mixt Bodies is lost when they are dissolv'd into Simple Bodies because When in First-Mixt Bodies this changes the Specifick Nature of a Mixt. See Ch 3. § 2 3 4. 26. Hence Demixts are Individually Chang'd when the Proportion of the First-Mixts is alter'd to a high Degree When in Demixts and continues so with some Constancy See Ch. 3. § 7 8. 27. Simple Division if perfectly such takes away the Individual Unity in Homogeneous Bodies For since When in Homogeneous Bodies to Divide is to make more of oâ—â— and what divides the Thing or Individuum as 't is an Ens divides it as 't is Unâ—â— and therefore takes away it's Unity and on the other side since Homogeneous Bodies are such that each part of them does according to it's pitch perform the same kind of Primary Operation It follows that meer Division if it be perfected takes away the Individual Unity Again since neither part of the Divided Body is by Division annihilated each of them after Division â—s Capable of Existence and consequently they being made Two at least by Division they become duo Entia and since they can and do exist Two Individuums 28. Yet meer Division does not necessarily alter the Divided Individuum essentially if it be very Heterogeneous When in very Heterogeneous or Organical Bodies â—â— Organical For since the former Individuum is in that case if not always under such a Species aâ— is Constituted by such a Complexion of Accidents as fits it for it's Primary Operation and the Individuum has moreover a peculiar Complexion of it's own both which being Essential to them they must consequently continue essentially the same while the same Formal Constituent remains because it is still Capable to perform the Substance of it's former Operation It follows that the former Individuum and Species too must continue unless the Division is such that it destroys the said Complexion which as was shown Ch. 2. § 16. and here § 9. is their Essential Form Wherefore the former Individuum is in these only chang'd Accidentally that is â—oses only some virtuality or potentiality of it's Matter some part of it's Quantity or some Qualities immediately affecting that part which is taken from it none of which are Essential to it and these Accidents which the Matter of that part had formerly being sufficient to Determine the Matter of which a New Individuum is made that Matter is so dispos'd before-hand that there needed little but to put it out of the condition of being any longer a Port to fit it for Existence 29. Two contra-distinct Natures may very connaturally if things be well order'd compound One Individual Two contradistinct Natures may Compound One Thing Ens or One Thing And therefore the Soul and Body may make up that One Thing call'd A Man For there can be no doubt but that Things of the most opposite Natures can and do perfectly agree in the Common Generical Notion of Thing and that therefore all their Disagreement Opposition and Inconsistency does spring from their Differences or that we may bring the Discourse from Logical to Metaphysical Language from the Act from which only and not from the Power all Distinction and consequently Contradistinction comes Wherefore when there are not two Distinct Substantial Acts in the Compound as there is in Hirco-ceruus and other Chimera's nothing can hinder their Coalition into One Thing On the other side since there can be no difficulty for the Proper Parts of any Compound to make up One Whole and it has been shown Chap. 1. § 17 18. that the Proper Parts of a Compound Ens as such are Power and Act 't is Clear that there are not more Contradistinct Acts in such an Ens. Wherefore if the Matter or Power on the Body's side can by the Author of Nature be so dispos'd as to require a Form of a Spiritual Nature the Bodily Part will thence become the Proper Matter of that Compound Ens and that Spiritual Nature will be the Proper Act or Form of such a Body and this verè essentialiter as the Council of Vienna has defin'd and so both together will friendly conspire to make up that One Ent call'd a Man The main difficulty then objected is quite taken away and superseded For since only Two Substantial Acts can distinguish and multiply Entia or Things and here is but One Act determining the Power or Matter to This Entity and consequently to Unity under the notion of Thing 't is demonstrable by a Metaphysical Argument as it was Ch. 4. § 1. by a Logical one that Man made up according to this Doctrine of Soul and Body is most truly and properly One Thing as much as any other Natural Compound whatever and not Two Things This Discourse supposes there can be some Dispâ—â—â—ion in a Body requiring a Form which is not educible out of the Power or Matter by Natural Causes Of which see Ch. 4. especially § 10. and the Preliminary there cited 30. There is no show of Impossibility why the Divine and the Human Nature may not join in one Suppositum And the Human Na ture may subsist in the Divine Suppositum or rather why the Human Nature may not subsist in a Divine Person For since an Infinite Being as the Divine Nature iâ— has eminently in it's self all the Perfections belonging to Being of which as was shown above Coroll 6. Subsistence or Standing alone by it's own virtue is one and consequently it can supply by it self immediately any such Perfection so it does not induce any Imperfection in GOD only which can render it impossible it follows that Humane Nature may be made to subsist in a Divine Suppositum provided it draws not after it any Imperfection or Unbecomingness Unworthy of GOD which cannot be said in this case For to communicate or impart it's Subsistence or Personality to another is most Agreeable to an Infinite Goodness when his Wisdom sees it most fit and most Necessary for the Good of a very considerable Portion of the Creation Nor does this put the least degree of Potentiality or Imperfection in the Divine
which this Composition is made is Immaterial Of this Metaphysical Composition and Division see Chap. 1. â— 23. 20. Corollary I. Hence is clearly seen the reason why Angels do not thus Divide and Compound when Hence is seen the Reason why Angels do not thus Compound and Divide they know but all passes in them by Simple and Simultaneous Intuition viz. Because they have no Abstracted Conceptions as having no Senses which receive Different Impressions from Outward Objects as we have and therefore they cannot frame Iudgments as we do by Connecting Notions or Predicating Whence they must either not know at all which is against the nature of an Intelligence or Intellectual Creature which is a Pure Act or else they must know the Whole Thing at once Intuitively 21. Demonstration XVIII But to come nearer that Operation of our Soul call'd Iudging All our Affirmative Demon. XVIII Because what is meant by the Copula it which is us'd in all our Affirmative Judgments cannot possibly be so much as Shadow'd or Represented by any Material Similitude Judgments are as Logick shows made by the Copula is which connects the two Terms But 't is impossible to conceive that what is meant by is should be represented by a Material Resemblance A Painter may delineate Caesar but 't is impossible to Pourtray by Particles of Matter tho' never so artificially laid together that Caesar is or was He may paint him Fighting and putting that Action had ever been it would signifie he was once because What Acts IS But what Pencil or what Colours can ever signifie that that Action ever was This must come from an Intelligent Mind which having the Notion of Existence in it consented it should be signify'd by is or was or else it must ever remain Unknown tho' Apelles had set himself to resemble it The most Delicate Subtilty of Parts can no more avail here than if it had been drawn in those of the largest size Actual Being as we experience abstracts from or is Indifferent to Greatness and Littleness and all the Materials which a Painter uses are Indifferent to Being and Not-being and are equally apt to reâ—â—â—sent things that are as things that are not â—dd that whatever is pourtray'd by Matter must have part after part or one part out of another whereas the Notion of Existence or that which is signify'd by the word IS is every way Indivisible and has no parts at all as is shown Demonstration 6. 22. Demonstration XIX The same is perhaps more forcibly demonstrated from the Third Operation of our Mind Deâ—â—â— XIX Because the Connexion of the â—â—â—clusion with Right Premisses is â—â—â—e the Force of all Nature or â—atter and Imâ—â—â—â—le to bâ— Solv'd â—â— Broken Discourse or Ratiocination For First this consists of Propositions and Judgments and therefore is prov'd Dem. 19. and 21. not to be performâ—ble by Matter Secondly Discourse is the Deducing a Conclusion from the Connexion which the two Extremes in the Premisses have with a Third which kind of Connexion is callâ—d Inference Deduction Pâ—â—ving Argumentation Ratiocination and if the Medium be Proper Demonstration Discourse then being evidently such a Connexion of Propositions I ask In what Soil or Territory in Nature do Propositions grow Not in Material Nature since no Division or Composition of those kind of Metaphysical Parts of which Propositions consist can be made in Matter or performed by a Material Divider or Compounder as has been lately shown Again to what Material Cement or Connecting Virtue conceiveable in Bodies can this Close Coherence which if the Terms be Proper and rightly order'd is absolutely Indissoluble owe it's Origine Nor to Quantity whose Coherence is Continuity for this is by a great force Dissoluble whereas the Connexion we speak of is above all Material Force Nor can all the Strength or Nerves of Natural Causes strain'd to exert their utmost Efforts not that of Canons shattering the Hardest-Walls or of Powder riuing asunder the most impenetrable Rocks be able to solve a Good Argument or tear in pieces the Connexion of it's Terms Nor can their Indissolubleness be owing to some Tenacious or Glutinous Quality Nor are those parts of a Conclusive Discourse hook'd or clung together by means of their Figure as Epicurus pretended of his Atomes Nor any way but by the Reason of the Sequel or Consequence which as has been demonstrated in my Method B. 3. L. 1. § 3. is built on a self-evident or Identical Proposition which First Truth is so Invincibly Strong that sooner may all Material Nature crumble to Dust and be reduced to a Chaos than such a Proposition can be Solv'd or made False Wherefore this Connexion of Notions found in our Judgments which are True is of a Strength above all Matter or Quantity and of a more Stable and consequently of a Superiour Nature to all Material Beings Whence follows that both It and the Subject in which it is the Soul are Immaterial 23. Demonstration XX. The same is evidently deduced hence that all the Notions in the Soul are most determinately Demon. XX. Because all the Notions the Soul has are Concise and Exact even to an Indivisible such to an Indivisible even tho' they be of things which in their own Nature as they stand in Matter are Indeterminate For Example There â—â—â—â— Body in Material Nature which is exactly â—â— Mathematically Square Round or Triangular â—â— reason of the perpetual turmoil of Natural Causes Acting and Re-acting which making Impressions upon one another are perpetually 〈◊〉 their Surfaces or Figures Nay tho' Art â—oes it't utmost to assist Nature by drawing Fiâ—â—â—â—â— with the most Exact Instruments yet a 〈◊〉 Microscope will tell us that there will be 〈◊〉 Extancies Cavities and Irregularities which 〈◊〉 not with the Figures which are in our 〈◊〉 Whence were they not more accurately â—â—â—â—â—ated in our Minds than they can be drawn â—â— Matter all our Mathematical Demonstrations which proceed upon their being such to an â—ndivisible would be render'd Incondusive From whence it comes that we fancy to our selves â—â—â—ts in Lines and Instants in Time which are â—â— Indivisibles Nay 't is Evident That all Noâ—… whatever do admit of no Degrees but are Indivisibly such as we conceive them and are 〈◊〉 to Numbers in which the least Addition â—â— Detraction alters it quite and makes it anoâ—… Which appears hence because every least 〈◊〉 in any of them if known by us is a â—â—w Respect or a New Consideration that is a â—â—w Notion Whence is concluded That the â—â—ject our Soul which gives these Modes an â—â—â—â—visible Being in her self which they had not â—â— Matter is also it self of an Indivisible and Immaterial Nature 24. Demonstration XXI Hence Demon. XXI Because the Soul is a Pure Act and therefore Immaterial is demonstrated that the Soul is of her own Nature a Pure Act it being the Property of the Act to Determine and of the Power or Matter to cause Indetermination
and Confâ—sion Whence follows that that which Determines most perfectly or to an Indivisible has no Matter at all in it but is of it 's own peculiar Nature and consider'd according to her self only a Pure Act and therefore Immaterial 25. Demonstration XXII Numberless are the Demonstrations and to the shame Demon. XXII Because the Soul gives a kind of Being to Non-Entities and Chimeraes which can have no Existence in Nature of Atheists be it spoken as many as the Soul has particular Acts or Objects to evince her Immateriality and consequently her Immortality I have rather hinted a few of them here than endeavour'd to enumerate them all or pursue them home as they might deserve Only I hope that the Grounds I have laid and the Way I have taken in my Proofs may exciâ—â— some others to add many other Demonstrations as occasion invites and enforce these I have here touch'd upon to a fuller and clearer Eviction of this Preliminary Point to all Religion I shall only add this Last Demonstration We have Notions in our Minds of Indivisibles of Negations Privations of Non-Ens of Chimera's of Chrystal Mountains a Golden Earth and innumerable such which we can frame to our selves at pleasure We are most Certain all these are in our Minds as Objects of our Simple Apprehensions because we know and have in us the Meanings of those Words which signifie them as also because we can by our Iudgment admit some of them as Possible and reject others as Impossible which we could not do unless we had the Natures as it were of each of them in our Understanding before we come to judge of them otherwise we should Admit and Reject we know not what nor why which we are sure we do not Nay we can by a Reflex Act have a Notion of their Formalities as Distinct from or Superadded to the Subjects they are conceiv'd to affect Now none of these formally conceiv'd can with any shew of Sense have any Being in Nature or Matter some of them being formally Non-Entities others Chimerical which is in a manner the same Therefore this Distinct Being they have in our Mind as Objects of our Simple Apprehension is most incontestably Immaterial and therefore their Subject the Soul is such also To clear the Meaning of some Words we have us'd and to meet with some Objections I thought fit to subjoyn these following Notes 26. Note I. I fear that when we say the Soul is of an Indivisible Nature some Readers who are not well vers'd in Metaphysicks should be apt to apprehend How some do mistake the Nature of the Indivisibility attributed to the Soul that we take the word Indivisible in a Mathematical Sense and mean she is Indivisible as a Point is or so little that there is not Space enough for the least possible Divider to come between the Parts of it and so Divide it And hence they may imagine it Inconceiveable that all these several Notions or Natures of things which are in our Knowledge and so many Innumerable Operations should all be Compriz'd and Transacted in so narrow a room as is a Point or a Quantitative Indivisible But the thing is quite otherwise Those kind of Indivisibles call'd Points and such like have no Positive Being in Nature but because we must conceive a Finite Line whose every Part it being some Quantity is Divisible has an End hence this End or as we may call it No-fartherness of Quantity is no Quantity and therefore Quantity being Divisibility it is not Quantitative nor Divisible but Indivisible Now those Ends or Not-Beings of Quantity we call Points or Surfaces according to the Respective Quantities which they are conceiv'd to terminate So likewise Continuative Indivisibles which some do imagine in Quantity and suppose them to be in the midst of all Quantitative Beings can mean no more in any good Sense but that let us divide any Continu'd Quantity where we please the Parts when Divided becoming so many Wholes will for the same reason be each of them Terminated as that Greater Whole was Whence some conceit that these result as it were from that Division only they change their Office and are become Terminative now whereas they were before Continuative and that they were potentially in that Former Whole before and are only of late Discluded For Because we call this sort of Quantity Continu'd it being the Genius of such Mis-Speculaters whenever they are at a plunge to invent some New Entity to do the Job they cannot apprehend how Quantitative Parts should cohere but by this Cement of Continuative Indivisibles Not considering that 't is the Nature Entity or Unity peculiar to Quantity to be Continu'd of it's self For it 's Essence being Divisibility and what 's Divisible or has only a Power to be Divided quantitatively or a Power to be made More according to the Respect of Quantity not being Actually thus Divided and what 's not Actually thus Divided or made more is out of the force of the Terms Actually One according to the notion of Quantity which kind of Quantitative Unity we call Continuity to contra-distinguish it from Discrete Quantity the Parts of which are actually and really Divided and Separated and only Ty'd into One Number by the Operation or Consideration of the Mind as is shewn above Hence whatever Bodies have Quantity in them are by It as by the Formal Cause Quantitatively One or Continu'd without any other assistance Another Reason or rather the main Errour which led those Schoolmen into that Groundless Conceit was their Fanâ—ying that there are Actual Parts in every Compound particularly in Quantity the contrary to which is Demonstrated Ch. 1. § 27. No wonder then such a Fundamental Truth in Metaphysicks being violated those Gentlemen have faln into these absurd Tenets about Indivisibles especially being apt to conceit that whenever we have a diverse Conception or Notion in our Mind there is a New Entity in re answering to it adequately even tho' sometimes the Object of that Conception be purely a Non-Ens 27. Note II. When therefore we say that an Angel or a Soul is Indivisible however we are forced to use a Negative The Proper and True Sense in which a Spirit is said to be Indivisible Manner of Expression because we have no Proper Notion of a Spiritual Substance we do not intend to express by that word a meer Negation as we did in those Indivisibles call'd Points but the most Positive Being that can be next to that of GOD himself Which I show thus Ens and all other Common Notions as is Demonstrated in my Method to Science B. 1. L. 3. is Divided by More and Less of the Common Notion of Ens or by being more Capable of Being or Existing Thus far Logick which teaches us how to Divide our General Notions by Proper or Intrinsecal Differences The Supreme Science of Metaphysicks which treats of the Essence of Things takes up the Thesis and pursues it
comprehend those Times and Places which are Modes of those Things and consequently Parts of the Entire Notion of those Things themselves that is she must comprehend all Time or Place 8. Corollary I. Hence is demonstrated how great an Errour it is and against Hence her Operations are not measur'd by Time They and their Subject being of a Superiour Nature the Nature of a Pure Act to put the Duration of Pure Spirits to be in some sort Successive and that their Operations and consequently their Existence are measureable by the Differences of Time Before and After whereas they comprehend all Time and are of such a Nature as far transcends it 9. Therefore such a Soul cannot but naturally have an Ardent Longing to know the Nature of the First Cause that Hence she will be Eternally Miserable unless she knows the First Cause GOD. made and order'd those Things For since 't is Essential to the Soul to be Cognoscitive and consequently the whole Bent and only Good of her Nature in that State is to have all the Knowledge she can and must wish and the Knowledge of the Effects does naturally and also vehemently excite and enflame those who are wholly addicted to Knowledge as the Soul naturally is in that State to know the Cause which Created them of Nothing and rang'd them in that most beautiful Order Nay since they do not know those things as they ought without knowing them a priori in their First Cause and how and by what virtue he Created them Again since as was often prov'd the Knowledge of all Created Truths they being Finite cannot in the least fill or satisfie the Natural Desire of the Soul and therefore only the Knowledge of an Infinite Truth can satiate and content her and she cannot but vehemently long to enjoy that which only can satisfie a Propension so â—adicated in her Nature It follows from all these heads that the Knowledge of all Created Truths do serve only to increase her Thirst and to enflame her Desire more ardently and impatiently to know the Nature or Essence of that Infinite and Glorious Source of all Being the First Cause from which issued all those admirable Effects and which she now sees is the Object only worthy of her Knowledge Whence she must look upon her self as utterly lost and unâ—one and remain eternally miserable if she falls short of that only Soul-satisfying Sight 10. From the § § 4 and 5. it follows necessarily that a Soul when Separated is naturally while Separated Hence also she is naturally Unchangeable Unchangeable For besides other Reasons the Notion of Created Ens is adequately Divided by Indivisible and Divisible as by its Differences which are Contradictories Nor is there any thing in the Species but the Notion of the Genus in which they agree and the Notion of the Difference by which they disagree and this in our case contradictorily Hence it follows that whatever is Affirm'd of One of the Species besides the Generical Notion the Contradictory to it must be Affirm'd of the Other Species wherefore as truly and certainly as we can affirm of One of the Species Body that it is Quantitative Divisible has Part after Part and that its Operations are perform'd Successively one after another c. so truly can we affirm of the Other Species Spirit that it is Unquantitative Indivisible has not Part after Part and is not Successive in its Operations in regard none of these relate to the Genus But what has no Successiveness in it cannot be otherwise than it was before or Chang'd Therefore the Soul while it is a pure Spirit is naturally Unchangeable 11. From the same § 5. 't is demonstrated without needing any farther Hence too as soon as Separated she knows all the Thoughts and Affections Words and Actions of her past Life Proof that the Soul when Separated knows and cannot but know all the Words Actions Thoughts and Affections of her whole fore-past Life finding those Later in her Self she her Self being then her own First Immediate and Ever-present Object and the Former in the Course of Causes and in the Circumstances there mention'd Also that she cannot but know the Natural Actions Thoughts c. of others since these also were Effects and had their Causes and so were knowable by her as well as the others Lastly That she must a fortiori know what Good or Bad Dispositions were in her self when she Dy'd they being now Modes or Accidents of her self nor is it possible that a Creature that has Knowledge and Will in it should not even in this dull State know what it self chiefly wishes and desires 12. Corollary 1. Hence is understood how the Particular Iudgment determining the Soul's Future Condition Whence follows the Particular Judgment which determines her Lot at the Hour of Death is made at the Hour of Death and how she comes to Hope or Despair of Eternal Hap piness according as she sees her self Fit or Unfit for it whence she becomes Determin'd to her Final Lot which Fitness or Unfitness is in the Old Language of the Christian Church call'd Merit or Demerit which are the same as Disposition or Indisposition for Bliss only differing in an Extrinsecal Denomination taken from GOD's having Promis'd and Threaten'd the Happy or Unhappy Consequences of Good or Bad Actions 13. Corollary II. Hence also is understood how the Book of Conscience will be laid open at the last Day Hence is understood how the Book of Conscience will be laid open at the last Day when GOD shall reveal abscondita tenebrarum or as the Sybill expresses it Cunctaq cunctorum cunctis arcana patebunt and this after a more Clear and Solemn Manner than meer Nature could have perform'd 14 Corallary III. Hence also we may see why and how Infants are connaturally sav'd by Baptism as And how Infants are connaturally sav'd by Baptism by the most General and Genuine Means For they carry no Dispositions out of the Body but Affections to the Mother's Dug to lie soft and warm and such like which being meerly Natural or rather Animal were too weak and too base to put any thing in them which might raise them in their Future State towards Heaven But when they come into the Region of Light and know all things amongst the rest that they were Baptiz'd in Christ's Name and that that External Action the Impressions and consequently the Notions of which remain yet in their Soul was particularly done upon them and was Ordain'd as a Supernatural Means by Him acting as a Supernatural Agent for their Salvation or to addict them to Him and make them His immediately that Sacrament as others also do working its Effect ex vi Institutionis Christi gives them other Thoughts and Higher Aims than meer Nature could have done makes them conceive Actual Hope and Love of their Good GOD and Saviour and so disposes or fits them at the same Instant for Heaven 15. Corollary
defeat all the Opâ—â—ion that can be made against it 10. Corollary I. Our foregoing Discourses being chiefly built on that piece of Doctrine in my Method This Doctrine being built on that Logical Maxim All Differences are more and less of the Generical Notion The Consideration of that Thesis is recommended to the Reader B. I. L. 3 § 2. that all Intrinsecal or Essential Differences in any Predicament or under whatever Notion are nothing else but More and Less of that Notion therefore since so much stress is put upon this Thesis I beg of my Readers to peruse attentively the Third Chapter of my Method to Science my Ideae Cartesianae Expensae Pag. 51 52 53. and Raillery Defeated § 72. where this Position is at large explicated and defended against the Mistakes of my Opposers Which I do the rather Request because however it may seem New yet I dare affirm that besides it 's being perfectly Demonstrable no one Rule in Logick is more Useful to keep our Notions Distinct or to frame Right Definitions or to Discourse solidly or exactly 11. Corollary II. What 's deduc'd here of the very Essences of things being intellectually or as Objects in the This holds equally in the Soul which is of a Spiritual Nature Understanding of an Angel does for the same reason hold in every Spiritual or Cognoscitive Nature and consequently in the Soul whether in the Body or Separated the Argument being grounded on the Nature of a Spirit and it 's being Superiour to the Nature of Body 12. Corollary III. For the same reason what has been discourst before of the Angels being Pure Acts are Immutable Immutability of a Soul while Separated and of her Final or Eternal State springing from her Choice of a wrong Last End if unretracted before Death may Mutatis Mâ—tandis be apply'd to an Angel without needing Repetition or farther Enlarging upon it 13. Since the Essence or Nature of an Angel is to be after such a manner Cognoscitive the Distinction of Angels The Distinction of Angels is taken from their being more or less Cognoscitive after their manner must consist in their being more or less thus Cognoscitive This is already Demonstrated because by the Doctrine lately given all the Intrinsecal or Essential Differences under whatever Kind or Notion are nothing but more or less of the Common Notion or the partaking of it unequally 14. Yet this Degree of Cognoscitiveness which â—â—â—â—itutes Distinct Angels must This is not to be understood of the greater Extent of their Knowledge but of the Intenseness or Penetrativeness of it understood of the Intenseness â— their Knowledge or the Penetrativeness of their Knowing Poâ—â— For since every Pure Act â—â—is shown above and particuâ—â—â— Raillery Defeated P. 89 90. â—â—ws All things it cannot be understood of the Extent of their Knowledge or that one of them knows a Greater Number of things than Another It must therefore be meant â—â— One of them knows things more perfectly â—â—â— clearly thorowly or deeply than Another â—â—â— Which as may be seen in my Ideae Cartesianae P. 68 69. may spring from two Causes Oâ— Because Eorum aliqui magis perspicaâ—i Intelâ—â—â— acie praediti sunt quà m alii which seems â—â— be most Essential to them The Other Because by their seeing better the First Cause it self they must better and withal more solidly and â—â—â—ndedly know those Effects that spring â—â—â—m that Supreme Cause 15. Corollary IV. From this Greater or Lesser Excess of Knowledge as thus explicated as far as Natural Hence as far as Reason carries us is taken the Distinction of the Three Hierarchies and Nine Quires of Angels Reason carries us are taken the Diverse Orders of Angels All farther or more particular Disquisition concerning the Three Hierarchies and Nine Quires of Angels is left to Divines gathering them from Holy Writ and the Antient Mysticks A Philosopher must step no farther than he can tread sure upon his own Firm Grounds 16. Corollary V. From our Discourse about Human Souls and Angels will be seen in what different manner The different manner by which Angels and Human Souls come to have all their Knowledge and by what means an Angel and a Humane Soul when Separate come to know all things The Later by Notions caus'd at first by Impressions on the Senses and improv'd into Iudgments and Discourses The Former by Knowledge not Acquir'd but Innate The First and Immediate Objects of both of them is Themselves or their own Essence Whence a Soul in regard it's Body and consequently the Determination of the Degree of Rationality it had grew as it were out of Natural Causes knows all things as first Connected with her self then with one another in the well-linkt Chain of those Causes in which there can be no Flaw or Interruption But an Angel knows all Things by Transcending from one Ens or one Degree of Entity to another and this Intuitively that is an Angel by knowing it self knows what place it bears in the Order of Angels or Spirits And since it could not know it 's own particular pitch or Individuality but by knowing how high or low it is in the Order of Angelical Beings nor could this be known but by knowing the whole Order because in an Order which is contriv'd after the best manner each part is proportion'd in exact Symmetry to the rest Hence the Knowledge of that whole Order and consequently of each part of it or each Entity in the whole Creation is Due to it's Nature and therefore is given it As for the Knowledge of Corporeal Nature 't is below them both and therefore both of them comprehends it Knowingly as is deduced above Lastly The Soul gains her Knowledge by Abstract or Inadequate Notions and by Discourse whereas an Angel knows at once the Whole Entities and all that belongs to them and this not by Discourse or Reflex Thoughts but by a Direct Penetrative and Comprehensive Intuition 17. There is besides those Differences amongst Angels mention'd § 13. 14. and Câ—roll V. Another arising from These Angels have a Nobler Essence whose each Act of Knowledge has for it's Object a Greater Portion of the Universe the several Degrees or rather Manners of that Cognoscitiveness which is Essential to them viz. That some of them know more things by One Operation or Act of Knowledge or as it were by one Thought than Another does which happens because the Object of each Thought which some of them have is more Universal than are the Objects of those Thoughts that others have Parallels of which may be found among our several Sorts of Knowers or Philosophers here Some treat of such particular Sorts of Quantities or Figures Others of Quantity or Figure in their whole Latitude or iâ— Common Some Philosophers have for the Objects of their Knowledge such a sort of Ens as Minerals or such a Species of Birds or Beasts Others raise their Thoughts to contemplate Body or
Ens in their whole Extent as do Metaphysicians But with this difference which renders them Unparallel that our Science is employ'd about Abstract Notions of the Thing that is about the Thing consider'd in such an Abstracted or Common Respect without descending to the Under-Kinds or to the Individuums under it whereas the Intuitive Knowledge of an Angel as not being made by way of Abstract or Inadequate Conceptions comprehends in one Act or at once the Individualities of all those Things from which We abstract one Common Notion and all that belongs to them Whence when we said that the Generical Notion common to all Angels is to be Cognoscitive it is to be understood of an Intuitive Cognoscitiveness or such a one as we have describ'd above by which they are distinguisht from the Inferiour or Narrower Degree of Knowingness peculiar to the Soul in this State and even in some respect as she is found in her State of Separation 18. The same is evinced by Reason For since the Object speciâ—ies the Act and the Excellency of the Act Which makes them fit to superintend the Administration of a Larger Province argues a more excellent Faculty or Power and consequently a more Excellent Degree of the Essence or Nature of the Acter and since Bonum I add Verum this being the Best and most Connatural Good of a Knowing Creature quò Communius eò Divinius It follows that the Essence of those Angels are more Excellent and Noble who have a more Comprehensive and Larger Knowledge of more Universal Objects at once or by one Act whence it comes that since Reflexion or Deliberation can have no place in Pure Acts but are contrary to their Nature they are fitted for the Overseeing more-Common Goods or to preside over the Spiritual Good of Provinces Kingdoms or great Nations of People 19. Corollary VII That which gives greater force to this Doctrine is the Consonancy it has to the How Consonant this is to those Passages of the Holy Scripture which speak of such Operations of Angels Sacred Scripture Where Daniel Ch. 10. we read of the Angel of the Kingdom of Persia withstanding that particular Angel in likelihood Gabriel who presided over the Iews till Michael who was Higher in Dignity than the former being Chief Patron and Defender of the Jewish Church then as he is held to be of the Christian Church now over-power'd his Inclination by his more Soveraign Influence Where also we read of the Angel who was Prince or Super-intendent over the Greeks divers of which sort if not all were Archangels Whereas 't is generally held and is Consonant to Reason That the Angel-Guardians of Particular or Individual Persons are of the Lowest and least-Cognoscitive Quire of meer Angels Thus far concerning the Essence and Internall Operations of Angels We proceed now to their External Operation or their Action upon other Things 20. An Angel cannot operate upon another Angel so as to make it otherwise than it was For since that An Angel cannot operate upon another Angel so as to change it Operation must work some new Effect in it and this requires some Passive Principle in the Subject rendring it Mutable which Principle we call Matter And Angels they being Pure Acts have not that sort of Power call'd Matter in them it follows that an Angel cannot thus operate upon another Angel nor for the same reason upon a Soul while 't is Separate 21. Wherefore all such External Operation of an Angel can be only upon Bodies For since an Angel can neither Wherefore all it 's External Operation so as to work a Change in another thing can only be upon Bodies thus operate upon that is alter another Angel nor a Separated Soul because they are Pure Acts much less GOD who is an Infinitely Pure Act and essentially Immutable and there is no other Subject imaginable it follows that the External Operation of Angels must either be exercis'd on Bodies or on Nothing 22. An Angel can operate upon Material Entititles or on Body For since the Being of an Angel is Superiour An Angel can thus operate upon Material Entities or Bodies to the Nature of Body and consequently it 's Faculty or Power of Acting is Superiour to whatever is in Body that can resist it's Activity Also since being a Pure Act it 's Nature is Active Wherefore seeing on the other side Matter is easily or rather essentially Passive and there can want no Application of such an Agent to such a Patient because an Angel has the Natures or Essences nay the Existences of Bodies and all that can belong to them intimately joyn'd to their Understanding by Knowledge of them 'T is Evident that there are all the Requisites imaginable put for their Operating upon Body and producing some Effect in it which was not in it before that is of Changing it Wherefore an Angel has Power to Operate this upon Body or Material Nature Nor is there any Disproportion between the Motion which the Angel works in Bodies and such an Immediate Cause as was shown § 5. is between GOD and such an Effect since as has been shown Method to Science B. I. L. 8. § 2. Motion according to it 's precise Nature or as it superadds to it's Subject is as it were made up of Non-Entities or next to nothing and every Created Being as to what it has of it self is such All the Essential Distinction between Creatures and consequently their Formal Constitution being only such and such Limitations of Being or more and less that is thus much and no more of Entity 23. Advertisement Let it be noted that what 〈…〉 intend to evince here is conâ—…'d That we only intend to evince here the An Est of the Operation of an Angel and not the Manner how it is perform'd to the Question An est or â—…o demonstrate that Angels have Power to move Bodily Nature â—…od not to show How or in what â—…articular Manner they work this effect To clear which Point requires a perfect and penetrative Knowledge of the Angelical Nature which is perhaps Unattainable by us in this State 24. Notwithstanding what 's said no One Angel has an Unlimited Power to move or change all the Bodies Yet no one Angel has an Unlimited Power to operate thus on all Bodies whatevee in the World For since the Natures of Spirit and Body are constituted by their Partaking More and Less of Ens and more and less do manisestly signifie only Degrees of the Nature of Ens in Common from whence their Power over another is taken and on which it is entirely and adequately grounded and what exceeds another only in some Degree does only exceed it Finitely Limitedly and in some Proportion It follows that however the whole Angelical Nature or some considerable Part of it may have Power to work upon or alter the whole Mass of Material Beings yet a Single Angel being but one Individual of it and consequently
of them of the same high Excellency since upon that Motion given by them every single Action of all the Bodies throughout the vast Regions which those Luminaries do enlighten and influence does wholly depend 29. From the Unchangeable Nature of a Pure Act or an Angel which we have Demonstrated above 't is The Lower Angels receiv'd Intellectual Light from the Superiour in the same Instant they were Created evidently Deduced that whatever Intellectual Light the Inferiour Angels did as was most Requisit and Fit receive from the Superiour ones was imparted to them as soon as they were or was Co-aeve to their Being This is evident from the Immutability of a Pure Spirit and needs no farther Proof since if they had any thing a-new they must have been Chang'd 30. 'T is likewise Evident That since every Angel did comprehend all Material Nature and consequently every least circumstance of it they did from In what manner the Good Angels perform the Will of their Maker without New Instructions the very Creation as far as was on their part stand over Ready and Bent with their Will to act upon Matter in such precise junctures and in that very manner in which and according to which they knew they were by the Divine Appointment to exert their Active Power without needing any New Motive or any New Change fitting or Disposing them to act hic nunc This follows manifestly from the same Principle Wherefore the Resistance of one Angel to another and such like Expressions neither ought nor need be so interpreted as to a gue their Ignorance of what they were to do Defeat of their Intentions or Opposition to one anothers Will but in the plain obvious Sense as when we use to say I had gone about such a Business but that such Causes made me see it was impracticable or imprudent to attempt it or I could not come till it had done Raining So that it was a Natural Opposition as it were and not a Moral on which is between the Good Angels For Example The Angel of the Princâ— of Persia had a desire to do the Persians all the good he could it being his Province and Duty which was to keep the Iews there still by which means the Persians might better learn the Knowledge of the true GOD. And the Angel of the Iews desir'd to deliver them from Captivity that so they might serve GOD and observe the Law better in their own Country These were the particular Inclinations of each of them all other Considerations being Abstracted or set aside GOD had prefixt a determinate time of their Deliverance and of comforting Daniel in the Interim Both of them knew GOD's Will and submitted to it Yet the Angel of Persia acting for his Province and detaining the Iews till the prefixt time came was the reason why the Jewish Angel could not till that time came act for their Deliverance Whereas had there been another state of things and had not he obviated the particular propension of the Jewish Angel he had sooner assisted them and come to Daniel 31. From the Nature and Genius of Good and Bad Angels and from this consideration that GOD's Wisdom That GOD makes use of Holy Angels to procure our Good and of Bad ones to afflict and punish Mankind as His Divine Wisdom sees Fitting makes use of the properest Instruments to perform his Will we may conclude that as he orders the Good Angels to protect guide and inspire Pious Souls and procure their Good so he sends and orders Bad and Malignant Spirits his Executioners to inflict Punishments on Misdeservers to do which their inveterate Malice to Mankind gives them most eager Propensions As appears in the Disasters which befel Iob and may also be collected from Psalm 78. 45. Prov. 15. 11. Iudges 9. 23. and Kings 22. 22. and divers other Texts MEDITATION LET us now my Soul look down upon those Low and Despicable Essences from which we took our Rise and we shall see to what By what means Metaphysicks has rais'd our Thoughts above the Sordid Mass of Matter to contemplate the Aâ—gelical Nature an Unexpected Height we have climb'd Our Steps were indeed all the way Immediate yet it has cost us some panting Labour ere we could mount to the Superiour Region of Beings We have transcended our own Essence and wound our selves up by the Connected Chain of our Reason twisted of our Natural Notions as high as the Lower Story of Heaven and gain'd some Acquaintance with those Winged Inhabitants of it the ANGELS the Contemplation of whose Essences does confine next upon that of the Adorable DEITY it self We behold with Admiration those Bright Beings whose Understandings are guilded and beautify'd with Pure Rays of Intellectual The surpassing Excellency of their Intellectual Essences decipher'd Light streaming together with their Essence from the inexhausted Source and Luminary of all Knowledge Essential Truth Nay we can moreover take a Steady View of their Eminent Nature without those Astonishing Extasies which so surpris'd Daniel Esdras and the Eagle-ey'd Evangelist himself And notwithstanding we see them all over bespangled with the most glittering Truths yet our Eyes tho' weak are not dazled nor our Thoughts distracted with Fear and Horrour as were those others to whom they appear'd But 't is because we see them at distance thro' the Dull Optick of our Natural Speculation not neer at hand nor clad in those Majestick Resemblances which they put on when they were to represent the great King of Glory whose Embassadors they were Our Reason has ascertain'd us that there may and must be such Things as Pure Acts or ANGELS That being in the Climax of Entities Superiour to Bodies they do therefore Include and Comprehend in themselves after their manner that is Knowingly the very Essences of Bodies their Underlings That being depur'd from that Passive Principle Matter and withall being the Immediate Cause of all Motion and consequently of all Action in the Material World their Nature is in the highest manner Active whence they come necessarily to be endow'd with a Power to work upon Corporeal Nature which is essentially Passive and this with an Incredible Celerity Also that being free from the Alloy of Matter the Principle of all Mutability they are of their own Nature Unchangeable We have gain'd certain Light how they are to be distinguished into their several Ranks or Kinds and that those Lower Sorts of them which are employ'd in the managing Material Nature and procuring the Good of Mankind for whose sake the Corporeal World was made have as is most sitting Larger or Narrower Provinces assign'd them according to the Dignity and Excellency of their Essences to which their Power of Acting is proportion'd We have seen how consonant to Reason those passages of the Holy Scriptures are which deliver to us narratively many Actions done and Effects produced by those Administring Angels and how we are to understand divers Places there in which Sacred
such or such a Sort of Thing 4. Therefore all Causality whatever is the Imparting or Communicating something Therefore all Causality is the Imparting somewhat to the Patient which was some way or other in the Cause or Agent or somewhat that is in the Cause For since every Effect is Determinate that is such oâ— such and is made such by such an Operation and the Operation is such because by § 3. iâ— proceeds from such an Essenâ—â— it follows that the Operation carries forwaâ—â— that Respect or Formality by which the Causâ— was denominated such and imparts or communicates it to the Effect or to the Subject on which it works so that the Power of imparting it 〈…〉 't is such or of determining it is taken from 〈…〉 Essence which is such it self and the Power â—… Actually Imparting it which we call it's Efficiency springs from the Existence which as it were stamps or imprints somewhat which is found in the Essence upon the Patient according to that Maxim Operatio sequitur Esse 5. Hence Motion according to it 's common Notion precisely serves only to apply closely the Agent to the Patient Hence Motion only Applies the Agent to the Patient This is Evident because it has been now demonstrated that the whole Power or Virtue of the Cause enabling it to make the Effect such or to make it actually any Effect at all is taken from the Essence and the Existence 6. The First Operation among Bodies is Diviâ—… For since Quantity is the The First Operation among Bodies is DIVISION â—…t Common Affection of All Bodies that is of Body in common That Operation on Bodies must be the First that works upon Quantity as Quantity Wherefore since it has been Demonstrated that Quantity as it is in Nature or grounds Natural Action and Passion is Divisibility or a Power to be Divided that Natural Operation or Action must be the First which puts in Act that Power of being Divided or is exercis'd upon Divisibility as such But this as appears from the very terms is Division Therefore the First Operation among Bodies is Division foreover since it is not probable there should be now-adays any other Bodies but Mixts and Mixture could only be made by Division of the â—â—rer Bodies made by Dense ones it follows that 〈…〉 this regard also the First Operation of one Body upon another must be Division 7. The next immediate Operations of one Body upon another are those two Simple Motions call'd Pulsus and Tractus The next Operations are IMPULSE and ATTRACTION or Impulse and Attraction For since when one Body acts upon another it must either Divide that Other or not-Divide it and Division evidently produces the Former Effect and Impulse and Attraction the Later 't is manifest that the Next or rather they being contradictorily Distinct the Only remaining Immediate Operations of one Body on another are Impulse and Attraction neither of which as is Evident do divide the Body they work upon Again since all Operation of one Body upon another is perform'd by Local Motion and all Simple or meer Motion must either be towards or fromwards the other Body and therefore in case it do not divide it must tend to drive it before it or draw it after it 'T is manifest that these two Operations of Impulse and Attraction are the only-remaining immediate Operations of one Body on another 8. The Reason of these two Operations cannot be fetcht from Physical Principles but from Metaphysicks For The Reason of which Operations cannot be fetcht from Physical Principles but from Metaphysicks since the reason of this Attraction cannot be any Physical Quality such as are Glutinousness Tenaciousness c. because these are found only in a few Bodies whereas these Operations have their Effect on All Nor can the Operation of Impulse be refunded into the Primary Qualities either of Rarity and Density in regard we find they have Equal Effect on Rare Bodies as on Dense ones â—uch less for the same reason can this proceed from any Occult Qualities as they call them by virtue of which some one Body flies from another â—…t of Antipathy or out of Sympathy follows it â—…s happens in some particular Bodies because 〈…〉 was said this happens in All Bodies whatever 〈…〉 is manifest that the true Cause of these Operations must be fetcht from a Higher Cause than any Physical Principles can reach and therefore it must be fetcht from Metaphysicks 9. Nor can they proceed from the Metaphysical Notion or Natures of Matter and Form For both those 〈…〉 in Metaphyâ—… from the â—…tter and â—…m Notions are terminated in compounding an Individual Body and rendring it Capable of Existâ—… or an Ens and therefore they formally and â—…perly respect Being only Which is a Different â—â—ct from that in Question 10. Wherefore the true Reason of these two Operations must be drawn as from it's Ground from the Common 〈…〉 from the Esâ—… or Nature of 〈…〉 Common Modifiâ—…on of Matter â—…antity Essence of the First Affection of Natural Entities or Bodies which is QUANTITY For since these Operations of Impelâ—… and Attracting are as Experience teaches 〈…〉 Common to All Bodies or to Body in Comâ—… they must be refunded in the most Common â—…tion that can belong to Body that is from 〈…〉 Quantity And since they cannot proceed 〈…〉 those particular Modifications of Quantity 〈…〉 as are all Physical Qualities nor yet from 〈…〉 Matter and Form which compound those Boâ—… they must necessarily be refunded into the Essence it self of Quantity in Common or into such Properties of it as are most neerly ally'd to it's Essence or rather are diverse Respects or Considerations of it 11. To clear this Point more fully I Discourse thus Ens and consequently Unum are Transcendents and are This Disputable Point fully Clear'd apply'd to all the Teâ— Predicaments or Common Heads of our Natural Notions And yet so that they are Properly or in their First Signification predicated only of Substance or Thing and of the rest Improperly Analogically or Secondarily as is demonstrated Method to Science B. 1. Less 4. §§ 1. and 2. and is even known by the Goodness of Nature and the Common Use of Human Language to the Rude Vulgar as is shown there § 4. c. Pag. 39. However they have their Analogical Essences and as their Notions are distinct so we can discourse of each of them as distinctly as we can of Distinct Substances and perhaps more Moreover these words Ens and Unum are spoken of no Two of those Heads Univocally or in the same Signification For were it so Enâ— would be a Proper Genus to those Two and so those Two ought to be put in one and the same Predicament which is against Common Sense as will appear to any meanest Considerer who reflects on the Distinction of the Predicaments and the vast difference of their respective Notions And who sees not how impossible it is that
immediately from GOD who is Esâ—…l EXISTENCE it follows that tho' it be such 〈…〉 Imperfect Effect it may yet proceed congruâ—…y enough from an Angel who he being a â—…râ— and as such having no Prerogative in â—…s regard over his Fellow-Creatures has Noâ—… as oâ— Himself or Non-Existence inâ—… in his very Being which fit him in every â—…rd to be the most Proper Immediate Cause of â—…tion Lastly 't is a most senseless opinion to think â—…at GOD as the Cartesians hold gives all Created â—â—â—â—es their Being and endows them with Faculâ—… and Powers to perform such or such Operatiâ—…s and yet will not permit them to perform them â—…t does all the lowest and meanest Effects immediately by Himself which is at once Derogatory 〈…〉 GOD 's Supreme Majesty and makes those â—owâ—rs themselves Useless Frustaneous and â—…d for Nothing which is against the Metaphyâ—…al Bonity or Goodness which is a Property of â—…eir Entity as has been shown B. 1. Ch. 2. 〈…〉 11 12 13. 16. All Motion is a Perpetual Novelty or a â—ontinu'd New Effect For since Every part of Motion is a New Effect â—o Succeeding part of Motion is while the foregoing ones are â—…ssing nor can possibly be any of those parts which went before it follows that each of them is made a-new or is a New Effect 17. Therefore Motion requires a Continual Influx of the Moving Cause For since no part of Motion can be Therefore it requires a Continual Influx of the Moving Cause of it self and every part of it is a Distinct or New Effect also since to move a thing thus far is not to move it farther and the same reason holds all along thorow the whole Course of Motion It must needs require continually either a New Cause or a Continually New Effort of the same Moving Cause to produce its Continuance otherwise it might cease in any part of it's Flux were it not still helpt forward 18. This Continuance of Motion is perform'd by the Operation of some Chief Angel incessantly Rarefying the Matter of the Solar Bodies and consequently darting This Moving Cause is some Chief Angel Rarefying the Matter of the Solar Bodies out it's Rays of Light or Fire to those Bulks of Matter which are within it's Influence For since this Continual Rarefaction forces the preceeding Particles or Rays to fly forwards to make place for the succeeding ones and this with a quickness proportionable to the Penetrativeness or Tenuity of those Particles which is Inconceiveably such and these affecting and piercing by degrees more Solid Bodies do set all their several parts a playing according to their respective Natures from which must necessarily ensue the several Motions of Division Impulse Attraction and consequently of Rarefaction and Condensation which are the Parents of all other more particular Operations from which as even Experience tells us do proceed all the Effects in Nature It follows that this Continual Rarefaction of the Solar Matter is the Cause of the â—…tinuance of all our Motion As Experience 〈…〉 say also teaches us in the Change of the Seaâ—…s of the year whence Common Reason asâ—…res us that should that Angelical Operation â—…se for some considerable time all the Earth â—…ould be nothing but a frozen unactive and unâ—oveable Mass. 19. Angels are Pre-mov'd by the First Being to â—ove the Material World even to the least Atome or Circumstance Angels are Pre-mov'd or Directed by GOD to move Matter as iâ— most sutable to His Eternal Decrees of it in such a Manner as 〈…〉 most Agreeable to his Eternal â—…d Immutable Decrees For â—…ce it belongs to Infinite Wisâ—… to administer the whole â—…eation or the Universality of his Creatures â—…ording to the Wisest and Best Manner and tâ—â— Managery of the Material World is carry'd â—â— by Motion and Motion is effected by Angels â—â— its Immediate Causes and Angels are Intelligent Beings which act by Knowledge â—…d are Premov'd or Determin'd to act by Motives and the Best Motives to make Faithful Servants â—ct is to Know their Master's Will Nor could â—â—ey know his Will or his most hidden and Inâ—…able Decrees by which they were to square â—…ir Actions unless GOD had some way or other â—â—nifested them It follows that these Maniâ—…tions of his Divine Pleasure are the Proper Motives to them to move and order all Material â—ature as He had Decreed Which this Order â—f the World being the Best reaches to the â—ost Minute Parts and Least Circumstances of â—… 20. The First or Chief Bodies thus mov'd by Angels do in their manner Premove that is Determine and Continue The First mov'd Bodies do Determine and Continue the Motion of the rest the Motion given them at first by the Angelical Nature For since an Instrument is Movens Motum or such a thing as being Mov'd by another has a power to produce immediately the Effect it is Design'd for and 't is evident from what 's said above that Bodies have a Power in them to Divide Impel Attract and thence to Rarifie and Condense others as Immediate Agents 'T is manifest that by the First of these Effects the Bulk Figure Situation and consequently the Mixture or Texture of the Component Parts of the other Bodies which they do thus move are made and from the other motions their Intrinsecal Temperament or the Rarity and Density of those Parts proceeds All which being Determinate Effects proceeding from Bodies as their Immediate Movers 'T is Evident that this Determination and Continuance of Motion springs immediately from the Motion of the next precedent Body which by its Motion premoves and determines the Motion of the following ones 21. Hence Angels and the Bodies they move do as Second Causes Immediately Determine the Individuation Hence Angels and the Bodies they Move do as Second Causes determine the Individuation of all New-made Bodies of all Bodies whatever For since the Complexion of Accidents is the Essential Form which by distinguishing it from all others does constitute every Individual Body by making it to be Determinately or Individually This as has has been â—…ov'd B. 1. Ch. 2. and consequently renders 〈…〉 Capable of Existence or an Ens and this â—omplexion of Accidents is chiefly caus'd by the â—utting together Rare and Dense Parts in such a â—roportion and the Bulk Figure and Situation â—f those Parts do concur also and help in their way to form it into such a Constant or Coherent â—…s and to distinguish it from others and all these are immediately produced by the Operations mention'd in the foregoing § which are caus'd by Angels as Moving Bodies and by the Bodies themselves as the Instrument of Intelligences or â—â— Moved by them 'T is evinced that Angels and bodies as Second Causes are the Immediate Determiners of the Individuation of all new-made bodies whatever 22. 'T is beyond the Power of those Second Causes to give Existenâ—e to the least Body in Nature For since But 't is beyond their Power to give
to the Effect it produces Distinct Essences have Distinct Powers and those Powers when pusht forwards by Motion must actually work on their Immediate Patients and this according to the Nature of their several Essences Every Thing except the First Cause is an Effect and as no Effect can be without Something to effect it so no Determinate or such an Effect can be without a Determinate or Proper Cause Thus is the Course of GOD's Providence in administring the World shown to be aâ— becomes the All-wise Contriver of it Orderly Steady Coherent and all of a piece From these Footsteps of the Divine Wisdom imprinted on Creatures we gain all our Science either proceeding a priori from Proper Causes to their Proper Effects or a posteriori from Proper Effects to their Proper Causes only which ways of Discoursing can beget True Science Whence the Cartesians who decline that Method and contrary to all Logick and Common Sense which oblige us to argue from what 's better known to what 's Unknown or less known instead of proving their Theses from the Nature of Things do introduce Arbitrary and Voluntary Reasons for Effects and to palliate their Ignorance pretend that GOD Wills such or such an Effect should follow which Will of his they neither prove nor can prove nor go about to prove And when their Arguments are Destitute of Connexion they put GOD to Annex one thing to another as their Necessity when they are at a Non-plus requires such Men I say who affect this way frequently and advance many Wild and Unprov'd Suppositions at their pleasure gratis are hence convicted to be no Philosophers but to obstruct the Common Road to Science and seem to bid Defiance to all Principles Connexion and Common Logick sham all Philosophy and Science too and set up in their stead a Gentile Farce of Witty Groundless and Unconnected Talk But to leave them and return to our own Doctrine and the consequences of it Hence with an easie Reflexion may be gather'd how all Truths are necessarily in one another as links in the same Chain of Causes and therefore may all be seen at once by the Soul when she comes to enjoy the Priviledge of a Pure Act is above Time and no longer ty'd to the slow Motion of Corporeal Phantasms in performing â—er Operations Having thus laid open the Deviations of other Mistaking Speculaters let us my Soul recommended to our Self and to our The Application of this Doctrine to ouâ— own Duties Readers to take heed lest we run counter in our Practice to the Truth we which have Evinced and Establisht Since then all Nature and Evident Reason consent to tell us that every Essence has such an Operation as is Peculiar and Propâ—r to it 's Nature and our Essence is Rationality let not us be guilty of that worst Singularity to act contrary to our Essence and degenerate from our Nature by acting Irrationally and this in the Highest Degrce The Chief Powers of our Rational Being are our Understanding and our Will The Primary Operation of the First is to see or know TRUTH and that of the later is to pursue GOOD And Metaphysicks has Demonstrated to us clearly that nothing but the Knowledge of an Infinite Truth can satisfie the One and the Possession of an Infinite Good satiate the other as also that neither of these can possibly be had save only in the Unveiled Sight of the First-Being the Glorious and Glorifying DEITY Let it then be our not only Principal but in Comparison Only care to cultivate those Dispositions of our Will which we have Demonstrated to be the only Steps by which we may ascend to Eternal Happiness and to râ—â—t out thâ—se Inordinate Affections for Creatures which indispose us for Heaven and consequently after they have turmoil'd and vext us here must render us after this short life Eternally most miserable To this end let us make that use of our Understanding as by due consideration to advance these Speculative Knowledges we â—…ve gain'd here into conformable Practical Iudgments or Virtuous Affections Which as it was the Chief Intention of the Author so it shall be â—â—s Prayer it may work that Best Effect upon his Readers A Rational Explication OF THE MYSTERY OF THE MOST BLESSED TRINITY The PREFACE 1. HAVING as I hop't settled the Way of Exact Reasoning in my METHOD to Science and reduced the Notions of which we make use in more Sublime Subjects to a Distinctness in my METAPHYSICKS I cast about to find out some Particular Point to which as a Proper Instance I might apply my Speculative Productions and thence manifest that they were not high-flown Fancies as some incompetent Readers may imagine but Solid and Useful Truths Nor could there need any Long Enquiry to make my Thoughts come to a Determination I had to my great trouble observ'd how rudely the Mystery of the most B. Trinity had been attackt of late by some Witty and Fanciful Gentlemen and had received Information also that the Boasts of their wonderful Performances by the way of Reason had given great Advantages to Deists and Atheists who siding with them did thence take occasion to ridicule Christianity whose prime Fundamental was as they pretended a piece of Pure Nonsense I saw very clearly that all their Objections proceeded upon most gross Mistakes and which I am loath to say from Unskillfulness in Logick or the Rules of Right Reasoning and from perfect Ignorance in Metaphysicks The former of which by Distinguishing exactly our several Notions or Respects is to give us Light to know what is truly a Contradiction what not and the other instructs us how we are to discourse of the First Being and his Attributes The Principles and Deductions in which Sciences being in so high a Degree Evident I could not but discover clearly and therefore the weight of the Circumstance requiring it I dare confidently declare and offer to maintain that all their Objections against that Mystery are not only perfectly Groundless but when they come to be sifted and examin'd by those Tests of True Reason extreamly Weak even to Childishness 2. And indeed they deliver those Objections of theirs in so sleight a Manner as if themselves made account they writ to none but half-witted Readers who stand ready to give up their Assent upon every Pretty and Plausible Saying that surprizes their Ignorance or pleases their Fancy â—or not so much as One Principle do they lay â—or observe any steady Tenour in Deducing any Determinate Conclusion Nay they do not so much as Distinguish exactly those Notions which belong to the Subject in Dispute much less Define them nor state the Question liquidly and clearly but fall to work hastily propose the Point crudely and descant upon it superficially confusedly and â—amblingly only they take care to use some little Wit in the Expression As if they presum'd that either there are no Praecognoscenda requisite to explicate or Determine such a Sublime Point or else that
which can have no Existence in Nature 26 How some do mistake the Nature of the Indivisibility attributed to the Soul 27. The Proper and True Sense in which a Spirit is said to be Indivisible 28. That 't is consonant to the Nature of the Subject that the Soul should contain Corporeal Nature and it 's Modes Indivisibly 29. In what Sense we are to take the word Instantaneous when we say the Operations of Pure Spirits are such 30. Last Demonstration Concluding the Whole Point That our Soul it heing so manifestly and manifoldly Demonstrated to be IMMATERIAL is necessarily IMMORTAL MEDITATION In discoursing of our Soul we must transcend our Senses and Corporeal Phantasms and avail our selves only by Reflexion on those Operations which are Proper to it 'T is to be fear'd the Chief Origin of Atheism is in Men's Wills it being so easie to satisfie their Understandings What Duties are incumbent on Us who know and acknowledge our Soul to be Immortal Our former Demonstrations of that Great and most Concerning Truth summ'd up and Recapitulated Of what vast Importance it is to lay 〈…〉 heart this Preliminary Truth to all Religion BOOK II. Of PURE ACTS CHAP. I. Of the SOUL SEPARATED and ANGELS § 1. THe Soul does at her Separation receive some Change according to the Manner of her Existing and her Suppositality 2. The Means how this is done illustrated 3. Yet the same Individual Nature remains in her 4. All the Knowledges and Unretracted Affections the Soul had here remain still in her 5. Each Soul when Separated knows all Created Truths 6. How this is very Possible 7. Hence every Separated Soul knows all Time and Place 8. Hence her Operations are not measur'd by Time They and their Subject being of a Superiour Nature 9. Hence she will be Eternally Miserable unless she knows the First Cause GOD. 10. Hence also she is naturally Unchangeable 11. Hence too as soon as Separated she knows all the Thoughts and Affections Words and Actions of her past Life 12. Whence follows the Particular Judgment which determines her Lot at the hour of Death 13. Hence is understood how the Book of Conscience will be laid open at the Last Day 14. And how Infants are connaturally sav'd by Baptism 15. Hence Ana-Baptism is Impious and Unnatural 16. The foregoing Principles show how much more easie it is for the Saints and Angels in Heaven to know our Actions and Necessities 17. The Practical Iudgments or Affections do carry the Soul to the Attainment of the Good she most Lov'd here in case it be Attainable in the Future State 18. The Best Intellectual Good or the Sight of GOD is Attainable in the Next Life if the Soul be Dispos'd for it 19. Therefore to work up our Christian Principles to such Good Dispositions ought to be the whole Employ of our Life here 20. This good Disposition is CHARITY or the Love of GOD above all things 21. Hence all the Means and Motives laid by our B. Saviour tend only to breed and cultivate in our Souls this Predominant Affection for Heaven 22. Hence RELIGION is the Way of breeding up Souls in such a manner as may dispose them fâ—… Eternal Bliss 23. From the same Principles is Demonstrated that To depart hence with a Contrary Disposition 〈…〉 a First Affection for any Creature will torment the Soul when Separated with most Unspeakable Grief and Anguish 24. The State of Separation Elevates the Soul to aâ—… Incomparably higher Perfection of Existence shâ—… being then a Pure Act than she had here 25. Wherefore it does consequently Elevate the Activity of all her Powers and particularly the Acts of her Will her Affections to an Unconceiveable Intenseness and Vehemency above what she had while in the Body 26. Hence the Poena Damni in Wicked Souls foâ—… the Loss of the Sight of GOD and also the Loss of thâ—… Temporal False Good they here doted on is Unspeakable and plunges them in a HELL of Misery Their Sad Condition describ'd 27. Hence 't is evident that GOD damns no Man but that the Sinner while he hugs and cherishes 〈…〉 his Thoughts those Inordinate Affections for Creatures on which by his own Deliberate Choice 〈…〉 had set his First Love does connaturally kindlâ—… and foment all the while Hell-Fire in his own Soul To which GOD contributes no farther but by conserving the Wisest Course of the World that Propeâ—… Causes should have their Effects which he has 〈…〉 reason to alter for their sakes 28. The Knowing then all Truths Speculatively doeâ—… not alter the Predominant Affection for Creatures As the Tree falls so it lies 29. Hence one Enormous Actual Sin unrepented renders a Separated Soul liable to Eternal Damnation 30. That the State of Separation does not alter the First Affection of Souls farther Demonstrated 31. Hence Sin does not formally consist in the Falsity of the Practical Iudgment or Affection but in the Disproportion and Inordinateness of it 32. ' From the former Principles it follows that all those several Kinds of Knowledges we had here will be Elevated to an Unmeasurable Excess in the State of Separation 33. Hence also all the Virtuous Affections which good Souls had here for Friends Relations and Acquaintances will remain in the Next Life and make them ardently wish and pray for their Salvation 34. That each Particular Deduced here is Demonstrable by the Principles laid formerly Shown by repeating those Principles 35. Wherefore there is not the least Thought Word or Action Good or Bad which we ever had or did in this Life but will have it's Consequent and Proper Effect Adjusted and Proportion'd to it in the Next MEDITATION The Admirable Nature of a Soul when separated and become a Pure Spirit Display'd That there is no Comparison between our Soul's Condition here and That in the State of Separation Meer Humane Science when at the Height was too short and Impotent to raise Mankind to those Dispositions that fit him for True Happiness The Necessity of Divine Revelation farther shown That the Christian Life is most Comfortable and the Un-Christian Life most full of Anxiety The Unexpressible Transports of Joy which Holy Souls experience at their first entring into Bliss CHAP. II. Of the Existence Essence Knowledge Distinction and Action of ANGELS § 1. THE Order of the Universe requires that there should be Different Kinds of Beings 2. And much more that there should be Pure Acts or ANGELS 3. Especially since the Angelical Natures are Capable of Existing 4. And that otherwise there could be no Immediate Cause of Motion 5. As is also demonstrated from the Nature of all Causality 6. Every more perfect Ens includes in it the Nature of the less-perfect as it is an Ens. 7. And therefore Pure Acts or Spirits Contain in them the Nature of Body 8. Which since it cannot be done by way of Quantity they must contain them by the way of Knowledge 9. Therefore the very Natures or Essences of Bodies are in
a Power to that Act call'd Existence Agaiâ— since we see that Thing call'd Wood turn'd inâ—â— that Thing call'd Fire we are hence forced 〈◊〉 have the Notion of a Power in the former Thing to become this later Thing that is a Power 〈◊〉 the Notion of Thing or Substance which is clearly distinct from the Power to Existence Lastly since we see that Existent Things v. 〈◊〉 Bodies tho' Unchang'd as to the Notion of Thing have a Power to be many ways Alter'd or otherwise than they were either Inwardly or Outwardly v. g. to be Bigger Hot Related as also to Act or Suffer to be in a different Time or Place to be Situated or outwardly Habited thus or thus it is no less Evident that there is Another sort of Power in the Thing or Individuum tho' remaining the same Thing or Unchang'd as to the Notion of THING to have those Accidental Acts or Modes in it or else Apply'd to it which kind of Power is most Evidently Different from the other two Wherefore 't is manifest that there are Three sorts of Power One which the Whole Thing has to that Act call'd Existence A Second which the Thing according to some Part of it as it were which we call Matter has to be Another Thing A Third which the Thing Existing has to it 's Accidental Acts or to the Modes or Manners how it is 3. The First sort of Power belongs to all Things whatever but the First Self-existent That the First sort of Power belongs to all Things but the First Being Being For since the very Notion of All Things but the First Self-existent Being imports that they are such as have not Actual Being or Existence of themselves or â—…om their own Essence or Nature and therefore not being able to give it to themselves â—…ey must receive it from Another and yet 't is no â—…s manifest they could have had Being given them by that Other or by the First Being because they now Actually have it and a â—…hing cannot actually receive that which it has no Power or Possibility to receive It followâ—… that this Power to have Actual Being or Existence must belong to all Things which we call Creatures that is to all but the First Self-Existent Being 4. This Power of Existing which belongs tâ—… to all Creatures is also Essentiâ—… to them For since we cannot And is Essential to them have a Formal Notion of Nothing nor of a Thing under the precise Notion of Ens but we must conceivâ—… it constituted such by some Formal Cause or other Proper to it's Nature which Formâ—… Constituent of Ens we call it's Essence and Essence speaks something that concerns Beâ—… one way or other and involves it in its Signification and the Essence of Creatures does nâ—… include Actual Being in its Notion because 〈…〉 § 3. they have it from Another it folloâ—… that the Essence of all Entia or Things whateâ—… that are Created or of all Creatures consâ—… meerly in their Potentiality or Power to have Actual Being which we call their Possibility 5. Corollary I. Hence the Proper Definition 〈…〉 Created Ens in Common 〈…〉 That which has a Power to Exâ—… Hence the Definition of Created Ens is That which is capable of Being or That which is Capable Existing I mean as far as can bear an Exact Definition which I say because thâ—… which we use here for a Genus and whiâ—… we are forced to use in such very Commâ—… Notions is a Transcendent and not a Proper Genus which has always a Notion a Determinate Sense and is capable to be Divided by more or less of the Generical Notion as by it's Intrinsecal Differences neither of which is found in the words that which which we are necessitated here to put instead of a Genus 6. This Power to the Act of Existence which as was now shown is Essential to all Created Beings consists That this Power consists in it's Possibility or Non-Repugnance to Being In this that it's Nature is such that it has no Repugnance Chimericalnes or Ground of Contradiction in it's Notion For since an Impossibility and a Contradiction are in effect the same and differ only in this that Impossibility regards only the Incapacity any â—…ing has to Exist in re and Contradiction the â—…capacity it has to exist in the Understanding because 't is Opposite to the nature of Ens which is it's Adequate Object And since all Effects are Possible to GOD which do not imply a Contradiction and those Effects that do so are therefore Impossible to Him because Contradictions and Lies being the Height of Folly they are Diametrically Opposite to GOD's Wisâ—…m by which they are if at all to have existence given them It follows that the Power which Creatures have to Exist or be Created which we call their Possibility consists only in â—…his that there is no Repugnance Chimeriâ—…lnes or Ground of Contradiction in their Natures only which renders them Impossible 7. Hence is seen why UNUM is said to be a Property of Ens and in what the Unity of every Entity What Metaphysieal UNITY is consists For since nothing in Common can exist or which is the same is an Ens but to be an Ens or Capable of Existing it must be determinately This and to be determinately This includes to be Different from all others under the Notion of Ens Also since to be No One signifies to be None and therefore to be No One Ens is to be No Ens hence nothing is Capable of Existing or an Ens unless it is Determinate under the Notion of Ens or not Two Entities but Determinately This and therefore Distinct under that Notion from all others that is unless it be Indivisum in se and Divisum a quolibet alâ—… under the precise Notion of Ens which is the very Notion of UNUM 8. The Essences of Things antecedently to their Actual Being or Existence can only be in the Divine Intellect The Essences of Things are Antecedently to their Existence in the Divine Intellect For since they cannot be themselves Actually until they have that Act which is the Formal Cause of their Being viz. Existence given them because a meer Possibility or Power to be which is all that Creatures have from their own Nature cannot give or denominate them to be actually It follows that all the Existence nay Possibility of Existence or Essence they have antecedently to their Being or Existing in Nature is only in GOD or in the Divine Understanding 9. Corollary II. Hence is Demonstrated from the Altissimae Causae that is from the Supreme Reasons Hence the Cartesian Doctrine leaves no Ens in the world or Mediums in Metaphysicks viz. from the Nature of Ens and Unum that the Cartesians leave no Natural Ens in the World while they put them to be made up of innumerable Particles of their First Matter each of which could exist alone independently on the other and
Nourishment and Preservation of the Whole 18. Those Living Bodies whose Parts are moreâ—oving-one-another or with more Velocity in order to their Primary The Essences of Animals Operation that is upon the least Excitation from External Causes are therefore a Higher and Perfecter â—ort of Vegetables or something more than meer Vegetables These we call Animal or Sensitive because upon Impressions on those Parts call'd the Senses they proceed to Action 19. The Primary Operation of Animals is to pursue such Food as is Agreeable Their Primary Operation â—o their Natures as is shown § 16. of meer Vegetables and the reason given there holds equally for both 20. Whence that meer Animal is most perfect that moves it self to acquire What Animal is most Perfect in it's Kind such Food as is agreeable to it's Nature that is such as â—akes it's Fancy which is the principal Faculty that sets on Work all the rest Calm or Indifferent By which means it becomes applicable to more Motions Add that â—â—ch Food as is Violent or extremely distant from 〈◊〉 Constitution and therefore is disproportion'd to the pitch of it's Nature does make it's operations deprav'd and to some degree Preterâ—â—tural As we Experience in our selves when â—e Eat any thing too Hot or too Cold for our Constitution which disorders our Temperaâ—ure or as we use to say distempers it or â—akes us Sick Note That we discourse here of what is the Primary Operation of Individual Bodieâ— as to themselves What farther or more Remote Effects they are intended or order'd for by the Governor of the World belongs to another Question and will be treated of towards the End of this Book ADVERTISEMENT These Discourses suppose it prov'd thâ—â— Rare and Dense or more and less Divisible are the First Differences of Bodies as they are in Nâ—ture or as they are the Subjects of Natural Operations which has been already demonstrated here Chap. 2. § 19 20 21. as also in my Method to Science Book I. Lesson 5. § 10 11. and Solid Philosophy Reflexion 17. § 13 14 15. MEDITATION THus we have deduced the First Difference of Bodies from the more and less Divisibility of them consider'd as giviâ—g What has been prov'd hitherto recapitulated the Ground to all Natural Action and Passion and have found thâ—â— they are of two sorts viz. Rare or Dense whence also the several Kinds of those First Bodies can only be taken from their having more or less Degrees I mean such as are very distant and notorious of those two Primary Qualities in which therefore the Form or Act which supposing it's Power or Matter does chiefly give them their Essence consists Moreover we have shown how from ACTUAL DIVISION which is the First Operation in Nature there naturally and necessarily arise other Modes or Accidents viz. the Number Bigness Figure and Situation of the several Parts of those First Bodies the variety of which woven together after a different manner and cohering with some Durableness does compound all Mixt and Demixt Bodies We have seen in common that those Accidents do make them fit to produce their Proper Effects or to perform their Primary Operation which constitutes them Distinct Parts and Agents in Nature and therefore Distinct Things Whence follows That the Complexion of Accidents is â—eally that which we call their Essential or Substantial Form And that by this Doctrine an Intelligible Account is given of those Forms so much talkt of and so little understood that lame account which the Schools give of them making them as Obscure as an Occult Faculty neither giving any grounded Reason by what Connatural Means they come into the Matter how they determine it ultimately for Existence by making it Distinct from all others or This and That Individuum nor lastly how they fit it for some Proper or Primary Operation which Considerations are Requisite and Sufficient to give it the Nature or Notion of an Ens or Thing While we were doing this we have at the same time laid Grounds for the pursuing orderly the Knowledge of Secondary and Sensible Qualities about which the greatest part of Physicks is employ'd and to distinguish the Essences of all Things in the World under what Sort or Kind soever they are rankt Which shows how the Architectonick Science of METAPHYSICKS as becomes her Highest Statiâ—â— and Dignity does Superintend the Inferiour Science of Physicks and The Excellency of Metaphysicks and the Sublime way of discoursing peculiar to it consequently the rest Prescribing them what they are to do by assigning them their Proper Objects as also by Enlightning them and Establishing the Truths they deduce by her most General most Evident and most Certain Maxims which tho' they be Deductions in Metaphysicks are Principles to them For her manner of considering the Objects of all other Sciences is far Exaâ—ted above the Inferiour manners according to which Subordinate Sciences treat of them nor does she regard any Quality Operation Bulk Figure Motion c. otherwise than under that Soveraign Respect as they câ—â—duce to constitute and establish the Essences of Thingâ— by determining the Common Power or Matter to such a Particular Nature as is Different from all others which makes it Capable of Existing or an 〈…〉 We have avoided the Precipices of some very Fundemental Errours highly prejudicial to the Intrinseâ—â— Constirution and Distinction of Essences and consequently to the Knowledge of the Things themselves without settling well the Grounds of which first 't is impossible to have true Science of any Thing whatever or to know what a Thing is All this we have endeavoured and we hope perform'd by an Immediate and Orderly Connexion of 〈…〉 Natural Notions deducing still our Consequences in 〈…〉 Frame so closely compacted that each Foregoing Knowledge setting aside the Corollaries naturally leads 〈…〉 the Following ones A Method Unusual to the Generality of Philosophers and yet so Proper and Effectual to assert and establish Truth that however â—… may not please such Men and their Readers yet it â—â—ght not to deter us from pursuing a Way so evidently of it 's own Nature What sleight ways of Discoursing some others affect Conclusive and Decisive and withall so Proper to Science how lamely soever we travel in it Whereas Dishevell'd Ill-knit and Unprincipled Discourses however Witty and Pleasing to the Dotage of â—â—r Fancy have not the least Semblance of Concluding evidently or Establishing solidly any one Truth In a word having seen in what consists the Essence of meer Animals which is part of our selves we have made way to the Contemplation of our own Nature which is What is our Duty as we are Rational Creatures â—ver and above Rational which therefore ought to challenge from us 〈…〉 most Attentive Reflexion that â—…ng to a Distinct and Clear Knowledge of what iâ— our true Essence or Nature and what the Primary Operation for the performance of which the GOD of Nature intended us we may not deviate from it
contrary to all the Maâ—…ims of Sound Philosophy 34. Lastly If All the Ideas or Notions be Innatâ— and there can be no reason why some should be so and otheâ— Eighth Proof not since the Soul is equally capable of All as of Some only then since to be Actually in a Knowing Power is to Actuate or Inform that Power that is to render that Power Actually Knowing it would follow that the Souâ— in that case having in her all those Notions of which her Nature is capable that is All Notions whatever she would either know all things while she is here or else she would have while here Innumerable Ideas or Materials of Knowledge which never come to be Excited and so are perfectly Useless Which makes the Immediate Act of the First Being which Infus'd them Frustraneous and to no purpose For their own Principles must force them to confess those Ideas which shall never be Excited cannot in that case either serve for Reasoning Contemplation nor Outward Action and therefore the Imbuing the Mind with them here is Preposterous Suâ—…ous and to no end 35. 'T is equally Groundless and Unphilosoâ—…cal in many regards to affirm That the Soul cannot Elicit Ideas out of her self from many heads 〈…〉 the Soul has a Power to Eliâ—… or Produce such Ideas in her â—… upon Occasion of such an Imâ—…ssion made on the Senses For â—… the Reasons given above I mean those â—…hich have been produced § 28 29 30 32. â—… in a manner equally disprove such Ideas â—…se which are properly Innate Secondly 〈…〉 impossible to show by their Grounds any Natural Connexion between that Impression on the â—…ve and the Production of such or such an 〈…〉 nor as far as I can see do they so much 〈…〉 pretend to show how this Effect does ex naâ—…a rei spring from that Cause For 't is conâ—… that the Stroke on the Nerve and the Idea which starts up when it is made there are utterly Unlike one another By which lame account any kind of Impression provided it be Unlike may occasion the Production of any Idea whatever and therefore there would be no Reason why 〈…〉 particular Impression more than another made 〈…〉 the Body should concur any way no not so much as a sutable Occasion to the Production of any particular Idea at all Thirdly Hence they make this Impression on the Nerve to be only an Occasion that is a kind of Conditio sine quâ non and not any sort of Cause contrary to the whole Intention and End of all Philosophy which is to refund Effects into their Proper Causes Fourthly They put the Soul which is of an Indivisible nature to Act upon it self and to be the Sole Cause of such an Idea which is against divers Principles confining upon Self-evidence and easily reducible to it Such as are Nothing that is meerly iâ— Power to such an Effect can reduce st self to Act. Nothing Indetermin'd can produce a Determinate Effect Nothing can change it self An Indivisible Entity cannot work upon it self A Thing in Rest cannot move it self Or in a word the Whole Course of Causes consisting in this that One Thing which is in Act it self is to work upon Another which is in Power to receive that Act is by this Extravagant Doctrine made Needless Absurd and Incoherent 36. Corollary XII From what 's Deduc't above it follows that that Position of That the Position which makes the Soul and Body Two Things hinders the Right Explication of Christian Faith the Cartesians which makes the Soul and Body in Man to be Duae Res or Two Things does not seem to sute well with Christian Faith For since Cartesius does therefore make them Two Things because he finds them to be of Different Natures 't is Evident that he does not Distinguish between the Notion of the Thing which has the Nature in it and of the Nature which is in the Thing or is had by it Whence follows that whereever and whenever there are those two Distinct Natures there must also be two Distinct Things But the Second Person of the Trinity will ever retain the Humanity of Christ and the Humanity of Christ will ever consist of the Corporeal and Spiritual Natures call'd Soul and Body therefore there will ever be according to this Doctrine two distinct Things in the Humanity of Christ-Again since these Two Natures in Christ's Humanity which they call Two Things are Individually or Numerically such and an Individual Thing is the same as a Suppositum the Followers of this Doctrine must hold there are Two Suppositums in Christ according to his Humanity Wherefore since 't is a Fundamental of Christian Faith that there is also in Christ the Divine Suppositum they must be forced to put three Suppositums in Christ GOD and MAN which is strange Language in Christianity Nor will it avail them to alledge that the Divine Personality by Assuming Humane Nature sâ—pplies the Subsistence of both those Natures for this takes not away the Distinction of the Two Natures in the Humanity wherefore if whereever there are two Natures there must be Two Things and those in our case Individually such of force there will remain two Individual Things that is Two Supposita in Christ's Humane Nature and consequently Three in all Whence since Verum vero non contradicit the Christian Tenet of but One Suppositum in Christ being True the Cartesian Doctrine that the Soul and Body in Man are two Things because they are of such Different Natures must needs be False and our main Tenet that the Soul and Body in Man do make but One Thing is both Evident to Reason and Consonant to Faith and to the Creed of St. Athanasius 37. Corollary XIII Hence also it follows from this Thesis of the Cartesians that every Individual Man in This Tenet makes overy Man to be a Monstrous Chimera the World is a Perfect Chimera nay a more Monstrous one than a Hircoceruus a Centaur or any other we use to Instance in For since all Created Beings are either Pure Acts or Compounded of Power and Act that is Matter and Form by Ch. 1. § 33. and the Word Thing signifies What 's Capable of Existing and therefore Two Things must be Capable of Diverse Existences and if they exist actually must actually have Two Existences It follows that the Soul and Body even in this State they have here must have actually Two Diverse Existences Again since their Nature the one being Corporeal the other Incorporeal are far more Distant and more vastly Different than a Goat and a Stag or any other Natures amongst Bodies to clap two such Things thus actually distinct under the Notion of Thing and Existing thus Distinct into One Species call'd MAN makes all the Individuals under that Species to be Chimerical nay greater Chimera's than is a Compound made of any two Things in Nature which are of divers Corporeal Species and exist actually by distinct Existences as a
naturally Require them especially when that Disposition or Requiringness of a farther Perfection was laid by Himself He saw that to link Matter to a Spiritual Nature Orderly and Connaturally it was Requisite the Former should be rais'd to its Highest Pitch of Perfection and the Later deprest while â—ere below what was due to a Pure Spirit that so the Supremum Infimi as was fit to build up Methodically the great Work of the Creation might immediately confine upon and thence be joyn'd to the Inflmum Supremi He contriv'd then that some Part of the Brain which was the Quintessence and Flower of Animality call'd by us The Seat of Knowledge should be capable of serving for a more excellent Operation than Matter alone could perform that so it might become his Wisdom and Goodness as he is Author of Nature to endow it with a Nobler Form than the Heard of other Animals could deserve and thence produce that more Elevated Operation I say as Author of Nature For as the Matter of Wood ultimately Dispos'd by increasing Degrees of Glowing Heat to become Fire not only has given it the Form which makes it such an Element or such a determinate Thing but also at the same instant by the steady and ever ready Emanation of God's superabundant Goodness it has an Existence given it though this latter Effect exceeds the Power of all Creatures together to bestow it So in the same manner as soon as the said Dispositions in the Brain of an Embryo are grown up to their due Perfection the same Goodness and for the same Reason infuses into it a Rational Soul though it was beyond the Power of all Natural Agents to produce it Thus came we into this Material World Thus were we compounded of the Top of Corporeal Nature and the Bottom or Lowest Size of the Spiritual Minuisti cum paulo minùs ab Angelis Thus was Man constituted the Horizon of the two Opposite Hemispheres of Meer Matter and Pure Spirits confining upon and by Nature neer Akin to both Whence he becomes capable to Ascend to and even â—â— Transcend the Dignity of the Highest Angels or to be Debas'd below the Vilenes of the most contemptible Brute Nothing is so High but through God's Assistance we may not aspire to nor any thing so Low and Filthy into which we may not plunge our selves according as we follow the Conduct of Angelical Reason or Brutish Passion Let us then my Soul know our own Dignity but yet let us not overween Matter The Condition of our Soul here laid open is indeed in us exalted and superindu'd with a Spiritul Power yet we are for all that at present but a Part of this Material World and our Condition while here is at least at first meerly Passive and ever subject to Change and Alteration Thy self art liable to receive Impressions from Natural Agents Nor is this intended by thy Creator to debase thee and keep thee down but to improve and perfect thee Thou hadst no Title being but a Part to be a Subsistent Knowing Thing considering thee in thy single self and therefore couldst not claim to have Actual Knowledge given thee at thy Creation Thou art then to acquire it by the Operations of our Fellow-Creatures or rather Useful Servants Bodies which play about us perpetually and by their subtillest Particles which they perpetually send forth affect our Senses We had our Being at first by Bodily Dispositions How the Coalition of the Soul and Body into one Ens agrees with Principles of Reason and therefore 't is no Disparagement to us by the same means to have those Materials which give and continue to us our Operations Let us not listen then to those Mistakers who would perswade us that we are Two Things while we are here Such Conceits spring from Fancy unable to reach the true Nature of Unity and Entity The Notion of Ens comprises in its spacious Extent both Corporeal and Spiritual Nature wherefore there is Room enough in that Comprehensive Conception to comprise both Natures in One Thing provided those Parts can be Adapted and Fitted to make up One Compound as we have seen they are Let us ask all Nature and our own Thoughts reflecting upon it and they will tell us this is done by the Proportion and Sutableness the one Part of an Ens has to the other as Power and Act or Matter and Form which are the Proper Parts of all Things here below that is by the Capacity which the Material Potential and Indetermin'd Part has to be Determin'd or Actuated by the Form and the Correspondent Virtue which the Form or Act has to Actuate and Determine the Matter when 't is fitly dispos'd for it By which Determination it becomes This and no other in which consists its Unity whence it is made capable of receiving Existence which is the same as to make them One THING Consider what innumrrable Errors have spawn'd from the Ignorance of this one Great Truth which gives us the right What Errors and Absurditics have sprung out of the contrary Opinion Knowledge of our selves First Those Men fancy thee to be a kind of Distinct Spiritual Thing whence since thou art Individually such and the very Notion of an Individual Thing is What is capable to Exist they must attribute to thee the having a Peculiar Existence of thy own whence thou canst not by this Tenet be the Form of thy own or of any Body but an Assistant or Extrinâ—â—cal Form that is a Subsistent Spirit or an Angel Next because they cannot conceive how an Operation of Body which is Divisible should be receiv'd in an Indivisible Subject they are forced to deny that any Impression from outward Objects convey'd by our Senses to the Brain can affect thee or give thee Knowledge and therefore they make those Necessary Assistants assign'd thee by Nature nay our own Inferiour Faculties too to be altogether Useless for thâ—â— End Hence they will needs endow thee with 〈◊〉 Power to give thy self Knowledge by thy producing within thy self little Spiritual Mirrours call 〈◊〉 Ideas Not reflecting that whatever is of its self only a Power to have any Thing or Mode or has only a Power of Knowing cannot possibly reduce its self tâ— Act or give its self what it has not and that what 's Indetermin'd to every particular Mode cannot of it self produce Determinate ones Since from meer Indifferency to all no One particular Effect can proceed For this Reason finding no Similitude or Resemblance between those Spiritual Effects and Corporeal Causes they substitute instead of such Causes Stupid and Unactive Occasions which have no Influence or Causality at all by which means they break â—â—â—â—der the Chain of Causes and Effects by which the well-compacted Frame of Nature hangs together and the steady Course of God's Ordinary Providence Atâ—â—git a fine usque ad finem fortiter disponâ—t omâ—… suaviter Not considering also that this closelyâ—… Order of Causes and
of Individuums each of which must be Distinct from all the others there must necessarily be a far Greater Complexion of Accidents to distinguish these by their various Complication from one another than was requisite to distinguish and constitute the Common Natures the Common Kinds of Things being in comparison of them but a very Few 5. That Complexion of Accidents which constitutes Individual Bodies must be the most perfect Act they can Thts Complexion of Accidents is the most Perfect Act next câ— that of Existence have except that of Existence For since 't is the Nature of Power taken in a Physical sense or of Matter to be Common to All it can distinguish no Two of them from one another On the other side it being hence evident that 't is the nature of Act and of It only to Distinguish nor can there be a greater Distinction than to make each Subject to be This and â—â— Other it follows hence that the Complexion of Accidents which constitutes Individuums and which imparts this Formal Effect to each of them is the greatest Distinguisher or which is the same the most Perfect Act Second-Causes can give And that this is a less perfect Act than Existence is Evident because the utmost it can do is to make it's Subject This Thing or This Ens that is to make it Capable of Existing and consequently tho' it be most Actual in the direct Line of Ens yet it has the Nature of â— Power in respect of Existence which is therefore the Ultimate Actuality or most perfect Act Imaginable next to that of a DEITY and most resembling it 6. Corollary II. Hence is evidently demonstrated against the Atheists that 't is above all the Power of Natural Hence 't is demonstrated that to give Existence is above the Power of Natural Causes and Peculiar to GOD. Causes and only Peculiar to GOD to give the last Actuality of Existence For since as appears by our former Discourses all that Natural Causes can do is by Motion to mingle the First Bodies which have more or less of Quantity in them that is which are Rare or Dense from the Diversity of which Action follows their various Size Number Proportion Figure Situation c. and these do make the several Complexions of Accidents which constitute all the Individuums in Nature and in none of those Effects is found the Notion of Existence much less of a New Existence which yet belongs to every Individual when it is first made as will easily be discern'd by any Reflecter who considers the Notion or Essence of those several Modes and compares them to the Notion or Nature of Existence It follows manifestly that the last Actuality of Existence cannot be given by Natural Causes but must come from some Cause above Nature that is from the Author of Nature or from that Supreme Essentially-existing Cause GOD Whence is demonstrated a posteriori thâ—â— There is a GOD. 7. There must be some Instant in which the Individuum becomes another Thing or of another Kind For 〈…〉 There must be some Instant in which the Individual first begins to be 't is a manifest contradiction to say that any thing can for any one Instant much less for any part of Time be at once what it lately was and what it newly is or be at once it's-self and â—… it's self but Another 'T is Demonstrable that there must be some Instant in which it first becomes This Individuum or of this Kind and ceases to be Another or of Another Kind 8. This Complexion of Accidents which Determines the Matter to be This and no Other in the First Instant This Complexion of Accidents is Essential to the New Individuum of it's Being must necessarily â—â— Essential to the Individuum newly made For since meer Accidents do advene to the Thing already made This and therefore do presuppose it according to some Priority or other and there can be no Priority no not even that of Nature or Reason of the â—…ng to that which constitutes it because that which constitutes it as being it 's Formal Cause 〈…〉 Priority of Nature to It as the Cause has to 〈…〉 Effect It follows that That Complexion of Accidents which Determines the Matter to be This 〈…〉 no Other in the First Instant of it's Being â—…st necessarily be Essential to the Things or Individuums newly made 9. Therefore this Complexion of Accidents â—ow spoken of is the Essential Therefore it is the Essential or Substantial FORM of the Individual Compound 〈…〉 Substantial FORM of the newâ—ade Compound or Individuum That it is the Form of it is Evident because the whole Notion 〈…〉 the Form or Act is nothing 〈…〉 but to be the Distinguisher of the Confused or Undistinguisht Potentiality of the Matter or to be the Determiner of it's Indifferency to This or That which in the Schools Language is to Inform it and by doing thus to be the Constituter of the Individuum And that this Complexion of Accidents does these Essects is manifest because it is suppos'd to be Peculiar to the Individuum it constitutes and found in no other Lastly That this Complexion of Accidents or Form is Essential 〈…〉 it's Proper Individuum is shown § 8. 10. For the same Reason whatever Modes or Accidents do accrue to the Ens or Individuum afterwards are Accidental Those Accidents that accrue afterwards are Accidentals to it whether they concern it's Quantity or the Accession or Diminution of the Matter that is it 's Growth and Decay or it's Qualities which perfect it or the Relations it acquires to other Individuums and much more what Denominations soever come to it from any of the last Predicaments because all these do advenâ— or are superadded to the Ens already Essentially constituted and are as it were engrafted on that Stock of Being and do not constitute it 11. All Individuums must have some Degree of Constancy and Permanency iâ— their Notion For since all Natural To be an Individuum some degree of Constancy Permanency or Stability is requir'd Motion is for some End to the attaining which it is a kind of Way or Tendency and the Way or Means is not the End and consequently Motion is not the End of Motion it follows that the End of Motion must be something that has some kind of Rest Fixure and Constancy in its Nature Wherefore since the End of that Natural Motion which Determines the Power or Matter to be This and no other is to produce the Individuum it follows that the Individuum or Ens produc'd by that Motion must not be perpetually-Changing or continually Successive as that Motion was but must have some degree of Permanency in it Add that were not this so we could never say with Truth that any thing is what it is nor indeed that it is nor could we act or discourse about it since ere we could speak act or think the. Thing would be Chang'd and
Unity and consequently her Entity Secondly Because Matter is the only Power to become a New Ens and consequently the only Principle of Corruption or Mortality that is of Mutation according to the Notion of Entity as has been demonstrated Ch. 1. § 19. Lastly Because for what reason Bodies are corruptible viz. Because they are compounded of Matter and Form for the same reason the Soul being Immaterial or a Pure Act is Incorruptible or Immortal So that we may as well deny that Bodies can be Corrupted as affirm that the Soul can die or cease to be either by her own Nature she having no Ground of losing her Being in her own Intrinsecal Constitution nor by the Operation of all Natural Causes because all their Action has Passion answering to it which cannot be produced when there wants the only Passive Principle Matter She can then only lose her Existence by the Omnipâ—â—ence of her Great Creatour working Miracâ—â—ously nor can it be that it should work this unless it be Agreeable to his other Divine Attributes and it has been as yet never shown by any that Annihilation can consist with them but on the contrary it has been shown by us that it is hiâ—hly Repugnant to them See Raillery Deâ—… from Pag. 41. to pag. 52. MEDITATION AT length my Soul after a tedious Iourney of thy Thoughts travelling thro' all the vast Regâ—â—â— of those Inferiour Essences of â—odies thou hast arriv'd at thy That the Nature of our Spiritual part the Soul can only be known by Reflexion and therefore in discoursing of It we must Tâ—anscâ—nd our Senses and Corporeal Phantasms Self Thy Individuation which gâ—â—â— thee thy particular Degree of Rationality is in this State best learn'd from thy Material Compart to whose Pre-existent size and pitch thou wast adjusted but thy Peculiar Nature it self can only be known from the Genius of â—â— Interiour Operations as they proceed from Thee and are Proper to thee But â—ow or by what Vehicle came the Knowledge of those Operations into thy Understanding They are as has been shown at large Immaterial and of a Contrary Nature to Quantitative Beings whence they could not enter by the Senses nor be imprinted as those Natural Notions were which were Directly Stampt in thee Nothing therefore but thy own Reflexion comparing thy Operations with those of Bodies and seeing These to be of a quite Contrary Genius to Those could give thee this knowledge of thy self Which shews that the First Lesson to be learn'd by all those Speculaters who study Thee is that they mâ—â—â— abstract from Fancy and lay aside and transcend all the Objects of our Senses and all Corporeal Phantasms otherwise they can never reach thy Indivisible Essence tke want of knowing which Preliminary Rule has made so many Unskilful Thinkers degrade their own Soul from the Dignity which the Author of Nature has given it and to apprehend it to be Material or Mortal 'T is only the Connexion of Notions the Proper Act of the Comparing Power call'd REASON in which all Formal Truth consists which could elevate thy Thoughts above thâ—se Baser Objects and bring thee to frame a Iust Conception of thy Self Our Body cannot see it 's own Face but by Reflexion from a Looking-glass Nor canst thou gain knowledge of thy Immaterial Essence but by the Spiritual Mirrour of thy own Understanding which Reflects thee upon thy self by considering the nature oF thy own Interiour Acts and how they differ from those which are produced by Bodily Substances Nothing is easier to discern than 't is that all Corporeal Operations are perform'd Part-after Part and therefore have Parts or Quantity in them Nor is any consideration more facil and obvious than to conclude thence that their Subjects are of their own Nature Dissoluble Perishable and if they be Living Things Mortal And I may presume â—â— have seen Demonstrations enow alledg'd to manifest that the Operations of our Soul and of all the Objects as they are in her when she knows them and consequently our Soul her self which is their Subject is of a quite Contrary or rather Contradictory Nature and therefore is Incorporeal Immaterial Unquantitative Indissoluble and Immortal Nay â—â—â— shâ—wn § 4. That the Natural Notions of all 〈…〉 who use even Common Râ—â—â—â—xion does in a manner imbue The Unreasonableness of Atheists â—â— with this Sentiment Which renâ—ers the Atheists void oâ—…ll Excâ—se and giveâ— us just occasion to fear that 't is Perversity of Will and not Weakness of Understanding which makes them disacknowledge it They wâ—â—â—d live like Libertines and at large or as the â—…ure expresses it like Sons of Belial sine jugo â—… placing all their Affections on the Pleasures or â—…ts of this Life they are loath to think there 〈…〉 be any Future State in which they should be 〈◊〉 to an account The Goodness of Rational Nature which their Creatour had given them could not but 〈…〉 and upbraid them that they had deprav'd that Nâ—â—â—â—e and wrong'd the Best Order of the World by â—…centious Debaucheries Wherefore their Thoughts â—â— St. Paul says thus accusing themselves by the â—…inct of the Law writ in their hearts they endeaâ—â—â—â—'d to stifle all those Truths which could put them 〈◊〉 an apprehension of a future reckoning and thence â—â—ey willingly entertain'd the opinion that there being 〈…〉 survivency of the Soul Death would Seal an â—â—â—esty for all their Extravagancies and cancel all â—… Debts And for the same reason they were â—â—th to think there was a GOD who govern'd the â—â—â—ld lest being Just he should severely punish them 〈…〉 abusing the Nature he had given them and for â—…olating the Universal Law of the World which he 〈…〉 establisht But leaving those poor Miscreants as Objects of 〈…〉 Pity after we have charitably What Obligations are incumbent on us who know and acknowledge our Soul to be Immortal â—â—deâ—vour'd to our best Power to â—…ctifie and convince their Reason et us which most concerns us look home to our selves and take care that We to whom God has given the Knowledge or Belief that our Soul is Immoâ—â—al be not beaten with as many stripes as They if we neglect to guide our lives according to that Principle which we profess and acknowledge to be True theâ— which if it be a Truth 't is Self-evident that nothing can more highly or more nearly concern as The more Evident it is the more indispensable obligation it lays upon us to follow it in our Practice and the more Inexcusable we shall be if we neglect that Duty Our own Clear Reason has shown as that our Soul it being of a Spiritual Nature or â— Pure Act is Superiour and in the Heraldry â—â— Being of a far Nobler Extraction than is all tâ—â— Great Heap of Rubbish Matter and therefore iâ— of more Intrinsick worth than all this Visible Worlâ— Not an Operation of thine not an Object that is â—â— thy Knowing Power but if well reflected on infoâ—â— us clearly
of this Great and most Important Trâ—â— How Unreasonable then and Unnatural would it â—â— in us not to bestow our Chief if not Only carâ— â—â— provide for the Eternal Welfare of our Soul which â—â— so Precious in it self and so neerly ally'd to Us tâ—â— 't is a Part and by far the Best Part of this Thing â—â— are call'd Man What will it profit a Man sayâ—â— who is the Eternal Wisdom to gain the Whoâ—â— World and lose his own Soul How Senseless â—â— Foolish must we appear in the Sight of GOD and â—â— Angels â—o prefer the Conveniencies of this Momeâ—tary Life for all Time could we live while it lâ—st is but a Moment to the Endless Duration of a Spirâ—â— before the Mâ—ans to live Eternally Happy in the Oâ—â—â—â— How Vile to enslave our Affections here to Riches â—â—â—â—oâ—eal Pleasures or Airy Honour which are so inâ—â—itely below us being indeed nothing but Shining Clay well figur'd and colour'd Earth and Articulate Air which are perhaps the Basest of all Material Beings What Generous heart if not infatuated even to Madness would so debase his Dignity as to subject himself and all his dearest Concerns to his Underling or Slave and such a Slave as will certainly ruin him by his over-kind Condescendency Knowledge and Virtue are the Only True and the â—â—â—t Perfections of our Soul while she is in the Way to her Last End Whence we may be Certain they â—â—â— Agreeable to her Nature The Increase in these gives her Growth and Strength and consequently must advance her towards the Right End for which Nature ordain'd her Whereas what 's made of this corruptible Trash Matter must needs depress â—er High-born Nature and disgrace her Extraction â—â—deed those Material Creatures may by our Sober â—se of them serve as Drudges to assist our other Compâ—rt the Body with necessary Conveniencies They may also be a means to raise the Soul to the Knowledge of her self and her Great Maker but â—f we affect them farther than as they are subservient to those Laudable Ends we shall put the Order of the Creation out of it's Frame and Irrational Love especially if Excessive being a perfect Slavery we shall invert the Gradual Series of Beings of which the world consists turn the Climax of Causes with the â—eels upwards and make our Soul servilely truckle to those Despicable things which were made to do her Homage Lest our Fancy not much assisting our Memory in things above us we may forget what we lately demonstrated of how Our former Demonstrations for the Immortality of our Soul summ'd up and Recapitulated surpassing an Excellency and how Refin'd a perfection of Being our Soul is above this Dross of Matter of which our Bodies are â—neaded let us review once more the Product of some of our most Attentive and Deliberate Thoughts We have seen it clearly Demonstrated that our Soul's Capacity which is of Knowledge contrary to the Nature of Material Containers is Infinite Whence she is so far from being fill'd by the accession of such Objects as this Material World can afford her that even now while here they serve but to enlarge her said Capacity that is to encrease â—er Thirst of knowing still more From which follows that in her future State when she is all Mind and constantly and most eagerly Attentive and addicted to her only Natural Perfection Knowledge she will being then a Pure Act and operating accordingly strain her incredible Activity to attain the Sight of the First Cause of all things and to know what he is in himself and thence must remain ever in a vehement Longing and Tormenting Dissatisfaction unless she attain that only Soul-satiating Contemplation of Him who is Infinite Truth and the First Cause of all those Created Effects the Knowledge of which transported her with such an Insatiable Desire of seeing him We have seen that as the Purest and most Refined Gold cannot incorporate with Dust the Natures or Qualities of Corporeal Beings when in thy Knowing Power cannot mingle with thy Purer and Nobler Essence nor as Proper and Connatural Affections do use alter it or bring it to their Nature But they stand aloof from it and tho' they be in thee yet they keep their Distance and contrary to the Genius of Corporeal Modes they are there â—s Objects that is as Other Things or as Distinct from thee We have shown that by our Apprehending what Existence or Actual Being is which 't is Evident we do since we know the Meaning of those words thou hast the Nature of Existence in thy Knowledge that is in thy self which is impossible to be shadow'd or represented but only in a Spiritual Mirrour Nay by having what 's meant by the word Existence in thee which Abstracts from all Limited or Particular Manners or Degrees of it thou hast in thee the Nature of Existence in Common or in it's whole Latitude Unconfin'd to this or that Subject which demonstrates that thy Nature is Capable to comprehend the whole Creation and to see clearly even that Soveraign Being it self whose Nature is Unconfin'd or Infinite Existence We have seen by thy framing Respects of one thing to another that thou hast in thee a Power of Ordering them and consequently the Nature of that Order it self whereas there is nothing in the Material World but so many Singulars each of which is ultimately Determin'd by it's Individuating Principles and therefore is Independent and Absolute in it self without the least Reference or Actual Respect to one another We have seen clearly demonstrated that thy Essâ—â—ce is Superiour in the Line of Being to the whole â—â—ture of Continu'd Quantity tho' stretcht out to the vast Expansion of the Heavens and even as far as the World's Surface and that thy Knowing Power is able to fathom it all without straining it's Capacity beyond it's reach We have seen also how it is capacious enough to contain the whole Nature of Discrete Quantity tho' it fills all those Boundless Rooms in the Long Row of Number algebraically repeated All those short Items of particular Times and Places summ'd up into one Total are compriz'd and writ in short hand in thy Indivisible Essence The whole Progress of Motion and Time and it 's Untraceable Antiquity from the First Winding up the Clock of Nature till it's Line is run out at the World's last Period when the sick Tapour of dying Nature and the Eye of the World the Sun shall begin to wink and become bloodshot till 't is darken'd and Extinguisht All this Long Race of Time I say is far too short to be commensurated with thy Essence and Duration The Former sort of Quantity is but as it were a Point the later but an Instant when resum'd after an Indivisible manner in thy Comprehensive Being All the Permanent parts of the one are in Thee without the least Extension or Distance and all the Succeeding Parts of the Other whether Past or Future when vested with thy manner
of Being amount but to one still-Present Now. Nor can this seem Incredible to any Christian since we all hold that Spiritual Natures are Capable of seeing GOD's Essence as in it self which as is Undeniable infinitely surmounts all the whole Machine of this Material World We have seen that all Physical Qualities do enjoy when in thee another manner of Being and affect Thee their Subject after a quite different way from what they had when they were in Material Nature The most Opposite ones which are perpetually contrasting and restlessly striving to expell one another do by thy Soveraign Power remain at peace in thy Steady Essence which is of 〈…〉 High a Dignity to be mov'd or disturb'd by their Petty Quarrels We have seen that thy Abstracting Power can â—…de these Lower Beings more Subtilly than can the Operation of Fire or any Chymistry of Nature assisted by Art and can take in pieces their very Essences and the Essences of their several Modes by cutting them into their Metaphysical Parts which are too delicate for our Bodily Sight tho' assisted with the best Microscopes to discern or make Observations how they differ Each of which Parts too tho' naturally Impartible have a Distinct Being given by Thee and can be wrought upon by thy Understanding as if they were so many Wholes and this with that most perfect Distinction that they do not in the least interfere in thee tho' they â—â—â— All of them confusedly blended as they stand in Rude and Unpolisht Matter We have seen how by the cement of Existence exprest by the short Monosyllable is thou dost iâ— thy Comparing Power the Laboratory where Truths are fram'd re-connect those thus-divided Parts into Propositions and this with an Union so Close that 't is absolutely Indissoluble by the utmost Force of all the Causes in Nature Nay that thy Spiritual Essence can in some manner Create by giving a kind of Being in Thee to Not-Beings or Nothings In a word we have seen that all the whole Material World and every Part of it that ever came to thy Knowledge do enjoy a New sort of Being in Thee and such a one as is contradictorily Opposite to the Being they had in their Material State All these high Prerogatives dilating thy Essence and Duration to a kind of Infinity above this Narrow World we The most Important Use we ought to make of this Doctrin That our Soul is Immortal have found clearly to be no more but thy Just Due however Unreflecting Atheists whose groveling Souls immerst in Matter cannot or will not raise themselves above Fancy do use their misemploy'd Foolish Wit as the World calls it to devest themselves of their own Dignity and like so many worst Feloes de se by maintaining their Soul is Mortal do give themselves to be Guilty of Eternal Death or which is worse than Death of Annihilation by granting their Souls incapable of Surviving But let us to whom the Providence of our Good Makeâ— has indulg'd these Clear Informations make oâ—â— Right Use of them Since these are Great Truths let Truth have it's Due Effects 'T is so Gross at Errour that it is below Confute to imagine that any Truth is an Idle and Fruitless Speculatiâ—â— The Knowledge of Truth in Particular things does of it's own Nature tend to direct our Outward Actions and Universal Truths such as these are do naturally conduce to enlarge our Soul raise â—â— to High Contemplation and to breed in us Conformable Affections Since then we have the best â—…rance Clear Demonstration can give us that this Material World is below our Essence 't is most fit we should esteem it to be also below our most Serious Thoughts and our Best Affections Let us â—â—ancipate our selves then from the Slavish Adoration with which Worldlings devote themselves to that Dull and Senseless Idol And seeing Evident Reason has perfectly convinced us there is no shadow of Likelihood that our Soul is Mortal let us bend all â—â—â— carefullest Endeavours to provide she may be Happy in her Eternal State when she comes to be â—â—â—â—â—dg'd from her terrene habitation and has got clear of her Body and this World nay is got above it which is the only True Wisdom To the Consideration of which State of hers we advance in our next Discourse Transnatural Philosophy OR METAPHYSICKS BOOK II. Of PURE ACTS VIZ. Of the SOUL SEPARATED and ANGELS CHAP. I. Of the State of the Soul Separated from the Body and what Dispositions in her when the Man Dies will make her Eternally Happy or Miserable 1. THE Soul does at her Separation The Soul at her Separation receives some Change according to her Manner of Existing and Suppositality receive from GOD as he is the Author of Nature some Change according to her Existence and her Subsistence or Suppositality For since in her former State of Union with her Body she was the Form of that Body and therefore Form and Matter being the Parts of every Compound Ens only a Part of Man and a Part of an Ens is not an Ens or Individuum nor consequently capable of Existing much less of Subsisting which as is shown above B. 1. Chap. 5. § 17. superadds some Perfection to the Notion of Existence It follows that seeing the same Soul when separated from the Body she being by Book 1. Chap. 7. Immortal does Exist and also Subsist in regard she Sustains her own Nature and as will be prov'd shortly her Modes too she must be made apt to Exist and Subsist which she was not while in her former State that is she must be Chang'd according to those Considerations or Respects and made an Existent and Subsistent Thing and consequently a Kind of Suppositum And that it belongs to GOD as he is the First Cause to give the Soul this highest Perfection of Being is hence demonstrated For it belongs to an Infinite Actuality or an Infinite Goodness to give to his Creatures all the Goodness and Natural Perfections they are capable to receive especially such as the very Nature he has given them makes them require Now 't is evident that the Nature of the Soul she being Immortal is capable of and requires still to Exist and also to Subsist and be a Suppositum because she had while in the Body Power to have in her as in their Subject that is to Sustain or be the Suppositum of innumerable Accidents Notions or Knowledges which they being Spiritual or Indivisible could not be received in a Divisible Subject the Corporeal part of Man and therefore could only be peculiarly in Her Whence it follows that since 〈◊〉 Ordain'd the Dissolution of the Man or the 〈◊〉 Separation from the Body and had also mâ—de the Soul Immortal it became His Goodness to give her when separated Existence which her Immortal Nature requir'd and also the Power of Subsisting and of being the Subject or Suppositum of those Accidents â— How this is done we may learn by this
Concomitant to the First Existence of Bodies that 't is a Contradiction they should be together in Duration or at once For Existence it having â—â— parts is Indivisible in Duration or without part after part whereas 't is Essential to Motion to be part after part or Successive So that 't is equally Contradictory that Existence should not be all at once as 't is that Motion should be all at once so far is the Later from being Consequent or Concomitant to the Former 5. This is farther Demonstrated from the Nature of Causality by this Argument No Effect can proceed As is also Demonstrated from the Nature of all Causality immediately from a Cause which is of a Nature diametrically Opposite to such an Effect V. g. Not-being cannot produce Being Light cannot produce Darkness not can that which is essentially â—â—â— immediately produce Cold. But Motion which is essentially Successive or which is the same perpetually Changing is diametrically Opposite to the Nature of GOD whose Essence is Unchangeable Existence Therefore Motion cannot be produced by GOD as it's Immediate Cause Wherefore since by our former Discourse the â—â—â— Motion of Bodies could not have been immediately produced either by any meer Body â—oâ— by a Human Soul nor yet by GOD it is 〈◊〉 that it could only be caus'd by a Pure Act â—â— an Angel See Method to Science Pag. 299. â—â—â—â—â—s 4. Ideae Cartesianae P. 44. § 31. and Railâ—â—â— Defeated § 43. where this Demonstration is â—â— large put down and prest home What I â—â—â—tend for here is that the Contrary Tenet â—â—erthrows all Likeness of the Cause and Effect â—â—d all Causality and therefore all Connexion of Proper Causes with their Proper Effects and Vice Versâ that is it quite destroys all Possibility of Science and Demonstration Notwithstanding 't is Granted that GOD is the Mediate Remote or Principal Cause of Motion as giving Second Causes both the Power to move Bodies and Pre-moving or Determining them to move them 6. Every more perfect Ens contains or includes in it the Nature of the less perfect Thus as was said the Every more perfect Ens includes in it the Nature of the less perfect Nature of a Mixt or Compound Body having diverse Elements in it and therefore having more of the Nature of Body than a Simple Body or any one Element has includes in it the Nature or Essence of a Simple Body Thus and for the same reason a Vegetative Mixt has more of the Nature of a Mixt in it than a meerly-Mixt such as are Pebbles Clay Gold or such like Thus Sensitive Things include in them the Nature of a Vegetable and every Rational Animal includes in it the Nature of a meer Sensitive Thing or an Animal All which are Evident because the Perfecter Ens has in it the Notion or Nature of the Imperfecter and superadds something to it So that to deny the force of this Demonstration or the Truth it demonstrates is the same Folly as to deny that what has more in it of any Kind does not contain in it what 's Less of the same Kind or that what 's a Whole in respect of the other is not more than a Part of it or which is the same that a Whole does not contain or include it's Parts And that they include them Essentsally is most Evident to all Logicians and granted by all while they acknowledge those Later or less perfect Notions to be essentially predicated of the former in regard they superadd to them nothing that 's Positive 7. Wherefore for the same Reason Every Pure Act Spirit or Angel includes in it self one way or And therefore Pure Acts contain in them the Nature of Body other the whole Nature of Body For since Ens is adequately divided into Pure Acts or Spirit and into those Entities whose Essences are alloy'd with Power and Potentiality as are Bodies which are compounded of Matter and Form and these two Species are constituted as by it's Intrinsecal Differences by partaking â—â—â—e and less of Ens their Genus and that which is more in any Kind or Respect includes what 's Less in the same respect as a Yard in Quantity contains an Inch which is Less under that Notion or a Lesser Quantity Hence it follows demonstratively that the self-same Discourse must equally hold in the Species of Ens as it does in those of Quantity now mention'd or in the Species of any other Genus and consequently that a Pure Act or Spirit must include some way or other the whole Nature of Body which has less of the Nature of Ens in it than had the other 8. Wherefore the very Essences of all Natural Bodies are really and truly contain'd Which since it cannot be done by the manner of Quantity they must contain them by the way of Knowledge in the Knowledge of an Angel and not their Ideas or Similitudes only For since it is granted that Angels they being Pure Acts are of an Indivisible Nature or void of Quantity the Essences of Bodies which by § 7. are one way or other contain'd or included in an Angel cannot be included in it Quantitatively after the manner a Vessel contains Liquâ—ur or as a Bigger Box contains a Lesser Wherefore it must be said that those Lesser Essences of Body are contain'd in the Superiour Essence of an Angel Indivisibly or after the manner of a Spirit that is Knowingly or as Objects of their Knowing Power which was the Point to be Demonstrated 9. Wherefore he who denies that the very Essences of Bodies are in the Understanding of an Angel or in Therefore the very Essences of Bodies are in a Spiritual Understanding and not Idea's or Similitudes only any Spiritual Nature and affirms that only the Similitudes of them are there may as well say the Essences or Natures of Simple Bodies are not in Mixts or that the Essences of meer Vegetatives are not in Sensitive Things or Animals or that the Essence of an Animal is not really in a Rational Thing or a Man but Likenesses only which is both against the Sentiments of all Logicians in the world who do acknowledge that the Former are Essential Predicates of the Later and not Accidental ones which could not with Truth be said unless the Essences themselves from which the Denomination of Essential is taken were really in them Nay it is moreover against the Definitions of these Later in which those Former are found I add against the Sense of all Mankind too who reflect upon what they say Whence those Ideists who hold the contrary Opinion are desir'd to take notice that our Argument here is drawn from the Notion of the Thing as it is a Thing or â—â—â—tance and from the Nature of the Species of â—â— as such and not from the Qualities or Relations of them from whence their Likeness or Unâ—â—â—ness is taken Which clinches the force of our demonstration drawn from Logick and Metaphysicks and will forestall and
Writers accommodate themselves to our Rude Fancies Tho' GOD's Wisdom has laid Means for our Natural Knowledges in the works of the Creation yet 't is below the Dignity of those Heaven-inspir'd Oracles to teach us literally such Truths as belong to Philosophy or to give Reasons for every particular they mention 'T is Unworthy the Majesty and Authority of the Divine Spirit that Endited them to instruct us Scientifically as if no Credit or Belief were to be given to his Word signify'd How Faith has antecedently enlightned our Reason and that 't is our Duty to Explicate and Defend it against the Empty Flourishes of the Drollish Renouncers of Faith and Reason both to us by such Authentick Instruments writ by his Immediate Commission 'T is Favour enough that he has been pleas'd to give us some Conclusions or acquaint us with some Theses of a higher Nature and to ascertain their Truth by engaging his Infallible Veracity and that by means of our Industrious Study he bestows upon us the Inferiour and more Familiar Light of Scientifical Knowledge to explicate those Truths by showing their Agreeableness to Evident Principles of Nature which the same GOD of Truth has also taught us tho' not so immediately that so we may comfort Faith and make it more Lively and Operative in our selves and others as also defend it against Opposers and confute by Solid Discourses the Fantastick Raillery of Ignorant Unbelievers who chuse rather to mistrust their own Natural Notions than assent to any thing that sutes not with their Imagination and are ready to renounce the best Productions of their Reason reflecting upon Principles than to allow any thing to Faith tho' the same Reason informs them by a thousand Instances that nothing is more Unreasonable than such a restiff humoursomeness So certain it is That No Man can be an Adversary to Faith but he must withal be an Enemy to True Science If any Man complains he is injur'd by this censure I 'll candidly tell him how he may clear himself Let him leave off his Witty Talk and Loose Drollery and laying first his Principles draw thence by Connected Discourses his Conclusions This Method will have force upon Humane Nature whereas when Truth is enquir'd after Raillery satisfies no Man of Sense nor pleases any but Gigglers But alas Their weak Cause forbids them any such Manly Procedure The very Attempting it will convince themselves if Candid that 't is impossible and impracticable and make them confess at least by their carriage and ill performance that they never follow'd the wise Conduct of True Reason but were deluded by the Folly of their Imagination But what Gratitude what Acknowledgments do we owe to those Blessed Spirits for their ever-watchful care over us for What Gratitude Love and Veneration we owe to those Blessed Ministring Spirits preventing our Heedlesness and want of Foresight from falling into a thousand Mischances for keeping us in all our ways Psal. 90. 11. For inspiring us with good Thoughts and pitching their Tents about us to defend us from the Assaults and Fiery Darts of our Ghostly Enemy What Respect ought we to show towards them for the Excellency rf their Nature and their High Station in the Created Universe What Veneration for their Purest Sanctity and for the Glory they enjoy by being Attendants in GOD's Empyreal Court and their seeing daily the Unvail'd and Blissful Face of our Father who is Heaven Mat. 18. 10. Let us then present them with our humble thanks for their Sollicitons care of us and their offering up the Incense of our Prayers in their Golden Censor at the Throne of Grace Rev. 8. 3 4 5. Our Good GOD who has commanded us to honour our Father and Mother and our Magistrates and to be Grateful to our Benefactors whom as Second Causes he has order'd to be Instrumental to our Good will not be offended that we honour his Holy Angels whom he has appointed to assist us in a more Soveraign manner both Temporally and Spiritually and who have a greater power over the World and all material Nature than Alexanders or Caesars Who can reflect upon those words told us by the mouth of our Saviour himself that the Angels do rejoice at the Repentance of a Sinner and not admire at such a disinteressed Goodness and Charity towards us poor Mortals and love honour and thank them for it Common Morality and Nature enjoyn us these Duties and what 's Agreeable to the Laws of Right Nature or Reason can never be opposite to Christianity which establishes and not dissolves those Laws Tho' they need not nor require those Duties at our hands yet we do nevertheless owe them Tho' they do neither more or less assist us whether we apply to them or neglect them yet our Obligation is not the less but rather more for their Love What Benefit we shall reap by keeping up a Spiritual Communication with them to us and such a Love as is not at all Selfish There is not such a Distance between the Church Militant and Triumphant as to render a Mutual and Spiritual Commerce between them Impracticable We are all of us Fellow Servants of the same Common Lord and have the same Head Christ Jesus Nor can Distance at all hinder the Communication of Spiritual Natures which are above the Limited Nature of Quantity They are truly and in a better manner Present with us while we are in their Thoughts which is all the Presence of which Spiritual Natures are Capable and we are really United Spiritually with them when we have the same Pious Affections with them They frequently conversed with Mankind under Visible Apparitions in the time of Moses his Law And tho' Better Ordinary Means be now allow'd and therefore such Extraordinary Favours need not be so Frequent yet this is no reason to neglect an Invisible or Spiritual Communication with them Especially since it is our Interest and Benefit to caltivate it by considering their Happy State their Obedience to the Divine Will and their Diligent and Charitable Concern for us They are as Pure in their Morals from Sin as they are in their Naturals from Matter and they purifie and spiritualize our Souls while our Understandings and Wills are employ'd in thinking on such Holy and Pure Objects Our Soul takes a Tincture and a kind of Nature as it is Moral from the Objects it affectionately converses with That Soul which is oft thus thinking of Earthly Things is Earthly Of Corporeal Pleasures is Brutish Of Empty Honour is Aiery and Vain Of GOD is Divine and for the same reason the Soul which thus affectionately applies it's Thoughts and Yet to honour them so as still to remember they are only our Fellow-Servants tho' highly dignify'd by our Common Master Affections to Angels or converses with them spiritually cum Sancto Sanctus eris is ANGELICAL Only let us be sure we honour them for their Masters sake and that we do not venerate
them so that the Honour done to them does interfere with that Supreme Honour due by a thousand Titles to their and our Infinitely Perfect GOD and Creatour To treat of whose Adorable Majesty we consecrate our next Endeavours Transnatural Philosophy OR METAPHYSICKS BOOK III. Of the most Pure Actuality of Being the Adorable DEITY CHAP. I. Of the Existence Essence and Attributes of GOD. § 1. THERE must be Something whose Dem. I. Essence is a most Pure Actuality of Being without any That there must be Something which is a most Pure Actuality of Being Demonstrated Potentiality whatever For since Names are invented to signifie the Natures of the Things we â—…ceive and none of the Names â—f those Beings which we call Creatures whether they be Angels Men or Bodies as Michael Peter a Stone a Tree c. do imply Actual Being or Existence in their Signification It follows that they Abstract from and are Indifferent to Existing and Not-existing or are a meer Power or Potentiality to that Act call'd Existence But from a meer Power Potentiality or Indifferency nothing can follow or issue much less such a Noble Effect as Actual Being Wherefore were there not some Other Thing which has no Potentiality or Indifferency to Existing but has of it's own Nature Actual Being neither it Self nor any other Thing could ever have been Actually But we know certainly that our selves and many Other Things are Therefore as sure as it is that any Thing is and that we know the Meaning of the Words which we intelligently use and by which we intend to express our Conceptions which 't is Self-evident we do since without doing this we could be sure of nothing we say so Certain and Evident it is that there must be Something whose Nature or Essence it is to have no Potentiality or Indifferency to Being and consequently which is of it's self a most Pâ—râ— Actuality of Being 2. Dem. II. Nothing is more Evident than that Actual Being is not contain'd in the Notion Nature oâ— From the acknowledg'd Potentiality of Being necessarily and manifestly annext or rather Essential to Creatures Essence of some of those Beings call'd Creatures for we experience that such and such Trees Animals c. sometimes arâ— sometimes are not whence we can with Truth predicate or say of them according to the Notion of Thing and using the same word which signifies the same Individual Thing in respect of those several times that they are Existent or Not-existent which we could not do were it their Nature or Essence to be Existent for in that case this Proposition Peter is not-existent would be the same as Peter is not Peter which is against an Identical Proposition and the greatest of Falshoods whereas all Mankind grants that these Propositions Such a Man Animal or Tree now are not may be Certain Truths Hence I subsume But we find no more of Actual Being in the meaning of those words Gabriel Michael or any other Finite Being we can imagine than there is in these A Stone a Tree Bâ—…cephalus or any other Thing which we see is Corrupted and therefore we truly say of it that it is not Wherefore not one of those Finite Beings we call Creatures have Actual Being in their Essence or Nature Therefore all we can say of them in order to Being is that they can be or have a Power to be Actually But that which â—â— a meer Power to any Act cannot give it self 〈…〉 Act for then Water which has a Power â—…e Hot might make it self Hot and every thing in Nature might give it self whatever â—…al or Accidental Acts the Matter or Power 〈…〉 bear that is every Body in Nature might 〈…〉 it self any thing Wherefore since none â—…ose Potential Beings could exist of themâ—…s or by virtue of their own Nature or Esâ—…e It follows necessarily that there must â—…ome Other Being whose Nature and Essence 〈…〉 is to have no Potentiality to Being in it or which is the same which is a Pure Actuality of â—…ng 3. Dem. III. Were there any Thing whether Body Man Angel or whatever Higher Being we can imagine Because what is not cannot Act. that were of it's own Nature only a Potentiality of Being or a Power to Bee and yet gave it self to be Actually it must be conceiv'd in priority of Reason as yet not to have that Being which it gave it self But 't is a flat Contradiction to conceive that what has Not Being or is not should act or produce Being in it self Therefore there must have ever been a Pure Actuality of Being 4. Dem. IV. This is enforced because Actual Being is the Noblest Effect that can be imagin'd and far more Because Actual Being is the Noblest Effect imaginable Excellent than a Power to bee as it is contra-distinguisht to Being Actually as appears hence that the Power to any Form is but a kind of Disposition Order or as it were a Means or Way to that Form or Act to which 't is a Power or rather the Form is the End that Disposition was order'd for and to which that Way led Whence in case a Power or Potentiality of Being should give it self Actual Being it would act beyond the Virtue of such a Power that is beyond it's self and therefore would do what it cannot do which is a direct Contradiction 5. Dem. V. No Cause can produce an Effect contradictory to it's own Nature Because no Power can produce an Effect which is Contradictory to what it is it self or to its own Nature or Essence But if a Power which is essentially Indeterminate should give it's self it 's Form or Act which is essentially Determinate that Cause would work contradictorily to it's Nature which would destroy all Causality and all Order of Natural Operation Therefore what is it self but a Power to be can never make it self be actually 6. So that from the plain obvious Notions of Power and Act this Great Conclusion The foresaid Demonstration summ'd up and Enforc'd is by a Metaphysical Medium that is ab Altissimis Causis most evidently demonstrated that since from a Potentiality or Power of Being no Actual Being could have been produc'd Hence had all Beings been Potential nothing could ever have been and therefore there must necessarily be some Being whose Nature or Essence is Pure Actuality of Being Which as will be shown is the Notion of the First Being or the Deity 7. Hence follows that this Actuality of Being did Create or give Being to all other things For since it has This Actuality of Being gave Being to all other Things been demonstrated here that none of their Essences has Actual Being in their Natures but were Potential to that Act call'd Existence nor conâ—…ntly could give themselves to be actually 〈…〉 the very Terms evince that all Things that aâ—e must either have Actual Being in their Natures or not have Actual Being in their Natures 〈…〉 follows evidently that they must
either have â—…d Actual Being given them or have been â—reated by that Self-existent Thing that has Actual Being in it's Nature or is essentially an Actuality of Being or else they must have had Actual Being given them by Nothing 8. Against this Demonstration for the Existence of some First Being or Beings some may object That The Objection of the Atheists propos'd viz That the World was ever there has been an Infinite Number of Things Antecedent to one another without any possibility of conceiving a First none of which Things were meerly Potential in order to Being but all of them were actually in their Proper Seasons and therefore they might give Actual Being to those Things that still succeeded To which I Answer 9. First That this does not solve the Argument but objects against the Conclusion than which nothing is more Answer I. That this does not solve our Demonstration Unfair in Discoursing For this untoward Method allows him who is the Respondent to prevaricate from his Duty and turn Opponent Which confounds those two Offices and perverts all the Laws of Reasoning or Discoursing 10. Secondly which is yet much worse It opposes the Conclusion by a meer Voluntary Assertion neither Demonstrated Ans. II. That 't is a meer Voluntary Assertion never yet prov'd nor Attempted to be Prov'd nor Possible to be Prov'd nor as we peremptorily challenge them possible to bear even any show of a Demonstration Whereas against a Pretended Demonstration even in case this aukward Method of Discoursing were allowable as it is not nothing under a Pretended Demonstration has right to be alledg'd Probabilities in such a case being Insignificant and Incompetent to be put in the Ballance 11. Thirdly That the Argument is not solv'd 〈…〉 Evident for it manifestly proceeds upon what of it's own Ans. III. Farther showing that our Argument is not toucht and is reducible to an Identical Proposition Nature or essentially is Potential to Being or Actual Being and as is seen § 6. 7. the Demonstration is in part grounded upon the Necessity that one side of the Contradiction must be True Now it must be confest by themselves that maâ—y of these Actual Causes which they pretend â—id all along give Actual Being to others viz. many Bodies were not of their own Nature or Essentially Existent for had they been such essentially they had not needed nor could they receive Existence from others since they had it of themselves nor could they ever not have been â—…e contrary to all which we experience since we see many of them Generated and others Corrupted And had the Predicate Existent been Essential to any of them then since Essential Predicates are always predicated of their Subjects Existent could always with truth be predicated of Peter or every Individual Entity which put we could never say with Truth that Peter or 〈…〉 other Thing which once was and is now corrupted is not Existent or is not which Common Sense and the very Notion of the word was or Fuit makes it Self-evident we can do lastly To clinch the Truth of this Point 't is an Identical Proposition and one of the First Truths that Every thing is what it is or is it's self Wherefore in case Existent were an Essential Predicate of any of those Corruptible or Finite Things then since what 's Essential to any thing does at least as a necessary and intrinsecal part constitute it and what wants it's Essence is not that Thing or is not it's self it would be against an Identical Proposition on which the Metaphysical Verity that is all the Truth we can imagine depends if those Things which they put to be the Successive Causes of Actual Being should at any time not be which yet Experience tells us do sometime cease to be or are not As certain then as an Identical Proposition is True so Certain it is that the Natures of all Finite Things are no more but only Capable of Being that is Potential and Indifferent to Being and not-Being and therefore that they had no Being from any Finite Cause but from some Infinite First Cause or Causes which is Essentially Actual Being or a Pure Actuality of Being 12. Fourthly Their Assertion relying on the Supposition of an Infinite Number of Successive Causes is utterly Ans. IV. That this Pretence or Voluntary Assertion is shown to be an absolute Impossibility overthrown by proving that An Infinite Number is absolutely Impossible which I thus show out of the Nature of the Subject about which we are Discoursing Number For all Number even tho' Infinite is compounded made up or consists of Units or Ones So that as Twenty is Twenty Ones and a Million is a Million of Ones so an Infinite Number is Infinite Ones nor can it as it has the Notion of Number consist of any thing else Nor can themselves find any thing in it's Composition but Ones Regarding then the Subject of our Discourse this Infinite Collection of Ones we can find or imagine nothing in it by which it can be conceiv'd to grow up or rather become Infinite but One still successively following the foregoing Ones Wherefore it must become formally Infinite by some One added to or taken with the rest there being in it nothing else as was said imaginable by which it could formally oâ— integrally become Infinite But 't is an absolute Impossibility that a Number or Multitude if that word rather please them should become Infinite by the Accession of some One Therefore an Infinite Number is absolutely Impossible I do remember that when I prest this Argument against a very Ingenious Atheist he to shift it oâ— reply'd that no Man has or can have any Notion of an Infinite Number I answer'd That thâ—â— condemns themselves for recurring to such a Position that no Man can tell what the Words â—… I added That this was a strong Argument against them that the Position it self was Chimerical and convinces them of being baffled in their Cause by their running to such a Thesis as was confessedly Unintelligible either by themselves or their Adversary Next I assur'd him That waving this we could very easily have a Notion or Simple Apprehension of what the word Infinite means as is clearly shown Solid Philosophy Asserted Reflexion IX Otherwise we could not Speak or Discourse of it either pro or con But when we come to joyn it in a Proposition with Existent and say An Infinite Number is â—t has been then indeed our Understanding iâ— puzzled and at an utter loss to make Sense of it and no wonder since it implies a Contradiction which being against the Nature of Ens iâ— altogether Unintelligible His next Answer was That my Argument proceeded upon a False Supposition For there could be no Agent to Calculate it or add one to one till it became Infinite I reply'd Those very Agents himself puts to have produced still a New One all along did add those Successive Ones in re tho'
no Man's Arithmetick comprehended them all by Summing up their Total in his Understanding Besides this drops the whole Question and flies off to a New Point For the Question is not whether an Agent or Calculator can do this but whether the Nature of the Subject viz. An Infinite Number which is made up of nothing but Ones does not bear it nay force it that it must become Infinite by One added to One and therefore by the Accession of sâ—â—â— One to the Finite Number presuppos'd To which Essential or Intrinsical Nature of the Thing or Subject from which only we argue the want of an Agent is Accidental and Extrinsical Thus Philosophers hold there is some least siâ—â— of Bodies or Minima Naturalia which are to farther Divisible Actually because there is no Agent little enough to come between the sides of it and divide it farther and yet the same Men hold that since Quantitas est Divisibilis iâ— semper Divisibilia it is notwithstanding of It 's own Nature farther Divisible 13. Fifthly To beat them from this Evasion that there wants an Agent let Ans. V. That the putting an Infinite Time which in their Supposition is absolutely Necessary is a plain Contradiction us see what the Necessity of not admitting a plain Contradiction will work with them I argue then thus Those Infinite Agents which they say do and eveâ— did communicate Actual Being to the following Ones must since this was done by way 〈…〉 Motion require Infinite Time to perform this 〈…〉 But such an Infinite Antecedent Time is absolutely impossible to have been Therefore their â—…n Position falls to the ground To prove 〈…〉 there could not have been an Infinite Time â—…gue thus by way of Dilemma which is a 〈…〉 Conclusive Method when the two sides of â—…e Contradictory and can have no Third or â—…dle between them If there has been an Infiâ—… Time there must have been either an Infinite Number of Hours antecedently or not an-Infinite Number of Hours but a Finite Number of them â—… If only a Finite Number then that whole â—…e was Finite and therefore had a Beginning â—…ould have been ever If they say an Infiâ—… Number of Hours have anteceded or lest â—…ey should quarrel with the word Number an â—…ite Multitude of them or which is the same 〈…〉 the Subjects part a Motion correspondent to 〈…〉 Infinite Multitude of Hours then in this Multitude of antecedent Hours Either there has â—…en some One Hour distant from This Hour which â—…s now by Infinite Ones Or no one Hour diâ—…nt from this present Hour by Infinite ones Let them take which side they please for one of them they must take or allow they being Conâ—â—â—dictories If they say there has been no one Hour distant from this Present Hour by Infinite â—…s then since in this Infinite Multitude of â—…ours there is nothing but Ones for Multa â—…ans multa una and can mean nothing else 〈…〉 the whole Collection of Hours which they pretend to be Infinite is clearly Finite there being nothing in it which is Infinitely distant Again If None of them be distant from this Present Hour by Infinite ones then All of them are distant by Finite ones and so again the Collection of antecedent Hours must have been Finite And if they chuse to take the other side and say There has been some One hour which is distant from this Present by Infinite ones then they manifestly put an Infinite Time or a Time which has No End and yet has Two Ends viz. That One Hour terminating it long ago and this Present Hour terminating it Now That is they put an Infinite which is Finite or not-Infinite which is a Direct Contradiction 14. Lastly To confute this Infinity whether of antecedent Causes or of Parts of Time there needs no more Ans. VI. That the very Notion of the word Infinite apply'd to our Case is a plain Contradiction but to reflect upon the plain Meaning of the word Infinite and it will tell us that an Infinite in any kind must include All that belongs to that kind so that there can be nothing of that kind out of it nor any Accession to it or New Particulars of that Kind which it does not comprehend For if the supposed Infinity did not include them All it fell so far Short and any Shortness is directly Opposite to the Notion of Infinity Nothing being more Evident than that the words Not-all do signifie the same as only some and therefore that Notion in whatever Kind that does not extend it self to All of that Kind is Limited to some and therefore is not-Infinite in that Kind Since then we see New Hours daily accrue to Antecedent Time and New Agents added to the former â—â—â— of Causes which can with no Sense be 〈…〉 to be comprehended in the Antecedent Collection of them 't is manifestly against our common Notions and Common Sense to preâ—… that the multitude of Antecedent Causes and â—â—â—ts of Time or Motion have been actually Infinite Wherefore all these Antecedent Causes â—â—d some First or a Beginning of their Being which they could not have had of themselves had their Natures been only Potential to Being or meerly capable to be Therefore there must â—â—ve ever been something or some First Cause which of it's own Nature or Essence is an Actually of Being That there can be but One such â—…entially Actual Being tho' it may be gaâ—â—â—â—ed even hence will be more exactly prov'd â—â—â—â—after â—â— Nothing can be weaker than to alledge thâ—â— there was only a Finite Number of Causes which gave The Position of a Finite Number of Causes giving Being to one another Circularly is as ill Nonsense as the former Being circularly to one another For this would make each of them only Potential to Being in â—â—ard they receiv'd it from others â—â—â— yet at the same time Actually â—â—â—â—g because they communicaâ—â—â— it to another Nay to give Being to themselves For if B is because A is and C is because B is and A is because C is it will folâ—… that A is because A is That Maxim Causa Câ—â—sae est Causa Causati what restriction soever it may have in other Cases has here it's full foâ—â—e because the Cause does here give the 〈…〉 and adequate Effect to it's self the Notiâ—… Existence the Act which is given being every way Indivisible and therefore All of â—â— must be given or not at all I have been more large in refuting this Preâ—ence of an Endless or Infinite antecedent Succession of Motion and Natural Causes it being the chief Asylum of the Atheists We return now to our Arguments 16. Lemma I. The Notion we have of Ens or Thing is Different from the Notion of Existence This has been The Notion of Ens is Different from that of Existent and consequently Essence from Existence demonstrated B. 1. Ch. 1. § 3. where it is shown That the Notion of Essence which constitutes every
Finite Ens consists in a Potentiality or a meer Possibility of Existing whereas Existence is the Act that answers to that Power and so is vastly distinguishâ— or Different from it the Power and it 's Proper Act being counterpos'd to one another Add That this has also been demonstrated here § 2. 17. Lemma II. We cannot think or speak of the First Being tho' suppos'd Infinite but by making use of such Philosophers must Discourse of the First Being by sueh Natural Notions as they have Natural Notions and Words as we have This is Self-evident since none can think or speak with Thoughts or Words which he has not 18. Lemma III. Amongst all our Natural Notions that of Existence is moâ—â— Actual and being Pure from all The Notion of Existence is the most Actual of any we havâ— Potentiality in the Line of Being it is deservedly call'd an Actuality or the very Formal and Whole and Sole Nature of Act in that Line This has â—… Demonstrated B. 1. Ch. 1 § 34 35. â—o 〈…〉 the Reader is referred â—… Of all our Natural Notions that â—… that of Existence is the â—…perest and Best we can use And therefâ—râ— the Fittâ—st to 〈…〉 a Pure Actuaâ—â—ty of Being â—â—d glven us by GOD Himself 〈…〉 we speak of a Pure Actuâ—…y of Being or a DEITY This â—…prov'd § 16 17. and is Evident â—â—â—m the Terms For since Ens 〈…〉 who le Latitude abstracts 〈…〉 Corporeal Nature which has that Power call'd â—… and is clearly Antecedent to the Third 〈…〉 of Power since a Capacity of being it self â—â—â— antecede a Capacity of Sustaining or giving 〈…〉 to Accidents and therefore the Potenâ—… which Ens has to it's Act is more Noble 〈…〉 Exalted and more defaecated as it were 〈…〉 those baser and narrower sorts of Power than aâ—y other Wherefore since Existence is the Ultimate Act of Ens in it's whole Latitude it â—ollows that it is the most Abstracted or Purest sort â—â— Act in the Line of Being and therefore is â—…incident with the Notion of Pure Actuality of â—… which is the best Positive Notion we can 〈…〉 of a DEITY And accordingly the True â—… as will be demonstrated shortly the ONLY â—OD Himself who could best express to us 〈…〉 owâ— Divine Essence when Moses Exod. 3. â—… desir'd to know by what Name which sigâ—… his Essence he should call him when he â—â—ould come to speak from Him to the Children of Israel answer'd him Ego sum qui sum I am who AM or I am He who IS and bid him tell tâ—â—m that He who IS has sent me unto you Which â—…inly signifies that all Other Things have only a Potentiality or Possibility of Existing or Being Actually and that 't is Proper and Peculiar to GOD's Nature or Essence which the Name is to express to Be Actually or Exist And that if any Thing else has Being or Exists it partakes or borrows it's Being from Him who only â—â— or whose Essence is that Pure Actuality of Being call'd Existence So that the main Ground of our Metaphysicks particularly that which discourses of the Adorable DEITY is in the main the same Sense given to our hands by GOD Himself which we dilate and on which we descant by our Reason 20. Lemma IV Every Abstract Word which signifies meerly any Form or Act includes in it's Notion the Every Abstract Word comprehends the whole Nature of the Form or Act it signifies without any Limitation whole Nature of the Act imported by that Word without any Limitation For let us take Knowledge Virtue Whiteness or any other such Abstract Word we shall find that none of them either Express Hint or Connotate thus much or such a Portion or Degree of those Acts. Wherefore those Abstract Words involve in them the Whole Nature of those Acts that is without Limitation Moreover were there per impossibile suppos'd Infinite things which had Knowledge Virtue or Whiteness in them they would all partake of the Nature of those Acts and yet it would not be exhausted which shows the word signifies those Acts without Limitation 21. Lemma V. Therefore the Limitation of all Acts must either proceed from the Subject it affects which being Therefore it 's Limitation proceeds either from the Subject or from the Causes that Determine it a Particular or Determinate Ens makes it This and no Other or else from the Causes which determin'd the Act to such or such a Degree of it Hence I Argue 22. Therefore GOD's Existence which is his Essence is Unlimited and Actually Infinite For since his Existence Hence GOD's Essence it self is absolutely Unlimited or Actually Infinite includes the whole Nature of Existence by Lem. IV. nor is it as it is found in Him an Act corresponding to a Potential Essence as it is in Creatures this being against the Nature of a Pure Actuality but is His Proper Name which imports his Essence neither is his Existence limited by any Subject in regard every Subject is a Power to receive advening Acts which is against the Nature of that Essence which is purely Actual Hence it follows that it is it 's own Subject or Self-subsistent Nor Lastly can â— be Limited by the Operation of any Cause which gave him that Act He being the First Cause and incapable to receive anything in regard this implies Passiveness and Potentiality It â—ollows then that his Existence is absolutely Unlimiâ—ed and it being a Pure Actuality actually Infinite 13. Therefore the DEITY is but ONE For â—ere there Two Infinite Existences â—ach of them must necessarily Therefore GOD is but ONE â—â—ve something which the other â—â— not otherwise they would â—re nothing to distinguish them or make them more they being in all respects the Same Therefore if there were two GODs this would limit both of them and make neither of them to be Infinite therefore there can be but One Infinite Existence or One GOD. Again were there Two Self-Existences they would agree in that Common Notion and the Differences that constitute them within that Notion must be more and less of that Common Notion Infinite Existence as has been often prov'd Which is perfect Nonsense Infinity being beyond all Degrees and Incapable of them Besides Differences are necessarily more Actual than the Common Notion they divide but no Notion can be more Actual than Existence much less than Self-existence which is a Pure Actulity therefore since Self-Existence can admit no Differences to divide it 't is impossible it should be more than One. To proceed 24. Corol. I. Hence nothing could be so extravagantly Foolish and void of Common Sense as the Polytheism Hence Polytheism was a most Senseless Absurdity and a flat Contradiction of the Antient Heathens For by making more Gods they did by consequence make them all to be Finite and therefore none of their Essences to be Actual Being but Potential in order to Existence Whence since they could not having no more of their
Uncomplying Slothfulness â—â— Neglect of Duties we give the least way to Temptations or run back in Virtue quench the Irradiations â—â— His Holy Spirit and put an Obstacle to the Efâ—â—â—ence of his Boundless Generosity which stands ever ready to promote us to all those Degrees of Virtue which we heartily and affectionately wish and with â— humble Confidence in the same Goodness pray for Nay when the former World by reason of Original Corruption wanted efficacious Means to dispose Mankind for Heaven the same Goodness did take that Concern into his own hand and did by his Providence ripen the World for Higher Knowledges and dispos'd them by their Inquisitiveness what was Man 's Summum Bonum and their Dissatisfactions about it for that Fulness of Time in which his Wisdom saw it Seasonable and Fit to send them a Divine Master to teach them such a Heavenly Doctriuâ— as Rude Nature was till then incapable to conceive â—â— aim at How does it over-awe and terrifie our Corrupt and Inconstant Nature to know He is infinitely IUST and will infallibly To tremble at His Iustice if we wilfully break his Commands punish severely every Transgression of His Dread Commandâ— nay every Idle Word according to the Degree of it's Demerit Can any Man hope to Byass a Iudge whose Impartiality and Uprightness is Essential to Him Or what Obstinate Sinner dâ—râ—â— hope to contrast with an Angry and Iust GOD whâ— is arm'd with OMNIPOTENCE And yet what Sinner tho' never so Enormous can Despair of Pardon if he heartily And to Hope of Pardon if we sincerely Repent repents and humbly asks it when he reflects and conâ—â—ders that Both Faith and Evident Reason do assure him that GOD is Infinitely MERCIFULL We do scarcely allow that Man to be Good-natur'd or Merciful nay we look upon him as Hard-hearted and Cruel who will not forgive him that has offended him if he be heartily Sorry for his Fault and begs his Pardon And is it not then a kind of Blasphemy to conceit that ouâ— GOD whose MERCY is Infinite and withall Essential to Him should have less Goodness Generosity and Mercy than a Wretched Narrow-hearted and Pâ—evish Mortal Oh What a Sure Anchor of HOPE is this Divine Attribute to poor Sinners whâ— fear the Eternal Wrack of their Soul and are Sinking and almost Overwhelm'd with Despair â—hat an Encouragement and Invitation both to Weak â—…d to Wicked Souls to repent of their Sins heartiâ—… and apply to the Throne of Grace where they â—re sure not to fail of obtaining Pardon if with humâ—â—mble Confidence and Sincere Penitence they 〈…〉 it What Christian who acknowledges that GOD is â—nfinitely WISE and therefore has â—…d the Order of the World after the To Resignation in all sinistâ—r Contingencies to the Infinitely-Wise Disposition of GOD's Providence in his Government of the World Wisest and Best manner can be Unâ—…gn'd when Crosses happen and 〈…〉 Success of Temporal Affairs go not â—…rding to his Wish How Unreaâ—…ble is it to expect from an Allâ—…e Universal Governour that he â—…ld pervert the Best Order of the â—…tion or consent that All the World should be worse for the sake of one inconsiderâ—ble Atome of it Every Generous Man thinks it 〈…〉 fitting to suffer Inconveniencies nay to hazard his life for the Common Good of his own Country What an odious Selfishness is it then to repine at Suffeâ—…g much more for the Common Good of the Universe Especially since the Resign'd Sufferer will gain â—â—comparably greater Advantages by thus entircly Submitting to Providence and humbling himself under â—â— Omnipotent hand of GOD than he can possibly â—…e from the enjoying that Temporal Good for which he was so passionately concerned What Hypocrite can hope to disguise his Base Intentions and Doubling Wiles or to To Sincerity and Unpretended Virtue and Honesty â—ood-wink Him who is Essentially ALL-SEEING Or what more Powerful Motive to make Falseâ—earted Pretenders to Virtue and Honesty leave off their Foolish Insincerity and to take care that their Thoughts and Actions be all of a piece Lastly What Christian heart can be so Insensible of GOD's Noble Kindness and Bounty as not to love God with the whole Bent of his Will who desires no more of us to Especially to love God who is our True Good and Only Happiness as we ought both for what he is in Himself and what he is to us make us Eternally Happy but that we would pursue our own True Interest and love above all things our Eternal Happiness Himself Who is ready to pardon all our Sins at the first asking if we heartily sincerely and penitently ask it Who is ready to help its forward every step we take in Virtue if we be but willing to help our selves and humbly beg his Assistance How can that Man pretend to love any thing who loves not Him in whom are all Things Or to love Himself if he loves not his own only True Happiness These most efficacious Motives to the Best Virtues the Consideration of the Divine Attributes The Imitation of GOD's Moral Attributes are also a most Effectual Means to perfect us in all sorts of Virtue does plentifully afford us besides what the Imitation of His Moral Attributes give us which will make us Perfect as He is Perfect and by Transforming us into His Likeness here raise us to be Perfectly Like Him and in some sort Deifie us hereafter Cum apparuerit similes erimus quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est Ioan. Ep. 1. Ch. 3. V. 2. Transnatural Philosophy OR METAPHYSICKS BOOK IV. Of the several OPERATIONS of Things and of the Manner in common How the First Being administers His World 1. ALL Power of Operating or Acting springs immediately from the All Action springs immediately from the Existence of the Cause â—â—â—stence of the Thing or which is the same from the Thing as it Exists For since the Essence precisely consider'd iâ— only a Power to Exist and what is only a Power to Exist is not and no Operation can proceed from what according to it 's own precise Nature or Notion is not It follows that all Power of Operating or Acting must proceed from the Existence of the Thing or from the-Thing as it Exists 2. Therefore the Power of Operating thus or thus particularly or from which it has such or such a Power of And the Acting in such a manner springs from the Things being of such a Nature or Essence Operating springs from the Thing as it is such or such or as it is this or that Sort of Thing This is Evident from the Former additis addendis Besides were not this so Every Thing might do Any Thing which is against our Constant Experience 3. Therefore all Power of Operating as 't is such an Operation proceeds Therefore the Power of Operation as 't is such is refunded into the Essence from the Essence of the Thing Because the Essence is that which constitutes it formally
Existence by § 2. the Nature or Quality of the Operation follows from the Nature or Quality of the Agent and as will be seen shortly is finally refunded into the Essence of the Cause whence it springs and none of those Things call'd Bodies nor yet Angels which move them have Existence in their Essence but are meerly Capable of Being and as far as is of themselves may not-be it follows that however they may by their Operation impart to the new-made Ens Motion Rarity Density or other such Effects as either were Essential to them or sprung out of their Essence yet they could never communicate to them Existence this being Extrinsecal and Accidental to them and of an Excellency incomparably above or beyond their Essence as much as the Notion of Act or Actual Being is above that of meer Power or Possibility of Being which is beyond all Proportion 23. Therefore it can belong only to GOD the First Cause to give Actual Which therefore is peculiar only to GOD. Being or Existence because only his Nature is Essentially Existent 24. Therefore for the same reason it belongs to Him and to Him only to As also to Conserve things in Being Conserve them in Being For since the reason as far as is on His part why His Goodness gave them Being at first was because they were Determinate Entia or Individua and only Capable of Being and wanted it and they are still for every moment afterwards Entia or Capable of Being and as far as is of themselves may for every moment not-be it follows that for the same reason for which He gave them Being at first it belongs to Him still to conserve it And that none else can support them in Being is hence Evident because all Creatures they being of their own Nature meerly capable to be do want a Support themselves Besides that Actual Being even when Creatures have it is Extrinsecal to their Essences from which only the Nature or Quality of the Effect proceeds by §§ 2 3 4. 25. For the same Reason if the Thing be Nobler that is fit for more or Nobler Operations a Nobler Existence And to give to a Nobler Essence a Nobler Existence must be given it else a Contradiction would follow viz. â—… That Thing would be otherwise than it should be â—…d consequently otherwise than 't is Capable to be which is a Contradiction 26. For the same Reason if Matter rais'd to it's highest pitch come to â—â— so dispos'd that it requires For the same Reason a Spiritual Form will be given to Matter connaturally Disspos'd for it 〈…〉 Form of a higher or Spiritual Nature that Capacity is Supply'd by the First Being according to the Exigency of that Matter and a Form of a Spiritual Nature or a Soul will be in it And because Matter and Form compound an Ens oâ— a Thing Capable of Existence therefore at the same instant an Existence suitable to bâ—th â—â—ose Natures that is Corporeo-Spiritual will by § 25. be given it by GOD's Redundant Goodness and Steady Emanation of Being 27. For the same Reason also even in Spiritual and Supernatural Endowments those who are Dispos'd The same holds also in Supernatural Gifts which are also carried on by Dispositions by an Ardent Desire of them aâ—d apply to the Giver of them by Fervent and Frequent Acts of their Will relying with perâ—â—ct Confidence on his Ungrudging Bounty may be Infallibly sure to receive them Which is the greatest Comfort and Encouragement to Weak and Well-meaning Souls and debars rechless and wicked Sinners from all hope of Excuse since there had needed no more to make them Virtuous Saints than only to have ask'd it with Humility Faith and Perseverance 28. For the same Reason GOD who is Self-Existence and therefore Infinitely Perfect cannot be the Cause Hence GOD is not the Cause of any Defect much less of Sin or not-Being of any Defect whether it be Natural or Moral which we call Sin but such Defects are refunded into the Incapacity of Creatures that were to receive these farther Perfections or into their Defectiveness in Operating Much less can he be the Cause of the Greatest or rather Total Defect Not-being 29. Hence is seen that all the several sorts of Operations that are have been or can be are finally refunded into How all these Sorts of Operations do spring from the Respective Essences the Essences of the Things that operate For the Operation must be such as the Power to operate is nor can be at all without it for otherwise a Thing might do what it has no Power to do that is might do what it cannot do And the Power of Acting is such as the Essence is and among Creatures springs from It as it Root being a Property of it To show this particularly The Operation of Attraction is grounded on the Unity that is the Essence of Quantity which is Continuity The Operation of Impulse springs from the Impenetrability of Quantitative Parts which is either the Nature of Divisibility or Quantity or else next a kin to it as is shown above § 12. The Operations of Rarefaction and Condensation by § 13. clearly arise from the former and therefore from the Essence of the same Cause on which those Former Operations were grounded The First Motion or Action of all Bodies and the Continuance of â—â—â—m is refunded into the Essence of Angels which on the one side being Pure Acts are the â—â—est Agents to be the Origin of Action which â— done by Motion On the other side having noâ—â—â—ng of Actual Being or Existence in their Naâ—â—â—e they can only produce that Inferiour Effect â—â—â—d Motion in such Beings as are below them â—â—stly the Operation of Creating or Giving Actual Being springs peculiarly from the Essence of the First Being which is Self-Existence By which is seen without need of particularizing â—â—w Wisely the FIRST BEING administers His World by Reserving to Himself to be the Immeâ—â—â—e Cause of the Noblest Effect and most resemâ—â—ng Him Existence and appointing his Underlings and Journeymen the Angels to move every part of the Material World according to their respective Natures By which means the well-compacted Frame and Course of Nature hangs together by the Indissoluble Connexion of Proper Causes with their Proper Effects And â—â—ce all the Exact Knowledge or Science we have is built on this His Creative Wisdom does by this Means give Knowledge to those Cognoâ—â—ive Creatures which because they are not â—ure Acts and consequently have not Knowledge due to them by their Creation are to Acâ—â—re it here from Natural Objects affecting their â—oul by means of their Senses and by Reflexion on the Notions they imprint 30. From what has been prov'd hitherto it has been demonstrated how our Great and Wise GOD does all That GOD does all that 's Good in All and in what Manner and by what Means that is Good or has Being in it in all things For
first on Evident Principles and to Connect orderly those Notions which GOD as Author of Nature has given us by his Creatures This Wisest Conduct of the Divine Providence has two Capital Enemies The one is the Epicurean Sect and their Followers who put all Effects to light by CHANCE and therefore make CHANCE to be GOD's Competitour in Governing the World The other is the Stoicks who set up their more Ingenious but equally Senseless Doctrine of FATALITY The Former of these are sufficiently confuted by their laying never a Principle but instead of them advancing the Wildest Suppositions that Witty Folly could ever have stumbled upon viz. An Infinite Vacuum that is an Infinite Nothing An Infinite Number of Atomes of Infinitely-various Figures falling downwards perpetually only many of them lest they should never â—ver-take their fellows took a Toy Crab-like to move sideways by which means clinging in accidentally with those that mov'd downwards perpendicularly they make several sorts of Bodies and in process of time of those several Bodies compound Earth Stars or whatever their Fancy pleases Not me of these Principles they undertake to Evidence but grosly suppose and kindly grant them to themselves Tho' I dare undertake that a hundred Clearest Demonstrations may be brought against them taking them all together tho' One of them might suffice to sweep down at one brush that whole Cobweb Scheme But these Men best Confute themselves Chance bears in it's Notion Inconstancy and is quite Opposite to a Continual and Settled Method I ask then Is it by Chance that those Atomes were Self-Existent as they pretend Is it by Chance that they were originally or of themselves of so many various Figures whence they became apt to link so commodiously with one another for such an End Was it by Chance that they or at least the main Body of them mov'd downwards and not upwards and this perpendicularly From what determinate Points in that Nothing which they call Vacuum do they measure or rate the Perpendicularity of this Motion of theirs Was it by Chance that multitudes of them were so carefully Wise as to run aside lest otherwise not overtaking their fellows for there can be no reason imaginable why one of them in a Vacuum should move faster than another all this frame of Nature which they fancy should be at an end What made them move at all Or what ail'd them that they could not lie still when nothing impell'd them Certainly this was a strange Chance that was so Constant and withal as wisely Contriv'd for Epicurus his purpose as the best Design could order it But the Truth is they were only laid thus in Epicurus his own Fancy nor could he make any thing hang together but by posturing them in order to an End now this is the plain Notion of Design which since it could not proceed from meer Matter sprung from his own Invention which he to compleat the Nonsense of his Voluntary Hypothesis Nicknames CHANCE This Point so neerly concerning the honour of the Worlds Great Governour it may seem strange that some Christian Philosophers should retain some hankering after an Opinion which is diametrically opposite to Providence I cannot think the Learned and Pious Gassendus while he receiv'd the Hypothesis of Epicurus and oppos'd Aristotle whom he did not understand but apprehended some Modern Schâ—olmen gave us his True Sense I say I do not think he did believe what he writ much less that he held any thing happen'd otherwise than by GOD's Providential Determination but that he advanced that Scheme of Philosophy as a Trial of Skill and to show his Great Wit which it must be confest had few Equals Cartesius had begun that Vast and Bold exploit of contriving how the World should be made and it bred an Emulation in Gassendns not to be behind him in such a Daring and Noble Projection Besides it was pardonable in an Author not to regard wheâ—hen the Philosophy he took to were True or No who had the misfortune to be Sceptically inclin'd and profest Nihil sciri But I was heartily troubled â—o find by discoursing with an Eminent Writer who â—ad deserv'd well of the World for his elaborate Book against Atheism that tho' he acknowledg'd the Order of Causes in the main he did notwithstanding hold that Chance had the Chief hand in many particulars To rectifie his Mistake I scribbled two Sheets of Paper and read to him Whether they had any Effect upon him or hindred him from publishing any of that Nature for I perceiv'd he was then writing I have not Light to know Only I know this that 't is my Duty to use my best endeavour to vindicate the Providence of our Maker and his Wisdom in the Ordinary Administration of the World and to show that He is the Adequate and Sole Governour of it even to the least Creature or the least imperceptible Atome To come closer then I ask What is this Thing they call CHANCE I hear a Word indeed which makes such a What Chance truly is Sound in my Ear and I perceive too that those who patronize it have a blind Apprehension that it is a Thing for they put it to act and produce Effects which Nothing cannot do And yet what kind of Thing can it be Is it a Body or a Spirit If a Spirit is it a Created one or an Angel or is it Increated If a Body where dwells it in this habitable World Is it a Simple Body or a Compound one Is it Intelligent or not-intelligent Again by what Virtue or Power does it work it's Effects and how To none of these I am sure a Pertinent Answer can ever be given and yet it will haunt Men's Fancies and bear a great part in their Discourses tho' not very many have a Distinct Conception of what they mean by that Word Truth is 't is a strange Error in many weak Speculaters that they are apt not only to fancy every New Conception of ours to be a New Thing but also that now and then they take Meer Words to be Real Things Notwithstanding all that's here said the word CHANCE must have some Signification and my self must allow it nay all Mankind must do the same since we do all of us use it and yet I do not in holding this recede at all from my former Doctrine To look narrowly then into the meaning of this Word I find that all the Words we have or can have must either signifie our Natural Notions or Artificial ones as also that Chance must express some Natural Notion because the Vulgar use it and 't is the Common Usage of the word which gives it it's Signification Let us see thâ—n in what Sense the Vulgar so they be but moderately intelligent do use that Word and what they can mean by it A Servant le ts fall a Glass and breaks it a Tyle falls from a House and kills one who walks by in the Street a Man climbing a Ladder falls
down and breaks his Neck Now all these are said to be done by Chance But does any of these who say so hold that there was no Cause at all which made the Glass the Tyle or the Man fall No certainly for every Man of Common Sense holds that no Effect can be without a Cause and will deny that a Tyle or a Glass did move themselves Their meaning then is and they tell you they did not fore-see or fore-know that any of these would fall being Attentive to some other Object or Business CHANCE then is an UNADVERTED or Unforeseen Cause for had they foreseen that such Causes taking them all together would have brought those Disasters it had been Willfulness and Design in them to have come in the way of such Misohievous Causes and Design is Opposite to the Notion of Chance In this Sense then Christianity allows us to say the Chance or an Unforeseen Cause wrought these Effect â—â— But since nothing is Unforeseen to GOD who laid and order'd all those Causes What is Chance to Us is Providence if we regard Him nor is there any Thing Distinct from Him call'd Chance which has the least hâ—nd in administring the World but He is the only Adequate Governor of it 'T is not without some loathness I am forced to take notice that some of our Modern Ideists tho' I hope with a good How groundlessly some Christian Philosophers the Ideists do in part violate this Best Method of GOD's Ordinary Providence now Demonstrated Intention do violate this connected course of Causes and Effects in which GOD's Ordinary Providence consists Whoever as do the Cartesians make all Second Causes which have Powers or Faculties given them to work such Effects to be Useless as to those Effects even as Instruments Whoever puts on the Creature 's side only OCCASIONS which they say are No Causes for every Act of Knowledge Mankind has and perhaps for every Effect in Nature Whoever puts Determinate Ideas to be produced by Indeterminate and therefore Improper Causes as the Soul was before she did elicit them as they pretend of her self Whoever puts such Idea's Annext voluntarily to such Motions which were not at all Like them or No Causes of them alledging gratis that GOD Wills it Whoever maintains the Annexing of one Thing or Mode of Thing to another otherwise than by being the Proper Cause of it does fall into the same ill-grounded Errour of interrupting the Course of GOD's Ordinary Providence by Second Causes and destroys the Laws of Causality As has been over and over Demonstrated in my Ideae Cartesianae Indicatio Tertia from § 30. to § 50. and in my Solid Philosophy Asserted Reflexion 4. § 3. and 5. It will run in the Fancies of some less Intelligent Intelligent Readers who take things at the first rebound and pass a The Folly of the Stoical FATALITY confuted and exploded peremptory Iudgment on what they understand but by halves that this Settled Order of Providence I here assert does introduce a kind of Fatality into the World Now if by the word FATUM they mean what is Spoken or Decreed by GOD I must own the Position and stand to it as clearly demonstrated above Which leads me to the Other sort of the Opposers of Providenoe I mean those who maintain a Stoical FATALITY a Tenet widely Different from our Thesis or rather perfectly Contradictory to it For ours proceeds upon a Continued Connexion of Natural Causes with Consequent Effects which are Suteable and Agreeable to their Natures Theirs regards no Influence of any Causes at all but is built on the force of this Contradiction Either such a thing will be or will not be Wherefore say they since it inevitably follows that both of these cannot be True and yet one of them must be True 't is a Folly to endeavour to avoid any Harm or to pursue any Good since out of the force of not-admitting Contradiction what will be will be But this tho' the Wittier of the two is a Pure Folly since as Common Experience tells us and Common Sense assures us nothing is done but by Means of Causes nor not-done but because there wanted Causes able to do it But they fancy to themselves by the Words will be and will not be there is a certain kind of Self-Existence or Non-Self-Existenee in the Futurity of Events Whereas none of them has or can have any Existence or Non-Existence at all but as they stand under Determinate Natural Causes â—r no Causes Whence we who know this to be so are bound in Prudence to endeavour as much as lies in us to put those Causes if we would have the Effect follow They forget too that We our selves are part of the Rank of Causes and that the using our own Reason in chusing and applying those other Causes is the Supreme Superintendent Cause and the very Best of all the rest They reflect not also that since Future Effects are not neither of those Propositions they put and rely on has any Truth in it at all nor has the Futurity of it any Certainty but as it stands under Determinate or Proper Causes which will produce that Effect from which only it has Title to the name of Future So that the Proposition Such a thing will be or is future is an imprudent saying and not be spoke by any Man of Sense unless he sees the Causes will certainly make it be These Discoursers do therefore argue from a Logical Impossibility found only in our Mind considering the Nature of Ens and that it excludes Non-Ens out of it's Notion to a Physical one which is wholly grounded on the Nature of Causes Lastly This Thesis is manifestly convicted of Folly by the Consent of all Mankind and even of themselves too who do all of them lay means for the Effects they aim at Nor could the World continue or subsist if this whimsical Doctrine stands as by applying it to a Harvest next year the using ways for Trade and Traffick or for defending our Country and a thousand such particulars does manifestly appear For either Success will follow or not follow whither we endeavour or not endeavour to lay Means for such Effects which consideration will also help to cure those weak Discoursers who so perplex their thought about Predestination All which depend on the same Principles and can disrellish no Man unless he be offended that GOD is the First Cause and that Good comes to us from Him by Second Causes laid in the Best Order imaginable But in how different a manner does our way of Philosophy discourse of GOD's Ordinary Providence from that of those other Philosophers and particularly from that of the Ideists It puts no blind Suppositions nor Conceits taken from Fancy but is entirely built on Principles and such Principles as are either Self-Evident or so neerely remov'd from them that they are easily reducible thither viz. Every Thing acts as it is and therefore is a Proper Cause
to be Spiritually Unitive of the Lover to the Thing Loved Our Common Unstudy'd Thoughts and Language gives this to be True If two Friends Love one another dearly all Mankind uses to say They are all One and our B. Saviour prays to His Heavenly Father that He and His Disciples may be One as Himself and his Father are One that is by Mutual Love it being impossible those Words can there bear any other Signification 13. We have seen above That Divine Love which is the Third Person proceeds from the Goodness of the Divine Object or from the Divine Essence Known that is the Father in His own Divine Knowledge in which consists Essential Truth that this Truth is therefore GOD's Greatest Good because this Infinite Truth is the Best Perfection of His Nature as it is Intelligent or Spiritual That because it does thus proceed from the Divine Object in the Divine Knowledge this Third Person does therefore proceed from the Father and the Son immediately and formally according to their Distinct Personalities or Relations and that therefore because no Relation can be grounded on Another Relation but can only Refer what 's Absolute there can be no Reciprocal Opposite or Distinct Relation of the Divine Object-Known to the Lover nor consequently any occasion of conceiving a Fourth Person It remains now to show that since Love by § 12. imports a Spiritual Union or Conjunction of the Lover with that which it Loves therefore from the very Notion of the word Conjoyn'd there must be some Distinction between those which are thus Ioyn'd-together Since what 's in Every Respect One and the Same cannot without Injury to Common Sense be said to be Conjoyn'd with it self in Any Respect that is Conjoyn'd at all But in what manner does this Third Person proceed from the other Two Not according to Likeness or Identity of Nature as did the Son but it presupposes this Likeness Conformity Agreeableness or Identity of Nature in the Object as Known and in the Knower as Knowing it for in this consists that Greatest Good call'd Truth which is the Object of Love and 't is against all our Natural Notions to conceive Actual Love of a thing not Suppos'd to bee Wherefore this Similitude of Nature is not the Formal Motive nor the Manner by which Divine Love proceeds but only this that the other two Persons according to their Distinction of Knower and Known in which consists Divine Truth do integrate as it were that Bonum Dei or Good which is the Adequate Object of the Divine Will The Son therefore proceeds from His Father by having Communicated to Him the same Form as it were or the Divine Nature as an Object which formally constitutes Him a Knower of it and thence a Son The B. Spirit proceeds from the two other Persons as they are a Good to the Divine Nature which it Affects Spiritually clings to or embraces and so becomes or is Actually United or One with it The Former according to our weak manner of Conceiving proceeds as coming from the Object Communicating it self to it the Later by it's being drawn as it were by the Object and â—…oving it self forwards to or rather in reality haâ—ing actually an Union with it The Former by â—ay of Informing or being in the Divine Underâ—â—anding The Later by enamouring the Divine Will to pursue what is conceiv'd to be out of the Lover as such or rather in our case to enjoy it actually Which expression tho' most beseeming a Pure Actuality of Being yet it debars not the Distinction between the Good Enjoy'd and the Enjoyer of it but obliges us to conceive them as thus Distinct. 14. Having thus declar'd the Particularity or Distinction of the Three Divine Persons in order to one another it is seasonable to manifest in the â—ext place what Names and what Effects are peculiarly to be Attributed to each of them as they relate to us Whence it may appear that as our Explication is Agreeable to Right Reason so it is no less Consonant to Holy Scripture and to the Sense and Language of the Christian Church To mention a few Chief ones will hint to us the â—est 15. Since then Being is the First in Order of all our Natural Notions so that we cannot conceive any thing to be Communicated or to deserve Love unless it is Hence the Notion of the Divine Being is justly conceiv'd to be Appropriated to the First Person who is the Beginning and Origin of the rest and communicates it to the Son whence proceeds as was now said the B. Spirit who is Divine Love Hence also since Every thing Acts as it Is He is said to be Author and Cause of all Created Being or the Creatour of all things Hence also He is said to be the Father of all his Creatures in a Natural but less Proper Sense because He gives us our Being and in a more especial manner since His Only Son by taking our Nature upon Him made Himself in some sort our Brother As also in a Civil Sense because it belongs to Fathers to provide for their Children as His Heavenly Providence does for all His Creatures Not to speak how He is a Father in a Spiritual Sense as we are Re-generated by His Grace given us freely for the Merits and by the Means of His Eternal Son whom he sent amongst us to that end 16. What peculiar Attributes are appropriated to the Son is declard above § 10. I only remark here that when he is call'd Verbum the WORD by a Metaphor taken from our Verbum Mentis that is our Conception or Notion of an Object in our Knowing Power we must take heed we do not understand by those words that Imperfect Form of speaking Truth interiourly which is found in Mental Propositions which Affirm or Deny for even in Angels and Separated Souls as has been demonstrated Knowledge is above all Composition of several Notions of which Propositions are made but it must be meant that the Divine Object in which is Essentially all the Metaphysical Verity both of GOD and of all Creatures is most Expressly in Him as He is the Knower of it that is indeed in the very Divine Essence in which the most Actual that is the most Bright and most Universal Truth is Communicated to Him from the Father and is most exactly in Him We must take heed also that when He is call'd Imago Patris and such like some Cartesian or other Ideist catching at the word do not make â—im a meer Picture or Similitude of His Father â—…d that He has not therefore the very Divine created Essence or the Divine Nature in Him â—…t only some Created Similitude of it I must â—…nfess this sutes well enough with the Doctrine Ideas in our Mind which are Spiritual Pourâ—…itures or Resemblances of the Things we know â—…d not the Things themselves But that it sutes â—…ither with Reason or Faith they can never show â—…s for how can meer Fancies agree
't is only their Will which is ill at ease But I rather think they are blunder'd by not Distinguishing their Notions Exactly and not Proceeding upon them Orderly Or perhaps as Men led by Imagination use they fancy there must be a just parallel between Corporeal and Spiritual Natures and which is worse between a Finite and an Infinite Being and that they must fit one another exactly as Two Tallies do and if they find they do not sute in every regard their Phantastick Guide has lost his way and complains sadly of the Perplexity in which nothing but his own Rashness or Unskillfulness has plung'd him 3. To breed a Conceit in their Easie and Weak Proselytes that the Doctrine of the Trinity is injurious to the Unity and Pâ—â—â—ection of the GODHEAD they amuze them with several Objections which nothing but the Dotaâ—â—â— of Fancy could suggest V. G. They 'll alledge That if the Son has the Divine Essence from the Father then the Father Pre-exists and therefore the Son cannot be Eternal By which 't is manifest That those Men apprehend there is no Prae-istence but that of Time nay they conceit that Eternity it self is a long Flux of Time or something Like it whereas 't is a Duration of a quite Contradictory Nature to it whereupon the Grossness of their Fancy is presently startled and stunn'd and their Ignorance of such Preliminary Truths does presently furnish them with this as it may with a thousand other such wild Objections To meet with them I desire them to reflect that as there could not be any Instant in which GOD was not so neither could any Instant be Conceiv'd in which He had not all His Perfections and amongst them that of Knowing and Loving Himself and consequently in which his Divine Essence as an Object Known did not communicate it self to the Divine Knower of it They may please to reflect too that there are even amongst us many things before one another nay even as Causes and Effects which are not so much as for one Instant before one another in Time For Example Bodies are therefore Passive because they have Matter in them they are Passive thus or Divisible because they have Quantity in them and Corruptible because they are Divisible nay 't is also in proper Speech True that the following ones proceed from those that are foregoing as their Causes and yet they have Passiveness Quantity Divisibility Corruptibility nay Extension Measurability Proportionability c. in them all at one Time nay they are all so perfectly Contemporaries that there is not so much as one Instant in which Body has one of these and not all of them Whence for much better Reason may the Son proceed from the Father tho' they be both Coeternal They will reply That all these Effects proceed from Formal Causes which may be conceiv'd not to pre-exist before one another And I reply That in this present Explication all the Divine Processions are put to be by the manner of Form and not of Action or Efficiency and I much fear that their Transferring Action to GOD in their Thoughts which implies Motion drew them into this Misconceit of Priority after the manner of a kind of Imaginary Time According to the way of discoursing which I take the Divine Object Inexists in the Divine Knowledge which according to our Natural Notions is call'd Informing it I have produced many Demonstrations both in the Second Preliminary to Solid Philosophy Asserted and others B. I. Ch. 6. in my Metaphysicks to show that our Knowledge can be only made by this that the Object it self is in our Understanding or informs it when we Know and that every Particular Knowledge we have is Specify'd nay Individually Determin'd to be This by the Object and must proceed from it both as to its being at all and also as to it 's Being This. And I dare affirm That let Witty Men beat their Brains till they are weary they will never make any other Sense of what it is to Know than this That the Object Inexists in the Knowiag Power as Another Thing or as some way Distinct from the Knower Moreover this Notion of Knowing abstracts from sooner or later Eternal or Not-Eternal and therefore may in this regard be sitly Apply'd to GOD who Knows Himself Eternally and because as has been often said this Knowledge comes from the Divine Object from all Eternity hence it is and must be also said to Proceed or be Originiz'd from it from all Eternity since he Formally becomes a Knower by means of that Object-Known This is all the Priority Christian Divines acknowledge This abstracts even in us Creatures I mean in Souls Separated and Angels who in the First Instant Know Themselves from all other kinds of Priority Whence 't is very weak to infer hence that the Father is Prae-existent as if there were any imaginable Instant in Eternity in which the Father was and the Son was not or that the Son for that reason is not Self existent since besides the want of such a Priority as they fancy and build their Objection upon it all the Absolute Attributes of the Deity and amongst them Self-Existence and Eternity too are Communicated to Him by and in the Divine Essence Known or from the Father S. Another Bugbear to their Fancy for 't is That and not True Reason that gives the Ground to all their Objections is this That by our Discourse God the Father must communicate his Essence and his whole Essence to the Son which they think is sufficiently overthrown by meerly asking How should both have the same thing especially How should He have it still who has already Communicated it or Parted with it all And this looks very plausibly to those poor Ignorant Souls who never reflected on Spiritual Natures but think we must discourse of them in the same manner as we do of Bodies whereas they being of Contradistinct Naâ—ures the quite Contrary follows For the First â—iz That the Divine Essence is Communicated or that as Known that is as it is by a Relative Name call'd the Father it communicates it self let us see how it agrees with other Divine Attributes and with such acknowledg'd Perfections as we find in Creatures GOODNESS bears in it's Notion and Experience teaches us the same that it is Naturally Communicative of what it has Since then we ascribe INFINITE Goodness to GOD and make it to be Essential to Him it follows that He is INFINITELY Communicative of the Nature or Essence which he has or rather he is Actually and Eternally for he was Eternally Good Communicating it and this INFINITELY Which how it can be Verify'd or how his Exuberant Goodness could have an Adequate Object unless he did Communicate Himself Infinitely in the manner abovesaid is past the Wit of Man to imagine since all Communication of Being to Created Things or Suppositums tho' they were never so Excellent or so Many their Natures and their Number being both of
singly as if they were so many Distinct Essences or â—â—stinct Things tho' in re they be but One Thing variously conceiv'd And thence we can consider what or how great a Complexion of Aâ—â—dents is requisite to constitute the Essences of â—â—â— of those Superiour or Inadequate Notions anâ— what is requir'd to constitute Another as is seâ—â— Ch. 2 3 4. Hence also we can truly say that One of them is not Another viz. Formally or Distinctly taken tho' Materially or as in â—â— they are but One and the Same Thing in the same manner as we can say The Hand is not the Foot which are Integral parts of a Man and not â—â—stinct Things from the Man materially but â—…fy'd with him in re Seventhly Hence â—… we can say with Truth that the Thing â—â—y be Chang'd according to One of these Conâ—…tions or Respects and not-Chang'd according â—â— another That the Determination to be This â—…de immediately by Second Causes the â—istence not but given by GOD That a Thing â—â—â—ording to the precise Notion of Essence or â—â—ture may be Two and yet not-Two but One â—â—â—ording to the Notion of Suppositum or may â—â— Three as to it's Suppofitality or Personality and â—â— but One according to it's Essence or Nature â—â— which sayings are properly Verify'd because â—â—â—â—â—â—â—mation and Negation are only made in â—â— Mind where One of those Notions is not the 〈◊〉 or which is the same where the Thing â—â— â—â—â—ceiv'd THUS is not the Thing as conceiv'd â—â—HERWISE And the same is of the Things 〈◊〉 United or Assum'd according to the Noâ—â—â—â— of Person and yet not-United according to â—â—â— Notion of Essence Lastly 't is to be noted â—â—â— as Conception Apprehension Proposition Disâ—â—â—â— c. are Metaphorical Expressions tranâ—… from Corporeal to Spiritual Natures by 〈…〉 of some Analogy Proportion or Resemâ—… to those other so likewise are those â—…ds Substratum Suppositum Subjectum Inheâ—… Accident and such like And the Literal meaning of those words is this that As those things which cannot subsist or stand by themselves or by virtue of any Firmness of their own â—â— re or in Nature must and use to be underâ—â—â—â— and sustain'd by Another which is more Substantial as we use to say or more strong than they so neither in our Mind can the Notion of Mode Manner or Accident stand alone unless we conceive Some Thing of which it is a Mode or speaks the Manner HOW it is or Some Thing to which it advenes or is superadded whereas on the other side we have the Notion of Being or Thing without apprehending such a Transcendental Relation to the Mode or Manner how it is Whence the Notion of Thing has a kind of Priority in our Minds to the Accidents or Modes under the consideration of Standing in our Intellect without them and the Notions of the Modes or Accidents has a kind of posteriorily in our Mind and a Dependence on them for their Being these because the former has Being one way or other in it's Notion the others as Length Whiteness Roundness â— have in their Notion no express signification of Being at all Whence I cannot but think Mr. Locke should not have apply'd his Ingenioâ—â— Raillery of Supporting and Underpropping and of an Elephant supporting the Earth and a Tortoise the Elephant to those Authors who were forced to use those words in case they did not take those Expressions in that Gross and too-Literal Sense And I conceive he might with equal Justice have apply'd them against Grammarians who tell us that a Noun Substantive can stand by it's self aâ—â— a Noun Adjective cannot without it's Elephant and Tortoise the Substantive to support it MEDITATION WE have seen formerly in what consisted our Essence as we are of that Species call'd Mankind This was a fair Step towards the Knowing our Individual How impossible it is to know perfectly all that belongs to our Individuality Self which we have here to â—â—r power attempted But alas How lamely and imperfectly have â—e reacht it We experienc'd no great difficulty to find our way amongst so many Common Kinds of Things tho' in a manner Strangers to us but we have lost our selves at home A Few Abstracted Modes twisted together â—…y by Nature did oft times satisfie our Enquiry â—â—ile we discours'd of the former but when we came to consider that numerous Complexion of them only which can serve to constitute our Individual Body â—â—d to distinguish our single Self from every other Particular Thing whether of our own or of any other Kind we are at an utter loss and seem bewilder'd â—â—â— pathless Wood Such a Concourse of various Acâ—â—ents and as it were Thrums-ends of Being are requisite to weave our Particular Texture so to make up This Thing which we are that to endeavour to comprehend them all seems the same as to go about to fathom at once a great part of Nature and in stead of enlightning us stuns our Understanding Our Primigenial Composition in the last minute of our Embryo-state which was the first Instant of our being This Man is so admirably Deliâ—ate and the Stamina of it so finely spun by the most wise Contrivance of the Author of Nature that we may break our Eye-balls by bending our Sight â—re we can gain a Glimpse of it Nor can the help of Microscopes which as Modern Virtuoso's tell us can show tho Outward Shape of the Tree in it's Seed discover to us those imperceptible Particles their Natures Mixture Order Proportion Situation c. that make up the Individual Composition of our Body which gave the Particular Degree of Excellency and Nobleness to our Soul Dull Artificers must see all the parts of the Matter they are to work upon that so they may measure proportion and place them but the Architect of the World needs no reflected Rays of his own Sun to discern them but sees them by the Creative Light of his own Wisdom or rather by seeing them makes them tho' they be meer Darkness to us Non est occultatum os meum a te quod fecisti in occulto substantia mea in inferioribus terrae Imperfectum meum viderunt oculi tui and every part of all thy Creature in libro duo scribuntur Ps. 138. But alas Who can read so abstruse a Manuscript much less the Original from which 't is Copy'd Let us then vail our over-weoning Pride bewail our Ignorance and lament with the Eagle-sighted Evangelist that No Man is found worthy or able to open the folded and Sealed Book even of Created Nature nor read the Contents of it wrapt up in the shady leaves of an incomprehensible Providence But how large a Field of Contemplation is open'd to us when we come to consider the Infinite number of Causes which By what wonderful and Untraceable Ways GOD's Providence has brought about our Individuation were order'd to make this Complexion of Accidents that constituted This Body of ours and Distinguisht
it from all others in the First Instant of our Being What Mathematicks could contrive what Mathematician can explicate how all those Crooked and mutually-crossing Lines of sundry Kinds in which those Causes mov'd shohld meet in our Individuation as in their Center How much more wonderful will it be to reflect that each of those numberless Causes had also their Causes fore-lay'd and they others before them and so upwards to the First Framing of the World And yet our Reason assures us that none of these later or immediate Causes nor consequently our self their Product could â—ver have been had not this long Pedigree of Causes as Ancient as the Beginning of Time successively anteceded determining Matter to this Individual Body of ours which requir'd the Infusion of such a particular Soul whence we became what we are Blind Matter could never have seen her direct way to such a Steady End Rash and Heedless Chance could never have cost Senseless Matter into such an orderly and wellcomplicated Frame Be ever prais'd that Adorable Providence which has design'd so large a portion of the Creation to run in a direct Track for the Production of so mean a Thing so poor an Atome of Being â—â— our selves and our Contemporary Individuuâ—ns â—re Yet we have by this Discourse gain'd a clear sight of what in common makes our Individuation and in what it consists And has given us all our knowledge and other Endowments tho' the Detail of it's particular Ingredients be hid from us We have learnt too that nothing but an all-comprehending Wisdom and Providence which has Plac'd us tho' remotely yet surely in the Rank of Effects from the First Constitution of the World could have ripen'd Nature so as to make us Spring out of the Seeds of our Causes in our proper Season How Unreasonable then and how short-sighted is our Pride which would persuade Mankind that any particular Acquir'd Endowments of Dignity Progeny Beauty or Parts particularly that the Knowledge in which some may excel others do belong to our selves or our Individuums or essentially distinguish us from those of our own Kind who have not been so Fortunate or so blest by Providence as we have been I have done this and I have done the other thinks the Proud Boaster God has done this and the other by me says the Humble and Wise Christian. Nay if we reflect well we shall find that we fall short of being even Common Instruments For those owe only their Motion and Direction to the Principal Cause but We owe our Being too to Him who makes use of us to bring about his Infinitely-Wise Designs None of those Endowments Productions or Acquisitions are to be attributed to us as Us. Our Substantial Individuation anteceded those Ornamental Accessories for we must be This ere we could thus Act or be thus Qualify'd Nay there is not one of those superadded Accidents whether Intrinsecal or Extrinsecal that furbisht up our Individuum and fitted it to act for the Ends of the World 's Great Governour but requir'd as vast a Chain of Precedent Causes as our Individuum it self Our Nurses show'd us one fine thing after another which that we might pick and glean Notions out of them by our Senses we look'd wistly upon and long'd to handle them We put them to our Mouths and knockt them against other things as if we had a mind to know how they Tasted or Sounded And after we had perus'd them so long till we had suckt all the Knowledge out of them they could afford us we straight grew weary of them threw them away and cry'd for some new thing we had never seen before which we us'd in the same manner as we did the former to enlarge our little Stock of Simple Apprehsnsions which are the Elements of our Natural Knowledge Then they began to name the things they show'd us and by their continual Tattle they fram'd our Tongues and instructed our Lisping Vocal Organs to imitate them and so taught us by Degrees to prattle and ask for those things we needed Growing up we came by little and little to compound those Simple Thoughts or Notions which we had acquir'd into Iudgments and were deliver'd over from How little our best Performance contributed to the Acquisition of them our Natural Instructers to the Discipline of Schoolmasters and in process of time we began to converse with the Learned Part of the World by their Books and Verbal Discourses whence we become tinctur'd with their Thoughts concerning the several Natures of Things and the Rules of Art 〈…〉 which we stor'd up in the Repository of our Memory .. When we were thus furnisht with fit Matter and some Forms of Discoursing New Occasions and Circumstances joyn'd those previous and preparatory Knowledges with which we were preâ—…u'd to our Present Thoughts which Dispositions had even to every single particular been foreâ—aid in us thro' the whole Course of our former Life â—nd working in us according to our Natural Genius 〈…〉 our Individual pitch of Rationality were the Adequate Cause of that peculiar Turn of Writing and Discoursing in which we differ from other Scholars Now each of those Assistants of ours which contributed to this Effect were themselves And how little the most Knowing or Best Man has to be Proud of the most Estimable Actions GOD has done by him Individuums too and consequently had as far-fetcht and as Ancient a Descent of Causes to make them be what they are as our Selves had And the same may be said of those Circumstances by which those several Informations come to be Apply'd from time to time to our Knowing Faculty which how little for the most part they are in our power to foresee lay or prevent every Reflecter knows So that that Maxim of the Stoicks Agimur non agimus seems in a manner tho' not in their Sense Appliable to the Wisest of us We do all of us Act indeed by our Natural Powers which were given us by our Good Maker at first yet those meer Powers could not have exerted themselves into Action at all nor have been Useful to us unless order had been taken by the same Goodness to Determine them to perform This or That Action in particular or to Act after such a manner and this by a Course of Causes impossible to be laid or carry'd on by any in by the same Great Governour of the World When I set my self to speculate or write do I know before hand what New Thoughts I shall have or what â—â— Former Thoughts will Dictate to me Not one jâ—â— The present Circumstances do indeed set those Thought I had got on work and level them at such an Object But the Disposal of them Rationally depends â—â— Millions of Unseen Causes preordain'd to bring â—â— about which 't is Impossible for us to recollect or â—â— give any account of them Whence A Joue Principium is but a scanty Acknowledgement of our Intire Dependence on GOD for