which the great animal of the world moves it selfe Such definitions are good for women and â—hildren who are delighted with toyes wise men search into the causes and naâ—ures of things But is not Nature a princiâ—le of motion and rest No say you What then A straight line a settled course Gods hand and instrument Is not â—his obscurum per obscurius Nature is not a â—ine for it is no quantity nor is it like a â—ine for these are entities too remote to make any similitude between them Nature is as like a line as the ten Plagues of Egypt were like the ten Commandements a ridiculous similitude And why is Naâ—ure rather a straight then a circular line We see the world is round the motions of the heavens and starres are circular the generation and corruption of sublunary bodies is also circular the corruption of onâ— being still the generation of another snow begets water and water snow the riverâ— returne to the sea from whence they flow Redit labor actus in orbem And what say you to the circulation oâ— the bloud in our bodies Is not Naturâ— then a circular rather then a straight line Againe Nature is not a settled course buâ— in the workes of Nature there is a settled and constant course if you will speak properly and like a Philosopher which you love not to doe And suppose wee admit that metaphorically Nature is the hand of God and an instrument yet it is not such an instrument as the hammer is to the house which cannot move it selfe but as the fire was to the Chaldeans and the red sea to the Egyptians for the one of it selfe burned the other of it selfe drowned and moved downwards to its own place without an externall agent Otherwise you must say that God burned the Chaldeans and God drowned the Egyptians and so you will make God both fire and water Nay if Nature doth not worke and produce its immediate effects but God in Nature then you may say It is not the fire but God that rosts your meat and extracts your physicall spirits and quintessences For you will not have Gods actions ascribed to Nature lest the honour of the principall agent be devolved upon the instrument And what else is this but with Plato to make this world a great animal wherof God is the soule Principio coelum ac terras camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum lunae titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet Inde hominum pecudumque genus vitaeque volantûm Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus Igneus est ollis vigor c. Now if Nature be not the principle of motion what is that which moveth or altereth the water from cold to heat when it is on the fire Is it not the nature of the fire Againe is not forme and matter the nature of things but these are causes and causes are principles of motion Doe noâ— you know that the forme actuates the Compositum and restraines the extravagancie of the matter Doth not the matter receive the forme and sustaine it but to actuatâ— restraine receive and sustaine are motions of which you see Nature is the principle except you will deny the two internall causes of things but so you must deny generation and corruption composition and mixture in Nature which I thinke you will not doe as you are a Physician You say that there is in monsters a kind of beauty for that the irregular parts are so contrived that they become more remarkable then the principall fabrick It is not their beauty but their monstrosity and irregularity that makes them remarkable for the eye is as soon drawn with strange and uncouth as with beautifull objects the one to admiration and stupiditie the other to delight A woman as beautifull as Venus will not draw so many eyes as if she were â—orne with a dogs head and a fishes taile 'T is not you say a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at Tables I think â—t is profanation and taking of Gods Name in vaine For what doe you pray for that God would prosper your game to win your neighbourâ— mony to which you have no right If Abraham durst scarce â—ntercede to God for the preservation of five populous Cities how dare you be so bold with him as to solicite him to assist you in your idle foolish and sinfull desires and in divers respects unlawfull recreations You will not have us labour to confute judiciall Astrologie for if there be a truth therein it doth not injure Divinity This is as much as if you would say Let us not labour to resist the Divell for if hee loves our salvation hee doth not injure us If there were truth in that Art we would not confute it but we see there is so much deceit vanitie and impietie in it that Councels Canons civill and municipall Lawes and Gods Word condemne it therefore wee confute it You had better then in plaine termes said that Mercury doth not disposâ— us to be witty nor Iupiter to be wealthy then to tell us that if Mercury disposeth 〈◊〉 to be witty and Jupiter to be wealthy you wiâ—â— thanke God that hath ordered your nativity unto such benevolent aspects I know the Star were made to be signes to measure time to warme and illuminate but not to givâ— wealth and wit promotion comes neitheâ— from East nor West but from the Lord It 's hee that gives and takes saith Iob It 's hee that filleth the hungry and sends the râ—câ— empty away saith the Virgin His wisdome hath wealth and honour in her left hand Solomon went not to Mercury but to God for wisdome Was Abraham â—saac Iacob and other rich men in Scripture borne under Iupiter How disposeth he us to be wealthy Passively that is to be capable of wealth or willing to take it when it is profer'd us then I think the most men in the world are borne under Iupiter For Quis nisi mentis inops Who will refuse wealth when profer'd except very few Or disposeth hee us actively that is makes he us fit to raise our owne fortunes Surely whereas there be maâ—â— waies to attaine wealth wit in some learning in others industry in others boldnesse with hazzarding of their lives and vigilancie and paines in others Againe oppression robbery theeving lying and many other waies there be of getting wealth you must make Iupiter the cause of all these meanes But if hee can make us rich what need wee pray to our heavenly Father for our daily bread You were as good tell us of the goddesse Pecunia of the god Aesculanus and his son Argentarius worshipped among the Romans for being the authors of mony brasse and silver that if they dispose wealth on us wee will thank the Supreme giver for it not them as to call Mercury and Iupiter benevolent aspects because they dispose
heresie of the Marcionites Basilidians and Valentinians whom Tertullian calls Partianos sententiae Sadducaeorum as acknowledging but halfe a resurrection Resurrectio dici non potest ubi non resurgit quod cecidit saith Gregory Secondly Christ is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to transfigure or transforme our vile bodies in the resurrection but if the same numericall body rise not our resurrection will be a forming of a new body not a transforming of the old Or an assumption of a body rather then a resurrection Or if you please a Pythagoricall transanimation Thirdly the end why man was made or why his body was united to his soule was that both might enjoy God the chief beatitude but man should be frustrated of his end if the same body did not rise that was given him in the creation Fourthly if the essentiall forme of mans body was totally lost as the formes of other creatures are by corruption wee might have some reason to thinke that the body should not rise the same numerically which fell but mans soule which is his essentiall forme remains still the same therefore the body shall returne the same Fifthly though the childe begotten be not numerically the same with the parent begetting because the whole matter of the parent is not transfused into the childe yet in the resurrection the same numericall body shall returne that fell because the whole matter of it remaines Sixthly though the union of the body to the soule in the resurrection be not numerically the same action that was in generation yet the body shall be the same because the entity and unity of the body is not hindered by the multiplication or iteration of accidents such as union is Seventhly our resurrection shall bee conformable to Christs but he raised up the same numericall temple of his body which was destroyed as the same numericall body of Ionas was disgorged which was swallowed by the Whale Eighthly if in artificiall things the introduction of a new forme makes not the matter to be identically different from what it was much lesse can mans body be any other then what it was by introducting the same essentiall forme which was never lost though for a while separated Ninthly it stands with Gods justice and mans comfort that the same body which was the soules companion in tribulation should be also companion with it in glorie that the same body which was to the soule the organ of iniquity should be also the organ of paine and misery the same soules and bodies that run together in the same race let them weare the same crown and reigne together in the same glory Let the Baptist have the same head he lost and Bartholomew the same skin he parted with This was Iob's comfort on the dung-hill that though wormes destroy his body yet hee should see God in his flesh whom I my selfe saith he shall see and mine eyes shall behold and none other for mee though my reines are consumed within me His second mistake is That the forme not the matter gives numericall individuation to the body Is the dead body of an Ethiopian numerically the same with the dead bodie of a Scythian he will not say so then they are different bodies but by what the forme is gone is not then the difference in respect of the matter and accidents which remaine in the carkasse 'T is true that the chiefe cause of individuation is the forme in men yet not as it gives essence for so it makes the specificall union by which all men are one but as it gives existence to the matter which it terminates with quantitie and invests with other accidents which matter and accidents are the secondary cause of individuation but in dead bodies the forme of man being gone there remaines nothing but the form of a carkasse or the form of mixtion which determinating the matter of the carkasse with its accidents makes up the numericall individuation by which one carkasse is distinguished from another His third mistake That the matter without forme hath no actuall being The matter as it is a substance and hath entity as it is the other principle of generation and as it is the cause of motion it must needs have an actuall being or else it can be none of these it must be all one with privation if it have no actuall being 'T is true it hath not that measure of actuall being which it receives from the forme till the union and yet I see not how the matter is at any time without forme seeing it is never without privation which presupposeth a forme in the matter which is to be expelled for introduction of another His fourth mistake That identitie belongs not to the matter by it selfe So he may as well say that entity belongs not to the matter by it selfe for identity followes the entity as unity doth which is in a maner the same that identity he should have said that matter gives not identity to things neither genericall specificall nor numericall for such proceeds from the forme yet there can be neither of these identities without the matter for the conjunction of the forme with the matter makes identity and yet before the forme be united the particular parts of the matter have their particular identities and inclinations to such and such formes as mans seed to the forme of a man not of an horse an egge to the forme of a chick not of a man so after the soule is gone that identity remaines in the matter which was before to wit an inclination to that forme which once it had rather then to any other or rather then any other part of the matter can have to this forme His fifth mistake That the body of a man is not the same it was Philoâ—ophers say that the matter remaines after the forme is gone so that a dead body in respect of its matter is the same it was whilst the soule was in it If then the absence or change of the forme takes not away the identity of the matter much lesse can that identity of the body be gone whilst the soule remains in it They that bring markes and spots in their skins as Seleucus and Augustus did retaine them still untill their skin be consumed which shewes that the body is the same in infancie aâ—d old age If Ulysses had not brought home after his twenty years travell the same body he carried out his Nurse had not knowne him by his foot nor had his dogge fawned on him I know the common opinion is that the body is the same in respect of continuation and because it hath the same essentiall forme otherwise there is a continuall deperdition and reparation of the matter by nutrition and auction but I cannot find that there is any deperdition of the solid parts or any alteration in the heterogeneall but onely in the bloud and spirits or such fluid parts And doubtlesse the primogeneall or radicall humour which wee bring with us wee
Medicus Medicatus OR THE PHYSICIANS RELIGION CURED BY A LENITIVE OR GENTLE POTION With some ANIMADVERSIONS upon Sir Kenelme Digbie's OBSERVATIONS on Religio Medici By ALEXANDER ROSS LONDON Printed by Iames Young and are to be sold by Charles Green at the Signe of the Gun in Ivie-lane Anno Dom. 1645. TO MY VVORTHY AND EVER HONOURED FRIEND Mr. EDWARD BENLOWES ESQUIRE SIR TO satisfie your desire I have endeavoured so farre as the shortnesse of time the distractions of my mind and the want of Bookes would give mee leave in this place of exile to open the mysteries of this Treatise so much cried up by those whose eyes pierce no deeper then the superficies and their judgements then the out-sides of things Expect not here from mee Rhetoricall flourishes I study matter not words Good wine needs no bush Truth is so amiable of her selfe that shee cares not for curious dressing Where is most painting there is least beauty The Gentleman who at last acknowledgeth himselfe to be the Authour of this Booke tells us that many things in it are not to be called unto the rigid test of reason being delivered Rhetorically but as I suspect that friendship which is set out in too many Verball Complements so doe I that Religion which is trimmed up with too many Tropicall pigments and Rhetoricall dresses If the gold be pure why feares it the Touch-stone The Physician will trie the Apothecaries drugges ere hee make use of them for his Patients bodie and shall wee not trie the ingredients of that Religion which is accounted the physick of our soules I have no leasure nor mind here to expatiate my selfe a sparkle of the publike flame hath taken hold on my estate my avocations are divers my Bookes farre from mee and I am here Omnibus exhaustus pene casibus omnium egenus Therefore accept these sudden and extemporary Animadversions so earnestly desired by you as a testimony of his service and love to you who will alwaies be found Your servant to command Dum res aetas Sororum Fila trium patiuntur atra A. R. The Contents of the chiefe things briefly handled here in this Booke are these 1 IF the Papists and we are of one faith 2. If it be lawfull to joyne with them in prayers in their Churches 3. If Crosses and Crucifixes are fit meanes to excite devotion 4. If it be fit to weep at a Procession 5. If we owe the Pope good language 6. If we may dispute of Religion 7. If the Church at all times is to be followed 8. Of the soules immortality 9. Of Origen's opinion concerning the damned 10. Of prayer for the dead 11. Of seeing Christ corporally 12. If the soule can be called mans Angell or Gods body 13. Of Gods wisedome and knowledge 14. How Nature is to be defined 15. If Monsters are beautifull 16. If one may pray before a game at Tables 17. Of judiciall Astrologie 18. Of the brasen Serpent 19. Of Eliah's miracle of fire Of the sire of Sodome Of Manna 20. If there be Atheists 21. If man hath a right side 22. How America was peopled 23. If Methusalem was longest lived 24. If Judas hanged himselfe Of Babels Tower Of Peters Angell 25. If miracles be ceased 26. If we may say that God cannot doe some things 27. If he denieth Spirits who denieth Witches 28. If the Angels know our thoughts 29. If the light be a spirituall substance or may be an Angell 30. If the Heavens bee an immateriall world 31. If Gods presence be the habitation of Angels 32. How they are ministring spirits to us 33. If creation bee founded on contrarieties 34. If the soule be ex traduce 35. Of Monsters 36. If the body be the soules instrument 37. If the seat of Reason can be found in the braine 38. If there be in death any thing that may daunt us 39. If the soule sleeps in the body after death 40. If there shall be any judiciall proceeding in the last day 41. If there shall be any signes of Christs coming 42. If Antichrist be yet knowne 43. If the naturall forme of a plant lost can be recovered 44. If beyond the tenth Sphere there is a place of blisse 45. Of Hell-fire and how it workes on the soule 46. Of the locall place of Hell 47. The soules of worthy Heathens where 48. Of the Châ—rches in Asia and Africa 49. If wee can bee confident of our salvation The CONTENTS of the second Part. 1 OF Physiognomie and Palmestry 2. If friends should be loved before parents 3. If one should love his friend as hee doth his God 4. If originall sin is not washed away in baptisme 5. Of Pride 6. If we should sue after knowledge 7. If the act of coition be foolish 8. Evill company to be avoided 9. If the soule was before the elements The CONTENTS of the ANIMADVERSIONS 1 IF the condition of the soule cannot bee changed without changing the essence 2. How the light is actus perspicui 3. If the first matter hath an actuall existence 4. If matter forme essence c. be but notions 5. Iudiciall Astrologie impious and repugnant to Divinity 6. If the Angels know all at their creation 7. If the light be a solid substance 8. If the soule depends on the body 9. If terrene soules appeare after death 10. Departed soules carry not with them affections to the objects left behind 11. If slaine bodies bleed at the sight of the murtherer 12. How God is the cause of annihilation and how the creature is capable of it 13. If our dust and ashes shall be all gatheâ—ed together in the last day 14. If the same identicall bodies shall rise â—gaine 15. If the forme or the matter gives nuâ—ericall individuation 16. If the matter without forme hath actuâ—ll being 17. If identity belong to the matter 18. If the body of a childe and of a man be â—he same 19. Of some Similies by which identicall â—esurrection seems to be weakned 20. If grace be a quality and how wee are â—ustified by grace I Have perused these Animadverâ—â—ons entitled Medicus Medicatus anâ— those likewise of Sir Kenelme Digbieâ— themselves also animadverted on bâ— the same Authour and finding then learned sound and solid I alloâ— them to bee printed and published that many others may receive thâ— same satisfaction content and delight in reading of them which professe my selfe to have enjoyed iâ— their perusall Iohn Downameâ— Medicus Medicatus THough the Authour desires that his Rhetorick may not be brought to the test of reason yet we must be bold to let him know that our reason is not given to us in vaine shall we suffer our selves to be wilfully blind-folded shall we shut our eyes that wee may not see the traps and snares â—aid in our waies he would have us sleep securely that the envious man may sowe tares among the good corne latet anguis in herba all is not gold that glisters it were strange stupidity in
to Sathan and Witchcraft I will say nothing of their Apostasies Idolatries Whoredomes Blasphemies Cruelties Simonie Tyrannie c. 1. You have no Genius to disputes in Religion neither had Mahomet to disputes in his Alchoran it were well if there were no occasion of dispute but without it I see not how against our learned adversaries wee should maintaine the truth If there had been no dispute against Arius Nestorius Eutychus Macedonius and other Hereticks how should the truth have been vindicated Not to dispute against an Heâ—etick is not to fight against an enemy Shall wee suffer the one to poyson our â—oules and the other to kill our bodies without resistance 2. In Divinity you love to keep the road so did not Eliah in his time nor Christ and his Apostles in theirs If the road be infested with theeves holes or precipices you were better ride about the broad way is not still the best way 3. You follow the great Wheele of the Church by which you move but this Wheele â—s sometime out of order Had you been a member of the Hebrew Church when that worshipped the Calfe I perceive you would have moved with her and danced â—o her pipe Was it not better to follow the private dictats of Christ and his Apoâ—tles then to move with the great Wheele of â—he Iewish Church When the whole world groaned and wondered that shee was made Arian was it not safer to steere ones course after the private pole of Athanasius his spirit then to move with the great Wheele of the Arian Church Had you lived in that time when the Woman who had the Eagles wings was forced to flye unto the wildernesse being pursued by a floud out of the Dragons mouth had you I say then lived would not you rather have followed her then stay at home and worship Christs Image with the same adoration of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nay worship the Crosse with the same that Christ himselfe is worshipped You cannot be ignorant how disordered the motion was of the great Wheele of the Iewish Church in the dayes of Elijah Manasses and Hosea Christ tells us that when hee comes againe hee will scarce find faith upon the earth how then will the Churches great Wheele move Your greener studies you say were polluted with the Arabians heresie that mens soules perished with their bodies but should be raised againe This opinion you thinke Philosophy hath not throughly disproved and you dare not challenge the prerogrative of immortality to your soule because of the unworthinesse or merits of your unworthy nature First Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu your vessell retaines yet the sent of that liquor with which at first it was seasoned Secondly if you have forgot reade over againe Plato and you shall find that Philosophy can throughly prove the soules immortality reade also Aristotle Will you have reasons out of Philosophy take these 1. The soule is of an heavenly and quintessentiall nature not of an elementary 2. The soule is a simple substance not compounded of any principles therefore can be resolved unto none Now if it were compounded it could not be actus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and principium 3. As the soule hath neither matter nor forme in it so neither are there in it any contrarieties now all generation and corruption are by contraries This is the reason why Philosophy denieth any generation or corruption in the Heavens because they are void of contrarieties 4. It is a Maxime in Philosophy Quod secundum se alicui convenit est ab eo inseparabile therefore life is inseparable from the soule because it lives by it selfe not by another as the body doth or by accident as the souls of beasts do 5. Mens soules have subsistence by themselves not by their composita as accidents and the formes of beasts have which is the cause of their decay 6. The soule hath a naturall desire to immortality which if it should not enjoy that desire were given to it from God in vaine At Deus Natura nihil faciunt frustra 7. If the soule perish it must be resolved to nothing for it cannot be resolved unto any principles as not being made of them if some thing can be resolved unto nothing then some thing was made of nothing but Philosophy denies this therefore it must needs deny that or the corruption of the soule and consequently it holds the soules immortality I could alledge many testimonies of Heathens to prove how they beleeved the immortality of the soule but that I study brevity Thirdly let not the merits of our unworthy nature deterre us from challenging the soules immortality for the evill Angels have merited worse then we â—nd yet they cease not for that to be imâ—ortall Though by sin we have lost oriâ—inall righteousnesse or supernaturall â—race yet wee have not lost the essentiall â—roperties of our natures and indeed wicâ—ed men would be glad that their soules were as mortall as their bodies for they â—now that the merits of their unworthy natures deserve torments rather then sleep or rest therefore this your Arabian opinion is not grounded upon Philosophy but rather upon Pope Iohn the 20. his heresie for which hee was condemned by the Divines of Paris Your second errour was that of Origens That God would after some time release the damned soules from torture S. Austin shewes how pernicious this opinion of Origens is for it opens a gap to all profanenesse it destroyes Gods justice which cannot be satisfied without eternity of paine being the person offended is eternall and the will of the sinner in offending is eternall if hee could live eternally Voluisseâ—t reprobi sâ— potuissent sine fine vivere ut possent sine fine peccare I take these are the words of Gregory the Great Besides this opinion iâ— quite repugnant to the Scripture which tells us of a worme that never dies of a firâ— that 's never quenched of the divell beast and false prophet which shall be tormented for ever night and day Againe if the wicked shall have an end of their torments why may you not as well thinke that the Saints shall have an end of their joyes But it 's good to be wise with sobriety and not to make God more mercifull then the Scripture makes him it 's sufâ—â—cient that God hath freed some of Adams race from eternall fire whereas hee might have damned all his mercy is to be regulated by his owne wisdome not by our conceipts If melancholy natures are apt to despaire when they thinke of eternall fire let them be comforted with the hopes of eternall blisse therefore as Austin of Origen so may I say of all his followers Tanto errant perversiùs quanto videntur de Deo sentire clementiùs Your third errour whereunto you were enclined from some charitable inducements was prayer for the dead If the dead for whom â—ou prayed were in heaven your prayers
the object gooâ— or bad the one by prosecution the otheâ— by avoiding so that where the heart iâ— not nor the externall senses to conveigâ— the object to the phantasie nor the animalâ— spirits to carry the species of the object from the phantasie to the heart there caâ— be no affection but such is the estate of â—he soule separated it hath no commerce 〈◊〉 all with the body or bodily affections â—nd of this the Poets were not ignorant â—hen they made the departed soules to â—rink Securos latices longa oblivia â—f the river Lethe which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wished for goddesse by â—hose that are in misery 11. He thinkes that when the slaine body â—uddenly bleedeth at the approach of the murâ—erer that this motion of the bloud is caused by â—he soule But this cannot be for the soule when it is in the body cannot make it â—leed when it would if it could we should â—ot need Chirurgions to phlebotomise and â—carifie us much lesse then can it being seâ—arated from the body Secondly in a â—old body the bloud is congealed how â—hall it grow fluid againe without heat or how hot without the animall and vitall spirits and how can they worke without the soule and how can this operate without union to the body If then any such â—leeding be as I beleeve that sometimes â—here hath been and may be so againe I thinke it the effect rather of a miracle tâ— manifest the murtherer then any naturalâ— cause for I have read that a mans armeâ— which was kept two years did at the sighâ— of the murtherer drop with bloud which could not be naturally seeing it could noâ— but be withered and dry after so long time yet I deny not but before the body be cold or the spirits quite gone it may bleed some impressions of revenge and anger being left in the spirits remaining which may move the bloud but the safest way is to attribute such motions of the bloud to the prayers of these soules under the Altar saying Quousque Domine 12. No annihilation can proceed from God it is more impossible that not-being should flow from him then that cold should flow immediately from fire 'T is true that God is not an efficient cause of annihilation for of a non-entity there can be no cause yet we may safely say that hee is the deficient cause for as the creatures had both their creation and have still their conservation by the influx of Gods Almighty power who as the Apostle saith sustaines all things by the word of his power so if he should suspend or withdraw this influx all things must returne to nothing as they were made of nothing There is then in the creature both a passive possibilitie of annihilation and in God an active possibilitie to withdraw his assistance and why should we be afraid to affirm such a power in God Before the world was made there was annihilation and yet God was still the same both before and since without any alteration in him So if the world were annihilated God should lose nothing being in himselfe all things Againe as God suspended his worke of creation the seventh day without any diminution of his power and goodnesse so hee may suspend if hee please the work of conservation which is a continuated production Besides as God created not the world by necessity of his nature but by his free will so by that same freedome of will hee sustaines what hee hath created and not by any necessity and therefore not only corruptible bodies but even spirits and angels have in them a possibility of annihilation if God should withdraw from them his conservative influence Ieremy was not ignorant of his owne and his peoples annihilation if God should correct them in fury Ierem. 10. But though there be a possibility in the creatures if God withdraw his power of annihilation yet wee must not think that this possibility in them flowes from the principles of their owne nature for in materiall substances there is no such possibility seeing the matter is eternall and much lesse can it be in immateriall substances in which there is neither physicall composition nor contrariety As the Sun then is the cause of darknesse and the Pilot the cause of shipwrack the one by withdrawing his light the oâ—her by denying his assistance so may God be the cause of annihilation by suspending or subtracting his influence 13. He thinkes it is a grosse conception to think that every atome of the body or every graine of ashes of the cadaver burned and scattered by the wind should be raked together and made up anew into the same body it was But this is no grosse conceit if he consider the power of the Almighty who can with as great facility re-unite these dispersed atomes as he could at first create them utpote idoneus est reficere qui fecit The Gentiles objected the same unto the Christians as a grosse conceit of theirs as Cyril sheweth to whom Tertullian returnes this answer That it is as easie to collect the dispersed ashes of thy body as to make them of nothing Ubicunque resolutus fueris quaecunque te materia destruxerit hauserit aboleverit in nihil prodegerit reddet te ejus est nihilum ipsum cujus est totum 14. But Sir Kenelme in his subsequent discourse to salve this grosse conception as hee calls it of collecting the dispersed ashes of the burned body tells us that the same body shall rise that fell but it shall be the same in forme onely not in matter which he proves by some reasons First that it is the forme not the matter that gives numericall individuation to the body Secondly that the matter without forme hath no actuall being Thirdly that identity belongeth not to the matter by it selfe Fourthly that the body of a man is not the same it was when it was the body of a childe Fifthly he illustrates this by some Similies As that a ship is still the same though it be all new timbered The Thames is still the same river though the water is not the same this day that flowed heretofore That a glasse full of water taken out of the sea is distinguished from the rest of the water but being returned backe againe becomes the same with the other stocke and the glasse being againe filled with the sea-water though not out of the same place yet it is the same glasse full of water that it was before That if the soule of a newly dead man should be united to another body taken from some hill in America this body is the same identicall body hee lived with before his death This is the summe of Sir Kenelm's Philosophy and Divinity concerning the resurrection In which are these mistakes First the resurrection by this opinion is overthrowne a surrection wee may call it of a body but not the resurrection of the same body This is no new opinion but the