or who gave that Magnetical Virtue to that Cause And we must be forced to walk from one Natural Cause to another till at last we must come to a Supreme Infinite Efficient that hath no Limits or Bound of his Power Wisdom or Being even the Great and Infinite and Glorious God I confess this way of Argumentation is applicable to any other Effect or Motion in Nature and concludes the necessary Existence of a Being absolutely Perfect as it doth in this Instance of the Magnet and is no more peculiar to this Effect in Nature than to any other But yet it may be usefully and with great Evidence of Reason and Plainness deduc'd from the Consideration of the Magnetism of the Earth though it exclude not the like Improvement of any other appearance in Nature to the same Conclusion CHAP. III. The Evidence of the Existence of the Glorious GOD from the Supposition of a Self-moving Principle in Nature THAT there are such Beings in Nature that exert their Motions and Effects from an Internal Principle we have sufficient Evidence which way soever we look in the World and I shall further instance from the Subject in hand Now a Being that hath the Principle of his Actions and Motion in himself I suppose to be of Two Kinds I. That Being which is absolutely Independent the Original of all other Beings and Powers Infinite in Essence and Power the Great and Glorious GOD in the virtue of whose Presence Influence and Activity all other Active Powers have their Being and Operations whose Existence is not demonstrable à Priori or from his Causes for he is the Soveraign Primitive Cause of All Things but is demonstrable by his Effects Works and Operations And this is that which I am endeavouring to evince even by this little portion of Nature which I have in hand II. Again There are other Beings that although they have the principal Motions and Operations within themselves yet 1 st Have it not from themselves but either mediately or immediately from that Great Sovereign Fountain of Being and Power above-mention'd 2 dly Nor have it independently For as in their Original they have it from God so they still have it dependently upon Him If the Soveraign Influence should not uncessantly be communicated to their Beings and Operations both would cease And consequently although when they are once setled they have the Root of their Motions and Operations within themselves so that no other Created Cause doth Physically contribute to them yet the Sovereign Cause and his Influence hath still a most Intimate Co-efficiency with them in all their Motions and Operations and such an Efficiency that is far greater and more intimate to them than those Self-moving Principles themselves For though these Principles as in relation to the Effects these Self-moving Principles produce habent se per modum primariorum efficientium yet in relation to Almighty God habent se per modum Instrumenti vel Causae subordinatae Now these Self-moving Intrinsick Principles are not unfitly called Essential Virtues or Essential Forms and in respect of their Production are of Two kinds First Such as were lodged primarily in some Nature or Body without any Traduction from any other Created Being such were the Virtutes Essentiales or Forms of the First Animals such is also the Magnetical Form or Essential Virtue of the Earth which could no otherwise be derived to it but from the Efficiency Ordination and Institution of the Sovereign Creator and Architect of the World And this hath been the Business of the former Chapter Secondly Such Forms or Essential Virtues as have their immediate Origination by some other Productive Cause either by way of Ordinary Generation as is done in the Production of Animals and Vegetables ex Semine or by way of Irradiation as Fire produceth Fire or as the Magnet is produced in the Bowels of the Earth Now although these Productions of Essential Virtues Forms or Self-moving Principles recognize another Natural Immediate Efficient in their first Production yet being once produced and perfected they act and move and operate immediately from themselves and independently upon the Immediate Cause of their Production The Egg of a Hen would be hatch'd into a Chicken and the Form or Essential Virtue of this Chicken would exert its own Operations proper to its Species though the Hen were dead And I make as little doubt that a Magnet once fully perfected in the Earth would have its Magnetical Attraction though we could suppose the Earth it self annihilated or its Magnetism extinct For though there could be no Union of a Vis or Forma Magnetica to a Magnet but by the Irradiation of the Earth yet when it is once perfected into a compleat Magnetical Nature and the Magnetical Virtue once radicated in it it would then act many of its Motions independently as in relation to the Earth from which it had its first Production though possibly some of its Motions which are relative to the Earth would be lost Now the due consideration of these Essentiales Virtutes or Forms that have in themselves a Principle of their Operations are in their kind as effectual a demonstration of the Existence of Almighty God as the series and connexion and dependence and subordination of Efficients or Efficient Causes And therefore in this place I shall not make use of that way of Argumentation namely the necessary reduction of all Powers or Essential Virtues either mediately or immediately to their First Efficient which was the method of the former Chapter but shall consider them barely as active self-moving Vertues or Forms or Powers and shall thereupon examine what Evidence that naked Consideration affords us of an Existence of a Sovereign and most perfect Being 1. In the pursuit of the Effects and Appearances of Nature when we come to a self-moving Principle we are come to the uttermost term and limits of our bare Physical enquiry into the Cause of any such Motions and Effects When I see the Index of a Clock point to the Hour of the Day I can trace that motion to the next Wheel that moves it and so to the next and then to the Rundle that is moved by the Spring and then to the weight of Lead that from an inward self-moving principle moves downward and there I am at a stand I can carry my Series of Physical Causes no farther for if I enquire why this Weight moves downward I get no higher but only to the Ordination of the Sovereign of the World that had impressed that intrinsick self-moving Power into this as all other heavy Bodies And therefore Aristotle after he had established that Principle that quicquid movet movetur ab alio when he comes to the Motion of heavy Bodies wherein he could find no other impulsive Physical Cause of their Motion without them but in their very own intrinsick Nature hath only this solution for it quod movetur à generante But this Solution of his solves not
the business without recourse to the Sovereign Cause of all things for although the Generans was that which convey'd the Principle it self into the heavy Body to move it self yet when that Principle is once settled namely a heavy Body once constituted it moves now independantly upon its generative immediate Natural Cause which it may be is corrupted and dissolved yet that active and self-moving Principle exerts its Motion from its own intrinsick Nature If it be said that the Spring of the Watch doth the like and yet it is performed but mechanically for the Spring of Steel made strait at first and then rolled up into a spiral consistence endeavouring its own restitution gives as effectual and regular Motion to the Wheels and so to the Index as the weight of Lead doth I Answer It is true it doth so but yet it doth not avoid nor answer the Instance 1. Even that disposition of the Spring requires an Intelligent Agent to bring it about and order it and certainly no less is requir'd even to the impression of this Motive Power to a heavy Body 2. Again in that disposition of the Spring we can and must necessarily arrive to a Natural Cause of that Motive Principle of the Spring namely the conversion of that Body into a Consistence contrary to its Nature whereby it endeavours its restitution to its natural state and so Evolves it self and by that Evolution moves the String and that the Fusee and that the Wheel But the Motion of heavy Bodies to the Center hath not any assignable mechanical Cause of its Motion but it s own intrinsick Propension 3. And this Propension is not to be annexed unto it by any humane power no nor by any other assignable Cause but from the impression and signature of the Supreme Lawgiver whose Law and Constitution which we call Nature or the Law of Nature has implanted in heavy Bodies that habitude between them and the Center of the Earth to move thither But this descensus Gravium is but one single Motion if we look upon the Magnetical Body of the Earth which is the Primum Magneticum or that which is the natural issue of the Earth namely the Magnet we shall see a greater variety of Motions as that of direction attraction and other Magnetical Motions and all these proceeding from a self-moving principle in these Magnetical Bodies and higher than that we cannot go in the Assignation of Natural Causes Let any Man living of the greatest Perspicacity use all the diligence imaginable he shall never be able to assign any mechanical or other Natural Cause of these Motions but must fix only in an internal self-moving Principle lodged in the Magnet or Earth it self and all the reason he shall give is only this Ita fert vis naturalis ipsius Magnetis And although it is true the common Hypothesis allows an actual Motion to the Earth yet the composing of it self in its Polar Position arising immediately from its Magnetical Nature and the production of Magnetical Virtues in Magnets and other things is not unfitly call'd a self-moving or at least a self-disposing or ordering Principle But yet this is much more evident in the Perception Appetite and Motions of the Sentient Nature and yet still much more in the Intellectual or Rational Nature Whither or to what else than to an internal self-moving Principle can we attribute the sentient Perception of Animals their Instincts their Memory their Appetites And when we come to that admirable Creature Man to what other immediate Cause can we attribute those more admirable Instances of Intellection Ratiocination Freedom of Will than to an internal self-moving Principle that excites and exerts these admirable Operations And if any one shall say that these Faculties and their Operations are moved extrinsically by their Objects It is true they are so but these are not Physical Movers but only Moral or Objective Movers the Physical Motions are still performed by that internal Vis or Virtus movens When a Child sees an Apple it is the Apple that he sees and either by the beautifulness thereof or the former experience that he hath had of the like Object he remembers it is good and pleasant to the Taste he thereupon desires it and then reacheth and moveth after it and tastes it It is indeed the Apple that excites all these Motions of Sight Perception Memory Appetite Local Motion but still the Apple only moves objectively and morally not physically but still the Perception Memory Appetite Local Motion is performed by the inward Principle that moves it physically and actively in and from it self But yet further there are certain Motions that are exerted by Inanimate things and much more by things Animate that have not so much as an Objective Motion from without but are wholly and entirely exerted from this inward Principle without any previous Excitation or any external Document Custom or Instruction such as are the Motions of heavy Bodies to the Center of the Earth the Magnetical directions and motions of the Magnet and especially the great Magnet of the Earth the specifical Vertues of Vegetables the admirable Instincts of Animals which they obtain and according to them move and dispose themselves without any previous Instruction or objective Excitation but barely and primitively from that implanted Inclination Form intrinsick Principle the very Signature and Character implanted in their very Natures and we can carry their Operations no higher in a Series of Physical Causes than that Internal self-moving Principle And if we attempt to carry them further we must at last rest and fix in that Sovereign most Perfect Being the Glorious God that imprinted this active Signature upon their Natures as I shall further in the next place evidence Therefore 2. Upon the Consideration that there are these active self-moving Principles in many if not all Beings that we are acquainted with in the World let us but now consider where we can fasten the Origination of them and what or who it was that imprinted these admirable active Characters at first upon things in Nature It is impossible they should have them from themselves and their own activity For 1 st That were to suppose them to be before they were Again 2 dly Since it is apparent they are determined in their Being and Operations it is necessary they should have a Cause of such their Determination as I have shewed in the former Chapter 3 dly Again since it is apparent there is an admirable variety of these self-moving Principles specifically differing one from another and yet all observing and containing themselves within their several specifical Bounds and Limits of their Kinds and Natures it must needs follow that they have their several Species and are contained within them by a superiour Disponent and not from themselves otherwise what should hinder but that that which disposed its specifical Power in the rank of a Vegetable should not as well dispose of it self into the rank of
Page 13 The Evidence of the Existence of a Deity from the Excellent Ordination of these Powers to their several Ends and Uses Page 30 The Evidences of the Wisdom Power and Goodness of GOD resulting from the Consideration of the Parts of the Universe and particularly of the Magnetical Parts The First Instance Page 37 The Wonderful Wisdom and Power of God appearing in the admirable and various Motions of the Magnet Page 52 Touching the Reason and Method of the ensuing Discourse Page 64 Concerning Divine Magnetism Page 68 Concerning the several Instances and Means of the Conversion of the Soul to God Page 74 Concerning the Natural Means of the Soul's Conversion to Almighty God Page 77 Concerning the Reasonable or Intellectual Means of Converting the Soul to God Page 83 Touching the Rational Instances and Motives of the Conversion of the Soul to God upon the Account of the Works of Nature and Providence Page 88 Touching the Second Means of Conversion of the Soul to God namely Divine Revelation Page 101 Touching the Reasonableness of the Christian Religion and the sutableness thereof to the Reduction of the Soul to its due State Position and Happiness Page 120 Concerning the Supernatural Means of retaining the Soul in its due Respect and Position to Almighty God and of the Reduction thereof unto it Page 131 The Conclusion Page 141 Upon Psal 86.8 Neither are there any Works like thy Works 151 Magnetismus Magnus OR Metaphysical and Divine CONTEMPLATIONS Upon the Consideration of the MAGNET CHAP. I. The Reason and Order of this Tract WHEN I look into the Writings of the Ancient and some Modern Philosophers that have written touching the Works of Nature I find in them very many and excellent Enquiries into Causes and Effects and excellent Natural Discoveries touching them And I need go no further for the Evidence thereof than the Books of Aristotle de Naturali Auditu de Meteoris de Anima de Generatione Corruptione de Generatione Animalium de Partibus Animalium and the rest of his Physical Discourses But in most of their Discourses that which is short in them is indeed the best and truest and noblest part of true Philosophy namely the carrying up of the admirable Works of Nature and their Regiment to the Supreme Cause of all Things and the Glorifying of that God that hath instituted and still continues that Law and Order which we call the Law of Nature but is in truth no other than the wise Institution of the Supreme Legislator fitted to every Being in their Creation in the greatest Beauty and Convenience and to several excellent Ends. The Universe and all the Parts thereof as they had their Origination from God so they are all of them full of admirable Order and Usefulness and do all proclaim as well as they can the Power Wisdom and Goodness of their Author It is a goodly and glorious Temple which in every particular and in the whole Compagination of it shews forth the Excellence of the Architect But because all these Works though made with admirable Order and Wisdom yet every Integral thereof hath not Understanding to consider their Own or the World's Beauty and Order nor actively to carry up the Praise and Glory of their Being and Beauty to their Author the Glorious God hath placed in this goodly Temple certain Intelligent Beings Angels and Men for these great Uses First To behold the goodly Frame of the World and intellectively to consider it Secondly To carry up these Works of God to their proper Cause and Author Thirdly To Admire and Magnifie the Power the Wisdom and Goodness of God in all his Works Man therefore is indued not only with a Sentient Nature to behold the Works of Nature but also with an Intelligent Inquisitive Reasonable Soul to observe and consider them and the admirable Wisdom and Order that appears in them and to carry them up to their Wise and Bountiful Author and is placed in the Temple of this Lower World as the Priest of that part of the Creation for himself and in the behalf of the rest of the Creatures to Magnifie and Glorifie the Great Creator and to carry up to him their common Tribute of Praise and Glory And indeed this is the best Part and truest Use of all Philosophy And although a due Attention unto the Works of Nature will readily prompt any considerate Man to this part of Philosophy yet herein the Excellency of the Holy Scriptures and the true Philosophy that we may learn therein exceeds all other Philosophical Discourses of the Ancient Philosophers It carries up all the Works which we usually call Works of Nature and their admirable Order Laws and Regiment to the Great Creator and Governor of them and teacheth Mankind their Duty thereupon and to present the Glory and Praise of the whole Creation and all the Creatures therein to the Sovereign Lord of all Things Psal 104.24 O Lord how wonderful are thy works in wisdom hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy riches Psal 107. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men Psal 111.2 The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal 92.5 O Lord how great are all thy works and thy thoughts are very deep It is a True and Wise Saying of that Excellent Person Sir Francis Bacon That though a little Philosophy may make a Man an Atheist yet a deep Search into it will bring a Man to the Acknowledgment and Veneration of God He therefore that rests in the bare Search and Prospect of the Phaenomena of Nature without running of them up to the Author and Law-giver of Nature is not gone half way in true Philosophy nor hath attained that End that ought principally to be minded in his Natural Enquiries Some of those that have gone before me in Magnetical Philosophy as Grandamicus Kircherus and Mr. Ward have left me an Example of improving this little Portion of Natural Philosophy into Divine Speculations I shall therefore take the liberty to close my Magnetical Observation with something of the like nature though I shall not go altogether in the same Path that they have gone as will appear in the several succeeding Chapters and their Contents There is not the least Rivulet but if I follow it downward in its course it will bring me either mediately or immediately to the Ocean as the Term of its Motion And yet if I follow it upward first to its apparent Fountain and then thorough those Anfractus Terrestres that feed that Fountain it will bring me by necessary consequence to the Ocean as its Original Eccles 1.7 All the rivers run into the sea yet the sea is not full into the place from whence the rivers came thither they return again As all Secondary Beings are directed to the Honour and Glory of Almighty God and of his Goodness Wisdom and Power as
an Animal or Humane Principle For it were as well effective of the one as of the other if it disposed it self and probably would take up the most perfect Form or Vis Essentialis It remains therefore that those Forms or Essentiales Vires aut Virtutes were primitively and in their original are à Disponente from some Superiour Power that at first imprinted this Character upon them with great Wisdom and Goodness Therefore it remains that this Vis or Virtus thus specify'd and determined hath its Origination and Determination from some other Being And if we shall suppose that this Vis or Virtus Essentialis Specifica hath its Origination from Matter it self and its various Modifications we are still besides the Mark 1 st Because that Vis or Virtus Essentialis is a distinct Entity from Matter and though it resides in it it is a differing Entity from it 2 dly It is a Nature or Entity above the power of Matter and therefore the Eductio Formarum è potentia Materia is an unconceptible Hypothesis If it were in the Body of Matter before how came it thither If it were not there before it is impossible that it should be educible out of it by the force of any bare natural Agent Indeed the Agent may modifie and dispose the Matter so as to be a convenient Instrument for the Vis or Virtus that before resided in it to act and exert its Activity but it can never give it a Being but either it must find it there or bring it thither for dull unactive Matter that seems to be purely Passive can never yield it 3 dly But suppose that the various Modification of Matter were sufficient so as from thence that active Principle which we call the Form or Essential Virtue might emerge yet still it leaves us in the dark without the Supposition of such an Agent of that admirable Wisdom Knowledge and Power that could and did at first so dextrously modifie that Matter that it could produce those Exquisite Exertions of Motions Propensions and Appearances so uniformly regularly and unerringly as we see in Vegetables Animals and this little Particle of Nature the Magnet Let us search within the whole compass of Nature What Man or Counsel of Men can or ever could effect it The Dove of Architas and the Clock of Strasburgh are poor inconsiderable Automata in comparison of a Fly or a Flea But the truth is it is neither the Modification of Matter nor any other Natural Agent that upon the score of its own Strength or the single Activity of any Natural Agent can alone produce this self-moving Principle which I call the Vis Essentialis others call Form It is an Entity of another Nature from Matter And although the Origination of Matter it self and the moulding of it into those admirable Orders Positions and goodly Structures which we daily behold in the great Integrals of the Universe are evident Indications of the Power and Wisdom of the Great Architect of the World yet these are not to be compared to most of those self-moving Powers that the God of Nature hath disseminated and sent abroad into these and most other of the Particles of Nature And this Vis or Virtus these Principia Motiva I look upon as the most Glorious and Wonderful part of the Creation Neither is it possible by any means to deduce their first Original but from the Divine Power and Efficiency Let all the Men in the World put their Heads and their Wits and their Skill and their Hands together they can never originally imprint upon any Matter the Magnetical Motions of a poor inconsiderable Loadstone much less those self-moving Principles of a higher Nature as those of Life Sense or Reason which we daily behold in the Vegetables Sentient and Rational Province What a stir have the Chymists made to make Gold though it have none of those self-moving Principles in it that we see in a Magnet and yet how pitifully therein they delude themselves and others But who ever could de novo frame a Magnet with all its Magnetical Motions unless it were by putting together some Particles of the same Stone that had a prior Magnetical Virtue infus'd in them by Nature or by the Earth the primum magneticum And if any Man shall tell me that we need not go so high as Almighty God in the Production of Natural Automata for Vegetables and Animals daily propagate their Kinds which when propagated have within them their self-moving Principles which yet they had à generantibus and the Magnet it self hath its Production by the Earth I have prevented this Objection in the beginning of this Chapter wherein I have taken notice that some Natural Automata have their Origination independent upon any other Natural Cause as the Magnetism of the Earth and the Primogenial Productions of Animals and Vegetables Others have their Origination by Propagation c. as Magnets and things produced ex Semine But in all those the illation of a Sovereign Cause of them is equally necessary in respect of the Nature of the self-moving Principles themselves which in their primitive Constitution require no less than the Sovereign Cause of all things And in their mediate Production still the Producents are but his Instruments and are productive of them in the vigour of that Law and Institution that the God of Nature hath given and established for them All the Communications of these Vires or Virtutes Essentiales either ex semine or by propagation as in Vegetables and Animals or by contact or irradiation as of Fire or Magnets are but a continuation of the first primitive Virtutes Essentiales that were at first lodged in the primitives or first Individuals of their Species by the immediate Power of Almighty God yea the very Vis Productiva of them was but a part of that primitive Essential Virtue that was lodged by the Finger of God in their primitive Natures and first Individuals And therefore in all the successive Specifical and Essential Vertues and self-moving Principles that now are or ever have been in the World by Seminal Propagation Contact or Irradiation we must have the same recourse to the Supreme Cause no less than in the first Individuals or Subjects in which they were at first lodged CHAP. IV. The Evidence of the Existence of a Deity from the Excellent Ordination of these Powers to their several Ends and Uses HE that attentively considers all the Works of Nature will find Four Kinds of Adaptations in them I. An Adaptation of their Organs to their several and respective Essential Powers or Faculties or Inclinations and Motions II. An Adaptation both of their Organs and Faculties to their own Good and usefulness of their Being III. In many of them an Adaptation not only to the Convenience of their Individuals but to the Preservation of their Kinds or Species IV. An Adaptation and Accommodation of their Organs Powers and Motions to other parts of the Universe
Powerful and Beneficent Being that hath institued and settled those admirable Powers Habitudes and Respects in those Integrals of the Universe whereby that admirable Order is kept between the several parts thereof for the Beauty of the World the Mutual Good of all its parts the due Compagination of them each to other and for the Glory of the Great Architect and Lord of the Universe CHAP. V. The Evidences of the Wisdom Power and Goodness of GOD resulting from the Consideration of the Parts of the Universe and particularly of the Magnetical Parts The First Instance AS the due Contemplation of the Works of Nature and particularly of this in Hand carries us necessarily to the acknowledgment of a Supreme Cause and the Existence of that most Perfect Being which we call GOD so the like observation will give us some Strictures of the Nature of that most Sovereign Being namely his Wisdom Goodness and Power It is a vast and goodly Portion of the Universe that is every day objected to our Sight and View and yet in all probability even that which we daily see and view is but a small Portion of the vast Continent of the Universe The Ancient and Modern Astronomers have calculated the number of those Stars and Asterisms that are ordinarily seen yet if a Man doth but consider with himself what an Immense number of Stars do at some times appear in clear Nights over what do ordinarily appear if a Man doth consider what Multitudes of Stars are discovered by Telescopes as in the Milky-way the Pleiades and other Asterisms which without such helps are not discoverable to our Sight if a Man considers that possibly those Stars which seem of the least Magnitude may yet have that appearance in respect of their vast distance from us and possibly there may be such which are not Conspicuous to our Sight in respect of their distance which may yet be greater and more in number than those that by reason of their greater Vicinity to us are ordinarily seen I say he that considers these things may have reason to think that Maxima pars eorum quae videmus est minima pars eorum quae non videmus But again let us consider those Parts of the Universe which we see the Sun the Moon the Planets the visible Stars c. yet God knows we see but a little part of that we see We know not their Natures their Furnitures their Motions their Ends their Uses how many complicated Ends and Uses there may be and are of their Motions Influxes and Dispositions There is not a Star in Heaven but may have thousands of Uses and Ends which we can never by all our observation discover If a Man should be supposed to be rapt up into a Star as soon as he were born and should from thence behold the Earth on which we live he would indeed have the view of this Massy Globe of the Earth as we from hence do behold the great Planetary Bodies of Saturn or Mars but he could never know the huge variety of Rational Animal Vegetable Mineral Elementary Bodies that are in it nor that Excellent and Useful Disposition of the Parts thereof of the Meteors of all kinds that are subservient to it and infinite more that we that inhabit it do daily observe And it is not impossible no nor unlikely that in those great distant Planetary and Heavenly Bodies there may be Concrements of infinite more Excellencies than this Lower World affords our daily view and observation But yet in that narrow Prospect that we have of these vast distant Coelestial and Planetary Bodies we cannot choose but observe 1 st Admirable Beauty 2 dly Singular Order in their Motions which they constantly observe 3 dly Admirable Accommodation of one part thereof to another and of all of them to the Beauty Order and Convenience of the Universe and all its Parts I confess I never was of that narrow Thought that the Sun Moon and Stars and Planets were made singly for the Use of this Lower World wherein we live muchless for the single and sole use of Man The infinitely Wise God hath the Prerogative in all his Works to have various Complicated Ends in all his Works which we can never attain to the full Comprehension of yet thus much I must ever acknowledge to the Glory of the Wisdom and Goodness of that Sovereign Being that all things are so ordered to the good of every thing in the Universe that it could not possibly be better and all things are so appositly framed for the use of each other as could not possibly be better if no other end but that end had been singly aimed at by him that made them What a Condition were Mankind in if he were destituted of all the Influences of the Heavens the Light Heat and Motion of the Sun the Accommodations of Fire Air Water Earth Vegetables Animals Minerals Meteors and infinite more If we come down to the Consideration of this Lower World which is more within our view and prospect it is admirable to consider the singular Subserviency of all the Inferiour sort of Creatures to the more Noble and Superiour how the Elementary Bodies and Meteors and Minerals are subservient to the Vegetable Province and how the same Bodies and also Vegetables are subservient to the Use of the Animal Province and how both Minerals Elementary Bodies Meteors Vegetables and Animals are subservient to the Humane Nature If a Man consider how some are for his Food some for his Clothing some for his Habitation some for his Defence some for his Delight some for his Medicine and Physick how adequately some Animals are in all respects fitted for Portage the Bunches of Camels the Foot and Swiftness of the Horse the Strength of the Ox for Draught nay what admirable Efficacies pitiful little inconsiderable Vegetables Insects parts of Living Creatures have for the Health and Preservation and Restitution of the Humane Nature from Sickness and Hurts and Pains I say if a Man consider distinctly these little things he must acknowledge an admirable Wisdom and Goodness that thus accommodates the Works of Nature each to other especially to that Noblest of the Visible Creatures of this Lower World Man These admirable Accommodations could never happen by Chance or blind Fortune One single Occurrence or Consistence may have some pretence to an Origination by Chance but a Connexion of several Accommodations could no more come by Chance than to use Tully's Expression the casual Coincidence of the several Letters of the Alphabet could make up one of Ennius his Poems This Order therefore and Accommodation of things of several Natures one to another do invincibly Evidence 1 st A Supreme Goodness and Wisdom that hath thus established every thing in the Best Order and for the Best Uses 2 dly An Infinite Wisdom Power and Goodness that concerns not it self singly in the greater and nobler Concerns of the Universe the Regiment and Order of the Bodies and
Love Fear and Obedience the other that which indeed should be in Subjection namely the sensual part which naturally respects the pleasures contentments and delights of this World and such Provisions as may be subservient to them as Riches Honour c. Now if the intellectual Part be so servile and base as to be overmatched by the sensual or to be carried and governed by it the true genuine Verticity or Direction of the Soul is in a manner altered and transposed especially if that prevalence be strengthned by long Custom and Usage which gives a kind of other Nature to the Soul than what is truly natural to it whereby it comes to pass in process of time that the whole Soul even the intellectual part thereof becomes sensual and is entirely leavened with a sensual Ferment if I may so call it and so habituated to a constant Conversion of it self to the World as if indeed it were no other than a sensual Soul the innate and connatural Characters of even Natural Religion being wonderfully obscured and weakened in it CHAP. IX Concerning the several Instances and Means of the Conversion of the Soul to God THe true and natural state and position of the Soul of Man consists in the entire converting of it self to God the Author and End of its Being in all Submission and Obedience in Gratitude and Thankfulness in Resignation and Dependance in Worship and Adoration in Sincerity and Uprightness And in this Position and State it first stood before the Apostasy of the first Man And besides what is mentioned in the former Chapter there were three things especially that carried off the Soul from this state and position and still very much obtain among the Children of Adam 1. A want of due Attention to those Natural and implanted Principles of Religion and Piety that are connatural to the Soul radicated in it and with due Attention capable of great Advance and Improvement 2. The Byass and Inclination of the sensual Appetite to present and sensual Delights and affectation of the present worldly Advantages which are a sort of Provisions for these sensual Lusts as Wealth Honour Worldly Power Glory Splendour which wheel about the Soul towards them avert it from its Duty unto and Delight in God and corrupt and imbase and prostitute the humane Soul And thereby it comes to pass in the Soul thus displac'd from its true position that these very external Blessings that Almighty God lends us to draw us to him as Health Strength Wealth Reputation Honour Abundance of all external good things are made so many Means of averting the Soul from that God that gives them and makes us place our whole Desires towards them and delight in them and to forget that God that gives them 3. The Temptations and subtle Insinuations of Satan that Enemy of Mankind who being irrecoverably fallen from his Duty to his Maker useth all the Means he can to avert the Souls of Men from God and to render them as irrecoverably lost as himself There seems also to be Three great Means to retain the Human Soul in its just and due Respect and Position toward Almighty God and to reduce him to it and thereby to attain that Happiness and Felicity that is sutable to his Condition For it is a certain Truth as I have before observed That every created Being then and only then attains that Felicity that it is capable of when it stands in that Place Station Position and Order that the Wise and Glorious God hath appointed and instituted for it and when it loseth that Station or Position it is like a Bone out of joint full of disorder discomposure and Pain The First is that Connatural Propension and Byass that is implanted and tincted in the very Texture and Fabrick of the Human Soul whereby it is secretly inclined to an Acknowledgment and Veneration and Subjection unto a Supreme Being Secondly The Rational and Intellectual Sight in the Soul not considered simply and singly in it self alone but as it stands furnished by the Divine Goodness with Objects attracting and bringing about the Soul unto God and containing and keeping it in that Position Thirdly A Secret and Sweet and Efficacious Influx of the Divine Spirit upon the Human Soul solliciting moving and inclining it to the Love and Obedience of Almighty God The First Means I call Natural the Second Rational and the Third Spiritual and Supernatural CHAP. X. Concerning the Natural Means of the Soul's Conversion to Almighty God THERE are implanted and characterized in the Human Soul certain common Notions and Inclinations which seem to be the first Rudiments of Natural Religion and Conversion to God even antecedently to any actual Ratiocination And as the Glorious God hath planted in the Animal Nature certain Animal Instincts and Inclinations whereby they are guided and governed to the conserving and perfecting of their Animal Life so he hath ingraven on the very Fabrick of the Human Soul certain Characters and Inclinations which may conduct or assist him to the perfection of his Rational and Intellectual Life which consists in the Conversion and due Position and Respect of the Soul to the Glorious God and his Will And among many of these common Notions that might be observed this is the greatest and the most universal and of the greatest Importance namely that there is a most Soveraign Being the Cause and Governour of all Things of perfect Power Wisdom and Goodness that Loves and will reward them that fear honour and obey him and will punish them that neglect or disobey him And that therefore he is to be Feared to be Worshiped to be Invoked and to be Praised And these common imprinted Notions have been a great Means of the establishing a Natural Religion almost in all Nations of the World though Ignorance and Evil Custom have oftentimes corrupted these Notions as to the manner and object of their Worship And this is that which Tully Lib. 2. Cap. 24. de Legibus observ'd to my Hand Nam quod aliquibus cohaerent homines è mortali genere sumserunt quae fragilia essent caduca Animam esse ingeneratam à Deo ex quo verè vel agnatio nobis cum Coelestibus vel genus vel stirps appellari potest Itaque extot generibus nullum est animal praeter hominem quod habeat notitiam aliquam Dei de ipsisque Hominibus nulla Gens est neque tam immansueta neque tam fera quae non etiam si ignoret qualem habere Deum deceat tamen habendum sciat This secret connatural Byass as I may call it of the Human Soul towards God seems to arise from Two sorts of Principles The former sort of Principles are such as are in their kind common to all created Beings the latter more specifically applicable to the Make and Frame of the Human Soul Touching the former sort those Inclinations Propensions and Dispositions of all created Beings are these whereby by a kind of
frowardly and perversly and the natural Object of the Will unto which it is properly ordinated is to will that which is Good and to will that chiefly which is the chiefest Good and that subordinately which is a less or subordinate Good 3. The Affections which whether they are distinct from the Will or but the more intense Motions of it is not necessary here to dispute but certainly they have a great share in the bringing of the Soul to its just Position and Respect to Almighty God And although the Brute Animals have certain Passions analogal to these Affections in Man yet there is a great Disparity between them 1. Because there are some Affections that seem most peculiar to the Humane Nature I shall name but those of Hope Dependance and Gratitude And although there are some extraordinary Examples and Instances of such Affections in Animals yet in truth they are but Shadows of these that are in the reasonable Nature as the Phantasie of Brutes is but a kind of Shadow of the Humane Intellect and the Appetite but a Shadow of the Will 2. Because even in all the Affections or Passions which seem most common to the Humane and Animal Nature as Love Joy Fear Anger c. there is this great difference 1. That the Affections of the Humane Nature are naturally under the Regiment of Reason and Understanding and so are or ought to be governed by it and are therefore in Man Reasonable Faculties but the Passions of Brutes as they are excited merely by their Sentient Phantasie so they are at best but under the Regiment of it so that the Humane Affections have another kind of formal Nature or Tincture as I may call it than the like Affections in Animals 2. That the Affections in Animals and Men that come under the same denomination yet are distinguished by their Objects The Affections of a bare sentient Nature as Love Hatred Fear Joy c. are always terminated in a sensible Good to be desired or Evil to be avoided but the Affections of the Humane Soul have not only for their Objects sensible Good or Evil but also Good and Evil of a higher and nobler Size namely Moral or Intellectual Good to be prosecuted and entertained with Love Joy Delight Complacency and Desire and Moral and Intellectual Evil to be shunned or avoided or born with Hatred Detestation Grief c. and these Objects of this latter Nature strike upon the Humane Affections with more vigour and energy by how much they are greater and of greater importance than sensible Good or Evil. And as thus the Divine Goodness hath furnished the Humane Soul with these excellent Faculties and Instruments to keep and bring about the Humane Soul to her due Position to her Maker so he hath furnished these Faculties with such Objects as are highly serviceable and conducible to this End And these are contained in those two Books or Volumes 〈◊〉 That of the Works and Providence of God 2. That of Divine Revelation both which do afford to the Humane Reason Intellect and Nature admirable Motives to incline the Soul to its true Habitude and Position toward Almighty God but especially the latter of these CHAP. X. Touching the Rational Instances and Motives of the Conversion of the Soul to God upon the Account of the Works of Nature and Providence ALthough Almighty God hath so ordered the Frame of the Humane Soul that it hath many Handles as it were whereby it may be kept and turned about to its due Position unto Almighty God which is its Happiness and Perfection and he that made us knows so well our Frame that he can and doth daily apply fit Attractives to those Ansulae humanae Animae yet amongst them all there are three principal Affections of the Soul that are of great moment and use in this matter viz. Love Gratitude and Dependance 1. Love is the strongest and most vigorous Affection of the humane Soul it is the great Spring that excites and governs all the Wheels and Motions of the Soul and is in truth the natural and proper Verticity of the Humane Soul The Soul moves entirely after that which it entirely loves and that doth as naturally carry the Motion of the Soul toward it as the Magnet governs the Motions of the Needle so that it is somewhat more than morally true Anima est ubi amat If a Man entirely loves Wealth or Pleasures or Honours the Soul entirely moves after it useth all means to attain it is disquieted and vexed if she miss it and is in effect wholly governed and managed by the strength of his Love to it It commands all the rest of the Affections and Actions of the Man his Reverence his Care his Vigilance Attention Obedience Love is as strong as Death and that Object that hath once gotten this Affection leads the Man as it pleaseth and therefore Hos 11.4 stiled the Cords of a Man the Bands of Love And if this Affection be principally set upon the Glorious God the Soul is placed and settled in its due Position and is entirely under his Government Now there are two great and powerful Attractives of this Affection viz. 1st Excellency Beauty or Goodness which are but different Expressions of the same thing and 2. Love and the Effects or Indications thereof Bounty and Beneficence 1. As to Excellence and Beauty it is in all Instances a Motive and Excitation of Love Every thing in Nature so much as it hath of Beauty and Excellence so much of our Love it doth obtain Now the admirable Order and Beauty of the Universe doth not only convince the Understanding that there is a God the Soveraign Cause of this Order and Beauty of the Universe and the several Parts thereof but doth necessarily conclude a Transcendent Beauty and Excellence in that Soveraign Cause namely an immense Power Wisdom Goodness and Perfection in him who made and continually ordereth and disposeth it in that excellent Frame and Order 2. Beneficence and Bounty unto allthings especially to that Subject wherein this Affection lodgeth And although it be true that the innate intrinsick appropriate Goodness and Perfection of any Being doth upon a true rational Account deserve our Love though it were not at all extrinsecally communicative of Goodness to us yet it is certain that Love and Beneficence in any Object doth more vigorously work upon our Affection of Love than the simple intrinsick Excellence of the Object it self And the Reason is because Beneficence Love and Communicative Goodness hath not only an intrinsick Beauty and Loveliness but also gives us an Interest and Benefit in it and by it and so upon the Account of Self-Love of Love to our selves it increaseth our Love to that beneficent Object and Self-love that hath a great Interest in every Man renders his Love to a beneficent Object more vigorous and active Now if any Man considers the incomparable Bounty and Goodness of God to the Humane Nature upon the account
of Man than these Evangelical Precepts before-mentioned as might be made easily evident by Induction of Particulars 3. The Peace and Good of Mankind and of humane Societies is a thing justly valuable by all Wise and Good Men And what in the world is more conducible thereunto then Veracity and Truth Fidelity Righteousness Justice Temperance Sobriety Charity Beneficence Longanimity Goodness Forgiveness Meekness Humility Contentation and all this bound on to the Soul by the strictest Bond of the Love Fear and Duty we owe to the God of Heaven The greatest part of the Disorders in humane Society arise by those Vices that are contrary to those excellent Vertues as by Pride Ambition Covetousness Falseness Dissimulation Churlishness Injustice Unrighteousness These and the like Distempers of Soul fill the World with Rapine Violence Oppression Contention and Deceit which are cured and remedied by an Observance of the Evangelical Doctrine than which there cannot be any thing more conducible to the perfecting of the humane Nature and benefit of humane Societies 5. The Evangelical Doctrine evermore inculcates these two great Qualifications of the humane Soul namely the True Knowledge of God and the true Love of God the former is that which excites the latter and the latter is that great commanding Affection of the Soul that fully brings about the Soul to God and to a chearful and sincere Observance of him and his Will The Love of God is the First and great Commandment and draws along with it the Whole Duty of Man to God And this is most consonant to what Reason it self dictates and Experience evidenceth he that hath but the firm hold upon this Affection governs a Man as he pleaseth 6. The Evangelical Doctrine in order to bring about Man to love God gives us the highest most transcendent and obliging Instances of the Love of God the antecedent undeserved Love of God to Man especially in the admirable Oeconomy of our Redemption by Christ as hath been before-shewed And certainly this is the most rational way that can be imagined for the gaining of this great Affection and the Conversion of the Soul to God 1. It is in it self a most effectual Means to that end Love and Beneficence is the great Attractive of Love as hath been before shewn and that Great God that formed the humane Soul and placed it in its several Habitudes and Affections and therefore best knows what doth most vigorously strike upon those active Strings the Soul did therefore choose this effectual Magnetism to bring about the Soul to him 1 John 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us first Again 2. This Method of Attracting the Soul to God by the great and primitive Instances of his Love to Man is most sutable to the Frame and Mould of the Nature of the humane Soul and offers no Violence to it It is true the Glorious God is not necessarily bound to the Laws that he hath established in Nature they were Laws given to his Creatures and not to himself and he may and sometimes for great Ends derogates from those Laws by the Interposition of his own immediate Power as in Miracles And upon the same Account may or might if he please break in upon the Laws that he hath instituted in the humane Soul and might infringe the Liberty of his Will and turn him about to him by an irresistible over-powring Necessity But the Wise God hath settled and established the Rules and Laws of the Natures of things with so great Wisdom and Foresight that he rarely violates them but ordinarily proceeds in the way of his Providential Regiment of all things according to those Laws and Institutions which he hath fixed in the Natures of things in things simply Natural he usually proceeds by Natural Applications and in Rational Beings by Means sutable to a Rational Nature and therefore hath chosen this Means to draw the Soul of Man to him namely by the Cords of a Man and the Bonds of Love as most sutable to the Complexion Nature and Constitution settled by his own Ordination in the humane Soul Upon the whole Matter therefore I conclude that as the Apostle Rom. 12. stiles the Consecration of the Body and Soul to God a reasonable Service so I do with the same Evidence of Reason style the Doctrine of the Gospel the Christian Religion a reasonable Religion a Religion fitted and ordered with the most exquisite Reason and sutableness thereunto to bring the Soul to its due Position Respect and Habitude to Almighty God and thereby to have an Everlasting Happiness CHAP. XIV Concerning the Supernatural Means of retaining the Soul in its due Respect and Position to Almighty God and of the Reduction thereof unto it I Have hitherto considered of those two Means of Reduction of the Soul to its due Position and Respect to Almighty God which I have stiled Natural and Rational It now remains that I should consider the Third Means which I call Supernatural It appears in the consideration of the Natural Causes and Effects in the World that besides the Intrinsick Powers and Propensions of things there are certain Extrinsick common adjuvant Causes that have a great Influence in the Effects and Appearances in the World The Magnet hath not only its intrinsick active Principle its Form from which its Motions proceed but there is also a common Magnetism of the Earth and its Effluxes that greatly assist excite and direct its Motions Animals and Vegetables have not only their intrinsick specifical vital Principles of their specifical Motions and Operations but the Sun and its heat and influence is an universal adjuvant exciting Principle of all vital and sentient Operations And not only the ancient Philosophers as Aristotle and Plato and their several Commentators as Simplicius Themistius Alexander Aphrodiceus Avicen and Averroes but also the Jewish Doctors and the Christian Philosophers and Divines for some Ages after Christ did think that besides the individual intellectual Soul of every Man there was also a certain common intelligent Nature or Being substituted by Almighty God whose Office it was to illuminate the humane Soul to excite actual Intellection in it and to communicate unto it these common intellectual Principles which ordinarily and generally obtain in all Men and stood in relation to the humane Intellectual Soul as the Sun and its Light and Influence stands in relation to vital Natures in the Lower World And this they call Intellectus Agens which Averroes supposeth to be Vltima Intelligentiarum separatarum and deputed to the actuating and exciting of Intellection in Men. This Opinion hath been possibly upon Reasons probable enough laid aside for many Ages in the Christian Church the Use therefore that I make of it only is this that though this Opinion seems to be dark and obscure and not bottom'd upon a clear Evidence yet it carries with it and under it an Adumbration of a great and real Truth though they attained not a