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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
IV. Hence we may discover how Unnatural as well as Impious a Heresy Ana-Baptism is in debarring Hence Ana-Baptism is Impious and Unnatural their Infants from the most Certain Means in the Course of GOD's Supernatural Providence to bring them to Heaven in case they Die before they come to use their deliberate Reason in chusing their Last End But I am here only to lay Certain and Evident Grounds to Confute Errors and not to Pursue them 16. Corollary V. Lastly hence is seen how far more easie it is for the Saints and Angels in Heaven to hear The foregoing Principles show how much more easie it is for the Saints and Angels in Heaven to know our Actions and Necessities our Petitions either put up to our common Lord or desiring the Assistance of their Prayen â— as also to know our Necessities our Amendment the Repeâ—tance of a Sinner for which as our Saviour says they have a particulâ—… Ioy tho' such happy Spirits know thâ—… Things after a far Clearer and Nobler Manner than Natural Knowers do viz. not iâ— ignoble Effects but in the best Manner à Prâ—ori or in the First Cause by seeing his Dâ—vine Essence in whom we do all Live Mâ—… and have our Being 17. The Practical Iudgment or Affection of the Soul as Experience teaches does more sway the Operations of it The Practical Iudgments or Affections to carry the Soul to the Attainment of the Good she most Lov'd here in case it be Attainable in the Future State and carry it towards the Attainment of what it wishes than the Greatest Speculative Knowledge of any Good whatever For since we have two Operative Faculties of the Soul Understanding and Will and the Understanding as contradistinguisht from the Will has for it's Proper Act or Effect only a Speculative Knowledge or Iudgment of the Truth of the Thing abstracting from this consideration whether it be our Good or no and goes no farther but when our Consideration by a Close and frequent Converse with the Object and a more thorow-Penetration of it's Agreeableness or how Good it is to us lays this Agreeableness to â—…art and Conceits it to be our Interest to have â—… there are immediately produced in us Affections or which is the same Practical Iudgments â—…pelling us to Act for it or pursue it which are â—…cts of the Will Hence 't is only these Practical Judgments and not Speculative ones which move us to the pursuit and Attainment of any â—…ood whether that Object be our True Good 〈…〉 no. 18. Intellectual Goods tho' Infinite or the seeing Him who is Infinite Truth The Best Intellectual Good or the Sight of GOD is Attainable in the Nâ—xt Life if the Soul be Dispos'd for it are immediately attain'd by the Soul when Separated if she be dispos'd with a Perfect Affection or Love for it For since the Soul is of an Intellectual Nature and such that she is not Capable to be satiated or fill'd with Finite Truths how Great or Many soever they be and therefore she is by her Nature ordain'd to see an Infinit Truth nor can her Speculative Knowledge of all Created Truths breed any Hindrance but by giving her more Light of the Excellency of that Divine Object is rather if no sinister Affection detain her ordain'd to beget in her a high Affection for it nor in the Case here put does any sinister Practical Judgment or any such Affection detain her from it in regard it is here suppos'd that she has an Affection for it so that not only the whole Bent of her unperverted Nature but also the whole Propension of her Voluntary Affections gain'd here by frequent and most Deliberate Acts have addicted her to know or see that Blissful Object Wherefore all imaginable Dispositions being put on her part to see this Infinit Truth it will be seen and known by the Soul in case it be of its own nature Intelligible which 't is most evident it is For since all Unintelligibleness or Obscurity of any Object springs from the Confusedness and Indetermination found in it which arises from the Power or Matter and all Distinctness and by consequence greater Intelligibility from the Act and GOD or Infinit Truth is an Infinitely Pure and most simple Actuality or Purus Candor Aeternae Lucis and therefore of his own Nature infinitely Intelligible and consequently will be actually known so there be no Indisposition Blemish or Impurity in the Spiritual Eye of the Understanding which is to know it or which is the same some Inordinate Affection for some Created or False Good makinâ— it addict its squinting Eye towards It. It followâ— hence that since Extrinsecal Application has no place here or rather this Perfect Affection being the very and only Application of one Spirit to another all imaginable Causes are put for such an Effect or for such a Soul 's seeing God and consequently the Effect it self or the Beatifical Vision must follow 19. Coroll VII Hence the whole Employ of our Lives here ought to be this viz. to take care we do not Therefore to work up our Christian Principles to such Good Dispositions ought to be the whole Employ of our Life here set our Affections inordinately on Temporal or False Goods which being Fleeting do perish and leave us Empty in our Future never-dying State but wisely to wean our selves from affecting them excessively and withal to gain Predominant Practical Judgments or Affections for Eternal Goods which will never leave us and withall will fill and satisfy our Boundless Wishes in the other World or which is the same make us Eternally Happy 20. Cor. VIII Hence is shown that only Love of God above all things can dispose us for Heaven or which This good Disposition is Charity or the Love of GOD above all things is the same make us held worthy or deserve such an Infinit Reward which is Promist us by God's Goodness upon our putting that good Disposition 21. Coroll IX Hence all the Law and the Prophets all the whole Body of Hâ—nce all the Means and Motives lay'd by our B Saviour â—â—nd only to breed and promote in us this Predominant Aâ—fâ—â—ction for Heaven Christian Doctrin all Christ's Instructive Words Exemplary Actions and Affective Sufferings all Church-Government Sacraments Teaching Preaching Mortification Reading Holy Books perusing the Lives of the B. Saints and Martyrs nay all our Keeping Festivals and all Ceremonious Actions of what kind soever if righâ—ly understood and made use of are of no worth or Efficacy towards our Salvation farther than they may â—end Immediately or Remotely to breed and advance in Souls this Ultimate and Effectual Disposition to Bliss Perfect Charity or the Love of GOD above all things whence will follow of course the Love of our Neighbour as our selves and Eternal Happiness as the Reward of both 22. Corollary X. Hence RELIGION is the Art of breeding up Souls in such a manner as may dispose them The
Definition of True Religion for Eternal Happiness This is evident Because all the Maxims Means Motives and Methods of True Religion do either immediately or remotely tend to that End 23. On the contrary and for the same Reason those Unhappy Souls which at their Separation have their First From the same Principle is Demonstrated that To depart â—hâ—nce with a Contrary Disposition or a First Affection for any Creature will torment the Soul with most Unspeable Grief and Anguish Affection placed on some False or Temporary Good v. g. on Aiery Honour Ambitious Greatness Corporeal Pleasure or Sordid Riches will as soon as they are out of the Body be in a State of Intolerable Grief and most Horrid Torment For as is already prov'd § 20. they can never obtain their True Last End to which Nature does now give them most Violent Propensions because they want the Disposition Proper for it or rather by not loving it as they ought but having Chosen another False End in stead of it and Loving that above all things that is above It they are utterly Indispos'd for it which Disposes or Entitles them to that Eternal Pain call'd Poena Damni or Damnation which is the loss of ever seeing GOD. Nor yet can they get or enjoy those Temporary or False Goods which they did here and must now unchangeably or for ever chiefly if not only dote upon the Loss of which affects them with that Tormenting Grief call'd Poena Sensûs or the Pain which arises from the want of an ill-chosen Temporary Last End So that they have lost and are left destitute of all they can possibly wish they have their Wills crost in every thing and this for all Eternity which fills their whole Soul with most Unspeakable and Unconceiveable Anguish 24. The State of Separation Elevates the Soul to an Incomparable and in a manner an Infinite Perfection of The State of Separation Elevates the Soul to an Incomparably higher Perfection of Existence she being then a Pure Act than she had here Existence above that which she had in the Body For as was prov'd lately she is now a Pure Act knows all Created things comprehends Time and Place perfectly sees all her former Thoughts and Actions and this all at once Nay when Separated she is Capable if due Dispositions be put to see the Divine Essence which none can see and live 25. Therefore all her Modes or Accidents and particularly the Affections she had here are elevated in a vast 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 proportion as far as the State of Separation can heighten them that is to an Unconceiveable degree of Intenseness For her Modes are only her Knowledges and her Affections how vastly her Knowledge is increast and extended is already prov'd and her Affections which spring from her Knowledge and are proportion'd to them must necessarily be increast accordingly and this out of the force and nature of her Separated State So that put case the Affections she had here for a Temporary Good was as we say ad unum and the Love she had for her Eternal Good was ad centum and that the State of Separation rais'd that Affection ut mille which as appears by these Grounds is but a weak expression it would follow that the Soul when Separated would be found loving her Eternal Good a hundred thousand times more than she lov'd that Temporary one which would make her fly with a most ravishing Transport to be united with her Chief Good if that Temporary Affection does not indispose her 26. Wherefore those Wretched Souls which part from the Body with Love of Created and Temporal Goods Hence the Poena Damni for the Loss of the Sight of GOD and the Poena Sensus for the Loss of the Temporal False Good she here dâ—ted on in a wicked Soul are Unspeakable and plunge her in a HELL of Misery Their sad Condition describ'd above the Increated Infinite and Eternal one especially those who by Supernatural Light had a higher Knowledge of GOD than Nature could have given them must necessarily by means of the Elevation of their Affections in their Separate State have their Torments increast to a Hell of Misery For since the State of Separation exalts the Soul and consequently the Knowledges and Affections she had in the Body to an incompatable pitch above what they were here and Every Thing operates as it is It follows That the Pain and Sorrow they have for the Loss of what they thus Affected and on which they had set their whole hearts must in a manner infinitely exceed any Sorrow they could possibly have had in this life Besides they have this Surcharge of Torture that their Contrary and ever Unreâ—â—actable and Irreconcileable Judgments tear the Soul in pieces as it were within her self and make her become her own Torment The Natural Love of her True Last End and much â—ore if it were formerly known also Supernaturally carries her with a Violent Bent towards that which he sees now is her only-True Happiness and at the same time the far stronger Torrent of her Affections for that False Last End which she had here with a full Deliberation and long-frequented Practice made Choice of and pursu'd for her Summum Bonum hurries her with a Madness of Transport and an impetuosity equal to the inconceiveable activity she is now endow'd with to enjoy them tho' at the same time she sees them impossible to be had and withall most Base Vile and below her Nature if they were had and yet as Base as they are she must as her condition now is ever affectionately hug the Thoughts and Wish of them tho' she sees this Affection for them is her Torment and the true Cause of all her Endless Misery Add that they have and must have these racking Convulsions of their Mind all at once without hopes of the least Intermission for all Eternity Lastly Those Souls comprehending now all Time and Place their Affections work accordingly So that whereas in this Life they confin'd their Wishes to enjoy those False Goods in some one time or place or some one Circumstance they now long vehemently to enjoy All of them which are sutable to such an Affection in every part of Time and every particular Place nay they wish to subordinate all the whole Creation to attain that False Last End which they had unfortunately chosen and must now for ever dote upon Which being impossible as the Course of Causes now stand it follows that every Creature in the world crosses them and is their Torment according to that saying Pugnabit orbis terrarum contra insensatos So that their whole never-ending Life if it may be call'd so is wholly made up of Distracting Madness Furious Rage Self-racking Contrary Wishes tearing their own Bowels Heart-gnawing
That There is not the least tittle of our whole Life in which we act as Men or with perfect Deliberation of our Reason which is Indifferent or that passes Unregarded by the World 's Infinitely-Wise and Just Governour but that every such Word Action Thought Gesture Look or Wish we ever had and dy'd without altering it will have according as it is well or ill Intended Effects in the other world conformable to it's Nature and to the Degree of it's Goodness or Badness and that each of them will receive with most Just and Exact Proportion Reward or Punishment by the Course of Natural and Supernatural Causes laid and appointed by GOD's Infinite Wisdom for the Eternal Salvation of those who love him and the Eternal Confusion and Perdition of his Enemies MEDITATION WHere art thou now my Soul after thou hast abandon'd and flitted from thy Terrene Habitation and into what strange Ultramundane Region art thou flown The Admirable Excellency of a Soul when Separated and become a Pure Spirit Display'd in an Instant The whole Earth nay all Material Nature seems a contemptible Atome when thou look'st down upon it from the Transcendent Height of Being to which the Wisdom and Goodness of thy Creatour who promotes all his Creatures to those Perfections they art capable of has rais'd thee I see thy Knowledge that is thy Essence stretcht out boyond the Vast Expansion of this Material World's Circumference and our Firmament bespangled with those Starry Bodies which it contains or rather I see them all center'd â—… Spiritual and Indivisible Essence as in a 〈…〉 Orb of Being Thou seest now at one 〈…〉 the Whole Sphere of Time sweeping along 〈…〉 â—â—â— thee or rather thou comprizest it all in 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Natural Thought And canst now 〈…〉 more ease comprehend it 's whole Race than 〈…〉 couldst while here resume thâ—se Fleeting Parts 〈…〉 v. g. an Hour or a Day in t one Steady 〈…〉 in which they were all Present and Permaâ—â—nt at once The whole Bulk of Quantity is in 〈…〉 more Noble Being without Extension and the â—â—ng Course of Motion without Succession But the Extent of thy Actual Knowledge is nothing in comparison of thy Clear Penetration of those Great 〈…〉 Various and Numberless Objects which are now â—…nted to thy view What was here Misty and â—â—â—dy is now the Screen of Matter the Ground â—â— ll Confusedness and Obscurity being taken away 〈…〉 brightly Intelligible with Noon-day Evidence 〈…〉 clearly that if thou hast in this World but â—â—â—prehended or laid hold of any one Piece of the 〈…〉 Link in the Chain of Causes which weaves 〈…〉 one orderly Loom all Natural Truths thou â—â—â—est into thee the whole Length of that Line 〈…〉 the First Birth of the World till it expires inâ—â— Eternity Or rather those Truths are so innext â—…e another by the closest Texture of Identity 〈…〉 if thou admittest any one of them all the rest 〈…〉 â—roud themselves into thy Capacious tho' Spaceâ—… Understanding â—…ow shall we then frame any That there is no Comparison between our Souls Condition here and the State of Separation â—â—â— Conception of the Difference â—…en thy Former and this Future State Or by what parallel â—hall we illustrate it Shall we compare it to the condition of a Child in the Womb on the one side and of a perfect Man grown up to Ripâ— Knowledge on the other Indeed this World is but as it were our Second Womb Nature is deliver'd of Thee and thou art born a Pure Spirit when the Man diâ—s Or Shall we compare these two States to those of a Man first shut up in a dark Tower who can see no Objects about him but when presented before five dim Glasses placed in it's Walls but afterwards when the Tower by some Chance is thrown down and the Man preserv'd unhurt then he can freely range with his Sight all over the large Prospect about him and discover at once the various Scenes of all the vast circumstant Region of which he could before take but a scant obscure and leasurely Survey Both those are but lame Comparisons and far from parallelling the Excess which this New State of thine has above thy Former one Thy Capacity in thy purely-Spiritual Condition does Infinitely that is beyond Proportion go beyond that thou hadst in the Body when it was at it's best Whereas thy Capacity in the other two States that pretended to parallel this being both of them Finite are very easily Proportion'd Wherefore we will leave this Consideration to be seriously and at leasure meditated on by those truly Wise Souls who think it their highest Concern to reflect on their Future State and what Happy or Dismal Consequences attend it according to the Good or Bad Dispositions they contract here and carry with them hence That we may gratefully and humbly acknowledge to whom we owe this Clear Knowledge of our True Last End the That meer Humane Science when at the Height was too short and Impotent to raise Mankind to those Dispositions that fit him for True Happiness Attaining which is our Only and Eternal Happiness Let us consider how far Natural Reason carry'd those Heathen Philosophers who were the Greatest Masters of Human Science in their â—â—â—es and where it stopt The 〈◊〉 Intelligent Followers of Aristoâ—â—â— do gather from his Principles this â—â—â—â—sonant Discourse The Goods of 〈◊〉 Body are preferrable to those â—â— Fortune and the Goods of the 〈◊〉 to those of the Body Wherefore Happiness â—â—st consist in something that in the best manner â—â—â—ects that Part of Man call'd the Soul Now the Powers of the Soul are the Understanding and tâ—â— Will Of which the Understanding is the Noâ—â—â—â— because the Will is naturally ordain'd to be â—â—â—â—ed and Govern'd by the Understanding and 〈◊〉 Act of the Will which the previous Reason 〈◊〉 Understanding does not dictate and warrant â—â—llfulness which is justly held the Greatest â—â—perfection Imaginable Happiness therefore 〈…〉 be sought for in the Best Perfection of the Understanding Farther the Understanding is but a â—â—â—wer and Act is better than Power for it includes 〈◊〉 and adds to it the Acting or Exercise of it â—â—â—ch is the Immediate End for which the Power was â—â—â—n'd Therefore Happiness must consist in some 〈◊〉 Perfect Act of the Understanding Wherefore 〈◊〉 Power and it's Acts taking their Degree of Perâ—â—â—â— from the Clearness of the Sight and from the â—â—â—llency of the Object about which they are emâ—â—â— and the Primum Ens being the most Excellent Object it follows that the Beatitude of Man does 〈◊〉 in the Actual and Clear Knowledge of the First Being which in Christian Language is the seeing GOD face to face or in the Beatifical Vision Thus far their Speculative Thoughts rais'd them But there were other necessary Truths requisite erâ— Man could be Happy which were below their short Reach As First That this Contemplation of the First Being must also be most Durable or never
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
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
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
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
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
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
'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
every Step our Soul takes towards Knowledge and the same discourse holds as to our Acquiring Virtue and only beseems some Heathen who had but Half-Lights of a DEITY The Progress and Conduct of every Act of ours towards both it's Immediate and it 's Ultimate End and Perfection do all of them spring from the Giver of every Good and perfect Gift as well as the Beginning of it This Soveraign Cause is as well in Natural as Supernatural Effects Principium Rector Dux Semita Terminus idem Nay every least Manner of Action as far as it is Good as well as the Action it self is not only Determin'd but Proportion'd to it's Proper End by his Universal Superintendency Therefore Right Reason and True Philosophy as well as St. Paul's Sublime Faith and Divinity do oblige us to catechize and ask our selves Quid â—abes quod non accepisti Quod si accepisti quid gloriaris quasi non acceperis 'T is Vain and False Philosophy then and not the True one which begets that miscall'd Science which does inflare or puff â—â—â—n up with a self-assuming Pride Philosophy were â—â—â— Philosophy did it not bring us to True Science â—â—â— Science would not be Science did it not refund â—â—â—â—cts into their Genuine Causes and consequently â—â—â—ry Action of ours as far as it is Good and not Defective into that Supreme and First Cause in whom we live move and have our Being Hence also is seen how powerfully True Science conduces to â—ake Men Virtuous For by seeing thus evidently â—â—r Total Dependence on GOD and how little we â—â—â— do of our selves it reads us a Solid and most effectual Lecture of Profound Humility which is the Ground of all Virtue and the Basis of all our Spiritual Building At least I say we have thro' God's Assistance gain'd by our former Discourse a Certain tho' something Confus'd Knowledge of what That we ought to comply with the Designs of our Great Cretour and by what means this may be best accomplisht we are as to our Particulars and a Clear Discernment of what Kind we are viz an Intelligent and Rational Being Let us follow then and comply with what we undoubtedly know Let us not degenerate from our Nature and then we may be sure we shall not wrong our Creation nor offend our Great Creatour Let us cultivate â—â—â— Reason and extirpate it's Enemy Passion Let us love Truth our Best Natural Perfection and pursue it by making use of those Means which are most Proper to attain it To do this as we ought let us not precipitate our Assent rashly but warily and wisely suspend till Self-evidence of our Principles and Evidence of our Deductions appear only which can secure our Steps from stumbling into Errour While we take this way we may hope in the same good Providence which has led us on hitherto to grow fit to comprehend Higher Truths till we ascend by those Gradual Approaches as by the Stepâ— of Jacob's Ladder to reach Heaven and attain the Blissful Ssght of Him who is TRUTH it self which only can satisfie fully our Inquisitive and infinitely Capacious Understanding CHAP. VI. some Preliminaries fore-lay'd in order to Demonstrate the Immortality of the SOUL 1. THO' Man be but One 1. Preliminary Thing as was prov'd Chap. 4. § 1. and Ch. 5. § 20. â—â—r we cannot but make Diverse We cannot but have different Conceptions of the Parts of Man Conceptions of Him as he is Man according to those Different Naâ—â—â—es or Parts found in him call'd â—â—â—l and Body This needs no farther Proof it being granted by all insomuch as some will â—â—eds make them Two Distinct Things And is â—â—â—her Prov'd For since as has been demonâ—â—rated above the Soul is the Form or ACT of the Body and we cannot but have Different Notions or Conceptions of ACT and POWER it follows that we cannot but have Different Notions or Conceptions of the Soul and the Body 2. Preliminary II. Whence follows that we may and must have Different Notions or Conceptions of every Operation of Man as â—â— is Man For since every And consequently of every Operation of his as he is Man Man tho' One Thing yet has two Different Natures in him of which he consists and every Thing is that of which it consists and Operates or Acts as it is it follows that every Operation of Man as well as Himself is of vastly Different Natures and partakes of both and consequently we can and are oblig'd to have Diverse Conceptions of every such Operation for the same Reason for which we must have Diverse Conceptions of those Natures themselves that is we can find somewhat in such Operations that is Proper or Peculiar to One of those Natures and not Proper or Peculiar to the Other Hence I proceed Closer to my Main Thesis to be demonstrated in my next Chapter viz. 3. If we can find by Evident Reflexion that there is somewhat in the Operations which Man has according That we must examin whether there be anything in Man according to his Soul which is above Quantity or Matter his Soul that is above the Nature of Matter or above Quantity which is the Common Affection of all Corporeal Nature and therefore that is Indivisible or which is the same Indissoluble or Incorruptible it must follow demonstratively that then that Part of Man call'd his Soul is Immaterial Incorruptible or Immortal In order to Demonstrate which we proceed with our Preliminaries 4. Preliminary III. There are Three Distinct Operations of Man according to his Soul as 't is Intellective or That there are Three Distinct Operations of Man as he is Intellective Knowing viz. Simple Apprehension Iudging and Discoursing This I think is granted by all and is easily prov'd For we must first Lay hold of that which we are to work upon or take into out Mind that of which we are to Iudge or Discourse that is have a Notion of it for otherwise we should Iudge and Discourse of we know not what Wherefore that Operation call'd Simple Apprehension or the having the Notion of the Thing in our Mind is clearly Antecedent to the other Two and consequently Distinct from them Again Discoursing does clearly presuppose some Iudgments already had and Assented to ere we can Deduce any thing out of them by Discourse since we must necessarily Iudge our Premisses True ere we can hope to derive their Truth to another Proposition or Deduce any thing out of them by our Reason which manifests a perfect Distinction between the Operations of Discoursing and Iudging 'T is therefore Evident that there are Three Distinct Operations of Man according to that Part call'd the Soul as 't is Intellective or Knowing call'd Simple Apprehension Iudging and Discoursing 5. Preliminary IV. The Notion of Created Ens or Thing Abstracts from or is Indifferent to Existence and Non-Existence The Notion of Ens or Thing is Indifferent to Actual Being or Not-Being and a