of many Nunc's or many instants by the addition of one more it is still encreased and by that means Infinity or Eternity is not included nor ought more than Time For this see Mr. White de dial mundo Dial. 3. Nod. 4. Indeed he only is c. This the Author infers from the words of God to Moses I am that I am and this to distinguish him from all others who he saith have and shall be but those that are learned in the Hebrew affirm that the words in that place Exod. 3. do not signifie Ego sum qui sum qui est c. but Ero qui ero qui erit c. vid. Gassend in animad Epicur Physiolog I wonder how Aristotle could conceive the World Eternal or how he could make two Eternities that is that God and the World both were eternal I wonder more at either the ignorance or incogitancy of the Conimbricenses who in their Comment upon the eighth Book of Aristotle's Physicks treating of the matter of Creation when they had first said that it was possible to know it and that actually it was known for Aristotle knew it yet for all this they afterwards affirm That considering onely the light of Nature there is nothing can be brought to demonstrate Creation and yet farther when they had defined Creation to be the production of a thing ex nihhilo and had proved that the world was so created in time and refused the arguments of the Philosophers to the contrary they added this That the World might be created ab aeterno for having propos'd this question Num aliquid à Deo ex Aeternitate procreari potuit they defend the affirmative and assert That not onely incorporeal substances as Angels or permanent as the celestial Bodies or corruptible as Men c. might be produced and made ab aeterno and be conserved by an infinite time ex utraque parte and that this is neither repugnant to God the Creator the things created nor to the nature of Creation for proof whereof they bring instances of the Sun which if it had been eternal had illuminated eternally and the virtue of God is not less than the virtue of the Sun Another instance they bring of the divine Word which was produc'd ab aeterno in which discourse and in the instances brought to maintain it it is hard to say whether the madness or impiety be greater and certainly if Christians thus argue we have the more reason to pardon the poor Heathen Aristotle There is not three but a Trinity of Souls The Peripatetiques held that men had three distinct Souls whom the Hereticks the Anomaei and the Jacobites followed There arose a great dispute about this matter in Oxford in the year 1276 and it was then determined against Aristotle Daneus Christ Eth. l. 1. c. 4. and Suarez in his Treatise de causa formali Quaest An dentur plures formae in uno composito affirmeth there was a Synod that did anathematize all that held with Aristotle in this point Sect. 14 Pag. 18 There is but one first and four second Causes in all things In that he saith there is but one first cause he speaketh in opposition to the Manichees who held there were Duo principia one from whom came all good and the other from whom came all evil the reason of Protagoras did it seems impose upon their understandings he was wont to say Si Deus non est unde igitur bona Si autem est unde mala In that that he saith there are but four second causes he opposeth Plato who to the four causes material efficient formal and final adds for a fifth exemplar or Idaea sc Id ad quod respiciens artifex id quod destinabat efficit according to whose mind Boetius speaks lib. 3. mot 9. de conf Philosoph O qui perpetua mundum ratione gubernaâ— Terrarum Coelique sator qui tempus ab aevo Ire jubes stabilisque manens das cuncta moveriâ— Quem non externae pepulerunt fingere causae Materiae fluitantis opus verum insita sumâ— Forma boni livore carens tu cuncta supera Ducis ab exemplo pulchrum pulcherrimus ipse Mundum mente gerens similique in imagiâ— formans Perfectasque jubens perfectum absolvere partâ—â— And St. Augustine l. 83. quaest 46 where amongst other he hath these words Restat ergo ut omnia Ration sint condita nec eadem ratione hoâ—â— qua equus hoc enim absurdum est existimare singula autem propriis sunt creata rationibus But these Plato's Scholar Aristotle would not allow to make or constitute a different sort of cause from the formal or efficient to which purpose he disputes l. 7. Metaphysic but he and his Sectators and the Romists also agree as the Author that there are but the four remembred causes so that the Author in affirming there are but four hath no adversary but the Platonists but yet in asserting there are four as his words imply there are that oppose him and the Schools of Aristot and Ramus I shall bring for instance Mr. Nat. Carpenter who in his Philosophia libera affirmeth there is no such cause as that which they call the Final cause he argueth thus Every cause hath an influence upon its effect but so has not the End therefore it is not a Cause The major Proposition he saith is evident because the influence of a cause upon its effect is either the causality it self or something that is necessarily conjoyned to it and the minor as plain for either the End hath an influence upon the effect immediately or mediately by stirring up the Efficient to operate not immediately because so it should enter either the constitution or production or conservation of the things but the constitution it cannot enter because the constitution is onely of matter and form nor the Production for so it should concur to the production either as it is simply the end or as an exciter of the Efficient but not simply as the end because the end as end doth not go before but followeth the thing produced and therefore doth not concur to its production if they say it doth so far concur as it is desired of the agent or efficient cause it should not so have an immediate influence upon the effect but should onely first move the efficient Lastly saith he it doth not enter the conservation of a thing because a thing is often conserved when it is frustrate of its due end as when it s converted to a new use and end Divers other arguments he hath to prove there is no such cause as the final cause Nat. Carpenter Philosop liber Decad. 3. Exercitat 5. But for all this the Author and he differ not in substance for 't is not the Author's intention to assert that the end is in nature praeexistent to the effect but only that whatsoever God has made he hath made to some end or other which he doth to
Period of true Religion this Gentleman's intended Theam as I conceive I have no occasion to speak any thing since my Author doth but transiently mention it and that too in such a phrase as ordinary Catechisms speak of to vulgar Capacities Thus my Lord having run through the Book God knows how sleightly upon so great a sudden which your Lordship commanded me to give you an account of there remaineth yet a weightier task upon me to perform which is to excuse my self of Presumption for daring to consider any Moles in that Face which you had marked for a Beauty But who shall well consider my manner of proceeding in these Remarks will free me from that Censure I offer not at Judging the Prudence and Wisdom of this Discourse These are fit Inquiries for your Lordships Court of highest Appeal In my inferiour one I meddle onely with little knotty pieces of particular Sciences Matinae apis instar operosa parvus carmina fingit In which it were peradventure a fault for your Lordship to be too well versed your Imployments are of a higher and nobler Strain and that concerns the welfare of millions of men Tu regere Imperio Populos Sackville memento Hae tibi erunt Artes pacisque imponere morem Such little Studies as these belong onely to those Persons that are low in the Rank they hold in the Common-wealth low in their Conceptions and low in a languishing and rusting Leisure such an one as Virgil calleth Ignobile otium and such an one as I am now dulled withal If Alexander or Caesar should have commended a tract of Land as fit to fight a Battel in for the Empire of the World or to build a City upon to be the Magazine and Staple of all the adjacent Countries no body could justly condemn that Husbandman who according to his own narrow Art and Rules should censure the Plains of Arbela or Pharsalia for being in some places sterile or the Meadows about Alexandria for being sometimes subject to be overflown or could tax ought he should say in that kind for a contradiction unto the others commendations of those places which are built upon higher and larger Principles So my Lord I am confident I shall not be reproached of unmannerliness for putting in a Demurrer unto a few little particularities in that noble Discourse which your Lordship gave a general Applause unto and by doing so I have given your Lordship the best Account I can of my self as well as of your Commands You hereby see what my entertainments are and how I play away my time Dorset dum magnus ad altum Fulminat Oxonium bello victorque volentes Per populos dat jura viamque affectat Olympo May your Counsels there be happy and successful ones to bring about that Peace which if we be not quickly blessed withal a general ruine threatneth the whole Kingdom From Winchester-House the 22 I think I may say the 23 for I am sure it is Morning and I think it is Day of December 1642. Your Lordships must humble and obedient Servant Kenelm Digby The Postscript My Lord LOoking over these loose Papers to point them I perceive I have forgotten what I promised in the eighth sheet to touch in a word concerning Grace I do not conceive it to be a Quality infused by God Almighty into a Soul Such kind of discoursing satisfieth me no more in Divinity than in Philosophy I take it to be the whole Complex of such real motives as a solid account may be given of them that incline a man to Virtue and Piety and are set on foot by God's particular Grace and Favour to bring that work to pass As for Example To a man plunged in Sensuality some great misfortune happeneth that mouldeth his heart to a tenderness and inclineth him to much thoughtfulness In this temper he meeteth with a Book or Preacher that representeth lively to him the danger of his own condition and giveth him hopes of greater contentment in other Objects after he shall have taken leave of his former beloved Sins This begetteth further conversation with prudent and pious men and experienced Physitians in curing the Souls Maladies whereby he is at last perfectly converted and setled in a course of solid Vertue and Piety Now these accidents of his misfortune the gentleness and softness of his Nature his falling upon a good Book his encountring with a pathetick Preacher the impremeditated Chance that brought him to hear his Sermon his meeting with other worthy men and the whole Concatenation of all the intervening Accidents to work this good effect in him and that were ranged and disposed from all Eternity by Gods particular goodness and providence for his Salvation and without which he had inevitably beer damned This chain of Causes ordered by God to produce this effect I understand to be Grace FINIS * A Church Bell that tolls every day at six and twelve of the Clock at the hearing whereof every one in what place soever either of House or Street betakes himself to his prayer which is commonly directed to the Virgin b A revolution of certain thousand years when all things should return unto theirformer estate and he be teaching again in his School as when he delivered this Opinion b Sphaera cujus centrum ubique circumferentianullibi * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nosce teipsum * Post Mortem nihil est ipsaque Mors nihil Mors individua est noxia corpori nec patiens animae Toti morimur nullaque pars manet nostri In Rabbelais * Pineda in his Monarchica Ecclesiastica quotes one thousand and forty Authors * In his Oracle to Augustus * Thereby is meant our good Angel appointed us from our Nativity * Who willed his friend not to bury him but hang him up with a staff in his hand to fright away the Crows In those days there shall come lyars and false prophets †Urbem Romam in principio Reges habuere * Pro Archia Poeta †In qua me non inficior mediocriter esse * In his Medicus Medicateus * That he was a German appears by his Notes Pag. 35. where he hath these words Duleissima nostra Germania c. * In Praefat Annotat * Excepting two or three Particulars in which reference is made to some Books that came over since that time Printing Guns * Tho. Aquin in com in Boet de Consolat prope â—inam This Story I have but upon relation yet of a very good hand
contempt whilst therefore they direct their Devotions to Her I offered mine to God and rectifie the Errors of their Prayers by rightly ordering mine own At a solemn Procession I have wept abundantly while my consorts blind with opposition and prejudice have fallen into an excess of scorn and laughter There are questionless both in Greek Roman and African Churches Solemnities and Ceremonies whereof the wiser Zeals do make a Christian use and stand condemned by us not as evil in themselves but as allurements and baits of superstition to those vulgar heads that look asquint on the face of Truth and those unstable Judgments that cannot resist in the narrow point and centre of Virtue without a reel or stagger to the Circumference Sect. 4 As there were many Reformers so likewise many Reformations every Country proceeding in a particular way and method according as their national Interest together with their Constitution and Clime inclined them some angrily and with extremity others calmly and with mediocrity not rending but easily dividing the community and leaving an honest possibility of a reconciliation which though peaceable Spirits do desire and may conceive that revolution of time and the mercies of God may effect yet that judgment that shall consider the present antipathies between the two extreams their contrarieties in condition affection and opinion may with the same hopes expect an union in the Poles of Heaven Sect. 5 But to difference my self nearer and draw into a lesser Circle There is no Church whose every part so squares unto my Conscience whose Articles Constitutions and Customs seem so consonant unto reason and as it were framed to my particular Devotion as this whereof I hold my Belief the Church of England to whose Faith I am a sworn Subject and therefore in a double Obligation subscribe unto her Articles and endeavour to observe her Constitutions what soever is beyond as points indifferent I observe according to the rules of my private reason or the humour and fashion of my Devotion neither believing this because Luther affirmed it or disproving that because Calvin hath disavouched it I condemn not all things in the Council of Trent nor approve all in the Synod of Dort In brief where the Scripture is silent the Church is my Text where that speaks 't is but my Comment where there is a joynt silence of both I borrow not the rules of my Religion from Rome or Geneva but the dictates of my own reason It is an urjust scandal of our adversaries and a gross errour in our selves to compute the Narivity of our Religion from Henry the Eighth who though he rejected the Pope refus'd not the faith of Rome and effected no more than what his own Predecessors desired and assayed in Ages past and was conceived the State of Venice would have attempted in our days It is as uncharitable a point in us to fall upon those popular scurrilities and opprobrious scoffs of the Bishop of Rome to whom as temporal Prince we owe the duty of good language I confess there is a cause of passion between us by his sentence I stand excommunicated Heretick is the best language he affords me yet can no ear witness I ever returned him the name of Antichrist Man of sin or Whore of Babylon It is the method of Charity to suffer without reaction Those usual Satyrs and invectives of the Pulpit may perchance produce a good effect on the vulgar whose ears are opener to Rhetorick than Logick yet do they in no wise confirm the faith of wiser Believers who know that a good cause needs not to be pardon'd by passion but can sustain it self upon a temperate dispute Sect. 6 I could never divide my self from any man upon the difference of an opinion or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in that from which within a few days I should dissent my self I have no Genius to disputes in Religion and have often thought it wisdom to decline them especially upon a disadvantage or when the cause of truth might suffer in the weakness of my patronage Where we desire to be informed 't is good to contest with men above our selves but to confirm and establish our opinions 't is best to argue with judgments below our own that the frequent spoils and Victories over their reasons may settle in our selves an esteem and confirmed Opinion of our own Every man is not a proper Champion for Truth nor fit to take up the Gauntlet in the cause of Verity Many from the ignorance of these Maximes and an inconsiderate Zeal unto Truth have too rashly charged the Troops of Error and remain as Trophies unto the enemies of Truth A man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City and yet be forced to surrender 't is therefore far better to enjoy her with peace than to hazzard her on a battle if therefore there rise any doubts in my way I do forget them or at least defer them till my better setled judgement and more manly reason be able to resolve them for I perceive every mans own reason is his best Oedipus and will upon a reasonable truce find a way to loose those bonds wherewith the subtleties of error have enchained our more flexible and tender judgements In Philosophy where Truth seems double fac'd there is no man more Paradoxical than my self but in Divinity I love to keep the Road and though not in an implicite yet an humble faith follow the great wheel of the Church by which I move not reserving any proper Poles or motion from the Epicycle of my own brain by this means I have no gap for Heresie Schismes or Errors of which at present I hope I shall not injure Truth to say I have no taint or tincture I must confess my greener studies have been polluted with two or three not any begotten in the latter Centuries but old and obsolete such as could never have been revived but by such extravagant and irregular heads as mine for indeed Heresies perish not with their Authors but like the River Arethusa though they lose their currents in one place they rise up again in another One general Council is not able to extirpate one single Heresie it may be cancell'd for the present but revolution of time and the like aspects from Heaven will restore it when it will flourish till it be condemned again For as though there were Metempsuchosis and the soul of one man passed into another Opinions do find after certain Revolutions men and minds like those that first begat them To see our selves again we need not look for Plato's year every man is not only himself there hath been many Diogenes and as many Timons though but few of that name men are liv'd over again the world is now as it was in Ages past there was none then but there hath been some one since that Parallels him and as it were his revived self Now the first of mine was that of