give me leave to observe what our Country-man Roger Bacon did long ago That those Students who busie themselves much with such Notions as reside wholly to the fantasie do hardly ever become Idoneous for abstracted Metaphysical Speculations the one having bulkie Foundation of Matter or of the Accidents of it to settle upon at the least with one foot The other flying continually even to a lessening pitch in the subtil Air. And accordingly it hath been generally noted That the exactest Mathematicians who converse altogether with Lines Figures and other Differences of Quantity have seldom proved eminent in Metaphysicks or Speculative Divinity Nor again the Professors of these Sciences in the other Arts. Much less can it be expected that an excellent Physician whose fancy is alwayes fraught with the material Drugs that he prescribeth his Apothecary to compound his Medicines of and whose hands are inured to the cutting up and eyes to the inspection of Anatomized Bodies should easily and with success flie his thoughts at so towring a Game as a pure Intellect a separated and unbodied Soul Surely this acute Author 's sharp wit had he orderly applied his Studies that way would have been able to satisfie himself with less labour and others with more plenitude than it hath been the Lot of so dull a brain as mine concerning the Immortality of the Soul And yet I assure you my Lord the little Philosophy that is allowed me for my share demonstrateth this Proposition to me as well as Faith delivereth it which our Physician will not admit in his To make good this Assertion here were very unreasonable since that to do it exactly and without exactness it were not demonstration requireth a total Survey of the whole Science of Bodies and of all the operations that we are conversant with of a rational Creature which I having done with all the succinctness I have been able to explicate so knotty a subject with hath taken me up in the first draught neer two hundred sheets of Paper I shall therefore take leave of this Point with only this Note That I take the Immortality of the Soul under his favour to be of that nature that to them onely that are not versed in the ways of proving it by Reason it is an Article of Faith to others it is an evident Conclusion of demonstrative Science And with a like short Note I shall observe how if he had traced the Nature of the Soul from its first principles he could not have suspected it should sleep in the Grave 'till the Resurrection of the Body Nor would he have permitted his compassionative Nature to imagin it belonged to God's mercy as the Chiliasts did to change its condition in those that are damned from pain to happiness For where God should have done that he must have made that anguished Soul another creature than what it was as to make fire cease from being hot requireth to have it become another thing than the Element of fire since that to be in such a condition as maketh us understand damned souls miserable is a necessary effect of the temper it is in when it goeth out of the Body and must necessarily out of its Nature remain in unvariably for all Eternity Though for the Conceptions of the vulgar part of Mankind who are not capable of such abstruse Nations it be styled and truely too the sentence and punishment of a severe Judge I am extreemly pleased with him when he saith There are not Impossibilities enough in Religion for an Active Faith And no whit less when in Philosophy he will not be satisfied with such naked terms as in Schools use to be obtruded upon easie minds when the Master's fingers are not strong enough to untie the Knots proposed unto them I confess when I enquire what Light to use our Author's Example is I should be as well contented with his silence as with his telling me it is Actus perspicui unless he explicate clearly to me what those words mean which I find very few go about to do Such meat they swallow whole and eject it as entire But were such things Scientifically and Methodically declared they would be of extream Satisfaction and Delight And that work taketh up the greatest part of my formerly-mentioned Treatise For I endeavour to shew by a continued Progress and not by Leaps all the Motions of Nature and unto them to fit intelligibly the terms used by her best Secretaries whereby all wilde fantastick Qualities and Moods introduced for refuges of Ignorance are banished from Commerce In the next place my Lord I shall suspect that our Author hath not pennetrated into the bottom of those Conceptions that deep Scholars have taught us of Eternity Me thinketh he taketh it for an infinite Extension of time and a never ending Revolution of continual succession which is no more like Eternity than a gross Body is like a pure Spirit Nay such an Infinity of Revolutions is demonstrable to be a Contradiction and impossible In the state of Eternity there is no Succession no Change no Variety Souls or Angels in that condition do not so much as change a thought All things notions and actions that ever were are or shall be in any creature are actually present to such an Intellect And this my Lord I aver not as deriving it from Theology and having recourse to beatifick Vision to make good my Tenet for so onely glorified creatures should enjoy such immense knowledge but out of the principles of Nature and Reason and from thence shall demonstrate it to belong to the lowest Soul of the ignorantest wretch whilst he lived in this world since damned in Hell A bold undertaking you will say But I confidently engage my self to it Upon this occasion occurreth also a great deal to be said of the nature of Predestination which by the short touches our Author giveth of it I doubt he quite mistakes and how it is an unalterable Series and Chain of Causes producing infallible and in respect of them necessary Effects But that is too large a Theam to unfold here too vast an Ocean to describe in the scant Map of a Letter And therefore I will refer that to a fitter opportunity fearing I have already too much trespassed upon your Lordship's patience but that indeed I hope you have not had enough to read thus far I am sure my Lord that you who never forgot any thing which deserved a room in your memory do remember how we are told that Abyssus abyssum invocat so here our Author from the Abyss of Predestination falleth into that of the Trinity of Persons consistent with the Indivisibility of the Divine Nature And out of that if I be not exceedingly deceived into a third of mistaking when he goeth about to illustrate this admirable Mystery by a wild discourse of a Trinity in our Souls The dint of Wit is not forcible enough to dissect such tough Matter wherein all the obscure glimmering we gain of that
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
easily and with one stroak of his Compass he I might describe or divide a right line had yet rather do this in a circle or longer way according to the constituted and fore-laid principles of his Art yet this rule of his he doth sometimes pervert to acquaint the World with his Prerogative lest the arrogancy of our reason should question his power and conclude he could not and thus I call the effects of Nature the works of God whose hand and instrument she only is and therefore to ascribe his actions unto her is to devolve the honour of the principal agent upon the instrument which if with reason we may do then let our hammers rise up and boast they have built our houses and our pens receive the honour of our writing I hold there is a general beauty in the works of God and therefore no deformity in any kind of species of creature whatsoever I cannot tell by what Logick I we call a Toad a Bear or an Elephant ugly they being created in those outward shapes and figures which best express those actions of their inward forms And having past that general Visitation of God who saw that all that he had made was good that is conformable to his Will which abhors deformity and is the rule of order and beauty there is no deformity but in Monstrosity wherein notwithstanding there is a kind of Beauty Nature so ingeniously contriving the irregular parts as they become sometimes more remarkable than the principal Fabrick To speak yet more narrowly there was never any thing ugly or mis-shapen but the Chaos wherein notwithstanding to speak strictly there was no deformity because no form nor was it yet impregnant by the voice of God Now nature is not at variance with Art nor art with Nature they being both servants of his providence Art is the perfection of Nature were the World now as it was the sixth day there were yet a Chaos Nature hath made one World and Art another In brief all things are artificial for Nature is the Art of God This is the ordinary and open way of his providence which Art and Industry have in a good part discovered whose effects we may foretel without an Oracle to foreshew these is not Prophesie but Pognostication There is another way full of Meanders and Labyrinths whereof the Devil and Spirits have no exact Ephimerides and that is a more particular and obscure method of his providence directing the operations of individuals and single Essences this we call Fortune that serpentine and crooked line whereby he draws those actions his wisdom intends in a more unknown and secret way This cryptick and involved method of his providence have I ever admired nor can I relate the History of my life the occurrences of my days the escapes of dangers and hits of chance with a Bezo las Manos to Fortune or a bare Gramercy to my good Stars Abraham might have thought the Ram in the thicket came thither by accident humane reason would have said that meer chance conveyed Moses in the Ark to the sight of Pharaoh's Daughter What a Labyrinth is there in the story of Joseph able to convert a Stoick Surely there are in every man's Life certain rubs doublings and wrenches which pass a while under the effects of chance but at the last well examined prove the meer hand of God 'T was not dumb chance that to discover the Fougade or Powder-plot contrived a miscarriage in the Letter I like the Victory of 88. the better for that one occurrence which our enemies imputed to our dishonour and the partiality of Fortune to wit the tempests and contrariety of Winds King Philip did not detract from the Nation when he said he sent his Armado to fight with men and not to combate with the Winds Where there is a manifest disproportion between the powers and forces of two several agents upon a Maxime of reason we may promise the Victory to the Superiour but when unexpected accidents slip in and unthought of occurrences intervene these must proceed from a power that owes no obedience to those Axioms where as in the writing upon the wall we may behold the hand but see not the spring that moves it The success of that petty Province of Holland of which the Grand Seignour proudly said If they should trouble him as they did the Spaniard he would send his men with shovels and pick axes and throw it into the Sea I cannot altogether ascribe to the ingenuity and industry of the people but the mercy of God that hath disposed them to such a thriving Genius and to the will of his Providence that disposeth her favour to each Country in their pre-ordinate season All cannot be happy at once for because the glory of one State depends upon the ruine of another there is a revolution and vicissitude of their greatness and must obey the swing of that wheel not moved by Intelligences but by the hand of God whereby all Estates arise to their Zenith and Vertical points according to their predestinated periods For the lives not only of men but of Common-wealths and the whole World run not upon a Helix that still enlargeth but on a Circle where arriving to their Meridian they decline in obscurity and fall under the Horizon again Sect. 18 These must not therefore be named the effects of Fortune but in a relative way and as we term the works of Nature it was the ignorance of mans reason that begat this very name and by a careless term miscalled the Providence of God for there is no liberty for causes to operate in a loose and stragling way nor any effect whatsoever but hath its warrant from some universal or superiour Cause 'T is not a ridiculous devotion to say a prayer before a game at Tables for even in sortiligies and matters of greatest uncertainty there is a setled and pre-ordered course of effects It is we that are blind not Fortune because our Eye is too dim to discover the mystery of her effects we foolishly paint her blind and hoodwink the Providence of the Almighty I cannot justifie that contemptible Proverb That fools only are Fortunate or that insolent Paradox That a wise man is cut of the reach of Fortune much less those opprobrious Epithets of Poets Whore Bawd and Strumpet 'T is I confess the common fate of men of singular gifts of mind to be destitute of those of Fortune which doth not any way deject the Spirit of wiser judgements who throughly understand the justice of this proceeding and being inrich'd with higher donatives cast a more careless eye on these vulgar parts of felicity It is a most unjust ambition to desire to engross the mercies of the Almighty not to be content with the goods of mind without a possession of those of body or Fortune and it is an error worse than heresie to adore these complemental and circumstantial pieces of felicity and undervalue those perfections and
essential points of happiness wherein we resemble our Maker To wiser desires it is satisfaction enough to deserve though not to enjoy the favours of Fortune let Providence provide for Fools 't is not partiality but equity in God who deals with us but as our natural Parents those that are able of Body and Mind he leaves to their deserts to those of weaker merits he imparts a larger portion and pieces out the defect of one by the access of the other Thus have we no just quarrel with Nature for leaving us naked or to envy the Horns Hoofs Skins and Furs of other Creatures being provided with Reason that can supply them all We need not labour with so many Arguments to confute Judicial Astrology for if there be a truth therein it doth not injure Divinity if to be born under Mercury disposeth us to be witty under Jupiter to be wealthy I do not owe a Knee unto these but unto that merciful Hand that hath ordered my indifferent and uncertain nativity unto such benevolous Aspects Those that hold that all things are governed by Fortune had not erred had they not persisted there The Romans that erected a Temple to Fortune acknowledged therein though in a blinder way somewhat of Divinity for in a wise supputation all things begin and end in the Almighty There is a nearer way to Heaven than Homer's Chain an easie Logick may conjoyn Heaven and Earth in one Argument and with less than a Sorites resolve all things into God Far though we christen effects by their most sensible and nearest Causes yet is God the true and infallible Cause of all whose concourse though it be general yet doth it subdivide it self into the particular Actions of every thing and is that Spirit by which each singular Essence not only subsists but performs its operation Sect. 19 The bad construction and perverse comment on these pair of second Causes or visible hands of God have perverted the Devotion of many unto Atheism who forgetting the honest Advisoes of Faith have listened unto the conspiracy of Passion and Reason I have therefore always endeavoured to compose those Feuds and angry Dissentions between Affection Faith and Reason For there is in our Soul a kind of Triumvirate or triple Government of three Competitors which distract the Peace of this our Common-wealth not less than did that other the State of Rome As Reason is a Rebel unto Faith so Passion unto Reason As the Propositions of Faith seem absurd unto Reason so the Theorems of Reason unto Passion and both unto Reason yet a moderate and peaceable discretion may so state and order the matter that they may be all Kings and yet make but one Monarchy every one exercising his Soveraignty and Prerogative in a due time and place according to the restraint and limit of circumstance There is as in Philosophy so in Divinity sturdy doubts and boisterous Objections wherewith the unhappiness of our knowledge too nearly acquainteth us More of these no man hath known than my self which I confess I conquered not in a martial posture but on my Knees For our endeavours are not only to combat with doubts but always to dispute with the Devil the villany of that Spirit takes a hint of Infidelity from our Studies and by demonstrating a naturality in one way makes us mistrust a miracle in another Thus having perused the Archidoxes and read the secret Sympathies of things he would disswade my belief from the miracle of the Brazen Serpent make me conceit that Image worked by Sympathy and was but an Aegyptian trick to cure their Diseases without a miracle Again having seen some experiments of Bitumen and having read far more of Naphtha he whispered to my curiosity the fire of the Altar might be natural and bid me mistrust a miracle in Elias when he entrenched the Altar round with Water for that inflamable substance yields not easily unto Water but flames in the Arms of its Antagonist And thus would he inveagle my belief to think the combustion of Sodom might be natural and that there was an Asphaltick and Bituminous nature in that Lake before the Fire of Gomorrah I know that Manna is now plentifully gathered in Calabria and Josephus tells me in his days it was as plentiful in Arabia the Devil therefore made the quaere Where was then the miracle in the days of Moses the Israelite saw but that in his time the Natives of those Countries behold in ours Thus the Devil played at Chess with me and yielding a Pawn thought to gain a Queen of me taking advantage of my honest endeavours and whilst I laboured to raise the structure of my Reason he strived to undermine the edifice of my Faith Sect. 20 Neither had these or any other ever such advantage of me as to incline me to any point of Infidelity or desperate positions of Atheism for I have been these many years of opinion there was never any Those that held Religion was the difference of Man from Beasts have spoken probably and proceed upon a principle as inductive as the other That doctrine of Epicurus that denied the Providence of God was no Atheism but a magnificent and high strained conceit of his Majesty which he deemed too sublime to mind the trivial Actions of those inferiour Creatures That fatal necessity of the Stoicks is nothing but the immutable Law of his will Those that heretofore denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost have been condemned but as Hereticks and those that now deny our Saviour though more than Hereticks are not so much as Atheists for though they deny two persons in the Trinity they hold as we do there is but one God That Villain and Secretary of Hell that composed that miscreant piece of the three Impostors though divided from all Religions and was neither Jew Turk nor Christian was not a positive Atheist I confess every Country hath its Machiavel every Age its Lciuan whereof common Heads must not hear nor more advanced Judgments too rashly venture on It is the Rhetorick of Satan and may pervert a loose or prejudicate belief Sect. 22 I confess I have perused them all and can discover nothing that may startle a discreet belief yet are their heads carried off with the Wind and breath of such motives I remember a Doctor in Physick of Italy who could perfectly believe the immortality of the Soul because Galen seemed to make a doubt thereof With another I was familiarly acquainted in France a Divine and a man of singular parts that on the same point was so plunged and gravelled with three lines of Seneca that all our Antidotes drawn from both Scripture and Philosophy could not expel the poyson of his errour There are a set of Heads that can credit the relations of Mariners yet question the Testimonies of St. Paul and peremptorily maintain the traditions of Aelian or Pliny yet in Histories of Scripture raise Queries and Objections believing no more than they can
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
oppose the Sectators of Epicurus who maintain the contrary as is to be seen by this of Lucretius which follows Illud in his rebus vitium vehementer istum Effugere errorem vitareque praemeditabor Lamina ne facias oculorum clara creata Prospicere ut possimus ut proferre viritim Proceros passus ideo fastigia posse SuraruÌ„ ac feminum pedibus fundata plicari Brachia tum porro validis ex apta lacertis Esse manusque datas utraque ex parte ministras Vt facere ad vitam possimus quae foret usus Caetera de genere hoc inter quae cunque precatur Omnia perversa praepostera sunt ratione Nil ideo quoniam natum'st incorpore ut uti Possemus sed quod natum'st id procreat usuÌ„ Nec fuit ante videre oculorum lumina nata Nec dictis orare prius quà m lingua creata'st Sed potius longè linguae praecessit origo Sermonem multoque creatae sunt prius aures Quà m sonus est auditus oÌ„nia denique meÌ„bra Antè fuere ut opinor eorum quà m foret usus Haud igitur potuere utendi crescere causa Lucret. lib. 4 Sect. 15 Pag. 29 There are no Grotesques in nature c. So Monsr Montaign Il ny ' a rien d'mutil en nature non pas l' inutilitè mesmes Rien ne s' est jugere en cet Vnivers que n'y tienne place opportun Ess l. 3. c. 1. Who admires not Regiomontanus his Fly beyond his Eagle Of these Du Bartas Que diray je del ' aigle D'ont un doct Aleman honore nostre siecle Aigle qui dislogeant de la maistresse main Aila loin an devant d' un Empereur Germain Etl'ayant recontrè soudaind ' une aisle accorte Se tour nant le suit an suel de la porte Du fort Norembergois que lis piliers dorez Les tapissez chemius les ares elabourez Les four droyans Canons in la jeusnesse isnelle In le chenae Senat n'honnoroit tant come elle Vn jour quae cetominer plus des esbats que di mets En privè festoyoit ses segnieurs plus a mees Vne mousche de fer dans sa main recolee Prit sans ayde d' autroy sa gallard evolee Fit une entiere Ronde puis d'un cerveaulas Come ayant jugement se purcha sur son bras Thus Englished by Sylvester Why should I not that wooden Eagle mention A learned German's late admir'd invention Which mounting from his fist that framed her Flew far to meet an Almain Emperour And having met him with her nimble Train And weary wings turning about again Followed him close unto the Castle gate Of Noremberg whom all the shews of state Streets hang'd with Arras arches curious built Loud thundring Canons Columns richly guilt Gray-headed Senate and Youth's gallantise Grac'd not so much as onely this device Once as this Artist more with mirth than meat Feasted some friends that he esteemed great From under 's hand an Iron Fly flew out Which having flown a perfect round about With weary wings return'd unto her Master And as judicious on his arm she plac'd her Or wonder not more at the operation of two souls in those little bodies than but one in the Trunk of a Cedar That is the vegetative which according to the common opinion is supposed to be in Trees though the Epetures and Stoiques would not allow any Soul in Plants but Empedocles and Plato allowed them not onely a vegetative Soul but affirm'd them to be Animals The Manichees went farther and attributed so much of the rational soul to them that they accounted it Homicide to gather either their flowers or fruit as St. Aug. reports We carry with us the wonders we seek without us So St. Aug l. 10. de civ c. 3. Omni miraculo quod sit per hominem majus miraculum est homo Sect. 14 Pag. 31 Another of his servant Nature that publique and universal Manuscript that lies expansed c. So is the description of Du Bartas 7. jour de la sepm Oyes ce Docteur meut est udie en ce livre Qui nuict jour on vert t' apprendra de bien vivre All things are artificial for Nature is the Art of God So Mr. Hobbs in his Leviathan in initio Nature is the Art whereby God governs the World Sect. 17 Pag. 34 Directing the operations of single and individual Essences c. Things singular or individuals are in the opinion of Philosophers not to be known but by the way of sense or by that which knows by its Essence and that is onely God The Devils have no such knowledge because whatsoever knows so is either the cause or effect of the thing known thereupon Averroes concluded that God was the cause of all things because he understands all things by his Essence and Albertus Magnus concluded That the inferiour Intelligence understands the superiour because it is an effect of the superiour but neither of these can be said of the Devil for it appears he is not the effect of any of these inferiour things much less is he the cause for the power of Creation onely belongs to God All cannot he happy at once because the Glory of one State depends upon the ruine of another This Theme is ingeniously handled by Mr. Montaigne livr 1. des Ess cap. 22. the Title whereof is Le profit de l' un est dommage de l' autre Sect. 18 Pag. 39 'T is the common fate of men of singular gifts of Mind to be destitute of those of Fortune So Petron. Arbiter Amor ingenii neminem unquam divitem fecit in Satyric And Apuleius in Apolog. Idem mihi etiam saith he paupertatem opprobravit acceptum Philosopho crimen ultro profitendum and then a little afterwards he sheweth that it was the common fate of those that had singular gifts of mind Eadem enim est paupertas apud Graecos in Aristide justa in Phocyone benigna in Epaminonde strenua in Socrate sapiens in Homero diserta We need not labour with so many arguments to confute judicial Astrology There is nothing in judicial Astrology that may render it impious but the exception against it is That it is vain and fallible of which any man will be convinced that has read Tully de Divinat and St. Aug. 5 boâ—â— de Civ Dei Sect. 19 Pag. 41 There is in our Soul a kind of Triumvirate that distracts the peace of our Commonwealth not less than did that other the State of Rome There were two Triumvirates by which the peace of Româ— was distracted that of Crassus Caesar and Pompey of which Lucan l. 1. Tu causam aliorum Facta tribus Dominis communis Roma 〈◊〉 unquam In turbam missi feralia foedera Regni and that other of Augustus Antonius and Lepidus by whom saith Florus Respublica convulsa est laceratáque which comes somewhat near the Author's words and therefore I take it that he
Aventin in Hist Boio Besides him there were other Church men of great note that denied Antipodes as Lactantius Augustin and Bede Sect. 27 Pag. I hold that God can do all things How he should work contradictions I do not understand yet dare not therefore deny Who would not think the Author had taken this from Mr Montaign whose words are Ilm'a tous jours semble qu' a un homme Christien cette sorte de parter est plein d' indiscretion d'irreverence Dieu ne se peut disdire Dieu ne peuit faire cecy ou cela je ne trouve pas bon d'enfermer ainsi la puissance divine sous les loix de nostre parole Et l'apparence qui s' offre à nous en ses propositions il la faudroit representer plus reverement plus Religieusement Liv. 2. des Ess c. 12. I cannot see why the Angel of God should question Esdras to recal the time past if it were beyond his own power or that God should pose mortality in that which he was not able to perform himself Sir K. Digby in his Notes upon this place saith There is no contradiction in this because he saith it was but putting all things that had motion into the same state they were in at that moment unto which time was to be reduced back and from thence letting it travel on again by the same motions c. which God could do But under favour the contradiction remains if this were done that he mentions for Time depends not at all upon motion but has a being altogether independent of it and therefore the same revolution would not bring back the same time for that was efflux'd before as in the time of Joshua when the Sun stood still we cannot but conceive though there were no motion of the Sun but that there was an efflux of Time otherwise how could the Text have it That there was not any day before or after that was so long as that for the length of it must be understood in respect of the flux of time The reasoning of Sir Kenelme is founded upon the opinion of Aristot who will needs have it that Time cannot be without mutation he gives this for a reason because when we have slept and cannot perceive any mutation to have been we do therefore use to connect the time of our sleeping and of our awaking together and make but one of it to which it may be answered although some mutation be necessary that we may mark the flux of time it doth not therefore follow that the mutation is necessary to the flux it self Sect. 28 Pag. 62 I excuse not Constantine from a fall off his Horse or a mischief from his enemies upon the wearing those nails c. Hac de re videatur P. Diac. hist miscell Sect. 29 Pag. 63 I wonder how the curiosity of wiser heads could pass that great and indisputable miracle the cessation of Oracles There are three opinions touching the manner how the predictions of these Oracles were perform'd Some say by vapour some by the intelligences or influences of the Heavens and others say by the assistance of the Devils Now the indisputable miracle the Author speaks of is that they ceas'd upon the coming of Christ and it is generally so believed and the Oracle of Delphos delivered to Augustus mentioned by the Author in this Section is brought to prove it which is this Me puer Hebraeus divos Deus ipse gubernans Cedere sede jubet tristemque redire sub orcum Aris ergo dehinc tacitus discedito nostris But yet it is so far from being true that their cessation was miraculous that the truth is there never were any predictions given by those Oracles at all That their cessation was not upon the coming of Christ we have luculent testimony out of Tully in his 2. lib. de Divinat which he writ many years before Christ was born who tells us that they were silent and indeed he never thought they were otherwise long before that time insomuch that they were come into contempt Cur isto modo jam oracula Delphis non eduntur non modò nostra aetate sed jamdiù jam ut nihil possit esse contemptius So that for that of Delphos which was the most famous of them all we see we have no reason to impute the cessation of it to Christ Why therefore should we do so for any of the rest 2. For their predictions let us consider the three several ways before mentioned whereby they are supposed to operate and from thence see whether it be probable that any such Oracles ever were The first Opinion is that it was by exhalation or vapour drawn up from the earth and gives this for a reason of their being that they were for a time nourished by those exhalations and when those ceased and were exhausted the Oracles famish'd and died for want of their accustom'd sustenance this is the far-fetcht reason given by Plutarch for their defect but 't was not devised by him but long before as appears in that Tully scoffs at it lib. de divinat De vino aut salsamento putes loqui saith he quae evanescunt vetustate This seem'd absurd to others who do therefore say this was not to be attributed to any power of the Earth but to the power of the Heavens or Intelligences Coelestial to certain aspects whereof they say the Statua's of those Oracles were so adapted that they might divine and foretel future events But yet to others this way seemeth as absurd as the others for say they admitting that there were an efficacy in the Heavens more than in the Earth yet how can it be that men should come by the skill to fit the Statua's to the Aspects or influences of the Heavens or if at any time they had such skill why should not the same continue the rather because men are more skilled in the motions of the Heavens of later than in the former time Again they do not see how it should be that the cause should be of less excellency than the effect for if a man say they can by his industry make such Oracles why can he not produce the same effect in another man for if you affirm that the Heavens influence is requisite they will tell you that Influence may happen as well to a man as to a Statue of wood or stone Therefore the third sort being unsatisfied which either of the former ways conclude that this was perform'd by the Devil but for that it will appear as contrary to Reason and Philosophy as either of the former for Philosophy teacheth that things singular or individual are to be known only by sense or by such an Intellect as doth know by its Essence and Theology teacheth that God only knoweth the heart and that the Devil doth not know by sense nor by essence and since 't is admitted by all that most of the answers that were pretended to be given by
we must consider what it is that bringeth us to this excellent State to be happy in the other World of Eternity and Immutability It is agreed on all hands to be God's Grace and Favour to us But all do not agree by what steps his Grace produceth this effect Herein I shall not trouble your Lordship with a long Discourse how that Grace worketh in us which yet I will in a word touch anon that you may conceive what I understand Grace to be but will suppose it to have wrought its effect in us in this life and from thence examine what hinges they are that turn us over to Beatitude and Glory in the next Some consider God as a Judge that rewardeth or punisheth men according as they co-operated with or repugned to the Grace he gave That according as their actions please or displease him he is well affected towards them or angry with them and accordingly maketh them to the purpose and very home feel the effects of his kindness or indignation Others that fly a higher pitch and are so happy Vt rerum poterint cognoscere causas do conceive that Beatitude and misery in the other life are effects that necessarily and orderly flow out of the Nature of those Causes that begot them in this life without engaging God Almighty to give a sentence and act the part of a Judge according to the state of our Cause as it shall appear upon the Accusations and pleadings at his great Bar. Much of which manner of expression is Metaphorical and rather adapted to contain vulgar minds in their Duties that are awed with the thought of a severe Judge sifting every minute-action of theirs than such as we must conceive every circumstance to pass so in reality as the literal sound of the words seems to infer in ordinary construction and yet all that is true too in its genuine sence But my Lord these more penetrating men and that I conceive are vertuous upon higher and stronger Motives for they truely and solidly know why they are so do consider that what impressions are once made in the spiritual Substance of a Soul and what affections it hath once contracted do ever remain in it till a contrary and diametrically contradicting judgement and affection do obliterate it and expel it thence This is the reason why Contrition Sorrow and Hatred for Sins past is encharged us If then the Soul do go out of the Body with impressions and affections to the Objects and pleasures of this life it continually lingreth after them and as Virgil learnedly as well as wittily saith Quae gratia currum Armorumque fuit vivis quae cura nitentes Pascere equos eadem sequitur tellure repostos But that being a State wherein those Objects neither are nor can be enjoyed it must needs follow that such a Soul must be in an exceeding anguish sorrow and affliction for being deprived of them and for want of that it so much prizeth will neglect all other contentments it might have as not having a relish or taste moulded and prepared to the savouring of them but like feavorish tongues that when they are even scorched with heat take no delight in the pleasingest liquors but the sweetest drinks seem bitter to them by reason of their overflowing Gall So they even hate whatsoever good is in their power and thus pine away a long Eternity In which the sharpness and activity of their pain anguish and sad condition is to be measured by the sensibleness of their Natures which being then spiritual is in a manner infinitely more than any torment that in this life can be inflicted upon a dull gross body To this add the vexation it must be to them to see how inestimable and infinite a good they have lost and lost meerly by their own fault and for momentary trifles and childrens play and that it was so easie for them to have gained it had they remained but in their right senses and governed themselves according unto Reason And then judge in what a tortured condition they must be of remorse and execrating themselves for their most resupine and sensless madness But if on the other side a Soul be released out of this Prison of clay and flesh with affections setled upon Intellectual goods as Truth knowledge and the like and that it be grown to an irksome dislike of the flat pleasures of this World and look upon carnal and sensual Objects with a disdainful eye as discerning the contemptible Inanity in them that is set off only by their painted outside and above all that it hath a longing desire to be in the Society of that supereminent Cause of Causes in which they know are heaped up the Treasurers of all Beauty Knowledge Truth Delight and good whatsoever and therefore are impatient at the Delay and reckon all their Absence from him as a tedious Banishment and in that regard hate their Life and Body as Cause of this Divorce such a Soul I say must necessarily by reason of the temper it is wrought into enjoy immediately at the instant of the Bodies dissolution and its liberty more Contentment more Joy more true Happiness than it is possible for a heart of flesh to have scarce any scantling of much less to comprehend For immense Knowledge is natural to it as I have touched before Truth which is the adequated and satisfying Object of the Understanding is there displayed in her own Colours or rather without any And that which is the Crown of all and in respect of which all the rest is nothing that infinite Entity which above all things this Soul thirsteth to be united unto cannot for his own Goodness sake deny his Embraces to so affectionate a Creature and to such an enflamed Love If he should then were that Soul for being the best and for loving him most condemned to be the unhappiest For what Joy could she have in any thing were she barrred from what she so infinitely loveth But since the Nature of superiour and excellent things is to shower down their propitious Influences wheresoever there is a Capacity of receiving them and no Obstacle to keep them out like the Sun that illuminateth the whole Air if no Cloud or solid opacous Body intervene it followeth clearly that this infinite Sun of Justice this immense Ocean of Goodness cannot chuse but inviron with his Beams and replenish even beyond satiety with his delightsome Waters a soul so prepared and tempered to receive them No my Lord to make use of this Discourse and apply it to what begot it be pleased to determine which way will deliver us evenest and smoothest to this happy end of our Journey To be vertuous for hope of a Reward and through fear of Punishment or to be so out of a natural and inward affection to Vertue for Vertues and Reasons sake Surely one in this latter condition not onely doth those things which will bring him to Beatitude but he is so secured in a