contradict him 2. He did mistake the nature of Essence and Existence as further apppears out of my Metaphysicks 3. It infers an absurd Definition of Creation to wit that it is the mutation of a being a non esse accidentali ad esse accidentale consequently an accident only is produced de novo and not a Substance 4. That the essences of things are eternal a great absurdity I grant they are from all eternity that is from an eternal being 5. Did God contain the essences of things in himself it followes that he also contained their matter in himself a great Blasphemy A mediate Creation is the production of a being a nihilo termini vel formae sed ex aliquo materiae a nihilo formae supple ultima This kind of Creation is expressed by two different words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or making is whereby God created a being ex aliquo materiae sed a nihilo formae ulterioris In this sense did God create the Fishes and Fowl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an artificial formation is whereby God formed man also a nihilo formae ulterioris Mediate Creation differs from Generation through that thereby a form is introduced in an instant hereby successively by a preceding alteration 2. Thereby a being is constituted a nihilo formae ulterioris hereby ab aliquo formae ultimae tanquam a termino a quo That is effected by the immediate causality of God this by a mediate one VIII The Chaos being so equally mixed and balanced abided in one place The place which did contain it was not corporeal because it would have been needless since its own balance did sufficiently preserve it in its own internal place It s magnitude was equal to the present magnitude of the world For although through its expansion and opening the fire and ayt were heaved up yet they were heaved up no further then the weighty Elements descended so that what space was left by the one was taken up by the other but had there been a vacuum left by any of their egressions then indeed it must have possessed a larger place As for the tangible quality which it had it must needs have been soft because it being temperated ad pondus could acquire no other then a temperate one and such is soft Colour it had none ex accidenti because there was no light to discern it nevertheless that doth not hinder but that it had a fundamental colour in it self which must have been red that being the only colour issuing out of a temperamentum ad pondus Tast is also detracted from it ex accidenti but in it self it must have been sweet for the same reason We cannot edscribe any smell to it per se because being close shut or not yet opened none can grant that it could have affected any supposed smell since it could not have emitted any Exhalations from it That it had a finite time Scripture testifieth Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning c. but the beginning is a distinction and Note of finite time Ergo. Reason proves no less That which was finite in all its other modes could not be capable of one single infinite mode But such was the Chaos and such is the world now Ergo. Whose parts are subject to a beginning and ending its whole must also have been subject to the same But our daily experience confirms to us that all things are subjected to a beginning and ending Ergo. It s figure is round we know from the form of the Elements Besides rotundity is a figure of the greatest equallest and perfectest extension but such is most sutable to the greatest equallest and perfectest body Ergo. The Chaos was also finite in its globosity and extent of parts I prove it The compleated world being finite in its globosity and extent of parts doth necessarily infer the finiteness of the Chaos in the same particular because the compleated world was framed out of it Now that the world is terminated in magnitude the circumvolutation of the Aplane and the Planets in a finite time to wit in 24 hours doth certainly demonstrate for were the world infinite in magnitude they must then also require an infinite time to rowl round about it the contrary of which is doubted by none Here that trite Axiom may be objected qualis causa taelis effectus Such as the cause is such also is its Effect But God is an infinite cause ergo his effect namely the world must also be infinite I answer That this Maxim holds only in univocis and naturalibus but not in their opposites 2. It is a Character of Gods infiniteness that he can act finitely and infinitely for could he act only infinitely then might he be supposed to act necessarily which is a note of finiteness and limitation in a cause 3. The action whereby he effected this finite work is infinite as I have observed before wherefore in this he acteth both finitely and infinitely And since I am about answering Objections it will not be amiss to insert some objected by Bodinus in Theatr. Nat. and Cajetan against the pre-existence of the Chaos before the compleated world 1. Eccles. 18. 1. Where God is said to have created all things at once Ergo there was no pre-existent Chaos I answer that Creation here doth imply an immediate creation through which God created the matter of all things at once 2. They resume the words of Austin asserting that to God there is nothing before or after another no past or future time but that all things are like as it were in one moment filling that which hath a most perfect being Wherefore say they Moses did distinguish the Creation into several sections and divisions to accomodate things created in an instant to our capacity I answer That had Moses writ that God had created all things in a moment we could have understood him as plainly as he hath writ otherwise for we know that Scripture containes many harder sayings then this would have been So that it is a great levity in them to retort the genuine sense of sacred words to their oblique brow As for that of Austin it hinders not but that all things past present and future are as in an instant to God and yet to us may be past present and future The Chaos is not only finite in duration and continuated quantity but also in discrete as they term it quantity or number It s quantity is the least and the greatest it is the least in discrete quantity for there was but one Chaos 2. But the greatest in continued quantity The proof of these depends reciprocally from one another The Chaos is but one because it is the greatest were there then more then one Chaos but two three or more or infinite it could not be the greatest but part of the greatest and so the whole must be greater then the part on the other side it is the greatest because
turned-round with ones hand doth turn contrary against the motion of the Glass p. 437. 4. Why a breath being blown with a close mouth doth feel cool and efflated with a diducted mouth feel warm ib. 5. Why an armed point of an Arrow groweth hot in being shot through the air ib. 6. Why Beer or Wine will not run out of the Cask without opening a hole atop ib 7. What difference there is between an Oâ—iâ—â—e and a Travada ib. 8. Whether it be true that Winds may be hâ—red from Witches or Wizards in Iseland p 438. 9. Why is it quieter in the night than in the day ib. CHAP. IV. Containing Problems touching the fire 1. Why doth water cast upon unquencht chalk or lime become boyling p. 439. 2. Why doth common salt make a cracking noise when cast into the fire ib. 3. Who were the first inventers of Gunpowder ib. 4. What are the Ingredients of Gunpowder 440. 5. Whence arrives all that flaming fire that followeth the kindling of Gunpower ib. 6. Whence is it that Gunpowder being kindled in Guns erupts with that force and violence ib. ERRATA PAg. 3. l. 16. r. did produce p 4. l. 12. p 9. l. 1. r. Properties p. 4. l 38. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 10. l. 7. r. taught l. 36. r. others p. 11. l. 16. r. Invectives p. 12. l 14. r. Quadripartition p. 13 l 37. r. into p. 16. l 25. r. upon our senses p. 22. l. 3 r. those beings l 39. r. Hircocervus p. 34. l 27 r. those species p. 38. l. 37. r. those two p. 41. l. 2. r. those yearly l. 26. dele ad p. 42 l. 2 10 r. into p. 43. l. 29. r. those men p. 52. l. 18. r. into l. 24. r. needs p. 58. l. 37. r. into unity p. 64. l. 20. r. transcendence Philosophy in general The FIRST PART The first Book CHAP. I. Of matters preceding and following the nature of Philosophy 1. The derivation of Philosophy 2. What is was first called and why its name was changed 3. The original of Philosophy The first Inventers of it 4. What dispositions are required in a Philosopher The difficulty in attaining to Philosophy The pleasure arising from the possession of it 5. The esteem and worth of Philosophy and Philosophers 6. The use and fruits reaped from Philosophy and redounding in General to every one in Particular to a Divine Civilian and Physitian I. PHILOSOPHY is a word of a mixt signification and thereby soundeth Love to Wisdom both which being implied in its composition out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom II. This name was politickly framed by Pythagoras to cover the genuine and first denomination of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to hide its secrecy and excellence the fame of which did attract so numerous a body of Contenders who being ambitious to be renowned by the possession of it before they had scarce made their first attempt abusively stiled themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wise-men that through their multitude they overclouded a few others who might justly have challenged their title from it Since then this new imposed word implied but little Fame or Worth the greater part soon deserted it whose eager pursuit being more after the shadow than the thing it self they freely resigned both to the real deservers thereof III. Knowing nothing more certain than that all which we do enjoy redounds to us by inheritance we cannot doubt but that Philosophy was also a Relict of the Forefathers successively conveyed to us who did attribute the original acquisition of it to the first man Adam for he in his primitive and incorrupt state being adorned with a full and perfect Knowledge of all Beings it is probable that after his Fall he retained a measure of the same Knowledge which although being different from the former in perfection yet by his industry had much promoted it and so having committed it to the further accomplishment of his antediluvian Successors to wit Seth Enos Cainan Malaleel Jared Enoch Methusalem and Noe it did attract such increase and degree of perfection from their experience that we have no great cause to admire whence the profound Learning of the postdiluvian Fathers did arive to them who were either sacred as Abraham Moses Solomon c. or prophane as the Magicians among the Persians the Chaldeans of Babylon Brachmans in India the Priests of Egypt the Talmudists and Cabbalists among the Jews the Druids among the ancient Britains and Gauls with whom many of the famous Poets Homer Hesiod as also the seaven wise men of Greece were coetaneous after which Pythagoras flourished who lived much about the time of Nebuchadnezzar and spread his Doctrine throughout Italy whence it was soon propagated through most parts of the world and yet is over all the East-Indies IV. As there was an apt capacity required in these lovers of wisdom to receive the Discipline of their Masters so there was also necessary in them an indefatigable study to add to the Inventions of their Predecessors which to cherish and excite they proposed the greatest pleasure and contentment of mind thence undoubtedly resulting to themselves according to that trite Saying Arduum quod pulchrum That which is lovely is hard to be attained unto which did abundantly satisfie their labours This is verified by the Relation which the Mathematicians give of Archimedes who was so much enamour'd with his Speculations that at those times which most did dedicate to the rest of their minds and intermission from their Studies he was most busied in his thoughts insomuch that when for his healths sake anoynting his body with Oyl which was an ordinary Preservative in those dayes he used to make Geometrical Figures with it upon his Breast and other parts of his body that so he might avoid the depriving of his Soul from one moments happiness when he was inevitably forced to consult the safety of his Body At another time sitting in a Bath he observed the water to be much swelled through his immersion in it collected thence a way whereby to find a proportion of Silver to Gold when both united in one Mass. This Contemplation did profuse such a joy in him that he brake out into these words Inveni Inveni I have found I have found No less effect will it produce in us when finding that in our nebulous state of Ignorance which we lost in our perfect state of Knowledge by falling from our Integrity This seemeth incredible unless attempted by the serious and diligent application of our minds to it V. The Scales whereby to weigh the worth of a thing are frequently judged to be the Subject wherein it is inherent or the possessors of it whose worth found is the production of the worth of the thing proposed The assent of this doth infer Philosophy to be the worthiest and most transcendent of all For Kings and Princes whose worth is not to be
parallel'd to any but to themselves have affected Philosophy and preferred its worth above the esteem of all others David and Solomon the greatest of Kings extolled the Pleasure and Contentment flowing from their Contemplations above them of Glory and Honour and other secular Pleasures which they enjoyed in greater measure than any before or since Ptolomy Philadelphus King of Africa having weighed Triumphs or the Glories following Conquests and Victories which in their splendor do overtop all other kinds of Glories and are reputed among the greatest of Contentments and Joyes judged them to be more troublesom than pleasing For he had observed them to have been attendants in their highest eminence to his late Predecessors Alexander the Great and Ptolomy Lagus his Father and that their Contentments and Joyes supposed to slow thence were subject to a continual Eclipse through their immoderate aspiring to greater and through every Alarum of an Enemy and through the daily News of their revolting Subjects although but lately vanquished discomposing their Spirits Wherefore he composed himself to a peace and applied his mind to the study of Philosophy which did so much cultivate his understanding and please his thoughts that he endeavoured to procure the helps of men most Renowned far and near by an universal Invitation VI. A man naked and unpolisht doth more resemble a Brute than himself What Proprieties are there in wild Beasts but which you may find in West-Indians I mean those which are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Men-eaters They slay and devour one another the shadow of each of them is a terrour to the other nothing begetteth tameness in them unless it be the presence of a Male with a Female which the Instinct of Nature and not their Reason doth compel them unto Nothing different from these should we be were it not that Philosophy did rectifie and redintegrate our Understandings To this we owe our right Reasoning Morality and Knowledge of all Natural and Supernatural Beings and without that we are nothing else but Ignorance and Barbarism A Divine will hardly reach to Theologick Vertues unless he be first endowed with Morals Neither is he like to compass the Knowledge of God unless he first admireth him in his Creatures and natural beings Civilians those who really merit that name grow expert in composing Differences between others by regulating Contentions arising between their own Soul and Body A Physitian incurreth a suspition of being a Mountebank or Astrologick Impostor in case he be not more than ordinarily versed in Natural Philosophy and questionless will be frustrated in his Cures unless he be exactly skilful in knowing the proportion of Animal Mineral and Vegetable Natures to the Nature of man which is demonstratively treated of in Natural Philosophy To this doth the great Hippocrates in his Book of Elegance elegantly exhort his Auditors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore we ought to apply Wisdom to the Art of Physick and the Art of Physick again to Wisdom for a Physitian who is a Philosopher is like unto God CHAP. II. Of the Nature of Philosophy 1. Whether Philosophy can be defined 2. Various Definitions of Philosophy How Plato did define it The Definition of Damascen 3. The Authors Definition of it That the Essence of God is as sensibly apprehended as the Essence of his Creatures 4. What is implyed by Knowledge 5. The Subjectum circa quod or Object of Philosophy 6. The Subjectum Inhaesionis or Subject wherein Philosophy is inherent MAny perswade themselves that Philosophy doth not admit a Definition that requiring an Unity in the Definitum or thing Defined which is not inherent in the Nature of Philosophy but rather a Multiplicity wherefore it can only be described To the contrary all Beings have an Unity for Ens unum convertuntur a Being and One are identificated so that whatever hath no unity is no Being But they granting Philosophy to be a Being cannot deny it an Unity and if it hath an unity it is definible A Being may be materially manifold and yet formally one and of that nature is Philosophy Philosophy is a knowledge of Beings by their Causes which is the Modus considerandi or Ratio formalis of it to wit of Philosophy But this is one Beings as they are the Materia are many nevertheless their universal Form in Philosophy is but one which is to be known by their Causes II. The Definitions of Philosophy are variously propounded by several Authors who disagree more in terms and words than in the thing it self Others again who seeming to define the Essence of a thing rather describe it by its Properties and Effects some of which serving to illustrate its Nature I shall not think amiss to produce Among these that of Plato is most cried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy is a Meditation upon death This Meditation upon death is that which goeth under the notion of a Platonick Extasie which is nothing else but a qualification requisite in a Philosopher whereby he doth withdraw his thoughts from singular and material things applying them to universal and immaterial beings or whereby he inclineth his Reason to his Fancy and diverteth his Mind from his senses So that in this Rapture a Philosopher hath his eyes open and seeth not and may be environed with Noyse and hear not Another Definition the said Divine Philosopher recommends approaching somwhat nearer to its Essence Philosophy is a likeness to God in as much as it is possible for a man to be like to God God is a Pattern to man in his actions according to the greatest perfection of vertue and in speculation or knowledge of all natural and supernatural Beings the habitual imitation of which is the true Philosophy Damascen in his Dialect Chap. 3. states this following Definition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philosophy is the Art of Arts and the Science of Sciences and the beginning of all Arts all which amounts to this Philosophy is a comprehension of all Arts and Sciences III. Philosophy is the knowledge of all cognoscible Beings By Knowledge understand a Habit of knowing a thing by its Definition or Essence that is by its internal and external Causes namely Matter Form and Efficient By internal Cause I intend a Principle through which a Being is constituted Some beings having only a single internal Cause as God and Angels are constituted by their Forms without Matter and for that reason are nominated Immaterial Others are constituted through a double internal Principle and from an efficient Cause as all Natural Beings Some obtain a single internal Principle and one efficient Cause as Angels God only consisteth of a single internal Principle which is his Form which is that which he is Hence God declares himself I am who I am Here may be offered an Objection That God cannot be known by the same Ratio Formalis cognoscendi as Naturals are since that these are considered in a distinct manner in their Matter and Form
Situation is 8. What Duration is I. QUantity is an Attribute of a Being whereby it hath Extension of Parts II. Quantity is either Formal and Immaterial which is the extension of the Form beyond which it is not and within which it acteth or Material which is the Extension of a material Being III. Quality is whereby a being doth act as from a Cause IV. Relation is whereby one being is referred to another V. Action is whereby one being acteth upon another as through a meanes VI. Passion is whereby one being receiveth an Act from another VII Situation is whereby a being is seated in a place A Place is which doth contain a Being VIII Duration is whereby a being continueth in its Essence CHAP. XXII Of Causes 1. What a Cause is That the Dectrine of Causes belongeth to Metaphysicks 2. Wherein a Cause and Principle differ 3. What an internal Cause is What Matter is 4. What a Form is and how it is divided 5. What an external cause is I. A Cause is whereby a Being is produced It doth appertain to Metaphysicks to treat of Causes for else it would be no Science which requires the unfolding of a being by its Causes Ramus did much mistake himself in denying a place to the Doctrine of Causes in this Science and referring it altogether to Logick 'T is true that the Doctrine of Causes may conveniently be handled in Logick as Arguments by which Proofes are inferred yet as they are real and move the understanding from without they may not for Logick is conversant in Notions only and not in Realities II. A Cause differeth from a Principle or is Synonimous to it according to its various acception In Physicks it is taken for that whose presence doth constitute a Being and in that sense it is the same with an internal cause to which a Cause in its late extent is a Genus and consequently is of a larger signification A Principle sometimes denotes that whence a being hath its Essence or Production or whence it is known In this sense did Aristotle take it in the 5th Book of his Met. Chapt. 1. Whereby he did intimate a threefold Principle to wit a Principle of Constitution Generation and of Knowledge or of being known A Principle as it is received in the forementioned sense is of a larger signification then a Cause It is usually taken for a word Synonimous to a Cause In this Acception is God said to be the Principle that is the Cause of all Beings III. A Cause is either Internal or External An Internal Cause is that which doth constitute a Being by its own Presence An Internal Cause is twofold 1. Matter 2. Form Matter is an internal cause out of which a being is constituted So earth is the Matter of man because a man is constituted out of Earth Matter is remote and mediate which is out of which the nearest and immediate matter was produced or constituted or nearest and immediate out of which a being is immediately constituted For example The nearest matter of Glass is Ashes the remote is Wood which was the Matter of Ashes But this Distinction doth more properly belong to Logick IV. A Form is a Cause from which a being hath its Essence A Form is remote or nearest A remote form is from which a being consisting of remote Matter had its Form The nearest Form is from which the nearest Matter hath its Essence The remote matter is either first or second The first is out of which the first being had its Essence The Second is out of which all other beings had their essence A Form is divisible into the same kinds The first Form was from which the first being had its essence The second from which all other beings have their essence These Divisions are rather Logical then Metaphysical V. An external Cause is by whose force or vertue a being is produced The force whereby a being is produced is from without for a being hath no force of it self before it is produced therefore that force whereby a being is produced is necessarily from without This Cause is only an efficient Cause Other Divisions of Causes I do wittingly omit because some are disagreeing with the Subject of this Treatise and belong to another Part of Philosophy as to treat of the first cause belongeth to Pneumatology of final Causes to Morals Others are very suspicious CHAP. XXIII Of the Kinds of Causes 1. The Number of real Causes That a final cause is no real Cause The Causality of Matter and Form 2. The Division of an Efficient 3. That an Efficient is erroneously divided in a procreating and conservating Cause 4. That the Division of a Cause into Social and Solitary is illegal 5. That the Division of an efficient Cause into Internal and External is absurd 6. That all Forms are Material 7. That there are no assistent Forms I. THere are only three real Causes of a Being a Material Formal and Efficient Cause Wherefore a Final cause is no real Cause I prove it A real Cause is which doth really effect or produce a Being But these are only three Ergo. 2. A Final Cause doth not cause any effect concurring to the constitution of a being as each of them three forementioned do for matter causeth an effect by giving her self out of which a being may be constituted A Form doth produce an effect by giving through her presence unity distinction from all others to Matter An efficient Cause effecteth by educing a Form out of the matter and uniting it to the Matter Which three causalities are only requisite to the production of a compleat being and they constituted in actu constitute a being at the same instant If so what effect doth a final Cause then produce Certainly not any contributing to the essential constitution of a being These three being only necessary any other would be frustaneous Possibly you will object that the final Cause moveth the efficient Suppose I grant that it doth not infer that it concurs to the real and essential production of a being The causality which it exerciseth is in contributing per accidens to the constitution of a being which if only so it doth not appertain to this place neither can it be equally treated of with Causes which do act per se. II. An End moveth the efficient An efficient is either Natural or Moral Natural efficients are moved necessarily or act e necessitate Naturae Hence we say a Cause being in actu to wit a Natural Cause its effect is likewise necessarily constituted in actu It is not so with a final Cause for that may exist without producing an effect All Natural Causes move for an end per accidens in that they answer the Ordination of the Creator who hath created all things for an end which accordingly act for the same out of Necessity of Nature Moral Efficients are moved by an end Yet it is not the end which produceth the effect but the efficient it self You
1 B. of the Parts of Liv. Creat C. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we ought to divide a being by them parts which are contained in its essence and not by its Accidents The division of Matter in Metaphysical and Physical may be rejected upon the same ground These divisions as they are objective appertain to Logick where only second notions are treated of and are very useful to the directing of Reason VI. Forms are divisible in material and immaterial If material is understood to be that which doth inhere in matter which is its most frequent and ordinary acception for most Philosophers take it in that sense then all worldly beings are material what being is there but which doth inhere in Matter You may say mans soul. The soul of man according to this acception is material But if you take immaterial for that which can or doth exist out of matter then there are immaterial forms Neither can this be naturally for a Natural Form is which giveth an actual specification and numerication to matter If so how can a form give an actual Specification and numerication to matter when it is not united to it I prove that the Form giveth an actual specification and numerication to matter Forma dat esse i. e. Specif Numer non posse esse materiae A Form giveth a being not a power of being to Matter For matter hath the power of being from it self and not from the Form This is true for most Peripateticks hold that Potentia is essential to matter The Soul of man when once freed from its tye to the body ceases to be a Form but therefore doth not cease to continue a being So that I conclude there are immaterial beings but no immaterial Forms It is ridiculous to doubt whether the Soul of man when separated hath an Appetite or Inclination to its Body or to that matter which it did once informate because the soul in its separated estate is a compleat and perfect being and doth not need a Body neither is the Soul a Form in that state Wherefore should it then have an Appetite to its Body Such an Appetite would be in vain You may answer that it wanteth a Subject to inhere or subsist in I grant it and therefore it subsisteth in God VII A Form is improperly divided in an assistent and informating Form because one being is satisfied with one Form for had it two forms it would be a double being 2. That which they intend by an assistent form is coincident with an Efficient Cause CHAP. XXIV Of the Theorems of Causes 1. That a Cause and its Effects are co-existent 2. That there are but three Causes of every Natural Being 3. That there is but one Cause of every Being 4. That all Beings are constituted by one or more Causes 5. That all Causes are really univocal 6. That all Natural Causes act necessarily 7. That the Soul of a Beast acteth necessarily 8. That all Matter hath a Form That Matter is capable of many Forms I. A Cause and its Effect are existent at one and the same time This Theorem is received among most Philosophers who render it thus Posita Causa ponitur Effectus The Cause being stated that is reduced into action its Effect is also stated or produced The Reason depends upon their relation one to the other to whose Relata it is proper to exist at one and the same time according to that trite Maxim Relata mutuo sese ponunt tollunt Relations do constitute and abolish one another II. There are three Causes of every Natural Being whereof one reduced to Action supposeth the others also to be reduced to action The Proof of this is demonstrated by the same Axiom by which the next forementioned was inferred III. There is but one Cause of all Beings A Cause here is taken in a strict sense for that which produceth an effect essentially and really distinct from it self In this Acception is an efficient the only cause of all Beings Matter and Form are no Causes according to this Interpretation but Principles because they do not constitute an effect essentially different from themselves A Cause sometime is taken in a strict sense for that which produceth an Effect different from it self modally and so there are two to wit Matter and Form Lastly A cause as it signifieth in a middle signification participating of each acception comprehends a triplicity of causes viz. An Efficient Matter and Form IV. All beings are constituted by one or more Causes God is of himself and not from any other as from an efficient cause and consisteth of one pure formal cause By formal Cause understand an immaterial being Angels are constituted by two Causes namely by an Efficient and a Form All other Beings are constituted by more V. All Causes are univocal This is to be understood of Efficients only Whatever Effect a Cause produceth it is like to its Form and is formal only For it cannot generate matter that being created Wherefore it cannot produce any thing else but what like to it self and consequently produceth alwaies the same effect whereas an equivocal cause should produce different effects You may demand why it hapneth that many effects are different as we observe in the Sun which by its heat doth produce Vegetables and Animals which are different I answer that the Difference doth result from the diversity of the Matter upon which it acteth and not from the causality that being ever one and the same The diversity of Effects is accidental to the Efficient and therefore not to be allowed of in Sciences VI. All Natural Causes act Necessarily Hence derives this Maxim Natura nunquam errat Nature doth never erre because she acts necessarily Against this Maxim may be objected that Nature erreth in generating a Monster This is no Errour of Nature It might rather be imputed an Errour if when it should produce a Monster it doth not That which acts after the same manner at all times doth not erre But Nature doth act in the same manner at all times Ergo she doth never erre I prove the Minor If she acts differently at any time it is in a Monster But she doth not act differently in a Monster as in the example forenamed of a Dog without Legs she doth through the Efficient cause educe a form out of the matter which she extendeth according to the extent of the subjected matter the matter therefore being deficient in quantity it is accidental to Nature if thereby a being is not brought to the likeness of its Species The Soul of man may be considered either 1. As a Natural Cause and so it acteth also necessarily in giving a Being and Life to the Body For as long as it abideth in the body it cannot but give Life to its Parts 2. As it is above a Natural Cause in that it hath a power of acting voluntarily without the Necessity or Impulse of Nature VII The Soul of a Beast doth act
free-will might be allowed and yet not be repugnant to Gods fore-knowledge for thought he doth God fore-know our actions then man must act necessarily and consequently infers the truth of Fate but since he could not grant a Fate over men because he saw they acted contingently therefore he did impiously rob God of his fore-knowledge Hence saith Austin de Civ D. Lib. 5. cap. 9. Atque it a dum vult facere liberos fecit sacrilegos and so since he endeavoureth to make men free-willers he makes them commit sacriledge As for this doubt it is little touched upon by Christians who certainly know that God fore-knoweth contingent things as contingent and to fall out contingently Necessary things as necessary and to fall out necessarily Psalm 33. 14. 1 Sam. 10. 9 26. Prov. 21. 1. Exod. 12. 13. Prov. 16. 33. Matth. 10. This subject is very well treated of by Anselmus in his Book of God's fore-knowledge and predestination This by the way And now I return to prove that God's Predestination is in no wise coactive upon the will of man for then the will of man would be a not willing Voluntas esset noluntas God is most just in predestinating man through Election and of his grace and mercy to salvation Eph 1. 5 6. and in predestinating others through reprobation and of his justice to damnation 2 Cor. 13. 5. Because his predestination is founded upon his fore-knowledge God therefore fore-knowing the evil wherein man is enhardened doth predestinate him to damnation This I prove God damneth man of his justice and God's justice hath a particular respect to man's evil actions Wherefore it is of God's justice and for man's sinne or evil actions that he is damned That God's justice hath a particular respect to judge and punish man with damnation for his sins the Scripture doth evidently testifie Luc. 12. 47 48. Aud that servant which knew his Lords will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes Ergo Man is punished for not doing the Lord's will and not because he was predestinated without God's fore-knowledge of his evil and unbelief Matth. 11. 21. Mat. 25. 41 42. Here Christ pronounceth the sentence of everlasting damnation against the wicked because they had not done his will in feeding the hungry and cloathing the naked Gen. 2. 17. Deut. 7. 26. Exod. 32. 33. So then if God doth damn man onely for his trespasses and sinnes he doth also for the same reason predestinate him to damnation Again Were God's predestination the sole and first moving cause of mans reprobation then Adam could have had no free-will of remaining in the state of innocency or of deflecting to the state of sinne but must necessarily and coactively have deflected to the state of depravation because God had predestinate him to it This assertion is impious Ergo God's predestination is not the first moving cause of man's reprobation What should God predestinate man to damnation without fore-knowing his guilt or without being thereunto moved through the fore-knowledge of his sinne then these Texts would be written to no purpose Hos. 6. 6. Ephes. 4. 22 23 24 c. John 3. 16 17 18. John 3. 36. Rom. 9. 22 23. Ezek. 33. 11. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Turn ye turn ye from your evil wayes for why will ye die O house of Israel Wherefore it is not of God's purpose to damn any unlesse being moved to it of his justice through their unbelief Likewise the Scripture doth reveal that predestination to life eternal is of God's grace and justice being thereunto moved by the saith of the righteous Mat. 9. 22. Rom. 4. 20 21. Ephes. 3. 12. Mat. 9. 2. Gal. 2. 20. Ephes. 2. 8 9. First Summarily I say that God's Will Decree and Predestination is the efficient cause of Reprobation and Election his grace mercy and justice are the moving causes Man's unbelief and belief are the objects of this motion in which or upon which and by which the fore-mentioned moving causes are moved which objects God fore-knowing determinates mans salvation or damnation from all eternity Wherefore we may observe that in many places of Scripture where predestination is held forth that God's fore-knowledge of mans belief or unbelief doth precede Rom. 8. 29. For whom he did fore-know he also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son What can be more evident Secondly Faith or good works for saith it self is the best of works and the fountain of all good works are the means whereby we are saved yet it is not faith or good works which dâ— meritoriously or efficiently save us but God is the efficient cause of our salvation Rom. 4. 6. So likewise unbelief which is the worst of works and the original of all evil works and sins or Atheismis the means through which we are damned yet it is not that which is the principal moving cause of our damnation but God's justice which doth reject and predestinate man to damnation Rom. â— 8. Thirdly God's will is either absolute whereby he can will all things and this is concomitant to Gods absolute power whereby he can do all things although they never are effected for if he can do them he hath also a power of willing them although he doth not will all them things which he can will or his ordained will whereby he willeth that which he doth will This ordained will is unchangeable hence God is said to have loved because he loved that is when God willeth to love he cannot but love because he willeth it and therefore his will is unchangeable God's ordained will is that man shall be saved through his belief and therefore cannot but save a believer because his will endureth for ever and is unchangeable Wherefore I said in the first Assertion That man's belief moved God's mercy because God hath willed it through his ordained will otherwise were it not for this what could man's belief avail in meriting salvation for at the best we are but unprofitable servants Luc. 17. 10. and so man's unbelief moveth God's justice to damne him because God willeth justice Wherfore I conceive that belief and unbelief are remote moving causes as from us by which we move God's mercy and justice And that God's mercy and justice are moving causes as from himself Fourthly Man hath then a power of disposing and preparing himself partially to and for the admission of God's extraordinary concurss and to a conversion from the state of sinne to the state of grace for to what effect or end would all the reachings of Ministers serve All their exhortations their labour and pains would be to no purpose 1. They strive to bend men into a care for their salvation by working that carnal security out of them according to that of Acts 2. 37. 16. 33. 2. They lay the Law
is Water and Ayr mixt together in such a proportion that the tenuity of the air may render the water attenuated and fluid that so it may be apt to penetrate through the depth of the Mixture for otherwise water of it self is of that thickness that it exceeds Ice or Chrystal Now this Ayr incrassated or Water attenuated doth open and expand the density of the earth makes way for the fire to enter and at last retaines the whole mixture in a coherence and compactness Of this more hereafter Again A body consists of the same Principles or Elements into which it is dissolveable but all natural bodies are dissolveable into the first Elements therefore all bodies consist of the said first Elements I shall only instance in some few examples for proof of the Minor Milk in its dissolution is changed into Curds which through their weight go down to the bottom are analogal to earth 2. Into Butter which containeth in it incrassated ayir and fire for it is also inflammable a sign of fire Lastly Into Whey which is responding to attenuated water The like is observable in Blood dividing it self into Melancholy expressing earth in its weight colour and Substance for drying it it becomes perfect Sand into Choler agreeing with fire in its motive and alterative qualities into pure blood through its gluing quality or lentor not unlike to incrassated ayr Lastly into Flegm or Phlegme resembling water Doth not the ordinary division of mans body in spirits impetum facientes humors and solid parts demonstrate its composition or constitution out of the Elements For the Spirits are nothing else but fire and ayr Humors contain most water and the solid parts most earth The Spagyrick Art proves the same by distillation through which water Spirits and Oyl the two latter being made up most of Fire and Ayr are separated from the Caput mortuum Sal fixum or earth and Subsidencies 'T is true Sal Sulphur and Mercurius are different Names but re ipsa are the Elements What is Sal but Earth Sulphur but fire and ayr Mercurius but water Hereby I have not only proved the existence of elements but also their Number nominatim atque in specie III. Give me leave to expound the Definition in the first place quantum ad nomen In the word Element is considerable its Etymology from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 capio quod element a in sese omnia capiunt mixta It s name is likewise homonymous in a large sense promiscuously convertibiliter denoting a Principle or Cause In a strict sense it is differing from both Eudemus Alexander and Thomas Aq. opiniate that through Principle Principium is only meant an agent cause through Cause a formal and final Cause through elements Matter Averrhoes and Albert. by Principles intend an efficient cause through Causes final Causes by elements Matter and Form Generally Principles are understood to be of a larger extent then Causes and Causes then elements So that Aristotle B. 5. of Metaph. Ch. 1. describes a Principle to be that from whence a thing is is made or is known by this you see that a principle is of a more large signification then either of the others but a cause is which contributeth to the being of a thing either by substituting it self for a Subject as the Matter or through actuating and giving it an essence and its consequence as the Form or by determining it to an end as the final cause IV. The distinction which I have made between them is that cause is of a larger extent then Principles are taken in Physicks but in Theology a Principle is larger then it these denoting the internal causes of a natural being as matter and form but remotely as I have already hinted Elements point out to sensible and immediate internal causes of a natural being V. A natural cause is which hath a vertue of acting naturally or which acteth according to that power which God hath conferred upon it at its first Creation So that Van Helmont saith well in his Physic. Arist. Dist. 3. Ego vero credo naturam jussum Dei quo res est id quod est agit quod agere jussa est But I believe that Nature is Gods Command through which a thing is that which it is and acteth that which it is commanded to act They are Causes to wit internal causes or principles of a being because they contribute themselves to the constitution of that being I said out of which because they are the matter of all natural beings and through which because they are also the Form of all the said beings How they are or become so you may expect to read below The elements are described and taken singly or separately ratione only or ex supposito and not realiter for they never did exist singly neither could they exist so supposing they were created in that nature in which they were because of their relative forms but confusedly in the Chaos Aristotle nameth the bodies constituted by those mixt bodies as if they were different from naturals but that was only to make good the first part of his Metaphysical Physicks and thereby to distinguish them from the others namely his proper and elementary Physicks VI. Three causes do concur to the production of a natural being whereof two are internal to wit natural matter and form the other is external namely the Efficient I prove the necessity of these three first there must be a Subject or Matter out of which a being is produced for ex nihilo nihil fit out of nothing nothing can be produced But I instance in some particulars the good wives know that for to make a Pudding they need Matter namely Flower Eggs c. to make it out of or to build a House a Mason will require Stones for his Matter c. Now when they have these materials they endeavour to make somthing of them that is to introduce a new thing shape or face into it or educe a new thing out of it which locution is more proper then the former it being the efficient doth ex intrinseco quasi formam educere and what is that but the Form And lastly Experience tels us that quod nihil fit a seipso nothing is produced from it self but from another which is the Efficient as in the building of a house you may have stones and Morter for your matter yet unless a Mason who is the Efficient place them together and introduce or rather educe the form of a House the matter will abide matter CHAP. V. Of New Philosophy and the Authours of it 1. Helmontius his Arrogance and Vainglory How and wherein he rejects the Peripatetick Philosophy His own Principles 2. The Life and Death of the said Helmontius 3. A Confutation of all his Physical Principles in particular 4. Some few Arguments against Rerè des Cartes his Principles in general I. I Thought fit to make a stop in my Discourse and before I proceed
any further to propose the Opinions of others concerning the first Principles Elements and Constitution of natural Bodies Baptista van Helmont impropriating the knowledge of true Philosophy and Physick to himself alone cals Hippocrates Galen Aristotle and all other wise men Fooles and terms their Dictates figments but withal propounds new foundations of Philosophy and Physick threatning a great danger to those who did obstinately adhere to their Tenents and promising an infinite treasure to such as should receive his Wherefore I shall first contractly relate his Philosophick Principles then examine them Fol. 33. of his Ort. Med. Dist. 3. He reproves the heathens for falsly teaching the Number of Elements to be four as also for asserting three Principles to wit Matter Form and Privation All things saith he are idle empty and dead and therefore stand only in need of a vital and seminal Principle which besides life have also an order in them He denieth the four Genders of Causes the first matter the causality of a form receiving it for an effect alone Further he states only two causes namely Matter and her internal Agent Efficient or Archeus In the same place he terms Matter a co-agent not a subject which he saith was improperly attributed to her by Philosophers And in Dist. 21. he denieth the congress of the four Elements yea not of two of them to concur to the constitution of mixt bodies His two Causes or Principles he cals bodies in one place in another as you may read below he detracts it from the latter The first of the said Principles is called ex quo out of which the latter per quod through which Dist. 23. he concludes water to be a beginning out of which initium ex quo and the Ferment to be the seminal beginning through which that is Disposing whence the Semen Seed is immediately produced in the matter which it having acquired becometh through it life or the media materia the middle matter of that being extending to the period of the thing it self or to the last matter Dist. 24. The Ferment is a created formal being which is neither a Substance or Accident but neither in the manner of light fire magnal forms c. created from the beginning of the world in the places of their Monarchy for to prepare and excite the semina seeds and to precede them I consider the ferments to be truly and actually existing and to be individually distinguisht through Species kinds Wherefore the ferments are Gifts and Roots establisht from the Lord the Creator to all ages being sufficient and durable through their continual propagation that they might raise and make seeds proper to themselves out of the water to wit wherein he gave the earth a virtue of germinating he gave it as many ferments as there are expectations of fruits Wherefore the ferments produce their own seeds and not others That is each according to its Nature and Properties as the Poet saith For nature is underneath the earth Neither doth all ground bring forth all things For in all places there is a certain order placed from God a certain manner and unchangeable root of producing some determinate effects or fruits not only of Vegetables but also of Minerals and Insects For the bottomes of the earth and its Properties differ and that for some cause which is connatural and coeval to that earth This I do attribute namely to the formal ferment that is created therein Whence consequently several fruits bud forth and break out of themselves in several places whose seeds we see being carried over to other places come forth more weakly like to an undercast child That which I have said concerning the ferment cast into the earth the same you shall also find in the Ayr and the Water The difference which there is between the ferment and efficient is that the former is the remote Principle of Generation and produceth the latter which is the semen which is the immediate active Principle of a thing Here you have a Synopsis of his Philosophy which in the progress throughout his Book he repeats ad nauseam usque II. When I first took a view of the Title of his Volume which was The Rise of Medicine that is The unheard of Beginnings of Physick A new Progress of Medicine to a long Life for the revenge of Diseases by the Author John Babtista van Helmont Governour in Merode Royenlorch Oorschot Pellines c. He might be Governour of himself in those places but not of c. I wonder what those places signified since the people of Brussel admired upon what his Heir liveth This old man in his life-time was strangely melancholy and by Fits transported into Phanatick Extasies questionless had he been of a Religious House he would much have added by help of these Raptures to the incredible Bulk of the Golden Legends but his Daemon turned them to Physick He had a great Design in Christening his Son Mercurius to have made another Trismegistus of him and not unlikely for wherever he is he is all-knowing I was much abused by the Title of his Tract hoping to have found a new sound Archologia and lighting upon ignorance of Terms abuse of words but a most exact Orthography limiting almost every second word with a Comma or a stop as being measured by his asâ—matick breathing The Fame which he deserved from his Countrey-folkes was equal to a famous Mountebank The Church-yard was the surer Register of his Patients His Arrogance and Boastings were Symptomes of his depravate conceptions His Cruelty fell it last upon his own bowels through which he lost his Life for the neglect of very ordinary means This is the account I had at Brussels of his Life and Transactions which I thought was not unworthy of my insertion in this place thereby to disadvise some from a rash belief to his vain words that so they might avoid the same Dangers and Cruelties upon their own and other mens Lives III. But in reference to his Dictates He rejects the number of four Elements without proposing any Argument for Confutation He denieth the existence of a first matter also without giving proof for the contrary Both which we have already demonstrated The form is an effect saith he and not a cause this argueth his misseapprehension of a cause and effect for most Authors agree that a cause in a large sense is whatever produceth an effect now the form produceth an effect in giving a specification to the whole It seems he intends nothing for a cause unless it be really distinct from its effect which in a strict and proper sense may be allowed but if granted nevertheless he is in an Errour for asserting Matter and the Archeus to be causes neither of which are really distinct from the being constituted by them Further it is no reason that because the form is an effect therefore it can be no cause for all beings in respect to their own production are effects and yet
man The great errour committed in trying of Witches by casting them into the water 3. That a greater Condensation or Rarefaction is impossible in the Earth 4. In what sense the Author understands and intends Rarefaction and Condensation throughout his Philosophy 5. The third Respective quality of Fire What Driness is The Definition of Moysture The third respective qualities of Water and Ayr. Aristotles Description of Moysture rejected That water is the primum humidum In what sense Ayr is termed dry in what moyst 1. THe Second Respective quality of Ayr is a continuous expression towards the Circumference as we see in water viz. in bubbles within whose body ayr being contained doth express the water to the Circumference When water is thus expressed to the Circumference we say then it is water attenuated or rarefied and when ayr is contained within the body of water so as it is not strong enough to come forth we say it is ayr incrassated but these are no real transmutations For can any body imagine that ayr is really and essentially incrassated or condensed as they call it or that water is attenuated or essentially changed into a thin substance by ayr I prove that a real incrassation of the ayr is impossible Peripatecicks generally conceive the incrassation of the ayr to happen when that ayr having thinly or naturally filled up a cavity there is as much more impacted in that cavity upon the preceding ayr as the cavity contained before Through this impaction the former ayr must needs give way into it self for to admit that ayr which is last entred wherefore say they there must be a penetration of bodies whereby that former ayr doth introcede into it self The ayr then thus introceding into it self is called ayr incrassated Water is attenuated when a Pint of water is diducted to a Pint and a quarter or more without being insufflated by the ayr or any other admitted body So rarefaction of earth is when the earth possessing the space of a Pistol Bullet is diducted to the extent of space of a Musket Bullet without the admission of any other Element Fire is supposed to be condensed in the same manner as Ayr is incrassated This is the true and evident state of the Controversie touching Rarefaction and Condensation Attenuation Incrassation which never any among the Peripateticks did yet truly state They supposing and taking it for granted that such a Condensation Rarefaction Artenuation and Incrassation is possible and hapneth every moment do proceed in debating whether a penetration of bodies be not necessary in Rarefaction and Condensation As for insufflation that is not to be called in question because we stated Incrassation and Rarefaction to happen without the admittance of any other body Wherefore proving such an Incrassation and Attenuation to be impossible and absurd their further surmising of penetration will seem ridiculous Supposing that a Glass were filled with pure water all the Arts of the world could not distend it without the admission of another body through the force of which its parts might be divided and lifted up Since then that water is said to be attenuated because its parts are lifted up diducted through Ayr and Fire retained with their body this cannot be a natural and proper attenuation of the real parts of water but only a violent diduction of water through the ayr which is under it Here may be objected That water when it is thus lifted up and expanded is stretcht and through that stretching its parts are attenuated and its quantity is increased because after the retching it possesseth a larger place To this I Answer that the encrease of quantity about the Surface is not through a single extent of water without access of other parts of water to it but the encrease is from the access of those parts which did possess the Center and now are beaten away and impelled to the Surface where arriving they must be extended in greater quantity and possess a larger place So that what is encreased in the Surface is decreased from the Center and its adjacent parts A Chord of an Instrument is producted in length because it is diminished in thickness and not from a meer quality without the Access of other parts 2. Were the natural thickness of water transmutable into thinness then one extream contrary would be transmutable into the other for thinness and thickness are as much contrary as coldness and heat or dryness and moysture and who ever knew the same coldness changed into heat or the same heat into coldness That would be as if one said one and the same was both cold and hot at the same time I guess your Reply to wit that through Thinness is not meant an extream Thinness but a less Thickness only I answer That if a thick Element is transmutable into a less thick then certainly through the continuance and intention of the cause of that less thickning it might become least thick that is most thin wherefore your Reply is invalid 3. Were thickness transmutable into thinness then every rarefaction would be a creation secundi modi or a new generation because such a transmutation is a non esse vel a nihilo sui ad esse aliquid for thickness is a positive if I may be suffered to term it so privation and negation of thinness because when we affirm a thing to be thick it is the same as if we said it is not thin 4. Thickness is a property quarti modi of water but a proprium quarti modi is inseparable from its Subject and that to remain in being II. The same Arguments prove the impossibility of incrassating Ayr and such a supposition is so far absurd that it is impossible and contradictory to Nature that one Minimum more of Ayr should enter into a Cavity already filled up with it and the ayr would sooner break the world then admit incrassation although but in one Minimum If the nature of ayr is to be thin then in taking away tenuity you take away the nature of Ayr. And if ayr could be incrassated in one minimum it might be incrassated to the thickness of water Lastly was there any such incrassation there must of necessity a penetration of bodies be allowed but a penetration is impossible ergo Incrassation also I prove that a penetration is impossible Suppose a hundred minima's of ayr were through penetration incrassated to fifty and these fifty to possess but half the place which the hundred did fill up I conclude then that through continuance and intention of the same incrassating cause they could be reduced to one minimum and from one minimum to the essence of a spirit or to nothing for since they through penetration have lost the space of Ninety nine unities of points through the same reason they might the easier lose the last unity and so become spirits and thence nothing if there was a penetration of bodies then the less body into which the
separated by our weak heat if Aq. Regia is too inferiour to separate their spirits from their earth much less our mild Ferment But supposing an impossibility to be possible viz. that by length of time this might be effected yet it cannot answer to the cause of so immediate an effect neither must we fly to that worn out Sanctuary of ignorance Ocoult Qualities for it is denied to these also to act at a distance But to keep you nolonger in suspence the truth of the matter is this the Heart the Brain and the Liver do alwaies sympathize with the Stomack the one through commonness of Membranes and Nerves of the sixth pair the other through the Branches of the Coeliacal Artery the last through the Mesenterical and other Branches of the Vena Portae especially in extream weaknesses This is evident Drink but a Glass of Wine and immediately your vital spirits will pulsate more vigorously your Animal motion will be rendered stronger and your Veins will swell upon it Wherefore the Stomach being much relaxed in most weaknesses and filled with Damps and Vapours and sometimes partaking of a Malignancy doth through the same Relaxation by continuation relaxe the Arteries Nerves and Veines inserted into her body whence their spirits are necessarily rendered feeble and moist Now then the Stomack being somewhat cleared of these moist evaporations doth recover a little strength which in like manner the foresaid Channels and Spirits do immediately grow sensible of which if so the case is plain to wit that the benefit which the noble parts receive doth derive from the depression of these damps through the weight of those precious Powders the same sinking to the bottom to conglomerate and contract the stomach by which contraction they expel the aforesaid Vapours Exhibite any weighty Powders as of Coral Crystal Bole Armen c. they will refocillate the Spirits and prove as suddenly cordial although ex accidenti as others of the most precious Carbuncles or Magistery of Pearl which is an undoubted sign that it is nothing else but their dense weight whereby they operate those Effects Neither must you infer hence that I assert that all weighty bodies are cordial no but only such as are densely weighty and have no noxious quality accompanying of them provided also their weight be not so excessive as to overpress the stomach By all this it appears how far Jewels may be said to be Cordial as for any other effects that are adscribed to them they are fictitious and deceitful You may Object that the Tincture or rather Magistery of Emeralds is commended for its miraculous vertue of stopping a Looseness I Answer That it is not the Emerald which is the sole cause of this Effect but its being impregnated with Spirits and volatil Salt of Urine which being very detergent and almost as adstringent as Alume do principally work that Miracle as you call it for digest its Powder with any other Menstruum and its Operation will vary Or abstract the Tinctures of any other Stone or Mineral Earth provided they partake of no noxious quality with the same Menstruum of Spir of Urin and you will assuredly find the vertue to be the same Thus much touching their Intrinsick vertue As for their External Effects they are more certain and evident 1. They do clarifie the sight through their Lustre and splendor by obtending the optick air They do cheer the visive spirits by moving them gently and as it were quavering upon them through their flashes and glisterings of Light This is very true for when you look suddenly upon a great Jewel the sparkling of it will immediately quicken your eye-spirits and as it were by consent cheer you The same effect we do plainly perceive in our selves when wecome suddenly out of a dark Room into the Sun-shiny Light wherefore I say the production of stones are ordained by God for to remain entire and to please the eye by being lookt upon and not to be broken into pieces and spoiled when they are become scarce worth a Bodel whereas before their value was of a great price Before I leave this Subject I will only insert a word touching the cause of their glistering and splendor A Carbuncle and particularly a Pyrope is alone said to shine in the dark although Sennert in his Phys. doth ignorantly deny it The cause of its actual light in the dark is an actual flame kindled within the body of the stone and there remaining Catochizated whose Light is further intended by a Reflection upon the thick waterish parts of the stone and glisters through its refraction by angles adherent to the matter and dividing the intrinsick Light The same to wit reflection and refraction is also the cause of the shining and glistering light of the other most precious stones VI. Among the less precious stones the Bezoar or as the Persians call it Pa Zahar a word compounded out of Pa against and Zahar Venom that is a stone against all kinds of Venom or Poysons But we here in these parts have a way of commending a thing far above what it is esteemed beyond Sea and Quack-like of extolling it against all putrid and malignant Feavers the Plague Small Pox Measles malignant Dysenteries and what not There are many of these Goat-Stags in Persia which are fed in Fields near a place called Stabanon two or three daies journey from Laza a great City of that Countrey These Fields protrude a great quantity of an Herb very like to Saffron or Hermodactyls whereon those Beasts do feed out of the subsidence and faeces of whose juyce remaining in the stomach the foresaid stone concreaseth which doth very miserably torment their bodies But if the same beasts seed upon other mountainous herbs this stone doth happen to dissolve and comes away from them in small pieces Now that a stone engendred out of an unwholsom and poysonous herb should work such Miracles doth by far exceed the Extent of my Belief Moreover Physitians are very conscientious in dispensing the dose of it imagining that 5 or 6 Graines must be sufficient to expel all Malignancy out of the humoral Vessels through a great sweat but I have taken a whole Scruple of it my self to try its vertues and found it only to lye heavy at my stomach and that was all Besides I have several times prescribed it to Patients in whom I never could observe the least Effect of it Supposing this stone were exalted to such faculties there is scarce one amongst a hundred is right for those Mahometical Cheats have a Trick of adulterating them and so thrusting two or three one after another down a Goats throat they soon after kill him and take the same stones out before witness who shall swear they are true ones for they saw them taken out The Tair of a Stagge doth expel sweat extreamly and may be used against poysons and all contagious Diseases Horstius commends it besides to facilitate hard Labour in Women
the first smart impulse The truth of the foresaid reason and manner is apparent in shooting a pole through the water where we may see the water at the farther end raised into a tumor which running about the sides to the other end causeth its propulsion Whence it is also that when there appears no more of the tumor of the water before the pole its motion doth instantly cease XI Disruption or bursting is a sudden separation of the parts of a body through a violent force moving from within This we see happens oft in Canons when over-charged or in bottels filled with water being frozen in the Winter o. Wine in the Summer being close stopt The cause of these latter must be imputed to frosty or fiery minims entring through the pores of the bottels in greater quantity than their capacity can take in and disrupting them for to avoid a penetration of bodies Bodies are oft said to burst through driness as Instruments c. but very improperly since it is the fiery or frosty minims entring their pores and filling their capacities and afterwards disrupting them because of avoiding a penetration of bodies So Instrument-strings are apt to break in moist weather because their continuation is disrupted through penetration of moist bodies into their pores Undulation is a motion whereby a body is moved to and fro like to water shaken in a basin or to the motion of a Bell. The cause is likewise adscribed to the first motion of the Impulsor which being terminated at the end of its return is beat back through the direct descent of the air impelling it by reason it lieth athwart Recurrent motion being but little different from this I shall therefore say no more of it The cause of reflection is the return of the impulse impressed upon the air or water both being media deferentia perpendicularly or obliquely upwards from a hard and plane reflecting body Of refraction the cause is the shuving off of the impulse downwards by the shelving sides of an angular hard body CHAP. XXI Of Fire being an Introduction to a New Astronomy 1. The Fires division into three Regions 2. The qualification of the inferiour Region What the Sun is What his torrid Rayes are and how generated 3. How the other Planets were generated 4. How the fixed Stars were generated 5. A further explanation of the Stars their Ventilation That there are many Stars within the Planetary Region that are invisible Of the appearance of new Stars or Comets Of the Galaxia or Milk-way 6. That the fiery Regions are much attenuated I. THe ground of the fires tending downwards you may easily collect from what I have set down touching the waters and airs commerce with the other Elements It s profundity we may likewise divide into three Regions The first whereof containing the Planetary bodies the next the fixed Stars and the third consisting most of purefire II. The inferiour Region through its nearer approximation to the air and its immersion into it is cast into a subtil flame whose subtility doth effuge our sight and Tact. The Sun is a great body generated out of the peregrin Elements contained in the inferiour igneous Region consisting most of condensed fire and incrassated air extended and blown up into the greatest flame and conglomerated within the greatest fiery cloud These igneous clouds are like to the windy clouds of the air which as they do daily blast down wind upon the earth so do these cast fiery rayes among which that which surrounds the Sun doth vendicate the greatest power to it selfe The manner of casting of its fiery rayes is the same with that of winds viz. The Region of fire forceth up every day or continually a great quantity of air somewhat incrassated and condensed into its own sphere through its descending force striving for a Center This incrassated and condensed air is impelled violently into the body of the Stars by other subtil flames as being more forcible to drive the said adventitious matter from them because their parts are so closely ingaged that they can scarce slow a minim without a penetration Wherefore they must necessarily be impelled gradually into the bodies of the Stars because these are mixt bodies that give way so much in themselves by expelling fiery or torrid minima's down into the air as to be capacious enough of receiving so many airy particles as the Elementary fire doth force up every moment But before I proceed in unfolding the manner of the Celestial mixt bodies their ventilations I must insist somewhat further upon their constitution III. The Celestial mixt bodies are not only like to clouds in their daily and minutely ventilations but also in their constitutions viz. The inferiour ones as the Planets are constituted out of the courser and more mixt matter of the finer cloudy air in the inferiour Region of the Element of fire like the clouds of the inferiour Region of air are constituted out of the courser part of vapours Their coagulation is effected through the force of the fiery Element crushing their matter from below upwards and again is repelled back from the superiour parts of the said fiery Elements because through its being pressed up are scanted of room and therefore do press downwards not only for room but also because of reuniting where they are divided by the said coagulated bodies Now it may easily appear to you 1. Whence that rotundity or rather globosity doth arrive to them viz. because they are circularly crusht 2. Because the air and fire of the said Planets do naturally spread themselves equally from the Center to the Circumference whence a circular figure must needs follow Also 3. That Stars are nothing else but the thicker and denser part of the Heavens coagulated into fiery mixt bodies to wit flames 3. That as they do decrease by Ventilation every day so they do also increase by the introsusception of new aerial particles 4. That they must necessarily be very durable because of the duration of their causes For as the great force of the inferiour parts of the igneous Heavens never desist from striving for the Center and do every day cast up great proportions of aerial matter so do the superiour parts never cease from compressing them into the bodies of the other condensed flames being disposed as I said before through their ventilation to receive them 2. Because the aerial parts being got into the Center of the flames cease from all external Local motion striving only to maintain their Center in rest IV. Fixed Stars are generated out of the subtiler parts of the forementioned aerial evaporations being through their less resisting gravity redounding from water earth in them rendred capable of being screwed up higher to the second Region where they are coagulated through the same motions of the Heavens that Planetary clouds are These are responding to the permanent clouds of the second Region of the air which as they are spread into more large
intermediate as bitter acerbe acid and salt p. 196. l. 12. r. assimilation p. 197. l. 1 3. r. Lynx l. 12. r. very near p. 198. l. 5. r. Fish l. 9. r. do l. 20. r. A Cat is delighted p. 230. l. 21. r. An Opale p. 238. l. 19. r. White Chalck p. 330. l. 6 9. r. rise p. 331 l. 36. r. Perinaean p. 343. l. 31. r. within p. 350. l. 16. r. River p. 363. l. 23. r. 28. p. 398. l. 34. r. doth Hence Ovid Ingenuas didicisse sideliter artes Emollit mores nec sinit esse feros * Take form in a large sense as it doth imply an Essence or entire Being * By really understand effectively properly * So a possible being which is a non ens reale may be concelved to be an ens rationis By Figure understand the Habit of Modes in one essence Aver Met. 7. c. 3. Tho. A. p. 1. q. 77. 1. Art c. 1. Herv qual 1. q 9. Apol. de an q 7. Thom. p. 1. q. 77. Art 6. That is a parte actus * That is by a formal reality or such as any other operation of the mind might adjudge to be formally real or to respond from without to that distinct formality which it conceiveth from within * Chap. 3. v. 17. and Chap. 1. v. 5. Lib. 1. cap. 1. Ethie * Luc. 8. None is good but God alone * L a. Ty. * Namely from Theology that is from its neerest end or Summum Bonum * Mark that practick here imports practick strictly so called and poetick * For even then he is assisted with God's ordinary power * Not as we are like unto men but rather unto beasts * Take Attributes here in a large sense Col. 1. 12 13. Col. 1. 26 27. * A description of the second Paradise you may also read in Isa. 65. 17 18 19 c. and in the next ensuing Chapter 2 Pet. 3. 13 and in the 21 and 22 Chapter of the Revelat Stob. Serm. 109. Xen. Mem. 1 4. Plat. dc Repub. l. 6. Lib. de Relig c. 9. Phaed. Just. Mart. or at Paraenet ad Gent. Plat. Phaed. Cicer. do amic Plat. Phaed. Lactant. l. 1. c. 5. Arist. l. de par animal c. 5. Arist. Met. b. 6. c. 1. Text. 1. * That is intirely separated existences That is beyond its points it is nothing * That is an actual vertue or continuated act Hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fundo sive consundo * That is an inequality of the elements in respect to parts or the whole whereby the central parts are perfused with more hear or spirits then the circumferential ones but notwithstanding the mixture is equal in particles * That is in the whole yet in parts or if not in parts they are in particles * Or rather is expressed by the overpowering gravity of the weighty clements as you may read below in the Chap. of Vacuum * Or rather are the easier expelled by the down presâ—ing earth * Hereby the earthy waterish parts are divided from the light ones and cast aside hence it is that we spy such a clodding together of waterish earthy particles and their separation from the light humours in bloud drawn from a feaverish patient * By taking advice from our sense * That is the spirits dispersed through the optick ayr * That is lucid * That is equal in proportion * To wit extrinsecally by peregrin water * That is homogeneously continuous * Compare the quoted place other wise you will scarce apprehend the sense of these consequences * Because it is represented without being terminated by any mixt colour * By pinching here do not understand a greater obtension but rather a relaxing or withdrawing from or a contraction of the light and drawing of it from the sight by being relaxed drowned deaded by a dense weighty body * Or rather by coagulating the white salt of the Aq. Fort. * Or a reflection continuated * Namely of an opake body * That is inheres in the air like an accident in its substance †Whereas an accident and its substance are not really different as hath been proved in my Metaph * That is fire not converted into a flame * viz. The pallate and gills * Or a perspective-Glass first invented some 40 or 50 years ago by Jacobus Metius of Alcmaer although accidentally by holding one piece of glass before another to his eye whereof the nearest was somewhat thicker theÌ„ the other * To wit from the extreme circumference of the second region to the circumference of the first * Because of its depressing weight * viz. To operate presently from the stomack upon the heart as soon as the medicament is swallowed down * The beast it self wherin it is found they call Pazan * And in the Island Vacquas near the mouth of the Gulph of cambain likewise in the Country of Pan near Malacca * I have wittingly omitted the inferring the Draconite as being dubious whether any such be in nature * In the iense ex pressed in the Chapt. of temp * Suppose them to be transversly contorted inclining from East to West most to terminate obliquely into the poles especially the North Pole in its North Hemisphere †That is in the North Hemisphere * To wit most in its lower region * To wit the Sun * Namely of the Needle * To wit the latent fire into which the extinguisht flame was dissolved * Except where it is condensed * Or by incision * Of each dissimilar part in particular * From the Buleares Ilands to wit Majorca Minorca * From Baltheus a Belt because it environeth Sconen like a Belt * These should have have been inserted in the preceding Chap. * Or 30 single periods * Hence you may collect the cause of the retardation of the tide every day * Namely at the bottom underneath ergo the waters must also begin to move from underneath * viz. The east west grove * Namely the west grove * Take notice by the way that by Grove I do not intend any thing like to a Grove of trees as the word is derived from growing but a cavern as the same word is derived from Groven or to grave into the earth * For one drop of water in an AEolipile is attenuated into a great blast of wind or air as the vulgar may call it Ergo c. * That is underneath some what what remote from the reach of the water atop * Or rather to be boâ—ed or prâ—fied through * And likewise the air about the Poles irrupting into the water as you may read in the next Chapter * To wit by the crushing of the air tending downwards * Add hereunto the rarefying beams of the Sun intending the force of the internal air towards the circumference in the same manner as you shall read it to be intended within the Earth in the next Chapter * These are very frequent off the Cape de bona Esper. where Sailers term them Travadas * Namely off the short of Cuba and Hispaniola * Or rather is detruded * Like Gun powder suddenly taking fire causing a violent noise when discharged out of a gun or any other close hollow body * Except they be descended so low as to find themselves seated within the upper erratick clouds * Besides it appears plainly in a Thermometer * To wit externally * Besides acutenesse as we have observed in the 1 B. 2 Par. as a concomitant of Density whereby a weighty body is also the better disposed to cut through the inferiour part of the air when pressed from the superiour * As in fountains that are led over a mountain or in Machins that raise the water higher than its source * To wit impressed upon the air by the Projector * Namely for to recover its place and to avoid a penetration of bodies * In the same manner as we have described the air to force up water in vapours * To wit being incorporated with fire * Compare the generation of winds hereunto for the manner is the same of both * That is is bound up by the continuous tenuity of the air * Witness the â—…sones * viz. the adventitious matter * Otherwise if held near to it it is conical * viz. as there are restant deg from 346 deg 49 min. c. to 360 degr * That is remoter †But accidentally by expelling those vapours that incrassate it * To wit from the knee