This name doth in a large sense expresse Philosophy and in a strict sense denotes Theology as it is defined here above The wise Apostle James seemeth to impose this very name in that place of his Epistle Wisdome that is from above is c. What is wisdom from above but the wisdom of God II. The Genus of the Definition is a Habit which is a rooted disposition whereby we are inclined to operate with ease It is not the enjoyment of one single happiness which can make a man happy for one act is transitory and is not at all durable but it must be a rooted happiness the possession of which doth make us happy for ever Since we are to live for ever we must either be rooted in happinesse if we intend to be everlastingly happy or else rooted in evil whereby we continue in misery without end III. The happinesse which we reap from this Philosophy is not an ordinary happinesse but it is a happinesse in its highest degree and Perfection or it is a durable contentment accompanied with the greatest joy that is possible to be enjoyed by us in this world On the other side the misery which attends the habit of evil is no lesse tormenting dismall and dolefull than the other is joyfull IV. The Differentia of the Definition is to possesse the greatest good and to live in the greatest happinesse All Practick Sciences do operate for an end and therfore are to be defined by that End To live happily is to live in contentment and joy There seems to be a Medium between living in joy and living in misery which is to live for a Passe-time For there are many who do all things for a Passe-time they play at Cards Dice and Bowls they discourse and all for a Passe-time Some take Tobacco and drink themselves drunk for to passe away the time Certainly these can neither say that they are affected with joy or misery but seem to be in a neutral state Of these doth Sallust justly give his opinion Multi mortales dediti ventri at que somno indocti incultique vitam sicut peregrinantes tranfiere Quibus profecto contranaturam corpus voluptati anima oneri fuit Eorum ego vitam mortemque juxta aestumo quoniam de utraque siletur There are many men who being given to their gut and to sleep continuing unlearned and rude have passed away their dayes like unto Travellers To whom indeed against nature their body was a pleasure and their soul a burden These mens life and death I judge alike for there is no notice taken of either V. Theology is Natural or Supernatural VI. Natural Theology is a natural habit of possessing the greatest good and living in the greatest happinesse that a natural man may attain unto in this world and in the world to come Supernatural Theology is a supernatural habit of possessing the greatest good and living in the greatest happinesse that a man may supernaturally attain unto in this material and in the next spiritual world It is not my drift to treat of supernatural Theology in this volume neither do I pretend more in that than a Christian Disciple and not as a Teacher to which a special Call and an extraordinary spiritual disposition must concur but my chief design and aim is rationally to demonstrate a Natural Theology such which a man through his natural gifts of reason and understanding may reach unto without an extraordinary concurrence of God with him The benefit which is hence expected serveth to convince those desperate and carnal wretches from their affected Atheism yet must be lesse affected with it than to be rooted and confirmed in it In which if otherwise they are Reasoning will not take any effect upon them The first doubt or query which a natural man doth or may propose is Whether it is possible for him to know through his reasoning if his soul be immortal For saith he if my soul is mortal it will prove in vain to make further search after happinesse then is or can be enjoyed in this world The second scruple which a man or rather the Devil doth foolishly move to himself is Whether the soul now being demonstrated to him to be immortal there is a God For whence can he expect any happinesse after death but from God Thirdly Whether it is possible to a Natural man by his own power and Gods ordinary assistance or concurrence to procure the possession of the twofold before-mentioned Summum Bonum But before I apply my self to the solving of these Doubts I must explain what the greatest happinesse is which I intend to perform briefly and clearly in the next Chapter I need not adde many words to the illustrating of the eminence and worth of this Divine Science since the name it self doth speak it The eloquence of Cicero doth thus set forth the dignity of wisdom in his 2. Offic. By the immortal Gods what is there more to be desired than wisdome what is better to a man what is more worthy of a mans knowledge The same may be better applyed to the wisdome of God that is concerning God God saith Austin is wisdome himself through whom all things are made and a true Philosopher is a lover of God in that he is a lover of wisdom If we are ignorant of God we are no Philosophers and through that ignorance we fall into great Errors Lactantius in his third Book doth expresse himself much to the same tenour where speaking of Philosophers he saith It is true they have sought for wisdome but because they did not search after it as they should have done they fell further into such errors that they were ignorant of common wisdom CHAP. II. Of the end of Natural Theology 1. Wherein Moral Philosophy differeth from Natural Theology and wherein it agreeth with it That the Heathen Philosophers were no true Philosophers Aristotle his dying words Epicure his miserable Death after so pleasant a Life 2. A Description of the greatest Happinesse Queries touching the greatest Happinesse 3. Whether the greatest Happinesse is the neerest and principal end of Theology 4. How the greatest Happinesse is otherwise called 1. ONe or other may object against our Definition of Natural Theology that I do confound it with Moral Philosophy I answer Moral Philosophy is taken in a large sense for a habit of living in the greatest happinesse here and hereafter and then it is synonimous to Natural Theology Or in a strict sense for a habit of living in the greatest happinesse only in this world which may be tearmed an Epicurean Moral Philosophy and is such whose object vanisheth with the expiration of the soul out of the body This last is grounded upon a false maxime of its End to wit that the greatest happinesse which â—â—â— be enjoyed in this world is essentially different from 〈…〉 which we may enjoy hereafter It is essentially different because according to their folly there is no happinesse to be expected any where
in it self no contrariety or principle of error Neither could he sinne in the pleasures of his mind they deriving from the contemplation of his Creator VII It is also certain that God as he is Creator and King of and over all his creatures did require obedience from them whereby they should expresse their subjection humility and love to him Wherefore no doubt he imposed some one commandment upon them which would be sufficient to testifie their obedience and subjection This command did not reach to the immediate or pure object of the soul but necessarily to the object of the Body The command upon the object of the body must have been aninterdiction of some one of its pleasures to which it was inclined otherwise had there been but little difficulty in it it would have expressed but an indifferent observance or love The pleasures of the body consists mainly imâ—ating so that it is probable some edible thing was interdicted from which man was to abstain And although this command did immediately extend to the body yet there being that sympathy between the soul and it the one could easily move the other whereby it did also mediately reach the soul also The breach of this commandment must have threatned some punishment for to imprint a fear upon man VIII This punishment was imposed upon that which should be the first inticer which necessarily was the body through its appetitive faculty No question but man sustained also the force of the Devil because we are yet minutely attached by him who wrought upon him in a disguise for had he appeared to man in his own shape man would have shunned him more by cunning and stratagems than as an open enemy By diverting him from thinking upon God in drawing his understanding to a sensual object so that he wrought first upon man's body in proposing some pleasant object to its appetite which did soon entice the soul's will Wherefore Man could not have deflected from God without yeelding to this attraction of the Devil and ceasing for a while from contemplating God to whom had he but returned in time it would soon have recalled him from all the allurements of the evil spirit However man went on in hearkning to the evil spirit And so much the more because it is probable the Devil appeared to him professing an entire friendship in proposing somewhat which might conduce to the amendment of his condition and pleasure of his Body This done the Devils work was the better half finisht Hereupon man yeelding to the Devils persuasion and to please his lust soon after forfeited his happinesse His distinct knowledge of things failed him his fruition of God was lost his bodily appetite was now more increased than ever and thence committed the same sinne a thousand times over All God's creatures disobeyed him beasts grew fierce herbs poisonous The Elements lost their purity the Sun yeelded of his light and brightnesse the starres of their virtues and influences This great alteration immediately hereupon succeeding he soon perceived that he had sinned and at the same instant felt the punishment for sin he needed no trial for his conscience yeelded Now let us collect what man 's punishment was for this alone first sin IX It was not a present unavoidable eternal separation from God for then God would have cast him into hell immediately like he did the Devil whose crime was unpardonable since he aspired to have been God himself and in whom there remained not the least spark of good but being rendred altogether evil there remained nothing in him worth saving Hence by the way I confirm my former proposition that man had a principle of good remaining in him after his fall for otherwise God should have cast him into hell immediately 2. It was a present temporal unavoidable death namely a separation of the soul from the body which he soon concluded from the alteration of his body and disposition to sicknesse through which his body at last must necessarily be brought to a temporal death yet this temporal death did not exclude an eternal one in case he neglected the most gracious means destained for his restitution 3. It consisted in a partial unlikenesse to God for before he knew all things distinctly by one operation of mind now by many then without errour now subject to mistakes and errours 4. The losse of Paradise The seat wherein he was first constituted was before full of all perfections abounding of all things for the good of man all herbs were nourishing flowers fragrant beasts of a soft pleasant and delightfull nature the Elements in their splendour the Earth fruitfull the waters sweet the air clear and wholsome the fire pure Soon after all was changed some herbs became venemous others still reserving some goodnesse in them some flowers changed into a stink others retained yet some sweet odour so some Beasts became wild others remaining tame a part of the earth remained barren and a part fruitfull c. X. Had man then become quite evil through this one act all that which had been subservient to him before would now have become noxious and destructive to him His knowledge of God was not totally blotted out his knowledge of all other things was not quite abolisht for he knew them still although not with the same distinction and evidence Since then it was so that part of mans enjoyments were yet remaining and that part changed into crosses it is probable that a part of the good in man remained and a great part of evil entred for had man not retained some good in him God would have taken all good away from him Now after the shipwrack of man's happinesse and admission of evil let us also examine what remained in him that might still be termed good 1. There remained in man after his fall a knowledge of his Creator 2. A Reasoning faculty 3. His body as yet in health but disposed to sicknesse and death 4. A place wherein to live All these Relicts were much impaired to what they were neverthelesse God left them for some end namely that they might serve man as a means for his restitution I had almost forgot to insert among man's remains his free-will for no question the first man had a free-will to good and evil which it is probable remained also partially in him after his fall CHAP. XVIII Of the manner of the Suppression Extinction Predominance and Triumph of the Habit of Good 1. The repetition of some of the principal principles of this Treatise 2. What it is that hindreth the Habit of Good 3. How the good Habit happens to be deaded and overcome by the evil habit How the good Habit happens to suppresse and vanquish the evil habit 4. That we are apt to incline most to those things that are forbidden 5. A proof inferring darknesse to proceed from the prevalence of the corporeal appetite 6. Why it is that a man must necessarily die The ground detected upon which the
Prophet is haec didicisset Whence saith he had Plato learned that Jupiter rid in a flying Chariot but out of the Histories of the Prophets which he had over-lookt for out of the Books of the Prophets he understood all those things that were thus written concerning the Cherubims and the glory of the Lord went out of the house and came to the Cherubims The Cherubims took their feathers and they hung together in circles and the Glory of the Lord of Israel did abide upon them in Heaven Hence Plato descending cries out these words Iupiter great in the Heavens driving his flying Chariot Otherwise from whom should he else have learned these things but from the Prophets And so Clem. Alexand. lib. 1. Strom. orat ad Gent. speaking as it were to Plato Leges quaecunque verae sunt tibi ab Hebrais suppeditatae sunt What ever true Laws thou hast set down are supplied thee by the Hebrews To this I answer That it is very improbable that Plato should have collected his Divinity out of Moses or the Prophets their writings being in his time not yet translated out of the Hebrew I should rather believe with others that he had sifted his divine Notions out of Hermes Trismegistus an AEgyptian who according to Suidas flourished before Pharho and was called Trismegistus because he had through a divine inspiration written of the Trinity And Sugul saith that he was called Ter optimus maximus the thrice best and greatest because of his greatest wit or according to others because he was a Priest King and a Prophet 'T is not only thought of Plato that he had gathered some riddles of God from the AEgyptans but also of Theodorus Anaxagoras and Pythagoras But I continue Plato's sentences The body being compounded is dissolved by death the soul being simple passeth into another life and is uncapable of corruption The souls of men are divine to whom when they goe out of the body the way of their return to Heaven is open for whom to be best and most just is most expedient The souls of the good after death are in a happy state united to God in a blessed inaccessible place the wicked in convenient places suffer condign punishment But to define what those places are is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence being demanded what things were in the other world he answered Neither was I ever there or ever did speak with any that came from thence VIII We must not forget Aristotle who lib. 3. de anim c. 3. closes with Homer in these Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Homer agreed in the same That the minds of mortal men were such as the Father of Gods and men did daily infuse into them Moreover lib. 1. de anim cap. 3. t. 65 66. he calleth our understanding Divine and asserts it to be without danger of perishing And lib. 2. de gener cap. 3. delivers his sense thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore it remains that the mind alone doth advene from without and that she alone is Divine for the action of the body hath not at all any communication with her action IX Virgil 4. Georg. wittily sets down God's ubiquity Deum namque ire per omnes Et terras tractusque Maris Coelumque profundum Hinc pecudes armenta viros genus omne ferarum Quemque sibitenues nascentem arcessere vitas Et 6. AEneid Principio Coelum ac terras composque liquentes Lucentemque Globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spirit us intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet That is For God doth go through all the earth the tracts of the Sea and the deep of the Heavens Hence do beasts and men and what ever is born draw their thin breath And in the sixth Book of his AEneids In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth and the melting fields and the shining Globe of the Moon together with the Titanian Star A spirit doth nourish it within speaking of the world and a mind being infused through its members doth move its mole and mingles its self with that great body X. The admirable Poesie of that Divine Orpheus lib. de Mundo is worth our observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter is the first Jupiter is the last Jupiter is the head Jupiter is the middle God made all things Jupiter is the foundation of the earth and of the starry heavens Jupiter is a male Jupiter is an immortall Nymph Jupiter is the spirit of all things Jupiter is the mover of the unruly fite Jupiter is the root of the Sea Jupiter is the Sun and the Moon Jupiter is a King Jupiter is the sulminating Prince of all for he covereth all he is a lighr to all the earth out of his breast he doth wonderfull things XI Trismegistus lib. 1. Pimandr renders himself very divinely The mind of the divine power did in the beginning change its shape and suddenly revealed all things and I saw that all things were changed into a very sweet and pleasant light And below in another place A certain shadow fell underneath through a thwart revolution And Serm. 3. Pimandr The shadow was infinite in the deep but the water and the thin spirit were in the chaos and there slourished a holy splendour which impelled the Elements under the sand and the moist nature and the weighty bodies being submerst under the darkness did abide under the moist sand Empedocles defined God a sphere whose center is every where and circumference no where Vincent in spec hist. l. 4. c. 44. Pythagoras described God to be a mind diffused throughout the universal parts of the world and the whole nature out of which all living creatures that are born do draw their life In another place he cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soul of the universe Heraclitus being at a certain time of the winter crept into a Cottage for to warm himself and being enquired for by some who were ashamed to come into so mean a place called to them to come near for said he the gods are also to be found here Athenagoras an Athenian Philosopher expresseth himself very profoundly God saith he hath given man a judgement of reason and understanding for to know intelligible things the Goodnesse of God his Wisdom and Justice ERRATA PAg. 4. lin 6. read of their l. 31 wisdom it self p. 6. l. 8. r. with those p. 8. l. 17. r. those l. 25. r. into good p 13. l. 19. r. wherein p. 15. l. 12. r. into that l. 28. r. according to p. 17. l. 29. r. those of the. l. 35. r. these causes p. 22. l 33. r. a man doth p. 25. l. 32.
in the 17th Chap. declares the necessity and certainty of mans death particularly in v. 5. Seeing his dayes are determined the number of his Moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass I cannot here omit the detecting of that dull vulgar Errour and Doubt arising about these very words of Job Their way of Argumentation is If the life of man is determined to a year a Moneth Day and Minute ergo it will prove in vain for me to have that care of my health and caution of hazarding my Life at Sea or at Land In fine there is neither Anticipation or Posticipation of Life Man acts voluntarily that is freely without any necessary or fatal impulse wherefore one who is drowned at Sea was not compelled to go and be drowned but went thither freely or might have stayed away if then he might have stayed away ergo his life might have been prolonged by staying away Or otherwise suppose a man is diseased with a Gangreen in some one extreme part of his body Cannot we say that this man if he lists may have his life prolonged by ampntating the gangrenous Member or if he will that he may accelerate his death in suffering it to increase and creep on But to Answer to the Text. Determination of Dayes is twofold 1. Of the Natural Course of mans Life as suppose that the Temperament of man will last and endure if it run off in a Natural Course to a hundred and twenty yeares some more some less now this term may be said to be Gods Determination of the Dayes of man when he hath determined that his temperament shall endure no longer then he hath made it to endure naturally 2. There is a Determination of life before it hath run out his natural course as when God doth manifestly cut down a man in the full strength of his years Again there is an ordinary determination of the duration of beings by which God hath determined that all things shall have their natural course of being acting and continuing Were it not for this ordinary determination of God he would never suffer the wicked to live or that any Natural thing should be serviceable to them 2. There is also an extraordinary Determination through which God hath determined to act beyond his ordinary determination in through or upon things which are ordinarily determined This determination is secret and called Gods hidden will Neither doth his extraordinary determination contradict or clip or change his ordinary determination but that God may or doth sometimes determinate beyond it This premitted I do assert that the determination of mans dayes in the Text is to be understood of Gods ordinary determination of the Natural Course of mans Life I confess although God according to his ordinary determination hath determined the Natural course of mans dayes yet he may through his extraordinary determination prolongate the same mans life to many years and notwithstanding thereby he doth not contradict his ordinary determination for a man having run out his full Natural course of life hath therein answered Gods ordinary determination which being expired God may and sometimes doth supernaturally and by his extraordinary determination superadd other natural Principles through which his life is prolonged thus was the life of King Hezekiah prolonged by God superadding new Principles of life whereby his life was protracted 15 years longer for through Gods ordinary determination he must have died fifteen years before because all his natural heat was spent through his Disease and his temperament run off Wherefore as the Text saith 2 Kings 20. 1. he must have died of a necessity but God extraordinarily superadding a new heat and a new life prolonged his dayes In the same manner doth God oft-times through his extraordinary determination cut down the wicked and shorten their dayes Psal. 55. Look back to the 9 and 10 Chap. of my Natur. Theol. Here may be demanded how Adam and Eves Bodies could have been of an eval duration supposing they had remained in their Innocency their bodies being tempered ad justitiam only and not ad pondus I Answer That according to all probability their primogenial temperature was by far more perfect compariativè then ours and therefore did not consume faster then their Natures could adunite other parts in the room of the dissipated ones besides that heat which was dissipated was only part of the moveable heat as for their fixt heat that was so arctly united and tempered that its nexe was indissoluble which through their Fall is become soluble This Controversie is stated and handled more at large by Beverovit Lib. de vit term and Gregor Horst Lib. 2. de Nat. human Exerc 4. Quest. 10 11. whom you may peruse at your leisure As Generation did import a twofold signification so doth Corruption 1. In a large sense it implies a natural dissolution together with the declining alteration thereunto tending 2. Strictly it signifies a violent dissolution of a mixt body through a preceding Putrefaction Hence those may be advertised who do erroneously confound Putrefaction and Corruption taking them for one Its Species are Combustion Petrification Corruption by waterish moysture and Corruption through ayry moysture You may easily understand the natures of them by what hath been spoken before Whether Corruption is possible to the Elements as they are now consisting mutually mixt one with the other is a Doubt moved by some I Answer that a total Corruption is impossible a partial one happens every hour for we see ayry bodies as Clouds dissolved every day the like happens in the Region of Fire where fiery bodies are dissolved every day and others again generated In the Earth and Water some bodies are likewise corrupted and others generated every day so Gold Silver and all other hard Metals are sometimes violently corrupted under the earth from an extrinsick potent and putrifying heat CHAP. XXI Of Light 1. What Light is The manner of the production of a Flame 2. The Properties and Effects of Light 3. That Light is an Effect or consequent of a Flame Whence it happens that our Eyes strike fire when we hit our Foreheads against any hard Body That Light is not a quality of fire alone That Light is not fire rarefied That where there is Light there is not alwaies heat near to it How Virginals and Organs are made to play by themselves 4. That Light is a continuous obduction of the Air. That Light is diffused to a far extent in an instant and how Why the whole tract of Air is not enlightned at once 5. The manner of the Lights working upon the Eye-sight That sight is actuated by reception and not by emission 6. The reason of the difference between the extent of illumination and calefaction That Light cannot be precipitated 7. That Light is not the mediate cause of all the Effects produced by the Stars That Light hath only a power of acting immediately and per se upon the optick
Papists were induced to state a Purgatory Their error rejected 7. That the proportion of these two Habits is various in every individual subject I. BY what hath been proposed in the fore-going Chapter you may now fully comprehend the nature of Darknesse or habit of evil and how man fell into it You may further remember that man had no habit of Good because nothing resisted his natural powers wherefore it is no absurdity to assert That man acteth now good and evil through acquired or infused habits Moreover let me desire you to take notice how man fell into sinne viz. That it was through the inclination and enticement of his corporeal or sensual appetite and that thereby his reason was not drawn aside violentè or coactivè but inclinativè and dispositivè that through this the body as it were got the upperhand of the soul insomuch that after the soul had submitted her self once to the command of the body she thereby forfeited her superiority that the body after the fall being corrupted and grown lesse serviceable to the soul it had stronger influence upon the soul than ever That the habit of the soul is nothing else but an easinesse of working its acts whether good or evil which is attained through frequent repetitions of the same acts and through it at last makes the organs easie and the objects fitted II. Where as all habits presuppose a difficulty through which the former acts have been hindred that which hindreth the good habit is the forcible drawing and prevalence of the sensual appetite whereby it is set on and inclined to sensual acts which for the most part prove to be evil III. Wherefore this good habit is nothing else but the same principle of good somwhat deaded and diverted by the sensual inclinations of the body for as a flaming fire may be deaded and choakt through black smokes whereby it is hindred from flaming and yet continue a fire and may blaze again were the smokes but discussed in fire we see when it begins to blaze a little by degrees it blazes more and more untill at last it gets to a flame which keeps its life the better and expelleth the smoke more vigorously but if it begins to leave flaming and come to blazing and from blazing return to a deadish light then the smoke overcometh it and deads it again Even so it is with the habits of the soul man's light keeps blazing untill it is deaded and choakt through the dark smokes of his inordinate sensual appetite but if it be ventilated and stirred up by frequent repetitions of good acts it is vivified and lasteth This light if it is once come to an intyre flame it can never be totally darkned possibly it may now and then remit somewhat of its lustre but in case this light doth only blaze a little now and then or it may be flame a while yet if it rise not to burn clear quite through neverthelesse it will perish and is to be counted for a flash IV. It is then the inordinate appetite of the body which smothereth up the light of the soul because through it she is led aside by harkning altogether to its motion and suffering the understanding and will to bend to its pleasures and especially to such which are forbden Nitimur in vetitum semper cupimusque negata That which the Law doth most from us require Is most gain-said by our perverse desire Herein is the habit of the soul deaded and overcome by the evil habit of the body The soul may produce good acts although with difficulty because she is opposed by the evil habit of the body But the oftener those acts are repeated the more the soul doth triumph over the body and subdueth it under her command yet not so as to tie up its whole force because the body being once corrupted cannot be redintegrated in this world there remaining a debt to be paid to wit death which was contracted as hath been shewed through guilt of the first transgression You may here enquire Why God through his infinite mercy doth not forgive man this debt of death I answer That God through his justice cannot that requiring plenary satisfaction otherwise God's threatnings and ordinances might be supposed to be in vain V. From all this it appeareth that the darknesse of the soul proceeds from the predominance of the corporeal appetite misleading the soul and consequently that the good habit of man is per se and the evil habit per accidens for the same perfections which the soul of the first man was indued withall are also conferred upon every individual soul because each of these doth immediatly emanate from God and therefore is most perfect Ergo the perfection or good of every soul is inherent in her per se and the evil which doth assault her is per accidens for it is from the body By the way let me tell you in case you doe maintain originall sinne and assert it to be propagated through infection you must agree in this very tenent viz. that it is propagated through the infection of the body which is per accidens to the soul for it cannot be propagated through the infection of the soul for that was created pure and perfect or otherwise you must affirm that the soul is ex traduce which is impious and atheistical VI. The body since it is so corrupted must be purified which cannot be unlesse the soul leaveth it for a while but as for the soul if it deserteth the body with an assurance of and in God's mercy and goodnesse it needeth not to die because it was not essentially corrupted but accidentally and expiring out of the body arrives to God's presence in the same purity and perfection as it was indued with at her first infusion Wherefore the Papists do most heretically mistake in arguing that the soul for to be purified must abide a while in Purgatory Here may be objected If the soul remaineth good per se and the evil be per accidens then the soul of every wretch being dissolved from the body is entirely pure and holy I deny the consequence for as long as God's justice is not satisfied for their sin committed in the flesh both their body and soul must necessarily be damned but as for the soul of a regenerated man the guilt of his sins being taken away and God's justice satisfied in this world the soul when dissolved from the body remaineth essentially and naturally good without any further purification VII The proportion which there is between these two habits is very various and different in most persons for we see that some persons their bodies and appetites are more depraved than others and consequently their good habits more deaded and that some have much more ado to rebuke their sensual inclinations than others CHAP. XIX Of Original Sinne. 1. How it is possible for two contrary Habits to inhere in one subject 2. The absurdities that follow this Assertion viz.
have explained the Elements to move each according to their proportion as in Coction Earth doth as much conduce to it through its contiguous and punctual motion to the Center as the fire doth in moving to the Circumference wherefore the Elements are to be adjudged equal causes of Coction VII Thus far we have spoken concernig Coction in general and as it may be supposed applicable singly to the Elements What remaines is to treat of the Species of Coction depending upon the combination of the Elements to wit upon heat incrassated heat condensed water rarefied and attenuated earth rarefied c. The Objectum circa quod of Coction is Crudity The Species of Coction are accounted to be three Maturation Elixation and Assation Maturation is a Coction performed by a thin and moderately condensed heat together with the co-action of the other Elements whereby immaturity is overcome and its subject perduced to maturity or a temperament ad justitiam This kind of Coction takes place in man who in his younger years is said to be immature and by process of time to be perduced or come to maturity All animals are perduced to their consistent Coction by Maturation Maturation takes its beginning from the Center whence it is that the innermost flesh of Beasts is the sweetest because it is the first soonest and best concocted Maturation renders a mixt body more compact and solid then it was because it consumes and expels the ayry waterish parts which being diminisht the remainder is left more solid and compact Through Maturation a body becomes sweeter as we may observe in all fruits growing sweeter through Maturation whereas they before were acerbous and austere A body through Maturation is exalted to a greater purity Elixation is a coction performed by a rarefied and attenuated moysture that is an ayry and fiery water and the co-action of the other Elements Thus the equality of temperament in Fishes and other waterish bodies proceeds from Elixation Through this thin and rare moysture all the parts of a mixt body are equally laid and through its fluor thick parts are attenuated dense ones diducted and rare ones condensed Assation is a Coction effected from a dense heat acting socially with a just proportion of the other Elements Thus hung Beef and dryed Neats Tongues are concocted All Metals are likewise concocted or purified by Assation I shall not spend more words to shew the manner of the variety of Coction since it is apparent by what hath been said before VIII A Decoction is an equal wasting of a concocted body hapning through the continuation of a concocting alteration Or otherwise it is an overdoing or an overcoction of a mixt body through which it must necessarily be wasted which notwithstanding remaines the same thing or according to Aristotle remanet idem Subjectum sensibile But in putrefaction a body doth not only wast but makes way also for a Dissolution and the subject is sensibly changed 2. Putrefaction derives from an unequal alteration caused by an immoderate and unequal adjunction of an extrinsick influent or adventitious quality to the least parts of one or more of the Elements But Decoction is equal and performed by the same causes that Coction was Or in a word the one is a violent and sudden motion to dissolution of the parts of a mixt body into their first Elements the other is a gradual successive flow durable prolonged and natural dissolution of a mixt body into its Elements As for the manner of Decoction it is thus You must conceive that in Coction the innate heat or whole temperament suffereth but little loss or dislocation because at the formation of any body the heat is so arctly joyned to the central parts that although it is attenuated through the Ayr yet firmly adhering to minima's of earth and surrounded with minima's of water it cannot be entirely loosned from its adherents before it is minutely divided and spread equally through all the body 2. The Minutes of weighty Elements arctly compassing the fire do detain the same fire from exhaling 3. When the Coction is perducted to its height and the Elements are equally laid their forcible alteration ceaseth but nevertheless a smal alteration doth still continue every minim yet pressing against the other whereby the superficial heat doth by little and little exhale whose vacuity the nearer light parts do succeed to fill up and afterwards those of the central parts next following When now the heat is so much dispersed expelled that it is grown invalid to balance the other Elements it is suddenly suppressed in an instant after which instantaneous suppression another form succeeds at the same nick of time and verifieth that Maxime quod Substantia generetur in instanti that a Substance is generated in a moment The reason why a form is so suddenly and in the least time expelled and another received is because when the heavy superficial parts and those next to them are freed from their light elements they move all together with one force which force faâ—â—ing suddenly and violently upon that small part of the remainder of the light Elements doth then violently and suddenly chase and expell them By this it appears that Decoction is natural because it is from an intrinsick Principle IX Putrefaction is a violent alteration of the Elements in a mixt body from too great an irruption of an extrinsick elementary quality which joyning with its like overpowers the mixtum and frees that Element from its nearest alligation to the minimal parts of the other Elements and so do both easily overcome the mixture Wherefore the cause of Putrefaction is an unequal temperature or distemper effected by the superaddition of an extrinsick elementary quality The Causes in particular are four 1. When the intrinsick earth is impowered by the adjunction of external pressing terrene minims which overpressing the innate heat and dividing it from the Ayr first extinguisheth its flame and then presseth it out from its body This Species of Putrefaction may be called a tendence to petrification and terrification I will give you an Example A man who is frozen to death is properly said to have been putrified by a tendency to Terrefaction for the external frosty Minims pressing hard upon him together with the intrinsick earth of his body do at last extinguish his vital flame 2ly and 3ly when external Moysture is adunited to the internal Moysture it doth also cause a putrefaction of that Mixtum through over-relaxing and opening the body whereby the light parts easily procure a vent This may be otherwise signified by a tendency to moulding Those small filaments that do usually adhere to the surface of a moulded body are nothing else but a diduction of the circumjacent Moysture into length and tenuity by the egress of Fire and Ayr. The Greenness or Grayishness of the said filaments is nothing but the fire splending and glistering against the circumjacent Moysture the refraction and reflection of which arising