with Dâ—ws and Rains and the officious Water runeth up and down to wash the face of the dusty Cortex and to bath and supple all the Limbs therof and also floweth forward and backward to carry and recarry the greatest Burdens from Shore to Shore Thus all the other more Active Elements as so many Circumsistent Servitors in their several Courses and Orders minister unto Earth which sitting still and resting in itself receiveth all their Homages and Tributes not Moving nor being Moved with all their Disorders and Confusions but founded on the Solid Base of its own Density and Gravity and strengthned by its own Consistence and fixed by its own Polarity doth also by its other Qâ—alitys fix all the more subtile and volatile Elementary Spirits Which covereth its own Nakednes with the Daedalous Embroidery of Leavs and Flowers and enricheth itself not only with the Stock of all the hid Treasures of Jewells Metalls and Minerals but also with all the Rents and Revenues of Annual Fruits and Profits both producing and mainteining all Vegetatives and the chief of Sensitive Animals yea Man himself whose Body is also formed of the Congenerous Dust and so the Earth which is given to the children of Men is the Stage of this great Amphitheater of the World wherin all the present Affairs therof are transacted and as all the other Elements are now subservient therunto so heerafter also the Superaether or Heaven of Heavens shall be the everlasting Mansion of Blessed Souls And now again let us tune our praises to an higher Note and bless God for the Creation of Vegetatives Grass Herbs and Trees and let us contemplate their several Kinds and Virtues which yet are Innumerable and Unknown to us their Curious Formations and Oeconomical Administrations the careless Comlines of their Leavs and Beautys of their Flowers the general conformity of their Greennes to our Sight and the delightfull varietys of all their other Colors how wonderfully they Compose Nourish and Augment their own Bodys and Generate others and having neither Sens nor Intellect in themselvs yet by their own Innate Plastical Virtues perform such works as no Sens or Intellect can Imitate or sufficiently Admire The Microscopical perfection wherof doth exactly correspond with the most Critical Sens and Organical usefulnes with the most Political Intellect And as God in the Begining Immediately Created the Heavens and the Eartâ— and the great Building of the whole World so they Mediately build all the Domicils and Officines of their own and all Superior Bodys as the Architects therof and Vulcans of all their Organs and Instruments and are themselvs together with the Subordinate Elements and Matter the Immediate Bodys of all Sensitive Spirits wherin they Reside and Operate and both Dress and Digest for them all their Nutriment wherof a great part is of the same Vegetative Nature which affordeth not only Salads for delight but solid food for strongest Animals Horses Bulls and the great Behemoth furnishing also Mans Table with Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man and Oil to make his Face to shine and Bread which strengthneth Mans Heart Renewing the Annual Fruits of the Earth as fast as all the Animals can devour them which in Mans better State were his sole Diet and since he tasted of their only forbidden Fruit are his Physick or Natures Tree of Life for healing of the Nations SECTION X. And God said Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to divide the Day from the Night And let them be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years And let them be for Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth And it was so And God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night He made the Starrs also And God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth and to rule ober the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes And God saw that it was Good And the Evening and the Morning were the Fourth Day EXPLICATION God having in the First Day made the Light and by it one Hemisphere of the Aether more Luminous then the other and thereby Day and Night Artificial in that first Day Natural which did accordingly succeed in the two following Days now in this Fourth Day did more particularly distinguish them by the several Luminarys which he made therin for that purpose and also for Signfications of Times and Seasons Months and Years and all the variations therof And he made two chief Lights the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night Also he severaly made all the Starrs according to their several natures And so sett all these Heavenly Luminarys in their several Positions in the Aether to run their several Courses therin and thereby to Illuminate the Earth and to make all the said Divisions and Distinctions of Time which was their Goodnes and Perfection And these were the Works of the Fourth Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Aethereal Luminaâ—ys 2. Of the Sun 3. Of the Moon 4. Of the Starrs 5. Of Comets 6. Of the Goodnes of the Works of the Fourth Day I. WE now proceed to discours of the Second Part of Creation wherin when God had before perfected and prepared all the â—ower Elements and planted the Earth which was the last with Vegetatives which he produced out of it he began now to Introduce into them all their more Locomotive Inhabitants and to shew the Connexion of both these two Parts of Creation it is again said of the first Created Light Sit or Fiat Luminaria wherunto as I suppose the Singular Number doth referr and that it must be so understood Lux fiat Luminaria for it is afterward Sint or Fiant Pluraly And I also observ that wheras it is said of all the other Days Works when they were finished and perfected generaly God saw that it was Good it is said of that first Created Light more particularly God saw the Light that it was Good though also afterward in the same Day he divided the Light from the Darkness but as I have before observed of the three Inferior Elements Air Water and Earth that it is not said God saw that it was Good untill they were all perfected and the whole Work finished so though Day and Night Artificial were made generaly by the division of the Light from the Darknes in the First Day Natural yet becaus they were also to be more particularly distinguished by the Luminarys and to be so ruled by the two great Lights expressly made for that purpose that is the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night therefore the Goodnes is not pronounced of Day and Night in the First Day but in this Fourth Day wherin the whole perfection therof was consummated so accurately exact is God the Author of Nature and Scripture both in his Operation and
to the Vegetative Deitys of Egypt but they who place him in the Center of the World and fasten him to it though otherwise they almost Idolise him yet heerby they even deprive him of that true Glory which God and Scripture ascribe unto him and therefore as I promised and becaus it is so pertinacious a Controversy I shall now again prove the Earth not to Move about the Sun but the Sun and Aether about the Earth and that the Glory of the Celestial Bodys is to Move about the Terrestrial and to bestow their Influences upon them and of the Terrestrial to Rest and receiv all their Benefits Thus the Text saith expressly God made the Luminarys to give Light upon the Earth whereby they Rule Day and Night and all the Seasons and therefore they are called Ordinances of Heaven and not of the Earth as God saith Knowest thou the Ordinances of Heaven Canst thou sett the Dominion therof on the Earth Now where the Rule and Dominion is there is also the Motion and Action whereby it is exercised and so thereby the Planets are said to divide the Light from the Darknes which the Earth should rather do if it did Move about the Sun and the Sun should only minister and as it were hold a Candle to the Earth Moving about it and it is also said in the First Day that God himself so divided the Light from the Darknes before Sun or Moon were made and thereby made Day and Night and as the Sun doth now divide the Diurnal Light from the Nocturnal Darknes by his Light so doth the Moon divide the Nocturnal Darknes from the Diurnal Light by her Light and so she was made to rule the Night as well as the Sun to rule the Day which certeinly she doth by her Motion about the Earth and therefore so doth also the Sun by his Motion about the Earth wherefore Ioshua who was the Disciple and next Successor of our Divine Philosopher Moses saith Sun stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moon in the vally of Ajalon Which conjunction of Sun and Moon had been very incongruous if the Sun did not Move as well as the Moon Diurnaly as he doth also Annualy and she Menstrualy but Ioshua should rather have said Earth and Moon stand still or only Sun stand thou still for so he had spoke either properly and truly or Popularly as they term it that is falsly wheras it is most absurd to conceiv him to speak both properly and Popularly truly and falsly at the same time and in the same words And wheras they say this was only Popular speaking they thereby do acknowledg that Mankind was antiently of this Opinion before Pythagoras Leucippus and other Graecian Wits fansied the contrary and therefore propounded it as their Novell Invention though I am not satisfied that they affirmed any more then the Diurnal Motion of the Earth about its own Center to save as they supposed the vast Aether so great a labor but I conceiv that they allowed the Sun also to Move Annualy aswell as the Moon Menstrualy wheras our new Philosophers whose Inventions are only Additions and their Additions some greater Absurditys will Move the Earth not only Diurnaly but also Annualy which is both contrary to Reason and Sens as I shall shew heerafter and also most contradictory to Scripture the Authority wherof no Christian should contemn much less oppose and that saith expressly The Sun stood still and the Moon staid and though it is true that the Sun doth not Move Diurnaly by his own Planetary Virtue as he doth about his Axis and Annualy but is carried about by the Diurnal Motion of the Aether which so Moves by its own Planetary Virtue as I have shewed yet even so the Sun Moves together with the Aether Diurnaly for Motion being as I said only a Transition from Place to Place though the Sun doth not so change his Place in the Aether by the Diurnal Motion therof yet he doth in and with the Aether thereby change his Place in the whole Body of the World and consequently Move as Rare Bodys do Move Localy in ascending upward though they are Moved Virtualy by the elevation of more Dens Bodys as I have shewed and so also the Sun and Moon and Starrs and Aether itself staid in all their Motions according to the Context So the Sun stood still in the midst of Heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole Day whereby as Siracides interpreteth it One Day was as long as two and afterward the whole Chorus of Heaven proceeded to Move again according to all the several Motions therof as it did before and certeinly the other is Maledicta expositio quae corrumpit Textum and destroieth the very Literal meaning of such an Historical and Memorable Matter of Fact and though I hope such Interpreters of Scripture may be true Believers of Matters of Faith yet the wild Liberty of such Interpretations doth so farr render Scripture no Scripture by an acknowledgment only of the Letter which they dare not deny and yet by denying the Sens which they will not admitt Wherefore plainly I will proceed to deal with them as I would with Heathen or any others that is by Reason and Sens Now wheras they affirm three Motions of the Earth I will accordingly examin them and first clearly explain them becaus I doubt they are not sufficiently understood nor indeed the very Doctrine of Motion generaly which some make only to be Remotion or Distancing of one Body from another and so confound the Motion of one Body with the Rest of others as I formerly observed and others confound opposite Motions from East to West and from West to East and generaly all confound Locomotive Action and Passion which are very different that is one a Moving and the other a being Moved as I said the Sun Moveth Actively in his Annual Motion and Passively in his Diurnal Motion and though both these be only Motions or Transitions in themselvs yet clearly one is an Active Motion and the other a Passive Motion which though they may not differ as Motions yet do so differ as they are Active or Passive and as they confound Motions so also the Terms of Barocenter and Center and Poles Axis and Aequator and the like as I have shewed which are Aequivocal Names according to the several Natures of the Things wherof they are expressed for so they may be either only Mathematical as all these may be painted and described on any Globe of Wood or Stone or the like Indifferently becaus there are no such things Physicaly in the Bodys therof or also Physical either in Terrestrial Bodys as Magnets wherin the Magnetical Virtue doth caus them all to be Physicaly to fix the Magnetical Body accordingly in one determinate Polar Position or in Celestial Bodys as Planets wherin the Planetary Virtue doth caus them also to be Physicaly to Move the Planetary Body accordingly in such a determinate
the other Annualy as I have said whereby it should Move both slower and faster about its own Cenâ—er at the same time which is Impossible otherwise then by an Epicyclicous Motion as I shewed in a Quern and that this is an Amechanon I appeal to any Mechanike or to any who shall Mechanicaly try to make a Terrestrial Globe so to Move the three several supposed ways or indeed any two several ways about any two several Axes of its own Body at the same time as certeinly none can Move by two several Progressive Motions at the same time without several Movers as is aforesaid so that though all the Relative Phaenomena of Aether or Earth may be solved by the Motion of either of them yet the three supposed Motions of the Earth itself cannot be solved wheras the Motion of the Sun about his Axis and also Progressively in the Zodiak Annualy and his being Moved and carried about Diurnaly by the Aether which is another Mover and so of Venus and Mercury Moving about him as any other Satellites about other Planets Progressively and being also Moved and carried about Diurnaly with him by the Aether are easily solved Primo Intuitu and according to the plainnes and facility of Nature without such Inconceivable and Impossible Inclining and Distorting of the Earth or their Brains as others have vainly done and can never approve unless they also find out some other Mover to carry about the Earth as the Aether doth the Sun which certeinly may not be the Aether becaus they affirm it to be Immovable nor the Air nor Water which have no such Diurnal Motions themselvs Wherefore though Scripture and the Verdict of all Mankind generaly besides themselvs were sufficient to turn the Balance and determin against such an Hypothesis wherof they can never be satisfied that it is so but only suppose that it may be so yet consydering that I have to deal with such Empirical Philosophers who make Sens alone to be both their Text and Topikes I have doubly and thus largely proved it against them that it is not nor cannot be so and though this last Ratiocination be also a Sensation or a Mathematical and Mechanical Demonstration yet I shall add one Sensible Experiment more which is agreed by all and that is the Motion of the Sun about its own Axis by his own Planetary Power whereby it plainly appears to be Actively Motive in itself and as a Wheel that may be Moved round by another Passively may by the same Passive Motion be also Moved Progressively and so all Coaches and Carts are Moved or drawn by Beasts so the Sun may and doth by the same Planetary Virtue whereby he Moveth himself about his Axis Move also Progressively in the Zodiak though not in like maner or by such proportionable Circumvolutions by his own Motive Power which apparently he hath in himself and so the Moon also Moveth about the Earth and the Satellites about a principal Planet and other Planets about the Sun which plainly shews that these Aetheruli are Motive and so indeed are all the rest and Aether itself wheras Magnets or Terrellae as I have shewed though they have Verticity yet cannot thereby Move once round about their Center nor at all about their Magnetical Axes and though they have a Magnetical Concursion yet one of them cannot thereby Move once round about the other by the Magnetical Virtue of one or both of them Wherefore the Earth is only a Magneâ— which cannot Move round by its own Magnetical Virtue and the Aether and Aetheruli Planets which do so Move round by such several Motions perpetualy and therefore we ought to ascribe these Motions to Aether and not to Earth becaus the Motion of either may solv the Phaenomenâ— and most Sensibly and confessedly the Aetheruli are so Motive and the Terrellae are not and so the Motion of the Aether and Aetheruli doth sufficiently solv them without any Motion of the Earth and wheras others would therefore ascribe Motion to the Earth becaus the Motion of that alone may suffice without the several Motions of all the Aether and so many Aetheruli they plainly contradict the Text which saith God sett them in the Firmanent of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth that is that both the Firmament of Heaven and all the Luminarys therin thus by Moving about this one Terraqueous Globe might give Light upon it by their Rays passing through the Diaphanous Air unto it as so many Lines from the Circumference to the Center and also the Reason of their very Nature which is most Motive of all the Elementary Bodys and likewise Sens itself which discovers them to be Mobile Others suppose the Earth should be more Mobile becaus it is less then most of the Luminarys which I believ was the first occasion of this Error but they consyder not also that it hath the least Motive Virtue which in the Aethereal Bodys is more proportionable to their Bulk and so the Sun is fitly compared to a Strong man or Giant runing his Race which he can do more swiftly then the Dull and Dwarfish Earth But their grand Argument and that which they esteem their most beautifull Helena though it be as fals and adulterine is the Orderly and Circumferential Situation of the Planets in their Spheres about the Sun as the Center wherof they make the Earth to be one but heer again the Moon doth break the Chorus becaus she Moves about the Earth and not about the Sun as the rest and so the Sun with them also about the Earth and therefore it is said that God made these two great Lights to rule the Day and Night upon the Earth as they principaly so Move about the Earth and all others about the Sun and they and all the others were sett by him in such Positâ—ons and to run such Courses whereby they might be most serviceable to the Earth nor are there any such several Spheres in the Aether as I have shewed but the true Spheres of the Elementary Globe are most Orderly and Circumferentialy situated about the Terraqueous Globe as the Center of them all without any Eccentricitys Epicyclicitys Hemitrochoids or the like and so the Air doth encompass it and the Aether the Air and the Superaether the Aether and thus Spheres properly and most conformably relate to their inmost Orb and not all or any one Orb in the Aether to the Orb of the Earth for so one Orb doth not relate unto another nor can Convex Orbs so comply as Concave Spheres with any Orb nor can they otherwise be Centers either of Gravity or Extension one to another becaus there can be but one Center to which all Gravia do tend as I have shewed and Orbs applied one to another make the greatest Chasms between them in their Extension And thus there is the greatest Conformity both of the Situation of the Elementary Bodys according to their more or less Density downward and of the Elementary Spirits
therin according to their more or less Activity upward wheras if the Sun should be supposed to be or have the Center of the World in himself he must also be supposed to be the most Dens and Dull of all Elementary Bodys who is the most Glorious and Active of all Elementary Operators and as he and the Moon so also all the Starrs were made to divide the Day from the Night and to be for Signs and for Seasons and for Days and for Years which is accordingly performed by their due and determinate Situations which however they may appear unto us yet by their very various Positions yea their Eccentricitys and the like they do so produce those varietys of Seasons and their Annos Saturni Iovis and others and observ such Orderly Courses as if we did rightly understand them we should easily conceiv and confess that it would be a great Monstrosity in any of them to be placed otherwise Thus the Sun who doth chiefly excell and exceed all the others in the two principal Aethereal Qualitys Heat and Light is seated at such a distance as doth best afford to the Terraqueous Globe a fiâ—t Temperature therof and doth Move and is Moved in such Courses whereby though he be but one Luminary yet his Heat is so distributed and communicated to all the Globe that there is no Zone Inhabitable as was antiently supposed and so also his Light in all the Parallels therof that in the whole Year though not every Day one hath as much of his Principal Light as another and they which are farthest from the Aequator and neerer to the Pole are also recompensed with more of his Secondary Light and have longer Crepusculae III. God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night that is the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night and wheras they are said to be great Lights that is no such Popular Expression as some would have it for as it is said so indeed they are great Positively though not greater Comparatively then all the others or so as the Sun is said to be greater then the Moon nor are they termed great Starrs but great Lights or Luminarys and so indeed they are greater then any others and this is the very sens and meaning of the Expression according to the Subject Matter which is immediately subjoined the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to Rule the Night and as they were all made to give Light upon the Earth so certeinly these two give most Light upon it the Sun by Day and the Moon by Night and to stop the mouths of all such Cavillers it is Oâ—iginaly not the Greater and Lesser Lights but the Great Light and the Litle Light and so indeed they are and as they are specialy named so their special differences from the rest are very consyderable not only of the Sun which are sufficiently noted and acknowledged but also of the Moon as her not Moving about her Axis her Epicyclicitys Apogaea and the like and though the Sun is the Illuminator of them all yet he ruleth Day alone by his own Diurnal Light wheras the Starrs attend and assist the Moon in their Courses and Orders while she ruleth the Night by the Conjunction of their Nocturnal Light but that which is most notable is her Moving so often Immediately and only about the Earth and never about the Sun also like others and it being the very End of the Creation of all the Luminarys to give Light upon the Earth this shews her to be another Principal Planet in that respect which is the chief End of them all as well as the Sun and so indeed the Sun and Moon do caus more Variations and greater Effects in the Earth then all the Planets and Starrs besides yet as I deny the Earth to be a Planet so I do not conceiv that the Moon is any more a Satelles or Appendix of the Earth then the Sun though she doth Move about it as the Satellites seem to do about their principal Planets which is not by any Magnetical Emanations of the principal Planets so carrying them abouâ— but by their own Planetary Virtues so Moving themselvs nor do they Realy Move about them Circularly as they should if they were so Moved by them but by such Hemitrochoids which they describe as I have shewed while the principal Planet Moves in a Line cutting the Perpendicular therof in the midst between the Basis and the Zenith whereby they are sometimes below them and sometimes above them and sometimes on the one side and sometimes on the other and so may seem to Move Circularly which is no Magnetical Motion as I shall now shew and yet they who can solv the Phaenomena by affirming whatsoever they pleas will join not only three Elements which are the very true and real Dividers and Sharers of the whole Elementary Globe according to their very different Natures Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys and also more or less Densitys of their several Bodys which are farr more evident and consyderable Distinctions and Heterogeneitys then any greater or less Quantity of Matter which as such is always Homogeneous but also the Moon itself which is a consyderaâ—le part of the fourth Element Aether into one Magnetical Correspondence and Combination Wherefore as I have proved that the Earth is no Planet or Moon so I will now also prove that the Moon is no Magnet or Earth and this I hope may also serv to disprove any such supposition of any of the other Planets which are of the same Aethereal nature with the Moon and as different from the Earth Certeinly we thus read that the Earth and all the Elements were made and perfected before any Planets or Sâ—arrs which afterward in this Fourth Day were made to give Light upon the Earth and not the Earth upon them or any of them and God placed them all in their several Positions about their Centrical Orb the Earth and the other Elementary Spheres about it before there were any Positions or Motions of the Planets and he made Dry Land and Seas in the Terraqueous Globe but not in the Moon or any of them and so the Earth and Waters and not they brought forth Grass Herbs and Fâ—shes and Fowls and Beasts And though Superaether and Angels be farther removed from us then the Aether and Aetheruli yet we have some Conusance of them and some Communion with them declared in Scripture but not of any Inhabitants or sâ—ch other things in the Moon or any other Planets so that if we will yet oppose Ipse Dixit to Deus Creavit we must say that not God but Man made this World in the Moon and they who can so Create in it Earth and Seas ought also to make therin Vegetatives yea Sensitive and Intellective Inhabitants for since we heer on Earth where God hath founded his Troop and made his Plantation
themselvs but also adapted so as to Colluminate together and give Light upon the Earth as it is so said of them all together as well as particularly of the Sun to rule the Day and of the Moon to rule the Night and thus they were made one general Constellation or Host of Heaven wherof the Sun who was made to rule the Day which is called Light and in respect wherof the Night and all the Nocturnal Lâ—ght is Comparatively termed Dâ—rknes not only as they were so Divided and Denominated in the First Day before there were any Moon or Starrs to rule the Night but now also again in this Fourth Day wherin the Luminarys were made to rule over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes was made also to be Fountain of Light generaly as the Ocean and the rest as Rivers or Streams of Light and as all the Luminarys and Constellations have their Influences so every other Planet and Starr and the whole Aether had their own Native Light more or less Actualy produced in themselvs and likewise an aptitude or Potentiality of production of a greater Lucidity and Emanation therof as well as of their Influences by the Sun whereby they also might give Light upon the Earth And thus as I have observed Univocal Generators do most Effectualy Generate and produce as Heat is so said to draw forth Heat and particularly Colors which are composed as I said of Lucidity and Opacity though they be Inherent in the Colorate Bodys wherin they are so Mist and do Subsist yet being so Mist with Opacity their Lucidity is thereby also so Imprisoned or fixed and confined to the Colorate Body that it is only Actualy Inherent therin and cannot issue forth in Emananâ— Rays whereby it becomes Visible unto us until it be Evoked Excited and Assisted by the External Light and the more Lucid the Color is as White and the like the more it is so produced as Whites are best Marks at a distance and a White Horse a better Mark or Guide in a dark Night then a Black and the more Light or Rays therof are cast upon any Colorate Object the more are the Visible Species therof produced wheras Culinary Lucid Bodys which of themselvs do Emitt their own Rays are not Assisted but rather have their Visibility Obscured by External Light especialy if it be greater as a Candle in the Sun and so the Starrs and Moon itself above the Horizon before Sun rising or setting are not so Visible as afterward as Water doth quench the flame of an Haystack which it before Incensed Wherefore I thus conceiv that the Native Light of the Moon being not a Culinary but an Aethereal Light Inherent in the Moon itself is like Color yet farr more Lucid and so farr more Evoked Excited and Assisted by the Solar Light as a White Color is thereby rendred more Visible then Black and that the Inherent Light of the Moon and External Light of the Sun so concurring by their more Connatural Homogeneitys do produce and draw forth themselvs together to so great a distance and with so great a Splendor and though the Sun doth so produce the Inherent Light of the Moon Positively by his Principal Rays when they are both above the Horizon yet the Moon doth not then appear so Visible and Splendid becaus Comparatively she is thereby made farr less Visible and Splendid then he is in himself for certeinly this Lucidity cannot be only from Reflection of the Solar Rays whether we suppose the Moon to be Cortical having Earth and Seas like the Terraqueous Globe which Sensibly doth not Reflect very farr or specular which may Reflect farther becaus the Rays penetrate less and more Splendidly in a fitt Position to the Ey being Reflected thereby more equaly but it must be also by some Inherent Light which is in the Moon itself that is so Collustrated by the Solar Light and by the Connatural Quality therof nor is it to be Imagined that the highest Planets and Starrs which are at the farthest distance and yet Emitt such a Splendid and Vivid Light should so shine only by the Reflection of the Solar Light Now though there are Spotts in the midle and seeming Gibbi in the Circumference of the Moon which I rather conceiv so to appear by such Intervenient Spotts therin yet this may not be from any Concavitys in the Body of the Moon and the unequal Reflection of the Solar Light thereby for there are Spotts also in the Sun whereby his conversion about his Axis is noted and yet he shines by his own Light but I suppose them to be only less Luminous parts and such defects of their Native and Inherent Light as I doubt much whether they were so Created in this Fourth Day and though Earth which is a Consistent Body may have such Constant Eminences and Water some Temporary Waves yet it hath been observed that as Flame of a Candle which is somwhat more Rare is rendred Pyramidal by Compression of the Ambient Air so if it be defended by another Intermediate Flame as of Spirit of Wine Inflamed or the like it will Conglobate within that Flame And wheras Saturn is commonly represented Oval it is said by a very curious Inspector that indeed he appears so if you behold him through a less Telescope but if through a larger you may discern two litle Aetheruli on each side of him and very neerly distant from him which make him so to appear when they are beheld together with him Confusedly and Indistinctly Though I shall not determine this or how they might be Composed and Constituted by the Divine Creator certeinly all the Planets do not Move in exact Circles but some of them describe Circles Indented with such Hemitrochoids as I have shewed but it shall suffice to have proved that the Moon and consequently the Starrs have their own Inherent Light as well as the Sun though perhaps not Emanant without his Collâ—â—tration and so plainly they have their several Influences and every one it s own Planetary Vâ—rtue Inherent in themselvs which Moves their own Bodys becaus there are such various and several Motions therof which therefore must be caused by various and several Motive Virtues The Moon as I have said doth not Move about her own Axis but she doth Move very notably and rapidly in her Zodiak Progressively and if we compute that Motion according to all her Revolutions perhaps as fast as the Sun which are the two swiftest Movers Progressively And the Moon as she is neerest to us so probably she is least Calid and Lucid wherefore her chief Influence is observed to be over Moisture not that she is Moist in herself which is a Quality of Water but as the Sun doth by his Heat draw up Vapors and also Desiccate or Concremate them whereby they do not presently return again into Water but turn into Dry Exhalations Clouds and Motes wheras more Moist Vapors and
That there was an Earth Comprehending also the Water as I have before shewed And the Water is heer called Deep which generaly in the Hebrew Style signifys Deep Water or Sea and heer the Element of Water like Altum and Profundum in the Latin Also the Waters are expresly mentioned in the following Sentence But Earth and Water were not first Created such a Terraqueons Globe as now they are and were afterward so Divided and Disposed in the Third Day and then first made to be such an Ocean of Waters and Dry Land both appearing together and composing one Surface and Circumference of their common Globe for that was the very Work of the Third Day Wheras the Psalmist saith of this first Creation of the Earth Thou covered'st it with the Deep as with a Garment And the same is implied heer in these words And Darkness was upon the face of the Deep that is of the Waters which first covered the Earth and not Immediately upon the face of the Earth which was then covered with the Waters Also the Darkness which was the Antecedent Privation of Light doth imply the Informity and Inanity both of Aether which is the Elementary Fountain of Light and of Air which is the Vehicle therof to the Terraqueous Globe and that as the Water was Created above the Earth so they above the Waters for it is said the Darkness which was then in them was upon or above the Waters And so God saith to Iob concerning the Sea When I made the Cloud that is the Dark Air the Garment therof and thick Darkness a swadling Band for it And so also was the Aether from which the Light was afterward Emitted through the Air to the Terraqueous Globe above the Air. And this Situation of the Elements may plainly appear by the Order of the Succeeding Creation wherin the Aether which is highest and next to the Superaether which as I have said probably was perfected in the Begining was first furnished with Light and then the Air with Vapors and lastly the Terraqueous Globe with Vegetatives in the Three first Days And so again the Aether with Starrs and then the Air and Water with Fowls and Fishes and lastly the Earth with Beasts in the Three last Days Also I collect from this Original Situation of the Elements that their Several Bodys of Matter were Proportionable and Conformable therunto that is the Matter of Earth was most Dens and consequently most Grave and therefore Lowest the Matter of the Water less Dens and consequently less Grave and therefore above the Earth the Matter of the Air more Rare and consequently more Light and therefore above the Water the Matter of the Aether more Rare and consequently more Light and therefore above all the other Elements and next to the Superaether which is most Rare as a fit Habitation for pure Spirits And that as every Element had its Proper Body of Matter so also its Proper Elementary Substantial Spirit Pure and Unmist in the first Creation therof And it was the Work of the Spirit of God Moving upon the face of the Waters to Prepare and Predispose them by fit Mistion and Temperature of them all and thereby to Produce their Proper Qualitys out of their Potentialitys into Act Gradualy and Successively And that their Potential Qualitys and also all other Simple and Primitive Substantial Spirits not only Elementary but in and with them Vegetative and Sensitive and all their Potential Qualitys were Created in the Begining together with the Matter that is Vegetative Spirits and Sensitive Spirits of Beasts in the Earth and of Fishes in the Water for so it is said Let the Earth bring forth Grass c. and again Let the Earth bring forth the Living Creature after his Kind c. and so also Let the Waters bring forth abundantly the Moving Creature that hath Life c. which plainly implys that these Spirits were in them before otherwise they could not so bring them forth And they were then Latent in those Elements Respectively which are Predominant in their Composita II. Thus was the Inferior Globe of these fower Elements first Created Inform and Inane which is more Emphaticaly exprest in the Original Language then can be rendred in any other The Author of the Wisedom of Solomon calleth it Matter without Form that is without any Corporeal Formosity or any Mistion or Forma Misti as they term it Both Greeks and Latines generaly call it Chaos and have preserved the Historical Tradition therof which they received from Antiquity But they seem also to Comprehend in their Chaos the Superaether as well as all the Elements or otherwise to have had no knowledg therof Also they Confound all together in one Congeries and thence have fansied that the fower Elements had their Actual Qualitys Existing therin in their highest Degrees and that there was Extreme Discord and Enmity among them And so Empedocles and others make Lis and Amor Original Causes of all things which were afterward Comtempered therin and the Poet accordingly Aque Chao densos divum numer abat Amoros But upon the Review of our Divine History as I find no farther mention of the Superaether in any of the Works of the Six Days and therefore conceiv it to have been Perfected in the Begining and first Creation therof for so it is said of it Whose Builder and Maker is God that is more Immediately and only by a Proper Creation therof without any Mediate Preparation Predisposition and Mistion as of the Elements and Elementary Natures and so that it was no part of this Elementary Chaos which was afterward Perfected in the Six Days so also I rather conceiv that there was only Imperfection in the first Chaos and that all the first Elements were first Created in their several Situations in Rest and Peace without any such Discordant Confusion which is reserved for the last Dissolution and Gehenna And the Hebraical words Inform and Inane seem rather to infer such an Emptiness and Privation then any Positive Contrariety of Qualitys then Actualy Existing in it and it is said expresly that there was Darkness or Purae Tenebrae therin without any Light and so probably no Heat which if it had been Actualy Existing in such Extremity therof might have prevailed over the rest as it shall in the last Conflagration or at least would have caused the Vapors to ascend from the Waters before the Second Day if the Air had all been so prepared by Mistion and the Actual Qualitys therof But probably there were no such other Qualitys then Actualy Existing for if not Heat then consequently not Cold which is the Contrary therof And the Earth is not Denominated Dry untill the Third Day and if there were before no Driness then consequently no Moisture and so of the rest And the Author of Esdras saith There was Silence on every side without any Sibilation or Tumult of Heat and Cold or the like And though not only Matter but
can be no Privative as Darknes which Light alway overcomes for such Contrariety is between Positives nor any thing which is not Active in itself as Density or any other Affection of the Matter which as they are not thus Actively Contrary to Heat so neither to Light or to any other Spiritual Qualitys whatsoever though according to the Universal Polity and Consociation of Nature they may be more or less Symbolical or Asymbolical And particularly Density is thus a Symbolical Affection of the Matter with that which is Contrary to Light as Rarity is with it and other Qualitys of Aether which as I have said requireth a very Rare Body and so Density is a Corporeal Affection Requisite and Analogous to the one and Rarity to the other but as there may be less Inherent Light in a more Rare Body then in a more Dens as in the Flame of Spirit of Wine then of Pitch which certeinly is a more Dens and Fuliginous Fume then the other so more of Emanant Light in a more Dens Body as Glass is more Diaphanous then thick Water through which it will sink and yet is more Opacous Wherefore there is somthing besides Density that is Contrary to Light which hath been well observed by others and acquired a Name whereby it may be known and is called Opacity which is a Quality of Earth as I shall shew heerafter And this is one of the other Qualitys of the Elements besides those commonly called the Fower First Qualitys which are to be Consydered and Regarded by Philosophers as well as them and as we may not Invent any new fictitious Qualitys which God hath not Created so neither may we lose any of them which he hath made to be in Nature nor Confound any Simple Qualitys with Compound nor Compound with Simple which God Created in the Begining before there was any such Composition and though indeed Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine Necessâ—â—ate yet whatsoever God hath Created Necessarily is becaus he hath Created it and therefore it is and whatsoever is is Necessarily while it is and none can Annihilate the Entity therof by any Finite Power of Nature and much less by Opinion and Fansy For at it is said of the Divine Word so we must also Consyder and Discours of the World as it is and none can Add to it or Diminish from it And God in his Infinite Wisedom did so Create the Heavens and the Earth in the Begining with all their Various Furniture of several Simple Essences becaus as it is his Infinite Perfection to be One in Himself so it is also the Perfection of Finite Nature to be Many in One whereby all the Various Perfections therof are Variously Expressed which could not be only by One. Wherefore I shall sett the same Bound to my self which God himself hath sett in Nature neither to go beyond the Begining of the World nor any thing which he Created therin nor to fall short therof or fear to affirm these Original Entitys to be such becaus God who is the First Caus hath so Created them without seeking any farther Caus or Reason therof or to deny any Natural Mistions or Compositions to be any such Simple Principles or Original Essences though he hath also joined them together with others so that we can not sett them asunder Localy by any Chymical Separation And such an Original Quality I find expressly Light to have been Produced into Actuality in the First Day which lay hid before in the Dark Chaos of Potentiality and by the same Reason I know that Opacity was also Produced together with Light and Mist with it in the Mistion of Aether with Earth as well as with the other Elements becaus there is neither Pura Lux nor Purae Teneâ—rae Actualy in Nature neither can I conceiv that any such Actual Qualitys can Exist Naturaly in their greatest Intension and Extremity and therefore probably might not so Actualy Exist in the Chaos before their Mistion and Contemperation which seems to be as Necessary to their Existence as the present Mistions of the fower Elements according to the first Works of God in the Six Days and Original Institution and Law of Generation and so must continue as long as any Successive Generation and Corruption and present Cours of Nature And this Opacity is a Terrene Quality wherunto the Density therof is Assistant and so Earth itself is most Opacous and Water less yet having some Opacity that causeth Refraction which is a Partial Reflection and so Air and Aether and all Diaphanous Bodys for there is no Pure Diaphaneity without any Opacity And this Opacity doth not only Reflect and Refract but is also Mist with Light in Colors and in Light itself which hath some Desultory Color and is not simply Visible of itself as I shall shew heerafter Thus the more fixed Qâ—alitys of Earth do fix the more Agile and Volatile Qualitys of the rest of the Elements being as an Alloy to Metall which makes it more Malleable And so particularly is Terrene Opacity to Aethereal Light for as Owls can not see by Daylight so the strongest Sight could not see the Pure Light nor can it Exist in its own Simple Vehemence without the Mâ—sture of Opacity And these Elementary Mistions are the Natural Perfections of the Simple Substances and Accidents which do therefore require it as well as Matter and Material Spirits do Consubstantiation as I have shewed Now Diaphaneity being only a less Degree of Opacity as Rarity is of Density it is also Partly Opacous and therefore as I have said doth Refrâ—ct which is a Partial Reflection or rather Inflection of the Rays from their own Natural Direction and there is no Diaphanous Body which doth not Refract more or less and none that doth Refract but doth also Reflect But in all Refraction and Reflection the Perpendicular Rays pass through the Diaphanous Body Perpendicularly and all Emanations Immediately are Perpendicular and neither A Perpendiculo nor Ad Perpendiculum as in Refraction or Reflection which as we commonly Intend by those Terms are always Oblique Lines Wherefore I suppose that the Rays of any Lucid Body are not so Refracted in the Immediate Medium wherin it is as of the Sun in the Aether or of the Flame of a Candle in the Air for as I have said the Flux or Eradiation of the Rays therof issues forth Immediately from the Inherent Light in most direct Rays and so they must Circumferentialy every way Penetrate their Immediate Medium with all their Rays Directly and not Obliquely as well as the Perpendicular Ray doth any Diaphanous Body which doth Refract the rest But we must also observ that as Opacity doth caus Refraction and Reflexion of the Rays so the Density of Diaphanous Bodys doth Ampliate or Distend the Rays of Expansion whereby it also weakens them So I conceiv that Refraction and Reflection are when the Rays having passed their Immediate Medium do meet with another
Created and so we read of Gold Bdellium and Onyx but this general System mentioneth only such grand Mista as Elements and Planets which in the Whole are Ingenerable and Incorruptible and therefore are particularly mentioned as they were so specialy Created IX The Earth being such as I have described doth plainly declate itself to be Immovable that is not apt to Move itself if possible to be Moved by any others Yet there are some who not by any Natural Power nor by Faith but Fansy can remove not only Mountains but the whole Earth not by heaping and raising it up to Heaven as the Poets report of the Giants but as if they had obtained the Victory for it can place it among those Idol Gods Saturn Iupiter Mars and others which I shall now disprove having already shewed how the Earth is one whole Element in itself Naturaly and only Localy United with Water in the surface therof and so made one Terraqueous Globe in this Third Day but not with the Aery Expansum which was made in the Second Day and how in the First Day the Aether was made to Move about the Earth with the Light therin Diurnaly which made Day and Night and that the Earth was not made to Move about it but remained in its Chaos untill this Third Day Wherunto I shall add one Text more as a Comment upon the other being part of that Divine Hymn of Creation Who laid the Foundations of the Earth or founded the Earth upon its Basis that it cannot be Moved And so where it is said The World also is stablished that it cannot be Moved it is to be understood of this Orbis Terrae particularly as I have shewed or if any may conceiv otherwise then it shews that the Circumferential Superaether as well as the Centrical Earth is Immovable like the Roof and Foundation of an Hous which are both Immovable though other Bodys Move and are Moved therin between them and though the Roof also may be supposed to be Mobile as some very great Amphitheaters have been turned about yet the Foundation must be Immobile otherwise it should not be such a Foundation and so it is expressly said that the Earth is so founded upon her Bases that it may not be Moved Now as the Earth hath no Heat Planetary Virtâ—e or the like Active and Motive Qualitys which might Move it as Aether so it hath such as serv to found and fix it which are therefore called the Bases therof and Pillars of the Earth whence it is also by others rightly termed Bruta tellus Thus as I have shewed it is the most Dens of all Bodys and consequently most Grave and therefore possesseth the Center of the World to which it is united as to another thing by its own Gravity wherefore as the Universal Center is Immobile otherwise it should not be such a Center so the Gravity of the Earth doth Indissolubly unite it thereunto unless there can be assigned any other Body in Nature more Grave then it which might extrude it Again as by its own Gravity it is thus united to the Center so by its own Consistence it doth unite all its Parts together whereby they will not nor cannot Move in the Whole as Motes in Water and though it should be supposed to have more Consistent Parts one way then another yet becaus they are all Consistent they do not flow every way to fill the Sphere but all weigh Perpendicularly downward upon the same Center without any Fluctuation Trepidation or Inclination any other way And to keep it from being Moved in the Whole about the Center any way it hath Magnetical Virtue to fix it in one determinate Polar Position North and South so that it can neither be Moved out of its Place nor in its Place but is wholy Immobile And becaus this Magnetical Virtue of the Earth is the only colorable Caus offered to prove it Motive and so the Planets are also said to be Magnets and both confounded together which are most different in Nature I shall now more largely disprove that Assertion and thereby plainly prove the Earth not to Move I have granted the Earth to be Magnetical and I do also grant the Aether to be Planetary and shall observ a wonderfull Analogy between them that is that the Poles of the Earth do so Correspond with the Poles of the Aether that if the Magnetical Axis of the Earth were produced it would Intersect the Poles of the Aeâ—her so as it should seem to Move round upon and about them for so the Poles of the Earth are North and South and the Motion of the Aether East and West but though both Earth and Aether have their Axis Poles Aequator and Meridian and the rest not only Mathematicaly but Physicaly as I shall shew heerafter yet they are not Univocal as some suppose becaus they have the same Names but Equivocal in Nature and Physicaly different for the Earth hath them all for Fixation and Rest and the Aether to direct the Motion therof as I shall now shew I suppose we all agree that the Verticity of a Magnet is a Motion from Pole to Pole that is from North to South or from South to North Meridionaly according to the Magnetike Axis therof and not from East to West or from West to East about the Axis and according to the Aequator therof and also that if the Earth did Move Diurnaly it must Move from East to West or West to East becaus it is so Illuminated Now I say that no Magnet doth or can so Move but only from North to South or from South to North as may be tried by any Magnet or Terrella which hath Verticity Wherefore they greatly err who affirm any such Motion of the Earth or of any Magnet about its Axis for indeed if it should so Move about its Axis according to the Aequator it could not also Move from Pole to Pole according to the Meridian as I shall also shew heerafter Nor did the Antients so express the Earth to Move about its Axis but Circa Medium or about its Center which yet as I have shewed it cannot do Diurnaly becaus that Motion is according to the Aequator Again Verticity which is the only Motion of one and the same Magnet by itself is not Circular but only from Pole to Pole Semicircularly and Concursion of one Magnet to another is not Circular but Directly Progressive and therefore it may not be Imagined that the Earth or Planets do so Magneticaly Move one about another as I shall shew heerafter And though the Verticity of the Earth be Potentialy in it yet it never is nor shall be Actual for unless it could be Moved from its Polar Position there is no need nor use therof and such Potentialitys though they be never reduced into Act are not vain becaus they are Hypothetical and first suppose a violence which Nature abhorreth and so Superaether as it is Matter hath Motion as well as
Expressions And though the common Light and Day and Night thereby in Aether and the ascent of Vapors in Air and eduction of Earth above the Waters and madefaction therof by them was sufficient for the productâ—on of Vegetatives which therupon were Immediately produced as I have shewed yet before the Introduction of Fishes and Fowls into the Water and Air and Beasts and Man into Earth it was requisite that the Aether which Sensitive Animals only can behold and by the Lighâ— therof all other Spectable things should be made perfect and complete and adorned with all the various Luminarys 〈◊〉 in their various Positions and runing their several Courses and so ordered and disposed as might best serv both for the Sensation of Sensitive Animals and Contemplation of Intellective Man And though these Luminarys were made after Vegetatives yet they are not therefore Vegetative or of a Superior Nature above Vegetatives as Vegetatives are above all that were made before them and as Man the chief of all was made last for though indeed this Order is observed in each of the Parts of the Creation and so the Creatures made in the last were respectively more excell ent then they which were made in the first Part therof yet the Luminarys which were made in the first of the last three Days are much Inferior to Vegetatives which were made in the last of the three first Days for they are Elementary and of the Elementary Classis though chief Composita of the chief Element Aether but all Elements and Elementary things are Classicaly below Vegetatives and though Planets have Locomotion out of their places which Vegetatives have not but only in their places being all Rooted in the Earth yet Locomotion is also in the Matter when it is dislocated and indeed no Material Spirit can so elevate their Bodys and caus them to ascend as Matter doth necessarily to Union and to prevent Vâ—cuâ—ty as I have shewed and much less are the Planets Sensitive or Intellective in themselvâ— or any such Deitys or Daemons as the Idolatry of Heathens made them and their Philosophy durst not contradict nor yet Moved by Intelligences or Angels as the Rabbins and Scholemen suppose for they can be only External Movers therof wheras Planets Move by their own Natural Power and Intrinsecal Virtue like the Verticity of Magnets and are not Moved like Studds fixed in solid Spheres as I have proved and as the Eccentrical Motions of the Planets therin do thereby plainly disprove and therefore others affirm them to be Magnets and the Earth which is the great Magnet to be a Planet but certeinly Aether and Earth are two different Elements having different Elementary Spirits wherin the same Qualitys cannot Subsist as I have shewed and so the Aether cannot be Magnetical nor the Earth Planetary unles we can also make the Aether to be Terrestrial and the Earth Aethereal wheras Heaven and Earth are generaly contradistinguished in the Begining and particularly Aether and Earth were made two several Elements in two several Days and Aether being as I have shewed Fluid cannot possibly be Magnetical which requires a very solid Consistence certeinly the whole Aether which is a Concave Sphere cannot be so Magnetical as Earth which is an Orbicular Globe for it cannot have an Axis and consequently Magnetical Poles as if a Ring of Iron be touched with a Loadstone it will have only one Pole and though the Aethereal Planets be Orbs yet they also are Fluid and Sensibly all Aethereal Motions are Circular and Perpetual wheras Magnetical Verticity is only Polar or to a Pole and not round about the Center nor about an Axis like Motion of Planets but to the Poles therof when by Trepidation it passeth beyond them and so Moving its own Axis the same way that is Meridionaly and not according to the Aequator of its own Body as I have shewed wheras if Earth and Water and Air as they say and also Aether and the Planets were all Magnetical they should make one Magnetical Orb and all Move one and the same way which plainly they do not or if otherwise one be Moved about another as they say the Moon is about the Earth it should observ the Magnetike Law which it doth not as I shall heerafter demonstrate of the Moon Thus the Magnetical Planetary Motions are very different and indeed opposite in their very Natures and Ends for Planetary Virtue makes the Planets to abhorr all Rest and Magnetical Verticity is to reduce Magnets to their Polar Rest. Wherefore we may not confound them though they are both Elementary Motions and not only Motions of the Matter or only by the Pondus therof as the Flux and Reflux of Water nor by Impuls like Winds in the Air wherof I have formerly discoursed nor yet any Vegetative Sensitive or Intellective Motions wherof I shall discours heerafter as indeed all things are Motive or Mobile one way or other within the whole Globe of the World and the Circumferential Superaether and Centrical Earth are only Immobile and as we are Sensibly satisfied concerning Magnetical Verticity so thereby we may conceiv of these other Planetary Virtues which God produced in this Fourth Day in the Planets as he did before the Magnetical Virtue in the Earth and Magnets Whereby also it plainly appears that Motion is not only of the Matter but also that Elementary Spirits may have a Motive and Directive Power in themselvs as well as any other Superior Spirits and from their different kinds and ways of Motion we may collect the very different Motive Powers and Virtues of the several Movers wherof Matter is most general and only tending unto a State of Rest in the whole Body therof and Center of itself wheras Magnets have a more particular Position of their Bodys which is Polar Rest North and South and a Verticity particularly to reduce them to it and Planets have their several and various Positions and Courses and an answerable Planetary Virtue which so setts them and Moves them and makes them to abhorr all Rest and Vegetative Spirits are more Plastical but Involuntary and Sensitive Spontaneous or Voluntary Movers and more indifferent either to Motion or Rest. And thus as Magnetical Bodys may Move from Pole to Pole Semicircularly by their Magnetical Verticity so we may very well conceiv how also Planets may Move Circularly which is only a continuation of Motion through the whole Circle whereby also they may so Move Perpetualy and as the Needle doth leap to the Loadstone by the Magnetical Virtue Actuated in itself which Motion is Progressively Locomotive so may also Planets by their Planetary Virtue which is always Actual in them Move Progressively in the Circles which they describe but though the Magnetical Virtue which setts the Magnetical Body in one determinate Polar Position may be removed as I have shewed and pass from that part of the Magnet wherin it now seats itself and which thereby becomes Polar unto any other part
therof and so render that Polar as may be sensibly seen in any Terrella whereby it is plainly proved that the Magnetical Virtue is a Spiritual Quality which can so remove itself from any part of the Body of the Matter to another and not any fixed Affection of the Matter itself yet Planetary Virtue being seated in the whole Orbicular Body of the Planet doth not nor can it so remove itself becaus it always possesseth the whole Body not Polarly or Ovaly but Orbicularly or at least it is therefore not to be discerned so to vary its own Situation in the Planetary Body Now as God in the First Day did Actuate that proper Aethereal Virtue which also may be termed Planetary causing it thereby to Move about the Inferior Globe from East to West in fower and twenty hours or therabout whereby he made Day and Night which could not otherwise be without such a Circumgyration of the Aether and of the Globe of Light therin as now the Aether doth still Move with all the Planets and Starrs in it whose Planetary Virtue is diversified into several other Motions which yet are all only Planetary Motion Genericaly as if wheras the Polar Position of the Magnetike Earth is only North and South God should have diversified it in other Magnets or Terrellae and made some East and West and so to any other Points so it is also said that in this Fourth Day he made Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to divide the Day from the Night that is to caus more particular Variations therof longer or shorter sooner or later and the like which must be by their Planetary Virtues Actuated in them whereby they Move respectively in the Aether as the Aether doth about the Inferior Globe and so they were not only for Days but also for Years Months and the like which though more or less then the Solar Year are the respective Years of their particular Planets Lunar Jovial or the like as we commonly call them And so God made not only the two great Lights to rule the Day and the Night that is the Sun and Moon as both Scripture and Nature do declare but it is said He made the Starrs also And God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven so as to perform these several Offices by all their various Courses Thus I conceiv that the Aether having the Planetary Virtue therof Actuated in it in the First Day when God said Let there be Light a great part of that Aethereal Light was divided from the common Light of Aether which was left and still is in the whole Body therof though not so Visible to us and that Globe of Light as it was generaly Connatural with the Aethereal Light being in one Hemispere of Aether was carried about Diurnaly by it and with it and not any other way by any special Planetary Virtue in itself which was not Actuated before this Fourth Day but that this common Globe of Light so divided and wherof we have no other account was the Chaos of the Potentialitys of all the Planetary Virtues which were afterward educed out of it and that then they were not only Moved in and with the common Aether Diurnaly but by their own special Planetary Virtues Predominant in them and directing every one of them to Move according to their several Courses for though Locomotive Virtue be common to Aether and all Aethereal Bodys yet the Motion of Aether from East to West Diurnaly was by a proper Planetary Virtue as I have said Actuated in it when God so divided it from that Globe of Light which is eminently called Light and made Day and so mutualy that Globe of Light from the rest of the Aether and Aethereal Light which is Comparatively called Darknes becaus it made only Night as I have shewed And so this particular Chaos of all the Planetary Potentialityâ— being so divided from the common Aether and not having any Planetary Virtue Actuated therin was carried about in and with the common Aether in the three First Days and then it was again divided into all the particular Planets and all their particular Planetary Virtues were respectively Actuated therin and by those special Planetary Virtues they perform all their several Planetary Motions and Courses Nor is it less wonderfull if we rightly consyder it how they Move in their several Zodiaks being indeed no such Gemmeous Studds or Bullae fixed in the Aether as some have imagined for both the Aether and they also being Aethereal Bodys are Fluid nor do they Fly or swim therin by any Spontaneous Power like Fowls in the Air and Fishes in the Sea becaus they are not Spontaneous but they are all Aetheruli as I may so term them and so their Original Globe of Light was only such a particular Portion of the common Body of Aether not differing from the rest but only as it was more Lucid for so it is said of the formation therof that God divided the Light from the Darknes in the Aether but not any part of the Aether from the Light or the Light from it nor is the Body of the Sun or any Planet more Condensated as I have shewed though they shall heerafter sink through the Fluid Aether to the Air and Earth at the Last Day when they shall be discomposed and disordered wheras now they are Connaturaly adapted to the Aethereal Heaven and so it is said of the Light Fiat Luminaria in Expanso and they are all equaly Expanded in it but their Light is farr more Conspissated as it was in their Original Globus and yet such Conspissation of a Spiritual Quality doth not make the Lucid Body to be more Dens or Grave which also proves Light not to be Corporeal but a Spiritual Quality as I have said and indeed as all Heat doth Naturaly Rarefy so should they be rather made more Rare and Light thereby but that Aethereal Bodys are already as Rare as any Elementary Power can make them to be and yet though we may easily conceiv them being Equirare with the common Body of Aether to be poised therin as Glass Bubbles in Water it is also to be consydered why or how they should still Move in their Regular Circularitys and not to be diverted or removed as such Glass Bubbles may very easily be and we have the true account heerof in the Text Posuit he sett them so at first and so they are still continued not by an Immediate Manutenence as he doth not Move them by an Immediate Manuduction but by the same Planetary Virtue Actuated in them and causing them Naturaly so to Move in their own Zodiaks Now becaus as I have observed there is no Produxit of any of these Planets as there was before of Vegetatives and afterward of Sensitives and indeed becaus there was such a Globe of Light decided before from the Aether which was the common Chaos of them all and wherof they were so many particular Decisions I conceiv that they were
so many several Composita made therof whereby they are all thus different and several one from another as they are all from the Planetary Aether as it is said God divided between their Light and the other Aethereal Light and that every one of them is a Specificaly different Compositum in itself and that every Individual Planet is such a Phoenix in its kind that it is also a whole Species in itself wherefore it is said that God particularly made not only the two great Lights but the Starrs also and so it is said There is one Glory of the Sun and another of the Moon and another Glory of the Starrs for one Starr differeth from another Starr in Glory And therefore their Creation is thus specialy mentioned and was the whole Work of this Fourth Day and so I conceiv there are no such Aethereal Compositae as Stones Metalls Minerals are Terrestrial Composita and wherof no such special Creation is mentioned as I have observed but neither that there is a Simple Spirit of every one of them Created in the Begining by a Proper Creation And I conceiv that these vast Individua which are also so many Species in themselvs made Immediately by God as I said can neither be Naturaly diminished nor multiplied as Comets which are Anomalous may be for so the Starrs are said to be for ever and it is said of God their Creator and Preserver He telleth the number of the Starrs he calleth them all by their Names though Supernaturaly and Miraculously he may compose a new Starr as probably that which appeared at our Saviours Birth was such an extraordinary Starr and so is specialy called His Starr which yet did not continue but after it had performed the End for which it was made was again dissolved for otherwise the Ordinances of Heaven which are said to be Unchangeable should be changed and the Constellations therof disordered And though the Starrs be every one such a several Species yet there is also a Combination of them all generaly as they are all one Host and of some more specialy which are called Constellations and are not only such in Name but also described to be such in Nature so wheras it is heer said that God made the greater Light that is the Sun to rule the Day and the less that is the Moon to rule the Night the Psalmist saith To him that made great Lights c. The Sun to rule by Day c. The Moon and Starrs to rule by Night c. where he divideth the Moon and all the Starrs as a Separate Constellation from the Sun alone and attributeth unto them their several Offices to rule by Day and by Night for though all the Starrs do not attend the Moon every Night yet they do by turns and therefore she alone is said to rule the Night becaus she doth so every Night more or less and though as I said the common Aethereal Light divided from the whole Globe of Light which was the Stellant Light and wherof the Planets and Starrs were all made afterward did make the first Night as that Globe of Light did the first Day and that Nocturnal Light is therefore called Darknes Comparatively which had neither Moon nor Starr in it yet in order to Sensitives who need more Nocturnal Light the Moon and Starrs or a great part of them were added in this Fourth Day to rule the Night whereof therefore there is also such an Additional Expression To rule over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes Thus also more specialy there are said to be Courses of the Starrs and many of their Constellations particularly named and their Cooperations denoted Canst thou bind the sweet Influences of Pleiades or loos the Bonds of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season or Canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons Now wheras some have Curiously inquired in what time of the Year the World was Created which the Poets fansy to have been in the Spring becaus that indeed is the time of Renovation and the Rabbins in the Autumn becaus then all Fruits and the like are in their Perfection as they were first Created certeinly neither of their Computations can be true of the very first Creation in the Begining for then there was no Year nor any Commencement therof but only Day and Night generaly in the three first Days and in the Fourth Day the Planets were made for Days and for Years and then they must also calculate their Computation for the Meridian of Paradise otherwise when it was Spring in one part of the Earth it was Autumn in the other as it is now to us and our Antipodes But such is our Human Vanity that we will Curiously pry into those things which God hath thought fitt to Concele and yet not acquiesce in those things which he hath pleased to Revele II. In the History of the Creation of the Planets and Starrs it is farther said of them that God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth Wherefore certeinly they are all Lucid not only as all Aether is in itself but so as to give Light upon the Earth otherwise they could not so give Light upon it and so certeinly the Earth is not Lucid in itself otherwise it should not need to be Illuminated by these Heavenly Luminarys Thus as the Apostle saith There are Bodys Celestial and Bodys Terrestrial but the Glory of the Celestial is one and the Glory of the Terrestrial is another and so neither are the Planets any Magnets nor the Earth a Planet but as several Elementary Natures they differ Genericaly and have their several Generical Glorys that is their different Goodness described and expressed in the History of their Creation severaly in several Days and which also evidently appeareth in Nature as may satisfy any except such who being confounded in their own Understandings can also confound Heaven and Earth which differ farr more and otherwise then the Aether and Planets differ one from another for they are Bodys Terrestrial and Bodys Celestial wheras these are all Genericaly Bodys Celestial though they also Specificaly differ one from another in Glory And of all these Celestial Bodys the Sun is incomparably most Glorious who as I observed alone is opposed to the Moon and all the Starrs and also preferred before them all for they with his Solar Illustrations and Secundary Light only make Night in the backside of the Earth which is but as the Shadow of his Diurnal Presence and therefore is still called Darknes and so he is said to rule by Day and they to rule by Night Whose darting Rays penetrate through all the Spectable World and are bounded only by the two common Bounds of Nature Superaether and Earth and in all the Elementary World there is Nihil simile aut secundum Wherefore Heathen generaly worshiped him as a God who yet in the Scale of Nature is farr Inferior
Accidents nor can he Realy transmute himself or be converted into any other Inferior Nature whatsoever and much less can Matter which is the lowest and basest of all others convert itself or be coverted into any Superior Nature Certeinly that which they so affirm to be in Potentia must be either Ens or Non-ens while it is so in Potentia and if it be Nonens then Non est in Potentia as I have shewed of Vacuity and if it be Ens then as I have said it is also an Entity Created by God in its Potentiality or Chaos and so produced by Natural Generation into Actuality as if Vacuity could be any Ens then it must also be Created by God or Concreated with the World and should not be before nor beyond nor any where out of the Created World and Body of the Matter therof as others have vainly supposed of such an Imaginary Space Nor is their Forma Misti or Compositi any other thing then the Result of the very Mistion and Composition of those Primitive and Simple Entities according to their own Natural Coordinations and Subordinations in the Scale of Nature which God hath so erected and ordered that they have in themselvs all the Natural Principles therof and an Aptitude and Appetite to be so Mist and Composited in all Successive Generation according to that Law of Original Generation and therefore Forms are no such things as are formed or ordered by I know not what Cholchodea or come I know not whence aliunde extrinsecus into the prepared Bodys but as I have shewed there are also other Substances or Substantial Activitys besides the Body of Matter Created by God in and with the Matter that do Consubstantiate Inform or Inspirit it and fabricate and fit it for themselves and also mingle and compose themselvs in and with it into one Mistum or Compositum according to the Order and Oeconomy of Nature by their own Internal Principles and Powers which God hath also Created in them Which Substantial Activitys or Active Substances I therefore call Spirits as the Scripture also doth so call not only Substantial put also Accidental Aâ—tivitys as the Spirit of Wisedom Jealousie Meekness and the like and they may well admit it who say Omnia Animarum sunt plena and particularly that there is a Vegetative Soul which yet as the Scripture doth not so express I can not admitt for Soul is more special and proper to Living Animals but Spirit though Eminently it signifies the chief of Spirits that is the Intellective and so Soul and Spirit are sometimes distinguished yet more generaly it signifies any Substantial or Accidental Activity whatsoever and is so commonly used by Chymists Physicians and others as I also use it in a more Spiritual sens And though I dispute not about Terms yet certeinly such a Proper and Improper Creation of the Primitive and Simple Entitys both of Matter which is a Passive and Receptive Substance and of the Accidents and Affections therof and of all those other Substantial Activitys or Active Substances which I call Spirits and of all their Accidents and Affections Created in the first general Chaos and the Original Generation or Production of them by Mistions Compositions Actuations and Perfections in the Six several Days and accordingly all Successive Generation by Production out of any particular Chaos of the same Entitys or Essences which are so Generated or Produced are such Real Veritys that I am perswaded no Philosopher whatsoever can Realy satisfie himself or others concerning the first Principles and Origines of all things and all the Alterations by Generation and Corruption by any such supposed Potentia Materiae Eminencâ—s and Equivocal Causations Transpeciations and Conversions or the like which are only Terms and Notions and no Realitys in Nature nor can ever confute or disprove this Divine History of Creation either in the general System therof or in any of the particulars which Moses proceedeth afterward to declare And thus wheras the Antients generaly conceived the Aether and Aethereal Bodys to be Superelementary and Sacred he sheweth us plainly how Aether is one of the Fower Elements and so was first prepared in the first Day wherin Light which is a principal Quality therof is said to be so produced for the Substantial Spirit of Fire or Aeâ—her was Created before whereby it is denominated one of the Heavens and afterward termed Expansum as well as the Air nor doth he affirm it to be solid or firm but such a Fluid Expansum as Aâ—r also is and plainly implieth that it was moved with the Light in it about the Inferior Orb whereby God made Day and Night before the Earth or Water or Air were so made or fitted or that there was any Motion therof or therin And the Air which is Naturaly an Expansum cannot be Naturaly a Compressum whereby in its own Element or Atmosphere it should Naturaly seek to expand itself more and thereby Elasticaly press as some would have it Also both Aether and Air are called Heavens as one is the Fountain and Immediate Medium of Aethereal Light and the other the Vehicle and Immediate Medium of Sight and so I suppose that Air doth Refract or Reflect very little nor are either Objects in the Air nor Starrs in the Aether thereby seen Intersected and Inverted as through a Convex Lens in the Air nor so much magnified and distended as Divers see Objects in the Fundus of Water Again in this Second Days Work Moses declareth Vapors in the Air to be only Waters above and thereby intimateth the Special Instrumentality therof in Nature for so indeed Vapor is almost as Chymical an Instrument as Fire Nor yet doth he affirm these Waters to be above all the three Heavens or any of them as some suppose but only in or upon or all over that Heaven wherof he treateth in this Second Days Work or more Criticaly as it is Originaly from above and certeinly we cannot suppose any Water to descend from above but only that whiâ—h first ascended from beneath Nor is this ascent of Vapors the necessary and only caus of Winds wherof we have no mention in the Creation and if any Wind then were it was probably some very tender and gentle breath but greater Winds and Storms which are effects of the Curs are also caused by grosser Vapors which whether moist or dry are not Formaly the very Wind for that as such is only Aer motus but may be the Efficient Causes therof as any other Impuls or Ventilation of Blasts or Ventiducts and generaly moist Vapors Caus more Rain and dry more Wind as appears by Herricans in more hot Countrys And in the Third Days Works he shews how wonderfully God formed and prepared the Oâ—cumene or Hâ—bitable Globe by causing the Waters to Subside in all the Chanells of Seas and Rivers which he cut out for them and by raising the mighty Mountains which may be therefore rightly termed the Mountains
THE Divine History OF THE GENESIS OF THE WORLD Explicated Illustrated Juven Sat. 14. Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses LONDON Printed by E. C. A. C. for Henry Eversden and are to be sold at his Shop under the Crown in West-Smithfield next Duck-Lane 1670. Premonition to the Reader HE who included Homer's Ilias in a Nutshell made a very good Kernell for it if the Brevity in Writing was not compensated with as great Obscurity and difficulty in Reading Wheras in this Divine History we have the Genesis and System of the whole World in one Leaf yea one Page delineated as in a Mapp not without sufficient Clearnes as I shall shew in my Explications And as God hath left farther Inquiry into Particulars to Human Ingeny and Industry I accordingly expatiate in my Illustrations still keeping as close to the Text as I may for longius a Verbo longius a Vero. Wherin though I cannot be as Brief as I would yet I have studied as much Clearnes as I could without Diagramm or Sculpture and purposely repeat some more difficult Conceptions that others may better understand them which yet I do not expect they should presently embrace becaus I know that I could not so suddenly satisfy myself concerning them and whosoever would so satisfy himself must throughly read and as throughly consyder the whole Series The Manuscript hath suffered many Expunctions and Interlineations which rendred it not so Legible and my absence from the Press permitted some faâ—lts to escape in Printing However I expose it such as it is among my own Countrimen from whom I willingly expect many Learned Observations and Critical Reflections which shall help me to perfect and prepare it for another Language The exquisite Poets in the time of Augustus as I find in Ovid used first to recite privately one to another and I remember Mr. Selden told me that he and Heinsius used to communicate Notes toward some of their Works Schola Salerni Collegium Conimbricense and others wrote in Common which certeinly is a very great advantage where many collect the Materials and one is the Composer and Architect of the Work and then all review and rectify it But I who live alone in the Country farr from Athens must proceed otherwise and as Inferior Animals first exclâ—de an Embryonical Ovum which may be afterward hatched into a more perfect Foetus In the mean time becaus Errata are not observed untill they be printed nor usualy rectified untill the Book be read and then it is too late I have heer prenoted such as are more material that the Reader may rectify them before-hand by under-lining them or by under-pointing or pricking Besides which there are many other Literal faults especialy in Capital Letters intended only for more Emphatical Words Tautographys al 's Interpunctions and the likâ— which hâ— mâ—y easily correct Oâ—ulo currente and be pleased to pardon both my own and the common Infirmitys of Printing aliter non fiâ— Amâ—ce liber PAge 2. Line 33. be Read be the. p. 4. l. 3. changing â— chanting l. 28. Affection r. Affectation p. 5. l. â—2 Mercurius r. Mercurys p. 34. l. 11. Praejudicate r. Predicate p. 49. l. 17. Triangle r. Triangle or Delta p. 53. l. 23. all r. also p. 62. l. 15. of r. aâ— l. 36. Parallogramm r. Parallelogramm p. 64. l. 35. â—ever r. never be p. 71. l. 3. all Maâ—erial r. Elementary p. 76. l. 8 mâ—re r. more or p. 82. l. 10. one r. own p. 86. l. 39. at dele p. 87. l. 18. clear r. clear-it p. 88. l. 38. mid r. mid be p. 96. l. 30. Notion r. Motion p. 99. l. 24. Bâ—dy r. Body be p. 103. l. 2. such r. such as p. 106. l. 8. Exâ—â— r. Exuct l. 13. as r. as to p. 123. l. 6. wâ—atsoeveâ— r. whatsoever which p. 132. l. 36. Meditately r. Mediately p. 143. l. 25. Spirits r. Species p. 148. l. 7. as we have dele l. 14. Maturely r. Mutualy p. 149. l. 28. Introduction r. Introsuction p. 153. l. 26. were r. were made p. 167. l. 32. it r. it being p. 17â— l. 29. Night then by Day r. Day then by Night p. 174. l. 19. Barr. r. Burr l. 24. at r. as p. 177. l. 21. of r. by p. 191. l. 34. somwhat r. so not p. 192. l. 13.37 somwhat r. so not p. 201. l. 10. Seeâ— r. even p. 202. l. 32. aâ— r. aâ— p. 215. l. 5. which r. which is p. 238. l. 22. Various r. Variations p. 239. l. 10. from r. upon l. 35. thither r hither p. 245. l. 16. therefore r. therefore called p. 248. l. 20. amitt r. emitt p. 250. l. 11 17 26. Vapid r. Vappid p. 257. l. 10. and. r. and as p. 313. l. 18. or therabout dele p. 315. l. 27. nâ—t r. not only p. 322. l. 15. but dele p. 324. l. 28. as dele p. 340. l. 14. not r. not so p. 337. l. 10. Starrs r. Starrs more l. 27. more Raâ—e r. common p. 339. l. 35. Angels r. Angels or God p. 344. l. 13. whereby r. thereby p. 346. l. 37. leap r. sâ—irr p. 351. l. 16. Act. r. Aâ—t p. 357. l. 32. when r. whence p. 372. l. 33. wheras dele TO THE WORLD THe Title bespeaks the Dedication of this discours of the World to the World which if it were Animal as Plato fansied would most freely acknowledg and subscribe to the Divine History of its own Creation But I write to the Animate and Intelligent World of Mankind both present and future and more specially to the Christian World which is now almost the whole World of Learning but most particularly to the British World whose Language I therefore speak Now though Men in these latter Ages of the World seem to forget the Original Creation therof so many Thousand Years past certainly Adam the first Man who was immediately Created by God was very Conscious of his own Creation nor could he by his Fall lose this Natural Knowledg more than of being a Man and most probably he delivered this great Tradition to his Posterity who also reteined it while they could reckon themselves in succession as Enoch the Seventh and Noah the Tenth from Adam But afterward in or about the Fourteenth Generation when Nimrod the Mighty Hunter and his Impious faction began to build the Tower of Babel whereupon ensued the Confusion of Languages this Knowledg also began to be Confounded and thenceforth remained with the Primitive Language only in the family of Heber the Father of the Hebrews in whose days the Earth was divided when his eldest Son Peleg was born and in his Sacred Seed after him And from the Hebrews living in Chaldaea the Chaldaeans first derived their Philosophy and so after them the Egyptians and Phoenicians and from them the Graecians mingling it with their several Superstitions and Idolatries And as Iosephus observeth Nimrod first taught his Babylonians to contemn Gods Power and Providence which he could not do
Formalities of all Elementary Vegetative yea even sensitive Natures to be only Matter and Motion as Aaron said of his Materials I cast them into the fire and there came out this Calf and so to set up several Figures of things as the Jews did the Figures which they had made and Heathenish Idolaters their Idols and Images Wheras indeed it is rather the Art of a Statuary than of a Philosopher thus to make Mercurius Ex quolibet ligno or as he who having only an Hercules of Wax in his shop when one came to buy of him a Mercury could presently turn his Beard into a Galerus his Club into a Caduceus and his Buskins into Talaria and so he might as well have made thereof a Iupiter Iuno Venus Man Beast or Tree or as we say Quidlibet ex quolibet Which yet shou'd be only Wax varied Thus our new Philosophers not acknowledging all those several Primitive Natures which God in his Infinite Wisedom pleased to Create like Etymologists can derive one thing from another so far as scarcely to leav any Primitives Cartacean Philosophy which describes the World in Paper otherwise then God hath made it to be in Nature beginning Cogito Ergo Sum and so proceeding Cogito Ergo Est as though becaus the Operation doth indeed prove the Essence of the Cogitant it did therefore also prove the Real Entity of any thing Cogitated and yet this is all the Argument it can afford us to prove that First and Fundamental Truth That there is a God Cogito esse Deum Ergo Est. Whereas the most Judicious and Ingenious Father long before had Invented the first Argument when disputing with a Sceptike he first proves that he Is because he doubts whether he Is or not and because he is a Creature thereby also proves that there is a God the Creatour whom I shall rather chose to follow than any such Neophytes who when God saith in the Beginning he made Heaven and Earth say he made only Matter and Motion and professing that they had deliberated and tried to deduce all this Spectable World from a Chaos or from Matter only diversified by its own Motion Figure and the like have asserted it to be Matter whereas God expresly declareth that he Produced it out of a Chaos in the Six Days Works and who make Sol and the Planets and the Starrs to be the Centers and Foundations of all the Vortices of Matter and Corpuscles about them whereas the whole Aether Air Water Earth and Vegetatives were made in the Three first days before them Whereupon I may very truly and safely pronounce Aut haec non est Scriptura aut iâ—ta non est Philosophia For mine own part I must here profess that having long since studied Philosophy in the University and read over several Philosophers both Antient and Modern I could never find a satisfaction in any of them and if I had not reflected on this Divine History should have been tempted as others to Invent some new Philosophy suitable to mine own Fansy For now he is no Philosopher who willnot attempt to make a new Philosophical World and produce his Module therof shewing how it might be best made and with least Charges but certainly it is most Ridiculous and Impious thus to presume that God must therefore have made the World according to our Module becaus we judge it best rather than acknowledge that to be best which he hath made becaus he who made it is Infinitely Wiser than us Wherefore to find out how God made the World I had recours to his Word reading over this first Chapter of Genesis again and again and also many Commentators in whom generaly besides the first Article of our Creed concerning God the Maker of Heaven and Earth I found more of Aristotle than of Moses yea even Translators seem to incline that way but the Cabalistical Rabbins and Scholastical Philosophers by their Jewish and Heathenish Interpretations have so Confounded and Obnubilated this Divine Light that almost all Christians fear to approach it and seem rather to dread and adore it at a distance as some Inscrutable Mystery and some think they greatly favor Scripture by restraining it to Theology and Morality and not intitling it to Natural Philosophy and so as it were going backward cover it with the Mantle of their Indulgence that the Philosophical Nakedness thereof may not appear to themselves or others Whereas considering for what end this Divine History of Created Nature was writ and being sufficiently confident of the Intrinsecal Verity and Extrinsecal Evidence thereof I adventured to look into the Naked Simplicity of the Text and endeavored first to discover the plain and true System of the World which God the Creator hath described therin and therby reveled unto us Which I have accordingly expressed in my Explications being only a brief Philosophical Paraphrase upon the Text and yet while I thus Explicate the Text by my Paraphrase I still submit my Paraphrase to be judged by the Text and I therefore set these Explications as a Partition or Cancelli between the Divine Word and my Human Illustrations therof which I have also deduced from the Created Nature as the Counterpart of Scripture and have hearkned to the Voice therof as to the Echo of the Creating Voice of God Nor do I dissent from Pagan Philosophy Animo Contradicendi or to flatter Christianity which is far above it but shall also retein any thing of Truth that I have found therin and all advantages therof either Platonical Speculations Peripatetical Ratiocinations or Epicurean Sensations yea even Sceptical Caution it self and am Dogmatical only in such Theses which according to the Law that I impose on my self I shall first prove by the Concurrence of Divine Authority Human Argument and Sensible Experiment and if I knew any more ways of Probation should not decline but most gladly embrace them Neither do I thus offer any thing to the World wherof I have not first satisfied my self after so long trial and strict examination wher in I could never yet find any thing considerable either of Reason or Sens which I could not fairly reconcile to the Divine Authority of the Text. Also I have adventured to propound many Hypotheses which though I dare not so confidently Assert yet I should not Insert them if I did not esteem them very Probable for indeed it is the most proper and a sufficient Task for any Philosopher to Inquire only what God hath Created and I ever reputed it a great Vanity in any who presume to go farther and will also offer to shew what he might have Created not without some Insinuation of what one most Profanely Expressed That if he had stood at Gods elbow when he made the World he could have shewed him how to have made it better as though whatsoever Hypothetical Natures or Poetical Worlds they please to fansy and describe Natura aut facit haec quae legis aut faceret Possibility
ought to believ whatsoever this Noble Person declareth that he hath done in all those manifold Experiments wherewith he hath enriched the World Now let this be the Conclusion and Summ of the whole matter That as the End of all Created Nature is the Divine Glory of the Creator which the whole World as a Mirror was made to Represent to us Naturaly so should all Spiritualy Render it unto him And thus we Christians being taught by God the Author both of Scripture and Nature truly to know the Creation and System of the World which Heathen Philosophers groped to find out all their days and have disputed in all Ages should with the Primitive Hebrews and their Divine Doctors Moses David Solomon and the rest Glorify the Infinite Iehovah Creator of Heaven and Earth And I have very much wondered that not only in Spirituals but also in Naturals Seing we should not See and Hearing we should not Hear and Understand with our Hearts the things which are writ in such large Characters and Proclaimed to us with so loud a Voice Wherefore I beseech the Divine Spirit so to Illuminate us in the true Knowledg of his Word and Works that henceforth they may be no longer hid from our Eys but that it may now be said of Holy Scripture and of the Nativity of the World therin Nota Mathematicis Genesis tua THE Divine History OF THE GENESIS OF THE WORLD SECTION I. In the Begining c. EXPLICATION In the very First Being of Heaven and Earth or of any Thing therin or of any Originals therof from Absolute Not being And in the very First Instant of their Duration or Time it self then also commencing from Non-time or an Absolute Nullity therof ILLUSTRATION 1 That the World is Finite Proved by the Corporeal Quantity therof 2 By Successive Quantity 3 By Discrete Quantity 4 Rejection of Impertinencys and what Postulations only are required 5 Sensible Demonstration of the first Proof 6 Of the Second 7 Of the Third 8 The Possibility of the Worlds being Ab Aeterno disproved 9 The Possibility of being In Aeternum or Immortality in what Sens granted 10 The Summ of the whole Discours That there was a Begining of the World I. THat there was a Begining of the World besides the Divine Authority of the Text is as Rationaly Demonstrable as it is Sensibly evident That there is a Heaven and Earth for it is also evident that they are Bodys Extended by Part beyond Part and therefore Finite or bounded with Extremitys of that Extension which we call First or Begining and Last or End becaus we may begin to measure at one and end at the other for that very Extension which renders them Bodys by Extending Part beyond Part doth also Terminate them that is Extend them so far and no farther Thus the whole Body of the World hath two great Parts Heaven and Earth And whatsoever hath Parts is Finite becaus every Part is Finite or Limited to a Proportion not so great as the Whole otherwise it should not be a Part of the Whole And as one Part is Finite so are all the Parts of the Whole becaus they are all Parts And so Consequently is the Whole becaus it is equal to all the Parts otherwise it should not be the Whole of all the Parts therof And thus Heaven which is one Part of the whole Body of the World is a less Whole in it self becaus it is the whole Heaven And so likewise Earth which is the other Part of the whole Body of the World is also a less Whole in it self becaus it is the whole Earth Now either of these two less Wholes is Finite in it self becaus it is only a Part of the whole Body of the World and becaus both these less Wholes are Finite therefore the whole Body of the World is also Finite though it be a greater Whole for there is no Greater nor Less in Infinite which is Infinitely beyond any Proportion and without any Parts whatsoever becaus a greater Whole is that which hath greater Parts or more equal Parts and a less Whole is that which hath less Parts or fewer equal Parts And since whatsoever hath Parts is Finite therfore whatsoever hath greater or more or less or fewer Parts is also Finite and cannot be Infinite Again every Part is such a certain Proportion of the Whole as it is otherwise it should not be such a Part therof and therefore hath such a certein Measure of it self whereby it is such a certein Proportion as it is and not greater nor less And as all the Proportions of all the Parts are the Whole Proportion of the Whole so all the Measures of all the Parts are the whole Measure of the Whole And whatsoever is Mensurable is Finite becaus it is Mensurable and not Immens Wherefore the whole Body of the World is Finite as well as Heaven and Earth or any less Part or the least Particle therof whatsoever wherof there is the same reason Otherwise the Whole should be greater then all the Parts or the Parts greater or more then they are which is Impossible And the contrary therof So Mathematicaly true and evident according to Common Sentence that every Part is less then the Whole and the Whole greater then any Part and equal to all the Parts therof that it cannot be further proved by any thing more evident then it self Wherefore this Conclusion is most true and evident Omne Sectile est Finitum II. Now as Corporeal Quantity which is Consistent and hath Part beyond Part is therefore Finite So also Time which is Successive and hath Part after Part is also Finite And though Part beyond Part may be Inverted and the First become Last or the Last First or Circulated and the Begining United to the End and so every Consistent Quantity is Finite becaus it hath such Parts Yet Part after Part Succeed and follow one another in a most direct Line and by Such an Immutable Law and Order as can neither be Inverted nor Circulated otherwise there should not be Part after Part which must necessarily be in Temporary Succession for Past can never be Present nor Present Future nor all together Wherefore Time cannot possibly be Circular for in a Circle all the Parts must Consist together as in Circular Motion all the Parts must Move together Though probably the Opinion of the Eternity of the World was grounded on some such Imaginary Circulation of Time and Revolution of Platonical Years Whereas though all things measured by Time might be supposed to return again into the same State in all other respects yet Time it self can never return to be the Same becaus it is as Impossible to recall Past as to anticipate Future So that where there is such a fixed Priority and Posteriority runing still forward in a most Direct and Immutable Succession of Part after Part which is Finite there must necessarily be a Finite and Fixed First or Begining and Last
or End according to the Fixed Order and Succession of the Parts And as certeinly as this Present Instant is now the Last or End of all Time Past or Present which hath hitherto Actualy Existed or doth Exist so certeinly there was some determinate Instant which was the first or Begining therof And so this Conclusion also is most true and evident Ubi Prius Posterius ibi Primum et Postremum III. Lastly as Bodys and Time so Number or Quantity Discrete which hath Part Discreted and severed from Part is also Finite in it self and doth most Discernibly manifest the Finite Nature both of Bodys as in the Scale and also of Time as in the Dial whereby their Continuous Parts being Arithmeticaly Divided into Numerable Proportions are rendred most apparently Numerable and Finite And so also this Conclusion is most true and evident Nullum Multiplex est Innumerum From all which Conclusions drawn from every kind of Quantity Corporeal Successive and Discrete it most Necessarily follows That whatsoever is Quantitative is Finite for it must be granted under the highest pain of Contradiction That Actualy Mensurable cannot be Actualy Immense nor Temporary Eternal nor Numerable Innumerable IIII. Nor is this plain Probation concerned in those more Curious Disquisitions Whether Quantity be any Real thing in it self or only a Mode or Relative Respect or I know not what others pleas to term it Since it is most evidently the Geometrical Chronical or Arithmetical Measure of all Quantitative things which are within the Virge therof and Measurable by it Nor of what Parts it doth Consist or how it is Divisible into them since it is most evident that it hath Parts Nor yet whether any Whole Quantity hath Physical Parts since it is most evident that it hath Mathematical Parts and is Divisible into them And though I shall heerafter inquire into all these yet I will neither now prevent my Self nor intangle this Probation which as it is most firm and solid in it self so I desire to render it most clear and free from all Impertinencys with any such Curiositys Nor do I begg any therof before hand but only insist upon these most reasonable and undeniable Postulations That an Inch is the twelfth Part of a Foot not more nor less and a Foot twelve Inches not more nor less That an Hour is the fower and twentieth Part of a Day not more nor less and a Day fower and twenty Hours not more nor less That an Unit is the hundredth Part of a Century not more nor less and a Century an hundred Units not more nor less Or yet more plainly That an Inch is an Inch a Foot a Foot an Hour an Hour a Day a Day an Unit an Unit and a Century a Century And so any greater or less Part or Whole whatsoever which are all Identical Propositions and neither need nor are indeed capable of Probation Nor are these Sections of Continuitys only Imaginations or the Institutions of Reason but Realitys in Nature And so God Created the Heaven and the Earth distinct Parts of the whole Body of the World and made the Evening and Morning a distinct Day and consequently the Cardinal Numerations therof And he made the Heaven to be above or without the Earth and the Earth to be beneath or within the Heaven and the First day to be before the Second and the Second before the Third and consequently the Ordinal Numerations therof And heerin I suppose no Human Reason or Sens will or can dissent from Divine Authority becaus these are things also Rationaly and Sensibly evident in themselvs however some may doubt or dispute what I have evidently proved heerby That there was a Begining of the World Nor do I labor or care to prove when that determinate Begining was which I leav to Chronologists but only that there was such a Begining whensoever it was which sufficeth my present Intention V. For as in a great Wast or Common though only the learned Artist can give an exact account of all the Acres Rodes and Perches therof yet every Vulgar Ey can discern that it is Measurable and Finite and can estimate it more or less And as every Traveler though he hath not an Itinerary to instruct him in the just Distances between one City or Country and another yet knows that there is a certein Space between them otherwise such and so many Paces could never bring him from one to the other so though it be the Work of Geometricians and Astronomers to measure Heaven and Earth yet we all know that the Earth on which we tread hath a Surface and a Diameter which are Finite because the Surface on which we tread doth end and terminate it self under our feet and that doth also determinate the Diameter which is Proportionable unto it and because the Diameter is Finite therefore also the Circumference which must be Proportionable therunto is Finite And so is every Sphere of the World Air Aether and any higher Heaven or whatsoever we can Imagine to be the utmost Circumference of the whole World for to whatsoever Circumference our Imagination can extend it self it can only be Proportionably greater then the Circumference of the Earth which it encompasseth and must also have a Diameter proportionable to it self both which evidently prove it to be Finite as well as the Earth becaus there is no Greater nor Less in Infinite as I have already proved VI. And so though we may dispute the Nativity or certein Begining of the World yet it is most evident and indisputable that it had a Begining for none can deny it to be this Day or Hour or the like one Day or Hour or the like elder then it was the last and so backward as far as he pleaseth therefore he must also confess that there was some First Day Hour and the like and consequently some First Instant and Begining therof for the Duration and Age of every thing must necessarily be computed from a Begining or Nativity otherwise it should be incapable of any Addition or Succession which is apparently in all time becaus it already exceedeth all Number for Precedency of Part before Part without any Begining renders the Precedent Parts Innumerable and consequently incapable of any Succession or Addition VII So also in Number there must necessarily be a First and no Number can precede an Unit though you may still add to it and possibly multiply it to any Summ Imaginable which yet being once Stated will be found as Numerable as a Single Unit becaus it is only the Addition of so many Units for as a Day or Hour or any other Part of Time Actualy Past is only a Day or Hour or such Part of Time as it is and not greater nor less so every Day or Hour or other Part of Time whatsoever is only One Day or Hour or One such Part of Time as it is and not more nor fewer and therefore so many Days or Hours or
other Parts of Time as are Actualy Past are only so many Ones as they are and not more nor fewer which though never so many must necessarily be all Numerable by Addition of so many Ones as they are and not more nor fewer And consequently all Time Actualy Past which may be Numbred by them is Numerable and Finite and therefore had a Begining becaus the Number therof is Ordinal or Successive wherof there must be a First Thus if we should compute the whole Age of the World according to the particular Ages or Secula of Men or Brutes or if you pleas according to the Revolutions of Platonical years yet there must necessarily have been a First Second and Third Seculum or Revolution or so many as we will suppose to have been Actualy Past and Precedent and not more nor fewer nor other then Successive All which summed up together will be found as Finite as a single Unit and must have a First and Last aswel as One and One Ordinaly and Successively Nor indeed can we Rationaly Imagin any Time whatsoever Actualy Past and Precedent not to be Actualy Finite And if it cannot be otherwise in Imagination much less in Reality VIII Yet the World might Possibly have Existed before it did Exist or Actualy was and as long before as you pleas to Imagin and so it may still be continued Perpetualy in Possibility which yet will be alway Possible and can never be Actual for no such Precedent or Subsequent Perpetuity ever was or shall be nor can reasonably be Imagined to be Actual Neither is it properly a Possible Perpetuity but rather a Perpetual Possibiliâ—y of such a supposed Precedency or Subsequent Futurity which can never be Actual otherwise it should not be Perpetualy Possible for as Possible while it is Possible cannot be Actual otherwise it should not be Possible but Actual so Perpetualy Possible can never be Actual becaus then it should ceas to be Perpetualy Possible As it is said of Corporeal Quantity that it is alway Divisible into alway Divisibles ever Possibly but never Actualy becaus if it should once be Actualy Divided into all its Divisibles then it should ceas to be alway Divisible which is a most true and evident Ratiocination supposing such a Perpetual Divisibility therof wherof I shall heerafter discours But no Possibility whatsoever either Precedent or Subsequent doth militate against this present Discours concerning the Actual Existence of the World IX This Perpetual Possibility in Futurity is the Duration of Immortal Spirits which though it may not seem to be the same with Time in a restrained sens as Time may be distinguished from Duration yet is the same with it in a general sens And so the Soul of Man both in this Mortal Life and also in his Immortal Life heerafter shall continue to be under the same Duration though his Time may be restrained to this Mortal Life which hath an End and is computed according to the Chronology of the Hours Days and Years therof and so we commonly distinguish between Temporal and Eternal or Everlasting Thus Plato makes all Time to be the Measure of Duration according to the Motion of the Heavenly Bodys which divide it into such Parts or Sections therof and therupon I suppose grounded his Opinion of the Circular Revolutions of Time like the Circular Motions of the Heavens But as Duration was Coetaneous with the first Chaos for there was an Evening before any Morning or Illumination of the Aether and three several Days before the Sun and Stars so the same Duration shall continue when they shall be dissolved and when Time in that sens shall be no more And yet in all the Perpetual Possibility of this Duration so farr as it shall ever heerafter become Actual it shall likewise be Actualy Finite as I have already proved Wheras Proper Eternity is neither in any Precedent nor Subsequent Possibility but always Actual and alway Present or one Perpetual Instant which is Divine Infinite and Incomprehensible and of another nature Infinitely and Incomprehensibly Different from any Finite Duration Actual or Possible whatsoever which it doth Comprehend but not in any maner Confound or Chaâ—ge the Temporary nature therof as I shall shew in the next Section X. Wherfore I Conclude upon the whole precedent matter That every Quantity that hath Existed or doth Actualy Exist is Actualy Finite And so is every Quantitative thing measured thereby And that no Imagination nor Possibility it Self can make it to be otherwise Because all Quantity and Quantitative things have Parts and all Parts are Finite and therefore whatsoever hath Parts is Finite and whatsoever is Finite is Terminated or bounded with Extremitys or First or Begining and Last or End Respectively according to the Parts otherwise it should not be Finite And particularly that time and Duration which is Successive and all Temporary and Durable things had a Realy Precedent and fixed First or Begining Now that the force of this most Cogent Argument may not be lost or spent in so large a Dilatation I will briefly Summ it up in these few and short Propositions which I shall present to any Man of Reason most strictly to examin and consider whether he can deny any one of them or the Consequence of them all without forfeiture of his Rationality I. That every Day is One Day and of no more nor greater Number nor Duration II. That Yesterday was One Day Actualy Past and Precedent to this Day and so all the Days Actualy Past and Precedent one unto another III. That the whole Number and Duration of all the One Days Actualy Past and Precedent is as Finite or bounded with first or Begining and Last or End as of any One Day IV. Therefore there was a First or Begining of the whole Duration of all the One Days Actualy Past and Precedent aswel as of the particular Duration of any One Day Wherefore I Conclude according to that right and true Sentence Vim inferunt Humano Intellectui qui Mundum affirmant Infinitum ex Finitis Partibus Constantem SECTION II. God c. EXPLICATION The Infinite Creator of Heaven and Earth ILLUSTRATION 1. That God is Infinite 2. Of Infinite 3. That Absolute Nothing is Not finite 4. Of Proper and Improper Infinite 5 Of Proper and Improper Not finite I. WE have proved that Heaven and Earth and Consequently the whole World had a Begining of Being from Absolute Not being or was Created becaus it is Finite Wherefore the Creator of all Finites must necessarily be Infinite for if he were Finite he must also be Created by another and so Infinitely But there can be no such Process Infinite becaus it is Successive from one to another and therefore must be finite as I have already proved II. But becaus our Understanding also is Finite and not Infinite therefore the proper Object thereof must be Finite and not Infinite and all the knowledg we can have of Infinite is only
neither do we read nor can we reasonably suppose that any new Matter was Created afterward Nor was it Created in the very Begining only Matter or one Homogeneous Mass therof but one Body expressly distinguished into several Heterogeneous Members Celestial and Terrestrial or Heaven and Earth Nor was the Heaven and Earth thus only Different in Nature in their First Creation but also Distinct and separate in their Situations and not Confounded together but Created such several Members of the great Body of the World And as the Heaven is named before the Earth so were the Celestial Bodys above or without the Terrestrial incompassing them as now they do for neither do we read nor can we reasonably suppose that there was any other Separation or Disposition of the Celestial Bodys afterward as is expresly mentioned of the Terrestrial or Terraqueous Globe wherof and of all their several Situations I shall further discours heerafter II. The word Heaven Hebraâ—caly is Heavens not only Grammaticaly as the word God in this Text but Phisicaly and in the nature of the thing it self And so generaly the Hebrews distribute Heaven into three several Heavens of three several Natures Wherof the highest is also called the Third Heaven becaus it is Utmost and the last above us and encompasseth both the others and this I shall therefore call the Superaether The midst or Second is the Aether or Starry Heaven The lowest or First is the Air which Immediately encompasseth the Terraqueous Globe And these are all the Celestial Spheres wherof we read and therefore I can acknowledg no more however Astronomers have pleased to multiply them These three Heavens are thus built one upon another and all upon the Terraqueous Globe which is the Habitation of all Corporeal Animals as Amos elegantly expresseth it He that builded the Storys of the Heavens and founded his Troop on the Earth Of all the three Heavens the Third which is the Supreme is most Properly Heaven and therefore also is called the Heaven of Heavens by way of Excellency and so is specialy called the Temple of the most high God and is the Native Region and Province of Blessed Angels or Caelum Angelicum and shall be the Everlasting Habitation of the Spirits of Just Men or Sedes Beatorum Wherof we have no farther discoverâ— then only that it was Created together with the other two Heavens and so is Comprehended uâ—der one Common Name with them and probably because it was made Perfect in the Begining or first Instant of the Creation therof and so must continue for ever without any Elementary Mistion Generation or Corruption therefore we have no other account therof among all the Works of the Six Days wherein the Elements and whole Elementtary Nature and the Cours of Generation and Corrupti on therin was Set in order And accordingly I observ that wheras the other two Elementary Heavens Aether and Air are called Expansa and Firmaments this Superaether is never so termed but only Heaven probably becaus it is not capable of Expansion or Compression But as the Divine Wisedom hath conceled any farther notice therof and also given us very little Knowledg of the nature of Angels the proper Inhabitants therof as Impertinent for us to know in this present State so I shall not presume farther to inquire therinto or discours therof and indeed if the Hebraical Word Heavens be dualy rendred it must be intended only of Aether and Air. III. As the Aether and Air are Elementary and both of them Heâ—erogeneous from the Superaether and every of them one from another So are all of them from the Earth and Terraqueous Globe And as Heaven generaly Comprehendeth all the three Heavens so heer also Earth Comprehendeth both Earth and Water which were afterward formed into one Terraqueous Globe and by that general Name in this Text is not only to be Understood Earth particularly which was not so termed untill the Third Day and then also is called Dry Land nor the Terraqueous Globe such as it was made afterward but the Orb of Earth and the Water above it which is also mentioned afterward Thus we have a Discovery of what was Created in the Begining that is Superaether which is also Superelementary and Aether Air Water Earth which are the fower Elements as God the Creator hath declared and Moses reveled them unto us both in this Text and in the Context whom I shall believ before all Athens or any Modern Conceptions whatsoever and shall accordingly prove them heerafter And now upon this Subject Matter proceed to discours and first enter upon such Philosophical Consyderations therof as may concern them all and all Creatures Generaly and so according to the order of this History of the Creation Expatiate into more Particular Contemplations of their several Natures afterward The first and most Universal Consyderation of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures whatsoever is that they are Entitys for since Creation is of Being from Absolute Nothing whatsoever is Created must necessarily Be otherwise it should not be Created So that an Entity is any Thing that Is which I confess is no more in effect then that an Entity is Entity whose Subject and Praejudicate Genuâ— and Difference is and must necessarily be the same becaus it is the same Genus Generalissimum of all Things without any Specifical Difference And heer I must also premise that in every Perfect and Proper Definition of any Specifical or more Particular Thing the Specifical or particular Differences therof must be Identical becaus the Specifical or particular Essence or Entity is the only true Specifical or Particular Difference of every thing But becaus we cannot know Essences as they are in themselvs therefore we declare things by their Propertys which is rather Description then Definition As in the Common Instance Homo est Animal Rationale Rationality is not the true Specifical Difference of Humanity though it be most Proper to Man becaus it is not his Specifical Essence and therefore doth not Define the Humanity it self Nor doth it indeed Comprehend all the Properties therof as Risibility and the like but only Describe it by one Proper Faculty So that the most Proper Definitions are only Vocabularys and Nomenclatures which yet are of good use to explain one Term by another whereby we may avoid all needless Caption and Contention about Terms and when the Thing intended thereby is clearly understood it shall suffice me And I have now made this Digressive Parenthesis to save my Self the whole labor of Defining and the expectation of any who otherwise perhaps might exact it of me but I shall use as clear and pregnant Declarations or Descriptions as the Thing will afford Thus I affirm Created Entity to be a Creature or whatsoever is Created which is also Convertible with it Again becaus the Created World doth Consist of several Heterogeneous and different Entitys and Natures into which Differences we must also inquire I affirm such a Different
commonly exprest as well as Formâ— Mistorum And therefore I do not term them Forms but I rather reserv Form to express that which is otherwise called Formae Misti or Compositi by which I intend only the Generative Complexion and Compagination of those simple Created Spirits and Matter which are Ingenerable and Incorruptible in themselvs and wherof Generation and Corruption are only the Confabrication or Demolition as I shall shew heerafter and consequently every Formâ— Misti or Compositi is Generable and Corruptible and so these Forms are as far Different from the others which I therefore term Spirits as they are from Matter and are called Substantial only becaus they are the Complexions of the others which are Substances as also Material Spirits are so called only becaus they are so Unâ—ted to the Matter as I said before Having thus explained my Terms I shall proceed as before concerning Substances and Accidents to prove that Matter and these simple Created Spirits Realy Differ whereby I shall also prove that there Realy are both such Matter and Such Spirits And wheras it is now generaly granted that there are such Angelical and Human Spirits Realy Different from Matter for which I suppose we may thank Christianity I shall accept iâ— and apply my Self only to prove the same of the rest and then I presume no Heathen can deny it of the others Now in our present History of the Creation it is said that the Water brought forth Fishes after their Kinds and Fowls after their Kinds and the Earth Beasts after their Kinds and Creeping things after their Kinds Whereby it appears that these Creatures were of Several Kinds and Heterogeneous one from another and Consequently all of them from the Matter which being one Homogeneous Substance in it Self can never Produce any Heterogeneous Substances and therefore all this Heterogeneity must necessarily be from some other Substantial Principles that is their Spirits which were Created thus Specificaly Heterogeneous one from another and all of them more Genericaly Heterogeneous from the Common Matter And so it is also expresly said concerning Vegetatives and must be reasonably understood of Heaven and Earth and all the Elements for the Matter of them all being one and the same could not Constitute and Denominate them Heaven or Earth neither could they be so Denominated from their own Proper Qualitys which were not yet Actualy Produced but afterward in the Three first Days Wherfore there were such several Heterogeneous Substantial Principles which I call Elementary Spirits Created in the Begining and then Actualy Subsisting in and with the Matter which did so Denominate the Heaven and Earth and the rest And if they together with the Matter could not Produce their own Proper Qualitys without such a Supernatural though Improper Creation much less could the Matter of it Self Produce any Such Substantial Spirits and Activitys farr more excellent then it Self Again if Accidents of the same Substance being Several must therefore Realy Differ from the Substance as I have before proved then certeinly Accidents of Several Substances which are not only Several but also Contrary do necessarily prove that they can not proceed from one and the same Substantial Principle such as Matter is for then the same Nature should destroy it self by its own Natural Contrarietys And though in Mist Bodys which are Composed of all the Elements there be the Substantial Principles of Contrary Qualitys Heat Cold Moisture Driness and the like Mist and Contemperated together or though the same thing may Produce Contrary Effects in Several Subjects as Motion may excite Heat in Fire and Cold in Air or the same Faculty may exercise Contrary Actions toward Contrary Objects as the Will or Appetite doth Affect that which is Pleasant and Disaffect that which is Displeasant Yet Matter which is one and the same cannot Produce Contrary Activitys and Exercise Contrary Operations in it Self which destroy one another and so consequently should Corrupt it self by such Contrary Qualitys Wherefore all Generation and Corruption and all Menstrua and the like do plainly prove that there are Several Substantial Principles of Such Contrary Qualitys not only Realy Different from the Matter but also Difform one from another And therefore unless we affirm Heat Cold Moisture Driness and all other Contrary Qualitys and Consequently Aeâ—her Air Water Earth Vegetatives and Sensitives to be all one and the same and not Different and thereby Confound Heaven and Earth and all things therin and our own Notions therof we must Necessarily grant that there are such Several Accidental Qualitys and also such Substantial Principles therof Different one from another and consequently all from the Matter And this may appear most clearly by many Sensible Distinctions and Differences between them which I shall now only generaly mention and heerafter more particularly discover in the ensuing Discourses As that Matter hath Pondus and the Products therof which Spirits have not but there are Active Potentiae of Spirits and all the various Operations and Effects therof which Matter hath not And the Pondus of Matter tendeth from the Circumference to the Center but the Potentia of Spirits from the Center to the Circumference And Matter being only one Homogeneous Body hath only one Center but Spirits being Many and Several have every one of them in their Composita a several Center Also all Matter is Continuous becaus it is one Homogeneous Body but the Contiguity of several Bodys is only from the several Spirits Also Matter tendeth Naturaly to Rest but Spirits intend their Acts and Exercises to the Utmost Also Matter hath only Different Degrees of More or Less but Spirits have their Actively Contrary Qualitys and the like Now though I cannot Sensibly Produce and Present such a Genius of things or Spirit as it is in it Self not only becaus it is a Spirit but also becaus it is a Substance which as I have said that it is only Intelligible as none can discover Pure Matter or Materia prima as it is in it Self but both may be discerned by their Sensible Accidents wherof the Accidents of Spirits which are Proper Sensibles are more Sensible then of Matter which are only common Sensibles and Sensed by the others so I have proved Matter and Spirits by their Different Accidents to be several Substantial Principles and Realy Different one from another And though none can affirm that there is any Matter Separate from Spirits yet it is granted that there are Spirits Separate from Matter as Angels Nor may it seem strange that two such Substances should be Consubstantiated into one since there is no Matter without some Spirit to Diversify it and it is also granted that there is a Spirit of Man which doth Inform or Inspirit his Body and not only Possess it as an Angel Wherefore certeinly Material Spirits which are Connatural may also Consubstantiate the Matter And we must understand that as all Created Entitys are Creatures or Created by God
without any Local Motion and when they are in Local Motion are Commonly rather Causes therof then Caused by it and so they Caus Motion in the very Matter which of it self would Perpetualy Rest in the Center and due Position of it Self as I have said and shall heerafter prove and is Disturbed and Moved by the Potentiae of Spirits which alter the Natural Position Figure Density and Gravity therof and Properly it hath no Natural Motion of it Self but only to restore it Self unto Rest. Nor can the Matter and Motion and any or all the other Accidents or Variations therof Formaly Caus the Spirits or Spiritual Qualitys but are only Instruments and fit Bodies therof which they form for themselves Take Wax and Move it this Way or that Way or Mold it into this or that Figure or Discind it into any Threads or Corpuscles or Mechanicaly Vary the Matter therof how you will yet it will still be Wax as well as every part of Water is Water Unless there be also some new Generation or Corruption therof by Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys as I shall shew heerafter Wherefore that which some call Texture whether Extrinsecal as Figure Porosity or plain Interweaving of Threads or Filaments and the like or Intrinsecal as Density and Rarity which indeed are the only true Intrinsecal Textures of Bodys and yet are wholy denied by our Textorian Philosophers as well as Local Motion is only Instrumental and no Formal Caus or Being of any Spirit or Spiritual Quality And so take Common Water and Spirit of Wine Vitriol or any stronger Spirits and setting them in their several Vessels one by another Inspect them with a Microscope and see if you can discern any such Proportionable and Consyderable Difference of their Extension Figure Density Gravity Local Motion or any Corporeal Texture whatsoever as there is of their Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys Or take any Aethereous Globules or Materia Subtilis Emittent Transmittent or Remittent if you can tell where to find it or the most Subtile and Pure Air which may be had on the Top of the highest Mountain and which is Common Matter as well as any other and putting this Matter into any Windgun Airpump or Expansor or any such Torcular or other Rack of Nature whatsoever or applying to it any Chymical Fire or Heat or Salt and Snow or what you will and vex it how you will and try if you can force it to Confess it Self to be any other thing then Air or Extort from it all or any of these Spiritual Diversifications or such as may be Effected by the like Experiments made of Vapor Water or Earth or any parcel or part of the Terraqueous Globe and Cortex therof Which God having made to be the Native Countrey and Region of Animals hath also Impregnated with such Material Spirits and their Spiritual Qualitys which he did first Produce and still may be Produced ouâ— of them Wherefore since Matter and Spirits do thus Differ not only in our Mind and Reason but in their own Natures I Conclude them both Realy to Be and Realy to Differ one from the other and not to be only Matter and the Motions therof VIII Accidents are either Common or Proper Common Accidents are such as were Concreated and Actualy Existed together with the Substances in the Begining and without which no Substances or any Created Entity whatsoever can Actualy Exist as all Quantitys whether discrete as Number for every Creature that is whatsoever it be must also be Numerable Or Successive as Duration for every Creature that is whatsoever must also be Durable or Temporary Or Consistent as Extension which though is be in it Self Proper to Matter yet as the Matter of the whole World is a Common Matter so as I have shewed it doth Coextend or Contein all Spirits and every Creature that is in Heaven or Earth must necessarily be Localy therin that is in the Universal Body of the Matter or Vbi therof and in some Part or Place therof that is it must be there where it is and no where els at the same Time Proper Accidents are such as Originaly Flow from and Subsist in their Proper Substances as Consistent Quantity Extension Figure Density and the rest in Matter and Spiritual Qualitys in Spirits Again these Simple Accidents may be either Compounded together or Several and yet mutualy Relating one to another and Such Relations may also be Real as First and Last in Successive Quantity or Time for they Realy are Such in the Successive Nature therof which otherwise should not be Successive and are not only Notional such as First or Last in Consistent Quantity or Extension for they are not Realy such in the Consistent Nature therof becaus it is Consistent altogether and so the First may be Last or the Last First according to our Notion and Institution therof Also there are other more Complex Relations which may likewise be Real either Mathematical as a Triangle and three several Lines are different things or Physical as Beauty which is a Relative Conformity of severall Lineaments and Colors to the Physical Law therof Or Moral as Virtue which is a Relative Conformity of Actions Modes and Circumstances to the Moral Law therof Or Theological as Piety which is a Relative Conformity of Actions Modes and Circumstances to the Theological Law therof and the like which being more Complex are also more Curious and Excellent and the Relative Conformitys therof are Not only Real but also the Excellencys and Perfections of those Realitys wherin they Relatively and Realy Subsist And this Relative Reality though iâ— doth Subsist in the particular Entitys wherof they are the Relations yet doth Consist in the very Relative Conformity therof for their particular Entitys being Inverted will vary them as a Triangle may so be made a Zeta or Pi or render that which was Beautiful Deformed and that which was Virtuous Vitious and that which was Pious Impious And heer I shall Conclude with this general Observation That though Substances Excell in Entity becaus they Subsist in themselvs yet Accidents Excell in Bonity becaus they Perfect their Substances For such indeed was that great Difference between the first Chaos and the six Days Works Perfected therin SECTION V. And the Earth was without form and void And Darknes was upon the face of the Deep EXPLICATION The Elementary Globe of Earth Water Air and Aether was first Created Inform and Inane without any of those Actual Compositions Mistions Figures and Virtues which were afterward Produced in the Six Days ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the fower Elements 2. Of the Chaos 3. Of Quantity 4. Of Number 5. Of Time 6. Of Extension 7. Of Figure 8. Of Porosity 9. Of Density and Rarity 10. Of Gravity and Levity 11. Of Rest and Motion 12. Of Place Space and Vacuity I. WE have heer a farther Explication in the Text itself of the Heaven and Earth Created in the Begining Wherof it is again said
Continuous and Consistent with it or not Equidens And so a Man bearing the Firkin or Cask doth feel the whole Weight therof becaus the Parts Weigh according to the Whole and so the Whole doth Press another Body though the Parts of the same Body in such Cases do not Press one another As a Pale of Water upon a Mans Head doth Weigh and Press according to the Whole thougha Fish in the bottom of the Pale under the Water doth not feel any Weight or Pressure therof becaus the Fish is as a Part therof and within the Pale which is the External Term of the Consistence therof and the Body of the Fish Equidens or therabout with the Body of the Water But if a Body Naturaly Consistent be not Erected Perpendicularly as if a Column of Timber be held Obliquely then the upper Parts therof do Weigh and Press Obliquely according to the Obliquity therof and so if any of the upper Parts do Superpend they also do Superincumb-Proportionably As if a Pyramid Inverted and be greater then the Pyramidal Proportion which I before mentioned or a piece of Timber laid Transversly over the Top of another Which I conceiv also to be the true Reason of the Proportionable Overweight and Advantage by Distances from the Center But if a Fluid Body broader above then beneath be in a Vessel of that Figure yet the upper Parts being Equidens do not Press the lower becaus they all Rest together upon the Consistent Vessel and only Press upon it Again if the Stopcock of a Cistern or Gutt of a Water-mill be opened whereby the Water hath a Vent then the Parts above that Vent being not supported by the Consistence and in Motion do Press one upon another Proportionably and issue forth with a force Proportionable therunto And any Parts which Move do accordingly Press though there may be a Pressure without Actual Motion by an Actual Nisus or Endeavour therof As a Burden upon a Mans Shoulders doth Press upon them though it doth not Move or Sink farther into them and so a Weight hanging and not Moving Downward doth Press as well as when it doth Move XI This is as I conceiv the State of the Matter which was created One Universal Body in the Begining Extended in itself through its whole Body and having all its Parts beyond Parts and so continuing Universaly in the Successive Duration therof that as the Whole cannot be Extended more or less so no Part therof can be Divelled and Separated from all the others and thereby be made another several Body or less World in itself nor is any Part therof Annihilated whereby it should be Diminished nor any new Part Created whereby It should be Augmented but as it remains the same Universaly in the Whole Substance so also in the Universal Affections therof though they were first Generaly and still may be Particularly Varied according to the several Degrees therof which were Potentialy in itself And yet the whole Body therof still is and must be the same having the same Orbicular Figure and the same Total Density and Gravity becaus the whole Matter therof is the same neither more nor less then it was being all Bounded with the same Circumference and Center and so as one Elementary Part is made more Dens or Grave another is made more Rare or Light And all are Bounded with the Superaether which is Superelementary and immutable And as this Universal State therof can not be Varied so it hath Universal Rest in itself which is indeed this Universal Status therof and can not be Varied by any such Universal Motus which might Move the whole World Also there is a General Status or Rest which is the Station or Position of the Great and General Bodys therof as they were first Created in the Begining and afterward Ordered in Six Days that is of the Superaether Aether Air Water and Earth which can not be Varied Generaly though Particular Elementary Bodys are or may be Particularly Varied by Generation or Corruption whereby the Extension Figure Density or Gravity therof are so Altered And yet in these Particular Variations therof the Matter doth alway observ the Universal and General Law of itself and of the Locality of its own Body and of all the Parts therof by conteining all within the same Circumference and Center and if any Elementary Part become more or less Dens in itself by Altering the Particular Station therof where it was before and removing it to the General Station and so if it be Violently Remov'd out of it restoring it by a Natural Motion or Nisus of Restitution and Return therunto Thus there is a double State or Rest of Matter that is either Universaly of Union or Generaly of fit Station and Position therin and as the Union is of Extension so both the Rest and Motion to Union do as I suppose subsist in Extension and as the Rest and Motion to Station is to the Center of Gravity so they both Subsist in Density which is also Analogous for as Matter tends to Union with itself and hath thereby some Density in itself so Dens or more Matter of less Extension tends to more close Union or more Inwardly within itself And this Union is the Foundation of the Universal Rest or Aquiescence therof in itself which it first and most Naturaly affecteth and of the other of Station which is next unto it as being Convenient and Conformable to the other And both these Rests when they are Disturbed are Recovered by that other Subservient Principle in itself which is the Natural Motion therof And this Motion is not Actively Contrary to Rest as Heat to Cold and the like Contrary Active Quality for Rest is not Active but rather Privative or a Not moving in respect to Motion and only a Positive Acquiescence of the Matter itself Subsisting in it as also Motion doth Move unto Rest as another Assistant or Auxiliary Affection therof and Subordinate unto Rest as Verticity is not Contrary but Subordinate to Polarity serving only to reduce Magnetike Bodys to that fixed Position which is the Polar Rest therof Which Rest Bodys do most Naturaly affect but being Dislocated or Disturbed cannot attein it without Motion And therefore Rest and Motion seem to some to be Contrary becaus though Motion be to Rest yet it is in itself Motion and not Rest and indeed it is Analogous to that which Moraly is termed Invita Voluntas As when a man goeth a Journey not willingly in respect of the Journey and yet willingly in respect to Rest at Home but as this Rest of Matter is Acquiescence in the Natural Union and Station therof so Disunion or Dislocation are more Contrary therunto which yet are not Contrary to the Rest itself and are rather Privations of the Union and Station wherin Rest doth Acquiesce Nor are any Different Local Motions Upward and Downward and the like Properly Contrary but only Localy Advers or Opposite for they may
Chaos that it was Inform and and Inane without any of those Actual Mistions Compositions Figures and Virtues which were afterward Produced in the Six Days wherof all the Essence or Entity was Created in the Begining and which to Produce were the several Works therof but there were all the Simple Essences and Entitys therof Potentialy in that Chaos otherwise they had not been Created in the Begining nor had it been such a Chaos therof Inform and Inane in respect of those Essenses which it had in itself Potentialy and ought to have Actualy also Existent but yet had not and which were afterward Produced into their several Actualitys and Existences in the Six Days wherin there was no Proper Creation of any new Essence or Entity but only of the Spirit of Man as I shall shew afterward and the Improper Creations therin were only the Productions of these Potentialitys into their Actualitys by the supernatural Power of the Divine Spirit which was the Original Institution of Natural Generation and Corruption as I have often inculcated and shall now declare by a more particular Enumeration Thus in the first Day Light was Produced out of Aether wherin it was Potentialy before by the Mistion therof into Actuality and there was no new Creation of the Essence or Entity therof and therfore it is said Sit or Existaâ— Lux as it is also said elsewhere God who commanded the Light to shine out of Darknes or to be Produced out of the Dark Aether like Fuâ—us Accensus and so probably Heat and other Aethereal Qualitys were then Produced Also iâ— the Second Day Vapors which were no new Created Substances or Essences but only Water Rarified did Ascend out of the Water into the Air and the Qualitys of the Air or Expansum were Probably then Produced by the Mistion therof And in the Third Day the Waters and Earth were Distributed and Disposed and Drines Moisture and Probably the other Qualitys therof Produced by the Mistions therof And in the Fourth Day the Sun and Moon and Starrs were made of the Aethereal Substance and so probably all the Qualitys therof Produced And in the Fifth Day the Water is said to bring forth or Produce Fishes and so also Fowls were Produced accordingly And in the Sixth Day the Earth is said to Produce Beasts which could not be so Produced in their Composita unles they were there before in all their Simple Essences or Entitys which were all Created in the Begining And in these Six Days there were both Compositions and Mistions or Formae Mistorum and also Simple Substantial Spirits which were before Created in the Begining were then Produced as is expressly Interpreted afterward of them all and their Improper Creation or Making that he Rested from all his Works which God Created and made or Originaly Created to Make that is Created in the Begining to Make or Perfect afterward in the Six Days And the Apostle like a Divine Philosopher doth also so Interpret it Through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do Appear that is the Secula or Generations were so Framed and Ordered by God in the First Institution therof that in all Successive Generations nothing should be made of any former Phaenomena or things which do Appear by any Transpeciation or Conversion therof into other Essences or Entitys but of their own Essences or Entitys which he Immediately Created in the Begining and in their first Chaos of Potentiality wherin they then were not any such Actual Phaenomena or Appearances but were made to be such afterward and so still continue to be Generated out of their Potentiality into Actuality Which as every Christian understandeth by Faith according to this Divine History of the Creation and first Chaos so also any Heathen who wisely consydereth the same Cours of Successive Generation and Corruption must acknowledg to be according to Natural Reason and Senâ— And as the first Universal Chaos so every Particular Successive Chaos is Hebraicaly called Gods Treasury or Storehous out of which he Produceth or bringeth forth all things Generable or Corruptible Expending and Employing them in their Appearances and Operations which is their Actual Use and Office and so we read of his Treasures of Rain Snow Hail Wind and the like And the Author of Esdras saith particularly of the Light which was first so Produced Then commandedst thou a fair Light to come forth of thy Treasures that thy Work might Appear that is to Exist Actualy which before was Latent in the Chaos of Potentiality And certeinly no Successive Generation in the Present Cours of Nature can be a greater Work then those Primitive Generations which were the Immediate Works of God and Improper Creations Wheras if Natural Generation should be any other then the Production of Created Essences into their Actual Existences or Corruption then such Reduction therof they should be Proper Creation and Annihilation For if any new Essence or Entity whatsoever which was not before should be Caused to Be by Generation then it must be Properly Created and if that which was before be Caused Not to be by Corruption then it must be Properly Annihilated Nor doth it suffice to say that Generation or Corruption are not of any Simple Substances either Matter or Spirits but only of Composita and Accidents or Modes or whatsoever they pleas to call them for whatsoever they are or howsoever Exile or Desultory their Nature may be yet they are Real and Entitative Somthings not only in our Reason but in Nature as I have shewed and indeed otherwise Generation and Corruption should be no Real Alterations but the things Generated or Corrupted should be Realy the same as they were before and so we should deny all Generation and Corruption wheras they Realy are and do Produce Real Alterations or some new thing Actualy which was before only Pontentialy as every Compositum whether Substantial as any Elementary Substance by Mistion of the fower Elements or Accidental as Green by Mistion of Blew and Yellow and the like Also this doth Sensibly appear in and by all Generations and Corruptions whatsoever as of all Substantial Composita wherof there is only such a Composition otherwise they should not be Composita and certeinly the Simple Substances were before Actualy Subsisting in themselvs otherwise they should not be Substances and so likewise were the Simple Essences of Accidental Composita as of Green wherof certeinly the Blew and Yellow were before Actualy Existent and the Green Potentialy in both And so of more Simple Accidents Produced out of their Potentiality into their Actuality Whether of the Matter as this or that Particular Extension Figure Density and the rest which are Produced Actualy yet were before Potentialy in Universal Extension Figure Density and the rest otherwise they could not be so Produced nor can they be Produced into more Actualy then they
Aether is not Solid or Firm. And the Reason assigned why the Aether should be Solid and Firm is more Vain then the Hypothesis which is becaus it Moves one way and the Planets therin another way and therefore there must be Seaven Spheres of them and an Eighth of the Fixed Starrs and to these is since added a Ninth and a Tenth which must be the Primum Mobile to solv these Phaenomena Wheras in the First Day there was only one Circumvolution of the whole Aether one and the same way to make Day and Night and so untill the Fourth Day and then we do not read of any such Division therof into Spheres as of the Disposition of the Water and Earth into a Terraqueous Globe but only of the Creation of the Starrs Nor is this Supposition of Aethereal Spheres any Solution of the several Advers Motions for perhaps the slower Motions of the Fixed Starâ—s as they are therefore so termed Comparatively which are also Advers to the Motion of the Aether may be as several and then they must also allow as many several Spheres for every one of them and so for any of the Planetary Satellites about another Planet Also the Circumvolution of them by the Primum Mobile must be either by a Corporeal and External Impuâ—s and then they must Cohere to it like the Circular Spheres of an Onion which is the usual Comparison which Cohesion will also make the Circumvolution Conjunct and one and the same way as if you turn an Onion so about otherwise if they do not so Cohere no Motion of the Inferior Spheres will be Caused by the Circumvolution of the Superior or Primum Mobile as if you turn a Wheel about an Axis without any Contact much less can it Move all the others so many several ways Or it must be by some Spiritual Potentia which must be either of another Spirit and so Infinitely or of itself as indeed it is and then the several Planets and Starrs may also aswell have such several Potentiae in themselvs as the Primum Mobile and so many several Spheres Moving themselvs and their several Planets in them by such several and Advers Motions Also firmnes or Consistence is a Proper Quality of Earth as I shall shew heerafter and not of Aether and though the Aether be Mist with all the other Elements in some small Proportion yet the Consistence which it haâ—h thereby is very Inconsyderable and less then of Air and Water which yet are Denominated Fluid Bodys and not Consistent and is rather like the Terrene Opacity therof which doth not fix any Color in Aether nor Reflect like Earth or Water though very much Assisted by the vast Profundity therof which is somwhat Analogous to Opacity as well as Density as may appear by Deep Water which seems more Black and Specular then Shallow The Spirit of Aether is Fire as the very Name therof doth Import which also plainly declareth the common Opinion of the Antient Graecians though they who deny the Thing would also elude the Etymology And so the Persiaâ—s who worshipped the Sun therefore Consecrated Fire and used it in their Mysterious Ceremonys And all Language both Sacred and Profane hath ever stiled the Sun Hott which all Sens doth likewise attest though this also and any thing whatsoever will be evaded by a resolved Error and instead therof Fire is placed in a new Invented Sphere or Province which it must have in Conformity to the great Bâ—dys of the other Elements and which is termed Concavum Lunae or Caelum Incognitum All which Absurditys were only Philosophical Inventions to preserv the Idolatrous Reverence and Religion of Hâ—aven which is now together with them to be Exploded by Christianity Nor do I suppose Aeâ—hereal and Culinary Fire to be several Elements Genericaly Different becaus they have the same Proper Qualitys Heat Light and others though they may perhaps Dâ—ffer more Specificaly becaus Aether hath other Proper Qualitys as Circular Motion and Inflâ—ential Virtues which may not be in the other or at least not Actualy as the Eâ—eâ—entary Earth hath Magnetical Virtue whâ—ch is not Actualy in all Terrene Bodys and there is certeinly a greaâ—er Mistion of the other Elements in Culinary Fire which renders it more Impure then Aethereal But there is Heat very notably in Aether which is Instrumental in the Rapid Motion therof for Heat being a most Active Quality is also very Motive I know not whether any Actual Heat can â—e without Actual Motion though Heat be not only Motion nor Motion Heat as I shall shew heerafter And this Motion of Aethereal Heat must necessarily be Circular becaus as I have shewed if there be more Motion then the Body Moving can Exercise and Expend Directly it will Move it Circularly and Aether can not Move any other way for being more Rare then Air it will not Move Downward into it and being more Dens then Superaether which is also Superelementary and most Heterogeneous it can not Move Upward into it but being already in its own Proper Sphere and Station it Moves only in it which must be Circularly and therefore also it Moveâ— Perpetualy becaus it is Moved by its own Proper Potentia which is alway Actual in itself and not Corrupted or Obstructed by any other and it therefore Moves Equaly becaus there is none other Causality to make any Increments or Decrements therof And it is by a Spiritual Qâ—ality in itself which is not to Rest as the Motion of Matter Nor is it Invaded by the Supeâ—aeâ—her and it is Defended from the Ambient Air by that Rapid Motion which affordeth no Time requisite for the Air to Operate upon it and therefore it is more Ingenerable and Incorruptâ—ble then the Inferior Elements and probably doth not Emitt aâ—y of its own Matter and yet by its Emissary Rays is itself the greatest Operator of them all and doth Generate and Corrupt them and so generaly all Superior Elements do most Operate upon the Inferior and the Inferior less upon the Superior Nor doth it need any Fuel becaus it is not continualy Incensed and Extinguished like Flame whose Individuality is therefore Varied as Successively as the Fâ—me but Aeâ—her hath its own Spiritual Potentia always Actual in iâ—self whicâ— is not Corrupted nor Oâ—structeâ— by any otherâ— But I conceiv that the Regularity of the Aetâ—ereâ—l Circâ—mvolution Exactly in every Day Natural is from a Special Quality which was also Actuâ—ted therin in this first Day and so continuâ—th and is a Natural Motion therof Anâ—â—ogous to the Vâ—rricity of the Mâ—â—net whereby it reduceth â—tself to the Regularity of â—ts Polar Position And this I colleâ—t from the Text wherin 〈◊〉 said that God so made Day and Night theâ—in and though the Proper Aethereal Virtue according to that general Power therof doth so carry it about with a Perfect Regularity yet since it hath been Accursed and Blasted as well as Earth for the Sin of Man there are many particular
of the World declared and described either more truly or in a more short Epitome Now wheras the Antecedent Darknes did continue for some Time on the face of the Deep wherin the Spirit of God Moved upon it it may be Curiously Inquired how long that Space of Time was wherin the Antecedent Darknes was and continued before the first Light was Created but as Divine Wisedom doth not regard Human Curiosity nor attend to satisfy it so I esteem it Impertinent though I may discours it Humanitus However I must conceiv as I have said that the Spirit of God did not only Move or Incubate on the first Chaos to Prepare and Predispose it before and untill the Light was Created but Conformably untill all the other Original Creatures in all the Six Days were Produced and the whole Creation and Cours of Nature finished for they were all Supernatural and the Immediate Works of God And concerning the particular Space of Time between the General and Proper Creation or Begining and the first Improper Creation of Light I conceiv it probably to have been Twelv Hours and somwhat more and that there was neither any Diurnal nor any Nocturnal Light during that Time For so the Computation of all the Six Days is by Evening and Morning aswell as of the First and the Evening and Morning made the First Proper Day Natural which most probably was Equinoctial and was afterward Divided into Day and Night Artificial and the Evening is alway sett before the Morning as it was before it in Time but the Day before the Night as it is before it in Nature becaus the Day Artificial was first so made by Dividing the Light from the Darknes that is into a Diurnal and Nocturnal Light and so God saith I form the Light and Create Darknes as he did in the First Day Originaly wheras Pure Darknes is not Creable but the Night which is called Dark Comparatively Wherefore as this Improper Creation in the Six Days was Original Generation wherunto all Successive is Conformable so I suppose that as the whole Day according to the Diurnal Cours of the Aether then first putt into Motion and so still continuing is fower and twenty Hours and somwhat more so the two Halvs therof or first Evening and Morning must be supposed to have been also of the same Duration and each of them Equal as well as the Second and Third before the Sun and Moon were Created Nor can I conceiv how there could be any such Day and Night Artificial in the First Day as since becaus they were then first so Created after the first Evening was ended but could not Possibly be before they were so Created And when Light was Created it was Morning in all the Aether in respect of the Precedent Evening and so there was never since any such Evening and Morning as made the first Day Natural becaus there is no such Pure Darknes but only Comparative Darknes whereby Night was made after the Evening was ended by the first Creation of Light which was the first Morning and God in that Morning did afterward Divide the Light into a Diurnal and Nocturnal Proportion therof whereby he made Day and Night Artificial And thus though Time was Created in the Begining from whence also the most Proper Natural Day did Commence yet the Artificial was Created in that First Natural Day and the Day Natural according to the Cours of the Sun in the Fourth Day and the two Parts of that Day which we commonly but more Improperly call Day Natural that is Night and Day are not always Equal with the Parts of all other Days wheras the two Parts of the Proper Day Natural that is the Evening and Morning being Computed from the Begining are always Equal and each of them Twelv Hours and somwhat more And becaus the Parts of the Solar or Improper Day Natural except Equinoctial are Unequal therefore the Whole may be sooner as in Summer or later as in Winter but the Proper Natural Day is never sooner or later becaus it is the Succession of Fower and Twenty Hours Daily from the first Fower and Twenty Hours and Begining of the first Day Natural and so all the Six Days both before and after the Sun and Moon were made to Rule the Day and Night and also the Seaventh or Sabbath are Computed accordingly Wherefore becaus this Day is most Even Exact and Invariable according to Time God also appointed it and not the Improper Day Natural to be the Measure of Time in Sacris and so it is said from Even to Even shall ye celeâ—rate your Sabbath and not from Night to Night and though the later Iews did not so observ it yet Ab Initio non fuit sic But both the Day and Time of the Christian Sabbath which is appointed for us Gentiles in all Parts of the Earth is and must be Altered by the Resurrection of Christ which if it should begin as the former at Evening as some would have it then it should begin before the Resurrection for unless that were also some Time after the Begining of the Evening Christ should not have laid in the Grave three Days Synechdochicaly as most certainly he did and though it be expressly declared when the Creation was finished and God first Rested that is at the end of the Sixth Evening and Morning or Proper Day Natural yet it is not so expressed or ascerteined when Christ Rose again but only that he Rose very early in the Morning of the Third Day that is the Solar or Improperly Natural Now as there was not only a Proper Natural Day but also a Division therin of the Light from the Comparative Darknes and so Day and Night Artificial made thereby in the First Day Originaly and Successively in the Second and Third Day before the Sun or Moon were made to Rule them more particularly as I shall shew heerafter so certeinly there must have been some Circumrotation of the Aether and of the Light Inherent therin in the Precedent Days for if the Light were Equaly in all the Aether then there should have been Equaly all Day in all the Aeâ—her and there could not be such Day in one Hemisphere and Night in the other without a Circumrotation of the Aether and of the Light wheras there was such a Division of the Light as made Day and Night Artificial therin and this Day and Night were then Originaly made and were such as they have ever since been Sâ—ccessively by the Diurnal Cours of the Aether except only the more Special Variations therof by the Proper Courses of the Sun and Moon which were maâ—e thereby and are Annual and Menstruous but not Diurnal which must necessarily be by the Circumgyration of the whole Aether and of the Light therof in one Hemisphere as the Sun now is so carried about by the Aether Diurnaly Certeinly the Earth Water or Air or any of them could not so Move in this First Day becaus
they were not yet Improperly Created or so Made as it is said of the Air that God Made or fitted the Firmament therof or Expansum in the Second Day though they were Properly Created in the Begining in their several Bodys and Spheres but were then all in Rest and only the Spirit of God Moved among them and as the Irregular Winds and the Regular Courses of the Tides and of the Sun Moon and Starrs were not before or untill those other Elementary Bodys were Improperly Created so neither was there any Motion of the Earth wherof if we could suppose any such Motion yet we may not reasonably suppose it to have been before the Third Day and Improper Creation of the Earth therin concerning which I shall Discours heerafter and now only add one other Observation that as the Sun though farr less then one Hemisphere of the Aether yet maketh Day therin by his Emanant Rays so probably the Diurnal Light in this First Day did not fill one whole Hemisphere but only some such part therof as according to the Vigor and Extent of the Emanant Rays therof did make Day Artificial in one Hemisphere and perhaps with some such Crepuscula as the Sun now doth make for we may well conceiv that First Day and Night to have been Analogous to every Day since in all the general Circumstances therof besides only such as are more specialy superinduced in the Variations of sooner or later more or less by the Courses of the Sun and Moon wheras if that Diurnal Light Inherent should have filled one whole Hemisphere the Emanant Rays therof would have extended much farther and the Inherent Light should have been Hemispherical which is not Conformable to the Natural Figure therof and therefore I rather conceiv that it was a Particular Globe Glomus or Confluvium collected from the Light which was first Generaly and Diffusively Created in the whole Aether and that which was left in the common Body therof is therefore Comparatively called Darknes and though it were not strictly such Darknes as was in the Chaos yet the Expression is not therefore Popular so as some would make all the Philosophical Expressions in Scripture to be but Necessarily to be so understood for there are no Purae Tenebrae in the whole Elementary Nature and in the Superaether there is either a Superaethereal Light or neither Light nor Darknes for where there is not nor Naturaly ought to be any Positive there is no Privative which is founded in the Positive is only the Privation therof as in a Stone there is neither Sight nor Blindnes wherefore after the first Creation of Light that Darknes must necessarily be understood of Comparative Darknes only and this is the Natural Darknes which God Created and is also sufficiently so explained in the ensuing words And the Darknes he called Night which hath its Nocturnal Light whereby it is expressly and most exactly Distinguished from a Pure Privation of Light such as was Antecedently in the Chaos wherin there was neither Day nor Night And heer again Cavillation which is endles may proceed to term these Expressions God Said or Called and the like Popular though as the others so these also are most Necessary for indeed nothing can be Properly spoken of God either as he is in Essence or in Operation and there can be no Expression more apposite then that the Creatures are Verba Mentis Divinae And heer I must affirm of this whole History of Creation that it is not Popular as some would have it and thereby render it Insignificant unto all others as well as to themselvs whereby they have lost the Benefit of so great a Treasure which hath been a Chaos to this Day and is still hid from the Wise and Prudent or rather they thus hide it from themselvs though I am confident that neither themselvs nor any other can ever declare or describe such a System of the World in more brief or less Popular Expressions Wherefore I term it a History that is of Matter of Fact which hath only such apt Expressions as serv to declare and describe the Matter of Fact and therefore certeinly are not Popular otherwise we may call all the Sacred History of Adam and Eve of Noah of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and of all the Patriarchs Judges and Kings and Governors and of Christ and his Apostles Popular and reject all the Matters of Fact Recorded both in the Old and New Testament and our very Creed which should be most Irreligious and also Irrational Thus when God saith In the Begining he Created the Heaven and the Earth shall any say he did not and so of the rest And if any may be so Irreligious as to deny the Verity of the Fact yet he may not be so Irrational as to deny the Veracity of the Expressions or to affirm that the Scripture doth not say that In the Begining God Created the Heaven and the Earth and so of the rest But that we may not frame any Popular Notion of what we intend by a Popular Expression and so Confound our Discours therof as I have hitherto strictly examined other Terms and Expressions so I shall also now examin this very Expression of an Expression And I acknowledg generaly all Language to be Popular becaus Words are no Natural Signatures but only Instituted Tesserae or Symbola of Things Coined by Men and so made to pass Current among themselvs And since the Confusion of Languages every National Language is more particularly Popular or peculiar to the People of that Nation and the same Word may signify one Thing in one Tong and another in another as Nay in English hath a Contrary Signification in Greek Wherefore I acknowledg also that there is such Popularity in the Hebrew Tong and also many Idiotisms therof as well as in others but I suppose this is not the Popularity Intended for then we should also Invalidate all Language as well as this and all Books as well as the Bible Also there are certein General Propertys and Modifications of all Human Language as well as several Idiotisms of Particular Languages As that which is spoken Respectively of any Thing or in one Respect according to that which is the Subject Matter of the present Discours can not reasonably by any Rational Men in any Language be Interpreted Absolutely or in all Respects whatsoever And so again as I have before noted that which no Human Language can Properly Express may not reasonably by any Rational Men be Interpreted Properly and the like which if we should not allow we should destroy all Human Discours and otherwise then so I know not one Popular Expression in this whole History of the Creation and such Popularity also is and must be in any other History of Matter of Fact and therefore this can be no reason why any should regard it less then any other Philosophical Discourses whatsoever Wherefore they must rather Intend by
Popular Expressions such as are according to false Apprehensions of Common People or Deceptions of Sens and the like and I suppose they can not shew any one such in all this Narration and indeed it is great Impiety to conceiv that there should be any such in it which doth so Historicaly and Intentionaly declare and describe the Genesis of the World though in other parts of the Scripture which are not so Historical and Intentional I also acknowledg that there are all the Varietys of Human Language and so there are many Expressions which are spoke as we say Rotunde and so indeed Popularly for common Use and such as are allowed in all Arts and Sciences even Mathematical and many Figurative Expressions yea Hyperbolical and Ironical in some more Poetical and Rhetorical parts therof which yet may as easily be discerned as in any ordinary Discours but certeinly the Divine Verity doth not any where offer any thing of Falsity or Deception but Expresseth most Infallible Truth in the common Language of Mankind and particularly according to those Tongs wherin it is writ and most Wisely Ordereth and Varieth the Expressions according to the Occasion and Intention therof and so heer concerning the Genesis of the World it speakâ—th not only most truly but also as Narratively and as Philosophicaly as any Philosopher whatsoever and therefore none may justly neglect it upon any such preâ—ension of Popularity neither do I suppose that to be the very reason therof as is pretended but rather that it speaketh too Expressly and Exactly those things which are Contrary to the Private Opinions of such Pretenders who becaus they can not Evade the Divine Authority therof would Elude it by supposing that it neither doth nor can speak any thing against their own preconceived Opinions and therefore as they esteem all the World of Mankind besides themselvs Popular and to be in a Popular Error so they most Profanely and Presumptuously Interpret Scripture itself rather according to Common Errors as they suppose then will endure it to Contradict their own greater Errors which yet they will maintein as Oraculous and I find this Humor to prevail not only with such who do wholy exclude Scripture from all Philosophical Discourses but also in many Commentators who rather correct Moses by Heathenish Philosophers in any such Points as are not Articles of our Creed as the Creation and the like then them by Moses in their Timid and Partial Explications yea even Translators who should strictly embrace the very Letter of the Text yet do thus Warp and Incline as farr as they may in their very Expressions as I have observed and I know not how among them all this Divine Philosophy hath hitherto been Rejected Neglected or Abused whereby Mankind haâ—h received litle more satisfaction from it then from any other Human Philosophy though it be the only Standard of Truth and the first Sentence therof In the Begining c. the very Alpha of all Divine Letters and the Foundation of all that Divinity and Morality or our whole Duty toward God and Man that is conteined in the whole Scripture whereby it plainly appears how firm a Connexion there is between Theology Morality and Natural Philosophy and of what Consequence and Concernment according to Divine Wisdom a right and sound Knowledg therof is both in Church and State and I dare affirm that there never was extant in the World any other Writing that hath more firmly and plainly laid the Foundations of these three most Noble and Profitable Sciences and as it is my Designe to Demonstrate it even in Natural Philosophy which perhaps men may least expect so I may suppose if I shall perform and obtein this they will easily grant it of the others And I hope though I may fall short of mine own Intention and their Satisfaction yet I shall discover so much Light therof that others will begin to believ that more may be derived from this Fountain and so proceed to perfect what I have begun Certeinly whatsoever is in this Sacred History is Truth and all that Truth is Fundamental wherupon Human Reason to which God hath left the rest for the Exercitation and Improvement therof may proceed to build but other Foundation then this can no Man lay And though the Divine Spirit in Inditing it did not intend to satisfy the more Curious and Impertinent yet such things as no Memory of Man hath otherwise Preserved and Delivered nor our Reason and Judgment could have Retrived are heer clearly Reveled and faithfully Recorded As not only that there was a Creation and a Begining but how many Thousand Years since and all the Succeeding Chronology of the World and the whole Order and Process of Created Nature how it was first Ordained and Instituted in Six several Days and the like and as all Christian Historians have rectified the Fabulous Chronology of Pagans by the former so should Christian Philosophers their Contradictory and Unsatisfactory Philosophy by the latter But again on the other hand we must carefully avoid all Cabalistical and Allegorical Interpretations therof and satisfy our selvs with the plain and simple Sens of the Text according to the Subject Matter therof and Context of Scripture And thus wheras the Rabbins from those former Expressions God said and God called it and the like have asserted the Hebrew Language wherin this History of the Creation was writ by Moses and the Names of Day Night Heaven Sea Earth and the like which are said thus to be Named by God to be therefore the Primitive Language Instituted by God and Original of all others I dare not so affirm though I otherwise grant it to be the most antient of all Languages now Extant becaus that Book is the most antient of all Books now Extant But God is also said to call the Starrs by their Names though all of them be not Expressed for their Names to him who is the Creator of all things are their Created Natures by which he knows them Immediately and Essentialy and so he speaks by Real Language or by his Works which as I have said are the Extrinsecal and Artificial Words of the Divine Mind and his Word is only a Comment therupon and so the Heaven and Earth were Denominated by their Created Natures and when he made Day and Night he so denominated them by making them to be such And heerin Divine Language and Human Differ for wheras Adam afterward gave Names unto the Creatures he only Verbaly called them by some Instituted Names Expressive of such Natures as God had made them but did noâ— nor could Realy make them to be such And the Primitive Language whatsoever it was may rather be referred to him for it is Mans Creature and of Human Institution and possibly he might speak that Language and so it is said Adam called his wife Chevah and she her son Sheth However it is certein they both spake some Language which also declares the great Perfection of
was more Earth And as the Winds are thus caused by Vapors so the Southern parts of the World being more Watery are therefore as I have said more Tepid or Warm and Rainy or Misty and the Northern parts being more Terreous and Emitting more of the Terreitys therefore the Northwind is contrarily more Cold and Dry. And the Sun in the Diurnal Motion of the Aether being carried from East to West and so better Concocting the Vapors which he hath before raised and passed over in such his Diurnal Cours therefore generaly Eastern Winds are also more Cold and Dry and Western Warmer and Moister and some Winds are observed to Rise and Fall with the Rising and Setting of the Sun But if any Wind or Weather be so Copious and Durable as to be carried about the whole Terraqueous Globe then the same Wind may be of a Contrary Temper from the same Caus and so many times Rains come from the North and East and commonly they are very great becaus they are so Copious and Durable and so in Africa and other hot Climes there are Infrequent Rains but when they happen they are Excessive becaus the Sun doth very Copiously rais Vapors and if it happen by any Circumstantial Causality that he can not Concremate and Desiccate them as much they all turn into Rain And so the Hot Meteor of a Thunder-cloud draws very Copious and Dark Vapors which when the Heat breaks forth in Lightning are presently Resolved into Rain though otherwise when there are few other such Vapors in the Air neer to it there are also dry Lightnings without any great Nois becaus they are not Exploded out of such Clouds as the others and Thunder-clouds may go against the Wind as we say becaus they are Moved and Impelled by their own Heat and by their great Commotion after the Explosion of the Lightning they commonly turn the Wind. And Concurrent Causes may Move and Impell the Mobile Air every way and when it cannot Move fast enough Progressively then as I have said it must Move Circularly whereby it becomes a Turbo or Whirlwind which I conceive rather to be such then all the Winds blowing against one another Ignes fatui are Inflamed Exhalations more Lucid and less Fiery having some Fatt and Viscous Corpuscles of Earth in their Misture and arise generaly from such Soils And if they be more Igneous and more Rarefied thereby they are better Concocted and Ascend higher and become Stellae Cadentes and the lâ—ke which fall down again when that Heat is Extinct But these Fiery Meteors which last longer are not comparably Igneous like Fulgur or Lightning which having a most Rare and Subtile Fomes and being also pent in and Condensated in the Cloud when it breaks forth doth not only make a Terrible Nois by the sudden Collision of the Cloud every way against the Air but also by that sudden Eruption as well as by the Spiritual Power therof doth wonderful Execution and is strangely Influential and I suppose of all Culinary Fire is most like to Aethereal but I cannot conceiv that it can so Calcine any part of the Cloud as to forge a Fulmâ—n Thunderbolt or Stone though I acknowledg that there is much Earth also in it wherof as well as of the Water some Insects as Tadpols and others are found to be Produced after Rain All which Violent and Excessive Meteors are as I have said general Effects of the Divine Curs and so Thunder is called the Voice of God and ought to be regarded but I do not apprehend these general Effects to be any such special Prodigys and Portents as some would have them to be The Iris and the like are Properly no Meteors but only Reflections of the Sun-beams from a Vaporous Cloud like a Prism being also more Opacous then the Bright Clouds And I doubt not but that there were Rainbows before the Deluge though not before the Fall as well as Lambs before the Pass-over Water and Bread and Wine before Baptism and the Lords Supper for all such Sacramental Elements are in themselvs Natural and only supernaturaly Instituted to be Symbolical Signes and so was the Rainbow which signifys Sunshine after Rain and doth very fitly declare the Covenant that God made with Noah that as he and his Family were then saved from the Deluge so it should never after come upon his Posterity and as God said I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting Covenant between God and every Living Creature of all flesh that is upon the Earth so should we when we behold this his Bow in the Clouds thankfully remember his wonderful Deliverance both that which is past wherin we all who were then in the loins of Noah's Sons were preserved and also future concerning which God hath given us such an everlasting Covenant and this Signe therof SECTION IX And God said Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered into one place and let the Dry Land appear And it was so And God called the Dry Land Earth and the gathering together of the Waters called he Seas And God saw that it was Good And God said Let the Earth bring forth Grass the Herb yielding Seed and the Fruit Tree yielding Seed after his kind whose Seed is in itself upon the Earth And it was so And the Earth brought forth Grass and Herb yielding Seed after his Kind and the Tree yielding Fruit whose Seed was in itself after his Kind And God saw that it was Good And the Evening and the Morning were the Third Day EXPLICATION God having before caused part of the Water to ascend in Vapors into the Air did afterward caus the rest to subside and be derived into certein Canales in the Earth which he had also prepared for it and so made the Surface of the Earth which before was covered with Water to appear together with it in one Terraqueous Globe wherof the Dry Land was Earth and the Confluvia of Waters Seas And this Ordination of all these three Elements was their Goodness and Perfection And when God had thus prepared all the fower Elements he caused the Earth being pregnant with Vegetative Principles accordingly to bring forth Grass Herbs and Trees above the Surface therof after their several Kinds and the Herbs and Trees had also their several Seeds and Seminal Virtues in themselves whereby to Propagate and Multiply afterward And this was their Goodness and Perfection And all these were the Works of the Third Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of Water 2. Of Moisture 3. Of Odors and Sapors 4. Of the Flux and Reflux of Waters 5. Of Earth 6. Of Drines 7. Of Consistence 8. Of Magnetical Virtue and Electricity 9. Of the Immobility of the Earth 10. Of Vegetatives 11. Of the Goodnes of the Works of the Second and Third Days I. THe Water which is Elementary and more properly such and wherof Vapor and Ice are only Various is next to Air above it both in Situation and Nature as may
appear by Vapor and to Earth beneath it as may appear by Ice And though Earth and Water were in this Third Day made and still are one Terraqueous Globe yet as they were Created in the Begining so they still are several and different Elements aswell as Air and Aeâ—her are several and dâ—fferent Heavens And though they are thus Composed into one Globe yet they have their several Provinces therin as well as the others though not in the same maner or Figure And so it is said not only that Dry Land did appear which was before covered with the Sphere of Water as that was with Air and Air with Aether but also that there was a gathering together of the Waters into one place generaly wherunto all Rivers do run though branched out into several Canaleâ— and though standing Ponds Lakes and perhaps some Gulphs or Seas as the Caspian Sea may not communicate with the Ocean yet they are also Confluvia and Seas and so termed distributively afterward and all of them distinguished from the Waters which first covered the Earth all over wheras now the main Ocean covereth and compasseth it about only in one place And as these Waters beneath flow from the Earth so they are still above it as the Waters above floating in the Air are also said to be above or upon it for so the word signifies upon or above and so Fowl are said to fly above or upon the Heavens and as they are thus distinguished from Waters beneath so are also those Waters above the Earth from Waters beneath the Earth that is Subterraneous Fountains or depths of the Seas for neither are any Waters under the whole Earth which is most Dens and consequently lowest nor above any of the whole Heavens Superaether Aether or Air itself which are more Rare and consequently Higher as I have shewed but these Expressions concerning the Vapors and Fountains are Respective according to the Subject Matter and not to be understood Absolutely and they do indicate several Regions of the Waters wheras we have no such indication of any several Regions in the Air or Aether as I have observed Also though the Evaporation of Waters by Heat be Natural and only Supernaturaly produced by God in the Second Day as his other Works of Improper Creation were in other Days yet this Distribution of Earth and Waters in the Terraqâ—eous Globe therof which was so Composed in this Third Day seems more Extraordinary and Artificial and such as doth most plainly declare the Immediate Operation of God in this and all the other Days for by what Natural Power could the Earth and Isles be raised above the Waters or the Mountains and Vallys be so ordered and Indented or who could cast those great Banks of the Shores and cut those vast Chanells of the Seas and Rivers or say unto them thither shall ye go and no farther which therefore God is said Originaly to do by Line and Levell as in Waterworks we so set them out that they may run to their Levell this way or that way in the Cutts prepared for them And though men may make such less alterations therin and some greater have been made by accidental Breaches and Inundations yet as God saith I brake up for it my Decreed place or as it is Originaly established my Decree upon it and sett Barrs and Dâ—ors so generaly and in the main it continues the same and since that Great and Universal Deluge yet Cosmographers can still find out those Seas Rivers and Isles which Moses declareth to have been before it And thus the Divine Psalmist describeth both the Proper and Improper Creation of Waters and Earth Thou coveredst it with the Deep as with a Garment the Waters stood above the Mountains At thy rebuke they fled at the Voice of thy Thunder they hasted away They go up by the Mountains they go down by the Vallys unto the place that thou hast founded for them Thou hast sett a Bound that they might not pass that they turn not again to cover the Earth and so proceeds to shew the great Usefulness therof which thereby God prepared both for Vegetatives and Sensitives in the whole Oecumene or Habitable Earth But though the Earth generaly is thus raised above the Waters not only in the Mountains and Summits therof but in its whole Campus which lys above the Levell of the Waters yet the Water in its own Province is above the Earth on which it flows and so the Earth is very elegantly expressed standing out of the Water and in the Water And wheras it is said that God founded it upon or above the Seas and established it upon or above the Flouds it is very true and proper according to the Subject Matter wherof the Psalmist there speaks that is of the Oecumene or Habitable Earth as it was so raised above the Waters which before were above it and thereby was made fruâ—tfull and Habitable which the precedent Context doth plainly declare The Earth is the Lords and the fulnes therof the World and all that dwell therin nor do I apprehend that the whole World of Spheres Aereal Aethereal and Superaethereal is there intended though the Author of Esdras saith also that the Heavens are founded upon the Waters but I rather conceiv that by World is there meant Orbis Terrae as it is usually so taken Hebraicaly and in all other Languages because the Earth is our present World and so more restrictively we say the Christian World and the like But how farr the Waters are beneath the Levell or Campus of the Earth is not particularly expressed yet we read of a great Deep or Ocean and of Fountains therof or therin as we so say Fons Blundusii and the like not that there is besides the Ocean any Fountain therof beneath it which feeds and supplys it for it is called the Deep becaus it is the deepest of all Waters and so Fountains and Depths of Waters are used indifferently as it is said A Land of Brooks of Water of Fountains and Depths that spring out of Vallys and Hills and both are said to be under the Earth wherefore becaus Rain and Waters in those dry Countrys were accounted great Blessings Iacob blesseth Ioseph with Blessings of Heaven above and Blessings of the deep that lieth under which Moses also repeateth nor is it said that there is a Deep and also Fountains therof beneath and besides it but they are alway termed the Fountains of the Deep not only in respect of itself but also of all Vapors Rain and Rivers wherof the Deep or Sea is the Fountain to which that expression seems to refer for so they are joined together as it is said that there were the Fountains of the Great Deep broken up and the Windows of Heaven were opened and indeed they are so made to be Fountains one unto another mutualy and reciprocaly as I shall shew heerafter and in the Deluge the Conflux of all the Waters was gathered
together to cover the whole Earth not as it did at first equaly cover the whole Surface therof but the Canales Campus and highest Hills as they then stood and continued fifteen Cubits did the Waters prevail and the Mountains were covered Whereby we may partly estimate the quantity of the whole Body of Waters which yet may be Rarefied or Condensated more or less nor can we exactly tell what is the Proportion of the Surface of the Waters to the Surface of Dry Land in the whole Terraqueous Globe The Author of Esdras saith Vpon the Third Day thou didst command that the Waters should be gathered in the Seaventh part of the Earth Six parts hâ—st thou dried up which might probably also have encouraged Columbus in his happy confidence of more Earth then was discovered before him and according to this account there should still be much Terra Incognita The Density of the Body of Air more then of Water hath been observed to be as about a Thousand to One and yet Waters beneath are Rarefied into Vapors or Waters above which are as Rare as Air itself for Vapors and Fumes do not ascend into the Air by Impulsion of one part after another as Water may be squirted upward out of a Syringe or as they are called Pillars of Smoak in respect of the Figure therof but if a Titiâ— or Brand be held downward in the open Air yet the Smoak therof will ascend upward or remain suspended and perhaps some Vaporous Meteors are Indefinitely in the Air or any Region therof even the highest Surface and so said to be upon it as I have shewed And I shall heer observ that as Vapors or Waters above were so made by special Creation in the Second Day so they are of special Use and Consideration being a very Subtile and Spirituous Effluvium and a notable Instrument of Nature and also a Menstruum carrying forth with it not only part of the Body but also much of the Spirit and this is indeed that which Chymists commonly call Spirit as it so carrieth forth the Spiritual Qualitys with itself being a very fitt Vehicle therof whence some have fansied a Conversion and Transpeciation in itself which I have already refuted but certeinly it causeth a very great Alteration of the Bodys out of which it is emitted and Translation of the Spirits therof being not so Dens or Consistent as Earth nor as Water out of which it is produced and almost as Rare as Air and Aether and so Intercedeth and Mediateth between all the Elements and doth Evoke the Spirits therof as is commonly observed of the firmest Timber that if it be often Wett and Dry again it soon Rotts which also takes away the State of Hay as Husbandmen say in their Chymical expression therof Yea I suppose that what is intended by the famous Chymical Term of Fermentation is only the Operation of a Hott Spirit on a Moist Intrinsecaly within the Body therof by Vaporation which plainly discovers itself accordingly by some Turgescence and Ebullition and whereby the Benigne and Homogeneous Spirits are better Concocted and more equaly Distributed which doth exceedingly Meliorate and Maturate and the more Maligne and Heterogeneous do Evaporate or otherwise the Spirits being in agitation by any Intemperate Excess or Defect become more Corrupt and Putrid Thus Heat and Moisture Operating and Fermenting within Bodys produce all Elementary Generation and Corruption and are thereby also very subservient to Vegetation and Vivification Now as I said before of Air so the very Spirit of Water is unknown to us nor have we any apt Vocabulum therof or if we had yet we could not thereby know the Substantial Spirit itself or the Nature therof but only by those Accidents or Spiritual Qualitys wherof I shall now proceed to discours II. The first or principal Quality of Water is Moisture as I have already proved and indeed unless Water be Moist I neither know what is Water nor what is Moisture And I suppose that Elementary Water is most Moist that is it doth Moisten most strongly though Vapor being more Rare and Subtile may sooner penetrate as Fixed Fire doth certeinly Heat most though Volatile Flame doth most penetrate and yet when Vapor hath thus penetrated it doth most Moisten by being Condensated again into Water but Vapor may be also Adusted and turned into Smoak which is Actualy Dry as I have shewed and that cannot be supposed of Water Immediately untill it be first turned into Vapor And Oil seemeth to Moisten more then Elementary Water becaus it is more Unctuous and Evaporateth less whereby it reteins the Moisture longer as a boiling pot of Water being covered doth retein the Vapor and Moisture more then uncovered and therefore that Water is longer in boiling away and so is Oil then Water thus though pure Water doth as I said Moisten most becaus Moisture is the Proper Quality therof and all others Moisten only by participation of Water yet it doth also Evaporate most whereby it becomes Vapor and Water above which is also another Proper Quality therof and thereby drys away soonest Also though it moisten most yet in Washing it may be advantaged by other Bodys as pure Water doth not Rens or Scowr so well as if it be mingled with Earthy particles of Chalk Marl Bran or the like which render it more Abstersive and make it as Huswives say bear Soap better becaus those Terreous Corpuscles do Imbibe Unctuous Bodys better then Water and thereby reconcile them together yet not without heating beating laving or the like and so Water and Milk mingle together the Oleous parts of the Butyrum being reconciled to the Water by the Serum wheras Butter itself Oil Turpentine Mercury and the like will not so easily mingle with Water becaus they are not so Aqueous which appears by their less Evaporation nor will Water easily mingle with Vapor while they continue such because God hath so vastly differenced them in their Creation that they shall be either Waters beneath or Waters above whose different Density is as a Thousand to One and they can hardly continue in any of those thousand Degrees between them though they pass from one to the other by them all as may appear by the Motion of Water boiling in a pott which first is scarcely seen to Move and then Simpers as they say and so boils up more and more though they will continue in some Degrees beyond that proportion as Meteors in any Region of the Air. And Evaporation is such a notable Property of Water and Symptom of the Aqueous Nature that I suppose all Elementary Water if it be not frozen with Cold will Evaporate always with any Degree of Heat or Tepâ—r as certeinly it will in a Cold Still though proportionably less with less and more with more Heat and so even those winds which we call Cold from that Predominant Quality do Dry notably by carrying away the Vapors which even then do arise whereby others
own Apprehensions then in the Expressions wherin Scripture is alway Consonant the Truth therof Consistent with itself and so we are to Interpret them accordingly and to reduce them all to the System of the World which is Intentionaly reveled and declared unto us in this Divine History of the Genesis therof and then we shâ—ll neither as some place Waters below the Earth becaus Springs are termed Subterraneous or above the Aether yea the Superaether becaus the same word signifieth both Air and Heavens and so make them to possess both the Center and Circumference of the whole World nor conceiv that Rivers flow from the Ocean only by Subterraneous passages and so flow thither again in their Canales whenas there is not any mention made of Rivers in all the Six Days Works but only of Waters above and Waters beneath which were first gathered into Seas though I doubt not but that Rivers were also made afterward in the Third Day yet first by Waters above or Vapors and in the same Order of Nature wherin they are still continued that is by the descent of Vapors first raised from the Seas into the Earth and therefore only Vapors or Waters above and Seas or Waters beneath are heer mentioned and so afterward we read that There went up a Mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of the Ground before we read of the fower Rivers that encompassed Eden about and were also fed and continued by it and the Vapors thus descending into the Spongy Earth where they meet with Stones or other such Bodys less apt to Imbibe them do stand in Drops as they do on Marble which Poets call the Tears of Niobe and those Drops gathering together in Fluxes make at first litle Rills and they afterward Rivulets and Rivers which run again into the Sea and so the Rivers were made and are still continued and this and no other is the Cours of the Waters as the Psalmist affirmeth They go up by the Mountains they go down by the Vallys unto the place which thou hast founded for them and so we read of Windows of Heaven aswell as of Fountains of the Deep and the Author of Esdras calleth them also Springs above the Firmament for so indeed they are Mutualy and Reciprocaly Fountains each to other And this plainly is proved by the freshnes of Rivers which may not be imputed to any such Percolation through the Earth whereby it hath formerly been supposed that Salt might be Separated from Water but is now found to be otherwise I have tried it by so strict a Percolation that only a Drop or two of Brine have been Excerned in a whole Days time and yet they were so Briny that I could perceiv very little or no difference and all Saltmen find Evaporation to be the most easy and natural way of making Salt which therefore certeinly is the way of Nature in so great an Evaporation as apparently makes all Rainwater fresh and consequently all Riverwater Nor are Salt Springs from the Sea Immediately or Mediately but from Salt Mines in the Earth lâ—ke other Nâ—trous Bitumineous or Iron Springs and the like though I also acknowledg that Salt may be Volatilised as Chymists say and which doth very sensibly appear to us who dwell neer to the Sea where Woods on that side toward the Sea are blasted thereby and Iron Nails and Window Barrs rotted as Iron will swell and be corrupted by lying long in Saltwater yet these Vapors of the Sea go not farr nor are such Experiments therof found at any great distance much less can they make Salt Springs in the Inland where also fresh Springs â—low very neer to them but they are both first from Vapors and then the Salt Springs are made Salt by runing through Salt Mines And lastly I shall approve it by a plain Experiment which I received from a very Credible Person whose Hous standing at the bottom of a declive Hill and wanting Water he caused a large Trench to be digged down the side therof and many other less Trenches branching out of it both ways and then filled them all with Pebble Stones and again covered them over with the Earth and found Water to flow at the bottom of the main Trench through a Pipe laid to receiv it which is only by Artificial application of the same Natural Causalitys And when I had reported this to a Noble Lord he confirmed it with another Observation which himself had made in certein Quillets or litle Quagmires which have Water springing and standing in them by causing them to be searched and the ground to be digged under them where he found Beds of Stone which might also give occasion to the Poets to feign Rivers powring their Waters out of Stony Urns Nor indeed is it Imaginable that Rivers and Springs should otherwise come from the Sea whose highest Watermark is farr below the Springs as is well known to such who live neer to the higher Shores of the Sea and so also is attested by such who have gone up the Pike of Tâ—neriff wherin they found a Spring farr above the Sea wheras Water while it is such cannot ascend above its Levell for then it should rise above itself becaus it is all one Equidens and Fluid Body And Springs rise first out of the Earth in very small Sources and not from any such Subterraneous Rivers as some have supposed flowing in great Canales under the Earth and Impelled by I know not what Subterraneous Vapors like Bloud in the Veins But though all Water will run to its Levell yet if it be not also some way Impelled it will run very slowly and so swell and mingle by degrees as it can hardly be perceived to run wherefore it is observed in such Cutts and Aqueducts that if about a foot Fall be not allowed for every Mile there will be a very litle Current of the Water wheras Rivers run very swiftly and some of them with a very Rapid Current which must be by a farr greater Fall and therefore the Springs or Sources of all great Rivers must be farr within Land and also fall from much higher ground as the Author of Esdrâ—â— saith That the Flowds might powr down from the Rocks Having thus farr consydered the Cours of Waters from the Sea into the Air by Evaporation and from thence to the Earth and from the Mountains or higher ground therof to the Seas again which is the first and great Reciprocation therof whereby they are such Mutual Fountains each to other I shall now farther consyder that which we commonly call the Floud and Ebb or Tides of Seas and Rivers which is also another Mutual Reciprocation of Waters for so the Floud of the Seas is the Ebb of the Rivers and the Ebb of the Rivers the Floud of the Seas not Circularly as the other but only describing a very small Segment or part of an Arch like a Pendulum Now becaus so many several Hypotheses therof have been
and only by the Mediation of them and Sensitive less then Vegetative and only by the Mediation of them and Elementary and Intellective which we therefore call Immaterial not at all as I shall shew heerafter Now as Aeâ—her is the most Rare of all the Elements and so as I suppose the Body therof cannot be made more Rare by any other Elementary Spirit becaus there is none other that is more Active and which may more Rarefy it so Earth is most Dens and as I suppose the Body therof cannot be made more Dens by any other Elementary Spirit becaus there is none other less Active which may more Condensate it then it doth itself for as these Elementary Spirits do require more or less Rare or Dens Bodys so they do Naturaly and most Effectualy caus them and thus the most Rare Aeâ—her which is Utmost and the most Dens Earth which is Inmost do contein and bound the two other more Variable Elements Air and Water between them as I have shewed The Rarity of Aether is altogether unknown to us but if it be as I suppose it more Rare then the most Rarefied or Expanded Air and the very common Air be a thousand times more Rare then Water and that fourteen times more Rare then Mercury and the Elementary Earth wherof we know not the utmost Density as we know not the Rarity of Aether yet more dens then it or Gold which is said to be nineteen times heavier then Water or any other Cortical Earths whatsoever then certeinly there is a vast Disproportion of Density and Rarity between the Bodys of Aether and Earth and yet though Earth be most Dens Aether is not most Rare nor do we know or can assigne how much more Rare Superaether may be then it which will Multiply the Disproportion exceedingly more wherof though we can give no just account yet heerby we plainly perceiv how strangely Matter may be Densefied or Rarefied and consequently what vast or Innumerable Pores or Spaces they must assigne who will still contend that Rarity is only from Porosity or Vacuity As in Water so also in Earth there are two distinct Regions not only Mathematicaly such as some have made both in Aether and Air where they are not but Physicaly such and yet they have not found them out where they are for as there are Waters above and beneath so there is manifestly both a Cortex of the Earth wherin there are not only many other Composita and many sorts of Earths Metalls Minerals Stones Chalk Clay Marl Loam Sand and several others which thereby discover and declare it not to be the very Elementary Earth but also Water flowing in the Canales therof and imbibed by all this Spongy Cortex whence it is denominated Terraqueous and is almost as much Elementary Water as Earth nor is any part therof in itself so purely Elementary Earth as the Ocean is Elementary Water wherefore there is most probably another Elementary and Subcoâ—tical Earth or as it is said Foundations of the Earth which though we know not where it begins and the Cortex ends yet I presume it to be below any the lowest Fundus of the Water or descent of Rain or Dew otherwise it should not be the Elementary Earth which seems to be intimated by that expression of the Psalmist Then the Chanells of Waters were seen the Foundations of the World were discovered Nor may we reasonably conceiv that there are below the Cortex any such hid Treasures of Metalls Minerals or the like as there are in it since they can never be searched or digged out by any Industry of Men or Beasts wheras God and Nature made nothing in vain But that which doth most confirm me in this Opinion is the most Ingenious Invention of the Inclinatory or Dipping Needle as they call it for most evidently that varys its Position respectively as it is neerer to or farther from either of the Poles of the Earth and not according to the Poles of the World which very sensibly discovers that there is such a Subcortical Earth and also that it is Magnetical for though there be Rocks of Magnets in the Cortex yet this Inclinatory Needle as I shall call it doth not so Incline unto them but generaly to the Poles of the Earth as to one great Magnet and exactly so as a Needle carried about a round Magnet or Terrella doth Incline itself in all the Points of the Circumference as I shall shew heerafter and this also shews that the Elementary and Magnetike Earth is Globular as well as the Terrella otherwise any Eminences therin would vary the Inclination as well as in the Terrella Yet I do not conceiv that this Elementary Body of the Subcortical Earth which I call Magnetical is of the same kind with any Cortical Magnets as they are not of the same kind with Iron Stone or Mine though both have a Magnetike Quality but rather that it is farr more Dens then them as I have said as it is also farr more Consistent then Gold Nor is it vain or useless as other Terreous Composita below the Cortex should be but very proper and requilite in every respect for as by the most solid Consistence therof it becomes the Foundation and Basis of the Cortex as they are therefore termed Strong Foundations and Pillars of the Earth and indeed of all the Superior Spheres and of the whole Body of the Universal Globe so by its Magnetical Polarity it doth continue its own Body in one Immovable Position as I shall shew heerafter and most probably it hath no Pores whereby it may be penetrated convelled or comminuted by any others or one part therof severed from another and so many Bodys in the Cortex Marble Glass Gemms are Imporous as I have shewed much more this most Dens Compact and Adamantine Body of the Elementary Earth And though some Planets and the Starrs may be greater Orbs then it yet they are not such Foundations and Pillars of the World nor is there any other such Centrical Orb relating to the Circumferential Orb or whole Globe of the World besides the Earth which therefore also is called Orbis and the World whereof it is an Epitome and all the Superior parts of the Globe of the World are only Concave Spheres Thus though Earth be most Base and Brute of all the Elements yet it hath also its proper Excellency and Glory having the greatest Bodily perfection of the Density of the Matter to which it doth most approximate and the Spirit therof hath the greatest Stability and Fixâ—tive Strength though the least Activity and as I have observed it hath also such Qualitys in itself whereby in Mistion it doth Fix almost all the more Agile Qualitys of the other Elements and the Cortex therof hath the greatest Mistion with them all and the greatest Variety of Composita being the Native Country and Region of all Vegetatives and of Beasts the best of Sensitives yea the Manor hous and
heated and laid to cool North and South which is not by any communication of the Magnetical Virtue of the Earth for no Accident can so Migrate out of its own Substance wherin it doth Subsist into another but according to the Doctrine of Potentiality which I have formerly delivered by Univocal Generation or Production of the Magnetical Virtue Potentialy being and Subsisting in those less and weaker Magnets into their Actuality Also if the Virtue of them or the Magnet Stone be Actual and they laid in a Position not Polar as suppose East and West yet if they ly so long the Magnetike Virtue of the Earth will Predominate and vary that Polarity to its own North and South which is very observable and as it sheweth that the Earth is the great Magnet which in time can so over-over-rule all these less Magnets so also that these less Magnets or Terrellae are such Individualy in themselvs becaus while they are laid in that Position East and West which is not Polar yet they retein their own Individual Polarity in such a Position as is opposite to the Polarity of the Earth and though the Earth will at last over-over-rule them or if they were freely suspended in the Air they would Naturaly conform themselvs to the Poles of the Earth yet while they are so Violently laid in an opposite Position they still retein their own Individual Center Axis Poles and Aequator apparently distinct and opposite to those of the Earth and in that Position will turn another less Magnet freely suspended within the Orb therof from the Polâ—â— of the Earth to their own Poles Now thaâ— the Earth itself doth never vary its own Polarity we may sensibly perceiv by these Terrellae and their Natural Polarity and Verticity as by the Directory but especialy by the Inclinatory Needle which being carried about the Earth always Inclines the Southern Pole therof more toward the Northern as it is neerer to it and the Northern Pole therof toward the Southern Pole of the Earth as it is neerer to it and so accordingly changes its Poles and Perpendicularity whence I suppose it is also called the Dipping Needle and which plainly proveth that the Polar Virtue is not from any North Starr as some have fansied for the Southern Polarity is not only a Consequence of the Northern nor that of it but both are equaly Polar in themselvs and the Needle accordingly changeth the Inclination of both its Poles which also the Directory Needle doth as farr as it can by a litle bowing down of its Poles toward one of the Poles of the Earth Nor is the Polarity from both Northern and Southern Effluvia as others affirm which cannot penetrate Glass as Magnetical Virtue doth for neither is there any penetration of several Bodys nor is Glass Porous nor yet Fluid as Water or Air or the like wherin we may suppose a Cession to any such Imperceptible Corpuscles which are only the Spawn of Epicurus his Atoms and can never be perceived by Sens in any greater or less Bodys so to pass nor are any Phaenomena themselvs and yet are Introduced to solv the Phaenomena and though they be supposed to be so Imperceptibly Minute yet must not only Move litle Needles but also contein the vast Magnetike Earth in its constant Polar Position against all the furious assalts of Air and Water and the conjoined force of their Storms and Tempests being such as could easily divert these Corporeal Effluvia and so prevent their Iâ—petâ—â— which yet must be supposed to be the same in a Calm or in a Storm becaus the Magnetike Operations are the same Wherefore plainly it is a Spiritual Quality Subsisting in the Substantial Spirit of the Magnet and both Inherent in it and Emanant from it like Light though in another maner as I shall shew heerafter and it doth only require Consistence and Drines as Social Qualitys of the same Element as Light doth Heat and also Density of the Matter as they do Rarity and by the want therof may be Corrupted as well as they and so Magnets by Rust Contusion and the like may lose their Actâ—al Virtue not becaus they are contrary unto it but becaus they disorder the Body therof as Wounds do Vegetative and Sensitive Bodys Certeinly the Magnetical Virtue in a Needle is not from any Northern and Southern Atoms or Corpuscles for plainly it is Excited by another Magnet Actualy being what it is Potentialy before in itself which evidently appears by the very quick and sudden Actuation therof almost like Heat and Light or Sound and the like though it will last longer in the State of Actuality then they becaus it hath no Contrary to oppugn and Corrupt it like them and yet rubbing it with another Magnet the contrary way doth assoon reduce it to Potentiality by drawing it from its Polar Longitude and destroying the Axis thereof and nothing doth more approve the Doctrine of Potentiality then such Experiments The Magnetical Virtue and Motions therof are most evidently discovered by the Magnetical Needle carried about a round Terrella for at the Aequator it doth apply itself Lateraly to the Magnetical Terrella and Parallel to the Axis becaus the Aequator of the Magnet or Terrella doth equaly attract the Aequator of the Needle as also the Poles of the Magnet do the Poles of the Needle when it is so applied to either of them And when it hath passed the Aequator the Correspondent Pole of the Needle begins to Incline and to point to the Correspoâ—dent Pole of the Magnet and so more and more untill it be Perpendicularly Erected at the very Pole And it is half Erected and makes a right Angle with the midle of the Axis of the Magnet though I suppose not exactly in the midst therof unless we estimate it according to the Oval Arch of the Magnetike Virtue yet becaus after it hath passed the very Aequator of the Magnet it doth no longer apply itself Lateraly having both its Poles equidistant from the Magnet but presently begins to touch the Magnet obliquely with one Pole pointing to the Correspondent Pole of the Magnet I also suppose that either Pole of the Magnet doth not attract beyond its own Hemisphere Northern or Southern but the Magnet beng Polar doth attract Circumferentialy from the Center for otherwise it should still caus the Needle to apply itself to the Magnet with some part of the Side therof though less and less and not touch it Immediately with the Pole untill it be Erected Perpendicularly at the Correspondent Pole of the Magnet as if two Chords were fastned to the two Poles or ends of the Needle and drawn through Hooks or Staples fixed at each Pole of the Magnet and so the Needle by them drawn beyond the Aequator therof by pulling in one Chord and letting out the other yet it should still apply part of the Side therof to the Magnet though less and less as I shewed but I refer this Hypothesis
by their greater Magnitude which renders them Visible proportionably according to the distance and by the farr greater and swifter Motion and so let the Man in the Ship sailing with full Sail though against the pretended Motion of the Earth behold the Moon and Starrs Transversly and observ whether they do not seem to Move otherwise then when he standeth on the Earth or when the Ship wherin he is doth not sail There is one who saith that both the Earth and also the Aether do Move becaus as he supposeth while one Moveth from the other the other also Moveth from it and so that it is all one and the same whether we affirm the Earth or Aether to Move whereby he can solv this very Phaenomenon of their Motion either way which I have already reâ—uted and I know none besides himself that did ever maintein it but generaly others affirm the Earth to Move and Aether not to Move becaus they suppose all the consequent Phaenomena may be solved either way who if they can find out any Error which they think is Tenible though it be not Truth they affect and embrace it rather then Truth and can pleas themselvs in amusing the World therewith which is a very Falsarious and Disingenuous Humor and more proper to Juglers and Impostâ—rs then Philosophers And becaus I scarcely know any Opinion wherin they more exercise this Art then this of the Motion of the Earth as I have already disproved it so I shall also heerafter prove the Motion of the Aether and Sun and therin shew how all the Phaenomena can only be solved thereby and shall now proceed to refute that other grand Error which is indeed more Fundamental and Universal that is their Doctrine of Matter and Motion Wherefore having discoursed of the Terraqueous Globe I shall review it and consyder whether only Matter and Motion could produce the Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys therof certeinly not Moisture which is the same whether the Water be Stagnant or Fluent nor Drines which is generaly Consistent and so of the rest which to prosecute particularly were supervacaneous but I will now only alter the Scene and transfer it from Air and Aether to Water and suppose it to be Tepid that is partly Hott and partly Cold and also Luminous as it is Diaphanous and we will admitt it Sonorous and Saporous and if you pleas Odorous besides Moisture and the other Simple Qualitys therof all which may be in the same Instant per omnia Puncta of the Water and if all these which are so Specificaly different in their own Nature could be only so many several Motions of the same Matter and we might Microscopicaly behold them we should see a most strange Moorish dance not only of every dancing Corpuscle but even in every Joint and Point therof so many several different and advers ways as must be assigned to make all their several Natures Specifical and Individual Simple and Compound which is indeed Impossible and so ridiculous as needeth no farther refutation Again once more we will alter the Scene from Water to Earth which becaus I have affirmed to be Immovable in the whole Body of the Matter therof and also the Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys therof to be least Active I will likewise inquire into one thing more which I doubt our new Philosophers had forgott and that is whether as Motion in others so also Rest in the Matter of Earth may not produce the Spirit and Spiritual Qualitys therof as Drines and others which though they be indeed less Active then others yet they are Active and Motive in themselvs and so Consistence though it be most like the Rest of Matter yet hath a Strength and Center therof very different from that of the Matter which also of itself is Fluid as I have shewed and Magnetike Virtue though it affect Polar Rest yet hath also an Intrinsecal Motion of Verticity in itself to restore it unto it Nor can all the Terreous Qualitys be only less Active Motions of the Matter becaus they are all in the same Instant per omnia Puncta in the same Matter and cannot be so made severaly by one and the same Motion of the Matter nor can there be so many several Motions therof together whether more or less Active wheras all the Terreous Qualitys may be Actualy together in the same Matter as I have before sufficiently declared of all the other Elements and their Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys and I now shall conclude that even Elementary Spirits and Qâ—alitys are somwhat more and other then either Mater and Motion or Matter and Rest. X. As Matter is Subordinate to the Elementary Spirits which do Immediately Consubstantiate it so are they with the Matter to Vegetative Spirits as I have shewed in the Scale of Nature and so Vegetatives were not produced untill the Elements were all Perfected becaus Vegetatives require an Elementary Mistion of them all and indeed a proper Mistion therof which every Spirit ordereth and governeth both as Subordinate and Subservient to itself but they are not governed by the special Influence of any Planet or Starr as the Rabbins say there is not a Starr in Heaven which doth not point to an Herb on Earth and bid it grow for as the Globe of Light in the First Day sufficed to make Day and Night so also the Heat therof was sufficient for Vegetation as may plainly appear in that Vegetatives were produced before the Sun Moon or Starrs and so also Metalls though others ascribe the Production therof to Planets which yet are more particularly Inservient and Beneficial to them as they do also more particularly vary Days and Nights and all the Seasons of the Year But Vegetatives were and still are produced out of the Earth or Terraqueous Globe as it is moistned with Water for the Earth is the Region both of Vegetatives and Sensitives and also of Man and so it is said The Earth brought forth Grass c. and it is observed that the first Produxit is of Vegetatives for the Elements which Immediately Consubstantiate the Matter were not produced but so Created in and with it in the Begining whereby they were then Denominated Heavens and Earth and so are Inseparably united unto it though they were afterward Perfected in their Mistions and production of their Qualitys thereby as I have shewed and so there is no Produxit of Planets becaus they also are Elementary wheras though Vegetative Spirits were Created in the Begining as it is said God made every Plant of the field before it was in the Earth and every Herb before it grew yet they were only Latent in their Elements and not produced before the Elements were Perfected in their Mistions and Qualitys which was previous and requisite to their production as they also were to the production of Sensitives as I shall shew heerafter and though Vegetatives are of a farr higher and more excellent nature then Elements yet they were
Created in this same Third Day wherin Earth and Water were Perfected and were pregnant and parturient of them and they ready to be produced to shew the Continuation of the Work of Creation by God who never Rested untill the last Instant of the Sixth Day as I shall shew heerafter and also the Combination of the Superior Natures with the Inferior as Man also was Created in the same last Day with Beasts yet neither could the Elements so Perfected and much less Matter so produce them nor they produce themselvs as the Earth now brings them forth and they Generate others untill God said Let the Earth bring forth Grass c. or as it is Originaly Germinet germen which imports another way of special production then the Mistion of Elements that is by Germination or growing out of the Earth so as no Elementary Mista are brought forth and therefore plainly Stones Metalls Minerals and the like do not Vegetate for they are neither Grass Herbs nor Trees nor of any such Kind but only Elementary Composita and Classicaly Inferior to Vegetatives and so also are the Planets and Starrs as I shall shew heerafter nor are they of any midle nature between Elementary and Vegetative becaus there are no such Participia in the Scale of Nature and though Elementary Spirits are so farr forth Plastical as to superinduce a requisite Density or Rarity in their Bodys of Matter and some Regular Figuration as Orbicular and sometimes perhaps Angular yet they do not Organise them and make such Members and Joints and the whole Compages therof as the Bodys of Vegetatives certeinly they have no Vegetative Nutrition Augmentation and Generation though they may seem to Grow by Accretion as Fire doth Generate Fire Univocaly in Bodys pregnant therwith nor do they grow or sprout of the Earth or as it is said upon the Earth as Germens but abide in their Element Also Vegetatives commonly grow out of them as well as out of Earth and not only Moss and Ivy and the like but great Trees are seen to grow out of Stones Rooting into them and as I suppose cleaving them asunder if perhaps the Seeds did not first fall into such clefts otherwise it is a Noble Instance of the Predominant Potentia of Vegetative Spirits over Elementary for the Root of the Tree is a farr softer Body then the Stone and therefore cannot cleav it by any Corporeal but only by a Spiritual Power wheras I have seen a Birch grow out of an Oak and not cleav it which as I suppose was produced first by a Seed falling into the Crown of the Oak where was some Earth wherin it first Rooted itself and so grew to be another Individual and Intire Tree in itself and not like a Branch Ingraffed into another Tree having one and the same common Root and wheras all Vegetatives have Roots certeinly no Metalls or Starrs or the like have any and Stones are only Poeticaly termed Vive when they are in their proper Beds but neither Live nor Vegetate any more then when they are out of them And indeed though Vegetatives do Vegetate yet they do not properly Live as I shall shew heerafter but all their Operations though farr above Elementary are as farr below Sensitive and are as Subordinate to Sensitive Spirits as Elementary are to them but as Elementary are Mist one with another and Composited only with the Matter so Vegetatives are Composited with them and are the first kind of Spirits that are Composited with other Spirits and therefore are first said to be produced as I have shewed And as Elementary Composita are variously Mist among themselvs and by their various Qualitys which are many more then only one First with a Second Quality of another Element attending it as some have very falsly supposed in every one of them and by all the Changes therof in their Compositions and Decompositions as I have observed whereby Glass Stones Metalls Minerals and such like only Elementary things are Generated so as I said there are Ligneous and other Elementary Mista properly Subordinate unto Vegetatives and most probably some proper Mistion to every Species therof as there is a proper Vegetative Spirit Subordinate to every Sensitive Species for certeinly the proper Plastical Virtue of any Grass Herb or Tree which doth accordingly Organise and Effigiate it cannot Organise and Effigiate another Specificaly different from it and much less any Sensitive Body which yet is so Organised and Effigiated by a Vegetative Spirit as I shall shew heerafter nor indeed can the proper Qâ—alitys of one Spirit Subsist in another which to affirm as some do is more absurd then Migration of Accidents as it is more to produce any thing Originaly out of itself then being first produced by another to receiv and entertein it into itself nor yet hath any Superior Spirit Eminently as they say in itself the proper Qualitys of any Inferior Spirit becaus they are proper to the other which though Inferior yet hath also its own proper excellencys whereby it is known to be and indeed is what it is and so Vegetative Spirits only do Vegetate as well as Sensitive only Sens and Intellective only understand Thus though there are fower Elements and no more of which all the various Elementary Mista are made yet Vegetative Spirits are Indefinite and so it is Indefinitely said of them that they were brought forth after their Kinds and perhaps Vegetative Spirits are more various then any others becaus they are also Subordinate to every Sensitive Species wheras there is only one Sensitive Spirit so Subordinate to Intellective that is to the Spirit of Man But though the Species of Vegetatives are not enumerated yet there are three Genera therof mentioned Grass Herbs and Trees if the same Word Germen may also signify Gramen and be not only a general Name of all Vegetatives which then must be subdivided only into Herbs and Trees as they only are mentioned afterward to be for food of Man but as it is often rendred Grass so I rather conceiv it in the largest sens certeinly it is not only a Tender Blade for they were all made Perfect and Mature and wheras Herbs are said to have Seed and Trees Fruit if there is Grass also which hath neither Fruit nor Seed I conceiv it ought so to be intended therof Yet I do not suppose Mold or the like to be any perfect Vegetatives Immediately Created by God but rather Meteorical Vegetative Composita and only Imperfect Rudiments of Vegetation and so likewise the Excrescences of Vegetatives as Jews Ear Sponk Agarike and the like which are somwhat like Wens in Sensitives as there are such Anomala of any Material Spirits which are Generable and Corruptible though neither of Matter nor Immaterial Spirits which are Ingenerable and Incorruptible And thus I suppose Vegetatives growing in Water as Duckweed and the like to be Anomalous for it is said of perfect Vegetatives in their Creation Let the Earth bring
them forth and so they were said to be upon the Earth and not upon the Water and as all Grass hath a Root so I conceiv any Vegetative which hath no Root to be Anomalous Also Moss and Sponge which is a kind of Seamoss are Imperfect Grass but that which we commonly call Grass having a Root Leaf and Spire of Grass is as I suppose the first perfect Vegetative And I shall consyder first the Root which is a Bulbous Substance and hath generaly more of the Vegetative Virtue in it then the Blade of Grass or Calamus of Herbs or solid Trunk of a Tree being also Esculent and Medicinal and is in itself the Mouth of Vegetatives sett Downward in the Earth wheras the Mouths of Sensitives are Upward and not fixed to their Element but more discontinued becaus Sensitive Spirits are not so united to the Matter as Vegetative nor Vegetative as Elementary Also though the Root be the Mouth and partly as the Stomach of Vegetatives yet the upper parts of Plants above the Earth do likewise perform the Concoction as may appear by a Cion which doth over-over-rule the Stock heerin and the Concoction in the Root is for Nourishment of itself and perhaps preparatory for the upper parts as that of the Oak is for Ivy or Mistleto for properly Plants have no Stomach or such a common Coquine as Sensitives though as they have a more special and proper Elementary Mistion which they order and govern for themselves as I said so consequently a Radical Heat Moisture and those other Qâ—alitys with a certein Proportion and Acme therof to which they grow up and then decay again as well as Sensitives but these seem not to be so Powerfull and Operative in themselvs as the Vital Heat and the like in Sensitives and are much assisted by external Heat and the like and therefore grow most in hotter and moister weather and this Woodmen observ in their situation to the Sun and Winds and notably in cutting Wood in the Spring that as the Air is more hott or cold and the Wind changeth from South to North the Sap will rise and fall again as Water in a Weatherglass but it riseth in hotter and falleth in colder weather and not contrarily as it doth in the Weatherglass becaus it is not ruled by any such Expansion and Elastical Potentia as I have shewed of the open Weatherglass but only by Rarefaction of the Juyce itself which plainly causeth it to ascend through the Pores or Cavitys of the Plant like Vapor in the Air nor are the inward parts of Vegetatives so Actualy hott as of Sensitives whose Concoction is generaly best performed when the Ambient Air is more Cold and not as of Vegetatives when it is more hott Yet the upper parts of Plants seem also to Attract by their Heat though not so much as Sensitives It is a Curiosity much affected to make Equivocal Plants and Fruits which cannot be so well effected as in Sensitives whose Seeds are Fluid and more easily Mist though I conceiv the most probable way to be by some Unition of their Seeds and especialy such as are Homogeneous or more Homoeogeneous as Mules are commonly Generated by the Mistion of Equine and Asinine Seeds also it may be tried by Unition of their Roots but then care must be had in slitting and dividing them for Gardiners say there is a Centrical part of the Root which if it be pricked through with a Pin it will never grow as there is an Apex or Gemma which Ants bite off in Seeds The Leaf or Blade of Grass which is only an Ornament of other Plants is the Body therof above ground and is more Esculent then Leavs of Trees but both Blades and Leavs are generaly Green which is a most equaly Mist and therefore most gratefull and inoffensive Color and so most fitt for their common Covering and they plainly shew how Green is Mist of Blew and Yellow for when the Blew which is more Opacous and Subsists in the stronger Juice decays together with it the Leavs turn Yellow and fall The next Rank is of Herbs which besides Leavs have a Stalk to exalt and support them interceding between the Root and the Leavs and that is generaly an hollow Calamus not so strong and Ligneous as the Trunks of Trees but more Stramineous and first only a Blade of Grass and not any Surculus and it is commonly strengthned by Joints and Knotts which also serv as Valâ—s to retein the Vaporous Sap ascending in them and besides Leavs they have commonly Flowers and are so denominated Flores And of this kind the lowest is such Grass as hath Seeds and a Flower or Efflorescence as Corn before it be perfect Seed and the Seed is commonly in the Flower which is a more delicate kind of Leaf and composed of more refined and concocted Sap having also generaly more Color or Odor or both but very rarely is Green to distinguish it from common Leavs and hardly ever Black of itself though Leavs and Flowers are often made so by Adustion as when Dews falling on them are adusted by a Torrid heat they turn Blackish wheras ordinary Vegetation is by a more moderate Tepor and yet there are Blackberrys and such like Fruits which are first of some other Color and by an high Concoction are made Blackish to the sight but their Juice doth hardly Denigrate or Dy Black like perfect Adustion as Mossy Wood charked will be throughly Black both in the Wood Bark and Moss The Seed is of an higher nature then the Flower not only more Esculent and Medicinal generaly but also conteining another Individual Spirit of the same Species in itself whereby the Plant doth Univocaly Generate after its Kind as I have shewed The Third sort is of all other perfect Vegetatives which are neither of the others and they are described to be Ligneous as the Original word imports that is Arboreous and though some of them as Vines Brambles and the like be less Ligneous and need other Trees to support them yet themselvs also are Trees according to this general distribution of Plants and we do not call them Herbs as Terrene Reptiles are Beasts and not Fishes And all Trees grow up first from softer Surâ—uli which afâ—erward may become so firm that they are not only Ligneous but seem almost to be Saxeous as Lignum vita Ebony Brasile wood and the like Trees of a more strong and Terreous Juice I have seen Oaken wood digged out of the Sea Beach where formerly the Tree had grown and was overthrown and overwhelmed by Inundations after long lying in the Salt Juice therof as hard and firm as the beforementioned Corall also which is a Frutex of the Rocks is very hard when it is out of the Water and perhaps not so very tender under it as is commonly reported though when the thick Juice therof is desiccated it is most Lapideous And I suppose some such cold and gross Juice is the
and Thistles and the like Thus I have briefly and generaly discoursed of Vegetatives as before of the fower Elements according to this Divine History which is an Universal System of the World both in the Proper and Improper Creation therof nor do I intend any particular Historys of them as Solomon spake of them all from the Ceder of Lebanon to the Hysop that is on the wall But heer before I conclude I shall again desire any who will rightly consyder the Nature of Vegetatives to try whether they also may be made only by Matter and Motion without their own proper Plastical Spirits which the Earth did bring forth and as I have observed the fower Elements were before perfected and prepared in order therunto without which the Matter alone as so consydered in itself though indeed it can never be without the Consubstantiation of Elementary or the Superaethereal Spirit hath no Automatous Motion of itself nor when it is dislocated any other then to Union and Station as I have shewed which is only to recover its due Rest and Position and therefore certeinly it cannot also Move from Rest which is Naturaly contrary therunto as Verticity is to Polar Position and therefore cannot be from it nor hath it any such Plastical Virtue of itself which may guide the Motions therof but would be only Equidens and Orbicular wheras Plastical Formation of all Vegetative Bodys and much more of the Bodys of Sensitives is constantly so Symmetrical Organical and Curious according to every Kind and Species and the successive Propagation therof and they so very various and different that he who will not believ Divine Authority nor Natural Reason heerin may satisfy himself by his own Sensation and making use of his Microscope Inspect the most admirable Structure and Mechanism of the least Vegetative or Sensitive which is composed farr otherwise and beyond the most admired workmanship of any Bezaleel Daedalus Apelles or Arâ—hytas and all the Mechanical Borcherys of Art which yet is all that some will allow to Nature itself and when he shall have consydered the most exact and Mathematical Conformitys of the one and Enormitys of the other which also shews that Mathematical Exactnes is not nor cannot be of Common Use he may easily judg with himself that since the Intellective Spirit of the most Ingenious Man cannot effect the like certeinly it must either still be Immediately Digitus Dei and so deny this whole History of Creation in the Six Days and all the Works of God therin whereby he did sett in order the Cours of Nature and consequently deny all Created Nature or otherwise acknowledg it to be the continual Succession of the same Natural Causalitys which also lead us back again to the Acknowledgment and Adoration of the Supernatural Creator who is the only Author and Institutor therof XI Wherefore let us prais the great Creator of Heaven and Earth as for the Aethereal so also for the Aereal Heaven and for the Water and the Earth And heer we must sing his praises in Consort for them all together as it is once said of them all that they were Good though they be in themselvs several Elements and were perfected in two several Days Nor is the Goodnes of Vegetatives which is another Classis of Creatures though also perfected in the last of these two Days pronounced of them which were before declared Good but becaus these three Inferior Elements Air Water and Earth being separated from the Aether by the rapid Motion and Circumvolution therof about them and more conjunct among themselvs were not perfected one without the other and the Water which is the midle Element and contributed to the Perfection both of the Air and of the Earth by ascending in Vapors into the Air and descending itself into the Canales and Pâ—res of the Earth was noâ— perfected untill this last Day nor in that alone but in both these two Days therefore this Proclamation of their Goodnes and Perfection was reserved for the Consummation of the whole Work of both the Days and then Relatively to be distributed to all the three Elements which were so perfected therin and so they now continue to be Severaly and also Mutualy Good And the Aether which was before made Good in itself yet had not been Good to others without the Goodnes of the Air whose Refrigerating Cold doth Temper the vehement Heat and Refracting Pellucidity the Lucidity of all the Aethereal Luminarys whereby not only as a common Thorough-fare but also as a Cooperator therin it both adapts and conveys the Aethereal Blessings of Rays above and also the Spirituous Vapors of the Waters beneath which as an Alâ—mbic it distills and refunds to the Terraqueous Globe Nor is it only thus Concurrent with Aether and Water and the Influences therof but hath in itself the Ventos of Winds both to Cool and Purify the Atmosphere and all the Organs of those admirable Sounds which it doth propagate continualy and successively and which as so many Cursores or swift Messengers make their Reports through the whole Sphere therof and all the Surface of the Earth and so is made to be the Cymbal of Nature which with its Inchanting Musike ravisheth or affrighteth all Sensitive Spirits and whereby Men Discours and Convers one with another and in Sacred Hymns render their gratefull praises of the whole Creation to the Divine Creator Also the Atmosphere therof is the very Breath and Life of Animals Neither doth the more Dens Water intercept all the Benefits of Aether and Air but partly transmitt them to the Earth which it contempers with its own Moisture and is as the Bloud Circulating through the Veins and Arterys therof by constant Reciprocations conveying Nutriment to all the Cortical Body therof being both the Inexhaustible Fountain of Drink to all Sensitives and also conditing their Meats with most gratefull Sapors and perfuming them with varietys of most delicate Odors And though both these Elements of Air and Water seem very Weak and Infirm in comparison of the Rapid Aether and Robust Earth yet being provoked and armed to execute Divine Revenge they so mutualy assist and fortify one another with unusual and unexpected Rage that Conflagrations and Earthquakes do not much exceed their furious Herricans and violent Inundations The Earth though last and lowest of all the Elements is not only their most Dens and Consistent Fulciment and Center of their Situation but also of all their Offices and Services Circumferentialy tending unto it being the Foundation of the whole Univers and another Orb in itself and Epitome of the great Globe wherof all the rest are only Concave Spheres having only some particular Orbs in themselvs and on which all those Luminous Orbs cast their smiling Aspects and the Sun Illustrateth all the other Luminarys that so they together with himself may give Light unto it which the nimble Air fanneth and refrigerateth with the Wings of Wind and watereth the great Garden therof
Virtue in itself be so supposed to Move in the most Rare and Fluid Aether as that it should not Sink therin by supposing also such a rapid Motion therof Annualy as must be admitted according to the Zodiak and Circle which it is said to describe and which according to the Phaenomena one way or other must be the same with that wherin the Sun doth Realy Move whereby that Motion will be found to be as I said almost fifty Miles in a Minute and then unless we can also suppose that the Earth would sink and fall so fast through the Aether in the very first Degree of the Velocity of the Motion of Descent which must be swifter then the aforesaid Motion it will not so fall or sink which to estimate more exactly I leav to the Curious But wheras Judicial Astrologers pretend to foretell by the Starrs and especialy by Comets the Fates and Fortunes of Men yea their very Imaginations Affections and Inclinations and which is yet more Divine Counsels and Intentions it is certeinly most Unchristian and Intolerable for Originaly God made the Starrs to be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years which is therefore so Emphaticaly repeated not as Ostents or Portents wherof there could be no use in that State of Perfection but for Signification and Indication as well as Causation of Seasons Days and Years which were certein constant and orderly when there were yet no Meteors in Earth or Air and much less any Changes Confusions and Disorders in the Superior Natures nor did they then portend that greatest Change and most Dire Event that ever was or shall be in the World which was the fall of Angels and Men otherwise themselvs might easily have forseen it wherefore certeinly they were not first Created to signify any such Contingencys but only Natural Futuritys and now wheras they affirm that the Starrs do by their Influences govern the Bodily Humors and by them the Minds and Spirits of Men let them shew us the Experiment of that which they make to be the Foundation of their Art and as it is said of Thales foretell what will be dear next year wheras their Prognostications of any such Contingent things in their yearly Almanaks are generaly as fals as true though I grant as our Savior saith that such who are weatherwise may probably foretell what shall so ensue the next Day or some such short time after In the Evening ye say it will be fair weather for the Sky is red and in the Morning it will be foul weather to day for the Sky is red and lowring Thus also they represent Eclipses as very Prodigious things which yet they know are most Natural otherwise they could not so foretell them and if Man had still continued in Paradise they must naturaly have been yea it were the greater Monster and Prodigy if they should not so constantly happen And though Comets which are Extraordinary may produce Extraordinary Effects as other Meteors Thunders Earthquakes and the like and are sure Signes of what is past thaâ— is the Fall of Man which hath been the Caus and Occasion therof and so are to be regarded and may be also Extraordinary Ostents of Gods future Judgments yet it is also as true that we cannot read this Hand-writing on the Wall of Heaven without a Supernatural Revelation or Indigitation as the Magi were directed by Angels of whom it is also said they were warned in a Dream otherwise by all their Art they could never have found out the very Town yea the very Hous in the Town yea the very Place in the Hous where the Child lay and over which the Starr is said to have stood so neither could the most Curious or Cabalistical Judgment of any Man have foretold the Retrocession of Hezekiah's Sicknes by the Retrogradation of the Sun ten Degrees on the Dial of Ahaz and the Signes in Heaven and Earth at our Saviors Death probably were as Miraculous as the Starr at his Birth and that Darknes no common Eclips of any Luminary but an Obtenebration of the Aether itself over all that Land as the Earthquake was also therin and all the Signification therof was plainly declared by his present Suffering which made the Centurion cry out Truly this was the Son of God! Wherefore though I honor Natural Astronomy and only wish that it were rectified according to this Dâ—vine Rule of Scripture as I would also gladly be corrected by it in any mistakes of the Natural Phaenomena or any Expressions therof so with the Scripture and all Christianity I must conclude against all such Judicial Astrology as an Heathenish Artifice wherof we are expressly forewarned that we should not be dismaied at the Signes of Heaven for the Heathen are dismaied at them and Let now the Astrologers the Starrgazers the Monthly Prognosticators stand up and shew how they can maintein the Veracity of their Art against the Divine Verity And now I shall return again to such Materialists who though they cannot affirm that becaus a whole Body is Moved up or down this way or that way therefore it ceaseth to be the same yet can suppose that if the parts in the Body be Moved in such a maner as neither they nor we can discern them there being a new Corporeal Texture Schematism and Mechanism therof it shall therfore acquire a new Individual Spirit and Spiritual Qualitys by such Local Motion as it doth by Physical Generation and Corruption which may be best Experimented in the vast Body of Aether wherin there are also so many Orbs continualy Moving so many several ways and yet they do not therefore ceas to be the same Aether and the same Orbs that they were before and so will any other Compositum be the same though the Parts in it Move this way or that way or any way whatsoever unless there be a new Generation to alter it otherwise only the Figure and Situation of the Parts in the Whole will be altered but not the Physical Nature of the Whole or Parts and so though their Hypothesis be of less Corpuscles and not of such great Bodys which as they propound the others becaus they are Indiscernible so I propound these becaus they are more discernible for the reason will be the same in these Elementary Natures though the Parts be never so minute as every part of Water is Water though it be never so small and though it be Moved any way whatsoever and so suppose the Parts of any one Orb to Move in the Orb as all the Orbs do in the Aether they will no more alter the Orb then the Orbs do the Aether and if Matter and Motion cannot thus make or alter Elementary Natures which are Inferior much less any others that are Superior and I suppose that the Superaether is altogether Immovable both in the Whole and in all the Parts therof Wherefore since this and all the other Heavens are so Stupendous that as some suppose
is Originaly Let Fowls fly in the Firmament of Heaven and the other words following and every winged Fowl after his Kind seem rather to refer to Gods Creation of them both in that Day then particularly to their Creation out of the Waters and it is said afterward of them as well as of Beasts And out of the Ground God formed every Beast of the Earth and every Fowl of the Air but wheras plainly it is said that Fishes were produced out of Water and Beasts out of the Earth and neither is so before particularly expressed of Fowls I suppose they were made of some more equaly Mist Terraqueous Substance wherin neither Water did so much Predominate as in the Bodys of Fishes nor Earth as in the Bodys of Beasts and accordingly the Bodys of Fowls are of a midle Substance not so Tender as of Fishes nor yet so Fi m and Solid as of Beasts But Fowls though they be generaly Oviparous as well as Fishes yet also Procreate by Copulation and not by Exclusion of the Seed Immediately as Vegetatives and as Fishes generaly are Procreated nor yet by Gestation in the Womb untill there be a Formation of the Foetus as Beasts which is a more perfect Birth and proper to Superior Animals Certeinly they excell Fishes in their Spiritual Facultys of Sens and Imagination as in their Singing Nidification and the like as they are Inferior to Beasts in Imaginative Ingeny and Act generaly And wheras there are some flying Fishes as they are commonly called so indeed they are not Fowls but Fishes which generaly live in the Water as others and only fly above it so long as their Wings are wett which maketh them to be more stiff and strong as Sails are stifned by wetting and so Water-fowls are not Fishes but Fowls that generaly fly in the Air though they can also dive in the Water and continue there so long as their Breath lasteth as we say and so Otters and the like Amphibia are Beasts and no Fishes and though there be Aquatical Insects which afterward prove Flys yet this is no Transpeciation but the Worm both in Earth and Water is only the Embryo or Inception of such flying Insects as the Vegetative Embryo is of a Sensitive Animal II. Having thus farr discoursed of these two Kinds of Sensitives Fishes and Fowls generaly according to my Intention which is only to Elucidate the general System of the World as God himself hath declared it unto us in this Divine History of Creation and to conferr Scripture and Nature together I shall now proceed to discours of Sensation in the same general maner having already declared what I intend thereby that is a Life with Imaginative Perception and Spontaneous Appetite whereby the Animal doth not only Act and Opeâ—ate as all other Inferior Natures but Perceivs what it doth and Consents to do it and so also Contemplates and accordingly Affects or Disaffects the Object about which it is conversant and Exerciseth its Operations which is a Double Operation and not such a Simple Imperceptive and Involuntary or Non Spontaneous kind of Operation as there is in other Inferior Agents but also with a Sensitive Enjoyment therof and of itself and its own Operations in a Living maner by Perception and Appetite as I said which are the proper Facultys of the Sensitive Spirit and that denominateth the Animal Sensitive becaus Sensitive Spirits wherof Perception and Appetite are the proper Facultys are of an higher Classis and farr other Nature then the other Subordinate Spirits Vegetative and Elementary and the Matter which they so Subordinate to themselvs according to that Scale of Nature as I have formerly shewed and as according to that Scale Sensitive Spirits are Sensitive in themselvs and Subordinate the others Immediately or Mediately according to the several Degrees therof to themselvs so also their Operations are either such as they can Act and Exercise of themselvs and by their own Intrinsecal Power or such as they only Command and Govern but are Executed and Performed by the Inferior Spirits Vegetative and Elementary but how the Sensitive Spirit doth thus Command and Govern the Vegetative Spirit and that the Elementary and the like is not so easily Intelligible becaus these several Natures are Classicaly different and therefore also though the Sensitive Spirit Perceiveth what it doth as I said generaly becaus it is Sensitive yet it Perceiveth not how any Vegetative or Elementary Operations are done and performed by those Subordinate Spirits in its own Compositum becaus they are not Sensitive nor can they or the Sensitive Spirit by them Perceiv what they do or how the Work is done farther then as it may have some Sensation therof in itself which is a manifest Evidence to me that there are such several Spirits Classicaly distinct and which as I have said are never Mist together in the same Sensitive or Intellective Compositum becaus there are evidently in it such distinct and different Operations wherof some are Sensible and Perceptible and others are not concerning which I shall discours heerafter and now Inquire into these Mysterys of Sensation which though they be performed within us yet are less obvious then other things without us as any may better see how a Chick is formed in the Egg then how Augmentation is performed within his own Body Also the higher any Nature is the more Excellent and Curious and Difficult it is to be understood And being now entred into this Region of Life I am very conscious in what a dark Adytum I am and how litle Light others do afford me but dabiâ— Deus his quoque finem Wherefore grounding my self upon his Word I shall proceed It is said The Life of all Flesh is the Bloud therof or as it is in the precedent words the Bloud of it is for the Life therof And heer we shall see again how Scripture and Nature do mutualy Interpret one another And I shall first collect from these words that all Flesh that is all Sensitive and Living Bodys have a Bloud or something Analogous of whatsoever Color or Crassitude it may be and that this Bloud is not only the Aliment or Nutriment but the very Rudiment of the Life therof and indeed of the Flesh itself and all other Parts of the Body Potentialy as every thing is Nourished by that wherof it is Constituted and thus it is well observed that in the Formation of the Foetus there is a Bubble of Vital Liquor which first Moves and so forms itself and its own Coat or Canale by a Vital Heat Operating upon it whereby in the Fermentation therof the more Pure and Subtile parts are Congregated in and toward the midle and the more Gross and Viscid are Segâ—egated and amandated to the outsides and there as Milk heated when it begins to cool hath a litle Skin in the Superficies so this Congenerous Liquor which is the Rudiment of Bloud and also of Milk doth begin thereby to form a
Governed thereby Yet also as they are such proper Inferior Spirits Subordinate unto it and Conjunct with it in the same Compositum so there is as I said and shall now shew a very notable Combination between them which may plainly appear by many Extraordinary Effects and such as may strangely vary and alter them thus as I have formerly observed Mirth helps Digestion and is as it were the Nurs of Nutrition wheras the Sorrow of the World worketh Death and these Sensitive Affections not only caus several Motions of the Bloud and Alterations therin but also in the very Systole and Diastole and Palpitations of the Heart and which is yet more Notable in the very Generation of another Individuum and not only the Motive Power of the Appetite but also the Imagination itself doth strangely Operate heerin as we commonly say Conceit may do much that is concerning any thing which is Internal either in our Mind or Body yea in the very Foetus while it is in the Womb and Nourished by the Parent and is yet as it were some part of the Compositum therof especialy while it is more Young and Tender and more capable of such Impressions but chiefly in the very Act of Generation which Iacob knew or was Supernaturaly taught and assisted by the Angel who appeared to him for as it grows more Perfect in itself and is neerer to Exclusion it becomes more Separate from the Parent and another Compositum in itself and more firm and strong and so less capable of Impressions by another and thus I conceiv that the Imagination or Appetite of the Father doth not Operate upon the Foetus in the Womb of the Mother nor of an Hen upon an Egg Excluded whiles she Incubates and is hatching it But the most wonderfull thing is how the proper Vegetative Spirit of any Sensitive Animal by the Command or Intimation of the Sensitive Imagination and Appetite so Fansying and Affecting some other Vegetative thing should Actuate and produce in the Foetus not only Signatures therof but also somewhat of the same Vegetative Nature as I have been very credibly informed of a Person whom I well knew and have often seen the Mole on his Chin which was said to have been caused by a Cherry thrown at his Mother while she was Pregnant of him in a Frolike among Ladys who were then eating Cherries that every year in the Season when Cherry trees begin to budd the Mole began to budd as I may say and so ripen more and at last putt forth some little Tufts and be very angry and troublesome and then again as the Season of Cherâ—ys departed to decreas likewise and be less sensible whereby it did plainly discover something of the Cerasine Nature Inoculated as it were into the Body of a Man Wherof I know no other account to be given but only this Combination and Cooperation of the Sensitive and Vegetative Spirit and though as I have shewed there is no Universal Spirit or Anima Mundi from which such particular Spirits may be derived and produced in any Bodys whatsoever yet it is truly enough said Omnia Animarum sunt plena if it be rightly understood that is as in the first Chaos the Spirits were latent in their proper Elements out of which they were produced in the Six Days so still there are Aethereal and Aereal Spirits in Aether and Air out of which Comets and the like Aethereal or Aereal Meteors may be produced and so the Terraqueous Globe or the Cortex therof is Pregnant not only with the Elementary Spirits of Water and Earth but also of Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits which while they are therin as in their Chaos are dispersed and diffused and so Confounded as in a Coagulum Inane and Inform that is without any Oeconomy or Inviduality which is afterward Actuated and acquired by Successive Generation still producing them according to the Archetypes or Protoplasta of Original Generation Instituted in their first Improper Creations as I have often mentioned and though they cannot always attein their Regular Perfections according to the Law of Nature yet there may be several Degrees therof to which they may arrive and so their productions be more or less Anomalous or Monstrous by reason of many Obstructions and Defects wherof the greatest is the general Curs of Nature for the Sin of Man so that now indeed both he and all this Spectable World which was given unto him and all things therin have some Monstrosity in them and there is now none of them exactly Perfect according to the first Instituted Law of Nature but all are Heterocliticaly Redundant or Deficient and though we take less notice of others yet some are so mishapen that we Eminently term them Monsters and others such Imperfect Inceptions that we hardly discern any thing of the Specifike Nature therin and such I conceiv this Cerasine Meteor as I may so term it in the Body of Man to be whos 's Cerasine Spirit though the Compositum therof was Corrupted by Eating and Conversion into the Nutriment of the Mother and consequently of the Child in the Womb yet was latent in the new Compositum Generated by that Corruption and that by the Imperium and Impression of the Mothers Imagination and Appetite working on her proper Vegetative Spirit and that on its own Nutriment the Cerasine Spirit was Equivocaly and very Rudely and Imperfectly produced For thus as I have said the Vegetative Spirit doth Actuate and produce Elementary Mistion Qualitys and Species as Subordinate and Subservient to itself though Classicaly different and so it may also Imperfectly produce another Vegetative Spirit which is of the same Classis with itself as well as one Spirit of the same Classis may be Mist with another and thus I conceiv that as there apparently is an Individual Oeconomy in every particular Compositum so also a Specifical and Classical Polity Subordination and Combination of several Natures especialy in the same Compositum and that thus the Sensitive Spirit by its own Specifike Facultys doth Command and Govern its own proper Vegetative Spirit which also by its own Specifike Powers doth Serv and Obey it and likewise Order and Govern the proper Elementary Mistion that it requireth which accordingly doth Serv and Obey it Naturaly with all Suavity and Facility And thus as the Imagination doth more Spiritualy and Sensitively Irradiate the Species whereby it doth Perceptively Contemplate them so the Appetite doth also Sensitively enliven the Spirits whereby it doth Spontaneously Guide and Govern them without any Violence or Reluctance unless their happen some Dâ—stemper and Disorder among them and I suppose that as there are these Confederacys and Combinations between Spirits according to the Scale of Nature and Oeconomy therof so also there is a Subordinate Approximation though no Participation Communication or Confusion of their different Natures and that the proper Vegetative Spirit of any Sensitive Animal is farr more Excellent and Spiritual then of
themselvs be Mist one with another as Heat and Cold will be Contemperated into a Tepor or otherwise there will be a great Conflict between them when they meet together yet the same Imaginative Faculty doth apprehend them both together as when one hand is in cold Water and the other in hott distinctly and inconfusedly Also this sheweth the reason of that Sympathy and Consent that is between some parts more specialy and the whole Body generaly in Feeling wherof the whole Body is capable as I said that is becaus the Imaginative Faculty is one and the same which resideth in the Brain from whence all the Nervs are dispersed through the Body and therefore the whole Body is so affected yet so as a Wound in the Toe doth not Corporealy affect the Brain or Imagination therin but Spiritualy and though the feeling in the Toe that is wounded being in the Standard doth caus a Principal Sensation therof in that Part and so in the Brain and from thence in the rest of the Body yet that is only a Secondary Sensation as I may so call it wherof it is said if one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it that is only by the Imaginative Faculty of the Sensitive Spirit therof which is one and the same though no other Part be Corporealy affected And wheras I have often mentioned two such several Kinds of Sensation that is one by the outward Organs and Sensory and by the Corporeal or Elementary Mutation made in the Standard within the Body and Irradiation of the Elementary Animal Spirits in the Nervs which is Primary and the other by Species Actuated only by the Vegetative Spirit in the Elementary Animal Spirits in the Brain itself as I have formerly shewed which is Secondary wherof we call one Sens and the other Imagination I shall now shew the Sensible difference therof in Sleep when all the Senses are bound up and obstructed and yet then the Imagination doth thus operate in Dreaming and the Senses are so bound up and obstructed by the Vaporous Bloud which ascendeth from the Heart through the Carotides whence they are so called the Sleepy Arterys to the Brain and it is said that if they be stopped Sleep will presently ensue though I rather conceiv that to be an Apoplectical then Soporous Effect for it is not the obstructing of them and thereby hindring the Sanguineous Vapors to ascend which causeth Sleep but rather the contrary that is an ascent therof more copiously which doth obnubilate the Basis of the Brain and reacheth as farr as the Roots of the Nervs and the Animal Spirits therin which are most Pure and Spiritual and the fitt Instruments of the Sensitive Spirit are clouded by such gross and unconcocted Vapors and thereby rendred unfitt and so the Imagination cannot operate by them wherupon that kind of Sensation ceaseth untill those Vapors be again rectified and refined in the Brain and so pass into the Nervs and then Sleep ceaseth and that Sensation begineth to operate thereby again But the Imagination being seated in the very Brain itself and probably in the upper Region therof and Fore-brain which we accordingly feel to grow most hott by the working therof the Cloud of those ascending Vapors being there weaker as the Vapors are which ascend higher in the Atmosphere and the Concoctive Power of the Brain there being greater the Imagination may Contemplate the Species in the Animal Spirits which are in the Brain itself and there Actuated by the Vegetative Spirit which doth concoct and prepare them as I have shewed and which is sufficient for this Secondary Operation by the Imagination and needeth no such Irradiation by the Species of External Objects as is required in the Primary Sensation And so this Secondary Operation by by the Imagination in Dreaming is also much weaker then it is when we are Waking or at least farr more Wild and Irregular either becaus those ascending Vapors are not yet so purely defecated in the upper Region of the Brain or otherwise becaus the Imagination then wants the Archetypes of the Primary Sensation whereby to rectify its own Contemplations And it is evident that in Sleep even the Animal Spirits of the Nervs are not so Consopited or as we say in a dead Sleep ordinarily but that any Vehement Sensible doth soon awake them and the Spirits by degrees are rowsed up and the Vaporous Cloud dispersed yea while we are asleep as the Cloud is more or less gross in ascending or sooner or longer in being purified in the Brain so is our Sleep greater or less or shorter or longer and sometimes the Soporous Cloud is so small and very Rare that we are as we say between Sleeping and Waking Now that it is so may plainly appear by the Causes of Sleep which are either Expens of Spirits that induceth a Lassitude wherupon Sleep Naturaly ensueth becaus Nature requireth a Recruit therof and the Bloud then ascendeth more copiously to the Brain which is the part affected and indigent therof or Satiety and a full Stomach whereby the Vapors so ascend of themselvs and Drinking commonly causeth Sleep more then Eating becaus Drinks are more Vaporous and Spirituous then Meats or Dejection of the Spirits by Stupidity and Sorrow and the like and so Narcotike Medicines by their Stupifying Quality induce Sleep or Idlenes and Cessation from Exercise of Body or Mind may be another Caus therof as it removeth the Impediment of Sleep or indeed the very Contrary therof for so all Exercise is a Waking and therfore a man cannot well sleep if he do but stand upright and Sleep as I may so say unbendeth the Bow and relaxeth not only the Perceptive but also the Motive Spirits and thus as Exercise and Lassitude so Waking and Sleeping do follow and indeed mutualy caus one another by Expens and Recruit of the Animal Spirits both Perceptive and Motive which heerby appear to be very Connatural for as much Study is a Wearines to the Flesh as the Wise man saith so wearines of the Flesh is also an Impediment to the Study of the Mind Now as I have shewed that all Perceptive Sensation both Primary and Secondary is in the Imagination so if any require that I should also shew what is that Specifike Imaginative Power whereby the Sensitive Spirit so Operateth wherof I have thus farr traced the Operations or maner of working from the Sensible Object to this Sensitive Faculty as I have shewed that the Sensitive Spirit itself is an Active Spiritual Substance Created by God in the Begining and first produced with this and all other the Innate Qualitys therof so Actuated by God in this Fifth Day so I can only affirm thaâ— this Imaginative Power is such becaus God so Created it as Matter is Matter and Spirit Spirit Heaven Heaven and Earth Earth Extension Extension Heat Heat and the like becaus God so Created them in the begining and as no man can go beyond that Begining so neither
but thus also derive into themselvs all their Inferior Excellencies Living upon their Inanimate Natures while themselvs thus Live in their own Animate Natures and are as farr above them as themselvs are Inferior to Man with whom though they are not Coordinate as Sensitives yet they do Convers as Living Creatures and their Sensitive Life though farr Inferior to his Intellective Life yet is not only an Image therof but also in his own Human Compositum the Embryonical Inception and constant Companion therof and his Sensitive Body the Immediate Mansion and Officine of his Intellective Spirit and of all the Operations therof in this Conjunct State and the Imaginative Artifices of Sensitive Animals are not only the Umbrages of his Intellective Act but also in himself Subordinate Operators therunto Also many of them have Language that is either the Expression of their Notions by Signes or of their Passions by Interjections which is not only a Rudiment of his more Articulate Language but also some Rude Discours and Essay of his Ratiocinations And yet all these Vive Images of Man and his next and Immediate Convivae are not only Subjugated to his Tyranny by his Superior Power and Policy but also by God and Nature Subordinated to his rightfull Roialty and Dominion being all born his Slaves and Vassals who while they Live serv him in all Offices either of Labor or Pleasure yea Hawk and Hunt and destroy one another for him or are otherwise subdued and destroied by himself And so he Feedeth and Preserveth his own Individual Life with Innumerable Lives of their successive Individualitys which are in Natures Account the most costly and Princely Diet though two Sparrous be sold for a Farthing in the Market of Man SECTION XII And God said Let the Earth bring forth every Living Creature after his Kind Catell and Creeping things And it was so And God made the Beast of the Earth after his Kind and Catell after their Kind And God saw that it was Good And God said Let us make Man in our own Image and after our own Likenes And let them have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over the Catell and over all the Earth So God Created Man in his own Image in the Image of God Created he him Male and Female Created he them And God said unto them Be fruitful and Multiply and replenish the Earth and Subdue it and have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over every Living thing that Moveth upon the Earth And God said Behold I have given you every Herb bearing Seed which is upon the face of all the Earth and every Tree in which is the fruit of the Tree yielding Seed to you it shall be for Meat and to every Beast of the Earth and to every Fowl of the Air and to every thing that Creepeth on the Earth wherin there is Life I have given every green Herb for Meat And it was so And God saw every thing that he had made and behold it was very Good And the Evening and the Morning were the Sixth Day EXPLICATION God caused the Earth also to bring forth Beasts after their several Kinds which was their Specifical Goodnes and Perfection And when he had thus prepared and furnished the Elementary World with Vegetatives Luminarys and with all Kinds of Sensitives Fishes Fowls and Beasts he Immediately Created the Intellective Spirit of Man and so made him to have Dominion over them all for whom he had before made and prepared them And he made both Man and Woman who might accordingly Procreate and blessed them with the Blessing of Prolification for the Increas of Mankind And he made them and all their Posterity Lords over all the other Inferior Creatures in the Earth and appointed Herbs and Fruits to be Meat for them and for Beasts and Fowls also the green Herb and Grass whereby they should be Nourished and Augmented and so Preserved in their own Individualitys And then God reviewed all his Works and the whole Frame and Order therof pronouncing and declaring it to be very Good and Conformable to his Divine Wisdom and Will and to the Law of Creation And these were the Works of the Sixth Day and of all the Six days ILLUSTRATION 1. Of Beasts 2. Of Man 3. Of the Human Body 4. Of the Human Spirit 5. Of the Image of God in Man 6. Of the Immortality of the Soul of Man 7. The Conclusion of all the Works of Creation 8. Of the Goodnes therof I. I Hâ—ve already discoursed of Fishes and Fowls and therupon very largely of Sensation and therefore shall now only need to discours of Beasts not as they are also Sensitives but as they differ from the others and are Superior unto them aâ— may appear by their Bodys that were made of the Earth and are more Terrene Firm and Consistent and of a more Quadrate and Cubical Proportion and more like to the Body of Man and though some of them be also termed Reptiles as Fishes geâ—eraly are yet I conceiv that as there are as I said Gradient Fishes which have Feet and so Fowls that Creep going upon all fower are called such from their very flow Motions so also there are some more Tradigradous Beasts which are therefore called Reptant and not that they were Anomalous or less perfect in their Kinds then other for they are also mentioned to have been made among other perfect Animals and they were afterward specialy preserved and so are also mentioned among them that entred into the Ark wherin no Anomala were preserved or such as are by Putrefaction for so they might be restored again and indeed if such other Sensitives could be made only of Matter and Motion it had not been necessary that God should so Extraordinarily have preserved any of them for so also he might have restored them and he doth nothing in vain wherefore since it is mentioned expressly not only that God did preserv them generaly according to their Species but according to their Sexes Male and Female to keep Seed alive upon the face of all the Earth it is very evident that they were neither Originaly made only of Matter and Motion nor could be so Naturaly restored Also wheras it is said that God made the Beast of the Earth which is conceived to be Fera Agrestis or Wild beast I suppose it may be so understood in a moderate Sens that is less Philanthropous and Tame though not Ravenous or Rebellious so as certeinly none were Created before the Fall and Curs And there is still the same difference of more or less Philanthropy remaining in their very Natures so that some though otherwise as Fierce and Couragious as others are easily Tamed as Elephants Bulls Boars Horses Dogs and the like wheras others will very hardly be so Civilised as Lions Tigers Bears Wolvs Foxes and the like and this Natural difference in themselvs is
the ground and reason of their more or less Cicuration or Mansuefaction And that there is such a difference in their very Natures may appear by this that they are not only so different toward Man but also among themselvs and so it is a common Observation that the more Mansuete do flock and heard together and Live in Consort wheras Wild beasts Live more Solitary and are more Strange even to one another Yet certeinly none of them were Carnivorous at first nor did devour one another for both they and man had then another Diet appointed for them by God that is Vegetative which which also Comprehends the Elements and Matter as subordinate unto it and as the Elements and Matter are its Subordinate Body so it is also Nourished by the same wherof it is Constituted and so the Vegetative Spirit may be Augmented by Mistion of more of the Homogeneous Vegetative Spirit latent in the Nutriment and so the Matter Elements and a Vegetative Spirit make the Body of Sensitives whereby it is also Nourished and may be Augmented by Mistion of more of the Homogeneous Sensitive Spirit latent in the Nutriment and now when we and some Beasts do feed on the Carcasses of other Sensitives yet we do not nor can we feed on their Sensitive Spirits or Lives becaus they are dead and there is no Conversion of one Sensitive Nature into another nor any such Mistion by Augmentation as of Equine and Asinine Spirits in a Mule or by Generation nor yet is the Anima therof or Anima Mundi as some say so Subordinate either to Constitute or Nourish the Sensitive as Vegetatives and the rest are and were so ordeined to be both for the Original Formation and Nutrition of Sensitives and thus they are not only Subordinate as a Constituent Body and Nâ—triment of Sensitives but also Subservient as Instruments of the Sensitive Spirit as I have shewed both in all those Motions which we call Involuntary and are properly Vegetative and also in their Instrumental Preparation and Motion of all the Sensorious Organs according to the Imperium and Gubernation of the Sensitive Spirit in all those Voluntary Motions therof which are performed thereby Transiently and not Immanently in itself alone Also though God did not so expressly appoint Vegetatives which are Terrestrial to be food for Fishes that Live in the Water yet probably they had the same food growing on the Shores and Banks and such as some report may still be found in the bellys of Sea Morses and such like Fishes almost as great as Whales And though it be not expressly mentioned either heer or after the Deluge whether Fishes did not then also prey one upon another as now they do yet possibly they might being made to bring forth abundantly whereby they might both maintein their own Species and be food for others or perhaps they might be Nourished by their own Element Water However I doubt not but that some Beasts were Created farr more strong then others as they still are and that some were Venaturient as now they are and had the same Specifike Sagacity as well as Noses and so might hunt others with a great Natural Delight as I suppose they now do with more then any Huntsman that followeth them which appears not only by their Indefatigable Industry but also by their very great Exultation and Cry yet I conceiv that then they had no Cruentous or Murdrous Appetite as now a Lion doth not usualy prey when he is full and Cats first play with a Mous and then kill it but then they did only play and not Kill when they could not Eat therof which is the chief End of Killing And so a yong Leverer when it first sees a Dog shâ—ns him and hath a Natural Sagacity of avoiding and escaping the Dog as well as the Dog hath such a Natural Sagacity in hunting the Hare And heerby also the Ingeny of Sensitives did appear aswell as in avoiding Poisons and hurtfull Vegetatives which as they are in themselvs certein Excellencys and Eminencys in the Vegetative Nature so are these also in the Sensitive Nature as of Courage Fear and the like Sensitive Affections But of all Sensitives Beasts are Supreme that is in their whole Bestial Kind generaly and so particularly according to their several Ranks and Degrees which is the true Rule of Comparison though the meanest and lowest of of Beasts be not more excellent then the chief Fowl or Fish and so of Fowls and Fishes And Beasts do not only excell the rest in their Bodily Constitution as I have shewed but much more in their Spiritual Qualitys which are their very Sensitive Excellencys though they may not have greater or more admirable Instincts then Fowls or Fishes which are some special Endowments wherwith Nature doth help out many Inferior Animals yea Insects as Bees Spiders Silkworms Ants and the like and of all others Man himself though he hath generaly the most excellent Sensitive Spirit Subordinate and Subservient to his Intellective Spirit yet he hath least and fewest Instincts and indeed I know none except Sucking which is most Common and Necessary yet as he doth excell them all in the general Sensitive Powers and Virtues whereby he can more Curiously Contrive and Effect things even by his Sensitive Imagination and Ingeny and hath such a most fitt Organ therof as the Hand so do Beasts heerin generaly excell Fowls and Fishes and accordingly have more fitt Organs then they and their Brains are more Conformable to the Brain of Man and he hath not only most Service from them but also most Conversation with them and thus they were made in the same Day with him and next and Immediately before him and as both he and they have their Sensitive Spirits produced and their Bodys formed of the Earth so they both Live together in the same Floor of this great Hous of the Elementary World as God saith to Iob of Behemoth which I made with thee he eateth Grass as an Ox. Yet we may noâ— therefore with some Credulous Admirers of Brutes to the Disparagement of our-selves and of all Human Nature adopt them into the Family of Mankind and claim kindred of Apes Baboons Marmosets Drills and I know not what Bestial Fauns and Satyrs as but one Degree removed from ourselvs for though they may thus approch unto us in our Body and Sensitive Spirit yet we Classicaly differ and vastly excell them in our Intellective Spirit wherof I shall now proceed to discours II. We now ascend into the highest Degree of the Scale of Nature that is of Intellective Spirits Human and Angelical wherof the Human Spirit doth as I said Classicaly differ from Sensitives and only Specificaly from Angels but as the Human Spirit of Man is united into one Compositum with all the Inferior Spirits and Matter as they are Subordinate one unto another so Man is the whole Scale in himself which Angels are not comprehending both Intellective and Sensitive
Notion therof Imprinted in our very Souls which made the Heathen Philosophers so much complain of the Prison of their Body and Bondage of this Conjunct State as expecting a better afterward And Christian Divines have a Problem Whether if Adam had stood he should not have been at length Translated to a better that is this other State and if we seriously consyder it there must probably have been some such ground of that wonderfull and otherwise inconceivable Tentation of Adam in Paradise which was not to any thing he then had nor to any thing which he was not capable to have especialy if it were Absolutely Impossible as to be a God or so to be like to God for though now the Corrupt Mind of Man may as I have said apprehend or affect Nonentity as Entitative and Impossibility as Possible yet we may not suppose any such thing of him in that State of Perfect Understanding and Will but it was a most obvious and prevalent Tentation that he having this Common Notion which we have now only Implicitely and Confusedly in his Perfect Mind most Explicitely and Distinctly and thereby knowing that he had such Angelical Facultys Potentialy in himself might covet to have them Actuated that so he might be like the Gods knowing Good and Evil. And though this be a farther and higher Perfection of the Human Spirit yet Adam was not therefore made Imperfect but Good and Perfect according to that Conjunct State wherin he was Created which was his Original Perfection and whereby he was so made a most Perfect Microcosm or Epitome of the preseâ—t World as he shall be also in his future State of the other World when not only these Angelical Perfections shall be Actuated in his Soul but his very Body shall be more Spiritualised as the Apostle termeth it or made fiâ—t for that more Spiritual State of an Immortal Life which yet shall still be a Body having all Corporeal Propertys and Affections such as the Body of our Savior was after his Resurrection which though not Sensible as before to present Sens for so he was not Visible or Tangible otherwise then as he so pleased to appear sometimes unto some yet heerafter when our Sensitive Bodys shall be also refined and sublimated and made like unto his Glorious Body every Ey shall see him as Iob saith I shall see for my self and my Eys shall behold him that is Iesus Christ his Redeemer who shall Eternaly be the Visible Deity and Image of the Invisible God Nor could Christs Spiritual Body penetrate any other Body as some have supposed from that Text wherin it is said that he entred when the Doors were shutt or the Doors being shutt which yet it doth neither express nor import but only that he did not enter into the hous so as our gross Bodys now do by Doors open which is their usual Avenue wheras his more Spiritual Body might enter in by a Window or other Aperture of the hous without any Penetration And this Renovation both of Soul and Body shall be generaly Conformable unto his and so made by his Divine Power as it is said The first Man Adam was made a Living Soul the last Adam is made a Quickning Spirit And as we have born the Image of the Earthly we shall also bear the Image of the Heavenly VII Thus the Heavens and Earth were finished and all the Host of them which Consummation plainly refers to the first Inception In the Begining God Created the Heaven and the Earth or as it is Originaly these Heavens and this Earth which were the same that were afterward so finished in the several Works of the Six Days and which as it is also said God Created to make and particularly it is so expressed not only of Elements but also of Vegetatives These are the Generations of the Heavens and the Earth in the day that the Lord made the Earth and the Heavens and every Herb of the Field before it grew as I have formerly observed and now observ again how this Doctrine of Creation of all Generable and Corruptible things first in the Chaos of their Potentialitys and of their several Generations afterward in the Six Days is so plainly and cumulatively expressed and repeated that none may doubt of the Truth therof Again as not only Heavens and Earth heer are mentioned but also an Host therof or orderly Militia and thus God is called the Lord of Hosts or of the Armys of all the Creatures so as I have observed there is both a Scale of Nature and also an Oeconomy of the Composita and Polity of the whole Univers and that therefore it is declared of them all that they were Valde bona or as it is Originaly Valde bonum Singularly as of One and an Epitome heerof is every Man in himself as I have shewed and becaus as I have said he is such a Microcosm now in respect of this World and so shall be of the World future therefore God doth still continue to Create the Souls of men from the end of the first Created World which was thus consummated in Man as the Summ of all the rest untill the begining of the other World And if we rightly estimate the many Millions of men living together on the Earth probably he doth Create Human Souls every Minute and so though he rested from making the great World yet he maketh many such litle Worlds continualy for though it is said He had rested from all his Works which God had Created to make that is to be Generated or to make by Generation first Originaly which was Supernatural and their Improper Creation and since Successively by Natural Generation as I have shewed yet he rested not from Proper Creation of Human Spirits in their several Individualitys according to the same Specifike kind which he had Originaly Instituted and expressed in the Protoplast or first Mâ—n and so to be Composited with Human Bodys according to that very Institution and first Law of Human Generation as I have also shewed Nor doth he so Immediately Generate or Improperly Create the Human Compositum of any other Man as he did the first Adam except only Iesus Christ who was thereby declared to be the Theanthropus as it is said The Lord himself· will give you a Signe Behold a Virgin shall conceivâ— and bear a Son and call his Name Immanuel which being interpreted is God with us And when God had thus Originaly made Man that is both man and woman as it is said Male and Female Created he them and probably woman of whom Christ was to be born and so is called the Seed of the woman being made after man was also the last of all these Works of God then he pronounced of them all Universaly that they were very Good not only in respect of the Univers but also of Man as the Compendium of all and Consummation of his whole Work of Creation in order to his ensuing Work of Redemption
of God and by Iacob are called the Everlasting Hills wherof others give us no account Nor doth he affirm Vegetatives to Live but as I have observed plainly distinguisheth between Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits which he afterward calleth Living Souls And in the description of the Works of the Fourth Day we find none of those Monsters and Figments which both Poetry and Philosophy have introduced in the Starry Heaven for neither doth he divide it into Spheres having plainly shewed before how the whole Aether was only one Sphere as well as the other Heavens nor indeed can such several Imaginary Spheres solv the Phaenomena of the Motions of Aeâ—herâ—al Comets and of all the Planetary Motions as of the Satellites which as I have observed move not in perfect Circles in the Aether but only about their principal Planet whereby their Motion in the Aether describes an Hemiâ—rochoid as I said as if a Qâ—ernstone were set upright like a Cartwheel on a declive Hill and a man with his hand on the Handle should thereby move it round about the Axis down the Hill Nor doth he assigne any Intelligences or Daemons and a Metratton or President over them all to move the several Spheres Certeinly the Scripture calleth 〈◊〉 Daemons Princes of the Air and not of the Aeâ—her though they were Originaly of the same Nature and Office with good Angels but as they were since ejected out of the Superaether so now probably they are confined within the Subaeâ—hereal Orb between which there is such a great Chasm Nor doth he distinguâ—sh the Luminarys into Planetary and Fixed but calleth them by one common Appellation Lights Originaly derived both in Name and Nature from the Primigenious Light wherof they were all composed And he particularly nameth only the two principal Luminarys which so give Light upon the Earth and according to which besides the common and Diurnal Motion of the Aether all the Sacred Feasts of the Jews were instituted And as the Sun is first named so probably he was first made of that Primigenious Light whereby he Illustrateth all the rest and therefore is sometimes called by thâ— same Name or the Light And as he hath Light so also Heat which is another Aeâ—hereal Quality in himself Formaly and not oâ—ly Eminently or Equivocaly as some would suppose and as indeed I conceiv that the Moon causeth Moisture which is no Aetâ—ereal Quality over which she doth yet manifestly Predominate as may appear most notably in Tides whether she then causeth more gross Uâ—pors when she is in her Apogaea because she is farthest from the Earth or generaly more Vapors because she is then more strong and Praepoent as the Sun in his Apogaeum or from some unknown Influence or Power But however those Vapors which she causeth do not make that whole Body of Water which floweth and refloweth in Tides nor doth every part of that whole Body of Water pass to the extremitys of the Floud and Ebb but only the Rivers in their Fall above the Floud of the Sea are supplied by the Vapors which causeth the Impuls of the whole Undulating Body of Water as farr as the Ebb like the two Handles of a Saw in sawing forward and backward not very farr though the Saw be never so long for plainly the Waters in the Floud toward the Rivers are not much more Salt nor in the Ebb toward the Ocean much more Fresh but in the middle where they meet and where a proportionable overplus of the River Water so caused by the Vapors doth mingle with the Seawater Also he plainly intimateth that as some of the Luminarys are manifestly Motive so they are all in that he doth not distinguish between them and it is elswhere expressly said of the Starrs generaly that they militate in their Courses or Originaly Paths and if the Fixed Starrs do move Uniformly together which is the last Residuum of the antient Error and Opinion of their Fixation yet however according to their Various Positions in the Aether they must move Difformly in Time in that very Uniformity in Position and either in Position or Motion or both they are all Asymmetrous certeinly no known Motion of any of them is Commensurable with the Motion of the whole Aether according to which we assigne the Propeâ— Day Natural to be as I have said fower and twenty hours neither more nor less otherwise they should not be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years and all the Variations therof And though many of them be farr greater then the Earth yet they all move about it becaus they were made to give Light upon it which they could not do at such a distance unless they were so great And their Number is Innumerable unto us and perhaps not fewer then of the Host of Israel in the Wildernes nor of that which Ioab gave up to the King Rotunde before he had compâ—eted it or of that which he still proceeded to complete untill he was hindred by the Plague Nor doth Moses lay any foundation of Judicial Astrology which is expressly condemned by Scripture Again in the Works of the Fifth and Sixth Day he describeth the Original Generations of Fishes Fowls and Beasts and most truly termeth them Living and afterward calleth their Bloud the Bloud of Life which our Learned Doctor hath lately discovered to be a most proper expression and citeth that Text in confirmation of his Discovery wheras formerly the Heart was termed Primum vivens ultimum moriens I have been informed by a Physician my Neighbor that having dissected an old Toad so farr as that he had taken out the Heart and afterward stepping aside before he returned again the Toad had crept away into his Garden where he found it aâ—ive and that it so lived some consyderable time In the last of all the Works of Creation that is of the little World Man he discovereth a new World of Mysterys not only as Man is the whole Scale of Nature and as there was another Proper Creation of his Intellective Spâ—rit but also how he was made in the Image of God in order unto Iesus Christ God-Man who by the Assumption of the Human Nature into the Divinity did also superadd and unite to this Scale of Created Nature the Creating Nature God himself which is the Anacephaleosis or Reduction of the Finite Creation to the Infinite Creator And I shall desire any Naturalist seriously to consyder this Natural Representation of the Messiah as he is thus the Infinite Completion and Consummation of Nature itself and Perfection of the Univers and so the Mediator both of Creation and Redemption that thereby God the Creator might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him for so indeed Christ hath united in himself not only the Intellective Spirit of Man but also his Body yea the very Matter therof as it is said In him dwelleth all the fulnes of
the Godhead Bodily Wherefore all men should confes and acknowledg Without controversy great is the Mystery of Godlines God was manifest in the Flesh. And these are two most admirable and amazing Contemplations which every man may have of himself that he is a Microcosin or Module of the whole Created World and a Nature which in Iesus Christ is also Immediately united to the Creator and Divine Nature And now I desire any to reflect on this whole History of the Creation of the World which Moses hath described and consyder with himself from whom he could derive all this Philosophical and Theological Learning or as it was said Whence hath this man this Wisedom but only from God the Author of all Entity and Verity for though indeed he was learned in all the Wisedâ—m of the Egyptians yet probably that was only such Improvement of some Human Arts and Sciences as they and the Chaldeans and Graecians and other Heathens have made therof and not that Knowledg of these Fundamental and more profound Veritys which he delivereth Certeinly Thales Pythagoras Plato and others who purposely travelled into Egypt to be instructed in their Learning brought back none such into Greece and I suppose that whatsoever the antient Egytian Wisedom or Learning was they received it first from Ioseph and the Hebrews as other Nations since from Moses and the Iews though indeed they seem only to have received or reteined some scattered Notions Fragments or Cento's therof mingling them with their own Fansys and Errors which doth also plainly appear in all Pagan Theology But as our Savior said even untill his time Salvation is of the Iews so also was their Philosophy derived from this Fountain of Divine Truth either by Scripture or Tradition for Language and Letters are the Vehicles of all that Human Science which we therefore call Literature and undoubtedly the Hebrew Language was the first and Original and it is said expressly that before the Confusion the whole Earth was of one Language which was Hebraical as is proved by the Hebrew names of Adam Chevah Sheth and the rest and so also it is said thaâ— unto Eber or Heber were born two Sons the Name of the one Peleg becaus in his days the Earth was divided and his brothers Name was Jockâ—an whereby it also appears that the Hebrew Language continued after the Confusion in the family of Heber from whom it is so denominated and as Shem is called the father of all the children of Eber that is of his Sacred Linage so also from him the Iews who were of that Linage were called Hebrews as Abraham their Father is therefore called an Hebrew Thus as Noah and his Family only were preserved from the common Deluge so Heber and his family only were preserved from the common Confusion of Languages and with the Original Language the Original Knowledg which was delivered from their Ancestors did continue in that Family and probably the rest of Mankind with the Language lost also all those acquired Notions and Terms or at least could make no common use therof for want of a common Language and so in Scripture we read of no great Actions performed by those mighty Builders in many years after and they are said to have been thereby scattered over all the Earth wherof such who were neerest to Heber in Chaldaea and Syria began to learn again both Language and Knowledg from him as may appear by their very litle different Dâ—alects Whence afterward the Chaldaeans by their Conquests and the Syrians or Phaenicians or Syrophaenicians as they are sometimes called by their Navigations conveied Learning both by Land and Sea to other more remote Nations And that which doth most confirm me heerin is that in America wherof the Inhabitants were farthest removed from the Hebrews when it was first discovered no such Literature was found though otherwise they were Naturaly as Ingenious as other men and so might have invented Human Arts and Sciences themselvs as well as others if they had not been so derived from this one Fountain And as the Books of Moses are the most antient of any now extant so I chalenge all Mankind to convince this History of Creation of any falsity or Popularity otherwise then as I have declared in any Sentence or Syllable therof which he hath so truly and accurately expressed that comparing it with all the Discoverys of Nature which have been since made by any others I may term his Sentences Antient Noveltys and all their Discoverys Novell Antiquitys and I must acknowledg my self to have been as much instructed by a more Critical Inspection of Scripture as by any Curious Inspection of Nature itself though I esteem both very needfull as they are mutual Explanations one of the other Thus by the Card and Compass of the Divine Word I have adventured to sail round about the Philosophical World and if any therefore shall call me a Scripturist or Ecclesiastes I should willingly accept it if the Wisest of men had not assumed that Title wherof I am not worthy to partake However from this Specuâ—a of Truth and by the Light therof we may discern the Errors of any others who have wandred from this right Way As first the Iews themselvs after the Captivity being mingled among the Heathen learned their works and the very Corruptions and Prevarications of that Dâ—vine Truth which the Gentiles as I have shewed before borrowed from the Hebrews in respect of whom all other Nations might be rightly termed Barbarous And from this Colluvies flowed all their Sects of Sadduces Pharisees and others and that Rabbinical Philosophy which hath perverted the Simplicity of the Text by Cabbalistical and Allegorical Interpretations and as they make all Scripture such becaus some parts therof as the Visions of Prophets are indeed Allegorical so others would Interpret them also Literaly as in the Vision of the New Ierusalem becaus it is described Quadrate or Square Hieroglyphicaly to express the Immobility therof some have fansied the Superaether not to be Spherical though they might as well affirm it to be Metalline or Gemmeous and of no larger extent then according to the Measure of so many Furlongs But Philosophers have subverted the very foundation and laid several others instead therof and yet most Christians will build upon them rather then acquiesce in the only true and Divine Philosophy though I also acknowledg that if others be reduced to this fundamental System of the World very much Natural Knowledg may be gained from them and that they may help to make a fair Superstructure Nor have I laid down any Theses which I do not prove not only by Authority of Scripture but also by Philosophical Reason and Sensible Experiment and if any dissent from me I shall also desire him to oppugn me with all the same Weapons and as solid and firm for if they be feint and feeble they will bend and recoil on him that useth them As in that famous Controversy concerning