a septenary gradation For we have understood that whatsoever there is besides God it is either an Element or a Vapour or a Concrete or a Plant or an Anâ—â—all or a Man or an Angell and that the whole multitude of creatures is ranked into these seven Classes or great Tribes In every of which there is some eminent virtue flowing from the essence of the Creatour yet every latter including the former For In Elements Being is eminent Vapours Motion Concretes Figure or Quality Plants Life Living creatures Sense Men Reason Angels Understanding See the house which Wisdome hath built her having hewn out her seven pillars Prov. 9. 1. See the seven Stairs which the King of Heaven hath placed in the entry of his inner house Ezek. 40. 22. The six first degrees are of visible creatures the seventh of invisible Angels After the same manner as there were nine dayes wherein God wrought and rested the seventh six Planets in heaven of inferiour light the seventh of extraordinary brightnesse the Sun six baser metals on earth The seventh exceeding all in perfection gold c. And as Salomons Throne had six inferiour steps to every of which there were six inferiour Leoncels adjoyned after all in the seventh place stood the Throne and by it two Lions 1 King 10. 19 20. So the King of eternity when he built him a visible throne of glory erected six visible degrees of corporeous creatures to every of which he added their Leoncels that is their virtues and their powers and last of all about the throne on high he placed the strongest of the creatures the Angels mighty in power Psal. 103. 19 20. But now what mean the seven planets in heaven what mean the seven continents on earth the seven kinds of meteors seven kinds of metalls seven kinds of stones c the seven combinations of tangible qualities the seven differences of taste the seven vitall members in man the seven tones in musick and other things which we meet with throughout all nature yea and in the Scripture the number of seven is every where very much celebrated and sacred For what do the seven dayes of the week point at what are the seven weeks betwixt the Passeover and Pentecost what the seventh year of rest what the seven times seventh of Jubilee what do all these portend I say but that it is the expresse Image of that God whose seven eyes passe through the whole earth Zach. 4. 10. and whose seven spirits are before his Throne Apoc. 1. 4. yea who doth himselfe make a mysticall eighth with every degree of his creatures For in him all things live aud move and have their being which live and move and have a being Acts 17. 28. and he worketh all in all 1 Cor. 12. 6. and all these are as it were him himselfe Eccles. 43. 27. and yet none of them is he himselfe Job 12. 9. 10. but because all these have some effigies of the divine essence and operate that which they operate by virtue thereof hence it is that he being above all without all and beneath all is the true mysticall eighth of all Of whom that Syracides may conclude our meditation though we say much we shall not yet attain thereto The sum of the doctrine is that he is all For what ability have we to praise him For he is greater then all his works The Lord is terrible and very great marvellous is his power Extol the Lord in praise as much as you can For yet he wil be greater then all praise Eecl 43. 30. c. Therefore let every spirit praise the Lord Hallelujah Psal. 150. And thou my soul praise the Lord Psal. 103. 1. Holy holy holy Lord of Hosts Heaven and earth are full of his glory Isai. 6. 3 Hallelujah A Short APPENDIX TO PHYSICKS Touching the Diseases of the Body Mind and Soul and their generall Remedies I. A Disease is the corruption of an Entity in some part thereof and a disposition of it to totall perishing that is death Therefore both the Body Mind and Soul hath its diseases II The diseases of the body are various scarce to be numbred and oft-times mâ—â—t A disease added to a disease is called a ymptome of a disease III A disease of the body is either by solution of that which is continued or by distemper of humours IV Solution of that which is continued is either by a rupture or a wound A rupture is prevented by bewaring falls and violent motion A wound is avoided by shunning of those things which can cleave cut prick rent tear or bruise or hurt anyway and both are to be cured by the Chirurgion N. W. The cure of a Wound is desperate if any vitall member be hurt as the heart the brain the liver the entrals c. For then the vitall actions are hindred and soon after cease 2 If any member be quite lost it cannot be set on again because the spirit hath not wherewithall to passe into the part that is severed V The distempers of the humours and the diseases that come from thence always proceed from some of these 6 causes namely either from 1 Crudity 2 Inflation 3 Distillation 4 Obstruction 5 Putrefaction 6 Inflammation VI Crudity in the body is nutriment not sufficiently concocted namely either Chyle or bloud which comes I from the quality of meat and drink when they are taken too raw flegmatick unwholesome which the concoctive faculty cannot well subdue 2 from the quantity when more meat and drink is put in then it is able to alter and assimilate unto the body For hence undigested and not assimilated humours burthen the body like strangers and not pertaining thereunto 3 For want of exercise when the naturall heat is not stirred up nor strengthened to perform its office lustily in the concoction of meats From such like crudities diverse inconveniences follow For 1 if the crudity be in the stomack it causes loathing of food for so long as the first food is not digested there can be no appetite to any other Again children have an appetite to eat earth chalk coales c. according as the crudities are turned into the likenesse of any matter For like desireth like 2 If there be a viscous crudity adhering in the ventricle or in the guts being warmed it takes spirit and is turned into wormes which gnawing the bowels stir up evill vapours by their motion whence also come phartasies very hurtfull to the head Lastly ctudity under the skin in the bloud and flesh begets palenesse and when it is collected and putrified scabs ulcers c. Crudity is prevented by a temperate diet as to Food Sleep and daily exercises and cured 1 by violent expurgation 2 by strong exercises 3 by the use of tart meats and drinks 4 by comforting the stomack with such things as heat both within and without VII Inflation is much and grosse vapour exhaling from the crudities that are gathered together and stretching the members And
which Aristotle would have to be the four Elements the Syagyricks Salt Sulfur and ☿ Nay more that by this means a gate is opened in a new kinde of way not onely to the understanding of Arts and humane inventions but also to multiply them which could never be unless the foundations of truth were found Perhaps I speak more then the Reader will think he finds in my Writings But if he saw but the streams the delineation of that Pansophia Christiana which wee have in hand that are derived from this fountain as also from that of our Didacticks and Metaphysicks hee would not hold it vainly spoken But because those are not yet brought to light I set down this as a law for these that are If any thing be not sufficiently deduced from Sense Reason and Scripture If any thing cohere not harmoniously enough with the rest If any thing be not evident enough with its own perspicuity let it be taken as not said at all Which law standing in force it may be lawful for my self all others both to doubt always and every where whether every thing be so as it is delivered to be and also to enquire why it is as it is found to be by which two courses that the lowest foundations of truth will in time be discovered no body needs to doubt Therefore let none of vs seeke after any thing else but how the truth may best be maintained on all hands which if it happen not to be on our side and that we are deceived with appearances of truth as it is very usuall in humane affaires I beseech all those that are more sharp-sighted for the love of truth courteously to shew us our way which we have lost and where our demonstrations come not together But if these savour of truth something neer that then they would not disdain to joyn their endevours with ours for the illustration thereof that all of us being the children of truth may compose and sing Hymnes of prayse together to God the Father of Truth Thou therefore O Christ the Fathers glory bright Of this great World the onely light On us some beams of light bestow That are thy servants thee to know Amen Lord make me to see here indeed thy externall light shining upon and internall informing thy creatures but there in in heaven aeternall and uncreated Amen Amen And so Christian Readers farewel J. A. C. March the 12th 1650. Imprimatur John Downame A Table of the Heads of this BOOK Prolegomena of the nature and use of Physick I AN Idea of the World to be created and created pag. 9 II Of the principles of the World Matter Spirit and Light 20 III Of the motion of things 38 IV Of the qualities of things 49 V Of the mutation of things 69 VI Of the Elements 78 VII Of Vapours 96 VIII Of Concretes 114 IX Of Plants 148 X Of living creatures 159 XI Of Man 210 XII Of Angels 228 An Appendix to Physicks of the diseases of the Body Mind and Soul aad their remedies 243 Errata Page 53. for softness read saltness p. 63. for softness r. saltness p. 247. line 12. for run r. noisome p. 250. l. 4. for veins r. reins ibid. l. 28 dele by PROLEGOMENA Touching the nature foundation and use of Physick I Physick is the Scientiall Knowledge of naturall things II That thing is naturall which is by Nature not by Art FOr whatsoever this visible World hath comes all either from Nature or from Art those things are from Nature which God brought forth in the beginning or w ch are to this very time begotten by a virtue implanted in things as the Heavens the Earth the Sea Rivers Mountains Stones Metals Hearbs living Creatures c. those things are from art which men have shaped by putting a new form upon natural things as Cities Houses Ponds Channels Statues Coines Garments Books c. that is by the work of mans ingenuity and hands Physicks have nothing to do with these things these are put over to the arts Now seeing that nature is before art ye that art imitates nothing but nature for as much as it doth nothing but by the strength of nature it necessarily follows that nature is to be laid for a foundation to arts and that nature must first be knowne by those that are studious of arts what things and by what vertue it operates every where for when this is known the secrets of all arts open of their own accord without this in arts and prudentials all wil be blinde dumbe and maimed therefore Physick is so necessary to be premised before the Mathematical and Logical and also the prudentiall Arts that they who do otherwise may be thought to build castles in the air III The nature of things is the law of being born and of dying of operating and of ceasing which God the Workmaster hath laid upon all things that are For all things are born and die all things operate somewhat and all things cease again in an order and manner proper to every creature which order and manner being that it is with most excellent reason could not be disposed but by the supream wisdome inasmuch as it is found constantly to be imposed by way of a law upon things now it took the name of nature from the first degree of mutation of every thing which is to be borne IV The knowledge of nature is to be obtein'd by searching into Nature it self By searching I say For no one should spend his time in Physicks to that end that he might have his mind taken up with anothers conceits but that he may put forward himself to the through and intimate knowledg of things otherwise the intellect will not be illustrated with the nature of things but obumbrated with the speculation of phantasms in naturall things therefore we are to seek for guides who may make us scholers not of themselves but of nature and exhibite unto us not their own fond reasons but nature V To search Nature is to contemplate how and wherefore every thing in nature is done To contemplate I say For as we do not see the Sun but by looking on the Sun so we do not learn nature but by looking into nature which is that the Scripture counsels us Ask the beasts and they shall teach thee and the fouls of the aire and they shall tell thee or talk with the earth and it shall answer thee and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee Job 12. 7. therefore the learners of naturall Philosophy cannot be more happily and easily instructed then if they be taught by ocular demonstration wheresoever it is to be had I say to contemplate every thing that so we may sift out the reasons and causes of all things every where For it is certain that nature doth nothing in vain even in things of least moment yea sometimes in the very least things much wisdome lies stored up And which is more we cannot attain to
the knowledg of great things but by the knowledg of lesser things which the following Aphorisme will teach us VI Nature unfolds her self in the least things and wraps up her self in the greatest things That is in the more excellent creatures many things are wound up and woven together with such an occult artifice that neither the beginning nor the endings of actions and accidents can easily be discerned but in all courser creatures all things are clearly manifest which is the cause why the nature of compounds cannot be knowne unlesse the nature of simples be first known so consequently we are to begin with these speculations and to proceed by degrees from simpler things to the more compound which very order we shall see that the Creator himself observed in producing and twisting together the nature of things VII Wee are to studie naturall Phylosophie by the guide of sense and light of the Scripture For sense is the beginning not onely of knowledge but of certainty and wisdome for as there is nothing in the intellect which was not first in the sense so if there be any thing obscurely or doubtfully in the intellect we are to have recourse to the sense for evidence and certainty but wheresoever sense or reason faileth as in things remote either in place or time we are indebted to the grace of God that he hath deigned to reveale many things unto us exceeding sense and reason For example the first production of the world and the constitution of things invisible He that neglecteth either of these principles is easily intangled in errours for by how much the more of imagination any thing hath by so much the more vanitie it hath and is the more remote from the truth again by how much the lesse any thing participates of revealed wisdome by so much the lesse it partakes of the truth and such for the most part is the Philosophy of the Gentiles and therefore vain and barren we will follow the guidance of Moses who described the generation of the world by the command of God yet always heedfully observing the attestation of the senses and of reason For wisely doth Lud. Vives as we have set down under the title of this book recall Christians from the lamp of the Gentiles which yeilds an obscure and maligne light to that torch of the Sun which Christ the light of the World brought into the world attributing much wit indeed but little profit to the inventions of Aristotle nay further Campanella and Verulamius most Christian Philosophers that are acquainted with that way of Philosophy from sense and Scripture have demonstrated that all Aristotles doctrines are nothing but a nurserie of disputations that is of obscurities haesitancies contradictions strifes and wranglings and fighting hood-winckt and that they hinder rather then advance our meditation of things and withall have afforded us a light whereat we may kindle more clear torches of inquiring out the truth following vvhose footsteps yet laying strong foundations from the Scripture vve vvill dresse out a little Theatre of nature not for disputation but for speculation and vve vvill go through nature silently yet not vvithout our eyes and that again according to the counsel of great Vives Here is no need of disputations saith he but of a silent contemplation of nature the Scholars shal enquire and ask rather then contend If any be more slow they wil need more ful commonstration not disputation and a little after again I say here is no need of wrangling but of looking on so this study wil be the delight of the rich and a refreshing of the mind to those that deal either in publike or in private affairs for when shal we easily find any other delight of the senses to be compared with this either in the greatness or in the variety or in the continuance of it for when we bestow our labour upon this contemplation wee need not seek for any other recreation nor desire sawce for this meat the walk it self and the quiet contemplation is both a School and a Master as that which always affords something which thou mayest admire wherein thou mayest delight which may increase thy knowledge Therefore let us resolve upon this vve that vievv naturall things to rest upon no other authority besides that of the Work-master of nature and of nature her self as she holds forth her self to be touched and felt the Scriptures sense and reason shal be our Guides Wìtnesses and Dictators to the Testimonies of vvhich he that assents not shevvs himselfe very foolish and vain CHAP. I. An Idea of the World to be created and created THE eternall Deitie our God that is to be adored after the infinite glories which hee enjoyes in his immense eternity was of his exceeding goodnesse propense to communicate himselfe out of himself and by his exceeding Wisdome saw that his invisible things might be expressed by certain visible images and to execute that had his Omnipotencie at hand he decreed not to envie entitie to those things wherein he might be expressed and wherein his Power Wisdome and Goodness might be revealed therefore he produced intelligent creatures by whom he might be known praised Angels and men both after his own image but the first pure minds the other clothed with bodies for whom he built a dwelling place and as it were a school of wisdome this universall World with other creatures of inferiour degree almost infinite all and every of which cry out after their manner hee made us and not wee our selves Now then we go about to unfold in what order so great a work proceeded and with what art all things were contrived and with what strength they are held together yet by his guiding who alone is able to testifie of himself and of his works for thus says he by his Secretary Moses Gen. 1. I In the beginning God created the heaven v. 1. That is the heaven of heavens with the Angels whom as morning stars first produced he made spectatours of the rest of his works Joh. 38. v. 7. II And the earth that is this visible world which notwithstanding he did not finish in the same moment therefore it is said III And the earth was void without form and darknesse was upon the face of the deep v. 2. that is the matter of this world was first produced a certain Chaos without form and darke like a black smoake arising out of the bottomlesse pit of nihilitie by the beck of the Almighty and this was matter the first principle of this visible Woâ—ld IV And the Spirit of God moved upon the water that is a certaine strength was introduced by the spirit or breath of God into that same darke and of it selfe confused matter whereby it began to stirre hereby then is understood the second principle of the World that is the spirit of life diffused throughout whereof the Universal World is hitherto ful which insinuating it selfe every where through all the parts of the
matter cherishes and rules it and produces every creature introducing into every one it s own form but being that this work-master had need of fire to soften and to prepare the matter variously for various uses God produced it For V God said let there be light and there was light ver 3. this is described as the third principle of the World meerly active whereby the matter was made visible and divisible into forms the light I say perfecting all things which are and are made in the World therefore it is added VI And God saw the light that it was good ver 4 that is he saw that all things would now proceed in order for that light being produced in a great masse began presently to display its threefold virtue of illuminating moving it selfe and heating and by turning about the World to heat and rarifie the matter and so to divide it for hence followed first of all from the brightnesse of that light the difference of nights and days VII He divided the light from darkness and called the light day and the darknesse he called night and the evening and morning were the first day ver â— that is that light when it had turn'd it self round compassed the World with that motion made day and night The second effect of light was from heat namely that which way soever it pass'd it rarified and purified the matter but it condensed it on both sides upward and downward whence came the division of the Elements this Moses expresses in these words VIII And God said let there be a Firmament that it may divide betwixt the waâ—er above and the waters below ver 6. God said that is he ordained how it should be let there be a Firmament that is let that light stretch forth the matter and let the thicker part of the matter melting and flying from the light thereof make waters on this side and on that above as they are the term of the visible World but below as they are a matter apt to produce other creatures under which the earth as thick dregs came together that was done the second day XI Therefore God said let the waters be gathered together under heaven 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 he called seas and he saw that it was good ver 9 10. and so on the third day there came the foure greatest bodies of the World out of the matter already produced Aether that is the Firmament or Heaven Aire Water and Earth all as yet void of lesser creatures therefore said God X Let the earth bud forth the green herb and trees bearing seed or fruit every one according to his kinde ver 11. this was done the same third day when as now the heat of Coelestiall light having wrought more effectually began to beget fat vapours on the earth whereinto that living spirit of the World insinuating it self began to cause plants to grow up in various formes according as it pleased the Creator this is the truest original and manner of generation of plants hitherto that they are form'd by the spirit with the help of heat but as the heavens did not always equally effuse the same heat but according to the various form of the World one while more midly another while more strongly the fourth day God disposed that same light of heaven otherwise then hitherto it had been namely forming from that one great masse thereof divers lucid Globes greater and lesser which being called stars he placed here and there in the Firmament higher and lower with an unequall motion to distinguish the times and this Moses describes v. 14 15 c. thus XI And God said let there be light made in the Firmament of heaven that they may divide the day and the night and may be for signes and for seasons and for days and for years that they may shine in the Firmament and enlighten the earth therefore God made two great lights and the starres c. This done then after all the face of the World began to appear beautifull and the heat of heaven more temperate began to temper the matter of inferiour things together after a new manner so that the spirit of life now began to form more perfect creatures namely moving plants which we call animals of which Moses thus XII God said also let the waters bring forth creeping things having a soul of life and flying things upon the earth c. v. 20. the waters were first commanded to produce living creatures because it is a softer Element then earth first reptiles as earth-wormes and other worms c. because they are as it were the rudiment of nature also swiming things and flying things that is fishes and birds animals of a more light compaction that was done on the fift day with a most goodly spectacle to the Angels but on the sixth day God commanded earthly animals to come forth namely of a more solid structure which was presently done when the spirit of the World distributed it self variously through the matter of the clay for thus Moses XIII God said let the earth produce creatures having life according to their kind beasts and serpents and beasts of the field and it was sâ— v. 24. so now the heaven of heavens had for inhabitants the Angels the visible heaven the starres the air birds the water fishes the earth beasts there was yet a ruler wanting for these inferiour things namely a rationall creature or an Angel visibly clothed for whose sake those visible things were produced Therefore at the last when God was to produce him he is said by Moses to have taken counsel in these words XIV Then God said let us make man after our own image and likenesse who may rule over the fishes of the sea and the fouls of the air and beasts and all the earth c. Therefore he created man out of the dust of the earth and breathed in his face the breath of life c. v. 26. and cap. 2. v. 7. so man was made like to the other living creatures by a contemperation of matter spirit and light and to God and the Angels through the inspiration of the mind a most exquisite summarie of the world and thus the structure of the Universe ought to proceed so as to begin with the most simple creature and end in that which is most compound but both of them rationall that it might appear that God created these onely for himself but all the intermediate for these Lastly that all things are from God and for God flow out from him and reflow to him But that all these things might continue in their essence as they were disposed by the wisdome of God he put into every thing a virtue which they call Nature to conserve themselves in their effence yea to multiply whence the continuation of the creatures unto this very day and
this Moses intimated adding touching animals XV And God said increase and multiply v. 22. by the virtue of which command and words let there be made let it produce let it put forth c. Things are made and endure hitherto and would remain if God would without end unto aeternity Gods omnipotency concurring no longer immediately unto particular things as before but nature it self always spreading forth her vertue through all things which thing derogates nothing from the Providence of God nay rather it renders his great power wisdome goodnes more illustrate for it comes from his great goodness that the greatest and the least things are so disposed to their ends that nothing can be or be made in vain from his wisdome that such an industry is put into nature to dispose all things to their eâ—ds so that it never happens to erre unlesse it be hindred lastly from his power that such an immutable durability can be put into the universe through such a changeable mutabilitie of particulars so that the World is as it were aeternall Therefore the veins of the strength artifice and order of this nature must be more throughly searched that those things which we have here in few words hinted out of Moses may be more illustrated by the constant testâ—mony of Scripture reason and senses and a way made to observe one thing out of another An Appendix to the first Chapter We have said that it may be gathered out of those words of Moses In the beginning God created the heaven that the invisible World was the beginning of the works of God that is the heaven of heavens with the Angels Now that by this heaven is to be understood the heaven of heavens and the Invisible or Angelicall World appeares plain I. Out of Scripture which 1 mentions the heaven of heavens every where but their production no where unlesse it be here 2 Moses testifies that the invisible heavens were stretched out the second day and the fourth day adorned with starres therefore another heaven must necessarily be understood in this place namely a heaven that was finished in the same moment for that the particle autem inferres hee created the heavens and the earth terra autem but the earth was without form c. III This reason evinces the same those things which are made by God are made in order now an orderly processe in operation is this that a progresse be made from more simple things to compound things therefore as the most compound creature man was last produced so the most simple and immateriall creatures Heaven and the Angels first of all III And what would we have more God himself testifies expresly that when he made the earth the Angels stood by him as spectators for so saith he to Job Where wast thou when I founded the earth when the morning starres sang together and all the sonnes of God shouted Job 38. 4 7. calling the Angels morning starres because they were a spirituall beam and that newly risen sonnes of God because they were made after the image of God therefore when we hear that the earth was founded the first day it must needs be that the Angels were produced before the earth And if the Angels then certainly the dwellings of the Angels the heaven of heavens and that in full perfection with all their hosts as it were in one moment aud this is the cause why Moses speaks no more of that heaven but descends to the forming of the earth that is the visible World how the Creator took unto himself six dayes to digest it as we will also now descend CHAP. II. Of the visible Principles of the World matter spirit and light WE have seene God shewing us how the World arose out of the Abysse of nihilitie let us now see how it standeth that so by seeing we may learn to see and by feeling to feel the very truth of things And here are three principles of visible things held out unto us matter spirit and light that they were produced the first day as three great but rude Masses and out of those variously wrought came forth various kinds of creatures therefore we must enquire further whether these three principles of all bodies have a true being and be yet existent least any errour be perhaps committed at the very entrance by any negligence whatsoever but now seeing that no more doubts of matter and light this onely comes to be prooved that by that spirit which hovered upon the face of the waters a certain universall spirit of the world is to be understood which puts life and vigour into all things created for the newnesse of this opinion in physicks and the interpretation of that place by Divines with one consent of the person of the holy spirit give occasion of doubting But Chryâ—ostome as Aslacus cites him and Danaeus acknowledgeth that in this place a created spirit which is as it were the soul of the world is more rightly to be understood and it is proved strongly I By Scripture which testifieth that a certain vertue was infused by God through the whole world susteining and quickening all things and operating all things in all things which he calleth both a spirit and a soul and sometimes the spirit of God sometimes the spirit of the creatures For example Psal. 104. v. 29. 30. David saith thus when thou receivest their spirit that is the spirit of living creatures and of plants they die and return to their dust but when thou sendest forth thy spirit that is the Spirit of God again they are recreated and the face of the earth is renewed but Job 27. 3. says thus as long as my soul shall be in me and the spirit of God in my nostrils see the soul of man and the spirit of God are put for the same which place compared with the saying of Elihu the spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Omnipotent hath put life into me c. 33. v. 4. opens the true meaning of Moses namely that the spirit of God stirring upon the waters produced the spirit or soul of the world which puts life into all living things Now that this is disposed through all things appears out of Ezechiel where God promising the spirit of life unto the dry bones Ezech. 17. v. 5 14. which he cals his Spirit bids it to come from the four Winds v. 9 therefore Augustine lib. imperf sup Gen. ad lit and Basil in Hexamero call this spirit the soule of the world And Aristotle as Sennertus testifies says that the spirit of life is a living and genitall essence diffused through all things but the testimony of Elihu is most observable who speaks thus Who hath placed the whole World If he namely God should set his heart upon it and should gather unto himself the spirit thereof and the breath thereof or his spirit and his breath For the Hebrew affix is rendred both ways all flesh would die together and man would
return unto dust Job 34. v. 13 14. So if God should take his spirit out of the World every living thing would die 2 By reason and sense it is certainly evident that herbs and animals spring out of a humide matter even without seed But whence had these life I pray you but from that diffused soul of the World wee finde by experience that bread wine and water yea aire are vitall to those that feed upon them but whence have they that vital force I pray you if not from this diffused soule but now if a certaine spirit be diffused in that manner through all things it follows necessarily that it was created in the begining in its whole masse even as the matter the light were first produced in that its great and undigested masse so that there was no need that any thing should be created afterwards but be compounded of those three and distinguished with forms which God intimated in Esay 42. v. 5. where declaring himself the Creator of all things he divides them into three parts namely into the heavens that is light the earth that is matter and a quickning spirit and just so in Zachary 12. v. 1. let us therefore hereafter beware so great an absurdity that I may not say blasphemy as to put the person of the Holy Ghost amongst the creatures Now there may three reasons of this thing be given why Moses called that quickning spirit produced in the beginning the Spirit of God Namely that it is taken in that sense wherein els-where it is spoken of â—he mountains of God Psal. 36. v. 7. and trees of God Psal. 104. v. 16. and Ninive was called a citie of God that is by reason of their greatness and dignity 2. Because it was produced immediatly by God not as now it is when that spirit passeth from one subject to another 3 Because it was a peculiar act of the holy Ghost For the Analogie of our Faith teacheth us to believe that the production of the matter out of nothing is a work of Gods Omnipotencie and is attributed to the Father that the production of light by which the World received splendour and order is a work of wisdome attributed to the Son John 1. v. 3 4. and lastly that the virtue infused into the creatures is a work of his goodnesse which is attributed to the Holy Ghost Psal. 143. v 10. and so must that place Psal. 33. v. 9 6. be altogether understood for it will not bear any other sense he spake and they were made he commanded and they came forth the heavens were established by the Word of God and all the virtue of them by the spirit of his mouth Also wee must note Gen. 1. v. 1 2 3. that three words are added to the three principles he created he said and he moved himself that they may be signs of his absolute Power of his Word and of his spirit Also we must note this that in both those places the Holy Ghost with his work is placed in the midst as also in Esay 40. v. 13. because he is the spirit the love and the mutuall bond of both but this we speak after the manner of men Let it stand therefore for certain that all the principles were created the first day every one in its masse and that all things were afterwards composed out of them which may be declared to children for their more full understanding by a similitude thus an Apothecary or Confectioner being to make odoriferous Balls takes Sugar in stead of matter Rose-water or Syrrup or some other sweet liquour for tincture or conditure last of all taking some of this lumpe thus made hee imprints certain shapes upon his work So also God first prepared his matter then tempered it with a living spirit then brought light into it which by its heat and motion might mix and temper both together and bring it to certain forms also even as a Mechanick must have matter and two hands to work withall the one hand to hold and the other to work with so in the framing of the world there was need first of matter then of a spirit to frame the matter and lastly of light or heat to inactuate the matter under the hand of the spirit and what need many words we see in every stone hearb and living creature first a certain quantity of matter secondly a certain inward virtue whereby it is generated it groweth it spreads abroad its savour and its odour and its healing virtue thirdly a form or a certain disposition of parts with divers changes which come from the heat working within For Matter is a principle meerly passive Light meerly active Spirit indifferent for in respect of the matter it is active in respect of the light passive The difinitions of the principles Matter is a corpulent substance of it self rude and dark constituting bodies Spirit is a subtile substance of it self living invisible and insensible dwelling and growing in bodies Light is a substance of it self visible and moveable lucid penetrating the matter and preparing it to receive the spirits and so forming out the bodies Therefore by how much the more Matter any thing hath it hath somuch y e more Dulnes obscurity immobility as the earth Vigour and durability as an Angell Form mobility as the Sun Spirit Light Note also that matter is the first entitie in the World ' Spirit the first living thing Light the first moving thing so that every body in the World is of the matter by the light in the spirit which he would have to be his image from whom by whom in whom are all things blessed for evermore Amen Rom. 11. v. 36. Of the nature of matter TRuly said one No diligence can be too much in searchingout the beginning of things for when the principles are rightly set down an infinite number of conclusions will follow of their own accord and the science wil encrease it self in infinitum which the creation of things doth also shew For God having produced the principles the first day and wrought them together with most excellent skil made afterward so great variety of things to proceed from them that both men and Angels may be astonished Therefore let us not thinke over much to frame our thoughts yet of all the principles of the World apart Let the following Aphorisms be of the matter I The first matter of the World was a vapour or a fume For what means that description of Moses else when he calls it earth waters the deep darkness a thing void and without form and it appears also by reason for seeing that the lesser bodies of the World Clouds Water Stones Metals and all things growing on the earth are made of vapours coagulated as shall appeare most evidently hereafter why not the whole World also certainly the matter of the whole can be nothing else but that which is found to be the matter of the parts II The first matter of the
World was a Chaos of dispersed Atomes cohering in no part thereof This is proved 1 by reason for if they had cohered in any sort they had had form but they had not for it was Tohu vabohu a thing without form and void 2 by sense which satisfies that the Elements are turned unto Atomes for what is dust but earth reduced into Atomes what is vapour but water resolved into more subtile parts the air it self what is it but a most small comminution of drops of water and unperceiveable by sense yea all bodies are found to consist of most extream small parts as trees barke flesh skins and membranes of most slender strings or threds but bones stones metals of smal dust made up together into which they may be resolved again And this shews also that those threds or haires are of Atomes as it were glued together that when they are dried they may be pouldred wherefore the whole World is nothing but dust coagulated with various glutinous matters into such or such a form 3 by Scripture for the aeternall Wisdom it self testifies that the beginning of the World was dust Prov. 8. v. 26. out of which foundation many places of Scripture wil be better understood as Gen. 3. v. 14. dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return For behold man was made of the mud of the earth yet God being angry for sin threatens something more then returning to dust namely utmost resolution into the very utmost dust of which the mud of the earth it self was made and wee see it to be truly so that a man is dissolved not onely into earth but into all the elements especially those that perish by fire and is at last scattered into very Atomes Read and understand what is said Job 4. v. 19. Item 19. v. 9. Esay 26. v. 19. Psal. 104. v. 29. therefore Democritus erred not altogether in making Atomes the matter of the World but hee erred in that hee believed 1 that they were aeternall 2 that they went together into forms by adventure 3 that they cohere of themselves by reason that he was ignorant of that which the Wisdom of God hath revealed unto us that the Atomes were conglutinated into a mass by the infusion of the Spirit of life and began to be distinguished into forms by the comming in of the light III God produced so great a mass of this matter as might sussice to fill the created Abysse For with the beginning of the heaven and the earth that vast space was presently produced wherein the heaven and the earth were to be placed which place Moses cals the Abysse which no creature can passe through by reason of its depth and vastness Now the Aphorism tels us that all this was filled up with that confused fume lest wee should imagine any vacuum IV The matter is of it self invisible and therefore dark For darkness is seen after the same manner when the eyes are shut as when they are open that is they are not seen at all and this is it which Moses says and darkness was upon the face of the Abysse V The matter is of it self without form yet it is apt to be extended contracted divided united and to receive every form and figure as wax is to receive every seal For we have shewed that all the bodies of the World are made of these Atomes and are resolved into them therefore they are nothing else but the matter clothed with severall forms which the Chymicks demonstrate to the eye reducing some dust one while into liquour another while into a vapour another while into a stone c. VI The matter is aeternall in its duration through all forms so that nothing of it can perish For in very deed from the making of the World untill now not so much as one crum of matter hath perished nor one increased for in that bodies are generated and do perish that is nothing else but a transmutation of forms in the same matter as when vapour is made of water of that vapour a cloud of the cloud rain and of the rain drunk in by the roots of plants an hearb c. VII The principall virtue of the matter of the world is are indissoluble cohaerence every where so that it can endure to be discontinued in no part and a vacant space to be left Notwithstanding perhaps this virtue is not from the matter but from the spirit affused of which in the Chapter following VII From this matter the whole World is materiall and corporeall and is so called For all the bodies of the World even the most subtle and the most lightsome are nothing but form partly coagulated partly refined Now after what manner it is coagulated or refined shall appear in that which follows Of the nature of the Spirit or soule of the World THe spirit of the World is life it self infused into the World to operate all things in all for whatsoever any treature doth or suffers it doth or suffers it by virtue of this spirit for it is given to it I To inhabite the matter For as in the beginning it moved it self upon the waters so yet it is not extant but in the matter especially in a liquid and subtile matter Whence in the body of a living creature those most subtile sanguine vapours and as it were flames which are the charriot of life are called spirits And Chymicks extracting a spirit out of herbs metals stones like a little water call it the Quintessence because it is a more subtile substance than all the four elements But not water it self as it is water but that living virtue of the creature out of which it is extracted inhabiting in it which being that it cannot be altogether separated from the matter is preserved in that subtile form of matter For how fast the spirit inhaeres in the matter shall be taught about the end hap 9. 10. II To move or agitate it self through the whole matter to preserve it Hence it is 1 that no vacuum can be in the world For all bodies even the most subtile as water air the skie being indued with this spirit delight in contiguity and continuity For as a living creature will not be cut so also water air yea the world it self by reason of that universall spirit uniting all things in it which also when a separation is made as in the wounds of living creatures in the cutting of the water in the parting of the air may be seen makes the matter close again 2. that every creature putrifies when that spirit is taken away as if you extract the spirit of wine out of wine or suffer the spirit to evaporate out of an hearb c. but is preserved yea made better if the spirit be preserved For example wine kept in any solid vessel under the earth or water though it be an 100 years grows still the richer the spirit stirring and moving it self in it and by that meanes still moulding the matter more
matter of the world reduced into fluidity The nature of it is to be fluid and moistning VII The earth is the most grosse part of the matter as it were the dregs and setling gathered together at the bottom The nature of it is to be dry and immoveable VIII The elements therefore are all one matter of the world distinguished by degrees of density and rarity For where the light is wheeled about there the matter is most rarefied and pure below that more grosse then grosse and fluid at length in the bottome dregs and a thick setling Therefore this is a meer gradation For earth is nothing else but thickned and hardned water water nothing but thickned air air subtilized water water liquified earth But from this difference of density rarity there ariseth another difference of the same elements namely in regard of motion and rest heat and cold The water is moveable For it flows the air more yet for it transfuseth it self here and there the skie doth nothing but whirle about most swiftly that perpetually Also the heaven by reason of its perpetuall motion is hot yea burneth perpetually the earth by reason of its perpetual rest is cold perpetually except where it is warmed by the fire of heaven coming upon it or inclosed in it IX The elements are transmutable into one another That is because the heat raised in the matter may extend and condense it In the water and air we see that come daily to passe For who knoweth not that water doth evaporate and is turned into air that water is made again of vapour the rain teacheth us But we may also procure the same mutation in our hand or in vulgar Alembicks in which waters or wines are distilled Let theie be an Alembicks void of all matter filled onely with air To the long pipe of this that hangeth out apply some narrow mouthed glasse and stop the pipes mouth carefully that no air may any way get forth you shall see that when it cannot dilate it selse locally it will be coagulated into water in the utmost and coldest corner of it that is in the glasse You shall see I say that glasse sweat and distill drops into which the air heated and rarified in the Alembick contracted it selfe But remove away the fire you shall see those drops vanish by little and little and return into air X Aristotle thought that the Elements were in a tenfold proportion to one another but later men have found them near an hundred-fold That is that of one drop of earth is made by rarifaction ten drops of water and of one of water ten of air The truth of the latter assertion is easie to be demonstrated thus Let one take a bladder of an oxe or an hog and having cleansed it anoint it with oile to stop the pores that the air may not get out To the neck of this but having first crushed out all the air let him tie the neck of some little glasse with about an hundreth part of the water which the bladder might contein Let this instrument be set in the hot sun or in a very hot stove where the water is by the heat turned into air it will appear that the bladder will be full But bring the same bladder swelled with air into the cold you shall see it the vapour turning again into water fall again Note The same hundreth proportion or near upon is also observed among colours for one drop of ink or red will colour an hundred drops of water not on the contrary and that because blacknesse represents the earth in density whitenesse the heaven in rarity But this very proportion varies because the air is in it selfe somtimes thicker and grosser somtimes more rare and thin XI The matter of all the elements as it is made up of Atomes so it is turned again into Atomes by so much the more subtlely as it is the more subtle in its masse For example the earth and every dry and hard thing is brought into a dust almost indivisible which may be sifted through a sieve but cannot penetrate The water may both be strained and penetrate For example through vessels of earth and wood yea and of lead as chap. 4. aphorisme 13. We have set down an example Air and fire penetrate also through thicker bodies as heat through furnaces XII The elements are the four greatest bodies of the world of which others are generated That the lesser bodies of the world which are infinite in number and in forms are really compounded of the elements resolution shewes For when they are corrupted they return into the elements And sense teacheth For all things have some grossenesse from the earth some liquour from the water some spirituosity from the air some heat from heaven and because all things that live are nourished by these they are thence called Elementa quasi Alimenta as if you should say nourishment as in Bohemian ziwel or ziwent XIII The Elementary matter occupies a place in the world according to its degree of density and rarity For the earth resteth at the bottome the water swims upon that the air fleets above the water and lastly the skie is in the highest place you shall see the like spectacle if you pour clay water wine especially sublimated and oile into a glasse for every one of these will occupie a place accotding to its nature XIV Therefore the Elements make the four visible regions or sphears of the world For the earth is a globe which the water naturally encompasseth round the air it the skie the air after the same manner as in an egge the yelk is encompassed with the white and that with the skin and shell XV Of the Elements there are two extreams the skie and earth as many 〈◊〉 air and water They are called extream aad mean both in regard of their sites and of their accidents For the skie is in the highest place most thin and hot the earth in the lowest most thick and cold Skie the first moveable earth the first resting The air and water as they partake of the extreams so of their accidents being somtimes either lesse thick or thin moving or still hot or cold XVI But because the Elements were prepared not for an idle spectacle but for strong operation upon one another the Creatour did somewhat change that order and commanded two sorts of water to be made and two sorts of fire XVII For part of the water is placed above the highest part of the skie and on the contrary part of the fire is taken from the skie and shut up into the bowels of the earth Both these may seem paradoxes and therefore need demonstration And as touching the waters it is manifest by the testimony of Moses That God made the second day the Expansum of the heaven which might divide betwixt the waters which are under the Expansum the waters above the Expansum Gen. 1. 6 7 8. What can be more clear now whereas
some modern Divines interpret it of the waters of the clouds that is too cold They say that Jer. 10. 13. The rain waters are signified by the name of the water in heaven and therefore here also But I answer 1 That the waters in heaven are one thing and the waters above heaven another Rain might be called water in heaven because the air was by the Hebrews called the first heaven but it cannot be called the waters above heaven as these of which Moses speaks 2 That the waters of the clouds are not waters in act but vapours but Moses speaks of waters For he sayes expresly that in the first seven dayes there was no rain cap. 2. ver 5. but he sayes that those waters above the Expansum were presently made the second day therefore they are some thing else then rain water 3 He sayes that the waters were seperated from the waters but the waters of the clouds are not separated from the waters of the sea and of rivers For they are perpetually mingled vapours ascending rain descending 4 He sayes that the Expansum was in the middest betwixt the waters and the waters but how can that be said of the clouds which are below the Expansum and reach not to the thousandth part of its altitude Lastly Psalm 148 placeth the waters above the heaven next of all to the Heaven of Heavens v. 4. but reckons up clouds and rain afterwards among the creatures of the earth ver 8. what need we any other interpretation Reason perswades the same thing most strongly For setting down the principles of the world in that order wherein we see them set down by Moses it was necessary that the matter being scattered by the light rolling about should flie hither and thither and coagulate it selfe at the terms of the world on both fides that in the middle where the light went and goes yet there should be pure skie but that on both sides above and below the mathardning it self should grow thick We see it done here below why not above also especially God himself intimating it Let it be so because naturally it cannot be otherwise But that there is fire included in the earth 1 the eructations of fire in Aetra Vesuvius Hecla c. do shew 2 the springs of hot waters every where 3 the progeneration of metals even in cold countreys and other things which can come from nothing else but from fire which shall be looked into in that which follows 4 lastly there is a testimony extant in the book of Job chap. 28. v. 5. Bread commeth out of the earth and under it is turned up as it were fire Let the Reader see Thomas Lydiats disquisition concerning the originall of Fountains and there he shall see it disputed at large and very soundly XVIII The waters above the heaven are there placed for ends known to God but the use of fire under ground is well enough known to us also Yet we may say something of these waters by conjecture As namely that it was meet that there should be visible termes of the visible World and that the heat of the frame ever rolling had need of cooling on the other side also and the like But that of the fire under ground mountains and valleys and caves of the earth are produced and also stones metals and juyces generated and many other things we shall see in that which follows for without heat there is no generation because there is no motion Of the Skie in specie XIX The Skie is the highest Region of the most vast world the dwelling place of the stars XX The Skie is the most liquid part of the whole world and therefore transparent and most moveable For by the motion and heat of the Sun always present it is perpetually attenuated to an exceeding subtlety XXI The whole skie is moved about because that burning and ever flying light of the stars hurries it about with it That appears 1 by reason for if the starres were moved in the heaven immoveable after that manner that birds are carried in the air and fishes in the water that penetration of the heaven would not be without violence neither could it be performed with so great celerity nor with so aequable a course by reason of the resistance Therefore the starres are carried in heaven in all respects as clouds in the air that is with their charriot 2 by sense for we see that our fire carries away with it the matter which it hath caught and attenuated namely vapours smoaks flames why not the heavenly fire also which comets also shew to the eye of which we shall see more chap. 8. 3. The same is to be gathered out of Moses words accurately considered Gen. 1. v. 14. 17. Of the air XXII The air is the lowest Region of the Expansum the abode of the clouds and birds In Scripture it is signified by the name of the first heaven Yet it penetrates water and earth to fill up their cavities because there is no vacuum XXIII The air is of a middle nature betwixt the heaven and the water in respect of site and qualities Yet it is thicker where it joyns to the earth and water and thinner towards heaven Therefore in the highest tops of some mountains neither men can live nor trees grow because of the thinnesse of the air by reason of which it is neither sufficient for the breathing of living creatures nor for the growth of plants XXIV The air neer the earth in summer is hot by the vehement repercussion of the Suns verticall beams in winter by reason of the obliquity and obtuse reflexion of the beams it cannot be heated above it is always cold yet most in summer when it is pend in on both sides with the heat of the heaven and of the earth Of the water XXV Water is thickned air Washing and and moistning the earth the abode of fishes XXVI Water of its own nature is onely moist and fluid to the rest of the qualities indifferent Obs. 1. The fluidity of the water is such that if you give it never so little declivity it runs But the humidity is unequall according to the degree of rarity and density For a ship sinks not so deep in the sea as in a river because the sea water is thicker and drier Obs. 2 They adde commonly that water is naturally cold by a twofold argument 1 because it cooleth 2 because it extinguisheth fire but I answer it cools not by its coolnesse but by its crudity But it quencheth fire after the same manner as hot water and wine do though they be hot not because they are contrary to fire but because fire is nourished with the thinner parts of the wood but if abundance of water be cast on or any fluid thing even oyl the pores are stopped and the fire is quenched Otherwise fires are made of Bitumen which is not a porous matter that burn in the very water which we see done also in
lime Lastly great fires are nourished with water We see also that there is sometime hot sometime cold water not onely in rivers but also breaking out of fountains according as it is affected yet it may not be dissembled in the mean time that air is more prone to heat by reason of its rarity water to coldnesse by reason of its thicknesse XXVII The water at first covered the earth round about but on the third day of the creation it was gathered into certain channels which are called Seas Lakes Pooles Rivers c. That this was done at the command of of God Moses testifies in these words Let the waters be gathered together into one place that the dry land may appear Gen. 1. v. 9. but David relating the processe of the creation describes the manner also Ps. 1â—4 v 6 7 8 9. That thunders were raised by which the Mountains ascended the valleys descended but the waters were carried steep down into their channels and that in this sort a bound was set them that they might not return to cover the earth Whence it is very likely that that discovery of the surface of the earth was made by an earthquake but that the earthquake was produced by the fire sunk into the earth which giving battle to the cold there conglobated shook the earth and either caused it to swell variously or rent it asunder Whence those risings aâ—â— fallings in the surface of the earth that is mountains and valleys were made but within caves and many hollow places This done the waters of their own accord betook themselves from those swelling eminencies to thc low and hollow places This pious conjecture will stand so long as no more probable sense can be given of this Scripture And what need many words common sense testifies that mountains are certainly elevated valleys and plains depressed therefore of necessity that was sometime so ordered but not in the first foundation of the earth the second day for then the grosser parts of the matter flowing about poised themselves equally about the center therefore it was about the third day when the face of the earth appeared and the waters flowed into their channels But besides perhaps God doth therefore permit earthquakes yet to be sometimes and by them mountatains and valleys and rivers to be changed that we may not be without a pattern how it was done at the first XXVIII The water then is divided into Seas Lakes Rivers and Fountains XXIX The sea is an universall receptacle oâ—â—â—aters into which all the rivers of the earth unburthen themselves Which uery thing is an argument that the sea is lower then the earth for rivers run down not up again XXX The sea is one in it self because it insinuates it self into the Continent here and there as it were with strong arms it hath gotten severall names in severall places That great Sea encompassing the earth is called the Ocean those armes dividing the Continent Bayes or Gulfs For all those gulfes are joyned to the Ocean except the Caspian or Hyrcanian Sea in Asia yet that is thought to have channells within the earth whereby it joyned to the Ocean XXXI The Sea is cf unequall depth commonly srom an hundred to a thousand paces yet in some places they say that the bottome cannot be found Hence the sea is called an Abysse It is probable that the superficies of the earth covered with the water is as unequal as this of ours standing out of the water namely that in some places are most spacious plaines in other places valleys and depths and in other places mountains and hils which if they stand above the water are called Islands but if they be hidden under the water shelves XXXII The water of the Ocean faileth not because huge rivers and showres continually flow into it neither doth it cverflow becruse it doth always evaporrte upwards in so many parts of it Of the earth XXXIII The earth is the most dense bedy of the world as it were the dregs and setling of the whole matter And therefore gross opacous cold heavy XXXIV It hangeth in the middle of the universe encompassed with air on every-side For being that it is on every side encompassed with the heaven and is forced by the heat thereof on every side it hath not whither to go or where to rest but in the aequilibrium of the universe XXXV The earth is every way round For the forme which at the first it received from the light of heaven wheeling about it it yet retaineth except that in some places it is elevated into mountains and hils by the thunder which was sent into its bowels the third day in other places again it is pressed down into valleys and plains for the running down of the rivers but that doth not notably hinder the globosity thereof XXXVI The better part of the superficies of the earth is yet covered with water the lesser part stands out of the water where it is called dry land or continent or if it be a small portion an Island There are seven Continents of the earth Europe Asia Africa America Peruviana America Mexicana Magellanica or Terra Australis and Terra Borealis but there are Islands innumerable XXXVII The earth is in its outward face in some places plain in others mountainous but within in some places solid in others hollow That appears in Mountains and Mines of metal where is to be seen here stones or clay very close compact there dens and most deep caves and endlesse passages which must needs be thought to have been the work of the thunder sent into the earth the third day of the creation which penetrating and piercing its bowels so tore them Now there are in the earth not only spacious caves and holes but an infinite number of straighter veins and as it were pores which is plain enough by experience XXXVIII The cavities of the earth are full of water air fire For being that there are cavernes passages and pores they must needs be filled and that with a thin matter Of air no man will doubt But that there are waters in the cavernes under ground appeares in the mines of mettall and is proved by the testimony of the Scripture which in the history of the deluge saith that all the fountains of the great deep were broken up Gen. 7. v. 11. Lastly that there is fire under the earth we have already seen Aphorism 16. which it is credible is the relicks of the lightning raised within the bowels of the earth the third day of the Creation Psalm 1â—4 v. 7. left there for the working of minerals but nourished with sulphureous and bituminous matter spread through the bowels of the earth CHAP. VII Of Vapours IF the Light of Heaven had wrought nothing else upon the matter but melt it together into the formes of the Elements as it was variously rarified or densified the world had remained void of other living creatures But it ceaseth not passing through the
us by forcing compressing rarifying or densifying that may be shewn to children by ocular experiments for if you drive the air with a fan doth it not give a blast if you presse it when it is drawn into the bellows doth it not breath through the pipe if you lay an apple or an egge into the fire doth not the rarified humour break forth with a blast but this last will be better seen in a bowle of brasse which hath but one hole put to the fire especially if you drop in some drops of water For the air shut in with the water when they feel the heat will presently evaporate and thrust themselves out with a violent blast Which may be also seen if you put a burning wax candle into a pot well stopped having a small hole left at the side c. The fourth way is by condensation of air if for example you lay the foresaid bowle of brasse very hot upon ice and force the thin air included to be condensed again with cold you shall perceive it to draw it again from without to fill up the hollownesse of the bowle Therefore so many ways winds are made under heaven either because the air is rarified with the heat of the Sun and spreads it self or because it contracts it self with being cold and attracts from elsewhere to fill up the spaces or because a cloud scattered or falling downward or else blasts somewhere breaking out of the earth compresse the air and make it diffuse or lastly because one part of the air being moved drives others before it for here you must remember what was said before 1 that a drop of water turned into air requires an hundred times more space 2 that the air is a very liquid and moveable element and therefore being but lightly pushed gives back a long way but yet it is plain that all those motions of the air take their first rise from vapours Now because the world is a great globe it affordeth great store of blasts also both the heat of the sun above and the parching of the fire under ground begetting various vapours Hence it is understood why after a great fire there arises a wind presently even in the still air namely because much solid matter wood and stone c. is resolved into vapours and the air round about is attenuated by the heat of the fire that it must of necessity spread it self and seek a larger room XIII Winds in some countreys are certain comming at a certain time of the year and from a certain coast others are free comming from any place Note they call these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much to say as annuall which are caused either by the mountainousnesse of the tract neer adjoyning wherein the snows are then dissolved or to be sure some other causes by reason of which vapours are then progenerated there in great abundance But you must note that those etesian winds are for the most part weak and gentle and yield to the free winds Note 2 There is also another kind of set wind common to the whole world namely a perpetuall fluxe of the whole air from the east to the west For that there is such a wind 1 they that sail about the aequator testifie 2 in the seas of Europe when a particular wind ceaseth they say also that a certain gentle gale is perceived from the east 3 and therefore Marriners are constantly of opinion that the navigation from east to west is speediliest performed 4 lastly with us in a clear and still skie the highest clouds are seene for the most part to be carried from East to West therefore wee need not doubt of this generall wind if so be any one will call it a wind For it proceeds not from exhalations but from the heaven which by its wheeling round carries the air perpetually about swiftly above here nigh the earth where the clouds are almost insensibly yet under the aequator as being in a greater Circle very notably Whence this Probleme may be profitably noted why the East wind dries but the West moistens namely because that being carried along with the air attenuates it the more but this striving against the air condenseth it XIV A gentle wind is called aura a gale a vehement wind overthrowing all it meets with procella a tempest if winded into it self turbo a whirlewind It is plain that sundry vvinds may arise in sundry places together according as matter of exhalations is afforded here and there and occasion to turn it self hither or thither Therefore if they flovv both one vvay the wind doubled is the stronger if sideways or obliquely the stronger carries away the weaker with it and there is a change of the wind which we see done often yea daily but when they come opposite to one another and fall one against another they make a storme or tempest vvhich is a fight of the vvinds till the strongest overcome and is carried vvith a horrible violence bearing dovvn all before it But contrary vvinds of aequall strength make a vvhirlvvind vvhen neither vvill give sidevvay but both vvhirl upvvards vvith a violent gyration Of the sea-tide XV The sea-tide is the daily fluxe of the sea to the shore and refluxe back again The sea hath its fluxes lesse unconstant then the air for it flows onely to the shores and back again the same vvay and tvvice a a day it flowes up and twice it ebbs again The end thereof vvithout doubt is to keepe the vvaters of the Sea from putrefying by that continuall motion But the efficient cause thereof heretofore accounted amongst the secrets of nature comes novv to be searched out of the truest grounds of naturall Philosophy and more accurate observations XVI The cause of the sea-tide are vapours within wherewith the sea swelling diffuseth it self and falling settles down again For this tide is like to the boiling of vvater seething at the fire vvhich is nothing but the stirring of the vapours raised in the vvaters by the force of the heat For it is impossible that the vvater should not be resolved into vapours by the heat impossible that the vapours should not seek a passage upvvards to their connaturals yet impossible that they should have an easie passage out of the vvater being that the superficies of the vvater yea the vvhole masse thereof being a diffused liquor like liquid glasse hath fewer pores than the earth or wood or a stone therefore it is impossible that the water should not swel rise up dash it self against the sides of the kettle and at length break in a thousand openings and give the heat dancing evapourating a passage out by reason of the vapour raised multiplied vvithin and striving upvvard all vvhich vve see in a boiling pot â—n the same manner the sea svvels by reason of the vapour that is multiplyed in the bottome of its gulfes and lifts up it self into a tumour of necessity spreads it self to the
side neither doth it make any thing against this that the vvater of the sea boiling is not so hot as the water of a boiling pot For here the vast quantity doth not admit of so great heat over such deep gulfes For the water of a kettle heats at the bottome bu the superficies begin to swell and turn about before they heat XVII Vapours within the sea are chiefly generated by by the fire under ground They referre it commonly to the caelestiall fire the Sun and the Moon But that is likely to be as true as that we see a pot of water to boile set in the sun though never so hot For who ever saw that the Sun may lick the superficies of the water and so consume it by little and little and turn it into vapour but nothing can make it boil at the bottome but fire put under it Therefore the cause of the vapours within the sea must of necessity be placed underneath namely that fire under ground which the whole nature of inferiour things demonstrate to be shut up there XVIII The vapours and tides of the sea are provoked by the heat of heaven the Sun A labouring man or a traveller sweats easily enough by his inward heat stirred up by the motion of his body but a great deal more easily in the heat of Summer then in Winter and all of us sooner in a bath then else-where the outward heat provoking the inward In like manner the sea vapours and boiles vvithin but yet after the harmony of the superiour fire which is from the stars Which harmony is seen also in yielding us vvater from the clouds and fountains For in rainy vveather fountains flow more abundantly in dry vveather they dry something both which God intimated Gen. 7. v. 11. and Deut. 28. v. 23. Now the cause is the harmony of fire to fire of the caelestiall to the subterraneous c. as it shall elsewhere appear XIX The Sea flowes twice a day according as the Sun comes and goes For the Sun ascending to the Meridian attracts the vapours of the sea and causes the waters to be elevated and diffused descending to the West it suffers them to fall again Now that the waters swell again at the Sun setting and fall as he hastens to the East the cause is the same which in boyling pots where the hot water is seen to boile and to be elevated not only in that part which is toward the fire but also on the contrary but to fall again on the sides both wayes So the Sea is a caldron which the Sun the worlds fire encompassing makes to swell up on both the opposite parts but to fall in the intermediate parts so that this sea-tide following the Sun goes circularly after a perpetuall law XX The fluxe and refluxe of the sea is varied according to the motion of the Sun and Moon and the site of places For 1 in Winter it is almost insensible the Sun but weakly raising the subterrane vapours 2 When the Moon is in conjunction or opposition to the Sun the seas swell extraordinarily the force of both luminaries being joyned together to affect the inferiour things either joyntly or else oppositely Also the Moon encreasing the flowings are something retarded decreasing they are anticipated which gave occasion to the ancients to think that it was caused by the Moon alone 3 Those sea fluxes and refluxes vary also according to the divers turnings and windings of Countries and Promontories and the shorter or longer coherence of inlets with the Ocean which causeth them to be perceived in some places sooner in others later But enough of the sea tide the earthquake followes XXI An earthquake is the shaking of the superficies of the earth in any countrey arising from subterrane exhalations gathered together in great abundance and seeking a passage out Therefore it ceaseth not till the said exhalations are either scattered through the cavities of the earth or else break forth XXII Earthquakes are sometimes so horrible that they subvert Cities Mountaines Islands with an hideous bellowing howling and crashing Which formidable effects cause us to suspect that those vapours are then mixt like to those by which thunders are caused in a cloud and that not simply by the blast of the exhalations but by their burning so that they are a kinde of subterrane lightnings yet I thought good to make mention of it here together CHAP. VIII Of concrete substances namely Stars Meteors and Minerals I A Concrete thing is a vapour coagulated endued with some form For example soot clouds snow c. Note that this name of concrete and concreture is new yet fit to expresse this degree of creatures which confers nothing but coagulation and figure II The primary cause of concretion of vapours is cold which wheresoever it findeth a vapour condenseth and coagulateth it That appears in Alembicks where the vapour raised by heat and carried into the highest region of it where it is cold resolves it selfe again into water and to that end Distillours now and then wash the uppermost cap of the Alembick with cold water and make the pipes through which the concrete liquour distils to passe through a vessell of water Yet heat helps the concretion of things consuming the thinner part of the concrete and compelling the rest to harden which we see done in the generation of metals III Some concretes are Aethereall others aereall others watery others earthly Namely because some are made in the skie as stars others in the air as clouds c. others in water as a bubble c. others in the earth as stones c. every one of which come to be considered apart IV Aethereal concretes are stars and comets V Stars are fiery globes full of light and heat with which the skie glitters on every side Both the ornament of the world required this that hanging lamps should not be wanting in so lofty a palace as also the necessity of the inferiour world concerning which is the following Aphorisme Now we reckon stars in the rank of concretes because it is certain that they are made of matter and light Stars were produced in so great number upon very great necessity Namely 1 To heat the earth with a various temperature 2 To make the various harmony of times 3 To inspire a various form into the creatures For so great variety could not be induced into the lower world without such variety in coelestiall things VII God placed the greatest number of stars in the highest heaven round about that they might irradiate the earth on every side and carry about their sphear with a rapid motion of heat On which starry sphear take these following Aphorismes 1 That the motion of this sphear is finished in the space of twenty four hours 2 And because that motion is circular it is said to be made upon two hinges or immoveable points in Greek poles of vvhich the one is called the Northern or Artick pole the other the
Southern or Antartick Betwixt these two poles the heaven is turned vvith its exact globosity describing a circle in the midst betwixt the two poles vvhich they call the Aequator Now that tract vvhere the stars arise above the earth is called the East or the Sun-rising the opposite to it vvhere they set is called the West or Sun-setting and these four angles of the World are called the four quarters of the World and the four Cardinal Points 3 That the stars of the highest sphear commonly called the fixed stars are globes of vvondrous greatnesse in themselves the greatest of them exceeding the globe of the earth an hundred and seven times and the least of them exceeding the same globe eighteen times 4 That the numerable stars are found by us one thousand tvventy tvvo but God knovves the number of the innumerable For the Galaxias or milky way it is the whitest tract of heaven is found by accurate perspectives to be a company of very smaâ— stars and there are some other like tracts observed in heaven though lesse and of these the vvords of God Gen. 15. v. 5. are to be understood 5 That the visible stars reduced into certain figures vvhich they call coelestiall signs in number 69 12 vvhereof about the Aequator are by a peculiar name called the Zodiaque But this Zodiaque declines with one half of it toward the North with the other part towards the south the signes are comprehended in this distick 1 2 3 4 5 Sunt Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo 6 Virgo 7 8 9 10 11 Libraque Scorpius Arcitenens Caper Hydria 12 Pisces 1 2 3 The Ram the Bull and Twins to th' Spring belong 4 6 5 To Summer Crab and Maid and Lion strong 7 8 9 Autumne hath Scales and Scorpion the Bow 10 11 12 Goat Water-tanckard Fishes Winter show 6 That the distance of this starry sphear from the earth is found above two hundred thousand semidiameters of the earth and a semidiameter of the earth contains 3600 of our miles VIII A very great portion of most ardent light is conglobated in the sun so that it may seem the onely fountain of light and heat For were it not for the sun we should have perpetuall night for all the rest of the stars forasmuch as at high noon we are in darkenesse presently if the sun be but covered Now touching the sun these following Axiomes are to be noted 1 That it was made so great as might suffice both to illustrate the whole world and to heat and vaporate the whole earth that is 160 times greater than the earth 2 That it is such a distance elevated from the earth as might serve so as neither to burn it nor leave it destitute Psal. 19. v. 7 for it is placed almost in the middle space betwixt the starry sphear and the earth 3 That it is carried with a flower motion then the stars in their highest sphear For whereas it seems to be turned about equally as the starrie sphear is yet it is every day left behind almost a degree of which the whole circuit of the sphear hath 360 whence it comes to passe that in 365 dayes it compasseth the whole spear as it were going back and after so many dayes returns to the same star again And this we call the time of an year or a solar year 4 And that it may serve all sides of the earth with its light and heat to wit by turns that retardation is not made simply though the middest of the world under the Aequator But under the Zodiack bending to the North on this side to the South on that side Whence comes the division of the year into four parts Spring Summer Autumn and Winter and the inequality of dayes to those that inhabite without the equinoctiall For when it declines to those on the North it makes summer with them and the longest days and so on the contrary And by how much it is the more verticall to any part of the earth it heats it so much the more by reason of the direct incidence and repercussion of the rayes IX And because it was not convenient that the sunne and stars should always operate after one and the same manner for variety is both pleasing and profitable to all nature there were six other wandring starres added over and besides which running under the same Zodiaque and by certain turns entring into conjunction one with another and with the sunne might variously temper his operation upon inferiour things These wandring starres are called Planets of which there are seven reckoning the sun for one X The Planets therefore are the suns coadjutors in governing the world which differ in site course magnitude and light XI Three of the Planets Saturn ♄ Jupiter ♃ Mars ♂ are above the sun Venus ♀ Mercury ☿ and the Moon ☽ below so in a most decent manner as it were compassing about the sides of their King It is probable that the stars are carried higher or lower in heaveÌ„ for the same reason as clouds in the air or wood in water that is according to their different degrees of density or rarity For as thick wood swims under the water either with all or with half of its body covered but light wood swims on the top and watry clouds ascend not far from the earth but dry and barren clouds very high so the globes of the stars are carried some higher than others according to the thicknesse of their matter and light XII The upper Planeâ—s are bigger then the earth but the lower are lesser For it is found that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth equall 91 Globes of the earth ♄ 95 ♃ 2 ♂ 160 ☉ doth coÌ„tein the 28 part of the earth ♀ 105 ☿ 39 XIII By how much the higher any Planet is and neerer to the highest sphear so much the swifter it moveth by how much the lower and neerer to the earth so much the flower For Saturn because he is next to the eighth sphear is rolled about almost equally with it yet he also fals back by little and little so that he runs through the Zodiaque moving backward in the space of almost thirty years Jupiter in twelve years Mars in almost two the Sun as was said in a year Venus encompasseth the Sun in five hundred eighty three dayes Mercury in one hundred and fifteen dayes the Moon because she is slowest of all remaining behind every day 13 deg measures the Zodiaque in 27â…“ dayes XIV The higher Planets do so observe the sun that approaching nigh unto him they betake themselves into the highest place going from the sunne they sinke lower towards the earth And for this cause both their magnitude and their motion vary in our eyes for when they are neerer to the earth they seem greater but more remote lesser Again the higher they are the slower they move and then they are called direct the lower they descend the swifter so that they seem either stationary
referred rather to the following chapter LXIV The virtue which is in minerals is called their naturall spirit of which there are so many formes as there are species of minerals For there is one spirit of salt another of vitrioll loadstone and iron c. which distillers know how to extract CHAP. IX Of Plants THus much of Concretes here follow Plants which beside their figure have life 1 A plant is a vitall concrete growing out of the earth as a tree and an herb Some concretes stars meteors minerals want life and lie or tarry where they were concrete but plants endued with an inward vigour break out of the earth and spread themselves in plano whence also they were called plants II Plants are generated both to be an ornament to the earth and to yield nourishment medicine and other uses to living creatures For what a sad face the earth would have if it were not cloathed every year with those diverse coloured tapistries of herbs we have sufficient experience in Winter and whence should living creatures have food medicines and pleasures if we were destitute of the roots leaves seeds and fruits of plants not to speak of the commodity of shade and of the infinite uses of wood III The essentiall parts of a plant are the root the trunk or stalk and the branches or leaves N. W. The Elements vapours concrete things consisted only of similar parts for every part and particle of water earth vapour a cloud iron c. is called and is water earth vapour a cloud iron c. But more perfect bodies of plants and living creatures do consist of dissimular parts that is members every one of which hath both its office and its name differing from the rest For example In a plant the root is the part sticking in the ground and sucking in the juice of the earth the truk or stalks attracting the juice concocting it and sending it to the upper parts the boughes and branches are twigs distributing the juice yet better concocted to make seed and fruit the leaves are the coverings of the fruits and boughes IV The Spirit of a plant is called a vegetable or vitall spirit which puts forth its virtue three manner of wayes in nutrition augmentation and generation For here that universall spirit the spirit of life begins more manifestly to put forth its virtue preparing a portion of matter so softly to its turn that it may have it tractable to perform the offices of life and is therefore called vitall in plants namely because of its more manifest tokens and effects of life They call it also the vegetative soul V Nutrition is an inbred virtue in a plant whereby sucking in juice fit for it changeth it into its own substance For because the encompassing air dries up every body and the heat included in a living body doth also feed upon the inward moisture it were impossible that a plant should not presently fade away unlesse new matter and vigour were continually supplyed with fresh nourishment to make up that which is lost and to this end every plant hath a body either hollow or else pithy and porous that the nourishing vapour may passe through and irrigate all the parts yea whatsoever is in a plant even the very haire or downe is hollow and porous Therefore in a man the head is eased when the haire is cut because the fuliginous vapours of the braine or the superfluities under the skin do the more easily evaporate For the same cause every plant rests upon its root that sucking the moisture of the earth through the strings thereof it may be nourished therefore it perisheth when it is pluckt up the humour then or fat juice of the earth is a fit nourishment for plants not dry earth because it cannot passe through the strings and pores of a plant nor water alone because it cannot be concrete into a solid body Therefore the moisture of the earth which is a mixture of Mercury sulphur and salt nourisheth plants VI Augmentation is a virtue of a plant whereby it increaseth also by nourishing it self which we call by a common terme growing It is pleasant to contemplate what it is to grow and how it is done Now it is easily found out by the doctrine of motions already delivered For first when the spirit included in the seed begins to diffuse it self and to swell by reason of the heat that is raised the thin shell of the seed must of necessity break by the motion of cession and because every body is moved towards a greater company of its connaturals that vapour comming forth when the seed is warmed tends towards heaven but because the matter of the seed is fat and glutinous the vapour being infolded therein carries it upwards with it and brings it forth out of the earth and this is the originall of the stump and boughs now because that the outside of the plant hindereth the vapours ascending there is a strife and heat is raised whereby the superficies of the small body is by little and little mollified that it may yield and rise up and this is done every day when the Sun is hot but the tender parts which grow up are condensed and made solid with the cold of the night by which successions of day and night the plants take increase all spring and summer long Now look how much moisture is every day elevated upward by the stump so much again succeeds it by the motion of continuitie least there should be a vacuum but because every body loves an aquilibrium and plants own their center in the joynt of the stump and root it comes to passe by the motion of libration that as much as the boughs spread themselves upwards so much the roots spread downwards or side-wayes Now there is a question why when a leafe or a bough is pluckt off yea when the stock is cut asunder the spirit doth not exhalâ— but containes it self und growes stills Answer 1 Because the spirit hath its proper seat fixed in the root which it doth not forsake though a passage be open through a wound received nay more fearing discontinuity it gathers and conglobates it self when it perceives an opening and danger of dissipation 2 Because the wound is presently overspread with the moisture of the plant which being hardened with the outward cold covers the wound as it were with a crust and prohibits a total expiration VII Generation is a virtue of a plant whereby it gathers together and conglobates its spirit into a certain place of it and makes a seed or kernell from which the like plant may afterwards grow The spirit of the plant foreseeing as it were that it shall not always have matter at command which it may vegetate turns but a part of it self into the nourishment of the plant and gathers together the rest into a certain place usually in the tops of plants and makes a seed or kernell Now the seed kernell or graine is nothing
contracted of necessity and the tendon followes the muscle contracting it self and drawes with it the head of the next bone by the motion of continuity all with inexplicable quicknesse 5. It appears also that this local motion either of the whole living creature or of some member is made about something immoveable with various enforcings 6. And because it is with enforcing it cannot be without wearinesse 7. And because it is vvith vvearinesse there is sometimes needs of rest vvhich is given in three kinds 1 Standing 2 Sitting 3. Lying Standing is a resting of the feet but with an inclination of the body to motion therefore it is done by libration Sitting is rest in the middest of the body whereby the other parts are the more easily preserved in Aequilibrio Lying is a total rest That is a prostrating of the body all along But as too much motion brings wearinesse so too much rest causeth tediousnesse because the spirit loves to stir it self And the same position of the members a long while together by rest is alike troublesome both for that the lower members are pressed with the vveight of the upper and also for that the spirit desires to move it self any way Hence it is in that vve turne us oft in our sleep Of the enuntiative faculty That a living creature might give knowledge of it self by a voice the animal spirit doth that at the direction of the phantasie but it hath these Organs the Lungs the rough Arterie and the Mouth LVII To every living creature fishes excepted there was given lungs to coole the heart with a gristly pipe called the rough arteterie Which notwithstanding serves withall to send forth a voice because that in the upper part of it it hath the forme of a pipe wherewith the aire being stricken may be divided and sent sounding forth LVIII And that the voice might be both raised and let fall that pipe is composed of gristly rings the lowest of which if it oppose it self to the aire as it passeth by there is a deep repercussion that is a grave voice but if the highest there is an high repercussion that is a shrill voice every one may make triall of that in himself LIX And that the sound may be articulate as in speech and the singing of some birds that the tongue beating the sound too and fro also the lips the teeth and nostrils and the throat performe Of the defensive faculty LX. The animall spirit if it perceive any hostile thing approach unto it hath presently recourse to its weapons whereby either to defend it self setting up its haires bristles scales prickles or to offend and hurt its enemies using its hornes nailes wings beak hands c. Which by vertue of what strength it is done may already be known out of what hath been said before Of the generative faculty Seeing that living creatures as well as plants are mortal entities they must of necessitie be multiplied for the conservation of their species touching which marke the Axiomes following LXI Because that the generation of living creatures by reason of the multitude and tendernesse of their members could not commodiously be performed in the bowels of the earth they had a different sex given them And it was ordained that the new living creature should be formed in the very body of the living creature it self As the sun by its heat doth beget plants in the wombe of the earth so it may also those living things whose formation is finished with in some few dayes as wormes mice and diverse insects which is done either by the seed of the same living creatures falling into an apt matter scattered or by the spirit of the universe falling into an apt matter But more perfect living creatures which consist of many and solide members and want much time for their formation as a man an horse an elephant it cannot beget For being that the Sun cannot stay so long in the same coast of heaven the young one would be spoiled before it could come to perfection I herefore the most wise Creatour of things appointed the place of formation to be not in the earth but in the living creature it self having formed two sexes that one might do the part of the plant bearing the seed the other of the earth cherishing and as it were hatching the seed This alone and none other is the end of different sexes in all living creatures Wo be to the rashnesse and madness of men which abuse them as no beast doth The members whereby the sexes differ are the same in number site and form and differ in nothing almost unless it be in regard of exterius and interius to wit the greater force of heat in the male thrusting the genitals outward but in the female by reason of the weaker heat the said members conteining themselves within which Anatomists know LXII The spirit is the directour of all generation like as in plants which being heated in the seed first formes it selfe a place of abode that is the brains and head and thence making excursions formes the rest of the members by little and little and gently and again retiring to its seat rests and operates by turns whence the original of waking and fleeping Therefore the formation of a living creature doth not begin from the heart as Aristotle thought but from the head for the head is as it were the whole living creature the rest of the body is nothing but a structure of organs for divers operations And that appears plain for some living creatures as fishes have no heart but none are without a head and brains Of the kinds of living creatures Thus much of a living creature in generall the kinds follow LXIII A living creature according to the difference of its motion is 1 Reptile 2 Gressile 3 Natatile 4 Volatile LXIV Reptile or a creeping thing is a living creature with a long body wanting feet yet compunded of joynts or gristly rings by the contraction and extension of which it windes up and reacheth out it selfe as are wormes and serpents LXV Gressile is that which hath feet two or more and goeth as a lizard a mouse a dog c. LXVI Natatile is that which passeth through the water by the help of finnes it is called a fish amongst which crabs also and divers sea-monsters are reckoned LXVII Volatile is that which moves it selfe through the air by the shaking of its wings and is called a bird The lightnesse of birds to flie is from their plumosity For every plume or feather not only in the stalk but through all its parts and particles of its parts is hollow and full of spirit and vapour And for this cause no birds pisse because all their moisture perpetually evaporates into feathers It is impossible therefore for a man to flie though he fit himselfe with wings because he wants feathers to raise him and those which he takes to him are dead and void of heat and spirit LXVIII Small living
the Reins Venus the Lungs Mercury c. Lastly certain creatures shew forth their virtues in certaine parts of the body For example some herbs cure the Lungs some the Liver c. which shews a certain analogy of the Microcosme to the Macrocosme though not well known to us XXII Also Man is not absurdly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the all because 1 He hath his body from the Elements his spirit from Heaven his mind from God and so in himselfe alone he represents the visible and the invisible world 2 Man is all because he is apt to be all that is either most excellent or very base For if he give himselfe to earthly things he becomes brutish and falls back again to nothing if to heavenly things he is in a manner deified and gets above all creatures CHAP. XII Of Angels WE joyn the treatise concerning Angels with the Physicks because they also are a part of the created World and in the scale of creatures next to man by whose nature the nature of Angels is the easier to be explained Therefore we will conclude it in some few Aphorismes I There are Angels Divine testimonies and apparitions testifiè that and also a three-fold reason 1 Vapours concretes plants living creatures are mixt of water and spirit Now there is matter without spirit the pure Element therefore there is spirit also without matter 2 As the matter of the world is divided into four kinds the four Elements so we see already the spirit of the world to be distinguished into the naturall vitall animall and mentall spirit Now the lowest degree is to be found alone as in concretes Therefore the highest may be found alone to wit in the Angels 3 Every creature is compounded of Entitie and Nihility For they were nothing before the creation but now they are something because the Cretour hath bestowed on them of his Entitie more or lesse by degrees By how much the more entitie any thing hath so much the further it is from nihility and on the contrary Seeing then then that there is the first degree from nihility that is a Chaos the rudiment of an Entitie without doubt there is the last also which comes nearest to a pure Entitie But man is not such because having matter admixt he partakes much of nihility Therefore of necessity there is a creature with which materiality being taken away all other perfections remain And that is an Angell II An Angell is an incorporeall man An Angell may be called a man in the same sense that man himselfe is called an animall and an animall a plant and a plant a concrete c. as we have set down in their definitions that is by reason of the forme of the precedent included with a new perfection only super-added For a man is a rationall creature made after the Image of God immortall so is an Angel but for more perfections sake free from a body Therefore an Angel is nothing but a man without a body A man is nothing but an Angel clothed with a body But that Angels are incorporous appears 1 Because although they be present they are not discerned neither by the sight or any other sense 2 Because they assume to themselves earthly watery aery fiery or mixt bodies as need requires and put them off again which they could not do if they had bodies of their own as we have Yet ordinarily they appear in an humane forme by reason of the likenesse of their natures as we have said III Angels were created before all visible things That was shewed in the Apendix of the first Chapter you may see it again if need be And Moses words are clear In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was void See the earth was in that first production emptie and void Therefore heaven was not void then it was filled with its host the Angels IV The Angels were created out of the Spirit of the world As Moses seems to comprehend the production of Angels under the name of Heaven so also the universall Spirit For he â—oth not say that this was created with the earth but he pronounceth abruptly after the creation of the earth that the Spirit of God moved it selfe upon the waters intimating thus much that it was in being before We conclude therefore that the Angels were formed out of that Spirit so that part of that spirit was left in the invisible heaven and shaped into meer spirituall substances Angels and part sent down into the materiall world below After the same manner as the fire was afterward partly left in the Skie and fashioned into shining Globes and partly sunk into the bowels of the earth for the working of minerals and other uses That which follows makes this opinion probable if not demonstrable 1 Principles should not be multiplied without cause Seeing therefore that the Scripture doth not say that they were created out of nothing nor yet names any other principle why should we not be satisfied with those principles that Moses hath set down 2 Angels govern the bodies which they assume like as our spirit inhabiting the matter doth Therefore they are like to it 3 There is in Angels a sense of things as well as in our spirits For they see hear touch c. though they themselves be invisible and intangible Also they have a sense of pleasure and griefe for as much as joyes are said to be prepared for the Angels and fire for the divells into which wicked men are also to be cast Although therefore they perceive without Organs yet we must needs hold that they are not unlike to our spirit which perceiveth by organs V The Angels were created perfect That is finished in the same moment so that nothing is added to their essence by adventitious encrease For being that they are immateriall they are also free from the law of materiality that is when a thing tends to perfection to be condensed fixed to encrease and so to be augmented and become solid by certain accessions VI Angels are not begotten Men Animals and Plants are generated because the spirit included in the matter diffuseth it selfe with the matter and essayes to make new Entities But an Angel being that it is without matter and its essence cannot be dissipated hath not whether to transfuse it selfe Hence Christ saith that in Heaven we shall be as the Angels without generation or desire of generation Mat. 22. 30. VII Angels die not The spirit of Animals and of Plants perisheth because when the matter that is its chariot is dissipated it also is dissipated But an Angell having his essence compacted by it selfe without matter cannot be dissipated and therefore endures VIII The number of Angels is in a manner infinite See Job 25. v. 2 3. yet Daniel names thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads Dan. 7. 10. as also John Apoc. 5. 11. IX The habitation of the Angels is the Heaven of Heavens Mat. 18. v.
10. and 6. v. 10. Therefore they are called the Angels of Heaven Gal. 1. v. 8. and the Host of Heaven 1 King 22. v. 19. for it was meet that as the earth sea air and skie have their inhabitants so also that the Heaven of Heavens should not be left empty Yet they are sent forth from thence for these following Ministeries X God created the Angels that they might be 1 The delight of their Creatour 2 The supream spectatours of his glory 3 His assistent Ministers in governing the World The Scripture teacheth this every where but they also point at names given them The first appellation of Angels is in Gen. 3. v. 24. Cherubim that is Images wherein is intimated that they were made after the image of God as well as men But note what it is to be made after the image of God The essentiall image of God or the character of his substance is the Son his eternall Wisdome Heb. 1. v. 3. after the likenesse of him therefore men and Angels are said to be created that is made understanding creatures in which respect also they are called the Sons of God Job 1. v. 2. seeing then that an Image delights him whose Image it is it is intimated that God made the Angels primarily for himselfe that he might have some who being cohabitants with him might behold his glorious Majesty face to face and be partakers of eternall beatitude Now the most common name of Angels in the Old Testament is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Malachim that is Embassadours in the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is messengers because God created these to be rulers and governours of the World For whensoever the course of nature is to be hindered or any thing is to be wrought beyond the ordinary order of nature God useth their assistence For example When the fire was to be cooled that it should not burn Dan. 3. v. 25 28. Or the mouthes of lions to be stopped that they should not tear Daniel Dan. 6. v. 22. Or the enterprises of the wicked to be hindered Numb 22. v. 22. Or any to be killed by a sudden death Exod. 12. v. 23. and 1 Chron. 22. v. 15. and 2 Chron. 32. v. 21. and Acts 12. v. 23. Or the godly to be delivered from danger Gen. 19. v. 1. Or travellers to be guided in their way Psal. 91. v. 11. Or to be preserved in any chance lest they should be dangerously hurt Psal. 91. 12. Or to be warned any thing in a dream or otherwise Mat. 1. 20. c. Hence they are thought also to be added to certain persons peculiarly Heb. 1. 1◠Mat. 18. 10. Acts 12. 15. that they may accompany them every where Psal. 91. 11. and be witnesses of all our actions 1 Cor. 11. 9. 1 Tim. 5. 21. but especially that they are sent to defend Kings and Kingdoms Dan. 10. 12. c. Hence also they are called watchers or keepers Dan. 4. 10. 20. XI Angels can act upon bodies but they cannot suffer from bodies Both these appear by the effect For Angels bear about move and governe the bodies which they assume but those that are separated they overthrow stay and move from place to place with externall violence at their pleasure yet they themselves in the mean time can be hindred or stayed by no body XII The powerr of Angels exceeds the strength of any corporall creature For it operates 1 without resistance of the objects by penetrating 2 without endeavour or enforcing being that they are not deteined or hindred by their own body as our spirit is which being tied to the body must of necessity draw it along with it laboriously as the snail doth her shell Hence the Angels are called Mighty in power Psal. 103. 20. and Powers Principalities Dominions Col. 1. 16. XIII The agility of the Angels is greater then of any corporeall substance Hence they are compared to Wind and to Fire and to Lightning Psal. 104. 4. Ezech. 1. 13. Luke 10. 18. and they are called Seraphim that is flamy Isai. 6. 2. yet it is certain that they move swifter then wind or lightning when they passe any whither For the wind and lightning penetrate the air not without resistance but an Angell being a meer spirit doth it without any resistance It appears then that though an Angell be not in many places at once Dan. 10. 13. 20. yet they can in a moment passe themselves whither they will Hence it is that one Angell was able to slay a whole army in a night and also to smite the first born of the Aegyptians throughout all the Kingdom Isai. 37. 36. Exod. 12. 23. and 2 Sam. 24. 6. XIV The knowledge of Angels is far more sublime then mans And that 1 because of the clearnesse of their understanding which nothing obumbrates 2 by reason of their power to penetrate any whither and see things plainly 3 because of their long experience for so many ages Whereas we are but of yesterday Job 8. 9. and yet they are not omniscious For they know not the decrees of God before they be revealed 2 future contingents 3 the thoughts of mans heart Jer. 17. 9. 10. that is so long as they are concealed in the heart For when they are discovered by gestures effects they discern them For if we by the effects are not altogether ignorant of their thoughts 2 Cor. 2. 11. wherefore should not they be a thousand times more quick sighted upon us N. W. How that part of the Angels falling into evill exercise perpetuall hostility with mankind and God makes use of them to be as it were executioners to wicked men but hereafter he will condemne them both in like manner as good men are to enjoy the association of good Angels and lastly how the frauds of those are to be avoided but the presence of these to be procured to teaach that belongs to sacred Divinity THE EPILOUGE THus we have seen that the created World is a meer harmony All things by one all things to one the highest and the lowest the first and the last most straightly cleaving together being concatenated by the intermediate things and perpetuall ties and mutuall actions and passions inevitable so that the world being made up of a thousand thousand parts and particles of parts is neverthelesse one and undivided in it selfe even as God the Creatour thereof is one from eternity to eternity nor ever was there is there or shall there be any other God Isai. 43. 10. c. And we have seen that all these visible things are made out of three principles Matter Spirit and Light because he who is the beginning and the end of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that thrice blessed and omnipotent God three in one is he of whom and through whom and in whom are all things Rom. 11. 36. We have seen also that admirable scale of creatures arising out of the principles and ascending by