the Parts of Nature reduceable to two Heads or Principles an Active Vital or Formal one and a Passive or Material This I conceive Moses intended when he tells us that in the Beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth which things are expressed in the very same words by the Chaldeans Assyrians and Greeks as I have hinted before Thales who was one of the first amongst the Grecians as Laertius Strabo Cicero and Plutarch affirm that made enquiry into Natural Causes conceived Water to be the Material Principle of all living Creatures because all Seed is humid and Plants and Animals are nourish'd by it This he had from a more ancient Nation the Phoenicians by whom Orpheus was likewise instructed To this Material Principle Anaxagoras is said to be the first that added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind by which I conceive he meant the Formal Hence Virgil calls the Universal Form the Mind Totamque insusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno si corpore miscet 'A Mind infus'd through this World 's every part Does move the whole Machine with wondrous Art But Homer and Hesiod both gave an account of these two Principles long before Various afterwards were the Opinions of the Philosophers about Principles Pherecydes the Assyrian asserted Earth to be the Principle of all things Anaximenes Air Hippasus Fire Xenophanes Earth and Water Parmenides Fire and Earth Enopides Fire and Air Democritus and Epicurus Atoms Empedocles Plato and Aristotle c. to these Principles added four Elements being the visible Matter as they conceived of which all Bodies did subsist And this the School-men following them have hitherto maintained and it is now the Doctrine of the World The Chymists hold Three Principles at this day these Principles and Elements I now intend to examine And first for the Three Principles I know it is no less a crime than Heresie in the Communion of Chymists to deny any of their three beloved Principles their Salt Sulphur and Mercury but being not of their Church I need not fear their Censure I do admit Salt in some sence to be one of their Principles but I do deny Sulphur and Mercury to be several for their best Authors affirm Mercury to be only crude Sulphur and Sulphur ripe Mercury they differ therefore not in specie but in degree of Digestion The Ancients saith Eirenaeus the Great thought them all one and though Paracelsus has invented a Liquor by means whereof he taught the way of separating the Sulphur in the form of a tincted Metallick Oil yet I conceive this is nothing but an extraction of the riper and more digested part of the Mercury This will appear more evident by considering the Matter of Metals which I will deliver in the sence of Eirenaeus the Great having translated him but not having the Original in Latin by me That Mercury saith he which is generated in the veins of the Earth and all Metals arise from the same Matter is the universal material Mother of all things cloathed with a Metallick Species which may be easily proved because Mercury is accommodated to them all and by Art may be conjoyned which would be impossible unless they did partake of the same Nature Mercury saith he is Water yet such as will mix with nothing that is not of its own Identity whereas therefore it drinks up all Metals by its moisture it follows they have all a Correspondency of Matter with it Again Mercury by the help of Art assisting Nature may be successively digested with all the Metals And this same Mercury retaining the same Colour and Form of flowing will assume the true Nature of them and by succession exert their true Properties which would be impossible to be done by Art did not Nature shew us the possibility by their Correspondency of Matter Besides all Metals and Minerals too that are of Metallick Principles may be reduced into a current Mercury Hence I conceive 't is evident that current Mercury is the nighest though not the first Matter of Metals which Mercury hath a Salt included in it and becomes a more or less ripe Metal according to the purity or impurity of its Matrix What need then can there be of Sulphur as a distinct Principle But they that contend that these three Salt Sulphur and Mercury are the constituent Principles of a Metallick Body ought to shew that Nature produces these three simple Substances and then unites them in the composition of a Metal But who ever yet saw a Specifick Metalline Salt void of Mercury and Sulphur Or simple Mercury without Salt or a Metalline Sulphur by it self The Truth is in a strict sence there are no other Principles but the moist vapor impregnated with vital heat for these two alone constitute all Bodies As for the Salts I mentioned in the generation of Plants and Metals I conceive them to be only a congelation of a former Vapor differenced in Metals by a long circulation in the Alembick of the Earth and in Plants by a speedy resolution near the Superficies Now this Homogeneity of Salts in two such different Bodies will not appear strange to them who consider the vast Alteration Heat makes on Bodies by time in different Vessels thus common gross Water in an open Vessel by a gentle heat is soon evaporated and rarefied into Air whilst Dew a much purer Substance by the same heat circulated in a close Vessel by length of time is condensed into Earth But are not the Principles of Bodies known by their Resolution and may not Metals be reduced into three distinct Principles If the various Figures into which the Fire is able to divide Bodies must be called Principles Monsieur L'Emery assigns no less than five but he honestly confesseth that this is effected by the alteration the Fire makes on Bodies not by a natural Analysis into their first Principles But does not the Great Stagyrite hold three Principles Matter Form and Privation By Privation he doth not mean a Principle in a strict sence i. e. an Essence constituting a Body or part of such but with respect to the previous Matter of each Body before it is specificated which he calls the Terminus à quo as when determined the Terminus ad quem But if it must be a Principle let it be of Death not of Life For how can that be a Principle of Life that is a separation of Soul and Body If instead of Privation he had called it Putrefaction that might well enough have passed for a Principle or something like it since Putrefaction is the Gate to Life I think therefore the Two Principles of the Ancients Matter and Form stand firm notwithstanding Aristotle or the Chymists But if there are four Elements that constitute Bodies according to the general Doctrine they I must confess will overthrow the Two Principles of Matter Form unless these Principles being first the Elements afterwards are made out of them
as Plutarch will have it and then 't will be disputing only about Words But we 'll consider this Elements seem to be but modern in respect of the Ancients Moses speaks only of the Spirit and the Abyss and so for what I perceive it continued even to the Time of Thales who flourished in the 35th Olympiad Principles and Elements being not then distinguished by him for which Plutarch finds fault with him The same Author makes Empedocles to hold Four Elements who 't is said was a Disciple of Pythagoras who was contemporary with Thales Here I will suppose Elements to begin the Reason this They that held four Elements perceiving that besides the moist Vapour and heavenly Influence or Fire and Water in the modern Language there were Earth and Air that Air is the Food and as it were the Companion of Fire and Water of Earth and that things generated in the Earth could not but partake of its Nature as the Foetus in the Womb. That two of these were active and two passive two heavy and two light must of necessity be those Parts of Matter that constitute the Harmony of each Being To speak clearly to this Matter I shall take each Element apart and by that you will see whether these four or two only are self-subsisting Beings Pure Simple Primitive and Unmixt which is the Notion of an Element I will begin with the Air. That the Air we walk in is pure and unmixt no one will pretend for the Sulphurous Steams that are sublimed into the Air and the abundant Moisture fluctuating in this Region shew the contrary The Truth is what we call Air is nothing but Water rarefied attracted by the Heat of the Sun or sublim'd by the Archeus of the Earth and this may be made manifest by many several Experiments as the evaporating of Water into Smoak which is a gross Air or calcin'd Tartar that will attract it and dissolve it into Water The Earth can never be said to be pure simple or unmix'd for it is the common Shop of Nature wherein bodies of all sorts and qualities do reside It is in truth nothing more than the grosser parts of the Waters which condensing into a body became the Settlement of the Waters which God afterwards caused to become dry by the removal of the Waters from it and the Spirit of Light shining on it Though it is said In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth yet this is by a Figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 usual as the Learned say amongst the Hebrews for the Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep and the Spirit moved upon the Face of the Waters The Chaos therefore or first Matter was plainly an Abyss of Waters and so our Latin Translators and Commentators render it Aquarum Terrae supernatantium say Junius and Tremellius Water I conceive is in its own Nature pure simple and unmix'd without any quality though susceptible of all A Primitive in Nature a middle Substance whose one Extream constituted Earth and its other Air or Heaven This may well be called a Principle for she is the first Matter of all things into which all things may be reduced Fire in its Original is an emanation of a Solar Spirit its Rays darting downwards impregnate and enkindle Passive Matter into Motion and Vegetation It is the Life or Spirit of the World as Water is the Matter To doubt this a Principle or Element for I think it no Blunder under Plutarch's Favour to make them Synonyma's were a mortal Sin in Philosophy Having said this 't is easie to infer That Water is the passive Principle and the Solar Influence the Formal of all created Beings and that properly speaking these two are the only Principles according to the Ancients and the other two only Derivatives But does not the excellent a Learned Magus tell us That the Four Elements by their never ceasing Motion cast forth a Sperm or subtil Portion of Matter into the Earth where meeting and uniting it is digested and brought to perfection according to the purity or impurity of the place The Authority of this Person and the Reverence and Admiration I have for him as it makes me conceal his Name so it does almost make me blush to lift up my Pen against him Sed magis Amica Veritas If Four Elements go to the Constitution of each Being these Elements must be intimately united Now that cannot be unless the purest part of one Element enter per minima the purest part of the other But Earth cannot enter Water per minima unless it be reduced to the Form and Tenuity of Water and then what need is there of Earth if Earth must be first resolved into Water ere it can unite with it Again Water must be rarefied to the dignity of Air or else it cannot unite intimately with Air if so what need is there of Water since Water must become Air before it can assist in the Constitution of a Body It to me therefore seems most plain that all created Beings here below are a Concrete of Water the purest part whereof being rarefied and impregnated with a celestial Heat which is all the Element of Fire I know of is digested into the various works of Nature diversified now according to what Nature has wrought in the Matrix before the Form enters for the Form is as capable of divers effects as the Water is susceptible of qualities Thus much for the Second Viz. Principles and Elements Thirdly I shall compare some Aristotelian Hypotheses with those of Democritus Aristotle and Heraclitus too held the Elements to be contrary to each other as Fire to Water Earth to Air two active and two passive Principles but Democritus denies it alledging that the Agent and Patient must be in some measure alike otherwise they cannot act upon one another Wherein Democritus is certainly in the right for Fire and Water differ not in a remiss but intense degree witness the quiet resting of Iron in which the Fire of Nature dwells plentifully in Water and witness the Generation of Animals in water which cannot be done without heat and witness the Seeds of all Beings whose germinating Virtue is the Fire of Nature involved in Moisture There is in truth no more difference between these two than between Water and Plants of which the one is so far from being repugnant to the other that the Plant is nourished by the water yet when the water is raised to an Acid and the Plant reduced to an Alkali by the union of these two a violent ebullition is caused a controversie even unto Death As for the Cause of the variety of Bodies the difference between Aristotle and his Followers and Leucippus Democritus and Epicurus and their Followers is no less and 't is no wonder that they who differ in the Nature of their Principles should fall out in the effects they produce The Aristotelians impute the effects of Bodies to secret
of Paracelsus A Description of Mercury p. 132 41. An Objection of reducing Things by Fire into three Principles answered Aristotle's Three Principles likewise answered p. 138 42. Of Elements when distinguish'd from Principles A short Description of the Air the Earth the Water and the Fire That by the Words Heaven and Earth are to be understood the Form and the Matter p. 141 43. That Elements and Principles may be termed Equivocal and that there are but Two p. 147 44. An Answer to S s touching Four Elements wherein 't is shewed that there are but Two Elements that of Water the Passive Matter and the Solar Influx the Form p. 148 45. Some Aristotelian Hypotheses examined and compared with those of Democritus That the Elements are not contrary and opposite as Aristotle holds but agreeing and alike in a remiss degree according to Democritus p. 150 46. Of the Primary Qualities in Bodies according to Aristotle whence proceed their Effects and of the Atomical Physiology of Leucippus Epicurus and Democritus Both Opinions examined p. 152 47. Reasons against both and for a middle Opinion p. 157 48. Of the Original of Qualities Herein the Creation is considered and that according to Moses p. 164 49. That these Words The Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters are not to be understood of the Holy Ghost p. 167 50. Of the First Day 's Work The Creation of Matter and Form and dividing the Light or Form from the grosser Matter p. 168 51. Of the Second Day 's Work or the Expansion and Division of the Waters above from those below p. 169 52. Of the Third Day 's Work The Generation of Plants p. 171 53. Of the Fourth Day 's Work The Collecting of the Light or Form into the Body of the Sun ibid 54. Of the Fifth Day 's Work The Generation of Fish and Fowl by the Union of Water and the Form p. 172 55. Of the Sixth Day 's Work The Creation of Beasts and Reptiles and lastly Man ibid. 56. How the Earth comes to be filled with variety of Bodies abounding with different Qualities p. 173 57. That the various Accidents and Qualities of Bodies proceed from the various Intension and Remission of the Form not according to Des Cartes from the different Magnitude and Figure of their Principles This illustrated by several Instances p. 176 58. The Conclusion p. 184 LICENSED January 2d 1691 2. Ja. Fraser OF Transmigration c. THis Opinion of Transmigration of Souls which is father'd upon Pythagoras is mistaken every where but very grosly believed in Pegu Magor and other parts of Asia For believing that the Soul doth pass into some other Creature after its departure from the Humane Body they abstain from no sort of respect to the most contemptible Creatures and superstitiously avoid doing any hurt to that Animal whose Body they think contains the Soul of their deceased Father Now how they could tell or why they should think that this or that Beast is thus animated rather than another I confess is strange and what is more so it seems from the Belief of those in Bengall and other Parts of the East-Indies who imagine that the Souls of Good Men pass into Cows and such useful Creatures and the Souls of Bad Men into Crows and such hurtful Birds or Beasts that these People think it of the Immortal Rational Soul rather than the Sensitive For the Faculties of the Rational Soul are exerted naturally in the kind Offices of Beneficence and Humanity but those of the Sensitive only in Growth and Sense It looks as if Folly begot and Superstitious Fancy propagated this Opinion Though to do Right to Pythagoras who was doubtless a great Man the absurdity of this Opinion is as far remote from his Sentiments as the Manichaean Heresie is different from the Christian Religion But Philosophy and Religion have both suffered alike by Ignorant Expositors For what will not a wild Fancy and little Judgment center'd in a Man fond of his own Thoughts produce What strange Opinions in Religion What barbarous Cruelties by Humane Sacrifices to the Heathen Gods hath the World been filled with Nor is Philosophy it self exempt from very odd Conceits Thus are the best Things corrupted But to return to our Author whose Opinion asserted is That the Soul after its departure from the Body passes into some other Animal This is as strongly put as any thing said of him for we have all by Tradition will bear 〈◊〉 Opinion I propose to defend and free it from the Absurdities Men have put upon it and restore it to its native Sence But let me 〈◊〉 here That I do not intend this Migration of the Rational Soul but of the Sensitive and Vegetative Spirit which Terms of Soul and Spirit being often used as Synonyma's have given occasion especially to the Ignorant to mistake the meaning of Pythagoras He that considers the Frame of this World the Contexture of Man and the perpetual Vicissitude and Change of Things will easily believe that either God makes new Matter and Form daily to supply the perishing old or that Things pass and are changed into one another by a continual Circulation But we all know that the Eternal having made the World by his Wisdom and Power does preserve it now by his Providence and Goodness so that we must be forc'd to acknowledge not a new Creation but a Mutation of Things that begets this Variety Man indeed is endowed with something more than the rest of the Creatures he hath a Rational Soul that should sit President in his Body govern his Passions and direct his Affections How little it does so proceeds from the Vileness of our Wills rather than the Degeneracy of our Nature but we would excuse our selves Besides this he hath a Vegetative or Sensitive Spirit which is perfectly distinct from the Rational Soul as well as Body It seems to be a Medium to unite two Extreams of a Divine Immortal Ray and Gross Matter I am not discoursing now of the Government of the Mind over the Sensitive Part and what Obedience the one ought to pay the other nor how they contend for Dominion like Prerogative and Liberty in a disturb'd State But I am laying the Foundation of the Reasonableness of Pythagoras his Opinion which is the Transmigration of Souls or Spirits for these Terms are used equivocally To go to the bottom of this Question 't is fit to consider Nature in her several Provinces Mineral Vegetable and Animal for all created Beings on this side Heaven may be placed under one of these Heads nor are the meanest of them without a Spirit or Vital Principle which is all one and these like the Sensitive Souls of Animals evaporate on the Dissolution or Destruction of their Bodies To say how these Spirits leave their Habitations before I offer how they enter may be improper I shall speak therefore of this first and then of the other Nor will it be impertinent to the
Defence of Pythagoras his Opinion since Transanimation of Spirits may refer as well to Minerals and Vegetables as Animals in regard they are all animated alike as to Vegetation I shall begin with Metals The Globe of Earth being placed in the Air and the Heavenly Bodies moving round her does receive into her Lap the Celestial Influences they give Heat or Life she Passive Matter The Air the winged Messenger of the Gods big with the Heavenly Fire penetrates the porous Earth and there abides Being there detained it is congealed into a moist Vapour or subtil Water and by the internal Vulcan of Nature sublim'd in the Vessel of Earth through the Pores and Chinks thereof till meeting with compact Matter that denies it entrance or through defect of the moving Instrument it falls back into the Nest from whence it came By which means it become less subtil carrying with 〈◊〉 somewhat of the gross Matter through which it passed both in its Ascension and Descension it having not 〈◊〉 obtain'd the Gravity of a 〈◊〉 Body but enjoying still the Priviledge of a pure and subtil quick and volatil Nature it again takes another 〈◊〉 through the dark Chambers of the Earth passing and repassing thus frequently thro these places it becomes the true Laver of Nature washing away the Defilements thereof which falling down with it detains it as in a Prison and not being able to free it self from its Bondage suffers the impure parts to be congealed together with the pure Salt of Nature its proper Habitation And thus an imperfect Metal is made diversified only by the difference of the heterogeneous Impurities and the Remission or Intension of the Heat of the Place But Nature that tends always to Perfection makes an improvement from the 〈◊〉 carriage of this Foetus for new Vapour passing Channels through these purified Channels obtains what its 〈◊〉 could not that is pure and refin'd Salt void 〈◊〉 heterogeneous Faeces 〈◊〉 uniting with the warm Vapour and being dissolv'd 〈◊〉 it causes it to lose its Air vaporous Nature and become a clammy Substance from which State being digested by its own internal Fire and that of its Matrix continually replenish'd by a 〈◊〉 Influx it advances into a 〈◊〉 but clayie Body till through length of Time it become decocted into a more or 〈◊〉 ripe Metal according to 〈◊〉 more or less Purity and Heat of the Womb. Thus in the same Vein of Earth Metals of divers sorts may be found as Albertus Magnus testifies in these words In Naturae operibus didici proprio visu quod ab unâ Origine fluit Vena in quadam parte fuit Aurum in alia Argentum sic de caeteris quae tamen Materia prima fuit una sed diversus fuit locus in calore ideo diversitas loci depurationis Metalli diversitatem secundum speciem fuit operata In English thus I have seen in the Works of Nature from the same Original a Vein of Metal one part whereof was Gold another Silver and so of the other Metals The first Matter of which never 〈◊〉 was one and the same but the degree of Heat in 〈◊〉 parts of it was 〈◊〉 therefore the 〈◊〉 of that caused the 〈◊〉 of the Metallick 〈◊〉 according to 〈◊〉 several sorts But he 〈◊〉 doubts this let him read 〈◊〉 Three Tracts of Eirenaeus 〈◊〉 Great who deserves a 〈◊〉 of Gold to be erected to him in all the Colledges of Learning throughout the World Stones fall under the 〈◊〉 Denomination with Metals the best of which through their great plenty of Heat and Light give a Refulgency to the Matter which is a Concrete of that Vapour joyn'd to a pure Salt Water and shines even to the Superficies their form being so intense that they seem even to swallow up their Matter Whilst the Common through their grosness of Matter partly occasioned by the defect of Internal Heat become dark and opake their Generation being rather a Mixture of Earth and Water bak'd in the Furnace of Nature than the Impregnation of Passive Matter digested by a lively Form As for Vegetables I divide them into Two Sorts the one those that grow of themselves without any sowing as Weeds and wild Plants the other those that are raised by Art by sowing the Specifick Seed As for the First The Production of them seems to be thus The warm Vapour that penetrates the Earth is sublim'd by the Internal Heat and passing through large Pores arrives near the 〈◊〉 and carrying with 〈◊〉 or rather meeting there some what of the pure Salt dissolves it into a liquid Substance which pure Salt give a Specification to the 〈◊〉 Vapour and is a sort of a specifick Matrix to that Form which was before General and Universal for Salts of 〈◊〉 sorts do abound in all parts of the Earth Thus variety of Plants may arise as we see they do very near one another differenc'd by the several Salts through which the Vapour pass'd and joyn'd it self to them For if the Air impregnated with Vital Heat congeal'd into Water is one and the same in all Places free and undetermin'd how is it possible it should have any Specification but by somewhat it meets with in the Earth that joyning with it becomes a Seed and shoots up into a Plant This I conceive is the meaning of Democritus and Galen That the first Element of Things is void of Quality that is undertermin'd But why the Salts of the Earth give to some Plants a bitter to others a sharp Taste that is why are the Salts thus differenc'd I had rather profess my Ignorance than with Democritus and Galen say They are all one but only in Opinion This Question how various Plants come to grow of themselves appear'd to the Great Du Hamel so difficult that though he starts the Question he slips from it without a full Answer His Quetion is in these Words Unde prodeant quae à terra nascuntur injussa gramina Nunquid forte à coelo formantur Sed Coelum cum sit omni vitâ privatum quî poterit vitam sensum largiri At last after giving many Answers and then confuting them he comes to this doubtful resolution Influxus Coelestes his inferioribus fortasse se applicant But this comes not up to the Point Who doubts that the Heavenly Influences occasion the Growth of Plants and give the formal Essence to those that grow of themselves But why the same Universal Influence produceth different Plants which is the great Question in that he is silent This Matter having not yet been spoke to at least as I have met with and in regard the searching Nature to her Original and first Cause is more excellent than to solve Phaenomena's by their Effects I shall say something to it in its Place But to return from whence I have digress'd taking things now as we find them can it be a wonder
Plant and infuse it into the Body of another And thus Van Suchten and the acuter sort of Chymists tell us may be done with Metals But what need we fly to Laborious Art for the proof of this Does not sagacious Nature afford Instances enough of this sort in divers Places witness the petrefying Baths at Buda Glashitten and Eisenbach in Hungary that turn Wood and Iron into Stone and the Venereal Mine at Hern-grunat near Neusol where by leaving Iron in the Vitriolate Water for Fourteen Days it is transmuted into excellent Copper better and more ductil than the Natural But enough of this I have done with Pythagoras and shall touch now on Four Things 1. I shall speak somewhat to the duration of Bodies 2. Examine some Principles and Elements generally received 3. Compare some Aristotelian Hypotheses with those of Democritus 4. Having already shewn how variety of Plants and Metals are now generated in the Earth from the Diversity of Salts c. I will endeavour to shew how the Earth comes to be filled with such variety of Bodies abounding with different Qualities First As to the Duration of Bodies Bodies after the sensitive Spirit has left them and before their resolution into Dust have a sort of Vegetable Life remaining in them as appears by the growth of Hair and Nails that may be perceived in dead Bodies and a weak Animal one that lurks in the Moisture whence in Putrefaction Worms and divers sorts of Insects may be generated who dying others of another sort arise If therefore Bodies obtain this sort of Immortality not to speak of the Resurrction of the Body in a Philosophical Discourse why should it be denied to the Spirit which hath a much greater Right to it by the pure and incorrupt lasting Nature of its Essence But I shall advance the Nature of Bodies to a much more unmixt and pure Immortality For the Radical Moisture of Bodies that lies in the Bones may justly challenge a Right as things now are to an eternal duration For not to mention Bones that are found entire after a Thousand Years Burial nor the Bodies of Egyptian Mummies preserved whole for several Thousand Years there is in the Bones a Radical Moisture that is fix'd and permanent and is so far from giving way or suffering loss by that Element that is the Destroyer of mix'd Bodies that it is the Vessel made use of to purge the fix'd Metals in the Fire and remains unhurt when the volatil Metals fly away so that none of the Elements can destroy it no not the most torrid Vulcan Now for mix'd Bodies Fire indeed may separate the Parts of a mix'd Body change the Figure and so alter its Appearance as to puzzle the best Mechanick to reduce it to its primitive state yet this is no Annihilation but Division The burning of Wood or any Fuel is a Destruction of it I confess as to the Proprietor but not with respect to the Universe no more than there is less Money in the World by the Profuseness of a Prodigal as the one doth but change Hands so the other alters only the situation of its Parts The Watery or Mercurial Part of the Wood passeth away in Smoak the Oily or Sulphurous in Flame and the Body of Salt rests in the Ashes The Air preserves the two former and the Earth retains the latter each part returns to its native Country What then can destroy this Body except the First Cause I am yet to learn For though Bone-Ashes by reason of Moisture may flow and become Glass the ultimate end and use of them yet so glorious a lightsome body as that of Glass is rather an exaltation of its Essence than diminution of its Excellency nor does it give any termination to its Being but only a change to its Figure If Culinary Fire destroys the Parts of the Universe in time it may the whole But this is inconsistent with the Wisdom of its Maker to create Principles destructive of one another The Light of Nature as well as Experience taught Plato that the World was not destroyable by any other Cause but by the same God who composed it which the Eternal can easily do by Fire according as Things now appear without the Light of Holy Writ Which makes me wonder that Aristotle Zenophanes and other Great Men did not see this but thought the World of necessity as Eternal as God for though the Heat of the Sun is now tolerable between the Tropicks yet he that considers its being a little multiplied by a concave Glass even in our Meridian though its Rays pass through a vast Region of Water rarefied if reflected on a Man for some time it will scorch and destroy him when the volatil Waters that allay his Heat become fixed which the People think now are and a Philosopher knows may easily be then the Sun having no Cloud to obstruct his Light nor any Water to cool the scorching Heat of his Rays will necessarily burn up and calcine the Earth Thus the very Elements would destroy us did not the Eternal by his Providence defend us from the Heat by the interposition of the Waters and from the Chilness of the Waters by impregnating them with a Solar Heat whose invisible congealed Spirit saith one of the Learned Magi is more valuable than the whole Earth Clementissimo itaque infinitae sint Laudes Secondly As to Principles and Elements being to speak of these it will not be amiss to enquire how and when these came into the World The Study of Natural Philosophy was as early in the world as Men came to call upon God For whatever Appearances God made to the Antediluvian Patriarchs and by that means communicated his Divine Will and Nature to them yet we cannot suppose that the World in general had any other Light of the Divine Glory and Majesty than what came to them by Tradition and the Contemplation of the several Parts of the Universe for God is known by his Works they are the Witnesses of his Wisdom Power and Goodness The Knowledge of these Works comes not to Mankind at least generally by Inspiration but by exerting our Faculties And as for Tradition that is apt to make but a weak impression on thinking Men unless it is back'd with Reason But besides though the Creation of the World was a Tradition and the manner out of Chaos yet to give an account of the Phaenomena of Things and the manner now of Nature's Productions could not be a Tradition This was left to Man as the proper exercise of his Rational Powers that by improving and advancing his Thoughts he might come to have a clearer Light and Knowledge of God and consequently love him the more intensely for it is almost impossible to have a true knowledge of God and not to be inflamed with Love of him such is the Purity and Perfection of the Divine Nature When Men therefore began to contemplate the works of God they found all
that all Plants of the same sort have much the same Figure and Colour 'T is not certainly from their manner of pressing through the Earth that they obtain the same likeness for how should it happen that the Species of every Herb should have such a particular manner of pressing through the Earth as to make it always retain the same shape But I rather conceive that the saline Particles that joyn with the Vapour being so and so modified for they must have some Figure do determine the genéral Moisture as well to a constant uniform Figure and Colour as to a particular internal Nature and Quality Not unlike the very minute Seeds that we see whose Taste does more truly demonstrate the Nature of its Plant it produces than the Microscope can find out its Figure and yet its Figure is owing to the Modification of the Seed Thus Minerals and Vegetables seem to be made not by Creation as at first out of nothing but by the Union of Matter and Form blessed from the beginning by the Word of God Crescite multiplicamini This for the first sort of Natural Productions As for the latter i. e. the sowing of Seeds and planting of Trees which came in with the Curse their Production may justly be called Artificial but neither are they produced without the assistance of the Universal Spirit for being sown in the Earth the moist Vapour wherein the Universal Spirit rests dissolves the Body of the Seed whose vital Principle being let loose becomes active and vigorous and meeting with the Vapour of the Earth like dear Friends embrace and unite and being of an homogeneous Nature grow up together the General Moisture being first determin'd by the Particular The Growth of Plants is the same the porous Roots sucking in the moist Vapour which is assimilated into the Nature of the Tree by its specificated Virtue As for the Generation of Animals they are not unlike the Production of Vegetables rais'd by particular Seed The describing of which may offend a chaste Ear or excite a lascivious Mind therefore I omit it But this Opinion it 's plain the Learned Ancients were of when they declar'd That Man was not propagated by Coition only but that the Universal Spirit which flows principally from the Sun has a hand in it And therefore they affirmed That Sol Homo generant Hominem which I shall explain more particularly hereafter For as Man is not supported by Bread and Meat only in his sensitive Capacity but by a secret Food of Life that is in the Air so neither is he generated by the Union of Two Sperms only without the assistance of that secret Spirit that enters the closest Caverns whence 't is said Non datur Vacuum It being now said how the Spirit enters and vivifies Matter it remains that we give an account how it leaves it again and what then becomes of it There are various ways of dissolving Nature in all the Parts of her Dominion Animals are destroy'd either by the Consumption through the length of Time of their Radical Moisture the Oil that maintains the Flame or by accident or violence when the Sensitive Spirit for we speak not of the Rational leaves its Habitation and returns into the common Receptacle of Sensitive and Vegetative Spirits the Air from whence it came Minerals and Vegetables are destroyed by Fire and evaporate likewise into the Air I mean the volatil Here it was we found them at first and here in a little circulation of Time we may perceive them again Now being let loose from that Prison where the Spirits 〈◊〉 Forms were detained and specificated a little Time restores them to their native Simplicity and Universality and flowing in an Ocean where the Celestial Influence are continually descending and Vapours ascending like the Angels on Jacob's Ladder they receive new impresses 〈◊〉 Virtue to fit them for farther Service Thus Nature is never idle and thus with Plato all things are in a continual Alteration and Fluctuation Nothing according to Pythagoras is simply new nor any thing according to Trismegistus dies but all things pass and are changed into something else For all mix'd Bodies are made of the Elements into which after a little time they are resolved again Thus Porphyry tells us that every Irrational Power is resolved into the Life of the Whole And thus these Spirits being ready and fit to impregnate new Matter and She 〈◊〉 to desire it according to the Axiom of Materia appetit Formam ut Foemina Virum the same Spirit which animated one Body may on its Dissolution animate another which I take to be the meaning of Pythagoras his Transmigration of Souls or Spirits Hence Lucretius Huic accedit uti quicque in 〈◊〉 Corpora rursum Dissolvit Natura neque ad 〈◊〉 interimit Res. Nature the Form from Bodies oft unties New Bodies to inform whence nothing dies If this be not so I would fain know what becomes of the Form that animates Minerals Vegetables and Animals not to speak of their Bodies which are only changed not annihilated Can that Spirit that gives Life and Motion that partakes of the Nature of Light be reduced to nothing Can that Sensitive Spirit in Brutes that exercises Memory one of the Rational Faculties die and become nothing If you say they breath their Spirits into the Air and there vanish that is all I contend for The Air indeed is the proper place to receive them being according to Laertius full of Souls and according to Epicurus full of Atoms or intelligible Bodies unapparent the Principle 〈◊〉 all Things For even this Place wherein we walk and Birds flie though it is properly rather Water rarefied that Air as I have proved by a Magnet attracting it yet it is thus much of a spiritual Nature that it is invisible therefore well may be the Receiver of Forms since the Forms of all Bodies are 〈◊〉 we can only hear and see its Effects the Air it self is too fine and above the Capacity of the Eye What then is the AEther that is in the Region above And what are the Influences or Forms that descend from thence The Pythagoreans held that the Souls of Creatures are a portion of AEther and all Philosophers agree that AEther is incorruptible and what is so is so far from being annihilated when it gets rid of the Body that it lays a good claim to Immortality Treasures fallen into the Sea are lost only to them that cannot find them witness our late Expedition The Spirit is not lost but moving in the Air in its natural Sphere where it obtains new Strength and Vigor It passes into the Air as the Rivers flow into the Sea Omnia mutantur nihil interit errat illinc Huc venit hinc illuc quo 〈◊〉 bet occupat Artus Spiritus c. Ovid. Met 〈◊〉 Lib. XV. The Spirit never dies 〈◊〉 here and there Though all things