Principle of the one and the other 2. In the disparity of the natural Method of the perfecting of the one and the other 3. In the disparity of the Natures of the Animals of the one kind and the other having arrived to their complement and perfection First touching the disparity of the natural Productive Principle of the one and the other although it be admitted that Insects and spontaneè orta do or may arise from a Semen or Principle that is not univocal or formal yet it must needs be agreed that the Natural Principle of such their production must be some analogal Semen or some Seminal Principle that is suitable to such a Production otherwise quidlibet orietur ex quolibet there must be something that must determin the Matter to be an apt Seminium for such a Production or else the Matter must determin it self either there must be some determinate Vital or Spiritual Principle that is determined in it self and determins the Matter which Paracelsus seems to hold that Bodies were first Spirits and Aristotle seems to intimate when he tells us that Animarum omnia plena and when the Matter is fitly prepared there is an illapse of this Vital Formative Spirital Principle into it or else the inherent qualities or dispositions of Matter it self must be of force to mould it self up into these Moleculae seminales the Formative Principles of these sponte orta I speak in the Language of those that erroneously hold no higher Principles but such as are purely Natural But although such Seminal Particles as these may be sufficient for the production of Insects yet they are not naturally accommodated for the perfection of the perfect Animals For the Semen prolificum for the production of perfect Animals must receive its specifical conforming Principle either by the Supernatural Power of Almighty God or from the Specifical Nature of the Individuals of both Sexes and if we could suppose an Anima vaga of the Sensible Nature not confined to any Individual of the same nature nothing could be a Matter fitly prepared for its reception but the Materia seminalis ex individuis elicita neither is there any Matter extra compositum animale capable to advance it self to the nature of such a perfect Animal for if either of these could be done we had as much reason daily to expect the like spontaneous productions of Horses and Sheep as we find of Frogs and Worms Again the Vis conformatrix and Seminal Particles of Insects is most plainly in Insects not confined to the semina formalia utriusque sexus commixta for we see almost all their parts are seminal and will by putrefaction advance to the production of their kind Their productive power is not so strictly and severely bound to the semen utriusque sexus Many have told us by experience and observation that the Excrements of Flies without any mixtion will produce immediately Flies that the Resolution or Maceration of Frogs and Worms will reproduce Individuals of the same species as Kercher lib. 12. Mundi subterranei tells us But there are no parts of perfect Animals that are productive of their species but the same is confined by the Laws of their Nature to a semen formale ex utroque sexu decisum It is true that their parts corrupted as their Blood Flesh or Veins will produce Insects and living Creatures of a different and baser kind than themselves as Worms Lice Fleas Flies but they can never advance to the production of their own kind And the Reason is because there is not possibly any transmission of that specifical vital formative Principle to any other part but the semen formale of the Individuals of that species and that Vis formatrix activa vitalis sensibilis must be communicated either by virtue of a participation of all the parts of the Producents or by a kind of a specifical Idea naturally produced by that Nature from whence it is derived which evolves and expands it self being produced or which is more intelligible and probable than either of the former by a participation of the vital and sensible Soul to the semen prolificum from the Producents and there is no way of communication thereof in perfect Animals but only to that natural and genuine Semen constituted mixed and ordered according to the Law of its Being so that we cannot suppose any seminal Principle of perfect Animals but this semen prolificum utriusque parentis unless we shall gratis and without either Reason or Example wholly invert the natural order of things and substitute a Semen contrary to the nature of the things that must be produced or admit that which those great Assertors of Nature think below them to grant and will rather suppose a thousand Absurdities than admit namely the Interposition of the Divine Power And 2. As the Semen formativum of perfect Animals is greatly differing from that of Insects and therefore not capable of a spontaneous production as these so it is apparent that at least in animalibus viviparis it is impossible to be preserved sine receptaculo naturae congruo scilicet utero foemineo The vital particles thereof are more fiery and volatile and higher advanced than that Semen that is or may be sufficient for Insects sine convenienti receptaculo avolabunt spiritus vitales ex interventu vel minimi frigoris mortuum infoecundum evadet but the Semina of Insects are more viscous and less volatile in so much that their Semina will remain all the Winter in caverns and holes and yet be fruitful the next Spring 3. Again the Semen Insecti being so small a Particle and having as I may say so small a portion of Soul in it is soon formed and brought to maturity We may learn this in their univocal productions or ex coitu Scaliger tells us Exercitat 191. l. 2. that the Gloworm brings forth his Eggs postridiè post coitum Malpighius in his curious Disquisition touching the Silkworm tells that quarto post coitum die the Female brings forth ordinarily above 300 sometimes above 500 Eggs and these will lie all the Winter and with the warm heat of the Spring and some other assistance will prove vital the next Spring and Aristotle Hist Animal l. 5. cap. 27. tells us that Araneae statim post ova parta incubant triduo peragunt quatuor septenis diebus justa accipiunt incrementa ibid. l. 6. cap. 37. tells us that Mures si salem lambunt pariunt sine coitu and that even their young have been found with young before they saw the light By all which it is evident That although these little Moleculae seminales will retain their fecundity longer than the Eggs of Birds even a whole Winter and possibly longer yet when they have obtained a convenient Matrix and the warm cherishing heat of the Spring the formation production and maturation of Insects and of that Semen prolificum which they univocally yield in their regular
or the sense of those effects and operations which after by the help of the Understanding are carried up to the discovery of things not perceptible by Sense immediately Now there may be many things in Nature unto which we can have neither of these accessions of Sense How many Stars are now discovered by the Telescope which were never before known because not perceived by Sense And how many more there may be which are not visible to us by that help we cannot yet know till that discovery We cannot know what the extent of the Universe is whether there be any Worlds without the compass of this whether the Heavenly Bodies are inhabited and with what Creatures We cannot know the Nature Constitution Faculties of created and separate Intelligences nor the manner of their Ubi Motion Intellection mutual Intercourse or detection of their Minds These things are out of the reach of our Sense either mediately or immediately and consequently without the help of Divine Revelation we can never upon a natural account come to any certainty in them or the most we can otherwise know is by considering the reflexed acts of our Understanding whereby we know many acts of our own minds and Soul which are not perceptible to our external Senses and upon that account we may think that 〈…〉 their perception may be something analogical But Man is an Object of greatest vicinity to himself and hath thereby and by other contributions the best opportunity to know and understand himself with the greatest certainty and evidence And yet it cannot be denied that notwithstanding this great proximity of Man to himself yea and notwithstanding the many and great Essayes Attempts Enquiries and Observations that have been made in all successions of Ages by men of excellent Parts Learning and Industry we still remain and are like still to remain ignorant of many things of importance concerning our selves The great and wise God whose Glory it is to conceal a matter having lodged many things in the Humane Nature and Fabrick and Constitution thereof so secretly and so closely that notwithstanding the Experience and Observation of near 6000 years and the search and industry of the best Judgments in all Ages and the close proximity of Man to himself there are very many things in our Nature whereof we neither can and probably never shall be able to give any account to our selves or others with any evident nay with any tolerable certainty as if the Divine Wisdom meant hereby to give to the Children of Men an instance to keep them humble that cannot find out the certainty of what they hourly most intimately converse withal and an indication of his own profound and infinite Wisdom that can thus keep secret those things which in regard of their proximity to us we have great opportunity to know And of this nature are many things which we know to be but we cannot give our selves any sufficient explication of the manner or reason of them We are certain we have a vital active Principle in us by which we see understand remember which we call the Soul But whence that Soul comes or how and when and in what manner it is united to the Body whether it be extended with the Body or indivisible and in every point of the Body how and in what manner it exerciseth its nobler acts of Intellection and Volition or how far forth it stands in need of the Organs actually to exert any of those operations or how far forth it doth or may exert them without it how or by what means the Species not only of sensible Objects but even of Notions of the Mind are preserved in the Memory without confusion and dissipation notwithstanding lapse of time and intervention of infinite variety of Objects whether it be the same individual principle that exerciseth the acts of Intellection and likewise of Sense and Vegetation and if it be what become of these Faculties subservient to a temporal Life in the state of separation of the Soul where it is that the exercise of Sense is performed whether in the Brain or by the Soul by the mediation of the Spirits in the extremity of the Nerves and if the former how the Species of Visibles are carried through those dark Caverns between the Organ and Cerebellum supposed to be the Seat of the common Sense These and many more difficulties scarce explicable with any sufficient certainty do occur in the little Shop of the Fabrick of Humane Nature We must not therefore think that because of this nearness to our selves all the Phaenomena of our Nature can be rendred as evidently explicable as we do or may understand the Fabrick of our Hand by Anatomical Dissection But though this vicinity of our selves to our selves cannot give us the full prospect of all the Intrigues of our Nature yet we have thereby and by other opportunities much more advantage to know our selves than to know other things without us and by that opportunity of knowing of our selves to know the truth or falshood or analogy of very many things without us which otherwise could not be so well known or explicated 1. We have hereby an opportunity to know the Constitutions Frame and Order of our Bodies It is true the great advance of the practice and skill of Anatomy hath laid open to ocular inspection the Fabrick of the Bodies as well of Brutes and Birds as Men and therein they seem to be equally obvious to our knowledge But a Brute or a Man are another thing when they are alive from what they are when dead Anatomy can give us the Position Frame Situation Figure and connexion of all the several Integrals of the Body of Man or Beast but it is the living Mans observation of himself that must give account of those Vital motions that are in the Body when living as the Pulsations of the Heart the Circulation of the Blood the Communication of the Parts the Congruity or Disagreement between my Nature and other things variously qualified The Humor that separates divides attenuates and digests the Nourishment the several exertions of the several Organs relating to their several Functions the things that impede or advance the vital or sensible operations in a man what impressions are made upon the Blood and Spirits by the several passions of the Mind what things increase or advance the Spirits what disorder or discompose them the immediate and agil subservience of the Spirits to the Empire of the Mind or Soul These and infinite more touching the Body are discoverable by Observation and by no other Observation so well as by a mans Observation of himself 2. We have hereby an opportunity to know much more of the Nature Operations and other things relating to our Souls than we can touching other things or Natures There hath been much Dispute among Learned men concerning the manner of the Intellection of Spirits and Intelligences and by others touching the knowledge of Brutes touching their
qualities common to other Bodies it hath in it some parts more active and fiery others more passive and waterish or earthy it hath its tendencies to corruption and dissipation And though after the separation of the Soul from the Body it perchance loseth some of those particular Qualities Figurations and Properties that it had before yet it retaineth many of them for many of these Proprieties of a Body as such do not depend upon the Specifical Form of the Humane Nature as such Again there is in this Body a certain Active Specifical Form whereby it is constituted in Esse Hominis which hath in it and doth communicate to the Body certain operations specifical to it by this he exerciseth those operations which either flow from or are communicated by that Form as Life Sense Intellection Volition and the like And though Life and Sense be common to Man and Brutes and their operations in many things alike yet by this Form he lives the Life of a Man and not of a Brute and hath the Sense of a Man and not of a Brute For there is no such thing as Animal or Vivens not determined unto some particular Species as there is no such thing as a Man not determined in some individual For Universals are but Notions and Entia Rationis having their existence only in the understanding power and not in reality And these Operations and Faculties of Humane Life Humane Sense and Humane Understanding and Volition flow not from the corporeal Moles but from some other active regent Principle that resides in the Body and governs it whiles it lives which we call the Soul And therefore although the corporeal Moles after some kinds of Deaths retain the same bulky Integrals the same Figure Colour and many other accidents yet the Soul being removed the Faculties and Operations of Life Sense and Intellection cease from that Moles corporea and are no longer in it This Principle of Life Sense and Intellection in Man called the Soul hath the Body as its Province and Districtus wherein it exerciseth these Faculties and Operations and we shall find the Actions which are performed by it in the Body are of three kinds or natures 1. Some are immanent and not terminated immediately in any external or corporeal action 2. Some are transient and spontaneous terminating in the Body or some parts or motions thereof 3. Some transient but involuntary and exercised and terminated in or upon the Body These seem to be the several kinds of Actions of the Soul at least relating to the Regiment and Oeconomical Government of the Soul upon the Body 1. The internal and immanent Faculties and Acts of the reasonable Soul besides those of Common Sense Phantasie Memory Passion and Appetite common to Men and inferiour Animals are Intellect and Will and the proper Acts of the Intellect are Intellection Deliberation and Determination or Decision The proper Acts of the Will are Volition Nolition Choice Purpose or Resolution and Command in relation to Subordinate Faculties And although there be many actings both of the Intellect and Will that are relative to other things or objects than what immediately concern the Microcosm it self yet the principal part of that analogical Providence that the Soul exerciseth in relation to the Microcosm or Humane Compositum are Intellection Deliberation and Determination in the Understanding and Choice Volition Nolition and Purpose in the Will and these do or should regularly precede all those imperate Acts of the Soul that relate to the Compositum Before I write or speak or go a journey or eat or any the like action there is the deliberation of the Understanding whether I shall do this action the decision of the Understanding that it is fit to be done the choice of the Will to do it the purpose of the Will that it shall be done And although many times the distinction of these several procedures of the Soul do not always appear distinct especially in sudden or ordinary actions which seem to have but one act antecedent to the thing done namely the willing of it to be done yet in actions of weight and importance all these have their distinct order and procedure For although in the most incomprehensible and perfect Will of Almighty God there is no such succession of procedure yet in the operations of the rational Soul that is linked to the Body there is ordinarily that successive procedure of those immanent acts of the Soul that relate to any thing to be done This therefore is the first part of that analogical Providence that the Soul exerciseth in relation to the Body namely deliberation or counsel and decision in the Intellect and choice and purpose in the Will 2. The next Act which immediately succceds Purpose is the Command that is given by the volitive Faculty of the Soul and the Execution thereof and herein are considerable First The Power commanding which is the Will now determined by purpose or resolution Secondly The things to which these commands relate or the Object of them which in relation to the Body is in effect nothing but motion of the Spirits Nerves Muscles parts of the Body or the entire Compositum by virtue of this command the Muscles the Hand the Eye the Tongue perform those imperate commands of the Will I do not digest sanguifie nor my Heart move nor my Blood circulate nor my Meat digest by any immediate command of my Will but I eat I drink I move my Eye my Hand my Muscles my whole Body in pursuance of this command of my Will Thirdly The executive Instrument of this command mediately are my Nerves and Muscles but immediately those subtil invisible and forcible Engins which we call the Animal Spirits these being the most subtil parts in Nature and parts of matter subtilized next in degree of purity to that Soul that commands them are in their nature proper fit and suitable to be the first recipients of the Empire of the Soul they are the nimblest agil strongest Instruments fittest to be executive of the commands of the Soul they are a middle nature between the Soul and the Body the nexus animae to the Body and these subtil Messengers speedily dispatch themselves through the Nerves to the Muscles which are by these Spirits and the native Indoles that is in them and the exact texture of them fitted to move those Integrals of the Body to which they serve and as the Spirits shot through the Nerves are the first and immediate Instruments of the Soul in its imperate acts so the Muscles are as it were the Instruments of the Spirits or the remote Instruments of these imperate motions And by this means the Soul hath the actual imperium and command of all those motions of the Body which are spontaneous or capable of being commanded by the volitive Power of the Soul 't is by this the Eye-lid opens or shuts the Eye is converted to this or that object the Lungs are intended or
conformable unto that Nature which Mankind now hath and as we have no reason to believe they were any way inferior to the present Perfection of Humane Nature so we have very great reason to suppose them constituted in a greater degree of Beauty and Perfection than the most perfect Man that hath been ever since their Formation except the incarnate Son of God Although I do not intend in this place to take a large Survey of the Perfection of the Humane Nature because it is in part done already and I shall reserve it God willing for its proper place and season yet because my Scope here is to evince that the Supposition of the first production of Mankind is an unquestionable Evidence of the Existence of a most Wise and Intelligent Being and that the strength of that Evidence rests in the due Contemplation of the Excellence of the Humane Nature and Faculties and those other Appendices thereunto and that it is not possible to conceive any other but an Intelligent Efficient working by Choice Wisdom and Appropriation should be the first Producent Former and Constituent of such a Nature I shall take a short Survey of the Humane Nature Perfections and Appendices which may give any Man a handle to improve it farther to the same end leaving the fuller Discourse of the Humane Nature as a Reserve also whereupon a fuller Improvement may be made of this Consideration and Conclusion And upon the diligent Observation of this Argument it will evidently appear That the modelling framing compounding ordering and endowing the first Prototype and first Copy of the Humane Nature was neither an Act or Event of Chance or of a Surd Inanimate Unintelligent Nature but was a Contrivance and Work of Design Skill and Intention a Transcript of that Idea which resided in an intelligent Being a Work of a wise and powerful Being yea such a Work as could never have been made by any less than the most intelligent wise and powerful Being exceeding the more single Wisdom and Activity of any created Intelligence at least unless acting in and by the Commission Virtue and Strength of the Almighty God Now these Excellencies in Man that demonstrate an Intelligent Efficient are of two kinds 1. Such as immediately concern his nature 2. Such as are distinct from it but relating to it 1. Therefore concerning those Excellencies that concern immediately his Nature and these discover themselves and the Wisdom of their Efficient And these Excellencies are considered either simply in themselves or 2. Compositè and with the several Subserviences and Accommodations to their Ends and Uses As to the first Consideration there are many Excellencies in the Humane Nature which manifest a far more eminent Excellency in his first Efficient The Symmetry Beauty Majesty and admirable Composure of his Body to which there can be nothing added nor detracted without a blemish to it The admirable Faculties of his Soul those that concern him in his lowest rank of Life the Faculty by which he is nourished those that concern him in his middle rank of Life Soul and Sensation Memory and Appetite those that concern him in his supreme rank of Life Intellect and Will those that concern him in his whole Compositum the Generative Faculty The admirable Union of his Soul to his Body whereby he becomes one Intellectual Being though consisting of Principles of differing natures These and such as these would be largely prosecuted for they do evidence an intellectual most wise Efficient that could thus erect and thus endow such a Fabrick But that which I most reckon upon is that admirable Accommodation that is found in the nature of Man which doth most undeniably demonstrate an intellectual and wise Efficient working by Intention and Design for instance It is indeed a very great evidence of an Artist that can make the Wheel of a Watch or the Spring or the Ballance but the destination of the Spring to the String and the String to the Fusee and the accommodation of every Wheel and their position and fabrick one to another and the Ballance to correct and check the excess of the Motion and the Index to the Table and to fit the Table with Divisions suitable to the Hours and to put all into such a regular Motion as demonstrates the Hour of the Day This adaptation of things of various and several Natures and Structures one to another and all to some common End or Design is so great an evidence of an Intellectual Being that works by Intention by Election by Design and Appropriation that nothing can be opposed against it And therefore I rather choose to prosecute this compound Consideration of the Humane Nature the adaptation and appropriation of things therein one to another and to common Use which is the most evident Argument of such an Efficient as I have before described in the first Fabrication of Humane Nature It were the business of a Volume to pursue all the Particulars of this kind I shall only instance in some 1. The admirable accommodation of the several Parts of the Humane Body to make up one Continuum yet consisting of divers Parts distinct in their individuals and kinds the mortising of the Bones one into another the binding them together by Nerves and Muscles and Tendons the Veins and Arteries for the carrying of the Blood diffused by several Ramifications from their Roots to the uttermost extremities of the Body their differing Coats Anastomoses and means of Communication for the Circulation of the Blood the distributions and ramifications of the Nerves indeed the whole Frame of the Humane Body is an Engin of most admirable contrivance and mutual accommodation of Parts which is so much the more admirable because many of the Parts are distinct not only in the Roots and Numbers but in their Nature and Constitution yet make up one most beautiful Continuum by the mutual accommodation and admirable contignation of the several Integrals thereof 2. The admirable accommodation of Faculties to the convenience and use of Humane Nature for Instance the Digestive Faculty to preserve Life the Generative Faculty to preserve the Species his Faculties of Sense are accommodated to a Sensible Being for as much as he is to converse in a Corporeal World and with Corporeal Beings there is no one quality of Corporeal Nature that he hath occasion to use or converse with but he hath a Faculty by one of his five Senses to receive and discern Again in his Intellective Faculty it admirably serves him for the Ends and Uses of his Being he was appointed to govern direct and rule other Animals and therefore he hath the advantage of a superior Faculty above them whereby he is able to exercise that Direction and Government He was made to be the Spectator of the great Work of God to consider and observe them to glorifie and serve that God that made them and he is accordingly furnished with an Intellective Faculty answerable to his condition 3.
The admirable accommodation of Faculties with subministring Faculties and Organs subservient appropriate and convenient for their exercise For Instance Local Motion is necessary to Mankind and accordingly he is furnished with Animal Spirit Nerves Muscles Tendons and Limbs admirably contrived and destined and fitted to Local Motion The Intellective Faculty is furnished with the organical Fabrick of the Brain and the subordinate Power of Sense Phantasie and Memory to assist it in its exercise while it is in the Body Facultati generativae prolisicae subministrans facultas seminificationis ac organa eidem deservientia appetitus naturalis voluptas quaedam alliciens organa generationi dicata distinctio sexuum sine qua juxta legem in natura post primam humanae naturae formationem insitam hujusmodi speciei propagatio fieri nequivit The Digestive Faculty furnishing the Blood the Blood increasing the Body and supplying the Treasuries of the Spirits the Spirits again supplying and maintaining the Offices of the Faculties So that not only the Blood but the whole Corporeal and Animal Nature is in continued motion and mutual subserviency I might be endless in this Contemplation but because it is evident to any Man that considers and I design a larger discussion of this Business when I come to consider the Parts and Faculties of the Humane Nature I shall not give farther Instances therein And the Use that I make of it is this That although it might be supposed possible that either Chance or Nature might in some simple narrow things produce very curious Appearances as the Configurations of Asterites of Crystals of Salts in their several shapes yet when in such a complicated Nature as Man is consisting of so many various Parts various in their position nature and use there shall be found such an exact adaptation of every thing one to another as to serve the whole and every part this in the primordial Constitution and Formation must needs be the Work of a most wise intelligent powerful Being that operates secundùm intentionem appropriationem intelligentiam 2. Let us come then to those Appendices and relative Respects of other things to the Humane Nature we shall easily find in it this Consideration also the Footsteps and Evidences of an Intelligent Nature in the Constitution of him by that admirable accommodation of things without him of different nature from him to his use and convenience In the Operations or Works of Intelligent Agents we may easily see that according to the degree or perfection of such Intelligence there is variety in their Work or Production An Intelligent Agent that is but of a narrow Intelligence as his Prospect is commonly short and weak so his Work seldom attains more than a narrow and single End But if the Agent be of a large and comprehensive Intelligence and Wisdom his ends are great and most times various and complicated and the same Operation or Work may have divers many 〈◊〉 Ends and Uses Almighty God therefore being of infinite Wisdom and Power foresees and effects great and various Ends in one and the same Work or Operation Take for Instance that goodly Creature the Sun What a complication of excellent Ends and Uses there are in that glorious Body It is the Fountain communicating Light to the Earth the Air and all the Planetary Bodies it is that which derives Heat and is the great Instrument of deriving Fruitfulness and Fertility to the inferior World it distinguisheth Times and Seasons by its Motion it raiseth and digesteth and distributeth the Watry Meteors for the benefit of this inferior World and infinite more advantages of this kind And therefore it is the narrowness of our Understanding that when we see one excellent End or Usefulness in any thing to conclude that God Almighty intended no other And therefore it is too hasty and vain a Conclusion to think that the glorious Bodies of the Celestial Host were made meerly for the service of Man and it is also folly and presumption to conclude that even the things of this inferior World though principally designed for the use of Man were meerly and only destined for the service of Man Almighty God hath the Glory of his own Greatness and the Communication of his own Goodness as the great End of all his Works Yea and we have reason to think that even in these inferior Beings of this lower World which are delivered over to the use and service of Men God Almighty had other Ends that possibly we know not nay possibly in the Effection of the least minute Animal Almighty God intended a Communication of so much of his Goodness and Beneficence to it as might give it a kind of complacency and fruition suitable to the capacity of its Existence though subordinate to other Ends. And yet not only in these inferior Existences of this lower World but even in the Fabrick Order and Oeconomy of the superior World there is to be found an admirable accommodation of them one to another and to this Steward and Tenant of Almighty God of this inferior World called Man 1. If we look upon the Celestial World we have an admirable accommodation thereof to the convenience of Mankind it presents to his View and thereby to his Understanding the most noble Spectacle of the Celestial Bodies their Order Beauty Constancy Motion Light conducting to the knowledge and acknowledgment of the Power Wisdom and Goodness of God it gives him an account of the progress and parts and succession of Time these are advantages that no Irrational Nature can make use of But the Influence of the Heavens are a common Benefit to Man and all Sublunary Natures but yet the inferior World seems in a great measure directed for the benefit of Mankind some in common to him and the Brutes as the Air for Respiration the Fire for Warmth the Water for Drink the Earth for Fruit and Habitation But in this lower World there seems many things directed to the special use of Mankind for besides Domestick Animals especially allowed for his Food there are some that serve for his Employment Motion Exercise and Food as the Tillage and Planting of the Earth for his Food some for his Medicine as Herbs and Gums and Minerals some for his Clothing as the Furrs Wool and Skins of Beasts some for his Habitation as the Timber and Stone some for his Fewel as Wood Coals and Turf some for his Defence and Manufacture as Iron and Steel some for Commerce as the Metals of Silver Gold Copper the very Situation of the Seas the Magnes some for his Ornament as Silk and Jewels some for his Journey and Labour as Horses Oxen Camels some for his Necessity some for his Delight Infinite more Instances may be given whereby it will evidently appear that this lower World is accommodated to the use and convenience of Mankind in a special and remarkable manner whereby it may be evident to any considerate Man that the Formation of the World and
speculative habits and fits and moulds and accommodates a man to a conformity to the End of his being And these be the Reasons that have especially put me upon the search and enquiry into this Subject MAN I am not without excellent helps and patterns in this Inquiry nor without the due fruits and effects that it hath had upon the Minds of them that have been exercised in it Galen though he spoke darkly and doubtfully of the Soul being destitute of much of that light which we now have yet upon the bare contemplation of the structure of the Body and the parts thereof in that excellent Book of his De Usu Partium resolves the whole Oeconomy thereof into the Power Wisdom Goodness and Efficiency of the Glorious God and is transported both with the admiration of the Divine Wisdom appearing therein and with indignation against the perversness and stupidity of Epicurus and his disciples which would attribute this one Phaenomenon to Chance And had he or should any else apply himself to the search of that Intellectual Principle in Man his Soul he will find a greater evidence of the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Power as will easily appear in a little consideration thereof CAP. II. Touching the Excellency of the Humane Nature in general ALthough I intend a more distinct Consideration of the Humane Nature and the Faculties of the Humane Soul and the Parts of the Humane Body yet it may be necessary before we come to the discussion of the origination of Mankind to premise something concerning the Nature of Mankind and its preheminence and excellence above all other sublunary Creatures that we may have a little tast touching that Being whose origination we inquire This Consideration will be of use to us in the enquiry touching the origination of Man to evidence that neither Chance nor surd or inanimate Nature could be the Efficient of such a Being but a most Wise Powerful and Excellent Author thereof I shall not at large discuss those Faculties and Organs which he hath in common with Vegetables and Brutes but those only that belong to him specifically as Man and those also but briefly The Corporeal Beings of this lower World are divided into these two ranks or kinds such as are Inanimate or not living and such as are Animate or living Life according to Aristotle in 1. De Anima cap. 1. is described by its effects viz. Nutritio auctio diminutio quae per seipsum fit and the lowest rank of such things as have life are Vegetables for though Minerals have a kind of analogical nutrition and augmentation yet it is such as ordinarily non fit per seipsa but rather by accession and digestion from external Principles and coagmentation The Principle from whence this Life flows in all Corporeal Natures that have it is that which they call Anima or at least vis Animastica The Faculties or Operations of this Anima vegetabilis are these 1. Attractio alimenti 2. Fermentatio assimilatio nutrimenti sic attracti in succum sibi congenerem 3. Digestio vel dispersio alimenti sic assimilati in diversas partes individui vegetabilis 4. Augmentatio individui vegetabilis ex unione consolidatione succi vegetabilis diversis partibus individui 5. Conformatio hujusmodi particularum unitarum specificae naturae ejusdem individui cujus est augmentatio ut in trunco ramis cortice fibris foliis fructu c. 6. Seminificatio propagatio ex semine vel partibus seminalibus 1. Attraction of aliment 2. Fermentation and assimilation of the nourishment so attracted into a juice of the same kind with it self 3. Digestion or dispersion of the aliment so assimilated into the divers parts of the vegetable individual 4. Augmentation of the vegetable individual from the union and consolidation of the vegetable juice to the divers parts of the individual 5. The conformation of these united particles to the specifical nature of the same Individual which is augmentation as in the trunk of a Tree the bark fibres leaves and fruit 6. Seminification and propagation from the seed or seminal parts These seem to be the process of the Vegetable Nature Soul and Life 2. The next rank of living Creatures is that which hath not only a vegetable life and a vegetable principle of life but hath also superadded a life of sense and a sensitive Soul or Principle of that life of Sense which nevertheless as one specifical Principle exerts the acts as well of the vegetable as sensitive life And this nature 1. Includes all those powers and faculties of the Vegetable Nature as Attraction Assimilation Digestion Augmentation Conformation and Propagation or Seminification 2. It includes them in a far more curious elegant and perfect manner at least in the more perfect Animals As for instance the first assimilation of the attracted nourishment in Vegetables converts it into a watry humor or juice but the assimilation thereof in Animals rectifies this alimental juice into Chyle and then into Blood The propagation of Vegetables is without distinction of Sexes but that of Animals usually with distinction of Sexes and many more such advances hath the animal nature above the vegetable in those faculties or operations which for the main are common to both 3. It superadds a greater and higher perfection to the animal nature by communicating to it certain essential Faculties and Powers that the vegetable nature hath not And those are these 1. Sense It is true that Campanella in his Book De Senfu rerum and some others that have written de Perceptione substantiae attribute a kind of Sense to all created Beings and therefore much more to those that have a vegetable life And in some Vegetables we see something that carries a kind of analogy to Sense they contract their leaves against the cold they open them to the favourable heat they provide teguments for themselves and their seeds against the injury of the weather as their cortices shells and membranes they seem to be carried with a complacency in the propagation of their kinds as well as Brutes and therefore many of them being impeded therein they germinate again though later in the year And some Plants seem to have the sense of Touch as in the Sensitive Plant and some others which seems to be an advance of the Vegetable Nature to the very confines or a kind of contiguity to the lowest degree of those Animals that are reckoned in the rank of Sensibles But this notwithstanding we deny a real and true sense to Vegetables indeed they have a kind of umbra Sensus a shadow of Sense as we shall hereafter observe that Sensibles have a kind of umbra Rationis a shadow of Reason but it is only a shadow thereof 2. There are also in their natures by the wise God of Nature implanted even in their vegetable natures certain passive Strictures or Signatures of that Wisdom which hath made and ordered all things with the highest reason even
latitude such as are moral and supernatural Good 3. The Acts of this Faculty are generally divided into Volition Nolition and Suspension That division that herein better suits with my purpose are these Election and Empire 1. Election or choice and this in reference both to means and end for though the Schools tell us that Electio is only mediorum non finis this is to be intended of the general end or good at large and in its universal conception for when several particular ends are in proposal there is belonging to the Will a power of Election of these as well as of the means to attain them 2. The Imperium voluntatis over the Body and the Faculties We may observe in the humane as well as the animal Body two kinds of motions or exertions of Faculties some are stiled natural or involuntary such is the motion of the Heart the Circulation of the Blood the perception of the Senses when the Organs are open and the Object applied these natural though vital Faculties and Motions are not under the command of the Will immediately for whether I will or will not while I live my Heart beats my Blood circulates my Ventricle digests what is in it my Eye sees when open But there be other Motions in the humane and also in the animal Nature that are subject to the command of the Will in Man and to the appetite in Brutes as local motion which in Animals is under the regiment of the Appetite in Man under the regiment of the Will Now this Imperium voluntatis may be considered in relation 1. To it self It can suspend its own acting either of electing or rejecting 2. To the Understanding Though it cannot suspend its perception omnibus ad percipiendum requisitis adhibitis yet it may suspend its decision or determination or at least its obsequium to such decision 3. The Passions which are as it were the Satellites voluntatis and follow the command of the Will where the Will acts according to its power and authority 4. To the animal Spirits and the Vessels in which they are received when designed to Motion namely the Nerves and Muscles those are all subject to the Empire of the Will as to Local Motion of the whole Body or any part thereof when the Spirits Nerves and Muscles are in their due and natural state 5. To the sensual Appetite And indeed herein is evident both the Empire and Sovereignty of the Will and also the visible discrimination between the Humane Nature and the Animal or Brutal Nature and its preference before it In the animal Nature it is evident that the sensual Appetite is that which hath and exerciseth the sovereignty and dominion over the spontaneous actions of the animal Nature that commands the Foot to go the Mouth to eat and all other the spontaneous motions in order to a sensible good But in Man the sensual Appetite is Regimen sub graviere regimine the government of the Appetite is under the government of the Will and controlled by it at least where the reasonable Faculty is not embased and captived by ill custom or disorder And this appears two ways 1. Sometimes the very motion of the Appetite it self is restrained by the Empire of the Will so that a man doth not appetere that sensible good which otherwise he might or would because he will not and this is the most natural and noble regiment of the Will over the sensual Appetite 2. Though it may fall out that the sensual Appetite may appetere bonum sensibile yet the Will may and doth controll the empire of the Appetite in the execution of that appetition As for instance A man sees delicious fruit and he desires it in so much that were there not a controll over the empire of his Appetite it would command the Hand to reach it and the Mouth to eat it But the contrary command of the Will supersedes the command of the Appetite the Appetite desires it but the Hand is forbidden by the Will to reach it Now if any man shall say this contradiction appears not only in the reasonable Nature but even in the sensible The sensible Appetite is checked in its execution oftentimes by sensual Fear as in Dogs and Horses and other Brutes yea sometimes by the remembrance of a former suffering for the like attempt to gratifie his sensual Appetite and yet they are destitute of any superior faculty of Will to interpose a prohibition upon the Appetite I answer this is true for in such cases the impendent Fear is either present or in memory and so expected and it being of a sensible evil hath the same influence upon the sensual Appetite as the present good and therefore if the evil feared or impendent be a greater sensible evil than the good it over-rules the Appetite to aversation as the Fish that loves the bait yet feareth the hook which it discerns as a greater sensible evil the very Appetite is thereby determined to aversation But the controll of the Will upon the Appetite in the reasonable Nature is many times and indeed most often done not upon the account of a sensible evil felt or feared which of it self were sufficient to determin the Appetite but sometimes upon the account of such hopes or fears as fall not under a sensitive notice as of the command or prohibition by God yea many times upon a bare Moral account of the indecorum unreasonableness unseasonableness or utter unfitness of the thing it self without any other motive of fear either of a present or future sensible inconvenience thereby which Moral consideration can no way move the sensible Appetite were it not for the Will which being a rational Faculty is moved by it And this is all that I shall say touching the two great Faculties of the Soul the Understanding and Will I shall not add any thing here touching Passions or Affections of the Mind 1. Because they are but a kind of appendices to the Will the Satellites voluntatis those of the concupiscible kind being as it were the flowers of the motion of Volition those of the irascible kind the flowers of the motion of Aversation 2. Because the Passions for the most part are found in the sensible Nature namely those of love hatred delight grief expectation and fear and therefore I shall not here treat of them 3. I come now to consider of those rational Instincts as I call them the connate Principles engraven in the humane Soul which though they are Truths acquirable and deducible by rational consequence and argumentation yet they seem to be inscribed in the very crasis and texture of the Soul antecedent to any acquisition by industry or the exercise of the discursive Faculty in Man and therefore they may be well called anticipations prenotions or sentiments characterized and engraven in the Soul born with it and growing up with it till they receive a check by ill customs or educations or an improvement and advancement
production is speedy and hasty and consequently that spontaneous Seed by which they may be produced and the spontaneous production it self is soon dispatcht and perfected a small portion and continuance of heat and time may perfect the whole process But it is otherwise in the perfect Animals especially in those that are Vivipara a long time is required for their formation and maturation notwithstanding the great advantage of the place and heat and supplies of their formation and support namely the Uterus foemineus Thus the same Aristotle lib. 6. Histor Animal gives us an account whereof some go above 18 Months as the Elephant some 10 Months as Cows and Mares some 5 Months as Sheep and Goats the least about 2 Months as Dogs and Wolves and this is one Reason that Aristotle Problemat ubi supra gives why these perfect Animals are not producible spontaneè nor sine conjunctione maris foeminae vel sine utero foemineo These Uteri terrestres fabled by Lucretius would never be warm or close enough for the production of those Animals who naturally are producible in utero foemineo and the intervening Winter would soon make them abortive especially on either side of the Tropicks where the heat and cold have their vicissitudes And therefore it was providently though fictitiously supposed by Cisalpinus that Ethiopia must be the only native Country for such spontaneous productions of the greater Animals and Men. 4. As the Earth was not a fit or competent Arvum genitale for viviparous Animals so the nourishment increase and support of these viviparous Animals dum in uteris morentur according to the very exigence and formation of these Embryones cannot consist with any such spontaneous Productions for besides the soft and warm involucra of the Chorion and Amnios we know the very fabrick of their nature hath given them a means and Instrument of Nutrition per venam umbilicalem sanguinem maternum attrahentem dirigentem This could never be supplied from any Terrestrial Veins unless we should suppose that Succus mutritius of the Earth to become menstruous and converted into Blood or other suitable consistence for the nourishment of the Embryo or without any Reason or Experience warranting it so suppose that some other way of nourishment should be in Embryonibus terrigenis 5. Again post partum viviparorum praecipuè generis humani it is evident that naturally the foetus is weak unable to support it self without the supplemental helps care and superintendence of their Dams or Parents some are blind as Whelps or Kitlins some are destitute of those teguments that are necessary to defend them against the cold as many kinds of Birds that stand in need of the hovering of their Dams Wings for a considerable time after they are hatched and are utterly unable to provide their own food but are hourly supplied by their Dams without which they must necessarily perish and generally all viviparous Animals that are of univocal production are for a long time fed by their Dams Milk without which or some other artificial provision subministred to them by the help of others they could not support themselves after their production as young Horses Dogs Calves Lambs But this is much more conspicuous in Humane Infants who from the time of their Birth for many Months can neither go nor stand nor procure their own food but stand in need of the care of others to keep them warm provide them covering and preserve them from being destroyed with their own Excrements But on the other side those small Animals which are supposed to be spontaneously produced stand in need of no other means for their preservation being produced but that heat and circumjacent menstruum by or in which they are produced and although these spontaneous productions being produced seem to propagate their Species by the coition of their Sexes yet for the most part these generated Individuals Mice excepted retain still that natural indoles to preserve themselves without any other supervenient assistance than what was at first sufficient after their equivocal production this we daily see in the Eggs of Silkworms of all sorts of Flies Caterpillers and Worms which though in their secondary productions by Generation yet being ripen'd to foetation by the heat of the Sun they live upon Leaves and Grass and take their food without the care or assistance of those Parents that produced them and carry along with them the indication of that Method of Life which might be consistent with the condition of a spontaneous production which is no way competible to the condition of greater Animals after their production 6. Again though the Faculties and Organs of a sensible as well as a vegetable Life appear in the smallest Insects yet it is but a weak and imperfect Life of Sensation and very little advanced above the Vegetable Nature And this appears by very many Instances as namely in their generation many Insects do seem to arise from Vegetables without any other production and they seem to be little else but the Flos vegetabilis naturae the more pure active lively Effluvia thereof as the Flies that grow in the little Vesiculae of the Leaves of Elms and Currants the Worms in the Galls of Oaks and the Burrs of Wild Rose the Worms and Flies which grow in the husks of Burrs yea many times the Parts of Vegetables divided from the Stock will turn into Animals as the Seeds of Lavander kept a little warm and moist will turn into Moths the Plant called the Horse-tail laid into Water will grow into an Insect 2. This also appears that as the several parts of Vegetables the Leaves the Branches as well as the formatum semen are seminal and productive of their Species so many times the parts of Insects carry with them a Seminal Nature effectual enough to produce their Species as hath been asserted by the Experience of many which no way happens in perfect Animals 3. This also appears in the manner of their Life for we often see in Insects divided each part keeps its motion as the several parts of Vegetables keep their animation a Fly or Wasp whose Head is cut off yet the residue of his Body will live a considerable time Flies that seem dead either with Water or Cold and continue so for some considerable time by the Heat of the Sun or warm Embers will revive and return to Life and Motion as a Branch torn from a Tree that hath been severed from it three or four days or more will resume Life by re-implantation and the Solar Heat And whereas the Eggs of a perfect Animal as of Hens Geese c. will lose their Animatick Faculties being frozen or concrete with Cold or being kept two Months or thereabouts the Seeds of Insects will continue fruitful a whole Winter or more and possibly as long as the Seed of Corn Oaks or other Vegetables as is apparent in the Eggs of Flies and Silkworms which though excluded in the last
condition of his Obedience to the Command of God and upon the breach of that Condition were either utterly lost as the indissolubility of the Union of the Compositum by one Man's Disobedience Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin Others were abated as the Excellency of his Knowledge Righteousness the fruition of Happiness the Perfection of his Sovereignty over the Creatures the Gloriousness and Beauty and much of the Vigour of his Body the exquisite Order and Subordination of his Faculties but his Essentials the Immortality of his Soul the Faculties of Intellection and Will and the Natural Beauty and Usefulness of his Body remains notwithstanding that terrible Concussion whereof somewhat more hereafter 4. We have the Method of this Production of Man it was not by or from any meer Natural Cause but by the immediate Command of the Divine Will Wisdom and Power it was not from any Semen naturally accidentally or intentionally formed and so by a gradual maturation and growth ex uteris terrestribus or as the foetus humanus is perfected at this day For it was not possible that any such Seminal Principle should be formed casually or by any meer Natural Cause as hath been already shewn And although the Divine Power could have perfected all as well Man as the other Animals by first forming such a Semen and giving it either a gradual or speedy production as Insects are at this day produced yet 1. It was utterly superfluous to have used such a processus formativus ex semine because it required no less than an Almighty Power to have moulded and fashioned or actuated such a Semen as to have produced Man by an immediate Supernatural Formation and Production and therefore since the same Power was requisite in both it is not at all necessary nor reasonable to suppose so long a process as first to form a Semen and by a Seminal Process to have perfected the Humane Nature and the Holy History expresly imports the contrary 2. If we suppose a Semen prepared by the Divine Power that Production that must arise thereupon must either be immediate and sudden if not absolutely instantaneous or it must be gradual and pass through all these spaces of Time gradual Formation and accession of Growth and Increase as we see in embryone foetu nuper nato We cannot suppose the former but we must suppose it to be otherwise than natural and call in the Divine Power to effect it as much as in an instantaneous formation sine praecedente semine And we cannot suppose the latter because it is expresly contrary to the description of the Humane Production for it was done within the compass of the Sixth Day and the formation and perfecting of the Humane Nature was immediately finished after the Omnipotent Command and Determination of the Will of God it was no sooner said faciamus hominem c. but it was done It is true in that ordinary Law which Almighty God hath instituted in Nature already established by him there are regular and successive and gradual procedures and it is convenient it should be so and it is true also in this short period of the Six Days Work within which the Universe was finished Almighty God observed a certain convenient Order making that to precede which was fittest and most useful to precede in order to the production of things but as to the speed and dispatch of Productions the Almighty God used the Majesty that became the Excellency of his Greatness and obsequious Matter presently yielded to the Power of his Command Fiat factum est Psal 33.9 He said and it was done he commanded and it stood fast Therefore although now in settled Nature and according to the standing Laws of the Divine Wisdom Man is first conceived ex semine then lodgeth 10 Months in utero muliebri wherein during that time he is gradually formed and perfected and then after his Birth gradually increaseth passeth through the impotency of Infancy the weaknesses of Childhood and the follies of Youth before he comes to a ripe and full age yet it was not so here in the same moment the Body is formed in its full and perfect nature and the Animal Soul and Faculties together with it and the Rational Soul infused in the same moment without any priority of Time but only of Order and Nature So that Man was at the very same moment a perfect Organical Body with all his Nerves Veins Viscera Bones and Parts conformed a Vital and Sensitive Nature joyned with it and a Rational Soul infused without first living the Life of a Plant then of an Animal then of a Man the whole Scene was performed in one moment and so it became both the Greatness of the Divine Majesty and Power and so it was necessary to be in the first production of Man although in the succeeding procedure of natural Generations it must be and was otherwise because the supreme Wisdom and Will judged it so And although to any Man that will duly consider almost any thing there must of necessity be another Rule or Law for the first production of things than there is or may be in the ordinary regiment and governing of Generations when Nature is once established yet the want of this Consideration hath bred all those vain Errors of those Philosophers that asserted the Eternity of the World and of those others who being not satisfied with that Hypothesis but driven by a kind of necessity of Reason to acknowledge an Origination of Mankind yet could not deliver themselves from fancying that Humane Productions must needs be as like those they now know as they could well frame them And therefore according to these Men the Earth must be conceited to be Mater and the Sun vice Patris and the Earth must have her Uteri and Succus nutritius and the Increase of Mankind must be by some such gradual process as we see in natural productions or sponte nata and they cannot easily bring their Minds to believe the instantaneous production of Man by the immediate Power of God because it hath a gradual process in ordinary natural Generations and yet the same Men can give themselves leave to imagin Hominem oriri posse sicut blitum though never Experience of former Ages since the existence of Men upon the Earth give us any Example of it bating only the Fictions of some Poets Maimonides lib. 2. cap. 27. hath observed this Mistake and singularly confutes it by evincing That if Men go by this Rule of Judgment the nature of things in their Original as they find them in their Constitution being constituted they will disbelieve the most certain Truths Neque argumentari licet ullo modo à natura rei alicujus post illius generationem firmam subsistentiam in perfectione sua ad naturam ejus eo tempore quo movebatur ad generationem quod si verò his erras plurima tibi orientur dubia absurda ut pro