for and there being such a creature as Man in the world that can read and understand these signes and characters hence to collect that the Authour both of Man and them knew the nature of them both For it is like the inscriptions upon Apothecaries Boxes that the Master of the Shop 〈◊〉 on that the Apprentise may read them nay it is better for here is in herbs inscribed the veâ—y nature and use of them not the meere name Nor is there any necessity that all should be thus signed though some be for the rarity of it is the delight for otherwise it had been dull and cloying too much harping upon the same string And besides divine Providence would onely initiate and enter mankind into the usefull knowledge of her Treasures leaving the rest to imploy our industry that we might not live like idle Loyterers and Truants For the Theatre of the world is an excercise of Mans wit not a lazy Polyanthea or book of Common places And therefore all things are in some measure obscure and intricate that the sedulity of that divine Spark the Soul of Man may have matter of conquest and triumph when he has done bravely by a superadvenient assistance of his God But that there be some Plants that bear a very evident Signature of their nature and use I shall fully make good by these following instances Capillus Venerâ— Polytrichon or Mâ—ydenhaire the lye in which it is sodden or inâ—us'd is good to wash the head and make the haire grow in those places that are more thin and bare And the decoction of Quinces which are a downy and hairy fruit is accounted good for the fetching again hair that has fallen by the French Poxe The leaf of Balme and of Alleluia or Wood-Sorrell as also the Roots of Anthora represent the heart in figure and are Cardiacall Wall nuts beare the whole signature of the head The outward green Cortex answers to the Pericranium and a salt made of it is singularly good for wounds in that part as the kernell is good for the brains which it resembles Vmbilicus Veneris is powerfull to provoke lust as Diâ—scorides affirmes As also your severall sorts of Satyrions which have the evident resemblance of the genitall parts upon them Aron especially and all your Orchisses that they have given names unto from some beasts or other as Cynosorchis Orchis Myodes Tragorchis and the like The last whereof notorious also for its goatish smell and tufts not unlike the beard of that lecherous Animall is of all the rest the most powerful Incentive to Lust. The leaves of Hypericon are very thick prick'd or pinck'd with little holes and it is a singular good wound-herb as usefull also for deobstructing the pores of the body Scorpioides Echium or Scorpion-grasse is like the crooked tayle of a Scorpion and Ophioglossum or Adders-tongue has a very plain and perfect resemblance of the tongue of a Serpent as also Ophioscorodon of the intire head and upper parts of the body and these are all held very good against poyson and the biting of Serpents And generally all such plants as are speckled with spots like the skins of vipers or other venemous creatures are known to be good against the stings or bitings of them and are powerfull Antidotes against Poyson Thus did divine Providence by naturall Hieroglyphicks read short Physick lectures to the rude wit of man that being a little entered and engaged he might by his own industry and endeavours search out the rest himself it being very reasonable that other herbs that had not such signatures might be very good for Medicinall uses as well as they that had But if any here object that some herbs have the resemblance of such things as cannot in any likelyhood referre to Physick as Geranium Cruciata Bursa Pastoris the like I say they answer themselves in the very proposall of their Objection For this is a signe that they were intended onely for ludicrous ornaments of Nature like the flourishes about a great letter that signify nothing but are made onely to delight the Eye And 't is so farre from being any inconvenience to our first progenitours if this intimation of signatures did faile that it cast them with more courage upon attempting the vertue of those that had no such signatures at all it being obvious for them to reason thus Why may not those herbs have medicinall vertue in them that have no signatures as well as they that have signatures have no vertue answerable to the signes they beare which was a further confirmation to them of the former conclusion And it was sufficient that those that were of so present and great consequence as to be Antidotes against poyson that so quickly would have dispatch'd poore rude and naked Antiquity or to helpe on the small beginnings of the world by quickning and actuating their phlegmatick Natures to more frequent and effectuall Venery for their long lives shew they were not very fiery I say it was sufficient that herbs of this kind were so legibly sign'd with Characters that so plainly bewrai'd their usefull vertues as is manifest in your Satyrions Ophioglossum and the like But I have dwelt too long upon this Theory wee 'l betake our selves to what followes CHAP. VII Arguments of divine Providence drawn from the Usefulness of Plants VVE are at length come to the fourth and last consideration of Plants viz. their Vse Profitablenesse And to say nothing now of those greater Trees that are fit for Timber and are the requisite Materials for the building of Ships and magnificent Houses to adorne the Earth and make the life of Man more splendid and delectable as also for the erecting of those holy Structures consecrated to divine Worship amongst which we are not to forget that famous Aedifice that glorious Temple at Jerusalem consecrated to the great God of Heaven and Earth As indeed it was most fit that he whose Guidance Providence permitted not the strength of the Earth to spend it self in base gravel and pebbles insteed of Quarries of Stones nor in briars and brush-wood instead of Pines Cedars and Okes that he should at some time or other have the most stately magnificent Temples erected to him that the wit and industry of Man and the best of those materials could afford It being the most suteable acknowledgment of thanks for that piece of Providence that can be invented And it is the very consideration that moved that pious King David to designe the building of a Temple to the God of Israel See now sayes he I dwell in a house of Cedar but the Arke of God dwelleth within Curtains But as I sayd I will add nothing concerning these things being contented with what I have glanced upon heretofore We will now briefly take notice of the profitablenesse of Plants for Physick and Food and then paste on to the consideration of Animalls And as for their Medicinall uses the large Herballs that are
Wherefore unlesse a man will doe enormous violence to his faculties he must conclude that there is a contrivance of Providence and Counsell in all those things which reacheth from the beginning to the end and orders all things sweetly And that Providence foreseeing what a kind of Creature she would make Man provided him with materialls from whence he might be able to adorne his present Age and furnish History with the Records of egregious exploits both of Art and Valour But without the provision of the forenamed Materialls the Glory and Pompe both of warre and Peace had been lost For men instead of those magnificent buildings which are seen in the world could have had no better kind of dwellings then a bigger sort of Bee-hives or Birds-nests made of contemptible sticks and straws durty moâ—ter And instead of the usuall pompe and bravery of warre wherein is heard the solemne sound of the hoarse Trumpett the couragious beating of the Drumm the neighing and pransing of the Horses clattering of Armour and the terrible thunder of Cannons to say nothing of the glittering of the Sword and Spear the waving and fluttering of displayed Colours the gallantry of Charges upon their well managed Steeds and the like I say had it not been for the forenamed provision of Iron Steel and Brasse and such like necessary Materialls instead of all this glory and solemnity there had been nothing but howlings and showtings of poor naked men belabouring one another with snag'd sticks or dully falling together by the eares at Fiâ—ti-cuffs Besides this Beasts being naturally armed and men naturally unarmed with any thing save their Reason and Reason being ineffectuall having no materialls to work upon it is plaine that that which made Men Beasts and Metalls knew what it did and did not forget it self in leaving Man destitute of naturall Armature having provided Materialls and giving him wit and abilityes to arme himself and so to be able to make his party good against the most fierce and stoutest of all living Creatures whatsoever nay indeed left him unarmed on purpose that he might arme himself and excercise his naturall wit and industry CHAP. IV. A further proof of divine Providence taken from the Sea and the large train of Causes laid together in reference to Navigation HAving thus passed over the Hills and through the Woods and hollow Entrailes of the Earth let us now view the wide Sea also and see whether that do not informe us that there is a God that is whether things be not there in such sort as a rationall Principle would either order or approve when as yet notwithstanding they might have been otherwise And now we are come to view those Campos natantes as Lucretius calls them that vast Champian of water the Ocean I demand first whether it might not have been wider then it is even so large as to overspread the face of the whole Earth and so to have taken away the habitation of Men and Beasts For the wet particles might have easily ever mingled with the dry and so all had either been Sea or Quag-mire Secondly though this distinction of Land and Sea be made whether this watry Element might not have fallen out to be of so thin a consistency as that it would not beare Shipping For it is so farre from impossibility as there be de facto in Nature such waters as the river Silas for example in India And the waters of Bâ—risthenes are so thin and light that they are said to swim upon the top of the Stream of the river Hypanis And we know there is some kind of wood so heavy that it will sink in any ordinary kind of water Thirdly and lastly I appeale to any mans reason whether it be not better that there should be a distinction of Land and Sea then that all should be mire or water and whether it be not better that the Timber-trees afford wood so light that it swim on the water or the water be so heavy that it will beare up the wood then the Contrary That therefore which might have been otherwise and yet is settled according to our own hearts wish who are knowing and rationall Creatures ought to be deemed by us as established by Counsell and Reason And the closer we looke into the buisinesse we shall discerne more evident foot-steps of Providence in it For the two maine properties of Man being contemplation and sociablenesse or love of converse there could nothing so highly gratify his nature as power of Navigation whereby he riding on the back of the waves of the Sea views the wonders of the Deep and by reason of the glâ—bnesse of that Element is able in a competent time to prove the truth of those sagacious suggestions of his own mind that is whether the Earth be every way round and whether there be any Antipodes and the like and by cutting the Aequinoctiall line decides that controversy of the habitablenesse of the Torrid Zone or rather wipes out that blot that lay upon divine Providence as if so great a share of the world had been lost by reason of unfitnesse for habitation Besides the falling upon strange Coasts and discovering Men of so great a diversity of manners from our selves cannot but be a thing of infinite pleasure and advantage to the enlargement of our thoughts from what we observe in their conversation parts and Poliâ—y Adde unto this the sundry rarities of Nature and commodities proper to severall Countries which they that stay at home enjoy by the travailes of those that go abroad and they that travaile grow rich for their adventure Now therefore Navigation being of so great consequence to the delight and convenience of humane life and there being both wit and courage in Man to attempt the Seas were he but â—itted with right Materialls and other advantages requisite when we see there is so pat a provision made for him to this puâ—pose in large Timber for the building of his Ship in a thick Sea-water sufficient to beare the Ships burden in the Magnet or Load-stone for his Compasse in the steady and parallell direction of the Axis of the Earth for his Cynosura and then observing his naturall wit and courage to make use of them and how that ingenit desire of knowledge anâ— converse and of the improving of his own parts and happinesse stirre him up to so notable a designe we cannot but conclude from such a traine of Causes so â—ittly and congruously complying together that it was really the counsell of aâ— universall and eternall Mind that has the overseeing and guidance of the whole frame of Nature that laid these causes so carefully and wisely together that is we cannot but conclude that there is a God And if we have got so fast foot-hold already in this truth by the consideration of such Phaenomena in the world that seeme more rude and generall what will the contemplation of the more particular and more polished pieces of Nature
fansifull Theosophy or Theomagy as it is very ridiculous in it self so also to appeare to the world and if it were possible to the very favourers of it it being the most effectuall means in my judgment to remove this dangerous evill out of the minds of men and to keep it off from theirs that are as yet untainted And this I indeavoured in those two late Pamphlets I wrote namely my Observations and my Reply In both which I putting my self upon the merry pin as you see it was necessary so to do and being finely warm'd with Anger and Indignation against the mischief I had in designe to remove if I may seem after the manner of men to have transgressed in any niceties yet the ingenuous cannot but be very favourable in their censure it being very hard to come off so clearly well in the acting of so humorous a part there scarce being any certaine Judge of humours but the humour of every man that judges And I am very well aware that some passages cannot but seem harsh to sad and weakly Spirits as sick men love no noise nor din and take offence at but the smell of such meats as are the most pleasant and strengthening nourishment of those that are well But as for my selfe I can truly pronounce that what I did I did in reason judgment not at all offending that Life that dwelleth in mee For there was that Tonicall exertion and steady Tension of my Spirits that every chord went off with a cleare and smart sound as in a well-tuned Instrument set at a high Pitch and was good Musick to my self that throughly understood the meaning of it And my agile and swift Motion from one thing to another even of those that were of very different natures was no harsh harmony at all to mee I having the art to stop the humming of the last stroke as a skilfull Harper on his Irish Harpe and so to render the following chord cleane without the mixing or interfaring of any tremulous murmurs from the strings that were touch'd immediately before And I did the more willingly indulge to my self this freedome and mirth in respect of the Libertines whom I was severely and sharply to reprove and so made my self as freely merry as I might and not desert the realities of Sobernesse that thereby they might know that no Superstitious Sneaksby or moped Legallist as they would be ready to fancy every body that bore no resemblance at all with themselves did rebuke them or speak to them but one that had in some measure attain'd to the truth of that Liberty that they were in a false sent after Thus was I content to become a Spectacle to the world in any way or disguise whatsoever that I might thereby possibly by any means gain some souls out of this dirty and dizzy whirle-poole of the Flesh into the Rest and Peace of God and to seem a fool my self to provoke others to become truly and seriously wise And as I thought to winne upon the Libertine by my mirth and freenesse so I thought to gain ground upon the Enthusiast by suffering my self to be carried into such high Triumphs and Exaltations of Spirit as I did In all which though the unskilfull cannot distinguish betwixt vain-glory and Divine joy or Christian gloriation I do really nothing but highly magniâ—y the simplicity of the life of Christ above all Magick Miracles Power of Nature Opinions Prophecies and what ever else humane nature is so giddily and furiously carried after even to the neglecting of that which is the sublimest pitch of happinesse that the soul of man can arrive to Wherefore many of those expressions in my Reply that seem so turgent are to be interpreted with allusion to what this Divine life does deservedly triumph over and particularly what Magicians boast they can do As in that passage which seems most enormous pag. 49th I still the raging of the Sea c. Which is the very same that Medea vaunts of in Ovid Concussaque sisto Stantia concutio cantu freta nubila pello And for the rest that has falne from me in those free heats I 'me sure there is neither Expression nor Meaning that I cannot not only make good by reason but warrant and countenance also by some thing plainly parallell thereto in Scripture Philosophers and Fathers especially Origen whom I account more profoundly learned and no lesse pious then any of them But as I said the Drift and Scope of all was vigourously to witnesse to this buisy and inquisitive Age that the Simplicity of the life of Christ though it bee run over by most and taken no notice of that is that perfect Humility and divine Love whence is a free command over a mans passions and a warrantable Guidance of them with all Serenity becoming Prudence and Equity that these are above all the glory of the World curiosity of Opinions and all power of Nature whatsoever And if the sense of this so plaine a truth with all it's power and lovelinesse did so vehemently possesse my soul that it caused for the present some sensible mutations and tumults in my very Animall Spirits and my body the matter being of so great Importance it was but an obvious piece of prudence to record those Circumstances that professing my self so very much moved others might be the more effectually moved thereby according to that of the Poet si vis me flere dolendum est Primùm ipsi tibi And I am no more to be esteemed an Enthusiast for such passages as these then those wise and circumspect Philosophers Plato and Plotinus who upon the more then ordinary sensible visits of the divine Love and Beauty descending into their enravish'd soules professe themselves no lesse moved then what the sense of such expressions as these will bear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And to such Enthusiasme as is but the Triumph of the soul of man inebriated as it were with the delicious sense of the Divine life that blessed Root and Original of all holy wisdome virtue I am as much a friend as I am to the vulgar fanaticall Enthusiasme a professed enemie And eternal shame stop his mouth that will dare to deny but that the fervent love of God and of the pulchritude of Vertue will afford the spirit of man more joy and triumph then ever was tasted in any lustfull pleasure which the pen of unclean Wits do so highly magnify both in verse and prose Thus much I thought fit to premise concerning my two late Pamphlets which I have done in way of Civility to the world to whom I hold my selfe accountable especially for any publique Actions who now I hope will not deem those unexpected Motions of mine so strange and uncouth they so plainly perceiving what Musick they were measured to But as for this present Discourse against Atheisme as there is no humour at all in it so I hope there is lesse hazzard of Censure
afford in Vegetables Animalls and the Body of Man CHAP. V. Though the meere motion of the Matter may do something yet it will not amount to the production of Plants and Animalls That it is no Botch in Nature that some Phaenomena be the results of Motion others of Substantiall Formes That Beauty is not a meere Phancy and that the Beauty of Plants is an argument that they are from an Intellectuall Principle HItherto we have only considered the more rude and carelesse strokes and delineaments of divine Providence in the world set out in those more large Phaenomena of Day and Night Winter and Summer Land and Sea Rivers Mountains Metalls and the like we now come to a closer view of God and Nature in Vegetables Animalls and Man And first of Vegetables where I shall touch only these foure heads their Forme and Beauty their Seed their Signatures their great Vse as well for Medicine as Sustenance And that we may the better understand the advantage we have in this closer Contemplation of the works of Nature we are in the first place to take notice of the condition of that Substance which we call Matter how fluid and slippery and undeterminate it is of it self or if it be hard how unfit it is to be chang'd into any thing else And therefore all things rot into a moisture before any thing can be generated of them as we soften the wax before we set on the Seal Now therefore unlesse we will be so foolish as because the uniforme motion of the Aire or some more subtile corporeall Element may so equally compresse or beare against the parts of a little vapourous moisture as to forme it into round drops as we see in the Dew and other Experiments and therefore because this more rude and generall Motion can do something to conclude that it does all things we must in all Reason confesse that there is an Eternall Mind in vertue whereof the Matter is thus usefully formed and changed But meere rude and undirected Motion because naturally it will have some kind of Results that therefore it will reach to such as plainly imply a wise contrivance of Counsell is so ridiculous a Sophisme as I have already intimated that it is more fit to impose upon the inconsiderate Souls of Fooles and Children then upon men of mature Reason and well exercis'd in Philosophy Admit that Raine and Snow and Wind and Haile and Ice and such like Meteors may be the products of Heat and Cold or of the Motion and Rest of certaine small particles of the Matter yet that the usefull and beautifull contrivance of the branches flowers and fruits of Plants should be so too to say nothing yet of the bodyes of Birds Fishes Beasts and Men is as ridiculous and supine a Collection as to inferre that because mere Heat and Cold does soften and harden waxe and puts it into some shape or other that therefore this mere Heat and Cold or Motion and Rest without any art or direction made the Silver Seal too and graved upon it so curiously some Coat of Armes or the shape of some Birds or Beasts as an Eagle a Lyon and the like Nay indeed this inference is more tolerable farre then the other these effects of Art being more easy and lesse noble then those others of Nature Nor is it any botch or gap at all in the works of Nature that some particular Phaenomena be but the easy results of that generall Motion communicated unto the Matter from God others the effects of more curious contrivance or of the divine Art or Reason for such are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Rationes Seminales incorporated in the Matter especially the Matter it self being in some sort vitall else it would not continue the Motion that it is put upon when it is occasionally this or the other way moved besides the Nature of God being the most perfect fullnesse of life that is possibly conceivable it is very congruous that this outmost and remotest shadow of himself be some way though but obâ—curely vitall Wherefore things falling off by degrees from the highest perfection it will be no uneven or unproportionable step if descending from the Top of this outward Creation Man in whom there is a principle of more fine and reflexive Reason which hangs on though not in that manner in the more perfect kind of Brutes as sense also loth to be curb'd within too narrow a compasse layes hold upon some kinds of Plants as in those sundry sorts of Zoophyta but in the rest there are no further foot-steps discovered of an animadversive forme abiding in them yet there be the effects of an inadvertent form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of materiated or incorporated Art or Seminall Reason I say it is no uneven jot to passe from the more faint and obscure examples of Spermaticall life to the more considerable effects of generall Motion in Mineralls Metalls sundry Meteors whose easy rude shapes have no need of any particular principle of life or Spermaticall forme distinct from the Rest or Motion of the particles of the Matter But there is that Curiosity of forme and beauty in the more noble kind of Plants bearing such a sutablenesse and harmony with the more refined â—ense and sagacity of the Soul of Man that he cannot chose his Intellectuall Touch being so sweetly gratifide by what it deprehends in such like Objects but acknowledge that some hidden Cause much a kin to his own nature that is intellectuall is the contriver perfecter of these so pleasant spectacles in the world Nor is it all to the purpose to object that this buisinesse of Beauty and comelinesse of proportion is but a conceit because some men acknowledge no such thing all things are alike handsome to them who yet notwithstanding have the use of their Eyes as well as other folkes For I say this rather makes for what we a yme at that pulchritude is convey'd indeed by the outward Senses unto the Soul but a more intellectuall faculty is that which relishes it as a Geometricall Scheme is let in by the Eyes but the demonstration is discern'd by Reason And therefore it is more rationall to affirm that some Intellectuall Principle was the Authour of this Pulchritude of things then that they should be thus fashion'd without the help of that Principle And to say that there is no such thing as Pulchritude because some mens Souls are so dull stupid that they relish all objects alike in that respect is as absurd and groundlesse as to conclude there is no such thing as Reason and Demonstration because a naturall Fool cannot reach unto it But that there is such a thing as Beauty that it is acknowledged by the whole generations of Men to be in Trees Flowers and Fruits the adorning and beautifying of Buildings in all Ages is an ample undenyable Testimony For what is more ordinary with them then the taking in flowers and
away into Solitudes and Deserts or else brought them under his subjection and gave lawes unto them Under which they live more peaceably and are better provided for or at least might be if Men were good then they could be when they were left to the mercy of the Lyon Bear or Tiger And what it he doe occasionally and orderly kill some of them for food their dispatch is quick and so lesse dolorous then the paw of the Bear or the teeth of the Lyon or tedious Melancholy and sadnesse of old Age which would first torture them and then kill them and let them srot upon the ground stinking and uselesse Besides all the wit and Philosophy in the world can never demonstrate that the killing and slaughtering of a Beast is any more then the striking of a bush where a birds Nest is where you fray away the Bird and then seize upon the empty Nest. So that if we could pierce to the utmost Catastrophe of things all might prove but a Tragick-Comedy But as for those Rebells that have fled into the Mountains and Deserts they are to us a very pleasant subject of naturall History besides we serve our selves of them as much as is to our purpose And they are not onely for ornaments of the Universe but a continuall Exercise of Mans Wit and Valour when he pleases to encounter But to expect and wish that there were nothing but such dull tame things in the world that will neither bite nor scratch is as groundlesse and childish as to wish there were no choler in the body nor fire in the universall compasse of Nature I cannot insist upon the whole result of this warre nor must forget how that generous Animall the Horse had at last the wit to yield himself up to his own great advantage and ours And verily he is so fitly made for us that we wight justly claim a peculiar right in him above all other Creatures When we observe his patient service he does us at the Plough Cart or under the Pack-saddle his speed upon the high way in matters of importance his dociblenesse and desire of glory and praise and consequently his notable atchievements in war where he will knap the Speares a pieces with his teeth and pull his Riders Enemy out of the Saddle and then that he might be able to performe all this labour with more Ease that his hoofs are made so fit for the Art of the Smith and that round armature of Iron he puts upon them it is a very hard thing not to acknowledge that this so congruous contrivance of things was really from a Principle of Wisdome and Counsell There is also another consideration of Aniâ—alls and their usefulnesse in removing those Evills we are pester'd with by reason of the abundance of some other hurtfull Animalls such as are Mice and Rats and the like and to this end the Cat is very serviceable And there is in the West-Indies a beast in the form of a Beare which Cardan calls Vrsus Formicarius whose very businesse it is to eate up all the Ants which some parts of that Quarter of the World are sometimes excessively plagued withall We might add also sundry Examples of living Creatures that not onely bear a singular good affection to Mankind but are also fierce Enemies to those that are very hurtfull and cruell to Man and such are the Lizard an Enemy to the Serpent the Dolphin to the Crocodile the Horse to the Bear the Elephant to the Dragon c. but I list not to insist upon these things CHAP. IX Arguments of divine Providence fetched from the Pulchritude of Animalls as also from the manner of their Propagation I Return now to what I proposed first the Beauty of living Creatures which though the coarse-spirited Atheist will not take notice of as relishing nothing but what is subservient to his Tyranny or Lust yet I think it undeniable but that there is comely Symmetry Beautifulnesse in sundry living Creatures a tolerable usefull Proportion of parts in all For neither are all men and women exquisitly handsome indeed very few that they that are may raise the greater admiration in the minds of Men and quicken their natural abilities to brave adventures either of Valour or Poetry But as for the brute Creatures though some of them be of an hatefull aspect as the Toad the Swine the Raâ— yet these are but like discords in Musick to make the succeeding chord goe off more pleasantly as indeed most of those momentany inconveniences that the life of Man ever and anon meets withall they but put a greater edge and vigour upon his Enioyments But it is not hard to find very many Creatures that are either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher distinguishes that are either very goodly things and beautifull or at least elegant and pretty as most of your Birds are But for Statelinesse and Majesty what is comparable to a Horse whether you looke upon him single with his Mane and his Taile waving in the wind and hear him coursing and neighing in the pastures or whether you see him with some gallant Heros on his back performing gracefully his usefull postures and practising his exploits of warre who can withhold from concluding that a providence brought these two together that are fitted so well to each other that they seem but one compleat Spectacle of Nature which imposed upon the rude people neere Thessaly and gave the occasion of the fabulous Centaurs as if they had been one living Creature made up of Horse and Man That which I drive at is this there being that Goodlinesse in the bodies of Animalls as in the Oxe Grey-hound and Stagge or that Majesty and Statelinesse as in the Lyon the Horse the Eagle and Cock or that grave Awfullnesse as in your best breed of Mastives or Elegancy and Prettinesse as in your lesser Dogs and most sorts of Birds all which are severall Modes or Beauty and Beauty being an intellectuall Object as Symmetry and Proportion is which I proved sufficiently in what I spake concerning the beauty of Plants that which naturally followes from all this is that the Authour or Originall of these Creatures which are deemed beautifull must himself be intellectuall he having contrived so gratefull objects to the Mind or Intellect of Man After their Beauty let us touch upon their Birth or manner of Propagation And here I appeale to any man whether the contrivance of Male and Female in living Creatures be not a genuine effect of Wisdome and Counsell for it is notoriously obvious that these are made one for the other and both for the continuation of the Species For though we should admit with Cardan and other Naturallists that the Earth at first brought forth all manner of Animalls as well as Plants and that they might be fastned by the Navell to their common Mother the Earth as they are now to the Female in the Wombe yet we
themselves into such damps and deadnesse of Spirit that to be buried quick were lesse torture by farre then such darke privations of all the joyes of life then such sad and heart-sinking Mortifications I say whether we consider these inward pangs of the Soul or the externall outrages caused by Religion and Religious pretense will animate men to the committing such violences as bare Reason and the single passions of the Mind unback'd with the fury of Superstition will never venture upon it is manifest that if there were no God no Spirit no Life to come it were farre better that there were no such Religious propensions in Man-kind as we see universally there is For the feare of the Civill Magistrate the convenience of mutuall ayde and support and the naturall scourge and plague of diseases would contain men in such bounds of Justice Humanity and Temperance as would make them more clearly and undisturbedly happy then they are now capable of being from any advantage Religion does to either Publique State or private person supposing there were no God Wherefore this Religious affection which Nature has implanted and as strongly rooted in Man as the feare of death or the love of women would be the most enormous slip or bungle she could commit so that she would so shamefully faile in the last Act in this contrivance of the nature of Man that instead of a Plaudite she would deserve to be hissed off the Stage But she having done all things else so wisely let us rather suspect our own ignorance then reproach her and expect that which is allowed in well approved Comedies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for nothing can unlose this knot but a Deity And then we acknowledging Man to dwell as it were in the borders of the spirituall and materiall world for he is utriusque mundi nexus as Scaliger truly calls him we shall not wonder that there is such tugging and pulling this way and that way upward and downward and such broken disorder of things those that dwell in the confines of two kingdomes being most subject to disquiet and confusion And hitherto of the Passions of the mind of Man as well those that tye him down to the Body as those that lift him up towards God Now briefly of the whole Man as he is part of the Vniverse It is true if we had not been here in the world we could not then have missed our selves but now we find our selves in being and able to examine the reasonableness of things we cannot but conclude that our Creation was an Act of very exquisite Reason Counsel For there being so many notable Objects in the world to entertaine such faculties as Reason and inquisitive Admiration there ought to be such a member of this visible Creation as Man that those things might not be in vaine And if Man were out of the world who were then left to view the face of Heaven to wonder at the transcursion of Comets to calculate Tables for the Motions of the Planets and Fix'd Starres and to take their Heights and Distances with Mathematicall Instruments to invent convenient Cycles for the computation of time and consider the severall formes of Yeares to take notice of the Directions Stations and Repedations of those Erratick lights and from thence most convincingly to informe himself of that pleasant and true Paradox of the Annuall Motion of the Earth to view the asperityes of the Moon through a Diâ—ptrick-glasse and venture at the Proportion of her Hills by their shadowes to behold the beauty of the Rain-bow the Halo Parelii and other Meteors to search out the causes of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea and the hidden vertue of the Magnet to inquire into the usefullnesse of Plants and to observe the variety of the wisdome of the first Cause in framing their bodies and giving sundry observable instincts to Fishes Birds and Beasts And lastly as there are particular Priests amongst Men so the whole Species of Man-kind being indued with Reason and a power of finding out God there is yet one singular end more discoverable of his Creation viz. that he may be a Priest in this magnificent Temple of the Vniverse and send up prayers and praises to the great Creatour of all things in behalf of the rest of the Creatures Thus we see all filled up and fitted without any defect or uselesse superfluity Wherefore the whole Creation in generall and every part thereof being so ordered as if the most exquisite Reason and Knowledge had contrived them it is as naturall to conclude that all this is the work of a wise God as at the first sight to acknowledge that those inscribed Vrnes and Coynes digg'd out of the Earth were not the Products of unknowing Nature but the Artifice of Man CHAP. I. That good men not alwayes faring best in this world the great examples of Divine Vengeance upon wicked and blasphemous Persons are not so convincing to the obstinate Atheist The irreligious Jeares and Sacrileges of Dionysius of Syracuse That there have been true Miracles in the world as well as false and what are the best and safest wayes to distinguish them that we may not be impos'd upon by History HItherto I have insisted upon such Arguments for the proving of the Existence of God as were taken from the ordinary and known Phaenomena of Nature For such is the History of Plants Animalls and Man I shall come now to such effects discovered in the World as are not deemed naturall but extraordinary and miraculous I do not mean unexpected discoveries of Murders a conspicuous Vengeance upon proud and blasphemous Persons such as Nicanor Antiochus Herod and the like of which all Histories as well Sacred as Profane are very full and all which tend to the impressing of this divine Precept in the Poet upon the minds of Men Discite Justitiam moniti non temnere Divos For though these Examples cannot but move indifferent men to an acknowledgment of divine Providence and a superiour Power above and different from the Matter yet I having now to do with the obstinate and refractory Atheist who because himself a known contemner of the Deity he finds to be safe and well at ease will shuffle all these things off by asking such a Question as he did to whom the Priest of Neptune shewed the many Dâ—naria hung up in his Temple by his Votaries saved from ship-wrack therefore vaunted much of the Power of that God of the Sea But what is become of all those saith he that notwithstanding their vowes have been lost So I say the Atheist to evade the force of this Argument will whisper within himself But how many proud blasphemous Atheisticall men like my self have escaped and those that have been accounted good have dyed untimely deaths Such as Aesop and Socrates the Prophets Apostles and Martyrs with sundry other wise and good men in all Ages and Places who yet being not so well aware of the ill
reasonable that a man changing the frame of his minde changes his Genius withall Or rather unless a man be very sincere and single-hearted that he is left to common Providence as well as if he be not desperately wicked or deplorably miserable scarce any particular evill Spirit interposes or offers himself a perpetuall Assistent in his affaires and fortunes But extreme Poverty irksome old Age want of Friends the Contempt Injury and Hardheartednesse of evill Neighbours working upon a Soul low sunk into the body and wholy devoid of the Divine life does sometimes kindle so sharp so eager and so piercing a desire of Satisfaction and Revenge that the shreeks of men while they are a murdering the howling of a Wolf in the fields in the night or the squeaking and roring of tortured Beasts do not â—o certainly call to them those of their own kinde as this powerfull Magick of a pensive and complaining soul in the bitternesse of it's affliction attracts the ayd of these over-officious Spirits So that it is most probable that they that are the forwardest to â—ang Witches are the first that made them and have no more goodnesse nor true piety then these they so willingly prosecute but are as wicked as they though with better luck or more discretion offending no further then the Law will permit them and therefore they securely starve the poor helpless man though with a great deal of clamour of justice they will revenge the death of their Hogg or Cow Thirdly it were worth our disquisition why Spirits so seldome now adayes appear especially those that are good whether it be not the wickednesse of the present Age as I have already hinted or the generall prejudice men have against all Spirits that appear that they must be straightwayes Divells or the frailty of humane nature that is not usually able to bear the appearance of a Spirit no more then other Animalls are for into what agonies Horses and Doggs are cast upon their approach is in every ones mouth and is a good circumstance to distinguish a reall Apparition from our own Imaginations or lastly whether it be the condition of Spirits themselves who it may be without some violence done to their own nature cannot become visible it being happily as troublesome a thing to them to keep themselves in one steady visible consistency in the aire as it is for men that dive to hold their breath in the water Fourthly it may deserve our search whether Spirits have any settled forme or shape Angells are commonly pictured like good plump cherâ—y-cheek'd Lads Which is no wondâ—r the boldnesse of the same Artists not sticking to picture God Almighty in the shape of an old man In both it is as it pleases the Painter But this story seems rather to favour their opinion that say that Angells and seperate Sâ—uls have no settled forme but what they please to give themselves upon occasion by the power of their own Phansy Ficinuâ— as I remember somewhere calls them Aereall Starres And the good Genii seem to me to be as the benigne Eyes of God running to and fro in the world with love and pitty beholding the innocent endeavours of harmlesse and single-hearted men ever ready to doe them good and to help them What I conceive of separate Soules and Spirits I cannot better expresse then I have already in my Poem of the Prâ—existency of the Soul And I hope it will be no sin to be better then my word who in my Preface have promissed no Poetry at all but I shall not think much to offer to your view these two Stanzas out of the forenamed Poem Like to a light fast lock'd in Lanthorn dark Whereby by Night our wary steps we guide In slabby streets and dirty Chanels mark Some wâ—aker rayes from the black top do glide And flusher streams perhaps through th' horny side But when we 've past the perill of the way Arriv'd at home and laid that case aside The naked light how clearly doth it ray And spread its joyful beames as bright as Summer's day Even so the Soul in this contracted state Confin'd to these straight Instruments of Sense More dull and narrowly doth operate At this hole heares the Sight must ray from thence Here tasts there smells But when she 's gone from hence Like naked Lamp she is one shining Spheare And round about has perfect cognoscence What ere in her Horizon doth appear She is one Orb of sense all Eye all airy Eear And what I speak there of the condition of the Soul out of the Body I think is easily applicable to other Genâ—i or Spirits The fift Enquiry may be how these good Genâ—i become serviceable to men for either heightening their Devotions or inabling them to Prophecy whether it can be by any other way then by descending into their bodies and possessing the heart and braine For the Euchites who affected the gift of Prophecy by familiarity with evill Spirits did utterly obliterate in their Souls the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Principles of Goodnesse and Honesty as you may see in Psellus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the evill Spirits might come into their bodies whom those sparks of virtue as they said would drive away but those being extinguish'd they could come in and possess them and inable them to prâ—phecy And that the Imps of Witches do sometimes enter their own bodies as well as their's to whom they send them is plain in the Story of the Witches of Warbois It is also the opinion of Trismegist that these Spirits get into the Veines and Arteries both of men and beasts Wherefore concerning the Dreames and Visions of this holy man that so freely imparted himself to Bodinus it may be conceived reasonable that the good Genius insinuated himself into his very Body as well as the bad into the bodies of the wicked and that residing in his braine and figuring of it by thinking of this or that Object as we ourselves figure it when we think the external senses being laid asleep those figurations would easily be represented to the Common sense and that Memory recovering them when he awaked they could not but seem to him as other Dreames did saving that they were better they ever signifying some thing of importance unto him But those Raptures of Devotion by day might be by the Spirits kindling a purer kinde of Love-flame in his heart as well as by fortifying and raising his Imagination And how far a man shall be carried beyond himself by this redoubled soul in him none I think can well conceive unlesse they had the experience of it And if this be their manner of communion it may well be enquired into in the sixt place whether all men be capable of consociation with these good Genii Cardan somewhere intimates that their approaches are deprehensible by certain sweet smells they cast From whence it may seem not improbable that those bodies that smell sweet themselves where the mind does
say that Mankind might have been at once from all Aeternity unlesse the Omnipotency of a God who can do what ever we can imagine and more should by his unresistable Fiat cause such a thing in a moment so soon as himself was which was ever and he was never to seek for either power or skill But that the fluid Matter of it self should have been thus raised up from all Aeternity into such compleat Species of things is very groundlesse and irrationall I say that there ever should be such a thing as this in the world a man at once existing of himself in this corporeall frame that we see who notwithstanding did afterwards dye like other mortalls is a fable above all Poeticall Figments whatsoever and more incredible then the hardest Article that any Religion ever offered to the Atheist's beliefe Others therefore deserting this way of Evasion betake themselves to another which though it seem more plausible at first view is fully as frivolous They say that all the Species of things Man himself not excepted came first â—ut of the Earth by the omnifarious attempt of the particles of the Matter upon one another which at last light on so lucky a construction and fabrick of the Bodies of Creatures as we see and that having an infinite series of time to try all tricks in they would of necessity at last come to this they are But I answer that these particles might commit infiniâ—e Tautologies in their strokes and motions and that therefoâ—e there was no such nâ—cessiâ—y at all of falling into those formes and shapes that appeaâ—e in the world Again there is that excellent contrivance in the Body suppose of a Man as â— have heretofore instanced that it cannot but be the effect of very accurate Knowledge and Counsell And lastly this concourse of Atoms they being left without a guide it is a miracle above all apprehension that they should produce no inâ—pt Species of things such as should of their own nature have but three Leggs and one Eye or but one Eare rowes of Teeth along the Vertebrae of their Backs and the like as I have above intimated these Inâ—ptitudes being more easy to hit upon than such accurate and irreprehensible frames of Creatures But to â—lude the force of this Argument against the fortuitous concourse of Atoms they 'll excogâ—taâ—e thâ—s mad evasion That Nature did indeed at first bring forth such ill-favoured and ill-appointed Monsters as well as those that are of a more exquisite frame but those that were more peâ—fect fell upon those other and kill'd them and devoured then they being not so well provided of either limbs or senses as the other and so were never able to hop fast enough from them or maturely to discover the approaching dâ—ngers that ever and anon were coming upon them But this unjust and audacious calumny cast upon God and Nature will be easily discover'd and convicted of faâ—shood if we do but consider First that Trees Harbs and Flowers that do not stine from their places or exercise such fierce cruelty one upon another that they all in their severall kinds are handsome and elegant and have no ineptitude or defect in them Secondly that all Creatures born of putrefaction as Mice and Froggs and the like as those many hundreds of Insects as Grashoppers Flyes Spiders and such other that these also have a most accurate contrivance of parts that there is nothing fram'd rashly or ineptly in any of them Lastly in more perfect Creatures as in the Scotch Barnacles which Historians write of of which if there be any doubt yet Gerard relates that of his own knowledge which is as admirable and as much to our purpose that there is a kind of Fowle which in Lancashire are called Tree Geese they are bred out of rotten pieces of broken ships and â—â—unks of Trees cast upon a little Iland in Lancashire they call the Pile of Foulders the same Authour saith he hath found the like also in other parts of this Kingdome Those Fowles in all respects though bred thus of putrefaction and that they are thus bred is undeniably true as any man if he please may satisfy himself by consulting Gerard the very last page of his History of Plants are of as an exact Fabrick of Body and as fitly contriv'd for the functions of such a kind of living Creature as any of those that are produced by propagation Nay theâ—e kind of Fowles themselves do also propagate which has imposed so upon the foolishness of some that they 〈◊〉 denied that other way of their generation whâ—â— as 〈◊〉 being generated one way does not exclude the 〈…〉 seen in Froggs and Mice Whereâ—ore those productions out of the 〈…〉 Putrefaction being thus perfect and accurate in 〈…〉 well as others it is a manifest discovery that 〈…〉 never frame any species of things ineptly and 〈…〉 that therefore she was ever guided by Counsell and 〈◊〉 that is that Nature her self is the effect of an all-knowing God Nor doth this consideration onely take away this present Evasion but doth more palpably and intelligibly enervate the former For what boots it them to fly unto an infinite propagation of Individualls in the same aeternall Species as they imagine that they might be able alwaies to assigne a Cause answerable to the Effect when as there are such Effects as these and Products of Putrefaction where Wisdome and Counsell are as truely conspicuous as in others For thus are they neverthelesse necessarily illaqueated in that inconvenience which they thought to have escaped by so quaint a subtilty CHAP. XIII That the Evasions of Atheists against Apparitions are so weak and silly that it is an evident Argument that they are convinced in their own Judgements of the Truth of these kinds of Phaenomena which forces them to answer as well as they can though they be so ill provided NOw for their Evasions whereby they would elude the force of that Argument for Spirits which is drawn from Apparitions they are so weak and silly that a man may be almost sure they were convinced in their judgement of the truth of such like Stories else it had been better flatly to have denied them then to feigne such idle and vain reasons of them For first they say they are nothing but Imaginations and that there is nothing reall without us in such Apparitions But being beaten off from this slight account for that many see the same thing at once then they fly to so miraculous a power of Phansy as if it were able to change the Aire into a reall shape and form so that others may behold it as well as he that fram'd it by the power of his Phansy Now I demand of any man whether this be not a harder Mysterie and more unconceivable then all the Magicall Metamorphoses of Divells or Witches For it is farre easyer to conceive that some knowing thing in the Aire should thus transform the Aire into this or that shape being