Virtue in itself be so supposed to Move in the most Rare and Fluid Aether as that it should not Sink therin by supposing also such a rapid Motion therof Annualy as must be admitted according to the Zodiak and Circle which it is said to describe and which according to the Phaenomena one way or other must be the same with that wherin the Sun doth Realy Move whereby that Motion will be found to be as I said almost fifty Miles in a Minute and then unless we can also suppose that the Earth would sink and fall so fast through the Aether in the very first Degree of the Velocity of the Motion of Descent which must be swifter then the aforesaid Motion it will not so fall or sink which to estimate more exactly I leav to the Curious But wheras Judicial Astrologers pretend to foretell by the Starrs and especialy by Comets the Fates and Fortunes of Men yea their very Imaginations Affections and Inclinations and which is yet more Divine Counsels and Intentions it is certeinly most Unchristian and Intolerable for Originaly God made the Starrs to be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years which is therefore so Emphaticaly repeated not as Ostents or Portents wherof there could be no use in that State of Perfection but for Signification and Indication as well as Causation of Seasons Days and Years which were certein constant and orderly when there were yet no Meteors in Earth or Air and much less any Changes Confusions and Disorders in the Superior Natures nor did they then portend that greatest Change and most Dire Event that ever was or shall be in the World which was the fall of Angels and Men otherwise themselvs might easily have forseen it wherefore certeinly they were not first Created to signify any such Contingencys but only Natural Futuritys and now wheras they affirm that the Starrs do by their Influences govern the Bodily Humors and by them the Minds and Spirits of Men let them shew us the Experiment of that which they make to be the Foundation of their Art and as it is said of Thales foretell what will be dear next year wheras their Prognostications of any such Contingent things in their yearly Almanaks are generaly as fals as true though I grant as our Savior saith that such who are weatherwise may probably foretell what shall so ensue the next Day or some such short time after In the Evening ye say it will be fair weather for the Sky is red and in the Morning it will be foul weather to day for the Sky is red and lowring Thus also they represent Eclipses as very Prodigious things which yet they know are most Natural otherwise they could not so foretell them and if Man had still continued in Paradise they must naturaly have been yea it were the greater Monster and Prodigy if they should not so constantly happen And though Comets which are Extraordinary may produce Extraordinary Effects as other Meteors Thunders Earthquakes and the like and are sure Signes of what is past thaâ— is the Fall of Man which hath been the Caus and Occasion therof and so are to be regarded and may be also Extraordinary Ostents of Gods future Judgments yet it is also as true that we cannot read this Hand-writing on the Wall of Heaven without a Supernatural Revelation or Indigitation as the Magi were directed by Angels of whom it is also said they were warned in a Dream otherwise by all their Art they could never have found out the very Town yea the very Hous in the Town yea the very Place in the Hous where the Child lay and over which the Starr is said to have stood so neither could the most Curious or Cabalistical Judgment of any Man have foretold the Retrocession of Hezekiah's Sicknes by the Retrogradation of the Sun ten Degrees on the Dial of Ahaz and the Signes in Heaven and Earth at our Saviors Death probably were as Miraculous as the Starr at his Birth and that Darknes no common Eclips of any Luminary but an Obtenebration of the Aether itself over all that Land as the Earthquake was also therin and all the Signification therof was plainly declared by his present Suffering which made the Centurion cry out Truly this was the Son of God! Wherefore though I honor Natural Astronomy and only wish that it were rectified according to this Dâ—vine Rule of Scripture as I would also gladly be corrected by it in any mistakes of the Natural Phaenomena or any Expressions therof so with the Scripture and all Christianity I must conclude against all such Judicial Astrology as an Heathenish Artifice wherof we are expressly forewarned that we should not be dismaied at the Signes of Heaven for the Heathen are dismaied at them and Let now the Astrologers the Starrgazers the Monthly Prognosticators stand up and shew how they can maintein the Veracity of their Art against the Divine Verity And now I shall return again to such Materialists who though they cannot affirm that becaus a whole Body is Moved up or down this way or that way therefore it ceaseth to be the same yet can suppose that if the parts in the Body be Moved in such a maner as neither they nor we can discern them there being a new Corporeal Texture Schematism and Mechanism therof it shall therfore acquire a new Individual Spirit and Spiritual Qualitys by such Local Motion as it doth by Physical Generation and Corruption which may be best Experimented in the vast Body of Aether wherin there are also so many Orbs continualy Moving so many several ways and yet they do not therefore ceas to be the same Aether and the same Orbs that they were before and so will any other Compositum be the same though the Parts in it Move this way or that way or any way whatsoever unless there be a new Generation to alter it otherwise only the Figure and Situation of the Parts in the Whole will be altered but not the Physical Nature of the Whole or Parts and so though their Hypothesis be of less Corpuscles and not of such great Bodys which as they propound the others becaus they are Indiscernible so I propound these becaus they are more discernible for the reason will be the same in these Elementary Natures though the Parts be never so minute as every part of Water is Water though it be never so small and though it be Moved any way whatsoever and so suppose the Parts of any one Orb to Move in the Orb as all the Orbs do in the Aether they will no more alter the Orb then the Orbs do the Aether and if Matter and Motion cannot thus make or alter Elementary Natures which are Inferior much less any others that are Superior and I suppose that the Superaether is altogether Immovable both in the Whole and in all the Parts therof Wherefore since this and all the other Heavens are so Stupendous that as some suppose
more then in the Clock or Watch itself but by Created Impressions in the one Naturaly and Intrinsecaly as the others are so Effected by Violent and Extrinsecal Application of that which is Natural in itself And yet they who can affirm Sensation and perhaps Intellection itself to be only Motions of the Matter might also if they pleased ascribe therunto Sens and Intellect as some have affirmed Elementary Natures to be Sensitive which would not only satisfy their Doubt heerin but also confirm their Opinion of the other though both be equaly Fals and most contrary to all Sens and Intellect And this acknowledged and agreed want of any such Wisedom and Will in Nature which yet doth Produce such undeniable Effects doth most Sensibly and Intelligibly prove a most Wise and Willing First Caus that is God who as I have already proved that he Created all things out of Nothing in the Begining by his Infinite Power so he also both Created them in their first Chaos and afterward Ordered them in the Six Days and so Catartised the whole Frame of Nature with such Polity and Oeconomy as doth Invincibly prove his Creating Wisedom and Will by these Created Effects therof which are so Naturaly Produced by Nature as it is Gods Creature Artifice and Engine and yet itself hath neither Wisedom nor Will Actively as Intelligent Creatures have in themselves And thus the rude Matter which of all others hath least therof yet hath thus Naturaly in itself Motion to Union and also to Station and thereby doth Naturaly cast the whole Body therof into a Perfect Orb which is the most United Uniform and Capacious Figure which also every Particular Body therof doth Affect and Endeavor as farr as it can and doth Place all the Particular Bodys in their due Position And if Matter may Act thus Politicaly without any Policy in itself Why may not also Material Spirits which are more Spiritual and Active have their Particular Plastical Vertues whereby they may also Effigiate their Bodys in fitt and requisite Figures for themselvs Inorganicaly or Organicaly and Oeconomicaly though they have no Oeconomical Wisedom or Will in themselvs And even in Sensitives the same Effects are Produced without their Sentiment and so â—et Man who Comprehends all these Inferior Natures in himself consyder his own Body and whether he doth Caus and Order the Introduction of his Finger to Union or the Falling down of his Body through the Air to Station or can hinder them with all his Sens and Intellect or whether therewith and thereby he doth Plasticaly Figurate and Effigiate all his Members or can add a Cubit to his Stature or doth so perform those most Curious and Chymical Works of Nutrition Augmentation Sanguification Seminification and the like And this Polity and Oeconomy is not Proper to any one Nature but is Particularly in every one and Universaly in all which are not only Subordinate but do accordingly Communicate one with another Thus every Individual Nature is a Compositum of more or less Principles or Parts and more or less Oeconomicaly Composed and Ordered according to the Particular Nature and Orb therof which is heerin a Module of the great Orb of the Univers So also all Specifical Natures which are Homogeneous do Comply and Consort together and open their Bodys one to another and so also Generate one another and there is some Accord though less among Homaeogeneous and as we say Par Pari and there are certein Analogys and Confederacys between Heterogeneous yea even Advers and Contrary Natures do thus Conspire together for the Common Good as Rest and Motion to Union which may be Upward and to Station which is downward and so Heat and Cold Moisture and Drines do all make a fitt Temperature for all Elementary as well as Vegetative and Sensitive Composita And their own Proper Qualitys can not Actualy Exist without such Temperature of and with the rest which is their Political Perfection though the others be their own Proper and Private Perfections and therefore in the Chaos though the Elementary Spirits did then accordingly Constitute the Matter of their Fower great Bodys by requisite Proportions of Extension Spherical and Globular Figures Density Rarity and their several Stations and the like yet they could not Actualy Produce their own Heat Cold Moisture Drines and their other Active Qualitys before they were Prepared and Predisposed by the Divine Spirit with fitt Mistions and Contemperations nor could they or can they yet Exist in their utmost Vehemence and Intension without such Contemperation which as I have said is most wonderfully Produced by Degrees out of their Potentialitys into such Mist and Contemperate Actualitys more Naturaly then by their Actual Extremitys which Violently Oppugn one another and thereby endeavor to destroy one another and Such Actual Concertation and Oppugnation which at last doth destroy one or both of them as Flame which is almost continualy Incensed and Extinguished and the like and yet these Contrary Qualitys of the Elementary Spirits are thus Naturaly Miscible wheras the Proper Accidents or Affections of any Substances of Different Classes are not nor can not be so Mâ—st in their Consubstantiated Composita As in a Sensitive Compositum the Extension Figure Density Gravity Motion and the like Affections of the Mâ—tter are not so Mist with any of the Spiritual Qualitys though they are United or Composited in the whole Compositum Nor the Elementary Qualitys with the Vegetative nor the Vegetative with the Sensitive but as their Substances are of several Classes which can not be so Mist as they of the same Classis though Composed together so they continue several in themselvs though they mutualy Contribute and Cooperate in the whole becaus they Subsist in their own several Substances And becaus Individual and Specifical Natures do thus Confederate therefore there is also such a Polity and Oeconomy of the Universal Nature which doth Subsist in them all and not only a Scale of Degrees wherof I discoursed before but a Republike of all the Cives and Societys therof And as Beauty Virtue Piety and their Symmetrical and Conformable Excellencys are the most Excellent things in Nature so is this Polity and Oeconomy the Strength Goodnes and Glory therof Wherefore as he is no very good Anatomist who though he may know all the several Members Parts and Particles of the Body as they are in themselvs yet knoweth nothing De Usu Partium and the whole Composition Cooperation and Benefits therof so he is no good Philosopher who though he could know all the Atoms and Corpuscles of Matter and all Spirits and Substances and all their Accidents and Affections and the very Essences both of Substances and Accidents as well as their Existences severaly as they are in themselvs yet knoweth not or rather will not know any thing of their Mutual Union Analogy Confederacy Cooperation Oeconomy and Polity and all the Benefits and Advantages therof which God hath Created in and
without a denial of the Creation Whence the Chaldaeans began to worship the Creature or Created Nature instead of God the Creator but principally the Sun and Fire as the Supreme and most Beneficial Element The Egyptians who would also have their National Deity did Idolise Water rather than Fire induced thereunto by a Gratitude to their Great Benefactor the River Nilus The Pâ—oenicians Graecians Romans and generaly all the more Western Nations have worshiped all the Elements under several Names and in the several Forms and Images wherewith they pleased to Invest them deducing them all from Coelum and Terra or Heaven and Earth which the Chineses still worship But Pan and Proteus whereby they represented Matter and Motion were by all esteemed Dii Minorum Gentium This Antient Theogony is also Recorded and Celebrated by the Poets Which though afterward the Athenian Philosophers did more strictly examin yet the Tradition of a Chaos and Creation did very long continue among them but they supposed the Creation of the World by one Chief God to have been Eternal like himself with certain Revoluâ—ions of Time and Transmigrations of Spirits Eternally Circulating and Changing by Perpetual Generation and Corruption believing the Lying Records of Egyptian Antiquity from whom also Pythagoras learned his Philosophy and fansied I know not what Harmony of the Spheres with many such Fictions which he by his own Ipse Dixit pleased to Affirm and Impose as Credenda on his Disciples And Plato being partly a Follower of his Sect and partly a Master of another generally reteined and refined this Philosophy But Aristotle rejecting all Matters of Faith both Divine and Human and examning all things only by Reason descended lower even to a first Matter affirming it and the Potentia thereof to be Common Principle of all Material things Upon which false Foundation and also his Compliance with popular Idolatry almost all his other Errors are grounded though otherwise I esteem him the greatest Master of Reason among all Pagan Philosophers and his Errors are not Dangerous being now so well known to all But as Moses is the only Divine and true Philosopher so of them all I acknowledg Aristotle to be his best Commentator Epicurus departed from both these ways of Knowledg regarding Sens more than either Reason or Faith Whereas these three being all and the only Ways of Human Knowledg a Philosopher should accordingly make use of them all and therefore all Heathen Philosophy wanting the Divine Light of Faith could never yet produce any Complete System of the World nor give any true and satisfactory Account therof And this Universal Dissatisfaction begat the last of Sects which was Scepticism or a professed Denying or Doubting all things whatsoever admitting no Testimony or Evidence either of Faith Reason or Sens. But though Doubting may be a good Disciple yet certainly it can be no Master of Philosophy and if it be Affected and Resolved is the very Contradiction therof and Oppugner of all Knowledg both Divine and Human Speculative and Practical and however some may esteem it Caution in Philosophy it is plainly Libertinism in Morality and Infidelity in Theology and any Dogmatical Error or Inconvenience can hardly be greater than Total Scepticism which is as Utter Darkness and the State of Desperation the Bottomless pit and Vorago of all Knowledg and Practice Now as this was formerly the Progress of Heathenish Philosophy so since Christianity Illuminated the World yet through the Natural Darkness and Corruption of Human Understanding it hath again had the same Revolutions For so first Platonical Philosophy which Porphyrius Plotinus Iamblichus and others very much rectified and refined by the Spiritual Light of Christianity was by them opposed against it Also Philo Iudaeus and Origen and some of the Christian Fathers seem to have some Savor therof Afterward the Schoolmen generally referring Matters of Faith to Scripture and examining Nature by Reason rather embraced the Peripatetical Philosophy which hath long continued untill in this last Age some others though they can discover nothing which the Athenian Wits had not Invented before them yet reviving and renewing old Errors like Fashions relaps again to Epicurism in one kind or other of Atoms or Corpuscles or the like And when this Humor hath lasted as long as it did formerly we may expect Scepticism to succeed and indeed I suspect that we are already in the very Confines therof Now though Wanton Wits think they may thus dally with Opinions as they please yet as it is most truly said Studia abeunt in Mores and so Virgil very aptly introduceth Drunken Silenus changing the Epicurean Opinion but Grave Anchises more soberly Platonising Certainly their Novell Doctrine of Matter and Motion doth much Embase the Immaterial Spirit of Man and render it more Gross and Sensual and unfit for Spiritual and Divine Contemplations And though I believ some of the Assertors therof to be as far from Atheism as my self yet I must freely profess that the Assertion tendeth toward it and was by Heathens Improved to the Denial of a Creation and I appeal to every Reader whether it doth not Induce some Suspicion therof in himself yea I suppose this to be chiefly that which renders iâ— so acceptable and agreeable to the Corrupt Minds of Men and the Writers therof themselvs seem to be somewhat Conscious herein while they make their usual Apologies and need to tell the World they are no Atheists Thus also by affirming Accidents and Qualities to be no Real things they make both Virtue and Piety to be only Notions O Virtus colui te ut Rem at tu Nomen inane es And if they could also prove the Reward therof and Punishment of Impiety and Vice which all must accordingly perceiv and feel to be only Notional and not Real they should thereby deliver up all Mankind to a Reprobate sens or rather Insensibility and Indistinction of any Good or Evill And their Opinion of Universal Nature is like that of Caesar Respublica Inane Nomen Besides how prejudicial such Contempt of Antiquity and of all Authority and the Affection of Novelty and Innovation may be to Church or State I leav to wise Politicians Certainly all Christian Academies and Schools of Literature should deeply resent such Novell Attempts which Professedly subvert all the Antient foundations of Learning 〈◊〉 formerly the Barbarous World was taught both Arts 〈…〉 and a ready way prepared for Christian Religio◠〈…〉 wherupon so fair a Superstructure hath been raised 〈…〉 these Novellists ow their Education and Instruction and a farther Progress might still have been made if it were not Obstructed by themselvs and Young Wits led away into an Inextricable Labyrinth of Matter and Motion and the Magnum Inane of Vacuity and at last plunged into the Abyss of Perpetual Scepticism I have no Petulant Humor yet it may exceed the Meekness and Patience of my Great Master Moses to hear some Christians affirm the very Essences and
is Indefinite and to pursue it Vain and Endless It is not Absolutely Impossible that this or any other Book might be Printed by the Casual Concurrence of Letters Ink and Paper without any Composer or Printer yet if any should therefore write a large Discours therof or of any other such like Hypothesis I think it might well deserv to be placed in Rablais his Library But though I shall carefully exclude any such Improbable Trifles yet I doubt not but that among so many supposed Probabilities I may run into some Errors and many Errata in Terms of Art and such other Peccadillos which may prove Scandalous and Offensive to Weaker Minds who regard Words more than Things and may be matter enough of Disgrace and Disparagement to the Captious who though they can find no fault in Venus her self will Carp at her Sandal or something about her And I am Conscious that I may be more liable hereunto being no Mathematician Astronomer Chymist or other Artist whatsoever but one among the Laity of Mankind having only two Books which I regard Scripture and Nature and though any may easily bite through my Human Infirmity yet he shaâ—l break his Teeth at these Bones Fragili quaerens illidere dentem Offendet Solido However I am sufficiently secure being already where I would be that is below Fame and above Infamy and as I do not Superscribe my Name to gain the one so neither do I Conceal it to avoid the other but either is as Indifferent to my self as it is to my Pen to write it only it is somewhat less not to write it Nor will I presume to add any thing to Divine Authority professing it to be my chief Designe to Exalt it as the only Statera of Truth both Natural and Supernatural and as we Eminently call it Scripture and Bible so it is indeed the Writing of all Writings and Book of all Books whereby â—hey are to be Judged and If they speak not according to this Word it is becaus there is no Light in them As a worthy Friend laying his hand on the Bible once truly said to me If this Book were not Extant in the World there were nothing Certain and Infallible left to Mankind wherof we have sufficient Evidence not only in Scepticism but even in all other Philosophy of which there are so many several Sects and Opinions or indeed only Hypotheses for I cannot conceiv that the Authors therof were ever satisfied in themselvs or could expect to satisfie others thereby but vented them as some things which they esteemed Possible or the best of them only as fair Probabilitys Wheras this foundation laid in Scripture is as sure as Nature it self which both are the Work and Word of the same Divine Creator and every Superstructure rightly built therupon shall stand Now though I may not presume to be any such Master-builder yet I think it a very great Work effected if I may reduce others to this Fundamental System and provoke them to build upon it as I have begun and offered this rude Essay and though they shall pleas to Demolish my whole Fabrike and themselvs to Erect any other and lay upon it Gold Silver Pretious Stones Wood Hay Stubble or what they list I have my Designe which is to Assert this to be the only true Foundation of Natural Philosophy as well as of Theology and Morality And the Fire shall try every mans Work of what sort it is And so I not only Dedicate this my Work unto the World as indeed every Writer writes to all by making his Writing Publike but also I Appeal unto it and make every Reader my Judg for I do not presume to teach the World nor shall I as others term it the People that knoweth not the Law of Nature for though it consist of many Heads and almost as many Sentences yet I do not find but that the last Result and that wherin they Acquiesce is Truth whose common Fate in the World is first to be gazed on and perhaps derided and oppugned and at last after farther scrutiny to be enterteined and embraced and the Fate of Error contrary therunto first to be Applauded and Admired and so received withouâ— any Pratike and afterward when it is more strictly examined to be Rejected and Exploded Thus Truth is the Daughter of Time and as Time is the best Critike so I esteem Homer Virgil and such others to have been the best of Poets and Plato and Aristotle the best of Philosophers becaus their Works have so long survived wheras there are only some Fragments of Epicurus now remaining as broken and minute as his Corpuscles or Atoms Certeinly Scripture is both most Antient and also most Intire Nor can I suppose that the Discovery of any consyderable Natural Truth or Profitable Good to Mankind hath been renounced or will ever be lost by them Wherefore now O Christian World who art a Collection not only of Men but of Christians Judg thou according to both Capacitys whether Scripture be not the truest Comment that ever was made upon Nature and that thou maist rightly discern between them set the short System of the Divine Genesis therof by all or any other whatsoever Contuleris toto cum sparsa Volumina mundo Illa Homines dicas haec docuisse Dâ—um And now after so many Christian Ages let it be once Determined whether this be a true History of the Creation or not and if it be as most undoubtedly it is let us no longer be bereaved of so great a Treasure which hath hitherto I know not how been not only hid under ground but trampled on by the feet of men Nor let any Elude and Enervate it by the Imputation of Popularity whereby even Popular Understandings may learn Divine Philosophy as the Psalmist professeth that thereby he had acquired More Understanding then all his Teachers Nor let us resigne not only our Faith but also our own Reason to others becaus they pleas to abandon theirs and scoffingly call it Logical or Metaphysical or the like which are the Acquests of those Noble Arts and Sciences whereby we excell Brutes Barbarians and themselvs Nor may they justly term this a Prejudice against them for how do they Prejudg who Appeal to the whole World or the Great University of Mankind and as good Scribes bring forth out of their Treasure things New and Old doing herein like Galenists who willingly admit and add to their Dispensatorys any Chymical Experiments which are sound and useful and to such Physicians all wise Patients commit their Bodys rather then to Empirikes Or are they prejudiced who affirm nothing but what they prove by all the ways of Probation Authority Argument and Experiment For to what Judg can we Appeal but the World or to what Law but Faith Reason and Sens and may we not rather suspect the Prejudice to ly in Novelty and Party and a new Sect of men who admit only sens and yet will not be Judged
by that unless it speak their Sens But as I have not pawned the Authority of mine own Name upon which I know I could borrow very little so I only beg of others that neither any Passionate Amours which they may have for any Man or his Opinions nor the Inebriating Fansys of their own Spirits nor any pretended Monarchy or Monopoly of Knowledg may be by them Opposed to Truth for Magna est Veritas praevaelebit and I doubt not but that Scriptum est and Probatum est will by their own Intrinsecal Value without any Image or Superscription pass Current through the whole Christian World But let us all rather Consult together the Advancement of true Knowledg and the Real Benefits of Mankind both in Speculation and Action Wherof the Speculative Part doth properly belong to Scholes and Academys who if they shall make this Divine History of the Creation to be their Symbolum Philosophicum shall need no other Fundamentals nor have they any better way to preserv their Disciples from these new Philosophical Romances of Mundus Alter Idem And as it hath been much wished by Wise men that Scholars would season their Studys with more of Common Life and Civil Conversation the want wherof hath been the Scandal and Scorn of Learning so particularly Academical Philosophers should hearken more to Experiments which though it be not fit for themselvs to Practice yet they may Inquire of Chymists and Mechanikes and be Informed therof by them to whom the Practical Part doth properly belong And Mechanikes may be also much Assisted and Directed by Philosophers with many Rules and Regular Proportions whereby they may be Instructed and also Cautioned from attempting Impossibilitys or any thing Impracticable as the Philosophers Stone Perpetual Motion or Fire and the like and also much Advantaged in the Attempts of Possibilitys as if the Doctrine of Local Motion of Bodys were more fully cleared and all the Variations therof not only according to Distances from the Center Multiplications of Wheels Pulleys Leavers and the like and all the several Situations and Positions therof but also all the Mysterys of Increments and Decrements of Velocity Consistent Strength Elasticity Pressure and Nonpressure Preventions of Vacuity and the like were ascerteined unto them it might greatly help them in contriving their Machins and Engines It hath been observed that though Speculative Philosophy hath not much Advanced in these last Ages of the World yet there hath been a great Improvement of Mechanical Arts but I conceiv that thus both might grow up together Nor is a Mechanike so mean a Title in Human Society as is commonly reputed Certeinly the End of all these Speculations is Practice which doth most Immediately promote the Good of Mankind And if I should endeavor any such Profitable Inventions I had rather be assisted therin by a Corporation of Mechanikes then any College of Philosophers and I would kiss that mans Hands yea his Feet who should Collect and Publish an exact and faithful History of Artificial Experiments not only Chymical and Curious but Mechanical and of all Trades and Artifices which together with the History of Extraordinary Natural Phaenomena are very great Desiderata and would be of very much Use and Improvement But Inventions as I conceiv are rather strange Fates and Felicitys and some Magnalia therof have proved as great Treasures to the World as the Indian Mines which certeinly the Dâ—scovery made by Columbus did comprehend Yet as they are not of Ordinary Production so neither only Chances as we term them but Extraordinary Providences of God in some Ages wherin he designeth thereby to accomplish some greater Intendments as when God purposed to revele the Glorious Light of the Gospel through the whole World before the second coming of Christ he stirred up the Spirit of Columbus by a strange Dogmatical Confidence of more Earth then was before discovered maugre all Repulses and Delays Indefatigably and Undeniably to endeavor and attempt the Discovery therof which yet he could never have effected if also the Compass or Seamans Card wherof former Ages were Ignorant had not been then lately Invented and so likewise the Gun without which so few Adventurers could never have kept Possession against Innumerable Natives And about the same time Printing also was Invented to Disseminate Knowledg through both the Worlds But I do not esteem Additions to be Inventions as the Telescope or Microscope which are only farther Improvements of the Perspective that was first Invented by a Mechanike or as the Granado is of the Gun and the like Yet we might hope for more both Inventions and Additions if Philosophy were made more Mechanical and Mechanike more Philosophical Wherof we have now the greatest expectation from the happy Institution of the Roial Society and that so many Mercurial Wits Interceding between both these Regions of Speculation and Practice will transmit Philosophical Instructions to Mechanikes and Mechanical Experiments to Philosophers and after all their Curious Disquisitions and many Vibrations like the Pendulum setle at last in the most Direct Line of Truth Proving all things and holding fast that which is Good and shall be for the Good of this Nation and of all Mankind which shall render their Society a Solomons Hous and this Island a New Atlantis And as the Lord Veruâ—â—m hath well observed that the Practical Theology of Scripture â—ath been by none better Ventilated then by English Divines so may this Divine History of the Genesis of the World be best Elucidated by them who though they superscribe Nullius in verba in defiance of any Human Magistery yet always except Verbum Dei in submission to Dâ—vine Authority And if the Active Spirits of this Nation would freely clear and disengage themselvs from the Humor of Forein Noveltys they might exceed others in their happy Endeavors though we Tramontanes have been Judged by them better for Imitation then Invention but I desire them to produce any thing in this last Age equal to those two Noble Inventions which were both of English Extraction that is the Inclinatory or Dipping Needle whereby the Latitude is discovered wherof as I have received it by Tradition the Inventor was Robert Norman our Countryman whose Name deservs more Heraldry as they will easily acknowledg who shall attempt to Invent the like Natural Instrument whereby to discover the Longitude The other is the first Observation of the Circulation of the Bloud wherof our Learned Doctor Harvey is the well known and Monumental Author And for Philosophical Discourses and Discoverys of Nature I may name two others who though Parallel one to another yet I suppose neither of them can be Parallel'd by any other Nation that is the Great Chancellor Bacon whose Natural History hath made his own Name Hâ—storical and the truly Honorable Robert Boyle of whom I may well say that as Hiero made a Law in Syracuse That every one should believ whatsoever Archimedes affirmed that he could do so all
neither do we read nor can we reasonably suppose that any new Matter was Created afterward Nor was it Created in the very Begining only Matter or one Homogeneous Mass therof but one Body expressly distinguished into several Heterogeneous Members Celestial and Terrestrial or Heaven and Earth Nor was the Heaven and Earth thus only Different in Nature in their First Creation but also Distinct and separate in their Situations and not Confounded together but Created such several Members of the great Body of the World And as the Heaven is named before the Earth so were the Celestial Bodys above or without the Terrestrial incompassing them as now they do for neither do we read nor can we reasonably suppose that there was any other Separation or Disposition of the Celestial Bodys afterward as is expresly mentioned of the Terrestrial or Terraqueous Globe wherof and of all their several Situations I shall further discours heerafter II. The word Heaven Hebraâ—caly is Heavens not only Grammaticaly as the word God in this Text but Phisicaly and in the nature of the thing it self And so generaly the Hebrews distribute Heaven into three several Heavens of three several Natures Wherof the highest is also called the Third Heaven becaus it is Utmost and the last above us and encompasseth both the others and this I shall therefore call the Superaether The midst or Second is the Aether or Starry Heaven The lowest or First is the Air which Immediately encompasseth the Terraqueous Globe And these are all the Celestial Spheres wherof we read and therefore I can acknowledg no more however Astronomers have pleased to multiply them These three Heavens are thus built one upon another and all upon the Terraqueous Globe which is the Habitation of all Corporeal Animals as Amos elegantly expresseth it He that builded the Storys of the Heavens and founded his Troop on the Earth Of all the three Heavens the Third which is the Supreme is most Properly Heaven and therefore also is called the Heaven of Heavens by way of Excellency and so is specialy called the Temple of the most high God and is the Native Region and Province of Blessed Angels or Caelum Angelicum and shall be the Everlasting Habitation of the Spirits of Just Men or Sedes Beatorum Wherof we have no farther discoverâ— then only that it was Created together with the other two Heavens and so is Comprehended uâ—der one Common Name with them and probably because it was made Perfect in the Begining or first Instant of the Creation therof and so must continue for ever without any Elementary Mistion Generation or Corruption therefore we have no other account therof among all the Works of the Six Days wherein the Elements and whole Elementtary Nature and the Cours of Generation and Corrupti on therin was Set in order And accordingly I observ that wheras the other two Elementary Heavens Aether and Air are called Expansa and Firmaments this Superaether is never so termed but only Heaven probably becaus it is not capable of Expansion or Compression But as the Divine Wisedom hath conceled any farther notice therof and also given us very little Knowledg of the nature of Angels the proper Inhabitants therof as Impertinent for us to know in this present State so I shall not presume farther to inquire therinto or discours therof and indeed if the Hebraical Word Heavens be dualy rendred it must be intended only of Aether and Air. III. As the Aether and Air are Elementary and both of them Heâ—erogeneous from the Superaether and every of them one from another So are all of them from the Earth and Terraqueous Globe And as Heaven generaly Comprehendeth all the three Heavens so heer also Earth Comprehendeth both Earth and Water which were afterward formed into one Terraqueous Globe and by that general Name in this Text is not only to be Understood Earth particularly which was not so termed untill the Third Day and then also is called Dry Land nor the Terraqueous Globe such as it was made afterward but the Orb of Earth and the Water above it which is also mentioned afterward Thus we have a Discovery of what was Created in the Begining that is Superaether which is also Superelementary and Aether Air Water Earth which are the fower Elements as God the Creator hath declared and Moses reveled them unto us both in this Text and in the Context whom I shall believ before all Athens or any Modern Conceptions whatsoever and shall accordingly prove them heerafter And now upon this Subject Matter proceed to discours and first enter upon such Philosophical Consyderations therof as may concern them all and all Creatures Generaly and so according to the order of this History of the Creation Expatiate into more Particular Contemplations of their several Natures afterward The first and most Universal Consyderation of Heaven and Earth and of all Creatures whatsoever is that they are Entitys for since Creation is of Being from Absolute Nothing whatsoever is Created must necessarily Be otherwise it should not be Created So that an Entity is any Thing that Is which I confess is no more in effect then that an Entity is Entity whose Subject and Praejudicate Genuâ— and Difference is and must necessarily be the same becaus it is the same Genus Generalissimum of all Things without any Specifical Difference And heer I must also premise that in every Perfect and Proper Definition of any Specifical or more Particular Thing the Specifical or particular Differences therof must be Identical becaus the Specifical or particular Essence or Entity is the only true Specifical or Particular Difference of every thing But becaus we cannot know Essences as they are in themselvs therefore we declare things by their Propertys which is rather Description then Definition As in the Common Instance Homo est Animal Rationale Rationality is not the true Specifical Difference of Humanity though it be most Proper to Man becaus it is not his Specifical Essence and therefore doth not Define the Humanity it self Nor doth it indeed Comprehend all the Properties therof as Risibility and the like but only Describe it by one Proper Faculty So that the most Proper Definitions are only Vocabularys and Nomenclatures which yet are of good use to explain one Term by another whereby we may avoid all needless Caption and Contention about Terms and when the Thing intended thereby is clearly understood it shall suffice me And I have now made this Digressive Parenthesis to save my Self the whole labor of Defining and the expectation of any who otherwise perhaps might exact it of me but I shall use as clear and pregnant Declarations or Descriptions as the Thing will afford Thus I affirm Created Entity to be a Creature or whatsoever is Created which is also Convertible with it Again becaus the Created World doth Consist of several Heterogeneous and different Entitys and Natures into which Differences we must also inquire I affirm such a Different
in the Whole wherin only they are such Mathematical Parts wheras being Localy Divided from the Whole they become less Wholes in themselvs And so such Possibility is not at all to be regarded in this present Discours but only the Actuality whatsoever it is and then the Position thus rightly explained doth amount to this That the Extensive Parts Actualy in the Whole are Actualy Innumerable not only to us or by any our Mathematical Division or Subdivision which I have already granted but also Physicaly and in their own Nature which is Impossible For then the least Extensive Whole should be equal to the greatest because both have equaly Innumerable Parts in themselvs for Innumerable can neither be more nor less then Innumerable Nor will it be evaded by saying that the greater Whole hath Innumerable greater Parts and the less Innumerable less Parts for Innumerable Parts though never so small will suffice to make any Whole whatsoever though never so great becaus Innumerable is Innumerable and doth not only afford whatsoever may be wanting but can never be spent or exhausted And becaus every least Part hath some Extension and Measure therof therefore the Whole of such Innumerable Parts must also be Immensurable which as Archimedes hath demonstrated in his Psammites is both Rationaly Impossible and Mathematicaly Fals. But whatsoever Notion Mathematicians may have of such Divisibility into less and less Parts Perpetualy yet certeinly none can deny the gross Whole of any Corporeal Extension given whatsoever the Extent therof may be to be Mensurable and Finite otherwise it could not be given nor indeed Actualy be as I have formerly Demonstrated And I am very secure of that Argument and of the clearnes and firmnes therof however men may determin concerning this other Question which I have also prosecuted for a farther Discovery of Truth And I must heer observe that not only Extension but also Time and Number and whatsoever hath Parts yea all Qualitys and whatsoever hath Degrees and all that is in any kind susceptible of More and Less may as well be affirmed to be thus Divisible into alway Divisibles And so wheras Physicians make several Degrees of the fower first Qualitys and Musicians of Musical Notes and the Like I can again Divide and Subdivide them Indefinitely aswell as Extension and Demonstrate that there are the like Imperceptible Minims therin And heer again we may stand and admire the Divine Wisedom and Goodnes which hath so Plainly manifested unto us those Wholes and greater Portions of Wholes that are of any Use and Concernment and without which Scales Dials and all Mathematical Instruments and all Medicinal Compositions and Gamuâ—hs and the like and all Symmetry Temperature and Harmony had been unknown and unserviceable to Mankind and also accuse the Vanity of our own Human Witt which doth so Ambitiously affect to know and Curiously to pry into those very Minute things whose Usefulnes is as little as their Proportion and which God to humble our Mathematical Pride hath purposely conceled from us and yet because they are so Indiscernible therefore we more affect to Discerne them For mine own part as I am satisfied in knowing that there is a Circumference of the whole Globe of the World though I know not how large it may be so also in knowing that there are such Physical Points though I know not their Minute and most Exile Nature Yet I do also conceiv that as Extension is Terminated by Poâ—nts so the Divisibility therof doth Terminate in Points and that theâ—e are such Physical Points as well as Physical Instants and Pâ—ysical Instants as well as Physical Units though they be not equaly Discernible by us and that Points are Points and not only Notes or Nothings as some do affirm And there is no Objection against the one which may not also be armed and intended against the other by such Dividing and Subdividing Perpetualy even beyond Points Instants and Units themselvs into Halvs Quarters and the like And such indeed is the common Objection Of how many Points is the least Corpuscle composed It may be as well demanded Of how many Instants is the least Minute of Time composed which none can tell though we can easily tell of how many Units Two which is the least Number is composed And I demand of such Curious Objectors Of how many Extensive Parts or Portions the least Corpuscle is composed which themselvs affirm to be Innumerable though I deny it of Parts and dare not affirm it of Points because it is Impossible but only assert that neither they can know of how many Parts nor I of how many Points any Corpuscle is composed And this I suppose to be a sufficient Answer to such a Question for such it is rather then an Objection But for farther satisfaction I shall consyder a least Corpuscle which must be Globular aswell as the great Body of the whole World becaus all Angles are Protuberant and render the Superficies unnecessarily greater and yet no Mathematician ever did or ever can assigne the whole Proportion in fact and consequently not all the particular Portions of any Globe or Circle Also every Corpuscle though never so litle yet is a Body having Longitude Latitude and Profundity in all which the Points must Consist and Coexist and they also in the whole Body otherwise it should not be a Body wheras though we know that a Body is composed of Longitude Latitude and Profundity yet we know not of how many Long Late or Profund Lines it is composed becaus though they Realy are and are Realy different in Nature yet they so Corporealy Consist and Coexist that they can not be Localy separated but only in and with the Corpuscles or Body And so though Points Realy are and are Realy Different in Nature yet they also so Corporealy Consist and Coexist that they can not be Localy Separated but only in and with the Corpuscles or Bodys and so though Mathematicaly we may consyder them in their several Natures yet we may not therefore consyder them in separate Existences Whereas generaly all the Objections are drawn from the Supposition of Points Separate or at least of Points Coexisting only in Longitude and the like which are only Imperfect Principles of Extension as well as Points But I have shewed that Entitys may Realy Differ though they are not Localy Separate or Separable and if they grant me Points so Coexisting not only in Longitude but also in Latitude and Profundity and the whole Corporeity of a Corpuscle or Body as they must becaus they do so Realy Coexist and can not otherwise Exist in Nature I can by that one Concession solv all their Objections which otherwise may seem as Unanswerable as Points are Incomprehensible being grounded upon the very Incomprehensible Nature therof And if they will not grant me that which is Physicaly and Realy true in itself but argue upon fals or feigned Suppositions I shall not much care to Answer them otherwise then I
Circumference of the Utmost Body of the World then there must also be as Exact a Center corresponding to that Circumference which must be a Physical Point for as the Physical Circumference must be in every Part therof Utmost so the Center must be answerably Inmost and therefore must be a single Point not Extended nor having any Part beyond Part because any two cannot be Inmost or Midst for that must be something that is One whatsoever it is and I do not intend by this Physical Point any such least Corpuscle as is commonly supposed for that also hath Part beyond Part but a very Point as it is in Nature not Existing severaly and according to Mathematical consyderation therof but Coexisting in a Body Physicaly as I have before declared and such a Point is also the Copula of all Consistent and Coexistent Extension and doth Terminate both the Utmost Superficies and this Inmost Center And as it doth thus Terminate Extension so also Motion of Bodys so that Naturaly they Move not above the Utmost Circumference or below the Inmost Center as I shall shew heerafter Now a Globe as it is the Figure of the least Corpuscle so it is Potentialy conteined in every other Figure and as it is the Figure of the great Body of the World doth contein in it Actualy all other Figures Which like Extension from which they flow are not only Points nor Lines which have many Points nor any Superficies having many Lines as a Picture which hath only several Symmetrical Lineaments but the Complete Longitude Latitude and Profundity of Bodys without which there can not be the Figure of any Body which must be Long Late and Profund VIII Pores are only Superficial Concavitys in the Figure of any Body wherefore there must be a Body otherwise there cannot be any Coâ—cavitys therof and there must be some Concavitys otherwise there should be no Pores But whether there be any other Body to fill these Concavitys or not yet the Body itself which is Porous is a Body as well as the Body of the whole World is a Body having a Superficial Convexity of itself though there be none other Body without it Or if it be filled with another Body then that also which fills it is a Body and is not the same Body nor Spiritualy Homogeneous with it Wherefore there were no Pores in the first Created Matter before the Intermistion of Heterogeneous Elements for if the Body filling were Homogeneous with the Body that is filled then both should be Continuous and one Intire Body without any Such Concavitys and consequently without any Pores As if an empty Honycomb were all filled with Bees Wax it should no longer be a Comb but an Intire Mass or Cake of Wax Also though Pores be Partial Discontinuitys of the Body Porous yet it must be partly Continuous for if the Honycomb be cut into little pieces and they laid asunder the Spaces between them all are not Properly Pores of one Body but Intervals betweeen several less Bodys and so also the Interstices of a Sive or Silk or the like are no Pores becaus the Parts or Threads therof are only Contiguous and not Continuous And the Porous Body must be Consistent having such Vascula in the Concavitys therof as may contein the Body that fills them which must be Fluid As if an Honycomb be filled with Air it is Porous but if it were filled with Tallow or any thing equaly Consistent it should not Properly be said to be Porous more then any Inameld Work or the like much less are Fluid Bodys said to be Porous though they have many Consistent Corpuscles in them as Muddy Water and the like And though the Porous Body be generaly more Dens becaus it must be Consistent yet it sufficeth that it be Consistent though it be more Rare as an Honycomb filled with Mercury And this I suppose is that which is intended by Porosity and which I have more largely explained becaus there is so much discours therof among Philosophers especialy such who when they can give no better account of Nature resort to Pores as their Latibula and Subterfuges wheras as I have said Porosity is nothing but only particular Superficial Figure or Concavity of the Body whether the Pores be greater or less Vasa or Vascula as Cells of an Honycomb or the least Holes in the Wax and they do not in the least alter the Nature of the Porous Body consydered in itself as Wax is not altered in its own Nature by being Molded into any Shape or Effigies whatsoever And indeed unless we admit a Vacuity therâ— are no Pores in Matter consydered in itself becaus if they be filled with any other Body whatsoever that Body is yet being also Matter there is an Intire Continuity of both which are one Homogeneous Body of Matter in itself As the Terraqueous Globe is one Intire Globe though it be partly Earth and partly Water which are several Bodys as they are Earth and Water but only one Body as they are Matter for all Discontinuity and consequently all Porosity is from Heterogeneity which is not of the Matter for that is one common Substance but from the several Spirits And I suppose that all Fluid Bodys are also Imporous becaus their Parts may flow together and so some more Consistent Bodys may also be Imporous as Glass Gemms Marble and the like IX I shall next consyder Density and Rarity which as I have said do Immediately flow from and Subsist in the Substance of the Matter and not Mediately in and by Extension like Figure or Porosity for the Matter itself may be more Dens or more Rare though the Extension be the same not only in Extent but also in the very Figure and Porosity as I shall shew hereaâ—ter But as all Different Extension is only More or Less which are the Degrees therof so is Dâ—nsiâ—y also More or Less becaus all Matter hath some Density as well as Extension and More doth Comparatively Denominate a Body Dens and Less Rare which yet are only Degrees of the same Positive Density which plainly is an Affection of the Matter and so Density Rarity Gravity and Levity no Qualitys of Forms or Spirits as hath been supposed Wherefore as Matter is only Comparatively more or less Dens so all Matter is in itself either more oâ— less Dens within the same Exâ—ension otherwise there should be no such Dâ—fference of the Density or Rarity therof for Porosity which some as I have said make to be a Subterfuge and Evasion heerof is altogether Impertinent to Density or Rarity becâ—us the Question is not concerning any Complex Density or Rarity of Several Bodys joined together in one Complex Body that is both the Body Porous and the Body filling the Pores but of either of them singly and simply consydered in itself and certeinly either of them hath Mâ—tter and all Matter as I have said hath some Density otherwise it should not be Matter
Chaos that it was Inform and and Inane without any of those Actual Mistions Compositions Figures and Virtues which were afterward Produced in the Six Days wherof all the Essence or Entity was Created in the Begining and which to Produce were the several Works therof but there were all the Simple Essences and Entitys therof Potentialy in that Chaos otherwise they had not been Created in the Begining nor had it been such a Chaos therof Inform and Inane in respect of those Essenses which it had in itself Potentialy and ought to have Actualy also Existent but yet had not and which were afterward Produced into their several Actualitys and Existences in the Six Days wherin there was no Proper Creation of any new Essence or Entity but only of the Spirit of Man as I shall shew afterward and the Improper Creations therin were only the Productions of these Potentialitys into their Actualitys by the supernatural Power of the Divine Spirit which was the Original Institution of Natural Generation and Corruption as I have often inculcated and shall now declare by a more particular Enumeration Thus in the first Day Light was Produced out of Aether wherin it was Potentialy before by the Mistion therof into Actuality and there was no new Creation of the Essence or Entity therof and therfore it is said Sit or Existaâ— Lux as it is also said elsewhere God who commanded the Light to shine out of Darknes or to be Produced out of the Dark Aether like Fuâ—us Accensus and so probably Heat and other Aethereal Qualitys were then Produced Also iâ— the Second Day Vapors which were no new Created Substances or Essences but only Water Rarified did Ascend out of the Water into the Air and the Qualitys of the Air or Expansum were Probably then Produced by the Mistion therof And in the Third Day the Waters and Earth were Distributed and Disposed and Drines Moisture and Probably the other Qualitys therof Produced by the Mistions therof And in the Fourth Day the Sun and Moon and Starrs were made of the Aethereal Substance and so probably all the Qualitys therof Produced And in the Fifth Day the Water is said to bring forth or Produce Fishes and so also Fowls were Produced accordingly And in the Sixth Day the Earth is said to Produce Beasts which could not be so Produced in their Composita unles they were there before in all their Simple Essences or Entitys which were all Created in the Begining And in these Six Days there were both Compositions and Mistions or Formae Mistorum and also Simple Substantial Spirits which were before Created in the Begining were then Produced as is expressly Interpreted afterward of them all and their Improper Creation or Making that he Rested from all his Works which God Created and made or Originaly Created to Make that is Created in the Begining to Make or Perfect afterward in the Six Days And the Apostle like a Divine Philosopher doth also so Interpret it Through Faith we understand that the Worlds were framed by the Word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do Appear that is the Secula or Generations were so Framed and Ordered by God in the First Institution therof that in all Successive Generations nothing should be made of any former Phaenomena or things which do Appear by any Transpeciation or Conversion therof into other Essences or Entitys but of their own Essences or Entitys which he Immediately Created in the Begining and in their first Chaos of Potentiality wherin they then were not any such Actual Phaenomena or Appearances but were made to be such afterward and so still continue to be Generated out of their Potentiality into Actuality Which as every Christian understandeth by Faith according to this Divine History of the Creation and first Chaos so also any Heathen who wisely consydereth the same Cours of Successive Generation and Corruption must acknowledg to be according to Natural Reason and Senâ— And as the first Universal Chaos so every Particular Successive Chaos is Hebraicaly called Gods Treasury or Storehous out of which he Produceth or bringeth forth all things Generable or Corruptible Expending and Employing them in their Appearances and Operations which is their Actual Use and Office and so we read of his Treasures of Rain Snow Hail Wind and the like And the Author of Esdras saith particularly of the Light which was first so Produced Then commandedst thou a fair Light to come forth of thy Treasures that thy Work might Appear that is to Exist Actualy which before was Latent in the Chaos of Potentiality And certeinly no Successive Generation in the Present Cours of Nature can be a greater Work then those Primitive Generations which were the Immediate Works of God and Improper Creations Wheras if Natural Generation should be any other then the Production of Created Essences into their Actual Existences or Corruption then such Reduction therof they should be Proper Creation and Annihilation For if any new Essence or Entity whatsoever which was not before should be Caused to Be by Generation then it must be Properly Created and if that which was before be Caused Not to be by Corruption then it must be Properly Annihilated Nor doth it suffice to say that Generation or Corruption are not of any Simple Substances either Matter or Spirits but only of Composita and Accidents or Modes or whatsoever they pleas to call them for whatsoever they are or howsoever Exile or Desultory their Nature may be yet they are Real and Entitative Somthings not only in our Reason but in Nature as I have shewed and indeed otherwise Generation and Corruption should be no Real Alterations but the things Generated or Corrupted should be Realy the same as they were before and so we should deny all Generation and Corruption wheras they Realy are and do Produce Real Alterations or some new thing Actualy which was before only Pontentialy as every Compositum whether Substantial as any Elementary Substance by Mistion of the fower Elements or Accidental as Green by Mistion of Blew and Yellow and the like Also this doth Sensibly appear in and by all Generations and Corruptions whatsoever as of all Substantial Composita wherof there is only such a Composition otherwise they should not be Composita and certeinly the Simple Substances were before Actualy Subsisting in themselvs otherwise they should not be Substances and so likewise were the Simple Essences of Accidental Composita as of Green wherof certeinly the Blew and Yellow were before Actualy Existent and the Green Potentialy in both And so of more Simple Accidents Produced out of their Potentiality into their Actuality Whether of the Matter as this or that Particular Extension Figure Density and the rest which are Produced Actualy yet were before Potentialy in Universal Extension Figure Density and the rest otherwise they could not be so Produced nor can they be Produced into more Actualy then they
And so in the Carcass of any Beast when it is dead yet there may be still some other Spirits remaining but most apparently the Elementary and so in the Trunk of a dead Tree or Timber or the like and there is not only one but all Fower which also do always remain in all Chymical Separations whatsoever so that the Caput Mortuum is not only Matter or only one Element as in the first Chaoâ— nor their Spirits as they term them only Spirits but also Corporeal Matter and all the fower Elements and having some Various Mistion therof whereby any Caput Mortuum still differs notably from others and any such Chymical Spirit from others which could not be if they were most Simple Substances in themselvs or Matter and only one Spirit which would make only one Compositum therof not Specificaly Different from others Nor is it Possible for any Art or any Power of Nature according to the present State therof which was first Instituted by God to Separate these fower Elements one from another though they are and may be Variously Mist one with another as also it is not Possible to destroy their fower great Elementary Bodys Aeâ—her Air Water anâ— Earth in the whole which though they are also Mist one with another and so Denominated from the Predomination of every one severaly in those general Bodys yet that Predomination of their Elementary Spirit is so notable and their vast Bodys so notorious that they do Ocularly declare to every Ey their fower Elementary Natures and also that they are the Common Elements and Prepared Bodys of all Superior Spirits within this Elementary Orb which they wholy divide among themselvs and are the great Storehouses and Stocks of Nature from which all Elementary Bodys were borrowed and to which the Inferior do return again And accordingly they are as fower several Provinces Variously Inhabited and Furnished with all the Composita Starrs Vapors and Meteors Fishes Beasts and the like and Situated according to the Predominance of their proper Elementary Bodys and requisite Station therof in several Spheres one above another so as no Planetical Orbs are And heer I must also observ from my Text that there are only fower such Elements and no more nor any such several Kinds of them or of any of them as is expressly said of Vegetatives and Sensitives as I shall shew heerafter And therefore we have no mention of Stones Metalls and the like in this History of the Creation as of several Elementary Kinds becaus they are only several Composita of these fower Elements Wherefore we must also understand that there are not only fower first Qualitys of these fower first Elements as some have supposed which could never make so many and so very Different Sorts of Elementary Composita as there are in Nature nor yet may we assigne to any one Element besides its own Proper first Quality some other Social Quality of another Element in a more Remiss Degree as to Aeâ—her or Fire besides Heat Intens Drines Remiss for no Spirit whatsoever hath any Proper Spiritual Quality of another Spirit either Intens or Remiss of and in itself becaus every such Spiritual Substance is a Proper Spirit in itself and hath its own Proper Qualitys Differing Specificaly besides such as are Genericaly Common to the same Genus whereby only we know it to be what it is and thus unles we should affirm Aether or Fire to be also Earth we can not assigne any Drines to it as any Proper Quality Subsisting in it and flowing from it and certeinly it is no Affection of the Matter as Extension Figure Density Gravity Motion or the like which may be Common to Spirits in respect of their Bodys Also if it were a Proper Quality of any other Spirit it should not be Remiss but most Intens for every such Spirit Naturaly Acts to the utmost and there is nothing in itself to hinder it becaus no Nature doth Obstruct or Restrain its own Operations unles it be Spontaneous for that indeed is an Effect of Spontaneity nor doth Heat Naturaly hinder Drines but should rather Advance and Assist it as all Qualitys of the same Spirit are generaly Assistant one to another and so indeed may the Accidents of several Substances as of Matter and Spirits be Analogous and of several Spirits Homoeogeneous though they be not Homogeneous as I shall shew heerafter and thus Drines is more Concordant with Heat then with Cold which is Contrary to Heat though neither of them be any Proper Qualitys of the same Spirit of Aether or Fire but of other Elements nor doth Heat Properly or Directly Dry more then Moisten but only Consequentialy as I shall also shew heerafter But they who can affirm all the Elementary Spirits to be Educed out of the Potentia of Matter and that one Element may be Transpeciated or Converted into another may also affirm what they pleas of their Qualitys and transfer them from one to another which Suzugy of Qualitys they have also Invented as they suppose to Reconcile and Mediate between Contrary Qualitys though they be not any Degrees of either of them but Proper Qualitys in themselvs and Accidents of other Substantial Spirits nor doth that Contrariety of Qualitys need any such Mediation being Produced by Degrees out of their Potentialitys which are not Contrary Actualy or otherwise Mist by Degrees into their Actual Contemperature The Ignorance of which Doctrine of the Chaos and the Potentialitys therof and the Imaginary Supposition of such a Potentia of the Matter out of which not only Existences but the very Essences both of Accidents and also Substances may be Educed by Equivocal Causalitys Transpeciations and such new kinds of Creation and Annihilation as men have pleased to Invent instead of the true Creation and Chaos which God hath Made and Revealed to us hath been the Fundamental Error and Root of all the Consequential Absurditys But yet while they thus Grope in the Dark they Catch at some Shadows of Truth as plainly their Potentia doth allude to the Doctrine of Potentialitys and is Substituted instead therof and so this Supposition of several Different Qualitys in the same Substance doth partly Intimate another great Mystery in Nature which I shall now discover and unfold that is That indeed there are several Qualitys also Created Essentialy in one and the same Substance Proper to itself and so subsisting in it and flowing from it as I have already declared concerning Matter and the Affections therof not only Mediately as Figure from Extension and Gravity from Density and the like which are only several and Realy distinct Products or Propertys of the same Qualitys but as others Immediately Subsisting in and flowing from it as Extension and Density which are not such several Propertys one of another for so the same Orbicular or Cubical Extension and Figure may be either Dens or Rare Grave or Lighâ— and the same Density or Rarity Gravity or Levity may be
Alterations Generations and Corruptions appearing in it such as Maculae Comets and the like as I shall shew heerafter which plainly prove both that it was Mist with the other Elements and was a Generated Compositum in the first Perfection therof and that now it is Imperfect and yet the Diurnal Motion therof is still as Regular as before as well as the constant and Immovable Position of the Earth and therefore most probably there is some other Special Quality which doth Preserv it in that Regularity as Verticity doth the Earth and Magnets in their Polar Positions And as this Element is most Active and Operative so God who doth nothing in vain and is stiled The God of Order and not of Confusion did therefore first Perfect it and Produce the Active Qualitys therof as the Chymical Instruments of Nature whereby it was first sett on work and so at last when he shall Dissolv this whole Elementary World it shall be by Fire both Aethereal and Culinary Congregated and Condensated as before the Fountains of the great Deep were broken up and also the Cataracts of Heaven opened and shall thereby again Melt down this whole Inferior Globe if I may so speak with a Deluge of Fire as he did formerly overflow the Terraqueous Globe with a Deluge of Water wherof he hath thus farr declared unto us the maner but not the Time for Of that Day and Hour knoweth no Man no not the Angels in Heaven nor may we compute it by any Motions of the Heavenly Bodys or of any of them for this Dissolution not being Natural but Violent doth therefore attend no Natural Causality but may be at one Time as well as another II. The Spirit of Aether being Fire the most Proper Qualitys therof are apparently Heat and Light which are neither one and the same in themselvs nor do Immediately Subsist or Proceed in or from one another but both in and from the Substantial Spirit For apparently one may be Actualy without the other as Heat without Light in Fume and if there be not also Light without Heat as in the Gloworm and other such Bodys yet certeinly the Actual Heat is not Proportionable to the Actual Light therof and heer in the Text Light only is Named and not Heat though they are partly Synonymous in their Original Etymology and very Congenerous and Social Qualitys in Nature Proceeding from the same Substantial Spirit But I can not conceiv Drines as I have said to be any Second Quality Proceeding from Heat nor indeed very Symbolical or Homaeogeneous with it but rather another Collateral Quality of Earth and Indifferent between Heat and Cold for Vapors Oils and the like which are very Moist Bodys are more Inflammable then Salts and Ashes which are very Dry and all Heat doth Melt or prepare for Fusion which doth Actuate Moisture wherefore all Consistent Bodys generaly are Actualy Cold and Actualy Dry or at least Indifferent to either Heat or Cold to be Actuated in them But the Proper Action of Heat is to Heat or Univocaly to Generate or Produce Heat out of other Inflammable Bodys which thereby it doth also Move becaus as I have said it requires a most Rare Body and so when Heat begins to be Actuated it begins to Rarefy the Body Heated which being an Expansion therof necessarily causeth some Local Motion and so it Melteth and prepareth for Fusion by Rarefaction and even Iron Heated doth Swell before it Melt and in order therunto it doth Convell and Corrode the Parts of the Bodys as may appear by the Operation of Aqua fortis in Dissolution of Metalls and as it thus Operateth in respect of Corporeal Rarefaction or Comminution which is Preparatory therunto so it is Spiritualy Active in itself and Causeth Motion as a fitt and Analogous Instrument therof aswell as in its own Aether as I have shewed though that be probably as Rare as it can Naturaly be becaus it is the most Rare Element and can not be more Rarefied by any other Elementary Quality and hath already Produced the greatest Rarity that it can in itself But though Motion be such a notable Instrument of Heat as generaly it is also of all the Operations of Material Spirits upon the Matter yet neither Heat nor any others are only Motion as I have formerly shewed generaly and shall now shew particularly concerning Heat which is not so much Caused Originaly by Motion as it is a Caus therof though the Generator may Generate Heat which was Potentialy before in the Body wherin it is Actuated by Motion as I have said Mediately but more Immediately by Rarefaction and it s own Aethereal Motion is Caused by its own Natural Heat and not Heat by Motion for so Light and Heat were Created in it first at least in order of Nature beâ—ore there was any such Motion or Circumvolutâ—on of the Aether which followed therupon and whereby God Dâ—vided the Dâ—â—rnal Light from the Nocturnal Darknes and so made Day and Niâ—â—t Artificial Also if Motion be Formaly Heat and Heat Motion then Cold which is the Contrary therof mâ—st be Rest and Rest Colâ— which it is not for it doth both Expand Ice and also Compress Water in the Sealed Weather Glass and certeinly Expansion and Compression are not without Mâ—tion becaus they Vary the Extension and consequently the Locality of Bodys so Expanded or Comprest Nor are Motion and Rest Contrary Actively but only Advers Localy for Rest is not Active and thereâ—ore Motion cannot be Activeâ—y Contrary to Rest aâ— I have shewed but Heat and Cold are both Active and Activâ—â—y Contrary And if any can suppose that Heat is a Motion one way and Cold another way I desire them to assigne the different Local Motions of these or any other Spiritual Qualitys which they never yet have done nor indeed can do becaus they are no such Motions Naturaly Certeinly Heat and Cold which are most Contrary Qualitys require answerably Contrary Motions but as there is no such Contrariety between Rest and Motion so neither is there in Motion itself wherof there is only a Local Opposition as I have said for Motion is only one and the same Principle from which no such Active Contrariety can Possibly proceed though it may be an Indifferent Instrument of Contrary Agents as of Heat and Cold. Again Heat and Cold may be Mâ—st together into one Temperature which we call Tepor and that is both Hott and Cold though Mist and more Remiss thereby wheras Opposite Motions can not be so Mist for if Heat should be by Local Motion one way and Cold by it another way which though not Properly Contrary yet must be Diametricaly Opposite and Advers then one such Motion must necessarily stay and stop the other mutualy whereby there should be no Motion at all and consequently neither Heat nor Cold and this Tepor is as I have said per omnia and not only per minima much less by any Imaginary Parallel or
can be no Privative as Darknes which Light alway overcomes for such Contrariety is between Positives nor any thing which is not Active in itself as Density or any other Affection of the Matter which as they are not thus Actively Contrary to Heat so neither to Light or to any other Spiritual Qualitys whatsoever though according to the Universal Polity and Consociation of Nature they may be more or less Symbolical or Asymbolical And particularly Density is thus a Symbolical Affection of the Matter with that which is Contrary to Light as Rarity is with it and other Qualitys of Aether which as I have said requireth a very Rare Body and so Density is a Corporeal Affection Requisite and Analogous to the one and Rarity to the other but as there may be less Inherent Light in a more Rare Body then in a more Dens as in the Flame of Spirit of Wine then of Pitch which certeinly is a more Dens and Fuliginous Fume then the other so more of Emanant Light in a more Dens Body as Glass is more Diaphanous then thick Water through which it will sink and yet is more Opacous Wherefore there is somthing besides Density that is Contrary to Light which hath been well observed by others and acquired a Name whereby it may be known and is called Opacity which is a Quality of Earth as I shall shew heerafter And this is one of the other Qualitys of the Elements besides those commonly called the Fower First Qualitys which are to be Consydered and Regarded by Philosophers as well as them and as we may not Invent any new fictitious Qualitys which God hath not Created so neither may we lose any of them which he hath made to be in Nature nor Confound any Simple Qualitys with Compound nor Compound with Simple which God Created in the Begining before there was any such Composition and though indeed Entia non sunt multiplicanda sine Necessâ—â—ate yet whatsoever God hath Created Necessarily is becaus he hath Created it and therefore it is and whatsoever is is Necessarily while it is and none can Annihilate the Entity therof by any Finite Power of Nature and much less by Opinion and Fansy For at it is said of the Divine Word so we must also Consyder and Discours of the World as it is and none can Add to it or Diminish from it And God in his Infinite Wisedom did so Create the Heavens and the Earth in the Begining with all their Various Furniture of several Simple Essences becaus as it is his Infinite Perfection to be One in Himself so it is also the Perfection of Finite Nature to be Many in One whereby all the Various Perfections therof are Variously Expressed which could not be only by One. Wherefore I shall sett the same Bound to my self which God himself hath sett in Nature neither to go beyond the Begining of the World nor any thing which he Created therin nor to fall short therof or fear to affirm these Original Entitys to be such becaus God who is the First Caus hath so Created them without seeking any farther Caus or Reason therof or to deny any Natural Mistions or Compositions to be any such Simple Principles or Original Essences though he hath also joined them together with others so that we can not sett them asunder Localy by any Chymical Separation And such an Original Quality I find expressly Light to have been Produced into Actuality in the First Day which lay hid before in the Dark Chaos of Potentiality and by the same Reason I know that Opacity was also Produced together with Light and Mist with it in the Mistion of Aether with Earth as well as with the other Elements becaus there is neither Pura Lux nor Purae Teneâ—rae Actualy in Nature neither can I conceiv that any such Actual Qualitys can Exist Naturaly in their greatest Intension and Extremity and therefore probably might not so Actualy Exist in the Chaos before their Mistion and Contemperation which seems to be as Necessary to their Existence as the present Mistions of the fower Elements according to the first Works of God in the Six Days and Original Institution and Law of Generation and so must continue as long as any Successive Generation and Corruption and present Cours of Nature And this Opacity is a Terrene Quality wherunto the Density therof is Assistant and so Earth itself is most Opacous and Water less yet having some Opacity that causeth Refraction which is a Partial Reflection and so Air and Aether and all Diaphanous Bodys for there is no Pure Diaphaneity without any Opacity And this Opacity doth not only Reflect and Refract but is also Mist with Light in Colors and in Light itself which hath some Desultory Color and is not simply Visible of itself as I shall shew heerafter Thus the more fixed Qâ—alitys of Earth do fix the more Agile and Volatile Qualitys of the rest of the Elements being as an Alloy to Metall which makes it more Malleable And so particularly is Terrene Opacity to Aethereal Light for as Owls can not see by Daylight so the strongest Sight could not see the Pure Light nor can it Exist in its own Simple Vehemence without the Mâ—sture of Opacity And these Elementary Mistions are the Natural Perfections of the Simple Substances and Accidents which do therefore require it as well as Matter and Material Spirits do Consubstantiation as I have shewed Now Diaphaneity being only a less Degree of Opacity as Rarity is of Density it is also Partly Opacous and therefore as I have said doth Refrâ—ct which is a Partial Reflection or rather Inflection of the Rays from their own Natural Direction and there is no Diaphanous Body which doth not Refract more or less and none that doth Refract but doth also Reflect But in all Refraction and Reflection the Perpendicular Rays pass through the Diaphanous Body Perpendicularly and all Emanations Immediately are Perpendicular and neither A Perpendiculo nor Ad Perpendiculum as in Refraction or Reflection which as we commonly Intend by those Terms are always Oblique Lines Wherefore I suppose that the Rays of any Lucid Body are not so Refracted in the Immediate Medium wherin it is as of the Sun in the Aether or of the Flame of a Candle in the Air for as I have said the Flux or Eradiation of the Rays therof issues forth Immediately from the Inherent Light in most direct Rays and so they must Circumferentialy every way Penetrate their Immediate Medium with all their Rays Directly and not Obliquely as well as the Perpendicular Ray doth any Diaphanous Body which doth Refract the rest But we must also observ that as Opacity doth caus Refraction and Reflexion of the Rays so the Density of Diaphanous Bodys doth Ampliate or Distend the Rays of Expansion whereby it also weakens them So I conceiv that Refraction and Reflection are when the Rays having passed their Immediate Medium do meet with another
their Created Witt which could so soon frame such a Common Language whereby they understood one another and that must be Primitive becaus they were the first Man and Woman And if God afterward spake unto them Vocaly and Humanitus he also spake their Language by which they might understand him And it is expressly said that God brought the Beasts and Fowls to Adam To see what he would Call them And whatsoever Adam Called every Living Creature that was the Name therof And Adam gave Names to all Catell and to the Fouls of the Air and to every Beast of the Field so that plainly all these Names were Instituted Originaly by Adam and not by God himself Immediately who is said to bring them unto him To see what he would Call them that is to Exercise his Human Facultys both of Speech and Reason and accordingly Adam did give to every one his Specifical Name and that was the Name therof Therefore wheras they make the Divine Institution of the Hebrew Language to be the Foundation of their Cabal that very Foundation is too Cabalistical and remains to be proved and perhaps though that Language generaly were Primitive yet the Dialect therof as of all others might be much Altered before the Confusion but especialy after it and most probably it was first spoken without the Character which they also make to be Cabalistical And there are some such Criticks who accuse the Hebrew Language itself of many Defects wherefore certeâ—nly it was not Immediately from God all whose Immediate Works are most Perfect but from Man and if from Adam in Paradise Originaly hath been since much altered and corrupted Therefore as I conceiv there is nothing Mystical or Cabalistical in Numbers so neither in Letters or Figures or any other Quantitys and as there is only a plain Signature of the Notion rather then of the Thing in any such Literal Characters so also in Words which are only Sounds And so the Names which Adam gave did signify only Notionaly and Intellectualy whereby also it appears that he had a most Perfect Philosophical Contemplation and Inspection of their Natures according to his most Perfect Reason and Natural Understanding which God who had Created his Intellective Spirit and given him Dominion thereby over all Sensitive and Inferior Natures brought these most Curious and Dâ—fficult Pieces of Nature and in the very next Classis therof to himself purposely to Exercise and Discover to himself And though some who think themselvs Wiser then Adam deny even this to him and very Presumptuously Arrogate to themselvs more Knowledg of Nature by some Artificial Advantages as of the Telescope and Microscope and the like then ever Adam had in Paradise I will not deny but that they may have more Sensation thereby then he Actualy had but yet I suppose both his Understanding to have been farr more Telescopical and also his Witt more Microscopical then ours and that Potentialy he was able to have Contrived all such Artificial Advantages whatsoever as well as Language if he had any such need therof since they are only the Applications of certein Natural Causalitys which were then most Perfect and wherof he had a most Perfect Intellection according to his Perfect Human Nature in that Conjunct State therof wherin he was Created But yet I do not conceiv that he did know or could even then know such things as are Naturaly in themselvs Indemonstrable and Incomprehensible to any Human Reason as Mathematical Points and other Asymmetra which yet are the very least and lowest of Entitys becaus as I have shewed they are Demonstrably Indemonstrable and were purposely so secreted by God for the Humiliation of Man in his most Perfect State and for the Admiration of himself Seen in his meanest Workmanship for as there is still left in Nature Veritas in Profundo for the Exercise of Human Reason and Study and it is Sloth and Idlenes in us not to Dâ—gg and Search for it so there is also Veritas in Abysso which is Inscrutable and it is Folly in any to Inquire farther into it And so there are many things which we may Apprehend That they are but can never Comprehend What they are and when we once come to know that we can know no more of them we have arrived to the utmost Bound of Human Knowledg and there we must Acquiesce and not Affect Contradictions to know Omne Scibile non Scibile which is a Madnes beyond the Tentation of Adam who knew that he could know no more then he did as Man in his present State and therefore Aspired to be as the Gods knowing Good and Evill And though some term such a Prudent Ignorance and Sober Acquiescence Ignorantiae Asylum yet it is indeed rather Scientiae Adytum wherin Humble and Pious Minds Adore and Admire their Creator who is both Infinite in his Essence and Incomprehensible in his Operations VI. Now let us Prais the Infinite Iehovah Immens and Incomprehensible Eternal and Necessary One and Universal Being and Welbeing in Himself Who most fâ—eely overflowing in the Creation of this Finite World as a Transient Effect of himself first Caused it to Start forth from Absolute Notbeing into Being and afterward Invested the Naked Being of the Chaos with a Perfect Welbeing in Six Days Which thereby was made to be a Finite Somthing in itself but as Nothing in his Infinity Mensurable in itself but as Nothing in his Immensity Temporary in itself but as Nothing in his Eternity Numerable in itself but as Nothing in his Unity who still comprehends all Creatures in their Essences as he did before in their Possibilitys And as the World was Created by him without itself so it would again be Annihilated of itself without his Continued Creation Who hath built this great City of the Univers for himself and for the Majesty of his Kingdom and hath Created all his Subjects therin by his own Immediate Power and doth Govern them all and all their Subordinations for his own Supreme Glory Who hath made the Utmost and Highest Sphere therof to be his Holy Temple Ingenerable and Incorruptible whose Roof and Cover is the Superficies of the Universal Globe Circularly Including all Created Entity within itself and Excluding all Nonentity from itself And the Immovable Foundations therof are Arched over the whole Elementary World wherof the Vast Aether and Highest Convexity therof is less then the lowest Concavity of the Superaether and the whole Aethereal Sphere is the great Partition between it and the Immortal Inhabitants therof and the Mortal Inhabitants of the Inferior Globe Disterminating them not only by its Immens Superiority and Profundity but also by its most Rapid Motion and Defending itself from all their Assalts and Encounters while it Predominateth over them all Whose Heat as a true Archaeus Fabâ—r or Vulcan from which nothing is hid Generateth and Corrupteth them either like a Phaebus Fostering and Nourishing them in the more Temperate Zone or like
a Phaeton Burning and Consuming them in the Torrid Zone therof And therefore is farthest Removed from them and Diverted by its own Perpetual Motion and Tempered by the Mediation of the Frigid Air or Drowned with the Clammy Water or Imprisoned in the Consistent Earth untill at last this Firstborn and Strength of Nature shall Destroy them all with an Universal Conflagration and turn the very Original Chaos into an Everlasting Gehennâ— Also Light the other of those Aethereal Gemini is as Amiable at Heat is Powerfull Actuating all the Visible Beautys of Nature and is farr more Beautifull in itself Discovering all that is between us in any of the other Elements and its own Profundity Adorning Culinary Fire with a Golden Flammeum so that Infants newly born are ravished with the Lustre and fix their Eys on the Beauty therof and all Domestical and Savage Beasts both Love and Dread the Majesty therof Which opening the Shopwindows of the World setts forth all the Wares therof with no fals Lights Inriching Gold itself with its Brightnes and Irradiating Jewells with its Rays Which maketh Day by its desired Presence and Night by its deplored Absence And is in itself the most Excellent Sensible of the most Excellent Sens and the Visible Hieroglyphike of Invisible Spirits and of all other Elementary Natures affordeth most both of Contemplation and Conversation to Sensitive and Intellective Animals SECTION VIII And God said Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and let it Divide the Waters from the Waters And God made the Firmament and Divided the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament And it was so And God called the Firmament Heaven And the Evening and the Morning were the Second Day EXPLICATION God having Perfected the Aether did by the Heat therof caus the Vapors of Water to Ascend into the Air when it also was fitly Expanded between the Aether and the Waters and thereby the Vapors of Water which were above were Divided from the Waters beneath And this Aereal Expansum was another Heaven and so Perfected in the Second Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Air. 2. Of the Elasticity therof 3. Of Cold. 4. Of Sounds 5. Of Meteors therin 1. THe Air is the next Element to Aether and seemeth to be Continuous with it becaus it is also Diaphanous and doâ—h not Terminate the Sight And so it is called Firmament or Expansum as well as the Aether and also Heaven as well as the Superaether And becaus it is the next and Immediate Heaven to us therefore the general Name of Heaven is according to Hebraical Etymology most Proper and Peculiar to it though the Superaether be the most Stupendous Excellent Heaven in its own Nature as I have said And as we generaly call all that is above us Heaven so in that respect this is the First Heaven Aether the Second and Superaether the Third But it is in itself very Different from both them above it and also from Water and Earth below it and as Different from all the other Elements as they are generaly one from another becaus they are several Elements though particularly as they are neerer in Situation so also in Nature one to another And Air is of a Midle Nature between Aether and Water as Water is between Air and Earth and so consydered with the Aethereal Rays Emanant into it may be called an Aeriaethereous Sphere and with the Vapors and the Effluvia therof Ascending into it an Aquaereous Sphere as Water and Earth are a Terraqueous Globe And though becaus it hath Spiritualy less Sensible Qualitys then Aether and a less Dens or Gross Body then Water so that any Vessel filled with it is Comparatâ—vely said to be Empty and Poeticaly it is called the Inane aâ—â— Chymists in their most Curious Separations can not well discern it yet God who Created it hath discovered it to be a particular Element and one of the three Heavens and the Fowls of that Heaven feel and find it to be such in their flying therin and though it be in Rarity next to Aeâ—her yet both of them have some Density and a Proportionable Weight as I have said Also though it be farr more Rare then Water which is supposed to be about a thousand times more Dens then the Atmosphere according to the Common Temper therof and may be many times more Dens then Air Rarefied or Expanded yet perhaps as Water and Earth do more agree in Density so also Air and Aether which are both called Expansa in Rarity But as Air is thus Rare so it is not only capable of Compression more then Water but also of Dilatation or Expansion more then Aether which Expansion therof is now made famous by the Name of Elastâ—city wherof I shall purposely treat afterward and therefore not now prevent my self As Astronomers have devifed several Spheres and Regions in the Aether so have others also in the Air wheras indeed they have both only their own Proper Regions which are several becaus they are both of several Density and Rarity and of several Elementary Natures and so with the other two Divide the whole Elementary Globe into their fower several Provinces as I have shewed and if any could shew us any such Division Corporeal and Spiritual or either of them in the Aether or Air themselvs they should Prove what they Say and not only Say what they Imagin But though no Colorable Caus be offered to make such Partitions in Aether except the Various Motions of the Sydereous Bodys which Move in the Aether and are Moved with the Aether and need no such Proper Spheres as I have shewed yet there is a more Sensible Pretension to prove Three several Regions in the Air which will be also found to be like them in the Aether only in Notion and not in Nature for wheras they assigne the First Region to be and extend so farr as the Emanant Rays of Aether are Reflected from the Earth the Midle to be where that Reflection endeth and wherin the Meteors are and the Third above them and so Immediately Contiguous to the Aether I find no such Partition therof neither in the Text nor in Nature For themselvs do not apprehend the First Region to be many Miles high nor indeed can it be of any great Hight if it be below all Meteors Vapors Dews and the like which continualy Ascend into it from the Terraqueous Globe and are not very high but certeinly the Rays are Reflected much farther then any hath yet assigned the utmost Hight of the whole Air to be It is reported that the Pike of Teneriff and some such other Eminences of the Earth may be seen at the Distance of about three Degrees from them which can not be by the Direct Rays therof being no Lucid Bodys and therefore must be by the Reflected Rays of Aether which are Reflected so farr through the Air otherwise there could be no Vision
own Apprehensions then in the Expressions wherin Scripture is alway Consonant the Truth therof Consistent with itself and so we are to Interpret them accordingly and to reduce them all to the System of the World which is Intentionaly reveled and declared unto us in this Divine History of the Genesis therof and then we shâ—ll neither as some place Waters below the Earth becaus Springs are termed Subterraneous or above the Aether yea the Superaether becaus the same word signifieth both Air and Heavens and so make them to possess both the Center and Circumference of the whole World nor conceiv that Rivers flow from the Ocean only by Subterraneous passages and so flow thither again in their Canales whenas there is not any mention made of Rivers in all the Six Days Works but only of Waters above and Waters beneath which were first gathered into Seas though I doubt not but that Rivers were also made afterward in the Third Day yet first by Waters above or Vapors and in the same Order of Nature wherin they are still continued that is by the descent of Vapors first raised from the Seas into the Earth and therefore only Vapors or Waters above and Seas or Waters beneath are heer mentioned and so afterward we read that There went up a Mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of the Ground before we read of the fower Rivers that encompassed Eden about and were also fed and continued by it and the Vapors thus descending into the Spongy Earth where they meet with Stones or other such Bodys less apt to Imbibe them do stand in Drops as they do on Marble which Poets call the Tears of Niobe and those Drops gathering together in Fluxes make at first litle Rills and they afterward Rivulets and Rivers which run again into the Sea and so the Rivers were made and are still continued and this and no other is the Cours of the Waters as the Psalmist affirmeth They go up by the Mountains they go down by the Vallys unto the place which thou hast founded for them and so we read of Windows of Heaven aswell as of Fountains of the Deep and the Author of Esdras calleth them also Springs above the Firmament for so indeed they are Mutualy and Reciprocaly Fountains each to other And this plainly is proved by the freshnes of Rivers which may not be imputed to any such Percolation through the Earth whereby it hath formerly been supposed that Salt might be Separated from Water but is now found to be otherwise I have tried it by so strict a Percolation that only a Drop or two of Brine have been Excerned in a whole Days time and yet they were so Briny that I could perceiv very little or no difference and all Saltmen find Evaporation to be the most easy and natural way of making Salt which therefore certeinly is the way of Nature in so great an Evaporation as apparently makes all Rainwater fresh and consequently all Riverwater Nor are Salt Springs from the Sea Immediately or Mediately but from Salt Mines in the Earth lâ—ke other Nâ—trous Bitumineous or Iron Springs and the like though I also acknowledg that Salt may be Volatilised as Chymists say and which doth very sensibly appear to us who dwell neer to the Sea where Woods on that side toward the Sea are blasted thereby and Iron Nails and Window Barrs rotted as Iron will swell and be corrupted by lying long in Saltwater yet these Vapors of the Sea go not farr nor are such Experiments therof found at any great distance much less can they make Salt Springs in the Inland where also fresh Springs â—low very neer to them but they are both first from Vapors and then the Salt Springs are made Salt by runing through Salt Mines And lastly I shall approve it by a plain Experiment which I received from a very Credible Person whose Hous standing at the bottom of a declive Hill and wanting Water he caused a large Trench to be digged down the side therof and many other less Trenches branching out of it both ways and then filled them all with Pebble Stones and again covered them over with the Earth and found Water to flow at the bottom of the main Trench through a Pipe laid to receiv it which is only by Artificial application of the same Natural Causalitys And when I had reported this to a Noble Lord he confirmed it with another Observation which himself had made in certein Quillets or litle Quagmires which have Water springing and standing in them by causing them to be searched and the ground to be digged under them where he found Beds of Stone which might also give occasion to the Poets to feign Rivers powring their Waters out of Stony Urns Nor indeed is it Imaginable that Rivers and Springs should otherwise come from the Sea whose highest Watermark is farr below the Springs as is well known to such who live neer to the higher Shores of the Sea and so also is attested by such who have gone up the Pike of Tâ—neriff wherin they found a Spring farr above the Sea wheras Water while it is such cannot ascend above its Levell for then it should rise above itself becaus it is all one Equidens and Fluid Body And Springs rise first out of the Earth in very small Sources and not from any such Subterraneous Rivers as some have supposed flowing in great Canales under the Earth and Impelled by I know not what Subterraneous Vapors like Bloud in the Veins But though all Water will run to its Levell yet if it be not also some way Impelled it will run very slowly and so swell and mingle by degrees as it can hardly be perceived to run wherefore it is observed in such Cutts and Aqueducts that if about a foot Fall be not allowed for every Mile there will be a very litle Current of the Water wheras Rivers run very swiftly and some of them with a very Rapid Current which must be by a farr greater Fall and therefore the Springs or Sources of all great Rivers must be farr within Land and also fall from much higher ground as the Author of Esdrâ—â— saith That the Flowds might powr down from the Rocks Having thus farr consydered the Cours of Waters from the Sea into the Air by Evaporation and from thence to the Earth and from the Mountains or higher ground therof to the Seas again which is the first and great Reciprocation therof whereby they are such Mutual Fountains each to other I shall now farther consyder that which we commonly call the Floud and Ebb or Tides of Seas and Rivers which is also another Mutual Reciprocation of Waters for so the Floud of the Seas is the Ebb of the Rivers and the Ebb of the Rivers the Floud of the Seas not Circularly as the other but only describing a very small Segment or part of an Arch like a Pendulum Now becaus so many several Hypotheses therof have been
evident in Consistence which though it be the same in every Corpuscle as in any equal Part of a greater Body of the same nature as it is in a Pindust as well as in such a small Part of the greater Body of Brass from which the Dust was decided as I before shewed yet all the Parts of the greateâ—◠〈◊〉 being united together do proportionably more fortify themselvs and the whole Body is thereby made more strong in every equal Part therof then the Corpuscle decided from it and it were more then a Curiosity and of great Mechanical Use to find out the Increment of the Strength of Consistence according to the Majoration of Consistent Bodys for certeinly the Total of the Strength of the greater will be found to be more then the Addition of so many Units as there are Parts in it equal to the Corpuscle decided from it As a Barr of Wood one Inch square will bear about eight times so much Weight as if it be equaly divided into fower quarters any one of those fower quarters will bear though that hath a fourth part of the whole Magnitude of the other whereby it appears that the Increment of the Consistent Strength therof is about doubly as much as the proportion of the Magnitude though I do not conceiv that it alway so doubles but that where the disproportion is greater of the Magnitude it will be greater also of the Increment and where less less As suppose the Barr of Wood an Inch Square and a yard long and being equaly supported by Fulciments at the Extremitys to bear two hundred pounds Weight hanging at the Center therof and a Barr of a fourth part of the Magnitude therof to bear a quarter of one hundred pounds Weight so that the greater Barr bears eight times as much as the less Barr which yet hath a fourth part of the Magnitude therof then also suppose another Barr two Inches square which hath fower times the Magnitude of the Barr an Inch Square the Increment of the Strength therof must proportionably be doubled in respect of that as the Increment of the Strength of that was in respect of the other and consequently if the Barr of an Inch square did bear two hundred as I supposed the Barr two Inches square must be supposed to bear sixteen hundred pounds Weight that is fower two hundreds doubled as the Barr an Inch square did bear two hundred that is fower quarters of one hundred doubled now the proportions of Magnitudes between these three Barrs are as I said of the least to the midst as one to fower and to the greatest as one to sixteen and the Increment of the midst in respect of the least is as eight to one which is doubly fower and of the greatest in respect of the least as sixty fower to one which is fower times sixteen Also it may be tried in Barrs of other Figures as of round Barrs of an Inch Diameter and â—â—â—angular Barrs of an Inch Perpendicular and any other Regular or Irregular Polygons as a Barr half square and half flatt or an Inch one way and half an Inch the other way and how much it will bear one way and how much the other way and the like and I shall propound it to be examined by Mathematicians and Mechanikes whether in all cases the Increment of the Strength of the greater Consistent Bodys be not proportionably according to the Increment of the Superficies of the less Bodys as the midle Barr being an Inch Square the fower Lateral Superficies therof made only fower Inches wheras every one of the fower least Barrs being half an Inch square the fower Lateral Superficies therof made two Inches and so of all the fower least Barrs whose whole Magnitude is equal to the midle Barr of an Inch square eight Inches wheras the fower Lateral Superficies of the midle Barr made on 〈…〉 Inches as I said and so of the other wherin the Decrement of the Superficies therof is double and also the Increment of the Strength of the Consistence therof double Now though there be as I have shewed an Increment of the Velocity of Motion and accordingly of the Gravitation or Descent and Percussion of a Scale or other Body by the Pondus of the Matter whereby the Increment of Velocity may be tried yet that is by several Degrees Successively Actuated wheras the Increment of Consistent Strength is present and Simultaneous And heerin may plainly appear another difference between Matter and the Affections therof and Spirits and their Spiritual Qualitys for though Matter by Union doth fortify and defend itself in the Whole against any Nonentity as I have said becaus the Extension therof being Quantity Consistent which is the only Consistence of Matter must Consist together through the whole Quantity of the Universal Body therof as the Extension of any Particular Body must Consist and be Continued through all the Parts therof otherwise it should not be the same Extension as it is and therefore though one Part may be removed from one Place in the whole Body of the World to another yet another Part must necessarily succeed to Continue the whole Extension therof and thereby to render the same whole Body Complete and Intire and the whole Extension therof Consistent yeâ— the Union of Part to Part though never so many doth not make any Increment of the whole Extension above the Total of all the Proportions of all the Parts and so an hundred several Weights of one pound of Lead being melted or otherwise united together will not weigh in all more then one hundred pounds or if the same Matter in a greater Extension be Condensated into a less Extension it weighs only according to the Mass of the whole Matter and not according to the Extension and therefore is the same whether the Extension be greater or less though as it is so much Matter in a less Extension it will penetrate and sink through an equal portion of Matter in a greater Extension as I have shewed but yet doth not by such Condensation acquire any greater Gravity in itself then proportionable to the whole Body of the Matter as we say that a pound of Feathers is as heavy as a pound of Lead though the Lead will press down the Feathers and not the Feathers 〈…〉 in respect to one another and their due Station and 〈…〉 the Universal Body of Matter as I have declared whereas this Terreous Consistence being a Spiritual Quality gaineth an Increment of Strength in itself by such Physical Union above the proportions of all the Parts United or added together Arithmeticaly and so Fire of so many equal Parts United together Physicaly into one Body will heat and burn more then so many several Sparks equal to those Parts as being United or added together Arithmeticaly will amount to an equal Total Also a Wire of Iron may be made so small and so long as that it will not bear its own weight at the Extremitys and
to more Curious trial and examination Also it may be tried how much less the Attractive Power of the Aequator is then of the Poles for certeinly the Magnetical Virtue is not equaly Orbicular but rather Oval and that perhaps may discover it as I before intimated though we call it an Orb and it may be so as there is an Orb of the Emanation of Light from an Elliptical or other Inorbicular Lucid Body and yet the Power therof is not equaly Orbicular as I have shewed for though the Circumferential Extension from the Center be equal yet the Circumferential Power in that Extension may be unequal however it is evident in Magnets that though they be Orbicular yet their Virtue is Oval and so in their Orbs of Magnetical Emanations the Virtue is greater at the Poles and neerer to them proportionably and less at the Aequator and neerer to it proprotionably And not only the Center but also the Poles are very Points as may appear by two Needles placed at one of the Poles which will thrust one against another to attein the very Polar Point which doth most strongly attract them and therefore Divaricate at their other ends as they must according to Statike Law for there can be no Angular Point of two several Lines concurring in it without a Divergence of the two Lines from it Now in this Circular cours of the Needle about the round Magnet it is very observable that if it be moved about it at a distance it doth observ the Poles and Aequator of the Orb of the Emanant and not the Inherent Virtue therof in the Magnet it self though the Emanant Virtue be not Câ—rporeal nor indeed the Inherent as the Magnetike Body is which I have already proved in discoursing of Emanant Light and may appear more manifestly by Magnetike Emanations which penetrate not only Imporous Glass but any other Bodys whatsoever Now wheras it is a general Magnetike Rule that the Correspondent Pole of one Magnet to another is of a contrary Denomination as of North to South and South to North the Magnets are accordingly found to Conform themselvs and the less Magnet will turn about itself so to apply its Correspondent Pole unto the other which is no Flight of each others Poles as some have supposed but a Concordance and Conformity according to the Magnetike Law of their Nature and it doth so not only by Contact of the greater Magnet but at any distance within the Emanant Orb therof becaus as the Inherent and Emanant Virtue of the same Magnet make one Intire Orb of the Magnetical Virtue therof though of several and unequal Powers so also doth the less Magnet endeavour thus to Conform itself within the Orb of the greater Magnet And it may be tried whether as two several Lights in the same place do Colluminate so these two Magnetike Virtues being so placed together do Cooperate by their Emanant Virtues Also if one and the same Magnet be divided into several Magnets the Individual Polarity of the Whole will be doubled and accordingly as they are made by the Dissection two less Wholes so they will also have two Individualy less Magnetike Virtues and according to the Dissection so will the Polarity of each of them be for if the Magnet be dissected by a Line cutting the Axis and Parallel to the Aequator then the Poles Center Axis and Aequator are only doubled that is the former Northern Pole in the one and Southern Pole in the other still remain and where the Dissection is there is a new Southern Pole opposite to the former Northern Pole and a new Northern Pole opposite to the former Southern Pole and the Axis is divided into two and the former Center and Aequator are also changed into two new Centers and Aequators conformable to the Position of these double Poles but if the Magnet be dissected by a Line cutting the Aequator and Parallel to the Axis then the Continuity remaining untill the Dissection be finished which doth end toward one of the Poles it is as if Wax were so divided by a Dissection almost throughout but did stick together only at one end and then the two branches therof produced and erected one above another and after the upper part wholy severed from the neather whereby that last Dissection doth not cutt the Aequator as the first did but the Axis by a Line Parallel to the Aequator as in the former Instance and if we could suppose the Magnet to be so produced and erected Corporealy and then wholy severed there would be one Pole at the end of the greater part of the Magnet which we will suppose to continue in the same Position as it was before and the other part which is first divided and then supposed to be so produced and erected above it must necessarily have another Pole opposite therunto and consequently to that which itself had before when it was conjoined to the other and so when it is wholy severed that part seems to acquire two new Poles of contrary Denominations to the other though indeed the reason therof be only the same as of the former Experiment and they are all only Correspondences according to the Magnetike Law whereby as I said North doth Correspond to South and South to North and so every Point of thâ— Axis between the North Pole and the Center is Southern in respect of it though it be within the Northern Hemisphere of the whole Magnet as England is Southern in respect of the North Pole or Grâ—enland though Northern in respect of the Aequator or Aethiopia and so likewise every Point between the South Pole and Center is Southern and thus if the Magnet be divided by a Line cutting the Axis in any Point the Correspondence of the Poles still remains and if it cut the Aequator yet in effect it is the same at last as I have shewed by the Instance of Wax so dissected and then produced and erected and afterward severed and though this be not so effected Corporealy in the dissection of a Magnet yet the Spiritual Virtue therof being dissected at one end and continued at the other doth so produce itself and run through the whole Body that the part dissected will Correspond Magneticaly with that part from which it is last severed whether according to the Dissection it be requisite that it be of the same or of a contrary Denomination And heerby we may plainly perceiv the Real Individuality of any Elementary Compositum while it is Continuous in itself and Discontinued from others and the Individual Oeconomy therof in itself for so the Magnet while it is one hath but one Center Axis Poles and Aequator and assoon as it is Discontinued the two Parts have each of them all the same Apparatus which is doubled and so even Elementary Spirits have their Oeconomy and are Conforted by Majoration and Consociation as I have shewed And these two Elements Aether and Earth have not only
Potentia of the Spirit which by its Qualitys doth so Intrinsecaly Distend and Contract its own Body is properly Active as well as when it doth Extrinsecaly Expand or Compress another Body which it may do consequentialy by Rarefying or Condensating its own Body for so Fire by Rarefying the Powder into Flame and Fume doth explode a Bullet and though when it Densefieth its own Body the next commonly succeeds by Motion of the Matter to prevent Vacuity yet this notable Instance of Electricity and all other Attractions by Heat shew also how it may attract another Body not only by Concursion as two Magnets mutualy meet one another but by plain drawing without any Corporeal Instruments and Immâ—diately by its own Spiritual Power which Spirits have in themselvs as plainly appears by the Motive Power of Angels who are purely Immaterial and yet most swiftly Move themselvs and most strongly other Bodys as our Saviors Body was so carried up to the Pinnacle of the Temple and yeâ— according to that Universal Oeconomy of Nature and Combination of all the Scale therof as Angels cannot Move so soon through a greater Space as a less so I suppose also that they cannot Move so easily through a more Dens Body as a more Rare as I have also observed of the Magnetike Virtue nor Move a more Heavy Body as easily as a more Lâ—ght and though they are the most Excellent and Potent Spirits and so among other Titles called Powers yet their Motive Power plainly declares how a Spirit may Immediately Move a Body of Matter and that Materialists strangely err who suppose that Matter can only be Moved by Matter or Bodys by Bodys for indeed Spirits which are Substantial Activitys are made purposely to Act and Move the Matter and so all other Inferior Spirits though less Potent may Move it less Powerfully according to their several Natures and Orders that is Material Spirits Move it more Materialy and one by another as Sensitive by the mediation of Vegetative and Vegetative by the mediation of Elementary according to the Scale of Nature as I shall shew heerafter but Elementary which immediately Consubstantiate the Matter may Immediately Move it as I have before shewed both Intrinsecaly and Extrinsecaly with very forcible and violent Motions as in Thunder Shooting in a Gun and Rarefaction of Water into Vapors whereby very great Execution may be done yea as great as by firing of Gunpowder which indeed is only Rarefaction by Incension and yet without Incension if the Rarefaction be as much and as sudden it hath the same Effect becaus there is one and the same Caus of both that is the Rarefaction itself whether it be one way or other and yet it is very consyderable wherefore since the Vaporous Body is also capable of Compression as well as Rarefaction the Bullet in the Gun should not again Compress the Flame into its former Extension rather then be itself exploded by the Rarefaction or if it cannot be clearly expelled why the very Gun itself should rather be broken since Air is strangely Comprest in a Wind-gun by less Strength but I conceiv the reason therof to be both the greatness of the Dilatation which certeinly is more proportionably then the Compression for the Air is never Comprest so much in the Windgun as to break it and also the suddennes whereby the force therof coming all at once like the delivery of weighty Stones Arrows or the like out of Catapults and Balists doth all together prevail over the resistance which in longer time and by degrees might prevail against it and thus if the Rarefaction of Vapor be very great and very sudden the Execution will be very forcible and quick and if less less proportionably nor can I conceiv any other caus of those vast Eruptions and Ejaculations of whole Torrents of such massy Matter from Mount Aetna to so great a distance but only the great sudden and continual Rarefaction of Vapors happening in some fitt Caverns therof Also the Planetary Motions of those vast Orbs in such rapid and perpetual courses is very wonderful which yet are only Elementary Thus Magnetical Electrical and Planetary Motions are indeed by such Natural Magike as I have described and though I also acknowledg that Emanations may be at the greatest distances and Effluvia may pass very farr yet I cannot conceiv how any Sympathetical Operations can Naturaly have an equal Effect at the farthest distance as at the neerest since no Emanations Effluvia nor Angels themselvs do or can so Operate Now Effluvia as I have said are of Inherent Qualitys as odorous or others in and with their Vaporous Bodys and not like Emanations which are only of Emanant Qualitys and which though weaker then Inherent yet are more Spiritual and Separate from the Matter and may be easily distinguished from the others for they penetrate the very Bodys wheras Effluvia only pierce and enter into the Pores therof also Emanant Qualitys are never Exhausted but always while they are in Act and not obstructed fill their whole Sphere nor do they weigh or by their Emanation make their Substantial Bodys to be Lighter wheras Effluvia though they may be very Rare and Subtile yet do proportionably diminish their Bodys and accordingly make them to weigh somwhat less unless they be also continualy renewed There is also a great Cohesion and Continuation of Homogeneous Bodys which I have formerly observed though few of them do so attract or concurr as Magnets It is said that Gold doth attract the Fume of Mercury and workmen use to hold a piece of Gold in their mouths to receiv it which will be notably silver'd thereby but that may be only by so much of the Fume as doth happen to fall upon the Gold as Dew upon leavs of Trees or Herbs yet certeinly when the Mercury doth so fall upon the Gold it doth notably retein it being as I suppose very Homogeneous with it and that there is much Mercury in the Composition of Gold and so fixed in it as that no Fume therof will again be emitted by any Operation of the most Intens Fire though never so long continued but there is also some other predominant Principle in the Composition therof which apparently renders it heavier then Mercury though probably Mercury be one Principle in the Composition of all Metalls except perhaps of Iron which is Magnetical and will not be Corroded by it There is also a Fume emitted in melting Lead somwhat like that of Mercury very hurtfull to workmen and which doth strangely allure Cats as a sweet Poison and thereby kill them But I shall not proceed to discours of Metalls and Minerals and the like which I conceiv to be Composita and the Spirits therof no Simple Substances Created in the Begining but that they are Mist of such several Simple and Created Principles and therefore not mentioned in all the Six Days works though they and all other perfect Mista were then also Improperly
caus of Petrification not so much by Conglaciation as by reduction of a fitt Juice in the Body therof to such a Consistence and plainly Stones of Fruits are so denominated from their almost Saxeous hardnes whereby they become such Caskets for Seeds which are Natures Gemms and yet we cannot conceiv their Induration to be any Conglaciation but rather Desiccation for Earth and Water are most Congenerous Elements and as they are composed into one Terraqueous Globe so they have a greater Intermistion and as Metalls may become Fluid by Fusion so may these Succi be Indurated and fixed by Drines and Consistence though as Heat is assistant in the one so may Cold be in the other But Trunks of Trees though not hollow as Stalks of Herbs have their Porous passages through which the Sap doth ascend and commonly by the most Spongy part therof that is the Pith which is formed by the Bubbling and Spumeous Vapor ascending in it and is fixed by degrees as may be seen by Birds Quills which have litle Bladders left in the Cavitys therof though their Pith is more Constipated in the Feather And there is observed to be some such hollownes in Hairs and both Feathers and Hairs are Vegetatives though Subordinate parts of Sensitive Bodys and yet they have neither Seed nor Root properly becaus they are not properly Individuals in themselvs but parts of others and so they are Analogous to Leavs and Flowers and of as Beautifull and more strong Colors and many of them perfectly Black Also the Sap doth not only ascend through the Pith but notably between the Wood and the Bark and in the ascent is Concocted into Wood every year as may appear by the Circles therof very visibly in more sappy Trees as Willow Ash Birch and the like whereby knowing the several years growth therof you may compute the Gain or Loss according to the proportion of the Majority of the latter Circles and Interest of the yearly Rents precedent and the Sap may also rise between these Circles and through the very Pores of the Wood as Bloud in Sensitive Bodys may Transudatâ— through the Flesh for the Tree will sprout and shoot forth every where and hollow Trees without any Pith may bear Fruit and indeed the Bark or Skin which is outward is more requisite to the Vegetation of the Tree then the Pith or Medulla which is inward and as it will hardly Live as they term it without a Bark so if that be bound it will not thrive which therefore is cured by cutting for as I said Vegetative Spirits in Plants being much assisted by the Temperature of External Qualitys as also by Internal in Animals are as easily hurt by the Distemperature therof from which the Bark servs to defend it and as it so defends the Body of the Tree it thereby suffers much weather-beating and adustion in itself which makes it so Rugous and harsh And becaus the External Heat draws the Sap outward as well as upward therefore the Pith is commonly Insipid but the Bark very strong and Stiptike as may appear by Tan and so is the Wood itself more then Pith as appears by the Salivous Oil of Oaken wood which issueth out at the ends in burning and is very Astringent and Desiccating so also the Rinds of some Fruits as Orenges Lemons Citrons and the like are very Spirituous and Sapid but then that Pith which is next to them is very Insipid There is another Character of Trees which is their Fruit not particularly of every Kind of them for all are not Frugiferous but generaly becaus most of them are such and others which are not so yet being Ligneous and otherwise like unto them and so not to be accounted Herbs or Grass are therefore also Trees and they are generaly thus described becaus this was the chief end of Vegetatives to be food for Sensitives and the Fruits are most Esculent wherin also as in Flowers of Herbs the Seeds of Trees are conteined more Immediately as it is so said whose Seed is in it All Plants grow out of the Earth Perpendicularly and so the Earth doth nourish them and thus all Grounds bear only according to the Plane or Levell therof and not according to any Convex or Concave Superficies as a Park may be Impaled with as few Pales though the ground be rising and Indented as if it were plain and Poll becaus all the Pales stand Perpendicularly though it require more Rail proportionably becaus the Rail runs Horizontaly according to the Superficies and yet we thus measure and purchase Lands which bring forth the other way And heer I shall observ that wheras it is said The Earth brought forth Grass and Herb yielding Seed after his Kind and the Tree yielding Fruit whose Seed was in itself God in these Six Days made them and all other things in their Acme of Perfection as well as Adam in his Adult State and so every way Good for thus Vegetatives were made not only Complete in themselves but pregnant with their Seeds and ready to propagate others and to this Individual Perfection of Vegetatives and Sensitives was added the Divine Benediction Increas and Multiply according to the Kind Specificaly and so God having sett in order Original Generation by Improper Creation as I have shewed transmitted it to the Successive Generations of Nature And wheras it is a common Problem whether any Poisonous Vegetatives or otherwise Noxious as Briars and Thorns were before the Fall and Curs I suppose by Analogy of Nature that as then though there could be no Elementary Qualitys Actualy Existing in their Extremitys yet they were very Intens and Predominant in their own Elementary Bodys as the Qâ—alitys of Fire in Aether and of Water in the Sea which might destroy Sensitive Animals if they should be Localy in them wheras they were so ordered that they were very Gratefull and Usefull to them so also that â—here were Vegetatives in the same Excessive degrees of Qualitys as now which we therefore call Poisons in respect to Animals though they be indeed Eminences of Nature in themselvs and so also Briars and Thorns and such others as are no Anomalous but Perfect Plants but I suppose that Animals were preserved from Poisons by a Natural Abhorrence and Discretion having all their most exact Senses and Bodily Temperaments which would not accept of any other food then what was suitable therunto and so they might also avoid Briars and Thorns and the like as they pleased whose Berrys are also food for Fowls but I also suppose that there was no such Excessive Quantity therof as since and that this was the import of that Curs of the Earth Thorns and Thistles it shall bring forth that is wheras before of itself it brought forth abundantly all sorts of Vegetative food for Man and Beasts and such Poisonous Herbs and Noxious Plants as rarely as it doth now good Fruits so then vice versa it should bring forth abundantly Weeds Thorns
and Thistles and the like Thus I have briefly and generaly discoursed of Vegetatives as before of the fower Elements according to this Divine History which is an Universal System of the World both in the Proper and Improper Creation therof nor do I intend any particular Historys of them as Solomon spake of them all from the Ceder of Lebanon to the Hysop that is on the wall But heer before I conclude I shall again desire any who will rightly consyder the Nature of Vegetatives to try whether they also may be made only by Matter and Motion without their own proper Plastical Spirits which the Earth did bring forth and as I have observed the fower Elements were before perfected and prepared in order therunto without which the Matter alone as so consydered in itself though indeed it can never be without the Consubstantiation of Elementary or the Superaethereal Spirit hath no Automatous Motion of itself nor when it is dislocated any other then to Union and Station as I have shewed which is only to recover its due Rest and Position and therefore certeinly it cannot also Move from Rest which is Naturaly contrary therunto as Verticity is to Polar Position and therefore cannot be from it nor hath it any such Plastical Virtue of itself which may guide the Motions therof but would be only Equidens and Orbicular wheras Plastical Formation of all Vegetative Bodys and much more of the Bodys of Sensitives is constantly so Symmetrical Organical and Curious according to every Kind and Species and the successive Propagation therof and they so very various and different that he who will not believ Divine Authority nor Natural Reason heerin may satisfy himself by his own Sensation and making use of his Microscope Inspect the most admirable Structure and Mechanism of the least Vegetative or Sensitive which is composed farr otherwise and beyond the most admired workmanship of any Bezaleel Daedalus Apelles or Arâ—hytas and all the Mechanical Borcherys of Art which yet is all that some will allow to Nature itself and when he shall have consydered the most exact and Mathematical Conformitys of the one and Enormitys of the other which also shews that Mathematical Exactnes is not nor cannot be of Common Use he may easily judg with himself that since the Intellective Spirit of the most Ingenious Man cannot effect the like certeinly it must either still be Immediately Digitus Dei and so deny this whole History of Creation in the Six Days and all the Works of God therin whereby he did sett in order the Cours of Nature and consequently deny all Created Nature or otherwise acknowledg it to be the continual Succession of the same Natural Causalitys which also lead us back again to the Acknowledgment and Adoration of the Supernatural Creator who is the only Author and Institutor therof XI Wherefore let us prais the great Creator of Heaven and Earth as for the Aethereal so also for the Aereal Heaven and for the Water and the Earth And heer we must sing his praises in Consort for them all together as it is once said of them all that they were Good though they be in themselvs several Elements and were perfected in two several Days Nor is the Goodnes of Vegetatives which is another Classis of Creatures though also perfected in the last of these two Days pronounced of them which were before declared Good but becaus these three Inferior Elements Air Water and Earth being separated from the Aether by the rapid Motion and Circumvolution therof about them and more conjunct among themselvs were not perfected one without the other and the Water which is the midle Element and contributed to the Perfection both of the Air and of the Earth by ascending in Vapors into the Air and descending itself into the Canales and Pâ—res of the Earth was noâ— perfected untill this last Day nor in that alone but in both these two Days therefore this Proclamation of their Goodnes and Perfection was reserved for the Consummation of the whole Work of both the Days and then Relatively to be distributed to all the three Elements which were so perfected therin and so they now continue to be Severaly and also Mutualy Good And the Aether which was before made Good in itself yet had not been Good to others without the Goodnes of the Air whose Refrigerating Cold doth Temper the vehement Heat and Refracting Pellucidity the Lucidity of all the Aethereal Luminarys whereby not only as a common Thorough-fare but also as a Cooperator therin it both adapts and conveys the Aethereal Blessings of Rays above and also the Spirituous Vapors of the Waters beneath which as an Alâ—mbic it distills and refunds to the Terraqueous Globe Nor is it only thus Concurrent with Aether and Water and the Influences therof but hath in itself the Ventos of Winds both to Cool and Purify the Atmosphere and all the Organs of those admirable Sounds which it doth propagate continualy and successively and which as so many Cursores or swift Messengers make their Reports through the whole Sphere therof and all the Surface of the Earth and so is made to be the Cymbal of Nature which with its Inchanting Musike ravisheth or affrighteth all Sensitive Spirits and whereby Men Discours and Convers one with another and in Sacred Hymns render their gratefull praises of the whole Creation to the Divine Creator Also the Atmosphere therof is the very Breath and Life of Animals Neither doth the more Dens Water intercept all the Benefits of Aether and Air but partly transmitt them to the Earth which it contempers with its own Moisture and is as the Bloud Circulating through the Veins and Arterys therof by constant Reciprocations conveying Nutriment to all the Cortical Body therof being both the Inexhaustible Fountain of Drink to all Sensitives and also conditing their Meats with most gratefull Sapors and perfuming them with varietys of most delicate Odors And though both these Elements of Air and Water seem very Weak and Infirm in comparison of the Rapid Aether and Robust Earth yet being provoked and armed to execute Divine Revenge they so mutualy assist and fortify one another with unusual and unexpected Rage that Conflagrations and Earthquakes do not much exceed their furious Herricans and violent Inundations The Earth though last and lowest of all the Elements is not only their most Dens and Consistent Fulciment and Center of their Situation but also of all their Offices and Services Circumferentialy tending unto it being the Foundation of the whole Univers and another Orb in itself and Epitome of the great Globe wherof all the rest are only Concave Spheres having only some particular Orbs in themselvs and on which all those Luminous Orbs cast their smiling Aspects and the Sun Illustrateth all the other Luminarys that so they together with himself may give Light unto it which the nimble Air fanneth and refrigerateth with the Wings of Wind and watereth the great Garden therof
with Dâ—ws and Rains and the officious Water runeth up and down to wash the face of the dusty Cortex and to bath and supple all the Limbs therof and also floweth forward and backward to carry and recarry the greatest Burdens from Shore to Shore Thus all the other more Active Elements as so many Circumsistent Servitors in their several Courses and Orders minister unto Earth which sitting still and resting in itself receiveth all their Homages and Tributes not Moving nor being Moved with all their Disorders and Confusions but founded on the Solid Base of its own Density and Gravity and strengthned by its own Consistence and fixed by its own Polarity doth also by its other Qâ—alitys fix all the more subtile and volatile Elementary Spirits Which covereth its own Nakednes with the Daedalous Embroidery of Leavs and Flowers and enricheth itself not only with the Stock of all the hid Treasures of Jewells Metalls and Minerals but also with all the Rents and Revenues of Annual Fruits and Profits both producing and mainteining all Vegetatives and the chief of Sensitive Animals yea Man himself whose Body is also formed of the Congenerous Dust and so the Earth which is given to the children of Men is the Stage of this great Amphitheater of the World wherin all the present Affairs therof are transacted and as all the other Elements are now subservient therunto so heerafter also the Superaether or Heaven of Heavens shall be the everlasting Mansion of Blessed Souls And now again let us tune our praises to an higher Note and bless God for the Creation of Vegetatives Grass Herbs and Trees and let us contemplate their several Kinds and Virtues which yet are Innumerable and Unknown to us their Curious Formations and Oeconomical Administrations the careless Comlines of their Leavs and Beautys of their Flowers the general conformity of their Greennes to our Sight and the delightfull varietys of all their other Colors how wonderfully they Compose Nourish and Augment their own Bodys and Generate others and having neither Sens nor Intellect in themselvs yet by their own Innate Plastical Virtues perform such works as no Sens or Intellect can Imitate or sufficiently Admire The Microscopical perfection wherof doth exactly correspond with the most Critical Sens and Organical usefulnes with the most Political Intellect And as God in the Begining Immediately Created the Heavens and the Eartâ— and the great Building of the whole World so they Mediately build all the Domicils and Officines of their own and all Superior Bodys as the Architects therof and Vulcans of all their Organs and Instruments and are themselvs together with the Subordinate Elements and Matter the Immediate Bodys of all Sensitive Spirits wherin they Reside and Operate and both Dress and Digest for them all their Nutriment wherof a great part is of the same Vegetative Nature which affordeth not only Salads for delight but solid food for strongest Animals Horses Bulls and the great Behemoth furnishing also Mans Table with Wine that maketh glad the Heart of Man and Oil to make his Face to shine and Bread which strengthneth Mans Heart Renewing the Annual Fruits of the Earth as fast as all the Animals can devour them which in Mans better State were his sole Diet and since he tasted of their only forbidden Fruit are his Physick or Natures Tree of Life for healing of the Nations SECTION X. And God said Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to divide the Day from the Night And let them be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years And let them be for Lights in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth And it was so And God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night He made the Starrs also And God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth and to rule ober the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes And God saw that it was Good And the Evening and the Morning were the Fourth Day EXPLICATION God having in the First Day made the Light and by it one Hemisphere of the Aether more Luminous then the other and thereby Day and Night Artificial in that first Day Natural which did accordingly succeed in the two following Days now in this Fourth Day did more particularly distinguish them by the several Luminarys which he made therin for that purpose and also for Signfications of Times and Seasons Months and Years and all the variations therof And he made two chief Lights the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night Also he severaly made all the Starrs according to their several natures And so sett all these Heavenly Luminarys in their several Positions in the Aether to run their several Courses therin and thereby to Illuminate the Earth and to make all the said Divisions and Distinctions of Time which was their Goodnes and Perfection And these were the Works of the Fourth Day ILLUSTRATION 1. Of the Aethereal Luminaâ—ys 2. Of the Sun 3. Of the Moon 4. Of the Starrs 5. Of Comets 6. Of the Goodnes of the Works of the Fourth Day I. WE now proceed to discours of the Second Part of Creation wherin when God had before perfected and prepared all the â—ower Elements and planted the Earth which was the last with Vegetatives which he produced out of it he began now to Introduce into them all their more Locomotive Inhabitants and to shew the Connexion of both these two Parts of Creation it is again said of the first Created Light Sit or Fiat Luminaria wherunto as I suppose the Singular Number doth referr and that it must be so understood Lux fiat Luminaria for it is afterward Sint or Fiant Pluraly And I also observ that wheras it is said of all the other Days Works when they were finished and perfected generaly God saw that it was Good it is said of that first Created Light more particularly God saw the Light that it was Good though also afterward in the same Day he divided the Light from the Darkness but as I have before observed of the three Inferior Elements Air Water and Earth that it is not said God saw that it was Good untill they were all perfected and the whole Work finished so though Day and Night Artificial were made generaly by the division of the Light from the Darknes in the First Day Natural yet becaus they were also to be more particularly distinguished by the Luminarys and to be so ruled by the two great Lights expressly made for that purpose that is the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night therefore the Goodnes is not pronounced of Day and Night in the First Day but in this Fourth Day wherin the whole perfection therof was consummated so accurately exact is God the Author of Nature and Scripture both in his Operation and
so many several Composita made therof whereby they are all thus different and several one from another as they are all from the Planetary Aether as it is said God divided between their Light and the other Aethereal Light and that every one of them is a Specificaly different Compositum in itself and that every Individual Planet is such a Phoenix in its kind that it is also a whole Species in itself wherefore it is said that God particularly made not only the two great Lights but the Starrs also and so it is said There is one Glory of the Sun and another of the Moon and another Glory of the Starrs for one Starr differeth from another Starr in Glory And therefore their Creation is thus specialy mentioned and was the whole Work of this Fourth Day and so I conceiv there are no such Aethereal Compositae as Stones Metalls Minerals are Terrestrial Composita and wherof no such special Creation is mentioned as I have observed but neither that there is a Simple Spirit of every one of them Created in the Begining by a Proper Creation And I conceiv that these vast Individua which are also so many Species in themselvs made Immediately by God as I said can neither be Naturaly diminished nor multiplied as Comets which are Anomalous may be for so the Starrs are said to be for ever and it is said of God their Creator and Preserver He telleth the number of the Starrs he calleth them all by their Names though Supernaturaly and Miraculously he may compose a new Starr as probably that which appeared at our Saviours Birth was such an extraordinary Starr and so is specialy called His Starr which yet did not continue but after it had performed the End for which it was made was again dissolved for otherwise the Ordinances of Heaven which are said to be Unchangeable should be changed and the Constellations therof disordered And though the Starrs be every one such a several Species yet there is also a Combination of them all generaly as they are all one Host and of some more specialy which are called Constellations and are not only such in Name but also described to be such in Nature so wheras it is heer said that God made the greater Light that is the Sun to rule the Day and the less that is the Moon to rule the Night the Psalmist saith To him that made great Lights c. The Sun to rule by Day c. The Moon and Starrs to rule by Night c. where he divideth the Moon and all the Starrs as a Separate Constellation from the Sun alone and attributeth unto them their several Offices to rule by Day and by Night for though all the Starrs do not attend the Moon every Night yet they do by turns and therefore she alone is said to rule the Night becaus she doth so every Night more or less and though as I said the common Aethereal Light divided from the whole Globe of Light which was the Stellant Light and wherof the Planets and Starrs were all made afterward did make the first Night as that Globe of Light did the first Day and that Nocturnal Light is therefore called Darknes Comparatively which had neither Moon nor Starr in it yet in order to Sensitives who need more Nocturnal Light the Moon and Starrs or a great part of them were added in this Fourth Day to rule the Night whereof therefore there is also such an Additional Expression To rule over the Day and over the Night and to divide the Light from the Darknes Thus also more specialy there are said to be Courses of the Starrs and many of their Constellations particularly named and their Cooperations denoted Canst thou bind the sweet Influences of Pleiades or loos the Bonds of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season or Canst thou guide Arcturus with his Sons Now wheras some have Curiously inquired in what time of the Year the World was Created which the Poets fansy to have been in the Spring becaus that indeed is the time of Renovation and the Rabbins in the Autumn becaus then all Fruits and the like are in their Perfection as they were first Created certeinly neither of their Computations can be true of the very first Creation in the Begining for then there was no Year nor any Commencement therof but only Day and Night generaly in the three first Days and in the Fourth Day the Planets were made for Days and for Years and then they must also calculate their Computation for the Meridian of Paradise otherwise when it was Spring in one part of the Earth it was Autumn in the other as it is now to us and our Antipodes But such is our Human Vanity that we will Curiously pry into those things which God hath thought fitt to Concele and yet not acquiesce in those things which he hath pleased to Revele II. In the History of the Creation of the Planets and Starrs it is farther said of them that God sett them in the Firmament of Heaven to give Light upon the Earth Wherefore certeinly they are all Lucid not only as all Aether is in itself but so as to give Light upon the Earth otherwise they could not so give Light upon it and so certeinly the Earth is not Lucid in itself otherwise it should not need to be Illuminated by these Heavenly Luminarys Thus as the Apostle saith There are Bodys Celestial and Bodys Terrestrial but the Glory of the Celestial is one and the Glory of the Terrestrial is another and so neither are the Planets any Magnets nor the Earth a Planet but as several Elementary Natures they differ Genericaly and have their several Generical Glorys that is their different Goodness described and expressed in the History of their Creation severaly in several Days and which also evidently appeareth in Nature as may satisfy any except such who being confounded in their own Understandings can also confound Heaven and Earth which differ farr more and otherwise then the Aether and Planets differ one from another for they are Bodys Terrestrial and Bodys Celestial wheras these are all Genericaly Bodys Celestial though they also Specificaly differ one from another in Glory And of all these Celestial Bodys the Sun is incomparably most Glorious who as I observed alone is opposed to the Moon and all the Starrs and also preferred before them all for they with his Solar Illustrations and Secundary Light only make Night in the backside of the Earth which is but as the Shadow of his Diurnal Presence and therefore is still called Darknes and so he is said to rule by Day and they to rule by Night Whose darting Rays penetrate through all the Spectable World and are bounded only by the two common Bounds of Nature Superaether and Earth and in all the Elementary World there is Nihil simile aut secundum Wherefore Heathen generaly worshiped him as a God who yet in the Scale of Nature is farr Inferior
Solstices and all other intermediate Illuminations throughout the Year in all the Earth but this particular Phaenomenon can not be solved thereby for since we know that India is first Illuminated and Guiana next Annualy by the Sun passing from Spain to Aethiopia and so to India and Guiana India cannot be first Illuminated and Aethiopia next becaus such different and opposite ways of Illumination cannot be without different and opposite Motions of the Illuminator that is of the Sun about the Earth and such different and opposite Motions cannot be at the same time in the same Boâ—y of the Sun and in the same Relative respect to the Body of the Earth And so it may be though we suppose the Earth to Move Annualy about the Sun one way or other Thus wheras it is said that whether the Sun Move about the Earth or the Earth about the Sun one way or other the Phaenomena will be the same it is true generaly of such as are Relatively the same one way or other as it is so in all such Relations but not of such particular Phaenomena in themselvs Positively which must be only such as they are and cannot be otherwise But this I only premise and do not insist upon either of these two Motions Diurnal or Annual becaus as we do affirm two Active Motions in the Sun that is one about his own Axis and the other in his Zodiak or Circle which he describes and which is his Annual Motion and though indeed the other be not his own Diurnal Motion Actively but the Motion of the Aether yet we cannot deny that it may be supposed that there are two such Motions in the Earth which therin may be Annual and Diurnal Actively and both these Motions must be supposed becaus though the Sun cannot Illuminate the Globe of the Earth standing still and only by turning about his own Axis but must be Moved about by the Aether Diurnaly nor otherwise then by describing a Circle about it Annualy yet the Globe of the Earth may be Illuminated by the Motion of the Earth itself about its own Center toward the Sun standing still but the great Criterion as I conceiv is that wheras only two Motions are ascribed to the Sun and a third to the Aether which is another Body Moving also the Sun in and with itself whether the Earth alone can have all these three Motions in itself as it must have to solv the Phaenomenon of the very Motion therof And now I shall first prove this third Motion to be Necessary and afterward to be both Absurd and Impossible lest having shewed the Absurdity and Impossibility any may afterward deny or doubt the Necessity therof And heer again I shall make himself that denieth or doubteth it to be the Diagramm and let him place a Terrestrial Globe how he pleaseth on one of his hands supposing it to turn round also of itself about according to its own Aequator like the supposed Diurnal Motion therof with either Pole toward his Body as if the Earth were in Cancer or Capricorn and suppose his Body to be the Sun and so let him turn his hand with the Globe on it from the Right part of his Body toward the Left or from East to West like the supposed Annual Motion of the Earth in the Zodiak therof without any third Motion to Incline the Poles one way or other and then the same Pole therof which was Inward or next to the Body or Sâ—n will still be so and it will not be varied by either of the other two Motions and so only that Hemisphere whether Arctike or Antarctike should be Illuminated both Diurnaly and Annualy and not the other at any time which is manifestly fals wherefore to solv this there must Necessarily be a third Motion supposed to Incline it which I shall therefore call Inclinatory and which he may also add to the other two by turning the Pole that is toward his Body with his other hand while he turneth the Globe as before from Right to Left or from East to West equaly the other way that is from Left to Right or from West to East according to the Meridian of the Globe which though the same way from West to East is another Motion Annualy and not Diurnaly nor according to the Aequator therof like the supposed Diurnal Motion and opposite to the Annual Motion and by this third Inclinatory Motion the other Pole will also be turned toward the Body or Sun and consequently the other Hemisphere also Illuminated but without such Inclination the Phaenomena cannot be solved And now I shall shew the Absurdity of such a supposed third Motion of the Earth if it were Possible in Nature We all agree that the Earth is Magnetical or that like every Magnet or Terrella it hath two Poles or Polar Points exactly North and South without any the least Inclination or Variation in themselvs either toward East or West and nothing els can make the Earth which is the great Magnet so to Incline or vary from the Polarity therof which is according to its own Natural Position though less Magnets may be Inclined or varied by greater or by being fixed in a contrary Position Now as these two Polar Points must be Correspondent to two such Points in the Body of the Superaether if that be Immovable as we suppose or in the Vbi therof in the Position of the Whole though the Parts may Move round therin so also to two like Points in the Aether which if the Axis of the Earth were produced beyond the Poles therof through the Aether to the utmost Circumference of the Globe of the World it must Intersect and so Terminate in two such Points in the utmost Superficies of the Superaether though these two Points or Poles of the Superaether may be only Mathematical and however some deny that there are two such Physical Points or Poles of Aether to direct the Motion therof as I have shewed yet generaly it is conceived that there is some Physical Correspondence between them and the Poles of the Earth and therefore some assigne the Influence therof or of some Northstarr about the North Pole to be the Caus of the Polarity of the Earth and others ascribe it to some Northern and Southern Atoms flowing and reflowing thence forward and backward I know not how and every Astronomer tells us that there are such Poles Axis and Aequator of the Aether All which Opinions whether true or fals presuppose such Poles or Points in the Aether and that they some way or other Correspond with the Poles of the Earth which this Hypothesis of the Inclinatory Motion of the Earth doth deny and suppose only a Northern and Southern Hemisphere of the Aether to which the respective Poles in the Earth may point and Correspond in every Part and Point therof according to such an Inclinatory Motion whereby if an Axis were produced beyond the Poles of the Earth to the Aethereal
therin according to their more or less Activity upward wheras if the Sun should be supposed to be or have the Center of the World in himself he must also be supposed to be the most Dens and Dull of all Elementary Bodys who is the most Glorious and Active of all Elementary Operators and as he and the Moon so also all the Starrs were made to divide the Day from the Night and to be for Signs and for Seasons and for Days and for Years which is accordingly performed by their due and determinate Situations which however they may appear unto us yet by their very various Positions yea their Eccentricitys and the like they do so produce those varietys of Seasons and their Annos Saturni Iovis and others and observ such Orderly Courses as if we did rightly understand them we should easily conceiv and confess that it would be a great Monstrosity in any of them to be placed otherwise Thus the Sun who doth chiefly excell and exceed all the others in the two principal Aethereal Qualitys Heat and Light is seated at such a distance as doth best afford to the Terraqueous Globe a fiâ—t Temperature therof and doth Move and is Moved in such Courses whereby though he be but one Luminary yet his Heat is so distributed and communicated to all the Globe that there is no Zone Inhabitable as was antiently supposed and so also his Light in all the Parallels therof that in the whole Year though not every Day one hath as much of his Principal Light as another and they which are farthest from the Aequator and neerer to the Pole are also recompensed with more of his Secondary Light and have longer Crepusculae III. God made two great Lights the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to rule the Night that is the Sun to rule the Day and the Moon to rule the Night and wheras they are said to be great Lights that is no such Popular Expression as some would have it for as it is said so indeed they are great Positively though not greater Comparatively then all the others or so as the Sun is said to be greater then the Moon nor are they termed great Starrs but great Lights or Luminarys and so indeed they are greater then any others and this is the very sens and meaning of the Expression according to the Subject Matter which is immediately subjoined the greater Light to rule the Day and the lesser Light to Rule the Night and as they were all made to give Light upon the Earth so certeinly these two give most Light upon it the Sun by Day and the Moon by Night and to stop the mouths of all such Cavillers it is Oâ—iginaly not the Greater and Lesser Lights but the Great Light and the Litle Light and so indeed they are and as they are specialy named so their special differences from the rest are very consyderable not only of the Sun which are sufficiently noted and acknowledged but also of the Moon as her not Moving about her Axis her Epicyclicitys Apogaea and the like and though the Sun is the Illuminator of them all yet he ruleth Day alone by his own Diurnal Light wheras the Starrs attend and assist the Moon in their Courses and Orders while she ruleth the Night by the Conjunction of their Nocturnal Light but that which is most notable is her Moving so often Immediately and only about the Earth and never about the Sun also like others and it being the very End of the Creation of all the Luminarys to give Light upon the Earth this shews her to be another Principal Planet in that respect which is the chief End of them all as well as the Sun and so indeed the Sun and Moon do caus more Variations and greater Effects in the Earth then all the Planets and Starrs besides yet as I deny the Earth to be a Planet so I do not conceiv that the Moon is any more a Satelles or Appendix of the Earth then the Sun though she doth Move about it as the Satellites seem to do about their principal Planets which is not by any Magnetical Emanations of the principal Planets so carrying them abouâ— but by their own Planetary Virtues so Moving themselvs nor do they Realy Move about them Circularly as they should if they were so Moved by them but by such Hemitrochoids which they describe as I have shewed while the principal Planet Moves in a Line cutting the Perpendicular therof in the midst between the Basis and the Zenith whereby they are sometimes below them and sometimes above them and sometimes on the one side and sometimes on the other and so may seem to Move Circularly which is no Magnetical Motion as I shall now shew and yet they who can solv the Phaenomena by affirming whatsoever they pleas will join not only three Elements which are the very true and real Dividers and Sharers of the whole Elementary Globe according to their very different Natures Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys and also more or less Densitys of their several Bodys which are farr more evident and consyderable Distinctions and Heterogeneitys then any greater or less Quantity of Matter which as such is always Homogeneous but also the Moon itself which is a consyderaâ—le part of the fourth Element Aether into one Magnetical Correspondence and Combination Wherefore as I have proved that the Earth is no Planet or Moon so I will now also prove that the Moon is no Magnet or Earth and this I hope may also serv to disprove any such supposition of any of the other Planets which are of the same Aethereal nature with the Moon and as different from the Earth Certeinly we thus read that the Earth and all the Elements were made and perfected before any Planets or Sâ—arrs which afterward in this Fourth Day were made to give Light upon the Earth and not the Earth upon them or any of them and God placed them all in their several Positions about their Centrical Orb the Earth and the other Elementary Spheres about it before there were any Positions or Motions of the Planets and he made Dry Land and Seas in the Terraqueous Globe but not in the Moon or any of them and so the Earth and Waters and not they brought forth Grass Herbs and Fâ—shes and Fowls and Beasts And though Superaether and Angels be farther removed from us then the Aether and Aetheruli yet we have some Conusance of them and some Communion with them declared in Scripture but not of any Inhabitants or sâ—ch other things in the Moon or any other Planets so that if we will yet oppose Ipse Dixit to Deus Creavit we must say that not God but Man made this World in the Moon and they who can so Create in it Earth and Seas ought also to make therin Vegetatives yea Sensitive and Intellective Inhabitants for since we heer on Earth where God hath founded his Troop and made his Plantation
Mists commonly rise when the Sun is sett and in the colder Night so the Moon by a more Moderate and Insensible Tepor doth draw up more gross Vapors which presently return into Dews and Water and chiefly when she is in her Apogaea as I have said formerly of Tides which are then highest whereby the Vapors are not drawn up so high but the Water which as I have observed doth Naturaly Evaporate and again return to Water by her less Heat is less Desiccated and Suspended and so the Vapors are lower and sooner return into Water again for though Internal Heat in the Water itself by Rarefying it doth help Evaporation yet any greater External Heat doth reduce the Moisture of the Vapors which it raiseth to Potentiality in Fume which is prevented by the less Heat of the Moon and â—y this or some other way unknown to us the Moon doth very notably Predominate over Moisture And thus as Heat and Moisture are the chief Instruments in Elementary Generations wherin Cold serveth to temper Heat and Drines to fix Moisture so these two chief Luminarys do most notably Predominate over them that is the Sun over Heat and the Moon over Moisture as well as the Sun doth rule the Day and the Moon the Night IV. Besides these two there are five other Principal Planets as they are termed to distinguish them from the other Starrs which are contrarily termed Fixed though heer they are all comprehended under the common Name of Starrs and so indeed they are in Nature though men taking more notice of the Planets as neerest to us and most sensible by us have formerly Deified them and still dote upon them and so have assigned them their several Spheres and only one Eighth Sphere for all the rest which are Innumerably more and yet among the Planets themselvs there are found out some Satellites and perhaps more may be found out heerafter though we know them not yet as others before us did not know these and wheras men also have fansied such several Regions of Aethereal Spheres as are not to be found in Nature so also such an Orderly and Uniform Position of the Aetheruli therin as is indeed contrary to the very End and Intention of these Luminarys which as I have shewed was for the greatest Variety of Seasons and Influences and that could not be without their various Positions and Motions which I do rather suppose to be so very various and difform that like the Motions of Fâ—sh Fowl and Beasts not any one of them is like to any other but every one most Regular in its kind as I have observed of Mathematical Figures that is the Circle and all Regular Polygons which therefore are Asymmetrous and so are the Aetheruli becaus they are all several Specifical Natures purposely Created to express such Varietys and Conform in their very Difformitys Certeinly their Positions are all very different and distant the next to them is the Menstrual Motion of the Moon which maketh Months and that also is Incommensurable with either of them according to which besides the Sabbath Day which was made for Man or Mankind generaly and so Instituted first in Paradâ—se and is still kept and observed by virtue of that first Command and only the Circumstance of Time varied whereby it is exalted from a Rest of Creation to a Rest of Redemption and also the Annual Feasts and Jubiles according to the Motion of the Sun there were also Monthly Feasts in the New Moons and the like according to the Cours of the Moon appointed by God for the Iews And becaus as we cannot work according to Mathematical Exactnes so also we cannot know Astronomical scrupulosity therefore the Priests were to blow with the Trumpets as it is said In the Day of your gladnes and in your Solemn Days and in the Beginings of your Months to call the Assemblys and give notice to the People when they should begin them And so also there were Weights and Measures of the Sanctuary or there reposited as Sacred things as it is said A just Weight and Balance are the Lords and therefore the Standards therof were kept by the Priests but certeinly these Measures could not Commensurate that which is Naturaly Incommensurable and so it is supposed that wheras it is said of the Lavacre or Brasen Sea that it was Ten Cubits from Brim to Brim or from Lip to Lip round in Compass and a Line of Thirty Cubits did compass it about that it was so not Exactly but Rotunde according to the common Mechanical Account which becaus more Curious Mathematicians will not accept and therupon insult over Scripture and from this one Expression would prove all others therin to be Popular and themselvs to be the only Exact men I shall heer farther examin it and desire them to reconsyder how it was a Vessel having Brims or Lips and so is said to be Ten Cubits from Lip to Lip Inclusively as A Capite ad Calcem is also so rendred Inclusively Talos a Vertice pulcher ad imos and the Compass of the Body of the Vessel itself was under the Lips Exclusively as it followeth and under the Brim of it round about Knops compassing it ten in a Cubit compassing the Sea round about whereby also we may understand what was the particular Breadth of the Brim or Lip that is almost a quarter of a Cubit but never according to Mathematical Exactnes and therefore the Measure therof is not otherwise particularly mentioned as it is of the Body that the Thicknes of it was an Hands breadth But I shall leav these Disquisitions to more learned Criticks who if they pleas to understand Scripture not according to such Maligne but Benigne Interpretations shall find therin not only Verity but the greatest Curiositys couched in the most Mysterious Expressions and so I profess and hope to shew through this whole Dâ—scours that when Scripture and Nature are throughly examined and sifted to the utmost they will be found to be most Concordant one with another and all Scripture as well as Nature with itself V. Though as I have shewed there are no new Starrs Created nor any Annihilated as some affirm of the Pleiades or Seaven Starrs as they are commonly called but as Ovid observed of them in his time Quae septem dici sex tamen esse solent so long before him in Scripture they are called only by the Name of their Constellation and no where Numericaly Seaven as Translators render them yet since the Heavens as well as the Earth were cursed for Mans sake there are also some Anomala and Meteors in Aether and such as are not like the Starr of our Savior which was made by a Miraculous production but Monstrous and Prodigious wherof the Antients make mention as that which appeared at the death of Iulius Caesar to celebrate his Exit as the other did our Saviors Intrat which was some extraordinary Comet in the Aether where they denied any Comets to be
conceiv that only the Spirit of God Immediately doth still Move on them all as on the first Chaos and so by Matter and Motion only doth Generate and Corrupt all such Inferior things which he did first Institute and setâ— in order in the fower first Days and all their Original Generations and Corruptions as well as the others in the two last Days otherwise all the Works of those former Days which were also in preparation to the latter had been vain and supervacaneous which I have sufficiently refuted and shall now proceed to discours of Sensitives which indeed are farr more Noble Natures and as I said so much Superior to the other that heer God is said again to Create in giving Life or causing that which though it was the same Spirit in itself latent in the Chaos and had Potentialy Life in itself yet did not before Live Now to Live Actualy and thus to rais from Death to Life is a most Miraculous Work and most like to a Proper Creation not only in the suddennes therof as Incension for certeinly nothing can Live and not Live in the same Instant but in the Excellency therof whereby the Animal is as it were raised up from the Grave and out of that dead Sleep wherin the Body or Carcass of all the Inferior Natures wherof it is Constituted did before ly And this is Eminently spoken of Whales the greatest of all such Animals though of the lowest Kind therof that is of Fishes for as in the same Vegetative Classis there are three general Kinds mentioned Grass Herbs and Trees so also in this Classis of Sensitives Fishes Fowls and Beasts And as the Elementary Bodys of Sensitives are farr more Organical then of Vegetatives as fitt Instruments of their more Operative Spirits so also their very Vegetative Spirits which in their Compositions are Subordinate unto them are more Excellent and have a more Curious Nutrition and Augmentation and most notably another maner of Generation for wheras it is said of Vegetatives Cujus Semen seipsum seminet heer is added a special Blessing of Procreation to Sensitives and Perfect Animals such as God Created do not grow out of the Water nor out of the Earth as some Vegetatives nor only by Putrefaction and the like as many Anomalous Sensitives but are Generated by Conjunct Procreation and they are made of two several Sexes as is expressed of all such as entred into Noah's Ark that they were Male and Female and therefore a Phoenix which is only of one Sex is such as was not to be found there and indeed only a Poetical Creature and the Male and Female Piony made such only by the Gardiners Fansy for certeinly they do not propagate by any Conjunct Procreation But the Sensitive Spirit itself and the Living Powers therof are farr above any Vegetative Spirit or the Facultys therof For as the Matter is so Divisible that it is as it were alway Divisible and every Part and Particle therof will still be the same Homogeneous-Matter in all respects so Elementary Spirits which do Immediately Consubstantiate it are therefore most Material or United to it and Coextended with it and if they be so Divided with it yet as I have said every Part and Particle of Earth will be Earth and of Water Water and so of the rest generaly though in some respects as I observed of Terreous Consistence there may be a difference between Majority and Minority of their Bodys and Vegetatives though every least Part or Particle of their Organical Bodys be not a sufficient Domicil and Officine for their Spirits becaus they are Organical yet the Branch or Twig of many Trees being sett will Radicate and Grow reteining therin a sufficient Portion of their Divisible Spirit to erect a new Oeconomy and form itself into another Individual Tree as well as the Root and Stem but if Sensitives be so Divided whereby the Principal Parts therof as the Head Heart or the like have their Organism destroied they cannot Live and any other Part Divided from them will not Live long as an Eel cut in pieces and yet as Fishes are of the lowest Kind of Sensitives so generaly after such Dissection they Live longest I have seen a Tench slitt and Exenterated to leap in the Pan where it was fried and Fowls will not Live so long as they nor Beasts as Fowls as a Chicken after the Head is wrung off Moves itself both longer and stronger then a Beast Decollated which shews the more Indivisibility of their Spirits But as I said the grand difference between Sensitive and any Inferior Spirits is their Perception and Appetite for so though Elementary and Vegetative Spirits also Move their Bodys yet only Sensitives Move them with Apprehension and Spontaneity this way and that way and every way as they pleas and so though their Motive Powers may not be so strong yet they are Living and more Spiritual and thus they Feed and Generate and Act all their Sensitive Operations Sensitively otherwise they should not be Sensitives Yet according to the Degrees of Sensitives in their own Classis so also is their Locomotion and thus Fishes which are the very lowest Kind therof are Originaly termed Reptiles as their Swiming is indeed a kind of Creeping or Sliding and so an Eel swims in Water as a Snake Creeps on Land and though other Fishes in Swiming shoot forth Directly and make no Curv Lines yet they only Slide in a more Direct maner and their Bodys are of a Direct and Oblong Figure for that purpose being born up and partly carried upon an Equidens Fulciment of Water but there are also Testaceous Fishes which are Gradient having Claws and Legs for that purpose like Beasts and if they Swim it is also like the Swiming of Beasts yet that Motion is another kind of Creeping and they are more Tardigradous and Multipedous as generaly more Infirm Bodys are which need so many Fulciments and Shelfishes which have no Claws nor Legs as Oisters Muscles and the like are most Infirm and as I suppose Imperfect Animals but they are no Plantanimals as others term them for plainly they are Sensitive and therefore of the Sensitive Classis and so to be Denominated which appears by their Flesh and by opening and shutting their shells accordingly as they Sensitively Affect or Disaffect any thing and many other such Indications of Sens and though they Continue in their places yet they are not Rooted in them nor do Cohere therunto like Vegetatives becaus all Sensitives as I said are less United to the Elementary Matter both Internaly and Externaly then Vegetatives and that which is called the Sensitive Plant is not properly and truly Sensitive but only fansied to be such as I said of the Piony and so the Oatbeard Marigold Heliotropium and the like may as well be said to be Sensitive wheras clearly their Motions are without any Perception or Appetite and only by Elementary Rarefaction and Condensation of their Bodys or
Governed thereby Yet also as they are such proper Inferior Spirits Subordinate unto it and Conjunct with it in the same Compositum so there is as I said and shall now shew a very notable Combination between them which may plainly appear by many Extraordinary Effects and such as may strangely vary and alter them thus as I have formerly observed Mirth helps Digestion and is as it were the Nurs of Nutrition wheras the Sorrow of the World worketh Death and these Sensitive Affections not only caus several Motions of the Bloud and Alterations therin but also in the very Systole and Diastole and Palpitations of the Heart and which is yet more Notable in the very Generation of another Individuum and not only the Motive Power of the Appetite but also the Imagination itself doth strangely Operate heerin as we commonly say Conceit may do much that is concerning any thing which is Internal either in our Mind or Body yea in the very Foetus while it is in the Womb and Nourished by the Parent and is yet as it were some part of the Compositum therof especialy while it is more Young and Tender and more capable of such Impressions but chiefly in the very Act of Generation which Iacob knew or was Supernaturaly taught and assisted by the Angel who appeared to him for as it grows more Perfect in itself and is neerer to Exclusion it becomes more Separate from the Parent and another Compositum in itself and more firm and strong and so less capable of Impressions by another and thus I conceiv that the Imagination or Appetite of the Father doth not Operate upon the Foetus in the Womb of the Mother nor of an Hen upon an Egg Excluded whiles she Incubates and is hatching it But the most wonderfull thing is how the proper Vegetative Spirit of any Sensitive Animal by the Command or Intimation of the Sensitive Imagination and Appetite so Fansying and Affecting some other Vegetative thing should Actuate and produce in the Foetus not only Signatures therof but also somewhat of the same Vegetative Nature as I have been very credibly informed of a Person whom I well knew and have often seen the Mole on his Chin which was said to have been caused by a Cherry thrown at his Mother while she was Pregnant of him in a Frolike among Ladys who were then eating Cherries that every year in the Season when Cherry trees begin to budd the Mole began to budd as I may say and so ripen more and at last putt forth some little Tufts and be very angry and troublesome and then again as the Season of Cherâ—ys departed to decreas likewise and be less sensible whereby it did plainly discover something of the Cerasine Nature Inoculated as it were into the Body of a Man Wherof I know no other account to be given but only this Combination and Cooperation of the Sensitive and Vegetative Spirit and though as I have shewed there is no Universal Spirit or Anima Mundi from which such particular Spirits may be derived and produced in any Bodys whatsoever yet it is truly enough said Omnia Animarum sunt plena if it be rightly understood that is as in the first Chaos the Spirits were latent in their proper Elements out of which they were produced in the Six Days so still there are Aethereal and Aereal Spirits in Aether and Air out of which Comets and the like Aethereal or Aereal Meteors may be produced and so the Terraqueous Globe or the Cortex therof is Pregnant not only with the Elementary Spirits of Water and Earth but also of Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits which while they are therin as in their Chaos are dispersed and diffused and so Confounded as in a Coagulum Inane and Inform that is without any Oeconomy or Inviduality which is afterward Actuated and acquired by Successive Generation still producing them according to the Archetypes or Protoplasta of Original Generation Instituted in their first Improper Creations as I have often mentioned and though they cannot always attein their Regular Perfections according to the Law of Nature yet there may be several Degrees therof to which they may arrive and so their productions be more or less Anomalous or Monstrous by reason of many Obstructions and Defects wherof the greatest is the general Curs of Nature for the Sin of Man so that now indeed both he and all this Spectable World which was given unto him and all things therin have some Monstrosity in them and there is now none of them exactly Perfect according to the first Instituted Law of Nature but all are Heterocliticaly Redundant or Deficient and though we take less notice of others yet some are so mishapen that we Eminently term them Monsters and others such Imperfect Inceptions that we hardly discern any thing of the Specifike Nature therin and such I conceiv this Cerasine Meteor as I may so term it in the Body of Man to be whos 's Cerasine Spirit though the Compositum therof was Corrupted by Eating and Conversion into the Nutriment of the Mother and consequently of the Child in the Womb yet was latent in the new Compositum Generated by that Corruption and that by the Imperium and Impression of the Mothers Imagination and Appetite working on her proper Vegetative Spirit and that on its own Nutriment the Cerasine Spirit was Equivocaly and very Rudely and Imperfectly produced For thus as I have said the Vegetative Spirit doth Actuate and produce Elementary Mistion Qualitys and Species as Subordinate and Subservient to itself though Classicaly different and so it may also Imperfectly produce another Vegetative Spirit which is of the same Classis with itself as well as one Spirit of the same Classis may be Mist with another and thus I conceiv that as there apparently is an Individual Oeconomy in every particular Compositum so also a Specifical and Classical Polity Subordination and Combination of several Natures especialy in the same Compositum and that thus the Sensitive Spirit by its own Specifike Facultys doth Command and Govern its own proper Vegetative Spirit which also by its own Specifike Powers doth Serv and Obey it and likewise Order and Govern the proper Elementary Mistion that it requireth which accordingly doth Serv and Obey it Naturaly with all Suavity and Facility And thus as the Imagination doth more Spiritualy and Sensitively Irradiate the Species whereby it doth Perceptively Contemplate them so the Appetite doth also Sensitively enliven the Spirits whereby it doth Spontaneously Guide and Govern them without any Violence or Reluctance unless their happen some Dâ—stemper and Disorder among them and I suppose that as there are these Confederacys and Combinations between Spirits according to the Scale of Nature and Oeconomy therof so also there is a Subordinate Approximation though no Participation Communication or Confusion of their different Natures and that the proper Vegetative Spirit of any Sensitive Animal is farr more Excellent and Spiritual then of
Circle hath always a longer Diameter yet as the Optical Segment and Conoid are greater and more Late so the Axis or Diameter is shorter like a Lens which as it hath a more Late Superficies hath a less Profundity and thus always when we see the same Object greater we see it neerer and less farther And becaus the Natural way of Vision is Hemispherical therefore if we see Perpendicularly as I said that is according to half the Hemispere as if we lay our Ey on a long Plane Table or standing on the Shore behold the Sea or looking on the side of a Brickwall behold the white Lines therof our Vision is disturbed thereby becaus the other Rays which do not come to the Ey Hemisphericaly but rise toward and press upon the Perpendicular Axis of Vision do oppress and disturb it and so the Object seems to rise higher as the Sea doth to the Sight one way and the Rays Converging together toward the Axis the other way seem at length to meet and terminate the Sight as the white Lines of the Brickwall Again in Natural Vision itself there is an Optical proportion to be consydered according to the several Figures of several Eys as I have said and so the Meta of the most distinct Vision is such as that some read best farther and some neerer as Myopes who hold a Book as neer to their Ey as they may becaus the Object being neerer the Intersection in the Ey is somwhat farther and lower as I have said before and they are thus helped by Concave Glasses as I suppose rather then by the litle Image which doth penetrate the Fundus therof though I conceiv that Presbytae are helped by the like Image penetrating the Convex Glasses which they use but as the Convergence by the Convex Glasses doth help them whereby certeinly the Intersection is neerer and higherin their Eys so the Divergence by the Concave Glasses doth help the other whereby the Intersection in their Eys should be farther and lower as certeinly their common Vision is very much neerer and as in Convex Glasses the utmost Rays which Converge most and so first Intersect do therefore pass over the Ey and only the Rays of the Image pass into it so also in Concave Glasses the inmost Rays of the Image which only Converge and Intersect so soon do therefore pass over it but I referr this to the consyderation of Myopes themselvs who can better declare the Experiment therof unto us then we unto ourselvs who have not their Eys Yet I may very well suppose that according to the Meta of Vision which is different in several men according to the different Figures of their Eys so the Latitude and Longitude of Objects seen at the Meta is proportionable Opticaly but not Mathematicaly for probably he that sees at the neerest Meta seeth as many Objects within the Latitude therof and them Visibly as farr in Longitude as he that seeth at the farthest and so proportionably and so as we all look beyond this Meta of the most distinct Vision we see less distinctly becaus the Intersection in the Ey is somwhat varied thereby though not consyderably at any greater distance as I have said but I conceiv also that becaus the Rays which come into the Ey being weaker as they are more distant do less affect the Sight by its own Internal Light in the Standard therefore we see the Objects less clearly and distinctly and if they be very Remote and not very Lucid we see them very confusedly and at last not at all that is as farr as the Vâ—sible Lucidity of their Rays doth pass and no farther Thus as there is that which I call the Meta of the most distinct Vision so also a Limes or Boundary of the utmost Vâ—sion which if the Oâ—jects be only Colorate as the Earth and Earthy Bodys is not many miles distant from the Ey and as I suppose proportionable to the Meta but if the Objects be more or less Lucid as the Sun Moon and Starrs they may be seen proportionably farther and yet as the Intersection so the Latitude and Longitude is not consyderable at any greater distance for so if we look on the surface of the Sea we see the Aether and Aethereal Bodys therin not much greater nor farther proportionably but only see the Aether beyond the Sea as we see Ships at Sea at a great distance one beyond another but very neer one to another though they be farr distant one from another Also as the Vigor of the Rays is Finite and therefore less as they pass farther so is the Strength of Vision itself and therefore if we look through an open Tube with oâ—e Ey we see the same Object being but one more clearly and distinctly then if we see many Objects with both our open Eys though we see the one Oâ—ject neither greater nor neerer so as we do through the Telescope And so though Art may help Nature in one respect yet it hinders it in another and therefore also when we see Objects greater and neerer through the Telescope we see them more dim then when we see as great and as neer with our open Eys for Nature is Universaly best in herself and hath best consulted all those benefits together which she intendeth as I have observed of the three Quantitys that what is gained by one is lost in another and so Madmen are stronger then others by a sudden and greater Expens of Spirits but weaker afterward And such Artificial advantages of Sight are only to be made use of upon particular occasions and not constantly for they who use to read with Spectacles cannot well read without them nor is it good to dilate the Sight in reading by more Light then is needfull or to strain it in reading by less or in too small Prints and the like and of all others this most Noble Sens doth soonest decay and while we enjoy it is most liable to Deception as we term it though it be rather a Natural Infirmity becaus Color which is the Object of Sight is not Immediately Visible in itself but by Light wherof there may be so many several Refractions and Reflections and Sensation is Immediately by that which is Immediately produced in the Standard therof as I have shewed and so in feeling itself which is least subject to Deception yet he that is Nive perustus doth not feel the Cold of the Snow becaus by the Antiperistasis the Flesh of his Body which is the Standard is made Hott and so the Ey seing according to the Rays which enter into it and not the Object itself without it though it see that which is the Immediate Object to itself truly yet it seeth the Object itself falsly and so if either the Optical Axes or Planes be varied we see accordingly as if we look upon the same Object through several Dioptrae or distort one of our Eys whereby there are double Images therof in the Brain
Affect the Brain as they do the Standard as I have shewed becaus the Species are only Irradiated thereby for so Sensible Heat and Cold do not Burn or Chill the Brain as they do the Flesh which is the Standard Having thus farr absolved this Hypothesis of Sensation I shall now referr it to the Judgment of learned Physicians whom I have ever esteemed a Prudent and Sober Nation and very deservedly their Profession being a continual Practice and their Practice concerning the Life of Man But I suppose I need not consult them whether the Sensitive Soul be Centricaly seated in the Brain or in the Diaphragm or Midriff becaus it is also termed Phrenes nor whether the Septum Lucidum becaus it is termed Lucidum be the chief Organ therof or as some say the Pinealis Glandula becaus it only is One and Solitary a very fit Organ indeed for such an Excrementitious Opinion which none would ever have affirmed nor can believ who hath any purer part of Brain in him and I very much wonder how such who require of others a Mathematical exactnes and Demonstration can with so much Confidence and Impudence impose upon all others such a Gratis dictum and lay this as the Foundation of their whole Doctrine of Passions making all Sensation to be only Local Motion which is a Common Sensible itself wheras Sensation as I have shewed is a Perceptive and Spontaneous Action and though a Body be never so Mechanicaly and Artificialy Composed like Daedalus or Myron's Cow or be made never so Automatous as the Clock at Strasburg Archytas his Dove Regiomontanus his Fly or Eagle or Albertus his Man with all Imaginable Members and Local Motions not only a Philosopher but every Vulgar Spectator will say Deest aliquid intus as though a Parret hath Perception and Appetite which they have not and can imitate Human Speech yet we all know that it hath no Human Understanding and even Vegetative Spirits which have Plastical and many other notable Motions and so Elementary as the Planets and Magnet which Thales therefore termed Animal have many wonderfull Local Motions yet they have no Perception or Appetite which are Living Motions or Actions wherof all others are only Counterfeits and outward Expressions like the Motions of the dead Sultan to deceiv the People wheras any Living Man himself cannot be so deceived but plainly may Perceiv the Difference in himself for Local Motion which as I have said is only Local Motion is no Spiritual Action which is not only Local but also Spiritual and not only Motion but Action or an Active Operation and Superoperation as the Spirit is a Substantial Activity especialy Sensitive Spirits wherof the very lowest are not only termed Creeping or Moving but also Living Creatures have such Living Motions or Actions and such Motions or Remotions from one State to another as from Death to Life or from not such an Operation to such an Operation are certeinly Motions as well as from one Place to another as they themselvs who affirm them to be only Local Motions do confess in affirming them to be Motions as they are indeed but more or other then Local that is also Active Motions and many of them such as may be performed without any Local Motion as though the Appetite in Moving the Body or any part therof doth effect and exercise also a Local Motion yet the very Appetition and Imagination in itself and many Operations therof are without any Local Motion which doth rather disturb Sensation as in Seing Hearing and the like if either the Body be Moved or the Object Removed the Sensation is disturbed and though Sensible Objects Moving without or Humors within may Spiritualy Move Sensation by Tempting and Solliciting the Sensitive Spirit humbly and Inferiorly as that doth Move them by Commanding and Guiding them Superiorly yet they do not therefore Localy Move the Sensitive Spirit or the Intrinsecal and Immanent Operations therof as that doth Move them Transiently And I suppose the next Attempt of them who can thus affirm Sensation to be only Local Motion will be to reduce Intellection and Volition and our very Human Spirit to this common debasement of all Spiritual Natures which they generaly restrain to Matter and Local Motion nor indeed is there any thing left or any such clear difference assigned by them which may priviledg us from it but only the favor and Indulgence of these great Masters who can say and unsay make and unmake what they pleas and how they pleas and if all others were like to such who have no higher Notions then Matter and Motion it might with some probability be suspected that the Human Spirit is proportionably only Matter and Motion which would perfectly gratify any who therefore affect to be Epicureans in Opinion becaus they are such in Practice But as Scipio said It is now more fitt for us to return Praises to God for all these his Various and Wonderfull Works which can never be confined only to Matter and Motion then to attend such Triflers any farther VI. Therefore let us prais the Father of the Spirits of all Flesh and advance our Praises by a Song of Degrees as he doth thus exalt his Creatures by several Degrees in the Scale of Nature Who is Himself a Spirit and Spiritual Life Infinitely Contemplating and Enjoying Himself and all other things in Himself and hath given Life to all Living Animals even the lowest Sensitive which he hath placed in the same Animal Region with Intellective Man though all Sensitives be Classicaly different from him and both Subordinate and Subservient unto him as he is to God who hath made them the Images of his Intellective Spirit as he is of the Divine Spirit Whereby also they can Contemplate and Enjoy themselvs and all other Sensible Natures which though Perfect in themselvs and in their own Classes yet without these Sensitive and Intellective Spirits who only can Contemplate and Enjoy them had been made in vain as a Spectable World of many wonderfull and usefull Objects without any Spectator or Enjoyer therof all whose Goodnes and Perfection though Good in itself is farr Inferior to the least Insect whose Body though more Minute then the smallest Watch or other Engine is more Curiously and Exactly composed then the greatest Machins and whose Inimitable Spirit possesseth the whole Sensible World in the Potential Species and Images therof within the litle Module of itself wheras all Inferior Natures whatsoever they are in themselvs are unto themselvs as if they were not and howsoever they may differ one from another yet bury all their Specifical Differences in the common Grave of their own Imperception as if they did still continue in their Original Chaos or the Eternal Abyss of Nonentity Wherefore Sensitives were presently Introduced when they were before prepared for these as for their next and Immediate Ends of Intention to perfect all their Perfections which are not only farr more Excellent in themselvs
the ground and reason of their more or less Cicuration or Mansuefaction And that there is such a difference in their very Natures may appear by this that they are not only so different toward Man but also among themselvs and so it is a common Observation that the more Mansuete do flock and heard together and Live in Consort wheras Wild beasts Live more Solitary and are more Strange even to one another Yet certeinly none of them were Carnivorous at first nor did devour one another for both they and man had then another Diet appointed for them by God that is Vegetative which which also Comprehends the Elements and Matter as subordinate unto it and as the Elements and Matter are its Subordinate Body so it is also Nourished by the same wherof it is Constituted and so the Vegetative Spirit may be Augmented by Mistion of more of the Homogeneous Vegetative Spirit latent in the Nutriment and so the Matter Elements and a Vegetative Spirit make the Body of Sensitives whereby it is also Nourished and may be Augmented by Mistion of more of the Homogeneous Sensitive Spirit latent in the Nutriment and now when we and some Beasts do feed on the Carcasses of other Sensitives yet we do not nor can we feed on their Sensitive Spirits or Lives becaus they are dead and there is no Conversion of one Sensitive Nature into another nor any such Mistion by Augmentation as of Equine and Asinine Spirits in a Mule or by Generation nor yet is the Anima therof or Anima Mundi as some say so Subordinate either to Constitute or Nourish the Sensitive as Vegetatives and the rest are and were so ordeined to be both for the Original Formation and Nutrition of Sensitives and thus they are not only Subordinate as a Constituent Body and Nâ—triment of Sensitives but also Subservient as Instruments of the Sensitive Spirit as I have shewed both in all those Motions which we call Involuntary and are properly Vegetative and also in their Instrumental Preparation and Motion of all the Sensorious Organs according to the Imperium and Gubernation of the Sensitive Spirit in all those Voluntary Motions therof which are performed thereby Transiently and not Immanently in itself alone Also though God did not so expressly appoint Vegetatives which are Terrestrial to be food for Fishes that Live in the Water yet probably they had the same food growing on the Shores and Banks and such as some report may still be found in the bellys of Sea Morses and such like Fishes almost as great as Whales And though it be not expressly mentioned either heer or after the Deluge whether Fishes did not then also prey one upon another as now they do yet possibly they might being made to bring forth abundantly whereby they might both maintein their own Species and be food for others or perhaps they might be Nourished by their own Element Water However I doubt not but that some Beasts were Created farr more strong then others as they still are and that some were Venaturient as now they are and had the same Specifike Sagacity as well as Noses and so might hunt others with a great Natural Delight as I suppose they now do with more then any Huntsman that followeth them which appears not only by their Indefatigable Industry but also by their very great Exultation and Cry yet I conceiv that then they had no Cruentous or Murdrous Appetite as now a Lion doth not usualy prey when he is full and Cats first play with a Mous and then kill it but then they did only play and not Kill when they could not Eat therof which is the chief End of Killing And so a yong Leverer when it first sees a Dog shâ—ns him and hath a Natural Sagacity of avoiding and escaping the Dog as well as the Dog hath such a Natural Sagacity in hunting the Hare And heerby also the Ingeny of Sensitives did appear aswell as in avoiding Poisons and hurtfull Vegetatives which as they are in themselvs certein Excellencys and Eminencys in the Vegetative Nature so are these also in the Sensitive Nature as of Courage Fear and the like Sensitive Affections But of all Sensitives Beasts are Supreme that is in their whole Bestial Kind generaly and so particularly according to their several Ranks and Degrees which is the true Rule of Comparison though the meanest and lowest of of Beasts be not more excellent then the chief Fowl or Fish and so of Fowls and Fishes And Beasts do not only excell the rest in their Bodily Constitution as I have shewed but much more in their Spiritual Qualitys which are their very Sensitive Excellencys though they may not have greater or more admirable Instincts then Fowls or Fishes which are some special Endowments wherwith Nature doth help out many Inferior Animals yea Insects as Bees Spiders Silkworms Ants and the like and of all others Man himself though he hath generaly the most excellent Sensitive Spirit Subordinate and Subservient to his Intellective Spirit yet he hath least and fewest Instincts and indeed I know none except Sucking which is most Common and Necessary yet as he doth excell them all in the general Sensitive Powers and Virtues whereby he can more Curiously Contrive and Effect things even by his Sensitive Imagination and Ingeny and hath such a most fitt Organ therof as the Hand so do Beasts heerin generaly excell Fowls and Fishes and accordingly have more fitt Organs then they and their Brains are more Conformable to the Brain of Man and he hath not only most Service from them but also most Conversation with them and thus they were made in the same Day with him and next and Immediately before him and as both he and they have their Sensitive Spirits produced and their Bodys formed of the Earth so they both Live together in the same Floor of this great Hous of the Elementary World as God saith to Iob of Behemoth which I made with thee he eateth Grass as an Ox. Yet we may noâ— therefore with some Credulous Admirers of Brutes to the Disparagement of our-selves and of all Human Nature adopt them into the Family of Mankind and claim kindred of Apes Baboons Marmosets Drills and I know not what Bestial Fauns and Satyrs as but one Degree removed from ourselvs for though they may thus approch unto us in our Body and Sensitive Spirit yet we Classicaly differ and vastly excell them in our Intellective Spirit wherof I shall now proceed to discours II. We now ascend into the highest Degree of the Scale of Nature that is of Intellective Spirits Human and Angelical wherof the Human Spirit doth as I said Classicaly differ from Sensitives and only Specificaly from Angels but as the Human Spirit of Man is united into one Compositum with all the Inferior Spirits and Matter as they are Subordinate one unto another so Man is the whole Scale in himself which Angels are not comprehending both Intellective and Sensitive
and all other Inferior Natures as Sensitive Composita do Sensitive and Vegetative and the rest and Vegetative Vegetative and Elementary and Matter and Elementary Elementary and the Matter which are the true Approximations and Combinations or Syzygys of Nature though no Participations Mistions or Confusions of Classical Differences as I have shewed but Man only is the Epitome of all or as the Antients rightly stiled him a Microcosm or litle World for as Angels who are the other Species of Intellectives are pure Spirits and no Composita so Sensitive and all Inferior Composita are not Intellective but only Man is all in one that is Potentialy or Classicaly though not Actualy and Specificaly as the Body of Man hath not Actualy the Rarity of Superaether nor the Density of Subcortical Earth nor all the Degrees of the Elementary Qualitys though he hath them also Potentialy in himself becaus he hath in his Compositum both Matter and all the fower Elements which are Potentialy capable therof having the Real Potentialitys therof in themselves and so he is not Specificaly Grass Herb or Tree nor Fowl Fish or Beast yet Classicaly he hath a Vegetative and a Sensitive Spirit in his Compositum and such as is Specificaly proper to himself as well as they have their proper Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits Wherefore plainly he is such a Microcosm in himself as I have described and the last Valde bona is pronounced of him as he is such a Microcosm as well as of the great World And now I shall first discours of Man generaly according to the whole Compositum which every Man hath in himself and which is indeed that which we call Man And as a Traveller who first by his Mapp setts forth and travells over the World wherof he hath yet only a Notional Module or Image in his Mind when he returns back again he reviews his Mapp with those Real Apprehensions which he hath Acquired and comparing both together finds them to agree and so being fully satisfied as he did before Contemplate the World itself only as Notional he now looks upon the very Mapp therof as almost Real thus having gone forth out of my self as it were into this Philosophical World I seem now to return home again to my self and in my own Human Compositum can behold the Abstract of all that I found abroad and thus I shall likewise desire any other who shall have travelled through these Discourses of the World now to make himself and his whole Compositum the Sensible Experiment of the whole System therof as God hath described it in this Divine History which is also an Intellectual Epitome therof And so let him consyder whether he hath noâ— a Body of Matter which he may discover by the Extension and Density therof and therin all the fower Elements which he may discover by the fower first Qualitys therof and also a Vegetative Spirit which he may discover by the Involuntary Motions therof in the Plastical Formation of his Body Nutrition and the like and also a Sensitive Spirit which he may discover by all his Sensations and lastly an Intellective Spirit whereby he understands all the others and itself and consciously knows that it is not only rude Matter or any Affection or Variation therof but that it can Abstract from the Matter and that there are in it its own Immaterial Ideae Notions and Facultys which must Subsist in an Immaterial Substance which is his very Intellective Spirit and as this is an Intellective Spirit so is his Sensitive a Sensitive and his Vegetative a Vegetative and Elementary Elementary Spirits Classicaly distinct and different from the Matter as well as from one another for thus he knoweth and feeleth in himself that there is in his Compositum a Sensitive Spirit which sometimes rebelleth against his Intellective Spirit and a Vegetative Spirit whose Involuntary Motions the Sensitive Spirit doth noâ— alway Perceiv nor Govern and therefore they are called Involuntary and a Mistion of Elementary Spirits which sometimes as in a Feaver or the like are distempered and disordered and will not be Governed by the Vegetative Spirit and Matter which will Move to Union and Station as I have shewed maugre all or any Elementary Spirit wherefore such Different Operations do plainly prove them to be such Different Substantial Principles And as they thus Classicaly differ so plainly they are Subordinate one unto another according to the Scale of Nature for so the Intellective Spirit generaly Commands and Governs the Sensitive Spirit as the Rider doth his Hors and the Sensitive the Vegetative and the Vegetative the Elementary and the Elementary the Matter as I have shewed at large and any may Experiment in himself for as this is the Scale of Nature which God Erected and the true Oeconomy therof which he hath Ordered and setled in the World so every Man hath and if he attentively and duly consyder it may evidently perceiv the same in his own Compositum And which is yet more admirable as Man is this Centrical Orb of the whole World not only Localy as he is in or upon the Earth which is his Mansion but Physicaly as he is such a Compendium therof so he is also Politicaly according to the Divine Intention of the Creator that one Nature which all other Natures do Circumferentialy respect and relate to him one way or other as so many Lines to the Center Wherefore as Angels probably were Created first being the Supreme of all Natures so Man was made last as the Summ and Completion of them all and the Political End therof which was first in the Divine Intention and last in the Execution And Man was so made in order to the Assumption of his Nature by Iesus Christ the Son of God who is therefore called the Begining of the Creation of God both Principium and Principatus Alpha and Omega the First and the Last and I suppose thaâ— Consultation about the Creation of Man Let us make Man c. wheras it is said of the rest only by a Word of Command Let there be Light and the like did refer specialy to Christ who was to Unite and Espous the Human Nature which as I said is the Epitome of the whole Creation to the Divine Nature in one Person And yet some forgetting that they are Christians and indeed Men and seeming to trample on this supposed Pride of Man with a Real and greater Pride and Self-conceit can be so ungratefull toward God their Creator and Iesus Christ their Redeemer and so fals to themselvs as to deny or disparage this Originaly Natural though now depraved Excellence of their own Nature Wherefore to retund their Perversity and to assert the Native Dignity of Mankind I shall evidently prove it by the Letter of the Text which declares this to be the very Intention of the Creation of Man Let us make Man after our Image and in our own Likeness And let them have Dominion over the Fish
of the Sea and over the Fowl of the Air and over the Catell and over all the Earth and accordingly it is repeated again by God himself unto Man after he was made that he might know and acknowledg it Replenish the Earth and Subdue it and have Dominion over the Fish of the Sea c. and so after the Deluge God again renewed this Great Charter to Mankind when also he added a farther Priviledg of feeding on Sensitives And it is still evidently so according to Natural Reason for thus as the Intellective Spirit of Man in his own Human Compositum Subordinateth all the Inferior Natures to itself so also doth Man in his whole Compositum Subordinate them all to himself not as Angels who by their greater Power can overrule all or any of them yea Man himself Externaly and Violently but by an Intrinsecal Right and Power of Sovereignty and Dominion whereunto Man was born and hath it in himself according to the Law of Nature for so also though Angels are more excellently Intelligent of all these Inferior Natures then Man himself yet he is more Sentient therof becaus he is Sensitive and they are not and thus Man as one of them and being more excellent then them all was made to be their Natural and Lawfull Prince yet as in his own Compositum he hath not Actualy and Specificaly all the Differences of Inferior Natures but only Classicaly so he doth not possess nor hath the use of all other things particularly but generaly and as a Paterfamilias or Master of the Hous though he hath not the whole Vsus but the Fructus of all in the Family and Hous yet he may have the very Vsus of what he pleaseth therof for Quic quid acquiritur servo acquiritur Domino so Man doth most Lawfully use the Service yea the very Lives of Sensitives and they have no Right or Propriety in any thing that they have no not in themselvs against Man whom God the Supreme Lord of all hath thus made Lord over the Works of his hands and putt all things under his feet that is all these Inferior Natures Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air and Fish of the Sea which are next and Immediate unto himself and in the same Region of Life with himself and consequently all other things which are below them but as he is Naturaly of the same Intellective Classis with Angels whose Native Province is the Superaether which is also Superelementary so he hath only a Coordinate Communion with them heer and shall have Eternaly heerafter in such a way and maner as we do not now understand nor will I presume to inquire and yet even now they are termed Ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister unto them who shall be heirs of Salvation But most Sensibly the whole Elementary Globe and all things therin were made thus Subordinate and Subservient to Man and since our Rebellion against God and theirs against us yet as God declared to Noah and his Sons we still hold the Reins of this Sovereignty and Empire over them in our hands and so shall untill the last Dissolution thus it is said Every Kind of Beasts and of Birds and of Serpents and things in the Sea is tamed and hath been tamed of Mankind and none of them could ever yet make Warr with Men but in all Ages and all places of the Habitable Earth are Enslaved or Ejected by us Also as the Tapistry and Pictures and all the Ornatus of the Hous is for the use of the Master so hath the Intellective Spirit of Man the Intellectual Contemplation and Enjoyment of all the Spectable World and thus we have hitherto discoursed therof and though we cannot Comprehend all things nor all the Secrets and Mysterys of Nature which we therefore must Admire yet that very Admiration is another kind of Enjoyment of them as all Wonderfull Spectacles are very delightfull and we willingly bestow our Pains in travelling to See them and also very great Cost to Purchase them But the most Satisfactory and Sensible Evidence of this great Truth is the Universal Curs and Blast that is upon all this Inferior Globe for the Sin of Man which could not be for any other reason but only becaus it and all that is therin is his and such Derivative Punishment is also used in the Civil Laws of Men. Immeritis frangunâ—ur crura Caballis III. I shall now consyder Man more distinctly as he is Composited of Soul and Body and first his Human Body and the Successive Generation therof according to his Original Creation I have shewed how according to the Scale of Nature the Matter is the first Body and the Inferior Spirits together with the Matter are the Bodys of the Superior and so that and all the Inferior Spirits Elementary Vegetative and Sensitive are the Body of the Intellective Spirit of Man which as it is a Sensitive Body may be termed his Beast as Beasts are next unto him in the Order of Nature though indeed his Sensitive Spirit be neither such as the Spirit of Fish Fowl or Beast Specificaly buâ— only Classicaly Sensitive as they also are wheras it is in itself Specificaly a more excellent and Proper Spirit as I have shewed which was also produced out of the Earth as well as the Spirits of Beasts as they are all of the same Classical Nature for so as it is said Out of the Ground the Lord formed every Beast c. it is also said God formed Man out of the Dust of the Grâ—und wherefore his Human Body was not only a Luteâ— Imagâ— or Statue as is commonly supposed and that so God Inspired into it the Bâ—eath of Life both Sensitive and Intellective for it was first made a Sensitive Body having the Sensitive Spirit then latenâ— in it and ready to be produced as the Sensitive Spirit in the Foetus of any other Animal is so produced when the Vegetative Spirit hath first Formed and Organised the Sensitive Body as I have shewed and may now evidently appear in the Creation and Generation of Man for so God is said to breath into his Nostrills the Breath of Life or Lives as it is Hebraicaly that is in the same Instant when God so produced by Improper Creation the Sensitive Spirit or Life which is also called Breath of Life by forming Man of the Dust of the Ground as well as any Beast as I said he also introduced into his Body the Intellective Spirit and Life for so he is said to breath into his Nostrills that is into such an Organical part of his Sensitive Body as any Beast also hath and not only into a Figure or Similitude therof which a Statue may have but plainly they were Carneae and not Luteae Nares and so was all his Body Carneum Corpus and not Lutea Imago Corporis and so Adam after he was thus Immediately Created that is by Improper Creation of the Sensitive Body and Proper Creation of
Perception and Appetite which are Analogous to Intellective Understanding and Will and so also all Analogous Affections of Love Hate Joy Grief Hope Fear and the like Living Facultys as there are many such Analogys in Nature between several Classical Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys yea between them and Matter and the Affections therof as I have observed yet they are still Classicaly Different as well as there are the like Specificaly Different Analogys between the like Intellective Facultys and Powers in Men and Angels And by these Analogys and Correspondences in her several Members Nature doth Confederate and Combine and Unite all her Composita and her whole Body and make it one Conjunct Univers in the Whole and so doth the Human Compositum or Nature of Man which is as I said the Epitome of the Univers thus Confederate and Combine and Unite all the Classicaly Different Natures in itself Thus there is both such a Combination and Compositum of the Whole and also a Classical Difference of the several Natures in themselvs as so many parts and Members therof which yet are not Mist or Confounded one with another any more in the litle Compositum of Man then in the great Body of the Univers wherin certeinly they are so Different otherwise there should be no such Dâ—fferences in Nature but either Materia prima or Anima Mundi or both might be Eminently all things which I have before sufficiently refuted And it may Sensibly appear that there are such several Spirits in Man by their several Operations which are not only Naturaly Different but Actively Contrary as I have shewed and caus a Conflict in him as it were between two several Animals for so it is confessed by all Philosophy that the Sensitive Spirit doth Rebell against the Intellective for the Sensitive Imagination and Appetite or the Intellective Understanding and Will do never so resist and oppose one another but what the Imagination determineth and so representeth to the Appetite as Sensual Good or Evill the Appetite accordingly Affecteth or Disaffecteth it without any Renitence or Regret and so it is also between the Understanding and the Will but the only Dispute in the same Spirit Sensitive or Intellective is in the Deliberation concerning several Sensual or Intellectual Objectâ— or Circumstances therof and the like before the Imagination or Understanding can judg and determin that this or that Object so Circumstantiated is Sensualy or Intellectualy Good or Evill or Better or Wors wheras after the determination is once past the Appetite doth follow the Vltimum Dictamen of the Imagination and the Will of the Understanding without any the least Renitence and Regret most Spontaneously and Voluntarily Wherefore such Opposite Operations as are commonly between the Sensitive Imagination and Intellective Understanding and Sensitive Appetite and Intellective Will plainly declare that the Intellective and Sensitive Spirit in the same Man are Realy different as well as they are so in Brutes and Angels yea and more evidently becaus there is no such Conflict in either of them who are wholy Sensitive or wholy Intellective and though the Sensitive Spirit in Man did perfectly submitt to his Intellective Spirit in his first Creation yet they did then also as Realy Differ in their own Natures which are not altered by the Fall and as they now do as much Naturaly Differ when they agree as when they disagree though the Actual disagreement doth more Sensibly manifest the Natural Difference as Actual Heat and Cold Moisture and Drines declare the Elementary Spirits to be Different Substantial Principles and though they being all of the same Classis may be united into one Mistum and their Qualitys into one equal and agreing Temperament yet the Sensitive and Intellective Spirits in Man being Classicaly Different neither themselvs nor their Facultys nor Operations can be so Mist and so any Man may feel in himself that when in such a Conflict the Will which is Intellective doth prevail and Over-rule the Operation the Sensitive Appetite doth not mingle itself with it but as it were also by itself reluct and repine and assoon as it can return to its own Sensual Cours and when the Appetite doth prevail and overrule the Will doth in like maner mourn and bewail itself and assoon as it can return to its own Rational Cours which Sensibly satisfieth me that they are and remain such Different Spirits or Substantial Principles Facultys and Operations though they be all in the same Human Compositum And wheras it is said that the Human Embryo first lives the Life of a Vegetative Plant then of a Sensitive Brute and lastly of an Intellective Man though I have shewed how it indeed begins to live the Sensitive and Intellective Life together in one and the same Instant and so it is said Man became a Living Soul or Person becaus they are both truly and properly Lives and the Intellective Denominates the whole Person Man and assoon as the Sensitive Life dieth and the Breath which is the Instrument therof ceaseth and expireth the Intellective also departs and as long as the Sensitive Life remains though in any Deliquium or the like the Intellective continues and so the Wise-man saith of men as one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath yet it is very true that the Vegetative Life as they call it is before the Sensitive as may appear by the Punctus saliens in the Formation of the Foetus and wheras they say that this is only the Operation of the Sensitive Soul in a Brute and of the Intellective in a Man so Operating Eminently by those Inferior Powers which it hath in itself before it can exert its own Proper Superior Powers it seemeth to me very Absurd and Improbable that it should putt forth any such Eminent Powers which must Subsist in the Proper Powers before those Proper Powers be Actuated wherin it must Subsist as Emanant Light or Heat are Potentialy that is Formaly and not only Eminently in Inherent but certeinly cannot be Actualy exerted before the Inherent be Actuated and doth Operate Actualy though indeed as I have said no Proper Quality of one Specifical Spirit can be Actualy or Potentialy in another either Immediately or Mediately as the Proper Qualitys of the same Specifical Spirit may be and so as Emanant Light or Heat doth Immediately Subsist in Inherent and Mediately in Aether or Fire Wherefore there are three such distinct Spirits Intellective Sensitive and Vegetative in the Human Compositum and also the fower Elementary Spirits and they only Mist together in one nor hath ever any yet affirmed that they also were Eminently in all or any of the others as that the Intellective Sensitive or Vegetative Spirit is Eminently Hott Cold Moist or Dry or the like and yet they might and must affirm this as well as the other becaus they also are Spirits and not the Bodily Matter And thus there are indeed speaking plainly Seaven Different Spirits in every
God a Perfect Substance in itself Ingenerable Incorruptible Immisâ—â—ble and Indivisible as well as any Angelical Spirit And yet as there is some mutual Indigence and Opitulation in and among all Created Natures as so many parts and Members of the Universal Body therof so even Angels who are most Immaterial not only as other Spirits wherof none is any Matter as I have shewed but have least need therof either by Consubstantiation as they or Inhabitation of a Body as the Human Spirit yet becaus they also have no Extension of themselvs whereby they may be in their own Vbi or Place therefore must be in the Universal Body of the World and in some part or Vbi therof as Magnetical Virtue is in any Medium Indifferently and when they are in one Place they are not nor can they be in another nor can Instantaneously pass from one to another nor can annihilate or evacuate the Nature of Extension or the Density or Gravity of Matter nor do any thing contrary to the Law therof nor Infinitely overcome it but Finitely and according to some certein proportions and therefore Move not so swiftly through more Dens as through more Rare Matter nor can so easily lift more Grave as more Light as I have shewed and I grant that there is also such Coordination between the highest and lowest Nature Angels and Matter becaus they are both Natures and Created Entitys conteined within this Univers as Parts and Members therof and within the Universal Genus of all Created Entity but they have otherwise no Communion with any particular Body of Matter nor have any such Vehicles Syderous Igneous Aereous Aqueous Terreous as some suppose whose Souls are so farr Immersed in the gross Matter as that they cannot conceiv Angels or any thing to be Immaterial or without a proper Body of Matter nor God himself without an Vbi though his Immensity be Infinite and Infinitely Different from all that is Finite and therefore Infinitely free from all Extension Place Space or Vbi or any Notion or Imagination therof becaus it is Incomprehensible and such as must be acknowledged and adored but can never be comprehended Wheras Man though he be more concerned in the Matter and Material Spirits then Angels and so may be said himself to be more Material then they yet as he is litle lower then the Angels and much higher then the other Inferior Natures wherof also all except the Matter are Spirits should more Contemplate Spirits and their Spiritual Nature and not wholy bury himself in Matter who hath no such Union with it Immediately or Mediately but that he may Exist in his own Intellective Spirit and Operate Separately without it in his Separate State though as he is the Epitome of all Classical Natures so he doth Subordinate all the others unto himself as they do one unto another in this Conjunct State and though his Proper Sensitive Spirit as well as others doth also Naturaly and Necessarily affect this Union yet he doth not so mutualy affect it as that he cannot Be and continue in his own Individuality and the private Oeconomy of his own Spirit and Operate Separately without it in his Separate State as well as Angels and yet being also capable of this Conjunction or Composition as well as other Spirits though in another maner as I have shewed he doth Naturaly indeed but not Necessarily affect it as they do and so is the great Amphibium between both apt to live Conjunctly and Separately in both Worlds and in the lowest Earth and highest Superaether And thus the Human Spirit in this Conjunct State is in the Body not Inherently as I have shewed nor yet so in its Element as a Fish in the Water which cannot live out of it or as a Plant that is Rooted in the Earth but as a Master in a Ship who can also live out of it or as the Scripture more aptly expresseth it as in a Tabernacle wherin he shall not abide long and so the Rabbins call the Body Vagina Animae But wheras the Schoolmen say that it is Tota in toto tota in qualibet parte Corporis I cannot understand it of the very Substance of the Soul nor do I conceiv it to be Intelligible for though I acknowledg it to be not only as a Master in one part of a Ship as in the Heart or Head but like Hercules in Vrceo possessing and filling all the Vessel and also that it hath all its Facultys and Powers every where in the whole Substance of itself either Actualy or Potentialy becaus it is Indivisible and hath no Extensive but only Coextensive parts and them not so Coextensively United to the Matter as Inferior Spirits are yet it doth Operate Actualy in one part rather then another which the Scripture Comprehensively calleth the Heart and sometimes more particularly the Head and so indeed it must becaus it now Operates by the Instrumentality of the Sensitive Spirit which is Centricaly seated in the Head and Brain and not so in the whole Body though it Opera e Communicatively and Diffusively through the whole Body but in other parts where it is also it doth not so Operate Actualy and as it cannot so Operate and not so Operaâ—e in the same Place any more then in the same Time so becaus itself is diffused in and through the whole Body therefore it is not all in any part therof otherwise it should not be so diffused and it cannot be diffused and not diffused in the same Place and as it is all within the Body and therefore cannot be without it in this Conjunct State so if it were all in any one Part of the Body then it could not be in any other wherefore since it is tota in toto it cannot be tota in qualibet parte for both cannot be true of any Extension or Coextension whatsoever Nor doth the Spiritual Intirety and Indivisibility of the Human Soul alter the nature of the Extension of the Body or Coextension of itself nor do they or either of them destroy the Intirety and Indivisibility therof which is not Local as is supposed but only Spiritual as a Ray or Orb of Emanant Light is Spiritualy Intire and Indivisible in the Lustre or Image therin but not Localy for it may be measured by so many Inches Feet and the like Coextensively according to the Extension of the Diaphanous Body wherin it Localy is but Spiritualy so as you cannot clip off an Inch or an hairs breadth of the Ray and wheresoever that is there is also the Lustre and Image and so you may measure a Man both Body and Soul according to his Bodily Extension Yet if a Leg or Arm or half the Body by a Turkish Torture be cut off the Soul or any part therof is not divided but as the Light retires into itself when you divide the Diaphanous Body so doth the Soul which is yet Spiritualy more Intire and Indivisible then the Light for that
of such Supernatural Irradiation by the Divine Spirit and of Iesus Christ the Redeemer through whom only it is to be obteined Who is indeed The Brightnes of his Fathers Glory and exprâ—ss Image of his Person Infinitely and Incomprehensibly as he is the Essential Natural and most Univocal and Unigenous Son of the Father or the very Iâ—trinsecal Verbum Mentis Divinae who also hath Invested himself with the Human Nature as the Epitome of the Univers and which was therefore made such in order to him as I have shewed and so the Apostle stileth him both together The Image of the Invisible God and Firstborn of every Creature And as I said this very Consultation of the Trinity about the Creation of Man was in order unto Christ as there was afterward another Consultation of God about the Creation of Woman in order unto Man And it is also said Let us make Man in our Image after our Likenes as it is said of Adam that he begatt a Son In his Likenes after his Image both which Expressions are not Supervacaneously Impertinent but as there is a mutual Resemblance between any two Similar things so it is heer Doubly exprest and sometimes only Singly and Indifferently by Image or Likenes Now as there are Combinations between all Created Natures even Angels and Matter as I have shewed so the Image of Holines is the Combination or Communion between the most Spiritual Nature that is the Intellective and God the Creator But the most Admirable and Incomprehensible Combination is the Personal Union of Iesus Christ God Man both Creator and Creature in one Person Also Adam only was first Created Sole before Eve or any oâ—her as he alone was generaly like any other Man a Microcosm and as he was specialy and Personaly the Prototype of Christ who was to be a Man himself though he was the Seed of the Woman and though Woman also as well as Man being partaker of the same Human Nature was generaly made in the Image of God and so it is commonly Interpreted God Created Adam or Man according to his Kind In his own Image yet it is afterward repeated again more specialy and Personaly concerning Adam In the Image of God Created he him and then Male and Female Created he them and thus Christ is called both the Second Man generaly and the Second Adam Personaly and so the Apostle also expresly distinguisheth saying of Man that He is the Image and Glory of God but the Woman is the Glory of the Man and Christ the Head over all things to his Church even as the Man is of the Woman And thus all that was in the First Creation of Adam did prelude to Christ as I have said who is the only true Uncreated and Created Image of God both in his Essence and in his Operations VI. That there is a God and that the Soul of Man is Immortal are two Fundamental Points of Religion as I have shewed and as in my first Discours I proved the first so I shall now in this last prove the other and between these two comprehend all the rest the knowledge wherof is only in order to these great Ends of Man that is the Glory of God and his own Eternal Beatitude But though I have Mathematicaly proved a Begining and Creation of the World and consequently a Creator becaus the Univers which conteins all in one doth afford a Mathematical Medium whereby I might so prove it as I could also prove it Physicaly or Moraly and I rather chose that way of Probation becaus the Divine Wisedom which lays Natural Philosophy as a Foundation of Divinity doth thus offer the Begining as an Evidence of both and becaus some men who pretend most to Evidence require such Mathematical Demonstration which yet may not be exacted nor expected in the Probation of any thing that is not Mathematical as the Soul is not and which though it be Immortal yet is not indeed such in Present Actuality but only in Perpetual Futurity And as I have proved other Physical Theses Physicaly so I shall now prove this which concerns a Moral Creature Moraly according to the Nature of the Subject Matter when I have first explained what I intend by this Term Immortality the very Explication wherof as of any other Terms whereby Truth is presented in her own Naked Simplicity doth by the Aspect and Eradiation therof carry with it a very great Evidence of the Thing Now according to all my former Discourses it is not nor can it be any Question whether all Spirits whatsoever Elementary Vegetative or Sensitive as well as Matter be Immortal in their own Simple Essences Substances and Specifical Natures for they as such are Ingenerable and were Properly Created and therefore cannot be Corrupted and shall not be Annihilated but as their Composita were first Improperly Created or Originaly Generated and so are Successively Generable they are also Corruptible and so undeniably the Intellective Spirit as it is one Substantial Principle of the Human Compositum is also Incorruptible or Immortal Again as it is no Qâ—estion whether all Generable Composita be not also Corruptible so it cannot be denied but the Human Compositum of Body and Soul as it is Generated may also be Corrupted and so the Sensitive Vegetative and Elementary Spirits therof return into their Chaos which we call the Birth and Death of Men and so as the Human Spirit is Created it may also be Annihilated and the like but the true and clear State of the Question is Whether the Intellective Spirit of Man consydered in itself and without any Conjunction or Composition with his Sensitive Vegetative Elementary Spirits and Matter of his Body or any of them be Immortal or Mortal that is whether it can and doth as an Angelical Spirit continue Separate in its own Personal Individuality and Oeconomy after Death or the Dissolution of the Human Compositam which plainly is the Immortality of the Soul or like other Inferior Spirits when the Compositum is dissolved doth thereby and therwith also ceas to be such as it was before in itself Individualy and Oeconomicaly and so having no such Individuality or Oeconomy in itself Separately and without the Compositum but only in and with the whole Compositum is disolved together with it and the Substance therof return into the Dust as its own Element and Chaos wherin it was first Latent and there is Confounded and Coagulated with others out of which again not the same Individual and Oeconomical Spirit but another in a new Compositum may be Generated which is the Corruption or Mortality therof and such new production another Generation Now that the Intellective Soul of Man is not so Mortal or Corruptible but Immortal and Incorruptible is the purport of the whole Scripture becaus as I said it is a Fundamental Point of Religion and whosoever believs Scripture to be the Word of God may not nor can he deny it but he who
will deny the one must first deny the other that is that the Scripture is the Word of God Yet I shall more specialy produce one Text becaus it doth include with the Divine Authorâ—ty also some Natural Reason of the Thing The Wiseman speaking of the Death of men saith Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it wherin he plainly declareth that the Body and all the Bodily part which he termeth Dâ—st as God so called it at the first becaus he made it of the Dust of the Earth and such generaly as the Body of Man is in the very Instant when his Intellective Soul departeth out of it and that certeinly is a Body of Flesh and not only a Lutea Imago as I said doth assoon as the Instrumental Life of the Sensitive Soul ceaseth fall to the ground and is more and more by degrees Corrupted and Putrefied untill it be resolved again into Dust and the Sensitive Spirit is also Confounded in the Chaos therof and Coagulated with others as it is also said Who knoweth the Spirit of a Man that goeth Upward and the Spirit of the Beast that goeth Downward to the Earth and indeed we cannot know Spirits as they are in themselvs nor Pure Matter as it is in itself otherwise then by their Accidents as I have shewed that is the Intellective Soul returns to God who gave it by Immediate Inspiration and Proper Creation and as he gave it so he receivs it for as it was not produced out of the Earth like the Sensitive and Vegetative Spirits so neither doth it return thither again that is as it was not Generated so neither is it Corrupted and the very same Probation whereby I have proved it Ingenerable doth also prove it Incorruptible as Angels who are Ingenerable are also Incorruptible becaus they have no Substantial Composition and therefore nothing to be Dissolved or Corrupted but every one is a Complete Individuum and Person in himself and so though the Human Compositum which was composited of Body and Soul may be Dissolved as I have said yet the Human Soul which is also an Intelligence and Life in itself was Immediately Created such by God and therefore cannot be Dissolved and was not produced out of the Earth and therefore may not return unto iâ— but to God that gave it Thus as every Compositum is as iâ— were an Aggregate Corporation so made according to Natural Polity as an Hous is by Art and when the Members or Parts of the Corporation or Hous decay or are dissipated the very Corporation or Hous ceaseth to be such and the Members or Parts therof are Confounded or scattered among others and as an Angel is as a Sole Corporation which cannot be so Dissolved so Man is both an Aggregate Corporation like others in a Common Capacity with them in his Conjunct State and also a Sole Corporation like an Angel in his own Private Capacity by himself and in his Separate State and as the others could not be Individuated or made such Natural Corporations or Composita without an Improper Creation which was their Original Generation so neither can these Sole Corporations of Angels or Men which were made such in themselvs Immediately by God be Dissolved without a Divine and Supernatural Power which only can Annihilate them But as I said I shall rather prove the Immortality of our Souls Moraly by that Argument of Plato which is very Rational and Philosophical and may be farther improved by Christianity Certeinly God the Creator and First Caus of all things is also the utmost End therof and he is Immediately served only by Angels and Men becaus they are Immediately Subordinate to him and the only Intelligences in Nature which only have any Conscience or Conusance of him and therefore can only perform that Immediate and Spiritual Service which he requireth and which is fitt and Proper for him who is a Spirit and will be so worshiped and so as I said they were Created and appointed to gather in all the Revenues of his Glory and to render it to himself as well as to Glorify him by their other Personal Services Wherefore if these Intelligences should perish or ceas to be in their Personal Individualitys though their Substantial Principles might not ceas to be but be Confounded or Coagulated as others yet becaus they should not so any longer continue to be the same Persons as no Compositum when it is once Dissolved doth Naturaly return again to be the same but their Personalitys should so be destroied then it should be all one in respect to this great and utmost End of Creation as if they had never been Created for as if God had Rested from all his Works after the Fourth Day and before any Sensitives were produced and neither they nor Angels or Men had been Created all the other Creation had been void and vain in respect to itself as I have shewed becaus there had been no Spectators to Perceiv or Enjoy it so if Sensitives also had been produced they could only Behold and Enjoy the Creation but not render any Glory therof unto God the Creator of whom they are wholy Ignorant and so all of them had been made in vain becaus none of them could attein the very End of Creation which is the Glory of the Creator and though they had so continued to be for ever yet the very End of their Being had been Nullified yea though they were made Perfect and Good in themselvs yet they had not been Sanctified or Sublimated to any Divine Use or Service nor could God have so pronounced of them all that they were Very Good nor would he have so Rested untill he had so reduced them all to himself and his own Glory nor Instituted such a Sabbath of Spiritual Rest wherin he did Review and Rejoice in all the Works which he had wrought and from which he received the Emanant Reflections of his own Inherent Glory according to the utmost Capacity of Finite Nature Thus also if the Intelligent Natures of Angels or Men should be Mortal then all the Manifestations of his Glory to them or by them should with themselvs ceas and Vanish away and wheras they also do Personaly manifest his Divine Honor or otherwise Dishonor him so he who is the Great King according to his Roial Greatnes and Goodnes will recompens them with Reward or Punishment wherunto Piety and Impiety Virtue and Vice do Moraly Relate and in the Distribution of his Mercy and Justice accordingly his Everlasting Kingdom of Glory doth consist and therefore also all his Subjects therof must be Immortal otherwise after they had thus Served or Disserved him they should Escape him and lose their Rewards or Punishments and he the Glory therof for so the same Man or Angel should ceas to be and the Name of his Person as it stands in Gods Book be Oâ—literated and so all those Eternal
of God and by Iacob are called the Everlasting Hills wherof others give us no account Nor doth he affirm Vegetatives to Live but as I have observed plainly distinguisheth between Vegetative and Sensitive Spirits which he afterward calleth Living Souls And in the description of the Works of the Fourth Day we find none of those Monsters and Figments which both Poetry and Philosophy have introduced in the Starry Heaven for neither doth he divide it into Spheres having plainly shewed before how the whole Aether was only one Sphere as well as the other Heavens nor indeed can such several Imaginary Spheres solv the Phaenomena of the Motions of Aeâ—herâ—al Comets and of all the Planetary Motions as of the Satellites which as I have observed move not in perfect Circles in the Aether but only about their principal Planet whereby their Motion in the Aether describes an Hemiâ—rochoid as I said as if a Qâ—ernstone were set upright like a Cartwheel on a declive Hill and a man with his hand on the Handle should thereby move it round about the Axis down the Hill Nor doth he assigne any Intelligences or Daemons and a Metratton or President over them all to move the several Spheres Certeinly the Scripture calleth 〈◊〉 Daemons Princes of the Air and not of the Aeâ—her though they were Originaly of the same Nature and Office with good Angels but as they were since ejected out of the Superaether so now probably they are confined within the Subaeâ—hereal Orb between which there is such a great Chasm Nor doth he distinguâ—sh the Luminarys into Planetary and Fixed but calleth them by one common Appellation Lights Originaly derived both in Name and Nature from the Primigenious Light wherof they were all composed And he particularly nameth only the two principal Luminarys which so give Light upon the Earth and according to which besides the common and Diurnal Motion of the Aether all the Sacred Feasts of the Jews were instituted And as the Sun is first named so probably he was first made of that Primigenious Light whereby he Illustrateth all the rest and therefore is sometimes called by thâ— same Name or the Light And as he hath Light so also Heat which is another Aeâ—hereal Quality in himself Formaly and not oâ—ly Eminently or Equivocaly as some would suppose and as indeed I conceiv that the Moon causeth Moisture which is no Aetâ—ereal Quality over which she doth yet manifestly Predominate as may appear most notably in Tides whether she then causeth more gross Uâ—pors when she is in her Apogaea because she is farthest from the Earth or generaly more Vapors because she is then more strong and Praepoent as the Sun in his Apogaeum or from some unknown Influence or Power But however those Vapors which she causeth do not make that whole Body of Water which floweth and refloweth in Tides nor doth every part of that whole Body of Water pass to the extremitys of the Floud and Ebb but only the Rivers in their Fall above the Floud of the Sea are supplied by the Vapors which causeth the Impuls of the whole Undulating Body of Water as farr as the Ebb like the two Handles of a Saw in sawing forward and backward not very farr though the Saw be never so long for plainly the Waters in the Floud toward the Rivers are not much more Salt nor in the Ebb toward the Ocean much more Fresh but in the middle where they meet and where a proportionable overplus of the River Water so caused by the Vapors doth mingle with the Seawater Also he plainly intimateth that as some of the Luminarys are manifestly Motive so they are all in that he doth not distinguish between them and it is elswhere expressly said of the Starrs generaly that they militate in their Courses or Originaly Paths and if the Fixed Starrs do move Uniformly together which is the last Residuum of the antient Error and Opinion of their Fixation yet however according to their Various Positions in the Aether they must move Difformly in Time in that very Uniformity in Position and either in Position or Motion or both they are all Asymmetrous certeinly no known Motion of any of them is Commensurable with the Motion of the whole Aether according to which we assigne the Propeâ— Day Natural to be as I have said fower and twenty hours neither more nor less otherwise they should not be for Signes and for Seasons and for Days and for Years and all the Variations therof And though many of them be farr greater then the Earth yet they all move about it becaus they were made to give Light upon it which they could not do at such a distance unless they were so great And their Number is Innumerable unto us and perhaps not fewer then of the Host of Israel in the Wildernes nor of that which Ioab gave up to the King Rotunde before he had compâ—eted it or of that which he still proceeded to complete untill he was hindred by the Plague Nor doth Moses lay any foundation of Judicial Astrology which is expressly condemned by Scripture Again in the Works of the Fifth and Sixth Day he describeth the Original Generations of Fishes Fowls and Beasts and most truly termeth them Living and afterward calleth their Bloud the Bloud of Life which our Learned Doctor hath lately discovered to be a most proper expression and citeth that Text in confirmation of his Discovery wheras formerly the Heart was termed Primum vivens ultimum moriens I have been informed by a Physician my Neighbor that having dissected an old Toad so farr as that he had taken out the Heart and afterward stepping aside before he returned again the Toad had crept away into his Garden where he found it aâ—ive and that it so lived some consyderable time In the last of all the Works of Creation that is of the little World Man he discovereth a new World of Mysterys not only as Man is the whole Scale of Nature and as there was another Proper Creation of his Intellective Spâ—rit but also how he was made in the Image of God in order unto Iesus Christ God-Man who by the Assumption of the Human Nature into the Divinity did also superadd and unite to this Scale of Created Nature the Creating Nature God himself which is the Anacephaleosis or Reduction of the Finite Creation to the Infinite Creator And I shall desire any Naturalist seriously to consyder this Natural Representation of the Messiah as he is thus the Infinite Completion and Consummation of Nature itself and Perfection of the Univers and so the Mediator both of Creation and Redemption that thereby God the Creator might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in Heaven and which are in Earth even in him for so indeed Christ hath united in himself not only the Intellective Spirit of Man but also his Body yea the very Matter therof as it is said In him dwelleth all the fulnes of
I shall now shew that it is a Spiritual Quality and particularly what it is becaus I do not find it to be sufficiently explained by others and becaus indeed it is a very Noble Quality of Earth and of great Mechanical Use for it is not only a Compaction and Consolidation of all the parts of the Earthy Body but as it is also termed a Firmnes or Stability of the whole Body therof both which I comprehend under the name of Consistence whereby I also intend that Strength and Rigor of the Consistent Body which though it be no such Vigor or Force whereby it can Move other Bodys like the Angelical Powers nor its own Body as Material Spirits nor yet like the Motion of Matter to Union or Station whereby indeed Matter Moves itself but without any Activity or Strength only by a Recumbence or Succumbence as I have shewed and so Fluidity is only an Inconsistence therof or Falling every way without any Consistent Strength or Stability holding it together whereby it doth plainly appear that such Motion of the Matter as well as of Fluid Bodys is not from any Spiritual Activity or Vigor but contrarily from Infirmity and Weaknes of the Bodys themselvs yet Consistence doth Spiritualy and Actively Unite and Contein all the parts therof and also Arrect and Fortify the whole Body having a proper Center therin as all Spirits and Spiritual Qualitys have without any respect to the Center of Matter which as I have shewed is the Universal Center of the whole Body of the World and so a Timberlogg floating upon Water or suspended in the Air farr enough from that Universal Center yet hath in itself a Center of its own Consistence where it is strongest and is most hardly Bent or Broken and from which it proportionably extendeth that Strength or Rigor through all the parts therof unto the Extremitys and so this Consistence therof is Mechanicaly useful to make it a Boat or Beam of a Balance which though it be suspended in the more Rare Air only at the Center yet by this Strength and Rigor all the other parts therof being so Consistent in the whole though otherwise hanging freely in the same Air are Arrected and upheld from falling or bending downward as otherwise they would and though the parts therof weigh most toward the Extremitys becaus Gravity is an Affection of the Matter and therefore weighs most downward in the Extremitys which are farthest from the Center of the Consistent Strength which is a Spiritual Quality yet that is strongest in the Center which is most opposite and farthest distant from the Extremitys and plainly shews that Consistence is not Density nor Gravity which Subsisteth in Density and that any bowing downward in the Extremitys is rather from the Fluidity of the Matter whereby all the parts of that Wooden Balance would flow downward like Water if they were not so upheld by Terrene Consistence Nor doth Matter Move from but toward the Center wheras Consistence as all other Spiritual Qualitys issueth forth from the Center to the Extremitys though it be stronger in the Center then in the Extremitys which Matter is not as it is Matter for it is not more Heavy nor doth it Move more strongly or rather swiftly as it is neerer to the Center by reason of the Center but by reason of the longinquity of the Motion which would be the same whether the Body Move in such a Space and through the same Medium farther from or neerer to the Center and so the Weight of a Clock doth not Weigh more or Move faster when it is almost down then at first Also Consistence which is a firm Union of all the Parts in the Whole may be such to the Parts in their Private Whole as Station of Matter is to itself in the Publike Whole therof for so it keepeth the Parts of any Fluid Body within a Consistent Vessel in Rest as I have formerly shewed becaus the Consistence is a Fulciment which is quasi a Center unto them and wherupon they rest as well as in the Nâ—tural Station of a more Rare above any more Dens Body or as they would if they were Immediately next to the Center Again Consistence which is a Spiritual and Active Quality only for the Fixation of its own Body hath as I said no Contrary being heerin like to Magnetical Virtue which is for the Polar Position of the Body for Fluidity as I said is only an Inconsistence and Infirmity of the Matter which is not a Contrary but a Negation of Consistence and though there be an Universal Union and Coherence of the Matter to and with itself in the Whole yet there is also such a Mobility of the Parts therof within that Whole that they will easily be removed and flow any way unles they be made to Consist by this Spiritual Quality of Earth and no other Elementary Body doth Consist by any other Quality of the Spirit therof but only by this Spiritual Quality of the Earth that is in the Mistion therof and accordingly Water which hath more of Earth in the Mistion therof doth Consist more then Air and Air then Aether as I have shewed and so Terrene Bodys do more Consist as they are less Mist with the other Elements Nor is the Incoherence of many Terreous Corpuscles Fluidity though it seem to be Complexively such for every Corpuscle therof Simply is Consistent in itself as I have before observed of Porosity and so though there be many Sands in an heap yet every one of them in itself is as Consistent as a Sandstone and Dusts of Steel or Brass as the Steel or Brass itself and though by Commotion therof there may be a Motion every way like the Motion of Fluid Bodys yet that is not from the Consistent Corpuscles or any of them in themselvs but from â—he Interspersed Fluidity of Air as if there be Innumerable Terreous Motes in Water unles they be Mist and made into a Past the Water in itself is not thereby made more Consistent But Bodys which have a Consistence in themselvs and have also other Fluid Bodys Interspersed are made more to Consist in and with themselvs by exclusion of the Fluid Bodys out of their Pores as a Cable being stretched very stiffly will be made to Consist almost as much as Wood and so is used by Funambuli for by stretching the Air is excluded and the Pores are drawn together and Contracted and a Wett Cable will be farr more stiff of itself and not so easily stretched as a Dry becaus as I said Water hath more Consistence then Air and is not so easily excluded or squeezed out of the Pores also it is more Imbibed and thereby more Mist with the Terreous Body of the Cable then Air and therefore not so easily Extruded But heer I must observ that as it is a general Rule and Canon of Nature that in all Spiritual Powers and Operatâ—ons Union doth fortify so it is most sensibly
we see it double though it be single in itself so if we turn our Bodys round the Object seems to turn round or the Object may seem to be round when only the several Axes make a Circle as in the Firewheel and so also the round Earth seemeth Plane to us becaus our Ey cannot comprehend the vast Globosity therof while we stand upon it wheras all these Infirmities may be easily Rectified not only by Faith and Reason but by right Sensations and right Sens is true as well as right Reason or Faith and what is true to one of them is true to them all nor is there any Falshood in them or Fallacity in Nature but only Infirmity or such a Finite Perfection as it is in itself which we may otherwise Rectify or Correct our selvs by the right exercise of all those Facultys wherof God and Nature hath made us partakers to instruct us and not to deceiv us Now as these five Senses have their proper Objects and several Sensibles as I have shewed so there are many Common Sensibles which by them and together with them may be sensed and they are such Common Sensibles not only becaus they are so sensible by and with others but also becaus many of them may be sensed by several Senses as all Quantity and Affections of the Matter and the like and there is indeed nothing in this Spectable or Sensible World which is not sensible one way or other for so all other things which cannot enjoy themselvs were made to be enjoyed by Sensitives who thus enjoy themselvs and all other Sensible things whereby also Intellective Man understandeth Intelligible things in this Conjunct State with his Sensitive Body as I shall shew heerafter IV. Having thus farr passed through the Insensible and almost Inextricable Labyrinth of the Sensorys I now arrive at the Brain where as I said the Sensation is performed and which may evidently appear by what I have said for so this is the reason why Sight by the two Eys or Hearing by the two Ears is not double though the Organs be double becaus the Sensible Species meeâ— in the Brain where the Sensation is performed where also if they do not so meet the Sensation will be double as in distorting one of the Eys as I said and so if we putt one hand into cold Water and the other into â—ott and the like and it is well known that if a Nerv be bound in any part of the Body there is no Sensation by it below but only above that is between the Ligature and the Brain so also the Gutta serena which is in the Optike Nervs causeth Blindnes though the Ey which is the Organ of Sight be sound and perfect and in Seing we seem not to see any thing Intermediate between the Object and the Brain but as it were by a continued Visive Line or Radius Opticus reaching from one to the other both through the Medium and Organ And most certeinly all the Nervs are rooted in the Brain and Medulla and from thence all the Nerval Succus both in the Spina and in all the Nervs doth flow forth Wherefore indeed it was an inexcusable Error in them who would derive the Nervs from the Heart though that as I have shewed by its Motion be the first Operator and Refiner of the Sanguineous Liquor which is afterward Concocted in and by the more Moderate Temper of the Brain and there first made a Nerval Succus and from thence diffused into the Nervs and Spinalis Medulla And so the Scripture which as I said speaks Comprehensively doth only mention the Heart as the Original of all Sensation and Intellection as it doth only mention Bloud generaly which so passeth through the Heart and is afterward distinguished into Arterial and Nerval and though some who will as we say correct Magnificat may cavill and be offended or judg this Expression to be Popular yet they ought to consyder that such Comprehensive Expressions are not Popular but exactly true in their Comprehensive sens and thus Heart in Scripture is never Contradistinguished from Brain nor to be understood so as to Exclude but Include it as Bloud doth all kinds of Bloud nor is there therefore any mention particularly of any Nerval Succus or of any Brain or any such thing in Scripture becaus according to the Language therof such general Names as Bloud and Heart do Comprehend all the rest wheras we read of Liver Kidneys Gall and such other Instruments of Vegetative Nutrition rather then of Sensation and so of Seed and Milk which are for Generation and Nutrition of others Now that the fivefold Sensations of the five several Senses are performed in the Brain as well as the Sensation of the very Imagination itself I shall farther most plainly prove becaus the Sensitive Facultys do all Subsist in the Imagination as may sensibly appear by the maner of their Sensation which is not nor can it be without Animadversion as we rightly term it becaus it is the Adverting or applying of the Imagination to Contemplate the Sensible Species and also the Irradiation therof by its own Animal and Sensitive Light which makes the Sensation otherwise though the Object Organ Sensorys and all the Apparatus therof be ready and never so well instructed Seeing we See not and Hearing we hear not or we see and hear not or hear and see not or see or hear this or that Visible or Audible Object and not another or one more then another accordingly as we Intend it or apply our Imagination to it as I have shewed and I have heard of one who being to shoot at a Mark for a Wager professed that he thought he neither saw Heaven nor Earth nor any thing besides the Mark which most vehement Intention did very much conduce to his hitting of the Mark and wining the Wager and this Contemplation of the Imagination is that as I conceiv which we commonly call Common Sens whereby the Imagination which is one and the same Faculty in itself doth thus Contemplate all the several Sensibles as also one and the same Appetite doth Affect or Disaffect them and one and the same Understanding understand them and Will will or nill them For it is not the variety of Objects but the several maner of Sensation that doth distinguish the Facultys and make them Realy to differ and thus the Senses according to their fivefold Organs and Sensorys whereby their several Sensible Objects or Species therof are received severaly and in a several maner are several but though their Objects that is their Proper and Common Sensibles may be several yet as they both are so received in the same maner they do not distinguish the Sens nor make it several in itself Also we may heer observ the very Spiritual Nature of the Sensitive Soul and Imaginative Faculty therof that though the gross Sensible Objects be not only different but contrary one unto another and such as will
themselvs be Mist one with another as Heat and Cold will be Contemperated into a Tepor or otherwise there will be a great Conflict between them when they meet together yet the same Imaginative Faculty doth apprehend them both together as when one hand is in cold Water and the other in hott distinctly and inconfusedly Also this sheweth the reason of that Sympathy and Consent that is between some parts more specialy and the whole Body generaly in Feeling wherof the whole Body is capable as I said that is becaus the Imaginative Faculty is one and the same which resideth in the Brain from whence all the Nervs are dispersed through the Body and therefore the whole Body is so affected yet so as a Wound in the Toe doth not Corporealy affect the Brain or Imagination therin but Spiritualy and though the feeling in the Toe that is wounded being in the Standard doth caus a Principal Sensation therof in that Part and so in the Brain and from thence in the rest of the Body yet that is only a Secondary Sensation as I may so call it wherof it is said if one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it that is only by the Imaginative Faculty of the Sensitive Spirit therof which is one and the same though no other Part be Corporealy affected And wheras I have often mentioned two such several Kinds of Sensation that is one by the outward Organs and Sensory and by the Corporeal or Elementary Mutation made in the Standard within the Body and Irradiation of the Elementary Animal Spirits in the Nervs which is Primary and the other by Species Actuated only by the Vegetative Spirit in the Elementary Animal Spirits in the Brain itself as I have formerly shewed which is Secondary wherof we call one Sens and the other Imagination I shall now shew the Sensible difference therof in Sleep when all the Senses are bound up and obstructed and yet then the Imagination doth thus operate in Dreaming and the Senses are so bound up and obstructed by the Vaporous Bloud which ascendeth from the Heart through the Carotides whence they are so called the Sleepy Arterys to the Brain and it is said that if they be stopped Sleep will presently ensue though I rather conceiv that to be an Apoplectical then Soporous Effect for it is not the obstructing of them and thereby hindring the Sanguineous Vapors to ascend which causeth Sleep but rather the contrary that is an ascent therof more copiously which doth obnubilate the Basis of the Brain and reacheth as farr as the Roots of the Nervs and the Animal Spirits therin which are most Pure and Spiritual and the fitt Instruments of the Sensitive Spirit are clouded by such gross and unconcocted Vapors and thereby rendred unfitt and so the Imagination cannot operate by them wherupon that kind of Sensation ceaseth untill those Vapors be again rectified and refined in the Brain and so pass into the Nervs and then Sleep ceaseth and that Sensation begineth to operate thereby again But the Imagination being seated in the very Brain itself and probably in the upper Region therof and Fore-brain which we accordingly feel to grow most hott by the working therof the Cloud of those ascending Vapors being there weaker as the Vapors are which ascend higher in the Atmosphere and the Concoctive Power of the Brain there being greater the Imagination may Contemplate the Species in the Animal Spirits which are in the Brain itself and there Actuated by the Vegetative Spirit which doth concoct and prepare them as I have shewed and which is sufficient for this Secondary Operation by the Imagination and needeth no such Irradiation by the Species of External Objects as is required in the Primary Sensation And so this Secondary Operation by by the Imagination in Dreaming is also much weaker then it is when we are Waking or at least farr more Wild and Irregular either becaus those ascending Vapors are not yet so purely defecated in the upper Region of the Brain or otherwise becaus the Imagination then wants the Archetypes of the Primary Sensation whereby to rectify its own Contemplations And it is evident that in Sleep even the Animal Spirits of the Nervs are not so Consopited or as we say in a dead Sleep ordinarily but that any Vehement Sensible doth soon awake them and the Spirits by degrees are rowsed up and the Vaporous Cloud dispersed yea while we are asleep as the Cloud is more or less gross in ascending or sooner or longer in being purified in the Brain so is our Sleep greater or less or shorter or longer and sometimes the Soporous Cloud is so small and very Rare that we are as we say between Sleeping and Waking Now that it is so may plainly appear by the Causes of Sleep which are either Expens of Spirits that induceth a Lassitude wherupon Sleep Naturaly ensueth becaus Nature requireth a Recruit therof and the Bloud then ascendeth more copiously to the Brain which is the part affected and indigent therof or Satiety and a full Stomach whereby the Vapors so ascend of themselvs and Drinking commonly causeth Sleep more then Eating becaus Drinks are more Vaporous and Spirituous then Meats or Dejection of the Spirits by Stupidity and Sorrow and the like and so Narcotike Medicines by their Stupifying Quality induce Sleep or Idlenes and Cessation from Exercise of Body or Mind may be another Caus therof as it removeth the Impediment of Sleep or indeed the very Contrary therof for so all Exercise is a Waking and therfore a man cannot well sleep if he do but stand upright and Sleep as I may so say unbendeth the Bow and relaxeth not only the Perceptive but also the Motive Spirits and thus as Exercise and Lassitude so Waking and Sleeping do follow and indeed mutualy caus one another by Expens and Recruit of the Animal Spirits both Perceptive and Motive which heerby appear to be very Connatural for as much Study is a Wearines to the Flesh as the Wise man saith so wearines of the Flesh is also an Impediment to the Study of the Mind Now as I have shewed that all Perceptive Sensation both Primary and Secondary is in the Imagination so if any require that I should also shew what is that Specifike Imaginative Power whereby the Sensitive Spirit so Operateth wherof I have thus farr traced the Operations or maner of working from the Sensible Object to this Sensitive Faculty as I have shewed that the Sensitive Spirit itself is an Active Spiritual Substance Created by God in the Begining and first produced with this and all other the Innate Qualitys therof so Actuated by God in this Fifth Day so I can only affirm thaâ— this Imaginative Power is such becaus God so Created it as Matter is Matter and Spirit Spirit Heaven Heaven and Earth Earth Extension Extension Heat Heat and the like becaus God so Created them in the begining and as no man can go beyond that Begining so neither