this not being to be done our Work appearing in Public to all the World it is impossible but I must needs leave you somewhat Surprized for if your's is a common and Vulgar Wit I doubt not but you are perswaded that the Number and Perfection of the Sciences has been by the Antients long since determined guided by a vain Reason that since they could find out nothing more to say 't is a sign that there is nothing new and if you happen to have such Sentiments go no further nor read any longer for it will but vex you to know what a wretched kind of Wit you are Master of but if you are deliberate and discreet I have three very true Conclusions to propose to you which for their Novelty are not a little to be admired The first is That of all the different Wits of Men there is but one as predominant can fall to thy share unless Nature straining hard as it were to form two or three Excellencies more in thee and being unable to effect what she designed has left thee off unwrought in haste as a rude Essay of an unfinish'd Piece The Second that to each different kind of Wit corresponds one Science only transcendently and no more for which reason if thou art not well assured in the Choice of what suits thy Talent thou wilt find thy self very short in the rest with the most assiduous Application The Third that after thou hast found out what Science corresponds best with thy Wit there remains if thou wouldst not err another greater difficulty which is whether the Practic or Theory suits best with thy Genius for these two Parts in all Sciences whatever are so opposite to each other and require Wits so diverse that they may be set one against the other in the place of Contraries A hard saying this I own and yet hard as it is what is yet the hardest of all is there is no Writ of Error or Appeal for who can say that he has received any Wrong for God is the Author of Nature who dispenses to each Man but one kind of Genius as I said but now notwithstanding the Opposition and Difficulty that lies in the uniting them he accommodates himself to her and of the Sciences he distributes Gratis amongst Men in a Miraculous way he gives no more than one in an Eminent Degree There are diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit And there are diversities of Administrations but the same Lord And there are diversities of Operations but it is the same God which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Man to profit withal for to one is given by the Spirit the Word of Wisdom to another the Word of Knowledge by the same Spirit to another Faith by the same Spirit to another the Gift of Healing by the same Spirit to another the Working of Miracles to another Prophecy to another the discerning of Spirits to another divers kinds of Tongues to another the Interpretation of Tongues But all these worketh one and the same Spirit dividing to every Man severally as he will Upon the whole Matter you see that even the Graces Men possess in the Church are very different yet are they all distributed by one and the same Spirit who is the source of all The Ministerial Employments are divers and yet 't is one and the same Lord who calls both the one and the other to his respective Function Neither is the Power of working Miracles equal and alike in all though it is the same God who produceth those Miraculous Acts which are performed by those to whom he has given that Power Nor are you to think that the Distribution of these Gifts which proclaim the Holy Spirit 's dwelling in him who possesses the same is without reason unequal Since in their distribution God has regard to what is of more Use and Advantage either for the farther Confirmation of those who already are Believers or for the Conversion of such as are yet Idolaters Whence it comes that one receives from the Holy Ghost the Gift of Wisdom to uncypher Divine Mysteries and another the Gift of Knowledge from the same Spirit and that also one has Faith by virtue of which he works a vast number of Miracles and heals all incurable Diseases another is armed with a power of Miracles of another kind as of foretelling many things to Come of Penetrating into the Breasts of Men and discerning the several secret Springs of all their outward Motions Hence is it one speaks many Languages unlearned and another is the Interpreter to understand them all because as I told you before it is one and the same Spirit who is Author of all these Gifts and who distributes them according to his good Pleasure I question not in the least but God made that distribution of Sciences with regard to each Man's Wit and Natural Genius seeing the Talents he bestow'd in St. Matthew says the same Evangelist that he distributed them to each according to his own Virtue For 't is a very gross Mistake to fancy that these Supernatural Sciences require not certain previous Dispositions in the Subject before they can be infused For when God Form'd Adam and Eve 't is certain that he first filled them with Wisdom in Organizing their Brain after such a manner as was every way becoming an Instrument appropriated to Reason and Discourse To this purpose speaks Sacred Writ He has filled them with the Spirit of God in Wisdom in Knowledge in Vnderstanding and in all manner of Workmanship And according to the difference of each Man's Wit one Science was rather infused than another and more or less of each of them which may be understood by the same Instance of our first Parents for when God fill'd 'em both with Wisdom 't is agreed on by all hands that he gave less to Eve which was the Cause say the Divines that the Devil undertook to seduce her not daring to tempt Man as being in awe of a Superior Wisdom The reason of this as we shall prove by and by is that the Natural Composition of Woman's Brains is not susceptible either of much Wit or great Wisdom We shall find the same thing in Angelic Substances that God to raise one Angel to greater Degrees of Glory and more elevated Gifts gave him first a more delicate Nature And if one should ask the Divines of what use is that Delicate Nature they answer That an Angel who is of a more Elevated Understanding and refined Nature more readily inclines to the Will of God and more efficaciously employs those Gifts the self same Thing happening even among Men. Whence may manifestly be inferred that seeing there is a difference of Wits for Supernatural Sciences and that all kind of Capacities are not fit Instruments alike for them by far greater reason Humane Learning requires it because what Men learn is purely by force of their Wit The
that God made Adam's Body before he formed his Soul It is much the same thing at this present only with this Difference that Nature now frames the Body and when that is once done God infuses the Soul into it from which it never departs no not the space of a single Moment Aristotle took an other Course affirming that all kind of Doctrin and Discipline was from Knowledge antecedent to them as if he had said all that Men know and all that they learn comes from what they Hear or See or Smell or Tast or Touch for the Understanding can receive no Notices but what must first pass through some one of the five Senses For which Reason he said that the Natural Powers were in the Nature of a Blank-Paper which Opinion is no less false than Plato's and to make Proof and Illustration of this I must first agree with the Philosophers that there is but one Soul in a Human-Body which is the Rational that is the Principle of whatever we do or Accomplish altho' there want not contrary Opinions asserting no less than two or three distinct Souls besides the Rational This being so as to the Acts performed by the Rational Soul so far forth as it is Vegetative we have already proved that it knows how to Form a Man and to Figure him as he ought to be that we know how to draw Nourishment to retain and digest the same as well as to expel Excrements and if there be Defects in any parts of the Body it knows how to repair them anew and to give them that Structure which their use requires And as to the Acts of the Sensitive and Motive Faculties a new-born-Babe can apply and lay its Lips close to press the Milk and this with so much Art and Address as the wisest Man in the World knows not how to do it so well Besides this it follows what tends most to the Preservation of it's Nature and flyes what is noxious and offensive he knows how to Laugh and to Cry without staying to be Taught by any And if this be not so who can the Vulgar Philosopher pretend has taught Children to perform these Actions or through which of their Senses have any Notices arrived that made them do it I know well they may reply that God has given them the same Natural Instinct as to Brute Beasts in which they say not ill if by Natural Instinct they mean no other thing than the Temperament Man as soon as he is born cannot exert Acts proper to the Rational Soul such as are to Understand Imagine and Remember because the Temperaments of Children are not well Adapted to such Acts but rather appropriate to the Vegetative and Sensitive as the Temperament in Old Age is more proper for the Rational Soul and less for the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul and if the Brain which by little and little acquires the Temper that Wisdom requires might obtain it at once Man at the same instant would be able to Reason and Discourse better than if he had learnt the same at any time in the Schools but as Nature cannot bestow it but successively and in time so Man by degrees gains Knowledge This is the main Reason as one may clearly see if he will consider that from the time a Man arrives at the pitch of Wisdom by little and little he declines to Ignorance because as he approaches nearer to the last and decrepit Age he daily acquires another Temperament wholly new As for me I am of Opinion that whereas Nature makes a Man of hot and moist Seed which is the Temperament that directs the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul what it ought to do if instead of that she had formed him of cold and dry Seed he would Discourse and Reason soon after he was Born and would not be able to Suck inasmuch as his Temperament would not well agree with such Actions But to the end we may by Experience know if the Brain be Temperate so far as the Natural Sciences require we need no Master to teach us but only to attend to a thing which happens every day that if a Man falls sick of any Distemper that changes the Temperament of his Brain on a sudden 〈◊〉 in Madness Melancholy and Frenzy he would lose in a moment though he were once Wise and Understanding whatever Wisdom Understanding and Knowledge he had and would utter a thousand Extravagances and on the contrary though he had been once an Ignorant Fellow he would be Inspired with more Wit and Ability than ever he had before To prove which I cannot forbear telling you what happened at Corduba in the Year 1570. the Court being then there to a Courtesan in her Sickness named Lovisa Lopez who was turned Fool She had during her Health utterly lost her Understanding but as for her Imagination she conversed Pleasantly and made her Complements with a good Grace a certain contagious Disease then rife threw her into a malignant Fever in the midst of which she shewed so much Wit and Judgment as surprized the whole Court Insomuch that when they had given her the Sacraments she made her last Will the discreetest in the World and died begging the Mercy of God and Pardon for her Sins But what raised the greatest Admiration was that the same Distemper seized on a very sensible and sober Man who had the Cure of this Sick Person in charge who died bereft both of Wit and Judgment and neither did nor spoke the least sensible thing And the Reason of this was that the Temperament of the last to which he owed his Wit when he was well was the self-same that Lovisa Lopez took possession of by her Distemper instead of the Temperament she had in her Health which was the lot of the other in his Sickness Let me give you an Instance of this in a certain Labourer who being Frantic made a Speech in my hearing wherein he recommended his Welfare to those about him desiring them to take care of his Wife and Children if it should please God to call him out of this World with so many strains of Rhetoric and so great Elegance and Purity of Speech that Cicero himself could scarce have made a better Harangue in the open Senate At which the Standers-by not a little surprized asked me whence appeared so great Wit and Eloquence in a Man who in his Health could say never a wise Word I remember I made answer That the fluent Faculty of Haranguing proceeded from a certain point or degree of Heat of which this Labourer was possessed by means of his Distemper I can confirm the Truth of this from another Lunatic who for more than eight days spoke never a word and then immediately fell into a fit of Rhiming very often making no less than a good entire Stanza the By-standers surprized to hear a Man Discourse all in Verse who in his Health never knew how to make one I told them it
him but the Master that had taught him no better because the Cognizance and Solution of the Motions of Divine Providence as they are Supernatural Acts appertain to the Metaphysicians now a-days called Divines for the Gardener's question was Natural and properly belong'd to the Natural Philosophers those being establish'd and manifest Causes whence such Effects are produc'd For which reason the Philosopher says That the Earth resembled a Mother-in-law that took a particular care of her own Children but starved those of her Husband for we observe hers to be plump and in good liking but the other meager lank and ill coloured The Plants the Earth produces of her self come out of her own Bowels those the Gardener raises are forc'd by Art being the Daughters of another strange Mother void of the Virtue and Nourishment that should make them thrive and what is communicated only to the Plants she her self brings forth Hippocrates confirm'd this in his Visit he made to the great Philosopher Democritus who acquainted him with the false Notions the People had of Physic who as if they were free from all Diseases had nothing in their Mouths but that God had healed them and if it had not pleased him the Physicians Care and Skill had been all employed to no purpose and the like This is the old way of Talking and which has so often been in vain exploded by the Naturalists that it is not worth while to endeavour to silence it Neither is it altogether convenient because the Vulgar who are not acquainted with the particular Causes of any Effect whatever answer better and with more truth from the universal Cause which is God than to run into Impertinences However I have many times consider'd with my self whence it should come that the Vulgar should so readily ascribe all things to God taking no notice at all of Nature and not without some secret Abhorrence of Natural Means I know not well how to divine the true Cause but thus much I find that the Generality of People being ignorant which Effects more immediately to refer to God and which to Nature prate after this manner besides that Men are for the most part impatient and Friends to those that first gratify their Desires And the Process of Nature being slow and requiring length of Time they have not Patience to attend the Event but knowing the Omnipotence of God who in an Instant does what he pleases of which they want not many Instances they either beg at his Hands Health with the Paralitic or Wisdom with Solomon or Riches with Job or Deliverance from their Enemies with David An other Reason is because Men are Opinionative and Conceited most of them wishing in their Hearts that God would distinguish them by some particular Favour not in the common Road and as he makes the Sun to shine upon the Just and the Unjust and the Rain to descend upon all alike Favours being rather the more esteem'd by how much the Rarer they are and more Appropriate to a few Upon which pretence we have seen many Men feign Miraracles in Times and Places of Devotion for which cause People flock about them and pay just Veneration to them as Persons in Favour and Esteem with Heaven and if they are poor they bestow considerable Alms upon them who play the Religious Counterfeits for Interest The third Cause is Men are lovers of their Ease and Natural Causes being in such an Order and Concatenation as requires a great deal of Time and Application to discover their Effects therefore they had rather God should exert his Omnipotence that so they might without the least Pain or Delay obtain their Desires I shall take no notice of the Malice of those who seek for Miracles from God to tempt his Omnipotence to try if he can work them nor of others who to gratify their Revenge call for Fire from Heaven and the like severe Instances of the Divine Vengeance The last Reason is that the Vulgar generally speaking are very Religious and desirous that God should be greatly Honour'd and much Glorified which comes to pass by Miracles rather than Natural Events for the common People are not aware that God is not the Author of all Supernatural and Extraordinary things so much to proclaim his Almighty Power to the Ignorant as to employ them as nobler Arguments to confirm his Doctrin and that unless upon such an Emergency he never works any This is easily understood if we consider that God works not now such Miracles as once in the Old and New Testament and the Reason is because he has already done all that was necessary on his part that Man might not pretend Ignorance but to imagine that he should be ready to employ the same Arguments again and again and work new Miracles to confirm afresh his old Doctrin as in the Instances of raising the Dead giving Sight to the Blind Feet to the Lame and Paralitic is a great mistake for at the same instant as God teaches Men what is convenient he confirms it by Miracles without repeating them every day a-new God spoke once and did not repeat the same a second time The clearest Indication I have to discover a Man that has no Wit propense to Natural Philosophy is when I see him referring all things to Miracles without any distinction As on the other hand there is no need to call in question their Understanding who cannot rest satisfied without discerning the particular Cause of every Effect These are well aware that some Events are to be referred immediately to God as are Miracles and others again to Nature as those that have their immediate Causes from which they ordinarily flow But let us talk at what rate we please God is always understood to be the Author even of the last for when Aristotle said God and Nature make nothing in Vain he never meant that Nature was an Universal Cause having a Power independent upon God but a Name only of that Order and Subordinate Rule appointed by God himself in the Creation of the World to the end that such Effects might duly succeed as were necessary to its Conservation and Continuance in the same state So we say the King and Civil Right can do no Wrong by which manner of speaking no Man takes the Term Right to signifie another Prince of separate Jurisdiction from the King but rather as a Term by its signification importing all the Laws and Ordinances made by the King himself to preserve the State in Peace Like as a King has some peculiar Prerogatives that cannot be Determined by the Law as being Paramount and Extraordinary even so has God reserv'd to himself the Effects of Miracles for the Production of which he has given no Commission or Power to Natural Causes where by the way we may observe that he who takes them for such and can distinguish them from natural Effects must needs be a very acute Natural Philosopher and understand no less
is sufficient But when one Pleader speaks for the Plantiff and another for the Defendant and a third Lawyer fills the Place of a Judge this is like a Fight with drawn Sword and where they cannot speak so at random as when they fight in the Air without an Enemy If the Child advance not much in Grammar it is to be suspected that he has a good Understanding and therefore I say suspected because it does not necessarily follow that he who can't learn Latin hath a great Understanding Seeing we have proved before that Children furnished with a strong Imagination shall never attain any Perfection in that Tongue But that which may best discover this is Logic for this Science bears the same proportion with the Understanding as the Touchstone does with Gold Accordingly it is most certain that if he who makes his Course in Philosophy does not begin in a Month or two to Reason and raise some Objections and if there come not to his mind Arguments and Answers upon the matter treated of he has no Understanding at all but if he prove towardly in this Science it is an infallible sign that he has the right Understanding for the Law so that he may out of Hand apply himself to it without the least scruple Though I should think it better first to run through the Art for Logic is no more to the Understanding as we have already said than the Clogs which are clapt on the Feet of an untrained Mule going with which some time he takes to a more steady and agreeable Pace The same march our Understanding makes in Disputes being bound up by the Rules and Precepts of Logic. But if the Child which we have examined speeds not well in the Latin Tongue nor in Logic as he ought it must be considered if he be not provided with a good Imagination before we take him from the Study of the Laws for herein is found a great Mystery and it is good that the Republic know it it is that there are some Lawyers who being in the Chair work Wonders in Interpreting the Laws and others in Pleading but if you put the Staff of Office in their Hands you shall find them no more able to Govern than if the Laws had never been made for any such thing On the Contrary there are others who with two or three misunderstood-Laws which they learn'd at Salamanca if they should be put into any Command would acquit themselves to Admiration At which effect some Curious Wits are Surprized because they dive not into the Cause from whence it springs For the Reason of it is that to Govern belongs to the Imagination and not to the Understanding or Memory And that this is the Case may be plainly proved considering that the Common-wealth is to be maintained by Order and Consent of Parts every thing being in its due Place so that all joined together falls into a good Figure and Correspondence This we have proved many times before is a Work of the Imagination nor is it much more to the purpose to make a great Lawyer a Magistrate than to make a Deaf Man a Judge of Music This is to be understood ordinarily and not to be taken for a General Rule For we have already proved that Nature may join a great Understanding with a great Imagination so that in such a Case it would not be inconsistent but that the same Person might prove an Excellent Pleader and a famous Governor and we heretofore discovered that Nature being found strong with all the Powers she can have and labouring in a well disposed Matter may produce a Man of great Memory Understanding and Imagination who Studying the Laws may prove a Famous Reader an Accomplished Pleader and no less Admirable a Governor But Nature makes so few such as this cannot well pass for a General Rule CHAP. XIV That the Theory of Physic belongs part to the Memory and part to the Understanding and the Practice to the Imagination AT the time that Arabian Physic flourished there was a Physician highly Celebrated as well for his Reading as Writing Arguing Distinguishing Answering and Concluding of whom it was thought in respect of his great Skill that he was able to Raise the Dead and Cure all kinds of Diseases And yet the contrary came to pass for he never took the Cure of any in Hand but they Miscarried at which being vexed and ashamed he turned Friar complaining of his ill Fortune without being able to understand the true Spring and Cause of it And because the freshest Examples stronglier prove and make most Impression on the Senses it is the Opinion of many Grave Physicians that John Argentier a Modern Physician of our Time has much excelled Galen in reducing the Art of Physic to a better Method and yet notwithstanding 't is reported of him that he was so unsuccessful in his Practice that not one Patient of all his Country or Acquaintance durst venture to take Physic from him so much they apprehended his ill-Success Hereat the People have reason to be surprized being taught by Experience not only in those whom we have just mentioned but in many others also which they see every day that every Physician that is a great Clerk is not the ablest Practitioner Aristotle attemped to give the Reason of it but in my Opinion he has failed He thought the Reason that Physicians of his time were not so Successful in their Practice sprung from their General Notice of Man in common and their Ignorance of the Nature of each Particular Constitution contrary to the Emperics whose Care and Study was to know the Idiosyncracies of particular Men passing over the General Knowledge But he was without Reason for both the one and the other exercised themselves in Particular Cures and laboured what they could to find out the Nature of each Constitution in Particular The Difficulty then is to understand why the most Learned Doctors though they employ all their Lives in the Working of Cures never become Excellent in the Practice whereas others who are but Ignoramus's with three or four Rules of Physic learnt in the Schools can do greater Cures in less time The true Answer to this Doubt is not so easy to be found seeing that Aristotle failed in it though he spoke in a manner something to it But we keeping to the Principles of our Doctrin shall deliver the same more fully You are to know then that the Perfection of a Physician consists in two things which are as necessary to carry him on to the end of his Art as two Legs to go without Halting The first is to know from a right Method the Precepts and Rules of Curing Man in common without descending to Particulars The second is to be long Exercised in the Practice of Physic and to have Visited a great Number of Patients for neither do Men differ so far from one another but that in many things they agree nor are they so like neither
St. Stephen the Proto-Martyr in the Discourse he had with the Jews that the Children of Israel abode Four hundred and thirty Years in the Egyptian Bondage And though the Abode of Two hundred and ten Years were sufficient to tincture the Children of Israel with the Qualities of Egypt yet the time they lived Abroad was not lost in what related to their Wit inasmuch as those that live under the Yoke of Servitude in Pressures in Afflictions and in a strange Land contract a great deal of Adust Choler in being barred Liberty of Speech and of Revenging their Injuries and the same Humour being Adust is the Instrument of Craft of Cunning and of Malice As we see by Experience that there are no Manners or Conditions worse than those of Slaves whose Imagination is ever busied in contriving to do some Damage to their Master and free themselves from Slavery Moreover the Country through which the Israelites marched was not not much alienated nor far remote from Egypt no more than from its Qualities for with regard to its Misery and Barrenness God promised Abraham that he would give him another more Rich and Fruitful Now it is a thing verified as well in good Natural Philosophy as Experience that barren and poor Countries which bear neither Grain nor Fruit in abundance produce Men of very sharp Wit and on the contrary Fat and Fertile Lands produce Men that are big Limb'd Stout and Robust of Body but slow of Wit Touching Greece Historians never make an end of telling us That it is a Country proper to produce Men of great Abilities and Galen particularly says That it was a Wonder to see a Blockhead born at Athens and note that this was the poorest and barrennest Land of all Greece So that from thence may be gathered that at least some Qualities of Egypt and the other Provinces through which the Children of Israel past gave them a very sharp Wit But you are to know how the Temperament of Egypt produced this Difference of Imagination Which is very clear considering that in this Country the Sun is very burning for which Reason the Inhabitants Brains are boiling and have much Adust Choler which is the Instrument of Craft and Cunning This made Aristotle enquire Whence comes it that the Negroes of Aethiopia and the Native Egyptians are splay Footed curl Pated and flat Nosed To which Problem he Answers That the extream Heat of the Country burns the Substance of these Parts and shrievels them like Leather before the Fire from the same Reason their Hair curls in Rings and frizels Now that such as inhabit hot Countries are Wiser than those that dwell in cold we have already proved from the Opinion of Aristotle who ask'd Why Men born in Hot Countries are Wiser than those Born in Cold But neither did he know well how to Answer this Problem nor to distinguish of Wisdom for as we have elsewhere proved there are two kinds of Wisdom in Man one of which Plato speaks That Knowledge which is Void of Honesty ought rather to be called Craft than Wisdom another that is attended with Honesty and Simplicity without Double-dealing or Tricks and this more properly is to be called Wisdom because it goes always on the side of Justice and Honesty Those that inhabit very hot Countries are Wise in the first kind of Wisdom and such are the Egyptians Now let us see when the Children of Israel came out of Egypt and were in the Desart what kind of Water they drank and of what Temperament the Air was where they Travelled that we may know whether on this Occasion the Wit that issued with them out of Bondage was impaired or more confirmed in them Fourty Years says the Text God sustained his People with Manna a Meat as delicate and savory as ever Men eat in the World to such a degree as Moses seeing the delicacy and goodness thereof charged his Brother Aaron to fill a Pot with it and lay it up in the Ark of the Covenant to the end the Children of this People being setled in the Land of Promise should see the Bread with which God had fed their Fathers in their passing through the Desart and how ill Returns they made for such a Regale And that we who never saw this Meat may know what it was it will not be amiss to give a Description of the Natural Manna that by making allowance for the greater Delicacy we may entirely comprehend what was the goodness of the Miraculous Manna The material Cause then of which Manna is made is a very delicate Vapor raised by the force of the Sun's Heat from the Earth which being in the height of the Region of the Air is digested and brought to Perfection and by the Cold of the approaching Night condenses and being congealed falls upon Trees and Stones from whence it is gathered and preserved in certain Vessels to eat 'T is called Dewy and Airy Honey because of the semblance it has with Dew and its being formed of Air its Colour is white its Taste sweet as Honey and its Form like that of Coriander which are the Marks which Sacred Writ gave also of the Manna eat by the Children of Israel so that there wants not Reason to suspect that they both held the same Nature And if that which God made was of a more delicate Substance so much the better we shall confirm our Opinion But I was ever of Opinion that God accommodated himself to Natural Means when he would work with them what he meant and where Nature was wanting his Omnipotence supplied This I say because in giving the People Manna to eat in the Desart besides what God would signifie by it to my thinking was founded in the Disposition of the Earth which to this very day produces the best Manna in the World therefore Galen said That in Mount-Libanus which is not far distant from this Place it is produced in a great quantity and of the greatest Excellence even to that degree that the Country Labourers are wont to sing in their Pastimes that Jupiter rained down Honey upon their Land And though it be true that God miraculously created that Manna in the Wilderness in such a Quantity at such an Hour and such set Days it might nevertheless partake of the same Nature with our Manna in like manner as the Water which Moses made spring out of the Rock and the Fire that Eliah made come down from Heaven at his Word were natural Things though Miraculously derived The Manna described to us in Scripture was like a Dew It was like Coriander-seed white and the Taste of it like Wafers made with Honey all which Properties meet in Natural Manna The Temperament thereof as Physicians say is Hot and consisting of subtile and very delicate Parts as also was the Manna eat by the Israelites Accordingly they murmured at its Deliciousness Our Soul said they loaths this light Food and the Philosophy of this was
their Stock But the Honest want this Imagination many of whom to follow the fashion of the Lewd in turning and winding of their Penny in a few days have lost their whole Stock To this our Lord referrs in the Manage of the unjust Steward whom his Master call'd to Accompt for tho' he reserved a good part of his Goods to his own Use yet he carried his Cup so even as to get a Discharge and tho' this Wisdom was naughty Yet our Saviour commends it and says The Children of this World are Wiser in their Generation than the Children of Light For these last have for the most part a great Understanding by means of which they affect his Law and want Imagination to which the skill to live in the World belongs Accordingly many are morally Good who have not Wit enough to be Naught This way of Answering is more plain and sensible than the other For the Natural Philosophers because they could not penetrate so far have framed so frivolous and absurd a Cause as Fortune to whom they might attribute good or bad success and not to the Indiscretion or unskilfulness of Men. Four differences of Men are to be found in every Nation if any please to mark them some are Wise but seem not so others seem so and are not others neither are nor seem and others again both are and seem Some Men there are reserved slow of speech stayed in answering not curious nor copious of Words and who nevertheless have hidden within themselves a Natural Power pertaining to the Imagination whereby they know the Time and can embrace the opportunity of Business and how they are to manage themselves in the point without Communicating or Imparting their Mind to any other These the Vulgar call fortunate and happy imagining that with a little Skill and Discretion every thing falls into their Lap. Others on the contrary are Eloquent in Words and Discourse great Talkers Men that take upon them to Govern the World and that contrive how to make a little Money go a great way so that in the Opinion of the Vulgar none pass for more Able than they yet when it comes to the Point every thing lies on their hands undone These complain of Fortune calling her Blind Senseless and Brutish because Matters which they project and Execute with great Discretion she suffers not to ripen to any good Effect But if Fortune were able to plead for her self she would tell them You your selves are Blind Senseless and Brutish who being indiscreet esteem your selves Wise and in the use of undue Means promise your selves good successes This sort of Men have a difference of Imagination that gives a Gloss and Paint to their Words and Reasons making them seem to be what they are not Whence I conclude that the General who has the Wit requisite for the Art-Military and does duly forecast what he is to undertake will be fortunate and happy otherwise it will be in vain to think he shall ever gain a Victory unless God fight for him as he did for the Israelite-Armies And yet for all that they chose the Wisest and Skilfullest Commanders they had for it is not reasonable to leave all to God nor for Man to confide too-much in his own Wit and Ability it is better to joyn both together for there is no other Fortune save God and our own Diligence He that invented the Game of Chess left a Model of the Military-Art representing therein all the Steps and Contingences of War without omitting any And in like manner as in this play Fortune has no share nor ought the Winner to be call'd fortunate nor the Loser unfortunate so the Captain who is the Vanquisher should be call'd Wise and the Vanquish'd Ignorant and not the one Fortunate or the other Unfortunate The first Order in the Game was that in mating the King the Game is won to show us that all the strength of an Army lay in the good Head of the Leader or General And to demonstrate that there are allotted as many Men to one as the other to the end whoever is the Loser may be assured he wanted Skill rather than Fortune Which yet appears more plain if we consider that a good Gamester may give half the Men to a worse Gamester and yet for all that get the Game Which is what Vegetius has noted That it often happens that the Few and the Weaker Vanquish the Many and the Stronger if led on by a General well skilled in Ambushes and Stratagems Another Order is that the Pawns are not to move backwards to advise the General duly to forecast all Chances before he sends forth his Soldiers to the Service for if they miscarry 't is better to be cut off upon the Spot than to turn Tayl because the Soldier is not to know when Time is to Fly or Fight save by Direction of his Captain and therefore as long as he lives he is to keep his Post under pain of Disgrace Another Rule is that the Pawn which has made seven Draughts without being taken is made a Queen and may make any Draught at pleasure and takes place next the King as one set at Liberty and made Noble From which we are to understand that it highly imports in War in order to make the Soldiers Valiant to proclaim Donatives free Camps and Preferments due to them that signalize themselves especially if the Advantages and Honour are to descend to their Posterity for then they will behave themselves with greater Courage and Gallantry And so says Aristotle that a Man values more the Greatness of his Family than of himself This Saul well perceived when he caused it to be Proclaimed in his Army what should be done to the Man that kill'd Goliah That the King should enrich him with great Riches and give him his Daughter and make his Fathers House free in Israel Agreeable to this Proclamation there is a Law in Spain which provides that every Soldier who for his good Services deserved to receive Five Hundred Shillings in Pay which was the greatest Stipend allowed in War should himself and his Posterity be ever Tax-free The Moors as they are great players at Chess have in their Pay seven degrees in imitation of the seven draughts the Pawn makes to be a Queen and so they advance the Pay from one to two from two to three up to seven in proportion to the several Steps made by the Soldier in the Field And if he proves so gallant to merit seven pays they are given him which gives occasion to their being called Septenarios Septenary's or Mata-Siete seven times Maters these enjoy as great Privileges and Immunities as Gentlemen do in Spain The Reason of this is very clear in Natural Philosophy for there is no Faculty of all those that govern Man which will willingly Work unless there be some Advantage to move it Which Aristotle proves in the Generative Power and the same reason holds as
beside introduced by some skilful Physicians for the good of Infants And no less spoke the Prophet Ezech. And as for thy Nativity in the day thou wast born thy Navel was not cut neither wast thou washt in Water to supple thee thou wast not Salted at all nor Swadled at all But as touching the Rest so soon as he was Born he began to make Friendship with the Cold and other Changes of the Air. His first Bed was on the Earth and he was poorly Clad as if he would observe Hippocrates's Receipt A few Days after they went with him to Egypt a place very hot where he remained all the time that Herod liv'd His Mother going after this manner could not but give him a Milk well excercis'd and made in all Changes of Air. The Meat they gave him was the same the Greeks prescrib'd to give Wit and Wisdom to their Children This as we said before was the Butterish part of the Milk eat with Honey And so said Esaias Butter and Honey shall he eat that he may know to refuse the Evil and chuse the Good From which Words it appears that the Prophet gives us to understand that tho' he was the true God he was jointly a perfect Man And that to acquire Natural Wit he was to use the same Means as other of the Sons of Men. Tho' this is difficult to conceive and is very strange to think that in as much as Christ our Redeemer eat Butter and Honey being a Child he should thenceforward know how to refuse the Evil and chuse the Good when Adult God being as he is of infinite Wisdom and having given him as he was Man all the infus'd Knowledge he could receive according to his Natural Capacity Therefore it is certain he knew all out as much in his Mothers Womb as when he arriv'd at thirty three Years of Age without eating Butter and Honey or borrowing help from any Natural Means requisite for Human Wisdom All this notwithstanding it is of great Force that the Prophet should assign him the same Food the Greeks and Trojans were accustomed to give their Children to render them Witty and Wise And for that he says That he may know to refuse the Evil and chuse the Good we are to understand that by means of these Aliments Christ our Redeemer as he was Man obtain'd more exquisite Wisdom than he should have possess'd had he used other contrary Meats For so there is need to explain the particle That to know what he meant when he spoke in those Terms We are to presuppose then that in Christ our Redeemer there were two Natures as the Truth is and our Faith teaches the one Divine as he was God and the other Human compounded of a Rational Soul and Elementary Body so dispos'd and organiz'd as other of the Sons of Men. As concerning the first Nature we are not to treat of the Wisdom of our Lord Christ because it was Infinite without Increase or Diminution and without depending on any other thing more than his being God and so he was as Wise in his Mothers Womb as he was at thirty three Years of Age and even as he was from all Eternity But as to what concerns his second Nature you are to know that the Soul of Christ from the instant that God created it was as Happy and Glorious as it is at this Day and since it enjoyed God and his Wisdom sure it is that there was no Ignorance in him but that he had so much Infus'd Knowledge as his Natural Capacity was capable of But withal it is no less certain that according as Glory did not communicate it self to all the Parts of the Body in respect of the Redemption of Mankind no more did Wisdom Infused communicate it self for the Brain was not dispos'd and organiz'd with the Qualities and Substance necessary to the end the Soul might with such an Instrument Discourse and Philosophise For if you call to mind what we delivered in the beginning of this Work that the Graces gratis given which God bestowed upon Men do require ordinarily that the Instrument with which they are to be exercis'd and the Subject into which they are to be received contain the Natural Qualities requisite for every such Grace And the reason is because the Rational Soul is an Act of the Body and works not without the Mediation of Corporal Organs The Brain of our Lord Christ when a Child and New-born had much Moysture for at that Age it is but requisite and a Natural Thing but through exceeding in Quantity his Rational Soul could not naturally Discourse or Philosophise with such an Instrument And so Infus'd Knowledge passed neither to the Corporal Memory nor to the Imagination nor Understanding because those three are Organic Powers as we have already prov'd and enjoy not their due Perfection But the Brain drying with Time and riper Age the Rational Soul daily discover'd more and more the Infus'd Knowledge it had and Communicated the same to the Corporal Faculties Now besides this Supernatural Knowledge it had also another gathered from things Children hear see smell tast and touch and this is certain our Lord Christ attained like other of the Sons of Men. And like as to see things clearly he stood in need of good Eyes and for hearing of Sounds of good Ears so also he stood in need of a good Brain to distinguish between Good and Evil. And so it is sure that by eating such delicate Meats his Head was daily better organiz'd and obtained more Wisdom After such a manner as if God had taken from him Infus'd Knowledge thrice in the Course of his Life to find what he had Acquir'd we shall find that at Ten Years he knew more than at Five at Twenty more than at Ten and at Thirty Three more than at Twenty And that this Doctrin is true and Catholic the very Letter of the Text of the Gospel proves saying And Jesus encreased in Wisdom and Stature and in favour with God and Man Of many Catholic Senses which Holy Writ may bear I ever esteem that that follows the Letter better than that which takes away from the Terms and Words their Natural Import What Qualities and Substance the Brain ought to have we have already noted from the Opinion of Heraclitus that Dryness makes the Wisest Soul and from Galen's Opinion we have prov'd that the Brain compos'd of a very delicate Substance makes a very fine Wit This Dryness our Lord acquir'd by Age because from the Day of our Birth to that of our Death we daily grow to more Dryness and waste of Flesh and so to greater Knowledge The subtile and delicate parts of his Brain were improv'd by eating the Meats mention'd by the Prophet Esaias For if every Moment there be need of new Nourishment and Repair of the lost Substance and this is to be effected with Meats and no other way sure it is that if he had always