also the whole animall spirit is there progenerated XXXIII The animall spirits are begotten in the brain that is in bloud and vitall spirit 2 purified with the fanning of respiration 3 communicated to the whole body by Nerves The excrements of the brain are cast forth by the nostrils eares and eyes that is by flegme and â—ears For the strings of the veins and arteries running forth into the brains instill bloud and vitall spirit into them And the bloud that turns into the substance of the brains by assimilation but the vitall spirit being condensed by the coldnesse of the brain is turned into the Animall spirit which the air drawn in by inspiration and getting into the brain through the hollownesse of the nostrils and of the palate doth so purifie with fanning every moment that though it be something cold yet it is most moveable and runs through the nerves with inexplicable celerity Now the Nerves are branches or channels descending from the brain through the body For the marrow of the back bone is extended from the brain all along the back of every living creature and from thence divers little branches run forth conveying the animall spirit the architect of sense and motion to all the members in the whole body XXXIV To know the nature of the senses three things are pertinent 1 the things requisite 2 the manner 3 the effect XXXV The things requisite are 1 an object 2 an organ 3 a medium to conjoyn them Or Sensile Sensorium and the Copula XXXVI Objects are sensible qualities inhering in bodies Colour Sound Savour Tangor For nothing is seen touched c. of it selfe but by accidents wherewith it is clothed And if we would be accurate Philosophers N. W. of the three principles of things only light or fire is preceptible For matter and spirit are of themselves insensible the light then tempered with darknesse makes the matter visible Motion which is from light makes a sound but heat which is from motion stirs up and temperates the rest of the qualities odours savours tangors XXXVII The organs of the senses are parts of the body in which the animall spirit receives the objects that present themselves namely the eye the eare the nostrils the tongue and all that is nervie Nothing in all nature acts without organs therefore the animall spirit cannot do it neither XXXVIII The medium of conjoyning them is that which brings the object into the organ in sight the light in hearing the air moved with breaking in smels the air vapouring in taste the water melting in touch the quality it selfe inhering in the matter XXXIX The manner of sensation is the contact of the Organ with the object passion and action There is but one sense to speak generally and that 's the Touch. For nothing can be perceived but what toucheth us either at hand or at a distance There is no sense at all of things absent XL Therefore in every sensation the Animall spirit suffers by the thing sensible That there is no sensation but by passion is too evident For we do not perceive heat or cold unlesse we be hot or cold nor sweet and bitter unlesse we become sweet or bitter nor colour unlesse we be coloured therewith Our spirit I say residing in the organs is touched and affected Therefore those things which are like us are not perceived as heat like our heat doth not affect us But we must observe that the Organs that they may perceive any qualities of the objects want qualities of themselves as the apple of the eye colour the tongue savour c. XLI Yet in every sensation the animall spirit doth reach upon the thing sensible namely in receiving speculating laying up its species For the Animall spirit resident in the brain what ever sensorie it perceives to be affected conveys it selfe thither in a moment to know what it is and having perceived it returns forth with and carries back the image of that thing with it to the center of its work-house and there contemplates it what it is and of what sort and afterward layes it up for future uses hence the Ancients made three inward senses 1 The common sense or attention 2 The Phantasie or imagination 3 The memory or recordation But these are not really distinct but onely three distinct internall operations of the same spirit Now that those inward senses are in brutes it appears 1 Because if they do not give heed many things may and do usually slip by their ears eyes and nostrils 2 Because they are endued with the faculty of imagining or judging For doth not a dog barking at a stranger distinguish betwixt those whom he knowes and strangers yea sometimes a dog or a horse c. starts also out of his sleep which cannot be but by reason of some dream And what is a dream but an imagination 3 Because they remember also for a dog that hath been once beaten with a cudgell fears the like at the sight of every staffe or gesture c. And therefore it is certain that every living creature even flies and worms do imagine But of the inward senses more at large and more distinctly in the Chapter following XLII The effect of sensation is pleasure or grief Pleasure if the sense be affected gently and easily with a thing agreeable thereto with titillation griefe if with a thing that is contrary to it or suddenly with hurt to the Organ XLIII And that the Animall spirit alwayes occupied in the actions of sense may somtimes rest and be refresbed sleep was given to a living creature which is a gathering together of the animall spirits to the center of the brain and a stopping of the Organs in the mean time with the vapours ascending out of the ventricle Hence it appears 1 Why sleep most usually comes upon a man after meat or else after wearinesse when the members being chafed do exhale vapours 2 Why carefull thoughts disturb sleep that is because that when the spirit is stirred to and fro it cannot be gathered together and sit still 3 What it is to watch and how it is done namely when the spirit being strengthened in it selfe scatters the little cloud of vapours already attenuated and betakes it selfe to its Organs 4 Why too much watching is hurtfull because the sprits are too much wearied weakened consumed c. Thus much of the Senses in general somthing is to be said also of every one in particular XLIV The touch hath for its instrument the nervous skin as also all the nervous and membr anaceous parts of the body Therefore haires nailes bones do not feel c. though you cut or burn them because they have no nerves running through them Yet they feel in that part where they adjoyn to the flesh because they have a nervie substance for their gluten Hence the pain under the nailes and membranes of the bones is most acute Now being that the skin of the body is most glutinous and altogether nervie
to the eye by a second line for by the first line the light falls upon the object by the second from thence upon the eye Refracted is that whereby things are seen through a double medium and so by refracted lines as when an oare or pole seems broken in the water Also when a piece of mony in the bottome of a vessel full of water seemes bigger and nearer the superficies so that one may go back and see it Of the motive faculty LI. Motion was given to a living creature 1. To seek his food 2. For those actions to which every one is destinated 3. To preserve the vigour of life For a living creature being of a more tender constitution then a plant would more easily putrifie and perish if it were not quickned by most frequent motion Therefore the Creator hath most wisely provided for our good that we cannot so much as take our meat without labour and motion LII The moving principle is the animall spirit Therefore a body without life though never so well furnished with Organs moves not and when the braine the feat of the animall spirits is ill affected for example either with giddinesse or a surfet the members presently fall or at least stumble and totter And when the nerve of any member is stopped it is presently deprived both of motion and sense as may be seen in the palsie and apoplexie LIII Now the animall spirit moves either it self only or the vitall spirit with it or lastly the members of the body also LIV. The animall spirit moves it self perpetually sometimes more sometime lesse namely running out and into the Organs of the senses or howsoever stirriug it self in its work-house For from this inward motion of it are perpetual phantasies or imaginations even in sleep which then we call dreams LV. It carries the vitall spirit along with it when at the sense of something either pleasing or displeasing it conveyes it self to and fro through the body taking that with it as it were to aide it as it is in joy and sorrow hope and feare gratulation and repentance and last of all in anger For joy is a motion wherein the spirit poureth forth it self at the sense of a pleasant object as though it would couple it self with the thing that it desireth Thence that lively colour in the face of a joyful man from the vital spirit flowing thither with a most pure portion of the blood And this is the cause why moderate joy purifies the blood and is helpful to prolong life See Prov. 15. v. 13. 17. v. 22. Sorrow is a motion whereby the vitall spirit at the sense of an object that displeaseth it runnes to its centre the heart as it were feeling a hurtful thing thence palenesse in the face of those that are affrighted and stiffnesse of the skin and haires hence also danger of death if any one be often and greatly affected with sorrow the like motions are in hope and fear joy and sorrow that is in the sense of good or bad either present or past But anger is a mixt motion whereby the spirit for fear of injury flies to the center and thence poures forth it self again as it were in revenge Hence they that are angry are first pale and afterwards red c. N. W. All these motions commonly called affections or passions of the minde are common to all living creatures But according to more and lesse for Sanguine creatures are merry Melancholy sad Flegmatick faint Cholerick furious c. LVI The said Animall spirit moves the members but with the use of instruments Tendons and Muscles and the joynts of the bones The puppets wherewith Juglers a pleasant sight to children shew playes that they may turne themselves about as though they were alive must of necessity have 1 Joynts of the members that they may bow 2 Nerves or strings with which drawne to and fro they are bowed 3 Some living strength which may draw the nerves forward and backward which the neurospasta that is hid under the covering supplies Just so to the motion of a living creature there are requisite 1 Joynts or knuckles of bones For bones were given to a living creature that he might stand upright But that he might bend also his bones were not given him continued but divided with joynts of limbs 2. Certain ligaments fastned about the bones wherewith attraction and relaxation might be made therefore certaine tendons were given them as it were cords being of a nervy and half gristly substance which growing out of the head of one bone and running along the side of another bone grow to the lower head thereof and when the tendon is drawne the following bone is drawne so as to bend it self Now it is to be noted that these tendons about the joynts of the bones are bare on both sides but about the middle of them they are extended into a kinde of a membranceous purse stuffed up with flesh Which flesh or fleshy purse they call a muscle of which every member hath many not only least that the tendons when they are drawne should depart out of their place or the bones or tendons be hurt with oft rubbing against one another or for the shape of a living creature only for what a body would that be which consisted of meer bones veins nerves and tendons a Sceleton but because there can be no motion at all without muscles as it shall forthwith appear 3. The neurospasta or invisible mover is the animal sqirit which as it can at the pleasure of the phantasie convey it self into the belly of this or that muscle so it stretches or dilates it as it vvere a paire of bellowes and drawes in that vvhich is opposite from whence nothing can follow but the bending of that member Thence it appears 1. That the animall spirit can move nothing without an Organ For why doth no man bend his knees before because there wants a knuckle above Why doth no man move his ear because that member wants muscles c. 2. It appeares also That by how many the more muscles are given to any member by so much the nimbler it is unto motion by how much the bigger so much the stronger For example in the hands and feet that they might be sufficiently able to undergo the variety of labours and going It appeares also why they that are musculy or brawnie are strong but those that are thin are weak 3. It appeares also that the animal spirit is most busie in motion running to and fro at the command of the phantasie most speedily through the nerves and arteries 4. That the motion of a living creature is compounded of an agitative expansive and contractive impulsive and continuative motion For the animal spirit coveys it self at the pleasure of the phantasie into this or that muscle and the muscle giving place to the spirit flowing in stretcheth forth it self then when the muscle is stretched forth in breadth the length of it must be
if it be true as it is most likely the reason is easie to be known 5 The Magneticall Medicine is very famous amongst Authours with which they do not cure the wound it selfe but the instrument wherewith he wound was given or the garment wood or earth besprinkled with the bloud of the wound is onely anointed and the wound closes and heals kindly Some deny that this is done naturally who do not sufficiently consider the secret strength of nature Yet examples shew that this kind of cure with an ointment made with most naturall things yea with nothing but the grease of the axeltree scraped off from a cart hath certain successe without using any superstition Wherefore it is credible that the spirit poured out of the body with the bloud that is shed adheres partly in the bloud partly to the instrument it self for it cannot abide without matter being forced thence with the fat that is applied returnes to its whole and supplies that and hereto perhaps that observation appertains concerning the venom of a snake viper or scorpion conveyed into a man with a bite For if the same beast or but the bloud or fat thereof be forthwith applied to the wound it sucks out the venom again because it returns to its own connaturall More of this kind might be observed by approved experiments 6 Last of all it is not unworthy of our observation that the animall spirit doth form living creatures of another kind rather then quite forsake the putrifying matter namely wormes and such like Now it is certain by experience that of living creatures that are dead and putrified those living creatures are especially bred on which they were wont to feed when they were alive For example of the flesh of storks serpents are bred of hens spiders of ducks frogs c. which that it will so come to passe if they be buried in dung John Poppus a distiller of Coburg hath taught after others It appears then that the animall spirit is every where and that very diligently busied about the animating of bodies CHAP. XI Of Man I A Man is a living creature endued with an immortall soule For the Creatour inspired a soul into him out of himselfe Gen. â— v. 7. which soul is called also the mind and reason in vvhich the image of God shineth II Therefore he is compounded of three things a body a spirit and a soule So the Apostle testifies 1 Thes. 5. 13. Let your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blamelesse And so 1 Cor 14. vers 14. He distinguisheth betwixt the spirit and the minde And indeed so it is vve have a body compounded of the Elements as vvell as bruits vve have a spirit from the spirit of the world as vvell as they but the soule or minde is from God The first vve bear about us mortall the second dissipable but the last enduring ever without the body as we are assured by faith Therefore when thou seest a man think that thou seest a King royally cloathed and sitting in his royall throne For the minde is a King his robe is the spirit his throne the body III The body is the Organ and habitation of the spirit but the spirit is the habitation and mansion of the soul. For as the spirit dwels in the body and guides it as the Pilot doth the ship so the soul dwels in the spirit and rules it And as body without a spirit neither moves it â—f nor hath any sense of any thing as it to be seen in a dead carcasse so the spirit vvithout the minde hath no reason nor understands any thing as we see in bruit beasts Therefore the soul useth the spirit for its chariot and instrument the spirit the body and the body the foresaid instruments IV As the spirit is affected by the body so is the minde by the spirit For as vvhen the body is diseased the spirit is presently sad or hindred from its action so vvhen the spirit is ill disposed the minde cannot performe its functions dextrously as vve may see in drunken melancholie mad-men c. Hence it is that the gifts of the minde follow the temperature of the body that one is more ingenious courteous chast courageous c then another Hence that fight within us which the Scripture so oft mentions and we our selves feel For the body and the soul being that they are extreams the one earthly the other heavenly the one bruit the other rational the one mortall the other immortall are alway contrary to one another in their inclinations Now the spirit which is placed betwixt them ought indeed to obey the superiour part and keep the lower part in order as its beck Yet neverthelesse it comes oft so to passe that is carried away of the flesh and becomes brutish V. Such a body was given to man as might fitly serve all the uses of his reasonable soule And therefore 1 Furnished with many Organs 2 Erect 3 Naked and unarmed that it might be free of it self and yet might be cloathed and armed any way as occasion required For the hand the instrument of instruments the most painful doer of all works vvas given to man only He only hath obteined an erect stature least he should live unmindful of his countrey Heaven Again he only was made naked and unarmed but both by the singular favours of God For living creatures whilest they always bear about them their garment haires feathers shels and their armes sharp prickles horns what do they bear about them but burdens and hindrances of divers actions The liberty granted to man and industry in providing fitting and laying up all things for his use and pleasure is something more divine VI. A more copious and pure spirit was given to man and therefore his inward operations are more excellent namely a quicker attention a stronger imagination a surer memory more vehement affections The first appears from the braine which is given in greater plenty to man then to any living creature considering the proportion of every ones body For all that round head and of so great capacity is filled up vvith brain to what end but that the spirit might have a more spacious vvorkhouse and palace The rest are known by experience as followeth VII Attention is a considerate receiving of the objects brought into the sensorie instruments We said in the former Chapter that it is commonly called the common sense This vvas given to man so much the quicker as it is destinated to more objects and more distinctly to be perceived VIII Imagination is the moving of things perceived by the sense within and an efformation of the like For the image of the thing seen heard or touched with attention presently gets into the brain which the spirit by contemplation judges of what it is and how it differs from this or that thing therefore it may well be called in this sense the judgment This imagination is stronger in a man then in any living creature
so that it feignes new formes of things namely by dividing or variously compounding things conceived And this is done with such quicknesse that upon every occasion we imagine any thing to our selves as vve find dreaming and waking and by how much the purer spirit any one hath he is so much the more prompt to think or imagine but dulnesse proceeds from a grosse spirit Observe this also That the animal spirit vvhen it speculates forward and drawes new images of things from the senses is said to learne vvhen backward resuming images from the memory it is said to remember When it is moved too and fro vvithin it self it is said to feigne somewhat Note also that from the evidence of sensation growes the degree of knowledge for if the sense perceive any thing a farre off or weakly and obscurely it is a generall conception If nearer distinctly and perspicuously it is a particular conception for example when I see something move a great vvay off I gather it to be a living creature vvhen I come near I know it to be a man and at length this or that man c. IX Memory remembrance is the imagination of a thing past arising from the sense of a thing present by reason of some likenesse For vve do not remember any thing otherwise then by a like object For example if I see a man that resembles my father in his face presently the memory of my father comes into my minde So by occasion of divers accidents as place time figure colour found c. divers things may come to minde where the like vvas seen heard c. vvhich occasion sometimes is so slight and suddain that it can scarce be marked for what is quicker then the spirit N. Now it may be demanded seeing that the animal spirit moveth it self so variously in the brain yea and other nevv spirit alwayes succeeding by nutrition how is it that the images of things do not perish but readily offer themselves to our remembrance Answ Look down from a bridge into the vvater gently gliding you shall see your face unvaried though the vvater passe away And vvhen you see any thing tossed vvith the vvind in a free aire the winde doth not carry away the image of the thing from thine eye What is the cause But that the impression of the image is not in the water nor in the aire but in the eye from the light reflected indeed from the water and penetrating the aire So then in like manner an inward impression is not really made in the brain but by a certaine resplendency in the spirit Which resplendency may be kindled again by any like object Otherwise if images vvere really imprinted in the brain we could not see any thing otherwise in our sleep then it had once imprinted it self in the brain being seen But being that they are variously changed it appears that notions are made not by reall impressions but by the bare motion of the spirit and the imagination of like by like X An affection is a motion of the minde comâ—ng from imaginations desiring good and shunning evill There are more affections and more vehement in a man For bruits scarce know shame envy and jealousie and are not so violently hurried into fury and despaire or again into excessive joyfulnesse thence laughter and weeping still belong to man only XI The minde of man is immediately from God For the Scripture saith That it was inspired by God Gen. 2. v. 7. and that after the death of the body it returnes to God that gave it Eccles. 2. v. 7. For it returnes to be judged for those things which it did in the body whether good or evill 2 Câ—r 5. v. 10. But we are not to thinke that the soul is inspired out of the essence of God as though it were any part of the deity For God is not divisible into parts neither can he enter into one essence with the creature And Moses vvords sound thus And God breathed into the face of Adam the breath of life and man became a living soule See he doth not say that that breath or inspiration became a living soule but man became a living soul Nor yet are we to think that the soul was created out of nothing as though it were a new entitie but only that a new perfection is put into the animall spirit in a man so that it becomes one degree superiour to the soul of a beast that appears out of Zach. 1â— v. 1. Where God testifies that he formes the spirit of man in the midst of him Behold he forms and not creates it It is the same vvord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jatzar vvhich is used of the body also Gen. 2. v. 7. As therefore the body is formed of the prae-existent matter so is the soul of the prae-existent spirit of the vvorld Aud by cousequent even as the earth vvater air and skie are all one matter of the world differing only in the degree of their density so the naturall vitall animall and this mentall spirit are all one spirit of the world differing only in the degree of their purity and perfection Therefore it is credible that the divine inspiration conferred no more upon man but this that he 1 refined the inmost part of his spirit that in subtility of actions he might come nearest to God of all visible creatures 2 Fixed it that it might subsist both in the body and out of the body Therefore the Scripture makes no other difference betwixt the spirit of a man and of a beast then that the one ascends upwards the other goes downwards that is the one flees out of the matter the other slides back into the matter Eccles. 3. v. 21. Hence also that question Whether the soul be propagated by generation may be determined The root of the soul which is the vitall and animall spirit is certainly by generation but the formation thereof that the inmost parts thereof should become the mentall spirit or the minde God attributes to himself Zach. 12. 1. Yet not concurring extraordinarily or miraculously but because he hath ordained that it shall be so in the nature of man It appears also why man is commonly said to consist of a body and a soule only namely because the rationall soule is of the spirit and in the spirit For as our body is made of a four-fold matter that is of the four Elements so our soule to speak generally and contradistinguish it from the body consists of a fourfold spirit Naturall Vitall Animall and Mentall XII There are three faculties of the mind of man the Understanding the Will and the Conscience These answer to the three functions of the animall spirit or to the inward senses out of which also they result For we have said that as the spirit useth the body for its Organ so the soule useth the spirit Therefore the three inward Senses Attention Judgement and Memory are instruments by which the soule useth the Understanding
to wonder why the like hath not been yet assayed in Metaphysicks Physicks and Theologie for Ethicks and Politicks concern more contingent things I am not ignorant that there is more evidence in Numbers Measures and Weights then in Qualities by which Nature puts forth its strength after a hidden manner yet I will not say that there is greater certainty in them seeing that all things are done alike not without highest reason in a continued order and as it were by an aeternall law And yet in Mathematicks all things are not alike plain yet they are assayed sundry wayes till they can be reduced to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or very sight as I said before and delivered scientifically For he sayes nothing in Philosophicall matters that proves nothing and he proves nothing that doth not so demonstrate it that you cannot contradict it And now I beseech you let this be our businesse that the schools may cease to perswade and begin to demonstrate cease to dispute and begin to speculate cease lastly to believe and begin to know For that Aristotellicall maxim Discentem oportet credere A learner must believe is as tyrannicall as dangerous and that same Pythagorean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ipse dixit Let no man be compell'd to swear to his Masters words but let the things themselves constrain the intellect Nor let a Master have any more credit given him then hee can demonstrate in very deed that hee is to have For in a free Common-wealth there ought to be no Kings but Dukes or Generalls no Dictators but Consuls And those that profess the art of instructing men are the Fathers of men not the carvers of Statues O when shall we see that day that all things which ought to be known shall offer themselves so to a mans understanding that there wil be nothing but what may be understood for the very cleerness of it nothing call'd in doubt for certainty the truth of things making such an impression upon the senses with its light For hee doth not see truly who must yet be perswaded by arguments to make him believe that hee sees as wee have been hither to dealt with for the best part I could not choose because I seemed to see light in the light of God but assay calling God to my aid to reduce these new hypotheses of naturall things into a new method and dictate them to the schollers of this school And thence sprang this which I now offer representing a draught of the lineaments of some new and as I hope truly Christian Philosophie Not that I would crosse the design of great Verulam who thought it the best way to abstein from Axiomes and method till full inductions could be made of all and every thing throughout all nature but to make an experiment in the mean time whether more light might be let into our minds by this means to observe the secrets of nature the more easily that so praise might be perfected to God out of the very mouth of infants and confusion prepared for the gain saying enemie as David having comprised the summe of Physicks in a short hymne for the use of the unlearned speaks Psal. 8. I have entituled it a Synopsis of Physicks reformed by divine light because Philosophy is here guided by the lamp of divine Scripture and all our assertions are brought to the attestation of the senses and reason with as much evidence as could be possible Now both those come under the name of divine light For as David said THY WORD is ALANTHORNE unto my feet so said Salomon THE SPIRIT or mind OF A MAN is THE CANDLE of the Lord searching all things Psalm 119. 105. and Proverbs 20. 27. If any one object That these things here delivered are not yet of that certainty or evidence as to be preferred before Aristotles so long received doctrine I will answer that is not my drift at present but onely I propound this as an example that a truer way of Philosophie may be set out by the Guidance of God the Light of Reason and the Testimonie of Sense if Philosophers would labour more after God and the Truth then after Aristotle and Opinion In the mean time these should be the more acceptable and had in more reverent esteem of us if it were for nothing but this that they are taken from the Oracles of God and aime at a more abundant knowledg of God For my part truly I had rather in that mind I now am and that it may so continue strengthen me ô God I had rather I say erre having God for my guide then having Aristotle that is I had rather follow the voice of God though not throughly understood yet so I follow it then be carried away from the sacred testimonies of my God to the devices of the brain of man I confesse my self that something more were to be desired here yet to that rule of certainty and evidence which I spake of before yet because I trust that these things may be brought to a fuller 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exactnesse by reiterated meditations of mine own or some others I doubted not to follow the counsell of great Acontius If thou hast made any rare observation sayes he which never any one before made whither the thing be a new invention or some new way of former inventions although much be wanting as yet which is above thy strength neverthelesse if thou shouldest not make it publick it would argue either too much cowardize or too much haughtinesse of thy mind and however that thou art no lover of the Common Wealth And why should not these things be accounted as new inventions That ternarie of principles so clearly demonstrated from Scripture Reason and Sense Why not that admirable scale of substances by a septenarie gradation Why not the doctrine of spirits as well separate as incorporate of motions also and qualities laid down more accurately and plainly then ever before letting in a quite new light into the knowledge of natur all things To say nothing of smaller matters scattered all over the book Every of which in particular though I dare not defend tooth and nail for some things perhaps are still the reliques of common tradition and others it may be not yet sufficiently established upon the foundations w ch we have laid down yet I am perswaded that they are the groundworks of unmoved truth and avail much to the more exact observation of particular things And that I may speak in a word I hope there is so much light in this method of Physicks here delivered that very little place is left to doubts and disputations so that it makes something towards the taking away the controversies of Authours the opinions of all whatsoever of truth either Aristotle hath or Galen the Chymicks Campanella and Verulamius do reasonably alledge against him being reduced to an harmony which may be made plain by the example of the principles of which they make bodies to consist
return unto dust Job 34. v. 13 14. So if God should take his spirit out of the World every living thing would die 2 By reason and sense it is certainly evident that herbs and animals spring out of a humide matter even without seed But whence had these life I pray you but from that diffused soul of the World wee finde by experience that bread wine and water yea aire are vitall to those that feed upon them but whence have they that vital force I pray you if not from this diffused soule but now if a certaine spirit be diffused in that manner through all things it follows necessarily that it was created in the begining in its whole masse even as the matter the light were first produced in that its great and undigested masse so that there was no need that any thing should be created afterwards but be compounded of those three and distinguished with forms which God intimated in Esay 42. v. 5. where declaring himself the Creator of all things he divides them into three parts namely into the heavens that is light the earth that is matter and a quickning spirit and just so in Zachary 12. v. 1. let us therefore hereafter beware so great an absurdity that I may not say blasphemy as to put the person of the Holy Ghost amongst the creatures Now there may three reasons of this thing be given why Moses called that quickning spirit produced in the beginning the Spirit of God Namely that it is taken in that sense wherein els-where it is spoken of â—he mountains of God Psal. 36. v. 7. and trees of God Psal. 104. v. 16. and Ninive was called a citie of God that is by reason of their greatness and dignity 2. Because it was produced immediatly by God not as now it is when that spirit passeth from one subject to another 3 Because it was a peculiar act of the holy Ghost For the Analogie of our Faith teacheth us to believe that the production of the matter out of nothing is a work of Gods Omnipotencie and is attributed to the Father that the production of light by which the World received splendour and order is a work of wisdome attributed to the Son John 1. v. 3 4. and lastly that the virtue infused into the creatures is a work of his goodnesse which is attributed to the Holy Ghost Psal. 143. v 10. and so must that place Psal. 33. v. 9 6. be altogether understood for it will not bear any other sense he spake and they were made he commanded and they came forth the heavens were established by the Word of God and all the virtue of them by the spirit of his mouth Also wee must note Gen. 1. v. 1 2 3. that three words are added to the three principles he created he said and he moved himself that they may be signs of his absolute Power of his Word and of his spirit Also we must note this that in both those places the Holy Ghost with his work is placed in the midst as also in Esay 40. v. 13. because he is the spirit the love and the mutuall bond of both but this we speak after the manner of men Let it stand therefore for certain that all the principles were created the first day every one in its masse and that all things were afterwards composed out of them which may be declared to children for their more full understanding by a similitude thus an Apothecary or Confectioner being to make odoriferous Balls takes Sugar in stead of matter Rose-water or Syrrup or some other sweet liquour for tincture or conditure last of all taking some of this lumpe thus made hee imprints certain shapes upon his work So also God first prepared his matter then tempered it with a living spirit then brought light into it which by its heat and motion might mix and temper both together and bring it to certain forms also even as a Mechanick must have matter and two hands to work withall the one hand to hold and the other to work with so in the framing of the world there was need first of matter then of a spirit to frame the matter and lastly of light or heat to inactuate the matter under the hand of the spirit and what need many words we see in every stone hearb and living creature first a certain quantity of matter secondly a certain inward virtue whereby it is generated it groweth it spreads abroad its savour and its odour and its healing virtue thirdly a form or a certain disposition of parts with divers changes which come from the heat working within For Matter is a principle meerly passive Light meerly active Spirit indifferent for in respect of the matter it is active in respect of the light passive The difinitions of the principles Matter is a corpulent substance of it self rude and dark constituting bodies Spirit is a subtile substance of it self living invisible and insensible dwelling and growing in bodies Light is a substance of it self visible and moveable lucid penetrating the matter and preparing it to receive the spirits and so forming out the bodies Therefore by how much the more Matter any thing hath it hath somuch y e more Dulnes obscurity immobility as the earth Vigour and durability as an Angell Form mobility as the Sun Spirit Light Note also that matter is the first entitie in the World ' Spirit the first living thing Light the first moving thing so that every body in the World is of the matter by the light in the spirit which he would have to be his image from whom by whom in whom are all things blessed for evermore Amen Rom. 11. v. 36. Of the nature of matter TRuly said one No diligence can be too much in searchingout the beginning of things for when the principles are rightly set down an infinite number of conclusions will follow of their own accord and the science wil encrease it self in infinitum which the creation of things doth also shew For God having produced the principles the first day and wrought them together with most excellent skil made afterward so great variety of things to proceed from them that both men and Angels may be astonished Therefore let us not thinke over much to frame our thoughts yet of all the principles of the World apart Let the following Aphorisms be of the matter I The first matter of the World was a vapour or a fume For what means that description of Moses else when he calls it earth waters the deep darkness a thing void and without form and it appears also by reason for seeing that the lesser bodies of the World Clouds Water Stones Metals and all things growing on the earth are made of vapours coagulated as shall appeare most evidently hereafter why not the whole World also certainly the matter of the whole can be nothing else but that which is found to be the matter of the parts II The first matter of the
else but the image of the whole plant gathered together into a very small part of the matter from whence if need be the same plant may be produced again as we see done N. W. That herbs are bread neverthelesse without seed by virtue of the spirit infused into the elements 1 The command of God proves Gen. 1. v. 11. Let the earth bring forth c. which is yet in force 2 Experience For if you uncover the earth beneath all roots and seeds yet in the years following vvhen it hath been somewhat oft watered vvith rain vvater you shall see it bud forth vvhich is a notable argument of the spirits being diffused every where but especially descending with the Sun and raine VIII The outer and inner bark leaves shells downe flowres prickles c. are integrating parts of plants serving to defend them and preserve their seeds from the injurie of heat and cold IX The kernels are for the most part encompassed with a pulp for their thinner nourishment and to defend them from injury but yet this pulp when it is come to ripenesse serves for food to living creatures as it is to be seen in Apples Peares Cherries Plummes c. X. The proprieties of plants are varietie heat and tenacity of their spirit XI The variety of plants is so great that the number can scarce be counted by any means The natural spirit in meteors and minerals makes certain species and those easie to be counted as we see but the vitall spirit doth so diffuse it self that the industrie of no man is yet sufficient to collect the the species of herbs and trees XII The cheif kinds of plants are herbs trees shrubs XIII An herb is that which growes and dies every year XIV A tree is that which rising up on high growes to wood and continues many years XV. A shrub is of a middle nature as the alder the vine N. W. 1. Some trees live for many ages to wit such as have a compacted and glutinous substance as the oak the pine c. vvatery and thin plants do soon grow and soon vvither as the sallow c. 2 Some lose their leaves every year namely those that have a vvatery juice others keep them as trees of a rozenous nature 3 Trees are either fruitful or barren the first bear either Apples or Nuts or fruit like unto Pine Apples or Berries 4 Porositie and airynesse is given to the vvood of trees by reason of which they do not sinke and that 1 That they might take fire 2 That they might the more easily be transported any vvhither through rivers 3 That ships might be made of them Also clamminesse or indissipability vvas given them that they might serve for the building of houses for vvhich end also their talnesse serves Other differences of plants may be seen else vvhere XVI All plants are hot by nature but in proportion to our heat some are called cold For generation is not done but by heat but that vvhich is below the degree of our heat seemes cold to us As for Hemlock Opium c. they do not kill vvith cold but vvith the viscosity of their vapours vvhich fill up the cavities of the brains stop the Nerves and so suffocate the spirit the same may be said of all poisonous things XVII Vitall spirit as also naturall holds so fast to its matter that it scarce ever forsakes it This is demonstrated besides that we see the spirit every year to be driven by the cold of winter out of the stocks and to be hidden in the root and to put forth it selfe again at the beginning of the spring by four examples 1 That how ever the matter of fruits or herbs be vexed yet the spirit conteins it selfe as it is to be seen in things smoaked tosted roasted soaked pulverized c. which retein their virtue 2 That being driven out of the better part of the matter by the force of fire yet it sticks in the portion that is left and there it is congregated and inspissated so that it suffers it selfe to be thrust together into a drop or a little poulder rather then forsake the matter as it appears in distilled waters which therefore they call spirits 3 That when its matter is somewhat oft distilled and transfused into divers formes through divers Alembicks yet it doth uot fly away For example when a goat or a cow eats a purging herb and the nurse drinks her milk or the whey of her milk it comes so to pass that the infant that sucks her will be purged 4 And which is more it doth not onely retein a virtue of operating but also of augmenting it selfe and forming a creature of its kind which may be shewn by two examples Sennertus relates that Hieremy Cornarius caused a water to be distilled in June Anno 1608. and that in the moneth of November a little plant of that kind was found at the bottome of the glasse in all points perfect But Quercetanus writes that he knew A Polonian Physician that knew how to pulverise plants so artificially that the poulder as oft as he listed would produce the plant For if any one desired to have a rose or a poppy shewed him he held the poulder of a rose or a poppy inclosed in a glasse over the candle that it might grow hot at the bottome which done the poulder by little little raised it self up into the shape of that plant and grew represented the shape of the plant so that one would have thought that it had been corporeall but when the vessell was cold sunk again into poulder Who sees not here that the spirits are the formers of plants who sees not that they inhere so fast in their matter that they can as it were raise it again after it is dead who sees not that the spirit of a minerall or a plant is really preserved in the forme of a little water oile or poulder Thus the eternall truth of that saying is mainteined And the Spirit of God moved it selfe upon the waters As for the spirit of a living creature whither it may be preserved after that manner and raised up to inform a new body we leave it to be thought of purposing neverthelesse to speak something of it towards the end of the next Chapter CHAP. X. Of living creatures THus much of plants here follow living creatures I A living creature is a moving plant endued with sense as a worm a fish a bird a beast For if a stone or an oak could move it self freely or had sence it would be a living creature also II The principall difference betwixt a living creature and a plant is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a free moving of it selfe to and fro For the better to expresse the power of the spirit of life Gods Vicar in creatures it was needfull that such bodies should be produced which that spirit inhabiting might have obedient unto all actions Now seeing that the ground of action is
it selfe vvhatsoever it perceiveth that is too grosse and earthy in the bloud and by little veins sends it again into the entrals and by that means disburdens it selfe of that dreggy humour and last of all the gall attracteth those parts of the bloud that are too sharp and fiery vvhose little bag hangs at the liver and by strings sends them again mixt into the entrals whence the bitternesse and ill sent of dung XXI The vessels of membrification are 1 veins 2 every particular member 3 pores For the veins proceeding from the liver spread themselves over all the parts of the body like boughs and sending forth little branches every way end in strings that are most tenacious from which every member apart sucketh and by a slow agglutination assimilates it to it selfe so that the bloud flowing into the flesh becomes flesh that in the bones turns into bone in a gristle to a gristle in the brain to brains just after the same manner as the juice of a tree is changed into wood bark pith leaves fruits by meer assimilation The excrements of this third most subtle concoction are subtle also namely sweat and vapour which alwayes breaths out through the pores If any more grosse humour remains especially after the first and second concoction not well made it breeds scabs or ulcers or the dropsie XXII For the furthering of nourishment there is a spur added that is appetite or hunger and thirst which are nothing but a vellication of the fibres of the stomack arising from the sharp sucking of the Chylus For the members being destitute of the juice wherewith they are watered solicite the veins of bloud and the veins by the motion of continuity sollicite the liver the liver the Mesenterie that the entrals the entrals the stomack which if it have nothing to afford contracts and wrinkles it selfe and the strings of it are sucked dry from whence proceeds first a certain titillation and that we call appetite simply and afterward pain and this we call hunger and if solid meat be taken but dry because coction or vaporation cannot be made by reason of drinesse there is a desire that moisture should be poured on and this vve call thirst It appears then why motion provokes appetite and why the idle have but little appetite c. XXIII The whole body is nourished at once together by the motion of libration To vvit after the same manner as the root in a plant doth equally nourish both it selfe and the stock and all the boughes Therefore no member nourisheth it selfe alone but others vvith it selfe and so all preserved Otherwise if any member rob the rest of their nourishment or again refuseth it there follows a distemperature of the vvhole body and by and by corruption at length death XXIV A living creature being 〈◊〉 nourished is not onely vegetuted but also as long as his members are soft and extensive augmented the superficies of the members yielding by little and little and extending it selfe but as soon as the members are hardened after youth the living creature ceaseth to grow yet goes forward in solidity and strength so long as the three concoctions are rightly made But when the vessels of the concoctions begin to dry up also the living creatures begins to wither away and life grows feeble till it fail and be extinguished Of the vitall faculty XXV Life in a living creature is such a mixture of the spirits with the bloud and members that they are all warme have sense and move themselves Therefore the life of living creatures consists in heat sense and motion and it is plain for if any creature hath neither motion nor sense nor heat it lives not XXVI Therefore every living creature is full of heat sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker For every living creature is nourished How it appears out of that which went before the nourishment is not made but by concoction but reason teacheth that concoction is not made but by heat and fire It comes therefore to be explained whence a living creature hath heat and fire and by what means it is kindled kept alive and extinguished which the two following Aphorismes shall teach XXVII The heart is the forge of heat in a living creature burning with a perpetuall fire and begetting a little flame called the spirit of life which it communicates also to the whole body Hence the heart is said commonly to be the first that lives the last that dies XXVIII The vitall spirit in the heart hath for its matter bloud for bellowes the lungs for channels by which it communicates it selfe to the whole body the arteries Our hearth fire hath need of three things 1 matter or fuell and that fat 2 of blowing or fanning whereby the force of it is stirred up 3 free transpiration whereby it may diffuse it selfe the same three the maker of all things hath ordeined to be in every living creature For the heart seated a little above the liver drinketh in a most pure portion of bloud by a branch of the veins which being that it is spirituous and oily conceives a most soft flame and left this should be extinguished there lies near to the heart the lungs which like bellowes dilating and contracting it selfe blowes upon and fans that fire of the heart perpetually to prevent suffocation Now being that that inflammation of the heart is not without fume or vapour though very thin the said lungs by the same continuall inspiration exhaleth those vapours through the throat and drawing in cooler air instead thereof doth so temperate the flame of the heat whence the necessity of breathing appears and why a living creature is presently suffocated if respiration be denied it And that flame or attenuated and most hot bloud is called the spirit of life which diffusing it self through the arteries that accompany the veins every way cherisheth the heat both of the bloud that is in the veins and all the members throughout the whole body Now because it were dangerous to have this vitall spirit destroyed the arteries are hid below the veins only in two or three places they stand forth a little that so the beating of that spirit as well as of the heart it selfe when the hand is laid upon the breast may be noted and thence the state of the heart may be known Of the sensitive faculty XXIX Sense in a living creature is the perception of those things that are done within and without the living creature XXX That perception is done by virtue of a living spirit which being that it is most subtle in a living creature is called the Animall spirit XXXI That perceptive virtue consists in the tendernesse of the animall spirit for because it is presently affected with whatsoever thing it be wherewith it is touched For all sensation is by passion as shall appear hereafter XXXII The seat and shop of the animall spirits is the brain For in the brain there is not only greatest store of that spirit residing but
the Reins Venus the Lungs Mercury c. Lastly certain creatures shew forth their virtues in certaine parts of the body For example some herbs cure the Lungs some the Liver c. which shews a certain analogy of the Microcosme to the Macrocosme though not well known to us XXII Also Man is not absurdly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the all because 1 He hath his body from the Elements his spirit from Heaven his mind from God and so in himselfe alone he represents the visible and the invisible world 2 Man is all because he is apt to be all that is either most excellent or very base For if he give himselfe to earthly things he becomes brutish and falls back again to nothing if to heavenly things he is in a manner deified and gets above all creatures CHAP. XII Of Angels WE joyn the treatise concerning Angels with the Physicks because they also are a part of the created World and in the scale of creatures next to man by whose nature the nature of Angels is the easier to be explained Therefore we will conclude it in some few Aphorismes I There are Angels Divine testimonies and apparitions testifiè that and also a three-fold reason 1 Vapours concretes plants living creatures are mixt of water and spirit Now there is matter without spirit the pure Element therefore there is spirit also without matter 2 As the matter of the world is divided into four kinds the four Elements so we see already the spirit of the world to be distinguished into the naturall vitall animall and mentall spirit Now the lowest degree is to be found alone as in concretes Therefore the highest may be found alone to wit in the Angels 3 Every creature is compounded of Entitie and Nihility For they were nothing before the creation but now they are something because the Cretour hath bestowed on them of his Entitie more or lesse by degrees By how much the more entitie any thing hath so much the further it is from nihility and on the contrary Seeing then then that there is the first degree from nihility that is a Chaos the rudiment of an Entitie without doubt there is the last also which comes nearest to a pure Entitie But man is not such because having matter admixt he partakes much of nihility Therefore of necessity there is a creature with which materiality being taken away all other perfections remain And that is an Angell II An Angell is an incorporeall man An Angell may be called a man in the same sense that man himselfe is called an animall and an animall a plant and a plant a concrete c. as we have set down in their definitions that is by reason of the forme of the precedent included with a new perfection only super-added For a man is a rationall creature made after the Image of God immortall so is an Angel but for more perfections sake free from a body Therefore an Angel is nothing but a man without a body A man is nothing but an Angel clothed with a body But that Angels are incorporous appears 1 Because although they be present they are not discerned neither by the sight or any other sense 2 Because they assume to themselves earthly watery aery fiery or mixt bodies as need requires and put them off again which they could not do if they had bodies of their own as we have Yet ordinarily they appear in an humane forme by reason of the likenesse of their natures as we have said III Angels were created before all visible things That was shewed in the Apendix of the first Chapter you may see it again if need be And Moses words are clear In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and the earth was void See the earth was in that first production emptie and void Therefore heaven was not void then it was filled with its host the Angels IV The Angels were created out of the Spirit of the world As Moses seems to comprehend the production of Angels under the name of Heaven so also the universall Spirit For he â—oth not say that this was created with the earth but he pronounceth abruptly after the creation of the earth that the Spirit of God moved it selfe upon the waters intimating thus much that it was in being before We conclude therefore that the Angels were formed out of that Spirit so that part of that spirit was left in the invisible heaven and shaped into meer spirituall substances Angels and part sent down into the materiall world below After the same manner as the fire was afterward partly left in the Skie and fashioned into shining Globes and partly sunk into the bowels of the earth for the working of minerals and other uses That which follows makes this opinion probable if not demonstrable 1 Principles should not be multiplied without cause Seeing therefore that the Scripture doth not say that they were created out of nothing nor yet names any other principle why should we not be satisfied with those principles that Moses hath set down 2 Angels govern the bodies which they assume like as our spirit inhabiting the matter doth Therefore they are like to it 3 There is in Angels a sense of things as well as in our spirits For they see hear touch c. though they themselves be invisible and intangible Also they have a sense of pleasure and griefe for as much as joyes are said to be prepared for the Angels and fire for the divells into which wicked men are also to be cast Although therefore they perceive without Organs yet we must needs hold that they are not unlike to our spirit which perceiveth by organs V The Angels were created perfect That is finished in the same moment so that nothing is added to their essence by adventitious encrease For being that they are immateriall they are also free from the law of materiality that is when a thing tends to perfection to be condensed fixed to encrease and so to be augmented and become solid by certain accessions VI Angels are not begotten Men Animals and Plants are generated because the spirit included in the matter diffuseth it selfe with the matter and essayes to make new Entities But an Angel being that it is without matter and its essence cannot be dissipated hath not whether to transfuse it selfe Hence Christ saith that in Heaven we shall be as the Angels without generation or desire of generation Mat. 22. 30. VII Angels die not The spirit of Animals and of Plants perisheth because when the matter that is its chariot is dissipated it also is dissipated But an Angell having his essence compacted by it selfe without matter cannot be dissipated and therefore endures VIII The number of Angels is in a manner infinite See Job 25. v. 2 3. yet Daniel names thousands of thousands and myriads of myriads Dan. 7. 10. as also John Apoc. 5. 11. IX The habitation of the Angels is the Heaven of Heavens Mat. 18. v.