to the things expressed and signified by them The former may be term'd Verbal the latter real sense or perhaps to speak more properly the former may be called the sense or meaning of the words the latter the conception the notion or the Idea of the Thing Should a Roman Catholick tell me he means by Transubstantiation that a real and substantial mutation of the Elements of Bread and Wine is made in the Holy Sacrament into the very Body and Blood of Christ but yet so that notwithstanding this mutation the Species or Accidents of Bread and Wine do still remain to affect our senses 'T is possible I may conceive the sense and meaning of the several words he uses and also apprehend what it is he would have me believe when yet at the same time I cannot apprehend that such a thing can really be since I see a plain contradiction it should it being equally impossible to make a Conception that is to frame a coherent consistent Notion or Idea of the thing he means and make all the parts of it to hang together as to make one of a circular square or of a Triangular Girole Ecquem says Cotta in Cicero l. 3. de Nat. Deorum pag. 129. tam amentem esse putas qui illud quo Vescatur deum credat esse A Distinction then there is and that a remarkable one too between the verbal and real meaning of words which to set out more fully I will show First The the Occasion and Rise of it and then Secondly The Use and Benefit of it First then this distinction Arises from the Imperfection and Inadequacy of Human Knowledge we Knowing little of things but under words and words being immediately the signs but of our Conceptions which are always short and narrow and too often indistinct and confused Now if the sentiments we have according to the Vulgar and Ordinary way of conceiving which is but general and confused do cohere and hang together when one of them is affirmed or spoken of another so that the Notions are compossible in common acceptation we call it sense though really the things themselves for which those words are understood to stand be Incompossible and repugnant each to other and therefore indeed it is Nonsense This is to be better understood in Examples Such Propositions as these that Colours even as to their Images are in the Objects in which they do appear that Odours are in the things smelled that Sapors are in the things that are tasted these and the like Assertions are not commonly understood or said to be Nonsense because Knowing in the general and confusedly what is meant by colour what by Odor and what by Sapor as likewise what is meant by the thing seen by the thing that is tasted and by the thing which is smelled nothing appears in those confused general Notions which we have to hinder us from thinking that Colours Sapors and Odours do as really Inhere in those external objects as they seem to do And yet to a Person that hath distinct real and just conceptions of the several subjects and predicates in those propositions it is evident that 't is as gross and palpable Nonsense to affirm that Colours Sapors Odours and other Accidents which are but Phaenomena and Intentional beings do really exist in the Subjects where they seem to be as to say that there are Notions and Cogitations in a Wall in a Figg or in a Rose than which there cannot be a greater Bull or absurdity The Usefulness of this distinction is greater than most will think since from the want of making or of observing it it comes to pass that so many do run into great mistakes and errours in their discourses Do skirmish one with another to no purpose and without end and often do differ from themselves as much as each from other For few there are that do fix and settle even the verbal Sense of words which often have a doubleness of meaning and then are called Ambiguous and fewer that do think of the real without which yet they can never come to any certainty so that as Mr. Hobbs has ingeniously said words that are Wise Mens Counters become Fools Mony The meaning of words as well the verbal as the real is called Sense because the Perception of it ought to be as Clear and distinct and as steady and fixt as that of Sense is For words to be understood as they ought must have their meanings be as clearly and distinctly perceived by the mind as objects of Sense when they are Seen or Heard or Tasted or Smelled are by the Senses SECT II All Falsity is not Nonsense but all impossible Falsity is Repugnance in the mind to yield assent to propositions that are Nonsence Whence it arises Of Enthusiasm as it is a Kind of Nonsence What Enthusiasm is The distributions of it Examples of the several Kinds of Enthusiasm out of Dr. Fludd and in the Magick Aphorisms of the Rosy-crusians That Enthusiasts when they seem to understand one another do so by Sympathy only and not by way of Apprehension and Judgment How this may be set out in a story very Remarkable I Have spoken of Sense and Nonsense in the general but toward a further clearing of the Notions of them and especially that of the latter it must be observed that falsity and Nonsence are not Synonimous terms For all Falsity is not Nonsense that is every Proposition that is false is not also Nonsensical for many things are possible that are not Actual and therefore many propositions that are not actually true might have been or may hereafter be so and as what is true is Sense so Sense is compossibility not actuality not that only which at present is true but whatever is any wise possible to be so But though all Falsity is not Nonsense all impossible Falsity is I mean every proposition is Nonsense that is false to that degree that it is impossible absolutely impossible it should be true for no proposition is absolutely impossible to be true but that which implies contradiction and that which implies a contradiction must needs be Nonsense since the Understanding cannot frame any Notion or Idea of it and so cannot make any real sense of the words that compose it Contradiction in Terms is plain or gross Nonsense called a Bull in English or an Absurdity and where the terms in common acceptation are not Contradictory yet if the thing they are designed to express do really imply a Contradiction the propositions though Verbal Sense are really Nonsense as in the Instances above Observe again that there is in the mind a certain sensible Reluctance to give assent to Propositions that are Incongruous and really Nonsensical for whoever Attends to what does pass within himself will be Conscious of a Pain as it were of dislocation upon a serious predication of Abstracts one of another as when he says goodness is Justice or of Contraries as when he affirms love
a thing as Mind such a thing as Motion and that Matter is alter'd figured textur'd and infinite ways wrought upon moulded by means of motion Again it is certain that all things have not Mind in equal proportions but that some exert the acts of it in a higher way and degree and some in more ways for kind than others do and also certain that the exercises of Acts of Mind in all the ways and all the degrees of them in Corporeal Animals for we are not so well acquainted with others do much depend upon the Nature and Qualifications of their Organs that is upon Texture and Disposition of matter These things we are as certain of as that our selves be and have a true use of our faculties But if we advance farther and to endeavour to Enter and Penetrate into the very nature of Matter into that of Mind and into the Nature of Motion here being forsaken and destitute of sense to hunt for us we are much at a loss and as unable to proceed in our search an inquiry after them as to their just Realities as we are in that of things which are wholly out of our view It is hard to conceive just what matter is in its own Positive Reality also what Mind is and even what Motion is as taken for a subordinate Principle Nor can it be Demonstrated that as some will have it there is only one substance in the Universe and that Matter and Mind are only several Modifications of that one substance nor be Demonstrated that Matter for this I think they mean by substance is in its own Nature a vital Energetical thing and that the diverse Gradations of Life that are observed in the several species of Animals arise only from the several Modifications of Matter and of that life of nature as those Philosophers call it which is Essential thereto and is the root of those Perceptive Appetitive and Motive Powers that do dress up being in all the Shapes and Forms in which it appears upon the Stage of the World I will not build upon such Hypothesis which being unevident must needs be doubtful and uncertain if not false A Philosophy that shall be solid and sound must have its Ground-work and Foundations firmly laid which none can have but that which is bottomed rais'd and built upon evidence I mean upon the certain Testimony of our faculties And therefore since our faculties do rather go upon Notions than on Realities and do plainly Distinguish between Mind and Matter and as I will show in the Progress of this Discourse do Contradistinguish them I hold my self obliged to treat of these distinctly but still in the Real Notional way Mind then is Cogitative thinking or perceiving substance or Mind is the first subject of Cogitation Matter is Extensive spacious substance or the first subject of dimensive spacious Quantity In other but Equivalent terms Mind is Active substance Matter Passive substance I affirm that these latter Definitions are equivalent to the former because in effect it is the same to say that Mind is Active as to say it is Cogitative and the same to say that Matter is Passive as to say it is Spatious Extensive substance Nor is Mind Cogitation or matter extension as Des Cartes makes them but the former is Cogitative the latter Extensive substance We find a Reluctance in our minds to conceive that Cogitation is a substance as also to conceive Extension as one and yet we cannot conceive Mind and Matter but as substances The main Reason why I do distinguish Substance into Mind and Matter as into first Original kinds is because as I hinted before Cogitation and Extension that do Constitute their several Ideas are of no Relation one to another for what hath a Thought to do with a Cube or a Triangle or with Length or Breadth or Depth Certainly Cogitation and Extension are quite different Accidents without any thing in their Ideas that is Common to both and therefore the first subject of the one cannot be conceived the first subject of the other their subjects must be substances of quite as different kinds as themselves are at least to us since all the diversity we can conceive in substances is and must be taken from the accidents they have these being the Characters by and under which alone we do perceive and know and by consequence can only distinguish them I insist herein the more for that many think that Mind is only an Accident and that taken for a substance it is unintelligible and a meer Chimera so that tho' Matter is acknowledged by them to be a substance it will not be yielded that Abstract separate mind can be one But those that think it so if they consider'd that men have no conception of substance nor can have any of it but as it is a subject of Accidents they would soon change their Opinion For the Accident of Cogitation or of Activity that Mind is the subject of is as distinctly and clearly conceiveable as that of Extension or of Passivity which matter is the subject of Nor is the thing it self that is the subject of Extension or of Passivity any more Conceiveable but by and under this that is the substance of mind and matter are equally conceiveable and equally unconceiveable They know no more what that is in it self that is extended than what that is that is Cogitative and may be as sure that they do think as they are that they are spacious ay they cannot know that they are spacious but by thinking But of spatiosity or extension the Accident that constitutes matter I shall have occasion to discourse hereafter when I come to speak of quantity I proceed now to discourse of Mind The Idea I have given of Mind that it is the Immediate subject or as others perhaps would chuse to say the Immediate Principle of Cogitation Energy or Activity is much more easie to be conceived than that of Spinosa when he defines the human mind to be the Idea of a body or thing actually existing for Mind even the human is not so properly said to be an Idea as to be the Principle our Cause efficient of Ideas since all Ideas even in common sense are conceived and Mind is that which conceives them Thus it is in our Refracted Inadequate Real-Notional way of conceiving and for an Adequate and just one as it is above our faculties so I do not find that Spinosa or Mal. Branche after all their Ambitious Researches in that higher way have edified the World thereby to any great Degree This way of seeing all things in God and in their own proper Realities is a way much out of the way Otherwise when they keep the lower way of sense many of their thoughts are surprizing and excellent SECT II. A two fold Consideration of Mind one as it is Abstracted from Matter the other as it is Concerned with Matter What is meant by Concernment of Mind with Matter Of Mind
in it a Plastical Power according as the Portions of the said Matter are Predisposed and this he calls the Spirit of Nature and Distinguishes it from the Spirit of God Affirming that God doth actuate all the Matter of the Natural Corporeal World by the Spirit of Nature but that he actually acts in and governs the world of Men and Angels by the Spirit of God But I have shewed already from the Scriptural Hypothesis that it is one Spirit the Mosaical that Actuates and Acts in All in Men and other Animals as well as in the World of meer Nature as to all the operations commonly called Natural for as to those that are called Supernatural that come from the Holy Ghost or the Comforter these as they are of another Nature so the Consideration of them belongs to another place In fine the Principium Hylarchicum or Spirit of Nature as this Learned person calls it is but a Plastick Faculty of the Mosaical Spirit SECT II. An Inquiry into the Original and Rise of Motion What is meant by Motion in this Inquiry That Motion comes from Mind in Matter or the Mosaical Spirit This shewed in many instances by the Connexion between Cogitation and Motion How Motion comes from a Principle at Rest and how Matter from Mind set out in the Metaphysical Hypothesis and by other Illustrations I Think I shall not step much if I do at all out of my way to make Inquiry in this place into the Original and Rise of Motion By Motion now I mean not Actual Motion or Motion as it is the actual Translation of Bodies from place to place which some define The Successive Application of a Body in all it hath out wardly unto the several parts of the Bodies which touch it immediately which is the most usual Sense of the word But here I mean by it that Force Energy or Motive Vertue called in Latine Impetus from which this Actual Translation or Successive Application of Bodies does immediately come And my Enquiry now shall be concerning the Original of This not in particular as it is in this or that particular Body but the Rise of Impetus or Motive Force in general which having found I will first remove an Objection and then improve the Discovery to shew how Matter comes from Mind as well as how Motion doth from a Principle that is at rest It must be acknowledged that there is some appearance at first sight of cause to believe that as mind is the first subject of Cogitation and matter the first subject of Extension so since Energy or Force the immediate Principle of Action and of Actual motion is neither Cogitation nor Extension that some third substance Distinct both from mind and matter should be the first subject of it and consequently that there should be three Principles Mind Matter and the first Mover And indeed it looks as if the Scripture Hypothesis did countenance this for there mention is made of the Spirit which wrought as the first subject of motion of the Abyss of Waters wrought upon as the first Recipient Subject and of the word Reason or Wisdom which directed the Work But on second Consideration as it is clear that all that Moses says in his Genesis concerning the Spirit and the Word is not said with design to intimate that really the Spirit was only a meer sensless inartificial Force or Energy and that Wisdom or the Word was another distinct Principle that directed and guided it in all its Motions but to shew since we men in our inadequate way of Conceiving do distinguish Wisdom and Power that all the works of God were made in Both but Both united in one Demiurgical Mind or to use Seneca's Expression on Ratio faciens Thus Ratio faciens is the Idea or Notion of the Mosaical Spirit the true Natura Naturans that concurred to make the World not in the manner that God himself did who in the Mosaical Hypothesis Acted only as an External Efficient but in the way that the Soul would do in a living Creature if first by its Plastic vertue it should form all the members of the Body of it and afterwards should inform it and act in it And Gotta in Cicero has as finely as compendiously expressed the Difference between these two several ways of working even in Reference to the World When L. 3. de Nat. Deor. he says Ita prorsus existimarem si illum mundum aedificatum non quemadmodum docebo à naturâ conformatum putarem It is this Spirit that is the Original Cause of the Impetus that is the nearest cause of Local Motion and indeed it is the Original Cause of all Mundane Activity and Energy Motion comes from Energy or Action and all Energy and Action from the Mosaical Spirit not from meer matter but from mind in matter In short Impetus or Force arises from the same Principle that Cogitation or Perception does as is evident by the following Considerations First The first mention that we have of motion or Corporeal Action is in Relation to the Mosaical Spirit in Gen. 1.2 where it is said that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters It is true the word used in this Text for motion is seldom used but thrice in the whole Scripture to wit in this place in Deut. 32.11 and in Jer. 23.9 And therefore the direct particular meaning of it will not be easily agreed but that it imports some motion which is as much as I do urge it for is beyond dispute Motum aliquem Notari says Hotting in Exam. Hist Creat Quest 33. non est Dubitandum Secondly It is farther Evident from the very Ideas that we have of things For we cannot conceive mind as a Perceptive Cogitative substance but withall we must conceive it as Active and that there is something Energetical in it whereas on the other hand matter may and in its own proper Idea must be conceived as a thing that is only Passive not Active there being nothing of Active or Energetical in it as it is but spacious extensive substance and therefore Energy and Action cannot be conceived to proceed but from matter which in its self is Idle and unactive but rather from mind which is essentially active and busie Thirdly It may also be argued from the relation that Experience assures us is between Cogitation and Actual motion For we clearly perceive that all our voluntary motions do arise from Thought or Imagination we do move our selves or any particular part that hath the proper instruments of voluntary motion and these duly qualified at our pleasure when we will that is by imagination and thought We go we stand still which is by Tonic motion we put our hands feet heads eyes and other parts of our bodies into motion and regulate them in their several motions by will or thought ay even cogitation it self in all the several modes of it as it is sensation imagination or ratiocination does ever
Mind is in the Center and matter in the utmost Circumference it follows that the nearer things are unto pure mind and the more they do participate of that the more they have of Rest and the less of motion but the farther off they are from pure Mind and the nearer to matter the more in motion they are And indeed all Energy in matter is Local Motion Thus all the Effects of Mechanism as they are purely material so they are performed only by Local Motion but the business of Cogitation even in the lowest step of it which is sensation as it is of nearer Relation unto mind than to matter so it is performed rather by way of mutation than of Local motion the Eye is not sensible of any motion imparted to it nor is the Ear or the Nose or any other of our Sensories and yet each is sensible of a mutation made therein or rather in the Faculty which comes from motion But tho' the more refined any Beings are and the nearer that they are to the Central Mind the more at rest they be and the less in motion in their several Actions and consequently Abstract Spirits that do not live in gross Elementary Bodies are more at rest and have less of motion in the exercises of their several Powers than Men have who are imbodied in Elementary Vehicles yet no Spirit whatsoever but only God himself who only is Pure Mind is so wholly so Absolutely at Rest as that it sees all Things at once by one Entire view and Intuition all Principles and all Conclusions in them all Ends and all Means and Motives to them without the least degree of Succession or any Addition Only the Central Being sees so and he doe's For seeing all the Circumference is in the Center so that all the Lines however divided they be in the former do meet together in the latter it is plain that an Eye placed in the Center must needs see all in the Circle as clearly as any thing in it and this too with one Individual single Intuition without Succession or Addition seeing there is nothing of Motion but all is Rest in the Center And this properly is to see in Eternity Thus God sees But all other Beings beside God as they are not God or Pure mind so they are not in the Center and not being the Center but at Distance from it some at Greater some at Lesser but All at some they All have something of Motion and consequently cannot Act or See in the same manner as Central Pure Mind by way of Absolute Rest without Succession or Addition and without Distinction of past present and to come For tho' all the Lines do meet in the Center yet there being no place without it in which they do so Creatures cannot see as God sees no more than they can be in the Center as God is It is too short and Inadequate a way of Arguing to Infer that any Creatures can see All things at once but from the notions confused enough that we Mortals have of Time and Eternity as that Time is Successive Eternity a Permanent Duration together with a Conceit that all Spirits they being things Abstract and Separate from Bodies both Are and Act in Eternity as all Imbodied Beings Are and do Act in Time Certainly every Being but God is in Time tho' not in the same Kind of Time for as God only is in the Center so he only is Absolutely in Eternity And if Time is taken for all Duration that is not Eternity God only is without Time and so without Succession of Actions But to Return SECT III. Of Mind as it Actuates a certain Particular Body Mind in this Notion called a Soul Body is a System of Organs Soul and Body an Animal Body Considered two ways To wit in Reference to External Objects and in Reference to the Internal Principle that Acts it In the First Consideration of Body the Ends and uses of Organs are shewed and withal the Reason of their variety This Illustrated by several Instances and Observations The use of Body in Relation to the Internal Principle that Actuates it is to Individuate and Singularize that Principle This set out in sensible and plain Resemblances A Comparison between Vital and Locomotive Energy with a Recapitulation of the whole Discourse as it unfolds the Mystery of Animals WE have Considered Mind in the first Step of Relation that it carries unto Matter Namely as it doe's Actuate a most subtle Matter diffused throughout the Universe in which Notion it is called Spirit simply as was showed from Malachy Ch. 2. v. 15. Come we now to Consider it in the next place as it Actuates some Particular System of Matter in a Particular Manner and so it is called a Soul and that Particular System of Matter which it doth Actuate is a Body or a Particular Vehicle and the Result of both an Animal An Animal is nothing but Soul and Body together or a Body Actuated by a Soul A Body is a System of Organs an Organ is Matter framed and Contrived after a Particular Manner for some Animal Use and End some Use End or Action of a Soul A Soul is a certain Determinate Vital Energy or a certain Portion of the Spirit of the Universe Vested in a Body or particular Vehicle in which Notion all Souls are Spirits as indeed they are stiled in the Holy Scripture wherein we Read of the Spirit of the Beast tho' it goes Downward as well as of the Spirit of a Man that goes Upward This Discourse I fear will seem a little Mysterious and therefore to Inlighten it and withal to open tho' but in general the Mystery of the Animal Nature and by Analogy unto it the Nature of other Vivents I will Resume it from the Beginning and speak more Distinctly taking my Rise from Bodies or Systems of Organs which coming under Sense are better known unto us than Spirits or Souls Body then as it is a System of Organs has a Double Relation and so may be Considered two ways either with Respect to External Objects by which it self is Affected and by means thereof the Mind or else with Respect to the Internal Principle that doth Inform and Actuate it and Act in it which Principle it doth Individuate and Singularize We will first Consider a Body in the Relation that it has unto External Objects and here we must set out the Nature that is the Ends and Uses of the Organs which compose a Body as also the Reason of the Variety and number of those Organs why any Organs at all and why many both which will be done with one Performance An Organ properly is Matter Particularly Textured and Framed for some Particular use And an Animal Organ is Particularly Textured and Framed for an Animal use I will give the Example in only Sensitive Animals and in the Acts of Sensation as being best understood but what is said of Sensation and of the Organs of
the Notices which we receive from Things without us that there is such a thing as a Vital Energy as we are that there is a Mechanical Because we are as much assured of the Effects of the one as we are of those of the other as much assured that there is Life Sensation and Intellection that come from a Vital as we are that there are Actual Local Motions Motions of Ascent and Descent Motions Direct and Motions Circular c. which as Motions come from Impulse the Mechanical Energy Again As it is Certain that Local Motion or that Impulse which is the nearest Physical Principle of it is not Matter or Materiate but yet is in Matter as United unto it so by this Consideration we may become as certain that Vital Energy and the Effects of it though they be Immaterial yet they may be in Matter since there needs no more of Hooks and Crooks to make the Latter than to make the Former to stick and hold together In the next place As the Mechanical or Loco-motive Energy is Diffused throughout the World for there is nothing in this that is Entirely at Rest so is the Vital Since it is certain that wherever and whenever any Matter becomes Disposed the Vital Principle is always at hand to Actuate that Matter and Act in it according as the Dispositions of it do Invite or Permit All Putrefaction or Digestion any where determines in Insects or little Animals as Experience evinces the Spirits being Unfettered and let Loose thereby And yet as the Mechanick or Loco-motive Impulse is not Received in all Textures of Matter indifferently but that as I have showed already there must for some certain Modifications of Local Motion be certain particular Textures of Matter so neither is the Vital Energy Catcht and Received indifferently by all Textures of Matter but as all Life consists in Motion or in something Analogous so for certain Gradations and Exercises of Life there must be cerain particular Fabricks and Textures of Matter called Organs and also certain particular Dispositions in the Mechanical Spirits for so I call the subtle Active Corpuscles in every Concrete that are the immediate instruments of the Vital Principle in all its Actions of Life in this Corporeal World So that as Actual Motion the Effect of Loco-motive Energy and even Loco-motive Energy it self as taken for Impulse is not Material in this Sense that it does consist of Matter yet if to be material be understood of that which is Dependent on Matter and so Dependent that it cannot be without it in the Sense of the word not only actual Motion but even Impulse the nearest Physical principle of Motion is material since neither of them can be but in and by the means of Matter In like manner the Vital Principle that Animates Corporeal Beings though it is not material in this Sense that it is only Matter or a mode of Matter yet in another it is that it so Depends in all its Animal Operations that it cannot exercise any but by means of Mater and according to the Texture and Quality of it Nothing can be plainer than this is to Sense for in all the Acts of Perception not only the sensitive but the Intellectual as the Organs are so are the Actions if the Organs are sound and duly Disposed the Actions are Conformable but if the Organs are out of Tune and Vitiated the Actions are so likewise Ay are Totally Abolished if the Organs are spoiled Besides the several Kinds and Degrees of Deliration that men themselves are Subject unto accordingly as their Spirits are ill Qualified and Distempered do further Confirm it Upon the whole as the Vital Energy it Diffused as Light is throughout the Universe so according to the several Textures of Matter that do catch it as a Speculum does the Light it Exerts it self and being Catcht and Retained by the Congruity of the Body for it is Congruity only not Hooks or Crooks that holds them together it is called a Soul and the whole Complex of Body and Soul an Animal What I have said does more particularly regard the Animals I call Visible which we are better Acquainted with than with others of a Higher Nature but yet with a very easie Application and by way of Analogy it will also open the Nature of these However this Admonition doth Remind me of the next Head to which I must pass and that is the Distribution of Animals CHAP. VII Animals are either Invisible or Visible in the Former sort I reckon Angels Good and Bad which are Etherial As also the Genii which are Aerial Animals Invisible Animals why called Spirits That there are Spirits Evinced 1. From the general Tradition of the World Mr. Hobbs's Evasion of this Argument Considered 2. From Operations that cannot be Accounted for but from such Causes 3. From Intelligences and Notifications that cannot be Resolved but upon this Hypothesis 4. From Spectra or Apparitions Of the way and manner how Spirits do Appear that it is twofold Real and Visional That Good Angels when they do Appear are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Spirits and the Bad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Fantomes SECT II. I Have spoken of Animals in General but to bring a greater Light toward the Understanding of the Animal Nature I must consider its Distribution and show the General Kinds or sorts of Animals that are in the Universe And Animals in Conformity unto the Bodies that do help to compose them are either Visible or Invisible By Visible Animals I mean such as do consist of gross matter and so have Bodies that naturally come under the perception of the external sense by Invisible Animals I mean such as have Bodies so refined that naturally they come not under the perception of All or Any of the External Senses Visible Animals which are the Animals that compose this Lower Elementary World for I will not undertake to speak of any such as may be in the other commonly called the Superiour and Celestial the farther Discourse of them is properly referred unto Physicks and therefore I shall enter no farther thereinto at this time but proceed to treat of the Invisible By Invisible Animals I mean Angels good and bad which I call Aetherial Animals as also those Aereal ones some Ludicrous some Torvous that are called Genii all which with the several kinds they farther branch into I will comprehend under one name of Spirits and so speak something of their Nature Demonstrate their Reality and Existence and in fine add something concerning their Apparition and the ways of it As to their Nature in General I think I shall have said all is necessary for me to say at this time when I shall have shewed that there is a sense in which it may be truly said they are Incorporeal as said they are generally and yet there is a sense too in which they must be acknowledged to be Corporeal if the having any mixture of matter in
their Composition can suffice as I know it will be yielded me it doth to make them properly denominated such The sense in which Spirits are truly said to be Incorporeal will be best understood by shewing the reason how the Attribute of being Corporeal becomes Appropriated unto visible Animals to comprehend which we must consider that in order to our conversing with Objects and taking Cognizance of them we are endowed with two sorts of Faculties the Sense and the Understanding and that the Sense even to Sense is an Organical Material Power for we do see the Organs it uses the Eye for Seeing the Ear for Hearing and the like for all the rest but that the Understanding is to Sense an Inorganical Immaterial Power there not Appearing any Sensible Organ by means of which it does exert or put forth its Acts. Now in conformity to this Distinction between our Faculties we do make one of their Objects nor can we do it more agreeably calling the Substances that do properly come under the notice and observation of our sense Bodies and those that do not but are only inferred and perceived by the understanding Spirits the former are corporeal material Substances because perceived by sense which is a material Organical Power but the latter such as Angels and other Spirits are said to be immaterial incorporeal because we cannot See or Feel or Tast or Smell them in their own Subsistences In a word we cannot perceive them in their own proper beings by any of the Senses we have but only by the Ratiocination and Discourse of the Understanding which to sense is an Inorganical Immaterial Power And our Saviour Christ when after his Resurrection he appeared to his Disciples and they apprehended that they had seen a Vision to convince them of the Reality of his Corporeal Existence and that he was not a Spirit or an Apparition only as they took him to be he Appeals unto their Sense and particularly to that of Touch Luke 24.39 Behold says he my Hands and my Feet that it is I my self for a Spirit hath no Flesh and Bones as you see me have Wherein he goes upon these Notions that a Spirit is an invisible Thing a Thing that in its own reality cannot be seen nor be felt but only be understood and that that substance which comes under the notice and cognisance of the sense is a Body And in this sense of the word Body all Spirits are really un-imbodied incorporeal things they have not such Bodies of Flesh and Bone or Organs that come under the Observation and notices of sense as we have but in another sense of the word as Body is not taken restrainedly for that only which is sensible but more largely for any System of Matter whatever whether so refined and subtle that it comes not within the compass of any external sense or so gross that it may be perceived by it so Spirits are Corporeal and Embodied That is they are material as well as mental Beings minds indeed they are but Minds in Matter or Animals In this Scaliger consents with me who in his Exercitations Exerc. 307. § 38. boldly says Spiritus Latinis Graecis Omnibus Philosophis Medicis Oratoribus Corpus est id est Materia Forma This will be Evident if we consider 1. That Absolute Purity or Exemption from all Matter is the peculiar Prerogative of God who only is Pure Light without any mixture of Darkness it is only he the Central Being he that is absolute pure being that is pure unmixed mind all other beings but he must be impure and have some ingredience of matter in their Composition without which as they would be pure Mind so being pure mind they would be God Secondly Were all or any Spirits except the infinite Almighty Center and Spring of All Absolutely pure without any mixture of Matter absolutely simple without any Real Composition there could be no Distinction among them either in Respect of Kinds or of Individuals since Alterity and where there is Distinction there must be Alterity unus alius est alter alter cannot consist with Absolute simplicity Composition is Unity but simplicity is Unicity To be more Particular were Spirits Absolutely Pure and Simple without any Admission of Matter there could be no Distinction among them in respect of Kinds For what should difference them if there were nothing in them but that wherein they did all agree as there would be nothing else but that if all of them were pure and simple Things that Differ in something and withal in something Agree cannot be Pure or Simple for all have something that is Common in which they do agree and all something not Common in which they differ it is plain that each of them Consists of Thing and Thing and Things that Consist of Thing and Thing are Compounded not Pure and Simple Things Again were Spirits absolutely pure and simple without any Concretion of Matter there could be no distinction among them as to Individuals as well as none in relation to Kinds For since all Individuation except only that of the Central pure mind is Numerication and all Numerication arises from Division and Division has no place but in Matter or in Things by means of matter It is evident that there can be no distinction of Spirits as to Individuation if there be no ingredience of matter in their making Things are said to differ in number and so all Individuals differ as well those of one and the same as those of divers Species that however identified they be in other Respects yet do so differ that one is not the other which cannot be without Division of one from the other nor Division be without matter Unum is not only Indivisum in se but Divisum à Quolibet alio As for Metaphysical Matter and Metaphysical Form or that distinction that some make of substantialâ—… Power and Act they are but meer Words without any signification at least in my understanding if they are not reduced to Matter and Mind which are the only Metaphysical Principles of Things that are Existent and Real In short we may observe in our selves that Mind as I have noted before is Individuated by Matter since even sense is seeing in the Eye Hearing in the Ear Tasting in the Tongue c. Another Consideration that Induces me to believe that all Spirits are Animals and vitally united unto Matter of one sort or another is that the Apostle Paul in a Discourse of his Concerning the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. doe's Speak of a Spiritual Body in Contradiction to a Natural as of the Body that All that do Arise in Christ shall be Cloathed withal and Christ himself tells us that All that shall Attain that glorious Resurrection shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Angels to wit in Respect of their Spiritual Bodies that shall Invest them and if Glorified Men shall be as Angels Angels must be as Glorified Men that is they
must have Bodies tho' Glorious and Spiritual Bodies In fine that Spirits are Incorporeal Beings in this sense that they have not such Gross Elementary Bodies as we have of Flesh and Blood and â—ones doe's not â—nfer that they are so in every sense of that word especially if we Consider that as the Apostle assures us there may be Spiritual Bodies and there Appears not any Incoherence in this that Spirits should have Spiritual Bodies Besides the Understanding it self that unto sense is an Inorganical Immaterial Faculty is not Absolutely so but has the Animal Spirits for an Organ since as these are Disposed and Textured well or ill even so the Exercises of that noble power are either right or depraved and from the differences in these Spirits do come the differences of Wits which are many Ay possibly those Animal Spirits or something that resembles them may compose the Body which accompanies the departing Soul for that some kind of Body does which in the Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Learned Origen has told us L. 2. Contra Celsum which Body he also says is that the Separated Soul is used to appear in but as to this I shall offer something hereafter By this Discourse it is Evident against Mr. Hobbs and others of the Sadducean Opinion that Spirits in their own Nature are Real and Subsistent Beings and not meerly Powers or Operations and Actions tho at the same time it must be acknowledged that in the Language of the Scripture such Active and Directive Qualities as are Intelligible only and do not come directly within the Cognizance of the sense are called Spirits thus we read of a Spirit of Government and of Prophecy that was first upon Moses and afterward imparted to the 70 Elders Numb 11. of a Spirit of Wisdom Deut. 4.9 of the Spirit of Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Might the Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord Isa 11.2 Ay that vexatious Distemper that afflicted Saul and that seems to have been nothing else but melancholly is called an Evil Spirit from the Lord 1 Sam. 16.14 and in Luke 13.11 12. we read of a Spirit of Infirmity But tho' Spirit in the Holy Scriptures is often taken in the instanced sense and that the Name of Angel is a Name of Office rather than of Nature yet it is certain that Angels are represented in those Sacred Writings as Real subsisting Beings all as real and subsisting as men themselves are if the ascribing to them the like Affections Offices and Personal Operations that Men have and do execute and exert can prove them so SECT II. That there are Spirits proved by General Tradition Mr. Hobb's Answer to this Argument shewed to be but an Evasion from the Evangelists Matthew and Mark c. AND this reminds me of the Second Point I have proposed to Discourse on in relation to Spirits and that is their Existence or Being wherein I shall endeavour to make it manifest that really there are such Subsistent intellectual Beings as are incorporated but invisible which commonly we call Spirits so that the Names of Spirits both of the Good ones as Raphael Gabriel c. And of the Evil ones as Belzebub c. are Names of Substances or Persons and not of Qualities only ay are proper and not as Mr. Hobbs tells us the name of Sathan and Devil is only Appellative Names The first Argument that I will use to Evidence that there are Spirits shall be taken from the General Tradition of the World it being received among all Nations as well the Civilized as the Barbarous and among all Philosophers except the Epicureans the Ancient and the Modern and some Peripateticks and to me it is very unintelligible how such a Sentiment should obtain so generally if it had not some foundation of Truth for who should spread the Opinion to such an extent and what should make it to take Mr. Hobbs himself acknowledges it a truth that the belief of Spirits was very general all the World over only he has a way which is peculiar to him of avoiding the Cogency and Force of the Argument and therefore I will here consider what he says It is true says he ' that the Heathens and all the Nations of the World have acknowledged that there be Spirits which for the most part they hold to be incorporeal whereby it may be thought that a man by natural Reason may arrive without the Scriptures to the knowledge of this that Spirits are but the erroneous Collection thereof by the Heathens may proceed as I have said before from the ignorance of the Cause of Ghosts and Fantoms and such other Apparitions And from thence had the Grecians their number of Gods their number of Demons good or bad and for every Man his Genius which is not the acknowledging of this truth that Spirits are but a false Opinion concerning the force of Imagination Thus Mr. Hobbs in his Treatise of Human Nature Ch. 11. S. 6. wherein he plainly Affirms that Spirits and Ghosts are meer Fantomes or Effects of the Imagination a conceit in which he seems to have the Concurrence of Seneca for this Philosopher Epist 24. tells us as Mr. Hobbs doe's Nemo tam Puer est ut Cerberum timeat Tenebras LARVARUM habitum nudis ossibus Cohaerentium This Notion of Spirits that Mr. Hobbs Insinuates Reminds me of Another that a Person whom I knew and who was Reputed not of the Wisest had of them for being Asked what he thought a Spirit was He Answered that it was the Shadow of Concscience and further Demanded concerning a Good Angel what that was He Replied a Good is the Shadow of a Good Conscience and a Devil the Shadow of a Bad one And Methinks he comes near to Mr. Hobbs But without jesting I Find that Apparitions of Spirits are stiled Fantoms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by two Evangelists Matthew and Mark. For when the Disciples of our Lord saw him walking upon the Sea and believed him to be a Spirit the Former of those Evangelists tells us that they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a Phantasm or as our Translators Render it a Sprite Matt. 14.26 And the Latter has the same Expression when speaking of the same Miracle he says they supposed him to be a Phantasm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as in our English Version they supposed it had been a Sprite Mark 6.49 Whence it Evidently follows against Mr. Hobbs that Men that were not Ignorant of the power of Fancy and of the Interest it had in the Apparitions of Spirits yet believed their Real Existence For the Disciples that believed our Lord to be a Spirit Appearing and therefore said he was a Phantasm which it seems was the usual Expression at that time for such Apparitions did withal believe that a Spirit was a Reality and of great Power For upon the supposed Apparition They are said by one of the Evangelists to be
if at any time they appear they do it the same way that Angels are used to do since there is the same reason they should I say besides this it is certain if any Stories of such a nature are certain that pretended Ghosts have appeared so long after their decease from their several Bodies that nothing could remain of these but the Dust and it is also certain that many Persons have been seen to all Appearances while alive in their proper Shapes and Meen and with the very Cloaths they were used to wear and this could not be done by means of Vehicles framed of their Radical moisture In truth this last is a very cross Phaenomenon a Phaenomenon that renders all Apparition of Ghosts uncertain and questionable since it seems to infer that it is not the Departed Soul it self that appears whenever there is such an Apparition but some other Spirit that Personates it For my own part I see many Difficulties in the way of the real Apparition of Spirits for besides that of the assuming of Bodies many times they do Eat and Drink and perform several other Vital Actions that seem very hard to be accounted for in that way so that I am much inclined to believe that their Apparition is mostly if not only Visional not by an immediate affection of the External Sense but by affecting and striking the Imagination in the way I have mentioned before And herein I am confirm'd in that it seems to have been the common Sentiment of all the Ancients who did for this reason as I noted before call the Apparitions of Spirits Phantasmata or Idola to wit because they were rather Imaginative than Real not as Mr. Hobbs would carry it as if they thought that all Spirits were only Phantasmata or meer Fancies but because they thought that Spirits used not to Appear but by affecting and striking the Fancy And this is Evident in that they did call Apparitions not only Phantasmata or Images but also Pneumata or Spirits by the latter Expression signifying the nature of the things that did appear as by the former the way in which they appeared Thus Luke when he would intimate that the Disciples at the time they saw our Lord after his Resurrection supposed that they had seen a Spirit does not use the word Phantasma as the two other Evangelists Matthew and Mark do on the like occasion but the word Pneuma Luke 24.37 But they the Disciples were terified and frighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I add that from the different Expressions that these Evangelists do use on the like occasion Matthew and Mark expressing the supposed seeing of a Spirit by seeing of a Phantasm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Luke by seeing of a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one may infer that when they thought the Apparition to be of a Good Spirit they called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Spirit but when of a Bad they called it Phantasma as who would say a Sprite an Hob-Goblin an illusion of Devils without conceiveing what perhaps some others will judge as propable that they had an Opinion as if I do not mis-remember the Modern Platonists had that Good Spirits did use to appear really but bad ones by disturbing and troubling the Fancy Another Consideration that induces me to think the Apparition of Spirits to be mostly if not always Visional is that all Appearance will be the same in this business of Apparitions upon the Hypothesis that they are but Visional as upon that that they are real since Common Dreams in those that sleep and waking ones in the Melancholy the Maniacal and the Hysterical do seem as real to them as any things that are most so And as some Appearances will equally as well be salved upon one Hypothesis as upon the other so there are others that will be better salved upon the Visional than on the Real Hypothesis particularly this that Spectres are often said to be seen by one Person in a Room that are not by others in the same Room tho' they look where they are said to be seen A Spirit may be easily Conceived to affect and strike the Imagination of one Person without doing so to anothers but that the same External Object should be seen by one and not by another that has the same advantage is somewhat harder to think and I had almost said cannot be conceived without a double Miracle In short one can better conceive how Spirits should eat and drink c. in the Visional than in the Real Hypothesis I know it may be told me that it is more usual for Spirits to appear by Night than by Day and in Dark and Gloomy places than in open and lightsome and those who hold the real apparition of Spirits will think that they can give a better account of this Phaenomenon than others can who do believe it but Visional For they will say Those of them that do hold the Opinion of a Spirits appearing by Condensation of his own Vehicle that the Cold of the Night as also of umbragious and gloomy places where the Sun does not enter or of solitary uninhabited ones where Fire is not used does much contribute to the Conspissation of the Spirits Vehicle And Those that hold the Opinion that Spirits appear by Forming to themselves a Body of Air will say that the Spissitude of the Air which is greater by Night than by Day when the presence of the Sun attenuates it and greater in gloomy and uninhabited than in lightsom and inhabited places does make the Formation of a Body and by consequence their Apparition more agreeable and easie to them But what can be said of this appearance in the Visional Hypothesis I cannot foresee how very acceptable or otherwise such a Discourse as this will be unto others but to me it is of an Aspect that is not very Agreeable For that the Angelical Vehicle should be obnoxious to the impressions of Heat and Cold as is in the First Opinion seems somewhat a gross Conception nor can I see how the Spissitude or the Tenuity of the Air should signifie much either to further or to hinder the making a body of Air by a Spirit as it is apprehended to do in the second Opinion if a Spirit be conceived as he must to work Magically and not Mecannically in it But not to insist on this but to answer directly The Reason then why Spirits do appear in the Night rather than in the Day and in dark gloomy solitary places rather than in others is from the silence and vacancy that is at such times and in such places so that the Imagination not being possessed or diverted by External Objects is more attentive unto and Consequently more susceptive of internal impressions there being the same Reason for this Phaenomenon as there is for some others to wit our better hearing a Sound by Night than in the Day and our seeing of the
Images in a Darkned Room upon a Paper or Wall that Disappear as soon as a greater Light is admitted By these and other Considerations I am more inclined to a belief of the Visional than of the Real Apparition of Spirits the Former being accompanied with fewer Difficulties and also being a thing that is easily conceived for one that thinks will more easily admit an Angel can affect and stir the imagination which we see both many Distempers and more Meats and Drinks can do than that it should Create a Body or assume one Created or in fine be able to alter its own Vehicle so much from its proper Dimension that the squeezing of an Elephant into that of a Mouse is of no Comparison with it I confess I should be more inclined than I am to the Real Hypothesis if I could believe the Spagirical Resurrection of Plants or the Reality of Apparitions resembling Men that are said to be seen in Distilling-Vessels upon the Distillation of Human Blood of which Peter Borellus a Curious but too Credulous Author tells us in his Observations Cent. 4. Obs 62. I fear with more presumption than certainty For my part I must acknowledge my unbelief as to it I will only add for the fuller clearing of the Theory of the Apparition of Spirits that what Gravity or weight is in respect of Elementary Bodies That a strong Inclination or Habit and Will or Passion is unto Souls and Consequently that we seldom hear of the Apparition of Any but of such as went out of the Body with great Reluctance with a violent Passion of Revenge or with a strong Desire of having something done that was in their will but not in their power And of the appearing of such we often hear but whether the Apparition is of the Departed Soul it self or of its Representative only to wit some Genius Personating the Deceased and why often times it appears unto Persons no way concerned and not to those that are when it would have something revealed as also the Laws of the Spiritual World for Laws there must be which do confine and regulate the motions of Spirits these and many other points in the business of Spirits are all unknown unto me and perhaps are only known unto God I should now proceed to the Distribution of Spirits but this entirely depends upon the History of them and we know but little of that History Besides there is in what we are thought to know so much of Tale Romance and Invention that upon strict inquiry not one Relation of a hundred holds true even of their Apparitions an Observation which obliged Lucian of old and many now to Ridicule them all Wherefore I resolve to Omit as a Task too hard for me to discourse of their Kinds and their Orders only in General I will adventure to affirm if this be to Adventure to say what few will deny that that there are several Species Angels in Heaven and Devils out of it and perhaps a Lower sort of Spirits than those we commonly call Devils But for the Celestial Hierarchy as Dionysius the True or the False has set it out and the Distinction in it that he makes of Seraphim of Cherubim of Thrones of Dominations of Vertues of Powers of Principalities of Arch-Angels and of Angels as also of the Politick Government of Devils and the several Orders that are in it One had need be a Saint and as illuminated with Revelation as Dionysius himself was to understand the Former and for the Latter he must be a Conjurer of the Highest Class and possibly more than a Conjurer to have any or any certain Account of it One that is Curious may find many and very strange things upon this Subject in Cardan in his Books de varietate and de subtilitate and in Cornelius Agrippa in his of Occult Philosophy L. 1. C. 11. Fernelius also has something which he has gathered out of Plato and others concerning the Kinds of Spirits in his Treatise De Abditis rerum Causis L. 1. C. 11. but all is but Guess and Conjecture See Gaspar Schottus his Physica Curiosa L. 1. C. 12. c. CHAP. VIII Another Essay about the Nature of Animals and Spirits SECT I. The Subject farther Illustrated by a Comparison of the Universe with a particular Animal The Universe a whole Particular Animals but Members of that whole A Particular Animal is as an Organ with its faculty the Universe as a Body composed of several Organs with a Soul that endues these Organs with several Faculties A Demonstration even to sense of a common Principle that penetrates throughout the Universe In what sense a Soul is a faculty and in what a Principle of Faculties Two senses of the word Soul and how in both it may be conceived as a Principle of Faculties The Soul in its state of separation becomes a Spirit properly Soul is the name of a part a Spirit the name of a whole Substance God the Central Sun and Fountain of all Souls and Spirits The Emanation of Souls and Spirits from God or from his Spirit set out in the Comparison of Light and Colours Not only Philosophers and Poets but even many Christian Doctors and particularly St. Augustin compared God in respect of his influence in and over the Vniverse unto the Soul in a Man IN the Precedent Chapter I have offered to my Reader something concerning the nature of Animals as well those that are Invisible called Spirits as those that are Visible but the subject being Obscure I think my self obliged to turn it every way to see what further Light may be Given to it and therefore I will now Enlarge upon one Point in Relation unto it that I did but touch before whereby I hope to Illustrate it It is Received on all hands except by Cartesians that in every visible Animal as well as in Man there is a Body Composed of several Organs and there are several Faculties or Powers according to the several Organs and there is a Common Principle called a Soul that Permeating throughout the Body doth Furnish it in its several Organs with those several Faculties Now As all the Organs of any Particular Animal tho' being Compared one with Another they are several not Parts one of Another but a kind of wholes and have their several Faculties yet in respect of the Body they are but Parts and all Influenced by a Common Principle which giveth being to its several Faculties but is none of them it self Why may not all the Animals themselves as well the Invisible as the Visible that do Exist in the Universe be in respect of this but as so many Parts so many Organs some more Simple others more Compound Actuated by some Common Principle that Penetrates throughout it and yet in Respect one of Another be several wholes that have their several Powers and Faculties And then as all the Particular Animals would in truth be but as so many several Organs Endued with
several Faculties in which the Organ or System of Organs would be the Body the Faculty or System of Faculties the Soul so all of them taken together would be an Entire Body of the Universe Actuated by an Universal Principle as by a Common Soul that should Endow it with those several Powers and Faculties In short why may not the Universe Really be Body and Soul and every Particular Animal as a part thereof be Organ and Faculty in the same sense that in our ordinary Common way of Conceiving every Particular Animal is Body and Soul and the Parts of it Organs and Faculties But to Proceed This is Certain that what in Animals and particularly in a Man we do Commonly call a Faculty is neither that which commonly is called the Soul nor is it meerly the Body or any Part of the Body but a Result some Third thing Arising from them both in Conjunction For the Eye for Example tho' never so well Qualified doth not see unless the Mind or Soul do Attend and again the mind or Soul tho' never so Attentive cannot see unless it has the use of an Eye to see with so that the Power of seeing neither is in the Eye barely nor in the Soul barely but belongs to the Animal which is Soul and Body as arising from the presence of the Soul in such a Particular Part or Organ of the Body And the like is to be said of other Powers And yet if all the Faculties that are united in Man were supposed Separated each from other with their several Organs and so to be in the Nature of wholes and this without the supposal of any Thing else for Example that the Eye could see apart the Ear hear apart and the Tongue taste apart from the Body there would to all Appearance be so many several Animals and Consequently so many several Souls So that what is called a Faculty only while it is in a part is Denominated a Soul in the whole and then where the Body is a Compage or System of Organs the Soul must be a System of Faculties and yet be one still in the same sense as the Body is But here I must expect it shall be told me that the True and commonly Received Notion of a Soul is that it is the Principle of the Faculties called Vital and Animal and not any one of them it self or any System of them All To which I Answer that this is indeed the Popular and Common Notion but how true it is and how much Adjusted to the Nature of the Soul cannot be understood but by making some Distinction in the sense of word Soul The word Soul may be taken Two ways the one of which I will call the Philosophical the other the Popular sense of the Word First then word Soul may be taken Philosophically as a Name of all the Causes together that are necessary for the Producing of Vital and Animal Actions in the several Species of Animals and so tho' it is commonly considered as if it were some Substantial thing that Differ'd from them All yet indeed it is nothing but a Modification of their Action as they are All in Conjunction And Dicearchus who Affirmed there was no such thing as a Soul if he meant but thus was very Excusable for in this sense a Soul is nothing but a Result that is a Mode of Conceiving for this I mean by Result of all the Causes that must be Joyned for Animal or Vital Actions as they do either Qualifie or else Aid each others Influence And in this sense as a Soul in respect of the Action of a Particular Organ may be called a Faculty so in respect of the whole Body a Soul is a System of Faculties Thus Life in Animals arises from the Concurrence of many things which things therefore in that Concurrence as they are the Prince of Life so they may be called the Soul for by Soul is meant nothing but the Principle of that we call the Life if one of these is wanting that are necessary the Life ceases and we say the Soul is gone but then again supposing all the other Requisites Remaining as they ought to be and Ready to do their Parts if that one which was wanting is Restored there is again a Concurrence of all the Causes Requisite to Life and so with the Life the Soul is said to Return or come again For Example there is in Snakes in Dormice in Swallows and in other Dormitive Creatures of that kind and if we shall believe Guagninus apud Schottum Phys Curios l. 1. part 2. C. 38. § 4. in some Men too for so he says of the Inhabitants of Lucomoria a certain Country of Russia that there is an Actual Suspension of the Exercise of Life in all the Species of it during Winter while their Spirits lie Congealed and un-active so that tho' all the Organs of those Animals in other Respects are duly Qualified and Disposed yet there being not for that season sufficient Heat Imparted to them from the Sun to put their Spirits in Motion These like Mercury while Cold are wholly un active and so for several Months there is a Cessation of Life for Life is a Sort of Action in all the sensible Instances of it But then again on the other side nothing being wanting but a due Heat as unto Mercury to put it in Actual Motion as soon as the Sun Returns and with its warmth Communicates that Motion that is Requisite to the Spirits and other Parts for the Invigorating and the stirring of them there Results that Action or Exercise of Organs which we call Life and which in many Places of Holy Scripture is called the Soul tho' commonly we call the Soul the Principle not the Exercise of Life but then by a Principle we must mean the Concourse of all the Requisite Causes and so the Soul in Effect will be but a Faculty or rather a System of Faculties And so much for the Philosophical Sense of the Word Soul But besides the Former there is Another meaning of the word Soul which I call the Popular because it is the most usual and that is when it is Taken not for all the Causes together or the Result of them as in the Former but for the Principal and Chief Cause of Animal and Vital Actions which in the Holy Scriptures is called the Spirit who knoweth the Spirit of a Man that goeth Upward or the Spirit of a Beast that goeth Downward And so when a Person dies he is said to to give up his Spirit to Give up the Ghost And thus a Soul may be Conceived a System of very subtle Refined Matter such as Light but in some more in others less Refined that gives the last Disposition to a Body and its Organs for the receiveing of Vital Cogitative Influence from the Original Mind it is the Texture and Qualification of the Body and the Organs that compose it that is the Ligament and Bond
of Earthly and Aqueous Bodies into Vegetables is so Obvious as I need not to Instance That of Vegetables into Animal Concretes is as certain tho' not so Obvious and Usual The Animation of Horse-hairs that fall into Pools in the Summer time may be an Example but those are more Adequate that are Given in the Generation of Barnacles and in the Animation of the Branches of certain Trees I Vouch not these Instances upon uncertain Report tho' some will believe it no other but on the credit of a Person Grave and Unsuspected I mean the Excellent Schottus who in his Physica Curiosa l. 1. C. 20. among other Examples very pertinent to this purpose relates those I have mentioned on his own Knowledge Pili says he è caudis equorum in aquam pluviam fossis ac scrobibus exceptam decidentes Animantur in graciles ac Longos vermes instar Serpentum convertuntur ut ipsemet non semel vidi Aves Anatum formà ex Ramis Arborum deciduis intra aquas in Scotià Hebridibus Insulis nasci testantur multi Scriptores Ipsemet vidi Ramorum extremitates paulatim animà sensitiva Informatas decidisso Avolasse Now so much Uniformity even in difformity such Connexion and so Easie Transition from one Region into Another cannot be conceived to be in the World without conceiving at the same time that as it had but one Author or common Plastic at first so still it has but one Principle that hath the ordering the Disposing the Framing and Actuating of it in all its Parts But to make it more Conceivable that all Particular Beings may be Animated by but One and yet being such Diversity as they are let us consider that Glorious thing we call Light which as it Proceeds and Issues from the Sun is of one Nature but meeting with divers Objects and Receiving Different Modifications according to those of the Objects it meets with is varied into a Thousand Colours of Different Natures from the Light as well as one from Another And it is even thus with the Vital Energy or Light that flows from God the Intellectual Sun and Father of Spirits for This tho' as it Proceeds and flows from him it is but of one Nature yet according to the Bodies it meets with it becomes Diversified and Varied into a Thousand shall I say or rather into Infinite Faculties and Powers that in their particular Natures are as Different from the Original Vital Energy it self taken in it self as All are one from Another In short the first Subject of Vital Energy is the Mosaical Spirit but This as it is Received in Bodies of several Fabricks Dispositions and Textures as well in Visible as in Invisible Animals become Diversified into several Powers and Faculties or which is the same in Effect becomes in Each a Principle of Actions that Differ one from Another as much as the Bodies do that Invest it and as the Motions that by means of those Bodies do Affect and Modifie it Modifications of the Cogitative Faculties or of the Immediate Principle that makes the Being Cogitative are called Ideas or Images and are the same unto the Mind in the Sense and the Understanding that Sensible Species as they commonly are called are unto the Light in the Air for as These are nothing but Modification of the Light so Those are of the Mind SECT II. Several Objections against the Former Hypothesis considered First that it makes Souls to be Faculties or Powers whereas indeed they are Actions or Acts. This Objection Answered and the notion of the Souls being a Principle and Faculty rather than an Action cleared The Second Objection that in this Hypothesis the Deity is considered as an Immanent and not what he is as a Transient cause of all things Removed and how he is both the one and the other shewed and Confirmed by the Authority of St. Austin and other Christian Fathers as well as of the Chiefest Philosophers The Third Objection that hereby God and Nature are Confounded Answered by shewing how God and Nature are Distinguished in this Hypothesis The Last and strongest Objection that if there were but one Original Perceptive Principle throughout the Universe all Animals would have the same Perceptions which they have not This Objection Removed and the Reason of Different Perceptions in Different Animals cleared THO' I have Endeavoured to Anticipate Objections in the Discourse that I have made all along as I made it yet to give them a farther clearing and thereby elucidate more fully the Hypothesis that I Espouse this Section shall be Employed in proposing in express Terms such Objections as do lye against it and in giving them the necessary Answers The First Objection against this Hypothesis is that it speaks of Souls as of Faculties or Powers and not as of things that are Essentially Active whereas a Soul is a Knowledge a Cogitation or at least a thing that is always Busie and Doing insomuch that even in sleep it does not all Rest but that Men do always Dream when they sleep tho' perhaps they are not always sensible that they do I know not how truly it is said that the Soul is always Busie and that Men do always Dream when they sleep but I could wish they did only Dream at that Time for then we should not be Troubled with so many Groundless Fantastick Opinions But to come nearer the Matter I know a person who Affirms that to his Knowledge he never Dreamt in his whole Life and certainly since we are always Conscious that we Dream when ever we do we ought to believe we have not Dreamed at all when we are not sensible we have Besides how do they know that the Soul is always Doing for my part I am much mistaken if I do not Experience in my self what I think any other may that I am able to suspend all Thought or as we commonly Express it think of nothing To be sure every one who hath made the Least Reflexion must needs know that as we have Eyes and Ears and other sensitive Organs and so do see and hear and are Conscious of other Sentiments in Case our Eyes and Ears and those other Organs which we have are Impressed by External Objects so ordinarily we do neither see nor Hear or are Conscious of any other sentiment of any External Objects if these do not Affect our Organs without the presence of Objects we are only said to have the Faculties or Powers that is we are said only to be Able to see to Hear c. but upon the presence of Objects and the Application of our Faculties or Powers we are said to have the Exercise of them and actually to See and Hear c. Thus it is in the External Sense Now since the Mind or Understanding is an Organical thing as well as the External sense I see no Reason to think but that as there is no Actual Sensation but when the Organs of the sense are stirred so
quod cum inferna crura lumbive offenderentur commune Corpus utrumque dolorem sentiret cum vero supernè Pungeretur aut alioqui Laederetur ad Alterum corpus tantum doloris sensus perveniret Quod discrimen in morte fuit magis Conspicuum Nam cum alternum corpus complures ante alterum dies extinctum fuisset quod superstes fuit dimidio sui Computrescente paulatim contabuit Vixit id monstrum Annos Viginti Octo ac decessit Administrante rem Scoticam Joanne Prorege Hac de re scribimus eo Confidentius quod adhuc supersint homines honesti Complures qui haec viderint So Buchanan and Schenkius from him I will not give my self the trouble to translate the Relation because I find it in Mr. Ross his continuation of Sir Walter Rawleigh's History of the World who thus tells the Story ad An. 1490. About this time says he a strange Monster was born in Scotland which beneath the Navel was one Body but above two distinct Bodies having different Senses Souls and Wills any hurt beneath the Navel is equally felt by Both Bodies above but if any of the upper Members were hurt one of the Bodies only felt the pain This Monster the King caused to be instructed in Musick and divers Languages One of the Bodies died some days before the other which also shortly after pined and consumed away It lived Eight and Twenty years I might instance in many other Stories of this kind but these suffice to evince what I induce them for that the numerication of Souls and consequently of other Spirits depends upon that of Bodies for in the alledged Examples especially the latter it is plain that where the Bodies were divided and separated the Powers of Perception likewise were so that the offences of but one were not felt by both but by one only and yet again in the parts beneath the Navel common unto both the Bodies any hurts in these were equally perceived by both I take the Theodosian and Scottish Monsters to be evident illustrations of my Hypothesis And so much for Substance Harmonically considered CHAP. IX Of Substance in the Scholastical Consideration of it Substance what that it is First or Second Second Substance is called a singular a suppositum or a subsistent Of the Principle of Individuation or that which makes a singular to be so Dr. Sherlock's Notion of the Individuation of Spirits Of a Person The true Idea of it Laurentius Valla his notion of a Person the unusefulness of it to the salving of the Holy Trinity shewed The Trinity a Mystery and Doctrine of Faith not a Point of Philosophy and so the Idea of it to be derived only from Revelation in the Holy Scriptures and not from bare Discourses of Reason I Have Discoursed of Substance after the Harmonical way in the Precedent Chapters It now remaineth that I add something concerning it in the Scholastical and thus Substance is defined to be a thing that is by it self or that is under others called Accidents and is divided into First and Second The Second Substance is that which is not in a Subject but may be Praedicated of it and such are Generical and Specifical Substances as for example Living Creature and Man neither of which is in a subject as an Accident is but both are Praedicated of it for Living Creature is Praedicated of Man and Man of Peter James John c. As for first Substance which is the substance I design to speak of more particularly it is defined to be that which neither is in a Subject as an Accident is nor is Praedicated of it as the second substance is it is also called a Suppositum a subsistent or a singular in which is wont to be distingushed Nature and Subsistence Subsistence is a mode of Existence to which it adds Perseity and Existence is Essence in Act the Nature is the Idea or Definitive Conception of a Substance Or thus the Nature is the Thing or Substance as it is defined a Suppositum is the Thing or Substance that hath that Nature or Definition Nature and Subsistence differ but as Essence and Existence Subsistence being but the Existence of a substantial Nature But Nature and a Suppositum Differ as Essentia and Ens the Former signifying as the Schools speak ut Quâ the latter ut Quod. In a singular Substance or Suppositum that which comes particularly into Consideration is the Principle as Schollars call it of Individuation or that which makes a singular to become a singular for the Nature is supposed to belong to one particular no more than to another but to be a thing abstracted from all Particulars and thence the question arises what that is that singularizes the Nature for example that of Man and makes it to belong to Peter or to John or to James in particular This Principle of Individuation be it what it will may as is thought by some be called the individuating difference as well as that which does divide the Genius and constitute the Species is called the specifical since this indiuiduating Principle doth as much divide the Species and constitute the individual as the specifical difference divides the Genius and constitutes the species Much ado there is what this Principle should be but after all they seem to me to come nearest to the Truth who do affirm that a singular or individual becomes so not by any distinct Principle of individuation but immediately and per se and in that that it is in being just as Quantity is Terminated by self and not by mediation of another Thing that should confine and bound it and in like manner is Figured not by any thing superadded to it but barely in that it is thus and thus Terminated I am already almost tired with this idle fruitless way of talking and should not overcome my self to proceed any farther in it but that the Notion a Learned Person has of late delivered to the World about the Individuation of Spirits will oblige me to Consider it and by affording matter of more intelligible Discourse make some amends for the dryness and barrenness of the former It is Dr. Sherlock I mean who in his vindication of the Trinity S. 4. p. 48. tells us ' that in Created Finite Spirits their numerical oneness can be nothing but every Spirits Unity within it self and distinct and separate subsistence from all other Created Spirits now this self-unity of the Spirit can be nothing else but self-Consciousness that it is Conscious to its own Thoughts Reasonings Passions which no other Spirit is Conscious 〈◊〉 but it self This makes a Finite Spirit â—umerically one and separates it from all other Spirits that every Spirit feels only its own Thoughts and Passions but is not Conscious to the Thoughts and Passions of any other Spirit and therefore if there were three Created Spirits so United as to be Conscious each to others Thoughts I cannot see any Reason why we might not say