small Nay we ordinarily have a natural itch to variety and it may be observed that as the the same tune always played causeth weariness so to such as cannot understand the true reason of things that Religion soonest cloyeth whose exercise or doctrine hath least variety and most confinement and therefore set forms displease ordinary capacities as grave set set musick to those that are unskilled in the art pleaseth not so much as a Jig And as Musick being an abstracted Method is not examinable by any thing but the ear it self So in Religion the farther you sequester your self from Charity so much the more you confine its grounds to custom and opinion for if it be placed all in the ear as Musick is then being only a spiritual method it will follow that that method we apprehend best and consequently that Religion we are most used unto will without more ado please most and thereupon each person must be rendred an uncontrollable judge therein but so far as Love and Charity shall be taken in this being operative will make it fall within notice of other senses and so become examinable by other method For Charity having its ground in Reason and Nature as it is made to stand in harmony with them it may serve to justifie or condemn Religions as the goodness of the tree may be judged by its fruits To enquire into the reason of Comprehension and Method a little farther we are to conceive that the brain in each man being the common sense to discover what is of benefit or damage hath the Nerves as so many Scouts and Centinels for information Now as any thing is by these apprehended some impression is made in the soft substance of the brain This at first coming must make an unusal dislocation and posture therein and so displease within no otherwise then distortion of any member doth displease without And knowledge and comprehension is nothing else but the ready turning and cession of the brain to such figures as are offered and reasoning and discourse is succession of configuration according to such Concomitants and Appearances as have accompanied it which now more or less readily appearing and answering as they were formerly oftener seen or fancied therewith come thereupon to be esteemed more or less reason But all new ojects must for a time displease according to their strangeness for that this common sensory being thus wholly imployed and as it were imprisoned and confined in apprehending and configuring this new guest hath not time to watch and attend other informations that might be by sense offered to it at the same time For so we find that in great agitation of mind and when our fancies are intent on the contrivance of things more eminently pressing we are heedless of what else is presented unto us And hence it is that two things at once cannot be studied on if they be so differing as not comprisable in the same method Pain is more external and differs from this inward offence being the stoppage of Spirits in their methodical motions in the parts of the body whereby being hindred from recourse to their fountain the brain the place that obstructs them will through their irregular motion therein find pain and pleasure is when these spirits are excited in motion or evacuation with their proper humor When any violent or unusal posture is offered to the Nerves diffused in the senses and exterior parts the brain is sensible through them no otherwise then the Spider is of any thing that toucheth any part of her web in which every forraign touch makes her sensible by altering the posture of those threds unto which she is joyned For as the Spider sitting upon the Center and â—oition of her work with her body and having her legs extended to the several Angles thereof is hereby made preceptible of those touches and impressions which forraign bodies do make upon it even so the brain by those his long legs of nerves every where dispersed through the body may be conceived to be much more sensible of those several forms of twitching and convulsion made in its membranes by the like impression made upon its nerves by any forraign touch And as by degrees and many tryals from our infancy our senses are enabled to conform themselves unto outward figures and objects so is the brain also by degrees brought to receive and retain those and doth as easily fall into the like posture or figure when those objects shall be raised in the fancy which did usually accompany them If there be alteration in the body of the brain it self without forraign touch of feeling it is not then called pain but horror confusion amazement or the like For the Spirits used to watch in the senses themselves without are now here extraordinarily imployed in putting this new object into method whereby it may be capable of memory and use and do thereupon for a time make disturbance as in a Crowd So that Pain and Pleasure are properly only in touch or sense of feeling the objects of other senses being by them immediately let into the brain as having the nerves that serve them more contiguous to his substance they impart not pleasure and pain to it as directly from themselves nor are capable thereof as senses but as outward parts and organs to be affected by forraign touch Now health is negative to sickness as pleasure is for the most part but absence of pain and is when each individual body hath its humours enjoying their wonted proportion seats and motions according to the proper constitution thereof so as the spirits may not be inwardly stopped to make us inwardly sensible as pain makes us outwardly But sicknesse affects more generally because the obstruction being in common passages of all parts of the body the sense thereof must be more universal then in pain where a single nerve it may be is only affected But then again pain is more quick as more intire and unite For in sickness till it be mortal there is not a total stoppage because the bowels and other passages have some recourse left them to the stomack c. and thereupon those nerves that attend them can be but in part stopped But usually sicknesse hath some pain as having some part or passage more obstructed then another When I see a heavy thing tend downwards it is a motion so conformable to all other that as a thing whose operation and concernment is alâ—eady fully known it is passed over with content of security and mastery But the operation of the Loadstone seeming proper to it self distracts and puzzles us for want of ability to conceive and consequently to apply it to knowledge and use For knowledge refers to use as truth doth to goodness for from the observation of the motions and operations of Loadstones men apply them to nautical and some other uses And Bonum differs from Verum but in application things being true as they are real and good as they
womb do when we would make shew of letting them fall put their bodies and parts into posture of resistance and aversion not against falling it self as knowing the danger or damage to follow thereupon but because they find their present posture strange and uneasie And therefore for want of the like sustentation to be left under them they are teady to catch at new hold and support For to a childe new born that hath not apprehended the difference of sights the fright of falling from a precipice will be but equal to that of falling out of its Nourses lap And children receive displeasure at first from lying on any thing that makes them not sensible of a like general and equal sopport they had in the womb And therefore we find them laid on beds and laps made even and yet hardly enduring the unequal application of arms or legs under them until they are so swadled up that these partial supports seem thereby to be equal and even For the motion of gravity or propriety of place being a necessary property of all bodies and their parts it will follow to be soonest and so consequently most universally known Therefore this strugling of children is caused through sense of feeling to avoid a present injury it now feels through uneasiness and not out of innate conception of danger as some do think For if such instincts and knowledge were then would children be afraid of drowning or burning or the like This instance hath been prosecuted to give occasion to discover how we may come to be habituated and affected to certain postures in the exercise and enjoyment of our minde and will as well as of our bodies and how that thereupon those restraints which Government imposeth upon our liberties in the one most cause reluctance and desire of release as well as in the other and that sense and experience of alteration and discomposure is the cause of dislike in our wills aswel as our bodies When therefore these things are ascribed to nature it must be understood of secondary or acquired nature For children or creatures new born for want of experience and observation stand affected from no sense but that of feeling Nor do the objects of other senses please or displease at first unless they imprint and move so violently as to induce feeling by affecting the heart and other parts and habits of the body by means of those inward pares of nerves Whereupon the humors and parts within do heighten as it were by their proper experience the relish of that figure or object in the brain to like or dislike after the rate they stood themselves formerly made sensible thereof from it And therefore time and experience being required to make fear or other passions strong we find that mandkind till they come to ripeness and tryal stand not apprehensive or averse to Government After which sense and knowledge of its use and benefit and also of his own suffering thereunder makes him proportionably contented or reluctant Proportionably I say for that as Reason and Religion do out of sense of duty more or less bear sway over the more natural and bodily sense of suffering and restraint of will so will Government be to each one more or less offensive there being but these two great motives for children and subjects obedience sense of benefit and interest and sense of conscience and duty For want of true experience and knowledge whereof the family as well as the Kingdom comes to be troubled with mutinies and insurrections even for that ignorance and incogitancy of the benefit or harm to arise to themselves by obedience or the contrary leaves them to be lead by the present sense of trouble in being guided by the direction of another which must thereupon come to be by them that are not able to apprehend their own advantages by peace and submission nor that their benefits are reciprocal interpreted as done out of private interest and design of their Prince and father only Nor need we wonder that in the course of our lives Custom should bear such sway since life it self is but custom that is a Methodical and Customary motion of an active spirit which by means of his circular and regular course is diverted from eager pursuit of penitration and ascension For the heat of the Sun or parental body by degrees turning into spirit or ayr such portion of seed or first matter as is apt to sublime this spirit according to its lighter nature grows presently motive and restless as seeking a more high and open habitation but partly out of similitude of the matter whereof it was bred and the similitude and constancy of the same degree of heat it now hath to that which begot it and partly through the present succession of skinny enclosure arising from the slymy nature of the matter it self and partly through those other inclosures of skins and shels in Wombs Eggs c. it is invited and contented at length to satisfie its proneness to direct upward motion with this circular passage as being from habit cozened to take and choose this easier way rather then to press earnestly any more to that direct course in which it had been so often diverted by such high difficulties And as this Spirit is by reason of its tenuity made motive and naturally desirous of enlargement and aire so again by reason of its smaller and more indifferent degree of sublimation as being generated by that moderate heat of the body of a substance which is neither suffered to addle through cold nor harden through heat it is therefore kept so well allayed as to be retarded both in ability and desire of penetration Which is also holpen on by the closeness of those vessels and cells where it is contained and by the likeness and proximity of that matter whereof it is generated and wherewith it is accompanied which is not only the same with that whereof it was begotten but also is but one degree beneath it in thinness For it is to be supposed that the Chylus being turned into blood as it doth attain some degree towards sublimation it self So also that most attenuated and concocted spirit which is in the cells of the brain doth likewise still retain a good degree towards condensation even so as according to course and vicissitude to be again apt to be turned back into sâ—eam and so into blood Like as also the blood on the contrary stands ready and affected to turn into steam and so into spirit in their circulation and passage up and down the body In which course of Version and Transmutation they are holpen by the mediation of the humour remaining in the arteries being as it were a mixture of spirit and blood caused through the refinement of the blood in its passage through the heart Whereupon we find that nature hath provided a thicker coat for them then for that thicker blood which is contained in the veins even as the finer animal spirit
he could not but thereupon be knowing of the shape thereof And therefore the erect stature and size of men in his new illumination seemed most to resemble that of trees of any other which he could know For it is to be conceived he could not reach beyond the trunks of them And therefore Feeling being the next informer of the understanding or rather understanding it self is to be looked upon as the original and most exact sense sight and other senses being only necessary for the quaintity and extent of its information whose reports having but respect to the appearances of things are not farther capable of evidence and certainty then as consenting with and controulable by feeling Which sense as it began to be with our selves and shall last leave us as being the assurance of that life by which we are we So is to us the assurance of the realities of things in nature even by making us perceptible of that which is the foundation and original to wit of that their principle of existence or being For hereby onely we come to gather our assurance that any thing at all really is whereas by the other we do but discover farther of the manner how which must proportionably have dependance on the truth of the existence or being of thing it self And therefore is the eye is of largest contribution to the intellect not from generality of object and receipt at distance only but because it can take in more of the Figure and Appearance of the object then the others by means of those several colorate rays emitted from the several corners and object parts of opacous bodies into the expanded end of the optick nerve spread round the puple of the eye Even so to the encrease and extent of mans knowledge above beasts in the sense of feeling we are advantaged by our hands which serve to inform the brain by the spinal marow as other senses do by their inward pares of nerves And then this paradox may be brought in that mens hands are greatest outward advantages to their knowlesge For in them men having excellence above other things do not only excel them as Mechanicks but by them they are able also to understand more And even as Cats that play most catch best so also because we are by them and the speading of the fingers made perceptible of divers parts of the object body at once and thereby able to make more full figure thereof as the retina tunica doth to the visual nerve Whereas in the touchings that are apprehended by other parts so small a circuit of the object body is placed upon so small an extension and portion of the nerves of my body that no such perception of difference can arise between touch and touch as to beget knowledge and affection to one thing much above another And therefore we may observe that men cannot let their hats remain on their heads in the same posture they are put on by others but must again place themselves to that kind of settlement they were accustomed unto For the hat covering and pressing the head round and in divers parts at once must render it in a higher degree perceptible and affected with differences then where in that and other parts of the body forraign touches are in so small measure received But because each sense can but inform in its own proper sphere and object we will see a little how they lead to error when brought from the controul of feeling The Sun and Moon c. have neither to fight their true Dimensions nor Figures and this because nothing could be felt at distance An oar in the water hath such a different Posture or Scite that mine eyes alone can never inform me that that part which is within and that part which is without the water do make but one streight piece And multiplying glasses deceive us by numbers as travelling by water doth deceive us in motion and this upon no other reason but because the same direction and crossing of lines is made by my passing by the trees and land as would be if they passed by me or one another And the like is for hearing and other senses which having their single proper objects must refer to feeling for science and assurance in other things not proper unto them For although a perfect sight hearing smelling or tasting can never fail with due mediums in differencing of colours noises and savours without and beyond controul of feeling which hath nothing to do with these things but by these his proper organs yet can they not know farther then as from and for him And the more remote any thing is from feeling the more uncertain its discovery Which happens to sight chiefly because it undertakes at greatest distance from it Whereupon we find that colours come to be lost afar off and pictures land-scapes c. do make things that are plain and even to seem such risings as by sight alone having reference to like shadows in faces and things that had such risings we might be deceived For different session of light or colour making Figure conceivable in our sense and not any real quality in the object as the Painters Art which is able to express all Figures by colours only doth clearly demonstrate it must follow that Figure and all the rest are as we said truly demonstrable from feeling only which also deceives the brain in crossing of nerves as it is deceived by sight in crossing of lines for from hence it comes to pass that one bullet felt by two fingâ—â—s a cross seems to be two But now although motion be not so inseparable a property of bodies and so ordinarily the object of sense as some of the rest yet because it is of so great variety in its self it gives the greatest information to the understanding of all others For that it denotes more of the inward qualities of a body And again you cannot conceive any one figure or proportion not capable of divers motions But then though a body is many times seen and so may be imagined without motion yet as it was never seen alone so motion cannot be conceived without a figurate body and therefore although again this property of figure be not so directive as of it self yet it is more necessary as to method by its presence and assistance because my fancy cannot be comprehensive of any object without a Figure And this we cannot forbid our selves in the contemplation of God himself and all other spiritual substances namely to fancy them under one shape or another wherein we conceive those attributes and operations we ascribe to them should be most fitly exercised Which as it was the main rise to Idolatry so was it of Heresie Schism and Superstition also mistaking Gods attributes under a wrong figure which always coming far short of expressing his ability to act must fall short also of rendring his Almightiness in all kinds of due esteem in our understandings And again
which in them cannot be as also they must want observation of the signs themselves and motives unto them both for want of time and for want of that affection that should spur thereunto Nor can these signs be of much force again on men or creatures very ancient where want of spirits in the brain must leave the appetite and affection to these very dull and almost delete and leave also the nerves and organs of the body so empty and hollow that they represent not with any steadiness or strength as also the experience of danger to arise must make them slow in new undertakings But to return to enquiry after the rise of knowledge and reason from instance in reading and learning At first every letter must by its often admission through the vissual nerve receive an answerable impression and figure in the brain before any difference can be estimated and valued between it and another letter by comparison for else could there be no difference put between any thing but what the eyâ— could see at once And this comprehension cannot be well made at first sight but according to appliableness of the organ and intention of mind in the learner and therefore in teaching of Birds and Beasts we use watchings corrections and rewards to make them attend In children that have their brain of a more tender substance and less distorted by former figures and have also according to their bigness more store of it then men we find how easie it s to teach them to read over older folks notwithstanding they have not usually the like desire and intention of mind So that the first step to knowledge is to feel and see well and to have good senses the next is to compare and make differences Younglings coming first to see look upon every thing with like amazement but because the light is the most usual thing they behold for the various session thereof makes colours they therefore after they have by custom past over its first dislike caused through strangeness first like the brightest and such colours as shew it most lively And hence they come to be pleased with glasses candles c. before shapes and figures and Babies come to be but after-plays to toys of shew for they see nothing without light but many shapes and figures besides those of men and women which shape again as being oftenest notified in comparison of all others comes to be most familiar pleasing And upon like reason come yonglings to like of that particular party that is most present to their sense it being much encreased by experience of indemnity So Ducks will follow the Hen that hatched them and so children that Nurse or other body that is most conversant familiar and kind unto them and they like and dislike others of the same kind as they resemble or differ most from these The pleasure of motion which young ones have in being rocked or in playing one with another seems to affect from that accustomed tumbling they had in the womb for feeling is the first of senses coming with life it self if not the same But then as the brain and animal spirit of each creature stands chiefly imployed in the womb in the motion and sense of feeling of the limbs and outward parts and doth thereupon prompt to exercise and delight in like agitation and motion afterwards yet when objects from the senses do afterwards come to imploy the brain and spirits inwardly and when sense from the inward parts do draw the fancy and intention that way then by degrees doth the exercise and delight in the motion of the limbs cease and men become not only sedentary and studious as in relation to figures entertained in the brain but also to be strongly affected with the pleasures of eating and drinking and such other enjoyments as may be performed with least shaking and dislocation of the stomack and other inward parts Those loud and harsher noises that prevail in quieting of children that cannot please from custom do take their effect from diversion that is by recalling their imagination from the sense of some other suffering to attend this strange noise now in their ears and not from pleasure of the noise it self which can please but by comparison of a less affliction to a greater But all our delights while very young are most corporal and have like to other Sensitives reference to our own sensible Customs But when we come to observe what rate the sense and custom of others put upon things persons or actions we then according to our own particular sense of the ability of the persons so rating them judge and conclude of their worth or otherwise which we call honour and dishonor And hence it comes that bigger Childrens most eager sports are usually made in imitation of what they see men do and the end of them to aim at victory and pre-excellence one above another And as we come to be in liking of persons and then of actions so children at first are imitating the actions of such they most converse with and take notice of so that sometimes they are washing sweeping making fires or the like from their converse and familiarity amongst servants but when they come abroad into the world persons of greatest honor come through the observation of the respect by others given that way to be most observed by them and consequently those actions that are performed by and to them to please above other actions For these having uniformity as being regulated by Law and Custom must affect above the lose incoherent and disorderly actions of others as handsome faces and good hands do above those that are common For it is not the persons but the dignity we affect And all actions and things that refer not to sensible good refer to honor and things come to have esteem as attendants and causes of honor For as honorable actions draw on our observation and esteem so self-respect leads us to affect and pursue the causes of them But unto the observation of the causes of honor children seldom reach for the effect must first so highly please as to provoke to ambition And therefore with them and the more ordinary sort of people flattery is apprehended to be the same with honor And for want of observatoin and intelligence wherein true honor doth consist they take all kind of praises and commendations to be the same with it And upon this score they may well indeed conclude that honor is in the honoring first and not in the honored for that there being no true cause or reason in the party this way honored why this praise or honor should be given but the cause and design of it taking issue from the flatterer it must thence follow that as honor is in the honored first so flattery in the flattered first From the custom of feeling before spoken of it is that very young infants or creatures finding nothing under them for support as they had in the
in the brain hath its whole substance besides its two coats for inclosure And therefore it is to be considered that as the first spirit generated of the egg or the like was homogenious unto it so by degrees as bodies and the humours in them do receive mixture and alteration the spirit thereof generated doth suffer change also until in age the one do become as heavy and indigested as the other and the spirit to be wholly suffocated and lost in the humours But the first quickning spirit being by the means aforesaid raised up and invited unto a regular motion doth then through habit of so moving make it self the organical continents and enclosures of heart arteries brain nerves c. serving as well for methodical motion as for places of test and Rendezvouz to the spirits and humours being then called life And it is to be supposed that this confinement and imprisonment of spirits in bodies is in it self unnatural and at first a causer of pain and living Creatures are by degrees only released of the sense thereof through custom of indurance and diversion by the means of maintenance of this methodical inward motion So that so long as this is kept orderly and free pain is avoided but if it be excited through too great and unusual proportion of spirits as we find after drinking where the strength of the liquor doth excessively turn into spirit then the membranes of the bâ—ain being extraordinarily pressed the party grows from their restlesness to be restless also and prone to ways of evacuation as to venery and motion the one causing greater delight because it affords a more free and methodical delivery the other less and more insensible because more slow and difficult as forcing through the substance and coats of the nerves themselves In like manner as a Commonwealth is enlivened and preserved by having the natural vigour and spirit of the people kept in a regular and methodical motion by the due observation of such regular Customes and Laws as shall be by the Prince thereof established when as the intemperate use of things accordding to their own several and occasional likings would be subject to bring on change and alteration to the destruction of the Body Politique as well as the Natural And in the Kingdom we may account the Nobility and Gentry as answering the humour in the Arteries and by their middle temper and condition carrying great force to unite the other extreams that is that more sublime spirit remaining in the head thereof the Prince which is chiefly swayed by sense of honor and those more gross humors of the ordinary sort swayed by more earthly and sensual delights When as they being participant of both may attemperate the Prince against so great sublination in attempts of ambition and vain glory whereby to put his people into too violent heat and feverish motion And also raise up and quicken the more slow sense of the people from their aguish dulness in matters of obedience to be more apprehensive and respectful of their Princes commands even as the natural members are to the directions of their head Like as also doth the degree of Yeomanry unite the Gentry with the Peasant and thereby impart some influence of courage and civility into those of the lowest rank who else become heartless and unserviceable as experience tells us of those Countreys where they are not Through custom of Walking we make it so familiar that the fancy need not alwayes intend that action by expresse direction as in the extraordinary running it must But custome of so doing having made a fit collocation in the brain it is able while it continues that posture which is unto this notion requisite to intend other objects also But in this faculty of going we may from the daily observation of the practise of children herein be put in minde with what trouble we are at first reduced from our natural proneness to be leaping with both feet at once and from thence to be taught to set down one foot after another after the manner of going The which whilst it was in doing as a matter of great difficulty did although we have now quite forgot it take up the whole imployment of our fancy the trouble thereof abating by degreees as custom and practice made it easie and secured us against fear of falling incident to that first trust to a new support as well as fear generally is to all new objects But these things now over the custom of walking keepeth my brain from trouble as it doth my limbs from weariness For it is not any naturalness in this motion of walking that makes it thus easily indured Nay it seems that only Birds that have indeed but two legs are inartificial and upright walkers and that this posture in mankinde is at first forced For the infant comes from the womb with the knees up and what pains with swadling do we take to stretch his body in length and kept it so With what aversion doth every one of them submit to this inforcement and how pleased are they when released so as the knees may be gotten up again When we come afterwards to teach them to go how ready are they to lean forward and set their hands to the ground What strange footing do they at last make in this uncoth motion And after we are men we may finde the naturalness of four-footed goings still pointed at Inasmuch as the Arms when they are at liberty and not otherwise imployed do in our several gates keep pace with our legs especially in fast walking wherein greater strength being required we may observe men moving their Arms answerable to their Legs and that cross ways after the fashion of a trot And so again when they are to run the arms are gathered up close as ready to move in an exilient or leaping manner which is the usual way of procession of such things as have their hinde legs long In swiming also man imploys all four like other things especially like such as have broad forefeet and the hindparts long as Frogs and such like And as for any difference that is in the joynts between men and Apes c. they may well proceed but from custom as crookedness doth in which case experience tells us how that continuance and usage of any posture whilst the bones and gristles are yet tender will cause the same so to fix afterwards that unto that party it will be as it were natural and so encrease by traduction also And we may further observe that the legs and thighs of infants are so bent as not to be too long for the Armes the trunks of their bodies being then also proportionably much longer and the plants of the feet so turned as to be accommodated to a four-footed motion well enough especially after a leaping fashion And therefore mankinde seems only incident to crookedness in the distortion of the joynts of the back-bone for although shortness of the trunk follow
the whole then apart And therefore for a stone or the like to tend that way and not to be diverted by the desire of union through proximity of a like less body is no wonder And as it is to the whole so it is to the centre or middle part of the whole that this desire of approach is annexed And hence it may easily be conceived that with our Antipodes this motion of bodies to the centre in their hemisphere is but the same with us in our hemisphere For the desire of union is equal in proportion to all parts of the whole mass as well in the greater body attracting as the lesser which we may call passive and attracted and is from centre to centre in both And as the centre of attraction governs thus in all natural motions so doth the centre of resistance in all violent motions But as there they imploy their force to Union and Agreement so here to repulse and victory For the ballance the leaver the wheel and other mechanical instruments have their force and are appliable to use from the just computation of distance from the centre in the parts where the strife lies in each of the opponents whereby that part of the ballance leaver c. that is shortest and so nearest the centre of the whole opposition will consequently as most oppressed with its burthen have least force in resistance and the other upon contrary reasons will have most force and this both of them proportionable to their distances in things of like weight and resistance even as in fencing he that is to put by the sword of another will find proportionable ease as there is difference of length between so much of the sword which the party incloseth in his hand and of that part beyond and without it For the upper part of the hand where the defendants forefinger joynt is being the centre of opposition it will follow that the assailant will have difference of force as he hath difference of distance from it that is answerably as the length of the sword without his hand is longer from the place touched by the assailant to the handle then the defendants hand is broad We before said the Brain to be the common sensory and the Senses the scouts and intelligencers for information and knowledge For colours figures c. may be said to be by the brain felt through the windows of eyes and savours and sounds through the nose and ears But of the forraign intelligencers the eye hath most advantage to knowledge being capable of more variety of objects and that at once and of apprehending them at greatest distance Now since between men and beasts there appears little and but occasional difference in the number or excellence of the senses and that all knowledge is acquired in us and acquired by help of these senses it would be known how this ability is attained In which discourse we will begin with sight whose object is a luminous or an opacous body and that by means of beams of light directly issuing from the one or reflected from the other After the first way I see the Sun a candle c. after the other way all opacous bodies that return their beams in both cases the beam of light being the object of sight colour figure c. are but its concomitants There may be thought another way of discovery that is by Eclypse where the body is discerned not by reflecting or discovering the beam but by impeaching and hiding it So the Moon in the Suns Eclypse discovers her own body not by sending but by preventing the light and indeed colours so far as they are in degree distant from white or light unto black or dark in which last the beam is wholly entred and lost So far and all that while doth the beam suffer degree of Eclypse in the different penetration and return it finds in the superficies of that body But although light beams be the only proper objects of sight yet hereby is the opacous body differenced in the manner of perception six ways By Figure by Motion by Colour by Magnitude by Number and by Scite or Posture All which properties are so inseparably adjoyned unto every material body that neither in themselves nor consequently in our contemplation a body can be without them nor they without a body except it be motion For we may see and imagine a body endued with Colour Proportion or Figure without motion but a body with or without motion wanting Colour Figure Dimension c. we cannot apprehend because there can be nothing in the fancy but what was first in the sense and therefore since no body was ever seen wanting these properties it cannot enter into the imagination without them nor they without it True it is that I may conceive a body of a different Figure Proportion c. unto any that I ever saw as to the whole fabrick yet must it be made up and have analogy unto some Figures formerly represented For so let a Traveller tell of some strange Beast he must to make it conceiveable give it some resemblance of head feet back belly or other shape to the likeness of Lyon Dog Horse or such like whereupon having finished his discourse by such similitude you have a body figured in your fancy of such a shape as entire you had not before but not so of the several parts But now to imagine a body void of colour or a body of such a colour as I never saw is impossible because this property is descernable by sight only and must have come from thence or not at all even from the divers observance of colorate objects And although I seldom can remember the instance or shape or the body that gave me this colour because the variety of Figures is more then that of colours and thereupon not so easily retained in memory even so Colours may remain after the Figures are abolished And for a little better discussion and satisfaction herein we will examine and instance in the miracle Christ wrought on the man born blind who upon his eyes opening said he saw men Walking as trees To satisfie which we are to know that Figure Motion Proportion c. are not the proper objects of sight but of feeling For although I cannot remember the particulars yet I did at first feel the different Shapes and Figures of things before I could distinguish them by sight and if we observe children while they are very little all their learning is but a conference between their hands and eyes that is to instruct their eyes to make true estimation of Figure Proportion c. For after that by feeling they have observed the different shadows were made in rounds flats corners and all other shapes and dimensions whatsoever they are consequently ready to make observation for all Figures following So now this blind man having it is likely upon some occasion been left to rest himself under or against a tree
p. 12. CHAP. VI. Of Honor p. 16. CHAP. VII Of the Laws of God leading to Government p. 24. CHAP. VIII Of the Master of the Family p. 28. CHAP. IX Of Soveraignty and its Original and of Monarchy or Kingly power p. 41. BOOK II. CHAP. I. OF Anarchy p. 79. CHAP. II. Of Faction and its original and usual supports p. 98. CHAP. III. Of Rebellion and its most notable causes and pretences p. 104. CHAP. IV. Of Liberty p. 114. CHAP. V. Of Tyranny p. 122. CHAP. VI. Of Slavery p. 126. CHAP. VII Of Property p. 130. CHAP. VIII Of Law Justice Equity c. p. 139. CHAP. IX Of Publike good Common good or Common-weal p. 158. CHAP. X. Of Paction and Commerce p. 161. CHAP. XI Of Magistrate Councellors c. p. 177. CHAP. XII Of the Right of Dominion p. 186. BOOK III. CHAP. I Of Religion in its true ground p. 213. CHAP. II. Of Religion as commonly received p. 116. CHAP. III. Of the Church Catholike and of the Fundamentals of Religion p. 222. CHAP. IV. Of each particular Church and its power p. 226. CHAP. V. Of the forms of Church Government and of the jurisdiction claimed by Church-men p. 233. CHAP. VI. Of the head of the Church and the Scriptures interpretation p. 249. CHAP. VII Of Love and Obedience and of our state of Innocence thereby p. 261. CHAP. VIII Of the Coincidence of Christian Graces p. 277. CHAP. IX Of Charity as it stands in Nature p. 299. CHAP. X. Of Patience Long-suffering Humility Meekness c. p. 310. CHAP. XI Of Idolatry and Superstition and of the power of each Church her head in the establishment of Ceremonies and divine worship p. 328. CHAP. XII Of Antichrist p. 349. CHAP. XIII Of the mystical delivery of some divine Truths and the reason thereof p. 388. CHAP. XIV Of Athiesm p. 403. BOOK IV. OF the causes of like and dislike of content and discontent and whether it be possible to frame a Government it self pleasing and durable without force and constraint p. 419. BOOK I. CHAP. I. Of Deity FRom the observation of the dependance of one thing upon another as of its Original and Cause we must come at last to fix on such a cause as is to all things Supreme and Independent For to proceed infinitely we cannot but shall lose our selves as in a circle whose ends will be as hardly brought to meet in our conceit as it is to imagine the most remote cause and most remote effect to joyn by immediate touch Observe we again That no Operation or Effect could ever have been produced in regular and orderly manner unless the direction thereof had first or last proceeded from a voluntary Agent So that when we find the Superiour Bodies Elements and other Creatures void of sense and will by their constant endeavours either pointing to any end at all or such other ends as have respect and benefit beyond themselves they must be concluded but as Passive Agents in both cases and the latter respect especially weighed will at last bring us to pitch upon one Agent or Authour of such universal power and concern in all things as to be the true Creator and Director of them all One I say for should each Element by it self or should the will of more then one be the Guider of Productions and Effects would it not follow that this Procession of chance or different aim and will must necessarily set Nature sometimes at a stand for want of sufficient power and direction what course to follow or as it were by a kinde of Civil War make her endeavours so distracted and weak that nothing but dissolution and confusion could follow From all which we may conclude both a Deity and the unity thereof and that as a free Agent no operation could have proceeded from him without an end whereby as by an immutable Law the effects and endeavours of other Creatures stand directed and limited unto certain ends and bounds which otherwise would not proceed at all or else do it infinitely or destructively to one another And upon the same reason of having the vertues and endeavours of natural Agents and Elements thus stinted and directed it will follow that as there must be such original Elements as might have fitness to answer thesâ— Laws and Rules of Providence so this pre-existent matter could not be equally eternal with Deity but must be at first created by the same hand it is now guided for should they not or should there have been no creation at all but a perpetual pre-existence of Elements before they had by the Rules of Providence their vertues and abilities harmoniously directed they must by their irregular courses have been the destruction of one another As therefore in the first case to skip and balk the more immediate and instrumental causes of things and fasten them as immediate upon God the Supreme after the usual way of the ignorant were so to confound and jumble Causes and Effects that there should not in nature be any certain Production at all because if the Supreme Cause should be an immediate cause to the most remote effect then in order backward that remotest effect must be a cause to that which was his immediate cause before and so on or else what was the immediate effect to the Supreme before will now by its removal therefrom and coming to be as immediate cause to the most remote effect want a cause for its own Production so in this latter case the like would befal if through want of good and true observation of the dependance and reason of effects and causes till we come to the Supreme Cause or Reason we should fasten the Productions of Elements or first matter on Chance for if they be constant and uniform how shall Chance own or lay claim to them Again to make them Co-eternal with Deity is to deny his Eternity or their dependance on him who must precede the Chaos in time as that again must precede the Endowment and Regulation of the qualities of the Elements themselves in time also For so fire was before heat as the cause is before the effect which had it been Eternal and the qualites of burning thereto annexed without limit which must have been had it been from it self only what would have become of the race all things else in this general conflagration which now keeping its degrees and being confined within such and such subjects and bounds by a Superiour Power is a great and necessary help to their Production That and all things else readily obeying the Law of their Maker from whom as from a most wise Omnipotent and Bountiful Creator nothing but works and operations suitable are to be expected CHAP. II. Of Providence and its Rules in general AS therefore the perfection of this Worlds Maker doth sufficiently argue the perfection of the work so doth the perfection of the work as justly plead for continuance Continue it could not by any other Power then
And therefore those that have gone about to propound the dis-impropriation of Goods Wives c. as thinking upon taking off the notions of meum and tuum to take off all Civil War do not onely as aforesaid undertake what is impossible as supposing Man a Creature of so much appetite and leisure can be without something in that kinde to seek but that which would be hurtful also For although Bees Ants and such like creatures which some inconsiderately think imitable do enjoy a parity and have their private good and the publike all one in the same direâ—t line for intention and execution yet if their different condition from mans be examined it would be found as reasonable that man should do otherwise as they should do so For they are born all at once so as being but one litter and seeming but one thing they do accordingly keep up co-habitation And as this strict co-habitation keeps them from intermedling with other creatures whereby to be affected with imitation of their appetites so their own appetite of self-preservation for necessary food keeps them so wholly intent in the provision thereof that they want the sole occasion to faction and disunion which is idleness And therefore they may be discerned always in haste and imployed about that very one thing namely provision of food and that not without need for the whole yeers expence lies upon a short times gathering Whereas men that have such difference of age company appetite judgement and so much leisure cannot but be thought to have as different and private ayms And to think that a man shall not have self-aym in all he doth is to think he shall have no aym at all but to do always one thing and that out of present haste and necessity as Ants do But as we finde all Sensitives as such must according to their degree of Knowledge have self-aym in so much as Beasts of most leisure have it most so man as the most contemplative long-lived rational creature must have it most Which things duely considered and the respective and different cares and parts of Prince and Subject it will easily appear what things are and must be the aim of both For the one seeing that the whole good was his particular good and thereupon following the natural rule of self-seeking he must as he desired his own good seek that of the whole people because if any part of the publike be decayed or lost even so much his private is decayed and lost also For the Prince should be in the body politique as the Brain to the body natural without sense to it self and yet be the common sense to all other parts Then the Subject on the other side as naturally seeking pleasure and avoiding the contrary is as regarding his particular herein stirred up by the rewards and punishments of the Law to do or avoid such things as are agreeable to publike interest By which means every man seeking necessarily his own private and then publike and private benefits being in all relations the same and convertible Polity is established and Charity also while our neighbours benefits are established in our own And while Prince and people thus move in course according to each ones order the general welfare is maintained But if the harmony and proportions be broken by any ones invading on the others imployment mischief will follow For if any order or estate of the people shall forsake their own bounds and take upon them to judge of publike expedients and mischiefs and act accordingly then as the publike good will fail for want of care so will their own good fail therewith also And so again it is if the Prince upon the terror of any discontented parties hath parted with some of his Soveraignty or common interest to other hands will not his care that should be common to all alike as Subject come to be less to those because they are less Subjects then others And then again if the King himself out of favour to any shall give exemptions or priviledges derogatory to his just Prerogative this will cause a partial eye towards them in his time it is like an angry one towards them afterwards in both cases hazarding publike care and Justice because the whole is not looked upon with equal interest But the truth is Princes errors this way can seldom go far for that the successors finding this indulgence prejudicial will still recal them into common again For as it is probable their Fathers favorites were none of theirs so you may be sure none of the peoples so far as to fear part-takings in devesting them But now when this politique direction and rule for self-seeking is laid aside and the rewards and threats to obedience cannot so prevail but that some daring spirits of more then ordinary ayms and affections hoping to have their Ambition Covetousness and Revenge satisfied better in an extraordinary way then what is by Law appointed will be acting to publike disquiet then it is that Faction is beginning which is nothing else but an unlawful association of Subjects in opposition to their one supreme Authority which association is by each one run into as he findes his own hopes or fears therein attained or secured In which case each Faction is in its actings without publike allowance to be looked on as a private person The original and rise of Faction being discontent hence it is that no Government whatsoever can be wholly without it that is in aym and design however it may be kept from act and execution through fear to prevail And this not onely as all Government is in it self to be considered as a reâ—â—raint of our wills and so prompting us to contrivement of ease but inasmuch as there can be but few persons so constantly and entirely favored or be friended by the present power of any place as not to have many things in their ayms and hopes in order to Revenge or Covetousness to be got by siding and complyance elsewhere therefore all men whatsoever are to be presumed more or less enclined to Faction as they are more or less discontented But then because men singly and in small numbers cannot act or secure themselves against established polity and the penalties thereof they must next endeavor such strength by association as to be thereby enabled to bring on their own aims by complying with the interests of others And although again there can be no two men found of alike interest and aim in all things yet men not finding agreement so fully as they would do then seek it in the neerest proportion they can and since they finde none to make companions in all their ayms they then joyn with such as concur in most And so having gotten as they believe association and strength enough to carry on their design they now begin to separate and divide the Kingdom by separating themselves These that side with them they call for reputation sake the people and the good
but to the Rulers benefit and then licentiousness which without respect of peace and Government or the good of others reacheth at all things without controul We may call it a desire of freedom from external impediments external I say because inwardly I cannot be divided against my self And though the Affections and Reason may have temporary disputes yet when the Will puts forth to the attaining any object the impediment that hinders my obtaining it must be without my self and I can lay no complaint or reparation elsewhere Wherefore this desire being external and of a thing in the power and possession of another for if it were in my own I should not deny my self or had reason to complain it will follow that this obtaining Liberty in me to acquire will be the loss of Liberty in him that is dispossessed For if our desires are as indeed usually they are most heightened and fixed to those things which are most rare and scarce in their kind and such as through the common endeavor of others have obtained price and estimation will it not come to pass that my liberty to get from him what is already in his possession or expectation will prove as great a loss of freedom to him as it is gain to me So that then Liberty as it is usually endeavoured and sought is but the acquisition of power to act or obtain something we have a minde unto which is now in the possession or power of another If then I laying claim to my natural liberty and forsaking the determination of my rightful superior will proceed to execution of mine own desires without considering those of others what can follow but confusion For all men having in Nature equal desires and claim why should mine prevail in mine own case so far as without leave to inflict on another what I did before complain of as a grievance towards my self For instance when fault is found with the yoak of Government in Church or State as oppressing the liberty of Conscience or person of the Subjects wrongfully and men in order thereunto seek to dispossess the present executioners as abusing their power and to settle it on themselves or such as they have most interest in or confidence of which must necessarily and doth always follow what is this to the advancement of liberty of Subjects in general or beyond their own particular party and is to shift but not to ease the Yoak What is this but for parties to take upon them to be Judges and for one part of the Subjects renouncing the sentence of judgement and determination that was before held as publike and indifferent to all parties now to usurp power over their fellows and equals If they plead it is not another Government they seek but say There ought to be no restraint in such and such things at all do they not hereby seek to introduce that liberty of Anarchy and overthrow all possibility of Peace and Agreement For since strife and competition can never happen but about such things as are desired by others as well as themseves if then in this prosecution of these desires on both sides the common rule of determination be not observed as indifferent must not one party fall out to be judge over the other Whereupon as that one party may in the conquest call themselves free so may the other being subjected and overcome call themselves slaves From all which we may gather the usual mistake in application of this notion of Liberty as proper to the governed when it is proper to the governor onely For to say the Liberty of a Subject is none other then a contradiction for wherein he is a Subject he is not at liberty and wherein any is at liberty he is not a Subject But because no government can be so extensive as not to remit some things to the choice of the Subject he may still justly be called a Subject even in what he is for the present free because having been therein restrainable by his superior his freedom and power to act therein by his own Will proceeded from the freedom and power of the other and is thereupon originally and truely the governors power and freedom and not the others For since to the stating of government an explicite act or execution is not always required but a true stating the Corelates of governing and governed whereby the Governor may act as he shall see occasion it will follow that freedom in the Subject or Patient will in order to polity depend on the freedom of the Governor and Agent and that as these are more or less obnoxious so will the governed be more or less free For as the brain could not impart sense to its own Membrances and Nerves if it were in its own substance in any sort patible and affected by impression of objects that way subjected unto it nor could the eye judge of colors if the Christaline humor stood any ways particularly tainted even so the freedom of Subjects can be but proportionable to that of the person whom they serve both in order to the singleness and worth of the Commanders considered in themselves and also in regard of the paucity of precepts from them proceeding Hence as God can be onely perfectly free as being alone and onely in all kindes and degrees unsubjected so can his service be onely perfect freedom Not that service and obedience as such can be freedom but the singleness and high worth of the Commander must make the commanded to be comparatively free to all others even in the execution of the command it self And so will the abatement of number in the persons commanding do the like even until it comes to Unity or Monarchy so as to make the benefit and good of commanding and commanded to be reciprocal For considering the commanded as a voluntary Agent and so having an end proper to follow and not to be governed like the meer passive instrument the known good intention and power of the commander will be always so ready a stop to his reluctance that the performance of the Governors will shall be the same with his own as knowing his good to be in all things respected As these considerations will make the freedom of such as are Subjects to the Monarch onely to be greater then the freedom of servants because the Prince hath none but God to obey whereas the Master hath the Prince and Magistrates also so again will he be more free then the Subjects in Polarchies who have so many above them that they can by their equality neither have any eminence of freedom or honor amongst themselves so as to give it to their subjects nor can have such true reciprocal concern in their subjects good as upon the like assurance of their sincerity to make the obedience to their commands the continual object of their Wills as the Prince may for that cause do And also because in obeying him they do upon the matter obey God onely who
we shall agree to their usual definition of freedom calling him onely a Citizen and free that hath a share and voice in the Government then all under their obeysance must be reckoned slaves as indeed they are the exclusion of Tradesmen in some Commonweals the different admission of freed men and different yeers of emancipation and admission of children to be Citizens shews all their rule to be arbitrary and not depending on their pretended Paction or consent Nor is the little finger of these Polarchies heavier then the loyns of Kings in point of Liberty onely but in Property also the publike Levies and Taxes being always rateably more in them then in Monarchies that are of like extent for Territorie or number of Subjects The which must so come to pass because they can never subsist without Armies both to force their own vassals to obedience and also to keep the major part of the whole commonalty and people from having power and opportunity to set up some more eminent person in trust and charge with the Commonwealth in their stead And to conclude as we defined the Liberty of a Subject to be when he shall be suffered to enjoy his own delight and good so far as publike utility is not crossed to slavery is hereof to be deprived without the same regard but in neither case is the reason and measure left to the parties own judgement but to that which is publike and common CHAP. VII Of Property WE have formerly discoursed how pleasure is the end of all sensiâ—ives and that as man had the most variety of perfection herein so stood his obligation of gratitude and praise higher then of other creatures And this is not only remarkable in that every thing one way or other is made delightful but then farther because the stock of nature in many kinds is not of it self sufficient and because again the covetous appetites of others will not many times let things extend to general satisfaction therefore to preserve our contents and thereby invite us to thankfulness we may observe that each one hath his pleasure and delight affixed to what he possesseth even so that be it of what kind it will the possessions of others in the same or other kinde passeth with less repining For as the food we eat be it never so unlike the body it self or never so differing from other sorts doth yet by long retention and the divers concoctions and passages of the body attain at last to a perfect degree of assimulation even so our sence through daily presence of our own particular enjoyments doth at last imprint them unto the fancy with such steady delight that they come to be valued in a kinde of Identity or second self Answerable hereunto both in end and effect is that property of properties or that property that usually provokes us to seek all others namely that great love of parents towards their children which as a thing of greatest use for preservation of mankinde and esteemed of great concern to parents comes to stick so close to our affections out of no other consideration Insomuch as in all creatures this affection prevailes as acquired to its particular object and not out of any innate sympathy in nature And therefore another yongling of the same or divers kind if the dam be ignorant of the change obtains as great love as the true would do So that Hens we see and other fowl will hatch and bring up fowl of other and different sorts to their own and all because in eggs they were not easily distinguishable whereas after they have taken full notice of their own a remarkable stranger shall not be admitted So in other beasts before their sense have had time to take notice of the shape or smell of their brood part of or all their litter may be changed especially for others of the same kind where there is no disparity of size or yeers As for men mark such as have their wives in suspition how they will pick and choose among their children not as any other affection but as conceit of propriety shall lead them And again such as have just cause to suspect but yet are not at all jealous under this conceit of propriety either love all alike or distinguish not by any revealing sympathy Nay what mother at the same time of her delivery might not be cozened with a change as also while children are at nurse Their best security being that this affectionate esteem of propriety makes the poorest parent of all even loth to yeild thereunto And although our particular goods and estates as being reckoned not of so great concern nor being so long or often in our sight comes to have a less regard Yet an especial indulgence we may observe cast towards them in such sort that the true fountain from whom they flow comes many times to be forgotten For so full of pride and vain-glory are all sorts of men by nature and so heavy a burthen doth the due return of received benefits seem to our ungrateful dispositions that rather then any diminution of content through the acknowledgement of such receit shall lye upon us we are ready by all inventions we can make to shift off the plain confession of any dependance whatsoever And because It is a more blessed thing to give then to receive we would in nothing or at least in due measure acknowledge our selves receivers The prevailence of this humor appears in all those goods and 〈◊〉 which by the bounty of God the earth and other elements and creatur◠〈◊〉 so plentifully afford us For how ready are we herein to finde out a 〈◊〉 relinquish and forget our common dependance and obligation and to impale and impropriate to our selves set portions of them answerable to our desires From which as from a stock now our own our wants being supplied our acknowledgement and gratitude comes many times to be forgotten And this is not onely practised by mankind in general against the common right of other creatures as accounting himself sole Master and Proprietor of natures common revenue but also by Kingdoms Societies and particular persons to the detriment of one another To meet with this inconvenience many things are by our All-seeing God in his law enjoyned in acknowledgement of his original and Paramount propriety for so comes a seventh of our time a tenth of our substance the first of our fruits liquors cattel nay of our own sons to be his to keep us in remembrance that we have not in our selves any unconditionate propriety not so much as over our own persons And to shew that these things are of common interest as between men so between men and beasts every seventh yeer the land is to rest and lye still That the poor may eat and what they leave the beasts of the field may eat And this consideration is expresly set to the letting the land lye fallow in the yeer of Jubilee namely that the land is
Kings as Supreum or unto others as sent of him As thus in many matters of Charity divine direction was usefull so to the particular direction of our Christian faith on which as a ground-work our Charity was to be built this direction was much more necessary For since none could come to God except he first know that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him so the stating our faith standing necessary as to the stating our obedience we we may see cause for the frequent commendation and injunctions thereof in the New Testament where it is expresly said that without it t is impossible to please God that is without confidence of his being and of his rewards and punishments following our good or bad actions we shall not be zealous of good works or duties of Charity And having so far shewed what the ground of Religion should be we will next shew what it usually is both in ground and practice CHAP. II. Of Religion as commonly received BEfore the knowledge of good and evil entred into man Nature was his religion and what was by her law done was also thereby justified But being once possessed with the apprehension of this discovery all our thoughts and actions were so involved herein that nothing we said or did could escape censure on one side or other and so consequently for well or ill doing we could not but expect reward or punishment But because on the one hand the natural pride and arrogancy of each man was ready to put a greater rate and desert upon his intents and doings then he saw them rewarded with in this life and on the other side knowing the great and many faults that had escaped him or others not at all espied by men or by law so throughly punished as he thought their gift required the two main guides of our nature hope and fear led on our expectations to a future reckoning in such a sort that where the souls immortallity and our resurrection are not by special revelation manifested men are yet generally found believing thereof the craft of persons in authority many times helping on and biassing these Superstitions of inferiours to sociable advantages or self respects Now the wayes men take for the obtaining of this future reward or a voiding the like punishment is their religion And then religion having its ground from conscience and each mans conscience following the light of his understanding in judging good and bad and their degree from the diversity of understanding followeth the diversity of religions which as they had their first rise and fashion from their several Authours so each one yeilds himself a Disciple as he findes his hopes or the fears of his owne conscience therewith satisfied Therefore now concluding mens religion and conscience to be according to their understanding and their understandings being not onely differing but altogether imperfect it is impossible that any Religion should be true but what is from God himself received But then again because truth doth not move by being but by being apparent and because there is no way for this apparency till it be made conceivable to my understanding will it not follow that therein also we must be subject to much difference uncertainty So that men generally acknowledging a deity that no religion can be true but what shal be from him received they do by means of this fallible guide so usually mistake in their choice For knowledg in this kinde is not innate but acquired for why else are not Children and innocents as well as men of riper capacity by priviledge of birth and species without more ado instructed Why is that long stay made until by natural course the sences and organs of the body receiving their due growth and perfection the understanding together therewith arrive also at a sufficient capacity for the same reason to work by So that then the priority and worth of divine truths being not able of themselves to enter our capacities otherwise then as let in by the senses or else made familiar by such things as formerly were so as types parables similitudes and the like it comes to pass that according to the several prepossessions of men and their several fashions in entertaining them our several beliefes and opinions do arise And although we are seldome able to remember those sensible inductions out of which they grew yet from such they must needs at first grow inasmuch as had they come in without mixture they would like truths have remained to all men the same and alike whereas now their variety shews the variety of their entertainment and admittance And therefore although naturally as men and for satisfaction of our hope and fears sake we generally adhere to one sort of Religion or another yet when we come to entertain the kindes we stand not onely disabled in our Election but for the most part use no Election at all depending rather on chance then choice For what one is there of a thousand that ever doubts of or alters the religion he was brought up in For do we not Scholly and Catechise our Children in the same opinion with our selves do we not carry and send them with directions for beliefe and attention unto such Churches and Preachers where we are sure the truth and benefit of this and the falsehood and dangers of all others shall be exemplified to the height What probability then that he should prefer an opinion unknown at least alwayes discommended before one he doth know and hears alwaies praised Whereupon we shall finde preoccupation of judgement of such force that whether they be Christian Jew Mahumetan Heathen or a distinct Sect under any of these generals yet all of them to resolute to their owne side that they will embrace Martyrdom rather then a recantation Not that all in any kinde will do so for all men stand differenced between perfect Atheism and height of belief but where such tenderness of conscience and disposition is met withall as can be subdued to entertain Myrterdome on one side the same party would also have entertained it on another had education and other fore-stalling arguments been applyed unto him And even as in Christianity it self and the sects thereof we may find both Martyrs and Renegates as strength of belief leades them so in other religions also upon tryal these kindes have been apparent For as the Magitians feigned Miracles found greater belief with the Egyptians then the true ones of Moses so a false information having nothing to contradict it or education having forestalled our judgements prevailes as true with us and the contradictory thereof as false For all men thinking it reasonable that the proof of divine authority should be evinced by something more then humane and that supernatural truths otherwaies not conceiveable by sense and so demonstrable should be ascertained and illustrated by such as were it made the founders of all Religions pretend miracles as thinking their endeavours
so we again having no other direct outward precept from God or Christ himself are through faith and by our ready obedience to him actually performed to his Church in his stead as having the word of reconciliation committed unto them acquitted in all we do but if done otherwise we forfeit thereby the whole condition and as again obliged and culpable for the breach of the whole law nothing but read mission into the Covenant of Innonency by repentance can secure us from damnation CHAP. IV. Of each particular Church and its power HAving hitherto spoken of the Reason and Foundation of the Church in general and of the necessity of our participation of her communion so now again it will be necessary to speak of each particular Church and its jurisdiction For since we cannot otherwise attain to be members of this Catholick body then as being first members of some particular Church it will therefore follow that as the necessary observation of the law of providence which we could not explicitely and perfectly do upon our owne abilities was the cause Christ became obedient to God for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him so there lies upon each member a duty of conformity and obedience to their particular Churches that thereby being made conformable to the image of his Son they may also be restored to the image of God And therefore although the Catholick Church cannot be aggregate or represented der any single head or rule but of Christ himself yet since it is integrated and by parts made up of particular Churches and in these Christs power being to be represented by other Christs or anointeds under him it will follow that our obedience to this Church and the head thereof must have of us all that obedience which unto the other we cannot give else would that precept of obedience to the Church come to nothing as indeed for the most part is intended by such as would have the Writers of their owne mind to be held for the Catholick Church onely Therefore now being to consider the Christian Church as an assembly of Believers separate from other for Gods more immediate honour and worship we cannot well appropriate this phrase to that part of the Catholick which is past and unconversant with men nor for the present to that part of it which is yet to suceeed although both the one and the other have done or are to do their personal parts herein but must interpret that notion of Catholick Church used either when those duties are in general given which are fit for the Church to observe in obedience to Christ or when againe given for her members to observe to her to intend that part of Christs body which shall be successively militant on earth to whom alone these instructions can be necessary and useful in both kinds But then again as this general duly of praising God before men can onely be performed by the visible Church because she hath onely power and opportunity therein yet since this power here on earth is subsistant by the separate jurisdiction of those particular Churches which constitute her Catholick body and she can in no other sence be termed Catholick with reference to any other head then of Christ himself it must be therefore granted that all those precepts for general obedience to the Church must be meant of every Church in particular as having onely use of jurisdiction to this purpose And as having besides according to the several inclinations of their owne people and the known affections of those of the world amongst whom they live the best and onely ability to know and command what is fittest to be done for advancing Gods glory according to the exigence of their particulars which otherwise in the strange mixture of Christianity with other religions throughout the world were not possible to be comprised under one certain or equal rule or to be known and executed by one single persons power And that the Church and civil jurisdiction of each place signifie the same and that by obedience to the Church obedience to the particular Church is ment will appear by that of our Saviour Mat. 18. where controversies are if not decideable by umperage to be told to the Church Under which name must be comprehended the present particular authority of that place because else how shall they go to it And it must be the civil as well as ecclesiastical authority also as having them conjoined because it determines particular personal injuries where brother offends against brother and one servant takes another by the throate saying pay what thou owest as the parable denotes But the conclusion is that the supream jurisdiction whilst it is Christian is the very Church we are to submit unto And those that will not hear the Church are to be unto us as Heathens and Publicans that is such as have renounced Christ by this their renoucing the Image of his authority the Christian Church whose definition and power be the thing of never so civil nature makes the breach of it a sin as on the contrary our obedience to them acquits us of guilt For it is from Christ they have this power that Whatsoever is bound on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever they shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven So that Christ having now blotted out that hand writing of Iewish Ordinances which was against us and released them from their litteral strictness to the extent of rational and natural laws and having also answered to God for the large morallity of the whole rule of providence leaving Christians at large in all things wherein their reason or Christian precept is not transgressed and lastly having left the charge for custody and enforcing these Christian precepts to every Christian Church who are thereupon to answer to him for the faults of the people the advantage that Christians have of living in a state of innocence is unquestionable and immoveable while they contiune obedient And therefore Christs Gospel might well be called Glad tytings and we may find that our Saviour made his general encouragement to the entertainment of him and his doctrine because his yoke was easy and his burthen light Insomuch that when he came in particlar to be asked what it was he answered in one command for both Tables thou shalt love c. including under the precept of love to God and our Neighbour all the law and the Prophets that is all things of faith and charity or of faith and obedience which is charities support First for our faith and its fundamental object life eternal is to know God and Iesus whom he hath sent he is the way the truth and the life the Authour and finisher of our faith on whom whosoever believeth hath everlasting life and on him that believeth not the wrath of God abideth Which one article comes therefore to be eminently necessary
this peculier erected posture yet for further ease of the weight thereof wanting support like other Creatures that use four feet some way of leaning and standing comes to be affected bringing on crookedness and so farther shortning the trunk also Upon which consideration we may suppose mens Limbs fitted for upright going even as Parats have one claw turned backward that is because the whole race of them feeding out of their feet and not being able to hold their meat to their mouths without turning their claws it came at last so to settle although the distortion be still apparent And yet why may not men naturally enough go on their hinde feet onely as we see some horses born amblers for as in them custom and habit do often pass by traduction so all men being goers why should not children be naturally walkers and since it may be presumed that Adam and Eve were set upright why not their posterity insomuch as there should be no sort of people without this posture It may be so if we could have spoken without teaching but as Adam was to have his knowledge infused and not acquired from childhood so the faculty of upright going also if he had it otherwise it is like he would not have so gone more then spoken But this gate no doubt is of great advantage to mans use in some things and that even in the exercise of the faculties of his minde and judgement because he is hereby able to carry his head and neck more steadily then when they should be prominent and hang out fore-right whereupon the senses Nerves and parts of the body may have a more direct and steady entercourse with the brain so as to hold on and keep fresh such objects and figures as shall be entertained therein that so by summoning all its concomitant impressions after each parties artificial way of topical method and adjudication a full discovery may be made to serve for instruction or use against another time before that figure be parted with And therefore we may observe that while we are in great inquiry and study concerning any thing we hold our heads very steady whereas those that have a loose carriage of their necks are proportionably weak in their intellectuals And truly to be a good Peripatetick is a great step to be a good Philosopher because in this erect gate the bones being in a straight line do bear the weight of the body so as the brain may not be diverted from its inward work and agitation to any great supply of the Nerves and Muscles without And besides this we have some advantage to knowledge by keeping our hands by this means more tender whereby to imprint more exactly by feeling with them But then again there is no doubt but in many bodily exercises the other motion and gate would be advantageous as in leaping running climbing and all sorts of nimbleness And for tryal sake hereof it were not amiss that some children were so brought up and nourished as to be without sight of company that they might take their natural course herein until some degree of years at least those that come to them to feed or teach them to speak should come upon all four and then sit after the eastern fashion but the greatest and best advantage would be if men could conveniently be brought to use both ways of gate upon occasion but this by the way Now as there is an creation of body so is there an erection of minde wherein indeed the pourtrait and image of God is to be sought And unto this estate of upright walking and looking towards heaven we are by more slow and difficult degrees reduced in our souls then we are in our bodies even because of those natural and inbred affections of Pride Covetousness Sensuality Stubbornness and the like whereby we are carryed with a perpetual delight to lye groveling on the things of this world The first great help to this straightness of minde are those swathings of Precepts and discipline wherewith and whereby from our infancy and from the same time we begin to go we have the Rebellion and irregularities of our nature rectifyed by the Laws and Rules of our Parents by the due application and exercise whereof while our affections as well as our limbs are yet pliant and tender we come to be well fitted and prepared to undergo and act as Christians and subjects in our political relation that measure of duty and submission which in our Oeconomical relation we had been habituated unto as children when either our heavenly Father or the Father of our Country shall have farther occasion to make tryal of our growth and steadiness in perfection by those afflictions and hardships which through humility and obedience to them we shall be put unto So that there will be these differences between the erection of the body and that of the soul. All the difficulty of upright going in the first sort rests in our infancy even in keeping the limbs of our body straight whereas the difficulty of upright walking in the other sort is chiefly afterwards when by reason of obdurate natural stubborness and crookedness of disposition we stand in more need of the ligaments and tyes of Laws and Discipline then before After we come to growth the elevation of our minde is helping to the body in continuance of this his elevation even through pride and affection as striving to excel in that which we see to be so generally practised whereas to the true elevation and upright walking of the inward man the pride and haughtiness of the outward man is altogether averse and there is no surer way to the true raising and dignifying of our mindes then by the depressing and keeping under of our bodies when as by due applycation and use of afflictions and Patience we may make those true Christian graces of humility and lowliness of minde in our own and worldly esteem to become our true glory and exaltation in the sight of God For it is to be considered that there are ghostly and gracious habits as well as bodily and natural ones and that these as the more worthy ought to take up our chief endeavour To proceed farther into search of the degrees of knowledge and comprehension we may observe that those that can perfectly read are past the trouble of spelling and those that can do that well do it so without disturbance to their fancy that they can intend the matter treated of without distraction through notice of the words more then the action of walking doth disturb the party from entertaining other objects and thoughts As for the usual tryal and difficulty of rubbing with one hand and patting with another both at once it proceeds from want of custom whereby the brain cannot accommodate it self to both actions at the same instant but through practice and custom both may be done and yet the fancy have ability and leisure to intend something else even as Turners and Spinsters
as these our conceived figures do differ from one another so will there be difference in the opinions of the parâ—ies that do frame their conceptions from them And although men now grown to some years can remember names and words without their figures that first imprinted them yet as experience tells us we cannot remember the name of any single or distinct thing or person but his shape will first come into our fancy shewing that as natural notions and the comprehensions of separate things arose and were confirmed in us from frequent or intent admittance through outward sense So the peremptory conceipt of the fitness of Method and Rules of adjudication framed thereupon must arise also from divers essays and observations of the analogy and correspondencâ— between them And in childrens learning to speak the articulation of words is not so great a hindrance as want of fancy through want of impression of some Figure of that thing which these words should express for Pariaâ—s that can articular well enough are for this cause uncapable to speak many things or indeed any thing but what must arise from large itteration which must serve to them as an affection arising from height and sharpness or manner of sound and impression through often hearing of the same tone and not as an object of memory so distinctly figured by it self as to mind him of the object whereof he speaks although indeed their speech is usually brought on by way of memory from Figure as by the sight of persons or places that did teach or accompany their learning As the eye is the sense of largest supply to Feeling and memory so through variety of its objects fancy hath more ability to conceive and distinguish the impressions thereof then by any other of the senses For sight hath all varieties of Figure Number Proportion c. for its observation whereas the other senses are for the most part single in their objects Nay Figure alone is of such variety as there cannot be such exactness between any two things take them of leaves of the same tree stones or what natural thing you will but some such difference to the eye may still be discovered as a man may be said to know them by it But Savours and Sounds being like single colours without such remarkable difference can seldom so imploy and affect the fancy as to be remembred distinct from one another as of themselves but as accompanied with that figurate body or some other sensible accident at the time of their admittance And hence comes another advantage men have to knowledge abeve other creatures namely this greater variety of induction by relying on sight and feeling more then they For smelling which is the sense they most relye upon and make use of is capable but of little variety of impression and their knowledge and instruction gathered from difference herein serveth seldom to other imployment then to distinguish food by it being indeed but as one and the same sense with tasting or being but tasting at distance even as tasting again is but the proper sense of feeling for one part namely the stomack And it will hence follow that as the variety of the objects of sight exceed those of smell and as the variety of feeling with the hand exceeds that of feeling with the Pallat so doth mens advantage to knowledge exceed even in this respect also that of other creatures And again as Beasts relying and usuage of these more confined enquiries of Taste and Smelling can produce thereupon but little knowledge so such men or such creatures as are in their senses most confined whether in this kind or in any other must be also most confined in knowledge as on the contrary they that are intent on Figures have advantage to memory and so to knowledge And therefore we can never remember that which happened unto us in our infancy or very young because we had not as then throughly learned to distinguish and retain Figures But then although smelling have hereupon least influence upon us as to our intellectual and moral habits yet by reason of its vicinity and entercourse with the spirits themselves it is most strongly operative for introducing affections in us as in our natural condition and thereby to move us more strongly to liking and action then the other senses can And however we are not like other Sensitives that are not capable of making use of figurate objects and receiving impression from them lead to fancy and distinguish particular things and persons from custom and usage hence only arising but are able from those greater and more observable agreements and disparities which appear to sight and other senses and from the oftner imployment of them thereabouts many times to put a stop and controul upon what is approved by the other and to choose and stand affected from them and not from the other yet in those things that depend upon more general acquaintance and commerce and where long conversation hath grown up into habit and custom without controul or notice of other senses there the sense of smelling doth with us as well as them so far prevail as to pass into that we call Nature For and towards the liking of such sorts or species of creatures with whom we are most conversant by means of those vapours and spirits that flow from them And hence it is that as all creatures do from their more usual association come to like those of their own kind more then others so also do they by degrees do it even as each individual of the same species attains to full growth and perfection whereby they may be reciprocally enabled both to give and take from each other these more strong impressions Upon which ground each Sensitive at the time of its ripeness comes to be imbued and possessed with correspondent degree of delight in each others company and also with that high desire of more near personal union and congression even so far until by means thereof and of that mixture of more spiritous parts therein made a third creature of their own kind is made up and generated That this inclination is but emergent from that Natura Naturata those Laws of matter which the great Natura Naturans did at first impose for and towards the mutual preservation of the Universe and its Species and not from such discreet instinct and original perception as that each thing as by a kind of miracle or as being a God to its self should be knowingly led to choice and discrimination herein will plainly appear in those mixtures which are produced from those meetings of creatures of several sorts at common watering places or the like The which we might well think would be much more common and strong if any thing from its birth should have been kept to herd amongst those of that kind then can be now where at the meetings at Nilus or the like there is but a short and occasional acquaintance and that not