it is nevertheless I do verily believe that the body of the Sun is far brighter then the light we see and that the substance of light and the patterns taken from light are not one and the same but very different And thus much of light As for Penetration I conceive it to be nothing else but division as when some parts pierce and enter through other parts as Duellers run each other thorow or as water runs through a sieve And this is the opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIV MADAM HAving given you my opinion both of the substance and perception of Light in my last Letter I perceive your desire is to know how Shadows are made Truly Madam to my sense and reason it appears most probable that shadows are made by the way of patterning As for example when a Man 's or Trees or any other the like Creature 's shadow is made upon the Ground or Wall or the like those bodies as the Ground or Wall do in my opinion pattern out the interposing body that is between the light and them And the reason that the shadow is longer or shorter or bigger or less is according as the light is nearer or further off for when the light is perpendicular the interposing body cannot obscure the light because the light surrounding the interposing body by its brightness rather obscures the body then the body the light for the numerous and splendorous patterns of light taken from the body of the Sun do quite involve the interposing body Next you desire to know Whether the light we see in the Moon be the Moons own natural light or a borrowed light from the Sun I answer that in my opinion it is a borrowed light to wit that the Moon doth pattern out the light of the Sun and the proof of it is that when the Sun is in an Eclipse we do plainly perceive that so much of the Sun is darkned as the Moon covers for though those parts of the Moon that are next the Sun may for any thing we know pattern out the light of the Sun yet the Moon is dark on that side which is from the Sun I will not say but that part of the Moon which is towards the Earth may pattern out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth which may make the Moon appear more dark and sullen But when the Moon is in an Eclipse then it is plainly perceived that the Moon patterns out the Earth or the shadow of the Earth Besides those parts of the Moon that are farthest from the Sun are dark as we may observe when as the Moon is in the Wane and enlightened when the Sun is nearer But I will leave this argument to observing Astrologers and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXV MADAM IF acording to your Authors opinion In every particular world such as Man is especially his own Soul which is a Spirit be the peculiar and most perfective architect of the Fabrick of his Body as the Soul of the world is of it Then I cannot conceive in my reason how the separation is made in death for I see that all animals and so man-kind have a natural desire to live and that life and soul are unwilling to part And if the power lies in the Soul why doth she not continue with the Body and animate move and actuate it as she did before or order the matter so as not to dissolve But if the dissolution lies in the body then the body has self-motion Yet it is most probable if the soul be the architect of the body it must also be the dissolver of it and if there come not another soul into the parts of matter the body must either be annihilated or lie immoved as long as the world lasts which is improbable for surely all the bodies of men or other animals are imployed by Nature to some use or other However it is requisite that the soul must stay so long in the body until it be turned into dust and ashes otherwise the body having no self-motion would remain as it was when the soul left it that is entire and undissolved As for example when a man dies if there be no motion in his body and the soul which was the mover be gone it cannot possibly corrupt for certainly that we call corruptton is made by motion and the body requires as much motion to be dissolved or divided as it doth to be framed or composed Wherefore a dead body would remain in the same state continually if it had no self-motion in it And if another soul should enter into the body and work it to another figure then certainly there must be much more souls then bodies because bodies are subject to change into several forms but if the animal spirits which are left in the body after the soul is gone are able to dissolve it without the help of the soul then it is probable they could have fram'd it without the help of the soul and so they being material it must be granted that matter is self-moving But if corporeal matter have corporeal self-motion a self-moving Immaterial Spirit by reason of their different natures would make great obstruction and so a general confusion for the corporeal and incorporeal motions would hinder and oppose each other their natures being quite different and though they might subsist together without disturbance of each other yet it is not probable they should act together and that in such a conjunction as if they were one united body for it is in my opinion more probable that one material should act upon another material or one immaterial upon another immaterial then that an immaterial should act upon a material or corporeal Thus the consideration or contemplation of immaterial natural Spirits puts me always into doubts and raises so many contradictions in my sense and reason as I know not nor am not able to reconcile them However though I am doubtful of them yet I can assure your self that I continue MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM BY reason the Soul is a Spirit and therefore Contractible and Dilatable your Authors opinion is That it begins within less compass at first in organizing the fitly prepared matter and so bears it self on in the same tenour of work till the body hath attained its full growth and that the Soul dilates it self in the dilating of the Body and so possesses it through all the members thereof Truly Madam as for the contraction and dilation of an immaterial Spirit if I heard never so many arguments I should hardly be able to conceive the possibility of it For in my opinion dilating and contracting are motions and actions of Nature which belong to natural material Creatures and to none else for dilation and contraction cannot be without extension but extension belongs to parts which an immaterial Spirit hath not But suppose it be so then the Soul must contract and dilate
Hell either to enjoy Reward or to suffer Punishment according to man's actions in this life But as for the Natural Soul she being material has no need of any Vehicles neither is natural death any thing else but an alteration of the rational and sensitive motions which from the dissolution of one figure go to the formation or production of another Thus the natural soul is not like a Traveller going out of one body into another neither is air her lodging for certainly if the natural humane soul should travel through the airy regions she would at last grow weary it being so great a journey except she did meet with the soul of a Horse and so ease her self with riding on Horseback Neither can I believe Souls or Daemons in the Air have any Common-wealth Magistrates Officers and Executioners in their airy Kingdom for wheresoever are Governments Magistrates and Executioners there are also Offences and where there is power to offend as well as to obey there may and will be sometimes Rebellions and Civil Wars for there being different forts of Spirits it is impossible they should all fo well agree especially the good and evil Genii which certainly will fight more valiantly then Hector and Achilles nay the Spirits of one sort would have more Civil Wars then ever the Romans had and if the Soul of Caesar and Pompey should meet there would be a cruel fight between those two Heroical souls the like between Augustus's and Antonius's Soul But Madam all these as I said I take for fancies proceeding from the Religion of the Gentiles not fit for Christians to embrace for any truth for if we should we might at last by avoiding to be Atheists become Pagans and so leap out of the Frying-pan into the Fire as turning from Divine Faith to Poetical Fancy and if Ovid should revive again he would perhaps be the chief head or pillar of the Church By this you may plainly see Madam that I am no Platonick for this opinion is dangerous especially for married Women by reason the conversation of the Souls may be a great temptation and a means to bring Platonick Lovers to a neerer acquaintance not allowable by the Laws of Marriage although by the sympathy of the Souls But I conclude and desire you not to interpret amiss this my discourse as if I had been too invective against Poetical Fancies for that I am a great lover of them my Poetical Works will witness onely I think it not fit to bring Fancies into Religion Wherefore what I have writ now to you is rather to express my zeal for God and his true Worship then to prejudice any body and if you be of that same Opinion as above mentioned I wish my Letter may convert you and so I should not account my labour lost but judg my self happy that any good could proceed to the advancement of your Soul from MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXX MADAM I Sent you word in my last I would not meddle with writing any thing of the Divine Soul of Man by reason it belongs to Faith and Religion and not to Natural Philosophy but since you desire my opinion concerning the Immortality of the Divine Soul I cannot but answer you plainly that first I did wonder much you made question of that whose truth in my opinion is so clear as hardly any rational man will make a doubt of it for I think there is almost no Christian in the world but believes the Immortality of the Soul no not Christians onely but Mahometans and Jews But I left to wonder at you when I saw Wise and Learned Men and great Divines take so much pains as to write whole Volumes and bring so many arguments to prove the Immortality of the Soul for this was a greater Miracle to me then if Nature had shewed me some of her secret and hidden effects or if I had seen an Immaterial Spirit Certainly Madam it seems as strange to me to prove the Immortality of the Soul as to convert Atheists for it impossible almost that any Atheist should be found in the World For what Man would be so senceless as to deny a God Wherefore to prove either a God or the Immortality of the Soul is to make a man doubt of either for as Physicians and Surgeons apply strengthening Medicines onely to those parts of the body which they suppose the weakest so it is with proofs and arguments those being for the most part used in such subjects the truth of which is most questionable But in things Divine Disputes do rather weaken Faith then prove Truth and breed several strange opinions for Man being naturally ambitious and endeavouring to excel each other will not content himself with what God has been pleased to reveal in his holy Word but invents and adds something of his own and hence arise so many monstrous expressions and opinions that a simple man is puzzled not knowing which to adhere to which is the cause of so many schismes sects and divisions in Religion Hence it comes also that some pretend to know the very nature and essence of God his divine Counsels all his Actions Designs Rules Decrees Power Attributes nay his Motions Affections and Passions as if the Omnipotent Infinite God were of a humane shape so that there are already more divisions then Religions which disturb the peace and quiet both of mind and body when as the ground of our belief consists but in some few and short Articles which clearly explained and the moral part of Divinity well pressed upon the People would do more good then unnecessary and tedious disputes which rather confound Religion then advance it but if man had a mind to shew Learning and exercise his Wit certainly there are other subjects wherein he can do it with more profit and less danger then by proving Christian Religion by Natural Philosophy which is the way to destroy them both I could wish Madam that every one would but observe the Command of Christ and give to God what is Gods and to Caesar what is Caesars and so distinguish what belongs to the actions of Nature and what to the actions of Religion for it appears to my Reason that God hath given Nature his eternal Servant a peculiar freedom of working and acting as a self-moving Power from Eternity but when the Omnipotent God acts he acts supernaturally as beyong Nature of which devine actions none but the holy Church as one united body mind and soul should discourse and declare the truth of them according to the Revelation made by God in his holy Word to her Flock the Laity not suffering any one single person of what profession or degree soever indifferently to comment interpret explain and declare the meaning or sense of the Scripture after his own fancy And as for Nature's actions let those whom Nature hath indued with such a proportion of Reason as is able to search into the hidden causes of natural effects
move from place to place then some parts of the Body will be sometimes indued with a Soul sometimes not and if any one part requires not the subsistence of the Soul within it then perhaps all the Body might have been able to spare her neither might the Soul being able to subsist without the body have had need of it Thus useless questions will trouble men's brains if they give their fancies leave to work I should add something of the Production of the Soul but being tyred with so tedious a discouse of your Author I am not able to write any more but repose my Pen and in the mean while rest affectionately MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXIII MADAM YOur Authors comparison of the Sun with the immaterial or divine Soul in Man makes me almost of opinion that the Sun is the Soul of this World we inhabit and that the fixed Stars which are counted Suns by some may be souls to some other worlds for every one man has but one immaterial or divine soul which is said to be individable and simple in its essence and therefore unchangeable and if the Sun be like this immaterial soul then the Moon may be like the material soul. But as for the Production of this immaterial and divine Soul in Man whether it come by an immediate Creation from God or be derived by a successive propagation from Parents upon their Children I cannot determine any thing being supernatural and not belonging to my study nevertheless the Propagation from Parents seems improbable to my reason for I am not capable to imagine how an immaterial soul being individable should beget another Some may say by imprinting or sealing viz. that the soul doth print the Image of its own figure upon the spirit of the seed which if so then first there will onely be a production of the figure of the soul but not of the substance and so the Child will have but the Image of the soul and not a real and substantial soul. Secondly Every Child of the same Parents would be just alike without any distinguishment if not in body yet in the Faculties and Proprieties of their Minds or Souls Thirdly There must be two prints of the two souls of both Parents upon one Creature to wit the Child for both Parents do contribute alike to the Production of the Child and then the Child would either have two souls or both must be joyned as into one which how it can be I am not able to conceive Fourthly If the Parents print the Image of their souls upon the Child then the Childs soul bears not the Image of God but the Image of Man to wit his Parents Lastly I cannot understand how an immaterial substance should make a print upon a corporeal substance for Printing is a corporeal action and belongs onely to bodies Others may say that the soul is from the Parents transmitted into the Child like as a beam of Light but then the souls of the Parents must part with some of their own substance for light is a substance dividable in my opinion and if it were not yet the soul is a substance and cannot be communicated without losing some of his own substance but that is impossible for the immaterial soul being individable cannot be diminished nor increased in its substance or Nature Others again will have the soul produced by certain Ideas but Ideas being corporeal cannot produce a substance Incorporeal or Spiritual Wherefore I cannot conceive how the souls of the Parents being individable in themselves and not removeable out of their bodies until the time of death should commix so as to produce a third immaterial soul like to their own You will say As the Sun which is the fountain of heat and light heats and enlightens and produces other Creatures But I answer The Sun doth not produce other Suns at least not to our knowledg 'T is true there are various and several manners and ways of Productions but they are all natural that is material or corporeal to wit Productions of some material beings or corporeal substances but the immaterial soul not being in the number of these it is not probable that she is produced by the way of corporeal productions but created and infused from God according to her nature which is supernatural and divine But being the Image of God how she can be defiled with the impurity of sin and suffer eternal damnation for her wickedness without any prejudice to her Creator I leave to the Church to inform us thereof Onely one Question I will add Whether the Soul be subject to Sickness and Pain To which I answer As for the supernatural and divine Soul although she be a substance yet being not corporeal but spiritual she can never suffer pain sickness nor death but as for the natural soul to speak properly there is no such thing in Nature as pain sickness or death unless in respect to some Particular Creatures composed of natural Matter for what Man calls Sickness Pain and Death are nothing else but the Motions of Nature for though there is but one onely Matter that is nothing but meer Matter in Nature without any co-mixture of either a spiritual substance or any thing else that is not Matter yet this meer Matter is of several degrees and parts and is the body of Nature Besides as there is but one onely Matter so there is also but one onely Motion in Nature as I may call it that is meer corporeal Motion without any rest or cessation which is the soul of that Natural body both being infinite but yet this onely corporeal Motion is infinitely various in its degrees or manners and ways of moving for it is nothing else but the action of natural Matter which action must needs be infinite being the action of an infinite body making infinite figures and parts These motions and actions of Nature since they are so infinitely various when men chance to observe some of their variety they call them by some proper name to make a distinguishment especially those motions which belong to the figure of their own kind and therefore when they will express the motions of dissolution of their own figure they call them Death when they will express the motions of Production of their figure they call them Conception and Generation when they will express the motions proper for the Consistence Continuance and Perfection of their Figure they call them Health but when they will express the motions contrary to these they call them Sickness Pain Death and the like and hence comes also the difference between regular and irregular motions for all those Motions that belong to the particular nature and consistence of any figure they call regular and those which are contrary to them they call irregular And thus you see Madam that there is no such thing in Nature as Death Sickness Pain Health c. but onely a variety and change of the corporeal motions and
Authors opinion when he sayes That all bodies of this Universe are of one and the same matter really divided into many parts and that these parts are diversly moved But that these motions should be circular more then of any other sort I cannot believe although he thinks that this is the most probable way to find out the causes of natural effects for nature is not bound to one sort of motions more then to another and it is but in vain to indeavour to know how and by what motions God did make the World since Creation is an action of God and Gods actions are incomprehensible Wherefore his aethereal Whirlpooles and little particles of matter which he reduceth to three sorts and calls them the three elements of the Universe their circular motions several figures shavings and many the like which you may better read then I rehearse to you are to my thinking rather Fancies then rational or probable conceptions for how can we imagine that the Universe was set a moving as a Top by a Whip or a Wheele by the hand of a Spinster and that the vacuities were fill'd up with shavings for these violent motions would rather have disturbed and disordered Nature and though Nature uses variety in her motions or actions yet these are not extravagant nor by force or violence but orderly temperate free and easie which causes me to believe the Earth turns about rather then the Sun and though corporeal motions for variety make Whirl-winds yet Whirl-winds are not constant Neither can I believe that the swiftness of motion could make the matter more subtil and pure then it was by nature for it is the purity and subtilty of the matter that causes motion and makes it swifter or slower and not motion the subtilty and purity of matter motion being onely the action of matter and the self-moving part of matter is the working part of nature which is wise and knows how to move and form every creature without instruction and this self-motion is as much her own as the other parts of her body matter and figure and is one and the same with her self as a corporeal living knowing and inseparable being and a part of her self As for the several parts of matter I do believe that they are not all of one and the same bigness nor of one and the same figure neither do I hold their figures to be unalterable for if all parts in nature be corporeal they are dividable composable and intermixable and then they cannot be always of one and the same sort of figure besides nature would not have so much work if there were no change of figures and since her onely action is change of motion change of motion must needs make change of figures and thus natural parts of matter may change from lines to points and from points to lines from squares to circles and so forth infinite ways according to the change of motions but though they change their figures yet they cannot change their matter for matter as it has been so it remaines constantly in each degree as the Rational Sensitive and Inanimate none becomes purer none grosser then ever it was notwithstanding the infinite changes of motions which their figures undergo for Motion changes onely the figure not the matter it self which continues still the same in its nature and cannot be altered without a confusion or destruction of Nature And this is the constant opinion of MADAM Your faithful Friend and humble Servant XXXIV MADAM THat Rarefaction is onely a change of figure according to your Authors opinion is in my reason very probable but when he sayes that in rarified bodies are little intervals or pores filled up with some other subtil matter if he means that all rarified bodies are porous I dissent from him for it is not necessary that all rarified bodies should be porous and all hard bodies without pores but if there were a probability of pores I am of opinion it would be more in dense and hard than in rare and soft bodies as for example rarifying and dilating motions are plaining smoothing spreading and making all parts even which could not well be if there were holes or pores Earth is dense and hard and yet is porous and flame is rare and dilating and yet is not porous and certainly Water is not so porous as Earth Wherefore pores in my opinion are according to the nature or form of the figure and not according to the rarity or thinness and density or thickness of the substance As for his thin and subtil matter filling up the pores of porous bodies I assent to your Author so farr that I meane thin and thick or rare and dense substances are joyned and mixed together As for plaining smoothing and spreading I do not mean so much artificial plaining and spreading as for example when a piece of gold is beaten into a thin plate and a board is made plain and smooth by a Joyners tool or a napkin folded up is spread plain and even although when you observe these arts you may judge somewhat of the nature of natural dilations for a folded cloth is fuller of creases then when plain and the beating of a thin plate is like to the motion of dilation which is to spread out and the forme of rarifying is thinning and extending I add onely this that I am not of your Authors opinion that Rest is the Cause or Glue which keeps the parts of dense or hard bodies together but it is retentive motions And so I conclude resting MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXXV MADAM THat the Mind according to your Authors opinion is a substance really distinct from the body and may be actually separated from it and subsist without it If he mean the natural mind and soul of Man not the supernatural or divine I am far from his opinion for though the mind moveth onely in its own parts and not upon or with the parts of inanimate matter yet it cannot be separated from these parts of matter and subsist by its self as being a part of one and the same matter the inanimate is of for there is but one onely matter and one kind of matter although of several degrees onely it is the self-moving part but yet this cannot impower it to quit the same natural body whose part it is Neither can I apprehend that the Mind 's or Soul's seat should be in the Glandula or kernel of the Brain and there sit like a Spider in a Cobweb to whom the least motion of the Cobweb gives intelligence of a Flye which he is ready to assault and that the Brain should get intelligence by the animal spirits as his servants which run to and fro like Ants to inform it or that the Mind should according to others opinions be a light and imbroidered all with Ideas like a Heraulds Coat and that the sensitive organs should have no knowledg in themselves but serve onely like peepingholes for
for as composition and division do hinder and obstruct each other from running into Infinite so doth dilation hinder the Infinite contraction and contraction the Infinite dilation which as I said before causes a mean betwixt Nature's actions nevertheless there are Infinite dilations and contractions in Nature because there are Infinite contracted and dilated parts and so are infinite divisions because there are infinite divided parts but contraction dilation extension composition division and the like are onely Nature's several actions and as there can be no single part in Nature that is Infinite so there can neither be any single Infinite action But as for Matter Motion and Figure those are Individable and Inseparable and make but one body or substance for it is as impossible to divide them as impossible it is to your Author to separate the essential proprieties which he gives from an Immortal Spirit And as Matter Motion and Figure are inseparable so is likewise Matter Space Place and Duration For Parts Motion Figure Place and Duration are but one Infinite body onely the Infinite parts are the Infinite divisions of the Infinite body and the Infinite body is a composition of the Infinite parts but figure place and body are all one and so is time and duration except you will call time the division of duration and duration the composition of time but infinite time and infinite duration is all one in Nature and thus Nature's Principal motions and actions are dividing composing and disposing or ordering according to her Natural wisdom by the Omnipotent God's leave and permission Concerning the Sun which your Author speaks of in the same place and denies him to be a Spectator of our Particular affairs upon Earth saying there is no such divine Principle in him whereby he can do it I will speak nothing against nor for it but I may say that the Sun hath such a Principle as other Creatures have which is that he has sensitive and rational corporeal motions as well as animals or other Creatures although not in the same manner nor the same organs and if he have sensitive and rational motions he may also have sensitive and rational knowledge or perception as well as man or other animals and parts of Nature have for ought any body knows for it is plain to humane sense and reason that all Creatures must needs have rational and sensitive knowledg because they have all sensitive and rational matter and motions But leaving the Sun for Astronomers to contemplate upon I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM YOur Author in his arguments against Motion being a Principle of Nature endeavours to prove that Beauty Colour Symmetry and the like in Plants as well as in other Creatures are no result from the meer motion of the matter and forming this objection It may be said says he That the regular motion of the matter made the first plant of every kind but we demand What regulated the motion of it so as to guide it to form it self into such a state I answer The Wisdom of Nature or infinite Matter did order its own actions so as to form those her Parts into such an exact and beautiful figure as such a Tree or such a Flower or such a Fruit and the like and some of her Parts are pleased and delighted with other parts but some of her parts are afraid or have an aversion to other parts and hence is like and dislike or sympathy and antipathy hate and love according as nature which is infinite self-moving matter pleases to move for though Natural Wisdom is dividable into parts yet these parts are united in one infinite Body and make but one Being in it self like as the several parts of a man make up but one perfect man for though a man may be wise in several causes or actions yet it is but one wisdom and though a Judg may shew Justice in several causes yet it is but one Justice for Wisdom and Justice though they be practised in several causes yet it is but one Wisdom and one Justice and so all the parts of a mans body although they move differently yet are they but one man's bodily actions Just as a man if he carve or cut out by art several statues or draw several Pictures those statues or pictures are but that one man's work The like may be said of Natures Motions and Figures all which are but one self-active or self-moving Material Nature But Wise Nature's Ground or Fundamental actions are very Regular as you may observe in the several and distinct kinds sorts and particulars of her Creatures and in their distinct Proprieties Qualities and Faculties belonging not onely to each kind and sort but to each particular Creature and since man is not able to know perfectly all those proprieties which belong to animals much less will he be able to know and judg of those that are in Vegetables Minerals and Elements and yet these Creatures for any thing Man knows may be as knowing understanding and wise as he and each as knowing of its kind or sort as man is of his But the mixture of ignorance and knowledg in all Creatures proceeds from thence that they are but Parts and there is no better proof that the mind of man is dividable then that it is not perfectly knowing nor no better proof that it is composeable then that it knows so much but all minds are not alike but some are more composed then others which is the cause some know more then others for if the mind in all men were alike all men would have the same Imaginations Fancies Conceptions Memories Remembrances Passions Affections Understanding and so forth The same may be said of their bodies for if all mens sensitive parts were as one and not dividable and composeable all their Faculties Properties Constitutions Complexions Appetites would be the same in every man without any difference but humane sense and reason doth well perceive that neither the mind life nor body are as one piece without division and composition Concerning the divine Soul I do not treat of it onely this I may say That all are not devout alike nor those which are are not at all times alike devout But to conclude some of our modern Philosophers think they do God good service when they endeavour to prove Nature as Gods good Servant to be stupid ignorant foolish and mad or any thing rather then wise and yet they believe themselves wise as if they were no part of Nature but I cannot imagine any reason why they should rail on her except Nature had not given them as great a share or portion as she hath given to others for children in this case do often rail at their Parents for leaving their Brothers and Sisters more then themselves However Nature can do more then any of her Creatures and if Man can Paint Imbroider Carve Ingrave curiously why may not Nature have more
extend nor can the Idea it self dilate and contract being immaterial for contraction and dilation belong onely to bodies or material beings Wherefore the comparisons betwixt Nature and a particular Creature and between God and Nature are improper much more betwixt God and Natures particular motions and figures which are various and changeable although methodical The same I may ask of the Mind of Man as I do of the Idea in the Mind Also I might ask them what they conceive the natural mind of man to be whether material or immaterial If material their opinion is rational and so the mind is dividable and composable if immaterial then it is a Spirit and if a Spirit it cannot possibly dilate nor contract having no dimension nor divisibility of parts although your Author proves it by the example of Light but I have exprest my meaning heretofore that light is divisible and if it have no dimension how can it be confined in a material body Wherefore when your Author says the mind is a substance it is to my reason very probable but not when he says it is an immaterial substance which will never agree with my sense and reason for it must be either something or nothing there being no medium between in Nature But pray mistake me not Madam when I say Immaterial is nothing for I mean nothing Natural or so as to be a part of Nature for God forbid I should deny that God is a Spiritual Immaterial substance or Being neither do I deny that we can have an Idea notion conception or thought of the Existence of God for I am of your Authors opinion That there is no Man under the cope of Heaven that doth not by the light of Nature know and believe there is a God but that we should have such a perfect Idea of God as of any thing else in the World or as of our selves as your Author says I cannot in sense and reason conceive to be true or possible Neither am I against those Spirits which the holy Scripture mentions as Angels and Devils and the divine Soul of Man but I say onely that no Immaterial Spirit belongs to Nature so as to be a part thereof for Nature is Material or Corporeal and whatsoever is not composed of matter or body belongs not to Nature nevertheless Immaterial Spirits may be in Nature although not parts of Nature But there can neither be an Immaterial Nature nor a Natural Immaterial Nay our very thoughts and conceptions of Immaterial are Material as made of self-moving Matter Wherefore to conclude these opinions in Men proceed from a Vain-glory as to have found out something that is not in Nature to which I leave them and their natural Immaterial Substances like so many Hobgoblins to fright Children withal resting in the mean time MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XIX MADAM THere are various opinions concerning the seat of Common Sense as your Author rehearseth them in his Treatise of the Immortality of the Soul But my opinion is That common sense hath also a common place for as there is not any part of the body that hath not sense and reason so sense and reason is in all parts of the body as it is observable by this that every part is subject to pain and pleasure and all parts are moveable moving and moved also appetites are in every part of the body As for example if any part itches it hath an appetite to be scratched and every part can pattern out several objects and so several touches and though the rational part of matter is mixt in all parts of the body yet it hath more liberty to make variety of Motions in the head heart liver spleen stomack bowels and the like then in the other parts of the body nevertheless it is in every part together with the sensitive but they do not move in every part alike but differ in each part more or less as it may be observed and although every part hath some difference of knowledg yet all have life and knowledg sense and reason some more some less and the whole body moves according to each part and so do all the bodily Faculties and Proprieties and not according to one single part the rational Soul being in all parts of the body for if one part of the body should have a dead Palsie it is not that the Soul is gone from that part but that the sensitive and rational matter has altered its motion and figure from animal to some other kind for certainly the rational Soul and so life is in every part as well in the Pores of the skin as in the ventricles of the brain and as well in the heel as in the head and every part of the body knows its own office what it ought to do from whence follows an agreement of all the parts And since there is difference of knowledg in every part of one body well may there be difference between several kinds and sorts and yet there is knowledg in all for difference of knowledg is no argument to prove they have no knowledg at all Wherefore I am not of the opinion that that which moves the whole body is as a Point or some such thing in a little kernel or Glandula of the Brain as an Ostrich-egge is hung up to the roof of a Chamber or that it is in the stomack like a single penny in a great Purse neither is it in the midst of the heart like a Lady in a Lobster nor in the bloud like as a Menow or Sprat in the Sea nor in the fourth Ventricle of the Brain as a lousie Souldier in a Watch-tower But you may say it is like a farthing Candle in a great Church I answer That Light will not enlighten the by Chappels of the Church nor the Quest-house nor the Belfrey neither doth the Light move the Church though it enlightens it Wherefore the Soul after this manner doth not move the corporeal body no more then the Candle moves the Church or the Lady moves the Lobster or the Sprat the Sea as to make it ebb and flow But this I desire you to observe Madam that though all the body of man or any other Creature hath sense and reason which is life and knowledg in all parts yet these parts being all corporeal and having their certain proportions can have no more then what is belonging or proportionable to each figure As for example if a Man should feed and not evacuate some ways or other he could not live and if he should evacuate and not feed he could not subsist wherefore in all Natures parts there is ingress and egress although not always perceived by one creature as Man but all exterior objects do not enter into Man or any other Creature but are figured by the rational and some by the sensitive parts or motions in the body wherefore it is not rational to believe that exterior objects take up any more room then if
to give such power to Matter as to an other Incorporeal substance But I suppose this opinion of natural Immaterial Spirits doth proceed from Chymistry where the extracts are vulgarly called Spirits and from that degree of Matter which by reason of its purity subtilty and activity is not subject to our grosser senses However these are not Incorporeal be they never so pure and subtil And I wonder much that men endeavour to prove Immaterial Spirits by corporeal Arts when as Art is not able to demonstrate Nature and her actions for Art is but the effect of Nature and expresses rather the variety then the truth of natural motions and if Art cannot do this much less will it be able to express what is not in Nature or what is beyond Nature as to trace the Visible or rather Invisible footsteps of the divine Councel and Providence or to demonstrate things supernatural and which go beyond mans reach and capacity But to return to Immaterial Spirits that they should rule and govern infinite corporeal matter like so many demy-Gods by a dilating nod and a contracting frown and cause so many kinds and sorts of Corporeal Figures to arise being Incorporeal themselves is Impossible for me to conceive for how can an Immaterial substance cause a Material corporeal substance which has no motion in it self to form so many several and various figures and creatures and make so many alterations and continue their kinds and sorts by perpetual successions of Particulars But perchance the Immaterial substance gives corporeal matter motion I answer My sense and reason cannot understand how it can give motion unless motion be different distinct and separable from it nay if it were yet being no substance or body it self according to your Authors and others opinion the question is how it can be transmitted or given away to corporeal matter Your Author may say That his Immaterial and Incorporeal spirit of Nature having self-motion doth form Matter into several Figures I answer Then that Immaterial substance must be transformed and metamorphosed into as many several figures as there are figures in Matter or there must be as many spirits as there are figures but when the figures change what doth become of the spirits Neither can I imagine that an Immaterial substance being without body can have such a great strength as to grapple with gross heavy dull and dead Matter Certainly in my opinion no Angel nor Devil except God Impower him would be able to move corporeal Matter were it not selfmoving much less any Natural Spirit But God is a Spirit and Immovable and if created natural Immaterials participate of that Nature as they do of the Name then they must be Immovable also Your Author Madam may make many several degrees of Spirits but certainly not I nor I think any natural Creature else will be able naturally to conceive them He may say perchance There is such a close conjunction betwixt Body and Spirit as I make betwixt rational sensitive and inanimate Matter I answer That these degrees are all but one Matter and of one and the same Nature as meer Matter different onely in degrees of purity subtilty and activity whereas Spirit and Body are things of contrary Natures In fine I cannot conceive how a Spirit should fill up a place or space having no body nor how it can have the effects of a body being none it self for the effects flow from the cause and as the cause is so are its effects And so confessing my ignorance I can say no more but rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOur Author having assigned Indivisibility to the Soul or Spirit that moves and actuates matter I desire to know how one Indivisible Spirit can be in so many dividable parts For there being Infinite parts in Nature they must either have one Infinite Spirit to move them which must be dilated infinitely or this Spirit must move severally in every part of Nature If the first then I cannot conceive but all motion must be uniform or after one and the same manner nay I cannot understand how there can be any dilation and contraction or rather any motion of the same spirit by reason if it dilate then being equally spread out in all the parts of Matter it must dilate beyond Matter and if it contract it must leave some parts of matter void and without motion But if the Spirit moves every part severally then he is divisible neither can I think that there are so many Spirits as there are Parts in Nature for your Author says there is but one Spirit of Nature I will give an easie and plain example When a Worm is cut into two or three parts we see there is sensitive life and motion in every part for every part will strive and endeavour to meet and joyn again to make up the whole body now if there were but one indivisible Life Spirit and Motion I would fain know how these severed parts could move all by one Spirit Wherefore Matter in my opinion has self-motion in it self which is the onely soul and life of Nature and is dividable as well as composable and full of variety of action for it is as easie for several parts to act in separation as in composition and as easie in composition as in separation Neither is every part bound to one kind or sort of Motions for we see in exterior local motions that one man can put his body into several shapes and postures much more can Nature But is it not strange Madam that a man accounts it absurd ridiculous and a prejudice to Gods Omnipotency to attribute self-motion to Matter or a material Creature when it is not absurd ridiculous or any prejudice to God to attribute it to an Immaterial Creature What reason of absurdity lies herein Surely I can conceive none except it be absurd and ridiculous to make that which no man can know or conceive what it is viz. an immaterial natural Spirit which is as much as to say a natural No-thing to have motion and not onely motion but self-motion nay not onely self-motion but to move actuate rule govern and guide Matter or corporeal Nature and to be the cause of all the most curious varieties and effects in nature Was not God able to give self-motion as well to a Material as to an Immaterial Creature and endow Matter with a self-moving power I do not say Madam that Matter hath motion of it self so that it is the prime cause and principle of its own self-motion for that were to make Matter a God which I am far from believing but my opinion is That the self-motion of Matter proceeds from God as well as the self-motion of an Immaterial Spirit and that I am of this opinion the last Chapter of my Book of Philosophy will enform you where I treat of the Deitical Centre as the Fountain from whence all things do flow and which is the supream Cause Author
extend and shrink together and so grow less and bigger according to the extension of the body and when the body dies the soul in my opinion must contract to a very point and if one part of the body die before the other the soul must by degrees withdraw out of those parts also when a part of the body is cut off the soul must needs contract and grow less the like when a man is let blood Which contracting of the soul by your Authors leave doth seem to my imagination just like the contracting of Hodmandod into her shell Besides if the soul be individable and equally spread all over the body then to my opinion she must necessarily be of a human shape and if the body be deformed the soul must be deformed also and if the body be casually extended as by taking Poyson into the body the soul must be so too as being individable and filling every part and if a man be born with six fingers or toes the soul must be so too or if a dwarf the soul must be a dwarf also and if he be born deaf and dumb the soul must be so too But if two Twins as it may fall out should be born united in one body I would fain know then whether they would have two souls or but one As for example if they should have but one body and one stomack liver heart spleen lungs bowels and yet have four legs four hands and two heads It seems to my opinion that then two Immaterial Souls must be joyned as into one neither do I know yet how this could well be the monster having but one body nor how that Immaterial Soul can be divided being inseparably double when the body dies But Madam all this I speak of the Natural Soul of Man not of the Divine Soul which is not subject to natural imperfections and corporeal errors being not made by Nature but a supernatural and divine gift of the Omnipotent God who surely will not give any thing that is not perfect Wherefore it is not probable this Divine Soul being not subject to Nature should be an architect of the body as having an higher and more divine imployment viz. to fix her self on her Creator and being indued with supernatural faculties and residing in the body in a supernatural manner all which I leave to the Church for I should be loth to affirm any thing contrary to their Doctrine or the Information of the holy Scripture as grounding my belief onely upon the sacred Word of God and its true Interpretation made by the Orthodox Church but not upon the opinions of particular persons for particular mens opinions are not authentical being so different and various as a man would be puzled which to adhere to Thus Madam I avoid as much as ever I can not to mix Divinity with Natural Philosophy for I consider that such a mixture would breed more confusion in the Church then do any good to either witness the doctrine of the Soul of Man whereof are so many different opinions The onely cause in my opinion is that men do not conceive the difference between the Divine and Natural material Soul of Man making them both as one and mixing or confounding their faculties and proprieties which yet are quite different thus they make a Hodg-podg Bisk or Olio of both proving Divinity by Nature and Faith by Reason and bringing Arguments for Articles of Faith and sacred Mysteries out of Natural Arts and Sciences whereas yet Faith and Reason are two contrary things and cannot consist together according to the Proverb Where Reason ends Faith begins Neither is it possible that Divinity can be proved by Mathematical Demonstrations for if Nature be not able to do it much less is Art Wherefore it is inconvenient to mix supernatural Spirits with Air Fire Light Heat Cold c. and to apply corporeal actions and qualities to them and the Divine Soul with the Brain Blood Flesh Animal Spirits Muscles Nerves Bones c. of Man all which makes a confusion betwixt the Mind or Natural Soul of Man and the Supernatural and Divine Soul inspired into him by God for both their faculties and proprieties are different and so are their effects as proceeding from so different causes And therefore Madam as for Divinity I pray devoutly and believe without disputing but as for Natural Philosophy I reason freely and argue without believing or adhering to any ones particular opinion which I think is the best and safest way to choose for MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVII MADAM YOur Author in the continuation of his discourse concerning the Immaterial Soul of Man demonstrating that her seat is not bound up in a certain place of the body but that she pervades all the body and every part thereof takes amongst the rest an argument from Passions and Sympathies Moreover says he Passions and Sympathies in my judgment are more easily to be resolved into this hypothesis of the Soul 's pervading the whole Body then in restraining its essential presence to one part thereof But it is evident that they arise in us against both our will and appetite For who would bear the tortures of fears and jelousies if he could avoid it Concerning Passions Madam I have given my opinion at large in my Book of Philosophy and am of your Authors mind that Passions are made in the Heart but not by an Immaterial spirit but by the Rational soul which is material and there is no doubt but that many Passions as Fear Jealousie c. arise against our will and appetite for so may forreign Nations invade any Kingdom without the will or desire of the Inhabitants and yet they are corporeal men The same may be said of Passions and several parts of matter may invade each other whereof one may be afraid of the other yet all this is but according as corporeal matter moves either Generally or Particularly Generally that is when many parts of Matter unite or joyn together having the like appetites wills designs as we may observe that there are general agreements amongst several parts in Plagues as well as Wars which Plagues are not onely amongst Men but amongst Beasts and sometimes but in one sort of animals as a general Rot amongst Sheep a general Mange amongst Dogs a general Farcy amongst Horses a general Plague amongst Men all which could not be without a general Infection one part infecting another or rather one part imitating the motions of the other that is next adjoyning to it for such infections come by the neer adhesion of parts as is observable which immaterial and individable natural Spirits could not effect that is to make such a general infection in so many several parts of so many several Creatures to the Creatures dissolution Also there will be several Invasions at one time as Plague and War amongst neighbouring and adjoining Creatures or Parts But this is to be observed That the sensitive corporeal motions make
all diseases and not the Rational although the Rational are many times the occasion that the sensitive do move into such or such a disease for all those that are sick by conceit their sicknesses are caused by the rational corporeal motions But being loth to make tedious repetitions hereof having discoursed of diseases and passions in my mentioned Book of Philosophy I will refer you thither and rest MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVIII MADAM COncerning Dimness of Sight which your Author will have to proceed from the deficiency of the Animal Spirits My meaning in short is That when sight is dim though the sensitive organs are perfect this dimness is caused by the alteration onely of the sensitive motions in the organs not moving to the nature of sight And so is made Deafness Dumbness Lameness and the like as also Weariness for the Relaxation of strength in several parts is onely an alteration of such sorts of motions which make the nerves strong and if a man be more dull at one time then at another it is that there are not so many changes of motions nor so quick motions at that time as at another for Nature may use more or less force as she pleases Also she can and doth often use opposite actions and often sympathetical and agreeable actions as she pleases for Nature having a free power to move may move as she will but being wise she moves as she thinks best either in her separating or uniting motions for continuance as well as for variety But if according to your Author the Immaterial Soul should determinate matter in motion it would in my opinion make a confusion for the motions of the Matter would often oppose and cross the motions of the Immaterial Soul and so they would disagree as a King and his Subjects except God had given the Soul an absolute power of command and restrained matter to an irrisistible and necessitated obedience which in my opinion is not probable By which disagreement Nature and all that is in Nature would have been quite ruined at this time for no kinds sorts or particulars would keep any distinction if Matter did not govern it self and if all the parts did not know their own affairs abilities offices and functions Besides it would to my thinking take up a great deal of time to receive commands in every several action at least so much that for example a man could not have so many several thoughts in so short a time as he hath But concerning the Animal Spirits which your Author calls the Instruments Organs and Engines of the Incorporeal Soul I would fain know whether they have no motion but what comes from the Soul or whether they have their own motion of themselves If the first then the Soul must in my opinion be like a Deity and have a divine Power to give and impart Motion if the second then the spirits being material it follows that Matter hath motion of it self or is self-moving But if the Immaterial natural Soul can transfer her gifts upon corporeal matter then it must give numerous sorts of motions with all their degrees as also the faculty of figuring or moving figuratively in all corporeal Matter Which power in my judgment is too much for a Creature to give If you say the Immaterial Soul hath this power from God I answer Matter may have the same and I cannot imagine why God should make an Immaterial Spirit to be the Proxy or Vice-gerent of his Power or the Quarter-master General of his Divine Providence as your Author is pleased to style it when he is able to effect it without any Under-Officers and in a more easie and compendious way as to impart immediately such self-moving power to Natural Matter which man attributes to an Incorporeal Spirit But to conclude if the Animal Spirits be the Instruments of the Incorporeal Soul then the Spirits of Wine are more powerfull then the Animal Spirits nay then the Immaterial Soul her self for they can put them and all their actions quite out of order the same may be done by other material things Vegetables Minerals and the like And so leaving this discourse to your better consideration I take my leave for this time and rest MADAM Your faithful and affectionate Friend and Servant XXIX MADAM TOuching the State or Condition of the Supernatural and Divine Soul both in and after this life I must crave your excuse that I can give no account of it for I dare affirm nothing not onely that I am no professed Divine and think it unfit to take any thing upon me that belongs not to me but also that I am unwilling to mingle Divinity and Natural Philosophy together to the great disadvantage and prejudice of either for if each one did contain himself within the circle of his own Profession and no body did pretend to be a Divine Philosopher many absurdities confusions contentions and the like would be avoided which now disturb both Church and Schools and will in time cause their utter ruine and destruction For what is Supernatural cannot naturally be known by any natural Creature neither can any supernatural Creature but the Infinite and Eternal God know thorowly everything that is in Nature she being the Infinite servant of the Infinite God whom no finite Creature of what degree soever whether natural or supernatural can conceive for if no Angel nor Devil can know our thoughts much less will they know Infinite Nature nay one finite supernatural Creature cannot in my opinion know perfectly another supernatural Creature but God alone who is all-knowing And therefore all what is said of supernatural Spirits I believe so far as the Scripture makes mention of them further I dare not presume to go the like of the supernatural or divine Soul for all that I have writ hitherto to you of the Soul concerns the natural Soul of Man which is material and not the supernatural or divine Soul neither do I contradict any thing concerning this divine soul but I am onely against those opinions which make the natural soul of man an immaterial natural spirit and confound supernatural Creatures with natural believing those spirits to be as well natural Creatures and parts of Nature as material and corporeal beings are when as there is great difference betwixt them and nothing in Nature to be found but what is corporeal Upon this account I take all their relations of Daemons of the Genii and of the Souls after the departure from humane Bodies their Vehicles Shapes Habitations Converses Conferences Entertainments Exercises Pleasures Pastimes Governments Orders Laws Magistrates Officers Executioners Punishments and the like rather for Poetical Fictions then Rational Probabilities containing more Fancy then Truth and Reason whether they concern the divine or natural Soul for as for the divine Soul the Scripture makes no other mention of it but that immediately after her departure out of this natural life she goeth either to Heaven or
contemplate freely without any restraint or consinement for Nature acts freely and so may natural Creatures and amongst the rest Man in things which are purely natural but as for things supernatural man cannot act freely by reason they are beyond his sphere of conception and understanding so as he is forced to set aside Reason and onely to work by Faith And thus Madam you see the cause why I cannot give you a full description of the Divine Soul of Man as I mentioned already in my last but that I do onely send you my opinion of the natural soul which I call the rational soul not that I dare say the supernatural soul is without natural reason but natural reason is not the divine soul neither can natural reason without Faith advance the divine soul to Heaven or beget a pious zeal without divine and supernatural Grace Wherefore Reason or the rational Soul is onely the Soul of Nature which being material is dividable and so becomes numerous in particular natural Creatures like as the sensitive life being also material and dividable becomes numerous as being in every Creature and in every part of every Creature for as there is life in every Creature so there is also a soul in every Creature nay not onely in every Creature but in every particle of every Creature by reason every Creature is made of rational and sensitive Matter and as all Creatures or parts of Nature are but one infinite body of Nature so all their particular souls and lives make but one infinite soul and life of Nature and this natural soul hath onely natural actions not supernatural nor has the supernatural soul natural actions for although they subsist both together in one body yet each works without disturbance to the other and both are Immortal for of the supernatural soul there is no question and of the natural soul I have said before that nothing is perishable or subject to annihilation in nature and so no death but what is called by the name of death is onely an alteration of the corporeal natural motions of such a figure to another figure and therefore as it is impossible that one part of Matter should perish in Nature so is it impossible that the natural or rational soul can perish being material The natural humane soul may alter so as not to move in an animal way or not to have animal motions but this doth not prove her destruction or annihilation but onely a change of the animal figure and its motions all remaining still in Nature Thus my Faith of the Divine and my opinion of the Natural Soul is that they are both Immortal as for the immediate actions of the Divine Soul I leave you to the Church which are the Ministers of God and the faithful dispensers of the sacred mysteries of the Gospel the true Expounders of the Word of God Reformers of mens lives and Tutors of the Ignorant to whom I submit my self in all that belongs to the salvation of my Soul and the regulating of the actions of my life to the honour and glory of God And I hope they will not take any offence at the maintaining and publishing my opinions concerning Nature and Natural effects for they are as harmless and as little prejudicial to them as my designs for my onely and chief design is and ever hath been to understand Nature rightly obey the Church exactly Believe undoubtedly Pray zealously Live vertuously and Wish earnestly that both Church and Schools may increase and flourish in the sacred knowledge of the true Word of God and that each one may live peaceable and happily in this world die quietly and rise blessedly and gloriously to everlasting Life and happiness Which happiness I pray God also to confer upon your Ladiship Till then I rest MADAM Your faithful and constant Friend to serve you XXXI MADAM I Will leave the Controversie of Free-Will and Necessity which your Author is discoursing of to Divines to decide it onely I say this that Nature hath a natural Free-will and power of self-moving and is not necessitated but yet that this Free-will proceeds from God who hath given her both will and power to act freely But as for the question whether there be nothing in the Universe but meer body I answer My opinion is not that there is nothing in the world but meer Body but that Nature is purely material or corporeal and that there is no part of Nature or natural Creature which is not Matter or Body or made of Matter also that there is not any thing else mixt with body as a copartner in natural actions which is distinct from Body or Matter nevertheless there may be supernatural spiritual beings or substances in Nature without any hinderance to Matter or corporeal Nature The same I may say of the natural material and the divine and supernatural Soul for though the divine Soul is in a natural body and both their powers and actions be different yet they cause no ruine or disturbance to each other but do in many cases agree with each other without incroachment upon each others powers or actions for God as he is the God of all things so the God of Order Wherefore it is not probable that created Immaterial or Incorporeal beings should order Corporeal Nature no more then Corporeal Nature orders Immaterial or Incorporeal Creatures Neither can in my opinion Incorporeal Creatures be clearly conceived by Corporeals although they may really exist and subsist in Nature onely as I said before it is well to be considered that there is difference betwixt being in Nature and being a part of Nature for bodiless things and so spiritual substances although they may exist in Nature yet they are not natural nor parts of Nature but supernatural Nature being meerly corporeal and Matter the ground of Nature and all that is not built upon this material ground is nothing in Nature But you will say The divine Soul is a part of Man and Man a part of Nature wherefore the divine Soul must needs be a part of Nature I answer Not For the divine Soul is not a part of Nature but supernatural as a supernatural Gift from God onely to Man and to no other Creature and although in this respect it may be called a part of Man yet it is no natural or material part of Man neither doth this supernatural Gift disturb Nature or natural Matter or natural Matter this supernatural Gist And so leaving them both I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXXII MADAM IF you desire my opinion concerning Witches whereof your Learned Author hath many Discourses and Stories I will tell you really that in my sense and reason I do not believe any except it be the witch of Endor which the Scripture makes mention of for though I believe that there is a Devil as the Word of God and the Church inform me yet I am not of the opinion that God should suffer
particular creature of Nature should have as much power to act or work as Nature her self but because neither Reason nor Art has found out as yet such a powerful opposite to Gold as can alter its nature men therefore conclude that it cannot be done Your Author relates to have seen the Gold-making stone which he says was of colour such as Saffron is in its powder but weighty and shining like unto powder'd Glass one fourth part of one grain thereof a grain he reckons the six hundredth part of one ounce being projected upon eight ounces of Quicksilver made hot in a Crucible and straight way there were found eight ounces and a little less then eleven grains of the purest Gold therefore one onely grain of that powder had transchanged 19186 parts of Quicksilver equal to it self into the best Gold Truly Madam I wish with all my heart the poor Royalists had had some quantity of that powder and I assure you that if it were so I my self would turn a Chymist to gain so much as to repair my Noble Husbands losses that his noble family might flourish the better But leaving Gold since it is but a vain wish I do verily believe that some of the Chymical medicines do in some desperate cases many times produce more powerful and sudden effects then the medicines of Galenistsi and therefore I do not absolutely condemn the art of Fire as if I were an enemy to it but I am of an opinion that my Opinions in Philosophy if well understood will rather give a light to that art then obscure its worth for if Chymists did but study well the corporeal motions or actions of Natures substantial body they would by their observations understand Nature better then they do by the observation of the actions of their Art and out of this consideration and respect I should almost have an ambition to become an Artist in Chymistry were I not too lazie and tender for that imployment but should I quit the one and venture the other I am so vain as to perswade my self I might perform things worthy my labour upon the ground of my own Philosophy which is substantial Life Sense and Reason for I would not study Salt Sulphur and Mercury but the Natural motions of every Creature and observe the variety of Natures actions But perchance you will smile at my vain conceit and it may be I my self should repent of my pains unsuccessfully bestowed my time vainly spent my health rashly endangered and my Noble Lords Estate unprofitably wasted in fruitless tryals and experiments Wherefore you may be sure that I will consider well before I act for I would not lose Health Wealth and Fame and do no more then others have done which truly is not much their effects being of less weight then their words But in the mean time my study shall be bent to your service and how to express my self worthily MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XIV MADAM I Have read your Authors discourse concerning Sensation but it was as difficult to me to understand it as it was tedious to read it Truly all the business might have have been easily declared in a short Chapter and with more clearness and perspicuity For Sensation is nothing else but the action of sense proceeding from the corporeal sensitive motions which are in all Creatures or parts of Nature and so all have sense and sensation although not alike after one and the same manner but some more some less each according to the nature and propriety of its figure But your Author speaks of Motion without Sense and Sense without Motion which is a meer impossibility for there is not nor cannot be any Motion in Nature without Sense nor any Sense without Motion there being no Creature without self-motion although not always perceptible by us or our external senses for all motion is not exteriously local and visible Wherefore not any part of Nature according to my opinion wants Sense and Reason Life and Knowledg but not such a substanceless Life as your Author describes but a substantial that is a corporeal Life Neither is Light the principle of Motion but Motion is the principle of Light Neither is Heat the principle of Motion but its effect as well as Cold is for I cannot perceive that Heat should be more active then Cold. Neither is there any such thing as Unsensibleness in Nature except it be in respect of some particular Sensation in some particular Figure As for example when an Animal dies or its Figure is dissolved from the Figure of an Animal we may say it hath not animal sense or motion but we cannot say it hath no sense or motion at all for as long as Matter is in Nature Sense and Motion will be so that it is absurd and impossible to believe or at least to think that Matter as a body can be totally deprived of Life Sense and Motion or that Life can perish and be corrupted be it the smallest part of Matter conceivable and the same turned or changed into millions of Figures for the Life and Soul of Nature is self-moving Matter which by Gods Power and leave is the onely Framer and Maker as also the Dissolver and Transformer of all Creatures in Nature making as well Light Heat and Cold Gas Blas and Ferments as all other natural Creatures beside as also Passions Appetites Digestions Nourishments Inclination Aversion Sickness and Health nay all Particular Ideas Thoughts Fancies Conceptions Arts Sciences c. In brief it makes all that is to be made in Nature But many great Philosophers conceive Nature to be fuller of Intricacy Difficulty and Obscurity then she is puzling themselves about her ordinary actions which yet are easie and free and making their arguments hard constrained and mystical many of them containing neither sense nor reason when as in my opinion there is nothing else to be studied in Nature but her substance and her actions But I will leave them to their own Fancies and Humors and say no more but rest MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XV. MADAM COncerning Sympathy and Antipathy and attractive or magnetick Inclinations which some do ascribe to the influence of the Stars others to an unknown Spirit as the Mover others to the Instinct of Nature hidden Proprieties and certain formal Vertues but your Author doth attribute to directing Ideas begotten by their Mother Charity or a desire of Good Will and calls it a Gift naturally inherent in the Archeusses of either part If you please to have my opinion thereof I think they are nothing else but plain ordinary Passions and Appetites As for example I take Sympathy as also Magnetisme or attractive Power to be such agreeable Motions in one part or Creature as do cause a Fancy love and desire to some other part or Creature and Antipathy when these Motions are disagreeable and produce contrary effects as dislike hate and aversion to some part
the sensitive and rational Motions which do not onely make the fear and conceit but also the disease for as a fright will sometimes cure diseases so it will sometimes cause diseases but as I said both fright cure and the disease are made by the rational and sensitive corporeal motions within the body and not by Supernatural Magick as Satanical Witchcraft entering from without into the body by spiritual rays But having discoursed hereof in my former Letter I will not trouble you with an unnecessary repetition thereof I conclude therefore with what I begun viz. that I believe natural Magick to be natural corporeal motions in natural bodies Not that I say Nature in her self is a Magicianess but it may be called natural Magick or Witchcraft meerly in respect to our Ignorance for though Nature is old yet she is not a Witch but a grave wise methodical Matron ordering her Infinite family which are her several parts with ease and facility without needless troubles and difficulties for these are onely made through the ignorance of her several parts or particular Creatures not understanding their Mistress Nature and her actions and government for which they cannot be blamed for how should a part understand the Infinite body when it doth not understand it self but Nature understands her parts better then they do her And so leaving Wise Nature and the Ignorance of her Particulars I understand my self so far that I am MADAM Your humble and faithful Servant XVII MADAM I Am not of your Authors opinion That Time hath no relation to Motion but that Time and Motion are as unlike and different from each other as Finite from Infinite and that it hath its own essence or being Immoveable Vnchangeable Individable and unmixed with things nay that Time is plainly the same with Eternity For in my opinion there can be no such thing as Time in Nature but what Man calls Time is onely the variation of natural motions wherefore Time and the alteration of motion is one and the same thing under two different names and as Matter Figure and Motion are inseparable so is Time inseparably united or rather the same thing with them and not a thing subsisting by it self and as long as Matter Motion and Figure have been existent so long hath Time and as long as they last so long doth Time But when I say Time is the variation of motion I do not mean the motion of the Sun or Moon which makes Days Months Years but the general motions or actions of Nature which are the ground of Time for were there no Motion there would be no Time and since Matter is dividable and in parts Time is so too neither hath Time any other Relation to Duration then what Nature her self hath Wherefore your Author is mistaken when he says Motion is made in Time for Motion makes Time or rather is one and the same with Time and Succession is no more a stranger to Motion then Motion is to Nature as being the action of Nature which is the Eternal servant of God But says he Certain Fluxes of Formerlinesses and Laternesses have respect unto frail moveable things in their motions wherewith they hasten unto the appointed ends of their period and so unto their own death or destruction but what relation hath all that to Time for therefore also ought Time to run with all and every motion Verily so there should be as many times and durations as there are motions I answer To my Reason there are as many times and durations as there are motions for neither time nor duration can be separated from motion no more then motion can be separated from them being all one But Time is not Eternity for Eternity hath no change although your Author makes Time and Eternity all one and a being or substance by it self Yet I will rather believe Solomon ' then him who says that there is a time to be merry and a time to be sad a time to mourn and a time to rejoyce and so forth making so many divisions of Time as there are natural actions whenas your Author makes natural actions strangers to Nature dividing them from their substances Which seemeth very improbable in the opinion of MADAM Your Ladiships faithful Friend and humble Servant XVIII MADAM YOur Authors opinion is That a bright burning Iron doth not burn a dead Carcass after an equal manner as it doth a live one For in live bodies saith he it primarily burts the sensitive Soul the which therefore being impatient rages after a wonderful manner doth by degrees resolve and exasperate its own and vital liquors into a sharp poyson and then contracts the fibres of the flesh and turns them into an escharre yea into the way of a coal but a dead Carcass is burnt by bright burning Iron no otherwise then if Wood or if any other unsensitive thing should be that is it burns by a proper action of the fire but not of the life To which opinion I answer That my Reason cannot conceive any thing to be without life and so neither without sense for whatsoever hath self-motion has sense and life and that self-motion is in every Creature is sufficiently discoursed of in my former Letters and in my Philosophical Opinions sor self-motion sense life and reason are the grounds and principles of Nature without which no Creature could subsist I do not say That there is no difference between the life of a dead Carcass and a live one for there is a difference between the lives of every Creature but to differ in the manner of life and to have neither life nor sense at all are quite different things But your Author affirms himself that all things have a certain sense of feeling when he speaks of Sympathy and Magnetisme and yet he denies that they have life And others again do grant life to some Creatures as to Vegetables and not sense Thus they vary in their Opinions and divide sense life and motion when all is but one and the same thing for no life is without sense and motion nor no motion without sense and life nay not without Reason for the chief Architect of all Creatures is sensitive and rational Matter But the mistake is that-most men do not or will not conceive that there is a difference and variety of the corporeal sensitive and rational motions in every Creature but they imagine that if all Creatures should have life sense and reason they must of necessity have all alike the same motions without any difference and because they do not perceive the animal motions in a Stone or Tree they are apt to deny to them all life sense and motion Truly Madam I think no man will be so mad or irrational as to say a Stone is an Animal or an Animal is a Tree because a Stone and Tree have sense life and motion for every body knows that their Natural figures are different and if their Natures be different then
or a corporeal substance and millions of immaterial Spirits nay were their number infinite cannot possess so much place as a small Pinspoint for Incorporeal Spirits possess no place at all which is the reason that an Immaterial and a Material Infinite cannot hinder oppose or obstruct each other and such an Infinite Immaterial Spirit is God alone But as for Created Immaterial Spirits as they call them it may be questioned whether they be Immaterial or not for there may be material Spirits as well as immaterial that is such pure subtil and agil substances as cannot be subject to any humane sense which may be purer and subtiller then the most refined air or purest light I call them material spirits onely for distinctions sake although it is more proper to call them material substances But be it that there are Immaterial Spirits yet they are not natural but supernatural that is not substantial parts of Nature for Nature is material or corporeal and so are all her Creatures and whatsoever is not material is no part of Nature neither doth it belong any ways to Nature Wherefore all that is called Immaterial is a Natural Nothing and an Immaterial Natural substance in my opinion is non-sense And if you contend with me that Created Spirits as good and bad Angels as also the Immortal Mind of Man are Immaterial then I say they are Supernatural but if you say they are Natural then I answer they are Material and thus I do not deny the existence of Immaterial Spirits but onely that they are not parts of Nature but supernatural for there may be many things above Nature and so above a natural Understanding and Knowledg which may nevertheless have their being and existence although they be not Natural that is parts of Nature Neither do I deny that those supernatural Creatures may be amongst natural Creatures that is have their subsistence amongst them and in Nature but they are not so commixed with them as the several parts of Matter are that is they do not joyn to the constitution of a material Creature for no Immaterial can make a Material or contribute any thing to the making or production of it but such a co-mixture would breed a meer confusion in Nature wherefore it is quite another thing to be in Nature or to have its subsistence amongst natural Creatures in a supernatural manner or way and to be a part of Nature I allow the first to Immaterial Spirits but not the second viz. to be parts of Nature But what Immaterial Spirits are both in their Essence or Nature and their Essential Properties it being supernatural and above natural Reason I cannot determine any thing thereof Neither dare I say they are Spirits like as God is that is of the same Essence or Nature no more then I dare say or think that God is of a humane shape or figure or that the Nature of God is as easie to be known as any notion else whatsoever and that we may know as much of him as of any thing else in the world For if this were so man would know God as well as he knows himself but God and his Attributes are not so easily known as man may know himself and his own natural Proprieties for God and his Attributes are not conceiveable or comprehensible by any humane understanding which is not onely material but also finite for though the parts of Nature be infinite in number yet each is finite in it self that is in its figure and therefore no natural Creature is capable to conceive what God is for he being infinite there is also required an infinite capacity to conceive him Nay Nature her self although she is Infinite yet cannot possibly have an exact notion of God by reason she is Material and God is Immaterial and if the Infinite servant of God is not able to conceive God much less will a finite part of Nature do it Besides the holy Church doth openly confess and declare the Incomprehensibility of God when in the Athanasian Creed she expresses that the Father is Incomprehensible the Son Incomprehensible and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible and that there are not three but one Incomprehensible God Therefore if any one will prove the contrary to wit that God is Comprehensible or which is all one that God is as easie to be known as any Creature whatsoever he surely is more then the Church But I shall never say or believe so but rather confess my ignorance then betray my folly and leave things Divine to the Church to which I submit as I ought in all Duty and as I do not meddle with any Divine Mysteries but subject my self concerning my Faith or Belief and the regulating of my actions for the obtaining of Eternal Life wholly under the government and doctrine of the Church so I hope they will also grant me leave to have my liberty concerning the contemplation of Nature and natural things that I may discourse of them with such freedom as meer natural Philosophers use or at least ought to do and thus I shall be both a good Chistian and a good Natural Philosopher Unto which to make the number perfect I will add a third which is I shall be MADAM Your real and faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM THough I am loth as I have often told you to imbarque my self in the discourse of such a subject as no body is able naturally to know which is the supernatural and divine Soul in Man yet your Author having in my judgment strange opinions both of the Essence Figure Seat and Production of the Soul and discoursing thereof with such liberty and freedom as of any other natural Creature I cannot chuse but take some notice of his discourse and make some reflections upon it which yet shall rather express my ignorance of the same subject then in a positive answer declare my opinion thereof for in things divine I refer my self wholly to the Church and submit onely to their instructions without any further search of natural reason and if I should chance to express more then I ought to do and commit some errror it being out of ignorance rather then set purpose I shall be ready upon better information to mend it and willingly subject my self under the censure and correction of the holy Church as counting it no disgrace to be ignorant in the mysteries of Faith since Faith is of things unknown but rather a duty required from every Lay-man to believe simply the Word of God as it is explained and declared by the Orthodox Church without making Interpretations out of his own brain and according to his own fancy which breeds but Schismes Heresies Sects and Confusions But concerning your Author I perceive by him first that he makes no distinction between the Natural or Rational Soul or Mind of Man and between the Divine or Supernatural Soul but takes them both as one and distinguishes onely the Immortal Soul from the sensitive Life of
Man which he calls the Frail Mortal Sensitive Soul Next all his knowledg of this Immortal Soul is grounded upon Dreams and Visions and therefore it is no wonder if his opinions be somewhat strange and irregular I saw in a Vision says he my Mind in a humane shape but there was a light whose whole homogeneal body was actively seeing a spiritual substance Chrystalline shining with a proper splendor or a splendor of its own but in another cloudy part it was rouled up as it were in the husk of it self which whether it had any splendor of it self I could not discern by reason of the superlative brightness of the Chrystal Spirit contain'd within Whereupon he defines the Soul to be a Spirit beloved of God homogeneal simple immortal created into the Image of God one onely Being whereto death adds nothing or takes nothing from it which may be natural or proper to it in the Essence of its simplicity As for this definition of the Soul it may be true for any thing I know but when your Author makes the divine Soul to be a Light I cannot conceive how that can agree for Light is a Natural and Visible Creature and in my opinion a corporeal substance whereas the Soul is immaterial and incorporeal But be it that Light is not a substance but a neutral Creature according to your Author then nevertheless the Immortal Soul cannot be said to be a light because she is a substance He may say The Soul is an Incomprehensible Light But if the Soul be Incomprehensible how then doth he know that she is a light and not onely a light but a glorious and splendorous light You will say By a Dream or Vision Truly Madam to judg any thing by a Dream is a sign of a weak judgment Nay since your Author calls the soul constantly a light if it were so and that it were such a splendorous bright and shining light as he says then when the body dies and the soul leaves its Mansion it would certainly be seen when it issues out of the body But your Author calls the Soul a Spiritual Substance and yet he says she has an homogeneal body actively seeing and shining with a proper splendor of her own which how it can agree I leave to you to judg for I thought an Immaterial spirit and a body were too opposite things and now I see your Author makes Material and Immaterial Spiritual and Corporeal all one But this is not enough but he allows it a Figure too and that of a human shape for says he I could never consider the Thingliness of the Immortal Mind with an Individual existence deprived of all figure neither but that it at least would answer to a human shape but the Scripture as much as is known to me never doth express any such thing of the Immortal Soul and I should be loth to believe any more thereof then it declares The Apostles although they were conversant with Christ and might have known it better yet were never so inquisitive into the nature of the Soul as our Modern divine Philosophers are for our Saviour and they regarded more the salvation of Man's Soul and gave holy and wise Instructions rather how to live piously and conformably to God's Will to gain eternal Life then that they should discourse either of the Essence or Figure or Proprieties of the Soul and whether it was a light or any thing else and such like needless questions raised in after-times onely by the curiosity of divine Philosophers or Philosophying Divines For though Light is a glorious Creature yet Darkness is as well a Creature as Light and ought not therefore to be despised for if it be not so bright and shining as Light yet it is a grave Matron-like Creature and very useful Neither is the Earth which is inwardly dark to be despised because the Sun is bright The like may be said of the soul and of the body for the body is very useful to the soul how dark soever your Author believes it to be and if he had not seen light with his bodily eyes he could never have conceived the Soul to be a Light Wherefore your Author can have no more knowledg of the divine soul then other men have although he has had more Dreams and Visions nay he himself confesses that the Soul is an Incomprehensible Light which if so she cannot be perfectly known nor confined to any certain figure for a figure or shape belongs onely to a corporeal substance and not to an incorporeal and so God being an Incomprehensible Being is excluded from all figure when as yet your Author doth not stick to affirm that God is of a humane figure too as well as the humane Soul is For says he Since God hath been pleased to adopt the Mind alone into his own Image it also seems to follow that the vast and unutter able God is of a humane Figure and that from an argument from the effect if there be any force of arguments in this subject Oh! the audacious curiosity of Man Is it not blasphemy to make the Infinite God of a frail and humane shape and to compare the most Holy to a sinful Creature Nay is it not an absurdity to confine and inclose that Incomprehensible Being in a finite figure I dare not insist longer upon this discourse lest I defile my thoughts with the entertaining of such a subject that derogates from the glory of the Omnipotent Creator Wherefore I will hasten as much as I can to the seat of the Soul which after relating several opinions your Author concludes to be the orifice of the stomack where the Immortal Soul is involved and entertained in the radical Inn or Bride-bed of the sensitive Soul or vital Light which part of the body is surely more honoured then all the rest But I for my part cannot conceive why the Soul should not dwell in the parts of conception as well as in the parts of digestion except it be to prove her a good Huswife however your Author allows her to slide down sometimes For The action of the Mind says he being imprisoned in the Body doth always tend downwards but whether the Soul tend more downwards then upwards Contemplative Persons especially Scholars and grave States-men do know best certainly I believe they find the soul more in their heads then in their heels at least her operations But to conclude if the Soul be pure and single of her self she cannot mix with the Body because she needs no assistance nor joyn with the Body though she lives in the Body for she needs no support and if she be individable she cannot divide her self into several Parts of the Body but if the Soul spread over all the Body then she is bigger or less according as the Body is and if she be onely placed in some particular part then onely that one part is indued with a Soul and the rest is Soul-less and if she
that those words express nothing else but the variety of motions in Nature for men are apt to make more distinctions then Nature doth Nature knows of nothing else but of corporeal figurative Motions when as men make a thousand distinctions of one thing and confound and entangle themselves so with Beings Non-beings and Neutral-beings Corporeals and Incorporeals Substances and Accidents or manners and modes of Substances new Creations and Annihilations and the like as neither they themselves nor any body else is able to make any sense thereof for they are like the tricks and slights of Juglers 't is here 't is gone and amongst those Authors which I have read as yet the most difficult to be understood is this Author which I am now perusing who runs such divisions and cuts Nature into so small Parts as the sight of my Reason is not sharp enough to discern them Wherefore I will leave them to those that are more quick-sighted then I and rest MADAM Your constant Friend and faithful Servant XXIV MADAM YOur Author relates how by some the Immortal Soul is divided into two distinct parts the Inferior or more outward which by a peculiar name is called the Soul and the other the Superior the more inward the which is called the bottom of the Soul or Spirit in which Part the Image of God is specially contained unto which is no access for the Devil because there is the Kingdom of God and each part has distinct Acts Proprieties and Faculties Truly Madam I wonder how some men dare discourse so boldly of the Soul without any ground either of Scripture or Reason nay with such contradiction to themselves or their own opinions For how can that be severed into parts which in its nature is Individable and how can the Image of God concern but one Part of the Soul and not the other Certainly if the Soul is the Image of God it is his Image wholly and not partially or in parts But your Author has other as strange and odd opinions as these some whereof I have mentioned in my former Letters viz. the Souls being a Light her Figure her Residence and many the like Amongst the rest there is one thing which your Author frequently makes mention of I know not what to call it whether a thing or a being or no-thing for it is neither of them not a substance nor an accident neither a body nor a spirit and this Monster sor I think this is its proper name since none other will fit it is the Lacquey of the Soul to run upon all errands for the Soul sitting in her Princely Throne or Residence which is the orifice of the stomack cannot be every where her self neither is it fit she should as being a disgrace to her to perform all offices her self for want of servants therefore she sends out this most faithful and trusty officer your Author calls him Ideal Entity who being prepared for his journey readily performs all her commands as being not tied up to no commands of places times or dimensions especially in Women with Child he operates most powerfully for sometime he printed a Cherry on a Child by a strong Idea of the Mother but this Ideal Entity or servant of the Soul hath troubled my brain more then his Mistress the Soul her self for I could not nor cannot as yet conceive how he might be able to be the Jack of all offices and do Journies and travel from one part of the body to another being no body nor substance himself nor tyed to any place time and dimension and therefore I will leave him Your Author also speaks much of the Inward and Outward Man but since that belongs to Divinity I will declare nothing of it onely this I say that in my opinion the Inward and Outward man do not make a double Creature neither properly nor improperly properly as to make two different men improperly as we use to call that man double whose heart doth not agree with his words But by the Outward man I understand the sinful actions of flesh and blood and by the Inward man the reformed actions of the Spirit according to the Word of God and therefore the Outward and Inward man make but one Man Concerning the Natural Soul your Author speaks of her more to her disgrace then to her honor for he scorns to call her a substance neither doth he call her the Rational Soul but he calls her the Sensitive Soul and makes the Divine Soul to be the Rational Natural Soul and the cause of all natural actions for he being a Divine Philosopher mixes Divine and Natural things together But of the Frail Mortal Sensitive Soul as he names her which is onely the sensitive Life his opinions are that she is neither a substance nor an accident but a Neutral Creature and a Vital Light which hath not its like in the whole World but the light of a Candle for it is extinguished and goes out like the flame of a Candle it is locally present and entertained in a place and yet not comprehended in a place Nevertheless although this sensitive soul is no substance yet it has the honor to be the Inn or Lodging-place of the Immortal Soul or Mind and these two souls being both lights do pierce each other but the Mortal soul blunts the Immortal soul with its cogitation of the corruption of Adam These opinions Madam I confess really I do not know what to make of them for I cannot imagine how this Mortal soul being no substance can contain the Immortal soul which is a substance nor how they can pierce each other and the Mortal soul being substanceless get the better over an Immortal substance and vitiate corrupt and infect it neither can I conceive how that which in a manner is nothing already can be made less and annihilated Wherefore my opinion is that the Natural Soul Life and Body are all substantial parts of Infinite Nature not subsisting by themselves each apart but inseparably united and co-mixed both in their actions and substances for not any thing can and doth subsist of it self in Nature but God alone and things supernatural may for ought I know T is true there are several Degrees several particular Natures several Actions or Motions and several Parts in Nature but none subsists single and by it self without reference to the whole and to one another Your Author says the Vital Spirit sits in the Throne of the Outward man as Vice Roy of the Soul and acts by Commission of the Soul but it is impossible that one single part should be King of the whole Creature since Rational and Sensitive Matter is divided into so many parts which have equal power and force of action in their turns and severall imployments for though Nature is a Monarchess over all her Creatures yet in every particular Creature is a Republick and not a Monarchy for no part of any Creature has a sole supreme
Power over the rest Moreover your Author says That an Angel is not a Light himself nor has an Internal Light natural and proper to himself but is the Glass of an Vncreated Light Which to my apprehension seems to affirm That Angels are the Looking-glasses of God a pretty Poetical Fancy but not grounded on the Scripture for the Scripture doth not express any such thing of them but onely that they are Ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation Which I think is enough for us to know here and leave the rest until we come to enjoy their company in Heaven But it is not to be admired that those which pretend to know the Nature and Secrets of God should not have likewise knowledg of Supernatural Creatures In which conceit I leave them and rest MADAM Your real and faithful Friend and Servant XXV MADAM REason and Intellect are two different things to your Author for Intellect says he doth properly belong to the Immortal Soul as being a Formal Light and the very substance of the Soul it self wherein the Image of God onely consists But Reason is an uncertain frail faculty of the Mortal Soul and doth in no ways belong nor has any communion with the Intellect of the Mind Which seems to me as if your Author did make some difference between the Divine and the Natural Soul in Man although he doth not plainly declare it in the same Terms for that which I name the Divine Soul is to him the Immortal Mind Intellect or Understanding and the Seat of the Image of God but the Natural Soul he calls the Frail Mortal and Rational Soul and as Understanding is the Essence of the Immortal so Reason is to him the Essence of the Mortal Soul which Reason he attributes not only to Man but also to Brutes For Reason and Discourse says he do not obscurely flourish and grow in brute Beasts for an aged Fox is more crafty then a younger one by rational discourse and again That the Rational Part of the Soul doth belong to brutes is without doubt Wherein he rightly dissents from those which onely do attribute a sensitive Soul to brutes and Reason to none but Man whom therefore they call a Rational Creature and by this Rational Faculty do distinguish him from the rest of Animals And thus I perceive the difference betwixt your Authors opinion and theirs is That other Philosophers commonly do make the Rational soul to be partly that which I call the supernatural and divine Soul as onely belonging to man and bearing the Image of God not acknowledging any other Natural but a Sensitive soul in the rest of Animals and a Vegetative soul in Vegetables and these three souls or faculties operations or degrees call them what you will for we shall not fall out about names concurr and joyn together in Man but the rest of all Creatures are void and destitute ofLife as well as of Soul and therefore called Unanimate and thus they make the natural rational soul and the divine soul in man to be all one thing without any distinguishment but your Author makes a difference between the Mortal and Immortal soul in Man the Immortal he calls the Intellect or Understanding and the Mortal soul he calls Reason but to my judgment he also attributes to the immortal soul actions which are both natural and supernatural adscribing that to the divine soul which onely belongs to the natural and taking that from the natural which properly belongs to her Besides he slights and despises the Rational soul so as if she were almost of no value with Man making her no substance but a mental intricate and obscure Being and so far from Truth as if there were no affinity betwixt Truth and Reason but that they disagree in their very roots and that the most refined Reason may be deceitful But your Author by his leave confounds Reason and Reasoning which are two several and distinct things for reasoning and arguing differs as much from Reason as doubtfulness from certainty of knowledg or a wavering mind from a constant mind for Reasoning is the discoursive and Reason the understanding part in Man and therefore I can find no great difference between Understanding and Reason Neither can I be perswaded that Reason should not remain with Man after this life and enter with him into Heaven although your Author speaks much against it for if Man shall be the same then which he is now in body why not in soul also 'T is true the Scripture says he shall have a more glorious body but it doth not say that some parts of the body shall be cast away or remain behind and if not of the body why of the soul Why shall Reason which is the chief part of the natural Soul be wanting Your Author is much for Intellect or Understanding but I cannot imagine how Understanding can be without Reason Certainly when he saw the Immortal Soul in a Vision to be a formal Light how could he discern what he saw without Reason How could he distinguish between Light and Darkness without Reason How could he know the Image of the Mind to be the Image of God without the distinguishment of Reason You will say Truth informed him and not Reason I answer Reason shews the Truth You may reply Truth requires no distinguishment or judgment I grant that perfect Truth requires not reasoning or arguing as whether it be so or not but yet it requires reason as to confirm it to be so or not so for Reason is the confirmation of Truth and Reasoning is but the Inquisition into Truth Wherefore when our Souls shall be in the fulness of blessedness certainly they shall not be so dull and stupid but observe distinctions between God Angels and sanctified Souls as also that our glory is above our merit and that there is great difference between the Damned and the Blessed and that God is an Eternal and Infinite Being and onely to be adored admired and loved and that we enjoy as much as can be enjoyed All which the Soul cannot know without the distinguishment of Reason otherwise we might say the Souls in Heaven love joy admire and adore but know not what why or wherefore For shall the blessed Souls present continual Praises without reason Have they not reason to praise God for their happiness and shall they not remember the Mercies of God and the Merits of his Son For without remembrance of them they cannot give a true acknowledgment although your Author says there is no use of Memory or remembrance in Heaven but surely I believe there is for if there were not memory in Heaven the Penitent Thief upon the Cross his Prayers had been in vain for he desired our Saviour to remember him when he did come into his Kingdom Wherefore if there be Understanding in Heaven there is also Reason and if there be Reason there is Memory also for all
to be generated then to be dissolved like as an house is sooner and with less pains pull'd down then built up Your Fifth question is Whether Animals are not generated by the way of Metamorphosing To which I answer That it is not possible that a third Creature can be made without translation of corporeal motions and since Metamorphosing is onely a change of motions in the same parts of Matter without any translation of corporeal motions no animal Creature can be produced or generated by the way of Metamorphosing Your Sixth question is Whether a whole may be made out of a part I answer There is no whole in Nature except you will call Nature her self a whole for all Creatures are but parts of Infinite Matter Your Seventh question is Whether all Animals as also Vegetables are made or generated by the way of Eggs I have said heretofore That it is not probable that different sorts nay different kinds of Creatures should all have but one manner or way of production for why should not Nature make different ways of productions as well as different Creatures And as for Vegetables if all their Seeds be likened unto Eggs then Eggs may very well be likened to Seeds which if so then a Peas-cod is the Hen and the Peas in the Cod is the cluster of Eggs the like of ears of Corn. And those animals that produce but one creature or seed at a time may be like the kernel of a Nut when the shell is broke the creature comes forth But how this will agree with your Author who says that the creature in the shell must make its own passage I cannot tell for if the Nut be not broken by some external means or occasion the kernel is not like to get forth And as for humane Eggs I know not what to answer for it is said that the first Woman was made of a mans ribb but whether that ribb was an egg I cannot tell And why may not Minerals and Elements be produced by the way of Eggs as well as Vegetables and Animals Nay why may not the whole World be likened unto an Egg Which if so the two Poles are the two ends of the Egg and for the Elements the Yolk is the Fire the White the Water the Film the Air and the Shell it self will very well serve for the Earth But then it must first be broken and pounded into one lump or solid mass and so swim or sink into the midst of the liquid parts as to the Center and as for the several faetuses in this great Egg they are the several Creatures in it Or it might be said that the Chaos was an Egg and the Universe the Chicken But leaving this fimilizing it is like that some studious Men may by long study upon one part of the body conceive and believe that all other parts are like that one part like as those that have gazed long upon the Sun all they see for a time are Suns to them or like as those which having heard much of Hobgoblins all they see are Hobgoblins their fancies making such things But Madam to make a conclusion also of this question I repeat what I said before viz. that all Creatures have not one way of production and as they have not all one way of production so they have neither one instant of time either for perfection or dissolution but their perfection and dissolution is made by degrees Your Eighth question is Whether it may not be that the sensitive and rational corporeal motions in an Egg do pattern out the figure of the Hen and Cock whilest the Hen sits upon the Egg and so bring forth Chickens by the way of patterning I answer The action of patterning is not the action of Generation for as I said heretofore the actions of Nature are different and Generation must needs be performed by the way of translation which translation is not required in the action of Patterning but according as the Producers are which transfer their own matter into the produced so is the produced concerning its species which is plainly proved by common examples for if Pheasants or Turky or Goose-eggs be laid under an ordinary Hen or an ordinary Hens-egg be laid under a Pheasant Turky or Goose the Chickens of those Eggs will never be of any other species then of those that produced the Egg for an ordinary Hen if she sit upon Pheasants Turky or Goose-eggs doth not hatch Chickens of her own species but the Chickens will be of the species either of the Pheasant or Turky or Goose which did at first produce the Egg which proves that in Generation or Natural production there is not onely required the action of the Producers but also a Transferring of some of their own parts to form the produced But you may say What doth the sitting Hen contribute then to the production of the Chicken I answer The sitting Hen doth onely assist the Egg in the production of the Chicken as the Ground doth the Seed Your Ninth question is Concerning the Soul of a particular Animal Creature as whether it be wholly of it self and subsists wholly in and by it self But you must give me leave first to ask you what Soul you mean whether the Divine or the Natural Soul for there is great difference betwixt them although not the least that ever I heard rightly examined and distinguished and if you mean the Divine Soul I shall desire you to excuse me for that belongs to Divines and not to Natural Philosophers neither am I so presumptuous as to intrench upon their sacred order But as for the Natural Soul the Learned have divided it into three parts to wit the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational Soul and according to these three Souls made three kinds of lives as the Vegetative Sensitive and Rational Life But they might as well say there are infinite bodies lives and souls as three for in Nature there is but one life soul and body consisting all of one Matter which is corporeal Nature But yet by reason this life and soul is material it is divided into numerous parts which make numerous lives and souls in every particular Creature for each particular part of the rational self-moving Matter is each particular soul in each particular Creature but all those parts considered in general make but one soul of Nature and as this self-moving Rational Matter hath power to unite its parts so it hath ability or power to divide its united parts And thus the rational soul of every particular Creature is composed of parts I mean parts of a material substance for whatsoever is substanceless and incorporeal belongs not to Nature but is Supernatural for by reason the Infinite and Onely matter is by self-motion divided into self-parts not any Creature can have a soul without parts neither can the souls of Creatures subsist without commerce of other rational parts no more then one body can subsist without the assistance of other bodies
for all parts belong to one body which is Nature nay if any thing could subsist of it self it were a God and not a Creature Wherefore not any Creature can challenge a soul absolutely to himself unless Man who hath a divine soul which no other Creature hath But that which makes so many confusions and disputes amongst learned men is that they conceive first there is no rational soul but onely in man next that this rational soul in every man is individable But if the rational soul is material as certainly to all sense and reason it is then it must not onely be in all material Creatures but be dividable too for all that is material or corporeal hath parts and is dividable and therefore there is no such thing in any one Creature as one intire soul nay we might as well say there is but one Creature in Nature as say there is but one individable natural soul in one Creature Your Tenth question is Whether Souls are producible or can be produced I answer in my opinion they are producible by reason all parts in Nature are so But mistake me not for I do not mean that any one part is produced out of Nothing or out of new matter but one Creature is produced by another by the dividing and uniting joyning and disjoyning of the several parts of Matter and not by substanceless Motion out of new Matter And because there is not any thing in Nature that has an absolute subsistence of it self each Creature is a producer as well as a produced in some kind or other for no part of Nature can subsist single and without reference and assistance of each other or else every single part would not onely be a whole of it self but be as a God without controle and though one part is not another part yet one part belongs to another part and all parts to one whole and that whole to all the parts which whole is one corporeal Nature And thus as I said before productions of one or more creatures by one or more producers without matter meerly by immaterial motions are impossible to wit that something should be made or produced out of nothing for if this were so there would consequently be an annihilation or turning into nothing and those Creatures which produce others by the way of immaterial motions would rather be as a God then a part of Nature or Natural Matter Besides it would be an endless labour and more trouble to create particular Creatures out of nothing then a World at once whereas now it is easie for Nature to create by production and transmigration and therefore it is not probable that any one Creature hath a particular life soul or body to it self as subsisting by it self and as it were precised from the rest having its own subsistence without the assistance of any other nor is it probable that any one Creature is new for all that is was and shall be till the Omnipotent God disposes Nature otherwise As for the rest of your questions as whether the Sun be the cause of all motions and of all natural productions and whether the life of a Creature be onely in the blood or whether it have its beginning from the blood or whether the blood be the chief architect of an animal or be the seat of the soul sense and reason in my opinion doth plainly contradict them for concerning the blood if it were the seat of the Soul then in the circulation of the blood if the Soul hath a brain it would become very dizzie by its turning round but perchance some may think the Soul to be a Sun and the Blood the Zodiack and the body the Globe of the Earth which the Soul surrounds in such time as the Blood is flowing about And so leaving those similizing Fancies I 'le add no more but repeat what I said in the beginning viz. that I rely upon the goodness of your Nature from which I hope for pardon if I have not so exactly and solidly answered your desire for the argument of this discourse being so difficult may easily lead me into an error which your better judgment will soon correct and in so doing you will add to those favours for which I am already MADAM Your Ladiships most obliged Friend and humble Servant III. MADAM You thought verily I had mistaken my self in my last concerning the Rational Souls of every particular Creature because I said all Creatures had numerous Souls and not onely so but every particular Creature had numerous Souls Truly Madam I did not mistake my self for I am of the same opinion still for though there is but one Soul in infinite Nature yet that soul being dividable into parts every part is a soul in every single creature were the parts no bigger in quantity then an atome But you ask whether Nature hath Infinite souls I answer That Infinite Nature is but one Infinite body divided into Infinite parts which we call Creatures and therefore it may as well be said That Nature is composed of Infinite Creatures or Parts as she is divided into Infinite Creatures or Parts for Nature being Material is dividable and composable The same may be said of Nature's Soul which is the Rational part of the onely infinite Matter as also of Nature's Life which is the sensitive part of the onely Infinite self-moving Matter and of the Inanimate part of the onely Infinite Matter which I call the body for distinction sake as having no self-motion in its own nature for Infinite Material Nature hath an Infinite Material Soul Life and Body But Madam I desire you to observe what I said already viz. that the parts of Nature are as apt to divide as to unite for the chief actions of Nature are to divide and to unite which division is the cause that it may well be said every particular Creature hath numerous souls for every part of rational Matter is a particular Soul and every part of the sensitive Matter is a particular Life all which mixed with the Inanimate Matter though they be Infinite in parts yet they make but one Infinite whole which is Infinite Nature and thus the Infinite division into Infinite parts is the cause that every particular Creature hath numerous Souls and the transmigration of parts from and to parts is the reason that not any Creature can challenge a single soul or souls to it self the same for life But most men are unwilling to believe that Rational Souls are material and that this rational Matter is dividable in Nature when as humane sense and reason may well perceive that Nature is active and full of variety and action and variety cannot be without motion division and composition but the reason that variety division and composition runs not into confusion is that first there is but one kind of Matter next that the division and composition of parts doth ballance each other into a union in the whole But to conclude those
Creatures which have their rational parts most united are the wisest and those that have their rational parts most divided are the wittiest and those that have much of this rational matter are much knowing and those which have less of this rational matter are less knowing and there is no Creature that hath not some for like as all the parts of a humane body are indued with life and soul so are all the parts of Infinite Nature and though some parts of Matter are not animate in themselves yet there is no part that is not mixt with the animate matter so that all parts of Nature are moving and moved And thus hoping I have cleared my self in this point to your better understanding I take my leave and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IV. MADAM IN the Works of that most famous Philosopher and Mathematician of our age Gal. which you thought worth my reading I find he discourses much of upwards and downwards backwards and forwards but to tell you really I do not understand what he means by those words for in my opinion there is properly no such thing as upwards downwards backwards or forwards in Nature for all this is nothing else but natural corporeal motions to which in respect of some particulars we do attribute such or such names for if we conceive a Circle I pray where is upwards and downwards backwards and forwards Certainly it is in my opinion just like that they name Rest Place Space Time c. when as Nature her self knows of no such things but all these are onely the several and various motions of the onely Matter You will say How can Rest be a motion I answer Rest is a word which expresses rather mans ignorance then his knowledg for when he sees that a particular Creature has not any external local motion perceptible by his sight he says it resteth and this rest he calls a cessation from motion when as yet there is no such thing as cessation from motion in Nature for motion is the action of natural Matter and its Nature is to move perpetually so that it is more probable for motion to be annihilated then to cease But you may say It is a cessation from some particular motion I answer You may rather call it an alteration of a particular motion then a cessation for though a particular motion doth not move in that same manner as it did before nevertheless it is still there and not onely there but still moving onely it is not moving after the same manner as it did move heretofore but has changed from such a kind of motion to another kind of motion and being still moving it cannot be said to cease Wherefore what is commonly called cessation from motion is onely a change of some particular motion and is a mistake of change for rest Next I find in the same Author a long discourse of circular and strait motions to wit That they are simple motions and that all others are composed out of them and are mixt motions Also That the Circular Motion is perfect and the Right imperfect and that all the parts of the world if moveable of their own nature it is impossible that their motions should be Right or any other then Circular That a Circular motion is never to be gotten naturally without a preceding right motion That a Right motion cannot naturally be perpetual That a Right motion is impossible in the World well ordered and the like First I cannot conceive why natural Matter should use the Circle-figure more then any other in the motions of her Creatures for Nature which is Infinite Matter is not bound to one particular motion or to move in a Circle more then any other figure but she moves more variously then any one part of hers can conceive Wherefore it is not requisite that the natural motions of natural bodies should be onely Circular Next I do not understand why a Circular Motion cannot be gotten naturally without a precedent right motion for in my opinion corporeal motions may be round or circular without being or moving straight before and if a straight line doth make a circle then an imperfect figure makes a perfect but in my opinion a circle may as well make a straight line as a strait line a circle except it be like a Gordian knot that it cannot be dissolved or that Nature may make some corporeal motions as constant as she makes others inconstant for her motions are not alike in continuance and alteration And as for right motion that naturally it cannot be perpetual my opinion is that it cannot be if Nature be finite but if Nature be infinite it may be But the circular motion is more proper for a finite then an infinite because a circle-figure is perfect and circumscribed and a straight line is infinite or at least producible in infinite and there may be other worlds in infinite Nature besides these round Globes perceptible by our sight which may have other figures for though it be proper for Globes or Spherical bodies to move round yet that doth not prove that Infinite Matter moves round or that all worlds must be of a Globous figure for there may be as different Worlds as other Creatures He says That a Right motion is impossible in the World well ordered But I cannot conceive a Right motion to be less orderly then a Circular in Nature except it be in some Particulars but oftentimes that which is well ordered in some cases seems to some mens understandings and perceptions ill ordered in other cases for man as a part most commonly considers but the Particulars not the Generals like as every one in a Commonwealth considers more himself and his Family then the Publick Lastly Concerning the simplicity of Motions as that onely circular and straight motions are simple motions because they are made by simple Lines I know not what they mean by simple Lines for the same Lines which make straight and circular figures may make as well other figures as those but in my opinion all motions may be called simple in regard of their own nature for they are nothing else but the sensitive and rational part of Matter which in its own nature is pure and simple and moves according to the Nature of each Figure either swiftly or slowly or in this or that sort of motion but the most simple purest and subtillest part is the rational part of matter which though it be mixed with the sensitive and inanimate in one body yet it can and doth move figuratively in its own matter without the help or assistance of any other But I desire you to remember Madam that in the compositions and divisions of the parts of Nature there is as much unity and agreement as there is discord and disagreement for in Infinite there is no such thing as most and least neither is there any such thing as more perfect or less perfect in Matter And as for Irregularities properly
space but from one side of the Circle to the other so that in his mind he brings two sides together and yet will have them distant but the motions of his thoughts being subtiler and swifter then his senses skip from side to side without touching the middle parts like as a Squirrel from bough to bough or an Ape from one table to another without touching the ground onely cutting the air Next he says That an absolute Vacuum is neither an Accident nor a Body nor yet Nothing but Something because it has a being which opinion seems to me like that of the divine Soul but I suppose Vacuum is not the divine Soul nor the divine Soul Vacuum or else it could not be sensible of the blessed happiness in Heaven or the Torments in Hell Again he says Let us screw our supposition one pin higher and farther imagine that God after the annihilation of this vast machine the Universe should create another in all respects equal to this and in the same part of space wherein this now consists First we must conceive that as the spaces were immense before God created the world so also must they eternally persist of infinite extent if he shall please at any time to destroy it Next that these immense spaces are absolutely immoveable By this opinion it seems that Gods Power cannot so easily make or annihilate Vacuum as a substance because he believes it to be before all Matter and to remain after all Matter which is to be eternal but I cannot conceive why Matter or fulness of body should not as well be Infinite and Eternal as his conceived Vacuum for if Vacuum can have an eternal and infinite being why may not fulness of body or Matter But he calls Vacuum Immovable which in my opinion is to make it a God for God is onely Immoveable and Unalterable and this is more Glorious then to be dependant upon God wherefore to believe Matter to be Eternal but yet dependent upon God is a more humble opinion then his opinion of Vacuum for if Vacuum be not created and shall not be annihilated but is Uncreated Immaterial Immoveable Infinite and Eternal it is a God but if it be created God being not a Creator of Nothing nor an annihilator of Nothing but of Something he cannot be a Creator of Vacuum for Vacuum is a pure Nothing But leaving Nothing to those that can make something of it I will add no more but rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant IX MADAM THat Learned Author of whom I made mention in my last is pleased to say in his Chapter of Time that Time is the Twin-brother to Space but if Space be as much as Vacuum then I say they are Twin-nothings for there can be no such thing as an empty or immaterial space but that which man calls space is onely a distance betwixt several corporeal parts and time is onely the variation of corporeal motions for were there no body there could not be any space and were there no corporeal motion there could not be any time As for Time considered in General it is nothing else but the corporeal motions in Nature and Particular times are the Particular corporeal motions but Duration is onely a continuance or continued subsistence of the same parts caused by the consistent motions of those parts Neither are Time Duration Place Space Magnitude c. dependents upon corporeal motions but they are all one and the same thing Neither was Time before nor can be after corporeal motion for none can be without the other being all one And as for Eternity it is one fixed instant without a flux or motion Concerning his argument of Divisibility of Parts my opinion is That there is no Part in Nature Individable no not that so small a part which the Epicureans name an Atome neither is Matter separable from Matter nor Parts from Parts in General but onely in Particulars for though parts can be separated from parts by self-motion yet upon necessity they must joyn to parts so as there can never be a single part by it self But hereof as also of Place Space Time Motion Figure Magnitude c. I have sufficiently discoursed in my former Letters as also in my Book of Philosophy and as for my opinion of Atoms their figures and motions if any such things there be I will refer you to my Book of Poems out of which give me leave to repeat these following lines containing the ground of my opinion of Atomes All Creatures howsoe're they may be nam'd Are of long square flat or sharp Atomes fram'd Thus several figures several tempers make But what is mixt doth of the four partake The onely cause why things do live and die 'S according as the mixed Atomes lie Thus life and death and young and old Are as the several Atoms hold Wit understanding in the brain Are as the several atomes reign And dispositions good or ill Are as the several atomes still And every Passion which doth rise Is as each several atome lies Thus sickness health and peace and war Are as the several atomes are If you desire to know more you may read my mentioned Book of Poems whose first Edition was printed in the year 1653. And so taking my leave of you I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant X. MADAM I Received the Book of your new Author that treats of Natural Philosophy which I perceive is but lately come forth but although it be new yet there are no new opinions in it for the Author doth follow the opinions of some old Philosophers and argues after the accustomed Scholastical way with hard intricate and nonsensical words Wherefore I shall not take so much pains as to read it quite over but onely pick out here and there some few discourses which I shall think most convenient for the clearing of my own opinion in the number of which is first that of Matter whereof the Author is pleased to proclaim the opinion that holds Matter to be Infinite not onely absurd but also impious Truly Madam it is easily said but hardly proved and not to trouble you with unnecessary repetitions I hope you do remember as yet what I have written to you in the beginning concerning the infiniteness of Nature or natural Matter where I have proved that it implies no impiety absurdity or contradiction at all to believe that Matter is Infinite for your Authors argument concluding from the finiteness of particular Creatures to Nature her self is of no force for though no part of Nature is Infinite in bulk figure or quantity nevertheless all the parts of Infinite Nature are Infinite in number which infinite number of parts must needs make up one Infinite body in bulk or quantity for as a finite body or substance is dividable into finite parts so an Infinite body as Nature or natural Matter must of necessity be dividable into infinite parts in number and yet each part must
abolish'd the intended benefit and banish'd equity and instead of keeping Peace they make War causing enmity betwixt men As for Natural Philosophy they will not suffer sense and reason to appear in that study And as for Physick they have kill'd more men then Wars Plagues or Famine Wherefore from nice distinctions and Logistical sophistry Good God deliver us especially from those that concern Divinity for they weaken Faith trouble Conscience and bring in Atheism In short they make controversies and endless disputes But least the opening of my meaning in such plain terms should raise a controversie also between you and me I 'le cut off here and rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXI MADAM YEsterday I received a visit from the Lady N. M. who you know hath a quick wit rational opinions and subtil conceptions all which she is ready and free to divulge in her discourse But when she came to my Chamber I was casting up some small accounts which when she did see What said she are you at Numeration Yes said I but I cannot number well nor much for I do not understand Arithrnetick Said she You can number to three Yes said I I can number to four Nay faith said she the number of three is enough if you could but understand that number well for it is a mystical number Said I There is no great mystery to count that number for one and two makes three Said she That is not the mystery for the mystery is That three makes one and without this mystery no man can understand Dlvinity Nature nor himself Then I desired her to make me understand that mystery She said It required more time to inform me then a short visit for this mystery was such as did puzle all wise men in the world aud the not understanding of this mystery perfectly had caused endless divisions and disputes I desired if she could not make me understand the mystery she would but inform me how three made one in Divinity Nature and Man She said That was easie to do for in Divinity there are three Persons in one Essence as God the Father the Son and the holy Ghost whose Essence being individable they make but one God And as for Philosophy there is but Matter Motion and Figure which being individable make but one Nature And as for Man there is Soul Life and Body all three joyned in one Man But I replied Man's Life Soul and Body is dividable That is true said she but then he is no more a Man for these three are his essential parts which make him to be a man and when these parts are dissolved then his interior nature is changed so that he can no longer be call'd a man As for example Water being turned into Air and having lost its interior nature can no more be called Water but it is perfect Air the same is with Man But as long as he is a Man then these three forementioned parts which make him to be of that figure are individably united as long as man lasts Besides said she this is but in the particular considering man single and by himself but in general these three as life soul and body are individably united so that they remain as long as manking lasts Nay although they do dissolve in the particulars yet it is but for a time for they shall be united again at the last day which is the time of their resurrection so that also in this respect we may justly call them individable for man shall remain with an united soul life and body eternally And as she was thus discoursing in came a Sophisterian whom when she spied away she went as fast as she could but I followed her close and got hold of her then asked her why she ran away She answer'd if she stayed the Logician would dissolve her into nothing for the profession of Logicians is to make something nothing and nothing something I pray'd her to stay and discourse with the Logician Not for a world said she for his discourse will make my brain like a confused Chaos full of senseless minima's and after that he will so knock jolt and jog it and make such whirls and pits as will so torture my brain that I shall wish I had not any Wherefore said she I will not stay now but visit you again to morrow And I wish with all my heart Madam you were so near as to be here at the same time that we three might make a Triumvirate in discourse as well as we do in friendship But since that cannot be I must rest satisfied that I am MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXII MADAM YOu were pleased to desire my opinion of the works of that Learned and Ingenious Writer B. Truly Madam I have read but some part of his works but as much as I have read I have observed he is a very civil eloquent and rational Writer the truth is his style is a Gentleman's style And in particular concerning his experiments I must needs say this that in my judgment he hath expressed himself to be a very industrious and ingenious person for he doth neither puzle Nature nor darken truth with hard words and compounded languages or nice distinctions besides his experiments are proved by his own action But give me leave to tell you that I observe he studies the different parts and alterations more then the motions which cause the alterations in those parts whereas did he study and observe the several and different motions in those parts how they change in one and the same part and how the different alterations in bodies are caused by the different motions of their parts he might arrive to a vast knowledg by the means of his experiments for certainly experiments are very beneficial to man In the next place you desire my opinion of the Book call'd The Discourses of the Virtuosi in France I am sorry Madam this book comes so late to my hands that I cannot read it so slowly and observingly as to give you a clear judgment of their opinions or discourses in particular however in general and for what I have read in it I may say it expresses the French to be very learned and eloquent Writers wherein I thought our English had exceeded them and that they did onely excel in wit and ingenuity but I perceive most Nations have of all sorts The truth is ingenious and subtil wit brings news but learning and experience brings proofs at least argumental discourses and the French are much to be commended that they endeavour to spend their time wisely honourably honestly and profitably not onely for the good and benefit of their own but also of other Nations But before I conclude give me leave to tell you that concerning the curious and profitable Arts mentioned in their discourses I confess I do much admire them and partly believe they may arrive to the use of many of them but there are two arts which I
for I am in all respects MADAM Your Ladiships humble and faithful Servant XXV MADAM YOur Command in your last was to send you my opinion concerning the division of Religions or of the several opinions in Religions I suppose you mean the division of the Religion not of Religions for certainly there is but one divine Truth and consequently but one true Religion But natural men being composed of many divers parts as of several motions and figures have divers and several Ideas which the grosser corporeal motions conceive to be divers and several gods as being not capable to know the Great and Incomprehensible God who is above Nature For example Do but consider Madam what strange opinions the Heathens had of God and how they divided him into so many several Persons with so many several bodies like men whereas surely God considered in his Essence he being a Spirit as the Scripture describes him can neither have Soul nor body as he is a God but is an Immaterial Being Onely the Heathens did conceive him to have parts and so divided the Incomprehensible God into several Deities at least they had several Deitical Ideas or rather Fancies of him But Madam I confess my ignorance in this great mystery and honour and praise the Omnipotent Great and Incomprehensible God with all fear and humility as I ought beseeching his infinite mercy to keep me from such presumption whereby I might prophane his holy Name and to make me obedient to the Church as also to grant me life and health that I may be able to express how much I am MADAM Your Faithful Friend and Servant XXVI MADAM SInce I spake of Religion in my last I cannot but acquaint you that I was the other day in the company of Sir P. H. and Sir R. L. where amongst other discourses they talk'd of Predestination and Free-will Sir P. H. accounted the opinion of Predestination not onely absurd but blasphemous for said he Predestination makes God appear Cruel as first to create Angels and Man and then to make them fall from their Glory and damn them eternally For God said he knew before he made them they would fall Neither could he imagine from whence that Pride and Presumption did proceed which was the cause of the Angels fall for it could not proceed from God God being infinitely Good Sir R. L. answer'd That this Pride and Presumption did not come from God but from their own Nature But replyed Sir P. H. God gave them that Nature for they had it not of themselves but all what they were their Essence and Nature came from God the Creator of all things and to suffer that which was in his power to hinder was as much as to act Sir R. L. said God gave both Angels and Man a Free-will at their Creation Sir P. H. answered that a Free-will was a part of a divine attribute which surely God would not give away to any Creature Next said he he could not conceive why God should make Creatures to cross and oppose him for it were neither an act of Wisdom to make Rebels nor an act of Justice to make Devils so that neither in his Wisdom Justice nor Mercy God could give leave that Angels and Man should fall through sin neither was God ignorant that Angels and Man would fall for surely said he God knew all things past present and to come wherefore said he Free-will doth weaken the Power of God and Predestination doth weaken the power of man and both do hinder each other Besides said he since God did confirm the rest of the Angels in the same state they were before so as they could not fall afterwards he might as well have created them all so at first But Sir R. L. replied That God suffered Angels and Man to fall for his Glory to shew his Justice in Devils and his Mercy in Man and that the Devils express'd God's Omnipotency as much as the Blessed To which Sir P. H. answered That they expressed more God's severity in those horrid torments they suffer through their Natural Imperfections then his power in making and suffering them to sin Thus they discoursed And to tell you truly Madam my mind was more troubled then delighted with their discourse for it seemed rather to detract from the honour of the great God then to increase his Glory and no Creature ought either to think or to speak any thing that is detracting from the Glory of the Creator Wherefore I am neither for Predestination nor for an absolute Free-will neither in Angels Devils nor Man for an absolute Free-will is not competent to any Creature and though Nature be Infinite and the Eternal Servant to the Eternal and Infinite God and can produce Infinite Creatures yet her Power and Will is not absolute but limited that is she has a natural free-will but not a supernatural for she cannot work beyond the power God has given her But those mystical discourses belong to Divines and not to any Lay-person and I confess my self very ignorant in them Wherefore I will nor dare not dispute God's actions being all infinitely wise but leave that to Divines who are to inform us what we ought to believe and how we ought to live And thus taking my leave of you for the present I rest MADAM Your faithful Friend and Servant XXVII MADAM YOu are pleased to honor me so far that you do not onely spend some time in the perusing of my Book called Philosophical Opinions but take it so much into your consideration as to examine every opinion of mine which dissents from the common way of the Schools marking those places which seem somewhat obscure and desiring my explanation of them All which I do not onely acknowledg as a great favour but as an infallible testimony of your true and unfeigned friendship and I cannot chuse but publish it to all the world both for the honour of your self as to let every body know the part of so true a friend who is so much concerned for the honour and benefit of my poor Works as also for the good of my mentioned Book which by this means will be rendred more intelligible for I must confess that my Philosophical Opinions are not so plain and perspicuous as to be perfectly understood at the first reading which I am sorry for And there be two chief reasons why they are so First Because they are new and never vented before for they have their original meerly from my own conceptions and are not taken out of other Philosophers Next because I being a Woman and not bred up to Scholarship did want names and terms of Art and therefore being not versed in the Writings of other Philosophers but what I knew by hearing I could not form my named Book so methodically and express my opinions so artificially and clearly as I might have done had I been studious in the reading of Philosophical Books or bred a Scholar for then I might have dressed
self-moving matter that is to say by the rational corporeal motions and are the same with thoughts or conceptions Next your question is what I do understand by Sensitive Life I answer It is that part of self-moving matter which in its own nature is not so pure and subtil as the rational for it is but the labouring and the rational the designing part of matter Your third question is Whether this sensitive self-moving matter be dense or rare I answer density and rarity are onely effects caused by the several actions that is the corporeal motions of Nature wherefore it cannot properly be said that sensitive matter is either dense or rare for it has a self-power to contract and dilate compose and divide and move in any kind of motion whatsoever as is requisite to the framing of any figure and thus I desire you to observe well that when I say the rational part of matter is purer in its degree then the sensitive and that this is a rare and acute matter I do not mean that it is thin like a rare egg but that it is subtil and active penetrating and dividing as well as dividable Your fourth question is What this sensitive matter works upon I answer It works with and upon another degree of matter which is not self-moving but dull stupid and immoveable in its own nature which I call the inanimate part or degree of matter Your fifth question is Whether this inanimate Matter do never rest I answer It doth not for the self-moving matter being restless in its own nature and so closely united and commixed with the inanimate as they do make but one body will never suffer it to rest so that there is no part in Nature but is moving the animate matter in it self or its own nature the inanimate by the help or means of the animate Your sixth question is If there be a thorow mixture of the parts of animate and inanimate matter whether those parts do retain each their own nature and substance so that the inanimate part of matter remains dull and stupid in its essence or nature and the animate full of self-motion or all self motion I answer Although every part and particle of each degree are closely intermixed nevertheless this mixture doth not alter the interior nature of those parts or degrees As for example a man is composed of Soul and Body which are several parts but joyned as into one substance viz. Man and yet they retain each their own proprieties and natures for although soul and body are so closely united as they do make but one Man yet the soul doth not change into the body nor the body into the soul but each continues in its own nature as it is And so likewise in Infinite Matter although the degrees or parts of Matter are so throughly intermixed as they do make but one body or substance which is corporeal Nature yet each remains in its nature as it is to wit the animate part of matter doth not become dull and stupid in its nature but remains self-moving and the inanimate although it doth move by the means of the animate yet it doth not become self-moving but each keeps its own interior nature and essence in their commixture The truth is there must of necessity be degrees of matter or else there would be no such various and several effects in Nature as humane sense and reason do perceive there are and those degrees must also retain each their own nature and proprieties to produce those various and curious effects Neither must those different degrees vary or alter the nature of Infinite Matter for Matter must and doth continue one and the same in its Nature that is Matter cannot be divided from being Matter And this is my meaning when I say in my Philosophical Opinions There is but one kind of Matter Not that Matter is not dividable into several parts or degrees but I say although Matter has several parts and degrees yet they do not alter the nature of Matter but Matter remains one and the same in its own kind that is it continues still Matter in its own nature notwithstanding those degrees and thus I do exclude from Matter all that which is not Matter and do firmly believe that there can be no commixture of Matter and no Matter in Nature for this would breed a meer confusion in Nature Your seventh question is Whether that which I name the rational part of self-moving Matter makes as much variety as the sensitive To which I answer That to my sense and reason the rational part of animate or self-moving Matter moves not onely more variously but also more swiftly then the sensitive for thoughts are sooner made then words spoke and a certain proof of it are the various and several Imaginations Fancies Conceptions Memories Remembrances Understandings Opinions Judgments and the like as also the several sorts of Love Hate Fear Anger Joy Doubt and the like Passions Your eighth question is Whether the Sensitive Matter can and doth work in it self and its own substance and degree My answer is That there is no inanimate matter without animate nor no animate without inanimate both being so curiously and subtilly intermixt as they make but one body Nevertheless the several parts of this one body may move several ways Neither are the several degrees bound to an equal mixture no more then the several parts of one body are bound to one and the same size bigness shape or motion or the Sea is bound to be always at the high tide or the Moon to be always at the Full or all the Veins or Brains in animal bodies are bound to be of equal quantity or every Tree of the same kind to bear fruit or have leaves of equal number or every Apple Pear or Plum to have an equal quantity of juice or every Bee to make as much honey and wax as the other Your nineth question is Whether the Sensitive Matter can work without taking patterns My answer is That all corporeal motion is not patterning but all patterning is made by corporeal motion and there be more several sorts of corporeal motions then any single Creature is able to conceive much less to express But the perceptive corporeal motions are the ground-motions in Nature which make rule and govern all the parts of Nature as to move to Production or Generation Transformation and the like Your tenth question is How it is possible that numerous figures can exist in one part of matter for it is impossible that two things can be in one place much less many My answer in short is That it were impossible were a part of Matter and the numerous figures several and distinct things but all is but one thing that is a part of Matter moving variously for there is neither Magnitude Place Figure nor Motion in Nature but what is Matter or Body Neither is there any such thing as Time Wherefore it cannot properly be said
sorts of Infinites as Infinite in number Infinite in duration as also the Infinite degrees motions figures sizes compositions divisions c. all which are contained in the Infinite body of Nature which is the onely Infinite in quantity or substance neither can the parts of Nature go beyond Infinite Also when I say That Matter would have power over Infinite and Infinite over Matter and Eternal over both I mean that some corporeal actions endeavour to be more powerful then others and thus the whole strives to over-power the parts and the parts the whole As for example if one end of a string were tied about the little finger of ones hand and the other end were in the power of the other whole hand and both did pull several and opposite ways certainly the little finger would endeavour to over-power the hand and the hand again would strive to over-power the little finger The same may be said of two equal figures as two hands and other the like examples may be given And this is also my meaning when I say that some shapes have power over others and some degrees and temperaments of matter over others whereby I understand nothing else but that some parts have power over others Also when I say that outward things govern and a Creature has no power over it self I mean that which is stronger by what means soever is superior in power When I say That the Animate part of Matter is not so gross an Infinite as the Inanimate I do not attribute an Infiniteness to a part as if animate matter considered as a part were infinite but my meaning is that the Animate matter produces infinite effects For it being the Designer Architect and Creator of all Figures as also the Life and Soul of all Creatures it must needs be infinite in its effects as also infinite in its duration But you may object That a part cannot produce infinite effects I answer It is true if animate matter should be considered in it self without the inanimate it could not produce infinite effects having nothing to work upon and withal but because there is such a close and inseparable conjunction of those parts of matter as they make but one body and that Infinite none can be or work without the other but both degrees of matter which make but one infinite Nature are required in the production of the infinite effects and figures in Nature Nevertheless since the Animate part of Matter is the onely architect creator or producer of all those effects by reason it is the self-moving part and the Inanimate is onely the instrument which the Animate works withal and the materials it works upon the Production of the infinite effects in Nature is more fitly ascribed to the Animate then the Inanimate part of matter as for example If an architect should build an house certainly he can do nothing without materials neither can the materials raise themselves to such a figure as a house without the help of the architect and workmen but both are of necessity required to this artificial production nevertheless the building of the house is not laid to the materials but to the architect the same may be said of animate and inanimate matter in the production of natural effects Again you may reply That the animate and inanimate parts of matter are but two parts and the number of Two is but a finite number wherefore they cannot make one infinite body such as I call Nature or natural Matter I answer Madam I confess that a finite number is not nor cannot make an infinite number but I do not say that the animate and inanimate parts or degrees of matter are two finite parts each subsisting by it self as circumscribed and having its certain bounds limits and circumference for if this were so certainly they being finite themselves could not produce but finite effects but my meaning is that both the animate and inanimate matter do make but one Infinite bulk body or substance and are not two several and dividable bodies in themselves and thus they may be divided not into two but into Infinite parts Neither are they two different Matters but they are but one Matter for by the animate Matter I do understand self-motion and that I call this self-motion Matter the reason is that no body shall think as if self-motion were immaterial for my opinion is that Nature is nothing but meer Matter and that nothing is in Nature which is a part of Nature that is not material wherefore to avoid such a misapprehension seeing that most learned men are so much for abstractions and immaterial beings I called self-motion animate matter or the animate part of matter not as if they were two several matters but that all is but one natural Matter or corporeal Nature in one bulk body or substance just like as the soul and body do make but one man and to avoid also this misapprehension lest they might be taken for several matters I have upon better consideration in this volume of Philosophical Letters call'd the animate matter corporeal self-motion which expression I think is more proper plain and intelligible then any other Neither would I have you to scruple at it when I say that both parts or degrees of animate and inanimate matter do retain their own interior natures and proprieties in their commixture as if those different natures and proprieties where one is self-moving and the other not did cause them to be two different matters for thus you might say as well that several figures which have several and different interior natures and proprieties are so many several matters The truth is if you desire to have the truest expression of animate and inanimate matter you cannot find it better then in the definition of Nature when I say Nature is an infinite self-moving body where by the body of Nature I understand the inanimate matter and by self-motion the animate which is the life and soul of Nature not an immaterial life and soul but a material for both life soul and body are and make but one self-moving body or substance which is corporeal Nature And therefore when I call Animate matter an Extract I do it by reason of its purity subtilty and agility not by reason of its immateriality Also when I name the word Motion by it self and without any addition I understand corporeal Motion and when I name Motion Matter and Figure I do not mean three several and distinct things but onely figurative corporeal motion or figurative self-moving matter all being but one thing the same when I speak of Place Time Magnitude and the like Concerning Natural Production or Generation when I say The same matter or figure of the producers doth not always move after one and the same manner in producing for then the same producers would produce one and the same creature by repetition I do not mean the very same creature in number unless