Mind is in the Center and matter in the utmost Circumference it follows that the nearer things are unto pure mind and the more they do participate of that the more they have of Rest and the less of motion but the farther off they are from pure Mind and the nearer to matter the more in motion they are And indeed all Energy in matter is Local Motion Thus all the Effects of Mechanism as they are purely material so they are performed only by Local Motion but the business of Cogitation even in the lowest step of it which is sensation as it is of nearer Relation unto mind than to matter so it is performed rather by way of mutation than of Local motion the Eye is not sensible of any motion imparted to it nor is the Ear or the Nose or any other of our Sensories and yet each is sensible of a mutation made therein or rather in the Faculty which comes from motion But tho' the more refined any Beings are and the nearer that they are to the Central Mind the more at rest they be and the less in motion in their several Actions and consequently Abstract Spirits that do not live in gross Elementary Bodies are more at rest and have less of motion in the exercises of their several Powers than Men have who are imbodied in Elementary Vehicles yet no Spirit whatsoever but only God himself who only is Pure Mind is so wholly so Absolutely at Rest as that it sees all Things at once by one Entire view and Intuition all Principles and all Conclusions in them all Ends and all Means and Motives to them without the least degree of Succession or any Addition Only the Central Being sees so and he doe's For seeing all the Circumference is in the Center so that all the Lines however divided they be in the former do meet together in the latter it is plain that an Eye placed in the Center must needs see all in the Circle as clearly as any thing in it and this too with one Individual single Intuition without Succession or Addition seeing there is nothing of Motion but all is Rest in the Center And this properly is to see in Eternity Thus God sees But all other Beings beside God as they are not God or Pure mind so they are not in the Center and not being the Center but at Distance from it some at Greater some at Lesser but All at some they All have something of Motion and consequently cannot Act or See in the same manner as Central Pure Mind by way of Absolute Rest without Succession or Addition and without Distinction of past present and to come For tho' all the Lines do meet in the Center yet there being no place without it in which they do so Creatures cannot see as God sees no more than they can be in the Center as God is It is too short and Inadequate a way of Arguing to Infer that any Creatures can see All things at once but from the notions confused enough that we Mortals have of Time and Eternity as that Time is Successive Eternity a Permanent Duration together with a Conceit that all Spirits they being things Abstract and Separate from Bodies both Are and Act in Eternity as all Imbodied Beings Are and do Act in Time Certainly every Being but God is in Time tho' not in the same Kind of Time for as God only is in the Center so he only is Absolutely in Eternity And if Time is taken for all Duration that is not Eternity God only is without Time and so without Succession of Actions But to Return SECT III. Of Mind as it Actuates a certain Particular Body Mind in this Notion called a Soul Body is a System of Organs Soul and Body an Animal Body Considered two ways To wit in Reference to External Objects and in Reference to the Internal Principle that Acts it In the First Consideration of Body the Ends and uses of Organs are shewed and withal the Reason of their variety This Illustrated by several Instances and Observations The use of Body in Relation to the Internal Principle that Actuates it is to Individuate and Singularize that Principle This set out in sensible and plain Resemblances A Comparison between Vital and Locomotive Energy with a Recapitulation of the whole Discourse as it unfolds the Mystery of Animals WE have Considered Mind in the first Step of Relation that it carries unto Matter Namely as it doe's Actuate a most subtle Matter diffused throughout the Universe in which Notion it is called Spirit simply as was showed from Malachy Ch. 2. v. 15. Come we now to Consider it in the next place as it Actuates some Particular System of Matter in a Particular Manner and so it is called a Soul and that Particular System of Matter which it doth Actuate is a Body or a Particular Vehicle and the Result of both an Animal An Animal is nothing but Soul and Body together or a Body Actuated by a Soul A Body is a System of Organs an Organ is Matter framed and Contrived after a Particular Manner for some Animal Use and End some Use End or Action of a Soul A Soul is a certain Determinate Vital Energy or a certain Portion of the Spirit of the Universe Vested in a Body or particular Vehicle in which Notion all Souls are Spirits as indeed they are stiled in the Holy Scripture wherein we Read of the Spirit of the Beast tho' it goes Downward as well as of the Spirit of a Man that goes Upward This Discourse I fear will seem a little Mysterious and therefore to Inlighten it and withal to open tho' but in general the Mystery of the Animal Nature and by Analogy unto it the Nature of other Vivents I will Resume it from the Beginning and speak more Distinctly taking my Rise from Bodies or Systems of Organs which coming under Sense are better known unto us than Spirits or Souls Body then as it is a System of Organs has a Double Relation and so may be Considered two ways either with Respect to External Objects by which it self is Affected and by means thereof the Mind or else with Respect to the Internal Principle that doth Inform and Actuate it and Act in it which Principle it doth Individuate and Singularize We will first Consider a Body in the Relation that it has unto External Objects and here we must set out the Nature that is the Ends and Uses of the Organs which compose a Body as also the Reason of the Variety and number of those Organs why any Organs at all and why many both which will be done with one Performance An Organ properly is Matter Particularly Textured and Framed for some Particular use And an Animal Organ is Particularly Textured and Framed for an Animal use I will give the Example in only Sensitive Animals and in the Acts of Sensation as being best understood but what is said of Sensation and of the Organs of
it will by Proportion hold in all the other Actions of Animals and in all other Organs with a due Alteration In all Acts of Sensation there is first an Affection of the Organ and then a Perception of that Affection by the Soul or rather a Perception Excited in the Soul by means of that Affection and this is the End of the Organ and the only Use of it that the Soul makes to wit to come by means thereof unto a Perception of External Objects as to see their Colours to hear their Sounds to Relish the several Tasts they have and the like In short a Soul cannot but by the means of Organs take any notice of External Objects nor the Organ be a means of conveying any notice to the Soul but by being first Affected it self Now the Affection of the Organ arises from a Perception may I so express it or a Reception of the Motions Communicated to it by Objects and a Capacity for this Reception from the Particular Frame of the Organ For since all Matter indifferently is not capable of receiving all kinds of Motions and Impressions but that for some Particular Motions and Impressions of which sort are sensible ones there must be Particular Textures and Frames of Matter to Catch them it follows that there must be Organs and these too in such Variety and Number there must be Organs to Receive the Impression and Motions of Objects which without a Particular Texture of Matter could not be Received and there must be Variety of Organs to Correspond these various Kinds of Motions and Impressions that are in Coloured in Sonorous in Sapid and in other Species of Objects This will be better conceived in some Instances by which it shall be made appear that for the Reception of certain Particular Motions there must be certain Particular Textures and Dispositions of Matter so that Matter in some certain Frames and Dispositions of it will Catch and be Affected with some certain Particular Motions that in others it will not be Touched with It is Generally Observed that an Unison string will Receive the Motion and so Tremble when another also Unison is made to Sound and yet all other Strings of the same Instrument that are not Unisons shall remain insensible and unmov'd Cardan Observed that in a certain Church in which were several Images of Wax but one would move and Tremble and one always would at the Ringing of a Sacring Bell. Mr. Boile has taken notice of the like Mechanical Perception in several Empty Drinking-Glasses of Fine white Metal he says that causing the Strings of a Musical Instrument to be variously screwed up and let down and briskly struck he observed that the Motion of one String when it was stretched to a certain Note or Tone would make one of the Glasses Ring and not the other nor would the sound of the same String Tuned to another Note sensibly Affect the same Glass tho' perhaps says he it might have its Operation upon another In fine there are Yonical Echo's that Return not the Voice but when it has some Peculiar Musical Note and then it doe's Thus Organs are Matter Particularly Textur'd to the End to make them capable of Receiving some Particular Motions so that a Sensitive Organ may be Defined a System of Matter Particularly Framed Disposed and Textured for receiving some Particular Motion of External Bodies and for Conveying it to the Soul So much concerning Body in its Relation to External Objects come I now to consider it in the Relation which it has to the Soul the Internal Principle that Actuates it and Acts in and by it and so the Great work and Business of the Body is to Singularize and Individuate the General Vital Principle of the Universe that it may become a Soul or a Particular Vital Principle of a certain Particular Body To understand this it must be Consider'd that the Mosaical Spirit the Rise and Principle of all Created Cogitation as it is Extended throughout the whole Universe so to become in Particular a Soul of any Particular Animal it must be Singularized and Individuated that is it must be Apportioned as it were to that Particular Animal which it comes to be by means of the Body To Illustrate this it must be Remembred that a Voice or Sound Diffused throughout the whole capacity of the Medium as the Mosaical Spirit is throughout that of the universe is yet in the Phonocamptick Center or object which is nothing but a place conveniently Disposed for this Purpose so Individuated and Singularized as the Mosaical Spirit is supposed to be by a Congruous fit Body that Really it has other Affections and Properties than those it owns in all the rest of the Medium insomuch that by Vertue of it this place instead of being a Medium of Sound becomes to all Appearance a Principle of it and so a Speaker and this is called an Echo It may also be set out in a Speculum or Looking-Glass for a Body is to the Mosaical Spirit what a Speculum or Looking-Glass is to the Image of an Object in the Medium A Speculum Catches the Diffused Image and so Singularizes it that it becomes a very Different thing and puts on other very Different Properties than those it has in the Medium for in the Looking-Glass it doth appear as an Object which it doe's not out of it But what doe's set it out most naturally is that it is so in Man For the Soul or Cogitative Principle of a Man as it is Extendded throughout the whole Capacity of the Body in like manner as the Mosaical Spirit is throughout that of the Universe so it is Singularized and Individuated in and by the particular Organs insomuch that the Eye only does See the Ear only does Hear and only the Tongue Tasts in Vertue thereof for which Reason these are owned to have several particular Faculties which are as so many several Souls unto them Now what the Organs are to the Soul in any Body that is but a System of Organs Bodies themselves are unto the Mosaical Spirit the great Soul of the Universe of which all particular Bodies are Organs But since this Notion is of so much Importance that it will deserve a more particular Consideration and I design to give it one in another Chapter I shall dismiss it at present without further Insisting on it and now will only add some Improvement to the former Discourse by making a Comparison between the Vital and the Mechanical Energy First then I lay it down as certain that there is such a thing as a Vital as well as a Mechanical Energy by Vital Energy I mean all that is not meerly Mechanical and therefore do comprehend in that Term whatever is properly Mental by Mechanical Energy I mean Impulse or Springines the nearest Physical Principle of Actual Local Motion Now we are as sure by our senses and by the Reflection that we make upon our selves and upon
must have Bodies tho' Glorious and Spiritual Bodies In fine that Spirits are Incorporeal Beings in this sense that they have not such Gross Elementary Bodies as we have of Flesh and Blood and â—ones doe's not â—nfer that they are so in every sense of that word especially if we Consider that as the Apostle assures us there may be Spiritual Bodies and there Appears not any Incoherence in this that Spirits should have Spiritual Bodies Besides the Understanding it self that unto sense is an Inorganical Immaterial Faculty is not Absolutely so but has the Animal Spirits for an Organ since as these are Disposed and Textured well or ill even so the Exercises of that noble power are either right or depraved and from the differences in these Spirits do come the differences of Wits which are many Ay possibly those Animal Spirits or something that resembles them may compose the Body which accompanies the departing Soul for that some kind of Body does which in the Greek is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Learned Origen has told us L. 2. Contra Celsum which Body he also says is that the Separated Soul is used to appear in but as to this I shall offer something hereafter By this Discourse it is Evident against Mr. Hobbs and others of the Sadducean Opinion that Spirits in their own Nature are Real and Subsistent Beings and not meerly Powers or Operations and Actions tho at the same time it must be acknowledged that in the Language of the Scripture such Active and Directive Qualities as are Intelligible only and do not come directly within the Cognizance of the sense are called Spirits thus we read of a Spirit of Government and of Prophecy that was first upon Moses and afterward imparted to the 70 Elders Numb 11. of a Spirit of Wisdom Deut. 4.9 of the Spirit of Understanding the Spirit of Counsel and Might the Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of the Lord Isa 11.2 Ay that vexatious Distemper that afflicted Saul and that seems to have been nothing else but melancholly is called an Evil Spirit from the Lord 1 Sam. 16.14 and in Luke 13.11 12. we read of a Spirit of Infirmity But tho' Spirit in the Holy Scriptures is often taken in the instanced sense and that the Name of Angel is a Name of Office rather than of Nature yet it is certain that Angels are represented in those Sacred Writings as Real subsisting Beings all as real and subsisting as men themselves are if the ascribing to them the like Affections Offices and Personal Operations that Men have and do execute and exert can prove them so SECT II. That there are Spirits proved by General Tradition Mr. Hobb's Answer to this Argument shewed to be but an Evasion from the Evangelists Matthew and Mark c. AND this reminds me of the Second Point I have proposed to Discourse on in relation to Spirits and that is their Existence or Being wherein I shall endeavour to make it manifest that really there are such Subsistent intellectual Beings as are incorporated but invisible which commonly we call Spirits so that the Names of Spirits both of the Good ones as Raphael Gabriel c. And of the Evil ones as Belzebub c. are Names of Substances or Persons and not of Qualities only ay are proper and not as Mr. Hobbs tells us the name of Sathan and Devil is only Appellative Names The first Argument that I will use to Evidence that there are Spirits shall be taken from the General Tradition of the World it being received among all Nations as well the Civilized as the Barbarous and among all Philosophers except the Epicureans the Ancient and the Modern and some Peripateticks and to me it is very unintelligible how such a Sentiment should obtain so generally if it had not some foundation of Truth for who should spread the Opinion to such an extent and what should make it to take Mr. Hobbs himself acknowledges it a truth that the belief of Spirits was very general all the World over only he has a way which is peculiar to him of avoiding the Cogency and Force of the Argument and therefore I will here consider what he says It is true says he ' that the Heathens and all the Nations of the World have acknowledged that there be Spirits which for the most part they hold to be incorporeal whereby it may be thought that a man by natural Reason may arrive without the Scriptures to the knowledge of this that Spirits are but the erroneous Collection thereof by the Heathens may proceed as I have said before from the ignorance of the Cause of Ghosts and Fantoms and such other Apparitions And from thence had the Grecians their number of Gods their number of Demons good or bad and for every Man his Genius which is not the acknowledging of this truth that Spirits are but a false Opinion concerning the force of Imagination Thus Mr. Hobbs in his Treatise of Human Nature Ch. 11. S. 6. wherein he plainly Affirms that Spirits and Ghosts are meer Fantomes or Effects of the Imagination a conceit in which he seems to have the Concurrence of Seneca for this Philosopher Epist 24. tells us as Mr. Hobbs doe's Nemo tam Puer est ut Cerberum timeat Tenebras LARVARUM habitum nudis ossibus Cohaerentium This Notion of Spirits that Mr. Hobbs Insinuates Reminds me of Another that a Person whom I knew and who was Reputed not of the Wisest had of them for being Asked what he thought a Spirit was He Answered that it was the Shadow of Concscience and further Demanded concerning a Good Angel what that was He Replied a Good is the Shadow of a Good Conscience and a Devil the Shadow of a Bad one And Methinks he comes near to Mr. Hobbs But without jesting I Find that Apparitions of Spirits are stiled Fantoms 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by two Evangelists Matthew and Mark. For when the Disciples of our Lord saw him walking upon the Sea and believed him to be a Spirit the Former of those Evangelists tells us that they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a Phantasm or as our Translators Render it a Sprite Matt. 14.26 And the Latter has the same Expression when speaking of the same Miracle he says they supposed him to be a Phantasm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as in our English Version they supposed it had been a Sprite Mark 6.49 Whence it Evidently follows against Mr. Hobbs that Men that were not Ignorant of the power of Fancy and of the Interest it had in the Apparitions of Spirits yet believed their Real Existence For the Disciples that believed our Lord to be a Spirit Appearing and therefore said he was a Phantasm which it seems was the usual Expression at that time for such Apparitions did withal believe that a Spirit was a Reality and of great Power For upon the supposed Apparition They are said by one of the Evangelists to be
several Faculties in which the Organ or System of Organs would be the Body the Faculty or System of Faculties the Soul so all of them taken together would be an Entire Body of the Universe Actuated by an Universal Principle as by a Common Soul that should Endow it with those several Powers and Faculties In short why may not the Universe Really be Body and Soul and every Particular Animal as a part thereof be Organ and Faculty in the same sense that in our ordinary Common way of Conceiving every Particular Animal is Body and Soul and the Parts of it Organs and Faculties But to Proceed This is Certain that what in Animals and particularly in a Man we do Commonly call a Faculty is neither that which commonly is called the Soul nor is it meerly the Body or any Part of the Body but a Result some Third thing Arising from them both in Conjunction For the Eye for Example tho' never so well Qualified doth not see unless the Mind or Soul do Attend and again the mind or Soul tho' never so Attentive cannot see unless it has the use of an Eye to see with so that the Power of seeing neither is in the Eye barely nor in the Soul barely but belongs to the Animal which is Soul and Body as arising from the presence of the Soul in such a Particular Part or Organ of the Body And the like is to be said of other Powers And yet if all the Faculties that are united in Man were supposed Separated each from other with their several Organs and so to be in the Nature of wholes and this without the supposal of any Thing else for Example that the Eye could see apart the Ear hear apart and the Tongue taste apart from the Body there would to all Appearance be so many several Animals and Consequently so many several Souls So that what is called a Faculty only while it is in a part is Denominated a Soul in the whole and then where the Body is a Compage or System of Organs the Soul must be a System of Faculties and yet be one still in the same sense as the Body is But here I must expect it shall be told me that the True and commonly Received Notion of a Soul is that it is the Principle of the Faculties called Vital and Animal and not any one of them it self or any System of them All To which I Answer that this is indeed the Popular and Common Notion but how true it is and how much Adjusted to the Nature of the Soul cannot be understood but by making some Distinction in the sense of word Soul The word Soul may be taken Two ways the one of which I will call the Philosophical the other the Popular sense of the Word First then word Soul may be taken Philosophically as a Name of all the Causes together that are necessary for the Producing of Vital and Animal Actions in the several Species of Animals and so tho' it is commonly considered as if it were some Substantial thing that Differ'd from them All yet indeed it is nothing but a Modification of their Action as they are All in Conjunction And Dicearchus who Affirmed there was no such thing as a Soul if he meant but thus was very Excusable for in this sense a Soul is nothing but a Result that is a Mode of Conceiving for this I mean by Result of all the Causes that must be Joyned for Animal or Vital Actions as they do either Qualifie or else Aid each others Influence And in this sense as a Soul in respect of the Action of a Particular Organ may be called a Faculty so in respect of the whole Body a Soul is a System of Faculties Thus Life in Animals arises from the Concurrence of many things which things therefore in that Concurrence as they are the Prince of Life so they may be called the Soul for by Soul is meant nothing but the Principle of that we call the Life if one of these is wanting that are necessary the Life ceases and we say the Soul is gone but then again supposing all the other Requisites Remaining as they ought to be and Ready to do their Parts if that one which was wanting is Restored there is again a Concurrence of all the Causes Requisite to Life and so with the Life the Soul is said to Return or come again For Example there is in Snakes in Dormice in Swallows and in other Dormitive Creatures of that kind and if we shall believe Guagninus apud Schottum Phys Curios l. 1. part 2. C. 38. § 4. in some Men too for so he says of the Inhabitants of Lucomoria a certain Country of Russia that there is an Actual Suspension of the Exercise of Life in all the Species of it during Winter while their Spirits lie Congealed and un-active so that tho' all the Organs of those Animals in other Respects are duly Qualified and Disposed yet there being not for that season sufficient Heat Imparted to them from the Sun to put their Spirits in Motion These like Mercury while Cold are wholly un active and so for several Months there is a Cessation of Life for Life is a Sort of Action in all the sensible Instances of it But then again on the other side nothing being wanting but a due Heat as unto Mercury to put it in Actual Motion as soon as the Sun Returns and with its warmth Communicates that Motion that is Requisite to the Spirits and other Parts for the Invigorating and the stirring of them there Results that Action or Exercise of Organs which we call Life and which in many Places of Holy Scripture is called the Soul tho' commonly we call the Soul the Principle not the Exercise of Life but then by a Principle we must mean the Concourse of all the Requisite Causes and so the Soul in Effect will be but a Faculty or rather a System of Faculties And so much for the Philosophical Sense of the Word Soul But besides the Former there is Another meaning of the word Soul which I call the Popular because it is the most usual and that is when it is Taken not for all the Causes together or the Result of them as in the Former but for the Principal and Chief Cause of Animal and Vital Actions which in the Holy Scriptures is called the Spirit who knoweth the Spirit of a Man that goeth Upward or the Spirit of a Beast that goeth Downward And so when a Person dies he is said to to give up his Spirit to Give up the Ghost And thus a Soul may be Conceived a System of very subtle Refined Matter such as Light but in some more in others less Refined that gives the last Disposition to a Body and its Organs for the receiveing of Vital Cogitative Influence from the Original Mind it is the Texture and Qualification of the Body and the Organs that compose it that is the Ligament and Bond
of union between this subtle Matter or Spirit and That but it is the Subtle Matter or Spirit that is the Vinculum or Bond of Union between the Body and the Original Mind In this way of Conceiving This System of Subtle Matter while it is in the Body tho' it is called a Spirit because of its subtlety in truth may be but a Soul that is a Means only of Conveying the Vital Influence into the Body from the Original Mind but then again out of the Body as the System of it may be it may become a Spirit properly so called it being then no longer a Part as a Soul must be which is only a Mediate Subject but a whole and so a Terminative Subject of the Influence of the Original Mind in short it becomes a Suppositum or Subsistent by it self That the Soul is but a Mediate Subject while it is in the Body and not a Terminative so that properly the Animal which is Soul and Body and not the Soul only is Agent in all that Passes seems Probable in that all the Ordinary Actions of the Man that commonly are said to be the Souls are plainly Organical nothing can be Instanced in as Proceeding from the Soul while it is in the Body that is not properly Animal even Intellection it self is not an Action only of the Soul or Anima but as the Latins would Express it an Action of the Animus or Understanding which is to be Conceived as an Animal and Organical Faculty that is as a thing arising Principally but not only from the Soul for so does Cotta Distinguish apud Cicerol 3. de nat Deor. when he says Probabilius videtur tale quiddam esse Animum ut sit ex Igne atque Anima temperatum It is true the Ordinary way of Conceiving is much otherwise for the Soul is Considered by the Most as if it were an Angel or Spirit that only dwelt in the Body as in a House and thus the Soul is the man the Body but as a Tabernacle or a Garment to it nor is this a meer Platonical Notion it is Conformable to the way of speaking in the Holy Scriptures as where St. Paul says I Desire to be Dissolved and to be with Christ Also where he tells the Corinthians we know if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were Dissolved c. And for certain if the Theory of the Pre-existence of Souls is a True one this Opinion is beyond dispute However I will not Determine in this matter since the Language of the Scripture is often Adapted but to the Conceptions of the Vulgar and therefore cannot be the Standard of Philosophical Truth and it is certain that even in our Saviours time a many Pythagorean and Platonical Doctrines and this in particular of the Pre-existence of Souls and the Souls being the Man had obtained to be Vulgar among the Jews As appears by that Question of the Disciples which they put to our Lord was this Man Born Blind for his own or for his Parents sin for it supposes that the Man might sin and therefore also supposes that he was before he was Born for he could not Sin if he was not in Being Besides the Genesis or way of Generation of Animals seems to Favour the former opinion more than the latter for in the latter Opinion the Soul is conceived as an Assistant rather than an Informing Form and so rather as an Animal than as a Part of one which doth not so well consist with the Method of Generation In fine the Distinction between Souls and Abstract Spirits as to their Natures cannot be set out with that Distinctness and clearness in the Latter as in the Former Opinion But Take it either way if we Distinguish Soul and Faculties and do hold that Animal Actions are the Effects of Faculties but that the Soul is the Principal cause of those Faculties why may it not be Affirmed as I Hinted before that the Mosaical Spirit is unto all the Bodies in the Universe those of Invinsible as well as of Visible Animals what the Soul Conceived of after this manner is in our selves unto ours So that All particular Animals in respect of the Universe should be but as the several Organs in any Particular Animal and then Particular Souls should be but as so many Portions of the subtle Matter through which and by means of which the Mosaical Spirit as a Soul of the Universe should Radiate into the several Bodies and give them their Faculties In short we may conceive particular Souls as so many Animi for now I Distinguish as Cotta do's between Animus and Anima and that the Anima that is the Sourse of All these Animi is but one throughout the Universe Why may not this be so And if it may it must since then the being of Subordinate Anima other than Animi would be superfluous and unnecessary and Beings are not to be Multiplied but on Necessity Besides there is Reason to think there is but one Soul Diffus'd throughout the Universe if it be Allowable to make the same Judgment in Reference to the whole that upon good Considerations may be Framed of the Parts which come Distinctly within our View For in this Terrestrial World as to the several Regions of it the Animal the Vegetable and the Mineral it is as certain that all had but one Plastic as that the Body of a Man or any other particular Animal had not more The Evidence is the same for Both. There is a sensible Analogy and Correspondence in Fabric and Conformation not only between the several Species of Animals which is very manifest in Comparative Anatomy but also in a good degree between Plants and Animals and Minerals and Plants Again there is a like Connexion between the Beings that fill those several Regions as there is between the Parts that compose particular Animals There are no Vacuities or Gaps in Nature in respect of Species no Jumps or Leaps but all in orderly Gradation Extreams are Knit and United by Participles that partake of Both and all is full without any Chasms Thus to touch it in an Example Minerals and Vegetables are Joyned by Lithodendra or Stone-Plants such as Coral and the like Vegetables and Animals by Zoophytes or Plantanimals such as the sensible Plant the Scythian Lamb and the like And in the General Kinds of Animals between Fowls and Beasts the Bat between Fishes and Fowls the Flying Fish between Terrestrial and Aquatic Animals those that are called Amphibious are Middle Uniting Species c. Farther there is a Conformity in their Origination as well as in their Structure and Fabrick for Plants as well as Animals are Produced by Semination and even Minerals and Mettals have their Matrices and tho' they have not what is properly called Seed they have something that is Analogous in their Production In fine the Transmutation of things and the Easie Transition of them from one Region unto Another evinces it The Transmutation
presence of God is but a Mode of his Essence and if we have no distinct and clear Conception of the presence of God nor consequently of his Omnipresence or the way how he is present with all his Creatures where ever they are I do not see with what Cogency or Force an Argument can be Deduced from it in this business In short since things are present one with another very differently in proportion to their several Natures it will follow that things Mental must be present with others in much another way than those that are Material and Consequently that God who is pure Mind must be present with Material Beings much otherwise than these themselves are one with another Mind can no more be present the same way that Matter is than be the same thing with Matter CHAP. IV. Of Mind in Matter SECT I. Mind as concerned with Matter comes under a double consideration 1 As it actuates a most subtle and more than Etherial Matter that is diffus'd throughout the World 2ly As it actuates some particular Vechicle or Body In the first Notion of it Mind in Matter is the Idea of the Mosaical Spirit of God This Spirit according to the Scriptural Hypothesis is the Immediate cause of all things in the first Creation and ever since The Being of this Spirit Evinced both by Authority and by Argument Dr. Mores Distinction between the Spirit of Nature which he calls Principium Hylarchicum and the Spirit of God considered AFter a Consideration of Mind as it is in it self Pure and Abstract Exempt from all Intrinsecal concernment and composition with Matter I come now to consider it as concerned with Matter that is as Acting in and by means of Matter in which consideration Mind may be called second Mind as in the former it may be termed the first Mind concerned with Matter may be considered in two respects either as it has for the Vehicle which it actuates and by which it acts all that most subtle Matter that does permeate the Universe in the utmost Extent and Capacity of it or as it actuates some particular system of Matter that may be called a Body and it is a particular Vehicle Mind in the former Consideration of it as it doth actuate and act in and by a most subtle matter diffused throughout the Universe seems to me to be the Mosaical Spirit of God mentioned Gen. 1. v. 2. And the same that in the Scriptural Hypothesis which never mentions Nature as the Efficient Cause of any thing but Represents Philosophy only as a Theology that swallows up the second Causes in Contemplation of the first is the Cause of all productions the Births the Growths and all the Alterations and Changes that come to pass in the World This in that account is the Principle of Human Souls Mal 2.15 Did he not make one Yet had he the Residue of the Spirit As if he had said he wanted not Spirit he had more left to Animate more had he been pleased to make them but he made but one and the Principal too of all Corporeal Effects even of Snow of Hail of Ice of Wind c. Psal 147.15 16 17 18. He sendeth forth his Commandment upon the Earth his word runneth very swiftly He giveth Sonw like Wool he scattereth the Hoar Frost like Ashes He Casteth forth his Ice like Morsels who can stand before his Cold He sendeth out his word and melteth them he causeth his Wind to blow and the Waters Flow. To understand this Text with the more clearness we must have Recourse unto Genesis Ch. 1. v. 2 3 6 9 12 14 20 24 26. In which we find in v. 2. mention made of the Spirit of God that moved upon the Face of the Waters as the Active Principle that wrought all and in the 3. and the following verses of the Word or Commandment of God that as a Directive Principle did regulate and order all so that the Spirit acted accordingly thus v. 3. God said let there be Light and there was Light and v. 6. God said let there be a Firmament or rather an Expanse in the midst of the Waters and it was so and v. 9. God said Let the Waters under the Heaven be gathered together into one place and let the Dry Land Appear and it was so The like in the following works Now the World in the account of the Holy Scriptures has the same for its Conserving that it had for its Procreating Cause and therefore as God at first did make All by his Almighty Spirit through his Word so the Psalmist tells us that he still doth for as at first he said Let there be so still he Sendeth forth his Commandment and as all was ordered at first by the Divine Word He said let there be Light He said let there be a Firmament c. So still his WORD Runneth very swiftly The Spirit of God doth still Execute as he did at first all the Directions and Commands are given it He Produces the Snow the Hoar Frost and Ice he maketh Cold and Raiseth Winds and causes all the Alterations that are made in the Air in the Earth in a Word in all the Elements and in all above them This is the Scriptural Hypothesis the meaning of which is that God by his infinite Wisdom as well as Power both Made and Governs the World but to Return Of this Spirit that Penetrates through all the World and that doth All in it not only Moses has written but many of the Old Philosophers have also told Velleius in Cicero l. 1. de Nat. Deor. acquaints us concerning Pythagoras Quod censuit animum esse per Naturam rerum omnem intentum Commeantem that he believed a Mind diffused throughout the whole Nature of things The same Velleius also reports concerning Zeno that he in some of his Books discoursed of what he called the Reason of the Universe Rationem per omnem pertinentem Naturam In fine to omit others Plutarch mentions a Spirit that Penetrates throughout the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what can this Spirit be that Penetrates throughout the Universe that animates it and is as a common Reason in it for I will unite the Expressions and so compleat the Idea but the Mosaical Spirit But not only Authority Sacred and Prophane evinces that there is such a Spirit an Energetical Vital Principle diffused throughout the World but Experience also shows it if the Experience that we have of such a Principle Diffused throughout one Region of it our own may be sufficient to conclude it is so in all of which Experience I shall speak hereafter when also the Nature of this Spirit and the Influence it has upon and in things will be set out more clearly and more fully I Know the Learned Dr. More hath told us of a Principium Hylarchicum which he defines an Incorporeal Substance without Sense and Animadversion that pervades the Matter of the whole Universe and exercises
their Composition can suffice as I know it will be yielded me it doth to make them properly denominated such The sense in which Spirits are truly said to be Incorporeal will be best understood by shewing the reason how the Attribute of being Corporeal becomes Appropriated unto visible Animals to comprehend which we must consider that in order to our conversing with Objects and taking Cognizance of them we are endowed with two sorts of Faculties the Sense and the Understanding and that the Sense even to Sense is an Organical Material Power for we do see the Organs it uses the Eye for Seeing the Ear for Hearing and the like for all the rest but that the Understanding is to Sense an Inorganical Immaterial Power there not Appearing any Sensible Organ by means of which it does exert or put forth its Acts. Now in conformity to this Distinction between our Faculties we do make one of their Objects nor can we do it more agreeably calling the Substances that do properly come under the notice and observation of our sense Bodies and those that do not but are only inferred and perceived by the understanding Spirits the former are corporeal material Substances because perceived by sense which is a material Organical Power but the latter such as Angels and other Spirits are said to be immaterial incorporeal because we cannot See or Feel or Tast or Smell them in their own Subsistences In a word we cannot perceive them in their own proper beings by any of the Senses we have but only by the Ratiocination and Discourse of the Understanding which to sense is an Inorganical Immaterial Power And our Saviour Christ when after his Resurrection he appeared to his Disciples and they apprehended that they had seen a Vision to convince them of the Reality of his Corporeal Existence and that he was not a Spirit or an Apparition only as they took him to be he Appeals unto their Sense and particularly to that of Touch Luke 24.39 Behold says he my Hands and my Feet that it is I my self for a Spirit hath no Flesh and Bones as you see me have Wherein he goes upon these Notions that a Spirit is an invisible Thing a Thing that in its own reality cannot be seen nor be felt but only be understood and that that substance which comes under the notice and cognisance of the sense is a Body And in this sense of the word Body all Spirits are really un-imbodied incorporeal things they have not such Bodies of Flesh and Bone or Organs that come under the Observation and notices of sense as we have but in another sense of the word as Body is not taken restrainedly for that only which is sensible but more largely for any System of Matter whatever whether so refined and subtle that it comes not within the compass of any external sense or so gross that it may be perceived by it so Spirits are Corporeal and Embodied That is they are material as well as mental Beings minds indeed they are but Minds in Matter or Animals In this Scaliger consents with me who in his Exercitations Exerc. 307. § 38. boldly says Spiritus Latinis Graecis Omnibus Philosophis Medicis Oratoribus Corpus est id est Materia Forma This will be Evident if we consider 1. That Absolute Purity or Exemption from all Matter is the peculiar Prerogative of God who only is Pure Light without any mixture of Darkness it is only he the Central Being he that is absolute pure being that is pure unmixed mind all other beings but he must be impure and have some ingredience of matter in their Composition without which as they would be pure Mind so being pure mind they would be God Secondly Were all or any Spirits except the infinite Almighty Center and Spring of All Absolutely pure without any mixture of Matter absolutely simple without any Real Composition there could be no Distinction among them either in Respect of Kinds or of Individuals since Alterity and where there is Distinction there must be Alterity unus alius est alter alter cannot consist with Absolute simplicity Composition is Unity but simplicity is Unicity To be more Particular were Spirits Absolutely Pure and Simple without any Admission of Matter there could be no Distinction among them in respect of Kinds For what should difference them if there were nothing in them but that wherein they did all agree as there would be nothing else but that if all of them were pure and simple Things that Differ in something and withal in something Agree cannot be Pure or Simple for all have something that is Common in which they do agree and all something not Common in which they differ it is plain that each of them Consists of Thing and Thing and Things that Consist of Thing and Thing are Compounded not Pure and Simple Things Again were Spirits absolutely pure and simple without any Concretion of Matter there could be no distinction among them as to Individuals as well as none in relation to Kinds For since all Individuation except only that of the Central pure mind is Numerication and all Numerication arises from Division and Division has no place but in Matter or in Things by means of matter It is evident that there can be no distinction of Spirits as to Individuation if there be no ingredience of matter in their making Things are said to differ in number and so all Individuals differ as well those of one and the same as those of divers Species that however identified they be in other Respects yet do so differ that one is not the other which cannot be without Division of one from the other nor Division be without matter Unum is not only Indivisum in se but Divisum à Quolibet alio As for Metaphysical Matter and Metaphysical Form or that distinction that some make of substantialâ—… Power and Act they are but meer Words without any signification at least in my understanding if they are not reduced to Matter and Mind which are the only Metaphysical Principles of Things that are Existent and Real In short we may observe in our selves that Mind as I have noted before is Individuated by Matter since even sense is seeing in the Eye Hearing in the Ear Tasting in the Tongue c. Another Consideration that Induces me to believe that all Spirits are Animals and vitally united unto Matter of one sort or another is that the Apostle Paul in a Discourse of his Concerning the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. doe's Speak of a Spiritual Body in Contradiction to a Natural as of the Body that All that do Arise in Christ shall be Cloathed withal and Christ himself tells us that All that shall Attain that glorious Resurrection shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Angels to wit in Respect of their Spiritual Bodies that shall Invest them and if Glorified Men shall be as Angels Angels must be as Glorified Men that is they
in it a Plastical Power according as the Portions of the said Matter are Predisposed and this he calls the Spirit of Nature and Distinguishes it from the Spirit of God Affirming that God doth actuate all the Matter of the Natural Corporeal World by the Spirit of Nature but that he actually acts in and governs the world of Men and Angels by the Spirit of God But I have shewed already from the Scriptural Hypothesis that it is one Spirit the Mosaical that Actuates and Acts in All in Men and other Animals as well as in the World of meer Nature as to all the operations commonly called Natural for as to those that are called Supernatural that come from the Holy Ghost or the Comforter these as they are of another Nature so the Consideration of them belongs to another place In fine the Principium Hylarchicum or Spirit of Nature as this Learned person calls it is but a Plastick Faculty of the Mosaical Spirit SECT II. An Inquiry into the Original and Rise of Motion What is meant by Motion in this Inquiry That Motion comes from Mind in Matter or the Mosaical Spirit This shewed in many instances by the Connexion between Cogitation and Motion How Motion comes from a Principle at Rest and how Matter from Mind set out in the Metaphysical Hypothesis and by other Illustrations I Think I shall not step much if I do at all out of my way to make Inquiry in this place into the Original and Rise of Motion By Motion now I mean not Actual Motion or Motion as it is the actual Translation of Bodies from place to place which some define The Successive Application of a Body in all it hath out wardly unto the several parts of the Bodies which touch it immediately which is the most usual Sense of the word But here I mean by it that Force Energy or Motive Vertue called in Latine Impetus from which this Actual Translation or Successive Application of Bodies does immediately come And my Enquiry now shall be concerning the Original of This not in particular as it is in this or that particular Body but the Rise of Impetus or Motive Force in general which having found I will first remove an Objection and then improve the Discovery to shew how Matter comes from Mind as well as how Motion doth from a Principle that is at rest It must be acknowledged that there is some appearance at first sight of cause to believe that as mind is the first subject of Cogitation and matter the first subject of Extension so since Energy or Force the immediate Principle of Action and of Actual motion is neither Cogitation nor Extension that some third substance Distinct both from mind and matter should be the first subject of it and consequently that there should be three Principles Mind Matter and the first Mover And indeed it looks as if the Scripture Hypothesis did countenance this for there mention is made of the Spirit which wrought as the first subject of motion of the Abyss of Waters wrought upon as the first Recipient Subject and of the word Reason or Wisdom which directed the Work But on second Consideration as it is clear that all that Moses says in his Genesis concerning the Spirit and the Word is not said with design to intimate that really the Spirit was only a meer sensless inartificial Force or Energy and that Wisdom or the Word was another distinct Principle that directed and guided it in all its Motions but to shew since we men in our inadequate way of Conceiving do distinguish Wisdom and Power that all the works of God were made in Both but Both united in one Demiurgical Mind or to use Seneca's Expression on Ratio faciens Thus Ratio faciens is the Idea or Notion of the Mosaical Spirit the true Natura Naturans that concurred to make the World not in the manner that God himself did who in the Mosaical Hypothesis Acted only as an External Efficient but in the way that the Soul would do in a living Creature if first by its Plastic vertue it should form all the members of the Body of it and afterwards should inform it and act in it And Gotta in Cicero has as finely as compendiously expressed the Difference between these two several ways of working even in Reference to the World When L. 3. de Nat. Deor. he says Ita prorsus existimarem si illum mundum aedificatum non quemadmodum docebo à naturâ conformatum putarem It is this Spirit that is the Original Cause of the Impetus that is the nearest cause of Local Motion and indeed it is the Original Cause of all Mundane Activity and Energy Motion comes from Energy or Action and all Energy and Action from the Mosaical Spirit not from meer matter but from mind in matter In short Impetus or Force arises from the same Principle that Cogitation or Perception does as is evident by the following Considerations First The first mention that we have of motion or Corporeal Action is in Relation to the Mosaical Spirit in Gen. 1.2 where it is said that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters It is true the word used in this Text for motion is seldom used but thrice in the whole Scripture to wit in this place in Deut. 32.11 and in Jer. 23.9 And therefore the direct particular meaning of it will not be easily agreed but that it imports some motion which is as much as I do urge it for is beyond dispute Motum aliquem Notari says Hotting in Exam. Hist Creat Quest 33. non est Dubitandum Secondly It is farther Evident from the very Ideas that we have of things For we cannot conceive mind as a Perceptive Cogitative substance but withall we must conceive it as Active and that there is something Energetical in it whereas on the other hand matter may and in its own proper Idea must be conceived as a thing that is only Passive not Active there being nothing of Active or Energetical in it as it is but spacious extensive substance and therefore Energy and Action cannot be conceived to proceed but from matter which in its self is Idle and unactive but rather from mind which is essentially active and busie Thirdly It may also be argued from the relation that Experience assures us is between Cogitation and Actual motion For we clearly perceive that all our voluntary motions do arise from Thought or Imagination we do move our selves or any particular part that hath the proper instruments of voluntary motion and these duly qualified at our pleasure when we will that is by imagination and thought We go we stand still which is by Tonic motion we put our hands feet heads eyes and other parts of our bodies into motion and regulate them in their several motions by will or thought ay even cogitation it self in all the several modes of it as it is sensation imagination or ratiocination does ever
three Places yet they do not Remember to this hour that they Loosned any of them but the Middlemost and with three Men in her the Boat went over the Top of the Foresheet which lay above the stem without Touching it with such Violence as even Amazed us that saw it And they that were in the Boat gave such loud cryes as frighted him at the Helm who came Running out unknown to me but finding the Ship coming nearer the Wind then formerly I Ran to the Stair-case to bid him put the Helm over but could not and hearing one jump down at the Hatch which was open at the half-deck did suppose that the Helms-man came Down again and calling him by his Name to come and help me the word was no sooner out of my Mouth but I Perceived the same Person that I had formerly seen before we came out of the Harbour who came violently to me saying be gone you have no more to do here Throwing me in at the Cabbin door clear upon the Top of the Table When I crying out In the Name of God what art he Vanished away in a Flash of Fire thinking withal that the Ship had split in a Thousand pieces it giving such a Crack The Men thereupon calling out Master if you be a Man come away did something Revive me and striving to have got to my Chest being I had got some Money in it I found that something Hindred me but what it was I could not tell Then Perceiving the Main Sea coming in so Fast that I was up to the wast before I could get out of the Cabbin and finding all our Men in the Boat but only one I desired him to get a Compass which he did yet could never after know what became of it We were no sooner in the Boat but the Ship Sank Down and yet having a Great Sea Fur Gown which lay upon the Dicker upon the Ships going Down the very upset of the Water brought it to the Boats side and one of our Men took it in we Reckoned our selves to be Ten or Twelve Leagues E. S. E. from the Spern I Perceived the Fane at the Main-top-Mast-Head when the Ship was sunk we Continued in the Boat from three in the Morning till ten or eleven that day when we were taken up by a Whitby Ketch who used us very Kindly and towed our Boat at his Stern with two Ends of a Hauser till she brake away She being bound for Newcastle and the Wind being Contrary did on the Saturday Following set us a Shore at Grimsby in Hull River where the Mayor gave us a Pass for London This is a True and Perfect Relation to the best of my knowledge in every Respect John Pye Master And Attested by Nine Men more all Belonging to my Ship ' I Had forgot to Express that one side of my Face is Burnt and Blasted sorely which I felt within half an hour after I was gone out of the Ship but how it came upon me in the Ship I could not tell being then in a Great Horror and Amaxement Thus John Pye This seems an Undeniable Evidence of the Reality of Apparitions SECT III. The Apparition of Spirits twofold Real or Visional both ways Explained A Conceit about the Appearing of Ghosts Rejected That most Apparitions of Spirits are Visional not Real Evinced by several Considerations Some Phaenomena of Apparitions Salved Of the Distribution of Spirits THIS Last Argument for the Real Existence of Spirits taken from their Apparition Invites me to Consider the Ways in which they use to Appear And There are two ways in which they do or may Appear the one Real the other I call Visional I call it Real Appearing when they present themselves to some of the Outward senses and particularly to the Eye in some thing that does Really Affect it and so by means of the sense in the same way as all Corporeal External Objects do they Affect and stir the Imagination I call their Appearing Visional when by Affecting or Stiring the Imagination they occasion such Appearances as seem External to the Eye or other senses tho' indeed there is nothing that does really affect it or them from without This Conception is grounded upon comon Observation For few are ignorant that things appear as external to the sense not only when impressions are made upon it from without by real Objects that move it but also when the imagination is smartly stricken by something from within for so it is in Dreams in which all things do seem as really transacted for the time and not seldom where the impression is very strong even after that men are awakened as when the External Sense is affected by Objects Well then in real Apparitions of Spirits the external sense is immediately afaffected but in those that are Visional the Imagination The real appearing of Spirits is genenerally thought to be performed either by their assuming of Bodies that are already prepared or by Figuring the Air or some other Elementary Substance into the shapes in which they appear which latter is done by the Plastic Power of the Imagination a Power a Spirit is believed to have because we truly experience such an one in our incorporated selves not only upon the Spirits in the Brain which are Figured into a Thousand shapes at our pleasure in the several things we do imagine but in some cases upon external Bodies as in the Signatures of the Faetus not to mention other less certain but strongly asserted instances And indeed I take the former Thought in this Matter for a much more probable one than that of some others which is that Spirits do appear by Condensation of their Vehicles and disappear by Attenuating them this being not a very easie Conception for of what Matter must such Vehicles consist ay of what vast Extension must the Vehicle of a Spirit be in its own proportion if when it is Condensed and Shrunk so much as it must to become an Object of Sense it is yet in Dimension Equal and sometimes Superiour unto that of a Man Some are of the Opinion that Ghosts by which I mean the Apparitions of Souls Departed do for the most part by virtue of their Formative Plastic Power frame unto themselves the Vehicles in which they appear out of the Moisture of their own deserted Bodies this being a Matter that is believed more Congenial to them and more Sympathetical and for that Reason they say it is that Ghosts do often appear in Church-Yards and that they do not appear but for some short time to wit before the moisture is wholly dried up as also that the Ancients used to Burn not to Burie the Dead for Cardan tells us that during that Custom there was no such Appearing of Ghosts as is now But this Opinion has very little ground for besides that it does account but for the Apparition of Souls and not that of Angels good or bad tho' it is very probable that Departed Souls
if at any time they appear they do it the same way that Angels are used to do since there is the same reason they should I say besides this it is certain if any Stories of such a nature are certain that pretended Ghosts have appeared so long after their decease from their several Bodies that nothing could remain of these but the Dust and it is also certain that many Persons have been seen to all Appearances while alive in their proper Shapes and Meen and with the very Cloaths they were used to wear and this could not be done by means of Vehicles framed of their Radical moisture In truth this last is a very cross Phaenomenon a Phaenomenon that renders all Apparition of Ghosts uncertain and questionable since it seems to infer that it is not the Departed Soul it self that appears whenever there is such an Apparition but some other Spirit that Personates it For my own part I see many Difficulties in the way of the real Apparition of Spirits for besides that of the assuming of Bodies many times they do Eat and Drink and perform several other Vital Actions that seem very hard to be accounted for in that way so that I am much inclined to believe that their Apparition is mostly if not only Visional not by an immediate affection of the External Sense but by affecting and striking the Imagination in the way I have mentioned before And herein I am confirm'd in that it seems to have been the common Sentiment of all the Ancients who did for this reason as I noted before call the Apparitions of Spirits Phantasmata or Idola to wit because they were rather Imaginative than Real not as Mr. Hobbs would carry it as if they thought that all Spirits were only Phantasmata or meer Fancies but because they thought that Spirits used not to Appear but by affecting and striking the Fancy And this is Evident in that they did call Apparitions not only Phantasmata or Images but also Pneumata or Spirits by the latter Expression signifying the nature of the things that did appear as by the former the way in which they appeared Thus Luke when he would intimate that the Disciples at the time they saw our Lord after his Resurrection supposed that they had seen a Spirit does not use the word Phantasma as the two other Evangelists Matthew and Mark do on the like occasion but the word Pneuma Luke 24.37 But they the Disciples were terified and frighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I add that from the different Expressions that these Evangelists do use on the like occasion Matthew and Mark expressing the supposed seeing of a Spirit by seeing of a Phantasm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Luke by seeing of a Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one may infer that when they thought the Apparition to be of a Good Spirit they called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Spirit but when of a Bad they called it Phantasma as who would say a Sprite an Hob-Goblin an illusion of Devils without conceiveing what perhaps some others will judge as propable that they had an Opinion as if I do not mis-remember the Modern Platonists had that Good Spirits did use to appear really but bad ones by disturbing and troubling the Fancy Another Consideration that induces me to think the Apparition of Spirits to be mostly if not always Visional is that all Appearance will be the same in this business of Apparitions upon the Hypothesis that they are but Visional as upon that that they are real since Common Dreams in those that sleep and waking ones in the Melancholy the Maniacal and the Hysterical do seem as real to them as any things that are most so And as some Appearances will equally as well be salved upon one Hypothesis as upon the other so there are others that will be better salved upon the Visional than on the Real Hypothesis particularly this that Spectres are often said to be seen by one Person in a Room that are not by others in the same Room tho' they look where they are said to be seen A Spirit may be easily Conceived to affect and strike the Imagination of one Person without doing so to anothers but that the same External Object should be seen by one and not by another that has the same advantage is somewhat harder to think and I had almost said cannot be conceived without a double Miracle In short one can better conceive how Spirits should eat and drink c. in the Visional than in the Real Hypothesis I know it may be told me that it is more usual for Spirits to appear by Night than by Day and in Dark and Gloomy places than in open and lightsome and those who hold the real apparition of Spirits will think that they can give a better account of this Phaenomenon than others can who do believe it but Visional For they will say Those of them that do hold the Opinion of a Spirits appearing by Condensation of his own Vehicle that the Cold of the Night as also of umbragious and gloomy places where the Sun does not enter or of solitary uninhabited ones where Fire is not used does much contribute to the Conspissation of the Spirits Vehicle And Those that hold the Opinion that Spirits appear by Forming to themselves a Body of Air will say that the Spissitude of the Air which is greater by Night than by Day when the presence of the Sun attenuates it and greater in gloomy and uninhabited than in lightsom and inhabited places does make the Formation of a Body and by consequence their Apparition more agreeable and easie to them But what can be said of this appearance in the Visional Hypothesis I cannot foresee how very acceptable or otherwise such a Discourse as this will be unto others but to me it is of an Aspect that is not very Agreeable For that the Angelical Vehicle should be obnoxious to the impressions of Heat and Cold as is in the First Opinion seems somewhat a gross Conception nor can I see how the Spissitude or the Tenuity of the Air should signifie much either to further or to hinder the making a body of Air by a Spirit as it is apprehended to do in the second Opinion if a Spirit be conceived as he must to work Magically and not Mecannically in it But not to insist on this but to answer directly The Reason then why Spirits do appear in the Night rather than in the Day and in dark gloomy solitary places rather than in others is from the silence and vacancy that is at such times and in such places so that the Imagination not being possessed or diverted by External Objects is more attentive unto and Consequently more susceptive of internal impressions there being the same Reason for this Phaenomenon as there is for some others to wit our better hearing a Sound by Night than in the Day and our seeing of the
Images in a Darkned Room upon a Paper or Wall that Disappear as soon as a greater Light is admitted By these and other Considerations I am more inclined to a belief of the Visional than of the Real Apparition of Spirits the Former being accompanied with fewer Difficulties and also being a thing that is easily conceived for one that thinks will more easily admit an Angel can affect and stir the imagination which we see both many Distempers and more Meats and Drinks can do than that it should Create a Body or assume one Created or in fine be able to alter its own Vehicle so much from its proper Dimension that the squeezing of an Elephant into that of a Mouse is of no Comparison with it I confess I should be more inclined than I am to the Real Hypothesis if I could believe the Spagirical Resurrection of Plants or the Reality of Apparitions resembling Men that are said to be seen in Distilling-Vessels upon the Distillation of Human Blood of which Peter Borellus a Curious but too Credulous Author tells us in his Observations Cent. 4. Obs 62. I fear with more presumption than certainty For my part I must acknowledge my unbelief as to it I will only add for the fuller clearing of the Theory of the Apparition of Spirits that what Gravity or weight is in respect of Elementary Bodies That a strong Inclination or Habit and Will or Passion is unto Souls and Consequently that we seldom hear of the Apparition of Any but of such as went out of the Body with great Reluctance with a violent Passion of Revenge or with a strong Desire of having something done that was in their will but not in their power And of the appearing of such we often hear but whether the Apparition is of the Departed Soul it self or of its Representative only to wit some Genius Personating the Deceased and why often times it appears unto Persons no way concerned and not to those that are when it would have something revealed as also the Laws of the Spiritual World for Laws there must be which do confine and regulate the motions of Spirits these and many other points in the business of Spirits are all unknown unto me and perhaps are only known unto God I should now proceed to the Distribution of Spirits but this entirely depends upon the History of them and we know but little of that History Besides there is in what we are thought to know so much of Tale Romance and Invention that upon strict inquiry not one Relation of a hundred holds true even of their Apparitions an Observation which obliged Lucian of old and many now to Ridicule them all Wherefore I resolve to Omit as a Task too hard for me to discourse of their Kinds and their Orders only in General I will adventure to affirm if this be to Adventure to say what few will deny that that there are several Species Angels in Heaven and Devils out of it and perhaps a Lower sort of Spirits than those we commonly call Devils But for the Celestial Hierarchy as Dionysius the True or the False has set it out and the Distinction in it that he makes of Seraphim of Cherubim of Thrones of Dominations of Vertues of Powers of Principalities of Arch-Angels and of Angels as also of the Politick Government of Devils and the several Orders that are in it One had need be a Saint and as illuminated with Revelation as Dionysius himself was to understand the Former and for the Latter he must be a Conjurer of the Highest Class and possibly more than a Conjurer to have any or any certain Account of it One that is Curious may find many and very strange things upon this Subject in Cardan in his Books de varietate and de subtilitate and in Cornelius Agrippa in his of Occult Philosophy L. 1. C. 11. Fernelius also has something which he has gathered out of Plato and others concerning the Kinds of Spirits in his Treatise De Abditis rerum Causis L. 1. C. 11. but all is but Guess and Conjecture See Gaspar Schottus his Physica Curiosa L. 1. C. 12. c. CHAP. VIII Another Essay about the Nature of Animals and Spirits SECT I. The Subject farther Illustrated by a Comparison of the Universe with a particular Animal The Universe a whole Particular Animals but Members of that whole A Particular Animal is as an Organ with its faculty the Universe as a Body composed of several Organs with a Soul that endues these Organs with several Faculties A Demonstration even to sense of a common Principle that penetrates throughout the Universe In what sense a Soul is a faculty and in what a Principle of Faculties Two senses of the word Soul and how in both it may be conceived as a Principle of Faculties The Soul in its state of separation becomes a Spirit properly Soul is the name of a part a Spirit the name of a whole Substance God the Central Sun and Fountain of all Souls and Spirits The Emanation of Souls and Spirits from God or from his Spirit set out in the Comparison of Light and Colours Not only Philosophers and Poets but even many Christian Doctors and particularly St. Augustin compared God in respect of his influence in and over the Vniverse unto the Soul in a Man IN the Precedent Chapter I have offered to my Reader something concerning the nature of Animals as well those that are Invisible called Spirits as those that are Visible but the subject being Obscure I think my self obliged to turn it every way to see what further Light may be Given to it and therefore I will now Enlarge upon one Point in Relation unto it that I did but touch before whereby I hope to Illustrate it It is Received on all hands except by Cartesians that in every visible Animal as well as in Man there is a Body Composed of several Organs and there are several Faculties or Powers according to the several Organs and there is a Common Principle called a Soul that Permeating throughout the Body doth Furnish it in its several Organs with those several Faculties Now As all the Organs of any Particular Animal tho' being Compared one with Another they are several not Parts one of Another but a kind of wholes and have their several Faculties yet in respect of the Body they are but Parts and all Influenced by a Common Principle which giveth being to its several Faculties but is none of them it self Why may not all the Animals themselves as well the Invisible as the Visible that do Exist in the Universe be in respect of this but as so many Parts so many Organs some more Simple others more Compound Actuated by some Common Principle that Penetrates throughout it and yet in Respect one of Another be several wholes that have their several Powers and Faculties And then as all the Particular Animals would in truth be but as so many several Organs Endued with
more plainly since Faculties and Principles are notions rather than things and some will be apt enough without considering their grounds to regard them only as meer notions I shall therefore set out the difference that is between them in more Real Expressions by saying that the Influence of God or his active presence in things by means of the Mosaical Spirit is as Light and that Nature the System of all the Powers in the Universe is as a Complex of all Colours so that as Colour is the Modification of Light and Light the essence of Colour so particular Powers and Actions that are but Powers in act are Modifications of the Divine Energy and the Divine Energy the substance both of the Act and the Power and thus the influence of the first and second Causes differ as Motion and Modification of Motion the Motion arises from the first the Modification from the second Cause either as it is an Organ or as an Object and so too the Aberrations of Nature in Monsters and in other instances are accounted for either by the ill Texture of the Organs the over-whelming of matter or by some other vitiosity and defect in the second Causes without any impeachment of the first As the scriblings of a bad mishaping Pen are not imputed to the hand that guides it which perhaps may be skilful enough but to the Instrument that depraves the motion and this tho' the Motion comes from the Writer In fine I do not see any reason why vital Energy may not be Imparted and Communicated as well as Local which our sense evinces to be so one Body that is in motion striking another that is not thereby Communicates its Motion to it and thus a Cogitative vital Energy may come from God and being diffused as Light is throughout the Universe may be catched by agreeable Organs and Modified by Objects in the way that I have shewed before I only hint this by way of Anticipation to such as will inquire whether this Cogitative vital Energy diffus'd throughout the World be God himself or no or what it is for there I stick and call in the assistance and united force of greater understandings mine beginning to be dazled with the lustre or the subtilty of the Object as yet I take it to be the Mosaical Spirit So much for this Objection The last I shall propose is the Herculean one that is insisted upon by many Great and very Judicious Men which is that if there is but one Original Perceptive throughout the Universe all Animals would have the same Perceptions so that what is known by one could be ignored by none ay the same sentiments the same Resentments the same Pains the same pleasures that are in any one would be in every one and there could be no Numerication no individuation of Spirits or Souls because no separate particular Perceptions But this Objection as it is greater in appearance than in reality so it can have little effect if we consider that it does equally destroy the diversity of Perceptions in the several Organs and Parts of one Animal which yet our own Experience attests unto as that of the perceptions of several Animals in the Universe since as there is but one Original Perceptive throughout the Universe in the proposed Opinion so in the common there is but one in every Animal and yet tho' the Soul is but one the Faculties are many and the exercises of them several For if but one Eye is inflamed the sense of Pain is not in both and when but one Arm or one Hand is wounded the smart thereof is only in one ay the pains and ailments of the Superior Parts are not felt in the Inferior nor the sufferances of these in those so that though the Animal it self may be said to have the Perception of all those of its several parts yet these cannot be truly said to have one anothers I acknowledge that as the Soul may be said to have a common sense of all perceptions but the several Members each to have but a private sense for it self so answerably tho' the Original Perceptive is sensible of all and needs must for he that made the Eye must needs see and he that planted the Ear must needs hear and he that gave an heart unto man must needs understand yet Particular Percipients particular Animals as so many particular Organs must have but their share one Animal can no more pretend to have the perceptions of another tho' the Original perceptive is the same in both and is conscious to the perceptions of both than in the same Animal the Eye can pretend to Hear or the Ear to See or either of them to Smell Hence it is evident that the Individuation and Numerication of Perceptions and consequently of Perceptive Powers arises from the Bodies or Organs by means of which such perceptions are made for where the Bodies are separated or the Organs distinct there the Perceptions made in those Bodies and by means of such Organs are likewise so In short as I hinted before perceptions and perceptive powers are individuated by Bodies in the same ways as Images are by Looking-Glasses or Eccho's by the contrivance of Objects But to demonstrate it in Experience as well as by discourse I will add a History or two of Monsters that will do it plainly The first shall be out of Trivet and in his own Terms as I read them in an Ancient Manuscript who reports the Accident just as Sigebert also does in his Chronicle add An. 396. ' In the time of this Valentinian says he but it should be as others say in the time of Theodosius at the Town of Emaus in Jewry there was a Child bore the which from the Navel upward had double Body that is to say double Breast and double Head and proper feeling of all parts and sometimes the one sleepeth and eateth and drinketh when the other doth nought and otherwise they eat and drink and sleeep together and sometimes they weep and smile together and sometimes strived and chid together and when they were almost of two year Age the one of them died four days before the other Schenckius the Son Reports another but resembling story and with more Particularity and Circumstance and Consequently more to our purpose out of Buchanan his Scottish History Monstrum novi generis says he in Scotiâ natum est inferiore quidem corporis parte specie Maris nec quicquam à communi hominum formâ discrepans Umbilicum vero supra trunco corporis ac reliquis omnibus membris geminis ad usum atque speciem discretis id Rex diligenter Educandum erudiendum curavit ac maxime in musicis quâ in re mirabiliter profecit quin varias Linguas edidicit variis voluntatibus due Corpora secum discordìa dissentiebant ac interim Litigabant cum aliud alii placeret interim veluti in communi consultabant Illud etiam in eo memorabile fuit
quod cum inferna crura lumbive offenderentur commune Corpus utrumque dolorem sentiret cum vero supernè Pungeretur aut alioqui Laederetur ad Alterum corpus tantum doloris sensus perveniret Quod discrimen in morte fuit magis Conspicuum Nam cum alternum corpus complures ante alterum dies extinctum fuisset quod superstes fuit dimidio sui Computrescente paulatim contabuit Vixit id monstrum Annos Viginti Octo ac decessit Administrante rem Scoticam Joanne Prorege Hac de re scribimus eo Confidentius quod adhuc supersint homines honesti Complures qui haec viderint So Buchanan and Schenkius from him I will not give my self the trouble to translate the Relation because I find it in Mr. Ross his continuation of Sir Walter Rawleigh's History of the World who thus tells the Story ad An. 1490. About this time says he a strange Monster was born in Scotland which beneath the Navel was one Body but above two distinct Bodies having different Senses Souls and Wills any hurt beneath the Navel is equally felt by Both Bodies above but if any of the upper Members were hurt one of the Bodies only felt the pain This Monster the King caused to be instructed in Musick and divers Languages One of the Bodies died some days before the other which also shortly after pined and consumed away It lived Eight and Twenty years I might instance in many other Stories of this kind but these suffice to evince what I induce them for that the numerication of Souls and consequently of other Spirits depends upon that of Bodies for in the alledged Examples especially the latter it is plain that where the Bodies were divided and separated the Powers of Perception likewise were so that the offences of but one were not felt by both but by one only and yet again in the parts beneath the Navel common unto both the Bodies any hurts in these were equally perceived by both I take the Theodosian and Scottish Monsters to be evident illustrations of my Hypothesis And so much for Substance Harmonically considered CHAP. IX Of Substance in the Scholastical Consideration of it Substance what that it is First or Second Second Substance is called a singular a suppositum or a subsistent Of the Principle of Individuation or that which makes a singular to be so Dr. Sherlock's Notion of the Individuation of Spirits Of a Person The true Idea of it Laurentius Valla his notion of a Person the unusefulness of it to the salving of the Holy Trinity shewed The Trinity a Mystery and Doctrine of Faith not a Point of Philosophy and so the Idea of it to be derived only from Revelation in the Holy Scriptures and not from bare Discourses of Reason I Have Discoursed of Substance after the Harmonical way in the Precedent Chapters It now remaineth that I add something concerning it in the Scholastical and thus Substance is defined to be a thing that is by it self or that is under others called Accidents and is divided into First and Second The Second Substance is that which is not in a Subject but may be Praedicated of it and such are Generical and Specifical Substances as for example Living Creature and Man neither of which is in a subject as an Accident is but both are Praedicated of it for Living Creature is Praedicated of Man and Man of Peter James John c. As for first Substance which is the substance I design to speak of more particularly it is defined to be that which neither is in a Subject as an Accident is nor is Praedicated of it as the second substance is it is also called a Suppositum a subsistent or a singular in which is wont to be distingushed Nature and Subsistence Subsistence is a mode of Existence to which it adds Perseity and Existence is Essence in Act the Nature is the Idea or Definitive Conception of a Substance Or thus the Nature is the Thing or Substance as it is defined a Suppositum is the Thing or Substance that hath that Nature or Definition Nature and Subsistence differ but as Essence and Existence Subsistence being but the Existence of a substantial Nature But Nature and a Suppositum Differ as Essentia and Ens the Former signifying as the Schools speak ut Quâ the latter ut Quod. In a singular Substance or Suppositum that which comes particularly into Consideration is the Principle as Schollars call it of Individuation or that which makes a singular to become a singular for the Nature is supposed to belong to one particular no more than to another but to be a thing abstracted from all Particulars and thence the question arises what that is that singularizes the Nature for example that of Man and makes it to belong to Peter or to John or to James in particular This Principle of Individuation be it what it will may as is thought by some be called the individuating difference as well as that which does divide the Genius and constitute the Species is called the specifical since this indiuiduating Principle doth as much divide the Species and constitute the individual as the specifical difference divides the Genius and constitutes the species Much ado there is what this Principle should be but after all they seem to me to come nearest to the Truth who do affirm that a singular or individual becomes so not by any distinct Principle of individuation but immediately and per se and in that that it is in being just as Quantity is Terminated by self and not by mediation of another Thing that should confine and bound it and in like manner is Figured not by any thing superadded to it but barely in that it is thus and thus Terminated I am already almost tired with this idle fruitless way of talking and should not overcome my self to proceed any farther in it but that the Notion a Learned Person has of late delivered to the World about the Individuation of Spirits will oblige me to Consider it and by affording matter of more intelligible Discourse make some amends for the dryness and barrenness of the former It is Dr. Sherlock I mean who in his vindication of the Trinity S. 4. p. 48. tells us ' that in Created Finite Spirits their numerical oneness can be nothing but every Spirits Unity within it self and distinct and separate subsistence from all other Created Spirits now this self-unity of the Spirit can be nothing else but self-Consciousness that it is Conscious to its own Thoughts Reasonings Passions which no other Spirit is Conscious 〈◊〉 but it self This makes a Finite Spirit â—umerically one and separates it from all other Spirits that every Spirit feels only its own Thoughts and Passions but is not Conscious to the Thoughts and Passions of any other Spirit and therefore if there were three Created Spirits so United as to be Conscious each to others Thoughts I cannot see any Reason why we might not say
that three such Persons were not numerically one He adds let any Man who can give me any other notion of the numerical Oneness of an Infinite Mind but self-consciousness Thus this Learned Person It must be confessed that the Numerical Oneness of Spirits can be nothing else but as this Learned Author says it is every Spirits Unity he might as well have said Oneness with it self and its distinct and separate subsistence from all other Created Spirits But this is not the oneness of Spirits only but of every thing else that is one for as omne ens est unum so unum est quod est indivisum in se Divisum a quolibet Alio and therefore it doth hold in Bodies as well as in Spirits and perhaps in the Infinite first Being as well as in all Created Finite Beings But to confine my self as this Learned Author does to the Numerical Oneness of Spiriâ—… I cannot say farther of it as he has that it can be nothing else but self-Consciousness in the sense of the word as he unfolds it I say as he Unfolds it for else taking self-consciousness for a Spirits self-being so I take it the numerical oneness of a Spirit is nothing but its self-consciousness for then the meaning is that a Spirit which is a Cogitative Being is it self and not any other thing but taking Consciousness as he does for a Spirits Being sensible of its own Actions and Passions so its numerical oneness cannot be its self-consciousness For as a Being and even a Cogitative Being as a Being must be conceived to be before it can be conceived to Act so again it must be conceived to act that is to Think to Reason to Love to Hate for these are the Actions he instances in for some moment of Reason before it can be conceived to be Conscious of these its actings Now for that Moment of Reason in which a Spirit is conceived in Being without being conceived to be acting and in which it is conceived Acting before it becomes Conscious of its actings in that precedent moment which speaks order not duration it must be conceived to be one with it self and numerically different from every thing besides and therefore that it is so cannot arise from self-consciousness or its being conscious of its own actings So that if there were as in the Authors supposal three created Spirits that were as conscious to each others Thoughts and Passions as each of them unto his own there would yet be no reason that we should say as he says we must that three such persons would be numerically one for if they were how could they be Three since the number Three is not the number One and they cannot be Three in number if they are but one in number to be Three is to be more than One to be but One is not to be more than one All that could be said of them is that upon that supposal they would be intimate with one another but with numerical distinction for still one of them would not be the other and so they would remain Three Persons still not one Person Self-Unity is before Self-Consciousness and may consist with Consciousness of others Again in Dr. Sherlock's way of Discoursing which is that Three Persons so intimate to one another as he supposes would become numerically one I do not see but that instead of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity which doubtless he will own to be really as intimate to one another as he supposes his Three Finite ones to be we shall have but one Person in number In fine if Persons by being so intimate to one another do become numerically one I do not see but that by this reasoning God who is as conscious to all the Actions Passions and Thoughts of all Finite Created Spirits as these are to their own and as the Doctors Imaginary Persons are to one anothers he must be numerically one with them all But perhaps the Doctor will tell me that he affirms the Three Eternal Minds for so he calls them are numerically one God not one Person Three Persons one God but then it will be demanded of him since Three are thrice one what that is that makes each Person one in it self and distinguishes it from both the others for it must be something that is not Common which self-consciousness is in his sense of the word all being as conscious to one anothers Thoughts and Actings as each unto its own whereas that which makes a thing numerically one must be Differencing and Particular Not to insist that to be an Eternal Mind is the true Idea or notion of God and then if there be as he owns there be Three Eternal Minds really distinct it will I confess be no great difficulty to evince them Thee Persons but I doubt it will intelligibly to make it out that these Three Three Eternal Minds really distinct from one another are not Three Gods as well as Three Persons So that methinks the knot remains untied For my own part I believe as the Scriptures instruct me that there is but one God tho' Three Persons each of which is God which I say only to prevent Mistakes But I resolve to Discourse more fully of Unity or Oneness when I come to treat of the notions of Whole and Part. As for the name Person it properly belongs to Men we do not commonly apply it to Beasts or unto Angels or other Spirits but by Translation and Metaphor when they do appear in the Figure or shape of Men. Nor is Person a name of Nature taking nature in the sense of the Schoolmen for Nature is Common unto all of the kind but that only is Personal which is distinguishing and peculiar among those in the same kind Thus Man is a name of the kind or specifical Nature the Nature in common A Man an expression of the Nature as singularized but Person properly is the name of that which differences Men from one another When we speak of the Person of a Man we mean by it that Cumble of Accidents External Internal of Body of Mind Adventitious and Extrinsical Absolute or Relative whereby he is distinguished and known from others Hence Persona in Latin is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greek and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies the Countenance or Face in the first place and from thence a Person in the second place because the Countenance or Face is that by which we do chiefly distinguish Men. In conformity to this Idea or notion of Person I understand Levit. 19.15 Thou shalt not favour the Person of the Poor nor honour the Person of the Mighty the word for Person is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint Translation and the meaning of the Text is plainly This thou shalt not in giving Judgment have regard to the Poverty of the one or to the Riches of another for these concern the Person not the Cause In this sense also is God said to be 〈◊〉