turned themselves with all their power there they finde sorrow and death for infinite wisdome is the never fayling food of life of which our spirit lives eternally which can love nothing but Wisdome and truth for every understanding desires being it s being is living its living is understanding its understanding is to be fed with wisdome and truth whereupon it followeth that the understanding which tasteth not clear wisdome is as an eye in darknesse for it is an eye but it sees not because it is not in the light and because it wants the delightfull life which is in seeing it is therefore in paine and torment and this is death rather then life so the understanding being turned to any other thing then the food of eternall wisdome shall finde it self without or besides life wrapped up in the darkeness of ignorance rather dead then alive and this is the interminable torment that the understanding should have a being and yet never understand for it is onely the eternall wisedome in which every understanding can understand Orator Thou tellest me things both good and rare now proceede I pray thee to shew how I may be lifted up to some manner of taste of eternall wisdome Idiot The eternall wisdome is tasted in every tastable thing it is delight in every delightfull thing It is the beauty in every thing beauteous It is the appetite in everyappetible thing so say of all desirable things how can it choose then but be tasted is not thy life pleasant to thee when it is according to thy desire Orator Yes nothing more Idiot Seeing then this thy desire is not but by the eternall wisdome in which and of which it is and this happy life likewise which thou desirest is not but from the same eternal wisdome in which it is and without which it cannot be hence it followeth that in all the desire of intellectuall life thou desirest nothing else then the eternall wisdome which is the complement of thy desire the beginning middle and end thereof If therefore this desire of immortall life that thou mayest live eternally happy be sweet unto thee thou doest already finde within thy selfe a certaine fore-taste of the eternall wisdome for there is nothing desired that is utterly unknowne as among the Indians there are apples whose foretaste because we have not we do not desire them but being we cannot live without nourishment nourishment we desire of nourishment we have a certaine fore-taste that we may live sensibly therefore a childe having a certaine fore-tafte of milke in his own nature when he is hungry is moved unto milke for we are nourished by those things of which we are So the understanding hath its life from the eternall wisdome and of that it hath such as it is a certaine fore-taste whereupon in all feeding which that it may live is necessary unto it it is not moved but to be fed from thence from whence it hath this intellectuall being If therefore in all thy desire of intellectuall life thou wouldest marke from whom the understanding is by what it is moved and to what thou wouldest finde in thy selfe that it is the sweetnesse of eternall wisdome which makes thy desire so sweet and delightfull unto thee that thou art carried with an unspeakeable affection to the comprehension of it as unto the immortality of thy life And if thou looke upon the example of iron and the load-stone thou shalt finde that the iron hath in the load-stone a certaine beginning of his effluence or flowing out And whilest the load-stone by its presence stirres up the heavy and ponderous iron the iron with a wonderfull desire is carryed contrary to the motion of nature by which for its heavinesse it ought to presse downwards is moved upwards by uniting it selfe to its principle for except there were in iron a certaine naturall fore-taste of the load-stone it would no more be moved to the load-stone than to any other stone and except there were in the stone a greater inclination to iron than to copper there would not be that attraction and drawing Our intellectuall spirit hath accordingly from the eternall wisdome a principle or beginning of being so intellectually which being is more conformable unto wisdome than any other not intellectuall being Hence the irradiation or immission into a holy Soule is in the stirring up a desirefull motion for he that by an intellectuall motion seeketh wisdome he being inwardly touched to the fore-tasted sweetnesse forgetting himselfe it is received in the body as if he were without the body the weight of all sensible things cannot hold him untill he unites himselfe to the attracting wisdome and this makes the soule that by an amazing admiration forsakes the sense growes so mad that it makes no account of ought else besides that wisdome and to such a one it is sweete to leave this world and this life that they may the more readily be carried into the wisdome of immortality This foretaste makes that which appeareth delightfull abominable to holy men who the sooner to attaine unto it do most evenly and patiently beare all corporall torments It instructeth us that this our spirit being turned unto it can never faile for if this our body cannot by any sensible ligament or tie hold the spirit but that letting go all performance of dutyes to the body it is most greedily carried to that eternall wisedome then surely though the body faile it can never faile for this assimilation and likenesse which is naturally in our spirit by which it is not quieted but in that wisdome it selfe is as it were the lively image thereof for the image is not quieted but in that whereof it is the image and from which it hath the beginning midst and end now the living image by its life doth of it selfe put forth motion towards the Sampler in which onely it resteth for the life of the image cannot rest in it selfe being but the life of the life of truth and not its owne hereupon it is moved to the sampler as to the truth of its being If therefore the sampler be eternall and the image have life in which it fore-tasteth its sampler and so be desirefully moved unto it and seeing that motion if it be vitall or lively cannot reft but in the infinite life which is eternall wisdome hence it followeth that that spirituall motion can never cease which doth never infinitely reach or touch infinite life for it is alwaies with a most pleasant desire moved to reach it which because of the delightfulnesse of the attraction is never loathed for wisdome is the most s avoury meat which so satisfieth that it never diminisheth the desire of taking it so that the delight of that eternall feeding never ceaseth Orator I doe assuredly understand that thou hast very well spoken onely I see there is a great deale of difference betweene the taste of wisdome and whatsoever can be said of the sense of tasting Idiot
Thou saist right and it pleaseth me well to have heard this word from thee for as all knowledge of the taste of that thing which was never tasted is empty and barren untill the sense of tasting do reach it so likewise of this wisdome which no man tasteth by hearsay but he onely tasteth which receives it in his internall taste and he beares witnesse not of those things he hath heard but which he hath experimentally tasted in himselfe To know the many descriptions of love which the Saints have left unto us without the taste of love is but a certaine emptinesse Wherefore for him that seekes eternal wisdome it is not sufficient to know those things which are read of it but it is very necessary that having found by his understanding where it is he then make it his owne as he that hath found a field wherein there is a great treasure cannot rejoyce in or enjoy that treasure being in another mans and not his owne field therefore he selleth all and byeth that field that he may have the treasure in his owne field he must then sell and give away all his owne things for the eternall wisdome will not be had but where the haver kept nothing of his owne to the end he might have that and that which we have of our owne are our vices and that which we have of the eternall wisdome are nothing else but good things Wherefore the spirit of Wisdome dwelleth not in a body subject to sinnes nor in an evill willing soule But in his own pure field and sapientiall clean image as in his holy temple for where the eternall wisdome dwels there is the Lords field bearing immortall fruit for it is the field of vertues which wisdome tilleth from whence growe the fruits of the Spirit which are Righteousnesse Peace Fortitude Temperance Chastity Patience and such like Orator Thou hast abundantly explained these things but now answer me I pray thee is not God the beginning of all things Idiot Who doubts it Orator Is the eternall wisdome any thing else but God Idiot Farre be it we should say it is any thing else It is God Orator Did not God forme or create all things by his word Idiot He did Orator Is the Word God Idiot It is Orator Is wisedom so Idiot To say that God made all things in wisdome is no more to say then that that God created all things by his word but consider how all that is might be and might so be and is and God that gives it the actualnesse of being is he with whom there is power by which the thing might be produced from not being to being and he is God the Father which may be called Entity or Unity because he doth by his omnipotence necessitate that to be which was nothing for God gives it such a beeing that it is this as heaven for example and nothing else neither more nor lesse And this God is the word the wisedom the son of the Father and may be called the equality of Unity or Entity Then there is a being and being so united that it is and this it hath from God which is the connection knitting all things together and it is God the holy Spirit for it is the Spirit that unites and knits together all things in the univers and in us As therefore nothing begets unity but it is the first principle not principiated or the first beginning not begun so nothing begets the Father who is eternall and equality proceeds from or is begotten of unity so the son from the Father and the knot or bond proceedeth from unity and its equality so the holy spirit from the Father and the sonne wherefore every thing that it may have being and such a beeing in which it is hath need of a unitrine principle namely of God three and one of whom there might much more be said if the time would give leave the wisedome therefore which is the equality it selfe of being is the word or reason of things for it is as an infinite intellectuall forme for the forme gives to the thing that it is form'd Therefore an infinite forme is the actuality of al formable things formes and the most precise equality of them all for as if there were an infinite circle it would be the true samplar of all figurable figures and the equality of the being of every figure for it would be a triangle an hexagone a decagone so forth the most adequate measure of them all though a most simple figure so infinite wisedome is simplicity complicating all formes the most adequate measure of them all as if the most perfect Idea of omnipotent art should be the art it selfe and most simple forme of every thing formable by art So that if thou looke upon the form of a man thou shalt finde the forme of the divine art the most precise sampler thereof as if it were nothing else at all then the sampler of the forme of a man so if thou looke to the forme of Heaven and turn thy selfe to the forme of the divine art thou shalt not be able to conceive it any other thing then the sampler of this forme of Heaven And so of all formes form'd or formable The art or wisedome of God the Father is the most simple forme and yet the only and most equall example of infinite formable formes although variable O how admirable is that forme whose most simple infinity all formable formes cannot explicate or shew the uttermost of And he onely that by a most sublime understanding lifteth himselfe above all opposition sees it to be most true as if any man would marke the naturall force which is in a unity he should see that power if he would conceive the same to be in act as a cetaine forme visible by the understanding only and that afarre of and because the power of a unity would be most simple it must needs be a most simple infinity In the next place if the fame man would turne himselfe to the forme of numbers in considering a duality a or a tennality and would then return to the actuall power of a unity he should see that forme which is put to be the actuall power of the unity to be the most precise samplar of duality tennality or any other numerable number for this would the infinity of that forme doe which is called the power of unity that whilest thou lookest to duality that forme can be neither greater nor lesse then the forme of duality whereof it is the most precise samplar Thus thou seest that one and the same simple wisedome of God because it is infinite is the most true samplar of all formable formes and this is his reaching by which he reacheth all things boundeth or limiteth and disposeth them for it is in all formes as the truth in the image the samplar in the thing exemplified the forme in the figure and precisenesse in assimilation or likenesse and although
that a number is compounded of the same in regard of the common or universall of that which is divers in regard of singulars or particulars which both are waies of the minds understanding Phil. Go on I pray thee to declare how the minde may be said to be a number moving it selfe Id. I thinke no man can deny but that the minde is a certaine divine living number excellently proportioned to the resplendence of manifesting and shewing of the divine harmony and complicating every sensible rational and intellectual harmony and whatsoever can be better expressed about this matter Insomuch that every number proportion and harmony which proceeds from our minde doth as little reach or come near our minde as our minde doth to the infinite minde For the minde though it be a divine number yet it is so a number that it is a simple unity by its own power putting forth its number So that look what proportion there is between God and his workes the same there is between the workes of the minde and the minde it selfe Phil. There are very many that would have our minde to be of the divine nature and most meerly conjoyned to the divine minde ld I doe not think they meant any otherwise then as I have laid although they had another manner of speaking For between the divine minde and ours there is the same difference that there is between doing and seeing for the divine minde by conceiving creates but ours by conceiving assimilates in making notions or intellectual visions The divine minde is a power making things to be but ours an assimilative power Orat. I see that the Philosopher hath not time enough to satisfie himselfe and therefore I have kept silence a long time I have heard many and very pleasing things yet would I faine heare further how the minde of it selfe puts forth the formes of things by way of assimulation Id. The minde is so assimilative that in the sight it makes it selfe like visible things and in the hearing to audible things in the taste to things tastable in the smell to things odorable in the touch to things tangible in the sense to things sensible in the imagination to things imaginable and in the reason to reasonable things For the image in the absence of sensible things is as some sense without the discretion of sensible things for it conformes it selfe to sensible things absent but confusedly and without discerning of state from state But in reason it conformes it selfe to things with discerning of state from state In all those places our minde is carried in the spirit of the Arteries vvhich being stir'd up by meeting vvith species multipli'd from the objects to the spirits assimilates it selfe by the things to the species that by assimilation it may give judgement of the objects Whereupon that subtile spirit of the Arteries which is enlivened by the minde is so by the minde conform'd unto the similitude of the species which was objected to the motion of the spirit As soft wax is by a man having the use and art of the minde configured unto the thing then presently presented to the work-man for all configurations whether in the art of carving painting or hammering cannot be done without the mind for it is the mind which terminates all things Therefore if we could imagine a piece of wax inform'd by the minde then the minde being within it would configure it or make it like to every figure presented unto it as now the minde of the Artificer being applied from without labours to doe So likewise of clay and every flexible or fashionable thing So in our body the minde according to the various flexiblenesse of the spirits of the Arteries in the Organs makes divers configurations subtile and grosse and one spirit is not configurable to that to which another is because the spirit in the optick nerve cannot be met withall and incountred by the species of sounds but onely by the species of colours therefore is configurable to the species of colours and not of sounds and so of the rest There is likewise another spirit which is configurable to all sensible species which is in the Organ of the imaginative power but after a grosse and indiscreet or undistinguished manner And there is another in the Organ of the ratiocinative or discursive power which is configurable to al sensible things discretly and clearly And all these configurations are assimilations to sensible things when thy are done by the meanes of corporall spirits though never so subtile wherefore when the minde makes these assimilations that it may have the motions of sensible things and so is drownned in the corporall spirit then it acteth as the soul animating a body by which animation the power of a living wight is constituted And hereupon the soul of brute beasts makes the like assimilation after its manner though more confused that it may after its manner attaine to notions But our power of the minde from such notions as these so elicited drawn out by assimilation makes Mechanick arts physicall and logicall conjectures and reacheth things in the manner whereby they are conceived in the possibility of being or matter and in the manner whereby the possibility of being or matter is determined by the forme Wherefore seeing that by these assimilations it reacheth none but the notions of sensible things where the formes of things are not true but shadowed with the variablenesse of matter therefore all such notions are rather conjectures then truth for this cause I say that the notions which are reached by rationall assimilations are uncertain because they are rather according to the images of formes then the truths Afterwards our minde not as drowned in the body which it animates but as it is the minde of it selfe yet in possibility of being united to the body while it lookes unto its immutability makes assimilation of formes not as they are drowned in the matter but as they are in and of themselves and conceives the immutable quiddities of things using it selfe for an instrument without any organicall spirit As whilst it conceives that a circle is a figure from whose center all the lines drawne to the circumference are equall after which manner of being a circle without the minde cannot be in matter for it is impossible there should be given in matter two equall lines and it is lesse possible that such a circle should be figured and therefore a circle in the mind is the Samplar and measure of the truth of a circle in the pavement So wee say that the truth of things in the minde is in the necessity of complexion to wit after the manner that the truth of a thing requireth as we have said of the circle And because the minde as in it selfe and abstracted from matter makes these assimilations therefore it assimilateth it selfe to abstracted formes And according to this power it shewes or puts forth certain mathematicall sciences and finds its power to bee
is lead to perfection Phil. Paradventure thou wilt likewise admit that the understanding should be called the passion of the mind Id. Yes that I will for the understanding is the motion of the mind the beginning whereof is passion Phil. Therefore conception is a passion too Id. It follows not as thou seest of thy self In like manner although the kinds and species be the understanding yet are they not therefore passions of the soul for the passions of the soul vanish and yet the kinds and species of things remaine Phil. Enough of this seeing divers men speak diversly thereof But tell me how doest thou call that power of the mind by which it sees all things in the necessity of complexion and that other by which it sees them in an absolute necessity Id. I that am an Idiot do not much regard words yet I thinke that power may conveniently be called discipline whereby the mind looking to its own immutability considers the forms of things without matter because that by discipline and learning men come to this consideration of the form But that power by which the mind looking to its own simplicity doth therein behold all things without composition may be called intelligence Phil. It is read that some men call that power which thou callest doctrine or learning intelligence and that which thou callest intelligence intelligibility Id. It doth not displease me for they may conveniently be so called Orat. I could wish to hear from thee Philosopher how the Naturalists suppose sensations are done for in this I thinke thee more skilfull then the Idiot who will also be glad if thou wilt so do Phil. I should be glad if I could rehearse any part of that which I have heard That which thou required is thus The Naturalists say that the soul is mixt with a most thin and subtile spirit scattered clean through the Arteries so that that spirit is the carryage of the soul and the vehiculum or carryage of that spirit is the blood There is therefore one nerve or artery full of that spirit which is directed to the eyes so that near unto the eyes it is forked and being filled with that spirit it comes to the bals of the eyes wherein is the apple that spirit then so dispersed through the arteries the instrument of the soul by which it exerciseth the sense of seeing Two arteries full of the same spirit are directed to the eares likewise to the nostrils and to the palate are certaine arteries directed and that spirit is diffused by the marrow even unto the extremities or ends of the joynts That spirit which is directed to the eyes is most active and nimble and therefore when it finds any outward objects the spirit is repercussed or stricken back and the soul is stirred up to see that which it meets withall So in the ear it is repercussed with the voice and the soul excited to comprehend and as hearing is done in a most thin aire so is smelling in a thick or rather fumous aire which when it entreth the nostrils by its sumosity retards the spirit so that the soul is excited to comprehend the odour of that fumosity Likewise when a spongious humour enters the palate the spirit is retarded and the soul excited to taste So the soul useth the spirit diffused through the marrow for the instrument of touching for when any solid thing meets with the body the spirit is offended and after a manner retarded and thence is touching About the eyes the soule useth a fiery power about the ears an aethereall or rather a pure ayrie one about the nostrils a thick and fumous ayrie one about the palate a watery power about the marrow an earthy one And this according to the order of the foure elements That as the eyes are higher then the eares so the spirit which is directed to the eyes is higher and superiour and may after a manner be called fiery So that in man the disposition of the senses is in a manner like the disposition of the order of the four elements whereupon seeing is swifter then hearing and therefore we see the lightning before we hear the thunder although they be both at once Moreover the strong subtile and acute direction of the beams of the eyes makes the aire give way unto it and nothing can withstand it except it bee grosse earthy or watery Seeing then the spirit is the instrument of the senses and the eyes nostrils and other sensories are as windowes and wayes by which that spirit may go out to perceive it is manifest that nothing is perceived but by a let or obstacle that as soon as any thing hinders it that spirit which is the instrument of perceiving may be retarded and the soul being as it were retarded may confusedly by the senses comprehend the thing that hinders it For the sense of it self terminates nothing and if when we see any thing we put a bound in it that is not the worke of the sense but of the imagination which is joyned to the sense There is moreover in the fore part of the head in the phantasticall cell a certain spirit much more subtile and nimble then that which is diffused through the Arteries which when the mind useth as its instrument it is made more subtile that though the thing be absent it can comprehend the form in the matter which power of the soul is called imagination because by it the soul conforms unto it self the image of the thing absent and it differs in this from the sense because the sense comprehends the form in the matter onely while the thing is present but imagination doth it as well when the thing is absent but confusedly so that it discernes not the state but comprehends many states together confusedly But there is in the middle part of the head to wit in that cell which is called rationall a most subtile spirit thinner far then that in the fantasticall cell and when the soul useth that spirit as her instrument it is yet more subtible insomuch that it discerneth state from state yet doth it not comprehend the truth of things because it comprehends formes mingled with matter but matter confounds the thing formed so that the truth of it cannot be comprehended And this power of the soul is called reason After these three manners the soul useth a corporall nstrument By it self the soul comprehends when it takes it self into it self or retires into it selfe so that it useth it self for an instrument as we have heard from thee CHAP. IX How the mind measureth all things by making a point a line and a surface how one point it both the complication and explication of a line and of the nature of complication and how it makes adequate measure of divers things and by what it is stirred up to do it Orat. THe Naturalists that after experience have made these things manifest are much to be commended cettainely because they are faire and pleasant
absolute creative art subsisting by it self that the art may be the workman and the mastery the master this art hath in its essence necessarily omnipotence that nothing can resist it wisdome to know what it doth and the connexion of omnipotence with wisdom that what it willeth may be done That connexion having in it self wisdome and omnipotence is the spirit as it were will or desire for of things impossible and utterly unkown there is neither will nor desire So in the most perfect will there is wisdome and power and by a certain similitude it is called a spirit because motion is not without spirit insomuch that whatsoever causeth motion in the mind and all things else we call a spirit And by motion all men do what they will do Therefore the power of a creative art which is an absolute and infinite art or the blesshed God doth all things in his spirit or will in the which is the wisdome of the Son and the omnipotence of the Father that his worke may be of one individed Trinity Of this connexin spirit or will the Platonists were ignorant which did not see this spirit to be God but thought it to be principiated by God and to be the soul of the world as our understanding soul animates our body Nor did the Peripateticks see this spirit which thought this power to be nature hidden in all things from which is motion and rest when indeed it is God absolute blessed for evermore Orat. How it rejoyceth me to hear so plain an exposition but I pray thee help us againe with some example to conceive the creation of our mind in this our body Id. Thou hast already heard of this matter but because variety of examples makes that which in it self is unexpressible somewhat more clear I will obey thee Behold thou knowest that our mind is a certaine power having the image of that Divine art we spake of Therefore all things which are most truly in the Divine art are truly in our mind as the image thereof Therefore our mind is created by that creating art as if that art would create it self And because that infinite art is un-multiplyable it behooveth that there arise an image thereof even as if a painter would paint himself and himself being not multiplyable by painting himself there should rise his image And because an image how perfect soever if it cannot become more and more perfect and conformable to the samplar is never so perfect as any imperfect image which hath power to conform it self more and more without limitation to the unapproachable samplar for in this the image after the best manner it may doth imitate infinity As if a painter should make two pictures of himself whereof the one being dead should seem actually more like him but the other should be alive and though for the present lesse like yet such a one as being by its object stirred up to motion could alwayes make it self more and more conformable to the samplar no man would doubt that this second picture were more perfect and more expressing the art of the painter So every mind yea even ours though created beneath all others hath from God that as well as it can it is a perfect and living image of the infinite art Therefore it is three and one having power wisdome and the connexion of both after such a manner that as a perfect image of the art being stirred up it can more and more conforme its self to its samplar So that our mind though in the beginning of its creation it have no actuall resplendence of the creating art in Trinity and unity yet it hath that concreated power that being stirred up it can make it self more and more conformable to the actuality of the Divine art And therefore in the unity of its essence is power wisdome and will And in-its essence do coinside the master and the mastery as in a living image ot the infinite art which being stirred up can all wayes without end make it self more and more conformable to the Divine actuality the inaccessible precision of the infinite art alwayes remaining Orat. Most wonderfully and plainly but I pray thee how it the mind infused by creation Id. Then haft heretofore heard me of this argument Now take the same thing againe by another example Ath. Then the Idiot taking a glasse and letting it hang down between his finger and thumb he touched the glasse and it gave a found and after a little while the glasse was crack'd and the sound ceaseth Then said the Id. In this fame hanging glasse by my power there arose a certaine power which moved the glasse whence came sound and when that proportion of the glasse in the which the sound was and by consequence the motion resided was dissolved the motion there ceased and likewise upon the ceasing of the motion the sound But it that power had not depended upon the glasse and therefore would not have ceased upon the cracking of the glasse but have subsisted without the glasse thou should'st have an example how that power is created in us which makes motion and harmony and then ceaseth to make it when the proportion is dissolved though for all that it doth not cease to be As if I in giving thee a Lute should in and with the Lute give thee the skill cunning to play upon a Lute if the art and skill did not depend upon the given Lute though given in and with the Lute then although the Lute were broken yet the art and skill for all that would not be dissipated though there were never a Lute found in the whole world that were fit for thee CHAP. XIV How the mind is said to come down from the milky way through the planets to the body and so to returne and how the notions of separated spirits are indelible and ours delible Phil. THou bringest fit and faire examples for things so strange and remote from sense and because the Sun is ready to set and so we can stay no longer together tell us I pray the what the Philosophers mean in saying that the souls came down from the milky way through the Planets into bodies and so return to the milky way againe and why Aristotle willing to expresse the power of the soul begins at Reason saying that the soul from Reason ascends to doctrine from doctrine to intellectibility but Plato contrarywise makes intellectibility the beginning and saith that by degenerating intellectibility is made doctrine or intelligence and intelligence by degenerating becomes Reason Id. I know not their writings But peradventure the first that spoke of the assent and discent of souls meant the same that Plato and Aristotle did For Plato looking to the image of the Creator which is chiefly in intelectibility where the mind conforms it self to the Divine simplicity there placed the beginning and made it the subfstance of the mind which he will have remaine after death that by the order of
it is unity uniting that it understands singularly it hath it likewise from unity which is singularity that it understands formerly it hath it from unity which is immutability and that it understands divisibly it hath it from unity for division descends from unity CHAP. XII How the understanding in all men is not one and how the number of seperated minds is not numerable by us but known to God Phil. THere are yet some things wherein I would faine know what thou thinkest some Peripateticks say that the understanding is one in all men others as certaine Platonists say that there is not one intellective soul but that our souls are of the same substance with the soul of the world which as they say comprehends all our souls yet they say our souls do differ numerically because they have a divers manner of operartion but that they are all after death resolved into the soul of the worlds Tellus what thou thinkest of it Id I affirme as thou heardest that the mind is the understanding but how there should be one mind in all men I cannot conceive For the mind having an office by which it is called die soul doth therefore require a convenient habitude of the body adequately proportioned unto it which as it is found in one body is not to be found in another As therefore the identity of proportion is unmultipliable so is the identity of the mind which without an adequate proportion of the body cannot animate For as the sight of thine eye could not be the sight of any other though it were seperated from thine eye and joyned to anothers eye because it could not find the same proportion in anothers eye that it had in thine so neither the discretion which is in thy sight could be the discretion in the sight of another So neither could the understand of that discretion be the understanding of an others discretion Therefore I conclude it not possible that there should be one understanding in all men But because number seemes to be taken away when the variablenesse of the matter is taken away as appears by that I have already said and that the nature of a mind out of the body is free and acquited from all variety of matter therefore it may be that the Platonists said that our souls are resolved into one soul which is the common comprehender of all ours But I do not think this resolution true For although we cannot understand how number should be multiplyed when the variety of matter it taken away yet for all this that purality of things ceaseth not which is the number of the Divine mind Therefore the number of seperated sustances is no more unto us a number then it is no number because it is so numerable by us that yet it is neither even nor odd neither great nor small nor doth it in any thing agree with a number numerable by us As if any man should hear an exceeding great voice made by a mighty army of men and yet he should not know that it was an army that made it it is manifest that in the voice which he hears every mans voice is different and distinct though he that heard it could not give judgement of the number and therefore judgeth it to be one voice because he hath no means to reach the number Or as if in one chamber many candles were burning and the chamber enlightned by them all yet the light of every candle remaines distinct from the light of another as we find by experience when they are carried out of the room one after one because the light is diminished when every one that is carried out carrieth his light with it Suppose therefore that the burning candles in that chamber should be all put out and yet the light remaine and that one should come into that chamber so enlightned he although he saw the lightsomenesse of the chamber yet cannot be possibly reach the distinction and discretion of the lights nay he could not conceive how there should be plurality of lights there except he knew that there were the light of many candles put out and if he did know this namely that there were many yet he could never numerically discerne or distinguish one light from another The like examples thou mayest bring in the other senses and help thy self how the impossibility of numerical difference may in regard of us stand with the knowledge of plurality but he that shall more diligently observe how natures abstracted from all variety of matter that is any wayes intelligile by us yet in regard of God who is infinitely absolute are not simply abstracted from all change seeing they may be by him changed and lead into destruction in as much as God alone doth according to his nature dwell in imortality be sees withall that no creature can possibly escape the number of the Divine mind CHAP. XIII How that which Plato called the soul of the worlds and Aristotle nature is God which worketh all things in all things and how he crealeth the mind in us Phil. ENough of this what saiest thou of the soul of the world Id. The time will not suffer all things to be discursed but I thinke Plato called that the soul of the world which Aristotle called nature and for my part I suppose that neither that soul nor that nature are any other thing then God which worketh all things in all things and whom we call the spirit of all things Phil. Plato said that that soul doth indelibly containe the samplars of things and move all things Aristotle said that it was wise nature that moves all things Id. It may be Plato meant that the soul of the world is as the soul of a servant that knows the mind of his Lord and executes his will and this knowledge he called notions or samplars which are never defaced by oblivion that the execution of the Divine providence may not faile And that which Plato cals the knowledge of the soul of the world Arisiotle would have to be the sagacity of nature which had understanding to fulfill the will of God Therefore to that soul of nature they attributed the necessity of complexion because it is determinately necessitated so to doe as absolute necessity commandeth but that is nothing but the manner of understanding namely when our minde conceiveth God as the Architectonicall Art whereunto there is another art of executing subordinate that the divine conception may proceed into being but in asmuch as all things do necessarily obey the will of the almighty therefore the will of God needs no other executor for in omnipotence willing and doing do coincide As a glasse-maker whilest he makes glass blows in a breath which executes his will in which breath is the word or conception and the power for unlesse the power and conception of the glasse-maker were in the breath which he sends forth there would not arise or be made such a glasse Conceive therfore an
nature precedes the intelligence but degenerates into intelligence when it goes back from the divine simplicity in which all things are one and will behold all things in it self as every thing hath a proper being distinct from another afterwards the mind doth more degenerate when by the motion of reafon it comprehends things not in it self but as the forme is invariable matter where it cannot hold the truth but declines into an image Now Aristototle who considered all things as they fall under names imposed by the motion of Reason makes Reason the Elenment or beginning and peradventure he saith that Reason by discipline which is done by names ascends unto intelligence afterwards higher unto intelletibility And therefore he makes reason the Element to the ascent of the intellest as Plato made intellectibility to the ascent thereof And so there seem to be no difference between them save in the manner of considering Phil. Be this so But tell me why all the Philosopers say that every understanding is of substance and accident how is this true of God and the first matter Id. The understending concerning God is an inflexion from the understanding of this name Ens or being because the being of not being that is being imparticipably understood is God And this understanding is the same with that which is of substance and accident but another way that is inflexly considered Wherefore the understanding conserning God comprehends all understandings of substance and accidents but is simple and one but the understanding which had ot the first matter is a certain bending from that which is had of a body for if thou understand abody un-bodily that is without all corporeal formes thou understandest the same thing which signifies a body but after another manne because un-bodily which is without doubt the understanding of the matter Phil. Doest thinke that the celestiall mind 's created according to their intellectuall dgrees have also indelible notions Id. I thinke some Angells intellectible as those of the highest orders some intelligentiall as of the second some rationall as of the third and that in every order there are likewise so many degrees that there are in the whole nine degrees or quires and that our mindes are so beneath the lowest degrees of such spirits and above every degrees of corporall nature that they are as it were the connexion of the university of things the terme of perfection of the lower nature and the beginning of the higher For I thinke that the mindes of the blessed spirits that are without bodies doe in rest possesse invariable notions and such as are not by any oblivion to be defaced because of the presence of the truth which incessantly offers it self by way of object And this is the happinesse of those spirits that have attained the fruition of the Samplar of things But our minds because of their informitie doe often forget the things they knew though there remaine the concreated aptitude to know them again For although they cannot without a body be stirred up to an intellectuall progresse yet because of their carelessenesse aversions from the object and distractions to divers and sundry things and because of the bodily troubles they lose their notions For the notions that we get here in this variable and unstable world according to the conditions thereof are not confirmed For they are as the notions of Schollers and learners that begin to profit but are not yet brought to the Mastery But the notions here acquired when the minde proceedeth from the variable world to the unyariable are likewise translated to the invariable mastery For when particular notions pass into the perfect mastery they cease to be variable in the universall mastery which before were particularly fluid and unfrable So we are in this world docible or to betaught in the other we are Masters CHAP. XV. How our minde is immortally and imorruptible Phil. IT now remaines that thou speak what thou thinkest of the immortality of our minde that being instructed concerning it asmuch as may be in one day I may rejoyce that I have profited in so many things Id. They that make the intellectabilitie the element or beginning of the descent of the understanding doe not think that the minde depends of the body And they that make reason the beginning of the ascent of the understanding and intellectability the end doe not admit that the mind dies with the body But I cannot imagine that they who have any taste of wisdome would ever deny the immortality of the mind as I have already as things came then into my mind made it plaine to the Orator So he which considers that the beholding of the mind reacheth to that which is invariable and that by the mind forms are abstracted from variability and are translated into the invariable region of the necessity of complexion he cannot doubt but the nature of the minde is free from all variability For it attracts to it selfe what it abstracts from variability for the invariable touch of Geometricall figures is found not in pavements but in the minde And as long as the soul enquires and seekes through Organs that which it finds is variable but that which it finds when it seekes by it selfe is stable cleare bright and fixed and consequently not of the nature of things variable which it reacheth by sense but of things invariable which it findeth by it selfe Moreover the demonstration of the immortality of the minde may be hunted out by number for being a living number that is a number numbering and every number incorruptible in it selfe although considered in variable matter it seeme variable the number of our minde cannot be conceived corruptible how then can the Author of an incorruptible numbe seeme corruptible Nor can any number evacuate the power of the mindes numbering Therefore whereas the motion of Heaven is numbered by the minde and time is the measure of motion time it selfe shall never evacuate the power of the mind but that it shall abide as the terme measure and determination of all things measureable The instruments of the heavenly motions proceeding from the minde of man doe plainly shew that motion doth not so much measure the minde as the minde measures motion so that the minde by its intellective motions seemes to complicate all successive motion the mind puts forth of it self the discursive motion so it is the form of moving seeing then whatsoever is dissolved is dissolved by motion how should then the forme of moving be dissolved by motion The minde being the intelluali life moving it selfe that is putting forth its life that is its understanding how can it chuse but live alwaies A motion moving it self how can it ever faile for it hath life intimately conjoyned by which it is alwayes living even as asphear which is alwaies round by a circle compact unto it If the composition of the minde bee the same with a number compounded of it selfe how is it possible to