the Mind which is nothing but its Return and Conversion towards God who onely can teach us Truth by the Manifestation of his Substance I am heartily glad to know that Euclid and Archimedes were converted to God and that they were so infinitely Happy as to see God's Substance which is his Essence so manifestly He proceeds Men must look within themselves and draw near unto the Light that shines there continually that their Reason may be the more Illuminated The Mind ought to examin all Human Sciences by the Pure Light of Truth which guides it without hearkening to the False and confused Testimonies of the Senses Those that hear us do not learn the Truths we speak to their Ears unless he that discover'd them to us he means GOD the Giver of Ideas do reveal them at the same time to the Mind So that all Science it seems comes by Divine Revelation To what end then are Teachers Professours Schools and Universities if when we have done what we can by all our Teaching and Learning nothing but Divine Revelation must do the business or gain us any Science But now he advances to a higher point The Mind says he is immediately and after a very strict manner United to God nay after a stricter and more Essential manner than with the Body Now if this be true I dare affirm that the Mind is more United to God Naturally than our Saviour's Humanity was Supernaturally and Miraculously For This was but United Hypostatically or according to the Suppositum or Person of the Eternal Word whereas by this new Philosophy every Human Mind is United Essentially to God that is to the Godhead it self For to be united Essentially is for one Essence to be united to another Essence that is to be one or the same Essence with the Divine Essence Was ever such Quakerism heard of among Philosophers Or plain honest Human Reason so subtiliz'd and exhal'd into Mystick Theology by Spiritual Alchymy Yet to say True this is very Consonant to the Doctrine of Ideas They slight the Instruction of Nature they scorn to be beholding to their Senses and Outwards Objects which forces them upon Introversion and to observe as the same Authour says what Eternal Truth tells us in the Recesses of our Reason that is in their Darling Ideas Now common Reason ever taught me and every Man who did but reflect upon what passes within his Understanding that the Proper and Effectual way to gain a Clear and Distinct Knowledge of our Simple Notions is to make DEFINITIONS of them and there are most Certain Rules of Art how those Definitions may be fram'd But this was too Ordinary a way to please Minds so Extraordinarily Elevated as these Gentlemen pretend to be bless'd with The highest Flights of Nature do flag it seems too low for their Supernatural pitch nor can reach the Degrees of their Elevation above our dull Horizon They are Inspir'd with Heaven implanted Ideas and so they have no more to do but retire their Thoughts into the Inward Recesses of their Mind embellish'd and guilded with these Shining Innate Ideas and their work is done without any need of Definitions made by sublunary Art Sometimes I am apt to think that they had recourse to those Spiritual Pourtraitures out of despair of explicating any other way the Essences of Things or in what they consisted and I fear two of our Learned men lately mention'd apprehend them to be Inscrutable and In-explicable Whereas speaking of Essences in Common I do assure them that nothing can be plainer and that every Clown were he interrogated orderly could give us the true Essences or which is the same the true Natures of the things he is conversant with For whatever makes Mankind call and esteem any Bodies such or such Things in Distinction from all others is truly their Essence or to speak in the Language of a Philosopher let but Matter be determin'd by such a Complexion of Accidents with that Harmony or Proportion of parts connected with that Constancy that it is fit to act a Distinct part upon Nature's stage or perform its Primary Operation that Complexion of Accidents I say is truly the Essence of that Body or the Form that constitutes it such an Ens or such a Part of or in Nature Perhaps the Cartesians will say they allow Definitions to make their Ideas Clear and Distinct. But how can this cohere Definitions are the Effects of Art whereas these Ideas are imprinted by God's Hand who gave them their Nature and Cartesius says expresly they are Ingenitae This being so and GOD's immediate Works being Perfect and those Ideas being intended to give them Knowledge they can need nothing to make them more Clear and Distinct nor consequently can the Users of them have any occasion for Definitions unless perhaps to explain their Ideas to us who think we have a firmer Basis to build them on than those Ideas of theirs Nature gives the Ground and Art the Rules to make them And they are such necessary Instruments to true and solid Science that I could wish for the Improvement of Knowledge that our Universities would appoint a Committee of Learned Men to compile a Dictionary of Definitions for the Notions we use in all parts of Philosophy whatever Monsieur de Furetiere has attempted to perform this for all words whatever in Three Volumes Out of which may be Collected those that make for our purpose which being by the Ioynt-labour and Concurrence of the Persons deputed Examined if faulty Amended and propos'd to the World it could not fail of advancing Science highly In carrying forward such a Noble Work and so Beneficial to Mandkind I should willingly contribute my Quota of Endeavours nor think my pains better bestow'd in any thing I know of For Definitions explicating or unfolding the Nature of the Thing and all Proper Causes and Effects being so nearly ally'd to the Nature of the Thing it follows that there lies involv'd in the Definitions all Essential and Proper Middle Terms to demonstrate whatever belongs to the Notion Defin'd if Right Logick and studious Industry be not wanting He blames St. Austin and wishes he had not attributed to External Bodies all the sensible Qualities we perceive by their means And why Because says he they are not clearly contain'd in the Idea he had of Matter What Idea St. Austin had of Matter is little to purpose but if he proceeded consequently to his Thoughts he could not conceive the First Matter to be such as they put theirs to be For what Man of Common Sense can frame any Idea of a Thing that has onely Extension in it but is not to any degree either Dense or Rare Easie or Hard to be Divided Fluid nor Solid Soft nor Hard c. And if their Quaint Ideas and Clear and Distinct Conceptions which seem to be the Ground of all their Witty Discourses or Divine Revelations as Malbranche calls them of Science be no Wiser or Solider
purpose are his many Distinctions of his Propositions especially those he calls Exponibiles Let but the Learner know certainly and liquidly what are the Subject and Predicate in any Proposition which is easie to be discover'd by the Copula that is to come between them and unite them and have a care that the words that express them are Univocal he will be furnish'd with means to see the Form of Connexion which is Essential to a Proposition and is onely Conducive to Science which wholly consists in the Connexion of Terms His chief Misfortune is that he does not seem either at the beginning or in the Process of his Book to know at least to build upon this Truth and stand to it that our Notions or as the Moderns have taken a Toy to call them Ideas are the very Natures of the Things in our Understanding imprinted by Outward Objects without which no Stability of those Notions or Ideas can be with Evidence asserted nor any Solid knowledge possibly be had of our Predications nor the true Ground of Truth or Falshood be understood nor consequently ean there be any Firmness in our Judgments or Discourses Whence I could wish that every Beginner were at first well instructed and settled in this point for without this all will be but Loose and Ungrounded Talk in the Air. And tho' I lose Credit with our late Wits I must avow that Aristotle's dry Assertion that Anima intelligendo fit omnia tho' it may seem to some a wild Paradox has more Solid Sense in it were it rightly understood and is more Useful to true Philosophy than all the other Maxims that do not proceed upon it and suppose it which yet I see the Goodness of Nature intimates to many and forces them to ground their Discourses on it Practically even tho' while they speculate they deny it or at least seem to doubt of it or disregard it Observing therefore this great want under which Philosophy which is the Study of Truth labours I have out of my true Zeal of improving Science and beating down Scepticism the profest Patron of Ignorance and covert Parent of all Irreligion hazarded the Opinion of Singularity in endeavouring to write and publish a Demonstrative Logick at least I have given such Reasons quite thorough it as I judg'd to be Clear and Conclusive in every piece of it that has any Influence upon Scientifical Knowledge What my Reader may expect from me is this I begin with our Natural Notions the Bottom-Ground of all our Knowledge I show them to be the very Natures of the Things whose Metaphysical Verity being Establish'd by Creative Wisdom does consequently give Stability and Solidity to all our Discourses that are built on them I distribute those Natural Notions under those several Common Heads and manifest why there must be so many and no 〈◊〉 show how their Definitions are to be fram'd which make our Conceptions of the◠〈◊〉 and Distinct. I lay Rules to escape 〈◊〉 Snares which Equivocal Words lay 〈…〉 way while we are Discoursing I show â—he Reason of all Truth and Falshood in Connected Notions or Propositions Which if Self-evident and Identical have Title to be First Principles as from many Heads I demonstrate I trace Nature in all those nice and Immediate steps she takes to generate Knowledge in us at First Coming to those Propositions that need Proof and the Way of Proving them I lay open the Fundamental Ground of the Force of Consequence which gives the Nerves to every Act of True Reasoning and of the Certainty and Evidence of every Conclusion which we rightly inferr To perform which I manifest that there can be but One Necessary or Natural Figure of a Syllogism and but Four Moods of that Figure I lay down and fix the Fundamental Laws of Concluding I evidence the Nature of that Third Notion or Middle Term by the Connexion of which with the Two Terms of the Thesis to be Proved they must inevitably be joyn'd with one another and so the Thesis it self must be rightly Concluded and therefore Infallibly True I show how to find out a Middle Term fit for our purpose and thence prepare the way for Demonstration I lay open how every Truth must have at the Bottom an Identical Proposition and every Errour a Contradiction as their First Principles and how they may be reduced to those Principles of theirs To do which tho' more laborious is the best Way of Demonstrating I manifest thence how one Truth is in another and what strange Consequences follow thence Also how Middle Terms Proper for Demonstration may be taken from all the Four Causes To clear better the Notion of Science I treat of the Natures of Opinion and Human Faith their Grounds and how the Former of these two last Deviates from Right Reason and when the Later does or does not Then I consider the Effects issuing from all sorts of Proof viz. Assent Suspense Certainty and Uncertainty And to put in Practise my self what I do persuade and recommend to others I add Seven Demonstrations of the most Considerable Theses in divers Sciences And lastly I lay open the Ways and Methods of Disputation and detect the weak Stratagems and inefficacious Attacques of Fallacies or Paralogisms This is the Summ of my Endeavours in common But besides these many particular Knowledges light in on the by and as I hope very Useful ones which it would be tedious to enumerate The Manner I use to carry on the Scheme of my Doctrin is not to propose my Conceptions Magisterially or to expect any one should assent to the least Tittle of what I say upon my Word But I offer my Reasons for every Paragraph I advance if it can be conceiv'd to need any by doing which I speak to the Reason of my Readers and withall I expose my self to the Severe Examination of the most Acute and Iudicious Wits of which I doubt not there are Multitudes in those Seminaries of Learning our two Famous Universities to whom I humbly dedicate this small Present I neither strive to ingratiate my self by my Style nor to surprize any by Plausible Discourses much less to Impose upon their Understandings by Voluntary Suppositions I draw now and then divers Useful Corollaries and some that will seem I doubt not Paradoxical that so I may carry on my Doctrine to farther Consequences and show withall to what Unthought-of Conclusions Reason will lead us if we follow her close and home Nor am I asham'd to declare openly that I hold that the Chief End of Science is to beget Virtue and not onely to raise us to Higher Contemplation but also to comfort and strengthen Divine Faith in us and to make it more Lively and Operative Whence I have taken occasion to excite my Reader 's Devotion out of the Reflexions on divers Points that seem'd of themselves to be but Dry Speculations making account that Good Thoughts arising upon the Spot but of Truths newly Clear'd to our
us have neither Truth nor Falshood in them formally since they do neither affirm or deny only with Speeches are capable of Formal Verity or Falsity any more than does the Thing it self as it stands in Nature or out of the Understanding 13. All the Verity they have is their Metaphysical Verity or their being truly what they are And they partake this from the Idea's in the Divine Understanding from which they unerringly flow and which are essentially Unchangeable By which we see how the God of Truth is the sole Author of all the Truth that is in us and how he does ordinarily communicate it to us viz. by Fixing unalterably the Natures or Essences of Things from which being thus Establish'd and imprinted on our Minds by our Senses all Science and Truth in us have their Certainty originally 14. All true Science being thus built on the Immovable Stability of the Essences or Natures of Created Beings it follows necessarily that all Discourses that are not Agreeable to the Natures of Things and Grounded on them are Frothy Incoherent and False and if pursued home must be found to have a Contradiction for their First Principle in regard they make the Natures of Things to be what they are not 15. Wherefore Notions being the Natures of the Things in our Understanding the Method to pursue True Science is to attend and hold heedfully and steadily to those Notions which the Things without us have imprinted or stamp'd in our Minds and to be very careful lest Imaginations which are the Offsprings of Fancy and do oft misrepresent the Thing do delude us or the Equivocation of Words draw us aside and make us deviate from those Genuine and Nature instill'd Notions COROLARIES Corol. I. Hence is seen how Unreasonable the Scepticks are who endeavour to undermine all Science by pretending that all our Notions are Uncertain For they being caus'd by Natural Impressions on our Senses those Men may as well pretend that Water does not wet or Fire burn as that the Objects work not their several Effects upon our Senses If they contend that every Man 's individual Temper being different our Notions must therefore differ to some Degree in every Man they oppose not us who say the same nor will this break any square in our Discoursing and our Understanding one another for few Men perhaps none can reach these Individual Differences nor consequently mean them or intend to speak of them when they discourse But if they say they are not the same in all Men whose Senses oâ— imagination are not disordered by some Accidental Disease substantially and in the main then besides what has been now alledged they are confuted by this that Mankind has now for some thousands of Years held Conversation with one another yet it was never observ'd that they could not understand one anothers Meaning in Discourse about Natural Objects or if any hap'd to occurr which was Ambiguous that they could not make their Notions known by Explications or if there had been some notable variation in their Notions as when to Icterical persons all things seem yellow or sweet things bitter to depraved Tasts the Mistake can easily be made manifest and corrected by the Standard of the Generality of Mankind who assure them of their Misapprehension and of Learned Men particularly who find the Cause of their Mistake to proceed from some Disease perverting Nature or some Circumstances of the unduly-proposed Object or of the Medium or from our Inability to reach to some minute Considerations belonging to its Composition Figure c. which hinder not our having Science of it in other Cases Corol. II. Hence also is shewn the Vanity of that Tenet that maintains the Pre-existence of Souls as far as it depends on this Ground That Knowledges are only Excited or Awaken'd as it were by the Objects working on the Senses and not Imprinted there by them For this Ground shakes by manifesting the Ways and Means laid by Nature to beget those Knowledges in the Soul and convey them thither from the Objects Besides which overthrows all their Hypothesis the Knowledge that I am hic nunc thus affected cannot with any sence be pretended to have been Pre-existent to the Time and Place in which that Particular Knowledge was made since neither ehat Time nor perhaps Place was then in Being Whence it follows that the Soul can gain some new Knowledges and this by the Senses and if any or some why not with equal reason all that the same Senses can receive from Objects imprinted in her which as far as it depends on this way of instilling Knowledge may reach in a manner ad Nâ—tuâ—â— and by the assistance of Reflexion Discourse and Art improving it may stretch it self much farther Corol. III. From this whole Discourse it appears that whatever other Method of attaining Science some may propose however it may seem witty and one piece of their Doctrine be consonant to the other and all of them consequent to the Principles they lay yet it will I say evideâ—tly appear that the way they take can never be that which GOD and Nature have laid to ingraft Knowledge in us Whence tho' such Discoursers may shew much Art yet in reality and if it be examin'd to the bottom all their Plausible Contexture and Explication of their own Scheme will be found no better than the running pretty strains of Division upon no Ground since their pretended Knowledges do not begin with nor grow up orderly from the Natures of the Things themselves or from our Natural Notions which are the Seeds of Science Corol. IV. Our Discourse here abstracts from that Question Whether sensible Qualities are Inherent in the Object or in the 〈◊〉 It is enough for my purpose that the Objects work upon the Senses so as to imprint by their means several Notions in the Mind Yet I do not see how Mr. Hobbs proves for he does not so much as attempt it that Light coming from the Object does not carry away with it some Particles of it since we experience that the Sun beams dry up great Ponds which they could not do unless they did when reflected dip their dry Wings in that moist Element and return with some Particles of Water into the Air which when multiply'd are condensed afterwards into Clouds And I believe it will be granted that the Sun-beams reflected from the Moon bring along with them moist Vapours Much less is it conceivable that in Smells and Tasts nothing at all of the Nature of those Objects should be convey'd by the Nerves to the Brain but only a certain kind of Motiâ—n 'T is not my task to defend the Opinions of Schoolmen nor those of vulgar Philosophers which he impugns but to mind my own business Tho' had I a mind to lose a little time it were easie to shew that he seems to mistake all-along our Pâ—â—â—eptions for what is perceiv'd of the Object And I might as easily deny that Colour for
propositions are directly opposit to Contradictions since Man's Wit cannot invent a proposition directly Opposit to what runs runs not but what runs runs which is perfectly Identical Add that all Fault consisting in this that 't is a Privation of the Opposit Good Contradictions would not be at all Faulty but that they violate the Truth of Identical propositions as has been now proved since there are no other Truths which they directly and formally Oppose or destroy 12. Again as will be seen hereafter to Conclude is to shew the Terms of the Conclusion to be Connected by their being Connected with a Third or Middle Term in the Premisses But how can we shew that Middle Term is really connected with those Two other Terms in the Premisses By finding still another Middle Term to be connected with the Terms of the proposition to be proved And how far must this go on Endlesly or no If Endlesly it is impossible any thing should ever come to be prov'd if not then we must come to some proposition whose Terms are so Connected that no Middle Term can come between them that is such as cannot be Connected by means of Another that is which cannot be prov'd or made evident that is which are self-connected or self-evident that is which are formally Identical To enforce this we may observe that the more Remotâ— the Terms of a proposition are from Formal Identity the less evident they are and the more prooâ— they require as also that they grow still nearer to Evidence according to the degree of their Approaching to be Formally the same Wherefore since all Approach of Distant things ends in their Conjoyning and Centering in the same 't is manifest that all Approach of Distant Notions ends in their being the same in Notion or in a proposition Formally Identical as in a First and Self-evident Principle 13. Besides all Causality or the whole Course of Nature is finally refunded into this Self-evident Principle that Things are such as they are that is are what they are For since an Effect is a Participation of something that is in the Cause and the Cause as such is that which imparts or communicates something it has to the Matter on which it works its Effect Again since the Effect is such as the Cause is as to that which is imparted to it and if the Cause be of another sort the Effect still varies accordingly there can be no doubt but that Causality is the Imprinting the Existence of that Essence or Thing which is the Cause upon the Matter Whence follows evidently that the very Notion of Natural Causality and the whole Efficacy of it consists in the Causes existing that is being what it is Only Motion is added as a Common Requisit to apply that Existing Cause better or worse which is refunded into a Nature Superiour to Body as will be shewn hereafter 14. Lastly God himself has exprest his own Supreme Essence by this Identical Proposition Ego Sum qui Sum that is I exist or am Existence Which is the same in a manner with Self existence is Self-Existence Which therefore is the First Increated Truth as 't is the First Created one that what is is or A thing is what it is which is therefore True because God is what He is or because Self-existence is Self-existence From which Divine and Soveraign Verity all our Created First Principles derive their Truth For were not This True all our Identical Proposition and First Principles would all be False in regard they have their Verity from the Natures of the Things and of our Vnderstanding neither of which could have their Metaphysical Verity nor consequently could they ground or be capable of any Truth at all if Self-Existence their Cause were not Self-Existence and thence Unlimited in Power Wisdome and Goodness to Create and Conserve those Beings which are the Foundation of all the Truth we have or can have The Reader is desired to referr this Section to the Third Corollary and to consider them well together because they mutually give Light to one another And if we rightly consider it as the Proposition Homo est Homo is onely the reducing the Metaphysical Verity of Homo into a Formal Truth so Self Existence is self-Existence is the same in respect of the Soveraign Metaphysical Verity of the Divine Nature Corol. IV. Hence is seen that an Atheist can have no perfectly Certain Knowledge or Evidence of any thing but that by denying his Maker he deservedly comes to lose the best Perfection of his own Nature For if a Sceptick should put him to prove that things have any Metaphysical Verity in them grounding our first Principles and consequently all our Knowledge and object that for any thing he knows Things are Chimerical and so contriv'd as to beget in us False Judgments he is utterly at a loss through his denying a First Cause whose Unchangeable and Essential Truth and Goodness has Establisht their Natures to bee Unalterably what they are whence onely any Certain and Evident Knowledge of them is possible to be attain'd 15. Definitions tho' very useful to Science are not Self evident nor are those Propositions that Predicate the Definition of the Notion Defin'd First Principles For Self-evident Principles by force of their very Terms do oblige the Understanding to assent which such Propositions do not Again Art is requisit to make such Definitions as are Proper and Adjusted to the Thing Defin'd whereas First Principles must antecede all Art and be known by the Natural Light of our Understanding Besides the Possibility of being defind goes before the Definition which Possibility the Thing has from its Metaphysical Verity determining it to be This and no other For if the thing were not truly what it is it could not be exexplaind to be what it is were it not One that is Undivided in its self and Divided from all others it could not be compriz'd in one Definition and if it were not Determinately of this or that Nature it 's certain Bounds and Limits could not be drawn which is done by the Definition Whence 't is manifest that that proposition which affirms that a Thing is what it is is the First Principle and Ground to all Definitions and therefore Definitions themselves are not First Principles 16. This is further evinc'd because Words being liable to Equivocalness where there are more words as there are in Definitions there is more room for Equivocation which Inconvenience appears no where more than in the known Definition of Man For there wants not many Witty or rather half-witted Discoursers who Distinguish that is makes Ambiguous the Word Rational and do not stick to maintain that Man is Rational or Concluding being the Proper Act of Reason can Conclude Evidently in Lines and Numbers but not in Logick Physicks Ethicks or Metaphysicks much less in Theology and by this means they cramp the Definition to less than half the sense the words contain There are others